[Newfie]

I had hope Trump would disentangle us from Syria.

I can see no rational for our being involved.

I’ve never even heard a credible explanation.

[Rod_Cloutier]

2014kiev.jpg

This direct conflict with Russia could lead to WWIII. Nuclear war is bad for business.

[Newfie]

I don’t worry about an all out nuclear war. I think all sides understand it’s not in anyone’s interest.

[asg70]

I don’t worry about an all out nuclear war. I think all sides understand it’s not in anyone’s interest.

Putin showing off how he'd nuke Florida doesn't instill me with confidence he won't follow through.

[Cog]

It has occurred to me just recently that the President might be crazy.

His early morning tweet:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 2587965440

Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”

[Ibon]

It has occurred to me just recently that the President might be crazy.

His early morning tweet:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 2587965440

Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”

Why didn't you just ask me a year ago!

[Cog]

Well neither of us are trained psychiatrists so it doesn't matter what we think. I use the layman's term crazy not insane. Trump is certainty impulsive. To the point, his tweets seem irrational to me.

I'm just a little sore at him right now. I have a equities trading strategy and its getting roiled by his early morning tweets.

[ROCKMAN]

Cog – Difficult to now if the latest POTUS tweets are impulsive or if he’s been given good advice from the military. It’s a very old strategy to make the enemy think you’re about to attack and then not attack. And do so repeatedly even to the point of sending in a dummy attack profile. Defensive unit cohesiveness deteriorates when kept of ready alert. Nerves get raw and mental fatigue sets in. Also by signaling a false attack we can watch the enemy’s response. For instance, its been reported that Syria has repositioned its aircraft. Between satellites and AWAC’s we should now exactly where they went to “hide” and can modify any attack plan accordingly.

And obviously very important to see how the Russians respond to an apparent attack before we actually put lives at risk.

[Cog]

I know how deception is used in warfare. I'm not going to give Trump credit for his tactical expertise on this one. He hasn't read Sun Tzu, I have.

[evilgenius]

I don't know what is happening, but I can say what I think is going on. Eventually the US will take the Russian oil fields. That's the long range plan. It's contingent upon some world changing discovery in fusion energy, or such. To do that they need stability on their flanks. They'll need to pacify both Syria and Iran. The Syrians were influential in important ways under Hafez al-Assad. The destabilization is what happens when an entity like that gets neutralized. That doesn't mean eradicated, but left unable to be that influential again. They are far enough away from the important basing point of Iraq that the physical presence of even a belligerent Syrian regime is not all that dangerous to US plans. What must happen regarding them is that they are not capable of instigating and supporting the kind of wide scale terror campaigns they once were. Putting pipelines across the country would be another boon. It would make closing off the Persian Gulf less of a problem.

They're trying to do this without going nuclear. That kind of war probably wouldn't give them what they want. To do that they need the operation to create the necessary reasons for an invasion of Southern Russia. That's probably where Turkey and the Kurds will really come in. That whole thing can heat up for a decade or so, eventually rolling in the Armenians and every other useful country or people with a grudge, until the violence spreads into Southern Russia. Soon enough all kinds of proxy actors could be doing things in Southern Russia that nobody ever thought would happen. That's why the US loves the Ukraine, but doesn't want them to outright settle with Russia. They want seething tension enough to cause panic and terror. Thirty to fifty years from now the US military will walk into the region from their positions ensconced in the Middle East. They'll take it with more of a whimper than anything else. The Russians might even invite them in. By 2100 the US will have de facto control over practically the entire supply of oil, eventually controlling it by economic means, that remains in the world.

[careinke]

I know how deception is used in warfare. I'm not going to give Trump credit for his tactical expertise on this one. He hasn't read Sun Tzu, I have.

How do you know he hasn't read Sun Tzu? It's a small book, and not a very difficult read. Now, applying the principles in real life is a little more difficult.

On the other hand, Sun Tzu would not have entered this conflict in the first place.

[Ibon]

Well neither of us are trained psychiatrists so it doesn't matter what we think. I use the layman's term crazy not insane. Trump is certainty impulsive. To the point, his tweets seem irrational to me.

I'm just a little sore at him right now. I have a equities trading strategy and its getting roiled by his early morning tweets.

I understand that a year ago it was impossible to distinguish between a partisan opinion and an accurate assessment about Trump. The toxic polarization immediately labeled any critic of Trump as a member of the other team. This is exactly what enabled Trump to get a foot hold in the first place.

Being outside the country and outside the sphere of this toxic polarization I recognized unstable character flaws and ethical flaws very early on.

You can't teach old dogs new tricks. Trump fucked over his suppliers, bankrupted companies, had to chase Russian money because no banks in NYC would give him credit anymore, and he was deeply immersed with shady characters in real estate and casinos. Regardless of party affiliation this should have been a clear warning bell to anyone about the flawed nature of his character.

It was all that partisan division that allowed him to get so far, and of course the rejection of Clinton and the slimy nature of politics of both parties that gave Trump an edge.

The Republicans made a pact with the devil and will pay the price. But it isn't too late, a tipping point that has taken longer than expected I believe has finally arrived. The fog of polarization is lifting and Trump is emerging with his flaws clear for all to see.

Just wait a little longer for all the sordid details if your still hanging on in supporting him.

[KaiserJeep]

Ibon, I think you are - if not dreaming - at the very least having nightmares. Make no mistake about this, you are firmly on the side of the Trump haters, and really always have been. The fact that HRC was actually more venal and corrupt than even Trump perhaps obscured this.

My next door neighbor is a Russian. He and I have had long conversations baking in his sauna in his back yard. He is a decent sort, about my age, who came to Silicon Valley a couple of decades back, and has shown me pictures of himself, in clean room garb, which is what you wore in computer rooms in the Soviet Union right up until the early 1990's when the microcomputer revolution and Mikhail Gorbachev happened.

Understand that he grew up in the Soviet system and was a real believer, right up until he read a banned book by Ayn Rand from a floppy disk on a microcomputer screen. There were four generations that grew to maturity between the October Revolution and the breakup of the USSR, and they gave the defunct and defective theories of Marx and Engels a real and thorough test and those theories came up short of viability.

The former Soviet Union is now full of robber barons, and has both a large number of billionaires and the hugest gap between the poor and the wealthy of any country anywhere. My neighbor hides from the Russian economy next door, all he ever wanted to do was write computer code and sell it. He also didn't want to be a criminal, which pretty much describes all talented Russian software people who remain in-country.

Vladimir would live there if he could. But tears roll down his face when he relates how members of his extended family sold their daughters in order to eat. Large numbers of trafficked Russian and (former) USSR children and young people exist in both NYC and California, and that other Vladimir - Putin - is in the thick of it. Lest you think any different, Putin made huge investments in both the R's and the D's in the years before 2016, he was set either way the election went.

The War in Syria is all about more money for Putin and his cronies. My neighbor does not believe Trump to be one of them, but he does believe that Trump and prominent members of both the R's and the D's stand to profit greatly in a low intensity revival of the Cold War. Which is what is happening now. Oil and gas for the EU is one of the chips in the game, but it is more about arms sales.

The headlines are being generated for the same reason the reason the Wizard said: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!". Syria is the ball of fire dazzling all.

Those men behind the curtain are Putin and Trump. HRC missed her chance to take Trump's place as a member of the top tier cognocente. But had the election tipped the other way, it would have made no difference whatsoever, because the only difference between the R's and the D's is rhetoric, not actions.

The Donald tweets, HRC would have had to find the equivalent of an aspirin factory to bomb in Syria.

[Ibon]

Ibon, I think you are - if not dreaming - at the very least having nightmares. Make no mistake about this, you are firmly on the side of the Trump haters, and really always have been. The fact that HRC was actually more venal and corrupt than even Trump perhaps obscured this.

KJ, listen to your own words and learn from them. Every single politician is corrupt as you have said many times. The issue with Trump is corruption and a proven track record of shady business practices and bankruptcies all wrapped up in a highly unstable mind.

I am not going to start a long thread of posts arguing with you or Cog or anyone. That would be silly especially when the sordid details soon to be revealed will shut you up for good regarding any vestiges of support you have for this asshole president.....

[Outcast_Searcher]

That would be silly especially when the sordid details soon to be revealed will shut you up for good regarding any vestiges of support you have for this asshole president.....

On this site, re the COC and how the moderators have generally worked, people generally have a right to their opinions and even to voice them. Even if they're opinions you strongly disagree with.

Personally, I think both Trump and HRC are basically COMPLETE Assholes, though of different sorts, which is why I refused to vote for either of them.

If you don't like his statements re Trump, don't read them. If they upset you badly enough, ignore him (which to me is counterproductive for folks who have interesting things to say on many subjects). But on this site, trying to suppress his speech, IMO, isn't cool. (I disagree with him on various topics and may argue with him at times. Even if I'm certain he's dead wrong or being unreasonable on a certain topic at some point, I may opine that -- but to me, that's far different than saying he should shut up about topic X.)

...

And re the "soon to be revealed meme", that is what folks like the vast majority of NYT reader/commenters keep saying and forecasting online. Why don't we see what the actual evidence says, which hopefully will be ready before the midterms? What folks believe is often different than what can be proven in a court of law, and what will matter for Trump, IMO, is what can be proven as far as what he did, knew about, was complicit with etc, not what democrats generally believe.

Edits -- minor errors and general cleanup.

[vtsnowedin]

I know how deception is used in warfare. I'm not going to give Trump credit for his tactical expertise on this one. He hasn't read Sun Tzu, I have.

How do you know he hasn't read Sun Tzu? It's a small book, and not a very difficult read. Now, applying the principles in real life is a little more difficult.

On the other hand, Sun Tzu would not have entered this conflict in the first place.

I don't know if Trump has read Sun Tzu but you can bet that Mad Dog Maddis has and understood every word along with a great body of other military writing spanning centuries.

[Ibon]

But on this site, trying to suppress his speech, IMO, isn't cool.

Nobody is suppressing speach O.S. Nobody suggested that. Everyone can say whatever they want regarding this topic.

Specifically, I said that the sordid details will be what shuts down Trump supporters. It is not NYC liberal progressives saying this about sordid details or a "soon to be revealed meme" They and many of their republican colleagues know already what will be exposed. Why can't Trump find a lawyer? Think about it.. Why all the turnover and resignations.

The question really is, how do you manage keeping Trump from destabilizing the country, economy and geopolitics for the remainder of his term or how do you handle the impeachment to minimize the turbulence. Cog, a loyal supporter, feeling a bit shaken up by the drop in his portfolio is a case in point.

Those in power behind the scenes, members of both parties, call them the dark state if you want, they are now discussing this not out of hatred or to prove anyone wrong, efforts now underway are all about damage control.

[KaiserJeep]

I don't count myself as a Trump supporter, BTW. I do however, believe that he will enjoy a second term. Then I believe we will have yet another R in office after that, because the country is still moving right at an accellerating pace, the backlash from Obama.

"It's the economy, stupid." is the way Clinton put it. Then he proceeded to do all he could do to fix the economy. Which unfortunately resulted in his anticipated "peace dividend" never materializing, after he did a million man layoff of US Armed Forces. Arguably this resulted in both 9/11/2001 and the "Arab Spring" in the ME, with a resurgent Russia anxious to return to the Cold War when it had a growing economy as part of the USSR.

[vtsnowedin]

I don't count myself as a Trump supporter, BTW. I do however, believe that he will enjoy a second term. .

I
,also not a Trump supporter,
don't share your enthusiasm about a second term. In fact I doubt he will complete the first one.
That rich and powerful men have sex with good looking (I won't call her beautiful) women ,not their wives,is a fact of life and no reason to exclude them from office a decade after the fact. That she would extort his campaign to keep it quiet on the eve of the election is a crime however and she should have been arrested and jailed for that. They are down to trying to hang him on a technicality or a perjury trap which shows you how little of substance they found in the original Russian collusion charge. But they will go all the way to overdue library books if necessary. His administration however is full of incompetence and ethics violations and that chaos will cost the GOP the house and perhaps even the senate this fall and then the impeachment proceedings will promptly begin over whatever the worst thing Mueller has dredged up. The house will certainly impeach him and the Senate seeing the results of 18 and looking at 20 may well decide they would be better off without Trump and convict him. But even if he manages to survive that assault I doubt he will be able to carry Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020 and doubly certain on that if the trade war with China ends up with a collapse of pork prices to producers in Iowa.

[KaiserJeep]

Well, thank you for your opinion, vt. But Clinton WAS impeached, and IMHO Trump never will be, because he has lawyers smarter than HRC, who barely kept her husband out of jail. Had he been anybody but the POTUS, he would have served time for obstructing justice, because he was guilty of that. Which is a criminal activity that the POTUS can commit with impunity, because of executive priviledge. I said that some politicians were more equal than others. Obstructing justice has taken out mere Senators before, because they didn't have executive priviledge. So Trump walks, just like Bill Clinton.