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National security expert explains how new bombshell report reveals generals unlawfully conspired to disobey Trump
August 08, 2022
A national security expert said a new bombshell report on Donald Trump's relationship with his generals reveals an unlawful conspiracy to disobey the commander in chief.
The new report by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser shows that U.S. military leadership believed the former president posed a national security threat and banded together to stop him from pursuing his most dangerous impulses.
However, national security expert Doyle Hodges explained that was such a dangerous situation.
\u201cThe @NewYorker article about Gen Milley is chilling. Not for the description of Trump--we've heard that before. Because it describes the senior uniformed officer in the US military working with Cabinet and Congressional power brokers to frustrate the president's policies. 1/13\u201d— Doyle Hodges (@Doyle Hodges) 1659973703
"The @NewYorker article about [Gen. Mark Milley, who is chairman of the joint chiefs of staff] is chilling," wrote Hodges, executive editor for the Texas National Security Review. "Not for the description of Trump - -we've heard that before. Because it describes the senior uniformed officer in the U.S. military working with Cabinet and Congressional power brokers to frustrate the president's policies."
IN OTHER NEWS: WSJ editorial warns Trump's 'chaotic and self-serving brand of politics' is crippling the GOP
Hodges agrees that Trump was "the most harmful and dangerous president in U.S. history," but he said one aspect of that harmfulness was the way his advisers and other officials took on unauthorized duties to minimize the damage.
"The legal structures surrounding the president's use of military power are extraordinarily sweeping," Hodges wrote. "It's not clear at all that an attack inside Iran or calling active duty troops into the streets of the U.S. under the Insurrection Act would have been illegal under U.S. law."
The military leaders profiled in the article seemed to have believed any use of force they opposed was unlawful, and while those would likely have been immoral or unethical, Hodges said their legality was less clear -- and certainly not for uniformed military officers to decide.
"Politicians are chosen and held accountable by election, impeachment, and political pressure," he wrote. "Generals are not. None of us voted for Milley. So there are some decisions Milley can't make."
Milley and then-defense secretary Mark Esper may have believed they were doing the right thing, but they didn't have the authority to sidestep the president or Congress.
"It's fair to ask, 'isn't that better than the alternative?'" Hodges wrote. "Maybe. But the lesson ought to be 'don't elect unstable authoritarians who will surround themselves with buffoons' not 'it's OK...the military will keep anything bad from happening.'"
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Russian state TV praises 'our friend' Trump's CPAC speech and speculates he'll become a 'valuable partner' for China
August 08, 2022
Hosts on a Russian state television program came away very impressed with former President Donald Trump's weekend speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and they said it made them more enthusiastic about bringing him back to the White House in 2024.
In a video flagged by The Daily Beast's Julia Davis, Russian host Evgeny Popov gushed about Trump trashing President Joe Biden, and also praised his criticism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which angered Russia's allies in the Chinese Communist Party.
"Republicans are usually more anti-China than Democrats," Popov explained to his audience. "But the election is near, which means that China may soon become a friend and a valued partner of the Republicans, led by Trump."
After playing a clip of Trump's CPAC speech, the show cut back to military expert Igor Korotchenko, who called Ukraine a "cancerous tumor in the center of Europe" because it had "insane shows and rallies" featuring "transgenders."
IN OTHER NEWS: Alex Jones warns Steve Bannon: 'Obama and his people' could stage terror attack before midterms
He went on to contrast this with Trump and his more purportedly masculine approach to governing.
"I like those conservative values that are being promoted by President Donald Trump!" he exclaimed. "We need to support Trump and not be shy about it!"
Watch the video below or at this link.
\u201cMeanwhile on Russian state TV: \n\n"We should support Trump and not be shy about it."\u201d— Julia Davis (@Julia Davis) 1659972909
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With Europe gripped by successive heatwaves, climate-change deniers are spreading skepticism by publishing data on social media on extreme temperatures allegedly recorded decades ago to imply scientists are exaggerating global warming.
But experts say the figures cited from the past are often incorrect or taken out of context -- and even if accurate do not change the fact that heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense.
The posts typically include heat records from almanacs or newspaper reports from the past, arguing that they are similar to the record highs set during this year's heatwaves in Europe.
One post that has gone viral on Facebook includes a screen grab of a brief article published in the New York Times on June 23, 1935, which said the mercury had hit 127 degrees Fahrenheit (52.7 degrees Celsius) in Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, the day before.
That temperature is much higher than the record for the highest temperature in Spain of 47.6 degrees Celsius recorded on August 14, 2021 by national weather office Aemet at the La Rambla meteorological station in the southern province of Cordoba.
Contacted by AFP Fact Check, Aemet spokesman Ruben del Campo said the highest temperature recorded in Zaragoza that day in 1935 was just 39 degrees Celsius.
"The figure of over 52 degrees in incorrect. It is not a figure that is in our climate database, and in fact, there is no log of a temperature above 50 degrees Celsius," he said.
And "even if the figure was correct, which I stress it is not, that is not proof that climate changes does not exist", he added.
'Warmer now'
Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia in 1935 also reported that temperatures had hit the low 50s in Zaragoza but explained that the measurement was taken "in the sun".
Scientists recommend a series of strict criteria to ensure an accurate temperature reading.
"Sensors must be protected from the sun and the rain, and the temperature inside the weather station must be the same as what it is outside," said Aemet meteorologists Ricardo Torrijo.
Another post that has gone viral on Facebook, Telegram and Twitter since last June shows a front page of Spanish weekly magazine El Espanol from August 1957 with the headline: "The hottest summer of the century".
It referred to a reading of a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in central Spain, which was also taken in the sun.
Isabel Cacho, a climate expert at the University of Barcelona, said that "in the hypothetical case" that the mercury soared above 50 degrees Celsius, "this would not be an argument to question that it is warmer now".
'Not change trend'
Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that carbon emissions from humans burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, raising the risk, length and severity of heatwaves and other extreme weather events.
"These figures of high temperatures (in the past) do not discredit the existence of climate change," said Jose Luis Garcia, a climate change expert at Greenpeace in Spain.
"They are unrelated. One thing is one-off temperature data and another very different thing is the tendency towards an increase in the average temperature."
Pedro Zorrilla, a Spanish expert in climate change, said the "anomaly" of a very high temperature recorded in 1935 would have a "very small effect" on average temperatures.
"It does not change the trend," he added.
Records show heatwaves are occurring with greater frequency in the Iberian Peninsula, said Mariano Barriendos, a geography and history professor at the University of Barcelona.
"It is relatively usual for a hot air mass to enter the peninsula from the Sahara Desert. What is worrying is that heatwaves are happening more often," he said.
© 2022 AFP
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