In terms of foreign policy, the President is damn near a king, and in the post-WW2 era, the same is almost true in terms of military deployment. It's really a debate as to whether and when members of the executive branch should refuse an order from the President. As much as I loath Trump, it isn't a good idea at all to establish a norm of ignoring the President. That's the position the citizens vote for and can hold accountable.

dola

And now Trump orders 7000 troops from Afghanistan.

Gotta be fake news corbes, gotta be that nasty, no good, failing fake news that can't find a nice thing to say about the greatest president ever.

Between the prison reform, pulling out of trade agreements, and removal of forces from international conflict, if universal healthcare somehow passes on his watch (which doesn't seem entirely ludicrous, considering his process) he'll be much closer to practically delivering on the Green Party's platform, than any of his campaign promises. These are fascinating, terrifying times.

5.5 billion pledge by the house....ugh. for a stupid wall which is only a political tool. It's a guarantee they are going to try to funnel that money into their pockets and later claim that it was "underfunded".

Stupider than Star Wars this is

Yay lame duck House.

Let's hope this shutdown does not last too long.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...border-n950666

Too.damn.late

Or perhaps he'll be too fixated on the wall to think about Mattis. 10 tweets already this morning, all about the wall.

I'm so old, I remember when trump said he was going to take responsibility for a shutdown.

This is a complete pipe dream, but I would love it if in 2019, the media stopped taking anonymous quotes from "senior administration officials."

We get it. Lots of people on the inside not related to Trump think he's crazy. Taking yet another anonymous quote saying that tells us nothing. Make them put their name on the record or you don't report it.

It actively harms the country at this point to give these people the illusion that they are doing something good by continuing to work for the administration and throwing out the occasional "It's really fucked up in here" to a NYT reporter so they can sleep at night.

Somebody really wants to get to Mar-A-Lago

I texted a good friend of mine who happens to have served as an officer in the marines under Mattis's command to get his thoughts. He is a registered Republican. Here's his response:

McConnell doesn't take the bait, won't invoke nuclear option for a 2 month continuation.

That was never an option. McConnel will destroy everything in subservience to Trump. Unless it is something he actually cares about.

Chuck Schumer is my fucking hero

So for the umpteenth time over the past 2 years, is this finally going to be the moment(s)/week where the R's start to separate themselves from the Trump party?

I don't dive as deep in to this stuff as a lot of you, but Schumer really threw down the gauntlet there, and I can not wait to see how Trump responds.

I was watching on Fox News at my in Laws, it is all my mother in law ever has on. They are a disgrace. Right after Schumer ends they pan away and go right to discussing Mattis again, not one word about how Schumer just eviscerated Trump.

McConnell doing his best Trump impersonation right now

We'll never know. Just announced that RBG has cancer. Nothing like a "SUPREME COURT" reminder at a critical point to bring the Rs back in lockstep with teh Donald.

Stupid question, but it is even possible to have a clean withdrawal from the middle east? Its weird to me to see people that were screaming to end these wars now screaming about this withdrawal. I'm not smart enough to know the best approach here, and it seems Trump is doing this against advisors, but what can we do beyond 1) stay forever or 2) pull out completely. What does another 6 months, 5 years, or 20 years change?

I'm in favor of withdrawing a lot of our troops, but there has to be a process. For all Obama was slammed about pulling out of Iraq, he did it the right way, plans were made and allies were consulted. It wasn't just announced one day while both the DoD and allies were scrambling to figure out what the announcement meant.

And we shouldn't forget that this has the stink of a deal with Russia and/or Turkey all over it and Mattis implied as much in his letter.

Syria has been a Russian client state for over a half century. I don't really care all that much what goes on there.

Yep. You need to have an orderly process here. Or else you just end up confusing everyone and creating a vacuum that wasn't adequately planned for.

Markets down big again. Going to end up being a rough year.

Yeah its depressing to get a paycheck after two weeks of work only to go home and realize you lost more in the market that day.

Shocking, NC begged the feds the investigate actual large scale voter fraud that affected elections and they ignored. Instead focusing on potentially 10 people or so out of millions that may have voted.

North Carolina asked feds to open vote fraud case last year

Ironic that everyone (evil-ish) was hoping her fall might bring about her rapid demise and it may have saved her life as far as finding the cancer.

It's great. The Dems want to re-run the election, the Republicans want to do it with primaries (so they can get rid of the tainted Harris), and everything is getting delayed and pushed until after new legislatures come in. So basically Charlotte will be the new DC & have no representative in the US House for 6-10 months next year.

In earlier times a President meeting with his unconfirmed AG to discuss a case directly implicating the President might be cause enough for impeachment.

So for entertainment purposes I'm on the Trump campaign email list. I have to say it rarely lets me down. This wall and shutdown have been gold as far as campaign emails go.

Boy are you a glutton for punishment Atocep.



In other news, that country-owned company that was involved in that mysterious sealed courtroom a couple weeks ago, has lost its appeals at the lower courts, and have now appealed to the Supreme Court. If the Supremes hear it, it would be the first case where they would review (hear arguments, etc) in a case totally under seal.

hxxps://deadspin.com/how-did-5-million-of-vince-mcmahons-money-wind-up-in-t-1831239844

(breaking the link because Kinja)

The article may not be the best journalism, but this comment:


Yuuuuuup.

Not only does this guy have a shady background, he's asking people to mail him personal checks.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS GUY!!!

It doesn't seem any worse than the stock market at this point.

I mean...the people who'd be motivated to give their money to THAT grifter are likely the same people who've given money to the grifter at 1600 Pennsylvania, so...

I need to create the Clinton Foundation Investigation Fund or something and try to bilk conservatives out of millions.

I'm with you. But there does need to be a "process" vs what we suspect is a Trump tantrum of the day.

The ME is going to be played with proxies with minimum US boots on the ground unless necessary. We pick chess pieces, they pick chess pieces and over several decades, hopefully win, draw but not lose.

Regardless of what we think of SA, the Kingdom is the King piece and Israel is the Queen piece (e.g. most powerful piece on the board). Jordan is pretty friendly and strategically located, the somewhat other friendly Gulf states are too small to be anything other than bankers (should have made Kuwait the 51st state :) ), Egypt is an ally but not as tight as Mubarak but still better than the other guy they democratically elected.

The Palestinian issue seems to have been overshadowed. Whereas at one time Israel-Palestine issue seemed to be blamed for all the tensions and terrorism, its a footnote now (and like another post I had, the PA should accept 70-80% of what they want vs. try to get it all and move on).

So to answer your question, IMO we pull out but fight the "war" by proxy.

Ah, makes sense.

Bloomberg - Fed Rate Hikes May Have Already Cost Trump $5 Million a Year

Also, Mattis out as of Jan 1. (Now that the letter has been explained.)

Mnuchin released a letter today to make sure everyone knew he met with the six largest banks and made sure they had no liquidity concerns. Everyone should sleep fine.

Another fine day for the markets.

Somebody is losing their mind today. LMAO!

Ship him off to Florida already.

What a fucking baby. Jesus fucking christ how does this many have supporters?

I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security. At some point the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more money than the Border Wall we are all talking about. Crazy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

BECAUSE HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS!!!!!!!

I'm watching Lord of the Rings the Two Towers.

Further proof a wall won't keep anyone out.

I listened to Pink Floyd's "The Wall". It's proof that people behinds walls like to whine a lot.

Watched World War Z. Proof that a wall works with Romero zeds.

Watching Netflix Wolf series. Its about Turkish special forces/counter terrorism. The first episode had the team take out a bunch of terrorist in a school and second episode is about capturing a PKK leader.

Put it here instead of the Netflix thread because it made me think ...

The Kurds have been friendly to the US but are vilified by Turkey. I'm wondering if Turkey really does have a case against them? I know freedom fighter vs terrorist is relative and can also easily believe the US view is clouded because the Kurds support us.

Anyone know the real story?

Longest bull market post WW2 is over for both the NASDAQ and S&P, and close to over for the Dow.

And Trump sits in his bedroom and tweets about how alone he is.

Poor Trump.

Also the Democrats should give him his wall if he sings that song and puts it on youtube.