Kristol is right. For the most part, the Trump presidency has been ridiculous and hilarious, but this is truly embarrassing.
An American president abroad, whining petulantly and ignorantly, and so diminishing his office and our country, is a spectacle I never expected to see.
It may be that Donald Trump's greatest triumph is to have convinced millions and millions of people that international institutions built by America, to advance American interests, are bad for America. A tragic achievement.
NATO is a joke. They are useless as allies. They can’t even take care of themselves, let alone aid a supposed ally. The only country besides the US with a half decent fighting force are the surrender monkeys in France.
NATO is useful for them, because we foot the majority of the bill. Most aren’t even paying the minimum amount required to remain NATO members. End that, or end the joke that is NATO. Maybe they should be less accommodating to the muslim hordes and more worried about safety.
“LAUGHING STOCK Germany’s soldiers forced to use BROOMSTICK for a gun as Donald Trump blasts Angela Merkel over NATO spending”
———————-
“GERMANY’S military is so underfunded its troops used BROOMSTICKS painted black as mock weapons during a Nato defence exercise.
But the highly embarrassing episode, revealed in a leaked report, is just the beginning of the country’s woes as it fights to reverse chronic army shortages.
It comes as Donald Trump has vowed to make Chancellor Angela Merkel increase her defence spending to reach the minimum spending obligations all Nato members must adhere to.
General Harald Kujat, a former chief of staff of the German armed forces, later described it as a “huge embarrassment”.
The unit was supposed to be ready to deploy whenever a Nato member was threatened, he warned.
He added: “If that is not the case, then both for Nato, and for the Federal Republic of Germany, this is a huge embarrassment,” The Telegraph reported.”
Poor Ricky and his globalist buddies are gonna hate this. And so will China, the one ultimately responsible. It’s China stealing intellectual property and technology, which led to this. That’s what Ricky is defending when he advocates for continuing the status quo.
China is the bad actor here, not Trump. So buy American instead. 🙂
“The Trump administration escalated a mounting trade war with China on Tuesday by publishing a list of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods that it proposes to hit with an additional 10 percent tariff.
“Rather than address our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against U.S. products,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “There is no justification for such action.”
The new tariff list broadens the types of goods caught up in the trade war by targeting items like seafood, minerals, chemicals, and personal care items, such as shampoo and soap. It also includes a number of consumer products such as handbags, luggage, gloves and paper.
The new U.S. move came after China retaliated in kind against tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed last week. Other Chinese-made goods slated to face the new 10 percent tariff. The list include building supplies, such as plywood and floor panels; certain wool products, cotton yarns and threads; woven cotton fabrics; and certain automobile parts, including tires.
Administration officials said they hoped the latest action would persuade China to take U.S. concerns about intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers more seriously. That is the issue that provoked Trump to start the tit-for-tat trade war with Beijing last week.”
“Donald Trump and Angela Merkel got off to a prickly start at a NATO summit as the U.S. president blasted Germany over its support for a gas pipeline from Russia, prompting a tart response from the chancellor.
“It’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where we’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” Trump said before meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday morning.
Trump pressed on: “If you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia, because they supply — they got rid of their coal plants, got rid of their nuclear, they’re getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia. I think it’s something NATO has to look at.”
The broadside came at the opening of a two-day summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders that risks being overshadowed by Trump’s public questioning of the value of the generations-old alliance. The president, who is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland next week, has linked U.S. spending for Europe’s defense with America’s trade deficit with the world’s largest trading bloc.
Merkel and Trump will talk on the sidelines of NATO at 3:15 p.m. local time and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she expected Trump to make his case about “Germany being beholden to Russia because of its dependence on Russia for natural gas.”
For the price of Trump, Putin got the whole Cult thrown in as a bonus. The Russians have to be howling with laughter every morning as they read the news.
And once again, Obama contributed greatly to the US’s opioid epidemic. We already know how he prevented an operation to shut down Hezbollah running drugs from South America, now we know it happened in Afghanistan too.
“Operation Reciprocity against the Taliban met the same fate as Project Cassandra against Hezbollah, according to new report by Josh Meyer of Politico Magazine”
“In December 2017, investigative reporter Josh Meyer broke a story in Politico Magazine which exposed how the Obama administration allowed Hezbollah to run drugs, including into the U.S., for fear that a crackdown would upset Iran during the nuke deal negotiations.
We covered that report in Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal:
In 2014, cocaine was second only behind heroin in U.S. drug deaths.
A major player in the cocaine traffic into the U.S. was the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hezbollah. For year it has been known that Hezbollah has infiltrated criminal gangs in South America and set up its own billion-dollar international criminal enterprise to finance its terror activities. None of this was a secret.
U.S. law enforcement came up with an aggressive plan to take down the Hezbollah international network and its key individuals. But it never happened. We now know why.
Politico Magazine has an amazing expose on how the Obama White House derailed the plans to take down the Hezbollah network, and to allow Hezbollah to continue drug-running into the U.S., in order to avoid upsetting the Iran nuclear deal.
The Politico article is so long, so detailed, and so powerful, it’s impossible for me to give a brief summary, so read the whole thing, The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hoo. The subheadline tells the story:”
———————-
Now Meyer has another report at Politico Magazine, this time focusing on the parallels between the shut down of Operation Cassandra against Hezbollah and Operation Reciprocity against the Taliban drug running operation that financed the Taliban war effort.
As before, the new Meyer report is so long and detailed, you need to read the whole thing. Here are some pertinent excerpts, The secret story of how America lost the drug war with the Taliban:”
Hey we aren’t the ones bankrolling Russia. That would be Merkel and you globalist shills. But by all means, continue with kickin’ that dead horse. It’s working so well for you.
It might foster better communication if we drop the labels – “Trumpkins”, “globalists”, etc. Once we put a label on a person, it is too easy to assume much of what they say falls into that label category, and then to dismiss whatever is said out of hand.
Woohoo for Europe and the rest of the world that’s way smarter that Donald Trump! It’s your turn to shine, rest of world, with your growing hatred of God, secularism, and liberalization of pro-sodomite laws and legal abortions! Until now–with the advent of Donald Trump–America was a beacon of righteousness, lending gravitas to world events, keeping God’s derision in check with…good trade policy, I guess? That’s in the Bible somewhere, right? Trade policy? It wins favor with God? Probably somewhere in the back.
I would argue that the church is much healthier in the rest of the world than it is in the US where it is afflicted with a. liberalism that denies basic Christian doctrines, b. the health and wealth heresy and c. a major segment of the “church” which is practicing a strange form of syncretism with The Trump Cult.
I would further argue that this may be the reason the US has been afflicted with Trump – in order to rapidly reduce US influence in the rest of the world.
Kizzie @11:12 What terminology would you prefer instead of “globalist”? “Free trader or Free Marketeer” doesn’t cut it, as some of us know that trade with a communist country (or any country with dissimilar regulations and freedoms), while desirable in some instances, is NEVER free. I don’t mind being called a Trumpkin although the “cult, moron, uneducated” appellation is wearing thin since it is grossly inaccurate and obviously not meant as a descriptor at all and is an undisguised ad hominem attack. But I have thick skin in such matters, so whatever you guys decide works for me. As long as accuracy is not lost. :–)
Ricky @11:27 That’s entirely possible. But the health and wealth heresy absolutely blossomed and came into its own after Reagan, and has walked arm with the GOP and Milton Friedman’s trade policies until recently.
Americans can afford to scoff at the benefits free trade has provided to hundreds of millions who formerly lived in extreme poverty around the world. Theologians would call this “common grace”.
the church is much healthier in the rest of the world
You’ve heralded this as the century of China and Germany and etc. Are you referring to those countries as a whole, or the church in those countries? Much of Europe was ahead of the U.S. in legalizing gay marriage, and has long had more liberal laws on a range of moral issues. How do you measure the health–of those countries or of the church–as compared to the U.S.?
The U.S. is afflicted with Trump, and was recently afflicted with a President who wanted to allow murder of partially born babies. The world loved that latter guy. Weird.
Debra, The health and wealthers are primarily Trumpkins. They are as economically illiterate as they are theologically illiterate. Check out Trump’s Religious Advisory Board.
Are there many deniers of the Virgin Birth in the African church? Are there many health and wealthers in the Chinese Church? Does The Trump Cult hold sway over pastors in Central and South America?
Nord Stream 2 strikes at heart of NATO unity. The pipeline gets cheap Russian gas to Germany while bypassing smaller Eastern European nations, allowing Russia to pressure them while Germany is held harmless. No amount of preening in Berlin will cover this nakedly selfish policy.
If poverty had declined in South America to the extent claimed, we would not have the border crisis we are experiencing. There has always been immigration, but it certainly seems to have accelerated after all those folks were ‘lifted out of poverty’.
It’s worth considering that vast populations who once subsisted on their small family farms in South America, were displaced by large companies after NAFTA. Being driven into the cities, they found jobs and were for the first time, really counted in the GDP’s of their nations and thus statistically ‘lifted out of poverty’. Of course, many of the factories eventually moved, seeking cheaper labor in Thailand or India or China. This left many formerly self-sufficient farming families destitute enough to travel northward. ( I heard one former border guard on the news describe having seen 12 year old girl traveling with birth control and the morning after pill, because “rape is a part of the journey”. How desperate would you have to be to make that journey under those conditions. )
I’ll bet the statistics don’t tell us how many people were displaced and thrown into this kind of helllish poverty, and how many small nations have been disrupted for the sake of big business growth and aggregated wealth creation.
Poland, Estonia, UK, Greece, and the US are the only countries doing so.The other 24 expect others to pay their bill. Those days are over. Deal with it.
————————
““We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France,” Trump told NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at a heated breakfast meeting. “We’re protecting all these countries…And then these countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia. So we’re supposed to protect you against Russia, but you’re paying billions of dollars to Russia. I think that’s very inappropriate.”
I don’t remember the uproar when President Obama said this, do any of you?
“Mr Obama warned that states are failing to pay their “full share” of spending two per cent of GDP on the military. “I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defence,” he said.”
Debra @ 12:02 As has been noted here before, there has been a net outflow of illegal immigrants from the US back to their home countries over the last decade. That is exactly what we would expect as free trade raises living standards around the world.
I don’t think so Ricky. Perhaps some have made their money here and have gone back home to invest where the cost is relatively low. But we have seen people pouring out of SA, and especially Central America , in desperation. We have helped wreck their relatively safe lives and simple economies, and now they are desperate.
Listening to some right wing voices cheer on Trump’s effort to cripple the Atlantic alliance – something they’d have excoriated a liberal for doing – underscores the cult-like effect Trump has on them. Whatever he does warrants support simply and only because he does it.
Debra – I was referring to when those labels are used in a derogatory way, to put someone into a category and then dismiss what they have to say. It’s the same when liberals dismiss conservatives strictly for being conservatives, and vice versa. Sometimes even a globalist or a Trumpkin or a “libtard” (I really hate that one) may have a point or two within their views.
As for the matter of poverty, I have seen article after article about how the spread of more capitalist policies has lifted millions out of extreme poverty, particularly in India and many African nations. It seems that those who are coming up from South America are fleeing violence more than poverty.
Here is an article from World about the situation in Honduras:
Ricky – A friend on Facebook posted opposing videos from Fox news. One showed the outrage from when Obama considered meeting with Kim, and the other showed the kudos Trump received for doing so.
Sometimes it is a matter of seeing the positive in something when someone we like is doing it, but refusing to see it when someone we dislike is doing the same thing. Human nature.
Re labels. There have been times when I have been dismissed by liberals for expressing a conservative view. And I have even been labeled a libtard by a couple conservatives for expressing a view considered more liberal (although I didn’t see it that way), and accused of being too politically correct for defending a group of Muslims in a video (who were falsely accused of doing something they didn’t do).
Earlier I said I hate the word “libtard”, but it’s not because I was called that. In fact, I found it quite amusing to be called a libtard. 🙂
“NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that he agrees with President Trump on spending issues and thinks Trump’s leadership was responsible for making other NATO countries pay more.
Trump took to opportunity to blast the media for not reporting it.
During a joint appearance, Stoltenberg said, “First of all, it’s great to see you again, Mr. President. And good to have you here for a summit. And we are going to discuss many important issues at the summit. Among them is defense spending. And we all agree that we have to do more. I agree with you that we have to do make sure that our allies are investing more. The good news is that allies have started to invest more in defense.”
He continued, “After years of cutting defense budgets, they have started to add billions to their defense budgets. And last year was the biggest increase in defense spending across Europe and Canada in that generation.”
Trump then asked why the spending increase happened last year.
“Why was that last year?” Trump asked.
“It’s also because of your leadership, because of your carried message…” Stoltenberg responded.
Trump then pointed to the press and poked at the media for not reporting on his successes.
“They won’t write that, but that’s okay,” Trump said.”
“At a breakfast this morning with NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg in Brussels, Donald Trump said that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” which makes for some great viral tweets.”
———-
“But, surprise! That’s not entirely what he said.”
Poverty and violence seem to go hand in hand. The poor are not necessarily more violent, but they are easier prey to it. The wealthy can afford extra protection, and the middle-class generally have the police. The extreme violence south of the border is not evidence of people lifted out of poverty. It’s evidence of broken political and social systems .
“The world is ending, Armageddon is nigh, and it’s all because Judge Kavanaugh was nominated to take Justice Kennedy’s place on the Supreme Court.
Progressives are actively exploiting civics ignorance to raise money oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination.
In almost every instance where abortion and Roe v. Wade are mentioned, it’s supposed that Kavanaugh HIMSELF will overturn Roe and all the poor women will die in back-alley abortions.
See Governor Cuomo:
That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. Sue who? What for? Where?
.@NYGovCuomo says #NYS will sue "if the Supreme Court acts to roll back Roe v. Wade."
1) Spoiler: 7 MEN ruled in favor of Roe (2 dissented), but keep up the ignorant fear mongering.
2) Worse still, NARAL is actively frat-shaming, perpetuating the baseless stereotype used by campus kangaroo courts that “frat boys” inherently disrespect women.
3) Making fun of someone’s name is a super good argument*
*If you’re five-years-old”
——————-
“If you know how the court system works, you know that just about everything progressives are saying about Kavanaugh is untrue.”
It is always fun to watch the adults in the room during a Trumper Tantrum. Pompeo managed to keep a poker face. Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison looked like a captive in a hostage video. Poor General Kelly always looks the most uncomfortable. Whatever we are paying him, it isn’t enough.
"Germany is totally controlled by Russia," Pres. Trump tells NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg as they sit down together for bilateral breakfast ahead of Brussels summit. https://t.co/CmyplgrxzNpic.twitter.com/6RnFk8Drgs
I see Ricky accidentally outed ABC for the same type of misleading headline as the DB. Shows their agenda and bias again.
And yes, it’s intentionally misleading because the link they include leaves out the quote completely. They give their readers no opportunity to see the true and complete quote..
Since context still matters to those who seek the truth, the actual quote is…
” “Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they are getting 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline”:”
AJ, Thanks for calling attention to the Manchurian Moron’s latest lie. Germany doesn’t get 60-70% of its energy from Russia. Natural gas only meets about 20% of Germany’s energy needs. Russia provides about 9% of Germany’s energy.
This is too good. The White House claimed John Kelly looked uncomfortable during the Trumper Tantrum because of the breakfast selection, not because of Trump’s outburst.
One of the best days! It began with a televised tantrum seen around the world and ended with an illiterate Tweet that produced responses from half the country.
Yeah, making such a big deal out of a typo is pretty silly and petty.
*****
Debra – (I’m assuming you were the anonymous at 4:34.) Yes, there is still a great deal of poverty in the world, but the rate of extreme poverty has gone down considerably over the last couple decades in areas where governments have loosened their controls. (Note: That doesn’t mean that governments don’t – or shouldn’t – have any controls, just that too much government control can keep its people in deep poverty.)
Europeans to US diplomats: How can we believe you when you tell us to pay no attention to your ridiculous President? How do we know he will soon be gone? How do we know he isn’t a sign that most Americans have also become idiots? US diplomats: Read his Tweets and the responses to his Tweets. Americans may have lost a few IQ points, but they aren’t going to elect that guy again!
Kizzie, yes that was me, and I do agree that some of the deepest poverty has been alleviated. But that’s not the whole story, and I am loath to give Milton Friedman the credit. Millions have also been dislocated and thrown into poverty. Governments can make things better or worse. :–)
Debra
Debra, You need to join the Twitter debate on the subject. The cultists are still arguing that Trump was accidentally right again.
When he is gone, it is going to be boring. The liberals will give us somebody that will irritate and enrage us, but never make us laugh. Trump does enrage me, but he makes me laugh several times a day. Obama and Carter never made me laugh except for that one time when Carter was attacked by the killer rabbit. I may have to learn to watch baseball on TV again.
“To make matters worse, The Daily Beast has a fact check up that says Trump used the wrong statistics, but they’re wrong:
Screenshot from the article where The Daily Beast, quoting the BBC, says “the latest official figure was actually 50.75%:”
————————
“And now via the BBC, which The Daily Beast doesn’t link to so we had to search for it. The official estimate of Russian gas imports is 50% to 75% and it looks like The Daily Beast quoted the earlier version with a typo:”
Trump said that Russia provided 60 to 70% of Germany’s energy. That was a direct quote from Trump posted by The Cult @ 6:30. That is clearly false and not close to being correct. As noted @ 6:49, natural gas only provides about 20% of Germany’s energy. The post at 10:21 deals with what percentage of that 20% (that is natural gas) actually comes from Russia.
The Cult is confused. I actually suspect that on this issue Trump may have also been confused rather than intentionally lying. We know he really doesn’t pay attention during those briefings.
Nevertheless as noted above by The Cult, the wildly false statement on energy formed the basis for Trump’s claim that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia”.
At this point all educated Americans know never to believe anything Trump says. The Europeans will catch on pretty quickly.
Wandering Views 
Economic illiteracy is a disease that can spread.
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And spread:
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Meanwhile the Manchurian Moron is in Europe and the Baltic countries are worried.
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Kristol is right. For the most part, the Trump presidency has been ridiculous and hilarious, but this is truly embarrassing.
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NATO is a joke. They are useless as allies. They can’t even take care of themselves, let alone aid a supposed ally. The only country besides the US with a half decent fighting force are the surrender monkeys in France.
NATO is useful for them, because we foot the majority of the bill. Most aren’t even paying the minimum amount required to remain NATO members. End that, or end the joke that is NATO. Maybe they should be less accommodating to the muslim hordes and more worried about safety.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6743568/germany-soldiers-broomsticks-nato-donald-trump-angela-merkel-defence-spending/
“LAUGHING STOCK Germany’s soldiers forced to use BROOMSTICK for a gun as Donald Trump blasts Angela Merkel over NATO spending”
———————-
“GERMANY’S military is so underfunded its troops used BROOMSTICKS painted black as mock weapons during a Nato defence exercise.
But the highly embarrassing episode, revealed in a leaked report, is just the beginning of the country’s woes as it fights to reverse chronic army shortages.
It comes as Donald Trump has vowed to make Chancellor Angela Merkel increase her defence spending to reach the minimum spending obligations all Nato members must adhere to.
General Harald Kujat, a former chief of staff of the German armed forces, later described it as a “huge embarrassment”.
The unit was supposed to be ready to deploy whenever a Nato member was threatened, he warned.
He added: “If that is not the case, then both for Nato, and for the Federal Republic of Germany, this is a huge embarrassment,” The Telegraph reported.”
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Poor Ricky and his globalist buddies are gonna hate this. And so will China, the one ultimately responsible. It’s China stealing intellectual property and technology, which led to this. That’s what Ricky is defending when he advocates for continuing the status quo.
China is the bad actor here, not Trump. So buy American instead. 🙂
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/10/trump-china-trade-tariffs-708707
“The Trump administration escalated a mounting trade war with China on Tuesday by publishing a list of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods that it proposes to hit with an additional 10 percent tariff.
“Rather than address our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against U.S. products,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “There is no justification for such action.”
The new tariff list broadens the types of goods caught up in the trade war by targeting items like seafood, minerals, chemicals, and personal care items, such as shampoo and soap. It also includes a number of consumer products such as handbags, luggage, gloves and paper.
The new U.S. move came after China retaliated in kind against tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed last week. Other Chinese-made goods slated to face the new 10 percent tariff. The list include building supplies, such as plywood and floor panels; certain wool products, cotton yarns and threads; woven cotton fabrics; and certain automobile parts, including tires.
Administration officials said they hoped the latest action would persuade China to take U.S. concerns about intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers more seriously. That is the issue that provoked Trump to start the tit-for-tat trade war with Beijing last week.”
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And when your supposed ally is bankrolling your supposed opposition, you have a problem. Merkel and the EU is that problem.
https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/2018/07/11/trump-brings-grievances-to-nato-summit-worrying-u-s-allies
“Donald Trump and Angela Merkel got off to a prickly start at a NATO summit as the U.S. president blasted Germany over its support for a gas pipeline from Russia, prompting a tart response from the chancellor.
“It’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where we’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” Trump said before meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday morning.
Trump pressed on: “If you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia, because they supply — they got rid of their coal plants, got rid of their nuclear, they’re getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia. I think it’s something NATO has to look at.”
The broadside came at the opening of a two-day summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders that risks being overshadowed by Trump’s public questioning of the value of the generations-old alliance. The president, who is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland next week, has linked U.S. spending for Europe’s defense with America’s trade deficit with the world’s largest trading bloc.
Merkel and Trump will talk on the sidelines of NATO at 3:15 p.m. local time and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she expected Trump to make his case about “Germany being beholden to Russia because of its dependence on Russia for natural gas.”
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For the price of Trump, Putin got the whole Cult thrown in as a bonus. The Russians have to be howling with laughter every morning as they read the news.
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And once again, Obama contributed greatly to the US’s opioid epidemic. We already know how he prevented an operation to shut down Hezbollah running drugs from South America, now we know it happened in Afghanistan too.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/07/how-obama-admin-subverted-plan-to-take-down-taliban-drug-running-just-like-it-shut-down-operation-against-hezbollah/
“Operation Reciprocity against the Taliban met the same fate as Project Cassandra against Hezbollah, according to new report by Josh Meyer of Politico Magazine”
“In December 2017, investigative reporter Josh Meyer broke a story in Politico Magazine which exposed how the Obama administration allowed Hezbollah to run drugs, including into the U.S., for fear that a crackdown would upset Iran during the nuke deal negotiations.
We covered that report in Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal:
In 2014, cocaine was second only behind heroin in U.S. drug deaths.
A major player in the cocaine traffic into the U.S. was the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hezbollah. For year it has been known that Hezbollah has infiltrated criminal gangs in South America and set up its own billion-dollar international criminal enterprise to finance its terror activities. None of this was a secret.
U.S. law enforcement came up with an aggressive plan to take down the Hezbollah international network and its key individuals. But it never happened. We now know why.
Politico Magazine has an amazing expose on how the Obama White House derailed the plans to take down the Hezbollah network, and to allow Hezbollah to continue drug-running into the U.S., in order to avoid upsetting the Iran nuclear deal.
The Politico article is so long, so detailed, and so powerful, it’s impossible for me to give a brief summary, so read the whole thing, The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hoo. The subheadline tells the story:”
———————-
Now Meyer has another report at Politico Magazine, this time focusing on the parallels between the shut down of Operation Cassandra against Hezbollah and Operation Reciprocity against the Taliban drug running operation that financed the Taliban war effort.
As before, the new Meyer report is so long and detailed, you need to read the whole thing. Here are some pertinent excerpts, The secret story of how America lost the drug war with the Taliban:”
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Here are the Politico pieces.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/
————————–
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/08/obama-afghanistan-drug-war-taliban-616316
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Hey we aren’t the ones bankrolling Russia. That would be Merkel and you globalist shills. But by all means, continue with kickin’ that dead horse. It’s working so well for you.
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Trumpkin dictionary:
Globalist = A person who has read an economics textbook or a book detailing the history of postwar Europe.
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It might foster better communication if we drop the labels – “Trumpkins”, “globalists”, etc. Once we put a label on a person, it is too easy to assume much of what they say falls into that label category, and then to dismiss whatever is said out of hand.
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Woohoo for Europe and the rest of the world that’s way smarter that Donald Trump! It’s your turn to shine, rest of world, with your growing hatred of God, secularism, and liberalization of pro-sodomite laws and legal abortions! Until now–with the advent of Donald Trump–America was a beacon of righteousness, lending gravitas to world events, keeping God’s derision in check with…good trade policy, I guess? That’s in the Bible somewhere, right? Trade policy? It wins favor with God? Probably somewhere in the back.
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I would argue that the church is much healthier in the rest of the world than it is in the US where it is afflicted with a. liberalism that denies basic Christian doctrines, b. the health and wealth heresy and c. a major segment of the “church” which is practicing a strange form of syncretism with The Trump Cult.
I would further argue that this may be the reason the US has been afflicted with Trump – in order to rapidly reduce US influence in the rest of the world.
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Kizzie @11:12 What terminology would you prefer instead of “globalist”? “Free trader or Free Marketeer” doesn’t cut it, as some of us know that trade with a communist country (or any country with dissimilar regulations and freedoms), while desirable in some instances, is NEVER free. I don’t mind being called a Trumpkin although the “cult, moron, uneducated” appellation is wearing thin since it is grossly inaccurate and obviously not meant as a descriptor at all and is an undisguised ad hominem attack. But I have thick skin in such matters, so whatever you guys decide works for me. As long as accuracy is not lost. :–)
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Ricky @11:27 That’s entirely possible. But the health and wealth heresy absolutely blossomed and came into its own after Reagan, and has walked arm with the GOP and Milton Friedman’s trade policies until recently.
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*arm in arm
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Americans can afford to scoff at the benefits free trade has provided to hundreds of millions who formerly lived in extreme poverty around the world. Theologians would call this “common grace”.
View at Medium.com
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the church is much healthier in the rest of the world
You’ve heralded this as the century of China and Germany and etc. Are you referring to those countries as a whole, or the church in those countries? Much of Europe was ahead of the U.S. in legalizing gay marriage, and has long had more liberal laws on a range of moral issues. How do you measure the health–of those countries or of the church–as compared to the U.S.?
The U.S. is afflicted with Trump, and was recently afflicted with a President who wanted to allow murder of partially born babies. The world loved that latter guy. Weird.
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Debra, The health and wealthers are primarily Trumpkins. They are as economically illiterate as they are theologically illiterate. Check out Trump’s Religious Advisory Board.
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Who’s scoffing at the benefits of free trade? Is this meant to be a grown-up argument?
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Are there many deniers of the Virgin Birth in the African church? Are there many health and wealthers in the Chinese Church? Does The Trump Cult hold sway over pastors in Central and South America?
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Is that an answer to a question posed in here?
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So a question is posed: How do you measure the health of the church outside the U.S.?
This is the answer: Are there many African churches that deny the Virgin Birth?
Hmmm. Not all that persuasive.
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If poverty had declined in South America to the extent claimed, we would not have the border crisis we are experiencing. There has always been immigration, but it certainly seems to have accelerated after all those folks were ‘lifted out of poverty’.
It’s worth considering that vast populations who once subsisted on their small family farms in South America, were displaced by large companies after NAFTA. Being driven into the cities, they found jobs and were for the first time, really counted in the GDP’s of their nations and thus statistically ‘lifted out of poverty’. Of course, many of the factories eventually moved, seeking cheaper labor in Thailand or India or China. This left many formerly self-sufficient farming families destitute enough to travel northward. ( I heard one former border guard on the news describe having seen 12 year old girl traveling with birth control and the morning after pill, because “rape is a part of the journey”. How desperate would you have to be to make that journey under those conditions. )
I’ll bet the statistics don’t tell us how many people were displaced and thrown into this kind of helllish poverty, and how many small nations have been disrupted for the sake of big business growth and aggregated wealth creation.
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Now as to who it is not living up to their obligations, you’ll find a nice chart with the breakdown here.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2018/07/11/trump-lays-down-law-says-pay-up-now-at-testy-nato-breakfast-germany-is-totally-controlled-by-russia-653112
Poland, Estonia, UK, Greece, and the US are the only countries doing so.The other 24 expect others to pay their bill. Those days are over. Deal with it.
————————
““We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France,” Trump told NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at a heated breakfast meeting. “We’re protecting all these countries…And then these countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia. So we’re supposed to protect you against Russia, but you’re paying billions of dollars to Russia. I think that’s very inappropriate.”
—————————–
Tell me where he’s wrong?
(That’s rhetorical, because he’s not.)
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I don’t remember the uproar when President Obama said this, do any of you?
“Mr Obama warned that states are failing to pay their “full share” of spending two per cent of GDP on the military. “I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defence,” he said.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/obama-tells-complacent-europe-to-hike-military-spending/
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Debra @ 12:02 As has been noted here before, there has been a net outflow of illegal immigrants from the US back to their home countries over the last decade. That is exactly what we would expect as free trade raises living standards around the world.
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The poor Germans are logical. They have difficulty understanding American idiocy.
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Jonah Goldberg on The Trump Doctrine. The last paragraph is chilling.
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Ricky, they may be logical, but they don’t play soccer as well as they used to.
On all fronts, the times they are a changin’…
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I don’t think so Ricky. Perhaps some have made their money here and have gone back home to invest where the cost is relatively low. But we have seen people pouring out of SA, and especially Central America , in desperation. We have helped wreck their relatively safe lives and simple economies, and now they are desperate.
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Anon=Debra
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Yes, Peter. Some of us noticed that a while back.
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Debra – I was referring to when those labels are used in a derogatory way, to put someone into a category and then dismiss what they have to say. It’s the same when liberals dismiss conservatives strictly for being conservatives, and vice versa. Sometimes even a globalist or a Trumpkin or a “libtard” (I really hate that one) may have a point or two within their views.
As for the matter of poverty, I have seen article after article about how the spread of more capitalist policies has lifted millions out of extreme poverty, particularly in India and many African nations. It seems that those who are coming up from South America are fleeing violence more than poverty.
Here is an article from World about the situation in Honduras:
https://world.wng.org/2018/07/bloody_honduras#.Wz_IBIVAsNI.facebook
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Ricky – A friend on Facebook posted opposing videos from Fox news. One showed the outrage from when Obama considered meeting with Kim, and the other showed the kudos Trump received for doing so.
Sometimes it is a matter of seeing the positive in something when someone we like is doing it, but refusing to see it when someone we dislike is doing the same thing. Human nature.
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Re labels. There have been times when I have been dismissed by liberals for expressing a conservative view. And I have even been labeled a libtard by a couple conservatives for expressing a view considered more liberal (although I didn’t see it that way), and accused of being too politically correct for defending a group of Muslims in a video (who were falsely accused of doing something they didn’t do).
Earlier I said I hate the word “libtard”, but it’s not because I was called that. In fact, I found it quite amusing to be called a libtard. 🙂
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Go England!
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Poor Ricky, Kristol, and the NYT. The NATO Sec. just killed their narrative, and praised Trump’s leadership.
Need a new meme guys. This one’s busted. 🙂
http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/11/nato-secretary-trump-media/
“NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that he agrees with President Trump on spending issues and thinks Trump’s leadership was responsible for making other NATO countries pay more.
Trump took to opportunity to blast the media for not reporting it.
During a joint appearance, Stoltenberg said, “First of all, it’s great to see you again, Mr. President. And good to have you here for a summit. And we are going to discuss many important issues at the summit. Among them is defense spending. And we all agree that we have to do more. I agree with you that we have to do make sure that our allies are investing more. The good news is that allies have started to invest more in defense.”
He continued, “After years of cutting defense budgets, they have started to add billions to their defense budgets. And last year was the biggest increase in defense spending across Europe and Canada in that generation.”
Trump then asked why the spending increase happened last year.
“Why was that last year?” Trump asked.
“It’s also because of your leadership, because of your carried message…” Stoltenberg responded.
Trump then pointed to the press and poked at the media for not reporting on his successes.
“They won’t write that, but that’s okay,” Trump said.”
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And of course, more fake news on the topic.
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/07/11/1-donald-trump-is-being-taken-out-of-context-with-germany-is-totally-controlled-by-russia-2-this-daily-beast-fact-check-is-wrong/
“At a breakfast this morning with NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg in Brussels, Donald Trump said that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” which makes for some great viral tweets.”
———-
“But, surprise! That’s not entirely what he said.”
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Poverty and violence seem to go hand in hand. The poor are not necessarily more violent, but they are easier prey to it. The wealthy can afford extra protection, and the middle-class generally have the police. The extreme violence south of the border is not evidence of people lifted out of poverty. It’s evidence of broken political and social systems .
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You’d think eventually they would achieve peak idiocy.
But no…… not yet anyway.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/07/kavanaugh-derangement-syndrome-exploits-civics-ignorance/#more-254691
“The world is ending, Armageddon is nigh, and it’s all because Judge Kavanaugh was nominated to take Justice Kennedy’s place on the Supreme Court.
Progressives are actively exploiting civics ignorance to raise money oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination.
In almost every instance where abortion and Roe v. Wade are mentioned, it’s supposed that Kavanaugh HIMSELF will overturn Roe and all the poor women will die in back-alley abortions.
See Governor Cuomo:
That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. Sue who? What for? Where?
“FACTS. HOW DO THEY WORK?
So.Many.Things.Wrong.
1) Spoiler: 7 MEN ruled in favor of Roe (2 dissented), but keep up the ignorant fear mongering.
2) Worse still, NARAL is actively frat-shaming, perpetuating the baseless stereotype used by campus kangaroo courts that “frat boys” inherently disrespect women.
3) Making fun of someone’s name is a super good argument*
*If you’re five-years-old”
——————-
“If you know how the court system works, you know that just about everything progressives are saying about Kavanaugh is untrue.”
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OK show of hands…..
Who had Croatia in the finals?
(crickets chirping)
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Aj: Croatia has a very good team, and it should be a good final vs. France.
The population of Croatia? 4,165,000
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It is always fun to watch the adults in the room during a Trumper Tantrum. Pompeo managed to keep a poker face. Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison looked like a captive in a hostage video. Poor General Kelly always looks the most uncomfortable. Whatever we are paying him, it isn’t enough.
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Hmm. Let’s see. How many of our allies has the Manchurian Moron not attacked or insulted?
https://twitter.com/rdlwiseoldy/status/1017140800231235586?s=21
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Speaking of which, there are our former friends to the north:
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I see Ricky accidentally outed ABC for the same type of misleading headline as the DB. Shows their agenda and bias again.
And yes, it’s intentionally misleading because the link they include leaves out the quote completely. They give their readers no opportunity to see the true and complete quote..
Since context still matters to those who seek the truth, the actual quote is…
” “Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they are getting 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline”:”
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AJ, Thanks for calling attention to the Manchurian Moron’s latest lie. Germany doesn’t get 60-70% of its energy from Russia. Natural gas only meets about 20% of Germany’s energy needs. Russia provides about 9% of Germany’s energy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44794688
Is Trump lying or is he just profoundly ignorant? Always a difficult question to answer.
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https://twitter.com/marmel/status/1017176326199889920?s=21
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And the crowd goes wild:
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And:
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This is too good. The White House claimed John Kelly looked uncomfortable during the Trumper Tantrum because of the breakfast selection, not because of Trump’s outburst.
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-kelly-nato-photos-breakfast-cheese-pastries-2018-7
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looks like we’re still 12
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The Twitter analysts are working overtime.
https://twitter.com/whitesideteam/status/1017173635881193473?s=21
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One of the best days! It began with a televised tantrum seen around the world and ended with an illiterate Tweet that produced responses from half the country.
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or maybe 9
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Yeah, making such a big deal out of a typo is pretty silly and petty.
*****
Debra – (I’m assuming you were the anonymous at 4:34.) Yes, there is still a great deal of poverty in the world, but the rate of extreme poverty has gone down considerably over the last couple decades in areas where governments have loosened their controls. (Note: That doesn’t mean that governments don’t – or shouldn’t – have any controls, just that too much government control can keep its people in deep poverty.)
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Europeans to US diplomats: How can we believe you when you tell us to pay no attention to your ridiculous President? How do we know he will soon be gone? How do we know he isn’t a sign that most Americans have also become idiots? US diplomats: Read his Tweets and the responses to his Tweets. Americans may have lost a few IQ points, but they aren’t going to elect that guy again!
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I suspect the ” ex-layer lawyer “would have been more accurate…. ;–)
Debra
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Kizzie, yes that was me, and I do agree that some of the deepest poverty has been alleviated. But that’s not the whole story, and I am loath to give Milton Friedman the credit. Millions have also been dislocated and thrown into poverty. Governments can make things better or worse. :–)
Debra
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Debra, You need to join the Twitter debate on the subject. The cultists are still arguing that Trump was accidentally right again.
When he is gone, it is going to be boring. The liberals will give us somebody that will irritate and enrage us, but never make us laugh. Trump does enrage me, but he makes me laugh several times a day. Obama and Carter never made me laugh except for that one time when Carter was attacked by the killer rabbit. I may have to learn to watch baseball on TV again.
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Help me out, Trumpkins.
What countries want to be solid allies of a Trumpkin United States?
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So the BBC changed their story. But screenshots are forever.
You’d know this if you bothered to check links posted earlier today.
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/07/11/1-donald-trump-is-being-taken-out-of-context-with-germany-is-totally-controlled-by-russia-2-this-daily-beast-fact-check-is-wrong/
“To make matters worse, The Daily Beast has a fact check up that says Trump used the wrong statistics, but they’re wrong:
Screenshot from the article where The Daily Beast, quoting the BBC, says “the latest official figure was actually 50.75%:”
————————
“And now via the BBC, which The Daily Beast doesn’t link to so we had to search for it. The official estimate of Russian gas imports is 50% to 75% and it looks like The Daily Beast quoted the earlier version with a typo:”
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Trump said that Russia provided 60 to 70% of Germany’s energy. That was a direct quote from Trump posted by The Cult @ 6:30. That is clearly false and not close to being correct. As noted @ 6:49, natural gas only provides about 20% of Germany’s energy. The post at 10:21 deals with what percentage of that 20% (that is natural gas) actually comes from Russia.
The Cult is confused. I actually suspect that on this issue Trump may have also been confused rather than intentionally lying. We know he really doesn’t pay attention during those briefings.
Nevertheless as noted above by The Cult, the wildly false statement on energy formed the basis for Trump’s claim that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia”.
At this point all educated Americans know never to believe anything Trump says. The Europeans will catch on pretty quickly.
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And 60-70 falls within the 50-75 window quoted.
So your problem with it is what?
Other than Trump said it so it must be wrong.
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