Displaying 661 To 690 Of 1,008 Comments As many pundits have said, if we had a DOJ that had integrity, a special counsel who have been appointed to investigate the surveillance of Ambassador Yovanovich. Until we replace the current crime syndicate in the White House and those in Congress who support it, we really don’t have a working government. There are reasons why Pompeo and Barr are silent after this has been exposed to the public, and they are not good reasons. » Posted By TOCB On January 17, 2020 @ 5:18 am With all of the evidence supporting both articles of impeachment, trump arrogantly lies in his defense, and congressional republicans support his lies. Bill Clinton lied (under oath, while trump refuses to be put under oath) about a consensual extramarital affair, and after the blue dress exposed him, he apologized to the country for what he had done. Trump has undermined the national security of the USA and one of our allies and he remains defiant even after overwhelming evidence exposing him. I think Pelosi is right in saying to the press that the House has done their job, and if the Senate doesn’t do their job it is up to the American public to hold them accountable. The viability of our democracy is the hands of the American people, whether it is through their congressional representatives or at the ballot box. » Posted By TOCB On January 17, 2020 @ 5:10 am Whoda thunk it? A New York crime syndicate is running the U.S. government, and its primary supporters are white evangelicals and white nationalist, who btw have MANY overlapping members. » Posted By TOCB On January 15, 2020 @ 1:50 pm Bernie Sanders is not the only man who doesn’t think a woman can be or should be president. He is also not the only person who has that attitude, including many women. More women than men vote in elections, so women have the capacity to change male domination in government. As in most cases, the same old adage applies, i.e., “we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us”. Just as there are more people in the USA who align with the values of the Democratic Party than the republican party, YET the republican party controls our government. There are also more women whose values align more with the Democratic Party than men whose values align with either major party, YET men control our government. So who cares what Bernie Sanders or any man thinks about whether a woman can or should be president. The question is, WHAT DO WOMEN THINK! Btw, I am a man. » Posted By TOCB On January 14, 2020 @ 5:43 am So-called conservative American politicians have bitten off more than they can chew. I heard Congressman Max Rose say this morning that killing Soleimani was justified and legal, but it wasn’t wise. His reason was that Soleimani had organized or ordered the killing of Americans for decades. The problem with this “policy” is that Soleimani was a member of the sovereign government of Iran. Yes, he ordered American military installations to be attacked. That was his job. If American soldiers had not been in the Middle East, carrying out American policy, Soleimani would not have ordered them killed. What trump and our military have done is open up the justification of American government officials to be assassinated, because they too have ordered the killing of soldiers from other nations. It is against the law for Americans of any stripe to murder someone, especially a member of a foreign government, and to use the military to do it makes it even worse. These people can stretch the meaning of “imminence” as much as they like, but they can’t change the meaning of the word. They might even get away with it with the American people, but I can almost guarantee that America won’t get away with it from the rest of the world forever. It is often said that “Karma is a bitch”. America’s top military officer said he is “100 percent” confident Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian commander killed in an airstrike Thursday, approved the attack on an Iraqi military base at the end of last month that killed an American. U.S. officials have blamed Soleimani for the killing or wounding of thousands of Americans in Iraq and elsewhere for well over a decade. The Iranian commander, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, had just arrived in Baghdad when his motorcade was bombed in a mission tasked to Joint Special Operations Command late Thursday night. » Posted By TOCB On January 13, 2020 @ 4:19 am I doubt if any trump supporters will see this, or even care. However, the words, “vague” and “might” TOTALLY dispels the “imminent” threat LIE. But a senior administration official and a senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information, said they were only aware of vague intelligence about a plot against the embassy in Baghdad and that the information did not suggest a fully formed plot. Neither official said there were threats against multiple embassies. » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 8:53 am The ACA prevents insurers from charging sick people higher premiums or offering discounts to the healthy. Idaho’s new plans can link premiums to health status. That means premiums can be substantially cheaper than ACA plans for relatively healthy people — as much as 50% less, insurers say. This highlights how ignorant Americans are about how health insurance works, and how the for-profit health insurance industry AND the politicians they have bought exploit that ignorance. The cost of health insurance should only be contingent of one’s ability to pay, while access to health care should be equally available to EVERYONE regardless of ability to pay. If Americans would use their heads for more than a hat-rack, they MIGHT understand this principle. » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 8:25 am lol! » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 6:34 am In order to remain in office, Trump must ensure a large majority of Republican senators side with him in the trial. And as the House was moving through the impeachment process last fall, Trump raised campaign funds for several vulnerable Republican senators facing reelection in 2020, including Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, and Joni Ernst. So impeachment was what made the assassination of Soleimani an “imminent” threat for trump. Not for the USA, but for trump. The USA is now the most dangerous nation in the world, BECAUSE we have a criminal and a lunatic at the head of our government, and that criminal knows that if and when he leaves office, his freedom and indeed his very life is in danger. There is no telling what this maniac might do to stay in power, and congressional republicans are doing everything they can to protect him. NOTHING will change until Democrats regain control of the government so that trump and republicans will be held accountable. Can you imagine what would have happened if Democrats had not taken the House in 2018, OR if Democrats don’t take control of the government in 2020? » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 6:34 am But since Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979, Iran has conducted itself more like an international crime syndicate than a sovereign state. https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/the-killing-of-soleimani-was-not-an-assassination/ Trump’s supporters are attempting to justify the assassination of Soleimani by claiming that the entire Iranian government is an international crime syndicate. REALLY? So what has the U.S. government become under the trump regime? » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 5:21 am It appears that simply being in trump’s presence causes people to lose their minds. I cannot think of a single so-called respected person who has remained so, after having anything to do with trump. It is like this “man” is the persona of Satan. » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 5:12 am If Iran is found to have shot down the plane once the investigation is complete, the U.S. “and the world will take appropriate actions in response,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Exactly WHO has the authority to determine what the “appropriate action” is? This is a very serious matter, but it is like the childish excuse, “he started it”. Yes, the Iranian military shot the plane down, but everything began with trump’s assassination of Soleimani. Additionally, why did the Ukrainian government allow to plane to take off from Kiev to travel in Iranian airspace during a war, and why did the Iranian government allow the plane to take off during a war, and why did the passengers board the plane in the middle of a war zone? All of these things were a series of unfortunate events that were set in motion by trump’s assassination of Soleimani. » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 5:08 am Oh my Lord, I just realized I have been using the wrong word for “imminent”. » Posted By TOCB On January 11, 2020 @ 4:56 am Pompeo, who is every bit a dangerous as trump, just said that no one believes that one attack to avert an “eminent” threat, eliminates the threat. That being the case, the only two realities are (1) a continuous war has to be pursued, or (2) the threat was not an “eminent” threat. » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 8:07 am It is reasonable to assume the plane was struck by a missile, either by Iran or the USA, both of which could have thought the craft was a military craft of the other country. What puzzles me is WHY the airline would have allowed the plane to take off without getting an all-clear from the Iranian military, or even WHY the passengers would have boarded the plane given the military activity in the area, given that the whole world knew about the activity. » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 6:36 am It is not really ironic, but it is telling that trump and republicans want to investigate everyone but trump and themselves. » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 5:10 am This piece is spot on! I have never been comfortable with the USA being the self-appointed world’s police, but I wanted us to be part of the world community that helped to keep the world safe from ourselves, i.e., each other. With trump and the republican party at the helm, we are relegating ourselves to the status of powerful banana republic that is on our way to ruin. » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 5:08 am This is a video that is available to entire world, and in it Donald John Trump, the President of The United States of America, unwittingly confesses to using the U.S. military to murder General Soleimani and others who were in his party during the attack. The FACT is the American people are treating this murder as a casual thing that the leader of the American government can do, without consequence. Trump supposedly represents the American people, so in the eyes of the many people in the world, what trump does is what the American people wants him to do. We don’t need ANOTHER war powers resolution to prevent the president from murdering leaders of sovereign nations. That is already a crime. Under the Constitution, the president does not have the authority to use the military to attack a sovereign nation without the approval of Congress, UNLESS we are under attack. Even the War Powers Act of 1973 does not give the president the authority to do this UNLESS we are in eminent danger. That is why trump and his merry band of idiots attempted to persuade Americans that we were in eminent danger from Soleimani. However, except for his Fifth Avenue crowd, NO ONE buys that LIE! » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 4:57 am I think on the “revenge” factor, the Iranian leadership is thinking more long term. They know how politics work in the USA and their bet is probably that trump will not win the next election, and after he is gone they will have more sane and rational people to deal with. THEN, they will find a way to get trump without harming other Americans. I think they will eventually avenge Soleimani’s murder by attacking trump personally. Many Americans want to paint Muslim nations that are not friendly with us, as terrorist nations. Iran is a sovereign nation that has considered the United States government to be against their national security and their national interest for well over fifty years. Since 1979, with the exception of the Clinton and Obama administrations, the U.S. government has been openly hostile to the Iranian government. From my perspective, Americans need to accept the fact that not all people share our worldview. I don’t think a theocratic government is a good form of government, but no theocratic nation asked me. I think the best we can do in order to co-exist with theocratic nations is to do everything we can to prevent them from killing their people because of theocratic doctrine. One problem we have with that though is that we kill our people as well by using capital punishment, so we are not on a higher moral level than they are. I did not look at Soleimani as being a terrorist any more than I view our own soldiers being terrorists, with a few exceptions. Iran is an adversary to the USA and Soleimani was a leader in that adversarial nation. Iran has killed people in the pursuit of their interest, just as we have killed people in the supposed pursuit of our interest. Both of those pursuits are the result of a world where humans have not evolved to level of civilization where they can resolve conflict without violence. » Posted By TOCB On January 10, 2020 @ 4:42 am We have a criminal in the White House and a VERY weak Congress, both republicans AND Democrats. Trump knows that IF he loses the presidency, it is likely he will end up in jail or maybe even dead because he has made enemies all over the world, and since the USA is an open society, almost anyone can come here. Knowing this, there is absolutely no telling what trump will do to stay in office. » Posted By TOCB On January 8, 2020 @ 8:57 am Who is more of an asshole or a terrorist than trump? Soleimani was a soldier who carried out the mission of his leadership, just like soldiers do all over the world. Soleimani was no more of a terrorist that trump is, or any American general is. In the press conference, trump did not take the offramp that Iran offered him, at least his rhetoric didn’t. I doubt if he does anything else militarily though. He basically was able to get away with a wag-the-dog attack, albeit short-lived because most of the country’s attention goes back to his impeachment. If Iran is smart, and I think they are, they WILL continue developing nuclear weapons as that seems to be the only thing the U.S. government fears from any sovereign nation. » Posted By TOCB On January 8, 2020 @ 8:47 am I don’t think the Iranian people will accept a demonstration of what the Iranian military CAN do in response to the assassination of a revered military hero, as the end game. It was no doubt a strategic move by the Iranian government. Iraq has not redrawn the order for the USA to leave their country. Who benefits from that? Probably Iran first, and Putin next. Additionally, If I were trump, I would train myself not to sleep too soundly ever again. » Posted By TOCB On January 8, 2020 @ 6:08 am In his press conference, Pompeo DID NOT clear trump of a crime, he simply implicated himself as an accomplish. » Posted By TOCB On January 7, 2020 @ 7:22 am Not that Bolton’s testimony is necessary to ascertain the truth about trump’s extortion attempt. We already have proof of that, and we have testimony by credible witnesses that Bolton referred to the extortion attempt as a “drug deal” and that he advised those who were a part of it to seek legal advice. IF Democrats subpoena Bolton, trump and republicans will claim executive privilege, although they know that the court will eventually rule against them because executive privilege does not apply in the commission crimes. » Posted By TOCB On January 7, 2020 @ 7:07 am General Soleimani was an Iranian soldier who directed his military to kill enemies of the Iranian government. Many people in the USA call him a terrorist because of that. Our military, as well as every military in the world, do the exact same thing. The Iranian parliament has now designated the U.S. military as a terrorist organization. Iran’s Parliament Tuesday approved a bill designating the entire U.S. military and Pentagon terrorist organizations after the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq. The United States definitely no longer has a credible government because the executive branch of our government is run by a crime ring and one of the major political parties in Congress is an accomplish to that crime ring. There is no doubt that trump attempted to bribe and extort the Ukraine government to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that trump collaborated with Putin to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. There is no doubt that trump used the United States military to illegally assassinate a top official of the Iranian government. If that assassination had been legal, trump would have gone before Congress and gotten permission to carry it out as presidents are required to do under U.S. law. Trump and the GOP are criminals. The only remaining question is are the American people also criminals. » Posted By TOCB On January 7, 2020 @ 6:54 am McConnell is using former secretary of Homeland Security, Jay Johnson, as the authority on whether trump has the authority to commit U.S. armed forces to a conflict without the approval of Congress. On a recent television show Johnson incorrectly stated that trump was within his authority to assassinate Soleimani, I suppose under the War Powers Act. Here is what the War Powers Act states relative to the president’s authority to commit U.S. armed forces. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/usconlaw/war-powers.php Conceptually, the War Powers Resolution can be broken down into several distinct parts. The first part states the policy behind the law, namely to “insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities,” and that the President’s powers as Commander in Chief are exercised only pursuant to a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization from Congress, or a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States (50 USC Sec. 1541). » Posted By TOCB On January 6, 2020 @ 3:35 pm The problem with these chicken hawks is that just because they want a certain outcome does not justify it or mean that they have the authority to carry it out. If they commit an act without the authority to do so, they commit a crime. The question the American people are confronted with as a democratic government is if we want a criminal regime in charge of our government. » Posted By TOCB On January 6, 2020 @ 6:20 am There COULD BE absolutely NOTHING to this story other than speculation. However, good ethics requires eliminating even the appearance of impropriety. WHY would the American people even take a chance that something like this will happen? WHY would we put someone who has a history of this kind of behavior at the top of our government? https://theweek.com/articles/872459/what-suspicious-pattern-trump-trades-really-reveals But even if Cohan’s article is bogus, if suspicions of this kind of corruption are actually widespread, that itself could have a negative impact on market confidence. Assuring that confidence depends on having credible regulators, transparency about market transactions — and a press that takes its own responsibility for accuracy more seriously than the quest for clicks. It’s surely worth investigating whether anyone in Trumpland was involved in such trading. But the bigger challenge is to restore and preserve confidence in the system. As is so often the case in the age of Trump, the big picture story isn’t only about Trump’s corruption, but how Trump’s vastly more brazen behavior has exposed the extent of the rot that preceded him. » Posted By TOCB On January 6, 2020 @ 5:38 am WOW! Just WOW!!! We’ve spent a lot of money in Iraq,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington after spending the holidays at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. “We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build….We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.” What western civilized country will go along with trump on sanctioning Iran? Israel? Oh, wait! Iran doesn’t do any business with Israel and they don’t need the USA. Good luck with those sanctions, dumbass. » Posted By TOCB On January 5, 2020 @ 6:09 pm Although dumbass probably doesn’t know it, it actually does work that way. WHY? Because we are the United States of America and not some banana dictator republic. It doesn’t surprise me that there is a bounty on trump now though. I suspect the leaders of Iran realize they can separate trump and his very small merry band of idiots from most of the people of the USA who want to peaceably coexist with the rest of the world. They might even wait until trump is no longer president, and then kill his dumb ass. » Posted By TOCB On January 5, 2020 @ 5:51 pmComments Posted By TOCB
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told a small group of reporters on Friday that within the last 90 days Kata’ib Hezbollah, aka KH, an Iranian-backed militia, organized a sophisticated campaign against U.S. and coalition forces that increased in intensity, culminating with the Dec. 27 attack on the Iraqi base near Kirkuk that killed a U.S. civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The senior defense official did not directly contradict Trump but said there was concern that there might be an attempt to place a bomb at the Baghdad embassy, a heavily fortified structure in a secure area of the Iraqi capital.
The senior administration official said that Trump has been fixated on not allowing an attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility, out of fear of being compared unfavorably to his predecessor.
Trump is “totally obsessed with not letting something like Benghazi happen to him,” the official said, referring to the 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Libya that has achieved totemic status among Trump allies, who see it as evidence of former president Barack Obama’s alleged weakness in the face of terrorism.
The new report from the Journal indicates Trump is still trying to shore up support for the forthcoming trial, going so far as to use the power of the U.S. military to kill a top Iranian general in order to appease certain senators.
Lawmakers also backed a motion allocating $220 million to the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards Corp’s (IRGC) Quds Force to take revenge for Soleimani’s death in a drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump.
The second part requires the President to consult with Congress before introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities or situations where hostilities are imminent, and to continue such consultations as long as U.S. armed forces remain in such situations (50 USC Sec. 1542).
The president added that if Iraqi officials try to kick the United States out the country it would not leave on a “very friendly basis.” The U.S. invasion of Iraq took place in 2003.
«« Back To Stats Page
Home Stats