Could the Government Shutdown backfire???

The polls out out on this one . For President Donald Trump its not good , here are a few things to consider . We have a vary unstable stock market  that I predict for the next few weeks is going to have ups and downs , it looks fragile . (1)>>Can IT CRASH ?  (2)>>THE POLLS, blame President Donald Trump than congressional Democrats for the partial U.S. government shutdown, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday found, as lawmakers returned to Washington with no quick end to the shutdown in sight. AS in no end insight , it could be weeks before this is resolved . (3)>>Trump's plan is to hold the government hostage until his demands for the wall are met .  Trump argues that his wall is needed to stem illegal immigration and drugs entering the country - a key plank in his 2016 presidential campaign.   Seven percent of Americans blamed congressional Republicans.The shutdown was triggered by Trump's demand, largely opposed by Democrats and some Republicans, that taxpayers provide him with $5 billion to help pay for a wall he wants to build on the Mexican border. Its total estimated cost is $23 billion.Just 35 percent of those surveyed in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they backed including money for the wall in a congressional spending bill. Only 25 percent said they supported Trump shutting down the government over the matter. The shutdown, now in its sixth day, has a had limited impact so far, partly due to vacations for the 800,000 federal workers affected.There are two hurdles in front of the off ramp. First, Trump and Democratic Senate leaders must come to an agreement that can also pass the GOP-led House. Once an agreement is reached, leaders may have to call lawmakers back to Washington, endure procedural delays in the Senate and get the bill to the president for his signature. As Trump suggested, a long shutdown is possible given the stakes. Trump ran for president on a promise to build the wall, and conservatives will blame him if he doesn't deliver. (4)>>Democrats are ardently opposed to the wall – which they note Trump said would be paid for by Mexico – and want to extract concessions before giving an inch.Early Saturday morning, Trump tweeted that “we are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay.” Far from being disturbed by the prospect of hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed for an indefinite period, Trump was revelling in setting the news agenda and the fact that he had torpedoed a compromise in the House of Representatives, thereby displaying his dominance over the G.O.P. leadership. Hours after the House passed a spending bill that included more than five billion dollars for his wall, he tweeted, “No matter what happens today in the Senate, Republican House Members should be very proud of themselves . . . I am very proud of you!” Turning his attention to a looming vote in the Senate, he added in yet another tweet early Friday morning, “Shutdown today if Democrats do not vote for Border Security!”With no immediate end to the shutdown in sight, Trump made his remarks during a surprise visit to Iraq and blamed the shutdown on Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was expected to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3.

We need BETTER Border Security .

There are a lot of polls , here is one
I found that shows a strong support
for the wall and the government
shutdown .

Border security is and has always been an important part of the debate on immigration policy. When it comes to border security and management, we need smart enforcement that is humane and transparent and takes into account the daily impact on the 15 million people who live along our borders. The truth is that there is a limited understanding of how many people attempt to cross the border illegally each year. A recent DHS report acknowledged this fact, pointing to substantial discrepancies between internal Border Patrol estimates of border crossings – which are based largely on the physical observations of agents – and a report commissioned by DHS that used statistical techniques based on survey responses and apprehensions data to estimate the overall flow of people across the border. While both methods appear to show that the Border Patrol has become more effective in identifying and apprehending illegal border crossers over time, the DHS report notes that they are still looking for ways to help better understand what the overall flow across the southwest border is. This is key, because without better estimates for the total number of crossings it is impossible to measure how successful U.S. border controls are.

BUT IS IT WORTH SHUTTING THE GOVERNMENT DOWN?
Politically, a shutdown over a wall would be far more disastrous than a shutdown over DACA. But still I would blame both Democrats and Republicans who for decades haw swept aside  immigration reform . Perhaps that Trump throwing the wrench , shutting the border will make both parties work for a sensible solution ???  Remember THAT It is a fence. A big one to be sure but still just a fence. The entire US government is more important than a mere fence. East Germany is known for erecting a wall. North Korea is known for the DMZ it patrols. The fence will not keep.people out nor will it keep people in. All it will do is snare a few votes for Trump from his base. People will go over, around or through the fence. Some will be stopped, some won't. Government shutdowns always lead to  some action. 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>Can IT CRASH ? The S&P 500 rose 3.1% from October 1 to October 16, 2013, the last time the government shut down after a debate about funding the Affordable Care Act left Capitol Hill at a standstill, according to data from LPL Research. The S&P 500 also saw marginal gains during shutdowns under the Clinton administration in 1995 and 1996 and during some shutdowns under Reagan and Carter.  Historically, the stock market has favored government shut downs.However, currently, the stock market has been complaining ever since the Dems won enough elections in November to take the House in January. This was the worst December for the stock market since around 1930. Plus, as the other person mentioned, people are playing around with the interest rates and that always makes the stock market go down.    That was the Dow’s worst Christmas Eve performance in its 122-year history. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index lost 2.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index didn’t fare any better, losing 2.2%. Needless to say, investors who were waiting for a Santa Rally didn’t get it. The shutdown in particular has been brutal for stocks — as the broader market is now in steep correction territory, if not a bear territory. It’s worth asking, aside from the increased volatility, what role will the shutdown play heading into 2019, assuming a resolution is not immediately reached? A government shutdown, as it sounds, is the closure of nonessential offices of the government. Because of lack of funding, federally-run operations will be forced to close and federal employees, unless considered ‘essential,’ won’t be allowed to work. And the government will operate using only cash reserves it has built up. But once that cash runs out, they too will also close.So, whether the government gets shut down or not, the market is in a precarious posture at this point in time. Moreover, it seems many who were not following our analysis about what the break of 2880SPX means to the market and did not see this potential drop coming are now trapped in their longs, wondering what to do, and hoping for a rally. Unfortunately, “hope” is probably the most dangerous four-letter word in an investor’s lexicon and the market may provide more pain to them before any rally is able to take hold.(2)>>THE POLLS, blame President Donald Trump .  However POLLS can be DECEIVING , So I recently added this figure. WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 6 in 10 military veterans voted for Republican candidates in the November midterm elections, and a similar majority had positive views of President Donald Trump's leadership. But women, the fastest growing demographic group in the military, are defying that vote trend.That's according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters — including more than 4,000 current and former service members — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. It found that veterans overall approved of Trump's job performance, showing high support for the president's handling of border security and his efforts to make the U.S. safer from terrorism.Male veterans were much more likely to approve of Trump than those who haven't served, 58 percent to 46 percent.   Contridicting that ~Forty-seven percent of adults hold Trump responsible, while 33 percent blame Democrats in Congress, according to the Dec. 21-25 poll, conducted mostly after the shutdown began   The president’s popularity has dropped below 40 percent amid what is now a six-day partial government shutdown over funding for Trump’s southern border wall, according to a poll from Morning Consult conducted from December 21 to 23. The last time Trump’s approval rating was this low was when he refused to condemn neo-Nazis after the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.Only 39 percent of registered voters approve of the president’s job performance during this shutdown, while 56 percent disapprove. However, Trump’s approval rating is split on party lines. Among Republicans, 80 percent approve of Trump; 90 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents disapprove of his performance, according to the survey of nearly 2,000 registered voters. Another poll from HuffPost and YouGov found only 36 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the government shutdown.Americans disapprove of how Congress has handled the spending fight overall; however, Republicans are seeing more fallout. Only 26 percent of Americans approve of congressional Republicans’ handling of the shutdown, compared to Democrats’ 36 percent approval rating, according to the HuffPost poll.  (3)>>Trump's plan is to hold the government hostage until his demands for the wall are met .  “If Mexico’s going to pay for it, go negotiate with Mexico. Instead what he’s done is shut down the government and tried to stick the American taxpayer with a $5 billion ransom note to build a medieval border wall,” Democrat @RepJeffries says of Trump's proposed border wall. https://t.co/cPtscu0rWM   Government Shutdown set to extend into 2019 after US House, Senate adjourn .  Although both bodies of Congress returned to work on Thursday, the brief session signaled that little, if any, progress had been made toward settling a spending bill stalemate between Congress and the White House, which is demanding $5 billion to fund US President Donald Trump's vision of a border wall along the US' southern border with Mexico. The office of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise sent out a notice early Thursday, notifying members that "no votes are expected in the House this week." The notice went on to explain that a 24-hour notice would be given should things change.Its painfully obvious now that Trump bases his; policies, actions, reversals, ALL on how HE is portrayed.  (4)>>Democrats are ardently opposed to the wall –Democrats are so wholeheartedly against it. They voted for it in 2006. Then-Sen. Obama voted for it. Sen. Schumer voted for it. Sen. Clinton voted for it. So we don’t understand why Democrats are now playing politics . The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, authorized about 700 miles of fencing along certain stretches of land between the border of the United States and Mexico. The act also authorized the use of more vehicle barriers, checkpoints and lighting to curb illegal immigration, and the use of advanced technology such as satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles.At the time the act was being considered, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer were all members of the Senate. (Schumer of New York is now the Senate minority leader.) Obama, Clinton, Schumer and 23 other Democratic senators voted in favor of the act when it passed in the Senate by a vote of 80 to 19.

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?

Saudi Arabia : America's Dark Friend . ( a Comedy of Errors) .

President  Donald Trump gave
12 billion dollars in Military aide to
the  Saudis . Notice
the smile of
Prince Bin Salman .

Another Great  American foreign policy fiasco has to be Saudi Arabia , while (1)>>America's relation with the kingdom has been Rosy , and the oil keeps flowing & if all that matters. The Saudi alliance turned into a great embarrassment to the United States as I will explain. Welcoming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to the White House, Trump said the kingdom has completed $12.5 billion in purchases of planes, missiles and frigates from U.S. companies since his visit to Saudi Arabia last year.  Our Ally in the middle  -east the (2)>>Saudi kingdom hides a dark and sinister problem that has been long ignored by our American government. Saudi Arabia this of course created a very awkward geopolitical situation that of course no one wanted repeated and was one of the reasons why we got a glimpse at the utter absence of any morality between the Saudi and American  alliance . Saudi Arabia was claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed, a story that changed faster than Donald Trump could say “I talked to them, and they denied everything! Case closed!” A short time later, the Saudis admitted the dissident had disappeared, but maintained that they knew nothing. Shortly after that, their story shifted to Khashoggi having been killed in the consulate by a rogue operator, which quickly became, Oh, f--k it. We killed him in a premeditated fashion, and chopped his body up via bone saw—but the prince knew nothing. Even with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  was heading to Saudi Arabia pressure continues to mount for the u.s. to do more however the relationship

(4.1)>>The "infamous" High  Five
between Putin and Saudi Prince
Bin Salman ,
note Trump in the background
looking a little
worried.

between president Trump's son-in-law (3)>>Jared Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Lindsay mentioned it's really put the US administration on a tightrope. U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, reportedly advised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on how to (4)>>best survive the mounting scandal surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The New York Times reported Saturday that Kushner and the crown prince continued to chat informally after Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, despite formal White House procedures for contacts with foreign leaders. The New York Times reviewed emails and text messages between the crown prince and Kushner.  The brazen killing did not occur in isolation. If it was the “game-changer” that many see, it was also the latest, most extreme manifestation of a repressive regime that has acted with virtual impunity while maintaining enviably close ties to Washington. The Saudis did what they did because they assumed they could get away with it. It’s safe to say that only a tiny fraction of Americans had heard of Khashoggi before his disappearance. But in a culture riveted by true-crime horror tales, this one is gripping in its cruelty and grotesquerie: The torture, beheading, and dismemberment of an about-to-be-married newspaper columnist who lived in Washington’s Virginia suburbs, carried out in the supposedly safe place of a consulate and apparently recorded besides. The nightmarish account of a single murder has captured the American imagination in a way that thousands of (5)>>Saudi human-rights atrocities in Yemen, many of them victimizing children, have not. (Yemen itself is known to only a fraction of Americans.)

The American and Saudi war in Yemen .

This is the worst example of or American government drawing the red-line , creating a destabilizing situation in the Middle-East . America is currently involved in Syria with 4000 troops , at the send time allied with the Saudis fight a war in Yemen .  The United States is currently waging war in six Middle East countries — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. America’s participation in these wars may include training the local army, using drones to attack suspected terrorists, providing weapons and logistical support to one side side or the other, or sending in American combat troops — sometimes all of the above. None of the countries in which the U.S.military is involved poses a threat to our national security, least of all Yemen.   The war has killed at least 10,000 Yemenis and left more than 22 million people –three-quarters of Yemen’s population – in need of humanitarian aid. At least 8 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine, and 1 million are infected with cholera. The increased US military support for Saudi actions in Yemen is part of a larger policy shift by Trump and his top advisers since he took office, in which Trump voices constant support for Saudi Arabia and perpetual criticism of its regional rival, Iran. On Thursday, for the first time ever, the Senate used its authority under the 1973 War Powers Resolution to order a president to end U.S. military operations abroad ( should have included Syria as well)  — in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Then, in a nonbinding resolution, the Senate voted to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally responsible for the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The effort to stop American involvement in Yemen is still a long way from a done deal. The House would have to pass the resolution by year's end and President Trump would have to sign it — two steps that likely will not happen

NOTES AND COMMENTS :
(1)>>America's relation with the kingdom has been Rosy. From 2009 to 2016, the Obama administration authorized a record $115bn in military sales to Saudi Arabia, far more than any previous administration. Of that total, US and Saudi officials signed formal deals worth about $58bn, and Washington delivered $14bn worth of weaponry. Before he became president, Trump said the “world’s biggest funder of terrorism” was Saudi Arabia – not Iran. So is his latest claim is just political rhetoric?In his 2015 book, ‘Time to Get Tough,’ which was published ahead of the presidential election, Trump wrote: “Then look at Saudi Arabia. It is the world’s biggest funder of terrorism. Saudi Arabia funnels our petrodollars – our very own money – to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people, while the Saudis rely on us to protect them.”(2)>>Saudi kingdom hides a dark and sinister problem that has been long ignored by our American government. This is a country where crucifixion is still on the books as a possible sentence for crimes, that holds public beheadings, where women are treated as second class citizens even by the standards of America in the 1920s, where homosexuality is punishable by death, and don't even get me started on how they treat THEIR religious minorities.  Saudi Arabia does supply the United States with counterterrorism intelligence. But as Andrew Miller of the Project on Middle East Democracy points out, stopping it “would be a colossal error . . . when there’s already a strong perception in Congress and with Americans that Saudi Arabia has fueled extremism.  Saudi Arabia represents a paradox for U.S. counterterrorism. On the one hand, the Saudi government is a close partner of the United States on counterterrorism. On the other hand, Saudi support for an array of preachers and non-government organizations contributes to an overall climate of radicalization, making it far harder to counter violent extremism. Both these problems are manifest today as the United States seeks to counter the Islamic State and its allies.(3)>>Jared Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.   Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.Kushner “offered the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm” following the journalist’s death, the Times said, citing a Saudi source. Kushner also reportedly became the prince’s “most important defender inside the White House” as the Saudi royal, often referred to by his initials MBS, faced mounting global scrutiny over his alleged involvement in the killing. (4)>>best survive the mounting scandal surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The CIA has reportedly confirmed Mohammed’s complicity in Khashoggi’s slaying. President Trump has dismissed such evidence, however, suggesting last month that even if the prince did personally order the killing, the U.S. would still maintain a close relationship with its wealthy ally. (4.1)>>The "infamous" High  Five . Donald Trump chatted with world leaders during a group photo session at the G20 summit, but walked by without appearing to acknowledge Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The photo shows that he had a vary disappointing glance . I think it was a message , READING it to Donald Trump . A beaming Putin held up his hand to Salman which he quickly grasped before the two sat down side-by-side with big grins on their faces.Their overly-friendly greeting came even though both are at the centre of diplomatic outrages which have made headlines around the world. Putin is in the spotlight after his defence forces opened fire on Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea and the Saudi royal has been linked to the high-profile killing of a journalist in Turkey. Their bizarre greeting came just two days after the Russian leader praised the Prince over the price of oil. (5)>>Saudi human-rights atrocities in Yemen.  Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has to import most of its food and other essentials, and only about half the population is literate. Yemen’s chief asset is the city of Aden, which lies on the Gulf of Aden south of Saudi Arabia and across from Somalia. It is, or was was until recently, a strategic port, one of the  best in the world. Aden was for many years under the control of British Petroleum, Inc., which turned it over to the Yemeni government in 1977. The continuing carnage is the result of a relentless bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates who since last March have been carrying out bombing attacks on Yemen, making no distinction between civilian and military targets. Bombs are hitting homes, schools, factories, power stations, and even hospitals. A Saudi airstrike in mid-June destroyed a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sanaa that had survived for 2,500 years. To date more than 3,000 Yemenis have been killed and at least 11,000 wounded, most of them civilians.Meanwhile the Saudis have  imposed a tight blockade on Yemen that prevents it from importing food, medicine, and other necessities, especially humanitarian aid. Last April Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani called for an immediate ceasefire and for dialogue between the two warring sides. But instead of supporting that call the Obama administration  announced it was speeding up weapons shipments to the Saudis and increasing its intelligence and logistics support.