Politics

[mdwest]

The Iranians would ABSOLUTELY prefer Biden remain in office...

If Trump is elected I'd bet my next years salary that within the first 30 days he pulls us out of the nuke deal with them again... that he completely defunds all US programs in the region that support Iranian proxies.. and that he signs multiple executive orders that sanction the hell out of them, make it hard to sell oil anywhere but to Russia and China.. and make it hard for anyone else to sell anything to them..

And there will be continuing pressure over the entirety of his presidency for any closely allied or major trade partner nations of the US to do the same... he will find ways to incentivize them to join in.. and punish them if they do not..

All of the above happened the last time around.. and he was very successful at that part of his agenda.. I see zero reason he wont repeat the process..

In fact, I think the border wall, and the re-establishment of his policy on Iran and the Palestinian Authority will be among his greatest priorities... along with going after the Chinese economy...

 

[Sideshow]

I dont know maybe to take the eye off of Ukraine

 

[NE 7x57]

Apparently Biden held a zoom call with several dozen concerned moderates in the party the same afternoon as the Trump rally. The reporting on it indicates it was in some ways more disturbing than the debate. No one has yet leaked actual footage, but the transcript is making the rounds. From a political perspective, Biden remaining in the race is nothing but good news for the GOP, but this transcript demonstrates a truly unhinged angry man that has no business wielding power for six more months.

The worst exchange was with with Congressman Jason Crow (CO) who is a US Army combat veteran with three combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biden - “First of all, I think you’re dead wrong on national security,” the president says, the emotion at times garbling his words. “You saw what happened recently in terms of the meeting we had with NATO. I put NATO together. Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put Aukus together, anyway! … Things are in chaos, and I’m bringing some order to it. And again, find me a world leader who’s an ally of ours who doesn’t think I’m the most respected person they’ve ever—”

“On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!”

https://archive.is/dItzR

If this is accurate it shows that Biden really is a legend in his own mind. He's been in politics forever, he's never been noted for his intelligence or his ability to tell the truth but obviously with his mental decline all that's gotten worse. Now he believes he's a great world leader when in fact he's managed to screw up everything he's had a hand in the past 4 years.

His foreign policy has been a shit show. His domestic policy has been even worse. And yet he believes he's a political god. I just hope we make it through the next few months and end up swearing in a new President. Otherwise we are screwed on all fronts.

 

[Altitude sickness]

This has been Biden his whole life.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Funny how much you can find if you dig...

Reddit, however "all over the place" it can be, is a treasure trove of goodies. Apparently, someone on there knew of the Crooks family. Sister supposedly had a high school "crush" on someone who posts there. Poster revealed that the brother (Thomas Crooks) had diagnosed mental health issues but the father refused to allow him to be medicated because he "needed to learn how to deal with the issues without medicine." Father was also a die-hard MAGA guy.

So for face-value:

- Son was bullied all throughout HS
- Developed mental health issues
- Father potentially exerted on him that he should "man-up" and deal with his issues
- Son attempts to assassinate his father's political icon/hero

Not a stretch to see that being found out.

Did Iran or a radical proxy give him the nudge he needed to pull the trigger? Maybe.

Was the USSS and local LEO that incompetent to let the guy in the perimeter, armed? Maybe.

 

[Hunt anything]

I hope I was hearing things yesterday, the USSS director only got the job because she was friends with Jill Biden and she came from Pepsi.
Hopefully this is not true.
What LE experience does she have?
I also heard an interview with Eric Trump and he said one of the women Saturday was on his SS detail when Trump was President.

 

[WAB]

Joe Biden is a piece of work.

He’s always been a complete ass, now he’s senile to boot.

 

[cajunchefray]

Agreed. If the Iranians succeed in making an attempt it won't be through a disturbed twenty-year-old with an AR. Both the USSS and particularly the FBI, which is tasked to disrupt the attempt before execution, need to watch for everything from car bombs to a knife in a greeting line and everything between. To remind, an assassin willing to trade his life for the target is almost impossible to stop.

Agreed. The Persians are much more cunning than a 20 year old misfit kid with an AR.
Remember where the term “assassin “ comes from.

 

[John Wasmuth]

I hope I was hearing things yesterday, the USSS director only got the job because she was friends with Jill Biden and she came from Pepsi.
Hopefully this is not true.
What LE experience does she have?
I also heard an interview with Eric Trump and he said one of the women Saturday was on his SS detail when Trump was President.

From what I gathered, the USSS director was on Biden’s detail when he was VP and he appointed her as director….

 

[Ridge Runner]

@mdwest

Lots of things can influence that decision being made..

The protectee or their senior staff may object to a "hard" security presence... they concern themselves with the "optics" of the situation and the way things "look"... its then up to the protective detail to figure out how they are going to deal with it...

The intelligence reports, threat assessments, and the advance reports are also going to have a huge influence on what the security plan looks like... if they had no knowledge or understanding of the probability of a stand off rifle attack (theres always a possibility.. but there might not have been an alert or a concern about a probability).. thats going to influence what your security posture looks like...

Then there is the administrative side of the house.. reportedly the team on the ground and its leadership had been asking USSS for additional resources and assets (both people and materials) for quite a while.. and kept getting denied.. we dont know what tools they had at their disposal... Im sure there was a shield around there somewhere.. but how many were available and how many people know how to use them are available (there is a right and a wrong way to deploy a shield.. its not rocket science.. but its relatively valueless if you dont know what youre doing)... based on that, there very possibly could have been a decision made to position resources they had somewhere else where they thought there could be a greater threat (for example.. if they planned on having a receiving line at the end of his speech where he would go to the crowd, shake hands, speak to people, etc.. it might have been positioned somewhere closer to where that was going to take place... or if they identified a soft spot somewhere in the transition point between the motorcade and the "green room" / staging area at the venue.. etc.. they might have staged it there..

I could probably come up with a half dozen other possibilities.. but at the end of the day, it was all part of the security plan that was built (a plan for an event like this is a no shit, incredibly robust document, that can be 50+ pages deep... ive seen some that are hundreds of pages... that addresses quite literally everything they think might could happen.... I'd be willing to bet there were at least a couple of pages dedicated to counter sniper and stand off attacks)... and that security plan is built around the advance report, intelligence reports, and security assessments of the principle, the staff, the venue, the crowd, etc..etc..etc..

If it's okay with you, @mdwest and @Altitude sickness, I am offering we cease and desist here and forward further such discussions to the Politics thread. As we seem to be starting to derail/hijack the original OP's intention here of being humorous, "Lighter Pokitics".

 

[cajunchefray]

Apparently Biden held a zoom call with several dozen concerned moderates in the party the same afternoon as the Trump rally. The reporting on it indicates it was in some ways more disturbing than the debate. No one has yet leaked actual footage, but the transcript is making the rounds. From a political perspective, Biden remaining in the race is nothing but good news for the GOP, but this transcript demonstrates a truly unhinged angry man that has no business wielding power for six more months.

The worst exchange was with with Congressman Jason Crow (CO) who is a US Army combat veteran with three combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biden - “First of all, I think you’re dead wrong on national security,” the president says, the emotion at times garbling his words. “You saw what happened recently in terms of the meeting we had with NATO. I put NATO together. Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put Aukus together, anyway! … Things are in chaos, and I’m bringing some order to it. And again, find me a world leader who’s an ally of ours who doesn’t think I’m the most respected person they’ve ever—”

“On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!”

https://archive.is/dItzR

Truly disturbing.

 

[cajunchefray]

On the contrary, I am confident she would throw her support behind whomever ended up being the nominee. She is as anti-woke as any member of the party and far more fiscally conservative than Trump. She like most republicans see the cultural and social damage being done by the radical elements of your party as more dangerous than the economic ones.

I too was genuinely disgusted with the bottom feeders among the delegates who found it necessary to boo her. By setting aside her ego and personal animus resulting from Trump's boorish treatment of her, she demonstrated far more commitment to the party and its goals than any of those feeling compelled to jeer. But what does one expect. She is accomplished and intelligent.

At least the vast majority were applauding by the end of her remarks. I hope Trump has the sense to make her Secretary of State - and announce the intention sooner rather than later.

@Red Leg , completely agree.
Haley will be a fine Sec of State. She doesn’t put up with BS. When I lived in SC and she was governor, she ran the state.
She will be a welcome respite from Blinken, an abject failure on the world stage. I can’t wait for him to be gone.

 

[cajunchefray]

Why do you think an Israel/Lebanon war would halt a US election?

I dont see even Israel throwing a nuke into Southern Lebanon stopping the US election cycle.. if anything I think it would make the American people even more adamant of the necessity of an election..

Lebanon proper has zero desire to engage Israel in war.. Hezbollah might get froggy.. but that would be incredibly stupid of them... while they have significantly more capability than Hamas.. they do not have the ability to take on Israel... especially now that the war in Gaza has been going on for months and Hamas is largely fighting a war of attrition...

Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could both see that Iran is simply fighting a proxy war here.. they are where the funding, munitions, arms, etc are all coming from.. and everyone knows it on all sides..

The last thing they want to do is push the limits, have Trump back in office, and give him the excuse he'd love to have put at his feet to crush their economy and their military capability the day he takes office..

Remember, the last time Trump took office, literally the first week he was behind the resolute desk, he issued a mandate to the Palestine Authority to denounce Hamas and Hezbollah and to stop all funding and associationthey had with Hamas and Hezbollah.. or he would defund all of their projects and funding within 30 days...

Naturally PA did not comply...

and Trump did exactly what he said he was going to do.. he defunded every single USAID, US State Dept, etc project in the West Bank and in Gaza.. to the tune of over $100M annually.. then hammered the Iranians with the toughest sanctions they'd seen since Reagan...

It was only after Biden lifted those sanctions, rejoined the Iran nuke agreement, unfroze ton of money in Iranian accounts, etc..etc.. that Iran decided to get bold again... They had sat pretty damn quietly for the 4 years prior..

Israel won’t nuke south Lebanon.
They don’t want to ruin the land.

If anything happens, IDF will crush Hezbollah, pushing them north of the Litani river, at least 10 miles or further.
They want the land. It’s a beautiful area of the Fertile Crescent, olive trees, citrus, wheat and arable for most crops. And they have WATER.
I hope Israel does annex it. The Lebanese living there just want to have a life, not under the boot of Hezbollah.

 

[mdwest]

Israel won’t nuke south Lebanon.
They don’t want to ruin the land.

If anything happens, IDF will crush Hezbollah, pushing them north of the Litani river, at least 10 miles or further.
They want the land. It’s a beautiful area of the Fertile Crescent, olive trees, citrus, wheat and arable for most crops. And they have WATER.
I hope Israel does annex it. The Lebanese living there just want to have a life, not under the boot of Hezbollah.

I agree...

I was merely saying something that extreme still wouldnt stop the US election process.. slideshow's comment that Hezbollah attacks out of Lebanon would cause the US election process to cease made no sense at all..

 

[Ridge Runner]

@mdwest

If it's okay with you, @mdwest and @Altitude sickness, I am offering we cease and desist here and forward further such discussions to the Politics thread. As we seem to be starting to derail/hijack the original OP's intention here of being humorous, "Lighter Pokitics".

We may be referring to the same objects by purpose, but not by name. I'm referring to the "smaller""glass" shields/partitions that were/are generally seen "attached" to the podium whenever a president, or other prominent dignitary is giving a speech outdoors.

Seems IIRC(?), larger "plates" "glass" were/are used during the Presidential Inauguration. Placed in front of the President Elect /Re-elect (and/or other dignitaries) while seated outside, awaiting the Presidential swaring in ceremony.

Something that I haven't noticed/seen since Reagan (?) or maybe early days leading up to and prior to Obama getting elected.

 

[mdwest]

@mdwest



We may be referring to the same objects by purpose, but not by name. I'm referring to the "smaller""glass" shields/partitions that were/are generally seen "attached" to the podium whenever a president, or other prominent dignitary is giving a speech outdoors.

Seems IIRC(?), larger "plates" "glass" were/are used during the Presidential Inauguration. Placed in front of the President Elect /Re-elect (and/or other dignitaries) while seated outside, awaiting the Presidential swaring in ceremony.

Something that I haven't noticed/seen since Reagan (?) or maybe early days leading up to and prior to Obama getting elected.

yep.. we're talking about 2 different things..

the ballistic shield Im referring to is a mobile shield you typically see carried by tactical teams...

ballistic objects like youre referencing get deployed based on threats known about or perceived.. and like everything else are subject not only to the protective teams desire to provide maximum security, but also by the principle and his staffs desire to typically have security be as low profile as possible..

Often times riding around in the "pope mobile" or having a stage surrounded in ballistic glass gives the perception of a threat existing (that might not) or an image of weakness (we cant control the situation so we'll just put the protectee in a glass bubble), or that the protectee is afraid (when they typically want to project strength, power, fearlessness, etc..

So it all becomes a balancing act..

the PA event was relatively small.. the advance team had very little time to do their job(s) properly (typically you have a minimum of 2 full days of advance for every day at a venue.. often depending on the complexity of the situation you get more time than that.. its been reported the advance team didnt show up at the event site until the day before in this situation).. and Trump is pretty well known for being adamant about how he is seen by crowds, etc.. and not being too keen on heavy handed security measures (he is a big fan of security, and has had top notch security teams dating all the way back to the 70's... but he doesnt like much of an in your face approach to things)..

Im sure they had at least some ballistic resources available to them that they didnt deploy.. or chose not to deploy on the stage because Trump, his staff, the PR people, etc.. didnt want them there, and the USSS team lead and security planner didnt see or know about a threat significant enough to warrant insisting on it...

One of the hardest things you do as a detail leader is balance your desire to lock the protectee away in a vault somewhere and never let them get exposed to anything or anyone that could possibly hurt them.. and the protectees desire to live as normal of a life as possible, and be able to do the job they need to do unencumbered by your security efforts..

Its a difficult balance to achieve..

and one the Secret Service failed at miserably last weekend..

 

[Ridge Runner]

@mdwest,

I had a momentary brain fart. I gotcha. I didn't think about these shields you and @Altitude sickness are referring to. Shields used by REACT, SWAT, Riot Control, etc., during high threat/high risk, forced entry, etc. situations.

 

[John Wasmuth]

New info from Fox News, the usss had information that there was a suspicious person that posed a threat as far out as an hour before the first round went down range and still put the president on stage…..

 

[mdwest]

New info from Fox News, the usss had information that there was a suspicious person that posed a threat as far out as an hour before the first round went down range and still put the president on stage…..

Thats actually not uncommon... its possible they briefed Trump of the threat and Trump decided to go on stage anyway... or its possible they knew there was someone suspicious out there.. but still didnt know what the actual threat was.. for example.. theres now cell phone footage of the shooter walking around the building looking suspicious about an hour before he climbed up onto the roof and took a shot.. but in that footage he doesnt have a ladder.. doesnt have a rifle.. or anything else on his person.. he is just walking around surveying the area by himself without anyone else around..

If thats all the information the USSS had.. they may well have told whoever in Trumps campaign that is their liaison.. who then made the decision to not brief Trump and just move forward (while USSS SHOULD have continued to investigate to determine exactly what the threat was, where it was, etc..etc..)

We took my guy into places where we knew he was under threat routinely.. he ultimately has to do his job.. and we had to do the best we could to mitigate, remove, or avoid those threats the best way possible..

the guy that "pied" Bill Gates came after my protectee.. we knew he was supposed to be at the same place we were going to be.. we knew what his intentions were.. etc.. but no one from the local police or from my advance party or counter surveillance party had ID'd him by the time we were supposed to move... we made the decision to go on with the mission and just remained hyper vigilant.. thankfully the local LEO's found him a couple of blocks away and kept him busy (i.e. detained him with a whole lot of questions, etc..etc..) as we were wrapping things up for the day... once we got into our motorcade and left the area.. the local cops let him go on about his business (he hadnt broken any laws at that point.. but it was clear he intended to.. so they had reason to "investigate" but no reason to arrest at that point).. .

 

[Red Leg]

Just finished reading "Hillbilly Elegy." For those who haven't, it is well worth the read. I also listened to an interview of him that Megyn Kelly did back in 2017. If you have only paid attention to the critical press, left or right, about him like I had, you are in for a very pleasant surprise. While I still think some of his positions with respect to foreign policy are uninformed, he will have my support.