I could barely watch 5 minutes on MSNBC yesterday as Captain Bonespurs Trump seized media attention to spiel his braggadocio about offing Isis No. 1 terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Merely the short exposure revealed an imp trying his best to look and sound presidential for claiming to have dispatched the top Isis rat. But I was not impressed, despite his embellishments of how Baghdadi died ("like a dog", "like a rat", "crying and whimpering").
I still saw the same sniveling, whiny bitch coward and traitor who has betrayed his country on multiple occasions - from the capitulation to Putin in Stockholm two years ago (even volunteering to have his own Intel people interrogated by Vlad), to walking over to North Korea and greeting Kim last year (despite Kim amping up his missiles), to surrendering the Kurds to Turkey's dictator Erdogan barely a month ago. None of what he did or claimed yesterday absolves him one iota from his past crimes and betrayals and it certainly doesn't give him any "lifeline" from being impeached. If the Dems fall for that they'd really deserve to lose next year. Lifeline?
Yes, that's the word I saw bandied about in later press, media accounts, along with this tripe spewed by CBS' Gayle King this morning:
"And this is a BIG victory for president Trump who was accused of giving a lifeline to Isis when he pulled American troops out of northern Syria".
Then compounding her imbecility five minutes later, after a clip showing Trump getting booed at the World Series, the third game (with the Houston Astros) in D.C.:
"It's so interesting to me that on a day when it's a clear victory for his administration he gets booed at a World Series game. I don't care who you are nobody likes to get booed! That's not nice."
Tough shit, Gayle. Maybe if your head was less in the clouds you'd grasp those fans probably know more than you do with your "victory" babble - which is just what the Trump cabal wants. Mayhap Gayle ought to have read Jennifer Weiner's column ('Why Did It Feel So Good To See Trump Booed?')in today's NY Times, wherein she writes:
"The booing itself wasn’t the problem. The booing was appropriate. The booing was necessary, insofar as his trip to Nationals Park was one of the few times Mr. Trump has crept out of his self-made bubble and encountered something resembling the real world. When he eats out, it’s in a restaurant in a hotel he owns; when he plays golf, it’s at a club he owns; when he’s with a crowd, it’s his crowd.
Inside and outside of the White House, Mr. Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants and suck-ups, minions who stroke the emperor’s ego and assure him that his decisions are wise and his phone calls are perfect and his new clothes are absolutely the best. The boos were a reality check, real-life proof that it’s not just the “corrupt” media or the “do-nothing Democrats” who oppose him."
Adding:
"Civility is a wonderful thing, when shared among equals. When people who have power require civility from those with less, or none, though, that demand is a cudgel, a weapon the haves use to keep the have-nots in line. When you’re confronted with evil, you don’t shake its hand or applaud it. If booing is incivility, bring it on."
Gayle King - if she even had an average IQ - would grasp that. And also that a con man coward who keeps himself in a bubble surrounded only by sycophants, then steps out expecting more acclaim from non-MAGA hat citizens, deserves booing - and worse ('Lock him up!' chants). Most of those who booed and shouted the 'lock him up' chants likely understood - unlike King- that the butchering of hundreds of Kurds, including children, and the prospect of further genocide and ethnic cleansing - doesn't give Bonesuprs a pass for no hectoring in public. Or any claimed "victory". No way in hell!
In fact, there is no such "victory" and if King paid more attention she'd know not to repeat such drivel. Where Dotard does get credit is in shamelessly exaggerating his role in the elimination of Baghdadi to be able to hoodwink those like Gayle King. How so? As ABC national security correspondent Martha Radditz pointed out it was the culmination of a heroic effort by the Syrian Kurds with informers on the inside of Baghdadi's operation. Kurd couriers also helped in getting critical info to the CIA. The operation had been going on for WEEKS. Indeed, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Kobani, tweeted on Sunday morning that the hunt for Baghdadi had been a five-month US-SDF joint intelligence operation.
But in Trump’s 50 minute self-obsessed bloviation, the Kurds were barely mentioned and then only grudgingly. Why would they be allowed much credit when Bonespurs stabbed them in the back, withdrawing U.S. forces 2 weeks ago, leaving them at the mercy of the oncoming Turks? Apart from that - as Radditz also pointed out - taking out Baghdadi doesn't end Isis, given it is a multi-headed Hydra and not merely one man. Indeed, recall Trump's abandonment of the Kurds effectively made it possible for hundreds of Isis fighters, terrorists to escape from their prisons - as the Turks bombed them open.
So don't be snookered by his bellicose babble. Trump had only a minimal role in this whole episode, and it doesn't mean the end of the Isis terror. As Thomas Friedman wrote in his NY Times piece, "Trump boasts of defeating the Islamic state which only shows how ignorant he is."
So pardon me as I howled with laughter when this sorry, orange hued maggot hyped his role waxing forth on how he had "captured Isis in one month and Mattis said it would take two years". In fact he did no such thing. Most of the captured Isis scum escaped from their Kurd-held prisons after Trump abandoned the Kurds. The advancing Turks caused the Kurds to retreat - without U.S. help - and the prisons were blasted open enabling a mass jail break. Baghdadi himself wasn't captured, he blew himself up using a suicide vest.
Predictably, as Gayle King's useless editorializing showed, the clueless media missed the boat on Trump - as they so often do when he briefly shows the slightest hint of being a real commander -in- chief, usually after being programmed by handlers and reading from his teleprompter instead of going off half -cocked. (Which he did anyway after ten minutes yesterday). But most of us aren't fooled because we know this is his core character: a sneering, mendacious, bullying con man and cowardly traitor who merits impeachment and rapid removal from office. This is the same character, as Gen. Jim Mattis chided at a recent national press event, who five times got his daddy to get a doctor to write letters to excuse him from military service for "bone spurs". This was a terrific comeback after Dotard had denigrated his former defense secretary for being “overrated” and “not that tough". Well, Mattis actually went into service unlike Trump who tried 5 times to escape with phony medical ruses.
But never mind, because cowards like Trump never recognize their cowardice. Hence, he could go on his bombastic way babbling that Baghdadi “died a coward crying, whimpering and screaming after running into a dead end tunnel ". Thereby projecting the same behavior onto Baghdadi that Trump himself would have exhibited, say if he'd been sent to Vietnam instead of escaping with con man inspired "bone spurs". As Gen. Jim Mattis noted, Trump might call him "overrated" but at least he (Mattis) didn't use "bone spurs" to get out of military service five times. Correction: task his rich daddy Fred to recruit a doc to write a letter excusing Dotard from service for bone spurs.
Captain Bonespurs didn't stop there with his egoistic boasting and denigration, seeing the overawed media assembled before him - a veritable captive audience - waiting with bated breath so he could carry on his asinine, half-baked rhetoric. So we also learned the Isis leader was a “dog”, a “gutless animal”, and the Isis militants who died alongside him were “losers” and “frightened puppies”. In other words, all characterizations of Donnie Dotard himself as he faces imminent impeachment with another parade of witnesses to provide depositions this week.
So one would think the media would have been able to see this as well, no? Not on your life. The corporate media still give Trump the benefit of the doubt every time - or almost - and on an occasion like this one heard nary a critical word. This despite the fact of having told over 13,000 lies - by the Washington Post's latest count.
One would have at least expected the media to ignore Trump's overheated claptrap that frankly sounded like it came from a Z-grade made-for-TV epic about a narcissist authoritarian who brags after killing a foe. Well, the film ('Last King Of Scotland') about Idi Amin Dada comes to mind, with that authoritarian tyrant bragging at various points about his conquests. That's what Trump's spiel reminded me of. Indeed, at one point Trump himself confirmed he had witnessed it almost as a piece of cinema, “as though you were watching a movie. The technology alone is really great.”
A legend in his own mind, like Idi Amin Dada.
So yeah, I was appalled that within hours of seeing Trump's performance (recall he's an entertainer first) a number of sectors in the press claimed that the killing gave Trump a "lifeline " in the midst of a battle for his own political survival.. Do not believe this codswallop for a nanosecond! This one off episode which translated into a very minor role (giving a simple ok) does not make up for his betrayal of the Syrian Kurds to the Turks, and the hundreds of Kurds slaughtered in the wake. A people who now also face massive ethnic cleansing as Turk Tyrant Recep Tayyip Erdoğan resettles over a million into the region the Kurds had to abandon. (Under orders from Russia's Vladimir Putin who had met with Erdoğan in the power vacuum left by Coward Dotard - who now seeks glory for vanquishing the Isis terrorist thugs he released by his withdrawal). Then there was his Mafia-style shake down of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to try to get dirt on Biden. No way in hell. And again, the media for being so daft and lacking in critical thinking is doing us no favors by such wretched lazy ass reporting
So don't buy for one second this guy is a hero or finally "presidential". He isn't. and don't buy Gayle King's gibberish that it's a great victory for him. He's the same craven, self obsessed mutt who isn't fit to be a dog catcher.
Two things are clear to me after seeing the Trump chest -thumping PR spectacle:
1) The asshole still has an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Barack Obama, which provides more reasons for him to lie and exaggerate. Recall Obama actually did oversee the takedown and elimination of Osama bin Laden. Indeed, Dotard left little doubt that Barack Obama’s success in tracking down and killing Osama bin Laden was on his mind.
As is his wont in declaring bigger wins he barked that taking down Baghdadi was the "greater win". But again, bear in mind he'd not have done zip without the Kurds' critical role and he shafted them when he realized he didn't need them any more. So, subtract 55 points for a hollow 'W'.
Oh, subtract another 45 points for an all out lie. Trump repeated a claim that he had somehow had a hand in Bin Laden’s downfall by calling for him to be targeted before the 9/11 attacks, before he was generally perceived as a threat. This is a false claim. Trump does mention Bin Laden in passing in one of his books, but does not call for him to be tracked down. Also, the al-Qaida leader was already widely seen as a substantial threat following several attacks on the U.S. No one needed (or wanted) Trump's input.
Trump, let us remind ourselves, has also sought to erase the Obama legacy. Secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, repeatedly has made the false claim that it was the current administration that amassed a coalition to defeat Isis. But that coalition was almost totally put together and made operational under Obama.
2) Given the preceding facts, it is evident that this whole Sunday PR show was scripted and put out by Trump's handlers and minions - like Pompeo and Stephen Miller (aka Goebbels Junior) - to use as a political weapon against the Dems and impeachment. The very bombastic content of his rambling and vainglorious, bullshit conveyed a foreshadowing of exactly how he will use it for political ends, and as a club to swing at his political enemies pushing for impeachment. From where I sit, the Dems and Pelosi need to club the maggot right back - right in the face. Starting with why he didn't give them a heads up on the operation, while he did deliver it to Putin (and assorted Repukes with less standing than Nancy Pelosi).
By contrast, when Bin Laden was killed in 2011, one of Obama’s first calls was to George W Bush, who had launched the hunt for the al-Qaida leader. The idea of calling Putin before Bush or others in the congress would have been unthinkable. But they are doable for Trump because he is a traitor at heart and is only using this takedown of another human rat as a political PR weapon to wield against Pelosi and the House Dems.
At the end of the day, while one can say good riddance to al Baghdadi, Trump is no hero in this, only a bystander for whom the effort was 99 percent completed (by the Kurds) before he even knew where Baghdadi was. The ultimate design of this public relations stunt was to craft a cudgel to use against his political enemies who he's referred to as "human scum". Thereby hoping his "victory" - and future barking about it, including questioning anyone's patriotism who isn't 100 % sold- - will cause the Dems to back off and slink away. Also expecting his chorus of coward enablers, like Lindsey Graham, Devin Nunes, Matt Gaetz and Steve Scalise to step in to further help with the call for 'No impeachment now!'
More alarming, even before the Sunday show, the personality cult that Trump is seeking to construct had already taken on an alarming tone. Over the weekend, his press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, had denounced another former aide turned critic, John Kelly, as “totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president”. This after Kelly, in a discussion and panel appearance, admitted he warned Trump not to have any 'yes' men who might advise him to do or act in way that would get him impeached.
As for Steph Grisham believing Trump has any "genius", well she's now proven she has an even lower IQ than her clueless predecessor, Sara Huckleberry Sanders.
Don't blink, don't get bamboozled, and don't bite on the PR which will be shooting out like putrid fracked water pumped from a firehose in the coming days. These vermin all need bringing down, and they should not be allowed to don the mantle of faux patriotism using the corpse of al Baghdadi. The Dems, and citizens at large, need to see through this charade and act accordingly - like the DC fans who booed Trump at the World Series.
'Nuff said!
See also:
by Margaret Kimberley | October 31, 2019 - 5:45am | permalink
Excerpt:
"The corporate media, Democrats and Republicans all joined in celebrating Baghdadi’s reported demise. Even those who count how often Trump tells lies suddenly expressed complete confidence in the version of events. Once again we see the embrace of Trump by the so-called resistance if he adheres to imperialist orthodoxy. The same man who they claim to want to impeach suddenly gets praise as he did when he launched an attack on Syria in 2017. The man mocked as a buffoon can be seen as “presidential” if he kills or even claims to kill people in a far away land.."
And:
And:
