The Trump Presidency V: New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

OK, but it's not really Kelly's place to tell the widow and her family how to deal with this, right? What, you think the congresswoman just randomly said shit? Have you been following the story? She didn't put the call on speakerphone because it wasn't her phone.

Trump did an awful thing. Rep. Wilson just reported the facts. Trump lied in response. The soldier's family backed up Wilson. Then Kelly misrepresented what happened, and also lied about a building dedication from a few years back.

Kelly never read his Nietzsche...when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you. Trump is like The Ring. The longer you touch it, the more you end up like Gollum.

 

I assume it has something to do with going after boko haram

 

I bristle at the term "leaked."
It was on a speakerphone, in a car. Congresswoman Wilson was in the car.
It was not really that private.
Congresswoman Wilson made the contents of the call public, but I do not think it was a leak.
If it was not a "leak," it takes the steam out of Kelly's "heart break".

Here is the relevant part of Kelly's comments;

“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and broken-hearted, at what I saw a member of Congress doing, a member of Congress who listened in on a phone call from the president of the United States to a young wife,” Kelly said. “In his way [Trump] tried to express that opinion that he's a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted, there's no reason to enlist, he enlisted and was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. That was the message.”

A few things:
1) He should be "stunned" and "broken-hearted" that these kids were killed in Niger, not what "a member of Congress" was doing.

2) The phone that Sgt. La David Johnson's widow, Myeshia Johnson, had was on speaker, so Congresswoman Wilson did not "listen in" on the phone call. It was broadcast for her to hear and for Sgt. La David Johnson's adopted mother to hear.

3) The phrase "In his way..." is the equivalent of those who stated that Harvey Weinstein was "just being Harvey" when he broke into Angie Everheart's room and masturbated in front of her.
Not the action, of course, but the explaining away of incredibly inappropriate behavior.

4) "There's no reason to enlist"?!? That has to be the worst Armed Forces recruiting line ever.
Enlist....even there is no reason to enlist.
The people I know who have enlisted generally do it for one of two reasons:
a) It is a family tradition, stretching back a few generations.
b) To earn money for college and the other benefits that come from making it through their time of service. They may have few options.
Admittedly, I do not know Sgt. La David Johnson's motivations for enlisting, but I suspect that he one or more.
"No reason" was probably not among his motivations.

5) How the hell does Kelly know that this "exactly where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken"?!?
I suspect that if Sgt. La David Johnson could say where "exactly wanted to be," it would be at home and
if Sgt. La David Johnson could say "exactly the people he wanted to be with" would be his pregnant wife and his two children.
Oh, and the whole "when his life was taken." Yeah, I suspect that he would probably not want that either.
Of course, this is speculation since we cannot ask Sgt. La David Johnson, since he was killed in Niger.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...mily-oriented-soldier/?utm_term=.83e62559881b
https://www.vox.com/2017/10/19/16504980/john-kelly-press-briefing-dead-troops-soldiers-family

 

Not to be a dick, but how many people can? That series of operations is flying underneath the radar. I thought that this might actually get some serious reporting on this issue in more mainstream sources, but ...nope: Tweets and recriminations and more tweets. Yes, Trump is an inept assclown, but that's only part of the story.

 

Such a short reply, and yet so much adorableness.

 

If you quote Nietzsche and mention a ring, it's incumbent upon you to mention Wagner

 

I'm a very real way, that's part of the point, no?

Yes, but only a part (and actually a very small part, TBH).

 

I'm sorry. I'll admit my ignorance on most of the going on's in Africa but know that boko haram is a problem in that area.

 

...and a priest who stops diddling little boys is no longer a pedophile.
Evangelical "logic" 102.

...and Jimmy Swaggart admitting (after years of denying it) that "I have sinned" by being in a scandal with a prostitute and then, three years, arrested with another prostitute, is no longer a sexual creep, since he has not (to the best of anyone's guess) with other prostitutes.
Oh, and he kept his job after the first one and started a new "church" after the second.
Evangelical "logic" 103.

And on and on.

 

Exactly.

What's happening here is that Kelly is doing Trump's bidding, and using his service and his son's death as a shield from proper examination. Kelly is lying here, and bluffing that nobody will call him on it.

Trump is hydrochloric acid...it dissolves what it comes in contact with. Kelly is the latest victim.

 

Explain why?

This took about 2 1/2 seconds.

The title of the news story is (literally):
Why US troops are in Niger

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-troops-niger/story?id=50559788

Wondering why there are Army Green Berets in Niger?
They are there as part of a counterterrorism mission to train Niger’s military to help fight Islamic extremists in neighboring countries, namely Mali.

How many U.S. troops are there in Niger?
About 800, but the vast majority of them are construction crews working to build up a second drone base in Niger’s northern desert. The rest run a surveillance drone mission from Niger’s capital of Niamey that helps out the French in Mali and other regional countries in the fight against Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and now ISIS. A smaller component, less than a hundred, are Army Green Beret units advising and assisting Niger’s military to build up their fighting capability to counter Al Qaeda and ISIS. There are an additional 300 U.S. military personnel in neighboring Burkina Faso and Cameroon doing the same thing. They are there as part of what’s known as the mission in the Lake Chad Basin.

1 1/2 additional seconds:
US has drones and hundreds of troops in Niger. Here's why

"Small groups of US special operations forces advise local troops as they battle Boko Haram and al Qaeda."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/niger-american-troops-drones/index.html

 

You seem strangely angry.

US media generally repeats Pentagon releases, so sure, they're going to cite "going after" all manner of ill-defined nasties, without one second of reflection as to how that came to be (and if you think Boko Haram is anything but a conveniently proximal set of baddies used to justify and paper over other causes, you're fooling yourself).

Mali and Niger have AQIM adherents that have caused problems in recent years, and there's a reason for that aside from "they're mean and hate our freedoms".

So regurgitating Pentagon talking points doesn't answer the question satisfactorily.

 

Kelly simply disgraced himself yesterday. His comments were simply vile and beyond the pale with his misogyny and veiled racism.. He also showed his true colors with his comments about religion and "dignity of life" and the cheap shot on the Khan family....really? WTF?....
Now the Sun Sentinel just unveiled the video of the event he was referring to and it supports Wilson version.
Totally embarrassing for Kelly and the WH. He speech was actually a decent one lauding the agents, the FBI and even the republican congress people from So Fl.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/b...ly-tape-of-speech-20171020-story.html?dfdfdfd

 

I thought the worst thing Kelly did is when he refused to take questions from any reporter who wasn't a veteran or friends with a vet.

Is Robert Heinlein writing this shit?

 

I hope you are not saying that I am angry.

I answered your question.

If you do not like the news reports, then you answer the question "satisfactorily."

 

Does that mean he won't take requests from the President?

Nothing but nonstop bullshit from this WH, of the sort that daily makes you wonder "How stupid do you think I am?" Even W sees it.

 

I said that you seem that way. I do not know if you are. There's little here to dissuade me from that impression, however.

I find it odd that you'd be satisfied with the usual "to get the bad guys, silly!" line that the Pentagon feeds the usual news outlets. I find it somewhat curious that the lack of reflection as to how this situation arose is acceptable.

I mean, if Niger and Mali want help with Tuareg separatists, why don't they just hire France, their former colonial masters and language brethren, or Blackwater?

 

I am not satisfied, and I suspect that the "real answer" is probably worse.

However, I have far more things to be worried about than why we have 800 soldiers in Niger (not that we should have ANY soldiers in Niger).

I find it odd that you refuse to posit an answer to your own question.

Edit: I don't find it odd, as I really don't care about your position on the subject.

 

Bummer that I had to be off this thread for a couple of days and missed all this (although I'm sure xtomx is happy about that).

See, I really quite strongly believe that this is all a function of what one is used to. For me, Linux is much easier to work with than Windows. Just as you say for Linux, I can do Windows, but it is a phenomenal pain in the ********ing ass most of the time, and Linux isn't.

The only truly intuitive user interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned. And if something is akin to something else you're very familiar with, that's easier than something you're less familiar with.

Agreed.

 

Sure, but that was not my point. I understand the role "green berets" play in the military and I guess I understand the personality type of someone who would become a green beret.

However, my point was that I am sure that he would prefer not to be dead and at home with his wife and children.

However, he cannot be home with his wife and children because he is dead.

 

No, I want Cascarino to take a crack at it, rather than you bizarrely acting on his behalf.

As it was obviously and expressly intended to draw a bit of thought out of Pizzaman, I'm not inclined to let him off that easily.

You sure wasted a lot of text not caring and jumping in to something not even directed at you.

 

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/linux-discussion-here.2075956/

 

Just trying to be helpful.

 

Colonial masters...? WTF.....

 

Yes. It is both a term of derision (toward the French) in context, and an actual-factual summation of the two nations' recent histories.

I mean, if you go back a little ways, I suppose you could say that the Malian Empire was the colonial master(ish) of Niger, but Mansa Musa and his empire, nor the successor/rival Songhai Empire is any longer available to be hired for what the French have the history and infrastructure to do for them.