pbmus

pbmus's Journal

October 25, 2019

Graham resolution rejected by 7 GOP senators + Manchin!

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1187724402370187264.html

This is really, really, really bad news for President Trump. 7 GOP senators + Joe Manchin declined to sign Graham's resolution condemning the impeachment inquiry
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Every American should be bothered by what Democrats are doing to Trump
Sen. Lindsey Graham, after introducing a resolution to condemn the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on Thursday, called the process a “shadow substitute after the transparent process was shot dow…
https://www.foxnews.com/media/sen-lindsey-graham-every-american-should-be-bothered-by-what-democrats-are-doing-to-trump

Seriously, I dont know what Graham was thinking. Never mind that he couldn't get 1 Democrat; he couldn't even get to 100% of Republicans. Wait a minute ...
... is it possible that this resolution was Graham's way of alerting Trump that he's in trouble - while himself of course avowing 110% loyalty?
If Senate were to vote 54-46 for removal, then yes Trump stays on job - but wow will he be disgraced and damaged. And of course if count is 54-46, goodbye to any hope of wrapping up the proceedings in an afternoon.
Moreover, if reliable pro-Trump caucus has *already* shriveled to 46 ... and if that 46 includes senators like Burr, Sasse, Toomey whom Trump cannot count upon in a clinch - then things really look dark for Trump.
Not possible Graham doesn't understand all those mechanics way better than random journos on Twitter. Has Graham's game been all along to position himself for maximally effective treachery at the maximally effective time?

October 25, 2019

Ted Lieu on Barr...

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1187535300718804992

October 25, 2019

Pompous Pompeo draws ever closer to the fire... 🔥

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1187539302324068352

October 25, 2019

ISIS once made 40million a month from oil...WTF has the Con done

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1187283716768456704.html

Trump keeps talking about "securing the oil" in Syria. Behind that phrase is two ideas:

1. A not very strategic but understandable US plan to deny the oil to both Assad and ISIS.

2. Trump's insane fantasy that the US can take the oil for itself.
Donald Trump claims to be securing oil in Syria for the US - here's the reality
Sitting at the mahogany table that dominates the White House’s Cabinet Room this week, Donald Trump made an unexpected pronouncement on Syria.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/24/donald-trump-claims-securing-oil-syria-us-reality/
The oil would be a big prize for either ISIS or Assad.

ISIS once made $40m/month from oil and the money could help fund the jihadists' resurgence. Assad could use the money to rebuild his shattered state and ease his own dependence on smuggled Iranianian oil.
So you can see why the US would want to keep it out of their hands.

Denying it to ISIS would be in service of the strategic goal of keeping the jihadists down. Denying it to Assad makes less sense strategically but I guess gives the US a little leverage.
Then there is Trump's pipe dream of "taking the oil" for America's benefit, a fantasy he's been nursing for years.

Long before he was president he talked about how the US should be take Iraq's oil as a price for overthrowing Saddam.
It's simultaneously a very 1970s mindset - when Middle East oil was seen as the world's singlemost strategic asset - and a throwback to ideas from the 1700s and earlier about wartime plunder.
It would be totally illegal for the US to just take Syria's oil.

But even if it wasn't, it just doesn't make that much sense. Syria's oil fields are tiny compared to America's. No US oil company is going to have any interest in rooting around amid war in Deir Ezzor.

It seems the US is going to go ahead with the first plan. Trump is still holding onto the fantasy of the second.

"We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area...we'll be deciding what we're going to do with it in the future."

October 25, 2019