“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
This Merry Warrior Monday Open Thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KMAG/KAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Yes, it’s Monday…again.
But it’s okay! We’ll get through it.
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Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
Remember…your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU.
Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
……………………………………………………………….
For your listening enjoyment, I offer this composition from Ivan Torrent, titled ‘Moonriser’:
Newsweek reports that as Trump announced the death of Baghdadi, Hellfire missiles targeted Muhajir by Ayn al-Bayda, near Jarablus in Aleppo province. The operation that targeted Muhajir comes just one day after a raid targeted ISIS’ leader in the Idlib province of Syria, where Trump said he detonated a suicide vest as U.S. forces closed in.
Remember all the intel grabbed from the Bin Laden raid and how we heard the agencies were sitting on it? Welllllllllll, there’s no grass growing under our feet now. Our military has CONTINUED THE MISSION IN THEATRE.
Syrian Democratic Forces commander Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobane, also reported on the news Sunday.
“Continuing the previous operation, terrorist Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, the right-hand man of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and an ISIS spokesman, was targeted in the village of Ayn al-Bayda, near Jarablus, in direct coordination between SDF intelligence and the U.S. military,” Kobane said.
Continuing— He released several sermons……, went silent for 6 months…….., made last speech……., a week later President Trump declared victory over ISIS.
Details of Syria from Newsweek, some shaded by bias……
Final Paragraph:
Kobane referred to the raid that ended in the death of Baghdadi as a “Successful & historical operation due to a joint intelligence work with the United States of America.” Trump also expressed gratitude Syrian Kurds, noting they provided “useful” information, while Iraq appears to have played a major role in intelligence-gathering in the lead up to the operation.
While we are all aware of the news by this point, we can use this thread to accumulate info for further use. Use this thread as our own historical record. Here, we can dump info details, maps, credit to various agencies, comments, etc.
We’ll start with the statement from the President, the ensuing presser, and work backwards…. and by the way, God Bless Our Military! Full transcript is located at the bottom of this post.
It started with a single Tweet from President Trump at 8:23pm on a Saturday night during the World Series.
"Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them." pic.twitter.com/b6MnJPFnH3
Lindsey Graham was apparently in the WH Situation Room when it happened. He spoke from the WH podium. Where was Mitch McConnell???????? Video is not available as yet but we will post when it hits. Lindsey did post this at 10:08am. UPDATE: Video of Graham Presser available at 1:22pm
Last night the best of America confronted the worst of mankind.
I’ll let you guys fill in all the extra details. It’s a good day for the world. God Bless our Military and the dog who was injured.
Americans never forget.
Kayla Mueller, Steven Sotloff, James Foley and Abdul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig
Per Maria Bartiromo: “We called Debbie Dingell of Michigan to come on the show.” As of 11:47am, FOX News had “not heard from the leadership of the Dem Party on reaction to the incredible news” of the Death of the #1 Terrorist in the World…… silence.
Per Maria Bartiromo: As of 11:53, “We are just getting reaction from House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi….. someone must be watching”. Interesting. “While the death of this leader is significant it does not mean ISIS is dead”….. and she goes on to demand a briefing. Snippy response. No praise for our military, etc. (I was proven wrong 75 minutes later, Pelosi did praise military in beginning of her statement.)
Update, 1:15PM: Official Pelosi Statement:
Pelosi Statement on Al-Baghdadi Raid OCTOBER 27, 2019 PRESS RELEASE Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military raid:
“Americans salute the heroism, dedication and skill of our military and our intelligence professionals and acknowledge the work of our partners in the region. We are relieved that no U.S. personnel died in this daring raid.
“The death of al-Baghdadi is significant, but the death of this ISIS leader does not mean the death of ISIS. Scores of ISIS fighters remain under uncertain conditions in Syrian prisons, and countless others in the region and around the world remain intent on spreading their influence and committing acts of terror.
“This month, the House passed a joint resolution on an overwhelmingly bipartisan 354-60 basis which rejects President Trump’s green-lighting of Turkish aggression into Syria against our Kurdish partners, and calls on him to present a clear strategy to defeat ISIS. The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top Congressional Leadership were notified of in advance, and on the Administration’s overall strategy in the region. Our military and allies deserve strong, smart and strategic leadership from Washington.”
Nancy Pelosi
Please continue to check Q Tree Daily Thread for minute-by-minute response from our members.
Per Dora and others, much has been made of the the connection between John McCain and Al Baghdadi.
In the immediate aftermath of the successful raid, the media has decided to make the raid political. The pundits are questioning why the Dem Leaders in Congress were not notified when Lindsey was at the White House and Chairman Burr of Senate Intel was notified (talk about a leaker, yikes!)
Anyway, Glen Greenwald has already located a 2015 NYTimes article about the 2012 Osama Bin Laden raid, which explained as follows. WH attorneys deemed justifiable delay t notification of Congress during the raid……. yet Leon Panetta, unable to contain himself, blabbed to Congress without permission. https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1188496336473219073
Media Response: Unreal to watch the NYC/DC media twist themselves into a pretzel to defend terrorists…… cuz orange man is bad.
The reaction from Bloomberg tried to outdo the terrorist pandering of the WaPost. From Bloomberg: “… Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi transformed himself from a little-known teacher of Koranic recitation into the self-proclaimed ruler of an entity that covered swaths of Syria and Iraq”
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi transformed himself from a little-known teacher of Koranic recitation into the self-proclaimed ruler of an entity that covered swaths of Syria and Iraq https://t.co/CNI5XBsoai
Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization in the World. The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my Administration. U.S. Special Operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid into Northwestern Syria to accomplish this mission.
No U.S. personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house un-injured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, who had dragged three children with him to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast, but test results gave certain and positive identification.
The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, panic and dread – terrified of the American Forces bearing down.We were in the compound for approximately 2 hours, and after the mission was accomplished we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid.Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders, and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS!The reach of America is long. As you know, last month we announced that we recently killed Hamza Bin Laden, the very violent son of Osama Bin Laden, who was saying very bad things.
He was the heir apparent to Al Qaeda. Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them. These savage monsters will not escape their fate – and they will not escape the final judgement of God.
Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. At my direction, as Commander-in-Chief, the United States obliterated his ‘caliphate’ in March of this year. Today’s events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end.
Baghdadi and the losers who worked with him – in some cases people who had no idea what they were getting into and how dangerous and unglamorous it was – killed many people. Their murder of innocent Americans Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller were especially heinous. The shocking publicized murder of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in a cage for all to see, and the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in history.
The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world – this was all Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s work. He was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying. This raid was impeccable, and could only have taken place with the acknowledgement and help of certain other nations and people.
I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us. Thank you as well to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible.
I want to thank the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines involved in last night’s operation. You are the very best there is anywhere in the world. I want to thank General Mark Milley and our Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the United States government and were critical to the mission’s success.
Last night was a great night for the United States and for the World. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, was violently eliminated – he will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.
God bless the United States of America!
Comments from The President of The United States on the death of Al Baghdadi, October 27, 2019.
Q When did you first hear that this was — operation was going to get started?
THE PRESIDENT: We’ve had him under surveillance for a couple of weeks. We knew a little bit about where he was going, where he was heading. We had very good information that he was going to another location. He didn’t go. Two or three efforts were cancelled because he decided to change his mind — constantly changing his mind. And, finally, we saw that he was here, held up here. We knew something about the compound. We knew it had tunnels. The tunnels were a dead-end, for the most part. There was one, we think, that wasn’t. But we had that covered too, just in case.
The level of intelligence, the level of work, was pretty amazing. When we landed with eight helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the building, not wanting to go through the main door because that was booby-trapped. And there was something — it was something really amazing to see. I got to watch it, along with General Milley, Vice President Pence, others, in the Situation Room. And we watched it so clearly.
Q They had body cameras? Or how did you watch the —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t want to say how, but we had absolutely perfect — as though you were watching a movie. It was — that — the technology there alone is really great.
A big part of the trip that was of great danger was the — it was approximately an hour and 10-minute flight, and we were flying over very, very dangerous territory. In fact, some of our leaders said that that could be the most dangerous — flying in and flying out. And that’s why, last night, we were so quiet about it. We didn’t say anything, and I didn’t make my remark until after they had landed safely in a certain area.
But the flight in, the flight out, was a very, very dangerous part. There was a chance that we would have met unbelievable fire. Russia treated us great. They opened up. We had to fly over certain Russia areas, Russia-held areas. Russia was great. Iraq was excellent. We really had great cooperation.
And you have to understand: They didn’t know what we were doing and where we were going, exactly. But the ISIS fighters are hated as much by Russia and some of these other countries as they are by us. And that’s why I say they should start doing a lot of the fighting now, and they’ll be able to. I really believe they’ll be able to.
Yes, Jennifer?
Q Sir, can you say what role the Kurds played in this, just generally?
THE PRESIDENT: They gave us not a military role at all, but they gave us some information that turned out to be helpful, the Kurds.
Q And can you tell us what the role of Turkey might have been, and Iraq?
THE PRESIDENT: Who?
Q What was the role of Turkey? How did they help?
THE PRESIDENT: Turkey — we dealt with them. They know we were going in. We flew over some territory. They were terrific. No problem. They were not problem. You know, they could start shooting, and then we will take them out. But a lot of bad things can happen. Plus, it was a very secret mission. We flew very, very low and very, very fast. But it was a big — it was a very dangerous part of the mission. Getting in and getting out too, equal. We went in identical — we took an identical route. We met with gunfire coming in, but it was local gunfire. That gunfire was immediately terminated. These people are amazing. They had the gunfire terminated immediately, meaning they were shot from the airships.
Q I’m trying to understand the timing. You talked earlier — you know, several weeks — about pulling troops out, you know, and then troops were put back in. And then, you know — I’m trying to understand the timing of when this operation — how it fits —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ll tell you, from the first day I came to office — and now we’re getting close to three years — I would say, “Where’s al-Baghdadi? I want al-Baghdadi.” And we would kill terrorist leaders, but they were names I never heard of. They were names that weren’t recognizable and they weren’t the big names. Some good ones, some important ones, but they weren’t the big names. I kept saying, “Where’s al-Baghdadi?” And a couple of weeks ago, they were able to scope him out.
You know, these people are very smart. They’re not into the use of cellphones anymore. They’re not — they’re very technically brilliant. You know, they use the Internet better than almost anybody in the world, perhaps other than Donald Trump. But they use the Internet incredibly well.
And what they’ve done with the Internet, through recruiting and everything — and that’s why he died like a dog, he died like a coward. He was whimpering, screaming, and crying. And, frankly, I think it’s something that should be brought out so that his followers and all of these young kids that want to leave various countries, including the United States, they should see how he died. He didn’t die a hero. He died a coward — crying, whimpering, screaming, and bringing three kids with him to die a certain death. And he knew the tunnel had no end. I mean, it was a — it was a closed-end — they call it a closed-end tunnel. Not a good place to be.
Q So this was going on before you made the announcement that you’re pulling them out?
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve been looking for him for three years. I’ve been looking for him. I started getting some very positive feedback about a month ago, and we had some incredible intelligence officials that did a great job. That’s what they should be focused on.
Q And about what time did this operation start yesterday, sir? And have you notified the leaders on —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this operation started two weeks ago, in terms of the real operation, because we had him scoped. We thought he’d be in a certain location. He was. Things started checking out very well. We were involved, on our own team, with some brilliant people who I’ve gotten to know. Brilliant people that love our country. Highly intelligent people. And we — we’ve had it pretty well scoped out for a couple of weeks.
But he tends to change immediately. He had a lot of cash. He tends to change, like, on a dime, where he’ll be going to a certain location. All of a sudden, he’ll go someplace else and you’ll have to cancel.
But this was one where we knew he was there. And you can never be 100 percent sure because you’re basing it on technology, more than anything else. But we thought he was there, and then we got a confirmation. And when we went in, they were greeted with a lot of firepower. A lot of firepower.
I’ll tell you, these guys, they do a job. They are so brave and so good. And, so importantly, many of his people were killed. And we’ll announce the exact number over the next 24 hours. But many were killed. We lost nobody. Think of that. It’s incredible.
Q And when you told the Russians, you requested permission —
THE PRESIDENT: Our dog was hurt. Actually, the K-9 was hurt, went into the tunnel. But we lost nobody.
Q And so you requested to the Russians to fly over this area they controlled. What did you tell them —
THE PRESIDENT: We spoke to the Russians.
Q What did you tell them you were going to do?
THE PRESIDENT: We told them we’re coming in.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: And they said, “Thank you for telling us.” They were very good.
Q But did you tell them why? No? You just —
THE PRESIDENT: No. They did not know why.
Q Was any other country given —
THE PRESIDENT: We did tell them, “We think you’re going to be very happy.” Because, you know, again, they hate ISIS as much as we do. You know what ISIS has done to Russia. So, no, we did not tell — they did not know the mission, but they knew we were going over an area that they had — they had a lot of firepower.
Q And have you notified the congressional leaders about this? Pelosi? Mitch McConnell?
THE PRESIDENT: We’ve notified some. Others are being notified now, as I speak. We were going to notify them last night but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s nothing — there’s no country in the world that leaks like we do. And Washington is a leaking machine. And I told my people we will not notify them until the — our great people are out. Not just in, but out. I don’t want to have them greeted with firepower like you wouldn’t believe.
So we were able to get in. It was top secret. It was kept. There were no leaks, no nothing. The only people that knew were the few people that I dealt with. And again, Mark Milley and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were incredible. We had some tremendous backup. Robert O’Brien, Secretary Esper, Secretary Pompeo. Pence, I told you, he was great. There’s a very small group of people that knew about this. We had very, very few people. A leak — a leak could have cost the death of all of them.
Now, they’re so good that I think nothing was going to stop them anyway, if you want to know the truth. That’s how good they were. We had them also surrounded by massive airpower. Up in the air, yesterday, surrounded at very high levels. We were very low. We had tremendous airpower.
Q And you watched all this from the Sit Room? Who were you with in the Sit Room when you watched this?
THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Esper, a few of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, some generals. We had some very great military people in that room. And we had some great intelligence people — Robert O’ Brien. It was really great.
Yes.
Q Was the pullout of the U.S. troops in Syria last month strategically tied in with this raid? Was it —
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, the pullout —
Q Is this a red herring?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. Sure. It’s a great question. And you’re doing a great job, by the way. Your network is fantastic. They’re really doing a great job. Please let them know.
Q Yes, sir. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: No, the pullout had nothing to do with this. In fact, we found this out at a similar time. It’s a very good question — because we found this out at a similar time.
No, we’re after these leaders. And we have others in sight, very bad ones. But this was the big one. This is the biggest one, perhaps, that we’ve ever captured, because this is the one that built ISIS, and beyond, and was looking to rebuild it again. Very, very strongly looking to build it again. That’s why he went to this province; this is why he went to this area.
You know, a lot of people — I was watching, this morning, and hearing, and they said, “Why was he there?” People were so surprised. Well, that’s where he was trying to rebuild from because that was the place that made most sense, if you’re looking to rebuild.
Yeah.
Q You sent out your tweet last night. At what moment did you decide to send that?
THE PRESIDENT: So, I sent that right after I knew they had landed safely.
Q When they had returned?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And that was to notify you guys that you have something big this morning, so you wouldn’t be out playing golf or tennis, or otherwise being indisposed.
Q Where did they land? Where were they safe? Where had they landed?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d rather not say. But we landed in a very friendly port in a friendly country.
Q Does this give you any pause by your decision to withdraw the troops?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think it’s great. Look, we don’t want to keep soldiers between Syria and Turkey for the next 200 years. They’ve been fighting for hundreds of years. We’re out. But we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. And we may have to fight for the oil. It’s okay. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight. But there’s massive amounts of oil.
And we’re securing it for a couple of reasons. Number one, it stops ISIS, because ISIS got tremendous wealth from that oil. We have taken it. It’s secured.
Number two — and again, somebody else may claim it, but either we’ll negotiate a deal with whoever is claiming it, if we think it’s fair, or we will militarily stop them very quickly. We have tremendous power in that part of the world. We have — you know, the airport is right nearby. A very big, very monstrous, very powerful airport, and very expensive airport that was built years ago. We were in there — we’re in that Middle East now for $8 trillion.
So we don’t want to be keeping Syria and Turkey. They’re going to have to make their own decision. The Kurds have worked along incredibly with us, but in all fairness, it was much easier dealing with the Kurds after they went through three days of fighting, because that was a brutal three days. And if I — we would have said to the Kurds, “Hey, do you mind moving over seven miles?” Because, you know, they were in the middle, mostly. So you have seven or eight miles. “Could you mind moving over?”
Because, I have to say, Turkey has taken tremendous deaths from that part of the world. You know, we call it a safe zone. But it was anything but a safe zone. Turkey has lost thousands and thousands people from that safe zone. So they’ve always wanted that safe zone, for many years. I’m glad I was able to help them get it. But we don’t want to be there; we want to be home. I want our soldiers home or fighting something that’s meaningful.
I’ll tell you who loves us being there: Russia and China. Because while they build their military, we’re depleting our military there. So, Russia loves us being there. Now, Russia likes us being there for two reasons: because we kill ISIS, we kill terrorists, and they’re very close to Russia. We’re 8,000 miles away. Now, maybe they can get here, but we’ve done very well with Homeland Security and the ban, which, by the way, is approved by the United States Supreme Court, as you know. You know, there was a reporter that said we lost the case. And he was right, in the early court. He refu- — he didn’t want to say; just refused to say that we won the case in the Supreme Court. So, you know.
But we have a very effective ban, and it’s very hard for people to come to our country. But it’s many thousands of miles away, whereas Russia is right there, Turkey is right there. Syria is there. They’re all right there. Excuse me, Iran is right there. Iraq is right there. They all hate ISIS. So, we don’t — you know, in theory, they should do something.
And I’ll give you something else: The European nations have been a tremendous disappointment because I personally called, but my people called a lot. “Take your ISIS fighters.” And they didn’t want them. They said, “We don’t want them.” They came from France, they came from Germany, they came from the UK. They came from a lot of countries. And I actually said to them, “If you don’t take them, I’m going to drop them right on your border. And you can have fun capturing them again.”
But the United States taxpayer is not going to pay for the next 50 years. You see what Guantanamo costs. We’re not going to pay tens of billions of dollars because we were good enough to capture people that want to go back to Germany, France, UK, and other parts of Europe. And they can walk back. They can’t walk to our country. We have lots of water in between our country and them.
So, yeah. Go.
Q You mentioned that you met some — gotten to know some brilliant people along this process who really helped provide information and advice along the way. Is there anyone in particular, or would you like to give anyone credit for getting to this point today?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would, but if I mentioned one, I have to mention so many. I spoke to Senator Richard Burr this morning. And, as you know, he’s very involved with intelligence and the committee. And he’s a great gentleman.
I spoke with Lindsey Graham just a little while ago. In fact, Lindsey Graham is right over here. And he’s been very much involved in this subject. And he’s — he’s a very strong hawk. But I think Lindsey agrees with what we’re doing now.
And, again, there are plenty of other countries that can help them patrol. I don’t want to leave 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 soldiers on the border.
But where Lindsey and I totally agree is the oil. The oil is, you know, so valuable for many reasons. It fueled ISIS, number one. Number two, it helps the Kurds, because it’s basically been taken away from the Kurds. They were able to live with that oil. And number three, it can help us because we should be able to take some also. And what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an Exxon Mobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly. Right now, it’s not big. It’s big oil underground, but it’s not big oil up top, and much of the machinery has been shot and dead. It’s been through wars. But — and — and spread out the wealth.
But, no, we’re protecting the oil. We’re securing the oil. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t make a deal at some point. But I don’t want to be — they’re fighting for 1,000 years, they’re fighting for centuries. I want to bring our soldiers back home. But I do want to secure the oil.
If you read about the history of Donald Trump — I was a civilian. I had absolutely nothing to do with going into Iraq, and I was totally against it. But I always used to say, “If they’re going to go in…” — nobody cared that much, but it got written about. “If they’re going to go in…” — I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, because I made it more than any human being alive. “If they’re going into Iraq, keep the oil.” They never did. They never did.
I know Lindsey Graham had a bill where basically we would have been paid back for all of the billions of dollars that we’ve spent — many, many billions of dollars. I mean, I hate to say it, it’s actually trillions of dollars, but many, many billions of dollars. And, by one vote, they were unable to get that approved in the Senate. They had some pretty big opposition from people that shouldn’t have opposed, like a president. And they weren’t able. If you did that, Iraq would be a much different story today because they would be owing us a lot of money. They would be treating us much differently.
But I will say, Iraq was very good with respect to the raid last night.
Q Sir, just to pin down the timing a little bit better here: You got back to the White House around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Did you immediately go to the Situation Room?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I knew all about this for three days.
Q Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. We thought, for three days, this is what was going to happen. It was actually — look, nobody was even hurt. Our K-9, as they call — I call it a dog, a beautiful dog, a talented dog — was injured and brought back. But we had no soldier injured. And they did a lot of shooting, and they did a lot of blasting, even not going through the front door. You know, you would think you go through the door. If you’re a normal person, you say, “Knock, knock. May I come in?” The fact is that they blasted their way into the house and a very heavy wall, and it took them literally seconds. By the time those things went off, they had a beautiful, big hole, and they ran in and they got everybody by surprise.
Unbelievably brilliant, as fighters. I don’t — I can’t imagine there could be anybody better. And these, as you know, are our top operations people.
Q And Baghdadi apparently had been in bad health for some time. Was there any indication of that? Or —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we don’t know that. But he was the last one out, and his people had either been killed, which there were many, or gave up and came out. Because with the 11 children that came out, we were able to do that. We don’t know if they were his children. They might have been. But as I said, three died in the tunnel. And the tunnel collapsed with the explosion. But you had other fighters coming out also. And they’re being brought back. They’re being — they’re — right now, we have them imprisoned.
Q I was going to ask whose children they were, but do you remember what time you went into the Situation Room?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I started at five o’clock. We were pretty much gathered at five o’clock yesterday. We were in contact all day long through, hopefully, secure phones. I’ll let you know tomorrow. But nothing seemed to leak, so I guess they were secure, for a change.
But we gathered more or less at five. The attack started moments after that. The — the liftoff started moments after that. Again, the element of attack that they were most afraid of was getting from our base into that compound. Because there’s tremendous firepower that we were, you know, flying over.
And I won’t go into it, but you had a very big Russian presence in one area, you had a Turkish presence, you had a Syrian presence. And you’re flying low. It’s very dangerous. And there were shots made, but we think these were people that were shooting that were indiscriminately shooting. The helicopters took some shots, but we think that these were people that were just random people that don’t like to see helicopters, I guess.
Q Sir, was there any kind of DNA test done? Or where is the body? You know —
THE PRESIDENT: So, that’s another part of the genius of these people. They brought his — they have his DNA. More of it than they want, even. And they brought it with them with lab technicians who were with them. And they assumed that this was Baghdadi. They thought, visually, it was him. But they assumed it was him, and they did a site — an onsite test. They got samples.
And to get to his body, they had to remove a lot of debris because the tunnel had collapsed. But these people are very good at that. And — and they, as I said, they brought body parts back with them, et cetera, et cetera. There wasn’t much left. The — the vest blew up, but there are still substantial pieces that they brought back. So they did an onsite test because we had to know this. And it was a very quick call that took place about 15 minutes after he was killed, and it was positive. It was — it’s, “This is a confirmation, sir.”
Q There was also a report that his wife had detonated — or one of his wives had detonated a vest. Is that —
THE PRESIDENT: So, there were two women. There were two women. Both wives, both wearing vests. They had not detonated. But the fact that they were dead and they had vests on made it very difficult for our men, because they had vests on. And it made it very difficult for our men. Because you never know what’s going to happen. They’re lying, they’re dead. They never detonated. But they were dead.
Q And if (inaudible) on the successor — the possible successors, have you been briefed on who would possibly fill in the seats?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. We know the successors. And we’ve already got them in our sights. And we’ll tell you that right now, but we know the successors. Hamza bin Laden was a big thing, but this is the biggest there is. This is the worst ever.
Osama bin Laden was very big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Center. This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, “a country,” a caliphate, and was trying to do it again.
And I had not heard too much about his health. I’ve heard stories about he may not have been in good health. But he died a — he died in a ruthless, vicious manner. That, I can tell you.
Q Were any prisoners taken, sir? Were any adults taken for intel purposes?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we have people that were taken. We have — many of the people died on the site. But we have people that were taken, yes. And — and the children, we are — we left them under care of somebody, that we understand.
Q Can you say how many? Or do you believe that these were —
THE PRESIDENT: Eleven children.
Q Eleven children. How many adults?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d rather not say. I’d leave that to the generals. But —
Q These were —
THE PRESIDENT: — a small group. More dead than alive.
Q Which operations teams were involved? Which Special Operations teams were involved?
THE PRESIDENT: Many of them, and at the top level. And people that were truly incredible at their craft. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Q And were there — as far as partnerships goes, were there any other forces involved? Or was this only American troops in this raid?
THE PRESIDENT: No, only American forces.
Q And did the U.S. —
THE PRESIDENT: Only American forces. But we were given great cooperation.
Q Did the U.S. rely on —
THE PRESIDENT: We told the Russians we’re coming in, because we had to go over them. And they were curious, but — but we said, “We’re coming.” How we said — one way or the other, “Hey, look, we’re coming.” But they were very cooperative. They really were good. And we did say it would be a mission that they’d like, too. Because, you know, again, they hate ISIS as much as we do.
Q Sir, I meant for intel purposes, was there any foreign intel that proved useful along the way in this operation?
THE PRESIDENT: So, we had our own intel. We got very little help. We didn’t need very much help. We have some incredible people. When we use our intelligence correctly, what we can do is incredible. When we waste our time with intelligence, that hurts our country, because we had poor leadership at the top. That’s not good.
But I’ve gotten to know many of the intel people, and I will say that they are spectacular. Now, they’re not going to want to talk about it. They want to keep it quiet. The last thing they want, because these are — these are great patriots. But the people that I’ve been dealing with are incredible people. And it’s really a deserving name: “intelligence.” I’ve dealt with some people that aren’t very intelligent, having to do with intel, but this is the top people and it was incredible. It was flawless. And it was very complicated.
But — so, I do appreciate Russia, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, to an extent, because, you know, we’re flying into Syria, and a lot of Syrian people with lots of guns.
So we had good cover for probably the most dangerous part. It would not sound to — you know, when you fly in, it doesn’t sound like that would be the most dangerous when you’re going into shooting nests and all of the things that happened once they broke into that pretty powerful compound. That was a very strong compound and, as I said, had tunnels.
But the most dangerous part, we had great cooperation with.
Yes, ma’am.
Q Did you inform Speaker Pelosi ahead of time?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t. I didn’t do — I didn’t do that. I wanted to make sure this kept secret. I don’t want to have men lost — and women. I don’t want to have people lost.
Q Do you anticipate inviting the Special Forces teams to the White House after this?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah. They’ll be invited. I don’t know if they’ll want to have their faces shown, to be honest with you. You know, they want to — they’re incredible for the country. They’re not looking for public relations.
But they love doing what they’re doing. I’ve seen it. The First Lady was out there, recently, looking at what they do. She came back, she said, “Wow, I’ve never seen anything like that.” The training — you know, all of the training — and the power of the people. The men and women, the strength, the physical strength, the mental strength. These are incredible people. These are very unique individuals.
Q You mentioned whimpering. Could you hear that on your video hookup?
THE PRESIDENT: Mentioned what?
Q The whimpering of Baghdadi. Did you hear it?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to talk about it, but —
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: — he was screaming, crying, and whimpering. And he was scared out of his mind.
And think of James Foley. Think of Kayla. Think of the things he did to Kayla; what he did to Foley and so many others. And for those people that say, “Oh, isn’t this a little violent? Think of how many times have you seen men — I think, in all cases, men, for the most part — but in terms of this, where you see the orange suits, and you see the ocean and they’re beheaded. Or how many of you got to see — because it was out there — the Jordanian pilot whose plane went down, they captured him, they put him in a cage, and they set him on fire.
And the King of Jordan actually attacked, very powerfully, when that happened. They’ve never seen anything like that. But he set him on fire. This was al-Baghdadi. And you should never, ever hopefully see a thing like that again.
Now, there’ll be new people emerged, but this was the worst of this particular world. This was the worst. Probably, in certain ways, the smartest. He was also a coward. And he didn’t want to die. But think of it: Everybody was out, and we were able to search him down and find him in the tunnel. We knew the tunnel existed. And that’s where he was.
Q And you’ve taken a lot of heat for the Syria pullout. Do you think this will change the standing — your standing —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t have a Syria pullout. I just don’t want to guard Turkey and Syria for the rest of our lives. I mean, I don’t want to do it. It’s very expensive. It’s very dangerous. They’ve been fighting for centuries. I don’t want to have my people — 2,000 men and women, or 1,000, or 28. We had 28 guards. And I said, “I don’t want them there anyway. I don’t want them.”
Now, I will secure the oil that happens to be in a certain part. But that’s tremendous money involved. I would love to — you know, the oil in — I mean, I’ll tell you a story. In Iraq — so they spent — President Bush went in. I strongly disagreed with it, even though it wasn’t my expertise at the time, but I had a — I have a very good instinct about things. They went in and I said, “That’s a tremendous mistake.” And there were no weapons of mass destruction. It turned out I was right. I was right for other reasons, but it turned out, on top of everything else, they had no weapons of mass destruction, because that would be a reason to go in. But they had none.
But I heard recently that Iraq, over the last number of years, actually discriminates against America in oil leases. In other words, some oil companies from other countries, after all we’ve done, have an advantage Iraq for the oil. I said, “Keep the oil. Give them what they need. Keep the oil.” Why should we — we go in, we lose thousands of lives, spend trillions of dollars, and our companies don’t even have an advantage in getting the oil leases. So I just tell you that story. That’s what I heard.
Q Did Gina Haspel play a role in this? Can you talk a little bit about that? And I saw your NSC counter-terrorism director out in the hallway. Was there a role with NSC counter-terrorism?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Everybody. Gina was great. Everybody played a role. Joe was great. Gina was great. They were all great.
Q Just to follow up, did your Syria pullout, did that generate the intelligence that led to this operation?
THE PRESIDENT: No. We were looking at this — look, as I said, Steve, I’ve been looking at this — I’m here almost three years. I’ve been looking at this for three years. They’d come in, “Sir, we have somebody under…” — I said, “I don’t want somebody. I want al-Baghdadi. That’s the one I want.” They’d said, “Well, we have somebody else.” I said, “That’s great. Fine. Take them out. But I want al-Baghdadi. That’s who I want. I don’t want other people.”
And then I also wanted Hamza bin Laden because he’s a young man, around 30, looks just like his father. Tall, very handsome. And he was talking bad things, just like his father.
You know, if you read my book — there was a book just before the World Trade Center came down. And I don’t get any credit for this, but that’s okay. I never do. But here we are. I wrote a book — a, really, very successful book. And in that book, about a year before the World Trade Center was blown up, I said, “There is somebody named Osama bin Laden. You better kill him or take him out.” Something to that effect. “He’s big trouble.”
Now, I wasn’t in government. I was building buildings and doing what I did. But I always found it fascinating. But I saw this man — tall, handsome, very charismatic — making horrible statements about wanting to destroy our country. And I’m writing a book. I think I wrote 12 books. All did very well. And I’m writing a book. The World Trade Center had not come down. I think it was about — if you check, it was about a year before the World Trade Center came down. And I’m saying to people, “Take out Osama bin Laden,” that nobody ever heard of. Nobody ever heard of. I mean, al-Baghdadi everybody hears because he’s built this monster for a long time. But nobody ever heard of Osama bin Laden until, really, the World Trade Center.
But about a year — you’ll have to check — a year, year and a half before the World Trade Center came down, the book came out. I was talking about Osama bin Laden. I said, “You have to kill him. You have to take him out.” Nobody listened to me.
And to this day, I get people coming up to me, and they said, “You know what one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen about you? Is that you predicted that Osama bin Laden had to be killed before he knocked down the World Trade Center.” It’s true. Now, most of the press doesn’t want to write that, but you know — but it is true. If you go back, look at my book. I think it was “The America We Deserve.” I made a prediction, and I — let’s put it this way: If they would have listened to me, a lot of things would have been different.
Q Sir, can you talk about some of the difficult decisions you had along the way here in this operation? Anything that weighed on you or that you had to —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, just death. I mean, you know, I’m sending a large number of brilliant fighters. These are the greatest fighters in the world.
Q How many?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d rather let the generals tell you, but a large number. We had eight helicopters and we had many other ships and planes.
It was a large group. And again, this is a large group heading over very, very strong firepower areas where — that was decision one: Will they make it? And they made it, but they took fire, but they made it. They didn’t take — we don’t believe, again, it was nation fire; we believe it was individual group fire or gang fire, as they call it. So, they made it, so that was a big relief.
Then they went in, they blasted their way in — you’ve heard. They blasted their way in so quickly. It was incredible. Because this building was quite powerful, strong. They blasted their way in, and then all hell broke loose. It’s incredible that nobody was killed — or hurt. We had nobody even hurt. And that’s why the dog was so great. We actually had a robot to go in the tunnel, but we didn’t get it because we were tracking him very closely. But we had a robot, just in case. Because we were afraid he had a suicide vest on, and if you get close to him and he blows it up, you’re going to die. You’re going to die. He had a very powerful suicide vest.
Q Did you have to make any decisions in the moment, while troops were on the ground?
THE PRESIDENT: No, they had it just incredible. We were getting full reports on literally a minute-by-minute basis. “Sir, we just broke in.” “Sir, the wall is down.” “Sir,” you know, “we’ve captured.” “Sir, two people are coming out right now. Hands up.” Fighters. Then, the 11 children out. Numerous people were dead within the building that they killed.
Then, it turned out, they gave us a report: “Sir, there’s only one person in the building. We are sure he’s in the tunnel trying to escape.” But it’s a dead-end tunnel. And it was brutal. But it was over. And as I said, when he blew himself up, the tunnel collapsed on top of him, on top of everything — and his children. I mean, so he led his three children to death. So, you know —
Q And in the tunnel, that’s when the robot followed him in? That’s why no troops died?
THE PRESIDENT: The robot was set to, but we didn’t hook it up because we were too — they were moving too fast. We were moving fast. We weren’t 100 percent sure about the tunnel being dead-ended. It’s possible that there could have been an escape hatch somewhere along that we didn’t know about.
So we moved very, very quickly. I mean —
Q Was he being chased then?
THE PRESIDENT: — these people, they were moving — they were chasing, yeah. They were chasing. But again, because the suicide vest, you can’t get too close.
Again, one of the reasons with the wives is if they have a suicide vest, you know, you have to be very, very careful. These vests are brutal. Brutal. And they go for a long distance.
Yes, please.
Q Have you spoken or will you speak to the families, like the Foley family?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m calling the families now. It will be a pleasure to do that. The Foley family, who I know. We’ll be calling Kayla’s family. What — what he did to her was incredible. It’s a well-known story, and I’m not going to say it, but you know that. He kept her in captivity for a long period of time. He kept her in his captivity, his personal captivity. She was a beautiful woman, beautiful young woman. Helped people. She was there to help people. And he saw her and he thought she was beautiful, and he brought her into captivity for a long period of time and then he killed her. He was an animal, and he was a gutless animal.
Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. It’s a very great day for our country.
Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS: I AM PRAYING FOR YOU
It’s a [ANOTHER] Red October Sunday
If it’s not a great day for foreign diplomacy AND a great day for exposing corruption AND a great day for a highly patriotic Trump Rally, we may just have to run around the building a couple times just to burn off all the excess energy we are getting from the winnamins we’ve been taking!
Yes, there is much to take very seriously, but there is also much to fill our hearts with hope in this very Red October.
May we be stirred to courage and prayer in these days of great activity in every arena and in every dimension.
Blessings, Think*3
A Prayer for Our Nation is Offered by MichaelH
michaelh
Realgaryseven I’ll just tack on here.
Celebration and yet still our enemies laying sucker-punches on us. I’ve been praying b/c I’m burdened in spirit, elated at God’s faithfulness to us and Wolf, but I’m also completely pissed off with my/our enemies who continue to cheat and steal and destroy every cheap shot they can.
Now I’ve been wanting to post a prayer publicly here but I’ve been at a total loss to express here to share what’s on my heart and share a prayer that captures it well. I’ve finally got something, hopefully this is over the target…
Dear Lord, please hear our cries when we call out to you! Remember us in our distress Refresh our spirits in your boundless love.
Strengthen our souls, give us renewed vigor that overtakes our fatigue
Renew our steadfast resolve for your righteousness oh Lord!
Provide us with your divine wisdom and discernment that we may know your will Move us Lord to the rightful place in your plan Fulfill your great divine strategies through us Lord
Let us not falter or fear but take courage and boldly advance in your work Frustrate the plans of our enemies; let their schemes fall back on them! Let the strength of our enemies fail them, and let their horses fall from exhaustion
Expose their wickedness Lord, humiliate those who mock your Law Bring justice upon them swiftly as a an eagle snatches its prey! Remember your people in the day of judgement!
Raise up the righteous and faithful ones, exalt them Place them in the seats of kings and judges to rule in righteousness, wisdom, and glory Cast out all fear from those you have called Fill them with your spirit, the strength of will, and the character of righteousness
Aim your people on the strategic targets, make every one count Pull them back like arrows in a bow, release them swiftly to strike! Bring victory over our enemies and restore victory to your people
Make the nations exclaim, who can stand against the Lord and His people? For their God fights with them and none can stand in battle against them!
The nations will surrender their arms, their armies will not advance in battle for the fear of God!
Let the nations praise you and know that you are God.
Have you ever seen anything like it? Our media is in full blown meltdown over Barr/Durham. Every now and then, it helps to get the perspective from 30K feet. On the day when Dems had a better turnout for a funeral than a rally, it seemed like a good day for an overview.
President Trump keeps winning. Despite all attempts from media, the base is completely committed to President Trump and supporting the MAGA agenda at historic percentages. Our economy keeps rolling along. Personal confidence in economy was up almost another 3 points yesterday. From FLEP, we get polling showing Repubs have an 11 point enthusiasm advantage over Dems… TO VOTE + historic approval ratings from black men and the entire hispanic community. The OIG report is looming over the swamp of DC. Durham and Barr went to Italy, Giuliani is worming around unseen, and Sidney Powell moves in for “the kill shot” on the FBI/DOJ to save our hero, Lt General Mike Flynn.
If the Deep State wants to get “spooky”, we can do spooky, too. Our President is ready, and we’ve been ready for over three years…., nah, the comeuppance for the bureaucrats has been decades in the making.
The media is afraid, possibly for the first time in our lives and they’re spinning hard. It’s fun to watch.
Remember the Romney advisor who appeared on MSNBC last week who claimed “20 Republicans have told me (in secret of course, and only he knows about it) they would vote for impeachment”. Remember that one? Well, Lindsey’s resolution was signed by 50 Repubs today. Looks like the majority of the Senate is a “no go” for the folly of impeachment. Original paid polling showing support for the “inquiry” has been replaced by real polling showing the voters don’t like what the Dems are doing.
So today, our political opposition decided to attack Bill Barr and John Durham……. cuz the probe turned into a criminal investigation…… which means there might be a crime. Oh My!! Naturally, in the minds of liberals, this means Bill Barr should go to jail immediately. This is hilarious.
This is John Mitchell's mug shot. He was Nixons AG. He was indicted & jailed 4 his role in the Watergate cover up. This is what lies ahead 4 Barr. He's 4gotten there's no "memo" stating a current AG can't b indicted & jailed. #ImpeachBarrpic.twitter.com/96XecVVMzO
Seth Abramson thinks the President of the United States is an enemy of America who has attacked the homeland……. but Barr is protecting him. Seth is a columnist for Newsweek, a lawyer and a professor. Seth has popped a fuse.
All Americans need to understand that the Attorney General of the United States is a dangerous rogue actor seeking to undermine rather than uphold U.S. rule of law
Bill Barr is working day and night to absolve America's enemies of responsibility for their attacks on our homeland
Rachel Maddow was serious, upset, at the mere idea the Attorney General would investigate the origins of 2016 Russia hoax/FISAGate, which might imperil her friends.
All morning and most of the afternoon, Twitter trended hashtag: #ImpeachBarr. That’s right. No longer content to impeach the President of the United States, more than 68,000 American PER HOUR wanted to impeach the Attorney General………for doing his job.
(Snark!) We at Q Tree, being the incredible front line news org that we are, immediately called Bill Barr’s office for a response on the record. Here’s what he said:
And little Miss Rachel thinks John Durham reads Twitter, and surely he will see her tweet, cuz Rachel is mad…..and…. all… stompy foot. Looks like Rachel has lost her compass. Can anyone help Rachel find her compass?
This one comes with a warning. It’s a doozy. This guy has it all figured out. Nevermind Russia, Romania, China, Ukraine, or a deep state coup on a duly elected President. He thinks it’s all the fault of “Right Wing Catholics”. I kid you not. Do you remember when the left thought Deplorables were crazy? Folks, this is our sign. We’ve been vindicated.
Anyone surprised that #JohnDurham, #BillBarr's sidekick on this new DOJ criminal investigation OF the Russia Investigation is also #Catholic?
Many giving him benefit fo the doubt, just as they did with Barr. Would be great if media looked into the agenda of Right wing Catholics.
This is our competition for the 2020 election? These are the people who think they “have what it takes” to lead our precious USA? I don’t think so. Not persuasive, not compelling….. more like desperation and screeching.
I would rather hang out with normal people and be a happy Trumpkin.
The next few months will be a tough time for our President. We need to support him more than usual. Please think about dropping a note, a postcard, a nice email to the WH, and don’t forget staff members as well. They need to know we’re thinking about them, too. Prayers are welcome, but a postcard, WITH a prayer, wins the day. He carries a heavy weight on those big shoulders.
It might take a few more late nights dealing with the Dems, the media, the Never Trumpers, and the usurpers like those at Foggy Bottom.
At the end of this battle, Lady Justice will prevail. She must win. When the smoke clears, we’ll huddle together in awe of what we witnessed and tell our grandchildren. The years will slip by, and we’ll talk about the time when the world was dark, before Trump ran for President and we thought we were alone, when we almost lost hope, when we thought justice was gone, when we thought America would recede and China would rise….. the days….. before the sun came out.
Many define our battle as a clash of good over evil. Yet, we hope and pray there is enough good left in our fellow countrymen to join us. Some are filled with such hate, it’s not healthy. There will be up days and down days, on the WolfMoon Rollercoaster of Trump Supporters, but we understand. Yes, we completely understand the seriousness what is at stake.
Yet, we don’t quit. We’ll never surrender.We’re going to to be fine. We going to stick together like glue and grab a few confused Democrats along the way to the voting booth in 2020. We’ve grown far too accustomed to winning to stop now…..
We learned from the best!
Happy Halloween, Happy Fall, and have a good weekend!
This Comfy Q Tree Saturday Open Thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KMAG/KAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Come in and find a comfy spot.
Free Speech is practiced here at the Q Tree. But please keep it civil.
Discussion of Q is not only allowed but encouraged. Imagine that! We can talk about Q here and not get banned.
Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
Remember…your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU.
Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
……………………………………………………………….
For your listening enjoyment, I offer this composition from Two Steps From Hell, titled ‘Stallion’:
Visual Descriptions for our dear Zoe, and for anyone else who may find them helpful: Header and First Image: Is a massive Tree with an ornate multi-storied fortress built into it. There is a stone pathway between it’s giant roots, leading into an arched entrance at the base. Rays of light are filtering in through the surrounding forest, illuminating the pathway and the face of the fortress structure. Second Image: Is a cozy room with a large oval-shaped window. There is a comfy-looking couch with throw pillows and fur throws, and wicker armchair with a fur throw. Soft, filtered light is streaming in. There are rugs on the floor and a small wood-burning stove nearby. Third Image: President Trump is facing a gaggle of unruly press curs outside the White House, doing one of his chopper pressers. He has his arm outstretched with palm open, probably setting them straight on one of their stupid questions. Mercifully, even though the press curs do not deserve it…the rotors of the chopper are not powered up.
A Deplorable Abroad, Wherein Keln’s Meme Takes on a Profound Second Meaning
I must begin by admitting – to a limited extent – where I was during my recent absence.
For a short time, I was in Paris – as in Paris, France. I was forced by circumstances to take a taxi across downtown Paris on a rather noisy, wet, and surprisingly warm night.
It was only about 15 minutes out of my entire journey – maybe a half hour at most – but in that short time, I lucked into some of the most important information I’ve ever managed to pick up.
Nothing secret – nothing dangerous – nothing of monetary value to me, nor to anybody I know. And yet – what I learned is of immense value to those of us who actually care about the future of this world. It is of particular value to you, my fellow QTreepers, and to the rest of our fellow Deplorables.
I would hardly think that a random cab-driver – a talkative Francophone immigrant from Nigeria who was nonetheless eager to try his English – might change my entire outlook on the world, but that is exactly what happened. And who knows? This man’s wonderful and engaged thoughts, poured out to a random American who flagged down his random taxi on a random Paris street – might even influence an entire nation, far away.
To set the stage for our conversation, I should tell you that I had – without seeking them out – already encountered the “yellow jackets” in France. I won’t say where or when, other than that it was also on this trip.
The yellow jackets I saw were not violent at all. They were like you see them in the photograph here – peacefully assembled. There were enough of them – a dozen or two – that it was not pathetic, but not so many that it would have been an actual staged protest. It was more like a vigil – a kind of semi-permanent reminder to the authorities that the movement was not going to simply go away.
I am not convinced that it is the actual yellow jackets who are violent. The group I encountered was just outside one of the premiere historical strongholds of communists in France. I have believed for some time that communist infiltration has been used to provoke violence in both France and Hong-Kong, in order to alienate peaceful citizens from the protesters, and thus PREVENT the formation of any significant, peaceful movement like that created by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Very important. THEY DON’T WANT A PEACEFUL MOVEMENT. See a guy named “Q”.
I have wanted to say this for some time, but it was not until I spotted the geographic coincidence of active yellow jackets and potentially infiltrating communists that I had any proof of this.
It was my impression that in “flyover France” I have actually encountered MANY “out of uniform” yellow jackets who were simply leading their daily lives, and not wearing their vests. To most visitors, I’m sure they just seem like normal men and women of France. They are just “regular, everyday people”. But to me – a deplorable from America – I could spot them in the same way that I can spot a fellow deplorable here. They were French men and women of the working and small business classes – honest to a fault – who have a kind of well-earned pride in their lives, their regions, their beliefs, and their country – something that has always made FRANCE a thing of its own, and a place worth visiting.
So – when I took that fateful taxi ride, I was already practiced in spotting those who belong to the simmering populist underside of France. And when I spotted my driver as possibly being one of les deplorables français, I knew exactly what to do.
I invoked my greatest superpower – the ability to grant completely free speech to anybody!
A taxi sign is illuminated in green to signify it is available for hire during a protest by licensed taxi drivers in Paris on January 17, 2018, to ask the authorities for the compliance and enforcement of legislation concerning VTC drivers (private hire drivers) operating in the French capital. (Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)
I could tell that my driver wanted to say something. I could sense that he was holding back – that he wanted to pour something out to an American. Having been “trained” by all the people who have tried to pump me for information over my lifetime, I simply did the same to him – responding to everything he said with small bits of encouraging agreement – administered every time he said something.
It was easy. After all, as you will see, I could find some point of agreement with everything he was saying. In only a minute or two, he was edging into politics. EXACTLY where I was hoping he would go. My enthusiastic agreement with his final point – leaning forward excitedly from the back seat – was all it took to make him “go there” for the rest of the ride.
I was very careful not to throw out any “big rocks” like “pro-Trump” or “Republican” or things that might inhibit him from pouring out his honest beliefs. MY politics didn’t matter. I wanted to see the world from HIS point of view. So I responded with broader PRINCIPLES OF AGREEMENT, or smaller POINTS OF PARALLEL, rather than LABELS or any other potential deal-breakers. It was a remarkably effective strategy.
As he began shifting into unabashed politics, I realized that he was just like us. I was actually STUNNED to realize that everything Flep has been telling us about the yellow jackets is PAINFULLY true.
So when we say that FLEP is the REAL NEWS now, this is NOT bullshit. It’s REALITY.
My taxi driver may or may not have been a yellow jacket – probably NOT, if I had to guess. However, he was BY ALL MEANS a remarkably deep sympathizer with their movement. He was VISIBLY AND DEEPLY ANGRY at their injuries at the hands of the police, but he did not blame it on the police – he blamed it on the French GOVERNMENT and MEDIA.
In what was one of the biggest “black comedy horror laughs” that we shared, he described how the French government and media will jump to unified outrage at the slightest protest violence in Russia, but will not even mention grave injuries to yellow jackets in their own country.
All I could think was “Muh Russia – so THEY have it, too.”
I should tell you that, by this point in the conversation, I was thinking “What the hell – does this guy read SUNDANCE? Is he following TRUMP TWEETS? Is he lurking on OUR BLOG?”
Seriously, the guy sounded like a deplorable or a Treeper on Twitter. Although I never asked his opinion of Trump, nor did he ever SAY as much, his VIEW OF THE WORLD was UTTERLY TRUMPIAN. It was STRAIGHT OUTTA the thinking of Trump, Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Sundance, although tempered with bits of Cernovich, Raimondo, Rand Paul, and others on the “MAGA left” and libertarian side. But yet he was almost certainly unaware of ANY of these people, except Trump.
None of this is to say that he was “pro-American”. Not at all. Neither was he anti-American. He was like a lot of legal immigrants in America – almost RABIDLY loyal to his newly adopted country. But I sensed that he was outraged that the old France – the one he had signed onto – the one he believed in – was slipping away. Actually, that’s not strong enough. He believed that it was being DESTROYED.
The culprit? He made no evasion – GLOBALISM and the FAILED ESTABLISHMENT.
This taxi driver was remarkably fluent in economics, with his ultimate viewpoint being very Trumpian, in my opinion – that capitalism is good, but that the PEOPLE have to be able to control it, or else it will act in ways to the detriment of the people as a whole. His concerns were more along the lines of capitalism’s loyalty to stockholders over the good of the country – my concerns were more about the dangers of monopoly. But it was clear to me that we were both seeing capitalism from the populist point of view, somewhat along Bannon lines.
He saw the rise of China and the basic improvement of the lot of the Chinese people as a demonstration of the good side of capitalism. And yet, he saw the PROBLEMS of China, France, and America all arising from capitalism as well, albeit for different reasons.
In the case of China, he saw the “wild west” nature of its capitalism as having led to the rapid build-up, but also resulting in the extreme fakeness of the Chinese market. Queue a link to Daughn’s wonderful post about the Generalized China Hustle:
But let’s not dump unfairly on China alone here. He reserved his greatest accusations of fakeness for the American economy (which he nonetheless insisted was a superpower, as per Sundance and Trump) and the French establishment’s “fake narrative”, with which the government and media deludes the French people.
All in all, a remarkable indictment of PHONY GLOBALISM.
This idea of “fakeness” was a real unifier for this taxi driver – something which obviously blew me away, since “FAKE” is something I harp about all the time (“fake news, fake entertainment, fake history, fake science, fake normal, fake reality”). In his opinion, our “fake news” (which I brought up, and which made him laugh) is actually SMALL POTATOES next to the overall MASSIVE FAKENESS of the French establishment NARRATIVE (his words).
In his opinion, there is massive economic FAKERY which is problematic for both France and America. He had NO ILLUSIONS about the continued extreme FAKENESS of the American DEBT and DEFICIT situations – something that our very own NY GUY is always reminding us about. In my opinion, this is one of the most important things he mentioned. I will get back to the taxi driver’s thinking in more detail later.
SIDEBAR: The DEBT PROBLEM – by the way – is also a 2020 WINNER for Republicans in the HOUSE and SENATE. If we FINALLY want to get control of the outrageous albatrosses holding back our economy, then we MUST give TRUMP the tools he needs, and that means a REPUBLICAN HOUSE, able to FIX the budgetary problems Pelosi REFUSES to address. The VOTERS will SEE THIS and UNDERSTAND.
But beyond this, my taxi driver believes that the French people have been massively deluded by a completely FAKE NARRATIVE (his words) – a kind of ILLUSION – both economic and cultural – which is now CRUMBLING (his word) in the eyes of the French people.
Never did I hear the terms “Q”, “Great Awakening”, or anything remotely close to any of the memes we have here for such things. And yet, that is EXACTLY what he was talking about. To me, it is not a coincidence – not an accident.
The GREAT AWAKENING, WORLDWIDE, is REAL.
GA is WW.
We may have different words to express it, but IT’S HAPPENING.
One of the most important things that my driver told me was why China is winning in Africa.
In fact, once he told me this, I was fully resolved to write this article, which I otherwise did NOT want to write. I value my travel privacy, and would rather people thought that I never leave Wolf Creek Junction for any purpose whatsoever. Well, too bad for moi. This is important stuff.
My driver’s observations are based upon his recent trips to Africa, where he observed developmental progress that shocked him – and which was, upon his investigation, the direct result of TRADE WITH CHINA.
According to my driver, Western nations and organizations, including very particularly the IMF, play a cruel and stealthy game of “blame the victim” (my words) that keeps Africa exactly where they want it. Rather than do the things that would let Africa actually develop, Western financial institutions withhold financing and trade using excuses like human rights, while – very cynically – said excuse problems are the precise outcome of lack of development.
To my thinking, it has become a kind of sick game, where unless Africa performs impossible or purpose-defeating demands, it can’t get what it needs. It’s like demanding that a drowning victim call out clearly and nicely something – maybe her PIN – if she wants a life preserver thrown to her – none of this “wave your arms and gurgle stuff” allowed.
This catch-22 situation is NOT unintended – it is purely intentional. It is part of the FAKENESS that the taxi driver places SQUARELY on what WE call “the cabal”.
So what does China do? First of all, what it’s best at – not giving a damn about human rights. Second of all, what it’s also best at – Wild-West capitalism.
Africa wants this? We want that. Is it a fair trade? You decide. But ONLY you decide.
“In a world of negative morality, the amoral man is POPE.” -WM
To me, there appears to be so much human sabotage here by the Western “cabal”, that I almost have to blame “pencilneck”, because only non-humans or malevolently programmed humans would be so sick and anti-human. But then again, when somebody can make the organ-harvesting ChiComs look like SAINTS, you have to be doing EVIL right in some way or another. That is definitely SATAN’S bag.
Ya know what I mean? Or maybe they just “aren’t their brother’s keeper”. There’s always that excuse.
Remember – if Africa’s problems are finally FIXED, then the cabal’s MONEY-LAUNDERING PLOYS and HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION FIELD LABORATORIES all go away.
Make sense now? They don’t want the problems to go away. THEY WANT THE PROBLEMS. JUST. LIKE. HERE.
And China may not be helping out of any kindness in its heart, but at least it’s not actively keeping Africa down. Well, maybe I should take that back.
Interesting world.
The point is simple. Why are WE letting China and THE SABOTAGE CABAL set the rules on Africa? It’s time to CALL THEM ALL OUT.
A few other odds and ends, as I recall them.
The deplorables of France seem to see the Syrian situation almost exactly like our deplorables see it – contrary to the view of the interventionist establishment. The French media, described by my taxi driver, sounded just like CNN on the issue of Syria. This is not surprising, given that I am aware of the degree to which the Japanese television media (especially NHK) is also dependent upon CNN for its view of America, if not the entire world.
Now it would be dishonest of me not to mention that the taxi driver thought America wastes way too much money on military spending, when its debt is so outrageous, but that leads me to a very important point I alluded to earlier.
I said this guy was fluent in economics, and I was almost thinking he sounded like the “Mises geeks” I’ve known. At the core of the world’s problems, he sees all of the dysfunction and fakeness flowing out of our bass-ackwards ideas of spending “play money” that we don’t actually have. Debt slavery of ALL MEN AND WOMEN is real and palpable to this guy. He sees it everywhere, where it has become invisible to us, like the memory of an elder favored brother who has left the home and still pollutes every decision. We don’t see it now, but since the mid-twentieth century, DEBT has slowly been used to ENSLAVE all of us to SELL-OUT GLOBALISM. First our homes, then our cars, and finally our children’s education. WE OWN NONE OF IT.
He sees the entire world LITERALLY ENSLAVED by the FAKE WORLD of DEBT.
Who has control? Not us.
I had never really seen how INSIDIOUS this is, until a cab driver in FRANCE of all places, explained it to me.
I could have talked with this guy for hours, but my mind was filled when we got to my stop. I wanted to remember everything he had said. I tipped him fair, but as an afterthought, realizing all he had given me, I gave him every coin in my pockets and thanked him.
And then, as he drove away, I realized. There was one more favor I could do him.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce my teacher, from France.
Open Thread is very open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA / KAG! / KMAG world (KMAG being a bit of both MAGA and KAG!). Take the time to get outside, enjoy the fall colors and take in the beauty of a harvest moon.
You can say what you want, comment on what other people said, and so on. Free Speech is practiced here. ENJOY IT. Use it or lose it.
Keep it SOMEWHAT civil. They tried to FORCE fake Orwellian civility on us. In response, we CHOOSE true civility to defend our precious FREEDOM from THEM.
Our rules began with the civility of the Old Treehouse, later to become the Wolverinian Empire, and one might say that we have RESTORED THE OLD REPUBLIC – the early high-interaction model of the Treehouse – except of course that Q discussion is not only allowed but encouraged, and speech is considerably freer in other ways.
Please feel free to argue and disagree with the board owner, as nicely as possible. Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here in the January 1st open thread. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven.
SPEAK THE FIVE WORDS BOLDLY TO OUR PRESIDENT! “I AM PRAYING FOR YOU!” I love this pic and I’ll ask of you all to remember Vice President Pence in your prayers!
So, as we head down the path to our branch in the Q Tree (some showed up overnight) please be kind to each other.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us the basics, with a sound addition by TrumpIsMine:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
So break out your FOUL weather gear.
Brave the STORM
For we fight for all that’s dear.
Brave the STORM
And remember in 2020 we get Four Moar Years!
Protesters wave United States flags and carry placards during a protest in Hong Kong, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019. Demonstrators in Hong Kong plan to march to the U.S. Consulate on Sunday to drum up international support for their protest movement, a day after attempts to disrupt transportation to the airport were thwarted by police. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
When all else fails, we have to sing and dance. Here’s a song where we all know the words. Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!!!
On October 20th The New York Times tried to paint a happy face on the full-on attempt to take down America. We all saw the classic somber talking heads repeating their scripted “4 AM talking points” about how honorable people are doing noble and heroic things to save us from … Donald J. Trump — the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Those writing the script are trying mass mind control on the sheep with a side order of crazy-making for the woke. There is a crisp smell of desperation in the air.
Let’s begin with some Q Posts with references to 4am [talking points]. (Qmap.pub)
Q has shown us that these 4am talking points are created and distributed as part of the weaponized assault on MAGA by those working for forces that hate our beloved America and all she stands for.
The stark reality of how of how these traitors have been destroying anyone in their way is laid out as clear as day in the following video. (I tried to get the video in the second tweet below to post on its own, but to no avail.)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1186758751136702464 Note the quick “sweet” smile by Pelosi at the end. It’s her practiced act to charm the listeners.
This would be a good one to keep plastering all over the internet.
Stephen Miller Leads the Counterpunch
The article, published on October 22, should make more than a few of those in the permanent bureaucratic class take pause.
“We’ve made clear that your leaks will backfire and your sabotage will fail, and we’ll simply implement the policy doubly,” he said. “Not only will you not change the outcome, but the more that you try to leak and disrupt, the more determined the president will be in his course to accomplish that which he was sent here to do.”
— Stephen Miller
It’s almost like those moments in the Lord of the Rings when the big Eye of Sauron turns to look directly at something. The timing and the intensity of this counterpunch demonstrates that this administration is ready and willing to take them all on and not stop until they are ground to dust, never to rise again.
Stephen Miller pushback: ‘Permanent bureaucracy a mortal threat to America’https://t.co/t12fbybsdA
Miller added, “A lot of us thought, if you go back many years before Donald Trump ever declared for president, we might never live to see the day when somebody would have the audacity to promise to fundamentally change a broken status quo then get to Washington and proceed to execute on every single thing that he promised to do no matter what was thrown his way. It is truly a miracle to behold.”
Some Republican congress-critters are proposing this solution…
This is a great idea as far too much power & influence is consolidated inside the DC Beltway where bureaucrats are insulated from the American people and perpetuate a faux bubble-mentality.
Here at the Q Tree we’ve discussed both the move-them-out-of-DC and the give-them-term-limits options and in the end a more direct approach gets a nod here. FG&C comments…
Term limits?
No.
Remove their job protections and make it easy to fire them…just like “at will” work laws. The fact that it is near impossible to fire these people is why they feel so secure and protected.
Put their job and careers at risk and a lot of this shit stops immediately.
And Wolfmoon agrees…
Agreed. Absolutely agreed. This is *SCIENCE* – it is literally mathematical biology. Unless the jobs of bureaucrats are in a DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP with a power that can selectively remove them (a predator, basically), they will overpopulate and destroy the complex calculating properties of the system.
President Trump has FINALLY confronted the source of the problem.
Bureaucrats must secure their jobs by VALUE TO WHOEVER THE PEOPLE PUTS IN CHARGE. This is brilliant founder design. The commies have RUINED IT.
And, NY Guy helpfully has provided us with links to Federal pay scales…
… I found a website which details the pay scales for Federal employees including law enforcement. https://www.federalpay.org/
“FederalPay.org is a free public resource for United States Government employees. We have pay tables and pay calculators for all four major Federal Government pay scales and military service members, as well as a wealth of information on Per Diem rates, Federal holidays, a government employee database and more.”
Through 2017, there are 1,339,645 Federal employees over 375 agencies. The average salary is $69,344.22 (whoa). We spent $92.9 billion in total Federal employee compensation for 2017.
This all started because I wanted to find out who was in charge of GDP data at the BEA. Her name is Lisa Mataloni! And this website profiles her. https://www.federalpay.org/employees/bureau-of-economic-analysis/mataloni-lisa-s
She started in 2005 earning $65,853 and by 2017 she earned $103,639.
Anyways lots of cool stuff in here. As an example….
Here are a list of the Federal departments, number of personnel and their budgets! https://www.federalpay.org/departments
Private website with data gleaned from the OMB. It is pretty geeky but maybe one of you will enjoy this resource.
Comments?
And so here we are, it flashed by in the news cycle, but it looks like we are going to see a lot more happening in this battle space.
How do you see this unfolding?
p.s., I finally found someone that *might* have half as much energy as our own Daughnworks247…
This speech has been canceled several times and has grown to be legendary even before it was delivered. It’s going to be a hum-dinger. We will add the transcript as soon as it is available. This speech will be referenced often.
(@outlawjw) 
Realgaryseven I’ll just tack on here.
Celebration and yet still our enemies laying sucker-punches on us. I’ve been praying b/c I’m burdened in spirit, elated at God’s faithfulness to us and Wolf, but I’m also completely pissed off with my/our enemies who continue to cheat and steal and destroy every cheap shot they can.
Now I’ve been wanting to post a prayer publicly here but I’ve been at a total loss to express here to share what’s on my heart and share a prayer that captures it well. I’ve finally got something, hopefully this is over the target…
Dear Lord, please hear our cries when we call out to you!
Remember us in our distress Refresh our spirits in your boundless love.
Strengthen our souls, give us renewed vigor that overtakes our fatigue
Renew our steadfast resolve for your righteousness oh Lord!
Provide us with your divine wisdom and discernment that we may know your will
Move us Lord to the rightful place in your plan
Fulfill your great divine strategies through us Lord
Let us not falter or fear but take courage and boldly advance in your work
Frustrate the plans of our enemies; let their schemes fall back on them!
Let the strength of our enemies fail them, and let their horses fall from exhaustion
Expose their wickedness Lord, humiliate those who mock your Law
Bring justice upon them swiftly as a an eagle snatches its prey!
Remember your people in the day of judgement!
Raise up the righteous and faithful ones, exalt them
Place them in the seats of kings and judges to rule in righteousness, wisdom, and glory
Cast out all fear from those you have called
Fill them with your spirit, the strength of will, and the character of righteousness
Aim your people on the strategic targets, make every one count
Pull them back like arrows in a bow, release them swiftly to strike!
Bring victory over our enemies and restore victory to your people
Make the nations exclaim, who can stand against the Lord and His people?
For their God fights with them and none can stand in battle against them!
The nations will surrender their arms, their armies will not advance in battle for the fear of God!
Let the nations praise you and know that you are God.