Russia warned the US where they could not bomb in Syria, and the US did not bomb in those locations.

Courtesy of Sky News:  

Russia has revealed it warned the US about "red lines" it should not cross before it launched airstrikes on Syria. 

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is reported to have said that officials in Washington were contacted before last weekend's strikes by the US, UK and France. 

Mr Lavrov said: "There were military leadership contacts, between generals, between our representatives and the coalition leadership. 

"They were informed about where our red lines are, including red lines on the ground, geographically. And the results show that they did not cross these red lines."

Keep in mind that Trump also warned Russia and Syria a few days before the actual airstrike, so that they could move the chemicals and anything of value out of the targeted areas.

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

But even with Trump obeying those orders from his Kremlin overlords, Russia still feels that after this strike they are now free to support Syria, and Bashir al-Assad, with impunity:

Mr Lavrov says that, following the airstrikes, it is morally free to deliver S-300 missiles to the Syrian regime. 

He said: "Now, we have no moral obligations. We had the moral obligations, we had promised not to do it some 10 years ago, I think, upon the request of our known partners. 

"We took into consideration their claim that this could destabilise the situation. Even though it's purely defensive. Now we don't have this moral obligation any longer."

So to be clear, the Kremlin told Trump where he could and could not drop his bombs, he did not drop his bombs in the forbidden areas, and yet the Russians still feel empowered by the airstrike to provide Assad with more military weaponry.

Does anybody else feel that America got played here?

Donald Trump goes on Twitter rampage against Russia, fails to mention Putin by name.

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

This last tweet of Trump's is dead right, but it is also too little too late.

We have been under attack from  Russia for several years now, and Trump is ONLY NOW acknowledging that fact.

And before you give Trump any credit for his change of heart you need to see the tweet that followed these first two.

Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

Sooo, it isn't Russia's support for Assad or the cyber attacks against America?

Once again let me point out that Trump did not mention Putin by name. but has no problem naming and blaming Justice Department and FBI officials who are just doing (Or just did) their jobs.

Donald Trump finally attacks Vladimir Putin by name over Syria gas attack.

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

I have been wondering if there was anything that could happen that would cause Trump to pull his lips off Putin's ass and use them to criticize him.

As it turns out dozens of dead and dying Syrian children was simply too much.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus, and aid groups on Sunday blamed President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the assault. 

The attack after dusk on Saturday sent a stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems to clinics, medical and rescue groups said. Western governments expressed alarm at the attack, with the British Foreign Office calling for an urgent investigation and saying that if the use of chemical weapons proved to be true, “it is further proof of Assad’s brutality.”

I guess this is to be expected once Trump announced that he was removing American troops.

Assad now has carte blanche to punish his people any way that he sees fit, and Putin will not do a thing to stop him.

Of course Trump could not be counted on to stay on the high road.

If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

Yeah, you have to get those digs in on your political enemies.

It should be pointed out that President Obama TRIED to end Assad's attacks on his people, but he made the unfortunate choice of trusting Vlad:

The so-called “red line” episode in September 2013, when, in a last-minute decision, President Barack Obama called off U.S. air strikes in Syria,1 has continued to shape his legacy. Instead of striking the Syrian government in retaliation for a nerve gas attack near Damascus, Obama took Russian President Vladimir Putin up on an offer to peacefully dismantle the Syrian chemical weapons program and craft a United Nations resolution2 to make sure no gas attacks ever occurred in Syria again. 

Alternately described as one of the former president’s greatest successes or as one of his worst failures, what remains of Obama’s red line deal is now under attack. After a UN-appointed panel determined that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are still using poison gas, albeit at a much more limited scale than before, Putin refused to abide by the September 2013 deal, which promised joint U.S.-Russian efforts in the United Nations to punish all violators.

So if Trump wants to blame somebody for this most recent humanitarian crisis he need look no further than his speed dial.

The question is can he bring himself to do anything more than simply tweet his displeasure?

Trump's "fake news" meme is also popular with another group of folks, authoritarian despots.

Courtesy of Politico:

Authoritarian rulers across the globe are adopting President Donald Trump’s favorite phrase to limit free speech, with prominent leaders or state media in at least 15 countries using his “fake news” line to denounce their critics, according to a POLITICO review. 

By aligning themselves with Trump’s words, despots have been able to use the U.S. president as a shield for their attacks on press freedom and human rights, said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

“I’m seeing it more and more,” he said. Trump, he added, “is providing a context and framework for all sorts of authoritarian leaders—or democratic leaders and others who are dissatisfied or upset by critical media coverage—to undermine and discredit reporting.” 

In February, for example, Syrian President Bashar Assad brushed off an Amnesty International report that some 13,000 people had been killed at one of his military prisons by saying, “You can forge anything these days, we are living in a fake news era.” 

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has complained of being “demonized” by “fake news.” Last month, with Trump laughing by his side, he called reporters “spies.”

Over the weekend, a state official in Myanmar attracted notice when he said, “There is no such thing as Rohingya. It is fake news,” referring to the persecuted ethnic group. 

Those are hardly the only examples of Trump’s phrase being deployed internationally: In March, Chinese state media dismissed a prominent rights activist’s account of torture as “fake news.” And in May, the People’s Daily ran an op-ed with the headline, “Trump is right, fake news is the enemy, something China has known for years.”

Possibly the worst American export ever!

America, making the world a more shitty place since 2017.

Donald Trump talked to his boss yesterday and received orders to step off and let Russia handle Syria.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin discussed efforts to bring peace to war-torn Syria during an hour-plus phone call on Tuesday. Iran, North Korea and Ukraine also were on the agenda, the White House said. 

Trump called it a "great call" Tuesday afternoon as he left the White House to spend Thanksgiving in Florida. Noting the length, he said he and Putin spoke "very strongly about bringing peace to Syria" and "very strongly about North Korea." 

Trump's phone call with the Russian president came a day after Putin met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Putin hosted Assad at a Black Sea resort ahead of a summit later this week with Russia, Turkey and Iran. Assad was called to Russia to get him to agree to potential peace initiatives drafted by the other three countries, the Kremlin said. 

The Kremlin said Putin briefed Trump in the phone call about his talks with Assad and plans for a political settlement in Syria. Putin also called for coordination of anti-terror efforts with the U.S., the Kremlin said, adding that Afghanistan was also discussed.

"Putin briefed Trump in the phone call about his talks with Assad and plans for a political settlement in Syria."

Did you catch that?

That does not say that Trump and Putin brainstormed the best response to the situation in Syria. That literally says that Putin told Trump what he was fucking doing, and expected Trump to fucking keep his mouth shut about it.

Keep in mind that America and Russia went into Syria originally for different reasons.

President Obama sent the military in to support the rebels who had been gassed by Assad, and Putin sent his military in to support Assad against the "terrorists."

Essentially Putin just bent Trump over and had him grab his ankles on this one.

Courtesy of Politico:

Trump may not care: He has said privately that he considers Syria to be Obama’s failure and that he sees little the U.S. can do about it now, according to a person briefed on one of his conversations. That view was reflected in Trump’s decision earlier this year to cancel a covert CIA program that armed moderate Syrian rebels fighting Assad’s regime.

So now the people of Syria, who America promised to support, have been left to the mercy of two iron fisted dictators who do not give a shit about them.

Now that Putin's puppet is in place America is busy jumping through Russia's hoops.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials. 

The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later. Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. 

The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington’s limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.

Officials said Trump made the decision to scrap the CIA program nearly a month ago, after an Oval Office meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of a July 7 meeting in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If that were not troubling enough, we also have this bit of troubling news, courtesy of Bloomberg: 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is shutting down an office that coordinates cyber issues with other countries, according to two people familiar with the plan, in a move that critics said will diminish the U.S. voice in confronting hackers. 

The Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, established under President Barack Obama in 2011, will be folded into the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, according to the people, who asked not to be identified in advance of an announcement. The coordinator will no longer report directly to the secretary of state, going instead through the bureau’s chain of command as Tillerson pushes ahead with a department-wide reorganization, they said. 

“It’s taking an issue that’s preeminent and putting it inside a backwater within the State Department,” said Robert Knake, a senior fellow for cybersecurity at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington who was director of cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council under Obama. “Position to power matters both within the U.S. government and within the international community.”

If somebody actually believe this move will help protect us from the next cyber attack, or that it is NOT playing right into the hands of the Kremlin, then they have not been paying attention at all.

As far as I am concerned Tillerson is likely just as compromised as Donald Trump and allowing him oversight of this crucial government department is like putting the fox in charge of guarding the door to the hen house.

These are of course only a few of the things that Putin clearly demanded of Trump, and the Russian government has now become so used to getting their way in Washington that when there is a hiccup they get pissed off.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Russia said Tuesday that it is losing patience over the return of properties that the United States seized as penalty for Moscow's election interference, as tense talks between the two countries have yielded no resolution. 

In Moscow, officials threatened to take "retaliatory measures" if the United States continued to "hinder" their government's diplomatic mission, and the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin's patience "is expiring." 

"We are still counting on the reasonableness of our American counterparts to at least bring the situation into the legal framework in accordance with the international law," said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

To be clear the Russian government has done NOTHING to deserve the return of these compounds, which were taken from them in response to their very aggressive interference in our last presidential election, for which they have not yet even admitted responsibility, and yet they feel empowered to make threats? 

Let's face it if America were one of Trump's casinos the roulette wheel would be rigged to land on whatever number Putin picked and the slot machine would pay off for every Russian's pull of handle.

Late last night the White House issued a warning accusing Syria of preparing to gas its people. US defense officials have no idea why.

Statements from @PressSec on #syria pic.twitter.com/gEqPAf6WBk

— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) June 27, 2017

Okay so this was broadcast on cable news last night. (I personally saw it toward the end of the Rachel Maddow Show.)

And on the face of it this seems like kind of a crazy way to announce that the president of Syria is about to murder his own people again. Typically this would be addressed through diplomatic channels and the public would only become aware if there were an imminent military response planned by the United States. (And seriously what does "pay a heavy price" even mean?)

But then it gets even weirder.

Courtesy of The Independent: 

The White House has said it believes the Syrian government is planning a chemical weapons attack and warned Bashar al-Assad that his regime will “pay a heavy price” it it does so. However, several US defence officials have said they are not familiar with the intelligence that informed the statement.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on Monday night on the allegations or what form US retaliation would take. 

Several sources across the US State Department, Pentagon and Central Command, which oversees the country’s military operations in Syria and Iraq – said that they did not know what had prompted the unprecedented threat to the Assad regime. 

Okay, okay, let's back the fuck up here.

Are we to believe that the White House received intelligence that the Pentagon did not receive which justified a threat like this?

I call bullshit.

I am beginning to think that Donald Trump is becoming so desperate over those Russia investigations that he is literally considering plunging this country into a war simply to distract the public.

Donald Trump called his puppet master yesterday.

Courtesy of AP:

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled improving prospects for cooperation in Syria Tuesday in what the White House called a "very good" phone discussion that included a focus on setting up safe zones in the war-torn nation. 

The Kremlin said the leaders also agreed to try to set up their first in-person meeting in July, on the sidelines of an international summit in Germany. The White House later confirmed that information. 

Tuesday's call marked the first time Trump and Putin have spoken since the U.S. launched missiles against an air base in Syria, an attack that outraged Russia, one of the Syrian government's strongest backers. The U.S. military action sparked new tensions between Washington and Moscow, with top U.S. officials sharply condemning Putin's continued support for embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad. 

But the leaders appeared to again be edging toward closer cooperation following Tuesday's call. The Kremlin said Trump and Putin agreed to bolster diplomatic efforts to resolve the Syrian civil war, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions more displaced. The White House announced it would send a top State Department official to Russian-led talks on Syria that begin Wednesday in Kazakhstan.

Call me a cynic but I have no confidence that Trump and Putin have not had communications before this phone call of which the American people are simply not aware.  

I personally think that Trump and Putin are desperately looking for some reason, such as Syria, to take their relationship public and openly communicate without the press scrutinizing it and suggesting that it is related to the hacking of the election.

That also makes me highly skeptical of the events in Syria, and exactly how much the Russians knew about what Assad was up to before the attack.

In my opinion we need to carefully monitor EVERY public and private interaction between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and I certainly expect the press to be our eyes and ears in that regard.

Bashir al-Assad claims that gas attack was "100 percent fabrication."

I'm sorry, what gas attack?

Courtesy of The Independent:  

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reiterated that his government had nothing to do with the chemical gas incident in a rebel-held village last week that killed more than 80 people. 

Allegations that his forces had deliberately poisoned civilians were ''100 per cent fabrication'', the president said on Thursday, adding that the Syrian government gave up its chemical weapons stocks as part of a 2013 agreement. 

 "Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack," he said.

So essentially Assad is taking a page out of the Donald Trump playbook and calling news that he does not like "fake news."

The problem for his of course is that this man's babies were clearly dead, and there is video showing him placing their bodies into a mass grave.

That is not something a father would do simply to frame the Syrian President.

There were of course many other pictures and video, not to mention first hand accounts by doctors, soldiers, and officials.

And now we are learning that the US intercepted communications from the Syrian government planning the actual attack on that rebel held village.

Assad is a liar who murders his own people. And yet he still has the support of the man who helped to put Donald Trump into the White House.

Go figure.

It is WAY too early in the morning to be face palming.

So I go to Target for one hour and while I was gone the Trump admin apparently decided that Hitler didn't have gas chambers? 😩 pic.twitter.com/MkbPgpogQu

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) April 11, 2017

In response to chemical weapons attack Trump orders missile strike against Syrian airbase. Update!

Courtesy of ABC News:  

Responding to a Syrian chemical weapons attack on Tuesday that left scores dead, the United States initiated a military strike Thursday on an airbase in Syria, multiple U.S. officials have confirmed, launching 59 missiles at an air base in the country. 

The Pentagon said that the airstrike, which targeted Shayrat Air Base in Homs Province -- where the chemical attack was initiated earlier in the week -- struck multiple targets with tomahawk missiles launched between 8:40 and 8:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, from destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Mediterranean Sea. 

President Donald Trump said the strike was in the "vital national security interest" of the U.S. 

In a statement to Syrian state TV, the Syrian army said the attack had left six people dead and several injured, in addition to "big material losses."

A couple of things to keep in mind here.

First Russia was warned about the airstrike before it occurred.

However Trump did NOT warn Congress.

Despite the warning Russia is pissed off: 

Russia has reacted angrily after the US launched a missile strike on a Syrian government air base. 

US officials said the base had been used to launch a chemical weapons attack in north-western Syria that left dozens of civilians dead on Tuesday. 

But Russia, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, condemned the US strike and suspended a deal designed to avoid mid-air collisions over Syria.

Hillary Clinton also stated publicly that she would have attacked the Syrian airbase. (However I think we all know that she would have sought approval from Congress first. After all this IS Hillary Clinton we are talking about.)

Another thing to note is that Trump was completely against this same response back in 2013, after a chemical weapons attack left 1,400 dead.

So I guess 80 dead on his watch justifies a military response by not over a thousand dead during the Obama Administration?

And finally a certain MOH recipient is right on board with this decision.

Good on @realDonaldTrump for showing the world that America will no longer stand by and watch this barbaric behavior on innocent people.

— Dakota Meyer (@Dakota_Meyer) April 7, 2017

(I think we already know what the mother-in-law thinks about her boyfriend's response)

One final thing to note is that President Obama was quite ready to take decisive action against Assad back in 2013, but he was blocked from doing so by a majority Republican Congress.

Funny how times cahnge, don't you think?

Update: Ah so it appears that the Syrians also knew an airstrike was coming. 

Gee it appears that only the Americans were kept in the dark.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people again after Secretary of State Tillerson signaled that the US would not interfere.

Courtesy of the  Daily Beast: 

Days ago, in Ankara, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that the U.S. had no quarrel with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, a man Tillerson’s predecessor compared to Adolf Hitler after he slaughtered more than 1,000 people with poison gas in 2013. 

The “longer-term status of President Assad,” Tillerson said, “will be decided by the Syrian people,” a euphemism used by Damascus, Moscow, and Tehran to indicate that he isn’t going anywhere. 

White House press secretary Sean Spicer used almost identical language the next day, saying, “Well, I think with respect to Assad, there is a political reality that we have to accept in terms of where we are right now.” 

But the gas, it appears, is raining down once again on civilians.

Apparently that sent a signal to Assad that he had free rein to do whatever he wanted to the people of Syria with no fear of repercussions coming from America.

Here is more courtesy of Vox:

A suspected poison gas attack by the Syrian regime on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun has killed at least 65 people — including at least 11 children — and wounded 350, according to the Paris-based Union of Medical Care & Relief Organizations and others. Videos and photos taken by activists and medics on the scene showed victims choking and fainting, some with foam coming out of their mouths. These videos and photos have not been independently verified. 

A few hours later, Syrian warplanes launched another airstrike on one of the medical clinics where victims of the first attack were being treated, the New York Times reports. Let that sink in for a moment: Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, then bombed those desperately trying to save the lives of those suffering and dying from the chemicals.

Vox is also reporting on the White House's response to this attack which was to blame it on President Obama:  

“These heinous actions by the Bashar Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution,” press secretary Sean Spicer said. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.”

Seriously?

Of course the problem with this is that the internet lives forever.

AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2013

Oops!

Of course the reality is that here we are in 2017, Donald Trump is now the president, so besides blaming Obama what exactly will HE do about this humanitarian crisis? 

Actually my money is on "Not a damn thing."