Trump Reportedly Has a Plan for Accountability on Afghanistan

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

Losing an election is a bit like going through the five stages of grief, and Democrats have yet to reach the acceptance stage. That means they still think their opinions matter on what should and shouldn't happen in the incoming Trump administration. They also think their outrage means something.

So what are they mad about now? According to reports, Donald Trump is planning to recall retired military officials so they can be court-martialed for the failures of the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal. The news immediately sent the press and some former generals into an apoplectic rage. 

The plan includes recalling retired officials to active duty to court-martial them, NBC News reported, a move McCaffrey said is unprecedented and unlikely to succeed.

"This is utter nonsense," McCaffrey said during an MSNBC appearance on Monday. "What is not utter nonsense is this is a political attack of utmost hypocrisy."

McCaffrey, who is a retired U.S. Army general turned media personality, could not be more wrong about this. The idea that morale would be harmed by finally holding these partisan flag officers accountable is utter nonsense. On the contrary, I would suggest that nothing would make the rank-and-file of the U.S. military happier than seeing the rules applied evenly for a change. The fact that no military leaders were ever punished for the failures of the Afghanistan withdrawal remains a stain on America's history.

Like the civilian bureaucracy, the upper levels of the Pentagon see themselves as untouchable and above being subject to the voting public. That attitude is why the once-great U.S. military hasn't managed to win a war in decades. Members of the general class are just as political as any politician, and they will sell their fellow servicemembers down the river if it means cozying up to a Democrat president. There is no better example of that than Gen. Mark Milley, who most are no doubt familiar with at this point. 

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General Mark Milley was Reportedly Stocking Up on Brown Trousers Just in Case Trump Got Re-Elected

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Jesse Kelly provided the perfect rebuttal to McCaffrey's rant. 

Still, the press is doing its level best to turn all this into a scandal. Aside from recalling and court-martialing generals like Milley, Trump is also planning to wipe out the general class currently in place. Meet the Press called that a "politically-motivated purge."

You're dang right it's politically-motivated. The general class is infested with left-wing partisans who put politics above the rank-and-file, sometimes with deadly consequences. The purge is coming, and no amount of crybagging from the press is going to stop it. Buckle up.

Pentagon Claims, without a Scintilla of Evidence, That DPRK Troops are On the Ground in Kursk Region

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

For very obvious reasons I don’t believe them.  However, that said, take an elevated position on the issue for a moment and ask yourself, ‘what are the implications if the United States Pentagon are fabricating claims about North Korean troops on the ground in Kursk, Russia?’

The United States Defense Department asserted today that DPRK troops are on the ground in the Kursk region.  Actual North Korean troops on the battlefield fighting against Ukraine.   Has anyone seen any single physical attributable example, a picture, a photograph, a video, a satellite image, a drone video, a declassified field report; heck, anything – anything at all – to support such a claim?

This claim, and the total lack of evidence for it, is really nuts if you think about it.

Where are the journalists who look at these officials and say, “prove it.”  I mean, the path we are traveling ends in a very dark place for the U.S-NATO and Russia.  Shouldn’t someone, anyone, ask some very pointed questions?  Where the heck is Biden?

New York Times – Early this morning, Ukraine’s military launched a volley of American-made ballistic missiles into Russia for the first time. The attack came on the 1,000th day of the war and less than a week after President Biden gave the Ukrainians permission to do so in a major shift of American policy.

The strike targeted an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of southwestern Russia, causing explosions, Ukrainian officials said. Russian officials claimed to have shot down five of the six missiles. The use of long-range American weapons was a show of force that demonstrated how continued Western support could help Ukraine more easily degrade Russian forces.

The pre-dawn attack struck an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of southwestern Russia, Ukrainian officials said. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that Kyiv used six ballistic missiles known as ATACMS, for Army Tactical Missile System. A senior American official and a senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations, confirmed that ATACMS were used.

The strike represented a demonstration of force for Ukraine as it tries to show Western allies that providing more powerful and sophisticated weapons will pay off — by degrading Russia’s combat capabilities and relieving pressure on Kyiv’s overstretched forces.

The attack came on the same day President Vladimir Putin lowered Russia’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. He declared that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened, even against a nonnuclear state so long as that state is backed by a nuclear power — similar to the situation in Ukraine. The timing of the long-planned move was clearly meant to send a message to Europe and the U.S.

The White House said it had observed “no changes to Russia’s nuclear posture” and played down Putin’s new doctrine. The reaction was telling, my colleague David Sanger wrote. Over nearly three years, the war in Ukraine has inured Washington and the world to the renewed use of nuclear weapons as the ultimate bargaining chip. (read more)

Comrade Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious.

Pro-Palestine Protesters Make Insurrection-y Incursion Into Senate Office Building

Ward Clark reporting for RedState 

Remember when having a bunch of people invading a building housing part of the Legislative Branch of government and interfering with the proper functioning of those elected officials was a bad thing - an insurrection? That's what the left claimed about the January 6th hooliganism, but they are, so far, strangely quiet about a bunch of "pro-Palestinian" protestors invading the Hart Senate office building.

Now, this isn't an insurrection, by any reasonable standard of the word. But then, neither was J6. The incursion of these - let's be honest - pro-Hamas protestors is trespassing; it is very likely interfering with the proper functions of the United States Senate by being disruptive. The brief video shown doesn't portray any property damage - although it does show the rather clueless protestors resisting cops who are trying to remove them.

So where are the cries of "OMG INSURRECTION" from the left now?

For that matter, what do these protestors actually want, aside from, presumably, the destruction of Israel, the only country in the Middle East with a freely elected government? Oh, yes, they unfurl banners with the usual lurid cry of "GENOCIDE" on them; another example of their general cluelessness, as in the history of warfare, no military force has gone to greater effort to avoid collateral damage than has the Israeli Defense Forces in their operations against Hamas and Hezbollah. There is a lot of shouting, but it's unclear what they are actually advocating - and it's entirely possible, were you to talk with any of these people, they wouldn't be able to articulate any coherent policy advocacy themselves.

As much as we can tell as to what they want, the diminishment if not the destruction of Israel, these protestors are already getting much of what they wanted from the outgoing Biden administration, aren't they? Only earlier today we covered Joe Biden's outgoing administration's chucking of Israel under the bus, but that isn't enough for these people. They want Israel gone.

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Biden Regime Pours American Taxpayer Money Into Gaza and  West Bank While Sanctioning Israel

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We have weeks yet to go before the Trump administration takes hold of the levers of power, and things are already growing more and more unsettled. The inauguration itself will very likely be marked by protests at best - and the right to protest is enshrined in the First Amendment. But it will be mildly surprising if there are no outbreaks of violence, especially in our major cities. There are already signs of dissent and outright defiance.

And not all of the dissent is coming from barely-organized leftist protestors.

We are headed for interesting times, folks, and the inauguration is likely to just be Round One. Prepare accordingly.

As for this protest in the Hart Senate office building, on X, one wag commented:

Indeed.

Trudeau lectures Canadians to prioritize climate change over groceries, affordability

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau implied that in the long-term Canadians should prioritize fighting climate change over feeding their families and paying for rent.

The comments were made ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during a discussion with Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen. 

“It’s really easy when you’re in a short-term survive; I’ve got to be able to pay the rent this month, I’ve got to be able to buy groceries for my kids, to say okay: let’s put climate change as a slightly lower priority. And that’s something that’s instinctive,” said Trudeau.

“When the storm comes, you want to hunker down and just sort of huddle up and wait for it to blow over. We can’t do that around climate change.”

Trudeau added that affordability, contrasted with the moral responsibility to protect the planet, has been amplified by propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation, which he said has scared people into prioritizing their household budget and bottom line over the environment.

He added that it’s important in democracies for citizens to want to fight deforestation in Indonesia and floods and famine in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. Trudeau suggested that Canadians should accept paying more tax dollars and diverting funds towards foreign aid because it “creates jobs” and “benefits citizens.”

A previous study highlighted that the average Canadian spent more on taxes last year than they did on shelter, groceries, and clothing combined. 

The prime minister said that his government implemented the strongest and broadest prices on pollution in the world to create jobs, growth, and benefit citizens.

“It’s no longer free to pollute in Canada, and we’ve won three elections on it already,” he said. 

Trudeau said the carbon tax is the best tool to fight climate change. Despite having one of the most expensive carbon taxes in the world that is only set to increase, Canada fell to 62nd out of 67 countries on the Climate Change Performance Index.

“In 2019, Canada introduced a carbon price system. In 2023, the price per tonne of CO2 was increased to $65, and at $170/tonne by 2030. However, most of the emissions generated by oil and gas producers are exempted, meaning these companies pay a very low average price for their emissions,” reads the CCPI’s report.

The Prime Minister said that his carbon tax helps the middle class.

He, like his Liberal colleagues often do, said that the carbon tax makes eight out of ten people richer.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has continuously disproven this. The PBO showed that the average Canadian pays $400 more on carbon levies than they receive in rebates. Also, he said that “Canada’s own emissions are not large enough to materially impact climate change.”

The $400 figure does not include the GST added to the carbon tax, which he estimated will cost taxpayers $400 million this year alone. Trudeau also celebrated the Liberals’ most recent cap on emissions for the oil and gas sector.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the oil and gas cap “a deranged vendetta” specifically targetting Alberta. 

Trudeau said that it’s not the carbon tax that is making the price of gas go up, but “oil and gas companies and geopolitics and the illegal invasion of Ukraine that is driving up gas prices around the world.”

He added that his oil and gas cap and carbon tax will create growth and prosperity in the coming years and is encouraging foreign investment right now.

Various organizations have warned the Liberals that the cap will devastate the Canadian economy, reducing the GDP by trillions, and wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

Additionally, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault recently proposed a new global shipping carbon tax.

Canada has already committed $5 billion to assist developing countries in combating climate change between 2021 and 2026.

Trudeau’s carbon tax has already burdened Canadian households and is projected to cost the economy $30.5 billion annually by 2030, based on government data.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office has opposed the tax “that will make everything more expensive.” The tax would come at a time when 2 million Canadians are using a food bank each month. 

“Canadians discovered that Justin Trudeau’s radical Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, wants to create a new global carbon tax on international shipping. This tax money would then be sent abroad to other countries,” reads a statement from the office.

“The carbon tax is nothing more than an expensive scam. It has done nothing to reduce emissions, while dramatically increasing the cost of living on the backs of working Canadians.”

https://tnc.news/2024/11/18/trudeau-prioritize-climate-change-over-groceries/

♦️𝐖³𝐏 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝

 

W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

posted by DarkGoldenMan

Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Post whatever you got in the comments section below.

This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time. 

Two Critical Data Cables Cut in the Baltic and It Looks Like the Prime Suspect Will Get Away With It

streiff reporting for RedState 

Two undersea fiber optic cables in the Baltic Sea were severed Monday in what is thought to be an act of sabotage. A 745-mile cable linking Germany and Finland and a 135-mile cable linking Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland were cut between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. In a statement, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius ruled out an accident.

"We have to conclude, without knowing exactly who did it, that it is a hybrid action and we also have to assume — without knowing it — that it is sabotage," Pistorius told reporters in Brussels on the sidelines of a Council of the European Union meeting.

Traffic was rerouted, and service resumed, but the damage will take up to two weeks to repair.

Circumstantial evidence points to the Chinese-flagged freighter Yi Peng 3.

The Yi Peng 3 is being escorted by the Danish patrol vessel HDMS Rota. It remains to be seen if the Danish government has the stones to board the Yi Peng 3 when it passes through Danish waters.

This episode bears a startling resemblance to the Chinese freighter Newnew Polar Bear disabling a gas line between Finland and Estonia by dragging an anchor over it; see Chinese Container Ship Suspected of Deliberately Damaging Estonia-Finland Gas Pipeline. In that case, the freighter high-tailed it to safe haven in the Russian port of Arkhangelsk.

It is becoming obvious that China is engaged in a hybrid conflict with the EU, either on its own behalf or in support of Russian adventurism. Every instance of Chinese attacks on critical infrastructure that goes unanswered will simply embolden and encourage the Chinese. Allowing this ship to go on its way is a sure ticket to another more significant attack.

Americans Can’t Trust Mike Rogers To Give The FBI The Reckoning It Needs

Mike Rogers has spent his entire political career funding and defending the very agencies being weaponized to target Americans.

Shawn Fleetwood reporting for The Federalist

It’s no secret that the FBI has become a politicized weapon of the Democrat Party. Whether it’s interfering in elections to help leftist candidates, targeting parents at school board meetings, or treating Christians as “domestic terrorists,” the list of egregious abuses carried out by the agency is too numerous to count.

With Trump set to return to the White House this coming January, many Americans are hoping the soon-to-be 47th president will replace FBI Director Christopher Wray — who has presided over these scandals — with someone willing to gut the corruption that’s plagued the agency for years. While no official nomination has been made, one potential candidate allegedly up for the job should cause major concern for those wishing for a complete overhaul of the agency.

On Friday, sources reportedly told Fox News that 2024 Michigan GOP Senate candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers met with Trump’s transition team at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday about “potentially serving as FBI director in the former and future president’s second administration.” Rogers, who worked at the FBI for several years before serving in Congress (2001-2015), was previously under consideration for the position during Trump’s first administration after the president fired then-Director James Comey.

The Michigan Republican also served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2011-2015.

While Rogers regularly cast himself as an “America First” candidate willing to buck the establishment during his failed Senate bid, the Michigan Republican has spent his entire political career empowering the very federal agencies being weaponized against the American people.

According to The Detroit News, Rogers assisted in writing (and voted for) the Patriot Act, a law passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that’s enabled the federal government to conduct warrantless surveillance against unsuspecting Americans. Speaking in defense of the legislation in a 2005 NPR interview, the then-congressman claimed, “No due process is subjugated in the Patriot Act, not one iota.”

According to The ‘Gander, “Rogers also has a lengthy history of defending federal phone and internet surveillance programs, and he also lobbied for a long-term extension of the Patriot Act in 2011.” A press release issued by the then-congressman’s office indicated the extension involved the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which the feds later abused to spy on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Rogers suddenly changed his tune on the Patriot Act after launching his 2024 Senate campaign. As noted by The ‘Gander, in a November 2023 interview, the former congressman expressed support for revising the law, but stopped short of saying Congress should repeal it altogether.

“I think you have to reform it. We need to make sure that you can go after foreigners. This is key,” Rogers said. “They keep stretching it. You have to put some boundaries back on it.”

The Michigan Republican reportedly did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment on what prompted him to supposedly change his views.

Rogers’ record defending intel agencies’ surveillance mechanisms he helped enable is hardly the only area showcasing his affinity for protecting the status quo.

In 2014, the left-wing Daily Beast reported that Rogers, then-head of the House Intel Committee, and the chairs of the House Armed Services and Government Reform Committees, “all opposed the formation of a select committee” to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. A House member allegedly told the outlet Rogers expressed worry the select committee “could be a rabbit hole” and warned members to “not let this investigation get into conspiracy theories.”

Rogers’ tenure as House Intelligence chair was met with controversy that same year, when Judicial Watch’s Micah Morrison reported that the former FBI agent’s wife Kristi worked at a military contracting firm during his time leading the committee. While Morrison acknowledged “[t]here is no evidence of wrong-doing by Rep. Rogers” or the firm, he noted that “the outlines of the story are more suggestive of ‘right-doing,’ Washington-style: an insider’s game of covert operations and corporate profits played out in the gray areas of law and policy.”

Rogers’ stint leading the committee has earned him praise from all the wrong media figures, specifically The Washington Post’s David Ignatius. In November 2022, the Russia collusion hoaxer penned a column praising Rogers for working across the aisle with Democrats during his time as House Intel chair. He further hyped Rogers as a potential 2024 GOP presidential nominee, claiming he is “a snapshot of what [the GOP] looked like before the Donald Trump circus arrived.”

Rogers’ congressional voting record also displays an unwillingness to fight the establishment.

In late 2014, the then-congressman helped pass a $1.1 trillion, 1,603-page omnibus spending package, which Heritage Action noted did “nothing to stop President Barack Obama’s unilateral, unlawful actions which include granting quasi-legal status to those who are in the country illegally.” Earlier that year, he also opposed legislation returning the Energy Department’s budget to 2008 levels, supported a bill bailing out the federal Highway Trust Fund, and backed a measure establishing a commission to study the erection of a “feminist history museum,” according to Heritage Action.

The former FBI agent further opposed additional work requirements for food stamp recipients and Republican efforts to balance the federal budget.

How is someone with that kind of track record supposed to give Americans confidence he’ll be the firebrand needed to bulldoze corruption at the FBI? The answer, of course, is he doesn’t.

Rogers is a typical D.C. institutionalist who has spent his entire political career funding and safeguarding the very agencies being weaponized to target citizens who refuse to bow to Democrats’ Marxist agenda. His priority has never been, nor will be, the interests of everyday Americans who continue to suffer as a result of his disastrous decision-making.

The last time Trump hired a federal careerist to lead the FBI, the agency’s authoritarian tactics got exponentially worse, and he and Americans suffered as a result. Let’s hope he doesn’t make the same mistake this time around.