The whole al Baghdadi thing has become a miasma of lies and questions. The photo of Individual 1 in the Situation Room apparently took place a couple of hours after the raid. The cables in front of all of the participants (all white males, by the way) are disconnected, and the men in them photo are all looking at the photographer, not at anything on the screen. Individual 1 thanked Russia first and foremost for their help, and then said he hadn’t notified any Democrats because they leak. But he, himself, was on the golf course at the time of the raid. And now Russia is saying they were not aware ahead of time.
That’s a really messy conference table. I’ll keep that in mind the next time people in my office complain about the conference rooms where I work.
You know, yesterday when the con man said that there would be a big announcement, I wondered if he’d be featured at a table stacked with blank documents. This is close enough.
I thought so too but now am not sure. As I noted in another thread, the photo was tagged 5:05PM and Trump was golfing until 3:33.
The NYT is reporting that the raid started at 5PM.
Elsewhere it was reported that it was an hour long flight and a two hour mission. Trump tweeted around 9 last night, which would be about right if he waited for a safe return of the team.
Also, although obviously posed, in the sitroom photo the disconnected cables might have been normal. An ex-intelligence guy commented that that would just be standard security - disconnect & close screens.
I meant to include two other paragraphs… C.I.A. Got Tip on al-Baghdadi’s Location From Arrest of a Wife and a Courier
Less than that, I’d say. Authoritarianism’s gone well past midfield at this point; they’re pretty much inside democracy’s red zone.
Democracy is dependent on healthy competition and cooperation. Republicans have embraced total competition and completely rejected cooperation. It’s a power grab now. And if Republicans conclude that they’ll lose power by being outvoted, then they’ll resort to other means to gain power.
The fact that Republicans are on record as openly opposing election security safeguards makes it pretty clear they are complicit in attacking democracy and don’t intend to lose power by democratic means. If you carry this pattern of behavior to its natural conclusion, it’s pretty ominous.
I have pointed out many times that he never said what he would fill it back up with. I like your comment better and will be borrowing it.
If you’ve never read Smedley Butler’s “War Is A Racket”, you should. It’s only 28 pages IIRC. Keep in mind he was one of the very few people to earn two Medals of Honor.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll make it “cesspool” rather than “swamp”.
“Thanks for helping us find our worst enemy, guys. Have a happy genocide now, thxbye !”
They look like rj45 - so they’re open network cables, to be plugged into a laptop if and when it needs access. Their being disconnected isn’t suspicious at all. Their being in a mess of loops and knots right on top of the middle of a gutted table makes my former sysadmin eyes twitch, with a glint of axe murder.
(also, I’m not sure who the general is on the mid-right, but I’m fairly certain whoever took this picture fucked his daughter bareback on prom night)
Still trying to figure this out: So a guy the SOF team thinks is al-Baghdadi runs into a tunnel with three other people (his sons?) and detonates himself, and they have positive ID they got al-Baghdadi? Do SOF teams carry DNA testers with them? Did they find his head? Did they make positive ID as he went ‘screaming like a little girl’ into the tunnel?
There are other odd features of this operation:
***INSTANT DNA ANALYSIS: Supposedly this occurred, and confirmed that the man killed was actually al-Baghdadi. It’s not an idle point, as the Russians and others have claimed to have killed the same guy on previous occasions. So, if there is such a thing as instant DNA analysis, why hadn’t we heard of it before this? If it’s a Top Military Secret, then Trump just gave it away…though why would it be a Top Military Secret in the first place?
Also rather odd:
***GUY KILLED HIMSELF WITH EXPLOSIVES BEFORE ANY US MILITARY WERE WITHIN RANGE:
- ibid*
This just seems unlikely. Why wouldn’t the man (whether or not he was al-Baghdadi) wait until the US troops got closer, and kill some of them, too? Also, is killing one’s own children part of some ISIS code? I don’t recall hearing about others doing that.
***RUSSIA THREW TRUMP UNDER THE TANK:
ibid
…And after Trump thanked Russia FIRST, before thanking the American Special Ops forces and intelligence officials who’d actually put themselves in harm’s way during the operation.
(I would bet that the news of the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman’s remarks has been kept from Trump. FoxNews won’t mention it…so he may never know the contemptuous way his beloved Vlad’s people are talking about his “triumph.”)
Aaaaaah, even better! 
A DNA test, assuming that they had something to compare it to, under ideal circumstances would take about two hours.
Trump showed up at Game 5 of the World Series in DC tonight, and was greeted with a resounding chorus of boos and chants of “Lock him up.”
Totally awesome. I don’t think he’s ever been exposed to public criticism before. He’ll probably demand an investigation into the Nationals.
Nah. It’ll be an annoying septic tank.
Here are some videos:
But…but…but…
so many red hats? 
Well, I mean I can see that, as how the Limey was always calling Americans “Seppos”, which derives from Cockney rhyming slang, but at least septic tanks are buried out of sight and scent, whereas cesspool evokes the image of something like one of those hog farm waste lagoons, accurate as that may not be.
There’s a MAGA guy behind home plate at least