The Odious Drumpf Saudi Debacle- Why No One Should Be Surprised By The Actions Of This Swine-in-Chief Traitor

Traitor Trump palsy-walsy with the murderous rogue Mohammed bin Salman.  As Michelle Goldberg put it, Trump is a 'supplicant' to the Saudis - not a master.

"We have a monster in the White House who lacks any empathy or honor!" - Janice, this morning.

"For fascist politics to take hold, we have to have a failure of our democratic culture. Fascism is ultranationalism, where the nation is defined in racial, ethnic, religious or perhaps cultural identity, and the nation is identified with one person: the leader, who is its voice. Fascist politics is tactics that exploit this kind of us/them distinction. Fascist politics might not result ultimately in a fascist state. But it's important to be attendant to the dangers because in and of itself, it breaks down the democratic culture."  Yale Prof. Jason Stanley, 'Can Fascism Happen In The U.S.?"

Let's leave aside for the moment that the foul fungal filth desecrating the People's House (the White House) has only in the past week: slimed former Navy Seal Adm. William McRaven for "not taking out Osama bin Laden fast enough",  this by a craven putz who 5 times used bone spurs to get out of service. He also declined to be present at a ceremony at an American cemetery in France honoring U.S. WWI war dead, and refused to join other leaders at another ceremony - because of the weather. While also earlier declaring he's a "nationalist".   But by now, why be surprised at anything this dishonorable narcissist authoritarian resident does?  Especially in his ongoing pandering to tyrants and autocrats.
  
In the wake of even the past week's events, many appear amazed that Dotard Drumpf has chosen to side with Saudi Arabia's  tyrant autocrat (Mohammed bin Salman) over his own CIA, and intelligence agencies re: the Jamal Khashoggi case. To jog memories, WaPo journalist Jamal Khashoggi was chopped up into tiny pieces and then bagged at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to be carted off and disposed of like so much garbage. What was Khashoggi's "crime"?  Criticizing the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his anti-democratic moves, including house arrest of members of the same Saudi family! See e.g.  Mr. Khashoggi's final column.

A nearly 2 month pursuit of verification ensued with the Turks and now the CIA finally coming up with the goods: an audio tape of the slaughter of Khashoggi, accompanied by unbearable screams. The tape was given to Trump to verify for himself, but this shitfaced coward refused to listen to it,  claiming it was "too painful" a thing to subject his sorry-ass ears to.  He then had the temerity to dispute the CIA's finding, and in total mendacity and utter flippancy had the ungodly, verminous gall to spout in respect to bin Salman's complicity,  "maybe he did, maybe he didn't."

Thereby Traitor Trump expressed his unstinting support for Saudi Arabia and claimed there was “nothing definitive” linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.   Further, an extraordinary statement issued yesterday by Mike Pompeo began with the words “The world is a very dangerous place!” – while Trump quoted Saudi officials as describing Khashoggi as an “enemy of the state”.  (Recall Trump has also described the American press as "the enemy of the people" so one presumes he'd love to mete out his own brand of executions for the 4th estate.)

The callous 649-word statement issued by this bipedal maggot and his collaborating vermin appeared to be a presidential act of defiance against the CIA, which reportedly concluded that the Saudi prince ordered the killing. Further,  the Senate,  is now considering bipartisan legislation that would suspend weapons sales to Saudi Arabia among other punitive measures.  Well, that remains to be seen given how the GOP Senate has covered for Trump's ass, but some branch has to stand tall and not have the majority of Americans mourning this nation fall into a moral sewer.

This is critical now that the Swine-Traitor has barked to reporters at the White House that the CIA “didn’t make a determination” on the murder, and that they had “nothing definitive” on its perpetrator. This mendacious claim is contradicted by multiple reports that the intelligence agency unambiguously concluded that bin Salman ordered the hit on the journalist  who had become a persistent critic.

In his written statement, Trump wrote: “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!"

Adding:

“That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr Jamal Khashoggi In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

As in the past with Vladimir Putin, Trump put official denials of wrongdoing from Riyadh on a par with US intelligence assessments.  In other words, placing his allegiance to a foreign power over duty to country, violating his oath of office to defend the Constitution -  and again stamping himself as a traitor who merits hanging.   Perhaps ultimately the spooks will carry out the job given they are now getting ever more pissed, actually enraged at Dotard's antics. This, according to former JFK assassination researcher, Jefferson Morley, e.g.

What Happens When The Intelligence Community Decides That Trump Is Too Dangerous To Be President?

Excerpt:

"Trump’s contempt for the intelligence profession, weaponized in his “deep state” conspiracy theories, has agency personnel feeling professionally vulnerable, perhaps for the first time. An irrational chief executive has shattered their apolitical pretensions and forced them to re-examine what their core beliefs require....

If there’s one thing to be learned from talking to former CIA personnel, it’s the sense that the CIA system—powerful, stealthy, and dangerous—is blinking red about the latest news of an authoritarian leader in an unstable nation."

What ought to truly enrage the Agency to the Richter Vengeance scale level of '10' is when this foul pretender actually said:: “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr Khashoggi.”

In other words, bin Salman's specious denial trumps the CIA's own efforts including the actual tape of Khashoggi's torture and dismemberment.

In the wake of this moral atrocity carried out at the nation's highest office, it appears at least one Repug:  Sen. Lindsey Graham – otherwise a fervent Trump fan – may have found his balls once again. For how long, before he reverts to a pussified punk,  we cannot say.  Anyway, it was heartening to see and hear him  issuing a statement predicting “strong bipartisan support for serious sanctions against Saudi Arabia, including appropriate members of the royal family, for this barbaric act which defied all civilized norms.”

Well, seeing is believing, Lindsey old sport!

Lindsey added:

“While Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally, the behavior of the crown prince – in multiple ways – has shown disrespect for the relationship and made him, in my view, beyond toxic.”

Indeed, and let's get it clear that NO amount of economic heft or assistance is worth the repudiation of a nation's moral compass - to become just another latter day clone of the Nazi Reich. (This also requires skewering Dotard's insane exaggeration of $450 b in Saudi assistance when the actual funds amount to only $14.5b)

Meanwhile, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee sent a joint letter to the president on Tuesday evening demanding he make a clear official statement to Congress on the prince’s involvement in the murder

Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, said: “The CIA has thoroughly investigated the murder of this innocent journalist and concluded with high confidence that it was directed by the crown prince. If there is reason to doubt the findings of the CIA, President Trump should immediately make that evidence public.”

NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg also identified (last night on  MSNBC's  'All In')   one of the most vile effects of Trump sucking up to the Saudi autocratic butchers: That it will now give a green light to every despot to chop up journalists and outspoken critics with impunity. The larger issue, of course, is the supposed land of liberty lining up with one of the most regressed and barbaric regimes on the planet. Where a hapless woman can still be whipped 200 times after being gang-raped:

See e.g.

Rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail | World …

We also learned today  ('Saudi Women's Rights Activists Face Torture',  WSJ,  p. A6)  that "at least 8 of 18 women rights activists held in prison by the Saudis have been tortured."  This included being subjected to electric shocks, lashing from whips, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and sexual harassment.  This is the bloodthirsty Saudi regime with which the Trump Imperium makes common cause to try to get better oil deals.  

 Over and above the Saudi regime's crimes in murdering a member of the U.S. press, let's bear in mind the ongoing genocide and famine in Yemen is totally on the Saudi prince and his barbaric cohort. They are pounding the Yemenis  into oblivion with U.S. weapons even as they seal off a key port - preventing foodstuffs from entering - and leaving over a million (mainly children) at the throes of starvation. The worst since the Biafra famine decades ago.

You want to see the fruit of the Saudi -U.S. relationship in Yemen? Take a cold hard look at the images below. Then ask yourself how much lower the moral altitude of this nation can  go!

See also:

Ashamed to be an American

And:

Much To Worry About In Trump's Latest Statement

And:

Cody Fenwick

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Donald Trump

'He’s afraid people want to kill him': Trump has reportedly refused to visit soldiers in combat zones out of fear

Dem House "Burying The Other Russia Story?" - There is NONE! And Why The CIA Gets More Restive With Each Trump Passing Day

The clueless imp, Devin Nunes, who led the Reeptard House down an endless conspiracy rabbit hole - which the WSJ editors now want resumed.

Once again, barely a week ago,, The Wall Street Journal disclosed the dichotomy between its regular reporting of news, and its FOXian Op-ed page.  This time in its editorial 'Burying the Other  Russia Story' (Nov. 10-11, p. A12), claiming:

"Adam Schiff will shut down the probe that found FBI abuses"

Of course, no such previous probe had a scintilla of validity. It was all invented and propelled by the odious little Reeptard imp, Devin Nunes. As I noted in a previous post on how the classless Trump toady leaked classified info, e.g

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/03/devin-nunes-leaks-classified-info.html

"Nunes by his feckless and reckless actions confirmed once and for all what many of us already believed: he is merely a Trump toady doing his master's work. After all, this turkey  served on Trump’s national security transition team, so why would he not seek to do all possible to cover for his Fuhrer?"


With the release of a redacted Democratic memorandum in February, we beheld just how deeply Nunes had sacrificed his honor, patriotism and veracity in the service of the Dotard traitor.  That memo, even with redaction, boldly countered Nunes'  claims that top F.B.I. and Justice Department officials had "abused their powers in spying on Carter Page" - the former Trump campaign aide.  Hence, we know who the real liars are:  Nunes and Trump -  the two traitors who have attempted to blow distracting smoke onto the Mueller probe. And now with Trump's appointment of Whitaker to knee cap the investigation, it's clear to even the Densan portion of the populace. 

It's certainly clear to the CIA, which agency's operatives are becoming ever more restive and alarmed - according to former JFK assassination researcher, Jefferson Morley, e.g.
What Happens When The Intelligence Community Decides That Trump Is Too Dangerous To Be President?

As Morley notes:

"At the halfway point in Trump’s first term, these formers see themselves as a bulwark of an endangered democracy. The president and his supporters see a cabal of “deep state” radicals out to overturn the will of the people. With the appointment of Matthew Whitaker, an unqualified political operative, as Attorney General, Brennan said a “constitutional crisis” is fast approaching. The clash between a willfully ignorant commander in chief and a politicized intelligence community seems sure to deepen."

Adding:

"The problem with Trump in the eyes of these CIA formers is almost pre-political. The president’s policy decisions matter less than his contempt for intelligence and the system that collects it.....

CIA operatives could trust both neoconservative George W. Bush and internationalist Barack Obama with that arsenal because they believed, whatever their politics, both presidents were rational actors. With Trump, they can have no such confidence.

Trump’s contempt for the intelligence profession, weaponized in his “deep state” conspiracy theories, has agency personnel feeling professionally vulnerable, perhaps for the first time. An irrational chief executive has shattered their apolitical pretensions and forced them to re-examine what their core beliefs require....

If there’s one thing to be learned from talking to former CIA personnel, it’s the sense that the CIA system—powerful, stealthy, and dangerous—is blinking red about the latest news of an authoritarian leader in an unstable nation."

What does "blinking red" mean?  Well, we will soon find out, but I'd wager it's nothing salutary. I am also fairly certain that the agency's operatives have had it with the cockeyed conspiracy crappola being spewed out by the Right's Trump-protecting trolls  -including the Wall Street Journal's Op-ed page.  They have to be because they know this produces a feedback loop that gets back to Trump who then expands his grievance set and acrimony at the intelligence community and "deep state"  - as the Right's denizens in Reddit, 4Chan, Info wars etc. cheer more loudly.

Previously, I'd cited and quoted the assorted efforts of pro-Dotard mudslingers Kimberley Strassel, and Holman Jenkins, in their concerted efforts to take the public's eyes off the Mueller probe and onto the specious faux conspiracy involving the FBI, Christopher Steele, and Fusion GPS.  All of their codswallop, including assorted WSJ editorials that I've skewered, e.g.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/02/wsj-editorial-again-spouts-balderdash.html

have essentially centered around one theme.  Briefly, the pseudo conspiracy as claimed in the recent WSJ  offering was that:

"Hillary Clinton and the DNC hired Fusion GPS which hired an intelligence gun for hire - Christopher Steele, to write a 'dossier' on Donald Trump on Trump's supposed links to Russia. Steele fed that document to the FBI, even as he secretly alerted the media to the FBI probe that  Team Clinton had helped to initiate. Fusion, the oppo research firm, was also supplying its dossier to senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie worked for Fusion."

In other words, on this patchwork of incidentals the Rabid Right has crafted a whole cloth nutso conspiracy that rivals the one fantasized in the book , "Alien World Order",  which has Reptilian aliens taking over our politicos and government - which will soon institute a slave nation.   Now, let's catch our breath and examine the facts as we know them  - at least as the the sane contingent knows them:

1- FUSION was actually started by a group of Wall Street Journal reporters - notably investigative reporter Glenn R. Simpson.   The takeaway here is if the WSJ wants to go look for exotic political conspiracies it needs to start in its own back yard.

2- In 2015, Fusion began investigating Trump under a contract with the Washington Free Beacon - a conservative website supported by GOP mega-donor Paul Singer.  Singer, like many old guard GOP donors  didn't trust the Queens' grifter  and real estate con man - and certainly not as President of the United States.  So they wanted to learn as much as they could about a craven, narcissistic criminal who'd potentially  occupy the nation's highest seat of power - including access to the nuclear codes.

3-  Subsequently, after Trump won the Repub primary the material was handed off to the Clinton campaign. This was NOT unlawful as the WSJ tries to portray - or at least suggest - but in the full mold of regular oppo research on a political opponent. Especially one who on at least one occasion blabbed openly:

"I will tell you this, Russia if you're listening, I hope that you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."

4-  Christopher Steele, about whom I've written before, was no mere intel "gun for hire".  According to one Financial Times account (Feb. 16) , Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".  James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services".  

 The dossier itself is actually several memos, based on conversations with Russian sources, that were written between June and December of 2016.
The dossier is a frequent target of  the WSJ- FOX- Dotard Axis which seeks to heap incessant   derision upon it. But the probe into the Trump campaign originally was sparked by a separate matter that Steele never wrote about — a tip from an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, appeared to know Russia had obtained damaging emails on the Democrats. (Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents.).

5-  As for Bruce Ohr, about whom the WSJ nabobs paint such a sinister picture, he's been a subject of "endless fascination for the Right" according to one WaPo piece by Glenn Kessler. In truth he was a medium level DOJ paper pusher and reader of material who lost his job in 2017  after DOJ learned of his contacts with Steele. (Steele, for his part, was desperate to get his dossier into into proper channels lest anything untoward befall him - and recall he did go into hiding at one point. This is also why he contacted the media because he didn't believe the FBI was acting expeditiously enough.)

As for the WSJ's claims of "unmasking" i.e. of Carter Page and other Trump campaign associates, this is done as a matter of course whenever any American has contact with hostile foreign agents - as Page did.  How do we KNOW this? We have foreign intercepts of meetings of Trump cronies, e.g. Carter Page, with Russian  (GRU) agents.  It was these intercepts and related documents - including  FISA warrants- that Devin Nunes threatened to release to expose a supposed "FBI-DOJ conspiracy"..   In fact the latter's involvement were called for given the U.S. had to enter the picture with its own FISA warrants, surveillance, etc.  after foreign  intercepts were received from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands. Not to do so would have violated agreements with foreign intel sources, assets.   I am sure the WSJ cognoscenti know this too, if they are worth anything.  So they also have to know  their whole insipid "other Russia story"  involving the FBI and DOJ, Hillary, Fusions GPS etc.  is just that, nonsense.  

Meanwhile, Mueller's July indictment revealed for the first time that a team of Russian Military Intelligence hackers- members of the GRU-  initiated their disruption efforts as early as March, 2016,  or 8 months before the election, and targeting 300 people. This was also around the same time Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos  learned from an Aussie diplomat the Russians possessed "dirt" on Clinton.

Mueller released the indictment one day before Trump's planned secret sit down with Putin, obviously as a warning shot over Trump's bow, to behave himself. Or else.  According to the indictment:

"On or about July 27, 2016, the conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts on a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clinton's personal office. They also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign. '

Most interesting, this happened on the very same day Traitor Trump appeared in front of the media cameras and pleaded with Russia to hack Hillary's email.

Former FBI agent Cliff Watts has observed:

“Without the Russian influence effort, I believe Trump would not have even been within striking distance of Clinton on Election Day.” 

That is the inconvenient truth the Trump lapdogs and conspiracy- addled Right media stooges like FOX and the WSJ editors won’t admit.  But maybe in time we can at least get them to concede the "lady justice" effort now focused on Trump, his nefarious Russkie associates and campaign is not "one sided justice."  Yuh think?

As for Trump, he'd better hope to hell the CIA's "blinking red alarm" doesn't go to Defcon 1. 

Update-  Nov. 23: As I expected,  the Reeptardos -  given a pathetic lame duck session of barely 20 days-   have decided to try to pursue the bogus investigation into the FBI- Hillary- Steele "plot"  described in this post. Peter King, bloviating this morning on MSNBC, insisted to Kristin Welker it was "essential" the House Judiciary Committee (still under GOP  control until January) investigate and subpoena James Comey and "why he did what he did".  See e.g.

• James Comey's lawyer says they'll resist House Republican's subpoena and his statement is a doozy

 As former prosecutor Joyce Vance subsequently noted, this is nonsense given Comey and other GOP targets already had agreed to make themselves available for open hearings - which the GOOPs passed on.  So in the end, this is all a contrived, political stunt based on last minute grandstanding before they lose power early next year.

It is the proverbial "storm in a teacup" and these lame brains are merely trying a last ditch effort to  invoke a false narrative to distract from Mueller's investigation. (Which could also end in the same 20 day period yielding conclusions on DJT that no Reeptard wants.)  Good for James Comey for vowing to fight any closed door hearings of the soon to be interred GOP House Judiciary Committee.

See also:
'Mueller Is About To Pounce': Trump Officials And Allies Reportedly Fear The Worst As The President's Mood Darkens

And:

Barry Lando

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Human Rights | Peace & Justice

Trump’s Enablers: Appalling Parallels