Afraid of the dog

Trump is afraid of this dog, and Melania is petrified.   Pence is signaling for 2020 that he's not a wuss.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Obama v Trump: reporting the killing of an enemy

Funny and pathetic at the same time.

I hope everyone's still alive and able to laugh come 2021.

SNL doesn't need Alec Baldwin.  They can use the dipshit himself.

UPDATE:

"Something very big has just happened!" - Part 9

President Donald Trump painted a vivid picture for the world of the deadly U.S. military raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a raid that only a small number of people witnessed in real time.

A "beautiful" and "talented" dog got injured. A robot had been on standby to aid in the hunt for al-Baghdadi if needed. U.S. Special Operations Forces arrived in eight helicopters and were on the ground for about two hours. They entered al-Baghdadi's compound within seconds by blowing holes in the side of the wall. They chased al-Baghdadi into a web of underground tunnels — many of them dead ends — that they already knew existed. Before the U.S. forces left for the 70-minute, "very low and very, very fast" helicopter ride back along the same route from which they arrived, they captured some of al-Baghdadi's henchmen and seized "highly sensitive material and information" outlining the origin of ISIS and plans for future plots.

A few of those colorful details were wrong. Many of the rest were either highly classified or tactically sensitive, and their disclosure by the president made intelligence and military officials cringe, according to current and former U.S. officials.

[...]

"We agonized over what we would put in his briefings," one former senior White House official said, "because who knows if and when he's going to say something about it."

"He has no filter," the official added. "But also if he knows something, and he thinks it's going to be good to say or make him appear smarter or stronger, he'll just blurt it out."

  NBC

I don't know why they still tell him stuff.

The president, as the ultimate authority on classification, can declassify any piece of government information simply by releasing it publicly. And some top U.S. officials — including then-President Barack Obama, who signed a law to reduce the amount of classified material — have lamented the government's tendency to over-classify information. But current and former senior U.S. officials said from the earliest days of his presidency that Trump consistently wants to make public more than his advisers think is legally sound or wise for U.S national security.

[...]

Trump also said Monday that he is considering releasing footage of the al-Baghdadi raid, and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the military is working on declassifying some images.

Better not let him know about any photos you don't want published. Remember the Iranian launch site.

A couple of the president's statements on Sunday were inaccurate or left U.S. officials wondering where he got his information, officials said. The president said when U.S. officials notified Russia it would be entering airspace in western Syria, they told the Russians, "We think you're going to be very happy." But that phrase was not said on the call with the Russians, a U.S. official said. Trump also said al-Baghdadi was "crying and screaming" as U.S. forces chased him down, but U.S. officials said they didn't hear those sounds, and Milley told reporters he doesn't know the source of the president's information on that.

The overarching concern about Trump's disclosures on the al-Baghdadi raid, officials said, is that he gave America's enemies details that could make intelligence gathering and similar military operations more difficult and more dangerous to pull off.

I don't know what they were expecting. They already knew he'd compromised the mission by suddenly withdrawing troops.

Revealing that the U.S. possesses documents about future ISIS plans hurts the military's ability to use that information for quick follow-on operations, officials said. The president's disclosure that the U.S. had taken ISIS fighters from the compound complicated efforts to try to keep ISIS from knowing who is alive or dead for as long as possible while they interrogate them, officials said.

Some of the president's comments could complicate the intelligence gathering that leads to such raids because they revealed sources and methods the U.S. uses, officials said. They pointed to his saying that the U.S. knew of al-Baghdadi's whereabouts via technology, and also knew of the underground tunnels at his compound, which suggests the U.S. has infrared abilities to locate caves and tunnels.

[...]

Officials said the first major battle over disclosing details of military operations was in 2017 when Trump ordered airstrikes on areas controlled by the Assad regime in Syria.

The arguments against disclosures are usually based on concerns about revealing sources and methods or the idea that the more the president releases publicly, the weaker his argument about exerting executive privilege becomes. Sometimes he overrules them, while other times he simply says things publicly that they weren't expecting him to disclose.

They know him. They can blame themselves for telling him anything.

"We knew it had tunnels. The tunnels were a dead end, for the most part. There was one, we think, that wasn't. But we had that covered, too, just in case," Trump said.

Other information Trump discussed provided America's enemies with tactical details on how the military carries out a raid like the one on al-Baghdadi, officials said, including the robot, the helicopter flight patterns and how U.S. forces entered the compound.

[...]

Trump has since pushed the boundaries on a myriad of topics, officials said, and they don't expect that to be curtailed. He's talked publicly about deploying a nuclear submarine in Asia, and more recently about nuclear weapons the U.S. never acknowledges it keeps in Turkey. Early in his presidency, Trump's disclosure of specific intelligence to Russian officials raised alarms among administration officials. After Trump wrote on Twitter in August that the U.S. was learning a lot about a mysterious explosion in Russia, a senior administration official told NBC News an aide would have to inform him his disclosure risked revealing sources and methods.

Only themselves to blame.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Something very big has just happened!" - Part 8

Al-Baghdadi was caught and killed (if he WAS) by the efforts of the Kurds, whom Trump has just abandoned to Turkish attacks, and the CIA, whom he bashes regularly and refuses to listen to.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Something very big just happened!" - Part 7

Footage of the US special forces raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Syrian compound reportedly consisted of overhead surveillance footage and no audio, prompting questions over the extent of the dramatic licence taken by Donald Trump in describing the final moments of one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.

US officials who also watched the feed have declined to echo details of Trump’s macabre account of the Isis’s leader death on Saturday, including that Baghdadi was “whimpering, crying and screaming all the way”.

Revelling in a major national security accomplishment in his press conference on Sunday morning, Trump said Baghdadi, 48, had “spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread” as a US military dog pursued him and three of his children down a dead-end tunnel.

Cornered, Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest, killing himself, his children and injuring the “beautiful” and “talented” dog, Trump said.

[...]

The footage piped into the situation room would have consisted of overhead surveillance shots of the dark compound with heat signatures differentiating between US fighters and others, intelligence and military officials told the New York Times.

Those cameras would not have been able to peer into the tunnel where Baghdadi died, nor provide audio proof of his conduct during the last minutes of his life.


  Guardian

Proof? Who needs proof? We all know about Trump's relationship with truth.

The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, declined to endorse aspects of Trump’s cinematic account in an interview with ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday morning.

“I don’t have those details,” Esper said, when pressed on how Trump knew Baghdadi had whimpered and cried. “The president probably had the opportunity to talk to commanders on the ground.”

Who undoubtedly would not have used the words "last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread" or "whimpering, crying and screaming all the way.”

The soldiers involved would have been wearing body cameras, but that footage was yet to be given to the White House at the time of Trump’s press conference, the Times report said.

[...]

The US national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, told the Meet the Press show that Baghdadi’s remains, which were said to have been mutilated by the explosion, would likely be disposed of at sea.

Asked if the body would be handled in the same way as Osama bin Laden’s, O’Brien said: “I would expect that to be the case.”

And people may some day find out what really happened to bin Laden. But I won't be alive.

Also, if he blew himself up with a suicide vest that also killed three children, you'd think there wouldn't have been a "mutilated" body, but merely body parts.

Kurdish officials claimed on Sunday night that a second US operation had taken place in Syria a few hours after Baghadi’s death, this time targeting the Islamic State spokesman, known as Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.

“Al-Muhajir, the right-hand of Baghdadi and the spokesman for IS, was targeted in the village of Ain al-Baydah near Jarablus, in a coordinated operation between SDF intelligence and the US army,” the Syrian Democratic Forces commander, Mazloum Abdi, tweeted.

American officials did not confirm the reports and it was unclear if the operation was pre-planned, or enabled by the material found in Baghdadi’s compound.

UPDATE:



Yeah, where was Barron?  Even Melania got to go.

A canine

The report I read about Trump's remark on the military dog on the al-Baghdadi raid wasn't complete.  What he actually said was even more bizarre. 



"A canine, as they call it.  I call it a dog."

Either he thinks his minions won't know what a canine is, or he himself just learned.  I honestly couldn't tell you which.

"Something very big just happened!" - Part 6

Hmmmmm.  Three children you say?

Interesting.  That's the number of children Trump claimed al-Baghdadi used for human shields and then blew up along with himself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Something very big just happened!" - Part 5

Paul Harvey voice: And now...for the rest of the story...

The surprising information about the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s general location — in a village deep inside a part of northwestern Syria controlled by rival Qaeda groups — came following the arrest and interrogation of one of Mr. al-Baghdadi’s wives and a courier this past summer, two American officials said.

Armed with that initial tip, the C.I.A. worked closely with Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence officials in Iraq and Syria to identify Mr. al-Baghdadi’s more precise whereabouts and to put spies in place to monitor his periodic movements.

But Mr. Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American forces from northern Syria disrupted the meticulous planning and forced Pentagon officials to press ahead with a risky, night raid before their ability to control troops and spies and reconnaissance aircraft disappeared, according to military, intelligence and counterterrorism officials. Mr. al-Baghdadi’s death, they said, occurred largely in spite of Mr. Trump’s actions.

  NYT

Wait till he hears that.

The officials praised the Kurds, who continued to provide information to the C.I.A. on Mr. al-Baghdadi even after Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw the American troops left the Syrian Kurds to confront a Turkish offensive alone. The Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, one official said, provided more intelligence for the raid than any single country.

[...]

Mr. Esper said he did not know if the United States would have been able to carry out the helicopter raid against Mr. Baghdadi’s compound had American troops been completely withdrawn from Syria, as Mr. Trump had originally planned.

“I’d have to consult with our commanders about that,” Mr. Esper said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

"Something very big just happened!" - Part 4

And there it is:





My bad-guy capture moment is better than Obama's bad-guy capture moment.

Pathetic.



And a reminder...your president is a sick man...










And those endless wars he says we need to end?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



That's gonna require a nasty comeback.

He actually said this

What can I say?

UPDATE:

"Something very big has just happened!" - Part 3

He got his Obama watching the raid on Osama bin Laden moment.

Baghdadi detonated a suicide best and killed himself and three of his children, Trump said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.”

  Guardian

Everybody's always doing whatever thing they do as a loser "like a dog" in Trump's world.

And yet...



Tribute and insult in the same speech.  ("Our canine. I call it a dog."  Jesus.)*

Trump said US forces were engaged with “massive firepower” as they arrived at the building where Baghdadi was sheltering with his family and associates.

“The compound had to be cleared at this time with people either surrendering or being shot and killed,” he said. “Eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured.

“The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to a certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down.

“[Baghdadi] ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children,” Trump said. “Test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification, it was him.”

[...]

“The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, total panic and fear, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him,” Trump said.

Presaging his own last moments in office?

Baghdadi’s death is likely to be a significant fillip for Trump, who has faced withering criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for withdrawing troops from north-eastern Syria, effectively allowing Turkey to move against the US’s Kurdish allies in the region.

Which was, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, impetus for a push to find and kill al-Baghdadi.

Several Syrian rebel groups active in Idlib province say they had been asked by US officials over the past fortnight to establish whether senior Isis members were hiding in Idlib.

[...]

Baghdadi’s death is a devastating blow to a terror group that had run rampant across the region for five years from mid-2014, spawning gruesome terror attacks across the world, amplifying a mass refugee exodus and sparking a war to contain it that killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

Throughout that time, Baghdadi remained the face of Isis: a fearsome implacable ideologue who eluded the world’s intelligence agencies while continuing to incite a war of civilisations.

They have another one who's been waiting in the wings for this moment.

UPDATE:

Does this need to be said?



*UPDATE:

It's worse than that.  What he actually said was, "A canine as they call it.  I call it a dog."

UPDATE:

Yes, General, you do know.  We all know.  HE was the source.

"Something very big has just happened!" - part 2

I'm guessing this is what he's teasing:




But instead of tweeting it, he tweeted out a teaser like he's still in a TV serial.  Everbody will be talking about and anticipating the big reveal.

Christ.

Also, "believed to be dead".

UPDATE:




So which is it?  US special ops killed him or he killed himself?

And, yes, I feel confident in saying Trump threw in that bit about children.

Going For a Record

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Update

Wait a few months. Announce his death again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Is Anyone Still Listening?

Do governments, militaries, intelligence agencies report this for each other, or do they report it periodically for any new voters/donors who come online?

They did this in Iraq about five times, and I can't even remember the name of the alternately one-armed, dead, injured, etc., world's worst terrorist they used.  Somebody help me out.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.


UPDATE:  10/12/15

More Criticism of 'American Sniper'

This time, not from a philosophical point of view:

[...]

 

[...]



[...]

[...]

Oh, come on dude.  We all know Saddam Hussein crashed the Twin Towers.  D'uh!  Get over it, traitor.

Important points in there I had not even come across before.  Or if I had, I've forgotten them.

 Read the whole Storify here:  https://storify.com/adamjohnsonNYC/forget-jinogism-and-racism-american-sniper-s-perni

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.