All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Navy secretary strongly considering resigning over Trump's meddling in SEAL case

WASHINGTON — Military leaders hoping to keep the Secretary of the Navy from quitting lobbied President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One to stop intervening in the case of a Navy SEAL accused of murder, say five current and one former military and defense officials.

On Thursday Trump waded once again into the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of murdering a wounded ISIS militant in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher was acquitted by a military court but found guilty of posing with the dead prisoner's body.

Trump, who had previously restored Gallagher’s rank, denounced a new Navy administrative probe into whether Gallagher should remain in the elite SEAL corps. “The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher's Trident Pin. This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!” the president tweeted.

[Iron Maiden]

Navy secretary strongly considering resigning over Trump's meddling in SEAL case

I don't know how Trump got involved with this but I bet it was someone from Fox, maybe Hannity or that shrew Jeannine Pirro.

[Tami]

I don't know how Trump got involved with this but I bet it was someone from Fox, maybe Hannity or that shrew Jeannine Pirro.

I was wondering myself as to why Trump is so obsessed with this.

Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher seeks Trump pardon, family says

“Our family is seeking congressional support for a presidential pardon for Eddie,” read the post on the Free Eddie Gallagher page on Facebook, which has sought support and donations since Gallagher was arrested in September 2018 on war crimes accusations stemming from a 2017 deployment to Iraq. “Please call your congressional representative and ask them to sign onto our letter to the POTUS to #FREEEDDIE from this travesty of justice.”

Navy prosecutors had argued Gallagher stabbed to death a 12-year-old ISIS fighter while deployed to northern Iraq with SEAL Team 7 in 2017 as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. They also charged the 19-year veteran had shot indiscriminately at civilians during the deployment and threatened fellow SEALs not to report his actions.

But the case faced many problems. Prosecutors were accused of using spyware embedded within emails sent to defense attorneys and a journalist in an attempt to track some of their online activity. The lead prosecutor on the case, Navy Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak, admitted to sending the bugged email in an attempt to detect sources of media leaks related to the case and was dismissed from the case by a judge.

Later, at Gallagher’s court-martial, another SEAL, Petty Officer 1st Class Corey Scott, testified before the jury that he had actually killed the captive ISIS fighter, describing it as an act of mercy for the critically wounded preteen. Scott, who was a government-called witness in the case, had been granted immunity in exchange for testifying against Gallagher.

Trump was reported to have considered pardoning Gallagher – and other special operators accused of various war crimes – before his trial during the summer. Ultimately, the only pardon that Trump issued for a war crimes case went to Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna in May. He was convicted in 2009 of the “unpremeditated murder” of a prisoner in Iraq a year earlier.

Nonetheless, Trump has long vocally supported Gallagher.

[Wildling]

Trump Blames Kellyanne Conway For Turning Husband Into ‘Total Whack Job’

The president told “Fox & Friends” that she must have “done some bad things” to George Conway “because that guy is crazy.” So, Trump insults Sewer Rat Barbie's husband by saying SHE drove him 'round the bend. Will she say nothing about that? Of course she won't!

Taken as a compliment. Poor George got all Henry Bowers'd by Kellywise.

[Tami]

Yang is boycotting MSNBC because he feels he wasn't given enough speaking time at the last debate.

Yang never speaks much at any debate, regardless of who is running it.

[Mecegirl]

Yang is boycotting MSNBC because he feels he wasn't given enough speaking time at the last debate.

Yang never speaks much at any debate, regardless of who is running it.

Gotta raise the profile somehow. Good luck to him.

Anyway it really isn't much to be done with ten people on the stage. It's why I'm not bothering listening in live till the field is cut in half.

[InformationGeek]

This seems normal.

WOW:
@RudyGiuliani
seems to suggest he has dirt that would prevent TRUMP from turning on him: “I’ve seen things written like ‘he is going to throw me under the bus.’ When they say that, I say ‘he isn’t, but I have insurance.”
Asserts he as a “very good relationship” with Trump.

[Malvolio]

I caught part of that call it and it was like even the Three Stooges of Fox in the Morning wanted that call to end. He made a total jackass out of himself. I Watched maybe for 5 minutes and had to turn it off when he bragged about how he made a star out of GOP NY representative Stefanik. The he went on about how he had made a lot of stars, going back to the Apprentice show. Talked about Kelly Anne Conway making her husband crazy or something.

It's been know for a while now that Trump stays holed up in his part of the White House until late morning. He's up tweeting at all hours, he watches Fox news, spends some time getting his orange spray on tan and arranges that rat's nest he calls hair and sprays it with hair spray so his bald spots don't show. And yesterday he had nothing better to do that indulge himself on the phone on national TV. This is why he barely reads any of the reports or notes that he was given by staff members.

There have been staffers speaking off the record who have said that any written report has to have Trump's name mentioned every third sentence or so, just to get him to read it beyond the first paragraph. Imagine the combination of narcissism and short attention span that has to exist inside Trump's mind. SMH.

[Mister Mets]

I don't know how Trump got involved with this but I bet it was someone from Fox, maybe Hannity or that shrew Jeannine Pirro.

Apparently it was Pete Hegseth.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-an...-war-criminals

Does anyone here know who he is?

[numberthirty]

Apparently it was Pete Hegseth.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-an...-war-criminals

Does anyone here know who he is?

If you are talking about that "Hegseth" fellow, he works on-air at FNC and I believe he is ex-military.

That said, I have come across more than one segment with the guy where it seems like he is either without a clue or willing to ignore said clue if he has it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I was wondering myself as to why Trump is so obsessed with this.

Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher seeks Trump pardon, family says

Even if Gallagher is pardoned, he'll be very much a pariah in the SEALS, given his reprehensible actions. Meanwhile, I've heard the Navy will take steps to have Gallagher kicked out, there's just no place for him, if the guy is smart, he'll retire and go away.

[Tendrin]

Even if Gallagher is pardoned, he'll be very much a pariah in the SEALS, given his reprehensible actions. Meanwhile, I've heard the Navy will take steps to have Gallagher kicked out, there's just no place for him, if the guy is smart, he'll retire and go away.

The same reason he likes the 'pigs blood on bullets' story.

[Tami]

Trump’s GOP support hardens despite damning impeachment testimony

After two weeks of extraordinary open hearings that Democrats envisioned as their best opportunity to shape public opinion on impeachment, President Trump claims to be impervious to the cascade of damaging revelations because of hardening Republican opposition to his removal from office.

So far, the historic proceedings have exacerbated the political divide. Some moderate Republican lawmakers once seen as the most likely to break with Trump condemned his conduct but signaled in recent days that they would probably vote against his impeachment because they do not believe the president’s actions meet that threshold.

But impeachment is not a criminal or legal proceeding; it is a political one. And as the inquiry hurtles toward a likely House vote on impeachment next month and a possible Senate trial, Republicans on Capitol Hill are solidly behind the president, even if they offer scattershot and at times contradictory defenses of his alleged wrongdoing.

Trump said Friday that he was looking forward to an impeachment trial and expressed confidence he would prevail. “There has never been so much unity and spirit in the Republican Party, as there is right now!” the president tweeted.

Anecdotal evidence backs up his declaration. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent who represents a swing district in the Philadelphia suburbs and was considered a possible defector, told reporters Friday that although Trump’s behavior was troubling and represented poor judgment, Congress in his estimation had not yet gathered enough evidence to warrant impeachment.

Although House Democrats say the evidence that Trump abused his office and orchestrated a bribery scheme is unambiguous, the hearings appear to have changed the minds of few, if any, Republican lawmakers. This is a reflection of Trump’s supremacy within his party.

“Ironically, it enhances the president’s position,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican former White House press secretary. “He has never been and is not in danger of being convicted in the Senate. The only issue is whether he loses ground in the House, and by all measures he has not lost ground in the House.”

Fleischer said the hearings “demonstrated, and it was eloquently done by several career experts, how inappropriate what the president did was. The more I listened, the more it was clear it was inappropriate. But there’s a major difference between inappropriate and overturn the will of the people and impeach him.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump’s GOP support hardens despite damning impeachment testimony

Republicans know if they lose Trump, they lose their power, and they’re not about to let that happen, even if it damages our democracy which the GOP flat out doesn’t give a **** about.

[Tami]

Republicans know if they lose Trump, they lose their power, and they’re not about to let that happen, even if it damages our democracy which the GOP flat out doesn’t give a **** about.

Thing is, they really don't lose power. That is a myth. They stand a batter chance at retaking the WH in 4 years and keeping it for 8 if they ditched Trump and went with a more 'conventional' candidate. The GOP are shooting themselves in the foot, on 5th avenue, and no one is stopping them.