US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

I didn't say this, but an ad on FB did; "Trump has two twin towers in Turkey with a loan of 5billion dollars"

Trump said it Turkey did several of three or four things that he would ruin their economy. They have now done them all.

But I personally am glad no US military will be coming home in a body bag.

Why does Trump do anything?

If Turkey keeps pushing the envelope and some Americans get hurt, they are playing with fire. Putting 155MM rounds around am American Post, that they know was there, isn't an accident. No one was hurt, but is plain BS. Screw the Turks!


"One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a “bracketing effect” in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.
That’s an area weapon," the officer said, noting its explosive effects. “That’s not something we ever would have done to a partner force.”
The officer said that Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned on Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media."


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...NOo?li=BBnb7Kz

[Dowly]

[vienna]

An interesting column by George Will:


George Will: The spiraling president adds self-impeachment to his repertoire --

https://www.twincities.com/2019/10/1...is-repertoire/







<O>

[vienna]

Coming soon?...














<O>

[u crank]

America is exceptional, but our elites are not. Today we are all Ukrainians.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/...ll-ukrainians/

What is inevitable these days is when one side of the political divide attempts to uncover corruption, it inadvertently exposes all the corruption and political failings with no regard to party affiliation. There is a lot more to come I suspect.

In a sense it is fitting that a former province of the Soviet Union beset by corruption, cronyism, and war has become the crux of Democratic efforts to impeach Donald Trump.

Have American values been compromised by association with less than stellar actors for political gain? Rather than instill Democratic ideals and Western legal values it appears that the opposite has happened.

The vocabulary of American politics has appropriated Russian terminology: maskirovka and kompromat, nomenklatura and czar.

This influence is manifest in the conduct of impeachment so far. Anonymous whistleblowers from within the intelligence services trigger investigations of the president. The speaker of the House announces an impeachment inquiry but does not call the roll. The quasi-official status of the investigation allows the Democratic majority to minimize Republican involvement. Hearings are secret. Selective leaks to media drive the impeachment narrative and consolidate partisan support for the president’s removal. To speak of narratives rather than evidence is to acknowledge our postmodern condition, where interpretations are more powerful than facts.

Somewhere in the great beyond Stalin is smiling.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by u crank

The President's position is consistent with the Constitution and public opinion. He wants U.S. forces out of a conflict in which America’s interests have never been clear, and for which Congress has never approved military intervention. They are there because of President Obama's failed policies concerning Syria and Iran.

The Kurds that the US helped led by the YPG (People’s Protection Units) are the Syrian branch of the PKK (the Kurdistan Worker’s Party) in Turkey. The PKK is a militant separatist organization with Marxist-Leninist roots. The PKK remains a designated foreign terrorist organization under U.S. law.

It is a complicated situation. It's the Middle East. There probably is no good outcome. Having U.S. forces in northern Syria to fight ISIS or protect the YPG is not something most Americans support. Bloodshed and chaos is the Muslim Middle East’s default condition, so America would have to commit to an endless military occupation. Let these people solve their own problems or at least let nations closer to the problem get involved. Say for example, the EU.

Personally I reckon it's because they didn't assist in the D-Day landings

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Personally I reckon it's because they didn't assist in the D-Day landings

Worse than that they were no where to be seen at The Little Bighorn. Custer never got over it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by u crank

Worse than that they were no where to be seen at The Little Bighorn. Custer never got over it.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by vienna

An interesting column by George Will:


George Will: The spiraling president adds self-impeachment to his repertoire --

https://www.twincities.com/2019/10/1...is-repertoire/

George Will is usually right, and very astute. Yeah, Trump is digging his own grave. My hope is the Dems will impeach him and get it over with pronto, then it goes to the Senate. And then -- surprise, the Republicans see their opening and the Senate unanimously votes to convict and toss him out of office. Pence in 2020!

And his hair is getting worse!


Of course, this is no excuse for the abominable way the Democrats have behaved over the last three years. They seemed determined to race Trump to the bottom of the ethics pile. They've been squeezing the impeachment trigger since Day 1.

[eddie]

Cold blooded murder, ethnic cleansing has begun!! Trump should be so proud at this time! 2 Kurd prisoners murdered by Syrians, and caught on video. Both had their hands tied at the time, Syrians are such tough guys!!



"Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters killed at least two Kurdish prisoners on Saturday, one of them lying on the ground with his hands bound behind his back, in a powerful illustration of the forces unleashed by President Trump’s decision to pull back American troops shielding former Kurdish allies in northern Syria.
A video that captured one of the killings shows two of the Turkish-backed group’s fighters firing bullets at close range into the man with his hands tied while their colleagues shout “God is great!” The second prisoner who was killed appears in the video alive and wearing a military uniform, but he is missing from the group’s later social media post about its captives."


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...ers/ar-AAIG68J

[Mr Quatro]

@eddie those US soldiers bracketed by Turkish guns have been removed from the area (all 1,000 of them) by military command.

Trump better do something at least a no fly zone ... My little vote doesn't mean anything, but my respect does.

[Rockstar]

George Will: "Kurdish friends"? Are you kidding me thats not a very good arguemt to bring against any president? There are no friends in the middle east there are only opportunities to advance national interests in the region. If I'm not mistaken the presidents ideas was to remove OUR young men and women from the area of conflict. That does not mean we are going to cease being a participant in middle eastern affairs.


You want to argue? Then argue the glaring hypocrisy of how the U.S. as well as other countries are selling arms to BOTH Turkey and the Kurds. And nobody in the executive branch OR the legislative are willing to stop it. When I see people crying a river over ethnic cleansing and burning babies. Just remember YOU sold those arms and ammunitions when you voted for YOUR representative to do this on your behalf. Quit whinning and take responsibility for your vote.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

George Will is usually right, and very astute. Yeah, Trump is digging his own grave. My hope is the Dems will impeach him and get it over with pronto, then it goes to the Senate. And then -- surprise, the Republicans see their opening and the Senate unanimously votes to convict and toss him out of office. Pence in 2020!

...

Pence is toast when Trump gets the boot. In a scenario where Trump resigns or is removed by impeachment, the likelihood Pence will then pardon Trump is very high; you know the probable excuse, "I pardoned him to put this behind us and to let the nation heal..."; that was tried once before and it didn't work out at all well for either Ford or the GOP. The voters won't look too kindly on such a quid pro quo ("I resign, you pardon"), so running Pence is a non-starter. The same would apply even if Pence doesn't pardon Trump; Pence will have that "Trump taint" on him; there's also the fact that Pence, and his stances/philosophies don't really resonate with a broad cross section of voters for various reasons; if the GOP is smart, at least for this situation, they'll find a more moderate candidate (and running mate) to put up for election. If the DEMs do put up someone considered to be too far to the Left, it makes no sense to put up GOP candidate too far to the Right; there are way too many voters in the middle either party needs to attract in order to win to risk having them to not vote for their candidate; the US has just gone through full bull goose loony in the White House and I don't think the voters have an appetite to revisit the same regardless of which party extreme is running...







<O>

[mapuc]

^ is that possible ?

I remember some of our friend Platapus comment on this

From what I can remember...this is not how it goes.

Then my memory are not that good anymore.

Markus

[u crank]

Originally Posted by eddie

"Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters killed at least two Kurdish prisoners on Saturday, one of them lying on the ground with his hands bound behind his back, in a powerful illustration of the forces unleashed by President Trump’s decision to pull back American troops shielding former Kurdish allies in northern Syria.
A video that captured one of the killings shows two of the Turkish-backed group’s fighters firing bullets at close range into the man with his hands tied while their colleagues shout “God is great!” The second prisoner who was killed appears in the video alive and wearing a military uniform, but he is missing from the group’s later social media post about its captives."

I think this is (and I mean no disrespect Eddie), the very reason why the US or any Western nation should not send its young men and women into these places. There is no power on this earth that can compel these people to change from behaving like this. It is in their DNA and there is no indication that it will change any time soon. It's sad but it's a fact.