Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Bernie inspires -- others, not really

Eion Higgens (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

Sen. Bernie Sanders' closing remarks during his event with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Queens on Saturday became a viral rallying cry for supporters of the 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful over the weekend as thousands of social media users promised to be "willing to fight for someone I don't know."
"Are you willing to fight for that person who you don't even know as much as you're willing to fight for yourself?" Sanders asked the crowd of over 26,000 who gathered at Queensbridge Park in Long Island City to hear the senator, Ocasio-Cortez, and others speak. An overflow crowd of an additional 5,000 people were reportedly listening to the event from outside of the park. 


Bernie inspires.  He should have been the 2016 nominee, not Hillary.




  1. Clinton Fuels New ‘Red Scare’ With Political Attacks Against Gabbard

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” Murrow said those words 65 years ago, responding to Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy and the words came to mind afterHillary Clinton accused Tulsi Gabbard of being a “Russian asset. ”





Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, October 22, 2019.  I'm in a cranky/bitchy mood, you have been warned.  We cover Donald Trump, Syria, Iraq, the Pike Report, the Kurds, the useless corporate press, the Democrats attempting to win their party's presidential nomination, and more.


First up, Donald Trump and Syria.  Yesterday's snapshot resulted in a huge numebet of e-mails from visitors (public e-mail site is common_ills@yahoo.com).  Some were appalled that US President Donald Trump wasn't being given credit for getting troops out of Syria.  Some were appalled that I hadn't called him out for Syria.

One of the thing that irritates me the most about THIRD -- the only thing really -- is that we do these pieces and they wait and wait to be posted because maybe there's another piece that might be finished in a day or two.  Early Sunday morning, we did a roundtable and I spoke to this issue.  That might not have prevented the e-mails but at least I'd be able to just copy and paste my comments in here.  (If THIRD is not done by tonight, Ava and my TV piece goes up regardless.  We worked hard on it.  It would have been fresh on Sunday, now it's growing stale.)

I took no opinion in yesterday's snapshot on Syria.  I did note that it was a prime issue to peel off Donald's supporters.  Not by whining that he took troops out of Syria but by pointing out that he was sending 1,000 -- at least 1,000 -- to Iraq.  One e-mailer pointed out I must be right because Samantha Power Tweeted about it  Samantha Power is a War Hawk.  She supported the Iraq War.  When it was deeply unpopular with the American people, she tried to pretend otherwise.  As Barack's advisor in 2008, she was against pulling US troops out of Iraq.  He was promising in speeches to do so.  As she told the BBC -- this is why she left) a campaign promise isn't a promise.  Samantha had called Hillary Clinton a "monster" but that wasn't why she left the campaign.  She left the campaign because of her comments to the BBC and her realization that if she was with the campaign, she would be asked about it, Barack would be asked about it, it would be an issue.

By announcing she was leaving the campaign, a press that was already lying for Barack would continue to lie for him.  And I'm not in the mood to play, don't e-mail me that they didn't lie for Barack, they did.  Most infamously Michael Gordon and Jeff Zeleny buried the most important comment Barack made as a candidate.  It should have been the headline of their report.  It never made it into their report.  When THE NEW YORK TIMES released the transcript of the interview, it should have been news.  We covered it here and at THIRD (see "NYT: "Barack Obama Will Keep Troops In Iraq"NYT: "Barack Obama Will Keep Troops In Iraq"").  Or you can talk about how a wife -- not a journalist -- was able to influence NEWSWEEK's coverage of Barack.  So much went down to hold his hand and walk him to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.  (Hillary earned that nomination with hard work.  Sadly, after it was stolen from her, she decided to be Barack in 2016 -- celebrities, corrupt DNC officials, etc.  Didn't work out for her.  She should have stuck to who she was in 2008.)

Donald Trump supporters are a group of people with their own beliefs  They're not concerned about his sexual past.  They were aware of it and see him as a 'rake.'  You're not going to convince them otherwise.  If you want to peel his supporters away, you will have to show to them how he broke his promises to them.

My opinion?  US troops never belonged in Syria  Christiane AmanWhore should not be allowed on TV since she used her program to repeatedly call for US troops in Syria.  She's a War Whore.  If she were a peace advocate, she would have been fired.  She's a War Whore, so the War Machine supports her.

US troops never should have been in Syria.  It's good that they're out.

B-b-b-but how they're out!

Oh, shut up.  Wars kill.  Worry about starting them.  In Syria, US troops had to fight with al Qaeda.  In Syria, they were trying to overthrow a government.  It's going to be messy when you leave.

That's the reality of war.  That's why ABC, NBC, CBS and, yes, CNN all pulled out of Iraq the minute Barack was elected to his first term.  They don't want to cover reality.  They exist to sell war, not reality.

B-b-b-but the Kurds are being betrayed.

Oh, that's different!  (That's sarcasm.)

The Kurds are betrayed by the US over and over.  Most recently, the US backed a corrupt government in Iraq (that they installed) and admonished the Kurds for having a non-binding referendum.  It had long been promised to the Kurds -- by the Kurdish government -- that a poll would be carried out for the Kurds to express their wishes.  They were slammed by every government except Israel, they were slammed by every politician in Congress unless the politician stayed silent (or unless they were Democrat US House Rep Elliot Engel).  Why  didn't the US government support the Kurds right to hold a poll?

Because it's never about helping the Kurds.  It's always about using the Kurds.  The Pike Committe's report made that clear -- it documents Henry Kissinger openly betraying Kurds, using them as pawns with no intent of ever helping them despite the promises they were given.

Don't know about the Pike Report?

Hmm.  Why is that?

Because people don't want you to know.  I'm just not in the mood for bulls**t lately.

Daniel Schorr was a disgusting piece of trash.  He died in 2010.  We got no honesty on that from the press -- the established press or the 'emerging new press' (crap like DAILY KOS).  He was a hero.  Most avoided the Pike Report.  If they 'covered' it, they did it like CRAPAPEDIA does -- a single sentence that portrays Daniel as brave.

Nora Ephron, then the media critic for ESQUIRE, wrote the truth about Schorr in real time -- when CBS was rightly firing him.  ESQUIRE refused to print it.  She had to take it to MORE.

Short story, Daniel got a copy of the Pike Report.  It was supposed to be released.  Then it was decided it wouldn't be. CBS NEWS was deciding what to do -- report on it or not.

Daniel tried to shop it around -- for a price -- and had little luck.  He then gave it away for free to THE VILLAGE VOICE.

CBS NEWS, having the only copy (outside of Committee Members), was furious and heads were rolling.  At this point, you could applaud Daniel.  Here's where that changes.  It's not enough for him to pretend he didn't release the report.  He lies about releasing it and tells CBS it was Lesley Stahl who did it.  And remember, he tells them, her boyfriend Aaron Latham (her husband since 1977) works at THE VILLAGE VOICE.

He's a piece of trash.

That's the reality of Daniel Schorr.  He attempted to save his own ass by getting an innocent person fired -- someone he knew was innocent.  He's trash and the world's better off now that he's dead.

After being fired from CBS NEWS, he briefly tried to profit off the whole issue but quickly realized there was no life for him in the press corps unless he just stopped talking about the Pike Report -- so that's what he did.

And that's when NPR and THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR welcomed him back into the press fold.

If you don't know about the Pike Report, it's not because you're an idiot, it's because the news media doesn't want you to know about it.  In real time, it was a major story -- just the Committee overruling their decision to release the report was a major story.  All the drama that followed because of Daniel Schorr was a major story.

What took up hours on the network evening news for days and days and weeks and months is now buried.  It's very telling what the press decides to bury.  And don't expect bulls**t CJR to rescue history.  This is the 'watchdog' that had to be confronted in their comment section about their hypocrisy in going after a local reporter for sleeping with a source while ignoring that Gina Chon, at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, was letting US government official Brett McGurk vet her copy before she turned it into the paper she was employed by.  He made the decisions on all of her 'reports.'  When THE JOURNAL found out, they called her in and fired her.  Fired her.  She didn't quit, she was fired.  (There's a great recording of her blowing up in the middle of that firing, by the way.  It makes me laugh every time I hear it.)  CJR couldn't even call out Gina Chon.  They're a pretense, they're a fake ass.  ( Brett was also Gina's source on many articles -- and she was sleeping with him -- which she also 'forgot' to tell her employers.)

Gina now works for REUTERS.  Remember when REUTERS put a CIA agent in Iraq?  We called them out.  Did anyone else?  No.  (We did not name her.  Anyone could have found out who she was because we did call out her garbage, note that she was CIA and note that we weren't linking to her 'reporting' because of that.)

So, no, I'm not upset that Donald Trump is pulling US troops out of Syria.  I do agree with US House Rep Justin Amash that sending 1,000 into Iraq is not what he promised or led people to believe.  Had I praised him here, I would be apologizing for that praise.  But I didn't.  I've learned to wait for things to happen before praising.  The press doesn't do that.  We saw that this month already.  Hunter Biden's left the board!  Praise Hunter!  Well, actually, no, he hasn't left.  He says he'll leave at the end of this month.  Let's wait and see what happens before we offer praise.

And let's also try demanding that the press use a functioning brain.

The 1,000, the press tells us, are going to western Iraq.

Most Americans have no idea of Iraq's geography or what borders it.

Point?

If the troops are going to the west, we should all be questioning whether they are no longer being used in Syria.  Syria borders western Iraq.  This is just like when Barack Obama moved all those US troops into Kuwait so that they could dart back into Iraq.  Bonus points for anyone who remembers the US senator who pointed that out in an open hearing.  (Answer: Senator Kay Hagan.  And we covered it here while the corporate press ignored it and tried to build a disagreement -- between John McCain and Leon Panetta -- into a cat fight.)

So that's another point those wishing to peel away Trump supporters should emphasize.  'He's lying to you because that 1,000 is in Iraq where it is so it can dart back and forth across the border.'

Some people are stupid, some people just need a few more years on them.  I've been stupid many times.  In 1980, for example, I didn't see how anyone couldn't be persuaded not to vote for Ronald Reagan.  (Is that not the worst sentence I've ever dictated?  I'm trying to say that Ronald Reagan was so obviously -- to me, based on my values -- a poor choice that I couldn't see anyone supporting him if you just pointed out the basics to them.)  I also didn't see his charisma.  We have to learn to stop judging everything by our own beliefs and values.  You may see Donald Trump as a raving lunatic.  His supporters don't.  And what matters to you doesn't necessarily matter to them.

That doesn't make them unpatriotic or anything else.  It just means they rank things differently than you do.  But what we all expect our politicians to do is to carry out the promises we elected them on.  It's why Jill Abramson refused to let THE NEW YORK TIMES report in September 2012 the big story -- Barack Obama was sending US troops back into Iraq.  He was running for re-election claiming he had fulfilled his promise.  Finally, at the end of September, in an article on Syria, Tim Arango was allowed to include that fact briefly.  It should have been its own story and it should have been on the front page.  Again, don't kid that the press didn't protect Barack.  They lied for him, they covered for him, over and over and over.

And when the press isn't fair, people walk away from it.  So they can report anything on Donald right now and it's not going to be important to his supporters.

Look at this Tweet.

. made an excellent point tonight at Culture War Grand Canyon: “Why doesn’t the media talk about when Joe Biden became VP he and his son started their international business. But when my father became president we chose to stop all international business.”




Hunter Biden has been protected by the press. Anderson Cooper declared in a debate that Hunter did nothing wrong.  That's a bold face lie.  Again, there is no proof that Hunter did anything illegal.  But there's a world of difference between nothing illegal and nothing wrong.  Hunter was wrong to have used his father's name and his father's position.  We knew that was wrong with Roger Clinton, we've always known that was wrong.  It is unethical.  And when the press looks the other way on that reality, Donald Trump supporters don't have to listen to the press because they see  the bias.


Let's note some Tweets about the Democratic candidates.



You wanna know why I oppose ? It’s because a guy who bills himself as “Middle Class Joe” helped his donors and his GOP allies destroy Democrats and pass a bill that deliberately sentenced millions of Americans to a lifetime of crushing college and medical debt. πŸ‘‡πŸ»






. has been unable to raise much grassroots money -- so his top campaign surrogate is now openly boasting that the Biden campaign may end up being bankrolled by a super PAC that can rake in no-limit donations from billionaires and corporations πŸ‘‡


When asked whether he thinks former Vice President Joe Biden goes far enough on policy in his campaign, Democratic candidate @AndrewYangon says he doesn’t think policy is a main focus of Biden’s campaign.




My last comment on this hopefully. If was authentic about then why did she endorse opponent who ran against it in 2016? is a long distance runner. He has been there for us all the way down the line.





Some people feel that Bernie didn't get his due in the coverage of the debate that I provided.  That may be true but remember that the coverage also includes Ava and my "TV: Let's kill Elizabeth!" at THIRD that went up as the debate was ending.  Hunter Biden's corruption is not a minor story nor is the way that Joe went after Elizabeth.  That went beyond rude and it has made a lot of women uncomfortable.  Betty's not the only one who felt he might hit Elizabeth -- his rage was not inspiring and many women we've spoken to (and two men) have voiced sentiments similar to Betty's (that he acted like he was going to go violent).

In yesterday's snapshot, we noted this:

Pete's big weakness will probably emerge in the next debate.  He spent the last debate attacking everyone.  The next one may have a few pointing out Pete's own waffles, highlighting his remarks, for example, about Medicare For All at the first debate versus what he's now saying a few months later.


Norman Solomon's already on it.  From his column at COMMON DREAMS:

A not-funny thing has happened to Buttigieg on the campaign trail. As he kept collecting big checks from corporate executives and wealthy donors, he went from being “all for” a single-payer Medicare for All system in January to trashing it in the debate last week as a plan that would kick “150 million Americans off of their insurance in four short years.” The demagoguery won praise from corporate media outlets.
Those outlets have often lauded Buttigieg for his fundraising totals this year without scrutiny of the funding sources. They skew toward the wealthy—and toward donors with a vested interest in protecting the status quo.
“Of course, from a voter’s point of view, what really matters is not how much financial support a candidate is getting, but who they’re getting it from—because those supporters may not have the same interests as the voter,” Jim Naureckas at the media watchdog FAIR pointed out this summer. “In the case of Buttigieg, the two main sources of funds seem to be the tech industry . . . and the financial industry, that traditional source of funds for corporate-oriented Democrats.”
So far this year, Buttigieg has reported $27 million in contributions of $200 and above—accounting for 52.5 percent of his total dollars raised. Compare that to Elizabeth Warren at 29.6 percent and Bernie Sanders at 24.9 percent.
And major sources of Buttigieg’s funding are in harmony with his recent hostility toward Medicare for All. “Pharmaceutical, health insurance, and hospital industry donors have flocked to Mayor Pete all year,” journalist Alex Kotch reported last week. “As of mid-2019, he was second only to Donald Trump in overall campaign cash from donors in the health sector. Among Democratic candidates, he was second to former Vice President Joe Biden in terms of pharmaceutical and health insurance donations.”

Reporting for the investigative website Sludge, Kotch wrote: “Over 100 individuals in leadership, legal, consulting, or financing roles in health sector donated $200 or more to Pete for America between July and September. These donors include pharmaceutical industry leaders such as the chief corporate affairs officer at drugmaker Pfizer, the president of Astex Pharmaceuticals, a state lobbyist for Biogen, a vice president of public policy at Novartis, and the deputy vice president at the nation’s largest pharmaceutical trade association, PhRMA, as well as attorneys for AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck.”
Buttigieg’s reversal of avowed support for Medicare for All is classic opportunism. In early 2018, he was unequivocal via Twitter: “I, Pete Buttigieg, politician, do henceforth and forthwith declare, most affirmatively and indubitably, unto the ages, that I do favor Medicare for All.”


As we wind down, we'll note this:

Between 1st- 12th of October, hundreds of unarmed protesters in Baghdad and Iraqi southern provinces were targeted by snipers. "We were unarmed. Why was that young man shot with two bullets to the head?"


0:41
12.4K views




The following sites updated:







Monday, October 21, 2019

Hillary refuses to take accountability -- all this time later

First off,  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Catty  Confessions of Saint Hillary Clinton."

 catty confessions

Go away, Hillary, just go away.  (If you missed it, I named her "Idiot of the week" last Friday.)

At COUNTERPUNCH, Thomas Knapp notes:

“I’m not making any predictions, but I think [the Russians] have got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” said Hillary Clinton on her former campaign manager’s podcast.  “They know they can’t win without a third party candidate.”
Was Clinton referring to US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, CNN asked? “If the nesting doll fits,” her spokesperson replied.
Nearly three years after losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton’s still trying to find someone other than Hillary Clinton to blame.
If it’s not women voting the way their husbands tell them to vote, it’s James Comey’s unconvincing job of “exonerating” her for her grossly negligent handling of classified information.
If it’s not the media taking too much notice of her scandals, her health problems, etc., it’s Bernie Sanders supporters staying home instead of going to the polls for a candidate who hated them as much as they hated her.
Whatever it is, it can never, ever, ever be the fact that she’s among the most disliked and distrusted politicians of the last century, or that she ran an incredibly inept campaign, or that she failed to pay sufficient attention to Rust Belt voters upon whom Donald Trump lavished attention and promises to “bring the jobs back.”
And sooner or later it always comes back around to !THEM RUSSIANS!

 In the end, she who has blamed everyone else for Donald Trump being in the White House has only herself to blame and she refuses to take accountability.  All this time later.
 

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapsho:t




Monday, October 21, 2019.  Pete, Tulsi, Joe, Elizabeth and . . . Justin?  Or Mike?


In the US, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  Would Michael Bloomberg enter that race?  The overly confident former mayor of New York City denied his plans to run recently.  Carlos Greer (NEW YORK POST) reports:

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg played it cool when people urged him to run for president at the Hudson River Park annual gala, where he was honored Thursday night.
“He brushed off whispers in the room of a presidential run and gave his signature crooked smile when one table held up signs that read ‘Bloomberg 2020,’ ” a guest told Page Six. Bloomberg sat with fellow honoree Lucy Liu and her “Elementary” co-star Aidan Quinn.

That was Thursday.  Edward Helmore (GUARDIAN) reports today:

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is at it again – teasing a presidential run. At 77, he won’t even be the oldest in the field, and the billionaire is certainly not short of funding to be able to throw his hat in the ring.
Over the past several weeks, he’s signaled renewed interest in the democratic nomination, telling friends and associates he’s “still looking at” running for president. But he has cautioned he’d only join the race if former vice-president Joe Biden’s faltering centrist campaign takes a decisive hit or pulls out early in primary season, according to a report by CNBC.

Biden’s collapse would likely leave Elizabeth Warren as frontrunner, a liberal candidate with whom he has repeatedly clashed over her anti-corporate policies and fears she will push the party too far to the left and eliminate the chance of a Democratic candidate unseating Donald Trump next year.


I love this, by the way, this press notion that Elizabeth Warren is too left for voters which, as Joe Biden crumbles, is put with the neoliberal claim that Pete, the man who's done nothing but be mayor, is a better candidate.  how so?

Hillary Clinton, in 2016, remember, felt the need to massage anxiety over Bill Clinton being First Spouse by saying he wouldn't be planning state dinners (apparently, had she won, she'd be both the president and the first lady).  It was idiotic and we called it out in real time.  But the 'pragmatic' campaign of Hillary Clinton, insisted that America was wary of a man in the first lady role.

So Hillary had to do that in 2016 -- or felt she had to -- but Pete and his ale spouse are just the ticket four years later?

I'm not saying he couldn't win.  I am saying you are vastly under-estimating American's obvious homophobia (not latent) when you think, if gifted with the nomination, Pete would just sail to victory.

Pete has a chance at the presidency, all the candidates do.  But to repeatedly stress and sell him as the 'safe' choice is to ignore reality.

Again, in 2016, Hillary's campaign -- based on polling -- felt the need to stress that Bill would not be planning dinners.  That was four years ago.

Add male anxiety to homophobia and you've got some rough waters to navigate.  Can they be navigated?  Yes.  But don't pretend it would be easy.

There's nothing about Pete that makes him an easy choice.  He has a huge lack of experience.  Others won't be as timid or stupid as Beto O'Rourke who backed down when Pete tried to challenge him.  Others will point out, "You were a glorified secretary in Afghanistan.  You are not  a combat veteran.  The only medal you have is the medal everyone gets.  Stop pretending you have some vast miliary experience."  And being the major presiding over what?  Racial killings by the police?  Oh, that's a wonderful recommendation.

THE HILL reports on a new Iowa poll that finds him at 13% to Joe Biden's 18% and Elizabeth Warren's 17%.

In what world is a mayor with no real experience at anything (yes, THE NEW REPUBLIC essay was right) the best choice?  The best bet?

Whomever gets the nomination will have to run a  serious campaign and no rushing home at night to sleep in their own bed.  They'll have to work the battleground states.

Does Pete stand a chance of winning?  Of course he does.  But don't look at the landscape and pretend (or lie) that he's the safe choice and that Elizabeth is just too liberal for the voters.  That's not the reality.

Pete is a better choice than Joe Biden because there is enthusiasm for Pete -- that's not a minor point.  Enthusiasm will be crucial to the campaign and to getting the vote out.

Pete's big weakness will probably emerge in the next debate.  He spent the last debate attacking everyone.  The next one may have a few pointing out Pete's own waffles, highlighting his remarks, for example, about Medicare For All at the first debate versus what he's now saying a few months later.

While Beto whimpered like a beat dog, Tulsi Gabbard did not back down from Pete and she actually won her points.  The corporate media worked overtime to pretend that didn't happen but it did.  This would be the same corporate media that whored to get US troops into Syria and now pretends that they are an unbiased bystander on the issue.

On the topic of Tulsi, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Catty  Confessions of Saint Hillary Clinton" went up Sunday.

catty confessions

For reasons that only she knows, Hillary Clinton elected to attack Tulsi last week declaring her a Russian stooge and worse.  Maybe she wants to be remembered historically as the nutty aunt in the attic?  Tulsi responded Saturday via  a fundraising appeal:

Hillary Clinton accused Tulsi Gabbard — a combat veteran, soldier and Major in the Army National Guard — of being “groomed” to be a “Russian asset”. Below, Tulsi fights back and demands Hillary join the race and face her directly.
You can help Tulsi directly take-on the American war machine, and Hillary’s proxies in the DNC and corporate media. Don’t let them silence Tulsi:
Friend —
Hillary Clinton — the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long — finally came out from behind the curtain yesterday, accusing me of being a Russian asset, asserting I was being “groomed” by Russian interests.
If this a fight she wants to have, one that has implications for all of us and the future of our democracy, then I challenge her to come out from behind her proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media, and face me directly.
From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it, and now we know.
We must not let Hillary Clinton and her establishment allies silence the voice of the American people and quash all those who dare to offer a dissenting voice in response to our corrupt status quo. Will you help me fight back? Rush donate $25 dollars now and help me get this message in  front of as many people as possible before the end of the day.
She’s waging this campaign against our movement because she’s afraid of the threat we pose. Afraid of our growing momentum that threatens to unravel the American war machine and all those who profit from it.
We will not let them win.

Tulsi




Tulsi is a member of Congress.  Another US House Rep considering running for the presidency in 2020 is US House Rep Justin Amaxh.


When I heard Hillary’s remarks, I knew exactly what the right would say: The left smears anyone they don’t like. To my Dem friends: Recognize that this plays right into Trump’s hands; that it diminishes the legitimate inquiry into Russia; that it bolsters Trump’s “hoax” nonsense.
   
  • Hillary does—and did—drive many people into the arms of Donald Trump. Her attack on Tulsi does likewise. In my district, Trump did worse than any Republican in modern times and still beat Clinton by a fair margin. Many Ds in the Midwest rejected her. I didn’t vote for either one.
       
    The thing we know for sure is that Hillary Clinton is a Donald Trump asset.
       


    Amash was elected to Congress as a Republican.  This year, he declared himself an independent.  The reality is probably that he's a Libertarian and would probably seek that party's presidential nomination if he decided to run.

    Justin is not pleased with a recent move.

    Justin Amash Retweeted The Hill
    Trump’s words: Bring them home. Trump’s action: Send them to Iraq.
    Justin Amash added,
       


    He's referring to the fact that more US troops are headed to Iraq.   Yuliya Talmazan (NBC NEWS) notes, "Defense Secretary Mark Esper said late Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 U.S. troops pulling out of northern Syria will now head to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants."  Lolita C. Baldor (AP) reports, "Esper’s comments to reporters traveling with him were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they shift from Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift about 1,000 troops from Syria into western Iraq."


    If Justin runs and hits Donald Trump with that, if anyone running does, that would e a smart point to go after.

    It should be obvious to everyone that Doanld's supporters do not care what he did before becoming president.  Or what he was rumored to have done.  They put their trust in him and personal scandals are not going to sway them.  But emphasizing policy points where he betrayed them?  That could be very effective.