President Donald Trump: The Thread

[Balta1701]

Seeing first notes that a raid on the standing rock protest camp is underway right now.

[caulfield12]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trum...o-idUSKBN15G5RX

 

 

"U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.

 

As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists."

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/politics/us-...emen/index.html

 

Seems they were also surprised by a number of female fighters...new tactics?

[Jerksticks]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trum...o-idUSKBN15G5RX

 

 

"U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.

 

As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists."

I understand bashing Trump for things but reporting like this makes me sick. One of our best just died trying to gather intelligence to help the free world. Running a story purely to insinuate incompetence is a disgrace to the dead operator, his family & all the special operators risking their lives. Everyone knows that US special operations are probably the most thoroughly planned missions in the history of all things being planned. They don't go unless they think it will work, bottom line. To write an article making it sound like Trump is just recklessly sending in SEAL teams & using the death of a special operator to further a political beef is beyond dishonorable. Sorry but f***. that. s***.

[caulfield12]

I understand bashing Trump for things but reporting like this makes me sick. One of our best just died trying to gather intelligence to help the free world. Running a story purely to insinuate incompetence is a disgrace to the dead operator, his family & all the special operators risking their lives. Everyone knows that US special operations are probably the most thoroughly planned missions in the history of all things being planned. They don't go unless they think it will work, bottom line. To write an article making it sound like Trump is just recklessly sending in SEAL teams & using the death of a special operator to further a political beef is beyond dishonorable. Sorry but f***. that. s***.

 

How can you realistically expect the country (and the media, that Trump and Spicer declared war on) to hit the reset button after the last 16 years, and particularly the tenor of discourse since the Mexicans are rapists and criminals campaign kickoff?

It's a verbal version of the Civil War. Everyone has been forced to choose sides.

[Jerksticks]

How can you realistically expect the country (and the media, that Trump and Spicer declared war on) to hit the reset button after the last 16 years, and particularly the tenor of discourse since the Mexicans are rapists and criminals campaign kickoff?

It's a verbal version of the Civil War. Everyone has been forced to choose sides.

 

? A seal is dead. The line needs to be drawn somewhere. Pissing all over the ideals of free speech & tolerance by beating people up and setting s*** on fire is one thing- that's just hypocrisy 101...but using a dead seal as a pawn??? That's too far to me.

[caulfield12]

? A seal is dead. The line needs to be drawn somewhere. Pissing all over the ideals of free speech & tolerance by beating people up and setting s*** on fire is one thing- that's just hypocrisy 101...but using a dead seal as a pawn??? That's too far to me.

 

Fwiw, this is Reuters' general response about covering the Trump White House.

 

Pawns are nothing new...look at the politicization of the Pat Tillman case or Kzir Khan/Gold Star Father. Especially with the overhang of the immigration ban.

[Kyyle23]

? A seal is dead. The line needs to be drawn somewhere. Pissing all over the ideals of free speech & tolerance by beating people up and setting s*** on fire is one thing- that's just hypocrisy 101...but using a dead seal as a pawn??? That's too far to me.

 

Trump doesn't deserve criticism because a Seal died? The same Trump that blasted Hillary over the entire campaign because of Benghazi? And it comes out that he hastily approved the mission after one briefing with very little planning and you want everyone to back off? f*** that, he put lives in danger so he could put a notch on his belt

[Jerksticks]

Trump doesn't deserve criticism because a Seal died? The same Trump that blasted Hillary over the entire campaign because of Benghazi? And it comes out that he hastily approved the mission after one briefing with very little planning and you want everyone to back off? f*** that, he put lives in danger so he could put a notch on his belt

 

Good Lord man. Sweet delicate, swaddled baby Jesus. You are entitled to your opinion.

[caulfield12]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/opinion/...col-left-region

How Populism Stumbles (Ross Douthat)

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archiv...tocracy/513872/

 

Trump 2020, how to build an autocracy (Frum)

Edited February 2, 2017 by caulfield12

[brett05]

Districts need to have roughly the same number of people, so simple shapes don't work. There are other requirements as well to ensure minority representation. Anywhere with major cities pretty much ensures you'll have at least some funky boundaries.

 

However, you can do what Iowa does, which is to have an independent nonpartisan committee that sets the boundaries. That at least has the boundaries drawn in ways to maximize fair and equal representation with limits on partisan gaming.

No, to me that's prejudice. Basic shapes can encompass pretty much the sizes of districts. But skewing them to fit a "minority" group is wrong.

Edited February 2, 2017 by brett05

[caulfield12]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-not-orwel...-100035222.html

 

Trump's not Orwell. He's the Distractor-In-Chief.

 

In Huxley’s vision, Postman wrote, “no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”

 

It’s worth hearing a bit more of Postman’s comparison: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. … Orwell feared that truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

 

As it happens, in 1949, just after the publication of “1984,” Huxley drew much the same contrast in a letter to his countryman Orwell. Much as he liked Orwell’s book, he suggested that tyrannical governments would soon abandon “boot-on-the-face” tactics in favor of “animal magnetism and hypnotism.” Cable TV had yet to be invented.

 

...

 

And yet there’s something bracing, given today’s political debate, about the way Mustapha Mond, the state controller, warns his charge: “Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy.” Or about the way he defends inequality: “The optimum population is modeled on the iceberg — eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above.”

Edited February 2, 2017 by caulfield12

[G&T]

I understand bashing Trump for things but reporting like this makes me sick. One of our best just died trying to gather intelligence to help the free world. Running a story purely to insinuate incompetence is a disgrace to the dead operator, his family & all the special operators risking their lives. Everyone knows that US special operations are probably the most thoroughly planned missions in the history of all things being planned. They don't go unless they think it will work, bottom line. To write an article making it sound like Trump is just recklessly sending in SEAL teams & using the death of a special operator to further a political beef is beyond dishonorable. Sorry but f***. that. s***.

 

There were sources saying your position on the preparation is wrong. I know the press has had a recent history of not doing its job, but that needs to be reported.

[RockRaines]

People understand the riots were started by anarchists right? Just like the inauguration.

[StrangeSox]

There were sources saying your position on the preparation is wrong. I know the press has had a recent history of not doing its job, but that needs to be reported.

 

It seems pretty unprecedented for the military to be throwing the executive branch under the bus for such a bad f***up like that. That, plus all of the leaks coming out of the White House, make the whole situation seem even more chaotic under the surface.

[GoSox05]

There was also an 8 year old girl that was killed in that raid. Shot in the neck and left to bleed to death for hours.

 

 

[RockRaines]

It seems pretty unprecedented for the military to be throwing the executive branch under the bus for such a bad f***up like that. That, plus all of the leaks coming out of the White House, make the whole situation seem even more chaotic under the surface.

They knew we were coming, we were unprepared, we used osprey's which are loud as f*** and crash landed again. Huge f*** up

[StrangeSox]

There was also an 8 year old girl that was killed in that raid. Shot in the neck and left to bleed to death for hours.

 

That 8 year old was also a US citizen

 

They knew we were coming, we were unprepared, we used osprey's which are loud as f*** and crash landed again. Huge f*** up

 

yeah, and just to be clear, by "the whole situation" I mean the White House in general right now, not just this raid that went to s***. I don't know what things were like towards the end of Nixon's presidency, but new stories every day from inside sources that paint the administration as incredibly incompetent and petty doesn't seem normal.

Edited February 2, 2017 by StrangeSox

[caulfield12]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/...illed-al-awlaki

 

I'm sure how much sympathy this will elicit because of who her father was...

 

 

Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for central command, told the paper that the U.S. military was unaware that the girl was at the location.

 

Thomas said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “has a horrifying history of hiding women and children within militant operating areas and terrorist camps and continuously shows a callous disregard for innocent lives.

 

 

 

The girl’s grandfather told the paper that he did not believe the girl was targeted.

 

“I don’t think this incident was intentional,” the former government minister said. He told the paper that the location of the strike was confusing because it was not a hotbed for Al Qaeda, rather tribal sheikhs fighting the government, which is supported by Iran-backed Houthis.

Edited February 2, 2017 by caulfield12

[LittleHurt05]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/...illed-al-awlaki

 

I'm sure how much sympathy this will elicit because of who her father was...

 

 

Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for central command, told the paper that the U.S. military was unaware that the girl was at the location.

 

Thomas said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “has a horrifying history of hiding women and children within militant operating areas and terrorist camps and continuously shows a callous disregard for innocent lives.

 

 

 

The girl’s grandfather told the paper that he did not believe the girl was targeted.

 

“I don’t think this incident was intentional,” the former government minister said. He told the paper that the location of the strike was confusing because it was not a hotbed for Al Qaeda, rather tribal sheikhs fighting the government, which is supported by Iran-backed Houthis.

 

Her 16-year old brother, also born in the US, was "accidentally" killed in a drone strike in 2011. The Obama White House called his death, as well the other innocent victims of the strike, "collateral damage".

[StrangeSox]

The legal justification way that Al-Awlaki himself was killed is pretty questionable as well.

[Jenksismyhero]

While President Trump said it was an overall success because of recovered intelligence, the planning of the raid, under President Barack Obama, and the approval by Mr. Trump have fallen under scrutiny.

 

From the NYT front page.

 

Not sure how Trump (or Obama) are to blame for this. At some point some general had to tell either or both of them, "this is the plan, it's going to work."

[bmags]

The legal justification way that Al-Awlaki himself was killed is pretty questionable as well.

 

It's a blackeye it was never legislated or defined. At this point the policy is entire family is fair game, which is exactly what we accused Russia of and pressured them to stop doing in Chechnya.

[bmags]

From the NYT front page.

 

Not sure how Trump (or Obama) are to blame for this. At some point some general had to tell either or both of them, "this is the plan, it's going to work."

 

It wouldn't look good on anyone its just strange to see leaks like that come out. The article lays out that Obama admin did not sign off on raid while it waited for better ground intel, its unknown whether Trump was presented with improvements.

[StrangeSox]

Trump is taking white terrorism out of DHS counterterrorism programs:

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trum...v-idUSKBN15G5VO

 

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

 

The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

[caulfield12]

From the NYT front page.

 

Not sure how Trump (or Obama) are to blame for this. At some point some general had to tell either or both of them, "this is the plan, it's going to work."

 

Easy rebuttal.

 

JCS and CIA told Kennedy the same before Bay of Pigs. Who does history blame? A famous Truman line comes to mind.

Edited February 2, 2017 by caulfield12