Works for me…

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Published by John Todd Roberts

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49 thoughts on “Works for me…”

  1. This is a perfect example of Trump’s lawlessness, stupidity and incompetence.

    No, this is utterly insufficient notice to Congress. The language of 50 U.S.C. § 3093(c)(2) makes it plain:

    Presidential findings: The President may not authorize the conduct of a covert action by departments, agencies, or entities of the United States Government unless the President determines such an action is necessary to support identifiable foreign policy objectives of the United States and is important to the national security of the United States, which determination shall be set forth in a finding that shall meet each of the following conditions:

    (1)Each finding shall be in writing, unless immediate action by the United States is required and time does not permit the preparation of a written finding, in which case a written record of the President’s decision shall be contemporaneously made and shall be reduced to a written finding as soon as possible but in no event more than 48 hours after the decision is made.

    VIOLATION OF LAW: Trump made no such written finding.

    (2)Except as permitted by paragraph (1), a finding may not authorize or sanction a covert action, or any aspect of any such action, which already has occurred.

    VIOLATION OF LAW: The notices provided to Congress were only after the action took place.

    (3)Each finding shall specify each department, agency, or entity of the United States Government authorized to fund or otherwise participate in any significant way in such action. Any employee, contractor, or contract agent of a department, agency, or entity of the United States Government other than the Central Intelligence Agency directed to participate in any way in a covert action shall be subject either to the policies and regulations of the Central Intelligence Agency, or to written policies or regulations adopted by such department, agency, or entity, to govern such participation.

    VIOLATION OF LAW: No such specifications were made in the subsequent notice to Congress.

    Timing of reports; access to finding
    (1)The President shall ensure that any finding approved pursuant to subsection (a) shall be reported in writing to the congressional intelligence committees as soon as possible after such approval and before the initiation of the covert action authorized by the finding, except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) and paragraph (3).

    VIOLATION OF LAW: No such notice was provided – the exceptions noted are to limit the report to the “Gang of Eight” but not even this was done.

    US CODE 3091:
    a) Reports to congressional committees of intelligence activities and anticipated activities

    (1)The President shall ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity as required by this subchapter.

    VIOLATION OF LAW + INADEQUACY OF TRUMP’S STUPID TWEET: His tweet in no way keeps Congress fully and currently informed should he choose to make another stupid move.

    Trump has just given Congress another article with which to impeach him.

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      2. RE: “Do you have a cite for that?”

        Yes, in a way. The Constitution supercedes statutory law. Unless there’s violation of constitutional law, the statute 50 U.S.C. § 3093(c)(2) doesn’t even come into play.

        It is a waste of time to even bring it up.

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    2. Weird, I just don’t seem to recall Obama going to all this trouble the 473 times he broke these laws and that doesn’t even include the numerous missile strikes. Why didn’t he garner all this wrath and get impeached? Hint: You have no clue.

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      1. “Roo”?

        As in Aussie slang for kangaroo?

        Pretty slick since I was coming across as “hopping mad” in your jaundiced view.

        I have to admit that was certainly well thought out. More so than an earlier “blah, blah, blah” that came from a like minded compadre.

        You Trump folks are, um… special, for the lack of a better description.

        IMHO, marsupially speaking.

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        1. My only reasonable for that comment would be to suggest you quit after 2 tokes. Otherwise blah, blah, blah is surely apropos.

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          1. Ah, Bob, come on. Not much else anyone says on this blog make much more sense.

            So cornball attempts at humor is the least we can do once in a while.

            Besides, one toke is sufficient for this old guy. Two, and I start to write stuff that doesn’t make sense.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. No, he did not, this is simply wrong. Mitch McConnell fully admits this – Obama properly briefed the Gang of Eight on all such operations, including the attack on bin Laden.

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    1. Proportional responses are overrated?

      Yeah, “Shock and Awe” tactics worked real friggin’ well in Iraq. How is that workin’ for us now.

      Don’t we ever learn?

      Now we have mr. “52 pickup” with small hands and a big military to compensate.

      Can we be any more stupid? And the regime lovers are salivating over the opportunity to blow up some cultural sites because they belong to “towel heads”.

      That’ll bring them to their knees. The Iranians will thank us just like the Iraqis. (Sarcasm alert for the needy.)

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      1. Shock and awe worked just fine, stay and occupy not so much.

        We should not live in fear of what Iran might do to us, the Mullahs should live in fear of what we might do to them.

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        1. Tough talk is cheap.

          So what is Trump going to do should some Americans get hurt in the Middle East? We have soldiers on the ground in other nations, too.

          Blame Iran so he can show his muscle?

          You said “Shock and Awe” worked. For what? What did we gain?

          The lying bastard is not to be trusted. He lies about crowd sizes for Christ sake.

          I don’t like Trump. That’s not news. But I have said many times that the election is how he should be canned. However, this is serious stuff now. No more just screwing up our environment or hiring his buds to build walls. Or even kissing Putin’s butt. Playtime is over and I don’t think our president cares.

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      1. Actually, it’s a small gun, easier to conceal.

        Remember, I hate war and the use of force with a passion. But the way to reduce those to a minimum is to make the other guy hate it even more.

        Deterrents are only effective if credible and horrific when they must be employed.

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        1. “Remember, I hate war and the use of force with a passion.”

          Just another core principle that you held so dear when Obama was President that you have abandoned in your unwavering support of King Donald.

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  3. Now for the stupidity and incompetence part:

    Trump called the Iraqi Prime Minister and asked him to mediate with Iran and then ordered drone strike on Soleimani. Says Soleimani carrying response to Saudi initiative to defuse tension when he was hit.

    Congratulations Trumpy, you screwed the Iraqi PM and now they just voted US troops out. And the Saudis and Israelis are now under a greater threat than ever. Of course, given that they are both led by criminals, that just makes it more appealing to the criminal Trumpy.

    Here’s the Hague Convention, which was adopted and is in US law as well:

    Art. 27. In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes.
    Trump’s threat to attack cultural targets seems directly aimed at “buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, charitable purposes or historical monuments.”

    Here’s Trumpy’s tweet today: Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.

    Targets important to Iranian culture – the very definition of Article 27. So Trumpy has plainly threatened to commit a war crime, no ifs ands or buts.

    Now more troops to the Middle East – another failure of Trumpy’s pledge to get us out of the Middle East. Now Iran has completely abandoned the nuclear accord, there’s no doubt they will have nuclear weapons capability now.

    Stupidity and incompetence. Foreign policy failure after failure.

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    1. RE: “Foreign policy failure after failure.”

      Killing Soleimani doesn’t much look like a foreign policy failure.

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    2. Do you have a list of the targets?

      Remember that those restrictions work both ways. If you locate anti-aircraft radar on top of a cultural museum, that museum is a legitimate target. If your command center is located in a mosque, it’s a command center, not a mosque.

      So, without knowing what the targets are and what might be co-located there you don’t know if they are off limits or not.

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  5. A tweet is not (and should not) be considered notification.

    Reason being is that tweets are neither spell checked nor reviewed by others (such as cabinet members and their staff).

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    2. Trump tweets firings and threats on a regular basis. Threat or notification, this is how he does things and it should be considered an advanced admission of war crimes.

      As far as cabinet members and staff goes, those folks are all now “yes men” who will do nothing to invoke the wrath of their boss. Those that have tried to reign him in have been fired or forced to resign.

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    1. RE: “That should tell us all a little something about this move by Trump.”

      It tells me that CNN is unutterably foolish. What does it tell you?

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      1. Carlson NEVER worked for CNN. Ya know, as in Tucker Carlson from Fox News. He has that little Trump fest every Mon-Fri @ 8PM.

        Once again, you completely disregard that Tucker Carlson, the biggest Trump supporter outside of Hannity, came down on the side of “this was wrong”. You cannot deny the facts of what he said and that AOC came out with basically the same thing about an hour before Carlson did.

        Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

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  7. My only reasonable response for that comment would be to suggest you quit after 2 tokes. Otherwise blah, blah, blah is surely apropos.

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