monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

He's a loner, a social pariah. A bitter, disillusioned, disenfranchised, treasonous American citizen who relishes in sowing the seeds of dissent in a ridiculous effort to ease his tortured, troubled soul. He should be pitied and ignored.

Trump jumps into worsening dispute between Qatar and powerful bloc of Arab countries

President Trump jumped headlong Tuesday into a fast-worsening dispute between Qatar and a powerful bloc of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, posting Twitter messages congratulating the Saudis for cracking down on the neighboring kingdom and himself for sparking the breach over alleged Qatari funding for terrorism.

“During my recent trip to the Middle East, I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology,” Trump said in a series of morning tweets. “Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!

“So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off,” he tweeted. “They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar.”
Trump’s intervention came as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in New Zealand, took a somewhat different tack, noting that “all” countries in the Persian Gulf “have work to do” in ending their support for extremism, and encouraging them to “resolve this through dialogue.”

The regional crisis began on Monday, when Qatar’s Persian Gulf neighbors — Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — were joined by Egypt and smaller nations in severing diplomatic ties with Qatar, claiming it supports terrorists across the region. The eruption of the dispute shocked the neighborhood, and has threatened the deeply intertwined regional trade links and air routes.

The Pentagon, whose air operations for the Middle East are headquartered at a massive air base in Qatar, where at least 10,000 U.S. service members are stationed, also opted for balance and calming words. “We recognize that there are differing views in the region that have gotten us to this point,” it said in a statement. “United States and the Coalition are grateful to the Qataris for their longstanding support of our presence and their enduring commitment to regional security. We have no plans to change our posture in Qatar.”

The statement said that restrictions its Persian Gulf neighbors have imposed on Qatari movements in and out of the region “have not impacted our air operations,” including missions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. “U.S. Central Command is conducting appropriate planning to ensure that the full range of U.S. military operations in the Middle East can continue,” it said.

A senior White House official said Trump’s tweets did not indicate any change in policy or new information. “I think this actually shows the influence [Trump’s] trip had to isolate those who fund terrorism in the region,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic issue.

At the State Department, an official said in an email that “the tweets are not incompatible. For example, we recognize that Qatar continues to make efforts to stop the financing of terrorist groups … That said, while they have made progress, they (and we) recognize more work needs to be done.”

“A strong, united front among our key partners is the best way to overcome our shared challenges,” this official said, also speaking only on condition of anonymity.

During his visit last month to Saudi Arabia, where he delivered a speech to dozens of leaders from Muslim-majority nations gathered for the occasion, Trump met personally with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani. “We are friends, we’ve been friends now for a long time … our relationship is extremely good,” Trump said at the beginning of the closed-door meeting. “One of the things we will discuss is the [Qatari] purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment … It’s an honor to be with you.”

Trump used the Riyadh visit to urge Arab states to wage wider crack downs on militant groups, including funding channels. But his strong message of support to Saudi leaders, in particular, also may have encouraged Riyadh to act on a long-standing feud with Qatar.

Tillerson, traveling Monday in Australia with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, moved quickly to try to close the regional fissure with comments that he added to on Tuesday.

“I think every country in the region has their own obligations they need to live up to,” Tillerson said in New Zealand, “and they have their own challenges to live up to that commitment to terminate support for terrorism, extremism, however it manifests itself anywhere in the world. And I wold say that’s true of all the GCC countries; they have their own work to do in that regard.”

The GCC is the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose six members — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar — signed a communique with Trump pledging to continue their joint fight against terrorism. The visit also culminated in what the administration said was $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Trump has repeatedly praised Saudi King Salman as the “wise” leader of the region, and indicated he considers the Saudis the leaders of the Sunni Muslim world.

The GCC is the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose six members — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar — signed a communique with Trump pledging to continue their joint fight against terrorism.

Hey how do you guys do those neat C&Ps with the article surrounded by the dotted square?

I hate America, even more than I do myself.

McGentrix wrote:

snood wrote:

Would you name some news sources you consider reputable and reliable?

No, I doubt the " a highly classified National Security Agency report " part. If it got out, it probably wasn't actually a highly classified National Security Agency report.

Do you think there would have been an arrest if the information wasn't classified?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/05/politics/federal-contractor-leak-prosecution/index.html

This assertion is based on a polling question whether respondents have "sympathy with young Muslims who leave to UK to join fighters in Syria".
Respondents (1,000) were allowed to say whether they had "a lot", "some" or "no" sympathy with such people travelling to Syria.

Besides the questions what "sympathy" means for whom or why there's nothing besides 'a lot/some/no' ... besides that, the same poll question, asked for Sky News in the same year (2015) to all UK residents, found that 14 per cent of the general population had some "sympathy" for young Muslims leaving to fight in Syria.

giujohn wrote:

He's a loner, a social pariah. A bitter, disillusioned, disenfranchised, treasonous American citizen who relishes in sowing the seeds of dissent in a ridiculous effort to ease his tortured, troubled soul. He should be pitied and ignored.

In short, he'a a punk-ass bitch, eh, John?

How do you know this to be the case? The poll cited seems to have asked specific questions and not extrapolated from the broad results you cite.

maporsche wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

snood wrote:

Would you name some news sources you consider reputable and reliable?

No, I doubt the " a highly classified National Security Agency report " part. If it got out, it probably wasn't actually a highly classified National Security Agency report.

Do you think there would have been an arrest if the information wasn't classified?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/05/politics/federal-contractor-leak-prosecution/index.html

"highly classified" though? I'd say more like Hillary classified levels. "highly classified" implies Secret or Top Secret level and I doubt the report reached that level. Good she got arrested though. Hope her parents are proud.

Point? Besides the endlessly made accusation that all Americans are by association hypocritical corrupt murderous liars, what point?