Trump's washington chaos & Syria .

Trump to Schumer :
"I’m going to shut it down for border security.”

Trump's  Washington is a blaze and  chaos is getting out of control. Take all the words , dysfunctional . Welcome to divided government! (1)>>Get READY FOR A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN !  So Trump was unleased,  Democratic leaders say the government has shut down because President Donald Trump threw a "temper tantrum." (“Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats,” Pelosi interjected.) Trump owns any future government shutdown, because he said so! (2)>>(“I’m going to shut it down for border security.”) He lost control of the narrative on his own turf! (“You just said my way or shut down the government,” Schumer observed.) Vice President Mike Pence, also in the room, he looke a bit dazed , if not sleeping . (Thought bubble: “Wanna get away?”)  Trump spouted on ward “I am proud to shut down the government for border security,” Trump told the Democratic leaders. “I will take the mantle. I will shut it down, I’m not going to blame you for it.”  A government shutdown is expected as President Trump continues to demand border wall funding and Democrats in Congress say they won't support the 5 billion dollars he wants.  The chaos that is President Donald Trump's White House seemed to wash over the Capitol as this weekend's partial federal shutdown hovered. While the workings of Congress are often tumultuous, especially as year-end adjournment nears, things seemed even more unbridled than usual. Recently Trump tweeted the opposite. The president is now attempting to shift blame to Democrats less than 24 hours before parts of the government have already shutdown at midnight Friday.  Despite heated showdown at the White House and despite Trump not acknowledging the realities of his midterm defeat, the president is on

Schumer : " No Wall!" 

the verge of a significant bipartisan legislative victory. “Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reversed course on Tuesday and said that the Senate would vote on a criminal justice bill before the end of the year, stiff-arming some of his hard-line conservatives and teeing up a bipartisan policy achievement that has eluded lawmakers for years,” per the New York Times. The president earlier tweeted that if Senate Democrats block the measure as promised, it “will be a Democrat Shutdown!” “The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED. If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time. People don’t want Open Borders and Crime!” he added in the tweet.    Only in Donald Trump’s Washington is a looming government shutdown not the lead political story in America today — but just one of several chaotic events in the last 24 hours.The shutdown ended before that could happen, but it’s unclear what happens after federal money runs out in the event of a prolonged government shutdown. 

Goodbye Jeff Sessions !

The List of persons I like to see gone from the Trump Administration is a big one . We have seen the likes of Nikki Haley resigning [ no offence here she is a smart woman , but she followed the hype of the Washingtonian war machine on Syria , Iran and Russia , epic fail , she could have done better as a peace maker , but none the lass] (3)>>BUT Jeff Sessions was something out of the era of the Cold War on Drugs.  I gather that the Trump agenda was organically a continuation on the war on Drugs , the same policy of hard line incarceration of offenders . AS the nation was moving forward , Sessions was going backwards on the drug policy . While the pharmaceutical industry pushed a legal addictive opioid into the market system , causing deaths . The government was heading towards relapse . U.S. tide is clearly turning in favor of marijuana decriminalization. Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C. (4)>>have legalized medical marijuana. On January 1, California joined Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in legalizing the sale of recreational pot. This legalization movement finally killed the war on drugs . While Trump wanted agressive action by the Feds to stop legalization, Jeff Sessions sent a letter to congressional leaders stating his opposition to the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment (also known as the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment), which was implemented to protect legalized medical marijuana programs.On other issues related to criminal justice like civil asset forfeiture, Sessions has taken a hard line stance , with him and Trump jokingly stating that they would end the career of a Texas state Senator trying to pass reform in his state on civil asset forfeiture. For those who don’t know, civil asset forfeiture is when the government seizes property, cash, vehicles, and even in some cases homes, from an individual, and the individual must prove that their property is not involved in criminal activity. In these cases, the prosecutor is also the judge and a lawyer is not required to be provided. ANY CASE Sessions wanted to take the nation back to era of lynchings . Its no loss that he is gone .
Goodbye Gen . Mattis!

(5)>>With SO MANY BEMOANING the departure of Gen. Mattis resigning . CNN headline  reported that Mattis leaving would signal "global chaos". I thought REALLY ? See "Mad Dog" Mattis out may be a good thing . As I would explain . [ see  the Mattis resignation letter ] Though he addressed his letter to Trump, it was a warning clearly targeted at the lawmakers, especially Republicans, who so admire him. It was also aimed at Americans outside Washington, flagging that the nation is heading down a dangerous path. Mattis as Trump's choice -- was crazy from the vary start . The former head of US Central Command, Mattis was a central figure in the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is known for his strong anti-Iran stance and blunt words, one of the most popular quotes being "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet", the motto he expected US Marines to follow in Iraq. While under Mattis we exposed to the notorious atrocities committed in Iraq during Bush administration. Although Mattis argued against the siege of Fallujah beforehand, both international and U.S. law are clear: As the commanding general, he should be held accountable for atrocities committed by Marines under his command. But before Mattis’ command in Iraq ended, he was involved in another controversial incident. On May 19, less than three weeks after his forces pulled back from Fallujah, Mattis personally authorized an attack on a wedding party near the Syrian border. The Iraqi government said the strike left 42 civilians dead, including at least 13 children.The killings roiled Iraq, coming so soon after the carnage of Fallujah – but Mattis stood by his action, arguing the dead were insurgents. While the Trump chaos  has some rationality behind it He is career military man. The Secretary of Defense power over the military is second only to the President. how Trump appeared to be surrounding himself with anti-Iran warmongers and that Iran has long been the "next war", the final step in the neocons plan for remaking the Middle East ?. The final country on Wes Clark's infamous "seven countries in five years" discovered plan in the hallways of the Pentagon. See Gen. Mattis gone could be a blessing in disguise .

Withdrawing Troops from Syria .

The most bizarre aspect reaction was from MSNBC  Rachel @Maddow's deep anger over troop (5)>>withdrawal from Syria is that she wrote an entire book in 2012 denouncing illegal US Endless War without congressional approval - exactly what Syria is. ALL the Left Media & Republican senators , the whole war caboose was in shock & had a meltdown , Maddow for one was jumping up and down when Trump fired rockets into Syria last year . Now a 360' degree turn about . Hypocrisy unreal . Many of Trump's critics called the U.S. troop withdrawal an early Christmas gift for Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran and IS."This is a give-away," Joe Scarborough, one of the leading anti-Trumpers at MSNBC's "Morning Joe," told viewers on Thursday. "This is foreign policy welfare for Vladimir Putin.. He can't even believe his luck. Or, I'm sorry -- maybe he can. Maybe this is connected to something that none of us know about."But with the exception of a few Republican non-interventionists, many congressional Republicans (and Democrats) also blasted Trump's planned troop withdrawal, which came as a surprise as lawmakers prepared to leave town for Christmas. You may remember that the U.S. Congress refused to authorize intervention in Syria in 2013, when President Obama kicked the question to them. They refused to do so because of polls showing that Americans opposed intervention overwhelmingly, roughly 70–30. And support for intervention tends to go down over time. However, U.S. forces had already been active in Syria, and in Syria’s civil war, for at least a year by that point, working with the CIA to arm and train Sunnis fighting the government. Alas, in our scramble to find “moderate rebels,” we often ended up arming Al Nusra, the franchise of al-Qaeda that is native to Syria. The US had no strategy of how to stay in Syria, now it is clear it has no strategy of how to leave.Pentagon and state department officials were left scrambling to interpret an abrupt change in course from the US policy decided over the summer to keep forces in Syria to ensure the “enduring defeat of IS” and act as a bulwark against Iranian influence. Our presence in Syria no doubt helped damage the Islamic State, which has lost almost all the territory it once held and is besieged by more powerful enemies. Its chances of making a significant resurgence are now remote enough that this is a good time for us to take our leave. Any danger the group poses can be handled by Syria, Turkey, Russia, Israel, Jordan and Iraq.Staying in Syria carries the risk of a fatal clash between American forces and those of Russia, Turkey or Iran, which could lead to even greater entanglement. There is no compelling reason to court that possibility in a conflict that is irrelevant to our national security. It was a mistake for the U.S. to venture into Syria, but we’ve been lucky enough to avoid any catastrophic consequences —a greater war with Russia .

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>Get READY FOR A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN !     If the government shuts down, nine government agencies — the US Treasury, along with the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, the Interior, State, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Commerce and Justice — will not be funded. Government workers who are deemed "essential" will still have to work over the holidays without pay, including air traffic controllers, railroad safety inspectors, TSA agents, during the busy holiday travel season, and Customs and Border Protection agents  . The shutdown doesn’t affect the politicians responsible for it. White House staff and members of Congress continue to get paid when the government shuts down. But what the two-week 2013 shutdown showed is that some Americans really do suffer — specifically poor families, janitors, security guards, and other low-wage federal contractors.Similar spending battles have led to two shorter shutdowns during Trump’s presidency. But even the three-day partial shutdown in January disrupted the lives of Americans all across the country. Hundreds of thousands of nonessential government workers — from Florida to Alaska — were told to start closing their offices and many of the services they provide. Subsidized grocery stores for military families had started closing, certain training programs for military veterans had been put on hold, and janitors at multiple federal building were told not to report to work .   We remember when Obama locked the gates in Europe where U.S. cemeteries and memorials of our war dead are interred at Normandy and other places. Roadblocks were erected outside of parks like Mount Rushmore to prevent people from seeing the mountain faces even outside of the park itself. Barricades were erected in D.C. to prevent tourists and veterans from visiting memorials, including the Vietnam Wall. The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels were grounded as publicity stunts by the Democrats. (2)>>(“I’m going to shut it down for border security.”) He lost control of the narrative on his own turf!  Lawmakers for more than a decade have struggled to resolve the thorniest policy issue in Washington. The stakes when House Republican legislation failed spectacularly  appeared particularly high: The Trump administration faces nationwide backlash over the crisis created by its policy of separating migrant children from parents at U.S. borders. For years, Congress has pushed for some form of immigration reform. The proposals have varied, and come under both Republican and Democratic control of Capitol Hill and the White House. Many bills in recent years have aimed to tighten border security measures while providing a path to legal status or citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants. Government failure kicking the can in regards to immigration reform .  Open borders is why we have a DACA problem. But even if we grant amnesty to children brought here by others we need to stop that problem now otherwise it will just continue to grow as a problem. I doubt that many children crossed the border without help and those helping them should be deported. No willful illegal immigrant should be granted immunity. They have broken the law and should pay the price. No illegal immigrant should be released into our society and then forgotten about when they fail to show up for their court hearing. This is a gross failure of government to uphold our immigration laws. The immigration system is not broken as some claim. What is broken is our enforcement of the law.(3)>>BUT Jeff Sessions was something out of the era of the Cold War . Mr Trump has been vociferous in his criticism of the Department of Justice.He has been particularly riled by its handling of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.Mr Sessions, an early supporter of Mr Trump's campaign, has stepped aside from that inquiry to avoid a potential conflict of interest and handed control to his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.That decision by Mr Sessions, and the ongoing progress of the inquiry under special counsel Robert Mueller - which is also reportedly now looking into whether Mr Trump has attempted to obstruct justice - have provoked frequent outbursts from the president, both in person and on his Twitter feed.The president remains insistent that there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, and denies he has attempted to obstruct justice.Turning to the Russia inquiry, the president said: "Jeff Sessions recused himself, which he shouldn't have done. Or he should have told me [before I appointed him].Trump has been frustrated with Sessions, who was once one of his closest advisers, for months, ever since Sessions’s Russia-investigation recusal. And he certainly appears to be considering firing the attorney general — on Monday, the Post reported that Trump asked one advisor how it would play in “conservative media” if he cut Sessions loose, and whether he could mitigate the damage by picking another conservative like Texas Senator Ted Cruz. (Longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani has also been floated as a replacement; Trump reportedly told Giuliani that he could have the AG job weeks after it was offered to Sessions, and before this whole rigamarole began.)(4)>>have legalized medical marijuana. Even as public opinion shifts in favor of marijuana legalization, with sixty percent of Americans supporting broad legalization and ninety percent supporting medical use, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice (DOJ) continue to stonewall efforts to expand availability of cannabis and cannabis-derived treatments for medical research. In testimony to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee in April, Sessions argued that although recent studies have shown that access to medical marijuana reduces opioid overdose deaths, the evidence to support expanding access is still insufficient.Yet despite the economic and humanitarian gains from expanding research into of medical marijuana, the DOJ refuses to expand marijuana production for scientific use.(5)>>With SO MANY BEMOANING the departure of Gen. Mattis resigning . Its obvious that Mattis has the nick name "Mad Dog" for a reason .  As the commander of the First Marine Division in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Mattis earned a daunting reputation as a master of kinetic warfare. During the push to Baghdad, he relieved one of his sub-unit commanders for not advancing fast enough. Mattis’ anti-Iran animus is so intense that it led President Barack Obama to replace him as Centcom commander.  Behind Mattis, who has restrained the President’s worst impulses in foreign policy, are potential replacements for Secretary of Defense like John Bolton, a legendary arms manufacturer liaison and current National Security Advisor, and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s first CIA chief and current Secretary of State. They seek the advancement of war against Iran and the dismantling of its military, which they see as the only thing that could keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Iranian government.   In 2007 he coauthored, with David Petraeus, the “Counterinsurgency Field Manual,” the template for the successful “surge” in Iraq. So fond of combat was Mattis that the Marines’ affectionate nickname for him was “Mad Dog.”   General Mattis is a dictionary of quotes in his own right. I especially like the way he meets and greets. “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you [expletive] with me, I’ll kill you all.” With Mattis, however, you get much more than just words. You get deeds. (5)>>withdrawal from Syria .But some liberal voices, who would normally be skeptical of open-ended military commitments of dubious legality and strategic value, have also been rallying around Secretary of Defense James Mattis—who wants commitments of exactly that sort to continue indefinitely—and questioning Trump’s motives.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s announcement a “Christmas gift to Vladimir Putin. Minutes after Donald Trump’s announced U.S. military airstrikes in Syria, Rachel Maddow said on her MSNBC show that no matter how the decision was made, the timing has the appearance of a “wag the dog” situation.“There are national security consequences to having a presidency that is as chaotic as Mr. Trump’s presidency, that is as consumed by scandal and criminal intrigue as his presidency is,” Maddow said.  According to Maddow, enemies and allies alike may believe that Trump “issued the order to launch this strike tonight, even in part, because… he wanted to distract from a catastrophic domestic scandal that is blowing up at home at the same time.” It’s tempting to wonder how the debate over President Trump’s announced withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan would have played out if it were a decision by Barack Obama or another Democratic president. The loudest criticism has come from Republican lawmakers and commentators of a neoconservative bent like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Marc Thiessen, and Bill Kristol. Rachel Maddow devoted a segment of her show on Wednesday to the argument that Trump might be doing this to distract from the latest Mueller investigation news. The New York Times editorial board, which has raised alarms repeatedly about the “forever wars,” wrote on Wednesday that Trump should listen to his more hawkish advisors—that withdrawal from Syria would be a gift to Putin and an abandonment of America’s Kurdish allies. Some left-wing Democrats, Rep. Ro Khanna for instance, have come out in full support of Trump’s move. But other Democrats, particularly the leading 2020 candidates, seem to be mostly holding back, letting Republicans fight about this among themselves.Are Democrats simply, as some contend, just hypocrites, opposing a withdrawal they would otherwise support simply because it’s Trump who ordered it? Some naked partisanship is clearly coming into play, particularly in the cable news reactions. And it’s also undoubtedly true that Democrats are more comfortable decrying forever wars in the abstract, without contending with what ending them would actually entail: strategic victories for U.S. adversaries, the abandonment of local allies and civilians to a grim fate.And it’s worth pointing out that in the last three consecutive presidential elections, the winners explicitly vowed to get us out of Iraq and/or Afghanistan — let alone Syria — and defeated their interventionist opponents. Obama was elected and reelected to end the Iraq occupation, and was then sucked back in by the exact same arguments we are hearing today. Trump was even more adamant in ending imperial overreach, but after two years, guess what? We are still in Syria and we have more troops in Afghanistan (and are currently conducting an air campaign there as ferocious as any in the past) and we have — more than ever before — jumped into the eternal Sunni-Shiite war by supporting the Saudi royal dictatorship. In the Syrian case, there is no constitutional defense at all: no congressional authorization whatever. And if there had been a congressional vote to start a new war in Syria, does anyone believe it would have passed? Ideally, the U.S. should not be the world police, nor was it envisioned as one by our Founders anyway. Remember Washington and Jefferson's famous statements about avoiding permanent and entangling foreign alliances?