Media meltdown over President Trump. The ravening MSM types in most of the available platforms for propaganda are eagerly awaiting DT's return from overseas so that it can get on with the its basic objective - impeachment. Neither CNN nor MSNBC makes any effort in disguising their essential focus on impeachment. The level of their fascination with this now extends to their network news services own advertising. MSNBC now runs a staged ad in which a woman reporter is portrayed as chasing a congressman down a hallway while badgering him for "answers" to hypotheticals as to what he will do if Trump is "proven" to have obstructed justice. It is now evident (to me) that "obstruction of justice" will be the main thrust of the impeachment drive. Mueller's investigation of Comey's various statements, memos and the like now seems to be intended to elicit evidence of President Trumps supposed obstruction. Since he has a grand jury at his disposal and is conducting a criminal investigation (as opposed to the congressional counter-intelligence investigations) Mueller's investigation could easily result in an indictment of President Trump if that is legally possible with a sitting president. IMO that would trigger a resolution of impeachment in the House of Representative. DNI Dan Coats declined this morning before the US Senate to state whether or not Trump had tried to persuade him to help in shutting down the Russia collusion investigations. This is probably a preview of what others may say to Mueller under oath. This may well be the crack of doom for Trump.
The Mukhtar of America, Donald Trump has signed the US up to be a firm partisan of the Sunnis. This evidently extends to the Saudi led genocidal war being waged by the GCC with its army of mercenaries and US provided air material AND TARGETING. Zaidi Yemenis among the northern mountain tribes as well as in the major cities are being bombed pitilessly by the Royal Saudi Air Force evidently trying to put into practice The Douhet derived concept of bombing populations into surrender. The senior Saudi bird men in charge probably learned this doctrine at the US Air University at Montgomery, Alabama.
While visiting Israel/Palestine Mukhtar Trump once again stated his allegiance not only to the Israeli state but also doubled down on identification of the US as Iran's greatest enemy. Rouhani, in Teheran, has said in the last couple of days, that his government is waiting to see if Trump's Administration "matures." Good luck on that. For the meeting with Muhammad Abbas, the Trump cavalcade proceeded to Bethlehem by road. The distance is five or six miles. According to the Washington Post today "most of Trump's people "were surprised that the Jews and the Arabs lived so near each other. Mukhtar Trump has said that employing his legendary negotiating skills he will easily bring peace to the Palestinians and Israeli Jews. Good luck on that as well! His government is in the hands of people who know as little of the Middle East as he. The old timers, the hated "Arabists" are very nearly all gone from the US government, replaced by people who think that Political Science and International Relations studies are a better field of study than traditional area studies in language, history, philosophy, literature, ethnography, etc. Perhaps the mukhtar should stay on the scene to achieve peace.
I'm sure the invention of "obstruction of justice" by the same people who are cool with Manchester bombings as a way of love is going to go over totally well.
Posted by: Tyler | 23 May 2017 at 11:58 AM
It's become impossible to find news articles that aren't seriously slanted in one direction or the other.
An exception is the CSM, which seems to remain neutral.
The anti Trump side is loading some big guns, they need to be careful, overloaded guns have been known to explode in the users face.
Posted by: John Minnerath | 23 May 2017 at 12:11 PM
SouthFront today report that Iraqi govt. has "officially confirmed a cooperation with Syria, Iran and Russia to secure the Syrian-Iraqi border.". Govt. officials are quoted as saying they will not allow the establishment of a buffer zone on the border.
https://southfront.org/iraqi-government-confirms-cooperation-with-syria-iran-and-russia-to-secure-syrian-iraqi-border-video/
Checkmate?
Posted by: Account Deleted | 23 May 2017 at 12:34 PM
Oddly enough, both the Washington Post and New York Times came out with op-eds over the weekend where they called for a pullback in calls for impeachment talk.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-watergate-democrats.html?_r=0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-focus--finally--on-running-the-country/2017/05/20/8e8a4ae8-3cc0-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.3b9523a9659d
There are those in the Democrats that want the uncertainty over the Trump administration to carry over into the next election. There are still others in the party who have a similar legislative agenda as the Republicans.
It's summarized in this article.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/05/22/pers-m22.html
Posted by: Les | 23 May 2017 at 12:44 PM
Colonel--It seems that Trump just can't give himself a break. ANY good businessman knows better than to give the other side ammunition in a negotiation...you keep your dirty laundry in the closet. He couldn't even say publicly and in private the magic sentence, "I want a full and fair investigation of all charges." You don't have to mean it, for heaven's sake!
This tendency -- to lie boldly where the truth is easily ascertained and the NOT be able to tell a white lie when his personal standing is involved is just weird and so so troubling in the Commander-in-Chief.
That need to always be right and to always be in control is NOT in the national interest of the USA.
That coupled with a weak and overstretched and under-supported team does not bode well.
Posted by: Laura | 23 May 2017 at 12:47 PM
Going back to the Watergate days, it's DOJ legal theory that a sitting president cannot be indicted. The most I could see Mueller doing is naming Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator if there is any factual basis for it.
I assume he could be charged if and when he would leave office.
Posted by: iowa steve | 23 May 2017 at 12:58 PM
Sir
What is the standard for obstruction of justice?
While there is no doubt that CNN, MSNBC, et al are in full throat hysterical mode about impeachment it will be interesting to see if the House will impeach. It will require some number of Republicans to join all the Democrats. There should be enough GOP Borgists for that. And Pence will be perfect for them. The Democrats will get screwed as Pence runs with the evangelical domestic policies. In any case if it comes to that it will be the end of any kind of independent presidency. The Borg will now have the precedent to take down anyone they oppose.
The real question is where the Deplorables will come out on this?
Posted by: Jack | 23 May 2017 at 01:21 PM
All,
I think it was ‘different clue’ who, during the election campaign, compared the current situation to that when a glacier begins to melt. (If it was not, my apologies to him.)
It seemed to me way of describing the extraordinary unpredictability of events, when very entrenched patterns of thinking and feeling come under radical question. So people can appear to be totally ‘in synch’ with these, while under the surface, doubts are building up – so that suddenly, what they say changes radically.
As with the glacier, however, the directions in which the fragments of melted ice float off, where the current takes them, are unpredictable. And which ‘ice floes’ will become powerful, and which shrink away into pitiful nothingness, is very hard to tell.
That said, a few observations.
1. The Manchester attacks have produced a disgusting ‘emoting’ in Britain. Confronted by the IRA bombings, we had a good deal of ‘stiff upper lip’ left. Now, apparently, no longer. Snowflakes all.
2. Over the past few days, Trump has gone to Saudi and reiterated the old ‘meme’ according to which the Iranians are the principal sponsors of terror in the Middle East. At the same time, we have had the election of Rouhani.
When the bombing happened, does anyone seriously think that people here were thinking: Probably Hizbullah – or maybe an Alawite – quite possibly organised by Iranian intelligence?
3. As of writing, the information we have is as follows. From the ‘Telegraph’ report:
‘Everything we know about Salman Abedi
‘Born in Manchester in 1994 the second youngest of four children her parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.
‘His mother, Samia Tabbal, 50, and father, Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years.
‘He grew up in the Whalley Range area, just yards from the local girl's high school, which hit the headlines in 2015 when twins and grade A pupils, Zahra and Salma Halane, who were both aspiring medical students, left their homes and moved to Isil controlled Syria.’
(See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/23/manchester-arena-attack-22-killed-suicide-bomber-ariana-grande/ .)
4. All this is, as it were, out in the open. What is less noticed and discussed are the implications of the recent statement by the former director of the ‘Anti-Defamation League’, Abraham Foxman.
Confronted by the support for ‘BDS’ – ‘Boycott, Disinvestment, and Sanctions’ – by Linda Sarsour, Foxman said:
“She’s a champion of equal rights, except when it comes to Jewish rights. She plays that game, ‘I love Jews, I don’t like Zionists.’ Well, I’ve got news for her. Every Jew who’s a Jew prays to Jerusalem, says ‘If I forget you, Jerusalem.’
3. As a product of a kind of British culture which was decisively shaped by the influence of Jewish refugees from the disasters of continental European history, I find this almost past belief.
Many of them were secular, and did not pray to anyone at all. Others were Christian. In Britain, as in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and also in Britain, ‘Jewish Christianity’ is an extremely significant phenomenon. For example: Two of the greatest Russian Christian poets, Boris Pasternak and Osip Mandelstam, were ethnically Jewish.
But Foxman has spoken. They weren’t really Jews at all.
For him, to be Jewish is to have an overriding loyalty to fellow Jews.
4. So, it appears, Foxman is completely in accord with a traditional anti-Semitic definition of what it means to be a Jew.
Obviously, if the ‘Goyim’ fall in with him, from the point of view of their own interests, the empowerment of Jews has been a complete disaster.
Posted by: David Habakkuk | 23 May 2017 at 01:23 PM
Jack
Trump would not be tried in a court of law. impeachment is a political process in which normal rules of evidence will not apply. the same thing would apply to his trial in the senate. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 23 May 2017 at 01:38 PM
iowa steve
If he is named as an unindicted co-conspirator he will be on his way to the senate. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 23 May 2017 at 01:43 PM
Every religion extant today is in a state of profound crisis; Judaism is not an exception.
Outside of the legalism of 632 rules to conform to in order to be living a fully Judaic life there is this:
Judaism is a religion of Exile.
The Exile has ended.
What now?
That is the question that faces Judaism and has not been answered, to my knowledge.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 23 May 2017 at 02:01 PM
Didn't trump just help isis by bombing Syria?
Posted by: Robert C | 23 May 2017 at 02:02 PM
Col. Lang:
I think a political crisis created in the United States by Trump's enemies through the abuse of such constitutional mechanism as impeachment is less consequential for the United States than being identified explicitly as the enemy of the Party of Ali.
Being enemy of Ali is akin to being enemy of Jesus; it carries massively negative religious import.
Presidents may come and go, but religious passions will not - in my opinion.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 23 May 2017 at 02:04 PM
Hopefully, Mueller has the courage to base his investigation on the facts and law, and not the hysteria.
Deplorables? My small county in northern Iowa had voted for dems in every presidential election beginning with Mondale in 1984--except for 2016 when it went for Trump fairly decisively. I don't think many support impeachment ("just politics"), but I also don't find much support for Trump's policies thus far, particularly healthcare. People here seem to be interested in policies that lead to concrete economic benefit and improvement, whether offered by repubs or dems. This place used to look like Mayberry--it now resembles Appalachia.
Posted by: iowa steve | 23 May 2017 at 02:20 PM
This post seems out of line in this forum. Unless you can cite prominent players who hold these two opinions simultaneously, this is just an ad hominem interpretation of your opponents views. Who of any importance is "cool with Manchester bombings"/
Posted by: Fredw | 23 May 2017 at 02:22 PM
Barbara Ann: How long after Mosul is secured before the Iraqis ask us to leave again?
Posted by: Matthew | 23 May 2017 at 02:40 PM
Thanks for that last line of tribute to liberal arts mastery! On the one hand, it makes me feel old world, if not merely old! On the other hand, at fifty-four, perhaps that could be considered late middle age, with a few years left to pass some old schooling on to younger generations, even if outside of government.
In any case, these lawyers, polisci, and public policy grads are way out of their league in cyber IQ, even their plutocrat money fealties cannot save them.
Posted by: trinlae | 23 May 2017 at 02:45 PM
I take it you are "cool" with the destruction of Libya, Tyler?
Posted by: kgw | 23 May 2017 at 03:06 PM
Perhaps you are aware, Babak, that the actual state of exile is alienation from one's own being. The language of Zionism is not the language of Judaism, no matter what the Zionists say...Practitioners of actual Judaism are well-aware that only God will end the Exile, not a political being fighting over dirt.
Posted by: kgw | 23 May 2017 at 03:13 PM
Sir
If GOP senators make a political decision to convict a nominally Republican president on the basis of politically motivated charges, I believe the political repercussions would be severe. I think the 2016 GOP primary is an indicator of the sentiment of their primary voters. Unlike the Democrat primary voters, the GOP primary voters seem more inclined to oppose Borgist candidates even if the GOP candidate is likely to lose the general election.
If Trump believes he's being railroaded would he go down calmly or will he fight back hard? Would he be willing to attempt to blow up the system? Would he call his supporters to the streets? Would they show up and possibly create mayhem?
IMO, if Trump wants to head this off at the pass, he should declassify all the Russia related information as well as conversations with Comey and bring the voters into this IO battle.
Posted by: Jack | 23 May 2017 at 03:37 PM
Not many but many are cool with terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Going back a few weeks I'm reminded of the horrific attack aimed at children being evacuated to Aleppo from al-Fu'ah and Kafriya. Compared to Manchester that vicious attack was barely mentioned and is probably already forgotten by many.
The Guardian, originally a Manchester paper, seems to be cool with many of the murderous attacks by the jihadists even acknowledging Ahrar al-Sham as the source of much of its reporting on what's alleged to be happening in Syria.
Posted by: Ghostship | 23 May 2017 at 03:38 PM
Don't you ever even try to think about the shit you say? jesus
Posted by: raven | 23 May 2017 at 04:02 PM
Trump never really cared for your part of the country or Appalachia, which also voted for him. You were used. To be fair Clinton would probably not have done a lot, but she would not have gotten rid of Medicaid, food stamps, lunches for children, etc. etc. You were lied to, and Trump, his family and those with money, lots of it will benefit
Posted by: Nancy K | 23 May 2017 at 04:09 PM
nancy K
I know nothing of rural north Iowa but have a great deal of experience in what you and some of your fellow snobs call "Appalachia." You wouldn't know Appalachia if you fell over it. Hell, you are afraid to go outside the Research Triangle There is no basis for you to look down on people who voted for Trump. You are a doctrinaire leftist living in exile from the California of your dreams. There is also no basis for you to accuse Trump and his family of wishing to steal from the government, nothing but your hate. I will no longer post your comments. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 23 May 2017 at 04:21 PM
jack
"if Trump wants to head this off at the pass, he should declassify all the Russia related information as well as conversations with Comey and bring the voters into this IO battle" if you recall I suggested this. If e s expelled from office this will have a profoundly de-stabilizing effect on the US. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 23 May 2017 at 04:27 PM