Althouse: "With Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Syria and many more foreign challenges brewing, Trump needs a unified, competent national security team capable of oaring in a single direction."

September 12, 2019

"With Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Syria and many more foreign challenges brewing, Trump needs a unified, competent national security team capable of oaring in a single direction."

"If he gets these next two personnel picks right, he also has a chance to cement the Trump doctrine that defines the American interest clearly in each country and reserves the might of the American military as a last resort."

From "Two names who would give Trump an all-star security team after Bolton" (The Hill).

89 comments:

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Obama needs Loretta Lynch and Holder to hide the corruption. & a Hillary Clinton to head the State Dept with a private server for international Clinton cash.; 9/12/19, 8:05 AM
Mattman26 said...: Oaring?; 9/12/19, 8:09 AM
doctrev said...: Let me push back on this idea for a second. So far as Donald Trump has had success in dealing with Iran and China, where has it been? Not in measures of cruise missile strikes, but in economic damage, which has been immense and relentless. And he's only getting warmed up. Russia's economy is just about strangled: they have the advantage of being resilient to further American pressure outside oil price manipulation, but they are much poorer than they could be.

Against Iran, Donald Trump could rely on Mossad as an intelligence agency- at least as far as their desire to sabotage and inform against Iran goes. The Saudis would also have substantial abilities in spying. Against China, South Korea and Japan would fill similar roles. The point is that, no matter what you think of these countries, all of them are far more motivated to work with President Trump than the State Department is. Trump -despises- his State Department more or less openly, and hates the CIA even worse for their role in the coup against him. Which is why he doesn't need a permanent NSA: America's security apparatus is at best worthless and at worst aligned with enemies like Iran and China.

What Donald Trump needs is to terminate (the careers of) the career employees who pose the largest threat to a unified, stable America.; 9/12/19, 8:13 AM
Hagar said...: May the Good Lord protect us from the advice of experts.; 9/12/19, 8:18 AM
Gahrie said...: Trump needs a badass who can play bad cop while Trump plays the good cop.; 9/12/19, 8:22 AM
tcrosse said...: Rowing or paddling?; 9/12/19, 8:34 AM
Saint Croix said...: I like Bolton but this Babylon Bee cracks me up.; 9/12/19, 8:36 AM
rhhardin said...: Trump's forte is shake the box. Until something works.; 9/12/19, 8:36 AM
Wince said...: Forget But-edge-edge.

Grenell is the gay most electable to be the next president.; 9/12/19, 8:37 AM
rhhardin said...: The traditional approach is wow the enemy with our experts.; 9/12/19, 8:40 AM
narciso said...: Grenells pretty good, hoekstras more of an unknown quantity.; 9/12/19, 8:46 AM
Fernandinande said...: Oaring
"The act of stumbling around randomly, smacking people in the face with oars; verb."

One cannot argue with that.; 9/12/19, 8:46 AM
bbkingfish said...: Another view on Hook...

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/hooks-despicable-yemen-propaganda/; 9/12/19, 8:48 AM
Kevin said...: I understand but if Trump's standard procedure when he kicks somebody out is to trash them with petty bs, like he did with Bolton, what incentive does that give someone, especially someone competent and in demand, to want to serve him? Serving in the Trump administration will already lose them all their establishment friends and contacts, and get them disinvited from all the cool cocktail parties. When Trump combines that already significant penalty with trashing them on the way out, that makes the position seem not particularly tempting.; 9/12/19, 8:54 AM
Chuck said...: "...the president's policy vision..."

Lulz. What's that?

I thought I was reading Jeffrey Lord for a minute. What happened to Jeffrey Lord? Won't the pool of Trump loyalists who have not yet been fired get small enough that virtually everybody in the cohort will at some time get a seat in the Trump cabinet? A cabinet with "by far, the highest IQ of any cabinet ever."; 9/12/19, 8:54 AM
bbkingfish said...: Other views on Grinnell...

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-us-ambassador-richard-grenell-should-be-expelled-says-fdp-deputy-leader/a-47975156

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/u-s-ambassador-richard-grenell-is-isolated-in-berlin-a-1247610.html

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/grenell-the-toxic-ambassador/; 9/12/19, 9:05 AM
narciso said...: As opposed to 18 years of the same old thing, yes the plan was poorly executed

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/11/trumps-taliban-gambit/; 9/12/19, 9:10 AM
narciso said...: Yes the stooges for iran, dont want grenell quelle surprise.; 9/12/19, 9:11 AM
Leland said...: Solomon didn't seem too interested in Hooks, but then you have to be careful to find the second name he is recommending. Solomon clearly likes Grenell.; 9/12/19, 9:16 AM
rhhardin said...: There's the Hooke-Jeeves search that I've found to be spectacularly successful. Far better than conjugate gradient. Whoever Hooks is.; 9/12/19, 9:28 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: My big fear on Trump is that he's desperate for a clear "win" and, lacking solid conservative ideological guide rails, is likely to latch on to poorly-considered but flashy "deals" in order to generate one. The Taliban Camp David dealmaking invite is exactly that sort of move...could be foreign policy, could be something like gun control, but it's a real danger.

The stupidity of the GOPe in refusing to use Trump's ego in a way that would have advanced their agenda and reconciled them to Republican base voters who went for Trump still annoys me. Ryan decided to prioritize tax cuts and the GOPe was unable or unwilling to put even symbolic measures on things like border control, healthcare reform, or even smaller measures (like halting federal funding for Planned Parenthood, etc) on Trump's desk. The guy would have signed almost anything they put up there! He was a hindrance in negotiating the actual bills, sure, but if you're smart you ignore him and craft the legislation so that it'll make him look good--there's no way he'll veto!
Instead we got tax cuts and not much else. Judges, sure, and that's a big deal, but most of the credit for that has go to to Trump for actually winning.

I have no problem agreeing with GOPe types that Trump is a highly flawed President and that he himself is only loosely connected to conservative ideology. Instead of using that to achieve their/our goals the GOPe and Bulwarky TrueConservative pundit class decided to stamp their feet and write the same idiotic, bitchy column ever other week for the duration of Trump's term.

Feeling he lacks those easily-sellable "wins" makes Trump more likely to do something stupid in an attempt at a grand diplomatic victory now.; 9/12/19, 9:32 AM
narciso said...: Because they dont want to go in a conservative directions, its like the bulk of parliament even most of the tories.; 9/12/19, 9:39 AM
Drago said...: As Trump continues to succeed in keeping the US out of unnecessary foreign entanglements as well as strengthening NATO while holding NATO members accountable for their decades long failure to live up to their commitments under what the left and LLR's would deem "competent" administrations, one can expect the "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservatives to ramp up attacks on Trump's foreign policy performance under the vision of America First.

These "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservatives can be expected to marry up their foreign policy attacks against Trump in parallel with efforts to try and paint previous democrat administrations economic performance in a much more positive light compared with Trump's, although the numbers do not lie and there is no comparison at this point as Trump has demolished the previous administration's economic performance and in record time.

One might see a "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservative actually go so far as to label an anemic economy under obama in glowing and fantastical terms. Something like "dream-perfect economy" might be used to convince people that things were literally "perfect" under obama, whom the "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservative might consider "magnificent".

We should all be alert to the possible presence of these dedicated agents of the dems/left on Althouseblog.; 9/12/19, 9:49 AM
El Supremo said...: I thought Bolton was a good choice, and Trump needed a hard ass who might challenge him to be tougher, but if you hire a guy and you just can't see eye to eye, then you move on. Bolton probably quit, becuase he just didn't agree with the President. That's pretty simple. You find someone else who is both challenging and respects who's in charge. Trump has a very stable team. You might say it's stable genius. He's not the team, but it seems clear he is the leader of it. That's where the stability is. He wants his vision carried out. His vision is to create alliances based on peace and prosperity, not war and threats. He wants to force our enemies to simply choose it or lose it. I think that's wise and moral policy.; 9/12/19, 9:52 AM
narciso said...: Perspective is necessary
https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/whats-russia-to-us/; 9/12/19, 10:00 AM
Drago said...: El Supremo: "He wants his vision carried out. His vision is to create alliances based on peace and prosperity, not war and threats. He wants to force our enemies to simply choose it or lose it. I think that's wise and moral policy."

Perfectly stated and perfectly accurate.

In fact, El Supremo's observation is so spot on it explains precisely why the far left/dems have activated the "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservatives to attack the policy by pretending there is no over-arching vision or policy standards.

Given the rising prominence of Althouseblog, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if the dems had assigned a "Blog Forum Initiative" fake conservative to this forum to attack Trump by claiming there is no overarching vision or policy preferences.

I'll be going back up thread to see if any of these dem activist types have been making that argument here today. I'll bet there's been at least one.

One can never be too careful after the Reid Hoffman episode in Alabama completely exposed this "Blog Forum Initiative"-like activity on the part of the left.; 9/12/19, 10:00 AM
Michael K said...: I hear that Trump may give both positions tom Pompeo, al la Kissinger. Then he can wait until Flynn is exonerated and appoint him back to NSC. One big threat that Flynn can address is the cyber threat from China and Iran.; 9/12/19, 10:03 AM
FrankiM said...: Meh, why worry? Trump picks the best people.; 9/12/19, 10:03 AM
narciso said...: Better show then to tell, drago, who knows what agita that might cause.; 9/12/19, 10:05 AM
narciso said...: The last was about the pompeo machinations.; 9/12/19, 10:10 AM
doctrev said...: HoodlumDoodlum said...

I have no problem agreeing with GOPe types that Trump is a highly flawed President and that he himself is only loosely connected to conservative ideology. Instead of using that to achieve their/our goals the GOPe and Bulwarky TrueConservative pundit class decided to stamp their feet and write the same idiotic, bitchy column ever other week for the duration of Trump's term.

Feeling he lacks those easily-sellable "wins" makes Trump more likely to do something stupid in an attempt at a grand diplomatic victory now.

9/12/19, 9:32 AM

Hate to break it to you, but the Bulwark's goals are indistinguishable from Democrat goals. They're not anti-war: they're just on the other side. We've been assured that Trump is going to sell out hard for the Big Win for three years now, and he still hasn't done it. The reason? Super simple: Donald Trump knows he's a competent steward of the economy and his economic team is the one with the least turnover. All the little reindeer games with "national security" abroad are something he obviously has no interest in. He just firms up his coalition (Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, South Korea, etc) and goes.

And after reading about the Democrat initiative to sabotage Rush Limbaugh by "controlling" his message, it's equally clear that LLRs on this site pretend to be the mythical "remorseful Trump voter" to persuade the truly gullible. And no one else. Why Althouse tolerates their obvious fraud, I have no idea.; 9/12/19, 10:11 AM
readering said...: I was going to comment on this post but then I got instructions from HQ to leave that to some "conservatives" specially tasked for the job. I feel unappreciated.; 9/12/19, 10:24 AM
BamaBadgOR said...: Grenell is an all-star and would be great.; 9/12/19, 10:33 AM
Drago said...: readering: "I feel unappreciated."

There is much to under appreciate about you.; 9/12/19, 10:35 AM
Sebastian said...: Trump has already shown he doesn't need a "unified" team. If someone disagrees, it doesn't matter: Trump simply ignores them, or if they get irritating and out of line, he fires them. The decider decides.

Does he decide rightly? So far, so good. His inclination is to put pressure on Iran, which has been a bad actor that got an overly sweet deal from O who needed his Big Win; to put pressure on China, which had been a bad actor, screwing us and cheating while taking advantage of our openness; to put pressure on NATO allies, who had been free riding; to be nicer to countries that are nice to us -- Japan, Israel, Poland; to try something different with North Korea, which had been a bad actor unresponsive to prior pressure; to try and get out of Afghanistan asap, which is overdue; to build up our military, including in space, just in case. All of these things are in flux, none has produced a decisive outcome, so anti-Trumpers can keep bitching, but the direction of policy seems reasonable and in the interest of the U.S.; 9/12/19, 10:36 AM
mockturtle said...: Good article, I thought. I liked this paragraph in particular [my emphasis]:
"New Attorney General William Barr has shown the difference that very approach makes in corralling and calming a wayward Justice Department after the Russia “collusion” fiasco. Secretary Mike Pompeo has done the same at State after Rex Tillerson’s diplomatic equivalent of a toxic oil spill."; 9/12/19, 10:56 AM
mockturtle said...: Drago @10:35: Was that a fake quote from readering? If so, I call foul.; 9/12/19, 11:00 AM
Michael K said...: And after reading about the Democrat initiative to sabotage Rush Limbaugh by "controlling" his message, it's equally clear that LLRs on this site pretend to be the mythical "remorseful Trump voter" to persuade the truly gullible.

They used to call Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt all the time. It got to be a joke. I suspect the screeners weed them out now or the DNC seminars have given up. Hewitt had a technique of asking new media people he interviewed questions about their political philosophy. He told them up front it was to get a take on where they were coming from. One interview ended quickly when he asked the reporter if she thought Alger Hiss was a communist,. She hung up.; 9/12/19, 11:00 AM
Barry said...: I was surprised by Hoekstra's name coming up here. A few highlights of the "respected" former congressman's career:

He made unsubstantiated claims about the Netherlands he had to take back: https://time.com/5078452/pete-hoekstra-fake-news/

He was deemed too tied to foreign interests and the dreaded "swamp" for the initial round of Trump intelligence appointments due to his lobbying after leaving congress: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/peter-hoekstra-cia-director-trump-231492

And my earliest memory of his antics: he melodramatically compared partisan obstructionism with Iranian freedom protests: https://twitter.com/petehoekstra/status/2208228550 the exaggeration of which became a very funny (now under-appreciated) meme.

Isn't there anyone better?; 9/12/19, 11:00 AM
mccullough said...: Enough with the belief in The Wise Men.

Just find somebody who can play the game competently; 9/12/19, 11:12 AM
Leland said...: I have no problem agreeing with GOPe types that Trump is a highly flawed President and that he himself is only loosely connected to conservative ideology.

I've always considered the Never-Trumpers, Never-Cruzers first. You could see it in the primary when they decided to do a hail mary to stop Trump winning the nomination, and skipped over Cruz in 2nd place and went all-in for Kasich, who was only 3rd at the time because everyone else had then dropped out. At the time, I was backing Cruz, so yeah, I could agree that Trump was highly flawed. But "The stupidity of the GOPe in refusing to use Trump's ego in a way that would have advanced their agenda and reconciled them to Republican base voters who went for Trump still annoys me. " So when they provide suggestions to Trump; I ignore them. It's not like they have a history of making stellar suggestions. Trump may be turning over his cabinet, but there is a lot of weak characters in the GOP bench.; 9/12/19, 11:27 AM
readering said...: Hewitt changed his interview technique after using it on candidate Trump, suffering the usual insults, and apparently realizing it looked hypocritical to quizz everyone on what he thought was important but Trump.; 9/12/19, 11:28 AM
Gospace said...: Blogger Chuck said...
"...the president's policy vision..."

Lulz. What's that?

America and Americans first.

So simple a caveman could understand it. But not intellectuals or LLRs.; 9/12/19, 11:29 AM
Big Mike said...: Grenell certainly has been effective in his current role. I'm tempted to say that that's why he should stay where he's at.; 9/12/19, 11:32 AM
Michael K said...: Hewitt changed his interview technique after using it on candidate Trump, suffering the usual insults,

The same gotcha question technique was used on Bush and , unlike Trump, he took it like a man and looked dumb.

Nobody asks those questions of Dims. When have you heard a question asked of Biden about China or Ukraine using his son as a pass through ?

Warren did her own goal with the DNA test but has any lefty asked her about it.?

Come on. Up your game.; 9/12/19, 11:32 AM
doctrev said...: https://freebeacon.com/politics/dems-secretly-fielded-thousands-of-activists-to-manipulate-media-clinton-library-docs-show/

They are fake. Completely fabricated. There are thousands of operatives making pennies on the comment, despite the smug "oh look at the conservatives who hate Trump, you are just a conspiracy theorist." You are a whore being pimped for pennies. The NeverTrump remnant is tiny because you are all there is.; 9/12/19, 11:33 AM
Big Mike said...: I've always considered the Never-Trumpers, Never-Cruzers first. You could see it in the primary when they decided to do a hail mary to stop Trump winning the nomination, and skipped over Cruz in 2nd place and went all-in for Kasich, who was only 3rd at the time because everyone else had then dropped out.

Something to note. At the time the Never-Trumpers went all-in for Kasich he had to win more primary votes than remained at stake in order to win the nomination. It was mathematically impossible for him to win.; 9/12/19, 11:34 AM
narciso said...: the Holland where they chased hirsi ali, out, where gert wilders has to be under armed guard, and he had to switch out his original police escort because they were infiltrated by the Moroccan mob,; 9/12/19, 11:37 AM
mockturtle said...: Big Mike opines: Grenell certainly has been effective in his current role. I'm tempted to say that that's why he should stay where he's at.

The Peter Principle?; 9/12/19, 11:44 AM
Gospace said...: Leland is right about establishment Republicans. Their antipathy towards Cruz is what gave the nomination to Trump. If they had united behind Cruz when it first became apparent that Trump might actually clinch enough delegates to get the nomination, Cruz would likely have gained the nomination. I don't think he would have won the presidency. And if he had, the very same Russian collusion charges would have been made, and he would have been destroyed.

Just think - if in the early OPEN primary states, if Democrats, sure that Hillary would cruise easily to victory, hadn't crossed over and voted for the "weakest" Republican candidate, Trump,the easy to defeat clown they wanted to run against, he wouldn't have been the nominee. And that crossing over allowed Bernie to become a real threat..... I wonder how many Bernie supporters who felt the nomination was stolen from him, as it was, stayed home on election day in the crucial states that clinched the electoral vote for Trump.; 9/12/19, 11:51 AM
Michael K said...: These are the seminar callers.

Now they are trolling blogs like those who should not be named.; 9/12/19, 11:51 AM
narciso said...: paul singer probably funded those dubious claims that popped up in the enquirer, that roger stone was too stupid not to bite on,; 9/12/19, 11:59 AM
MadisonMan said...: More accurate headline: "Two advisors with whom we have close links who can leak information to us"; 9/12/19, 12:00 PM
narciso said...: probably so,

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-09-dutch-court-doctor-landmark-euthanasia.html; 9/12/19, 12:05 PM
readering said...: I don't remember Hewitt making Bush look dumb. He exposed Trump as dumb but couldn't take the incoming that resulted. He regularly interviewed liberals and the crazy Alger Hiss question were standard, exposing how little homework folks did before appearing.; 9/12/19, 12:10 PM
narciso said...: are they going to have to bail them out,

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49670973; 9/12/19, 12:17 PM
narciso said...: the dems (and journalists) have been treating hiss, the only soviet agent that reached the top ranks of a govt department, as a martyr for 50 years,; 9/12/19, 12:18 PM
readering said...: No one remembers Alger Hiss! Even Nixon library director Hewitt has retired the question. (Those oldies around for hiss link him to Nixon and his crises).; 9/12/19, 12:24 PM
narciso said...: A real aoviet agent, now weve had tools like talbott who owe their careers to the kgb but thats just typical journolism; 9/12/19, 12:31 PM
Drago said...: FrankIngaM: "Meh, why worry? Trump picks the best people."

Not a Ben Rhodes in sight.

And he had a Masters in Fine Art for writing. No wonder he was so central to the Iran deal.....

LOLOLOL

History began 17 minutes ago for Inga, as it does every 17 minutes.....; 9/12/19, 12:34 PM
Michael K said...: readering said...
No one remembers Alger Hiss! Even Nixon library director Hewitt has retired the question. (Those oldies around for hiss link him to Nixon and his crises).

I'm sure that is true of Democrats. Probably few remember who Hugo Chavez was either.; 9/12/19, 12:39 PM
Michael K said...: I don't remember Hewitt making Bush look dumb. He exposed Trump as dumb

No, it was a leftist reporter who asked Bush about his foreign policy expertise. Probably CNN.

Up your game.,; 9/12/19, 12:40 PM
readering said...: Write clearly.; 9/12/19, 12:41 PM
Michael K said...: narciso, euthanasia has been standard in Netherlands since the 1980s. The story is fake. Nobody has ever been prosecuted AFAIK.

In the 1980s, if an ER doc admitted an emphysema patient to ICU, he/she was fired. They were given a lethal shot of morphine in the ER "to make them more comfortable."; 9/12/19, 12:44 PM
alanc709 said...: narciso said...
the dems (and journalists) have been treating hiss, the only soviet agent that reached the top ranks of a govt department, as a martyr for 50 years,

That's assuming that Henry Wallace wasn't a Soviet agent. I'm not convinced.; 9/12/19, 12:45 PM
Michael K said...: We know Harry Dexter White was an agent.; 9/12/19, 12:54 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: "Rowing or paddling?"

Oar rowing; 9/12/19, 12:55 PM
narciso said...: Fellow traveller, now the department of agriculture was where the ware spy ring operated, but that was before; 9/12/19, 12:55 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Oar Russian canoodling; 9/12/19, 12:58 PM
narciso said...: TReasury had white and one other, commerce had temington but the cause celebre was hiss.; 9/12/19, 12:59 PM
narciso said...: Talbott was a fool as the late tretyakov points out, he owed his career to victor louis kgb fixer, so he repeated the soviet line in time magazine.; 9/12/19, 1:06 PM
Big Mike said...: @mockturtle, just something I noted from my years in the software development industry. The best programmers were hardly ever given a chance to show what they could do as managers because they were too valuable writing code.; 9/12/19, 2:10 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: Narciso's link about the Dutch case is definitely not 'fake news', certainly not in the one sense. Certainly, the Dutch did also 'experiment' with active euthanasia prior to the adoption of the 2002 law, as Dr Kennedy says. From the report in the Times (London) dated today:

... Dutch law requires a doctor to ensure that euthanasia — usually by a drug overdose administered orally or injected — is voluntary and performed in a medically proper manner.

The case involved a 74-year-old woman who had been admitted to a nursing home with severe dementia. It is the first time that a doctor has been prosecuted under the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act 2002, despite more than 6,000 medically assisted deaths a year.

Mariette Renckens, the presiding judge, acknowledged that the verdict would inflame the “deeply sensitive” debate as she acquitted the doctor of all charges. “We conclude that all requirements of the euthanasia legislation had been met,” she said to applause in the court. “We believe that given the deeply demented condition of the patient the doctor did not need to verify her wish for euthanasia.”

Four years before her death in 2016 the woman had made a written statement requesting euthanasia rather than being put into a home for people with dementia.

On the day of her death, she was given a sedative without her knowledge in a cup of coffee but then stood and resisted, pulling her hands back, when the lethal injection was given.

According to the euthanasia review board her husband and daughter “helped to restrain the patient”, which raised a question over whether the procedure was voluntary.

Marijanne van der Schalk, a doctor who works in euthanasia, said: “You have to respect resistance during euthanasia. That is where the execution of euthanasia ends.”; 9/12/19, 2:19 PM
mockturtle said...: It brings to mind the ease with which we write our 'Living Wills' and other plans for our medical care if we become incapacitated. We are usually young and healthy when we write them and don't know just how we might feel when the circumstances arrive. My husband was certain he would not want to live with dementia or with the crippling effects of Parkinson's Disease but at no time in his long illness did he express any wish to end his life and I ordered life-saving interventions when they were indicated based on his current, rather than his past, wishes.; 9/12/19, 2:36 PM
The Godfather said...: The author refers to "Bush’s bogus Iraq WMD claim". Whenever I come upon a statement like that, I stop reading. Anyone who says that sort of thing has no credibility as far as I'm concerned.; 9/12/19, 2:42 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Despite the Left's bitter loathing of Donald Trump, there currently appears to be a broad Left-Right consensus endorsing Trump's foreign-policy instincts: Don't run around the world blowing things up unless America's core interests are unambiguously at stake -- and even then, be highly prudent.; 9/12/19, 3:14 PM
Fernandinande said...: ...Venezuela, North Korea, Russia...

I get tired of hearing about the same old countries all the time, so I made up some news ones.

Bango Dembon
Brilippinesia
Croon
Cublia
Czechtenezue
Ecuadina
El Guate
Estria
Germeria
Icelize
Japal
Kitts and Neth Maco
Lestint Kingdova
Mexic Ric Repala
Moldonisia
Singoly Swazakhstan
Slombia
Turkey (as if!)
Vatic of Africar (Holy Swati)
Venegal
Vince; 9/12/19, 3:18 PM
mockturtle said...: Big Mike explains@mockturtle, just something I noted from my years in the software development industry. The best programmers were hardly ever given a chance to show what they could do as managers because they were too valuable writing code.

Also, as the Peter Principle maintains, people tend to be promoted to their level of incompetence.; 9/12/19, 3:45 PM
narciso said...: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-declassifies-key-name-in-saudi-9-11-suit-but-wont-release-it-publicly/ar-AAHcIOm?ocid=spartanntp; 9/12/19, 4:41 PM
narciso said...: https://babalublog.com/2019/09/12/the-other-9-11-the-one-that-freed-chile-from-soviet-cuban-conquest-and-in-the-very-nick-of-time/; 9/12/19, 4:54 PM
narciso said...: Well solomon worked for the ap for 20 years.; 9/12/19, 7:10 PM
readering said...: Trump today:

'We have 15 candidates. Everybody wants it badly, as you can imagine. And we'll probably next week sometime make that decision. A lot of people want the job. And it's a great job. It's great because it's a lot of fun to work with Donald Trump. And it's very easy actually to work with me. And you know why it's easy? Because I make all of the decisions – they don't have to work.'; 9/12/19, 8:19 PM
Leland said...: The comment section is getting easier to read.; 9/12/19, 9:01 PM
readering said...: As I have pointed out many times, Trump just says stuff:

"In fact, my views on Venezuela, and especially Cuba, were far stronger than those of John Bolton. He was holding me back!"; 9/12/19, 9:10 PM
n.n said...: "Bush’s bogus Iraq WMD claim"

Ah, yes, from Bush Sr. to Clinton to Bush Jr, the end of the Iraq war, and process and resource artifacts of WMD development. I think this was the last time a head of state was brought to justice, rather than sodomized and aborted in the course of social justice adventurism.; 9/12/19, 9:24 PM
narciso said...: Soeaking of which:
https://mobile.twitter.com/T_S_P_O_O_K_Y/status/1172216337701265414; 9/12/19, 11:06 PM
stlcdr said...: You only need a good security advisor who knows who to bomb in the middle of the night to keep things around the world in check. But what does that even mean? If you don’t have the capability and will to make the decision to bomb the crap out of a foreign nation, there’s really no point to the advisor position.

Outside entities willing to do harm to the US have no interest in sanctions or negotiations. And finally, there’s no such thing as international law.; 9/13/19, 6:12 AM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: Readering: “Because I make all of the decisions – they don't have to work.“

You act as though this is new in the Office of the President. Paraphrases Valerie Jarrett’s instincts exactly.; 9/13/19, 8:32 PM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: Trump via readering: "In fact, my views on Venezuela, and especially Cuba, were far stronger than those of John Bolton. He was holding me back!" [Note readering’s mocking tone/context]

It’s so funny how silly and naive people like you are about Cuba’s geopolitical position and significance — as if they are just some harmless state, floating in the Caribbean, minding their own business (with their backward economy and pitiful single-payer healthcare system Michael Moore would never subject himself to).

Cuba sits in a strategically powerful position in the Gulf of Mexico, opposite the mouth of the Mississippi River. Do you have ANY inkling of how much U.S. economic output goes through the Mississippi River? Do you know how much of that trade goes to the rest of the U.S. and the world? Just consider the agricultural output alone...

You have to be an idiot to think that Cuba operating as a bona fide communist dictatorship and Soviet (and Russian, Venezuelan) satellite is not an existential economic threat to the United States, in purely geopolitical terms. Any savant-level moron can recognize this.

Please notice I didn’t touch on Venezuela, the communist OPEC paradise. My apologies... I don’t have enough room here to begin to outline THAT madness.

Wake up.; 9/13/19, 8:47 PM