Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / For the Record, First Draft of History: Sidebar to Adam’s Post

For the Record, First Draft of History: Sidebar to Adam’s Post

by | 27 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior

    To all those who promoted Trump as a “non-interventionist” knowing he was a warmonger Islamophobe who demonizes refugees: go recuse yourself

    35 replies 1,255 retweets 2,479 likes

  2. 2.

    opiejeanne

    Personally, I think Ivanka saw the very graphic videos of children choking to death and said something to her dad.

    I was surprised that Nikki Haley stood up in the UN and yelled about this atrocity; I figure she’ll be leaving soon to spend more time with her family.

    (Jeet Heer has Kushner in Iran when it should be Iraq.)

  4. 4.

    raven

    From Pat Lang

    Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. In the coming days the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened:

    The Russians briefed the United States on the proposed target. This is a process that started more than two months ago. There is a dedicated phone line that is being used to coordinate and deconflict (i.e., prevent US and Russian air assets from shooting at each other) the upcoming operation.
    The United States was fully briefed on the fact that there was a target in Idlib that the Russians believes was a weapons/explosives depot for Islamic rebels.
    The Syrian Air Force hit the target with conventional weapons. All involved expected to see a massive secondary explosion. That did not happen. Instead, smoke, chemical smoke, began billowing from the site. It turns out that the Islamic rebels used that site to store chemicals, not sarin, that were deadly. The chemicals included organic phosphates and chlorine and they followed the wind and killed civilians.
    There was a strong wind blowing that day and the cloud was driven to a nearby village and caused casualties.
    We know it was not sarin. How? Very simple. The so-called “first responders” handled the victims without gloves. If this had been sarin they would have died. Sarin on the skin will kill you. How do I know? I went through “Live Agent” training at Fort McClellan in Alabama.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    My guess is that Trump bombed the Syrian government forces to make the Russians back off. The Russians have probably been trying to get Trump to support Assad, and have ‘offered’ some ‘reasons’ that Trump finds threatening. This is a ‘No, and btw, threatening me is a bad idea.’ The basic concept comes from North Korea, IMO. It’s also a win for the Pentagon, which likes to fire missiles at stuff.

    I know, it sounds too complicated for Trump, but otherwise it’s entirely out of character, so wtf?

  7. 7.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Count me in the “he’s bad at everything and everything he touches turns into shit” camp.

  8. 8.

    gene108

    @MattF:

    My guess is that Trump bombed the Syrian government forces to make the Russians back off. The Russians have probably been trying to get Trump to support Assad, and have ‘offered’ some ‘reasons’ that Trump finds threatening.

    Not Trump, but higher ups in the Pentagon might’ve wanted to send a message, if your theory about Russia pressuring the US to support Assad is correct.

    ***********

    Also, I know liberals are freaking out because Hillary wants(ed) air strikes, but she would have a coherent plan for doing this, such as degrading Assad’s ability to bomb civilians.

    She is not the same as Trump, who has given no reason as to what he hopes to accomplish by bombing the airfield.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @opiejeanne:

    While serving in the US Army, Lang graduated from the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the Armed Forces Staff College. He is a decorated veteran of several of the United States’ overseas conflicts. During the Vietnam War, he served in the Special Forces and Military Intelligence.[3]

    He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East and served in that region for many years. He was the first professor of Arabic at the United States Military Academy, where he was twice selected as best classroom teacher of the year.[4]

    At the Defense Intelligence Agency, he was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the Defense Humint Service.[5] At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service. He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to 1994, all the U.S. military attachés worldwide reported to him. During that period, he also briefed President George H. W. Bush at the White House, as he had during Operation Desert Storm.[citation needed]

    He was also the head of intelligence analysis for the Middle East for seven or eight years at that institution. He was the head of all the Middle East and South Asia analysis in DIA for counter-terrorism for seven years. For his service in the DIA, Lang received the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive.[6]

  12. 12.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Trump’s numbers have been tumbling since day one with no end in sight. It’s been one disaster after another and the IC on his tail for colluding with the KGB.

    He’s tried desperately to change the subject and throw people off the trail. With his back against the wall, he turned to killing brown people with rocket’s red glare.

    Sad!

  13. 13.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: Thanks. I went and found it for myself after I posted.

    I totally misread his statement and thought the stuff was blown up 50 miles away, near Homs. It’s late and I can’t sleep because I’m too wound up tonight, but I also can’t read.

  14. 14.

    opiejeanne

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I saw some idiot on a Facebook page state that “we did it before and we’ll do it again!” in response to this being the 100th anniversary of our entry into WWI. I wasn’t sure if his statement was snark or pride so I asked him exactly what “we” did.

  15. 15.

    geg6

    @raven:

    Also saw a news report showing doctors gathering clothing from victims and preserving them as evidence to be tested. We will know if it was sarin or chlorine soon. If it wasn’t sarin, this is a total clusterfuck.

    My suspicion is it’s the Iran war hawks trying to gin up a reason for Iran to start something with us. Just a feeling and I may be way off base.

  16. 16.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @opiejeanne: With regards to Syria and the first war, pretty sure TE Lawrence and the Howeitat weren’t yanks

  17. 17.

    hellslittlestangel

    Putin told Trump to make a show of independence. For added emphasis, while Trump announced the airstrikes, Putin drank a glass of water.

  21. 21.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Senator Tim Kaine @timkaine

    President waging military action against Syria without a vote of Congress? Unconstitutional.

    685 replies 3,578 retweets 7,698 likes

    I know this will come as a SHOCK, but finger-waging scold Wilmer has been completely silent on the entire subject.

    Nobody can find him for comment. They may have to put him on a milk cartoon.

  22. 22.

    James E Powell

    @opiejeanne:

    Not sure,but I think Iran has greater capacity to respond. US targets since Vietnam have all been more or less unable to inflict serious harm on US.

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    @gene108:

    It’s pretty clear what he wants from it. He wants to please his base – they love blowing shit up and killing brown people- and he wants his opponents to criticize the action so he can call them terrorist loving traitors. It might save that seat in Georgia.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @opiejeanne:

    If it’s not sarin, it may not belong to the Syrian government. It may have been released accidentally when the Syrians bombed a target with conventional weapons.

  27. 27.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Steeplejack (phone): Pat Lang is quite correct that you would not send first responders into a situation where nerve agent has been released without full body protection including gloves & respirator (what the US armed forces used to call MOPP 4). According to the Wiki article, which cites a CDC publication from 2004,

    Sarin has a high volatility (ease with which a liquid can turn into a gas) relative to similar nerve agents, therefore inhalation can be very dangerous and even vapor concentrations may immediately penetrate the skin. A person’s clothing can release sarin for about 30 minutes after it has come in contact with sarin gas, which can lead to exposure of other people.

    There are lots of other chemicals that while toxic, aren’t in the same league as a chemical warfare agent, & don’t pose the same percutaneous hazard. And some of these come from unsuspected sources. When I was working on chem/bio defense under contract to the Army, I recall hearing that the largest known release of hydrogen cyanide into the atmosphere occurred at a carpet factory in Georgia, when the facility caught fire & the carpet material burned. Cyanide is a known hazard in common fires because so many common materials generate it when they burn–deaths from “smoke inhalation” may be due to HCN rather than CO.

Comments are closed.