Category: Trumpland
Is Trump on his way to becoming America’s Dictator? Mussolini had a Party behind him prepared to tear up Italy’s Constitution. Hitler modelled himself on Mussolini. and both ensured the separation of powers were literally non existant. Interest and Social Darwinism is all that counted reason rationality and science were not required. Sounds like Trump to a tee. GOP has made every effort to take over the courts and fund the police and Military at every opportunity. (ODT)
On Wednesday evening, an associate of Trump’s private lawyer said on national television that Trump knew all about their schemes to push the president of Ukraine into announcing a sham investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
And on Thursday morning, the Government Accountability Office announced that the White House broke the law when it withheld security assistance for Ukraine in that effort to pressure Ukraine into doing Trump’s bidding.
It’s the same thing Republicans have been saying for months, even though the White House only released the Ukraine aid after learning that someone from within the administration had filed a formal whistleblower complaint about the illegal holdup.
via Republicans Shrug Off Damning Developments In Ukraine Scandal | HuffPost Australia
The interview and the implications of Republican lawmakers and Trump insiders mingling with shady figures at the hotel caused #TrumpHotel to trend on Twitter, especially after MSNBC analyst David Corn compared it to the cantina at Mos Eisley from the first “Star Wars” movie:
Just as we had gotten used to the fact that the president is, in effect, under congressional indictment, just as we had settled into a more or less stable stalemate over when (and if) the Senate will hold an impeachment trial, the president shook the snow globe again, by ordering the assassination of foreign military officials and threatening the destruction of Iran’s cultural sites. Nothing better than the promise of new war crimes to take the world’s attention away from a little thing like extorting a U.S. ally to help oneself get reelected.
March against Trump in Iraq we have seen nothing yet. Will Trump become the ISIS ally he really is? (ODT)
There is no celebration in the act of 4 steps backwards which Trump initiated in the first place lying his tits off that tarriffs were an income producing policy. But then when the damage done was hurting moving 2 steps forward again to ease the pain and calling that a win.. That’s what Kim Jong un is an expert at. doing. Threatening, promising and then threatening again gaining regaining inches maybe but losing all respect the nation once had for being trusted. Republicans are doing it for themselves and not the country (ODT)
The US and China have declared an official truce in their two-year long trade war, signing a deal that will see the US reduce some tariffs and China purchase hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American goods and services.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed the “phase one” agreement at a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday morning (Thursday morning Australian time).
WMD Scandal, Gulf of Tonkin Scandal, The Lying President Scandal 20,000 lies ago the scandals just keep coming and Fox Corp cleans the blackboard (ODT)
via Trump’s “WMD” Scandal? Was the Charge of “Imminent” Soleimani Attack Just Made Up?
The man with two faces continue to contradict himself in public (ODT)
If you’re a lefty, or a marginally sane human being, you’re probably pretty weary by now, worn to a frazzle by the daily flood of crazy sewage draining from the White House, from Fox “News,” from Trump on Twitter, and from the spectrum of right wing news sources that have so successfully been making insanity seem routine. We’ve gotten used to words like “gaslighting” to describe the fog we have been walking around in for such a very long time. Up is down, evil is good, right is wrong.
T.S. Eliot, about a century ago, predicted the world would end with a whimper, not a bang. As a sometimes shouting, sometimes whimpering lefty, I’m sure it doesn’t matter much, but it sure seems like he may have been right. At this rate, it seems like we’re doomed.
In such darkness, it grows increasingly hard to stay awake.
But we must.
The US plans permanent occupation of numerous nations worldwide, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and other countries it attacked preemptively.
It’s up to officials of these countries and mass public opposition to end US occupation through the power of resistance.
Pentagon bases are platforms for endless wars, including against host and neighboring countries.
So-called status of forces (SOFA) agreements establish the framework under which US forces operate abroad — serving its own interests at the expense of occupied nations and their people.
Chalmers Johnson explained SOFAs in 164 countries as follows, saying:
“We don’t know precisely when and we don’t know precisely where, but it was real,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Thursday, remarks many interpreted as an admission that Soleimani did not actually pose a grave and immediate threat to American lives.
Report: Trump Ordered Iran Strike Because of Impeachment Fears – Mother Jones
The plot and lies thicken. Propaganda is quick the truth takes longer to come out and Trump can’t stop it. (ODT)
Critics said the Post reporting undermines the Trump administration’s claim that it assassinated Soleimani due to an “imminent threat” to American interests—and indicates the general’s killing was part of what was meant to be a far more sweeping effort to damage the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“This suggests a mission with a longer planning horizon and a larger objective, and it really does call into question why there was an attempt to explain this publicly on the basis of an imminent threat,” Suzanne Maloney, an Iran scholar at the Brookings Institution think tank, told the Post.
mainstream news organizations are now taking the president’s evidence-free claim that the Iranians were planning to “blow up” an American embassy at face value on social media.
Trump turns Saudi religious hatred of Shiia into political propaganda against Iran and in doing so is creating the unity that never really existed (ODT)
Coalition forces stood aside as Saddam’s tanks, with helicopters overhead, smashed their way into Shia cities like Karbala, Najaf and Basra, and then began their mass executions.
Three decades later, the US and its allies are still making the same mistake, treating the millions of Shia in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan as if they were Iranian agents.
Down the centuries, the Shia have been one of the most savagely persecuted religious minorities; they fear today that in the wake of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, they are once again being demonised, as Donald Trump denounces all who oppose the US in the Middle East as Iranian proxies.
Trump launched a reckless criminal act of state terror designed to provoke a war. Iran de-escalated the situation as of Wednesday — refusing to engage in a retaliatory cycle of violent escalation while demonstrating their military capability. Trump responded with a rambling, lifeless, incoherent slurred speech that promised to ratchet up economic sanctions without threatening further violence.
Pete Buttigieg@PeteButtigiegInnocent civilians are now dead because they were caught in the middle of an unnecessary and unwanted military tit for tat. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of all 176 souls lost aboard this flight.
The consequence of Trump’s recklessness
A total of 176 people were killed when a Ukrainian passenger plane came down soon after taking off from Tehran in the hours after the missile strike.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has revealed intelligence that suggests it was shot out of the sky by Iran. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australians have the same intelligence.
“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,” Mr Trudeau said. “This may well have been unintentional.”
Iran was on a war footing in the hours after launching its ballistic missiles and would have been prepared for an American response from the air.
All indications point to a tragic mistake.
It won’t take long for critics to point the finger of blame at Mr Trump himself.
Even before Mr Trudeau’s press conference, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, who served for the US military in Afghanistan, implied the President should carry responsibility.
“Innocent civilians are now dead because they were caught in the middle of an unnecessary and unwanted military tit for tat” he tweeted.
Not just Democrats, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said what Trump officials presented was “the worst briefing I’ve had on a military issue in my nine years” serving in the Senate.
What’s more ludicrous is there is no seperation of powers in the US judicial system (ODT)
A coalition of 29 national advocacy organizations argued Tuesday that “as long as the cloud of impeachment exists, it would be a grave mistake for the Senate to allow the president to continue making lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary.”
“We cannot allow a president who demanded foreign interference in our elections and obstructed Congress to pack our courts with lifetime appointees.”
Trump’s booming share Market (ODT)
via Meet the CEOs Raking It in from Trump’s Aggression Toward Iran | The Smirking Chimp
The Spreading of bullshit is continuous on Murdoch’s Fox “News for Profit” spin channels (ODT)
The flames from the missile that blew up the car carrying Iranian general Qassem Soleimani were barely extinguished when Ari Fleischer — somehow still a thing, despite his years of peddling the early 2000s’ many Iraq War lies as George W. Bush’s press secretary — showed up on quasi-state-television Fox News to predict “this is going to be a catalyst inside Iran where the people celebrate this killing of Soleimani.” He was the first of a string of neocon pundits like John Bolton and Karl Rove who still get invited into your living room via TV even after their 2003 predictions that Iraqis would greet us with rose petals “as liberators” were vaporized in gunpowder and blood.
Trump Administration does what Trump has been doing all his life “Hiding from the Facts” “Refusing to be Judged” (ODT)
The Trump administration blocked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat, from entering the United States, Foreign Policy reported Monday.
Unnamed diplomatic sources who told Foreign Policy about this move by the Trump administration also said it violates a 1947 agreement with the U.N. that the U.S. allow foreign officials into the country for U.N. affairs.
via Trump Admin Bars Top Iranian Diplomat From Entering U.S.: Report | HuffPost Australia
Trump’s foreign policy, from his inaugural address, is “America First”: an aggressive assertion of national self-interest, of nativism and protectionism, of America’s retreat from the commitments and alliances built after World War II, of unilateralism to advance America’s (and Trump’s) priorities above all others. And with respect to the Middle East, to end the “endless wars” that have consumed American troops and treasure for 18 years and counting.
The Murdoch Grift and Grifters (ODT)
Source: How the Fox News Cabinet is responding to Soleimani’s killing | Media Matters for America
Stumbling toward apocalypse: Trump launches re-election campaign with an assassination
At least Qassem Soleimani knew what he was doing in Iraq. The U.S. military has never had a remote f**king clue
Stumbling toward apocalypse: Trump launches re-election campaign with an assassination | Salon.com
Trump Diplomacy Kill Iraqis and blame Iran. Betray the Kurd and Work for ISIS (ODT)
via ‘We will take revenge’: Thousands flood Baghdad streets with grief and anger
DEFINITION OF INSANITY A TWITTER DICTATOR HAS KIDNAPPED THE USA
USA and the Coalition UK and Australia read it in the Murdoch news (ODT)
Why is it Republicans to win elections start wars? The USA has been losers in all their encounters since WW2 and Trump is no different. A loser he’s yet the biggest war machine on the planet he’s taking the US into yet another war they can’t possibly win. This time it’s illegal yet again. (ODT)
“This strike went forward with no notification or consultation with Congress,” committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Thursday. “Even if this strike was in self-defense, no current congressional authorization covered it and the President needs to notify Congress within 48 hours pursuant to the War Powers Resolution. The law requires notification so the President can’t plunge the United States into ill-considered wars.”
via Democrats Warn Of Massive Consequences After Assassination Of Soleimani | HuffPost Australia
via 
Militiamen Breach U.S. Embassy In Baghdad; Trump Blames Iran
The developments represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region.
via Militiamen Breach U.S. Embassy In Baghdad; Trump Blames Iran | HuffPost
My generation was complaining about being screwed over by boomers before most of these young people were born. No one much cares about us — we are much smaller in number than the other generational cohorts — so it never really mattered. But we also can’t claim we did much to stop the bleeding: We didn’t have the power, and I’m sorry to say that most of us didn’t have the will.
Being outside the struggle is a gift, in the sense that it grants some measure of objectivity. I don’t officially have a dog in this fight, but I know who I’m rooting for. Younger generations have been done dirty, and frankly, they are being nicer about it than they had to be. Considering what their elders have dumped on them to deal with, a snarky internet meme is letting the boomers off pretty damn easy.
via A new generational conflict: Will the 2020s be the “OK boomer” decade? | Salon.com
Trump stock market rally is far outpacing past US presidents,” and he vowed that the “BEST IS YET TO COME!” Trump is making the economy and stock market a key focus on his re-election campaign. He often likes to claim this is the “best” or an “unprecedented” scenario, even when that is not the case.
via The Trump share rally is good, but still lags Obama and Clinton
Pelosi is right there is no point of a Trial if it’s simply a vote. Trump can call his witnesses and have his lawyers which he’s been demanding. Now he wants no witnesses and no Trial and says its Pelosi’s fault. Sorry who else but Trump? (ODT)
They’d made up their minds to acquit the President of the impeachment charges, in the hope that would exonerate him of any wrongdoing, without the need to risk any new evidence coming to the surface.
But the Speaker of the Democrat controlled House had a Joker up her sleeve.
Nancy Pelosi revealed she was breaking with convention by withholding the impeachment articles, until the House and the Senate could agree on procedures for a “fair trial”.
Tearing up the Constitution Mitch McConnel declares if a Senate trial is to be held he and the R-Senators are not there to swear they will be impartial (ODT)
Already, we know what Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has promised. “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There’s not anything judicial about it.” For Senator McConnell, the entire episode regarding Trump has been a matter of highest and most venomous partisanship. “The House made a partisan political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate.”
The Politics of Trump’s Impeachment – » The Australian Independent Media Network
