Donald Trump travels to Saudi Arabia, makes huge arms deal, and tries to forget that he may be impeached when he gets back to the US.

President Trump, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson swayed along with traditional dancers in Saudi Arabia pic.twitter.com/HAf6RroaDe

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 20, 2017

 Old white men dancing without any rhythm, no wonder they hate us in the Middle East.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump made a splashy debut on the world stage here Saturday, ushering in a new era in U.S.-Saudi Arabian relations by signing a joint “strategic vision” that includes $110 billion in American arms sales and other new investments that the administration said would bring hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

“It was a great day,” Trump said. He cited “tremendous investments in the United States . . . and jobs, jobs, jobs.” 

While initial details were scant, the agreements signed included a U.S. letter of intent to “support Saudi Arabia’s defense needs” with sales of a number of items — naval ships, tanks and other vehicles — that were the subject of agreements under earlier administrations, as well as some new items that had never passed the discussion stage, such as sophisticated THAAD missile defense systems. 

Other items are intended to modernize Saudi Arabia’s cyberdefense and airborne intelligence-gathering, and secure its borders. 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a news conference with his Saudi counterpart, described common views on counterterrorism, the threat from Iran and regional security. He outlined “like-minded” goals in the security and economic spheres and said, “We’re very proud of this relationship that we are embarking on with the kingdom.”

Is this the appropriate place to point out that fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia?

At least one US Senator,Chris Murphy, is not terribly impressed with this sale: 

Piled on top of this enormous arms lot are precision-guided munitions that President Obama would not sell the Saudis. That’s not because the Obama folks didn’t like selling weapons to the Saudis — Obama sold more weapons and gear to Saudi Arabia in eight years than all other previous administrations combined. No, Obama withheld precision-guided munitions because the Saudis were using U.S.-provided munitions to repeatedly target civilian and humanitarian sites in their bombing campaign inside Yemen, despite regular protests from the United States. Thousands of civilians inside Yemen have been killed during the civil war, many by the Saudi-led coalition, and today, the country is on the brink of famine in part because the Saudis have intentionally destroyed transit hubs and key bridges, and blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid into Yemen. As we speak, millions of Yemenis are being radicalized against the country they blame for the civilian deaths: the United States. By selling the Saudis these precision-guided weapons more — not fewer — civilians will be killed because it is Saudi Arabia’s strategy to starve Yemenis to death to increase their own leverage at the negotiating table. They couldn’t do this without the weapons we are selling them.

Murphy also points out that it is very unlikely that the Saudis will use these weapons to fight ISIS, and will likely instead use them in their ongoing proxy wars against Iran.

These are of course details about the history of the region that will likely completely elude Donald Trump.

 Above is a photo of Melania walking around without a head covering, like some infidel, despite the fact that Trump tweeted this about Michelle Obama's visit back in 2015.

Many people are saying it was wonderful that Mrs. Obama refused to wear a scarf in Saudi Arabia, but they were insulted.We have enuf enemies

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015

I assume it is only offensive if a Democratic woman refuses to cover her head while visiting the country.

So Trump's whirlwind excursion to exotic locales to embarrass the United States is off to a rollicking start.

I only hope that Trump can return from this trip not having started a war with every nation that he visits.

Father of soldier slain in Yemen raid refused to shake Donald Trump's hand, wants investigation.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Owens’ father, Bill, had learned only a short time before the ceremony that Trump was coming. Owens was sitting with his wife, Marie, and other family members in the solemn, living room-like space where the loved ones of the fallen assemble before they are taken to the flight line. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.” 

It had been little more than 24 hours since six officers in dress uniform knocked on the door to Owens’ home in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. It was not yet daylight when he answered the door, already knowing in the pit of his stomach what they had come to tell him. 

Now, Owens cringed at the thought of having to shake the hand of the president who approved the raid in Yemen that claimed his son’s life — an operation that he and others are now calling into question. 

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald. 

Not only was Mr. Owens repulsed by the idea of meeting the man whose carelessness resulted in his son's death  (He was not even in the Situation Room during the raid.), he wants an investigation.

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” said the elder Owens, pointing to Trump’s sharp words directed at the mission’s critics, including Sen. John McCain. 

“I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation,” he said. 

I don't support using this man's tragedy as a political tool, nor do I want this to turn into some Benghazi style witch hunt, but the man DOES deserve a little closure.

And he also deserves the right not to be exposed to the toxic personality of Donald Trump.

Can you even imagine how inappropriate he would be in a situation like this?

Frustrated at charges the Yemen raid was botched, U.S. Military releases fake video supposedly captured in the raid. Because, you know, that's gonna help.

Did you notice how quickly the Fox News reporter changed the subject?

Apparently that works with their viewers.

Not with us though.

Here is more courtesy of WaPo: 

The U.S. military released a compendium of jihadi video Friday that it said showed “the sort of intelligence information” Navy SEALs seized in a deadly Jan. 29 raid in Yemen. There was just one problem: The clip included 10-year-old footage. 

The video was released to the media midday as U.S. military officials said it was obtained in the search of a compound operated by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a terrorist group that has previously planned attacks in Western nations. 

“The videos released today are samples of a series of detailed, do-it-yourself lessons intended for aspiring terrorist bomb-makers and included an exhortation to use those techniques to attack the West,” U.S. Central Command officials said in a news release. “The full-length videos, from which these clips were extracted, were taken from a computer seized by U.S. Special Operations service members during the raid.” 

Air Force Col. John J. Thomas, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the video was taken down based on the reaction it received through social media. One clip in particular was previously published in 2007. The Pentagon had scheduled a 2 p.m. news briefing to discuss the raid, but canceled it after realizing the problem with the video, which already had aired on cable television news broadcasts and circulated online.

Thomas went on to explain that the Pentagon was not trying to deceive the public by lying about the footage, which of course completely contradicts their earlier claim, and that they cannot share the ACTUAL information they captured cause it's all super secret classified and everything.

So apparently the Trump administration's penchant for releasing fake news has now trickled down to the military.

Good to know. 

Guess which country is the most heavily armed in the world. Too easy?

Courtesy of TPM:

Since the Newtown shootings more than two years ago we've devoted a great deal of coverage to chronicling the prevalence of guns and firearms violence in the United States. It won't come as a surprise to many of you that there are far more guns in civilian hands in the US than the UK or Germany, for instance. But even if you're broadly familiar with the contours of the gun story, it's still stunning to see just how heavily armed the US is compared to every other country on the planet. Indeed, the only country that even comes close to the US per capita average is Yemen. While the US has only 5% of the world's population, it has between 35% and 50% of the world's civilian firearms.

It should be noted that the lowest estimate for Yemen is  32% while the highest is 90%.

For America the lowest estimate is 83% and the highest is 97%. In other words it is far more likely that the American numbers are accurate.

I have to admit that even I am stunned to learn that I might be among the only 3% of Americans who do not own a firearm.

What in the hell are all of you people so afraid of?

Child bride in Nigeria uses rat poison to kill her husband and three of his friends.

10 year old Yemeni girl celebrating the granting of her divorce from her adult husband.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

A child bride forced into marriage in Nigeria killed a groom and three of his friends with a poisoned meal, police said Thursday. 

Fourteen-year-old Wasila Umaru was married last week to 35-year-old Umaru Sani, according to assistant superintendent Musa Magaji Majia. 

Over the weekend, the groom invited a dozen friends to celebrate at his Ungwar Yansoro village, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the northern city of Kano. 

The teenager told police she bought rat poison at a village market and used it to prepare a dish of rice. 

"The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love," Majia told The Associated Press. 

The groom and a friend died the same day, and two other victims died later in the hospital. 

Umaru is cooperating with police and likely will be charged with culpable homicide, according to Majia. 

Child marriage is common in Nigeria and especially in the mainly Muslim and impoverished north, where the numbers increase in times of drought because a bride price is paid and it means one less mouth to feed. Fifty percent of Nigerian girls living in rural areas are married before they turn 18, according to the U.N. children's agency. That's a lot of child brides in a country of some 170 million people of whom half are under 18.

Before I start let me point out that the young girl in the picture above is NOT the girl in this story, however she is yet another child, this one from Yemeni, who was forced into a loveless marriage as very young girl.

Fortunatley for her she was granted a divorce, the girl in this story was not given that option.

This is a particular problem in areas with large Islamic populations, partly due to the fact that their prophet, Mohammad, took his own child bride, who was only six years old at the time. (Though to be fair he showed great restraint in not taking her virginity until she as 9 years old.)

Of course this is a despicable practice that the world should condemn, and influential nations should refuse to deal with countries where it is still practiced.

It might have made sense in ancient times for girls to marry young, since life expectancies were short, and infant mortality was high, but we live in a different time today.

Today it should be viewed as an aberration and religion should not be used to justify its continued practice.

In my opinion that fourteen year old girl was a victim, and should be released as having responded to an extreme situation in the only manner left open to her. I would not even suggest jail time, as she has clearly already served her sentence.

Must see! 11 year old Yemeni girl eloquently speaks out against marrying off children to older men as she flees from her family.

I often get dinged for not going after other beliefs as vehemently as I do Christian ones. But that is not because I find them any more acceptable, in fact most of the time I find them even more toxic, especially within the Islamic community.

However because they tend to impact us less here in the US I do not make them the focus of my rants nearly as often.

However make no mistake, I find the idea of honor killings, oppression of women, and the marrying off children to be the indefensible acts of a primitive culture that has no place in the 21st century.

This child is terrified for her very life, and the fact that her own family has put her in this situation is sickening.

However I must point out that less than two hundred years ago this very same horrific tradition was widely practiced right here in the United States. Christianity is no less complicit in this type of abuse than is the Islam. The difference is that in America we moved beyond our superstitious view of women and sexuality, and now tend to respect both genders equally.

Except in Texas of course.