US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7296

On April 07 2017 18:44 Biff The Understudy wrote:

I don't think technical details are necessary to figure out that the Kremlin is just lying, for a change. But that it wouldn't even be technically possible makes it even more infuriating. Who believes this sheiss?

On April 07 2017 14:04 BigFan wrote:
What I'm saying is that I find it extremely hard to believe that Assad would gas his own people. This comment I stumbled onto on facebook is the kind of response people should really have:
"And now our country has launched missles into Syria...at Damascus, specifically. I want to believe that the information we received regarding it being Assad's regime doing the chemical attack is accurate. I want to believe this is not a false flag operation by rebel forces and our ops teams to push the removal of Assad.

I'm so conflicted on what to believe anymore. Everyone in power is the bad guy at this point. It makes no rational sense why Assad would chem bomb his own people when he is in the middle of a fight with ISIL. He is struggling against ISIL, why would he jeopardize his alliances and fragile cooperation with other countries by bombing innocents?

And now our military is launching 50 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base.

I hope the intel they got was rock solid and completely provable, or we just went hip deep into a very ugly war."

Al Jazeera: Simply, what are barrel bombs and what do they do?

Riad Kahwaji: Barrel bombs are old crude weapons that have no tactical value. They are pure weapons of terror aimed at causing maximum destruction in civilian areas with the objective of inflicting severe damage to property and killing civilians. They are cheap and could be built domestically by loading hundreds of kilogrammes of gunpowder and other explosive material inside big barrel-shaped canisters.

Soldiers on board helicopters light the fuse of the barrel bomb before they drop them on the intended targets. The size of damage caused is meant to implant fear in the hearts of the civilian population in order to get them to turn against the rebels.

On April 07 2017 18:27 GreenHorizons wrote:


Not most, just more moderate than the worst factions there. After refreshing myself on the status there there are even more than I remember with different problems. Problem with SDF/YPG are Kurdish relations with Turkey iirc, so while they are the "most moderate" they're slightly more inflammatory for us than they seem because of the stress they put on our relationship with Turkey?

On April 07 2017 19:40 ImFromPortugal wrote:



No one cares about what Turkey thinks right now. Expect the united states to keep arming the Kurds and the SDF with more heavy weapons.


6 MiG-23 aircraft destroyed in US strike on Syrian airfield, runway undamaged – Russian MoD


https://www.rt.com/news/383858-syria-us-strike-inefficient/

On April 07 2017 21:35 Danglars wrote:
https://twitter.com/apdiplowriter/status/850292821504532481

The Russian collusion/Trump-Putin alliance keeps getting more complicated.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, failed to note two meetings with Russian officials, as well as other conversations with foreign officials, on his application for a security clearance, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The federal government requires those applying for a security clearance to list all contacts with foreign officials over the past seven years. As has been previously reported, Kushner met with Sergey N. Gorkov, the chief of a Russian state-owned bank, Vnesheconombank, in December. He also met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Trump Tower that same month.

Jamie Gorelick, Kushner's lawyer, told the New York Times that the omissions were an error. She said that the day after the forms were turned in, the FBI was informed that Kushner would provide additional information.

"During the presidential campaign and transition period, I served as a point-of-contact for foreign officials trying to reach the president-elect. I had numerous contacts with foreign officials in this capacity," Kushner said in a statement to the FBI, according to Gorelick. "I would be happy to provide additional information about these contacts."

Kushner did not list any names in the statement, per the New York Times.

Kushner has an interim security clearance right now, aides to Kushner told the New York Times.

On April 07 2017 22:52 Doodsmack wrote:
If this Stockholm terrorist is a refugee...it's not gonna be good.

In her first interview since losing the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton said misogyny had played a role in her election loss.

Clinton “spends a lot of time wrestling” with the fact that 53% of white women voted for Trump and the impact of her gender on her loss, she said at the Women in the World summit.

“Certainly misogyny played a role,” she said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Clinton also called for US intervention in Syria, spoke about how being an ambitious woman had turned her into “Typhoid Mary”, and called for a bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the election.

Clinton called on politicians on both sides to “start acting like patriotic Americans” by investigating Russian involvement in the election.

“What was done to us was an act of aggression and it was carried out by a foreign power under the control of someone who has a deep desire to dominate Europe and to send us into a tailspin,” Clinton said at the Women in the World summit. “What Putin wanted to do was sow distrust and confusion as well as influence our election.”

The former secretary of state explained that she believed Russian’s interference was “the weaponization of information” in the form of “a thousand agents, bots and trolls” and that an independent, non-partisan investigation was needed.

“I’m hopeful Congress will pull together and realize because of the success the Kremlin feels it had, they’re not going to go away,” she said.

The New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, who conducted the interview in front of thousands at a Lincoln Center theater, asked if Syria policy had been the biggest mistake of the Obama administration.

Clinton reiterated that in 2012, she and the then CIA director, David Petraeus, had devised a plan to arm rebels, but it was rejected.

“I thought we should have done more at that point,” she said.

She noted that most of the civilian deaths came because of airstrikes and argued that more could still be done to stop Assad’s airforce and protect civilians.

“I really believe we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them,” said Clinton.

As for what comes next, Clinton is working on a book that delves into why she failed to win the election.

Research shows that for men, success and ambition are correlated, while for women it’s the opposite, noted Clinton. She pointed out that when she left the state department, she had a high 65% approval rating.

“It was a job I was asked to do by a man,” said Clinton, noting that public opinion changed when she declared her interest in running for the highest office in the land.

“By the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary,” said Clinton.

Mary Mallon, the first person in the US with typhoid, was quarantined and kept alone for decades.

“Poor Mary, she didn’t deserve it either, when you go back and look at the history,” said Clinton.

Clinton also took some digs at the man who took the job she had sought.

When talking about Vladimir Putin’s attempts to destabilize the US, she pointed out that he did not like strong women, “although he did shake hands with me”, a clear reference to Donald Trump’s refusal to shake Angela Merkel’s hand during a White House meeting.

The crowd, which gave Clinton a standing ovation when she appeared, laughed and cheered.

She also dryly quipped that she found Trump’s failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act “somewhat gratifying”.