Oh man, has it really been over ten weeks? There is a combined post this week because I was so annoyed by Brexit that I basically gave up on politics last week.
Obviously the main story this week was Syria. At least 80 people were killed in a so-called chemical attack. Turkish officials have said that tests carried out on victims showed that sarin was used. Sarin is a gas/ nerve agent that basically fucks your shit up FAST. That it was used at all is pretty despicable. Most people believe that Assad’s regime was behind the attack. Some people think that statements made last week about the removal of Assad no longer being a priority maybe spurred the Syrian government on:
The president’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, said on March 30 of Assad: “Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No.”
Anyway, despite the fact that Trump & co are banning Syrian immigrants from the US, the images of dead children seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back. Syrians still aren’t welcome, but y’know what, here are some more bombs courtesy of Trump. Lest we forget that as many people were killed in recent US-backed airstrikes as there were during the chemical attack. It’s very hard to see Trump’s action as anything but posturing and hollow words given the sudden turnaround and blatant hypocrisy.
Not only that, they warned Russia – who most likely warned Syria, and you have to wonder what the point was other than escalating tensions.
Plus, it looks like some top lawyers are certain that Trump’s action was illegal.
The response:
Russia and Iran have warned the US they will “respond with force” if their own “red lines” are crossed in Syria.
Following Friday’s cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base, in retaliation for the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun earlier in the week, the alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a joint statement threatening action in response to “any breach of red lines from whoever it is”.
“What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well,” the group’s joint command centre said.
Sources:
Was Trump’s Syria Strike Illegal? Explaining Presidential War Powers
Trump’s View of Syria: How It Evolved, in 19 Tweets
Tillerson: Russia ‘failed’ to deliver on vow to secure Syria’s chemical weapons
Well, sorta.
President Donald Trump has removed his senior strategist Steve Bannon from the US National Security Council (NSC).
The appointment in January raised fears that the circle of US intelligence chiefs was being politicised.
A White House aide said the reshuffle was not a demotion for Mr Bannon, who used to head up Breitbart News.
The aide said Mr Bannon was only given a seat on the NSC to keep an eye on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February.
Lol, hopefully by the time of posting they’ve offered a better excuse that isn’t ‘HE WAS THE BABYSITTER, MMKAY?’
Apparently, he’s on the cusp of being fired, along with Reince Priebus. What a hot mess!
Donald Trump is considering sacking Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, two of the President’s closest advisers, in a major shake-up of White House staff, according to unconfirmed reports.
A senior aide to Mr Trump was quoted by a US news outlet as saying “things are happening, but it’s very unclear the president’s willing to pull that trigger”. (–The Independent)
“The tension, the exhaustion, the raw nerves have gotten much harder to disguise.”
“The tension, the exhaustion, the raw nerves have gotten much harder to disguise.” — this sounds like something straight out of Scandal.
Update: Looks like Dumdum #1 and Dumdum #2 have kissed and made up.
White House aides Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner have met and agreed to “bury the hatchet” over their differences, a senior administration official said, in a bid to stop infighting that has distracted from Donald Trump’s message.
Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, and Kushner, an influential adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, met on Friday at the request of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus who told them that if they have any policy differences, they should air them internally, the official said.
“YAY!” said no-one. These two are on different ends of the same line of bullshit. They will fall out again.
It’s Not A Popularity Contest…
…but if it was…Trump and his buddy Paul Ryan would be on the losing side.
Michael Flynn; a man who’s clearly done nothing wrong. At all.
Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first National Security Advisor who unceremoniously resigned over allegations he had spoken to the Russian ambassador before taking public office, has offered to testify to officials investigating alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia in exchange for immunity, sources have told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The reports said that Flynn had made the offer to intelligence committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the FBI, but none had so far taken him up.
via IBT
Sean Spicer continues to be a dick
Imma need Trump and Spicy to let April Ryan live and shake her head in peace.
At least two White House officials played a role in surfacing the classified documents that were viewed by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, ABC News has confirmed.
Nunes, R-California, later described that information as potential evidence of improper surveillance by United States spy agencies working under the Obama administration.
On Friday, the intelligence committee’s ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, visited the White House to view what Schiff described as “precisely the same materials” that Nunes viewed. Schiff did not provide details about what was contained in the documents but said he saw no reason the committee shouldn’t have been consulted before Nunes went public.
“Nothing I could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures, and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees,” said Schiff in a statement. “The White House has yet to explain why senior White House staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee, only for their contents to be briefed back to the White House.”
There are no words. At this point, this is just blatant deflection and so stupid.
Jared Kushner is spinning around, move out of his way
Jared Kushner, who comes to Washington with no government experience, no policy experience, no diplomatic experience, and business experience limited to his family’s real estate development firm, a brief stint as a newspaper publisher, and briefly bidding to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers, will be working on trade, Middle East policy in general, an Israel-Palestine peace deal more specifically, reforming the Veterans Administration, and solving the opioid crisis.
Call me a political novice but, if I was rich, successful and whatever else rich and successful people are and completely clueless when it came to politics, why would I want to saddle myself with 500 different political responsibilities? This beyond nepotism, it’s insanity.
Like Jay Z once rapped, you need more people.
Sources:
White House Announces Jared Kushner Is Now Responsible For Everything
‘I worked for Jared Kushner and he is not the right man for his senior White House job’
Complicity
“If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit. I don’t know that the critics who may say that of me, if they found themselves in this very unique and unprecedented situation that I am now in, would do any differently than I’m doing. So I hope to make a positive impact. I don’t know what it means to be complicit, but, you know, I hope time will prove that I have done a good job, and much more importantly, that my father’s administration is the success that I know it will be.”
I think I just felt a strong gust of hot air. Ivanka appears to be full of it.
Source: via US Magazine
Apparently there’s a ‘nuclear option’ that just wipes out the opposition’s opposition?
The ‘nuclear option’ would lower the bar from 60 senators needed to break a filibuster to 51, and Republicans currently control the chamber with a 52-48 margin.
….whatever happened to democracy?
I’ll admit that I didn’t fully understand but it went something like this
- Repubs rejected Obama’s SCJ nominee – straight up refused to consider it
- Trump nominated Gorsuch, the Dems vowed to oppose it
- Some Dems tried to hold a filibuster to protest against Gorsuch’s confirmation
- In response, the Repubs just….changed the rules so that everything would go their way?
- And apparently, the Dems didn’t care anyway?
Democracy is a figment of our imaginations, clearly.
Source:
Pearls of Wisdom from Dr Ben Carson
“We are all in the same boat, and if part of the boat sinks, eventually, the rest of it goes down, too. When the Titanic started going down, you could be in the most luxurious suite, but you are still going down. So, you need to recognize that there is a problem here, and you need to work on it, too.”
Bear in mind that he was talking about inequality in ‘gentrified urban areas‘. Can someone tell him that rich and less well-off people are not on the same boat, hell, they’re barely on the same damn planet.
Be Careful What You Wish For
A Mexican man who spent almost two decades living in the United States was deported back to his home country late Tuesday, separating him from his US-born wife, who voted for President Donald Trump.
Roberto Beristain, 43, had been in custody since he was detained on Feb. 6 during a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. After spending almost two months in detention centers across six states, the Indiana resident was suddenly taken alone to Juarez, Mexico, late Tuesday night, he said in a statement released by his attorneys, who had filed legal petitions requesting his release.
“They suddenly told me it was time to go,” Beristain said. “They told me to get my stuff, they put me in the back of a van, and sped toward the border.
It’s the kids that I feel sorry for.
Source: The Husband Of A Trump Supporter Has Just Been Deported Back To Mexico (Buzzfeed)
Meanwhile….
A Trump supporter who allegedly banned a woman from staying in her rental home because of her race has been removed from Airbnb.
The host allegedly wrote to Suh: “I wouldn’t rent to (you) if (you) were the last person on earth. One word says it all. Asian.”
….Wow. Refusing to rent is one thing. I mean, fuck you if you’re racist, I don’t want to stay in your house anyway. To follow it up with the extra racist shit is a step too far. I love how the racists all have an extra oomph in their step these days! Trump won, so y’know, racism is justified. Brexit is happening, so let’s just treat minorities and refugees like shit. Fuck that.
That’s all for now. I have probably missed tons of important things but hopefully I’ll have a more comprehensive post up next week. Or maybe I’ll finally about Brexit. Maybe. It’s still too depressing.
supernatural snark 