The Bushies claimed they could “create their own reality” through their actions. That was arrogant. Their political heirs are creating their own reality by believing Commander Bananapants’ off-the-cuff lies. That’s delusional:
Mark Esper on CBS: I didn't see the intelligence about Iran posing an imminent threat to 4 US embassies, but I believe President Trump when he says there was one pic.twitter.com/pAaMVXGAde
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 12, 2020
I’m no national security expert, but wouldn’t the Secretary of Defense be the person who’d present the evidence to Trump if it exists? Or at least be privy to that classified information, particularly if, as Esper claims, he’s the one who’s deploying troops to counter the alleged threats?
It’s all bullshit. President Brainworms made this shit up on the fly during a Fox News appearance to justify his irresponsible decision to escalate the confrontation with Iran.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that when Trump, Esper and sundry Trump apologists talk about Iranian attacks on U.S. troops, they’re mostly talking about Iranian actions early in the Iraq War. The Obama administration had that threat contained with the JCPOA.
Trump tore up that agreement because he claimed he could get a “better deal.” Looks like that’s working out about as well as Trump’s other negotiations.
Planetjanet
Stunning admission of incompetence.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
THANK you for giving everyone somewhere else to chat besides that trashfire downstairs.
Barbara
Mark Esper: I will play the role of useful idiot if that’s what dear leader wants.
Immanentize
Shorter Esper : “I’m a corrupt idiot with the world’s largest military at my command.”
Hunter Gathers
@Planetjanet:
We live in the Age of Incompetence.
It’s rewarded.
Expertise and giving a damn is frowned upon these days.
O. Felix Culpa
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Amen, and again I say, amen!
debbie
First prize for throwing Trump under the bus!
MattF
So, there’s a Secretary of Defense. Good to know. And no mustache.
debbie
Someone needs to ask his supporters (in Congress and at rallies) exactly what better deals we’ve gotten over the past three years.
SFAW
Said worms would die of starvation, owing to lack of actual “brain” matter.
joel hanes
@Hunter Gathers:
Expertise and giving a damn is frowned upon these days.
Yes, apparently it’s very bad to be “over-prepared”.
joel hanes
@debbie:
exactly what better deals we’ve gotten over the past three years.
Ah.
Let me clear up for you this common misunderstanding.
Trump wasn’t promising a better deal for us; he was demanding a better deal for himself.
Trump does not care what kind of deal other people get.
Trump does not care about other people.
SFAW
@debbie:
Well, yeah, I guess, but what would be the intended/expected outcome? Because neither of those groups cares. Shitgibbon could get on prime time TV, announce he was going to impoverish — well, he doesn’t know that word, but that would be the upshot — all his supporters, and they wouldn’t care. ESPECIALLY if he said “but the darkies are going to have it even worse than you ‘real‘ Americans.”
Cheryl Rofer
The normal procedure would be to work with the National Security Council, which includes the folks from the intelligence agencies, who would present the intelligence, experts from the Department of State on the region and recent events there, war planners from the Department of Defense who could present possible actions and the likely responses to them. All of those people would talk to each other to work out the pros and cons. They would think about contingency planning. They don’t come up with the right answer every time, but they do a better job than Trump’s borborygmus.
The likely scenario is that Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham talked Trump into a strike on Soleimani, Trump told Esper to do it, and the Defense Department then scrambled to make it happen and find a way to justify it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer:
Pompeo and Pence were said to be pushing it, too, and of course, The Beast was watching TeeVee and getting mad.
Cheryl Rofer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would not exclude Pompeo and Pence. I used Cotton and Graham because Trump mentioned them.
MattF
@Cheryl Rofer: Someone started a ‘conversation’ about that bad guy Soleimani, and nature took its course from there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: news reports the last 24 hours or so mention that Cotton hasn’t discussed Iran/Iraq in over a month, which I assume means Cotton is whispering in reporters’ ears and doesn’t want to be implicated in this decision.
JGabriel
@Planetjanet: Stunning admission of incompetence.
Well, it would be stunning in any Democratic administration. For GOP administrations post-1960, it’s pretty much par for the course.
hells littlest angel
I hold in my hand a list of four embassies …
pluky
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I had to check out the “trash fire”. Got about 20% through before I’d had enough. Focus folks; Trump is the clear and present danger y’all!
West of the Rockies
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Oh, I just checked in there…you’re not kidding.
GloryB noted in that thread that Joe is the choice of black Americans. I do think he can beat Clump.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if he selected Harris as his running mate? I don’t know that he would after she did go after him back in debate 1 or 2, but I think they’d be dynamic!
Cheryl Rofer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have seen people taking Esper’s statement to mean that he is trying to throw responsibility on Trump. Or that he’s telling us that that’s the process, folks. But he’s not pushing back, and he’s helped to develop the shoddy coverup they’re selling. So no brownie points for him from me.
Cheryl Rofer
Let’s not drag the burning trash up here, folks, please!
ETA: Let’s give that topic a rest. We’ll come back to it later.
ET
I think Esper knows that claim is 5 a Pinocchio lie, but he can’t actually say that. At least on the TV.
With that said the whole administration is banannapants for multiple reasons. The country is going to pay for it for a long time.
hitchhiker
We’re all on the other side of the looking glass now.
I’ve been watching the Norwegian techno-dystopia series called Occupation recently. It’s set in our time and involves a bunch of EU, Norwegian, and Russian players trying to achieve their own ends, which means some very brutal, subtle shit going on and many innocents caught in the process.
Partly it’s just refreshing to see something completely unrelated to US politics, and partly it’s functioning for me as a window into what sorts of bugfuckery are doable, easily, in our age.
Then I come here to read about the visible dysfunction in DC, and — I dunno, guys. This could be slipping away from us, right now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer:
How about the terrifying nightmare that is living in Florida? where killer dinosaurs roam your yard, and mock you.
Mart
My understanding is our soldiers teamed with Soleimani’s militias to help clear ISIS from Iraq and Syria. Why is the Muddle East is always so fucking complicated?
realbtl
I had to look it up but borborygmus is a perfect description of the word-like noises emitted by Trump and his toadies.
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: There would be a Senate-confirmed Director of National Intelligence in normal times, also too.
Grrr….
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
I have no proof that a purple unicorn is standing outside, not even a faint outline, but I believe it.
Hoodie
The SecDef is a statutory member of the NSC, so he would of course know if there was intelligence regarding a specific threat to four US embassies. Esper admits that he was not aware of any specific threat, which is an implicit confirmation that there was no imminent threat. He seems to be saying that Trump was not saying there was an imminent threat, but that Trump was predicting that at some undefined time in the future, the Iranians would somehow be involved in attacks on four US embassies. So, in addition to agreeing with a prediction that is probably based on nothing, Esper also seems to think that such a prediction was a sufficient justification for the assassination of a general officer of another country’s armed forces. It’s not. It’s just an unprovoked act of war. This would be like killing the general heading the USSR’s missile force because he might in the future launch an attack on the US. Except, unlike the USSR, Iran isn’t in much of position to retaliate.
This is assassination of Diem type stuff, except it’s not even done covertly. Trump somehow thinks he can change Iranian policy by bumping off the right guys.
StringOnAStick
Started the day with a migraine; the last thread didn’t help. Time to peal myself off the couch and do something other than wallow in despair.
Kent
@hitchhiker: Occupied is an awesome show because the longer it runs the harder it is to figure out which side is in the right and who to support. They are all flawed in different ways and all backed into corners from which they can’t escape.
germy
MattF
@Hoodie: I doubt that the word ‘policy’ was ever uttered.
Cheryl Rofer
@Hoodie: Agree, except it’s Russia now.
germy
PsiFighter37
What a dumbass. Fuck these clowns in charge. It will be so, so pleasant to contribute to Manhattan’s 90%+ vote for the Democrat in less than 10 months.
satby
@pluky: Right?!?
And somewhat tangentially to the topic, Rick Wilson I guess has a book out about how to dump Trump. I thought this quote was the key graf:
opiejeanne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I can hardly stand to read mister mix since he never retracted his ugly, vicious, and wrong gossip about Princess Diana. It wasn’t just that he was wrong, he was cavalier about it and tried to laugh it off.
I have avoided the previous post because of its author.
mrmoshpotato
@Cheryl Rofer: Yeah. If he wanted to put the blame on Dump, a simple “The massive loser of the popular vote is full of shit. No embassies were credibly under threat.” would suffice.
germy
@opiejeanne: I thought he retracted it with an asterisk update to his original post. Maybe I misread.
Immanentize
@StringOnAStick: Me too! I had a blinder last night. Medicated, ended the pain, but now I feel stupid and contagious.
Hoodie
@Cheryl Rofer: Not sure what you’re getting at, but I was analogizing the Cold War posture of the US and USSR as being somewhat analogous to our current relationship with Iran.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: That’s cute. Has Rick atoned for a lifetime of ratfucking yet?
opiejeanne
@germy: I don’t call this a retraction, and it was up at the time that I read his post.
“Apparently, this is just a rumor that has been refuted. I thought it was a well-accepted fact.”
He never corrected it and then he fought with everyone who suggested he do so.
satby
@germy: he updated it after I and other people kept insisting he correct it, and then instead of lining it out as incorrect, he put an “apparently not true” kind of statement as a qualifier, not really a retraction. Grudgingly.
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
You’re not missing anything, trust me.
mrmoshpotato
@StringOnAStick:
verb (used with object)
to sound loudly and sonorously:to peal the bells of a tower. ?
satby
@mrmoshpotato: the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, but if he has inside knowledge available to use that may be valuable, then we should at least consider its utility to our desired outcome.
germy
@opiejeanne:
@satby:
I wonder where that rumor originated, and how it came to be accepted as fact. My guess is one of the British tabloids who chased her around, and then made up stuff when they couldn’t find anything good.
Not sure how it filtered to MM, though.
hitchhiker
@Kent:
Agree. Just when you start to get on their side, they do something horrific … and conversely, when the person you’ve been primed to loathe suddenly becomes human.
I’m in season 3, wondering where the hell they take this thing.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, I think I’m going to have to scroll on past. Unless he’s talking about murder mysteries.
MattF
@Hoodie: I think the right way to frame the decision is depicted in ‘The Irishman’ when the decision was made to kill Hoffa. Fat Tony mused aloud that Jimmy really should be taking more time with his grandchildren.
Kent
The problem with this game is that there are probably ongoing threats of some sort against every single embassy in the middle east. There are hot-heads everywhere who’d love to take the US down a notch.
But local discontent among the rabble is far different from viable threats from organized militias that are actually capable of organizing a real attack on an American embassy, which are some of the most hardened targets on the planet.
And, in any event, if there was some terrorist cell arming up for an attack on a US embassy, the correct response would be to blow up the terrorist cell, not some random general on the tarmac of the airport.
The surest way to know that the US is losing a war is when the war becomes about the killing itself and not other military objectives. When Vietnam became about the body counts the war was lost. The same thing is happening here in Iraq.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I think it was after she admitted to having an affair with her red-headed riding instructor, and the tabloids decided to seize on that to make her look even worse despite the fact that Harry was born before she even met the guy.
British tabloids are the fucking worst.
Another Scott
I was about to post germy’s Eric Prince tweet, I saw it at nycsouthpaw, but he got here first.
Instead, I’ll post this genius twitter thread for all the lawyers and lovers of who-dun-its here.
Excellent!
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: As driftglass put it a few weeks ago, “show us where the bodies are buried.”
I’m sick of this cutesy “Hehe, the monster factory I worked in my whole life has created a monster. Whoops! Buy my book.” shit.
Kent
@hitchhiker: I have one episode to go in Season 3 and I have no idea where it will end. Hopefully a Season 4. It is really interesting to see a political drama in which the US plays absolutely no part.
Another good political drama is Wild District on Netflix which is about Colombian politics. It’s a little more James Bond/Rambo the first season but the second season is all about a political campaign and is as convoluted and dark as Occupied. Highly recommended as well.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne:
Luckily for me, I was enjoying myself on BJ instead of writing a blog post and that thread made me go work instead. Win!
germy
@Mnemosyne:
I agree.
germy
I’m not sure why Piers Morgan has been so obsessed with Meghan and Harry (I have my suspicions) but he’s been a babbling lunatic on the subject for days.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato:
I follow him on twitter, but he likes to talk about all the R electeds who call him to moan about trump and their crazy base. Burn them. Name them. Shame them
Kent
@germy: One thing I really don’t understand is why the ultra-conservative run British tabloids have such a hard-on for royal scandal. When really, the Monarchy is the most conservative element in British society and politics. I get that Murdoch is Australian. But really, what’s more conservative than reign by a white aristocratic bloodline ordained by God?
By all logic, it should be the lefty press chipping away at the monarchy and the conservative press propping them up like FOX news does with Trump. You don’t see FOX news pursuing endless titillating scandals about the Trump spawn. Destroy the monarchy and what is left? Most of the UK outside of London basically just looks like Ohio.
One of the many many things I really don’t get about the UK.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy:
Those poor people. I hope they manage to arrange a happy life for themselves, as happy as any of us are anyway.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
The only time Piers Morgan was right about anything was when he voted yes on Susan Boyle’s audition for Britain’s Got Talent.
germy
@Kent:
I thought their contempt was mostly for “usurpers” like Meghan. I don’t follow them enough to understand…
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Huh? I assume you’re talking about Rick Wilson, because no one is calling a guy who lives next to a cornfield in downstate Illinois to complain about Rethuglicans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kent:
selling dead-tree papers to people using public transport, is my guess
I don’t follow the royals closely, but apparently this move is unpopular with a lot of people. Something about Harry’s marriage bothers them more than, say, his drunken Nazi cosplay of a few years back.
Mart
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thats the thing, isnt it, really? Forget the “Royal” part, this is a young couple trying to remove themselves from a toxic situation and have a life.
Thats what I see.
Cheryl Rofer
@Hoodie: Ah, okay, it wasn’t clear to me that you were talking about the Cold War. Could be just as true about Russia now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: sorry, yeah, it’s Wilson who gets calls from trump-supporting GOOPers, mostly house members I think, complaining about how bad it all is. One guy got death threats, against himself and his children, for being insufficiently loyal to “Mr Trump” in early 2017.
germy
mrmoshpotato
@germy: I wonder what was different then! Fucking sack of shit Russthuglicans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
Intelligence provided by St Petraeus himself, whose integrity was somehow never questioned in that matter. I haven’t read Susan Rice’s book, but I’ve heard her give a few interviews. What an ugly situation that was
jeffreyw
@mrmoshpotato:
I have a purple octahorn in the backyard.
Kent
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So it’s just the racism? But clearly the scandalmongering didn’t start 2 years ago when they became a couple. They’ve been a rabid pack of dogs since basically forever. We see nothing of the same sort of intense scandalmongering by the Murdoch press when it comes to the Trump spawn.
mrmoshpotato
@jeffreyw: And? Did it tell you 4000 US embassies were under threat in Iraq? :)
Another Scott
Calling Mayhew – BlueVirginia – The Dangers of M4A and the Benefits of Community Paramedicine…:
An interesting post.
Healthcare, and paying for it, is complicated. Even if we were to instantly switch to M4A…
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@StringOnAStick: Me too! I had a blinder last night. Medicated, ended the pain, but now I feel stupid and contagious.
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
The British tabloid press professes to love the Queen because much of the nation actually is fond of the old dear, and it would be bad for business to offend the punters. But
jeffreyw
@mrmoshpotato: He complains about the raccoons eating all the corn. And the dog, also, too.
Ruviana
@germy: Fuck Piers Morgan. That is all.
painedumonde
Madame Speaker, another Committee of Investigation needs to instituted; another Article of Impeachment needs to be written.
Amir Khalid
@Mart:
As Sloane Ranger said in That Thread, it may look strange to you; but it’s the British house and they get to have a ceremonial monarchy if they want one. It’s worked for them, so maybe Americans should STFU about it.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: That was fun! And satisfying.
Have I ever told you guys the story from when I was a grocery store checker while putting myself through college?
Some jerk comes through my lane, writes a check and hands it to me. My address is on the check!
Me: “May I have your current address?”
Him: (all huffy and smug): “Can’t you read? It’s right there! And proceed to read the address out loud, very slowly. 5-0-3 Vista Place. Champaign, Illinois. 6-1-8-0-1”
Me: “You can’t live there, because I live there.”
It was truly a lovely moment and quite entertaining to everyone in line at the time. For the asshole guy, not so much.
germy
@Ruviana: Pretty much. He’s horrible.
germy
@WaterGirl:
The intro to that story would seriously piss off a millennial.
NeenerNeener
@Kent: Yeah, the British press seems to hate all the brides. They loved Diana and Fergie for a hot minute and then hated them forever and hounded Diana to death. They aren’t all that fond of “Waity Katey” Middleton either, although she’s getting a pass now while they pile on Markle. It’s just Markle’s turn in the barrel.
satby
@mrmoshpotato: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not that in a perfect world I wouldn’t want Rick Wilson shunned for his past, but he has an answer that I can live with if it gets the job done:
WaterGirl
@germy: Serious question: Why?
I confess that i tune out all the millennial, gen x, etc talk, so I should probably know but I do not.
WhatsMyNym
@Another Scott:
Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2018
ETA: From my viewpoint, retirements and attracting new medical staff to areas outside of major cities is the biggest problem.
germy
@WaterGirl: Because college is so expensive nowadays. No one can really put themselves through college working as a cashier (without taking on enormous debt)
When I was in college, I could actually pay most of my tuition with side jobs.
Raven Onthill
“Men make history, but they do not make it as they please.” – Karl Marx
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@satby: I bought his first book in audio format, cause we hate the same people (now) and he expresses his hate in an entertaining way. He’s a semi-regular guest of Ana Marie Cox on her O’Bros related podcast, and he says he’s had to rethink a lot of his past life. The one that really gets under my skin is that he created that infamous ad where Max Cleland was morphed into Saddam Hussein, which was so offensive on so many levels, and his response is, effectively, a shrug and “politics ain’t beanbag”.
I imagine a beer or two with him could be quite entertaining, but it’s an unlikely eventuality.
eddie blake
@satby: ….because he did such a good job stopping him the FIRST time around?
MattF
@satby: I think, also, Wilson is using his salesmanship skills to get Dems to buy his product. Not that I object to that— he has a business and needs an income. And he may well be right. But I’d pause before taking what he says as gospel.
Kent
@NeenerNeener: Can you imagine if the American press gave 0.1% of that same level of attention to the American Trump-clan brides? Heads would fucking explode.
Melania Trump
Lara Trump
Vanessa Haydon
Jared Kushner
None of them could withstand any kind of scrutiny. Much less British tabloid type scrutiny.
WaterGirl
@germy: Ah. I worked at a union grocery store, so I made 11.50 an hour. Time and a half on Sundays double time on holidays, double time and a half if the holiday was on a Sunday.
That was 27k back then, not counting any sundays or holidays.
It’s not just that tuition has changed considerably. It’s that as a grocery store checker back then, I was paid a living wage
edit: I was also the union steward.
NeenerNeener
@Kent: Lawsuits would be exploding right and left, along with the heads.
satby
@eddie blake: @MattF: And as I previously made clear, it’s worth evaluating as a potential help, not that we just blindly follow his advice, or even buy his book. I don’t have to marry him or even, as @Jim, Foolish Literalist: says, have a beer with him. But I do take all hands on deck to defeat Trump literally.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@WaterGirl: Bouncer at a bar is working the door. University town, so they card pretty much everyone. Young guy shows his ID to prove that he’s old enough to come in.
Bouncer starts laughing. Calls over other staff, shows them the ID. They laugh. The young guy starts getting nervous, asks for his ID back.
Bouncer says “Oh, I don’t think so” and holds up the ID next to his own face so the kid can get a good look at the photo. It’s the bouncer’s driver’s license.
Raven Onthill
@Amir Khalid: I suppose the difference is that the current crop of royals are conservative (how could they not be?) but not fascist, and that’s not good enough for the right-wing press.
Um.
chopper
so, esper just said that trump is acting on intelligence that he’s getting from outside of the DoD. i mean, we all know there’s nothing at all, but this is a stunning thing for a secdef to admit.
WaterGirl
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Ha! Speaking from my own experience, that must have been quite gratifying!
hitchhiker
@Kent:
Thanks, I’ll check that out.
mapaghimagsik
@satby: “By selling my book”
MattF
@chopper: Or that Trump is lying.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
An actual blinder or it just made you feel that way?
Asking for a friend……
Bill Arnold
@Cheryl Rofer:
This made me laugh. I feel slightly sorry for the djinn who’s job it is to manipulate DJT’s enteric nervous system; but maybe it’s sorta fun being Trumps’s “gut whisperer”.
(Also, I had to look up the word. :-)
Bill Arnold
@chopper:
As Cheryl noted above, Trump’s gut whispers to him.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Wife was a union member, then was elected Sec-Treasurer of a nation-wide local. Spent a lot of time on the road after that, and in NYC where contract negotiations took place.
So you guys have things in common~!~ She has a clock with a “Rosie” character and the slogan, “A woman’s place is in the union!”
StringOnAStick
@mrmoshpotato: My kindle constantly “modifies”my spelling and I originally typed “peel”, then I noticed it changed it to “peal” after I hit post, but with a migraine and the required drugs on board I didn’t bother to fix it. Autocorrect, especially on a kindle, is the devil
WaterGirl
@J R in WV:
I like that, and I love that you think your wife and I have some things in common. I will take that as my being in good company.