#Lebanon "for the 1st time can control its borders"? @MlongdenUK must have landed in Lebanon very fresh w/o doing him homework. Lebanon needs medicine & electricity not 100 armed vehicles to a 50.000 @LebarmyOfficial who spend wild of the country's

The west, mainly #US and #UK, supply the Lebanese Army with light and medium calibre weapons and transport vehicles in the hope that one day the army would stand against #Hezbollah. Most Lebanese believe the Army is "sacred" and can't be criticised and its leader is an almighty.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent monthly in #Lebanon on over 125,000 members of the security forces when the number of inhabitants is around 5-6 million. This large number has mostly a prestigious role, ease connections & services & employ people to satisfy politicians
#US offer weapons & training for Lebanese officers abroad, impose a condition on the Lebanese government to have the strategic weapon depot in the Christian area of the country. The excuse would be a fear of #Hezbollah that has quality & quantity #Lebanon is not allowed to have.
#US delivered once 6 Hellfire missiles to the Lebanese Army but held the decision to fire these missiles on targets that should be previously approved by the Americans. The US once denied the permission to kill Al-Qaeda leader in the Qalamoun, Abu Malik al-Talli while in #Lebanon
#Lebanon is not allowed to turn to #Russia and #China. A recent (secret) visit of a Chinese delegation to a powerful group in Lebanon offered all sort of support to the country (everything Lebanon could be in need off). Lebanon refused the offer for fear of further Us sanctions.
#Lebanon needs financial support that can be collected only from oil-rich countries who obey the #US diktat. Russia and China (and Iran) can't cover #Lebanon's needs because corrupted politicians took everything even for generations to come. Still only the Americans can bring $$
This is the argument offered by Lebanese leaders to reject any offer from #Russia or #China and to turn towards the East when the West is under the EU tumb.

So, no government because the new PM is still waiting for #France to get the #US blessing 9which will never come).
#France President @EmmanuelMacron's wishful thinking is the fact that the Americans will allow him to "play" in #Lebanon. It won't happen because the #US wants to control. It is politically naive to think otherwise.
If @Joebiden ME decision-makers convince the President that #Hezbollah represents almost a third of the country and any government is impossible to form without its participation, #Lebanon will have a government. So, Lebanese have to wait for Joe's blessing.

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1/10 With respect, multiple straw men here:
A) If you mean by "legally questionable" either that Senate is barred by constitution from trying an official impeached while in office, or that there are even very strong arguments against it, I have to differ...


2/10 Constitutional structure, precedent & any fair reading of original intent dictate that argument for jurisdiction is far stronger than argument against. On original intent, see

3/10 If you mean argument against jurisdiction is plausible, sure, it's plausible. It's just weak. In practical fact, Senate can try Trump now, find him guilty & disqualify him from future office if there are sufficient votes. And no court would presume to overturn that result

4/10 b) The argument from resources is awfully hard to take seriously. Fewer than a dozen House members act as Managers for a few weeks. They are staffed, as are Senators hearing case, by folks whose job it is to do stuff like this...

5/10 Yes, Senate floor time will be taken up. But it's past time for us to stop thinking of members of either house as feeble, fluttering, occupants of a nationally-funded convalescent home. There are nearly 500 of these people with 1000s of staff and a bunch of big buildings...

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I hate when I learn something new (to me) & stunning about the Jeff Epstein network (h/t MoodyKnowsNada.)

Where to begin?

So our new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was "longtime lawyer and confidant of...Robert Maxwell," Ghislaine Maxwell's Dad.


"Pisar was one of the last people to speak to Maxwell, by phone, probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers fell off his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine on 5 November, 1991."
https://t.co/DAEgchNyTP


OK, so that's just a coincidence. Moving on, Anthony Blinken "attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City"...wait, what? https://t.co/DnE6AvHmJg

Dalton School...Dalton School...rings a

Oh that's right.

The dad of the U.S. Attorney General under both George W. Bush & Donald Trump, William Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School.

Donald Barr was also quite a


I'm not going to even mention that Blinken's stepdad Sam Pisar's name was in Epstein's "black book."

Lots of names in that book. I mean, for example, Cuomo, Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen - all in that book, and their reputations are spotless.