#even NSC was confused for a moment

[existingingrey]

GJW: 형사님😊.

Next day:

[kpop---scenarios]

Blind Spot (1)

Pairing: Yang Jeongin x Reader x Lee Know

Warning: Smut, Threesome - ish [18+ ONLY. MINORS DO NOT INTERACT]

Word Count: 2.3k

Everything Taglist: @ivydoesit23 @wife2straykids @piscesrising01 @baby-stay92 @kisses-too-the-moon @dwaekkiiracha @rylea08 @imperfectlyperfectprincess1 @satosugu4l @iovecb97 @lordmaahes-nsc @sailorkoss @minh0scat @pixie0627 @50-husbands @jinnies-muse @yaorzu-blog

@silly250 @gabriellamarie @tsunderelino @1810cl

A/N: Part one of 3! Enjoy!

“Never have I ever… cheated in a relationship.” You say, watching your boyfriend, and best friend to see if they're going to drink. Neither of them do, honestly you're surprised that Chae doesn't drink, but not surprised your boyfriend, Jeongin doesn't.

“Never have I ever… been with two guys at the same time.” Chae giggles, both of you watching Jeongin.

“Oh come on you guys, as if.” He laughs. “Okay my turn.. mhmm..” he pauses. “Never have I ever… had a threesome with two girls.” Jeongin half whispers, his eyes darting between you and Chae. “That's a conversation for a later date.” You both laugh, you in particular because he was trying to be so nonchalant about it, but after 2 years, you knew Jeongin pretty well to know what he was hinting at, but you don't say anything about it, instead moving on to your turn, switching the subject. You knew he would bring it up again, it was just a matter of time.

*

"Hey, baby.." Your boyfriend murmurs, walking into the living room, glancing around the room before his eyes land on you. It had been a few days since Chae had been over drinking with the two of you.

"What's up love?" You say, smiling at Jeongin. He stares at the ceiling for a moment, taking a breath as he tries to come up with the words he wanted to utter.

"I know you said we'd talk about it at a later date..” he pauses. You had a feeling you knew where this conversation was going. “But it's been a few days, and I was wondering if you thought about…the.. um, threesome?" He says, forcing a laugh, while rubbing the back of his neck.

There it was. It wasn't that you were really opposed to having a threesome, honestly it seemed kind of exciting, but it was the fact that he was a little more persistent than you'd like.

"Who would we even bring in?" You sigh, closing your book. That was one thing that confused you about the entire thing.

"Oh, I don't know.. I mean, we could find someone random... it could maybe be Chae… it doesn't matter." He trails off.

"You know, this is the third time that you've mentioned Chae. Are you trying to tell me something?” You laugh, making him laugh.

“We could just find a girl at the bar.” He smiles.

“Let me think about it.. it might be better to have someone that we both know and are comfortable with.” You say. “I just worry about our friendship… I don't want this to ruin anything.”

“Babe, you guys are good friends. This won't ruin things at all. I love you, and who knows, maybe it'll make the two of you even closer.” He says, shrugging his shoulders.

You bite your lip, looking at Jeongin, trying to stop your smile, but you can't, it turns into a full-fledged grin. “I'm meeting her later tonight. I'll talk to her.”

Jeongin grins like a kid on Christmas, clapping his hands together, turning around, practically skipping off to another room. Part of you started to wonder why he was so giddy, yes you knew that she was gorgeous, sexy, and almost everyone's ideal type, so yes he'd probably be excited but it made you feel a little sad that he was so excited about it.

Later that evening, you showed up to the bar, finding Chae sitting in your usual spot, with your usual drink sitting across from her waiting for you.

“Hey you.” She smiles, scooting in closer to the table as you sit down across from her.

“Hey.” You grin, taking a sip of your drink. “Thank you for this, I really needed it.” You laugh. “So how are things? I feel like I never get to see you anymore. Even though I saw you last week.” You laugh.

“Things are… things, you know.” She laughs. “I broke up with that guy I met at the gym.” She sighs.

“Wait, was that the one who claimed to be tatted up but had two small tattoos? Or was it the one who did the part-time work at the store where he stood around shirtless?” You laugh.

“Oh my god, when you put it like that, it sounds so fucking bad.” She groans, dropping her head into her hands. “It's not my fault!” She yells, jolting her head back up, to defend her choices. “We can't all find a Mr. Perfect, like Jeongin who has good looks, a good job, smart, funny, nice and did I mention good looking?” She says, taking a sip of her drink.

This seemed like your chance to talk to her about your and Jeongin's plan.

“So you think he's good looking?” You giggle, watching her facial expression.

“I do have eyes, you know.”

“Well I'm glad you think so, cause I actually have something to ask you…” You pause.

“I'm intrigued…” She smiles. “Continue.”

“He and I have been… um discussing… a threesome.”

“Yes.” She almost yells.

“You didn't even let me finish.” You half chuckle. You noticed you were twiddling your fingers underneath the table, while your leg shook with what you could only assume was anxiety.

“Oh fuck.” She laughs. “You were going to ask me right? I didn't just agree to it and you were going to ask if it was a good idea or not.”

“I was going to ask you, yes.” You say, no expression on your face. “I'm glad you both are so eager about this.”

“You should be too… it's going to be so hot.” She gushes. “When were you thinking?”

“Saturday?” You suggest.

“Two days? I can wait that long.” She giggles.

A few hours later, you walk into your shared apartment, seeing Jeongin jolt off the couch at the sight of you, rushing towards you with puppy dog eyes like he was begging you for information.

“She agreed.” You say, setting your bag down, waiting to gauge his reaction.

“Yes! I was hoping she would.” He smiles, throwing his hands up in the air in excitement. “When's it for?”

“Saturday.” You say. “2 days.”

“Thanks babe, I can't wait.” He grins, heading to the bathroom. Part of you felt a little uneasy about the whole thing but you chalked it up to a little anxiety about trying something new. If Jeongin was excited, and Chae was excited, then why shouldn't you be as well?

“She'll be here soon.” You tell Jeongin, glancing down at your phone, looking at the text message she had sent. You wander to the kitchen, pouring yourself a shot, and then another one, and one more for good measure. Your stomach felt like a ball of knots as you waited for her, you felt like you couldn't sit still, constantly moving until the knock at the door broke you out of your nerves. Jeongin walks over to the door, opening it for Chae, letting her into your apartment.

“I need a fucking drink.” She grins, holding up a bottle. “Shots for everyone.” She finishes, heading to the kitchen. She grabs three shot glasses, pouring the liquor into each glass before passing you and Jeongin each a glass. “To good friends and good times.” She laughs, taking her shot, you and Jeongin taking yours seconds later.

The three of you stand there, the silence is deafening before Jeongin breaks it.

“Have you two ever kissed before?” He asks, looking between you both.

You both shake your heads no, you're feeling drunk enough already, while Chae takes a swig from the bottle before walking towards you. She cups your face with her hands, leaning in to press her lips against yours. You can hear Jeongin groan as he watches the two of you, slowly deepening the kiss, your tongues slipping into each other's mouths as you hold each other closer. Jeongin moves in, joining in on the kiss, his tongue swapping between your mouth and Chae’s until she breaks the kiss, licking her lips as she smiles at you and then Jeongin. Your heart is pounding, you feel flushed and tingly as you all look at each other. Chae's eyes are soft and sultry, Jeongin's lips are parted and panting.

“I guess we’re doing this,” She says, grabbing both your hands, leading you both to the bedroom.

Jeongin sits on the bed as he watches you and Chae undress each other, firstly discarding each other's shirts, and then pants and finally underwear. You both move towards him, undressing him, leaving his boxers last before finally letting his hard cock spring free. The three of you lay on the bed, Jeongin laying on his back. You hover your mouth over his cock as Chae immediately straddles his face, and he begins eating her pussy. You wrap your mouth around his cock, his fingers moving between your lips, to rub your clit as you shove his cock so deep down your throat, making him moan into her cunt. You spread your legs, giving Jeongin better access to your clit, his fingers were like magic on your body, making it almost impossible for you to last very long.

You cum quickly, as does Chae, you lay down on the bed as Chae gets off Jeongin's mouth, laying down on the other side of him. He gives you a half smile as he rolls over, towards Chae. You watch as he lifts her legs up, sliding his cock inside of her, making her moan. “Mhmm.” Jeongin groans. “Now for the main course.” He murmurs quietly. You're assuming he thinks you didn't hear him, but you most definitely did.

You notice how his eyes linger on hers, they both smile at each other as he slowly thrusts into her, a lot more sensually than it should be. He intertwined his fingers with hers as he leaned down to kiss her, the pace of the kiss matching the pace of his thrusts, slow and passionate. You clear your throat a few times but they don't notice you. You can hear him whispering in her ear, her moaning whispers in response but you can't hear what either of them are saying.

This wasn't what you expected when you three had decided to do a threesome. After a few more minutes of being ignored, you climbed out of bed, going into the bathroom to take a shower, trying to wash the shame and uncomfortable feeling you felt off your body. When you were done, you wrapped yourself in a towel, leaving the bathroom to your room where Jeongin was laying in bed, his chest heaving. You heard the front door slam shut, and you knew Chae left.

“That was.. wow.” He chuckles, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “Thank you.” He breathes.

You don't respond, you're so upset at what just happened you can barely wrap your head around what just happened.

You get yourself dressed, walking out of the room to the kitchen where you grab a snack, going to the living room to watch a show. You just wanted to forget for a little bit and watch your favorite show.

“You okay babe?” Jeongin asks, plopping down on the couch beside you.

“I just wanna watch my show.” You mutter, moving yourself away from Jeongin who sat too close.

“Hey.” He says, taking the remote to pause the show. “What's wrong?”

“I don't want to get into it now.” You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“Y/N.. talk to me.” He says, placing his hand on your knee.

“Don't!” You snap, pulling your knee away from him. “Don't touch me right now.”

“Okay, what is going on?” He asks, sitting back, almost as if he was offended.

“You and Chae are what's going on.” You snap. “You completely left me out to fuck her. Was that the plan all along?”

“What!?” Jeongin says, acting shocked. “We tried to involve you! You were so hesitant and we didn't want to force you! And then you left so we just assumed you didn't want to be involved anymore.” He explains.

“No.” You say. “You didn't try to involve me, not after you started fucking her. I saw the two of you.”

“Y/N.. were we in the same room?” He scoffs. “Yes we did, but you pulled away so many times. How much did you actually drink?” He asks.

“I didn't drink that much.” You murmur, but maybe you were wrong? Maybe you did drink too much.. maybe you weren't remembering it correctly?

“I wouldn't do that to you…” He half smiles. “I love you.”

You let out a big sigh, glancing over at your boyfriend. He had never previously done anything to make you feel like he was lying to you, so maybe the liquor did hit you harder than you realized.

“You're right… I'm sorry.” You say, snuggling into him. “I don't think I wanna do it again though.” You tell him.

“Mhmm… I agree.” He whispers, in a less than convincing tone.

A week later, you could cut the tension in the house between you and Jeongin with a knife and you didn't understand it. The night it happened, the two of you talked it out and everything was fine. But a few days later everything changed.

“He's distant, he won't talk to me, he's being really weird and I don't understand it. Everything was fine.” You complain to Chae.

“That's so weird.” She sighs, looking stumped.

“Has he told you anything?” You ask.

“What? No? I haven't heard from him… why would I hear from him?” She chuckles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. You wanted to believe her, but she was also acting weird but it could also be in your head. To be honest, you weren't sure what to believe and it was driving you insane.

Chae reaches over the table grabbing your hand. “He loves you. Maybe it's just something with work.” She smiles. “Everything will be just fine.”

“Yeah.” You smile.

“Everything will be fine.”

[megacircuit9universe]

Hand Basket

TUE OCT 29 2019

So, over the weekend, Trump had something of a win, announcing that special forces had cornered the leader of ISIS, who then killed himself. 

that announcement came on Sunday, and then later the same day, he decided to attend a home game of the World Series in DC, hanging out in a skybox with his entourage.  But when Trump and Co. appeared on the Jumbotron... there came enormous boos from the spectators in the stands.

Those boos lead eventually to a prolonged chant of, “Lock him up!” from the crowd.

Granted, this was DC, which has a very liberal voting base, but this was also the World Series, which draws fans from all over the country.  Also, being the World Series... this was a globally televised event... making the boos and chants of the crowd all the more bold, because they knew the world was watching.

While some, even on the left, have condemned the actions of the World Series crowd for stooping to a level as low as that of the average Trump rally... it should be noted that there was no demagogue present to lead them on. 

This was a spontaneous reaction from ordinary people who had come to see a baseball game, and did not know beforehand that Trump would be in their midst.  Yet when they saw his face on the Jumbotron... even despite his big win earlier in the day... all they could think do was boo and call for his imprisonment in front of the world.

Needless to say, this is what might be called... a bad sign, for Trump.

When polls of random citizens are reporting fifty to fifty-five percent approval for both his impeachment, and his removal... and then you have this “poll” of a crowd of random sports fans, all of whom have enough money to have purchased world series tickets and traveled to DC for the game... and more than half of them also boo and chant, “lock him up,” it suggests that the GOP in both the House and Senate, are in for a very bad day come November 2020... and that they are still in deep denial about it.

In the last entry I talked about the strange phenomenon in which GOP power players have been tending to accidentally incriminate themselves in front of reporters, from Trump himself, to his Chief of Staff, to even Rudy Giulianni who accidentally butt-dialed not one, but two reporters late last week, allowing them to listen in on mysterious conversations in which he trashed Joe biden, and talked about the need for huge sums of money.

I speculated that perhaps pro-humanitarian bots might have subliminally manipulated these players into playing themselves... because it’s not really that hard to do when you’re dealing with individuals who already self delude daily about their own intelligence, and the justifiability of their actions.

And we’re talking about a group of men in the White House and Congress who, as I’ve pointed out before, already fought a two year campaign against Special Council Mueller... trotting out every play they had in their play book... until, in the end, they felt they had won.

Lying, distraction, confusion, and illegal power plays (such as firing Comey, McCabe, and even Sessions... and replacing the latter with a crony, Barr, to be the new AG, as fast tracked through confirmation by the Senate, and who quickly killed the Mueller probe) had won the day!

So now they had the green light to start throwing the 2020 election by extorting Zelenski into investigating Biden... on pain of no Javelins to defend his country against Russian invasion... a move made the very day after Mueller’s public testimony, dazed and doddering, had landed like a dud... in July of this year.

But only two months later... that call to Zelenski was exposed... and has lead to this impeachment juggernaut we are witnessing right now.

And since the whistleblower’s complaint first hit the news, the GOP has been thumbing through that same playbook that they convinced themselves had defeated the Special Council... and every single play has fallen flat.

So... it’s becoming painfully more clear by the day that the GOP does not have any idea what they’re up against this time around, in this new battle that came out of nowhere after they were kicking up their heels and celebrating the winning of the war.

It’s not just Trump and Mulvaney admitting to a quid pro quo and saying, “get over it” or Rudy butt dialing reporters, or idiot House Republicans storming the closed hearings to demand open hearings... that will definitely destroy them... it’s Trump thinking he can kill the leader of ISIS on his way out of Syria, and then go to a baseball game and think all will be forgiven.

And it’s GOP leaders saying for weeks that the whistleblower’s information was just third hand hearsay... confident that no first hand account could ever come to light... as it did today, in explosive fashion on the hill, when Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, of the NSC, decorated with a purple heart, came to testify as a first hand “earwitness” to the Zelenski call as it went down.

He not only corroborated everything the whistleblower said in that original complaint, but also every other line of testimony so far saying that this was not just one phone call, but a large scale, long term orchestration to force Z into publically announcing an investigation against the Bidens before he would ever see military aid, or meet with Trump in person, or get any other help or validation by the U.S.

In other words, this playbook... is worse than useless!  It’s working against them with every play.  Distractions don’t distract.  Deflections don’t deflect. Lies are immediately exposed. And that’s not when they’re just outright confessing their guilt in front of reporters by accident.

So how does a playbook that worked so well through 2017 and 2018... even through to July of 2019... suddenly become so toxic and worthless?

The short answer is Nancy Pelosi.

But the longer answer is the 2018 mid term elections.

There was a huge push to make sure Democrats got out the vote last November, with many online, and even in the mainstream warning that it could be the most consequential election of our lifetimes... because it could decide the fate of American Democracy itself.  It could be... many warned... the LAST time a free and fair election might ever be held.

And on election night, when the returns started to come in... even the left leaning news outlets were playing it like it was a big disappointment.  

It was only in the weeks to follow that the real implications of that election were fully grasped by the media... with several close races still contested, but leaning Democratic... that the House had been given a bigger mandate than any since Nixon was in office... the Senate had taken damage, even though it was supposed to be a safe year for them... and state Governorships and Legislatures across the board had turned blue.

The GOP continued to play this down through December, but by January, Trump knew he’d been slapped in the face by the electorate, and as a fuck-you, he fired Sessions and nominated Barr to replace him as AG.

Then as a second fuck-you, he refused to sign the new budget... shutting down the government for over a month... demanding money for his border wall, and then declaring a national emergency in order to steal funding for the border wall from the military.

But in that first face off... Speaker Pelosi won the shut down.  She forced Trump to capitulate, even though many were fearful she was being too inflexible.  And his national emergency declaration has also been over ruled by the courts all these months later.

I’m going to take a second to echo back here, the words of that Pronunciation Book Video from 2013, “I have been trying to tell you something for five years.”

Five years later was September 2018... a few months before this critical mid-term election.

I’m arguing now, that this election, handing the house back to the Democrats, and the Speakership back to Pelosi, was the decisive moment in which Trump’s playbook... along with his aspirations to dictatorship by decommissioning the Constitution... turned from shiny gold to poisonous lead, for the GOP.

They didn’t see it that way, because it seemed to have helped them defeat Mueller in SPITE of the elections. 

It confirmed a delusion... first created by a fluke electoral upset in 2016, that they were destined... and they were invincible.

Sometimes that shit flies.  Sometimes that shit does bring down democracies and turn them into dictatorships.  

But sometimes... that kind of thinking is exactly what leads would be cult leaders and their brainwashed flocks... straight down to Hell in a hand basket.

Trump... well known by this point for projecting... told us Baghdadi died screaming, crying, and wimpering.

A crowd of baseball fans, later that day, chanted, “Lock him up.”

It seems only a matter of time before we see this other, equally dangerous leader, acting out his descriptions about the former.

[jacobwren]

I obviously can’t pretend to know the intentions of the new President, but let’s pretend the power consolidation move is what’s actually happening. In fact, let’s pretend we’re the Trump administration (not necessarily Trump himself, more likely his inner circle) for a second. Here’s our playbook: 1. We launch a series of Executive Orders in the first week. Beforehand, we identify one that our opponents will complain loudly about and will dominate the news cycle. Immigration ban. Perfect. 2. We craft the ban to be about 20% more extreme than we actually want it to be — say, let’s make the explicit decision to block green card holders from defined countries from entering the US, rather than just visa holders. We create some confusion so that we can walk back from that part later, but let’s make sure that it’s enforced to begin with. 3. We watch our opposition pour out into the streets protesting the extremes of our public measure, exactly as we intended. The protests dominate the news, but our base doesn’t watch CNN anyway. The ACLU will file motions to oppose the most extreme parts of our measure, that’s actually going to be useful too. We don’t actually care if we win, that’s why we made it more extreme than it needed to be. But in doing so, the lawsuit process will test the loyalty of those enforcing what we say. 4. While the nation’s attention is on our extreme EO, slip a few more nuanced moves through. For example, reconfigure the National Security Council so that it’s led by our inner circle. Or gut the State Department’s ability to resist more extreme moves. That will have massive benefits down the road — the NSC are the folks that authorize secret assassinations against enemies of the state, including American citizens. Almost nobody has time to analyze that move closely, and those that do can’t get coverage. 5. When the lawsuits filed by the ACLU inevitably succeed, stay silent. Don’t tell the DHS to abide by the what the federal judge says, see what they do on their own. If they capitulate to the courts, we know our power with the DHS is limited and we need to staff it with more loyal people. But if they continue enforcing our EO until we tell them not to, we know that we can completely ignore the judicial branch later on and the DHS will have our back. 6. Once the DHS has made their move, walk back from the 20% we didn’t want in the first place. Let the green card holders in, and pretend that’s what we meant all along. The protestors and the ACLU, both clamoring to display their efficacy, jump on the moment to declare a huge victory. The crowds dissipate, they have to go back to work. 7. When the dust settles, we have 100% of the Executive Order we originally wanted, we’ve tested the loyalty of a department we’ll need later on, we’ve proven we can ignore an entire branch of government, and we’ve slipped in some subtle moves that will make the next test even easier. We’ve just tested the country’s willingness to capitulate to a fascist regime.

Jake Fuentes, The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It

[idkmybffjillyy]

The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It

From Medium.com, written by Jack Fuentes

“When I read about the incredibly active first week of the Trump administration, I struggle with two competing narratives about what’s really going on. The first story is simple: the administration is just doing what it said it would do, literally keeping its campaign promises. Lots of people won’t agree, but it’s playing to its base. They’re also not really good at this whole government thing yet, so implementation is shaky. The second is more sinister: the administration is deliberately testing the limits of governmental checks and balances to set up a self-serving, dangerous consolidation of power. A legitimate argument can be made for the former: a relatively extreme and inexperienced administration was just put in place, and they haven’t yet figured out the nuances of government. But a few of the events in the past 72 hours —the intentional inclusion of green card holders in the immigration order, the DHS defiance of a federal judge, and the timing of Trump’s shakeup of the National Security Council — have pointed to a larger story. Even worse, if that larger story is true, if the source of this week’s actions is a play to consolidate power, it’s going really well so far. And that’s because mostly everyone — including those in protests shutting down airports over the weekend— are playing right into the administration’s hand. I obviously can’t pretend to know the intentions of the new President, but let’s pretend the power consolidation move is what’s actually happening. In fact, let’s pretend we’re the Trump administration (not necessarily Trump himself, more likely his inner circle) for a second. Here’s our playbook: We launch a series of Executive Orders in the first week. Beforehand, we identify one that our opponents will complain loudly about and will dominate the news cycle. Immigration ban. Perfect. We craft the ban to be about 20% more extreme than we actually want it to be — say, let’s make the explicit decision to block green card holders from defined countries from entering the US, rather than just visa holders. We create some confusion so that we can walk back from that part later, but let’s make sure that it’s enforced to begin with. We watch our opposition pour out into the streets protesting the extremes of our public measure, exactly as we intended. The protests dominate the news, but our base doesn’t watch CNN anyway. The ACLU will file motions to oppose the most extreme parts of our measure, that’s actually going to be useful too. We don’t actually care if we win, that’s why we made it more extreme than it needed to be. But in doing so, the lawsuit process will test the loyalty of those enforcing what we say. While the nation’s attention is on our extreme EO, slip a few more nuanced moves through. For example, reconfigure the National Security Council so that it’s led by our inner circle. Or gut the State Department’s ability to resist more extreme moves. That will have massive benefits down the road — the NSC are the folks that authorize secret assassinations against enemies of the state, including American citizens. Almost nobody has time to analyze that move closely, and those that do can’t get coverage. When the lawsuits filed by the ACLU inevitably succeed, stay silent. Don’t tell the DHS to abide by the what the federal judge says, see what they do on their own. If they capitulate to the courts, we know our power with the DHS is limited and we need to staff it with more loyal people. But if they continue enforcing our EO until we tell them not to, we know that we can completely ignore the judicial branch later on and the DHS will have our back. Once the DHS has made their move, walk back from the 20% we didn’t want in the first place. Let the green card holders in, and pretend that’s what we meant all along. The protestors and the ACLU, both clamoring to display their efficacy, jump on the moment to declare a huge victory. The crowds dissipate, they have to go back to work. When the dust settles, we have 100% of the Executive Order we originally wanted, we’ve tested the loyalty of a department we’ll need later on, we’ve proven we can ignore an entire branch of government, and we’ve slipped in some subtle moves that will make the next test even easier. We’ve just tested the country’s willingness to capitulate to a fascist regime. Assuming this narrative is true (again, I have no idea what the administration intends), the “resistance” is playing right into Trump’s playbook. The most vocal politicians could be seen at rallies, close to the headlines. The protests themselves did exactly what they were intended to: dominate the news cycle and channel opposition anger towards a relatively insignificant piece of the puzzle. I’m not saying that green card holders should be stuck in airports — far from it. I’m saying there might be a much larger picture here, and the immigration ban is a distraction. So for those that believe that the power consolidation narrative is true and want to oppose it, how does that happen? First, stop believing that protests alone do much good. Protests galvanize groups and display strong opposition, but they’re not sufficient. Not only are they relatively ineffective at changing policy, they’re also falsely cathartic to those protesting. Protestors get all kinds of feel-good that they’re among fellow believers and standing up for what’s right, and they go home feeling like they’ve done their part. Even if protestors gain mild, symbolic concessions, the fact that their anger has an outlet is useful to the other side. Do protest, but be very wary of going home feeling like you’ve done your job. You haven’t. Second, pay journalists to watch for the head fake. That’s their job. Become a paying subscriber to news outlets, then actively ask them to more deeply cover moves like the NSC shakeup. We can no longer breathlessly focus media attention on easy stories like the immigration ban. The real story is much more nuanced and boring — until it’s not. Third, popular attention must focus less on whether we agree with what the government is doing, and more on whether the system of checks and balances we have in place is working. It is a much bigger deal that the DHS felt they could ignore a federal court than that Trump signed an EO blocking green card holders in the first place. It is a much bigger deal that Trump removed a permanent military presence from the NSC than that he issued a temporary stay on immigration. The immigration ban may be more viscerally upsetting, but the other moves are potentially far more dangerous. Once again, I’m desperately hoping that none of this narrative is actually true, and that we merely have a well-intentioned administration with some execution problems. I’m also hoping and praying that the structure of our democracy is resilient even to the most sophisticated attacks. I’m hoping that the better angels of our nature will prevail. But with each passing day, the evidence tilts more in the other direction.”

https://medium.com/@jakefuentes/the-immigration-ban-is-a-headfake-and-were-falling-for-it-b8910e78f0c5#.3873mvi5k

[kerahlekung]

Menteri Kesihatan kerajaan pintu belakang...

Menteri Kesihatan kerajaan pintu belakang....

Malam tadi dalam satu rancangan temubual bersama menteri PENYAMUN NASIONAL (PNipu), menteri  dari negeri lanun penyamun cuba memberi naratif dalam bentuk sejarah menyalahkan Pakatan Harapan kononnya wabak Covid-19 tidak dibendung dari awal. Namun akhirnya soalan yang dikemukakan moderator berkenaan situasi semasa di hospital dijawab dengan penuh merapu seolah-olah langsung tidak pernah memantau keadaan terkini pesakit yang sedang menerima rawatan.Pendek kata moderator tanya keadaan petugas kesihatan di hospital, Menteri kudeta bagi history lesson Covid19... Inilah bahana akibat melantik penyamun jadi kerajaan semburit menggunakan pintu belakang, akhirnya rakyat yang menanggung derita sedang mereka sibuk main golf dan berpesta suka ria! Menteri Kesihatan bercakap tak ada standard langsong... Tergagap-gagap baca teks, entah apa benda dia nak khabar tak tahu.

Menteri Kesihatan kata Virus Covid19 boleh hilang dengan minum air masak sebab virus suka paru-paru bawah tapi masuk ke dalam perut kuman tu mampos pasai air dan kesan asid dalam perut tu.

Baru tadi gua ada baca rencana BBC yang berjodul "No!! drinking water doesn't kill coronavirus" Gua pun naik konfius kat sapa guan nak percaya? Rencana tu atau Menteri Kesihatan Kudeta kita?

Story kat sini...

Nii Menteri kesihatan ke, atau Menteri direct selling? Macam nak jual filter air RO saja .Virus tak mati kalu minum air suam dan tak mati kena asid perut. Baik menteri ini suruh orang minum sebaldi air sabun perlahan2 sebab air sabun boleh memecahkan dinding virus dan bertindak balas dengan protein dalam virus.

Pasai apa tak beritahu awal2 yg RTM sekarang ada segmen baru..Segmen "Tanya Lain,Jawab Lain" ini bakal mengundang ramai penonton..Terbaik RTM dlm usaha meningkat rating penonton dgn kerjasama Menteri Kesihatan M'sia... - f/bk

Raja Bomoh Malaysia is back...

Raja Bomoh pun sedang berusaha keras bebaskan dunia dari wabak Covid19. 

Hanya dengan pusing globe, Raja Bomoh sudah jampi satu bumi dari serangan Coronavirus@Covid19. Duduk rumah jangan stress2. Enjoy the video... 

Perlukan kerahan tentera Ahad ini ?...

Tidak perlu. Kerahan tentera membuktikan 70 org menteri2 PN gagal dan polis juga gagal kawal orangramai sedangkan sebenarnya polis berjaya kawal cuma ada beberapa kes terpencil itu yg diperbesarkan UmnoPas.

Tak perlu kerahan tentera. Terlalu awal tentera dikerah sedangkan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan baru hari ke 2... masih ada 12 hari lagi.

Tak perlu kerahan tentera kecuali kalau 80-90% kawalan polis GAGAL. Rakyat semakin LIAR. Mana ada? Tak ada kan!??

Normal lah hari pertama rakyat belum boleh sesuaikan diri duduk di rumah/ jgn keluar rumah. Hari ke 2 semakin berkurang. Hari ke 3 sikap rakyat semakin baik. Patuh arahan kan... Ini normal.

Tentera dikerahkan... bukan nak gi perang, tapi nak suruh rakyat balik duk rumah.. Rakyat degil tahap kangkung goreng belacan.

Kerahan tentera perlu jika dan hanya jika keadaan DARURAT (LOCKDOWN) samada penyakit semakin teruk menular kadar kematian meningkat mendadak (nauzubillah) ATAU berlaku rusuhan (tak mungkin@ rakyat Malaysia baik, patuh arahan cuma kurang kesedaran tentang penyakit Coronavirus kerana lambat peka dan lambat pendedahan oleh kerajaan sambil lewa) - Mur Ni

Ikut hukum akal, segala bala masalah mak nenek yg tengah melanda sekarang ini,sepatutnya kerajaaan PH yg hadap. Ikut logik, sekarang ni, Lim Guan Eng, Dr Zul dan semua barisan kabinet kerajaan Pakatan Harapan sedang disumpah seranah oleh walauan dan penyokong Umno kerana sekarang ini pesakit yang positif Covid 19 bertambah dengan banyak setiap hari. Gagal kawal virus, gagal perbaiki ekonomi, gagal naikkan harga sawit, gagal naikkan RM... Pendek kata, semua yg ada,diCELAKAKAN semahu mungkin.Memang kalau MELAH dengar mahu lari tak pakai kain dia,tak sempat bubuh kunci lori terus start pakai bunyi dimulut! Tapi....Allah Maha Besar, Dia terbalikkan semua tu, untuk mereka yg lapar sangat nakkan kuasa, tak sempat tunggu tempoh mandat yg rakyat bagi berakhir, dia bagi kuasa sekelip mata kepada mereka. Ikut logik, mana mungkin PAKATAN HARAPAN yg ada majoriti 130 kerusi lebih boleh tiba-tiba jatuh...? Tetapi kuasa Allah nak tunjuk, dia bagi jatuh, dia bagi kepada kepada puak-puak pengkhianat dan lebai belukang...

Maka, kalau tengok puak sekarang dan penyokong mereka, tiada sekelumit kegembiraan walaupun mendapat kuasa seperti yg mereka nak. 90% kerusi adalah kerusi yg mereka nak, iaitu bangsa melayu. Sekarang,kalau kau tengok kat mana-mana portal, bersilat lidah menteri2 mereka menepis cacian rakyat.Para penyokong yg ada pun tidak membantu seperti ALLAH kelu kan lidah mereka dan KERAS tangan mereka nak menaip. Apakah kerajaan yang ada sekarang ni, walaupun 90% melayu, islam, tidak dibantu oleh Allah untuk hadapi semua ni walaupun ada LEBAI belukang? Yang ambo tahu, islam dan perkauman, bagaikan air dan minyak. Tak boleh bercampur. Ironinya, China dah berjaya kawal virus, kini yg nampak tak terkawal, negara lain, termasuk Malaysia. Masih terkial-kail termasuk Pak Menteri seperti ramai yang tiga suku! Lagi ironi, punca penularan berkaitan himpunan keagamaan. Sedangkan punca segala masalah dlm malaysia sebelum ini juga isu agama dan bangsa dijadikan modal besar oleh golongan LEBAI BELUKANG! Wallahualam. - Nyamuk Mengiggit

Movement Control Gets Out Of Control – After His Own Screw-Up, PM Muhyiddin Warns Of Extended Lockdown...

The backdoor government of Muhyiddin Yassin has screwed up so spectacularly in handling the Coronavirus crisis that the previous legitimately elected Pakatan Harapan (PH) government looks like a gem. The present regime has made so many fatal U-turns that it makes former Prime Minister Mahathir, known for his “U-turn government”, appears like a darling. Sure, the now-collapsed PH government had made dozens of U-turn. But at least, those U-turn did not carry the risk of exposing people to the possibility of death. From the moment Prime Minister Muhyiddin announced on Monday (March 16) that a 2-week nationwide lockdown was necessary to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, it was doomed to make the situation worse. The decision was bold and decisive, not that he had any other option. But that’s about it. There was no comprehensive study, let alone a detail and realistic execution plan. The incompetent government was merely fire-fighting. There was almost zero coordination among all the government agencies, police and military simply because nobody seems to know what to do. Only the prime minister can declare a lockdown or emergency based on the advice of the National Security Council Act 2016 under the provision Act 776. While everyone agreed that the Covid-19 has become a threat to national security, all the 8 geniuses who attended the National Security Council (NSC) meeting appeared to be as clueless as the guy sitting next to them on what to do next. The 8 members of the NSC comprise Chairperson Muhyiddin, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, International Trade & Industry Minister Azmin Ali, Chief Secretary Mohd Zuki Ali, Chief of Defense Affendi Buang and Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador. After Muhyiddin announced the decision to lock down the country in a special televised broadcast to 33-million Malaysians, it was mission accomplished. The rest of the NSC members continued with their Candy Crush game. Exactly how much could International Trade & Industry Minister Azmin Ali contribute in the NSC meeting is quite a mystery. Common sense says any health or medical specialist would be able to offer more useful advices to the council than a disgraceful politician like Azmin. Subsequent chaos proved that not only the entire NSC top guns were clueless on how the Coronavirus spread, they were also ill-prepared to engage the pathogen in a warfare that has since gotten worse than before the lockdown.

Did Communications Minister Saifuddin Abdullah communicate any important information in the form of FAQs on a timely basis to the public to prevent panic and confusion? Nope. Hours before the lockdown announcement, panic buying had already begun after people read the rumours on social media. To add fuel to the rumour mill, the PM proudly said “wait for the big news tonight”. The panic and confusion continued even “after” the lockdown announcement. Right, it was just a partial lockdown and Muhyiddin prefers the term MCO (movement control order). Whatever you like to call it, would it not be more effective to restrict movement by states or even by districts based on the geographical locations of the patients tested positive for the Coronavirus? Hilariously, the prime minister announced a lockdown, but allowed everyone to travel interstate. People happily packed their luggages, pumped their tank to the fullest, and travelled back to their “kampung (hometown)” as if it was “Cuti-Cuti Malaysia” (vacations or holidays). Sure, there were some irresponsible and ignorant people who travelled instead of locked up at home. However, a massive of those travellers who had chosen to return to their respective hometown all over the country were university students. They were chased out of their hostels because the genius Higher Education Ministry decided to shut down all public and private universities until March 31. The ministry essentially sent a mass of people to congested train stations and bus stations. Instead of discouraging movement, the Higher Education Ministry encouraged them to move to a point of convergence, much to the pleasure of the Coronavirus. By the time the clueless Muhyiddin government realised the mistake and made a U-turn, it was already too late. The virus may have already spread among the packed travellers either at the transportation hubs or inside the buses or trains. As one of four Senior Ministers, did Defense Minister Ismail Sabri communicate with his colleague, UMNO warlord and Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad, about the scope of coverage and all the relevant plans and procedures related to the so-called movement control order? Or was the Defense Minister fantasizing about turtle eggs during the NSC meeting? Had the Pakatan Harapan coalition government still in charge, the racist UMNO and extremist PAS will accuse DAP of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam for closing down all the mosques nationwide and shutting down all the universities. Has anyone noticed how extraordinary quiet Islamist party PAS and UMNO Malay nationalist party are today?

SEPERTI PENYAMUN2 UMNO...

To make matters worse, the top police chief was as clueless as the turtle egg Ismail Sabri. Obviously panicked and unprepared, IGP Hamid Bador made an impromptu decision on Tuesday (March 17), just hours before the lockdown goes into effect, that a special written “permit” to travel between states in the country must be obtained to check the spread of Covid-19. Exactly how could a piece of paper prevent the spread of the virus is beyond comprehension. But the joke didn’t end there. Just 5 hours after the order was issued, the police was forced to revoke it at about 11pm on Tuesday after police stations nationwide were swarmed with people planning to travel. Again, Coronavirus might have spread at the packed police stations. Yesterday, Muhyiddin was forced to be on live TV – begging the people to stay at home. The incompetent prime minister probably hadn’t realized that he was trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. He appeared to be blaming the people for his own government’s screw-up when he mentioned about bus stations packed with thousands of people. The PM even warned that if his half-baked plan to contain the spread of Coronavirus fails, the lockdown could be extended beyond March 31. In his speech, Muhyiddin claimed his government was concerned over the 790 infected cases. Yet, he played petty politics and refused to invite Chief Ministers from the states controlled by opposition Pakatan Harapan for a special National Action Council meeting. Now, after the damage has been done, the Higher Education Ministry made a U-turn and prohibited public and private university students from leaving their campus. Even if a conservative 20% of an estimated 700,000 public university students had escaped, the country is looking at 140,000 students who could potentially spread the virus in the rural areas. Already, one passenger on Plusliner express bus from Johor Baru to Kuantan has been tested positive for Covid-19. And the turtle egg Defense Minister Ismail Sabri has threatened to unleash the military to enforce the movement control order – suggesting that the police under the leadership of IGP Hamid Bador is not capable of doing his job to enforce the lockdown order. PM Muhyiddin should think twice before allowing his UMNO brother to bring in the military. It could create serious panic and more confusion – even perception – that the backdoor government is taking advantage of the Coronavirus pandemic to try to stay in power through military rule for as long as they want. The stock market may plunge further and investors may get out in droves. - FT

Kerajaan suruh duduk rumah sendiri,  bukan rumah orang lain...

cheers.

Sumber asal: Menteri Kesihatan kerajaan pintu belakang... Baca selebihnya di Menteri Kesihatan kerajaan pintu belakang...

[thisdaynews]

The Russia Hawk in the White House

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-russia-hawk-in-the-white-house/

The Russia Hawk in the White House

Just weeks into her new job as the White House’s top Russia analyst, Fiona Hill was sitting in one of her first high-level meetings with the president, his national security adviser, and a pounding migraine.

Furiously writing notes, keeping her head down, and willing both the meeting and the hammering in her head to end, it took her a few moments to realize her then-boss, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, had called on her repeatedly. She shot up, wide-eyed, sure she’d be fired. Trump at that point confused her for the executive secretary rather than his top Russia adviser.

Story Continued Below

“Fiona got off to a rocky start,” said one of her longtime friends, to whom she confided in those early days.

This account of her 2½-year tenure was pieced together through interviews with more than a dozen people who either worked with Hill or are close to her. Her time as special assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian Affairs, a role that put her at the center of domestic and geopolitical intrigue, follows the arc of the Russiagate scandal that dogged Trump’s presidency almost from its inception.

Since her departure, that scandal has been replaced by a new one: Hill resigned her post just seven days before Trump made a fateful call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that has embroiled him in a deepening impeachment inquiry. Her story as an unlikely Trump adviser, examined in depth for the first time here, is emblematic of the tension facing so many national security experts between their personal ambitions and their sense of duty.

Hill’s sense that she might be fired at any moment never quite subsided — in part because she was such a surprising pick in the first place. A sober critic of Vladimir Putin — she described the Russian strongman just months before her appointment to the National Security Council as motivated to meddle in the U.S. presidential election and fond of “blackmail and intimidation” — Hill also hailed from the Brookings Institution, the epitome of the D.C. establishment Trump had pointedly rejected.

And she was recruited by K.T. McFarland and Michael Flynn, who were out as Trump’s top two national security officials before Hill even formally started. She had even worked with Christopher Steele, the British ex-spymaster behind the salacious dossier that rocked the early days of Trump’s presidency.

National security insiders were shocked when she took the job—she was anything but a Trump loyalist (her colleagues weren’t even sure whether she was a conservative) and the Trump-Russia probe was gaining steam and in the headlines daily. But Hill earlier this month officially departed the administration on good terms, having helped craft responses to Russia’s malign behavior that, to many experts, are arguably even tougher than those imposed by the Obama administration—including the expulsion of 60 undercover Russian intelligence officers from the U.S. following a Russian chemical weapons attack on British soil, the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine, and a U.S. troop buildup in Poland.

And she did it by following a playbook that has become familiar to nonloyalist administration officials hoping to survive in their jobs: pick your battles; stay out of the news; and understand that sometimes the wins are as prosaic as stabilizing an erratic, adversarial relationship and reassuring allies.

“She understands as well as anyone what drives and constrains Russian policy under Vladimir Putin,” said McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser. And during her time in the White House, McMaster added, Hill “set conditions for better relations should Putin and those around him realize that their sustained campaign to undermine the United States and the West is backfiring and harming the Russian people.”

***

Before joining the White House, Hill seemed to underestimate how well Trump and Putin would get along: “We’re going to have an awful lot of friction [with Russia] and Trump isn’t exactly the most diplomatic of people,” she told The Atlantic after Trump was elected. “So I imagine he’ll fall out with his new friend Vladimir pretty quickly.”

Such a falling out hasn’t happened — and despite her skepticism of Putin and belief that a “reset” with Russia is unattainable, Hill came to view Trump’s desire to forge a working relationship with the Kremlin and anchor the relationship in a long-term arms control treaty as a fundamentally good instinct.

Still, current and former officials acknowledge privately that even with the expertise and experience Hill brought to the White House, the administration has no coherent foreign policy, let alone a unified strategy for dealing with Putin — forging a new arms control treaty with Moscow while deterring Russia’s influence operations in the U.S., for example, remain steep uphill battles. And the recently fired John Bolton, McMaster’s replacement, wasn’t exactly an empowering boss.

“She wasn’t sitting around with Bolton debating what policies to implement,” said a former NSC official who’s worked with Hill. “And she hints at the fact that she doesn’t know what’s going on sometimes. Damage control is really her purview.”

In the Trump era, that’s hardly a minor role.

“Things certainly could’ve been a lot worse if Fiona weren’t there,” said another longtime Russia expert and friend of Hill’s. “But even if she could make a positive change and get away with it because the president maybe isn’t fully focused on it at that moment, ultimately it’s going to be undone by what he says and does privately.”

Trump’s tendency to rely more on his instincts than his advisers was initially anxiety-inducing. His off-the-cuff chats with foreign leaders and public comments — whether chastising U.S. spies, dismissing NATO as “obsolete,” or questioning the value of the European Union—often undermined his own national security advisers’ positions. One notorious phone call to Kiev aside, perhaps, Hill and the broader team began to view Trump’s private musings with world leaders with less alarm once they realized they rarely resulted in actual policy shifts.

Two particularly fanciful Trump ideas — a joint cyber initiative with Moscow the president proposed on Twitter in 2017, for example, and the Russians’ offer to “help” interrogate Americans on U.S. soil last year — were never seriously considered by the White House, sources said.

“One of Trump’s favorite things to say to Putin is, ‘I’ll have my guys look into it,” said a former Trump national security official who attended their bilateral meetings. “But, much to the Russians’ frustration, he rarely if ever actually does. They think they’re getting concessions, but they’re really just getting hot air.”

***

Hill, meanwhile, is an intense academicwhose deliberateness can best be characterized as the complete opposite of Trump’s stream-of-consciousness style — a product, perhaps, of her working-class upbringing and desire to distinguish herself in a field dominated by men.

Born into a family of coal miners in northern England in 1965, Hill was deeply affected by the Donbass miners strike in 1989—the first major strike in Soviet history in what is now eastern Ukraine. She went on to become a scholar of Russian history, earning her master’s degree in Soviet studies from Harvard in 1991, where she also met her future husband. (She became a dual U.K.-U.S. citizen after they married.) After completing her Ph.D. in history and working in the research department at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, she joined the National Intelligence Council as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia in 2006.

Fluent in Russian, Hill has been studying Putin since he came to power nearly two decades ago. Like many Eurasia hands at the time, Hill was initially receptive to Putin’s self-branding as a no-nonsense leader who sought to rebuild the Russian state after its post-Soviet collapse. She seemed particularly impressed with the ex-KGB agent’s diplomatic chops: “Stop Blaming Putin and Start Helping Him,” she wrote in a 2004 op-ed, on the heels of a meeting Putin held with a Western delegation to discuss countering Chechen terrorists.

But she soon became what her friends and colleagues describe as a Russia “realist.” In 2013, nearly a decade after urging the West to try to work with Putin and roughly a year before Russia forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Hill wrote that Putin “has never seen the West as a model for Russia. Now, he is not even interested in joining it as a partner.”

From her perch at Brookings, Hill urged the Obama administration to go into its so-called Russian reset with eyes wide open, and criticized the policy as somewhat unrealistic.

“The reality is this: There are no big deals to be had with Putin,” she wrote along with co-author Cliff Gaddy. “Outside the traditional U.S.-Russian bilateral realm of arms control, there is no great opportunity for the Obama administration in Russia. The only quid pro quo Putin would likely strike with the United States is one no administration could (or would) contemplate—where Moscow agrees not to make life too difficult for Washington, as long as the U.S. ignores Russian domestic developments and human rights abuses.”

Four years later, Hill found herself working in an administration that withdrew from its chief arms control deal with Moscow and regularly ignores Russia’s crackdown on free speech and dissent—joining some others who entered the administration with backgrounds and worldviews that seemed deeply at odds with those of the president, who repeatedly extolled Putin as a “strong” leader and seemed eager to work with him.

Those include Mary Kissel, a Mike Pompeo adviser who, as a Wall Street Journal opinion writer, tweeted about Trump’s “frightening ignorance” and criticized his approach on Syria and China, and Elliott Abrams, a special envoy overseeing policy toward Venezuela who wrote during the 2016 election that Trump “should not be president of the United States.” James Jeffrey, a special envoy dealing with Syria policy, considered himself a “Never Trumper” before joining the administration last year.

Hill never criticized Trump so overtly, and Bolton, who succeeded McMaster as national security adviser in March 2018 and was ousted earlier this month, resisted pressure from the more hard-line, loyalist factions of the White House to fire her when he was appointed.

But she entered the White House with a particularly heavy piece of baggage that either didn’t bother Trump or never crossed his radar: a former working relationship with Steele.

According to people familiar with their relationship, the two British Russia hands are not exactly friends. But they have known each other for years, beginning when Hill was working on Russia at the National Intelligence Council and Steele was on MI6’s Russia desk.

“She had a high opinion of Steele, and thought he was very smart,” a foreign policy veteran, and one of Hill’s close friends, told POLITICO. Hill spoke to Steele in 2016 and discussed him with friends in 2017, after BuzzFeed published his memos outlining a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to win the election.

Hill told McMaster “as soon as she was hired” that she knew Steele and had worked with him in the past, according to a former NSC official. But she confided in some that she wasn’t in a position to judge whether the former spy’s assessments were accurate, and even thought Steele might have been played by the Russians into spreading disinformation.

Trump’s display in Helsinki in 2018, meanwhile, led many to conclude that Steele’s report was more accurate than not. In the news conference that followed his private meeting with Putin, Trump sided with the Russians over the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow had waged an all-out attack on the 2016 election, and seemed to entertain Putin’s offer to “help” interrogate Americans on U.S. soil — including Barack Obama’s former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul — about the Russia probe.

The joint news conference, which Hill had been dreading and urged Trump’s advisers to cancel, cemented fears among some that Trump was in Putin’s pocket and prompted bipartisan backlash. And Hill was flooded with calls and emails urging her to resign in protest.

She never seriously considered stepping down, though, according to a person familiar with her thinking, because the news conference didn’t reflect the substantive issues like arms control and terrorism that were discussed in the leaders’ bilateral meeting (the one where U.S. officials were present, anyway). Still, she was rebuked internally when she later met with McFaul, a fierce and frequent Trump critic, to hear his concerns about the administration’s handling of the episode.

“That was the one time” Hill got a bit too close to politics, the person said.

Still, she bounced back—and her views were always nuanced enough that she was never seen as impeding the kind of improved relationship with Russia that Trump wanted. A former NSC official recalled an episode in which Russia’s national security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, wanted to meet with McMaster but faced enormous pushback by the State Department and Pentagon.

“Fiona, on the other hand, was very supportive of McMaster maintaining that channel,” the former official said. “She understands the role that Patrushev plays, and that he’s more important in the Russian hierarchy than, say, Foreign Minister Lavrov. So that’s also why she encouraged that dialogue.”

But it wasn’t always the Russians Hill had to worry about. When she tried, unsuccessfully, earlier this spring to prevent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban from meeting with Trump — Hill thought the far-right nationalist shouldn’t be welcomed at the White House — Orban sympathizers waged “an all-out war of intimidation on her,” threatening her and calling her home multiple times a day, a former official said. The attacks subsided only after she asked the Hungarian Embassy to intervene.

Now, current and former intelligence officials, national security experts, and foreign policy veterans fear Hill’s departure has left a gaping hole in expertise at the White House, at a moment when Russia’s ongoing efforts to interfere in the 2020 election require a whole-of-government response. Hill has been replaced by Tim Morrison, an arms control expert and Bolton loyalist who has been described as a “nuclear superhawk” — a logical choice given Trump’s fixation with nuclear weapons, but not Hill’s first choice.

Morrison has big shoes to fill among European officials, who had been able to count on Hill for reassurance that they wouldn’t be abandoned by the U.S. despite Trump’s threatening rhetoric. “Fiona’s door has always been open to the Europeans,” said Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund and a longtime friend of Hill. “She was seen as approachable by our European interlocutors.”

She “comforts” them, too, said another former NSC official who worked with Hill. From maintaining U.S. support for the Three Seas Initiative — a dialogue of 12 Central and Eastern European states in the EU — to pushing for the U.S. to play an important role in penalizing Russia for a chemical weapons attack on British soil in 2018, Hill “has always stood firm in terms of her policy recommendations,” the former official said. That consistency has reassured European partners that there is some coherence to the White House’s foreign policy.

One veteran U.S. diplomat who has known Hill for years said Hill and her team “regarded themselves as people with the responsibility to do the right thing — not to undermine the president, but try to take his better instincts and turn them into something constructive. And they succeeded to the point where I’ve told European diplomats critical of this administration’s Russia policies that they’re gonna look back on Fiona’s time at the White House as the good old days.”

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[mt615]

Be Safe This Summer

Americans love summer. Whether it’s because it presents the perfect opportunity for the annual getaway or because of the additional amount of sunshine on these deliciously long, summer days, summer, not winter, is truly the season to be jolly.

The National Safety Council (NSC), however, reminds us that July and August are the deadliest times of the year. From heat-related illnesses to burns and drownings, summer events present all kinds of safety hazards.

Water safety

The statistics are chilling: Between 2005 and 2014, there were about 10 drowning deaths every day in the United States. If you add in boating-related drownings, increase that number to about 11, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Local news stories invariably quote parents as saying they only looked away for a moment. But, that’s all it takes. The CDC cautions parents to remain vigilant when your child is in or near water. Don’t depend on a lifeguard or anyone else and don’t become distracted.

Additional tips to avoid drowning incidents include:

Never swim alone

Should you get caught in a current, remain calm and don’t fight against it. Float with it or swim parallel to the shore.

Alcohol and swimming don’t mix. In fact, the CDC claims that alcohol was a contributing factor in half of male teen drownings.

Prevent heat stroke

When the mercury rises, so does the danger of heat-related illnesses. The National Safety Council (NSC) identifies three such illnesses:

Heatstroke – The most serious of the three, heatstroke occurs when a person’s body temperature rises quicker than the body’s ability to sweat. The NSC says that “The brain and vital organs are effectively ‘cooked’ as body temperature rises to a dangerous level in a matter of minutes. Heatstroke is often fatal, and those who do survive may have permanent damage to their organs.”

Symptoms of heat stroke include skin that is overly hot to the touch, confusion, coma and seizures. The NSC recommends that someone suffering from heat stroke must be placed in a half-sitting position in a shady spot, spray him or her with water and fan vigorously and, if the humidity level is more than 75 percent, apply ice to the armpits, neck or groin.

Don’t give the victim anything to drink or any pain relievers, such as acetaminophen or aspirin. And call for medical help right away.

Heat exhaustion — The symptoms of heat exhaustion mimic those of the flu and include fatigue, thirst, nausea, headache and vomiting. The person may sweat profusely and the skin will appear pale and feel clammy.

“Uncontrolled heat exhaustion can evolve into heatstroke, so make sure to treat the victim quickly,” cautions the NSC. Move the victim to an air-conditioned area if possible, otherwise, find a shady spot, give him or her water to drink and apply wet towels to the body. A cool shower is also recommended.

Heat cramps – When you exercise in extreme heat you may suffer muscle spasms and cramps, typically in the abdominal muscles or legs. These cramps are the result of a lack of salt in the body due to excessive sweating. Relieve them by sitting in the shade, drinking sports drinks, stretching and seeing a doctor if the symptoms aren’t relieved within one hour.

Summer safety for your pet

Dogs get sunburned too, so the ASPCA suggests that if your dog will be spending time in the sun this summer, slather on the sunscreen. Choose a brand that doesn’t contain fragrance and contains properties that block both UVA and UVB rays.

We all know not to leave kids and pets in cars on warm days – even for just a few minutes. Heat stroke can occur within moments. But, it can also happen outside the confines of a hot car, when a dog is overactive on a warm day.

It begins with dehydration, so if your pet is drooling excessively, its gums are dry and it feels hot to the touch, get it into the shade or indoors quickly. Slowly cool it down with water (but don’t submerge it in an ice bath). Then, get the pet to a veterinarian, quickly, even if it seems to be doing better.

Summer heat is tough on our cars and puddles of antifreeze prove it. Pets, especially dogs, are attracted to antifreeze and it’s deadly when ingested. Never allow your dog to lick anything off the ground.

If yours is an outdoor dog, supply access to shade and cool water.

Barbecue safety

Summertime ushers in a favorite American pastime – outdoor cooking. Despite the yummy smells and the tasty food they produce, barbecues cause nearly 9,000 home fires every year and July and August are peak grilling months.

Follows these tips to keep your family and your home safe during the summer grilling season:

Keep the grill clean. The National Fire Protection Association cautions that dirty grills are the leading cause of grill fires.

Place the grill at least 10 feet away from the house, other structures and landscape décor (such as hanging planters, pillows and patio umbrellas).

Keep both a spray bottle of water and a fire extinguisher nearby.

Never turn on the gas while the lid is closed.

Never leave the grill unattended.

Never use your grill indoors.

Don’t allow children and pets to play near the grill.

Protecting yourself, your family and your pets during the long, lazy days of summer is easy if you’re prepared. Get additional tips online at healthychildren.org, aspca.organd nsc.org.

[politicalfilth-blog]

120 U.S. Generals and Admirals Just Sent Trump a Dire Warning About Diplomacy

We Are Change

Article via The Anti Media

America’s generals are talking turkey. But we’re not talking about the well-known idiom for “speaking frankly” about a subject … although over 120 retired generals did just send a frank letter in response to a new State Department-slashing budget proposal by President Trump.

In that unusual military missive, a group of “former three- and four-star generals” led by “Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander,” pled with lawmakers and yet another general, new National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, to preserve State Department funding.

Why do these men of war want to make sure Trump doesn’t gut diplomacy? Because they think it is “critical to keeping America safe,” according to a report by CNN on the much-discussed letter.

Silly generals. Don’t they know that Trump’s $54 billion military budget increase — which all by itself equals 80% of Russia’s total military budget — is all the diplomacy Uncle Sam’s going to need in his blustery new world of nuclear domination? In fact, don’t they know that their never-serving commander-in-chief actually knows more than they do? As ever, it appears that the generals are woefully behind Trump’s tremendous curve.

Or are they?

Because the real turkey some generals are talking is Turkey … as in the strategically located Muslim-majority nation where America stores some of those tantalizing nukes Trump wants to stockpile. It’s also where one of the world’s many strongmen du jour is cracking down on his enemies in the press … along with many, many others.  And it’s where the military has traditionally been the guarantor of the secular nation’s often tenuous democracy. It’s the type of role the military in the United States has (mostly) avoided over the course of American history. At least, that was until Donald Trump became commander-in-chief.

Now, in a mostly overlooked story, Politico has detailed the extent to which Trump’s cabinet of generals has quietly formed a phalanx against the possible excesses of a man who has described himself as the “most militaristic person who will ever meet.” According to Politico, the elevation of Sith Lord-wannabe Steve Bannon set off alarms among Trump’s generals. That order also marginalized Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. It left “the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, without a permanent seat on the NSC’s most senior body” and put Bannon in the all-important role of being the last person to have Trump’s ear when Mr. Militaristic makes life and death decisions to use kinetic force.

As Politico’s Patrick Granfield wrote (with thanks to additional reporting by the Associated Press), “it was on account of concern with these sorts of half-baked executive orders coming out of the White House that Mattis and Kelly arranged to have one of them in the country at all times during Trump’s initial weeks in office.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Former Generals Mattis and Kelly were alarmed enough by this turn of events to institute a fail-safe plan that made sure one of them was “in the country at all times” … just in case things went off the rails. As Garfield states all too clearly, “it shows that it is military leaders, albeit retired, who feel the need to guard against the overreach of a civilian executive. It’s a phenomenon familiar to countries like Turkey or Egypt, but not the United States. Until now.”

Yup, until now.

Frankly speaking, this notable insight into the generals’ startling machinations fits a fairly clear pattern. Despite the understandable unease many expressed at Trump’s obsession with collecting top brass, they’ve thus far been bulwarks against the excesses of the blaring bugle boy they’ve signed up to serve.

The key moment may have been the National Security state showing the door to the widely disliked Lt. General Michael Flynn. The Strangelovian Flynn was unceremoniously dumped because insiders didn’t like his rosy “Russian to judgment” on Putin. Perhaps just as important, though, may have been his dangerous histrionics about Islam that were tantamount to declaring war on a religion. Coincidentally, it wasn’t too shortly after Flynn “put Iran on notice” that the final leaks washed out his tenure.

The appointment of the widely-respected warrior-scholar Gen. H.R. McMaster to fill that vacancy signaled a big win for the people who know what it means to send people into combat. In fact, while the draft-avoiding Trump was enduring his own “personal Vietnam” by avoiding the lurid landmines of sexually transmitted diseases as he charged into the battlefield of Manhattan’s nightlife, his new National Security Advisor was literally writing the book on Vietnam. And that’s not the only way the two men are not on the same page.

Unlike Trump, McMaster pointedly said that the magic words “Radical Islamic Terrorism” not only lack supernatural implications but are counterproductive to the fight against terrorism. Even better, the head of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security not only contradicted his boss when said he “regretted” the bungled rollout of the “It’s Not A Muslim Ban” Muslim ban, but General John Kelly’s DHS also sent a report to the White House contradicting the claim that the famous “seven countries” pose a risk to the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal.

But Trump knows more than the generals, right?

At least, that’s what a senior administration official believes. That’s why the unnamed official unabashedly told the Journal, “The president asked for an intelligence assessment. This is not the intelligence assessment the president asked for.” Perhaps this was yet more evidence to Kelly and Mattis that during those frenetic first few weeks one of them needed to be “in country” just in case the fight to protect the republic went hot.

So far, the only real heat is coming from the commander-in-chief’s self-serving willingness to deflect the responsibility for the disastrous raid on Yemen. Although the White House still claims it was a tremendous success, the raid yielded no usable intelligence, failed to nab the targeted terrorist, saw a Navy Seal killed and a $75 million plane go up in flames and, perhaps worst of all, a number of women and children killed in the hackneyed operation. But now the Democrats see a sequel to Benghazi, and the father of the fallen SEAL not only refused to meet with Trump but also called for an investigation into the debacle.

So, true to form, the commander-in-chief has blamed the generals for muffing what would otherwise have been a highly-rated episode of his ongoing divorced-from-reality show. And what better place for him to pass the buck than on another divorced from reality show—the feckless fawners of FOX & Friends. As Trump said to the media’s most mendacious ménage a trios:

“This was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do ? the generals ? who are very respected, my generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan.”

They lost Ryan. Or, to coin a phrase, they didn’t save Chief Petty Officer Ryan Owens. Steve Bannon couldn’t have scripted it any better. Seriously, he literally couldn’t have scripted it better. The movies he made totally sucked. But Trump, who watched a lot of generals on TV in preparation for his candidacy, has obviously been locked and loaded ever since he watched Spielberg’s movie. Like the cynically stagecrafted ovation he produced for CPO Ryan’s heartbroken widow, Trump delivered his blame-shifting lines like a real pro. Unfortunately, the actual pros in the military are now at the whim of a commander-in-chief whose only real allegiance is to himself and his beloved brand identity.

And that’s the real danger the generals now have to guard against — the inherent paranoia that seems to come with the strongman style of governance. Ultimately, when the leader begins to confuse himself with the state — and when culpability for mishaps and malfeasance are opportunities to force underlings to fall on their swords — the generals in tenuous democracies often have to do what the electoral system cannot.

But because America is not Turkey, all Trump can do right now is propose a draconian, government-gutting budget, sign often-ceremonial executive orders, and prioritize brash displays of phallic power over the softer power of diplomacy. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s that soft power the generals want to preserve.

As the missive from the retired generals pointed out, “The State Department, USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Peace Corps and other development agencies are critical to preventing conflict and reducing the need to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way.” They also noted that when he was Commander of U.S. Central Command, Trump’s current Secretary of Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis said, “If you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition.”

Unfortunately for us all, that’s exactly what Trump intends to do.

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from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/120-us-generals-admirals-just-sent-trump-dire-warning-diplomacy/