T. Belman.  The reason Trump is acheiving so much in his presidency is because 90% of his Cabinet and senior officers all have sound acheivments in business compared to only 8% in Obama’s Cabinet.

This is chilling! These numbers are prima facie evidence as to why every president that we have had in our lifetime was incapable of running the country successfully. I submit that even with 50% having been in business, it is simply not enough for our country’s problems to be addressed with solutions that work. And here we are today, with Trump running against a flock of RATs any one of whom would make things even worse. I hope you are including Trump in your daily prayers, because if he fails to be President for the next six years, we may never be the same again at any time in the future save an armed revolution, and today, even that would be an iffy proposition.

These numbers help explain why the last administrations eight years were disastrous for the USA. I read the last item and then looked at Trump’s Cabinet. No wonder Washington, DC is in a turmoil. Trump’s picks are bosses who expect their employees to work. These are Eye Opening Numbers. This is what bothers a lot of people about Trump. He won’t accept a can’t do attitude, or inexperienced, incompetent performance. He will get results; it just might not be smooth or pretty.
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By  DOV FISCHER, THE SPECTATOR  October 11, 2019

His demeanor makes some of us wince. His language makes many of us uncomfortable. Presidents in democracies reflect something about the people who elect them. In some cases, as with the aptly named House of Representatives, people sometimes even vote to be reflected by an assortment of lowlifes. Ilhan Omar reflects her district, as does Rashida Tlaib, as does [O-] Cortez. Hillary lost because even Democrats were revulsed by the thought that she reflects them.

Trump, too, reflects his electorate: we who put him there. In balancing all that he comprises, we focused in November 2016 on greatness. Eight years of Obama — incompetence, weakness, economic malaise, societal decay — left us focused on restoring greatness. Thus, even Christian pastors, devout Catholic theologians, and Orthodox rabbis vigorously support Donald Trump. The free world’s last great hope is America, and she was in peril.

What about his language, some of his dishonorable private deeds, flaws in his character?

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US deploying thousands of additional forces to Saudi Arabia, including fighter squadrons, early detection aircraft, and air defense systems.

By Elad Benari, INN

Trump defends decision to pull troops from northern Syria, but stresses US is not abandoning the local Kurds.

By Elad Benari, INN

T. Belman.  This looks promising.  It is an attempt to join Likud and form a right wing government before Netanyahu relinquishes his mandate.  Netanyahu must get UTJ and Shas to make some concessions to Liberman.

MK Forer sends letter to Likud’s Min. Levin requesting parties’ negotiating teams meet, says ‘no doubt’ of agreement on sovereignty.

Arutz Sheva Staff, 

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer on Friday sent a letter to Likud’s Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, requesting that the parties’ negotiating teams meet to determine the basic tenets of a potential unity government.

The letter, published on Twitter, reads: “The need for the formation of a national unity government, together with the many challenges it will face, obligates us to work tirelessly in order to advance the issue. I turn to you so that we can hold a meeting of our negotiating staffs as soon as possible, to discuss the basic tenets of a potential government.”
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By Gerald A. Honigman

The threatened Turkish assault and invasion of heavily Kurdish northern Syria, which prompted President Trump to withdraw American forces, has begun.

Try as one may to paint a nicer picture, this brings back repeated bad memories…

Unfortunately, for at least a half century, America has replaced Great Britain as primary “outside” user and abuser of the Kurds.

Inside, Kurds have let internal divisions and shortsightedness to allow Arab and Turk conquerors of their own millennially geographical majority territory to do this to themselves as well. Some Kurds even allied with Saddam Hussein, responsible for Operation Anfal and other Arab genocidal actions, which ultimately took some 200,000 Kurdish lives–including many gassed to death.
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An effective war of attrition can enlist public opinion in Europe and the United States, and above all, stoke a mass protest in Turkey itself as its number of soldiers killed rises

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Civilians carry their belongings as they flee amid Turkish bombardment, Ras al-Ain, October 9, 2019. AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s declaration of the launch of a campaign against the Kurdish districts in northern Syria was accompanied by airstrikes on the city of Tal Abyad east of the Euphrates. The tactical plan of the war is still unclear, but starting it at Tal Abyad shows that the strategic intent is to take over the regions east of the Euphrates and from there continue west to link up with the Turkish forces that took control of the city of Afrin in March 2018.

Thus Turkey crossed the Americans’ red line, which so far has meant an attack-free zone as determined by agreements between Turkey and the United States.
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DEBKA

As President Recep Erdogan announced the start of a Turkish operation in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, Oct. 9, the Kurdish-led SDF reported that Turkish warplanes were striking civilian areas. Erdogan stated that he wants to create “a safe haven cleared of Kurdish militias to house a million Syrian refugees.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Turkish army’s short-term goal is to establish a 100km long security belt, 30km deep, along the Syrian-Turkish border. (See attached map.) At the moment, Turkish air strikes are directed against Kurdish YPG militia’s bases and ammunition stores, while shelling them from across the border. The Turkish air force is also bombing Ras al-Ayn in the Hasakeh region east of the River Euphrates. Turkish ground forces and tanks crossed into Syria Wednesday night.
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Syrian Kurdish official says Turkish attack weakens ability to guard ISIS detainees

Reuters  13:24

Iran’s foreign ministry called on Turkey on Thursday to immediately halt its military offensive in Syria and pull its forces out of that country.

In a statement posted on its official website, the ministry expressed concern about the humanitarian situation and the dangers posed to civilians in the conflict zone.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran… emphasises (the need for) an immediate stop to the attacks and the exit of the Turkish military from Syrian territory,” it said.
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Former justice minister reiterates support for an independent Kurdistan; Blue and White’s Hauser says murder of Kurds will lead to wave of refugees, increase regional instability

By RAPHAEL AHREN, TOI 9 October 2019, 11:53 pm

Yamina party chairwoman Ayelet Shaked speaks at a Manufacturers Association conference in Tel Aviv, on September 2, 2019. (Flash90)

Yamina party chairwoman Ayelet Shaked on Wednesday reissued a call for Kurdish statehood, urging the West to support the Kurds as Turkey launched a military campaign in northern Syria.

“Our national memory requires us to revolt against violence directed against another nation. Such is the Turkish violence directed against the Kurdish people in northern Syria,” the former justice minister wrote on Facebook.

“I have said this in the past: It is in the interest of both Israel and the United States, for the security and stability of the region, that a Kurdish state be established,” she wrote.
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By Alex Marquardt Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 2345 GMT (0745 HKT) October 9, 2019

Washington (CNN)Fears are growing among American officials that thousands of ISIS fighters may escape from prisons in Syria as the Kurdish personnel guarding them gear up for a fight with Turkey, which launched a military offensive in northeastern Syria on Wednesday.

Turkey’s assault has already had a “detrimental effect” on American counter-ISIS operations, which have “effectively stopped,” a senior US defense official told CNN on Wednesday.

The Turkish offensive, the official said, “has challenged our ability to build local security forces, conduct stabilization operations and the Syrian Democratic Forces’ [ability] to guard over 11,000 dangerous ISIS fighters.”
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Yisrael Beyteinu leader presents his plan for unity government, demands Netanyahu give up ‘haredi bloc’.

Yisrael Beyteinu leader Avigdor Liberman has presented his outline for a unity government.

The outline would feature a rotation in which Binyamin Netanyahu would be prime minister first and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz wiould be prime minister second.

Initially, only Likud, Blue and White, and Yisrael Beyteinu would be allowed in the coalition. Additional parties would be allowed to join the government only after basic issues and budgets have been settled.

Liberman’s plan includes four steps. In the first phase, a joint team will be set up for the three parties to formulate the basic lines of the unity government.

In the second stage, if agreement is reached on the basic lines, Liberman demands that the president’s outline for the prime minister’s rotation be adopted.
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T. Belman. Based on what we have been told, I totally reject what Trump has done and and his reasons for doing it. I have been so much against it, that I couldn’t believe that he would do it without an undisclosed benefit such as turning the tide against Iran. So far we have been told of nothing that would justify it.

While the attacks on the Kurds are the result, it’s hard to tell exactly why all of this is happening

BY Seth Frantzman, JPOST

Julian Borger in Washington and Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor, THE GUARDIAN

Wed 9 Oct 2019 23.06 BST  Last modified on Thu 10 Oct 2019 01.36 BST

Erdogan has recently talked about pushing even deeper into Syria, beyond the proposed ‘safe zone’ region to the cities of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, here is why

Reuters 

A looming Turkish incursion into northern Syria is set to reshape the map of the Syrian conflict once again, dealing a blow to Kurdish-led forces that have battled Islamic State while widening Turkey’s territorial control at the border.

This would be Turkey’s third such incursion since 2016. Motivated largely by the aim of containing Syrian Kurdish power, Turkey already has troops on the ground across an arc of northwestern Syria, the last stronghold of anti-Damascus rebels.

WHAT DOES TURKEY WANT?

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T. Belman. This is the best analysis of Trump’s Syrian move I have read. He has rightly put it in perspective. Essentially what he gave Turkey is a small price to pay to ensure they remain in NATO and the sunni camp.  It is this camp that is dedicated to containing Iran and pushing it out of Syria and Iraq.  In other words, the move is constructive rather than destructive as everyone is claiming.

What is left unsaid by Trump and Black is how will this coalition push Iran out of Syria and Iran.I think that both Syria and Russia are on board with this plan. Time will tell.

By Conrad Black, NY SUN,  October 9, 2019

[…]

The practical effects on the ground will depend on the extent to which Turkey adheres to its word in the informal agreement that has apparently been reached between President Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

If Turkey contents itself with eliminating Kurdish infiltration on its border with Syria, does not release the 10,000 ISIS prisoners detained there (Turkey has no more affection for ISIS than the U.S. does), and does not employ its position to further oppress the Kurds, who, at 14 million, are about 18 percent of the Turkish population, there will be no downside to these arrangements.

The Kurdish problem vastly transcends the skirmishing along the Turkish border. There are about 35 million Kurds in the world, the largest concentration being in Turkey, where they have frequently manifested a desire to secede and have often been an oppressed minority. There are broadly 6 million in each of Iraq and Iran, and just 2 million in Syria, and the rest are scattered, including almost 2 million in Germany.
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By James Stansbury, AMERICAN THINKER

Recently, I viewed a 12-minute YouTube video by Tony Heller, released 9/20/2019.  He described it as “my gift to climate alarmists” and added: “This is my most concise expose of climate fraud.  Please pass it around to everyone you know and your elected officials.  The video is a little short, but cuts right to the heart of the matter.”  Be advised that the video is totally devoid of slick Hollywood production techniques, and the narration is monotone, but does cut to the heart of the matter.

Before sharing, I took the precaution of researching Tony Heller.  Google listed several negative references up front that basically discredited him as a climate science–denying fraud.  However, digging deeper, I found he is well educated, often contributes to Watts Up With That?, and has occasionally used the pen name Steven Goddard.  His rather uniquely formatted website, titled Real Climate Science, contains his unorthodox yet impressive résumé.  Here was found evidence that Scott Adams of Dilbert fame considers Tony the skeptic he finds most convincing.
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