“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

1.) First, please READ THIS ENTIRE THREAD – and the full context of any discussion thread you wish to participate in. Skipping to the comments to express an opinion without reading the content of the discussion is not helpful.

Often, unfortunately very often, we find many of the points injected into comments are already outlined in the construct of the thread itself. -or- Questions asked while the answers are in the primary post.

2.) STAY ON TOPIC – please do not post something unrelated to the specific matter and content of the thread subject. There is a ALWAYS a daily open thread available for any subject you feel should get attention. Never place unrelated, “O/T”, or “Off Topic” comments on a thread unrelated to the topic. It is not ok to say: “sorry, O/T but”… or any iteration therein.

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There is a predictable disconnect amid political followers who have not paid close attention to the direct Mid-East visitors to the Donald Trump White House regarding the origin of the chemical weapons use in Syria.

Focusing on who used chemical weapons is a moot point in the larger issue of the Syrian conflict. It doesn’t matter whether ISIS “rebels” deployed them or whether Bashir Assad used them against the “rebels” when contemplating President Trump’s response to stop using them. The victims are Syrians. The regional alliance members don’t care who used them. The message is to stop.

We could make a solid argument that either interested party: Bashir Assad or “the rebels” (al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra et al) had motive and opportunity to use chemical weapons.

We’ve written for several years about the manipulative intentions of both sides, all sides, in the Syrian conflict. We’ve written about President Obama’s policies toward Syria and how his administration armed and equipped all elements; gaining nothing except a horrific death toll and chaotic civil war as an outcome.

We’ve provided lengthy and cited research on arms into Syria from Obama, Clinton and Kerry. The Benghazi Brief outlined Man-Pads and chemical weapons delivered to Syria as an outcome of the collapse within Libya.  We’ve outlined the Libyan weapons caches that became the Jihadist market/yard-sale. We’ve also documented weapons deliveries directly from the State Department using actual recorded audio admissions of Secretary Kerry to his Syrian benefactors.

Additionally, no-one questions whether Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Assad’s BFF, delivered stock piles of his own chemical weapons to Syria, because it was well documented.  Both Bashir Assad and Saddam Hussein previously used chemical weapons.   Historically Hussein used Chemical Weapons to kill up to 300,000 Kurds in Northern Iraq.

None of this is in doubt.

To argue if Assad used chemical weapons again last week is really an irrelevant issue when you stop and think about Bashir Assad’s political position in 2017. (more…)

As President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping wrapped up the summit in Mar-a-lago, overshadowed in media reports by U.S. missile strikes in Syria, President Xi joined with President Trump and focused on stressing the positive mood of the meetings between the world’s two biggest economies.

Team U.S.A insisted both President Trump and their delegation had made good on the pledge to raise concerns about China’s trade practices and said there was some headway. Team China and President Xi agreed to a 100-day plan for trade talks aimed at boosting U.S. exports and reducing China’s trade surplus with the United States.

Secretaries Tillerson (State), Mnuchin (Treasury) and Ross (Commerce) held a debriefing session with the media at the end of the summit.  What a stunning difference in the approach and level of direct and concise communication.  (Oh, and side note – Wilburne continues to crack me up, even in the reading of his responses.)  Here’s the transcript:

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[Transcript] My Fellow Americans,

We’re only 11 weeks in, but already my administration has achieved historic progress for the American people – in fact, 93% of our domestic manufacturers have expressed optimism in the future, a record.

The confidence we are seeing in our Nation is about jobs and opportunity – but it’s also about safety and security.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

The launch of Tomahawk missiles by President Trump has displaced the gravitational center of twitter purists, litmus nuts, conspiracy loons and the even creepier goons that orbit the remnants of the Ted Cruz #NeverTrump camp.

Their latest anti-Trumpism du jour targets Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and spouse of Ivanka Trump.   Every loon campaign needs a hashtag, and their chosen identifying moonbattery is scribed under #FireKushner.

The concern, as it is openly expressed by those pushing the hashtag, is that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner will sneak into President Trump’s bedroom and place a pod under his bed which will envelop the elder Trump overnight, replicate him, and simultaneously turn him into a left-wing liberal globalist.  Yes, that appears to be the general concern.

To validate this concern the current consensus conspiracy theory evidence points to Steve Bannon being dispatched from the White House (which he’s not) in combination with Jared Kushner sitting at a table and Steven Miller’s physical proximity to the corner of the room as reflected in a photograph taken during the aftermath of the Syrian missile launch.

Uh huh.

Like all similar ideological moonbattery that has come before (primary race 2015/16), there is an echo-chamber of more than tinged antisemitism, combined with a dash of Cruzian litmus testing of all activity.   In essence, this is yet another outcropping of the continuing evolution of #NeverTrump.   It’s silly, but, alas people take this stuff seriously.

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Sweden becomes the latest country to be attacked by terrorists using trucks and vehicles as deadly weapons.  Similar attacks have taken place in London England, Nice France, Berlin Germany; and now Stockholm Sweden.

At least four people are dead and dozens injured as the terrorist hijacked and used a beer delivery truck to drive through the crowed street in Stockholm and plow over victims.

(Via CNN) […] The Swedish Security Service said the attack happened just before 3 p.m. local time. People were seen fleeing the area in panic.

A beer truck was hijacked as it made a delivery nearby, according to the company that owned it. Eyewitnesses reported it being driven at speed along Drottninggatan (Queen Street) before it crashed into the front of a department store.

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A funny thing happened today en route to CNN pundit Brooke Baldwin assembling an anti-Trump narrative.

To understand the epic level of today’s fail by Ms. Baldwin, it’s important to note her earlier interview of a 2013 Syrian chemical attack survivor, Kassem Eid, three days ago.  He was brought on CNN to express his anxiety about ongoing attacks against the Syrian innocents and frame the liberal R2P humanitarian perspective.

Today, in the aftermath of last night’s airstrike, Ms. Baldwin brought Kassem Eid back to frame a narrative about President Trump launching an airstrike in Syria, but being unwilling to accept Syrian refugees.  The objective was to frame Trump’s hypocrisy.

To drive the point home the CNN producers assembled a Hillary Clinton carefully scripted speech soundbite as the lead-up to the question:  “we cannot speak of protecting Syria’s babies, and in the next breath close America’s doors to them“.

However, what happened next wasn’t expected by Baldwin.  She couldn’t shut down the segment fast enough.  This is funny.  Stay with it.

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Political commentator and extraordinarily brilliant satirist Mark Steyn was on Fox and Friends this morning to provide his perspective on President Trump’s decision to take action in Syria.

Steyn brilliantly frames the issues. [Hat Tip Stella]

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Additionally, a point that apparently needs to be made. Idiot MSM pundits like Jake Tapper, though it’s not exclusive to Tapper, keep pointing out the 2013 tweet by President Trump warning Obama about action in Syria and framing their narrative about “what changed?” etc.

Just for clarity. Between the 2013 tweet by non candidate Trump and the 2017 action by President Trump, there was a 2014 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) voted and approved by Senate committee  permitting military action in Syria against the backdrop of chemical weapon use and terrorism.

I swear sometimes the MSM are flippin’ idiots, then I remind myself of the David Mamet principle: “In order for left-wing ideologues to keep espousing their cognitively disconnected talking points they need to pretend they don’t know things.”

Yes, indeed.  Pretending not to know things is a useful pretense.

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