The Donald Trump Score Card

I don't know why Turkey was ever invited to join NATO. NATO was formed to defend against the Warsaw Pact.
Seeing as how Turkey is becoming friendly toward Russia, I say kick them out.

 

The US provides half the funding for NATO, so take a guess why Turkey was invited to join.

 

Why Is Turkey in NATO Anyway?
The alliance goes back more than 60 years—and it’s been decades of disappointments for both sides.
Kathy Gilsinan
Oct 11, 2019

Why Is Turkey in NATO Anyway?

excerpt:

"“We wanted Turkey in NATO because of the Cold War,” Steven A. Cook, a Turkey expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me. Back in 1952, with the alliance just a few years old, it expanded for the first time, welcoming two new members: Greece and Turkey. At the time, President Harry Truman offered membership to both as a way to contain Communist expansion—Greece’s Western-backed government had just defeated Communist forces in a civil war. It helped that Turkey also gave the alliance a foothold close to the Middle East.
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This soon became a case of more allies, more problems. When Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 following a Greece-backed military coup, the two allies came into direct conflict; in fact, Greece left NATO over it, before later rejoining. Later, the U.S. flew bombing raids on Iraq from Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base during the 1990–91 Gulf War; in 2003, though, Turkey refused to station U.S. troops on its territory to attack Baghdad. (Other U.S. allies, namely France and Germany, also opposed the 2003 Iraq War, though France was not fully participating in NATO at the time.) As for that whole democratic-values thing, the military stepped in to run the country about every decade or so."

 

Why Is Turkey in NATO Anyway?

excerpt:

"Which all now seems a bit rich, given that the current leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a self-avowed champion of the Muslim Brotherhood, has changed the constitution, rerun elections that didn’t favor his political party, and led a crackdown on journalists and political dissenters, as well as a purge of thousands suspected of involvement in a failed 2016 coup. Even on the interests front—Incirlik Air Base has been central to U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the ISIS era—hitches came up. The Turkish government did little to rein in ISIS fighters transiting its territory to join the battles in Iraq and Syria; some ISIS members even passed through Turkey to carry out attacks in Europe. Erdoğan’s government has bought Russian air defenses over vigorous American objections and in the face of sanctions threats, and as of this week, the Turkish government ditched an agreement that U.S. officials had hoped would keep the peace in northeastern Syria.:

 

This is an issue that faces Trump. When he makes a foreign policy maneuvers that don't seem to make sense on the surface, people will be suspicious that he is dealing under the table for his own personal, political, and financial gain.

It stems from his past remarks and behavior, such as under-the-table hush money payments to Stormy Daniels that led to the conviction of his personal attorney; calling upon Russia to publish Hillary's stolen emails; his firing of Comey that set off the Mueller investigation; underhanded dealings using his personal attorney Giuliani as his shadow government agent in operations involving Ukraine which is part of what fueled the impeachment inquiry; defiantly and publicly calling upon China to investigate his political rival, Biden.

He has fun trolling the public with such mobster remarks and behavior but he incurs a political cost because of it that he can't make go away with the help of David Pecker.

 

Sounds like I irritated you … pushed the correct buttons?

 

Trump adherents are increasingly frustrated with the drudgery of trying to defend the devolving behavior of Trump.

Not only are Trump adherents trying to defend their previous defenses of Trump, they are now trolling the critics of Trump and claiming that the critics are actually unwittingly supportive of Trump's behavior.



Ex-Bush Aide Has Damning Theory For Why Trump Supporters Won't Turn On Him
Ed Mazza, HuffPost
October 14, 1029

Ex-Bush Aide Has Damning Theory For Why Trump Supporters Won't Turn On Him

excerpt:

"“People decided early on for a variety of reasons to accommodate themselves to Donald Trump, some of them thinking that things would get better, that he would grow in office, that he would be surrounded by good people,” Wehner said.

Instead, Trump has gotten worse. But because of their early accommodation of the president, these voters are essentially stuck with him.

“Now it’s not just a defense of Trump. It’s a defense of their defense of Trump,” Wehner said. “To indict him is to indict themselves, and to indict their own judgment, and that’s hard for any human being.”

The result: “They will defend him regardless of what happens, come hell or high water.”"

 

Trump to impose sanctions on Turkey amid GOP blowback to Syria troop withdrawal
By Dartunorro Clark
Oct. 14, 2019, 4:20 PM EDT

Trump to impose sanctions on Turkey amid GOP blowback to Syria troop withdrawal

excerpt:

"Trump said in the statement he plans to hike tariffs on steel up to 50 percent and “immediately” halt trade negotiations with the country.

Trump's move to withdraw American troops from northern Syria received bipartisan condemnation and sparked fears of a renewed humanitarian crisis in the region and a resurgent ISIS threat.

Numerous Republicans — including several top Trump allies — vehemently opposed the president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the northern border of Syria and allow a Turkish operation there because it marked a major blow to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a key partner to the U.S. in its fight against the Islamic State."

 

I've said it before. There is some evidence to suggest that Turkey, and Saudi Arabia were involved in forming ISIS, with de facto support from Israel, and the us.

 

Anyone who believes NATO represents anything more than the interests of the empire is a fool. Like the UN, it only exists because it saves the US money and hassle, and keeps us ahead in all the weapons and technology. Conservatives are only complaining about Donald Duck, because he is costing them money and political clout. Many of them would like nothing better than to withdraw from NATO and the UN, and carve the world up like a Turkey.

 

Trump trusted his sixth sense: his gut. And he has a big gut, capable of supplying many more of those types of decisions.



Trump Followed His Gut on Syria. Calamity Came Fast.
by David E. Sanger
Oct. 14, 2019
Updated 5:07 p.m. ET

Trump Followed His Gut on Syria. Calamity Came Fast.

excerpt:

"But this much already is clear: Mr. Trump ignored months of warnings from his advisers about what calamities likely would ensue if he followed his instincts to pull back from Syria and abandon America’s longtime allies, the Kurds. He had no Plan B, other than to leave. The only surprise is how swiftly it all collapsed around the president and his depleted, inexperienced foreign policy team.

Day after day, they have been caught off-guard, offering up differing explanations of what Mr. Trump said to Mr. Erdogan, how the United States and its allies might respond, and even whether Turkey remains an American ally. For a while Mr. Trump said he acted because the Islamic State was already defeated, and because he was committed to terminating “endless wars” by pulling American troops out of the Middle East. By the end of the week he added 2,000 — to Saudi Arabia.

One day he was inviting Mr. Erdogan to visit the White House; the next he was threatening to “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s economy if it crossed a line that he never defined."

 

I wish Donald Duck would attempt to withdraw all funding and troops from NATO, and call our ships back home to be dismantled, just so the Pentagon would assassinate him and get him out of the way sooner, rather than later.

 

The line was to be defined at a later date by Trump's gut.

 

A recurring comedy sketch is needed called 'Ask Trump's Gut' where journalists ask questions to Trump's gut and a muffled, grumbled voice from within his potbelly gives responses.

 

More likely, by whether he owns property there and whether it is going up or down in value.

 

"great and unmatched wisdom"

 

Its all in knowing how to use a magic marker.

 

Eggie, check out POLITICO Ben Schreckinger article titled: 2014 photograph shows earlier ties between Trump and indicted Giuliani associate

 

Great and unmatched gut.

 

Pro-Trump massacre video prompts condemnation

So is this ANTIFA stuff or is this OK? So much talk of the "violent left" and we see this.