More Obstruction

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was furious on Wednesday after a Senate briefing on President Donald Trump’s decision to order an airstrike that killed Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Lee called it “probably the worst briefing on a military issue I’ve seen in nine years I’ve been here.” He said he “walked into that briefing undecided” on whether to support a War Powers Resolution being pushed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. The resolution would limit the Trump administration’s ability to take further military action against Iran without congressional authorization. “That briefing is what changed my mind,” Lee said. “I’m now going to support it.”

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

37 thoughts on “More Obstruction”

  1. Detroit free press:

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, on Thursday will lead debate on a resolution that seeks to stop President Donald Trump from opening a military offensive against Iran without congressional approval.
    Slotkin, a former CIA officer who did three tours in Iraq and was acting assistant deputy defense secretary under President Barack Obama, was tapped for the role by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
    “This resolution is intended to make clear that if the president wants to take us to war, he must get authorization from Congress,” Slotkin said in a statement Wednesday. “This is simply what our Constitution requires. If our loved ones are going to be sent to fight in any protracted war, the president owes the American people a public conversation about why and for what ends.”
    […]
    The War Powers Resolution led by Slotkin recognizes Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and Soleimani as the “lead architect of much of Iran’s destabilizing activities.” It also notes that the U.S. has “an inherent right to self-defense against imminent attacks.”
    But it also says that the Trump administration has, in the last eight months, sent 15,000 more troops to the Middle East and that the killing of Soleimani risked “significant escalation.” While saying the U.S. can defend itself, it seeks to prohibit Trump from using U.S. forces in any offensive hostilities against Iran without a specific declaration of war or other authorization from Congress.
    The resolution is almost certain to pass the House on Thursday, even as Trump holds a 7 p.m. re-election rally in Toledo. In December, Trump held a rally in Battle Creek as the Democratic-led House passed articles of impeachment against him. 
    The War Powers Resolution faces a much less certain future in the Republican-led Senate. Even if it were to pass in that chamber, however, it is far from clear how Congress could force Trump to respect its wishes as long as he wasn’t committing troops to a long-term engagement.
    That said, administrations typically want congressional backing for military actions, since Congress holds funding power and ultimate authority over whether to approve of long-term military actions.

  3. Something to ponder, each time SFB goes off and does something stupid and is forced to go to the podium to read some sort of “explanation” on the teleprompter he acts sedated, is standing awkwardly and sniffing a lot.  The speech is mumbling, missing words and often scrambled. 
    Not just once, but every time in front of a teleprompter.
    Very weird.

  5. “We repeatedly asked them: Under what circumstances you would need to come back to us to get authority from Congress before taking action against Iran,” Lee said. “For example, what if you decided you wanted to take out the supreme leader? Would you, in that circumstance, need to come back to Congress for a declaration of war and authorization for the use of military force?”

    Lee said, “Astoundingly,” the briefers, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, would not directly answer the question.”
     

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mike-lee-says-iran-briefers-dismissive-on-trump-war-powers

  6. i think politicians are starting to realize that assassinations of senior leadership of rival states doesn’t benefit their own personal safety and exposes them to similar risks.  

  9. NYTimes best of late night:

    Then on Wednesday, Trump gave a televised statement from the Grand Foyer of the White House. Late-night hosts found his dramatic entry ripe for commentary, along with his flubbing of words like “tolerated” and “accomplishments.”
    “He enters the room — it’s like the aliens in ‘Close Encounters’ coming out of the ship. What does he have in there, a tanning bed?” — JIMMY KIMMEL
    “Trump’s mouth was missing more targets than those Iranian missiles.” — TREVOR NOAH
    “You got to hand it to him — he’s the only person who makes typos out loud.” — JIMMY FALLON
    “Rest easy, America. That is the man deciding who ligs and who dibes.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

  10. Watched Pelosi’s lengthy press conference. At her best. She’ll never be a savvy TV performer but the more she talks the more you realize why she is The Boss.

  11. Ya know I’m of a mind that Pelosi  needs to  send the the impeachment to the senate. As she does so; she needs to say “as part of our presentation we will call the following witnesses.  Under the constitution it is our duty to present the impeachment as we see fit. and it is the Senates duty to listen to our presentation and decide if we made the case. We will trust the Chief justice to preside. ” 
    Then she needs to imply that she will take all efforts to block her presentation and including calling the witnesses of her choice to the supreme Court dragging this out until the Republicans are no longer a majority party any where. 
    I think it would work because the Republican don’t want this going o long that the general election remembers it.
    Jack

  15. Craig. because everybody gave us the benefit of the doubt when we shot down an airliner coming out of Iran?
    Shit happens, and is the major problem when you behave as Iran or Trump. I guess we should be glad we didn’t shoot it down.
     
    Jack

  19. it seems that folks in the middle ages took their music seriously. They had a special punishment for bad musicians
    Called the Shame Flute

    It’s a medieval torture device that was used – once upon a more primitive time – for publicly shaming bad musicians and other disturbers of the peace.
    The contraption, which is essentially a heavy iron flute – although you probably wouldn’t want play it – was shackled to the musician’s neck.
    The musician’s fingers were then clamped to the keys, to give the impression they were playing the instrument.
     
    Finally, just to further their humiliation, they were forced to wear the flute while being paraded around town, so the public could throw rotten food and vegetables at them.

     

  23. Sad statement on our culture:
     
    i put a singular “.” (period) into google (by accident) and the 4th result was “.223 ammo”.   Now, i’m not a gun person, so i’m pretty sure my previous searches didn’t influence that particular search, but just to be positive, i cleared my cache and entered a period again and got “.223 ammo”.  Can anyone else confirm?

  25. Bink – it’s the 5th choice down on suggested searches when I run it, but if you don’t choose that search option it doesn’t show up in the first 3 pages of results – and I ain’t scrolling through further than that.  To think that .223 ammo is the fifth suggested search keying off a period is indeed a sad statement of our culture – what, are we Iran now? Oh, wait. No. That’s ammo commonly used with AR-15s (probably the most popular gun among US assholes) and Iran’s gun ownership is at 7.3/100 – versus the US at about 30%.

  26. Thank you, good Sir, i always appreciate confirmation that i have, not yet, gone insane.
     
    …hard to tell, these days.

  28. Them there early 2 contests are tightening – last poll in Iowa – 3 way tie for the top – Bernie!, Joe, Pete.Last polling NH – Bernie, Joe Pete 18, 19, 20.

  30. i’m sad my sexy music vids offend Flatus.  Meanwhile, %25 of my compatriots are searching the most economical way to murder each other. 

  32. You can’t read Jamie’s “Root” article and think Pete has a chance to win the nomination… just sayin’.

  33. …btw Jamie, when my elementary school teacher got to the part where Lazarus Long was his own father (spoiler alert), she was like “do your parents know you’re reading this?”
     
    …i was like “what ‘parents’?!”

  35. in case you’re having trouble reading between the lines, the narrative is: “Trump’s personal insecurities got 170-odd people killed”.  With which you might take issue, since you weren’t on that plane.

  36. Trump tells rally tonight “Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad.” That’s new, he didn’t say that in address to nation. If he says it at a rally, you know it’s a lie.

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