Showing posts with label John Bolton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Bolton. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 29, 2020


Former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly says he believes former National Security Adviser John Bolton is telling the truth


There are not too many of Donald Trump's ex-White House staff I would believe, most are clones of the Oval Office lunatic, a born liar; but John Kelly I do believe. In a headline from AlterNet, this phrase is taken from a statement quoting Kelly...
"he finds Bolton’s assertions on Trump and Ukraine to be totally credible"
The Republicans are hell-bent on preventing any witnesses, in keeping with Trump's complete unwillingness to hear from people like Bolton or Lev Parnas. With Senators like Mitt Romney and Susan Collins seemingly in favor of witnesses, looks like Moscow Mitch will have no choice. Some of the media is reporting that if this happens, the impeachment trial could drag into months with only just short of ten months until the November election.

Here's the scenario...
"The New York Times reported over the weekend that in a leaked manuscript of his new book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” (due out March 17), Bolton alleges that Trump tied military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. House Democrats have been asserting that Trump and his allies had a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine: a Bidens investigation in exchange for military aid — and Bolton, according to the Times, alleges in his book that this “quid pro quo” was a fact."
John Kelly "would clearly like to see Bolton testify." Again, he commented, “If John Bolton says that in the book, I believe John Bolton.” Kelly left the Trump administration at the end of 2018, having planned to stay on until the 2020 election. White House staffers reported...
"The two men had been in something of a stand-off in recent weeks. Trump was reluctant to directly fire Kelly and he was advised by some of his aides that pushing out a four-star general could result in political blowback, administration officials said. Meanwhile, Kelly made it clear that he had no plans to resign, leaving it up to the president to force him out."
President Donald Trump and White House chief of staff John Kelly

 Most political pundits agree that John Kelly, "kept the government on the tracks," and it is my opinion he was most likely responsible for keeping Donald Trump from doing more stupid things than he is actually guilty of. General Kelly has been missed.   READ MORE...

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Will the White House blind-siding Republicans over Bolton's book change votes?


Trump nothing but a bluff who folds when adversaries fight back


The White House had a copy of the John Bolton book draft but told no one about it. This obviously left Republican Senators hanging as well as the Democrats. But the Dems already know their goal, which is to convict Donald Trump in the impeachment trial. The question is, will the Bolton incident, plus other recent events, convince those GOPers on the edge to vote for a conviction? In a Salon commentary Bob Cesca poses the mystery of...
"why so many Republicans who are willing to bet their reputations on relentlessly defending Donald Trump, especially now."
One reason might be that the Republican machine is in the process of imploding and for some insane reason they believe T-rump is holding it together. Another, many of these Republicans owe the Oval Office lunatic for the gold mine he gave them when they were among the wealthy who shared generously in his tax cuts. It might fly if Trump was all the things of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in their election popularity, but as Cesca put it...
"Trump is a flop-sweating mess, and more of us should be asking why they don’t just cut bait and try their luck with conserva-droid Mike Pence."
But, please no, not Mike Pence because we will just have to go through impeachment proceedings all over again. And with great eloquence, although lengthy, Bob Cesca nails Donald Trump for the idiot he is...
"Among thousands of liabilities, Trump is busily faking his way through his presidency with such lumbering, self-satirical awkwardness that he has the very real potential of exploding the entire party through his viral obnoxiousness, his treachery, his proud dumbness and his 16,241 lies to date. Every national Republican has been repeatedly forced to pooper-scooper Trump’s tweets and his chopper-talk hollering, turning the phrase “the president tweets a lot of things” into the new party slogan. And unlike Bush or Reagan before him, Trump’s approval is permanently capped at an anemic 45 percent at best, and he clearly believes he’s only capable of winning re-election by extorting foreign governments into helping him cheat."
This article is really worth reading in it entirety.  

Monday, January 27, 2020


It's in the book: Trump told John Bolton Ukraine aid conditioned on Biden investigation

John Bolton

John Bolton is, of course, writing a book, and from the manuscript draft it is learned that, "Trump told him US security assistance to Ukraine was conditioned on investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden." It apparently brought the Senate trial to a screeching halt, momentarily, not to mention the tremendous publicity for Bolton's tome. Mitt Romney exclaimed that Bolton would probably have to testify.

Romney's comment is pretty cavalier over an issue that seems so obvious to Democrats, even the American public; a Reuters/Ipsos poll provided that about...
"72% agreed that the trial “should allow witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the impeachment charges to testify,” including 84% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans."
Yet both Donald Trump and Moscow Mitch McConnell still say no; Trump because he knows he's guilty and wants to cover up, and McConnell to protect Trump and himself and the power he wields over the Senate. Republican Senators are pissed since the White House has had a copy of Bolton's MS since the end of December and said nothing. Democrats are obviously demanding the former national security adviser testimony and now it looks inevitable. 
READ MORE...

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Trump supporters don't want Iran war. Why does he?


Trump-Pompeo-Bolton- The 3 perpetrators
Trump_Pompeo_BoltonDonald Trump supporters loved it when he castigated "Washington’s regime-change wars and nation-building crusades." Republicans didn't like it, but he went on to slam Bush for the Iraq War and Afghanistan. Everyone in this country was sick of wars--except John Bolton, of course--with a peaceful outlook in the future. But not to be when T-rump starts sword rattling against Iran. Vox has 9 reasons, with John Bolton, even Mike Pompeo, expressing hate for Iran.

The Daily Beast reports...
"Three U.S. government officials familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that officials in multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran’s new, threatening activity–which the administration points to in justifying its military presence in the Persian Gulf–is in response to the administration’s aggressive steps over the last two months."
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers say...
"that Tehran’s aggressive moves—reportedly planning attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq and loading missiles on fishing boats in the Gulf—appear to be in response to Washington’s moves to press the Islamic Republic and its leadership. The Trump administration’s decisions to tighten oil sanctions and to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, particularly provocative"
In my recollection, the nuclear treaty negotiated by former President Barack
Obama, while certainly not perfect, was at least progressing. Here's what National Security Adviser John Bolton previously said...
"the administration’s aggressive efforts aim to squeeze Iran 'until its leaders decide to change their destructive behavior, respect the rights of the Iranian people, and return to the negotiating table.' But the policy doesn’t appear to have put leaders there in a mood to make concessions."
The World Report gives a good documentation of human rights in Iran, and that is part of what the Trump administration is pissed off about. That and nuclear proliferation. The question is the correlation in Iran's aggressiveness and that of the United States. A British general said of Iran, “there’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces” in the region. Expounding further...
“We monitor them along with a whole range of others because that’s the environment we’re in,” said Maj. Gen. Chris Ghika, speaking via video from Baghdad. “If the threat level seems to go up then we’ll raise our force protection measures accordingly.”
 The U.S. Central Command issued a statement just hours later disputing Ghika’s comments repeating...
"John Bolton’s unsubstantiated claim that American intelligence has 'identified credible threats' from 'Iranian-backed forces' in Iraq and Syria."
Folks, I call your attention to the key word in the above, "unsubstantiated."

Thursday, May 16, 2019

George Orwell wants Donald Trump impeached


The dope with the genius
Well, that's not exactly what the famous writer said, but as a serious Orwell fan, I agree with the author of 1984's quotes, “ignoring facts which are obvious and unalterable,” and  “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” The first quote applies specifically to T-rump, the second to his followers. AlterNet mentions Hitler's intentions of the 1930s as a wake-up call that went unanswered, somewhat comparable to the Trump administration today.

Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Trump is on the verge of invading Iran today. AlterNet's take on the Russian interference in the 2016 election that led to the Mueller Report...
"Everyone able and willing to distinguish facts from lies has witnessed Trump’s brazen cover-up of Russia’s attack. He has never named or denounced the aggressor, while depicting the investigators as traitors who used a hoax to attempt a coup."
 Here's another scenario in which the...
"author casts himself as defender of the nation against the 'globalist elite' and their 'deep state' henchmen. In Act I, he miraculously outwits their attempt to rig the 2016 election; in Act II he thwarts their attempted coup. Act III completes the plot, as the Democrats manage to fake a 2020 victory, only to face a resolute President who—having forewarned of a final deep state conspiracy to regain power—announces a state of emergency."
God forbid another four years of this maniac, as Democrats, even now work feverishly in deciding whether to impeach Trump. However, what we will get is a mealy-mouthed goody-two-shoes who, in my opinion, would be worse than the Oval Office lunatic. And with John Bolton behind the escalation of war with Iran, anything could happen. All of this results from...
"Tehran's decision to stop fully complying with the 2015 nuclear pact after several weeks of intensifying US sanctions and restrictions against Iran, as well as warnings from Washington about an increased Iranian threat to US personnel in the region."
It's the same tit for tat crap that Trump is using against xi jinpin in the China Tariff war and none of this bodes well for the American people.

Monday, May 13, 2019

Weekly wrap up of Donald Trump stupidity


I blogged on Donald Trump considering the Chained CPI in his efforts to further penalize those at the poverty level. My post, "Trump going to penalize those on poverty line even more," quoted a statement from Arloc Sherman of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...
"this change would mean that millions of people eventually could see their benefits either reduced or eliminated because they wouldn't be considered as poor as they were under the old measure."
The Washington Post thinks the Chained CPI is a good idea but in Trump's case would be a bad application. The WP explains that the term...
"refers not to some sort of punishment but to the fact that, for technical reasons, it is more closely linked to people’s buying habits than the version of the CPI the government usually uses to adjust various key program benchmarks for annual inflation."
However you look at it, the move "looks very much like an effort to cut spending on programs for the poor that the Trump administration would be unable to reduce through legislation." And would we expect any less.

Robert Reich in The Guardian exclaims, "There are many reasons not to impeach Trump. The House should do it anyway." It makes sense to me in that it would put the monkey on Mitch McConnell's back and when he obviously votes it down in the Senate, the voters can make their choice in 2020. Much has been said about Democratic efforts backfiring by holding the Oval Office lunatic accountable in the Mueller Report, but sane Americans can see through this.

Reich isn't so sure of my assertion saying it certainly won't get T-rump out of office either before or after the election, and because we won't find out much more about the man than we already know, why go to the effort. Here's why...
"It is whether an action designed to enforce our constitution is important for its own sake – even if it goes nowhere, even if it’s unpopular with many voters, even if it’s politically risky."
We can only hope and keep a close eye on the polls. And on another front, Donald Trump and the miscreants around him "continue to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration’s policies, according to a Washington Post analysis." WP sees it this way...
"Trump’s noncooperation strategy has shifted from partial resistance to all-out war as he faces mounting inquiries from the Democratic-controlled House — a strategy that many legal and congressional experts fear could undermine the institutional power of Congress for years to come."
In other words, the maniac in the White house is trying to break up a fundamental provision of constitutional government where Congress acts as checks and balances of the executive branch. That's called tyranny.

Then an Iran commander calls U.S. military in Gulf a target not a threat. CNBC explains...
“In the absence of a serious diplomatic channel, the current maximalist approach from the Trump White House could spark a new cycle of intentional or inadvertent military confrontation in the region.”
Just what we need, a war with Iran during the conflict with China, all on the heels of simmering feelings between the U.S. and No. Korea. Is John Bolton behind all this?

Friday, May 25, 2018

Warmonger John Bolton avoided Vietnam War


John Bolton would have us here
Yes, John Bolton is a wimp, according to Slate, declining to go into combat, he enlisted in the National Guard and went to law school. His words: "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy," That's a touching statement from the man Donald Trump just appointed his national-security adviser, a move that refutes another of T-rump's campaign promises, to get us out of these stupid wars. Bolton is a warmonger who has never seen a war he wouldn't promote and he has Trump's ear.

The Nation reports that...
"Under Bush, he cooked intelligence to fit the case for the Iraq War. He still defends what was the greatest foreign-policy debacle since Vietnam."
In more from the Nation, John Bolton believes that any negotiations with No. Korea is a time waster and was known to be thinking of steering Trump away from the talks he had planned with Kim Jong-un. Well, apparently it worked because T-rump said on Tuesday he was afraid that the summit will be a "political embarrassment," The administration noted the fact that No. Korea was not ready to denuclearize, something Trump has demanded. The move by Kim Jong-un is very convenient for Bolton who is for going to war with No. Korea now, something Congress hasn't ruled out.

Back in August 2017, The Atlantic reported even then that it could be the most destructive war ever and noted that with No. Korea's current nuclear set up, it would take only 30 minutes for them to hit Los Angeles with a nuclear missile. This whole fiasco has been going on for decades but Donald Trump is the first totally unhinged U.S. President to be involved. If you compound that with John Bolton at the help of national security, it is very frightening to think what could happen. I'll leave you with this...
"Trump has also tweeted [2017] that North Korea is 'looking for trouble' and that he intends to 'solve the problem.' His administration has leaked plans for a “decapitation strike” that would target Kim, which seems like the very last thing a country ought to announce in advance."
Has the Oval Office lunatic learned anything since then?


NOTE: It's official, Donald Trump canceled the summit with No. Korea's Kim Jong-un. Enter John Bolton?

Thursday, May 24, 2018

U.S. No. Korea summit off...Will John Bolton decide the next war?


The culprits
Donald Trump has cancelled the Nuclear Summit with Kim Jong-un's No. Korea and there is no indication of what the next move will be. South Korea is totally confused over T-rump's decision, apparently based on this comment...
"Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
 You can see his letter to Kim, here, with a semi-friendly dialogue, but still interlaced with the typical Trump boasting...
"You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."
Was that a threat? Was it written by John Bolton? Will we end up in a war before we can get rid of this raving maniac? It's a circus, folks, and someone is about to kick the poles out from under the tents.

Friday, May 18, 2018

EU's Tusk deems Trump and U.S. an unreliable ally


Donald Tusk
Those uninformed doormat supporters of Donald Trump who say he is in there "kicking ass" and getting things done just had that mentality shoved down their throats with a harsh rebuke from the President of the European Union, Donald Tusk, making the following remark...
"Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, some could even think, ‘With friends like that, who needs enemies?’”
America has always been a nation that prides itself in its individuality while cooperating with other countries around the world. Yes, there have been tiffs with the likes of Russia, China and North Korea, but we have been fortunate in solving most disagreements with diplomacy. Another option is war, one of which the Democrats got us into in Vietnam, the most recent by Republicans, and much worse, in Afghanistan and Iraq. But then there's Donald Trump, and his willingness to withdraw from the Iran deal and the threat of a transatlantic trade war, reported by the Guardian.

As the most powerful country in the world--and we are on the precipice of losing that--we should lead, not dictate. The UK, France and Germany have decided to stay with the joint plan against Iran because those in charge of the three countries are smart enough to see the diplomatic benefits over starting a war in the middle east. John Bolton was brought into the White precisely for decisions like the one on Iran. Bolton is known to believe that the U.S.'s strength enables it to bully nations all over the world, even taking on China in the South China Sea.

Right now, the nations of the European Union are our closest friends, the kind we desperately need as Russia and China continue to rattle their sabers, and North Korea, with another lunatic at the helm, could go postal any day. It's is imperative to stand up for what you believe but most sophisticated individuals solve their problems with negotiations. 

Sunday, May 13, 2018

John Bolton is a cautious enigma


John Bolton
With John Bolton now in Donald Trump's cabinet as the new national security adviser, one doesn't know whether to head for the bomb shelter or just hang around to see how long it takes
T-rump to fire him. In either case, he was a major factor in the decision to quit the Iran deal, but on that note itself, there is a modicum of doubt if the agreement really did any good. The question is, as it has been for some time, when it comes to these "rogue" states, do we go for regime change or continue to settle for diplomacy? Spectator/USA thinks Bolton's war mongering is overstated, even in Iran's proclamations, ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America.’ Only time will tell.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Iran decision just another in line of ending Obama programs


Trump and John Bolton
The man sitting in the Oval Office today is still as incompetent and dull-witted as the day he took office. No matter what success he has had in real estate--most of which is questionable--he is still a loser. He remains in office simply due to the poor, uninformed souls that support him and a Congress riddled with idiots and morons who are equally as incompetent as Donald Trump. It is all a travesty for this country, one that has set us back ages in the eyes of the rest of the world. And just yesterday he revoked another of Barack Obama's accomplishments, just because Obama's name was on it.

He tried this on Obamacare but some thoughtful congressional leaders wouldn't permit it. However, the Iran deal didn't require a vote of Congress so Donald dufus went on his merry way of destruction and repealed an action that many believe was keeping the Middle-East semi reticent. Was this the result of the recent addition of John Bolton to Trump's staff? This warmonger still believes the Iraq war was right and that "pre-emptive war with Iran and North Korea is the right call." I'll leave you with a list of now undone programs from past administrations. Basically, his only accomplishments.


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