HAMMERNEWS- Michael Hammerschlag

Current Political Commentary by journalist Michael Hammerschlag; Thoughts on foreign policy, Republican outrages, liberal strategies, science by 8 year correspondent in Russia/Ukraine over 22 years and longtime commentator; Website: http://HAMMERNEWS.com

Saturday, January 04, 2020

END OF DEMOCRACY? ACQUITTED, BUT GUILTY; STILL IRAN AFTER 40 YEARS; HIDDEN CONTRACTOR DEATHS

END  OF  DEMOCRACY ??  ACQUITTED, BUT GUILTY!

https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1223714700350935042 
What I find stunning was whenever the Pres lawyers said: There was no crime, the Managers never said:  He committed 1000s OF CRIMES!!! Obstruction of Justice, intimidating witnesses,bank fraud, pump & dump fraud, income tax evasion, 20x sexual assault inc of children. Taking foreign assistance was a crime, blackmail was a crime, bribery was a crime, denying authorized aid was a crime, even today making death threats against a Manager IS A CRIME.. and on and on listing ALL of Trump's crimes!! But with this stupid narrow thin Impeachment they somehow worried it would confuse the issue. Screamed with a proper Kavanaugh level of outrage, that would have got played 500 times, but Dems just can't seem to master media optics and savage take-downs.

Trump is a MONSTER and every Repub that lets him skate here will pay in their lives and eyes of History when the Pig creates Civil Revolt and the deaths of thousands of Americans. Essentially they + Douchewitz have given Trump license to burn down America, which I believe he will when he loses the Election. Seriously- Repubs should never have power for the next 30 years if America is to survive. This 1:35 Midnight In Washington video says it ALL!

This miserable Fake Trial of the Fake President shows the idiocy of rushing into this without 4-6 months of Investigation, and especially the FAILURE TO COMPEL WITNESSES, maybe arrest and jailing was a bridge too far but $5000/day fines would have scared many into appearing. Utter lunacy, then doing a fast thin light Impeachment instead of enumerating ALL of this Pig's HUNDREDS OF CRIMES FOR HISTORY, which would have made the Repub arguments ridiculous, and explained what a menace DJT is to
the Nation. They needed +60% for Removal to move the Vichy Repubs, and when his treason w Erdogon and Putin came out (ALL on that secret server).... they would have gotten it. And more and more would have come out if they had just delayed this until the Dem Candidate was chosen (probably March); also giving them uninterrupted chance to Campaign.

Lamar Alexander said he wouldn't vote for witnesses, the lame Trumpore chicken- he is retiring and I thought maybe he would vote to remove as a final Grand Gesture, but he has always been a hard-core partisan warrior who somehow got good Press as a moderate. Only Romney + Collins voted for witnesses, maybe only because they knew it would lose 100 to 1 against them voting Conviction.  The whole Repub Party must be burnt to the ground. Romney Voted for Conviction on Article 1- no doubt TPD will bleed Utah for that, in more Impeachable vengeance.

Meanwhile the Racist in Chief has been busy: he enacted 3 more proposals to ban all immigrants- adding 7 countries to the banned list: Belarus (favor to Putin), Kyrgyzstan (some terrorists), Nigeria (too Black), Myanmar (don't flee to us!); banned immigrants who have ever got any kind of assistance- war on the poor; and banning birth tourism (some rationale for that), though it's enaction will be rife with scandal.

But Schiff was absolutely amazing and near brought tears to my eyes. After the Trump Troubles (what his Insurrection may be called), Schiff's moving eloquent speeched will be considered up there with the Gettysburg Address and other great oratory.

And stupid destructive BREXIT is finally going through, while the leaders of the 2 greatest World Democracies were installed by Putin. One step forward, three steps back.

   OUR SOS HELPS WHACK FOREIGN LEADER

Suppose an American general was assassinated by a drone while visiting an airport in France or Germany or Japan. How would America respond?
 - NYT
 That's the question- what no commentators are saying, on NPR or even BBC, is that America is STRANGLING IRAN with full sanctions, SWIFT denial, oil sanctions, and the economy is crumbling with massive inflation and unrest. Juan Cole: A naval blockade is considered an act of war in international law, and Trump’s trade embargo is analogous in every way to such a blockade. Very close to actual War, but Iran isn't doing anything it hasn't always been doing, supporting Shiites wherever they are- Assad's Gov, Iraq's now dominant group, the sorely abused Houthis, Hezbollah, + Hamas. Western MSM scrupulously ignores the Sunni/ Shiite Divide that rules every action in the Muslim World, it isn't PC enough. To lying ignorant Trump, they are also "violating" the Nuclear Agreement HE CANCELLED! To Iranians, they are providing succor to besieged overwhelmed Shiites (only about 12% of all Muslims).


Killing such a high leader is crazy risky business, and it might be Trump TRYING TO START THE WAR he needs to divert attention from his Trial and multiple treasons. But the Saudi Oil Refinery attacks and assassination attempt on Maduro show how easy it is to assassinate ANY indvidual with a drone costing a few thousand bucks.  America is not immune- I expect major car bomb attacks in Iraq and drone attacks everywhere. Americans in Iraq were urged to leave Iraq immediately, including by land, to uhh, Syria or Iran?  While Pompous Pompeo insists "U.S. Safer but There May Be a ‘Little Noise’ in Interim". Maybe some Big Noise. While not notifyng Congress, bigmouth Trump was apparently bragging to his Mar-a-Lago guests that that something huge was coming.

General Soleimani was a nasty character who developed the spectacularly deadly IEDs responsible for thousands of US deaths and woundings and probably was a legitimate target during the Iraq War, he does have the blood of thousands on his hands, but also was #2 most powerful Iranian leader. The highest Iraq Militia General was also killed, Iraq will be furious about this; and it is possible the Iraq Gov will throw out ALL US MILITARY PERSONNEL, although they would hate to be left totally to Iran's tender mercies (that happened).  [This has the effect of] "mobilizing Iraqis by the simultaneous US assassination of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Al-Muhandis is a senior military figure in the Iraqi armed forces, not just a civilian militia figure. Moreover, the Kata’ib Hizbullah that he headed is part of a strong political bloc, al-Fath, which has 48 members in parliament.  https://www.juancole.com/2020/01/trump-troll-impeachment.html  Gen McChrystal, who debated taking out Suleimani in 2007, did a serious grudgingly admiring character analysis of him.

Rueters reports a mid Oct Baghdad meeting with Soleimani's Militias where he orders attacks on US soldier housing units (like the devastating 1982 Beirut truck bombing) with new low-profile paramilitaries... though some say  Admin claims of imminent attacks on Americans are dubious:
 Rukmini Callimachi @rcallimachi
I’ve had a chance to check in with...two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani. According to them, the evidence suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is “razor-thin”.


Ah, this is another act of Trump personal revenge, who feuded with Sol on SM:
In 2018, Soleimani spoke with political authority when he responded to a tweet by President Trump, that Iran would “suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” if it repeated threats against the U.S.
--- Soleimani was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency: “As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to your threats,” he said. “It is not in our president’s dignity to respond to you.”
--- “Come. We are ready,” Soleimani said, accusing Trump of using “the language of night clubs and gambling halls.”
--- “If you begin the war, we will end the war,” he said


Guess Chump has started something. Thousands of Iranians protested the killing in the Tehran streets, as did some Iraqi Sunnis celebrating the vanquishing of a deadly foe.  Alaska-sized Iran is NOT Iraq, it has twice the people and 4 times the area, it has supersonic cruise missiles that could sink every ship in the Gulf- a basketball moving at 1/2 mile a second, it has a massive military, a sophisticated Intelligence operation and hacking capabilities.... and it more or less controls Iraq, where we should expect massive retaliation. 
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 Quick, how many Allies died in Afghanistan? 2400? No, over 7000, according to  On The Media. 2400 US "soldiers", +3000 contractors (when you're private you are off the books), and 1500 Allies, who heeded the ONLY CALL-UP THROUGH NATO, giving their lives to defend America! Maybe this Christmas we should say a prayer for them, these noble courageous friends, in contempt for the Shirker Pig's many slanders of NATO... The MOST SUCCESSFUL ALLIANCE in (Modern) History.