Yemen-Ghazi

By Jeff Simpson

One of the first decisions by The Donald, acting as Commander in Chief, was to sanction a raid on a compound in Yemen to gather computers and other intelligence.  As pretty much everything The Donald touches, the raid went horribly wrong.

As a senior military official said : "almost everything went wrong."

By almost everything going wrong, that includes the death of a Navy Seal and an 8 year old American girl(amongst others).

The Navy Seal, Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, from Peoria, IL will not be coming home again.  

The Donald, decided to go ahead with the raid over dinner with Mike Pence, Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner(Reince was busy washing dishes).  The four dullards, making life and death decisions in a raid for cellphones is scary enough, so I try not to think about them having the power to make decisions on a more global scale.

While the raid was going on, and going south, The Donald was so involved and engaged that he was tweeting during the raid.  

Donald J. TrumpVerified account‏@realDonaldTrump

Somebody with aptitude and conviction should buy the FAKE NEWS and failing @nytimes and either run it correctly or let it fold with dignity!

• RETWEETS22,724
• LIKES114,205
• 

7:00 AM - 29 Jan 2017

37,710 replies22,724 retweets114,205 likes

 

 

After all, its much more important as the President of the United States to troll the New York Times than stay abreast of a major military raid that he ordered.    

Yes, as with Benghazi, its a volatile world, where decisions made here, have real world consequences and sometimes there is no right or wrong answer.   Sometimes you can do everything possible right and still have everything go wrong.   

However, surprisingly, American troops deaths do not seem to matter to Republican elected officials when there is a Republican President.   

For instance, Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan, was very upset about the deaths in Benghazi:

“[The House Benghazi report] makes clear that officials in Washington failed our men and women on the ground when they were in need of help.” — Paul Ryan

Despite asking for it, the father of Mr. Owens, and the rest of the American public, can not expect the details and failings of this mission to get investigated.  

Even though he is making sure that there will be no investigations, Speaker Ryan had this to say about the tragic death of Seal Owens.  

"               "  Paul Ryan.  

Ooops, I guess Speaker Ryan was too busy fundraising in Texas to honor a soldier who gave everything he had for our country.  

Expect four more years of botched foreign policy, dead Americans, and a huge layer of GOP hypocrisy to cover all major messes.

It is hard work, to take away healthcare from 20 million Americans which does not leave much time to actually care about the people you are supposed to be governing.

Just know that every time a Republican spouts the term Benghazi from their lips, what they really mean is "I only care about being in power and if I can use dead Americans to do so, that's great!"

RoJoWho?

On Sunday, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson appeared on "Up Front with Mike Gousha," a Milwaukee-based talk show. After being allowed to repeat the Republican talking points about the Iran Deal and immigration he actually said that even though he has no proof, he knows that woman are coming to the United States and directly to birthing centers just to have babies - RoJo talked about his tanking poll numbers.

In a recent Marquette University poll, RoJo's approval rating came in third after those that disapprove of the job he's doing and those who said, "RoJoWho?"

RoJoWho's explanation for this phenomenon is priceless:

There's been too much going on in Wisconsin, Johnson said in an interview broadcast Sunday on "UpFront with Mike Gousha."

A Marquette Law School Poll last month found that 30 percent of Wisconsin voters had a favorable opinion of Johnson, a first-term Republican from Oshkosh, while 31 percent had an unfavorable view.

But 35 percent said they hadn't heard enough about Johnson, who gained 1.12 million votes in beating Russ Feingold by five percentage points in 2010.

Johnson said his somewhat-unknown status in his home state has to do with everything that's taken place in Wisconsin since the November 2010 election, citing Act 10 and Rep. Paul Ryan appearing on the 2012 Republican presidential ticket as the vice presidential nominee.

"So from a political standpoint, as a United States Senator, there's been focus on the governor and then the president and vice president race here," Johnson said.

In other words, even though Act 10 was passed in 2011 and Paul Lyin' Ryan's failed nationwide race was in 2012, RoJoWho has done nothing to distinguish himself in the past five years.

Well, to be fair, RoJoWho did jump up and down yelling "Benghazi!" a lot during those years. He also cheered on the 50+ attempts to repeal Obamacare. Other than those things, no, he hasn't done much.

And that's probably why RoJoWho has continuously been one of the top senators who are likely to lose their seat next year.

Ron Johnson To The Rescue!

US Senator Ron Johnson somehow connived his way to be the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. If this filled the gentle reader with a sense of dread and foreboding, good. It should.

So far, RoJo's track record with homeland security is to release confidential information for the sole purpose of trying to score political points because Benghaaaaazi!

As the new chair, RoJo has laid out a couple of things he wants to focus on.

One of those things is immigration, something about which he readily admits he is clueless:

The first-term senator said he and the panel's top Democrat, Tom Carper of Delaware, are taking a trip to the Mexican border where they and others will meet with U.S. Border Patrol agents, local sheriffs, ranchers and individuals with firsthand knowledge of the problems.

"Do I know how to secure the border? No. But I know how to develop a process for getting it done," Johnson said. "We are going to take a very analytical approach, starting with the reality of the situation, trying to set achievable goals."

The senator said there is a need for double fencing in some sections of the border so that it's not so easy to rip a hole through the barrier from the Mexican side where U.S. law enforcement doesn't have jurisdiction.

"The way it is now, someone can cut a hole in the fence and we can't do anything about it," Johnson said.

What? Is the fence in Mexico? Or can't law enforcement arrest them when they come through the fence?

Or is this just a way to try to sabotage one of the Democrats' talking points?

Another thing RoJo is worried about are nuclear missiles destroying our electric grid:

In addition to addressing border security, he wants the committee to hold hearings on matters such as electromagnetic pulse threats to the nation's electrical grid.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion has the potential to shut down a large portion of the grid instantaneously, so that a single missile with a warhead doesn't have to be very large to inflict great damage.

Knowing RoJo, he is probably picturing Kim Jong-Un crossing the Pacific Ocean on a raft armed with toy rockets to destroy us all.

But at least he isn't blaming everything on sunspots anymore.

Is it any surprise why RoJo is deemed the Senator most likely to lose his seat in 2016?

The good news is that it is looking more likely that Russ Feingold will return to claim his old seat back from this impostor.

Nuff Said

No One Expects The Benghazi Inquisition!

Tune in to any radio squawker, turn on Faux News Network (Motto: Now with more palm trees!), click on any conservative blog or pick up any other corporate media source and one would think that the only thing happening in the world is....Benghazi!

The Republicans are on a witch hunt unlike any seen since Bill Clinton couldn't keep his fly zipped up.

For the unfamiliar, the "investigation" into Benghazi has to do with the tragic death of four Americans in Libya.  Make no mistake about it - anytime people die needlessly, it is a tragedy and should be investigated.

However, I don't recall Republicans going quite so crazy to get to the bottom of the   lies told by the Bush/Cheney administration that led to thousands of Americans in Iraq.  I also don't recall them ever even mentioning the dozens of attacks of Americans under the Reagan/Bush/Bush years.  And did they ever even bring up the fact that Dubya had been warned months before 9/11?

Nope. Not once.

So why are they suddenly focused on Benghazi?

Well, there are a number of reasons.

True to their nature. the Republicans aren't going to let a crisis go to waste.  Thus, they want to keep it in the news while they are fundraising on it.

There are some who think that the Teapublicans are using this tragedy as a political weapon to issue their fifteenth call for Obama's impeachment.  (It's funny how I don't hear any of the usual suspects cry that this is just an attempt to redo the election, like they did during the attempt to recall Scott Walker.)

But the primary reason that the Republicans suddenly find Benghazi to be a national crisis is not because of what happened in Benghazi.  In fact, it has nothing to do with anything that has happened in the past.

The real reason for the selective outrage over Benghazi is because they are afraid of the future:

Rand Paul gave it away already by declaring Clinton unfit for higher office.

And in warped, sick kind of way, it makes sense.

We've seen how bent out of shape they had with a black man leading the country for not just one, but two terms.

But at least Obama is a man.  The thought of having a woman president, sad to say, is enough for some Republican heads to explode.

They had better get used the possibility of it though.  Despite the frenzied attacks on Hillary, they haven't been able to put a dent in her popularity.

Ron Johnson is a Weenie!

Truer words could not be spoken:

RoJo was a NoGo

Ron Johnson (R - class rings)  had a very bad week! As a matter of fact he had the worst week in Washington DC.  He bit off more than he could chew when he tried to attack Secretary Clinton and then Senator Kerry!  

Our Dumb Senator, then tried to get into with John Kerry and again was fed his lunch:

But really as we know, anytime RoJo tries to speak in public it never goes well for him!   

For the record, Ron Johnson believes affordable contraception is easily distributed over the Internet, thinks "sunspot activity" is responsible for global warming, believes the Great Recession ended before President Obama took office; and sees public investment in alternative energy as roughly the same thing as "the Soviet Union."

 The thing is, RoJo will gladly be the laughing stock of all of the country, because he know got a line that the echo chamber can use when they want to throw out red meat to the crazies!  

They have what they want: a soundbite they can rip from context and use as a cudgel to beat the administration and Secretary Clinton with. I’m not sure if they really expect their efforts to color mainstream coverage of this story, but it’s clear that that’s what they’re hoping. They have a new “you didn’t build that,” a new “spread the wealth around,” and they’re going to wring everything they can out of it.

 How do we know that this analysis is spot on?  Check the crazy right wing blogs that are incapable of their own thoughts.  

Looks like it worked as planned here and here!   How heavy is that water?  

 

Ixnay Again!

We brought you the story yesterday of how Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Tom Ricks was brought on Fox news to push right wing propaganda and he did not play along!  This caused the interviewer to immediately cancel the interview and go to commercial break.  

Fox was universally criticized for their actions, so they tried to save face.   Unfortunately for them, there was no face to save.

Fox News Channel executive vice president Michael Clemente then made the interview rounds to let everyone know that Mr. ricks apologized for how he acted. 

The problem with that of course is that Mr. ricks never did apologize, Mr. Clemente was lying!  

“When Mr. Ricks ignored the anchor’s question, it became clear that his goal was to bring attention to himself -- and his book," Clemente told THR via email. "He apologized in our offices afterward but doesn’t have the strength of character to do that publicly."

But that's news to Ricks, who told THR in his own email that he never offered an apology to Fox — privately or publicly.

"Please ask Mr. Clemente what the words of my supposed apology were. I'd be interested to know," Ricks said. "Frankly, I don't remember any such apology."

When the VP of Fox News is not scared to tell a bold faced lie why wouldn't everyone on the network do the same?  

No wonder our friends on the right wing blargosphere also like to lie....its company policy!  

Ixnay on the Epublicanar Hingat

Fox news in their daily pile on the Benghazi story, brought on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Thomas Ricks to talk about his new Book "The Generals" and help with the pile on. 

The problem is since its a made up story, Mr. Ricks was not buying in. 

Co-anchor Jon Scott interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Thomas Ricks, who has covered the military for decades, about his new book "The Generals." Scott asked Ricks weigh in on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and Sen. John McCain's criticisms of Amb. Susan Rice.

"I think Benghazi was generally hyped by this network especially," Ricks said. He added that he thought McCain seemed to be "backing off" from criticizing Rice since "the campaign [was] over."

"When you have four people dead for the first time in more than 30 years, how do you call that hype?" Scott said, pushing back against Ricks' characterization of the network's coverage.

Ricks compared the situation to security contractors who were killed in Iraq. He described the attack in Benghazi as a "small fire-fight" and added, "I think the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox is operating as the wing of the Republican Party."

At that point, Scott thanked Ricks for his time and ended the interview after about 90 seconds.

Looking at stories like this, and it is surprising more journalists do not just up and quit.