General Trump hilarity free-for-all thread

[Juana]

I wouldn't be surprised not it's still a hilariously bad idea, no?

[Cain]

I can explain that tweet.

He was told in the briefing it would be a very bad idea to claim responsibility for this. Naturally, for Trump, the dumbest man in multiple fields of law, blasting out "I didn't do it" with roughly minus infinity credibility now means everyone assumes he did.

[Juana]

Makes sense. Nothing says innocence like "I didn't do it!!!" before anyone says otherwise.

[Cain]

It also turns out that by using the raw, unfiltered image without going through normal disclosure procedures now means the world is a lot more aware of US spy sattellite capabilities, and indeed how they far outstrip commerical options by comparison.

[Junkenstein]

Pretty standard for a fool who is at best dismissive of his own intelligence officials. Even the ones he personally annointed.

I'll have £2.50 on one telling him it was a stupid idea. This will be the person being publicly blamed.

[Bruno]

Man, I bet the qanon translation for trump's Atlanta hurricane sharpie map is fucking amazing.

[Doktor Howl]

Tone deaf "diplomacy" on Israel/Palestine is tone deaf.

https://www.apnews.com/cb17a0e7dfd541819e718724a215292e

Also:

The Taliban are getting frisky again in Afghanistan.

[Cain]

Naturally, the US didn't even make a ceasefire with Afghan forces a condition of the peace talks.

That country is being abandoned to the Taliban, because no-one can figure out that a) the Taliban will never be militarily defeated, but b) giving them a great big military beatdown is a great opening position for starting negotiations from. Instead, every single US agency and branch of the army is running their own private war, half of which consider the Taliban irrelevant.  And sure, they'll promise not to host Al-Qaeda again, but in 20 years time, when the IMU decides to blow up a US embassy or kill an ambadssador or something, we can't say that it wasn't obvious that this was going to happen.

[Doktor Howl]

The National Weather Service has been rolled into the portfolio of the Ministry of Truth:

https://www.apnews.com/e0680f910cdd43e4be257720e182948e

[Juana]

Tone deaf "diplomacy" on Israel/Palestine is tone deaf.

https://www.apnews.com/cb17a0e7dfd541819e718724a215292e

Kushner's coffee gofer is replacing him.

[Juana]

The National Weather Service has been rolled into the portfolio of the Ministry of Truth:

https://www.apnews.com/e0680f910cdd43e4be257720e182948e

At this point, I think the only thing that's surprising me is exactly which agencies are getting pulled up. It never occurred to me that the NOAA could get yanked up in the mix.

[Juana]

US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017

In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.

A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.
The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.

At the time, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo told other senior Trump administration officials that too much information was coming out regarding the covert source, known as an asset. An extraction, or "exfiltration" as such an operation is referred to by intelligence officials, is an extraordinary remedy when US intelligence believes an asset is in immediate danger.

A US official said before the secret operation there was media speculation about the existence of such a covert source, and such coverage or public speculation poses risks to the safety of anyone a foreign government suspects may be involved. This official did not identify any public reporting to that effect at the time of this decision and CNN could not find any related reference in media reports.

On the list of things that I believe, Pompeo's comment re" Trump not being the reason ranks somewhere around "Santa Claus is real".

[Junkenstein]

Naturally, the US didn't even make a ceasefire with Afghan forces a condition of the peace talks.

That country is being abandoned to the Taliban, because no-one can figure out that a) the Taliban will never be militarily defeated, but b) giving them a great big military beatdown is a great opening position for starting negotiations from. Instead, every single US agency and branch of the army is running their own private war, half of which consider the Taliban irrelevant.  And sure, they'll promise not to host Al-Qaeda again, but in 20 years time, when the IMU decides to blow up a US embassy or kill an ambadssador or something, we can't say that it wasn't obvious that this was going to happen.

What's the deal with this camp David meeting nonsense? Even by the current standards that sounded monumentally stupid. Lies and poorly thought out pr or actually lost the plot?

[Cain]

Naturally, the US didn't even make a ceasefire with Afghan forces a condition of the peace talks.

That country is being abandoned to the Taliban, because no-one can figure out that a) the Taliban will never be militarily defeated, but b) giving them a great big military beatdown is a great opening position for starting negotiations from. Instead, every single US agency and branch of the army is running their own private war, half of which consider the Taliban irrelevant.  And sure, they'll promise not to host Al-Qaeda again, but in 20 years time, when the IMU decides to blow up a US embassy or kill an ambadssador or something, we can't say that it wasn't obvious that this was going to happen.

What's the deal with this camp David meeting nonsense? Even by the current standards that sounded monumentally stupid. Lies and poorly thought out pr or actually lost the plot?

It was actually going to happen. But the Taliban insisted it happened after the peace deal was announced, and Trump wanted it to happen before (so he could claim credit for hammering out the final details of the deal, most likely). The Taliban said "no, fuck you" and here we are.

So yes, Trump was going to have the Taliban at Camp David, around September 11th.

[The Johnny]

Naturally, the US didn't even make a ceasefire with Afghan forces a condition of the peace talks.

That country is being abandoned to the Taliban, because no-one can figure out that a) the Taliban will never be militarily defeated, but b) giving them a great big military beatdown is a great opening position for starting negotiations from. Instead, every single US agency and branch of the army is running their own private war, half of which consider the Taliban irrelevant.  And sure, they'll promise not to host Al-Qaeda again, but in 20 years time, when the IMU decides to blow up a US embassy or kill an ambadssador or something, we can't say that it wasn't obvious that this was going to happen.

What's the deal with this camp David meeting nonsense? Even by the current standards that sounded monumentally stupid. Lies and poorly thought out pr or actually lost the plot?

It was actually going to happen. But the Taliban insisted it happened after the peace deal was announced, and Trump wanted it to happen before (so he could claim credit for hammering out the final details of the deal, most likely). The Taliban said "no, fuck you" and here we are.

So yes, Trump was going to have the Taliban at Camp David, around September 11th.

Everything's so absurd that they might as well meet up in the Kremlin. Have some drinks and laughs, tell stories and recount memories.