Gas attack kills twins, 9 months old

How to improve a 30% approval rating?

How to change the subject away from the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russian agents to defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton?

How to get everyone behind you?

Drop a few bombs!  Act like a real president of the USA.

Thank you, Bashar al-Assad, for rescuing dt from his floundering mess of a presidency by using poisonous gas on your own people--killing 75 or more people, including 9-month-old twins Aya and Ahmed Yussef.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/05/syria-gas-attack-sobbing-father-cradles-dead-twins-19-family/

And dt's first response was not a statement of sympathy for the loss of life, but a complaint that President Obama had not done more to stop Syria and save him from having to deal with this crisis.

The father of the twins, Abdulhamid al-Yussef, lost his wife, the twins, and 16 other family members.

What does our Secretary of State say?

Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said on Wednesday there was "no doubt" that Assad was responsible for the attack and called on Russia to "really think carefully" about its continued support for the regime.

What a threat!  "Think carefully."

And Russia mocks the US in return:  You are [still] an independent state.  You do something.

When asked if Russia would reconsider its backing for Assad, Russia's Foreign Ministry instead challenged the US to show its cards.

"Russia's approach to Assad is clear. He is the legal president of an independent state. What is the US approach?" ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told CNN in a text message.

Thank you to CNN for this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/middleeast/syria-idlib-chemical-attack/

CNN goes on to review the gas attack of 2013:

"... in 2013, a chemical attack was carried out in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, in which activists say 1,400 people died. It was blamed on the Syrian regime and prompted Obama to threaten military action.


President Obama went to Congress to ask for approval for military action in response to the gassing.  Congress refused--didn't even dare to vote on it.  The US public was not behind it; some members of Congress said their mail was running 800 to 1 against military escalation.

Trump was among those tweeting "Don't respond by bombing."

Yet this time he wants to respond with military action.  

Why?  He needs to improve his ratings in the polls and he's impulsive.  His generals propose bombing, and he says "Go ahead."  He doesn't bother to consult with Congress.

Nikki Haley at the UN

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Nikki Haley denounce the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad this morning at the UN Security Council.  She also denounced Russia and Iran for supporting him.

http://fortune.com/2017/04/05/nikki-haley-rips-into-russia-for-defending-syrias-use-of-chemical-weapons/

“Yesterday’s attack was a new low, even for the barbaric Assad regime,” she said, after holding up photos of children killed in the attack, noting that this chemical attack was more lethal than previous ones committed by government forces.

I had thought that anyone appointed by dt would be a bad admbassador, but I am wrong.

Looking at her bio on Wikipedia, I see several points of interest.

Yes, she is anti-abortion and a big supporter of the Netanyahu government in Israell, but I see some good in her other positions.

On February 2, 2017, Haley declared to the U.N. Security Council that sanctions against Russia for its Crimean conflict would not be lifted until Russia returned control over the region to Ukraine.^[94]

On March 15, 2017, Haley said she would not support a Muslim ban should President Trump choose to enact one. Haley said she did not believe "we should ever ban anyone based on their religion" and that a Muslim ban would be "un-American".^[95]

On March 30, 2017, Haley stated that the priority of the United States policy concerning Bashar Assad is to no longer force him out of power in an apparent policy shift, since under former president Barack Obama’s administration, the US made the departure of Assad a key policy aim.^[96]

On April 5, 2017, speaking to the U.N. Security Council a day after the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, Haley said Russia, Assad, and Iran "have no interest in peace" and attacks similar to this would continue occurring should nothing be done in response.^[97]

Haley has said that Trump is not dictating her actions in the UN: “He is not stopping me from beating up on Russia...He’s not stopping me from talking about the pressure that China needs to be putting on North Korea,” she told Bloomberg, adding that she thinks Russia was “certainly” involved in the U.S. election.

Also I learned that Fortune magazine offers a blog called The World's Most Powerful Women, written by Claire Zillman.
http://fortune.com/gettheworldsmostpowerfulwomennewsletter/

See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-attack-un.html