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From Michael Grynbaum, writing in the New York Times:
President Trump assailed an American journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, about the violent death of a Washington Post columnist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intelligence has said the attack was carried out on the prince’s orders.“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Mr. Trump told the journalist, Mary Bruce of ABC News, later referring to her query as “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the murdered journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”...
Things do happen, indeed.
Things like, say, dismemberment, presumably by bone saw.
Sheesh.
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Image at the top of the post?...This.
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13 comments:
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”.
I dare say there are many who would say that about Trump.
The insubordination remark demonstrates an arrogance that the press corps could and should deflate if only they would work together with some pride in each other and their profession. Wishful thinking, I know.
Lew--
Absolutely - that is the big issue. The legitimate press corps has to work together and not let individuals like Ms. Bruce get singled out like that by following up with the same question until it is answered.
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I watched this on the tube. Unreal how Trump has aligned himself with dictators . Daily gong show. What’s it going to take to remove him from office?
As Trump is goose-stepping his way to a war with Venezuela, he hob-nobs with cold blooded killers.
Private bone-spurs need the moral courage to go to war because the American people have no stomach for it.
The Democrats have put together a powerful advert highlighting former military and security types reminding soldiers and sailors that they can legally refuse an illegal order as their oath is to the constitution and not to the President.
I always thought there was a 50/50 chance that the American military would stage a coup to remove Trump as the Mango Mussolini and possible Russian Asset (eh Bubba?) , may end the 250 years of the United States of America, fragmenting the union.
Stay tuned for the new Game of Thrones, called the "End of Empire".
Things happen???? Murder never just happens. Some one makes a decision to have some one killed or does it themselves.
This is just another e.g. why trump is not fit to be the President of the U.S.A. Its another e.g. why Canada ought not to purchase F 35s from the U.S.A. We can buy very nice jets from Sweden. Some have written they are better than the F-35.
I just do not want my tax dollars to go to a country which thinks its o.k. to murder a journalist with a President who defends the person who ordered it. Lets not forget how the U.S.A. has treated undocumented immigrants. In the first term and this one, he and Steve Miller remind me a lot of Hitler and his gang and their actions. I found a picture amongst ones my Mom brought with her. I asked her about it and she advised those were her cousins in a detention camp in the Netherlands before they were shipped to the death camps. She always told us, it can always happen again. Putin, Trump, the Saudi murderer, they have all demonstrated Mom wasn't wrong.
When the military and politicians in Canada decide where we will purchase the new fighter jets they ought to consider how reliable is the country they are purchasing them from. The U.S.A. has done disgusting things or permitted them to be done. What if the americans decide they don't want to repair the jets we purchases, what if they won't give us the parts needed, because part of the deal is the Americans keep the parts in the U.S.A. That is about as dumb as it comes. After all trump has done, do you think he would hesitate for a second to drop a bomb on Canada or do more damage with tariffs, etc.
When you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas, is an old saying. Canada needs to make its own decisions as to what we stand for, what we do, who we go to war with, without the U.S.A. telling us what we can and can not do.
The world is becoming a dangerous place and Canada needs to be able to defend itself and others with out interferance from the U.S.A.. To do that we need to purchase weapons from a country which will not try to fxck us over if they don't like what we are doing or they want something which is ours.
Yes it will be expensive but so are our lives. I'll happy pay extra taxes for a military well armed.
Remember we have the U.S.A. to our south and Russia to the north. We know what Putin can do and has done. We have seen what is happening in the U.S.A. and what it is doing, dropping bombs on jet boats with no evidence of anything, massing a fleet in the ocean next to Venezula. Gee, Trump certainly hasn't been that keen on helping Ukraine. Although 7 million Americans came out to protest, it has a population of 340 million.
The military analysts on this issue seem to line up on the side of continuing with the F-35, based on very key and focused defence strategies.
The political participants seem to be all over the map, with varied goals, including job creation and pricing.
While it might make sense for some to throw the Gripen into the discussion mix for reasons of national pride, politics, and job creation, or in an attempt to get Lockheed-Martin to sharpen their pencils, our main focus should be on the best fighter for the overall strategic defence of Canada. We simply can’t use the same approach as for canola, lumber, or auto manufacturing.
Much, if not all, of this conundrum is the result of one of the greatest anomalies ever in the White House. He won’t be there in 2035, when the fighters are in service. I don’t think we should base this critical decision on the best way to deal or get even with him.
@ Lew Edwardson
I beg to disagree.
First off, Trump is not an anomaly, rather he is the result of over 40 years of American exceptionalism, combined with politcal hubris. He did win the last election which means a good chunk of the American population express his views.
When Trump is gone, America first/MAGA politic sill still survive, with the likes of Vance and the rest of the MAGA crowd.
No, sorry, Trump is America today.
As for the F-35, in fact under scrutiny it seems it has problems. It is a maintenance hog and this is a big problem and all major maintenance must be done in the USA. It also comes with proprietary American tech, which they can refuse to update if Canada displeases them.
There is no "kill" switch per se but they can make routine maintenance problematic.
The Gripen is far more robust an aircraft as it can take off from roads or grass airstrips. The Gripen is also "Arctic Proofed", designed to operate in harsh arctic conditions. The Gripen is easier to maintain as well and Canada will be able to own and upgrade the tech used.
Canada has purchased 16 F-35's already, but we need something simpler and more nimble for Canada's defense as our friends south of the 49th, may not be our friends in the coming years.
The big issue I find is that the F-35's "high tech" soon may becomes "old tech" in the next decade.
In my book the Gripen is the way to the future for Canada and the F-35 is doing the same thing over again and hoping for different results.
Trump is an anomaly. There’s no predecessor even close. The rest of that cabal are admittedly just as evil, but that will be their undoing, not their road to safe office. Even the MAGATS are starting to turn, if even slightly for now. They share a habit with all animals. They like to eat. Millions of them now know how close they are to one deranged lunatic (the guy they voted for) removing that option. It wasn’t only Democrats that he went to court trying to cut off SNAP benefits. And the food he does allow them is getting very expensive because of tariffs that they are increasingly aware are his to own.
Add to that the fact that it isn’t just some dangerous faceless illegals being beaten and disappeared off the streets by masked untrained thugs, but their neighbours, coworkers, and relatives, and there’s another habit they can fear losing: the ability to freely walk those same streets. The streets they used to walk to the doctor’s office they can no longer afford because of him and his cronies. Any Trump clone (if that’s even possible) will have a difficult task getting elected in future.
As for the fighters, there is a good argument to be made for both platforms, and also for a hybrid system. But making the call because we’re pissed at the current American regime would be a mistake.
Anyone favouring the Gripen because the Americans might cut off access to maintenance of the F-35 might be forgetting that it is definitely in the best interests of the Americans to have Canada’s northern border effectively defended. And if those same people think the threat is going to come from the southern border they might want to think about whether Gripens or F-35s makes any difference. Because in that event, it won’t.
Trump is what the American politic wanted, a living myth and that is what the USA is today, a myth.
As I write this Trump and Putin are about to sell the Ukraine down the toilet and that is going to cause a vast schism in both Canadian/American relations and NATO.
More and more Trump demonstrates he is a Russian asset.
The America we all knew is gone and believing it is a anomaly is a fools game and again, the American people voted for a 34 count convicted felon, convicted sexual predator and worse. Trumps re-election was no anomaly.
What once was, is never going to come back.
The F-35 is a technical marvel, but it is an expensive one and is known to be a maintenance hog which adds to the expense of operation.
What is the point of a technical marvel it it can't fly due to lack of maintenance?
The Gripen was designed to defend the North, it was designed to fight Russian aircraft. It is flexible in operation, unlike the F-35, it can operate off of satellite airfields (roads if need be) and not held hostage for the need of proper airports.
The Gripen come from a long pedigree of Swedish aircraft, easy to maintain, nimble in operation it is designed to defend the North.
As for the Americans, they do not give a damn about Canada or what we fly. All they care about is money for their aging aircraft giants, which corporate greed knows no bounds.
The next war will not be about defending the North, it will be about the existence of Canada, with two declining superpowers fighting over what is left of Canada.
As I said, the Gripen is all about the future for Canada and the F-35 is yearning for a time that has long past.
Hmmm. Not sure we should be acquiring an aircraft designed to defend the north if the next war is not going to be about defending the north. Of course if what’s next is two superpowers fighting over what’s left of us I suppose we won’t have much of a role anyway.
Anyway, what good are aircraft if the sky is falling?
We all agree, carney should get a Gripen...
Apparently, these 154 scholars disagree with you. Trump was deemed to be the worst president in US history in this 2024 survey.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/20/presidents-ranking-trump-biden-list
Now, consider how his recent performance will affect that rating, and even someone like yourself who considers him no worse than any of the other presidents except Carter would have to agree he’s very, very, unlikely to go up a notch, and is more likely to be cemented to the bottom.
Worse than the predecessors who presided over the litany of murderous behaviour you describe.
I’d say he stands way, way out from any other president in history just in the way he’s damaged the office, the institutions of governance, the American reputation around the world, the disadvantaged at home and abroad, and on and on. There’s never been anyone like him in that office and I believe and hope there will never be another. That makes him an anomaly in my mind. You think he’s normal. We disagree.
As for arming ourselves and telling the Americans to stick it, I would like your opinion on how long it would take Russia to take Canada if we didn’t have the Americans at our back door? And if they weren’t at our back, would the Europeans you speak of send their equipment here for safekeeping?
We historically have punched above our weight, and have much to be proud of. But there are realities. And one of them is that we will rely on that country you hate for a hell of a lot more than just economic security for some time to come. I hate the current administration, but not the country. Let’s be careful about the bridges we burn.
Lew you ask the wrong question; not "how long it would take Russia to take Canada?", rather "how long would it take the USA take Canada?"
The answer, sadly in today's world is going nuclear.
The USA has never been nor ever will be a friend of Canada. We are tolerated as some sort of historical aberration and nothing more.
WW2 threw us together as did the cold war but Vietnam onward we were seen as "not friendly" towards the USA and that has steadily grown.
The Mulroney/Regan free trade deal was more about destroying Canada's middle class and enriching corporations than anything else. 9/11 was icing on the cake when Canada saw how the Americans really thought about Canada.
The more I read about the F-35 deal, the more it stinks like rotten fish.
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