What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Admiral Yi]

Revenge for a Venezuelan winning the peace prize?

heh

[The Minsky Moment]

One thing is for certain, Venezuela will never know what hit them.

Except in the extremely unlikely event that Venezuela monitors public statements by the US President or picks up major news stories reported in all international media outlets.

[HVC]

Its been a while since the bay of pigs, americas due for another carribean embarrassment. With all the forewarning the possibility is there.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

One thing is for certain, Venezuela will never know what hit them.

Except in the extremely unlikely event that Venezuela monitors public statements by the US President or picks up major news stories reported in all international media outlets.

Isn't it so funny how the Japanese are setting their depth charges too shallow because they actually believed the yard certificates on our submarines?

[Syt]

So all news organizations except One American New Network (OANN) have now left the Pentagon. Good on them.

https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-press-access-hegseth-trump-restrictions-5d9c2a63e4e03b91fc1546bb09ffbf12

[...]

"What they're really doing, they want to spoon-feed information to the journalist, and that would be their story. That's not journalism," said Jack Keane, a retired U.S. Army general and Fox News analyst, said on Hegseth's former network.

When he served, Keane said he required new brigadier generals to take a class on the role of the media in a democracy so they wouldn't be intimidated and also see reporters as a conduit to the American public. "There were times when stories were done that made me flinch a little bit," he said. "But that's usually because we had done something that wasn't as good as we should have done it."

Youssef said it made no sense to sign on to rules that said reporters should not solicit military officials for information. "To agree to not solicit information is to agree to not be a journalist," she said. "Our whole goal is soliciting information."

[...]

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I was pretty surprised when NewsMax came out as one of the early outlets to say they would not agree to this bullshit.

[viper37]

I have seen nothing that really warrants the sort of smugness some Democrats are displaying re: "the next administration".

True, but I have also seen nothing that really warrants the sort of smugness some Republican are displaying re: "the next administration."

Smugness is always a mistake.

Well there is this:
One Republican Now Controls a Huge Chunk of US Election Infrastructure

[crazy canuck]

From the NYTimes

The military commander overseeing the Pentagon's escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs is stepping down, three U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.

It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one of the U.S. officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats

[viper37]

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton indicted

He's the third prominent Trump adversary to face criminal charges in recent weeks, following former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

A federal grand jury indicted former national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday, making him the third critic of President Donald Trump to face criminal charges in recent weeks.
Bolton was indicted in federal court in Maryland, where he lives and where prosecutors have been investigating whether he improperly retained classified materials following his acrimonious departure from the first Trump administration.

The indictment charges him with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and ten counts of retention of national defense information.
Asked about the indictment during a White House event on Thursday, Trump said, "I didn't know that" but he's "a bad person."
"I think he's a bad guy, yeah, he's a bad guy. Too bad, but that's the way it goes," Trump said.
The other two prominent Trump adversaries to face charges in recent weeks are former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"There is one tier of justice for all Americans," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement after Bolton was charged. "Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law," Bondi said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said charges came after the bureau's "investigation revealed that John Bolton allegedly transmitted top secret information using personal online accounts and retained said documents in his house in direct violation of federal law."
Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has maintained that the former diplomat had handled records appropriately.
The indictment alleges Bolton "abused his position" in the first Trump administration by "sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level-with two unauthorized individuals, namely Individuals 1 and 2."
The two were relatives of Bolton's who he'd message and email the information to, although they did not have security clearances, the court filing said.
Bolton, 76, "also unlawfully retained documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, including information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland," the filing said.
The FBI conducted searches of Bolton's Maryland home and his Washington, D.C., office in August. Redacted search warrant applications showed law enforcement cited Bolton's "2020 Book Pre-Publication Review" and the "Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity" as a basis for probable cause to search his residence and office.
The foreign entity's name was redacted in filings that were made public, but the indictment says it was "a cyber actor believed to be associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran." The book referred to in the search warrant was Bolton's "The Room Where It Happened," chronicling his tumultuous time as Trump's national security adviser.

As a reminder:
Bondi says DOJ ending 'weaponization of justice' as it pursues Trump critics

[viper37]

It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure

Ohh.  Big mystery!  I like that!  Maybe someone should push the investigation further?  They might find something weird?  Maybe... some kind of disagreement with official policies?  Wild thoughts.

Imagine if all these journalists began using their brains for a change.  What a world we'd be living in.