According to International Business Times, more than half a million people ponied up, pouring an estimated $59 million into Trump Mobile's coffers. But no phones have arrived, the "made in America" promises have vanished, the launch date keeps sliding back, and this week, Moneywise.com reported on a quiet change made last month to the company's terms of service. read more
Leon Panetta, who helped locate Osama bin Laden, believes the war will continue for months because the US president has few options to end it. read more
Trump and his family have repeatedly disregarded Washington's ethical guardrails aimed at preventing government officials from profiting from public office, including by pushing for more than $200 million in a separate administrative case with the Justice Department. But a settlement payment even a fraction of the size of Mr. Trump's requested $10 billion could be much larger than his other attempts at private gain, potentially doubling his net worth. read more
The Trump administration's public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities. Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway. read more
Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran ... can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be "open," as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran's allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. read more
JFK and Bush 1 were both capable of appreciating war's realities well beyond the comic book phase, each having served in one and seen action and its consequences. As JFK wrote in a letter soon after his PT boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and he worked at rescuing his crew:
The war is a dirty business. It's very easy to talk about the war and beating the Japanese if it takes years and a million men, but anyone who talks like that should consider well his words. We get so used to talking about billions of dollars, and millions of soldiers, the thousands of casualties sound like drops in the bucket. But if those thousands want to live as much as the ten I saw, the people deciding the whys and wherefores had better make mighty sure that all this effort is headed for some definite goal, and that when we reach that goal we may say it was worth it, for if it isn't, the whole thing will turn to ashes, and we will face great trouble in the years to come after the war.
www.ms.now
It was a pretty hairy time, Coriolanus. In retrospect, even harrier than we thought. (Per Robert McNamara: "It wasn't until January, 1992, in a meeting chaired by Castro in Havana, Cuba, that I learned 162 nuclear warheads, including 90 tactical warheads, were on the island at the time of this critical moment of the crisis" www.errolmorris.com). At my high school we were told if war started - there were some missile silos in nearby hills - townies could hop the school bus for a ride home; those of us living outside town could hoof it. Our prospects looked dim. Give JFK credit, he made good use of TV to build support. Personally, I found the published photos taken during U-2 overflights of Cuba to be fascinating.
"Johannes Hentschel, the master electro-mechanic for the [Fuhrer]bunker complex, stayed after everyone else had either left or committed suicide, as the field hospital in the Reich Chancellery above needed power and water. He surrendered to the Red Army as they entered the bunker complex at 09:00 on 2 May [1945]."
en.wikipedia.org
Is Vanky still chumming Chinese waters?
The Chinese government granted a total of 41 trademarks to companies linked to Ivanka Trump by April of 2019 - and the trademarks she applied for after her father became president got approved about 40% faster than those she requested before Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election ... .
" Ivanka's Trademark Requests Were Fast-Tracked In China After Trump Was Elected"
www.forbes.com
Whatever this young woman is doing with Trump at midnight, I hope he's paying well.
#10 | POSTED BY CLOWNSHACK
According to ballotpedia.org that would be $150,000 a year. Not bad for a Point Loma Nazarene University and Liberty University grad. Praise MAGAJeebus!