Critics argue the secretary of state’s efforts paved the way for the violence still plaguing Honduras.
Hillary Clinton’s Response To Honduran Coup Was Scrubbed From Her Paperback Memoirs
Those who want to know what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said about Honduras’ 2009 coup in her autobiography shouldn’t bother with the paperback version.
Clinton’s role in the aftermath of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster has come under greater scrutiny since the March 3 assassination of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres. Critics argue that the U.S. push for new elections in the months after the coup helped legitimize the actions of the Honduran military, destabilize the country and pave the way for the extreme violence that followed. Killings of activists like Cáceres and others have become devastatingly common.
But the account Clinton offered of her response to the coup in her memoir Hard Choices was omitted from last year’s paperback edition.
Honduras activist Berta Cáceres was murdered on March 3, drawing renewed attention to the U.S. handling of the 2009 coup.
In June 2009, Zelaya was overthrown by the Honduran military, ushered out of the presidential palace at gunpoint wearing only his pajamas. Months of protests against the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti followed. While virtually all Latin American governments condemned the coup and called for Zelda’s restoration, Clinton and the U.S. pushed for elections to bring in a new government — a position she detailed in the hardcover edition of Hard Choices, published in 2014.
Days after the coup, she wrote, she teamed up with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa to come up with a response.
“We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot and give the Honduran people a chance to choose their own future,” Clinton wrote.
But that paragraph — indeed, the entire two-page discussion of the Honduran coup — disappeared from the paperback edition. In the paperback version, the chapter on Latin America ends abruptly after a look at the debate over whether Cuba should be included in the Organization of American States. The deletion was first noted in an essay by Belén Fernández in the forthcoming book False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton that was cited in The Nation.
It’s a striking cut, given that Zelaya was overthrown just three weeks after Clinton’s visit to Honduras for the OAS meeting at which Cuba’s membership was debated, which she recounts as the penultimate anecdote of the Latin America chapter.
When asked about the edit, a Clinton spokeswoman pointed The Huffington Post to the front flap of the paperback edition, which notes generally that the text has been trimmed.
“A limited number of sections from the hardcover edition have been cut to accommodate a shorter length for this edition. Those sections remain available in the ebook edition,” it says.
The omission seems especially problematic in light of Cacéres’ death last week. The high-profile activist was well known for opposing construction of the Agua Zarca Dam, which would have forced indigenous Lenca people to leave land they consider sacred. She was killed by unidentified gunmen after receiving a series of threats.
In the hardcover edition of her memoir, Clinton trumpets the resolution of the coup through a new round of elections as a triumph for regional diplomacy.
Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
Honduras plunged into a period of extreme violence after the coup, as the de facto government suppressed protests with force. Even after a new elected president took office in early 2010, drug cartels exploited the confusion to solidify their control over trafficking routes to the U.S., and political violence made activism a deadly enterprise.
More than 100 environmental and land rights activists like Cáceres were killed in Honduras from 2010 to 2015, according to the British organization Global Witness. The country became the homicide capital of the world for several years, with a murder rate topping 90 per 100,000 at its peak in 2011, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
“Hillary [Clinton] and the State Department only wanted the kind of ‘stability’ that was convenient for them regardless of what was happening on the ground,” Cáceres’ nephew Silvio Carrillo said in an email to HuffPost. “This has not changed today and it is the reason you now have had governments operating with impunity.”
Asked about the omission of the coup passage from Clinton’s memoir, Carrillo accused her of “attempting to scrub away the blood she’s helped to spill along with the Department of Defense and the Department of State.”
Cáceres herself cast blame on Clinton for legitimizing the coup after the fact by supporting new elections instead of pressing to restore the Zelaya administration, according to a 2014 video interview unearthed by New York University historian Greg Grandin.
“We were fighting a coup d’etat that we couldn’t overcome,” Cáceres said. “Those who overthrew the government are still there.” She contended that in Hard Choices, Clinton was “practically saying what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates a bad North American interference in our country.”
Watch the 2014 interview in Spanish below:
Grandin, who wrote about Clinton’s response to the 2009 coup in The Nation last week, told HuffPost that her work on Honduras should be a campaign issue and that the assassination of Cáceres should force a “reckoning with history.”
“They legitimated this coup regime,” Grandin said. “The U.S. could have adopted a real multilateral position and joined with Brazil, for instance, in demanding the restoration of Zelaya.”
Instead, the U.S. opted to sideline Zelaya and back elections that brought in a conservative government. “That’s fairly clear between her emails and her own concession in Hard Choices. She took credit for that. Before she was called on it, she was holding it up as a signature achievement,” he said.
The emails to which Grandin referred were made public last year and show that Clinton sought to avoid discussing the resolution of the Honduran coup at the OAS, where many regional governments supported Zelda’s restoration, and instead pressed for the mediation she helped arrange in Costa Rica.
Clinton’s director of Hispanic media, Jorge Silva, dismissed such criticism as “nonsense,” according to Latino USA. Silva said that “Hillary Clinton engaged in active diplomacy that resolved a constitutional crisis and paved the way for legitimate democratic elections.”
Also on HuffPost
Why Latin Americans Really Come To The U.S.
HONDURAS MILITARY COUP DECISION
Date: 06/30/2015
RELEASE IN PART
B5,B6
I am just taking off. When I land I will call you on your cell. Ok?
To: H
Subject: Re: Honduras Military Coup Decision
Will call you around 3pm
Subject: Re: Honduras Military Coup Decision
Ok--i should be free after 2. Pls email when you want to talk.
Sent: Sat Aug 29 06:20:26 2009
See b/I - will call you later today to discuss my convo on this matter
To: Steinberg, James B; Mills, Cheryl D; Burns, William J; Verma, Richard R; Sullivan, Jacob
Subject: Honduras Military Coup Decision
INTERNAL DELIBERATIVE
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05760481 Date: 06/30/2015
Dear All,
After this morning’s meeting, L undertook more research (REDACTED ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------)
B5
Millennium Challenge Report
The Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 requires the submission of a report to Congress and publication in the Federal Register of a list of countries that are candidate countries for MCC assistance, and countries that would be candidate countries but for "specified legal prohibitions on assistance." Honduras is a candidate country. If Honduras is subject to the restrictions in section 7008, it would be listed in that section of the report that identifies countries that would be candidate countries but for legal prohibitions that prohibit assistance. The report would also provide an explanation of the legal prohibition (in fact, other coup restricted countries, such as Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritania, and Sudan, are on the prohibited list and section 7008 is explicitly mentioned).
The list must be approved by the Board of the MCC, of which the Secretary is the chair, and is due on 9/10. It is our understanding that an action memo will be presented to the Secretary, perhaps as early as next week, so that she can approve submission of the report. The action memo will require the Secretary to decide whether Honduras is a country without a “ specified legal prohibition” or whether such a prohibition has in fact attached (REDACTED ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)
B5
Department Legal Practice
(REDACTED ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)
B5
I am traveling in New England this weekend but am available at (REDACTED -------------------)or through the ops center if you wish to B6
discuss. I will be back by the 8:45am meeting on Monday morning and can elaborate further then.
______________________________________________________________________
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05760481 Date: 06/30/2015
Section 7008 of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2009 (Div. H, P.L. 111-8) provides:
“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to titles III through VI of this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree: Provided, That assistance may be resumed to such government if the President determined and certifies to the Committees on Appropriations that subsequent to the termination of assistance a democratically elected government has taken office: Provided further, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to assistance to promote democratic elections or public participation in democratic processes: Provided further, That funds made available pursuant to the previous provisos shall be subject to the regular notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations.”
Harold Hongju Koh
The Legal Adviser
United States Department of State
2201 C St. N.W. Suite 6421
Washington, D.C. 20520
202-647-9598 phone
cell
202-647- 7096 fax
Sorry for the spaces that appear on the email. I don’t have time to further edit this.
ReplyDeleteBOTTOM LINE:
Is it any surprise that Obama is so enthusiastically supporting the Clintons? What they must have on him!
Trump, at his worst is better than the cynical lying criminal Hillary Clinton who should be locked up. The idea that the Clintons should be back in control of Washington should make you wretch.
On this subject I agree with you wholeheartedly.
DeleteThat’s disturbing : )
DeleteTo me, too !
DeleteOnce again, you have to watch that Democracy Now video to fully understand this one single incident in the career of the pscho, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Honduras. They desperately need to get back in the White House to protect themselves. They must shudder at the thought of Trump getting into the State Department files!
ReplyDeleteYep.
DeleteAnd Trump has said as much.
Said she's running out of self protection, running to stay out of prison.
Liar ?
ReplyDeleteCriminal ?
Corrupt beyond belief ?
Killer ?
Don't matter to Rufus.
Rufus, politically, is a man of no standards whatsoever.
The only one here that's said he's actually going to VOTE for that living piece of human shit.
It boggles the normal mind.
The Clinton-Backed Honduran Regime Is Picking Off Indigenous Leaders
ReplyDeleteThe names of Berta Cáceres’s murderers are yet unknown. But we know who killed her.
By Greg Grandin
Check out the links in the article posted above.
Jeanne Shaw · Denver, Colorado
ReplyDeleteI remember this clearly. We all watched as a Democraticaly elected president was kiddnapped and whisked out of the country, held against his will, while his country was taken over by militants. We all looked to Clinton and Obama to condem the act, but no, they did not and the rush to hold elections was a sham to get everyone to forget what just happened. We all wrote emails and demanded Zelaya be returned but they refused and country has been bleeding ever since. Women and children aftraid for their lives fleeing to our southern border.
Don't tell me how liberal she is, she's a neocon and believes in getting rid of anyone that won't play ball with the U.S.
It's no wonder they scrubbed it from her book. It really is a perfect example of the many things she has done that prove she's a neocon like Bush.
Clinton Emails Show She Only Listened to Pro-Honduras Coup Aids
ReplyDeleteITEM: Hillary Clinton ignored advice to punish Honduran businesses for backing the 2009 coup and helped push the elected President Manuel Zelaya out of Honduran politics, an investigation by teleSUR into WikiLeaks documents show.
ITEM: Despite insistence from her director of policy planning, Anne Marie Slaughter, that she define Zelaya’s ousting by the military as a military coup and that she “make noises about prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with companies" controlled by the leaders, revealed in emails published by WikiLeaks, Clinton did neither.
“I got lots of signals last week that we are losing ground in Latin America every day the Honduras crisis continues; high level people from both the business and the NGO community say that even our friends are beginning to think we are not really committed to the norm of constitutional democracy we have worked so hard to build over the last 20 years,” wrote Slaughter two months after the coup.
“I am willing to take additional steps but I'd like them to be fully vetted,” was Clinton’s one-line response.
ITEM: While Clinton did move to suspend the visas of those in the de facto military government three months after the coup, as Slaughter requested, she kept close ties with the business community. Previous investigations into her leaked emails revealed that she even consulted Lanny Davis of the Honduran chapter of the Business Council of Latin America, which supported the coup.
Rather than lobby for the elected leader Zelaya—hated by business elites for his left-leaning policy—to resume office, which they supported publicly, her team ridiculed him. When negotiating a power-sharing agreement, U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens wrote in an email forwarded to Clinton that Zelaya said talks with Micheletti were leading nowhere because he only wanted Zelaya out.
{...}
U.S. Ambassador to Hindus, Hugo Llorens { NEOCON DEFAULT POSITION: REGIME CHANGE)
DeleteLlorens complained that Zelaya “seemed totally out of touch and seemed completely focused on himself and that the future of Honduras and the future of democracy in the entire region hinged on his restoration to power prior to the elections.” The ambassador “attempted to make him see the obligation” that he had with working side-by-side with Micheletti.
Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly was editing Micheletti’s speeches and pushing him to make the moves, writing: “We preferred to achieve our objectives through a patriotic gesture on M(icheletti)'s part (a step-aside) but we have to protect our principles and our interests in the region.”
Those interests did not include the restoration of Zelaya nor any of the next steps that left-wing ALBA states championed: Kelly wrote that after Micheletti read a speech—that Kelly edited—saying he would step aside in the days before the elections and the vote on Zelaya’s restitution, “Zelaya and ALBA will say this is not enough, but we will work on countries that matter.”
According to Lewis Amselem, head of the U.S. delegation to the Organization of American States, Costa Rica’s neoliberal President Oscar Arias who led negotiations made sure that the “United States gets the credit” for moving forward talks with Micheletti.
The final agreement, after extensive U.S. lobbying to get other states on board, helped orchestrate elections that were widely seen as a farce, including a lack of monitors from international institutions, a media blackout and targeted assassinations of anti-coup leaders ahead of the polls.
Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon heralded the elections as a win for U.S. diplomacy: "Honduran voters have taken back their democracy from two failed leaders — Zelaya and Micheletti — who had driven Honduras to isolation and despair," he wrote to Clinton’s staff.
Delete{..}
REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD
DeleteOBAMA/CLINTON
WHERE HAVE WE HEARD THIS BEFORE?
The “failed” Zelaya had also been laughed at by Llorens, who called him “out of touch” for predicting “that if he was not restored... Honduras faced a bleak future led by a weak and discredited government and with a high probability of violence and civil conflict,” he wrote in an email.
That is exactly what happened.
Honduras is now dubbed the murder capital of the world, with homicide rates increasing by 50 percent since the coup alongside widespread political repression and assassinations of political opponents and campesino, Indigenous, environmental and LGBT activists.
Honduras, Egypt, Libya. Syria
ReplyDeleteBlowback in Europe - Refugees by the hundreds of thousands
Blowback in US - In 2013, approximately 3.2 million Central American immigrants resided in the United States—the majority from the so-called Northern Triangle formed by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—representing 7 percent of the country’s 41.3 million immigrants.
Since 2011, a growing number of unaccompanied children, largely from the Northern Triangle, have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. From the start of fiscal year (FY) 2014 through July 31, 2015, 72,968, or 74 percent, of the unaccompanied minors apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the U.S.-Mexico border were from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
In 2013, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras were the top three countries of origin for Central American immigrants
EPILOGUE TO ANOTHER CLINTON FAILED STATE
ReplyDeleteThe Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens that the level of kidnapping, crime, and violence in Honduras remains critically high. This Travel Warning supersedes the October 2015 Travel Warning.
Criminal activity is a serious problem throughout the country and the Government of Honduras lacks sufficient resources to properly respond to, investigate, and prosecute cases. As a result, criminals operate with a high degree of impunity throughout Honduras.
Honduras has one of the highest murder rates in the world. The U.S. Embassy has recorded 37 murders of U.S. citizens since 2011, with three recorded since January 2016. Official statistics from the Honduran Observatory on National Violence show Honduras’ homicide rate was 60 per 100,000 in 2015. The majority of homicide cases in Honduras have no resolution.
Honduran law enforcement frequently report highway assaults and carjackings by criminals posing as Honduran law enforcement throughout Honduras, including remote areas of Choluteca, Olancho, Colon, and Copan Departments. These criminals set up road blocks or checkpoints and wear some elements of police uniforms and equipment, but are often mismatched and inconsistent. Reports of kidnappings of U.S. citizens are not common; since families of kidnapping victims often pay ransoms without reporting these crimes to police out of fear of retribution, kidnapping figures may be underreported.
Transnational criminal organizations conduct narcotics trafficking and other unlawful activities throughout the country and use violence to control drug trafficking routes and carry out criminal activity. Other criminals, acting both individually and in gangs in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and other large cities, are known to commit crimes such as murder, kidnapping, extortion, carjacking, armed robbery, rape, and other aggravated assaults.
Sexual assault is a concern in Honduras. Most Honduran local police and medical staff do not have the capacity to properly investigate, handle evidence collection, and/or provide medical care for sexual assault victims.
_ Honduras Travel Warning LAST UPDATED: AUGUST 4, 2016
DeleteNo worries, Hillary will get it straight this time. What could possibly go wrong?
ReplyDeleteWhen will we grow up in this country and recognize the difference between a victim and a hero?
ReplyDeleteDemocratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s team invited the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, killed in Iraq in 2004, to speak at the convention and criticize Republican nominee Donald Trump’s policy on Muslim immigration.
It was a classic trap and Trump bumbled into it. The ensuing blow-up may have made great ratings for the media, but what is unsaid is that both sides agreed that Khan’s death was a great sacrifice for our liberties and freedoms back home in the US.
The media went along with this view. But being killed in a war started by government and media lies does not make one a heroic sacrifice.
In fact, it makes on a victim. Khan was a victim of both Republicans and Democrats who supported the war in 2002 and he is victim again today.
Ron Paul
UPDATE "we came, we saw, he died"
ReplyDeletePresident Obama spokesman says: Recapturing Sirte from IS would be a significant advance for the Libyan forces. Located halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, the city of Sirte has been one of the terrorists’ strongholds since August 2015.
Pentagon officials say that “additional US strikes will continue to target ISIL in Sirte in order to enable the GNA to make a decisive, strategic advance.”
However, Virginia State Senator Richard Black (R-Loudoun) says there is another reason why the US got involved in yet another military activity.
“We left this enormous vacuum of power - there is no legitimate government of Libya,” ... “I think it was an embarrassment to the Obama administration and as a consequence we have gone in and we have began to bomb, and we’ve began to work to recapture that city. I think it’s a political ploy.”
Despite all the headlines, Reuters/Ipsos poll has the race nearly tied
ReplyDeleteposted at 10:01 am on August 6, 2016 by Jazz Shaw
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/06/despite-all-the-headlines-reutersipsos-poll-has-the-race-nearly-tied/
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ReplyDeleteI remember the discussion here on the coup in Honduras in 2009. There were those here who actually bought the bullshit they were being fed by the Obama administration.
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Honduras? :)
ReplyDeleteReally? :)
This election gets won (or lost) in Pennsylvania. :)
Honduras is just an appetizer. It is one of many that establishes a pattern of misadventure by the Clintons. You recall all the children from Honduras ending up in the US. During the Miami debate between Sanders and Clinton, referring to the influx of unaccompanied minors, Sanders had this to say:
ReplyDeleteHonduras and that region of the world may be the most violent region in our hemisphere. Gang lords, vicious people torturing people, doing horrible things to families. Children fled that part of the world to try, try, try, try, maybe, to meet up with their family members in this country, taking a route that was horrific, trying to start a new life. Secretary Clinton did not support those children coming into this country. I did.
Sanders as well as the moderators (o surprise) missed a key opportunity to bring up Clinton’s record in Central America and the Caribbean, and specifically how her State Department’s role in undemocratic regime changes has contributed to violence and political instability in Honduras and Haiti today.
Since the coup, violence and assassinations, as well as persecutions of journalists and social justice advocates, have skyrocketed in Honduras. Once again, the scent of Hillary Clinton is all over this. It is her pattern. There is no man or Republican that could withstand the obvious connections between chaos, death, destruction and the dipterous career of Hillary Clinton.
DeleteI haven’t touched he actions in Haiti, but I will.
FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:
DeleteJonathan Katz, former Associated Press correspondent in Haiti and author of “The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster,” had this to say in an interview about Clinton’s record in Haiti:
“There’s nowhere Clinton had more influence or respect when she became Secretary of State than in Haiti, and it was clear that she planned to use that to make Haiti the proving ground for her vision of American power. By now I’d imagine she was expecting to constantly be pointing to Haiti on the campaign trail as one of the great successes of her diplomatic career. Instead it’s one of her biggest disappointments by nearly any measure, with the wreckage of the Martelly administration she played a larger role than anyone in installing being the biggest and latest example.”
She is a disaster.
Manolia Charlatan, a Haitian journalist based in New York, said Clinton’s actions should draw questions as to how Clinton would act should she become president:
Delete“What does that mean as to her approach to foreign policy? To have a secretary of state visit a country, to make a stop, and as a result of that meeting, you have an illegal selection of leaders? How does that decision promote the American views of democracy?”
In both Honduras and Haiti, Clinton chose to shy away from letting each country’s voters choose their leaders when the going got tough. American voters, the people of Honduras, the people of Haiti and anyone who cares about democracy and human rights should know whether Clinton as president would be a promoter of such values.
Short answer: She is a disaster. She is worse than George Bush. Bush was stupid, Clinton is evil.
DeleteHad Sanders not been dismissive about Hillary’s emails and vigorously defended his positions on foreign policy and trade, he would be president.
DeleteRevlon doesn’t have enough lipstick to put a fresh coat on this pig.
DeleteYou're on a roll, Deuce.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter; the election is pretty much over. The one that comes out of the Conventions with a lead (not to mention, a sizable lead) has always won.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are almost certain to keep the House. The only question, now, is the Senate; it appears that it could go either way. Interestingly, the key Senate race appears to, once again, be in Pennsylvania - and, it appears to be a stone cold toss-up.
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ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter; the election is pretty much over.
It doesn't matter?
:o)
.
Nah :)
DeleteNobody cares about Honduras. :)
Do You care about "Honduras?" :)
I watched Trump and Pence in Wisconsin. I am not so sure this is over.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
Delete.
Do You care about "Honduras?" :)
Yea, I do. As I recall, you were one of guys I was arguing about it with in 2009.
But that's our Rufus. It's understandable he would be voting for Hillary.
Hillary from the Benghazi hearing...
"Nobody wants to sit where I am and think now about what 'coulda, shoulda, woulda' happened in order to avoid this.".
I won't bother with her more famous quotes.
Another thing I care about...
The election of Hillary (or Trump for that matter) will assure the continuance of the kakistocracy we have suffered under in this country over the last 5 decades.
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Kakistocracy---WOW
DeleteVery good, Quirk.
You get to go to the head of the class for one hour.
It's not over by a long shot. Too early, too much can happen, the Rooskie might start feeding out the e-mails, 'Short Circuit' may lose her cool and short circuit again, the debates may be a circuit breaker, more big time terror attacks, more riots by BLM.....and, despite all the headlines -
DeleteIn spite all the headlines, Reuters/Ipsos poll has the race nearly tied
posted at 10:01 am on August 6, 2016 by Jazz Shaw
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/06/despite-all-the-headlines-reutersipsos-poll-has-the-race-nearly-tied/
So, don't bet on it just yet, and, whatever you do, don't bet with Rufus, cause if you win you'll never get paid.
Stick with the betting houses in London and Vegas if you are going to bet.
Don't look now, but the Iraqi Army just liberated the first village in Southern Mosul.
ReplyDeleteI can't link it, because the linky-poo thingy on Iraqinews isn't working (I'll try again, later.)
Little behind your timeline, but good news.
DeleteIs there anything left standing in the newly liberated village ?
Any horned hooty owls left to hoot in the vacant and destroyed buildings, any hyenas wandering the deserted streets, looking to feed on hominid carrion rotting in burned out vehicles ?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThat's an ad hominid, you ass!
DeleteThe way I figure it, the Dems will roll out about two prominent Pubs/National Security Experts a week between now, and the election, each speechifying about how the Donald is batshit insane, and how they're supporting Hillary.
ReplyDeleteThe old chestnut is that, "if the economy is bad, the issue is the economy; if the economy is good, the issue is something else."
Well, the #1 issue, this election, is terrorism/national security, and she's going to hammer him with Republican National Security Experts from now till Nov. 8. By election day, he'll be lucky if he can get a passport.
If one wanted to bet on Herr Drumpf, the Iowa Electronic Markets would pay you back $1.00 for approx. $0.28 bet.
DeleteIEM-Winner Take All
What a stupid partisan hallucination.
DeleteTerrorism/national security is her Achilles' Heel, you nitwit.
It's tough, naming a country she hasn't fucked up, or helped to fuck up.
You must have tripped and fallen and harmed your aging head again just recently.
WARNING: Don't bet with Rufus for any reason. You will end up holding an empty sack if you win.
Delete.
DeleteStill with the sexual references? Is that all you think about?
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In the latest NBC/Wall St. Journal Poll, Clinton leads Trump on the issue of Terrorism/Homeland Security by 44-43.
ReplyDeleteThat's compared to a 5 point Deficit to Trump in the prior NBC Poll.
NBC Poll
In the Fox News Poll, Clinton and Trump are tied at 47-47 on "Terrorism and National Security" - a 12 point jump from the May Poll, when Trump was up 52-40 on this issue.
DeleteFox News Poll
Islamic Terrorism doesn't count.
DeleteJust ask that Belgium Policewoman.
Or Quirk
Trump: We scored a HUUUGE Victory in Libya under the superb leadership of Sec Hillary Clinton.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't know what the fuck to do afterwards, and things went to shit, but we're still trying.
Trump's such an idiot.
Islamic Hacker shouted "Alahu Akbar" but BOTH Policewomen were working, so our Genius President is calling it workplace violence.
ReplyDeleteMcClatchy Marist Poll - Who best to fight Terrorism?
ReplyDeleteClinton - 50
Trump - 42
McClatchy Marist
Non news flash: Constant warfare shows to what a level of depravity we have sunk.
ReplyDeleteThink about this. On Monday Obama announced the opening of another US war in an area well known to Obama and Clinton with air strikes in Libya against ISIS. we are now bombing a fourth country on two continents simultaneously fighting the ISIS savages in the country that Obama and Clinton abetted into murderous anarchy by it's illegal regime changes.
Clinton arranged for captured Libyan weapons to be transferred to Syria and they ended in the hands of Isis, along with US weapons captured in Iraq as a result of the regime change and destabilization of Iraq 14 years ago.
As noted above, Clinton supported regime change in Haiti and Honduras. Honduras now has the highest murder rate on the planet.
The US Media, are they in an uproar over war in four countries on two continents? No, the US press is obsessed with mosquitos in the air in Florida.
So, we shouldn't fight back against ISIS?
DeleteI guess you really don't like Herr Drumpf's plan to "nuk'em."
Delete:)
.
DeleteDon't forget Egypt. Press freedom down the shitter.
As the largest Arab state, Egypt is central to the region’s future. If it succeeds, the Middle East will start to look less benighted; if it fails, today’s mayhem will turn even uglier. A general who seized power in a coup in 2013, Mr Sisi has proved more repressive than Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in the Arab spring; and he is as incompetent as Muhammad Morsi, the elected Islamist president, whom Mr Sisi deposed.
The regime is bust, sustained only by generous injections of cash from Gulf states (and, to a lesser degree, by military aid from America). Even with billions of petrodollars, Egypt’s budget and current-account deficits are gaping, at nearly 12% and 7% of GDP respectively. For all of Mr Sisi’s nationalist posturing, he has gone beret in hand to the IMF for a $12 billion bail-out (see article).
Youth unemployment now stands at over 40%. The government is already bloated with do-nothing civil servants; and in Egypt’s sclerotic, statist economy, the private sector is incapable of absorbing the legions of new workers who join the labour market each year. Astonishingly, in Egypt’s broken system university graduates are more likely to be jobless than the country’s near-illiterate...
Under Clinton, we were for Mubarek before we were against him. We were for Morsi until we were against him. Then we were against Sisi before were for him.
If Sisi does something to piss off the Gulf States and they cut off the funds the US will be against him again.
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DeleteFight ISIS?
Hell, they are our baby. No wonder we are so incompetent in fighting them.
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Let me try again. We're bombing ISIS in 4 countries: Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya. We're bombing Al Queda in Yemen.
DeleteWhich of these operations do you and Deuce object to?
All of them.
DeleteUS foreign policy in the Middle East reminds me of the occasional story we get of a volunteer fireman who is also an arsonist.
ReplyDeleteIf we would quit fucking with these people and let them find their own way, everyone would be better off.
ReplyDelete:) You're dodging the question, again, Deuce.
DeleteWhich of these campaigns should we quit? :)
So far we have dropped 50,000 bombs on ISIS,
ReplyDeleteSo. Should we quit now? Or finish them off? :)
DeleteWe will never finish them off. Everyone of those dropped bombs has the likelihood of killing someone other than those intended. If some foreign mutherfuckers bombed and killed any one of my family, I would try to kill the pricks myself. So would most other Americans. We are a terror creating machine.
ReplyDeleteI will stipulate to your facts. Now, what do we do?
DeleteDo we quit killing ISIS?
Yep.
DeleteSyria would have killed them off without us if we had not armed and supported them. Had we never fired the Iraqi army and hanged Saddam, there would be no ISIS in Iraq. Same for Qaddafi. Bombing won't work. The only thing that will work is for us to get out and let those that want to kill ISIS, do so. It is better to come to that decision after 15 years than 30.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so we quit, and come home. Is that it?
DeleteWe don't help the Iraqis take back Mosul. That's the answer?
DeleteIf we were serious about killing Isis, we would have protect the Kurds from the Turks.
ReplyDeleteThat's obfuscating. We don't help the Iraqis liberate Mosul - is that the final answer?
Delete.
ReplyDeleteLet me try again. We're bombing ISIS in 4 countries: Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya. We're bombing Al Queda in Yemen.
Which of these operations do you and Deuce object to?
All of them. This has been explained to you numerous times before and you continue to ask the same question.
My position has been explained to you. I won't respond for Deuce.
.
You jumped in when I addressed a question to Deuce. Being a polite Southern gentleman, I didn't want to be rude by ignoring you (a mistake I will try not to make in the future.)
DeleteHere is how I see it. Bombing won't work. It would take supporting the Iranians and Hezbollah . Syria and Libya with ground support and tell Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to but out. Is it worth it and who would support it?
ReplyDeleteIf you can't do it in full, get out, stay out and mind our own business.
So. We don't help with air support in Mosul?
DeleteISIS has no aircraft. There are plenty of Iraqi, Libyan, Iranian and Syrian pilots.
DeleteYou're dodging again. :)
DeleteDo we help with Mosul, or not?
Let them do it and to be helpful shoot down any Israeli, Turkish or Saudi aircraft that intervenes against them.
ReplyDeleteNo US air support in Mosul or anywhere. Let them sort it out. Keep Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia out.
DeleteIt will be over in 18 months.
Delete"No US air support in Mosul or anywhere." Got it. :)
DeleteOkay, I'll quit picking on you now. :)
I guess I'm officially the "skunk at the garden party," now. :)
DeleteSomehow, I think we will go a few more rounds now and then. : )
DeleteThe raison d'être for al Qaeda and ISIS was to get the Americans out of the ME. We leave and that disappears.
ReplyDeleteWHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
ReplyDeleteKey Libyan Religious Leader Slams US Airstrikes
A critic of the UN-backed “unity government,” major Libyan religious leader Grand Mufti Sadek al-Gharlani has issued a statement slamming the US airstrikes in Libya as illegal, sparking a rebuke from pro-unity government forces and raising talk of further division within the country.
The US began its strikes Monday, citing a request from the unity government as the pretext. They also claim the post-9/11 Authorization for the Use of Military Force as a legal basis for attacking Libya in general. That there is far from unity behind this “unity government,” and they don’t govern much of anything, is a subject of major dispute, raising doubts they can just give the US cover to attack the country they hope to eventually rule.
To make matters worse, Italy and France, which have long talked of “helping” the US offensive, are on the ground in Libya propping up a wholly distinct faction, the Tobruk parliament, which itself is UN recognized, but has nothing to do with the faction the US is backing.
There are three different “governments” in Libya right now, and several other local and regional factions besides, and while US officials have suggested the effort is about stabilizing Libya, throwing their weight behind one of the newer, smaller factions seems a recipe to fuel new divisions, and more resentment nationwide.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook announced on Monday that President Obama had authorized new air strikes to help rid Libya of Islamic State terrorists who have spread into that country.
ReplyDelete"Under what legal authority are these strikes being conducted?" a reporter asked Cook at Monday's Pentagon briefing.
"The 2001 authorization for the use of military force, similar to our previous airstrikes in Libya," Cook responded.
---
That 2001 AUMF authorizes the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, and persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons..."
But the Islamic State terror group did not exist in 2001. As President Obama has explained (see below), ISIS emerged from the remnants of al Qaida and Saddam Hussein's military, and it also attracted Islamic radicals from all around the world.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/legal-authority-obamas-new-air-campaign-libya-comes-2001-aumf-against-al
from WE MEANT WELL
ReplyDeleteU.S. Awards $1.7 Billion Contract to Buy Radios for Afghan Army
July 29, 2016 //
Tags: harris, Reconstruction
Posted in: Afghanistan, Economy, Military, PRT Life
I always found myself giggling during the Democratic debates when Hillary would ask Bernie how he was going to pay for things like healthcare or college tuition, and then Bernie stammering to find an answer.
They both knew the secret but neither would say it — there’s plenty of money, we just don’t want to spend it on Americans.
We think of that as freeloading, unearned stuff. Go get a job, moocher. But then move the same question overseas and everything changes. There is always plenty of money, and the people getting free stuff from that money aren’t moochers. They’re allies.
So how much healthcare would $1.7 billion buy? Because that’s how much money the United States just laid out to buy radios for the near-useless Afghan Army. And while I don’t know how much healthcare the money would buy, I do know it will purchase a helluva lot of radios. Is everyone in Afghanistan getting one? Maybe we’re buying them for the Taliban, too.
Anyway, the $1,700,000,000 radios for Afghanistan contract was just recently awarded to the Harris Corporation. And here’s a funny thing: only one company — Harris — actually put in a bid for the contract.
But the Afghans must need more stuff than just radios, and so the U.S. has money ready for that.
The United States will provide $3 billion to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces from 2018 to 2020 for, well, we don’t really know. Meanwhile, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said the White House planned to ask Congress for about $1 billion a year in development and economic assistance for Afghanistan through 2020. And if that isn’t enough, the United States and its allies are expected to raise $15 billion for the Afghan National Defense and Security forces at a NATO summit scheduled for next month in Warsaw.
There’s money. You just can’t have any of it, moochers.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteWe'll soon be running out of pallets.
.
Now that's funnier than shit..
Deletebillions for Afghaifuck...
LOL
Well, it seems that Q, Deuce and Ash are with the GOP, lock and stock ...
ReplyDeleteThe President was not granted an Authorization for Use of Military Force by the GOP dominated Congress. He is using questionable legal authority to bomb ISIS in three of the four countries mentioned.
Yet no Republican is on the Fox News complaining.
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is silent on the issue, he must still be confused.
ReplyDeleteGOP congressman says he'll vote for Libertarian ticket over Trump
Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va. said Saturday that he would support Libertarian Gary Johnson for president over GOP nominee Donald Trump.
"I’ve always said I will not vote for Donald Trump and I will not vote for Hillary Clinton," Rigell told The New York Times.
Rigell is the third Republican House member this week to say he would not vote for the real estate mogul, who has caused an uproar on the campaign trail with a series of controversial comments.
On Tuesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., wrote in an op-ed that he would vote for Clinton instead of Trump, whom Hanna called "offensive and narcissistic," as well as "a world-class panderer."
Both Hanna and Rigell are retiring from Congress following this election.
The day after Hanna's op-ed was published, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told CNN that he would not back Trump amid an ongoing war of words between the GOP nominee and the Muslim family of a fallen American soldier.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/06/gop-congressman-backs-libertarian-ticket-over-trump.html
More Fried Circuit Syndrome -
ReplyDeleteClinton mistakenly refers to Trump as her 'husband'....DRUDGE
Let's face it.
Fried Circuit is really is bad physical and mental health.
On a good day she can get through an hour long speech.
On a bad day she looks like death warmed over.
As does her 'husband', BillyGoat, who is often now seen with a blank stare on his face, and chewing his tongue....
Compared to these two rest home candidates, The Donald is the picture of youthful health, helped along by never drinking, doing drugs, or smoking in his life.
Obviously, Fried Circuit subconsciously wishes The Donald were her husband.......and who can blame her ?
DeleteQuirkSat Aug 06, 05:08:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteMy God, that comment makes no sense at all. Try to figure it out, see if you can.
Quirk, like Fried Circuit and BillyGoat, often needs an electrician.
When one has arrived at the point of chewing one's tongue in public, like BillyGoat, it's time to get out of the public square, and take a permanent exit from the play, stage left.
ReplyDeleteCheers !
(Joann is leaving Red Eye to pursue her acting career. Damn, why do good things always seem to end ?)
DeleteSialorrhea Symptoms in Seniors
DeleteThe main symptom of sialorrhea is drooling, which may not pose a problem but is rather an embarrassment. It can lead to cracking of the lips and irritation of the skin around the lips. The skin may become infected if left untreated. Some patients may actually choke on the excess saliva which can lead to coughing. Depending on the quantity of saliva, it can also pose a problem when talking.
In the elderly with impaired gagging and swallowing reflexes, the saliva may drip into the chest and cause airway and lung irritation. These are severe complications mainly seen in the elderly. Drooling may be worse during sleep, and some patients may choke while asleep due to the excess saliva production.
http://www.seniorhealth365.com/2012/09/08/excessive-salivation-sialorrhea-in-the-elderly/
An excellent way for both Hillary and Billy to exit.....choking to death on their own drool.
DeleteNow that's poetic.
*****
More on the Reuters/Ipsos poll showing Hillary’s lead slipping
posted at 7:46 pm on August 6, 2016 by Allahpundit
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/06/more-on-the-reutersipsos-poll-showing-hillarys-lead-slipping/
Fried Circuit's post DNC bounce seems to be turning into a dead cat bounce.
Just trying to keep Ruf's enthusiasm in some kind of relation with reality.
It's a tough job but I've taken it upon myself.....ISIS in Iraq, for instance....and I continue to be concerned about Quirk's best interests, and give him advice when I can.
I think Quirk is on to something with his hanging out at The Mafia Barber Shop.
Think about it. The local newly elected muzz head cutters having just announced 'first we show the Poles, then everybody else' wouldn't the local Mafia Barber Shop seem like a good choice for a 'safe space' ?
I tell ya, Quirk is usually no fool when it comes to protecting his own arse, though there are some exceptions...and, he seems to notice the dangerous tree and not pay any attention to the overwhelmingly threatening forest....
Thus his odd idea that if we simply pay no attention to the muzzies they will go away....14 centuries of bloodshed and murder and aggression argue strenuously against this outlook, but there it is, Q has found his 'safe space' and that's an end to it.
White House map shows Islamic State still expanding, contradicting public claims
ReplyDeleteBy Robert Spencer on Aug 06, 2016 10:33 am
White House map shows Islamic State still expanding, contradicting public claims
“I don’t think they’re gaining strength,” said Obama, while they’re expanding all over the world. And the Pentagon has previously been caught publishing maps that hid the territorial gains the Islamic State had made in Iraq and Syria. This administration has proven itself to be completely untrustworthy regarding not only the motivating ideology of jihad […]
Read in browser »
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/white-house-map-shows-islamic-state-still-expanding-contradicting-public-claims
Quirk's got the answer.
Hole up in a Mafia Barber shop.
Maybe even grow a beard....fit it....
Fried Circuit disses the Police Unions, supports Black Lives Matter, and schemes to create a National Police Force.
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/06/hillary-to-police-union-get-lost/
Only someone as dumb as Rufus could vote for this crap.
Ruf will give up his guns, and rest secure that the new Federal Police Force will never come after his ass....
"If totalitarianism comes to the USA it will come from the left not the right"
I must add "enabled by idiots like Rufus"
Giving Quirk his due, he at least has, I believe, expressed opposition to a Federal Police Force.
DeleteThe Donald has taken to calling Fried Circuit both a 'monster' and 'The Queen of Corruption'.
ReplyDelete