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Anastasis

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Anastasis

  1. 11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    I haven't commented on the IC-fueled war machine, @Anastasis, and I certainly haven't defended it.

    Again, you are struggling with the point:  POTUS was briefed on Russia-funded actions against American soldiers and did nothing about it.  In fact, he continued to kowtow.  That's the story we're talking about.  You, as usual, are trying to deflect.  Not this time.

    I am not missing any point. You seem to be the one struggling with what I have said, preferring instead to deflect into a discussion of fisa and page pictures. 
     

    What I suggested is that we should have a full and transparent accounting of the intel. Not via anonymous IC sources operating in the shadows with their compliant media partners, but in a setting that is transparent to the American people. Trumps knowledge of and actions should be part of that.  This is serious stuff that will have a meaningful impact on American foreign policy in afghan and Syria and wrt Russia broadly. I’d like to see a little more than anonymous ic sources. OTOH you don’t seem inclined to think critically about it, because orange man. This is not the first time by any stretch, as you have already signaled with your deflection. 
     

    • Fuck You 1
  2. 6 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

    Because the risk to deployed troops doesn't really matter to the voting public at least in relation to the possibility that we may lose face by backing down.  Leaving now would just be giving the dirty Russians and the Taliban what they want and we can't have that.  

    Neocons are already connecting this to ramping up of involvement in Syria. Tangents people. Just got to hold out a few more months!

  3. 2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    I don't know if you realize this, but Russia wants us there as a means to foment further discord.  Those peace negotiations aren't just for show.  

    And yes, your refusal (as a prominent "Gary Johnson voter") to acknowledge a very obvious story in favor of wagging your finger at the IC is fucking predicable, boring, and flat out stupid.  Carry on, I don't need another Carter Page FISA drama.  You do you.

    I would never vote for somebody who didn’t know where Aleppo was. But keep defending a system that has resulted in needless war after needless war because Americans are easily manipulated to support the war machine. 

  4. 10 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

    How the fuck does “Americans in Afghanistan are now even more at risk” support the case for continued engagement in that country? 

    How does this information being leaked by anonymous sources in the immediate run up to infra-afghan peace talks further the goals of peace and American disengagement?

  5. 11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    Kudos to you for again focusing on a tangential issue.

    Kudos to you for failing to learn a single lesson from the history of IC failures resulting in needless war after needless war.  Just tangential issues. Lol. 

  6. 1 hour ago, GW Hayduke said:

    Lulz.  It’s definitely the deep state intelligence being mean to poor victim trump who has faithfully served the interests of our country these last three years

    This has nothing to do with victim Trump or whatever straw man you are constructing. It has to do with the long history of instigating conflict based on faulty IC intel. I guess we are just suppose to uncritically accept the depictions of anonymous IC sources without any substantive vetting or consideration of the context and potential motivations.  What could go wrong. We know that, as some are fond to promote here, the CIA is responsible for the longest period of Western European centered peace and stability in world history. What’s an Iran or iraq or Afghanistan as long the machine keeps churning?

     

     

     

     

  7. 4 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

    The Deep State, what we gonna do??

    Chop’em up like Saudis do!


    Or maybe WMD em like Hussein does!

     

    I sincerely hope that guys like you are able to return to thinking critically about the behavior of the IC once trump is gone. 

  8. 9 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Somewhere I read that he was having a briefing with Huntsman about something serious (pertaining to Russia I assume), and he starts going off about how good and attractive Abby is, and they wind up calling her on the phone and talking about nonsense.  I think it was the Fiona HIll article in the New Yorker.

    It was. 

    Same article also described how the media was manipulated into reporting that was inaccurate, according to Hill, and intended to neutralize McMaster and set the stage for the ascent of Bolton.

    As Hill’s staff assembled the briefing materials for a call between Trump and Putin to discuss Syria and North Korea, the State Department requested that McMaster instruct Trump not to congratulate Putin. Hill and McMaster did not pass the request on to Trump. “It would just make him do it even more adamantly, because he’s reflexively contrarian,” a former official told me. Later, the Washington Post reported that Trump had not followed “specific warnings from his national security advisers,” including “a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating ‘do not congratulate.’ ” Predictably, Trump was furious with McMaster, and Hill surmised that an official with access to the briefing materials had set him up. “We were all being used again, us and you guys in the press, by those who wanted H.R. to be fired,” she told me. Hill offered to quit in solidarity if he was let go, but he said that she should stay in the job to insure a smooth transition. A few days later, Trump fired McMaster and hired John Bolton, a foreign-policy hawk, as national-security adviser.

  9. I am sure that the timing of this IC sourced leak, undermining the continued talks intended to bring to end a two decade old war in Afghanistan is purely coincidental. Its amazing how the media eats this stuff up without barely an ounce of critical challenge and inspection.  Push back and vet the information, try to understand what nuance may exist in the intel, and verify its accuracy.  If it is accurate and complete, make the full case to the American people.

    Or just uncritically roll out IC fodder for the people who would like to see endless military engagement in the middle east and afghanistan. I mean, it's not like we haven't see this kind of thing before.

     

    • Like 3
  10. 17 minutes ago, After irth said:

    We haven’t exactly seen “saturation of hospital resources” here. Yet. 

    You...?

    Sure as shit looks like the potential is certainly ramping up in various areas of the state.  As all these new cases still have to mature a bit before their full impact is felt.

    Austin solidly in stage 4, Harris appears to be close to entering their ICU surge capacity, text pushed out by bexar county today:

    STAY HOME. The COVID-19 virus is spreading rapidly across Bexar County. Local hospitals are approaching capacity. Protect yourself and your family. Stay home except for essential activities, wear a face covering and avoid gathering with people outside your household. STAY SAFE. For more info visit www.covid19.sanantonio.gov

     

     

    But that is all entirely beside the point.  We could have avoided this.  We could have had our re-opening, we just had to broadly do some basics like wear masks, practice distancing, and reduce non-essential interactions when possible. 

    • Like 3
  11. 2 minutes ago, achooloco said:

    grew up in austin, everyone always pronounced it like that. never heard a native Austinite pronounce it different but I've only known Czechs, Mexicans, and African Americans growing up, and all my schools were east of 35. 

    Same.  Although only one of my schools was east of 35. 

    • Like 1
  12. 13 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

    Sounds like a bunch of conspiracy talk to me. 

    Sorry you don't pay attention to details.

    Yes, McCain was one of the means of introduction to the FBI, but he passed it off much later and was not "the one who handed it to the FBI".  The material existed inside the FBI long before December, and was introduced by Steele directly. Later by a reporter.  Later by state department contacts.  And yet later still through british diplomatic channels via John McCain.

    You can dismiss that as conspiracy talk, but it is all part of the congressional testimony and various public reports related to the matter. And it fits a basic pattern of operation. 

  13. 32 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    Russia has bounties out on American soldiers in Afghanistan and in response Trump has said Russia should be readmitted to the G8. But yeah, it’s just a total conspiracy theory to think he’s working with them.

    That's a concerning and interesting set of articles from the NYT and WaPo, for sure.  Definitely warrants a deep dive into the IC's findings. But one thing that the history of this thread should challenge us on is the uncritical acceptance of stories based on anonymous sources from within the intelligence community. Remember some of the previous exchanges where we would see articles pop up across various media sources in sequence, and you could pretty tell the affiliation of the source, and the angle they were running? Remember how many times those reports were clearly an attempt to simply craft a narrative favoring the FBI/CIA/Steele/etc?

    But put that specific history aside for a minute...

    The bread and butter of the intelligence community is manipulation of public opinion via compliant media outlets. At the very least, we should consider the potential motivations behind such planted stories by considering the timing and context, and what outcome may be intended by the publication.

    In this case, that potential motivation is scuttling talks that aim to get our military forces out of Afghanistan.

    News of the murky initiative comes as American diplomats attempt to kindle political talks that could put end to America’s longest war, now in its 19th year.

    But hey, I mean, this would be unheard of right?  The IC would never seek to justify warmongering based on manipulation and framing of intelligence products, would it?

     

    • Like 2
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