Saturday 11 March 2017
Mosul in Depth
I talked a little about Mosul back in November, before the election. Since then the fight has progressed, sweeping through the outlying areas, through the east, and now reaching the western sections of the city. ABC News (Australia) did a short documentary about the fighting in Mosul, embedding with Iraqi forces as they moved into the city. This video is just under an hour long, but it gives a good account of the dangers for those fighting this battle and the civilians living through it.
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There is a Fareed Zakaria documentary premiering on CNN on Monday, March 13 at 9:00 eastern time about Vladimir Putin for those who have access. For those who don't I will try to find a link to it whenever it becomes available.
Btw, on Fareed's show this morning there was mention of Wikileaks...er... leaks. This is something I have wondered about as well. The fact that Wiki's leaks seem primarily to focus on the U.S. A case in point is the recent leaks regarding the CIA. Yet we have seen none with regard to Russia or China's intelligence services.
@ Marcus:
I was watching Meet The Press over the weekend and I noticed that this February's jobs numbers were bumped up by unusually mild weather, allowing planned construction projects to get an early start on spring. This added about 56,000 jobs to the February numbers.
Nevertheless, this February's numbers were lower than the past two Februarys; February 2015 and 2016 both came in higher than Trump's first February, not by a lot, but by enough to be solidly higher than Trump's first February, and without the boost from unusually favorable weather.
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DoJ has been told by the House Intelligence Committee to produce the administration's evidence that Obama had Trump or Trump Tower bugged or wiretapped or whatever it is that Trump was supposedly alleging in that now infamous weekend tweet from the weekend before this last. They've been given a deadline of the end of the business day. (They'll take it later if it comes in later--but I think we all know Trump just made that up outta whole cloth. There is no evidence; never was.)
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"I will try to find a link to it…"
Should be interesting. The Australian piece on the retaking of Mosul was certainly interesting. It looked kinda like the stuff one might find on PBS's ‘Independent Lens’ series, ‘cept it was longer than most of those pieces. Had enough detail to support the extra length though. Generally, just pretty interesting.
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CBO score on ObamaCare repeal, how many people will lose their coverage, how much more it will cost for less medical care delivered, may come out as soon as today.
Lee: "@ Marcus:" et.c
I actually don't believe that this President or that one will have an immediate effect on the US economy. Longer term perhaps, but any signs you're seeing now were probably already in the pipeline.
Of course the DOW does not really reflect the actual health of the US economy, but I take it for granted you know that much.
From MY standpoint the election wins of right-leaning politicians is less about money, and certainly less about quick money, but more about long term stability.
Trump? He's no ideal winner imho, but he was a better choice than the alternaive.
"…, but more about long term stability."
I don't know how it looks in Sweden, but our right-winger politicians are less about stability than stagnation--the few who don't know they're sellin’ bullshit to the gullible.
Even their slogan about ‘taking their country back…’ is not about stability but rather about overturning the established order. (They're a little vague ‘bout just whom they think took their country away from them in the first place, but, that aside, it's openly a slogan about creating instability).
If you haven't figured that part out then you didn't correctly identify the choices in the first place.
I'll put it another way…
Trump is an apparently compulsive and quite probably pathological liar. The dedicated Trumpkins know this; they knew it when they voted for him; that's why his antics haven't shaken his core 40% support. They already knew that part. Voting for Trump was not about creating stability. Ya don't create stability by putting a compulsive and quite probably pathological liar in charge. You don't create stability by putting an ignorant amateur in charge. They know all this; they knew it when they voted for him. Stability was not what they were after.
@ Lynnette:
I'm listening to Trump's move towards arguing that they need to let ObamaCare crash and burn (both public statements and tweets).
I think Trump's beginning to recognize that they're probably not gonna be able to do that ‘repeal and replace’ thing after all. So, the backup plan is to leave ObamaCare mostly intact but to sabotage it in all ways possible. (This may be a more workable plan than anything else they've come up with so far; might just work.)
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Post Script to Marcus:
Sabotaging the country's health care system is not about creating stability. Just in case you're still having trouble recognizing the obvious.
CBO estimates on the Republicans' TrumpCare bill just came in. They project 14 million people would lose their health coverage within two years (or opt out), at a savings of $327 billion over a ten year period (roughly $30 billion a year), but I'm not sure how much of that would accrue in the first two years--have to read deeper.
Sabotaging the country's health care system is not about creating stability.
And people can't figure out why the concern about the Russian connection. One has to start to wonder about a "so called" president who would opt for such a tactic.
Trump? He's no ideal winner imho, but he was a better choice than the alternaive.
A lot of people said that. We will see if they say the same a year from now.
Generally, just pretty interesting.
I thought so. They did a good job of touching on many of the major problems in this endeavor.
The Department of Justice has asked the House Intelligence Committee for more time to respond to their demand for the administration's evidence in support of the claim that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump, the Trump campaign, or Trump Tower.
Meantime Sean Spicer says that the fact that Trump put his charges in quote marks (once--out off three times Trump repeated the allegation in writing he used quote marks once), the fact that Trump used quote marks once is important and means something significant which significance remains unexplained, but it means something that the dedicated Trumpkins can pretend to understand. So, when the Evil NonTrumpkin people remind them that Trump just made that crap up out whole cloth the dedicated Trumpkins can say, "Yes, but he used quote marks." And then they'll pretend that fixes things.
Another White House leak--an internal analysis forecast 26 million people would lose their insurance under the current TrumpCare proposals. This kinda clouds up their negative reaction to the CBO analysis.
So far as we know there are no magical quote marks on this document.
Word's out that the Trump White House ‘disagrees strenuously’ with today's snowfall in Washington DC and across the East Coast. They're claiming that whole thing is a mirage, and simultaneously, a plot against Trump undertaken by Obama loyalists hiding in the ‘Deep State’.
"‘Kushners Set to Get $400 Million From Chinese Firm on Tower,’
by Bloomberg’s David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby: ‘A company
owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s
son-in-law and senior adviser, stands to receive more than $400
million from a prominent Chinese company that is investing in the
Kushners’ marquee Manhattan office tower at 666 Fifth Ave. The
planned $4-billion transaction includes terms that some real estate
experts consider unusually favorable for the Kushners. It provides
them with both a sizable cash payout from Anbang Insurance Group
for a property that has struggled financially and an equity stake in a
new partnership.’"
Bloomberg (emphasis added)
Trump's plan to dismember government
Dedicated Trumpkins may feel the pinch, however.
Still, Trump's budgetary strategy could face significant challenges -- particularly in the Senate, where Republicans may be unwilling to support cuts to popular programs.
Seen in the abstract, government is always unpopular with Republican voters. But often individual programs enjoy significant support at local levels.
For instance, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday that the Trump budget proposes to cut the budget by 97% to $10 million in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Over the last decade the bipartisan plan has transformed the environmental health of Lakes Erie, Michigan and Ontario.
The plan has seen heavily polluted areas cleansed, improvements to drinking water and the fight against Asian Carp which threatens to crowd out native species in the Great Lakes and harm local fishing industries. Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle are already mobilized in a bid to fight off the prospect of cuts to the program.
Last week, Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in writing a letter to Pruitt calling on him to guarantee the full $300 million funding for the program.
The political sensitivity of the program might end up occurring to Trump -- in a way that will underline just how complicated using the budget to transform government can be. The region includes the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which together racked up 64 electoral votes that put him in the White House.
Perhaps in the end Trump may actually succeed in uniting the country, if he pushes hard enough. Just not in the way he envisions.
The planned $4-billion transaction includes terms that some real estate experts consider unusually favorable for the Kushners.
Of course.
Ivanka
"Perhaps in the end Trump may actually succeed in uniting the
country, if he pushes hard enough."
Not bloody likely. However, he only has to lose a very small proportion of the dedicated Trumpkins to permanently damage what remains of the alliance between the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party and their right-winger voter ‘base’. That won't unite the country, but it will be the end of what has become the modern manifestation of the Republican Party. Picking up the pieces will have to come later.
Sean Spicer said again today that The Donald is ‘extremely confident’ that there is evidence out there somewhere that will prove that Obama wiretapped Trump during the recent Presidential campaign (Spicer was not clear on whether this was supposed to be ‘wiretapped’ with quotes, or without).
It would seem that what Trump is most confident of is that his dedicated Trumpkins don't understand, and cannot be made to understand that Trump is now in charge of those federal agencies which would have that information, and he could simply order it up at any time he pleased (if it existed that is).
"It would seem that what Trump is most confident of is that his
dedicated Trumpkins don't understand, and cannot be made to
understand…"
Or, more likely, Trump knows what the Democrats still don't understand. Which is that the dedicated Trumpkins just don't care. Yes, he's a compulsive and quite probably a pathological liar, but proving that isn't gonna hurt him. They already know that part; they just don't care. Trump said it himself; he could shoot an innocent and defenseless man down in a public street and they'd not abandon him.
Monica Crowley, one-time Trump nominee for the position of ‘Senior Director of Communications for the National Security Agency’ but obliged to withdraw from consideration for that post, is now a lobbyist for Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk. Pinchuk was once a contributor to the Trump Foundation, a supposed charity that was discovered to be paying Trump's personal bills, but is now being wound down (assuming it's not already defunct).
Looks like the Trump administration is fixing to lay blame on Paul Ryan for the TrumpCare fiasco that seems to be unfolding. Sean Hannity was fairly explicit about it on his three-hour radio rant today, and Breitbart published audio of Ryan ragging against Trump back before Trump won the election (the audio was new but not news--transcripts had already come out long time back).
Lynnette: Perhaps in the end Trump may actually succeed in uniting the
country, if he pushes hard enough.
Lee: Not bloody likely.
President Donald Trump's numbers are bad and getting worse. According to Gallup's daily tracking report, the President's approval rating has hit an all-time low, 39%. His disapproval rating is just one point away from his presidential all-time worst, which was 56% -- it's now 55%.9 hours ago
Oh, give it time. He's trying.
Trump's earlier grant of ‘full authority’ over NSC personnel matters to General H.R. McMaster has apparently been withdrawn. McMaster will be obliged to defer to Steve Bannon after all. link. McMaster had taken one Ezra Cohen-Watnick off of the NSC, but Bannon (and son-in-law Kushner) intervened on Cohen-Watnick's behalf, and Trump has decided the issue. McMaster will not have authority of his personnel after all. Be interesting to see how long McMaster stays under the new rules.
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And, Goldman-Sachs has scored another position in the Trump administration. Jim Donovan, a current Goldman Sachs partner, is going to serve as Steve Mnuchin's Deputy Secretary at the Treasury Department. (Gettin’ a bit of a swampy smell over there at the Treasury Department.)
I notice that some more Republicans are warming up to the idea that what they need to do (in lieu of enacting TrumpCare, which it's beginning to look like may not be in the cards for them), what they need to do is ‘let ObamaCare collapse’. (Lindsey Graham has joined in with that idea).
I've been thinking on this one and it's become apparent to me that the important political question here (note carefully the inclusion of the adjective there), the important political question is whether or not the American public will forgive Trump for intentionally letting America's health care collapse.
I think that may be step too far even for a guy who can shoot people down in the street and expect to get away with it. (After all, the dedicated Trumpkins have always assumed that Trump will shoot some of them damn liberals, or Muslims, or other undesirable type folks. This is clearly gonna involve lettin’ dedicated Trumpkins die, and that might not be quite so forgivable.)
That MSNBC shtick about Trumps tax returns surely did backfire. First of all they hyped it. Second they stalled it to get maximum coverage of their other stuff (and in the process got scooped outta their scoop). And when they finally released it it made Trump look pretty good.
The conspiracy theorist in me kinda thinks that Trump-folks leaked that part of a tax return to MSNBC to troll them, and MSNBC walked right into the trap. Just coudn't help themselves.
Trump did play the media like a violine, and looks like he's continuing to do so.
MAGA!
"The conspiracy theorist in me kinda thinks that Trump-folks leaked that
part of a tax return to MSNBC…"
Trump has been known to provide his own leaks when he thought a timely leak would suit his purpose.
And, that doesn't really qualify as a conspiracy theory. Trump making his own leak there doesn't imply he conspired with anybody--just dropped a copy in the mail and let an overeager Rachel Maddow do the rest. No conspiracy. No conspiracy; no conspiracy theory.
...the important political question is whether or not the American public will forgive Trump for intentionally letting America's health care collapse.
His name may eventually rank right up there with Ponzi or Madoff. If not Arnold.
Trump did play the media like a violine, and looks like he's continuing to do so.
My guess, another diversionary tactic. I haven't looked but I am sure he didn't disclose much of substance pertaining to his income sources.
"If not Arnold."
As in ‛Benedict’ I guess. You kinda threw me when you switched to using the surname there in the last example.
I'm thinking that maybe the Democrats ought to be considering what updates, improvements and alterations need to be made to ObamaCare to guarantee its continued viability and survival. It's not likely, but it is possible, that they'll be called upon to try to save ObamaCare after a period of neglect and after it becomes clear the Republicans cannot agree upon an alternative to offer. Trump might have no options other than to turn to them to salvage America's health care system, and he may even be in a bad enough position that he's willing to accept being bailed out of his mess.
They need to be in a position to offer real fixes for a system in disrepair.
And, even if Trump can't be made to deal, they should be ready anyway with an alternative to allowing further decline or an extended period of inoperablity.
Let's face it, ObamaCare needed some fixes from the first day it was rolled out--they passed a draft version. It still needs fixes. They need to be ready to offer those as legislation in case they get the chance, and they may need to be able to refer to them in detail in order to actully get the chance. They need to be ready.
I meant that I didn't recognize it as a surname--I was thinking "Arnold Who?".
First rumors are coming out regarding Trump's first "skinny" budget, due out about a month ago, and coming out maybe as early as some time next week. It's beginning to look like it'll be something of a repeat performance of Trump's plan to defeat Da‘esh in Syria (the generals are gonna confer and come up with a plan, eventually--it's overdue too, already, but eventually…), and of his plan to ‘repeal and replace’ ObamaCare (bring me something I can sign).
His plan will be to cut domestic spending and jack military spending, but he's only gonna give them bottom line numbers. He has no clue what to cut or what to fund. So, it's gonna be another, ‘Bring me something I can sign’ directive and the Congressional Republicans are gonna cheer (at first) and then they're gonna discover that he just handed them a complete and utter fantasy just after he took a bow for dreaming up the fantasy in the first place.
And then, of course, there's gonna be the problem of The Wall. That's gonna be a whole ‘nother subject.
There is a special on PBS airing even as I type this about Israel and the Palestinians. It's looking interesting.
I see the travel ban was blocked. I also note that the far right candidate in running in the Netherlands was notelected.
I forgot to mention that I forgot about the time difference for that Putin special, thinking it was on at 9:00 the other night, when really it was on at 8:00 central time, so I missed the first part of it because of a nap.
Let me clean up that sentence...
"I see the travel ban was blocked. I also note that the far right candidate running in the Netherlands was not elected."
"I see the travel ban was blocked."
Kind of a foregone conclusion. Question is whether the block survives on appeal.
"I also note that the far right candidate in running in the Netherlands
was not elected."
Took a whuppin’. Looking like a three-way tie for second place, way back from first place.
Trump was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on FoxNews earlier today during which he told Carlson that: "‘Wiretap’ covers a lot of different things."
Apparently one of the few things it specifically does not cover is a wiretap.
‘Tween that and a bit of a ranting he indulged in Memphis this evening about his again failed immigrant ban, I'm guessing we're about due for an entertaining set of TrumpTweets here real soon.
He probably won't make it past the weekend.
On the subject of gettin’ Trump through the weekend…
It looks like Trump's proposed budget is going to come out early today.
I'm thinking Team Trump feels a need to get back on top of the news narrative before Trump finds out where they his his Android phone and then finds himself a hidden corner of Mar-a-Lago to tweet from.
The bullshit allegation that Obama wiretapped Trump just will not go away no matter how much they wish it away. Even Tucker Calson at friendly FoxNews went into it. (‘Wiretap covers a lot of things’ ain't exactly anybody's idea of an explanation for why it apparently doesn't cover an actual wiretap.)
The Muslim Travel Ban ver. 2.0 has been blocked even before they managed to grab one single Muslim at the airports.
TrumpCare ain't gettin’ rave reviews, nor even much loyalty from Republicans.
Trump needs a new start ‘fore frustration drives him to the Tweeter again---enter the Trump budget. This one's goin’ nowhere folks. It's gonna be Ryan's budget that matters, and that's yet to show.
Lee: "And, that doesn't really qualify as a conspiracy theory. Trump making his own leak there doesn't imply he conspired with anybody--just dropped a copy in the mail and let an overeager Rachel Maddow do the rest. No conspiracy. No conspiracy; no conspiracy theory."
Well maybe it doesn't qualify as a conspiracy, and hence a conspiracy theory is out the window. But you do seem to agree that it might well have been a leak from within the Trump camp. And implicitly I feel you also agree it was basically counter productive for MSNBC to run with it the way they did. At least you didn'tt challenge that part of my post. And that was my point - we do love to discuss points here, don't we?
Trump trolled MSNBC and did so successfully. On a not very important topic. But still.
"But you do seem to agree that it might well have been a leak from
within the Trump camp."
The information contained in those two pages was entirely favorable to Trump. There is no logical reason for an anti-Trump entity to have leaked those two pages. You have a logical theory. The conspiracy part is all that's missing for the ‘conspiracy theory’ designation.
I have a question for you both, Lee C and Lynnette. Really think on this.
If YOU were to relocate to say Afghanistan would you Lee take on a small child as a "dancing boy" and rape him? Would you Lynnette resort to sitting in your home in a burka 24 hours a day only to be let out when your father brings you out?
If not - why would you assume an Afghan would shed HIS beliefs when he comes into your country?
Why do you believe they would shed their culture if you wouldn't shed yours?
Would ya'll become a Taliban after a 6 month madrassa education?
I strongly suspect that homosexuality is inborn. Wasn't born in me. I rather doubt that being raised as an Afghani would have changed that fact.
"Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that
Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the
United States government either before or after Election Day 2016."
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C., Chairman, Senate Intelligence Committee)
TheHill
The staff needs to put a serious hide on the Android phones for the next several days; Shorthands has a talent for finding them when he's pacing the place in the wee hours.
"Based on the information available to us…" Sean Hannity has approximately 25 more minutes to figure out what the hell he's gonna say starting in about 25 minutes.
He's gonna pretend that piece of news hasn't come in yet. (Maybe by tomorrow he'll have a response figured out.)
If YOU were to relocate to say Afghanistan...
I would not be relocating to Afghanistan, so the question would not arise.
And again, beating the Republicans back on their attempts to kill off a fair chunk of those troublesome poor folks (or, more likely, watching the Republicans tie themselves in knots) ain't gonna be enough. ObamaCare's gonna need fixin’. Bloomberg
That was supposed to happen after Hillary won. But, then Hillary didn't win.
The dedicated Trumpkins are getting creative in their flights of fancy. Now they're imagining that British Intelligence was spying on Trump on behalf of Obama in order to keep Obama's fingerprints off of the imaginary spying on Trump (Brits acting in the form of an outfit known as "GCHQ"--"Government Communications HeadQuarters", the Brits' version of the NSA) Her Majesty's spy service says this talk is nonsense and ‘should be ignored’. CNN
Trump just can't let this one go.
For our foreign readers perhaps a little less familiar with our right-wing's fever swamps where their crackpot conspiracy theories are brooded and hatched… Here is Andrew Napolitano writing in the Washington Post on how it is that the Brits have to be investigated for having colluded with Obama to wiretap Trump.
I do believe this would be FoxNews‘ best friendly attempt to advise Shorthands that it's long past time to give up on this one and move along to his next best set of lies:
"During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel on Friday, Trump cited Fox News commentator Andrew
Napolitano as the source of his information that Obama wiretapped
him.
***
"Shortly after, Fox News’ [anchorman Shep] Smith said on-air that the
network had no evidence that Trump had been wiretapped. *** ‘Fox
News knows of no evidence of any kind, that the now president of the
United States was surveilled at any time, in any way, full stop.’ *** ‘Of
course, the president could learn first-hand whether the building in
which he lives was wiretapped,’ Smith said. ‘All he’d have to do is ask
the intelligence services; they work for him.’"
Politico.com
I do believe this would be FoxNews‘ best friendly attempt to advise Shorthands that it's long past time to give up on this one and move along to his next best set of lies:
lol!
That was Andrew Napolitano writing in the Washington Times, by the way, not the Washington Post. WaPo has higher standards than the Washington Times.
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