Trump 43: King of Chaos

[Dandruff]

15 hours ago, Howl said:

So get this. Trump is facing growing support for impeachment.  True, there's no Republican support for impeachment in the Senate, but in this situation, he decides to withdraw support for the Kurds, leaving them to be slaughtered, and it seems to be the ONE THING he's done that has elicited vocal condemnation from Republicans INCLUDING MISS LINDSEY, helping people understand what an astounding and horrific betrayal this is.  

It's also important to remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Christian Kurds throughout the various Kurdish regions. 

Wow, what a distraction.  Pity about all that blood.

I was talking to a Trump voter today and she's appalled by what Trump did to the Kurds.  It's encouraging, though I doubt the really hardcore Trump supporters are moved by it at all.  She voted for Trump because she can't stand Hillary.

[fraurosena]

If there was any doubt left that Trump is in cahoots with Russia...

 

[fraurosena]

Only 10? 

 

[fraurosena]

It was literally on Putin's list in Helsinki. From the very same meeting Trump was so desperate nobody knew what was discussed he confiscated his interpreter's notes.

Trump’s Syria Fiasco Is Part of Putin’s To-Do List

Quote

President Donald J. Trump’s surprise decision to abandon the Kurds and sign off on Turkey’s operation in Syria drew condemnation in the West, but was cheerfully welcomed in Russia, and, for those who follow Russia closely, the contrast revived the ghosts of Helsinki, where Trump’s surrender of American values was on full display.

There in Finland last year, the leader of the most powerful country in the world demonstrated cringeworthy servility toward Vladimir Putin—president of a rogue government sanctioned by the West for a great number of malign activities, including Russia’s brazen interference in the U.S. elections.

The world’s pariah looked triumphant next to the deflated American president. As Trump stood hunched over, with a blank expression, Putin was practically glowing—and he wanted the world to know just how great the meeting went for Russia. Putin held up a thick stack of his notes with both hands, showing them off for the world to see, in effect giving himself the thumbs-up.

Discernible portions of the first page, purposely written in abnormally large script, included references to the election interference, Putin’s request that Russia be allowed to interrogate the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, and also the British businessman Bill Browder, pursuant to the 1999 Treaty with Russia on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. There was a reference to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. And at the bottom of the first page, Putin’s notes also mentioned Syria, where Russia has been wreaking havoc and committing mass atrocities in concert with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and Iran.

For public consumption, the Russian president’s handwriting mentioned “joint humanitarian operations with the goal of creating conditions for the return of refugees.” The reality on the ground tends to create—not dissipate—the flood of refugees, essentially weaponized by Russia and Syria to destabilize Europe.

On Wednesday this week, President Trump nonchalantly commented that if the thousands of ISIS prisoners that are currently being held by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces escape, "they will be escaping to Europe." Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also threatening Europe with a flood of refugees, publicly proclaiming, “We will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way.”

Mystery surrounds the rest of the topics discussed by the President of the United States with the Russian leader in Helsinki, since President Trump confiscated the American interpreter’s notes and remains tight-lipped about his exchanges with Vladimir Putin. But one thing is clear: Trump is moving down Putin’s wish list, fulfilling the Kremlin’s aims at a rapid pace. He is chipping away at U.S. sanctions against Russia, deepening America’s internal divisions on the basis of race, faith, sexual orientation and political affiliation, vocally undermining confidence in our elections, intelligence agencies and institutions, all the while empowering our foreign adversaries and undermining NATO alliances.

The two other points on the list are also important in light of current revelations, the impeachment inquiry and the arrest of Giuliani's two friends.

1. "Interference" - proposal

2. Ukraine - new ideas, transit of gas

[fraurosena]

So Trump, now that the Turks have bombed American Special Forces... still no sanctions?

Turkey Bombs US Special Forces In Syria Attack

Quote

A contingent of U.S. Special Forces has been caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria, days after President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart he would withdraw U.S. troops from certain positions in the area.

Newsweek has learned through both an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official and senior Pentagon official that Special Forces operating on Mashtenour hill in the majority-Kurdish city of Kobani fell under artillery fire from Turkish forces conducting their so-called "Operation Peace Spring" against Kurdish fighters backed by the U.S. but considered terrorist organizations by Turkey.

The senior Pentagon official said that Turkish forces should be aware of U.S. positions "down to the grid." The official could not specify the exact number of personnel present, but indicated they were "small numbers below company level," so somewhere between 15 and 100 troops.

Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on the situation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long warned he would storm the border to establish a so-called "safe zone" and, after the White House announced Sunday that U.S. troops would stand aside, he launched the operation earlier this week.

In its Sunday statement, the White House had said that U.S. troops "will no longer be in the immediate area" as Turkey and allied Syrian rebels commenced their assault. During Friday's press conference, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army General Mark Milley said that U.S. personnel were "still co-located" save for "two small outposts" near the border with Turkey. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said 50 Special Forces personnel had been repositioned ahead of the Turkish and allied Syrian rebel assault.

The U.S. first partnered with the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in 2015 to battle the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as the country shifted its support away from an increasingly Islamist opposition seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group proved effective in beating back the jihadis, but the U.S.' decision was opposed by Turkey, a NATO member that has faced off with a decades-long insurgency by Kurdish separatists.

Turkey remains the last major sponsor of the Syrian opposition, made up largely of members of the country's Syrian Arab majority, and has mobilized up to a thousand fighters from these forces, along with hundreds of its own troops, in order to seize territory currently administered by a majority-Kurdish autonomous administration that spans the country's north and east. This self-governing entity has not been recognized by Ankara nor the central government in Damascus, which has secured much of the rest of the country's territory with the help of Russia, Iran and allied militias.

 

[fraurosena]

Look who met 3 weeks ago to discuss and make plans for Syria – Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani

Quote

Ironically, we have to turn to the Kremlin’s English-language website for information on the Trilateral summit on settlement in Syria held in Ankara, Turkey on September 16, 2019.

en.kremlin.ru/…

At the link, there are additional links onward to press statements and a 14-point Syria plan agreed by Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani at the meeting.

The Kurds weren’t invited to the summit and they weren’t mentioned directly but it’s clear that the three leaders agreed to deal with them in some unspecified way to guarantee Syria’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

From the 14-point statement released jointly by Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani ( [the author's] italics added): 

2. Emphasized their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic . . .

4. Discussed the situation in the northeast of Syria, emphasized that security and stability in this region can only be achieved on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and agreed to coordinate their efforts to this end.

5. Rejected in this regard all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism, including illegitimate self-rule initiatives, and expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria as well as threatening the national security of neighboring countries.

The full statement can be found at the link here: en.kremlin.ru/…

In his speech at the summit, Putin also said:

Naturally, the situation in the northeast of Syria is a source of concern. Problems of security in this area and other parts of Syria should be resolved based exclusively on preserving its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We consider it unacceptable to divide Syria into spheres of influence.

en.kremlin.ru/…

In Q&A with reporters at the summit, Putin was even asked about the US presence in Syria. Here’s what he said:

Question: With due consideration for the US presence in Syria, I would also like to ask how you assess the US presence on Syrian territory?

Vladimir Putin: Regarding the presence of the US Armed Forces, it is common knowledge that their presence on Syrian territory is illegal. And we hope that the decision to withdraw US service personnel from Syria, made by President of the United States Donald Trump will be implemented completely.

en.kremlin.ru/…

What was Trump doing during the Trilateral Summit? He was bellowing about the drone/missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil processing facility and blaming Iran for it which is all but forgotten now. 

None of it makes much sense unless you accept the fact that Putin is calling the shots. Everywhere.

 

[smittykins]

Federal judge blocks administration’s “public charge” rule

 

ETA:  Oops, should’ve checked the “”Border Patrol Disasters” thread first...

Edited October 11, 2019 by smittykins

[fraurosena]

Trump's very presiduncial reaction to the news that American Special Forces were bombed by the Turks. 

 

[AnywhereButHere]

 

Quote

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security since April and the fourth person to serve in that post since the Trump presidency began, submitted his resignation to the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

"Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down. Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector," Trump said. "Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done! I will be announcing the new Acting Secretary next week. Many wonderful candidates!"

A source familiar with McAleenan's thinking tells CNN that the acting secretary felt he had accomplished all he could given the political realities of today -- specifically the unlikelihood that any legislative deal on immigration will happen in an election year. Moreover, with the numbers of undocumented immigrants apprehended or turned away at the border coming down for the fourth consecutive month -- 52,546 in September, a 65% drop from May -- the lack of crisis is dissuading members of Congress to act and compromise. McAleenan also has two young daughters and a wife with whom he wants to spend more time.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/11/politics/mcaleenan-resigns-homeland-security-secretary/index.html

 

And another resignation is in the books. McAleenan makes the fourth holder of that position in what, 3 years? We all know the “King of Chaos” would prefer to just run the whole show himself, so god only knows who/if he will get to fill the job. He says soon- but... Just what we need is no head of homeland security (or a pandering sycophant) with all of the shit getting stirred up by president fucknut. 
 

[fraurosena]

This is the direct consequence of letting Trump do whatever he wants. 
Fuck him, and fuck everybody who’s enabling him twice as hard.

 

[fraurosena]

Isn’t this an open act of war?

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5da143e0e4b06ddfc51a0d8b/amp

Good plan. Let’s start with you Fucknut. One way trip?

Quote

President Donald Trump made two head-turning promises at his Louisiana campaign rally Friday: He’s going to put an end to socialism — and put a man on the moon.

The crowd in Lake Charles roared.

Two problems: What socialism is he talking about? Social Security? His $28 billion in subsidies to his “patriot farmers” to help them survive his trade war with China?

And 12 Americans have already walked on the moon, beginning in 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Trump actually has met Aldrin, but apparently they didn’t discuss the moonwalk.

 

[fraurosena]

Her death lies at Trump’s feet. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Impeachment has put Trump in a different place. He’s showing it every day."

Spoiler

President Trump delivered a characteristic performance Thursday night in Minneapolis. His 100-minute rally speech was complete with scattered vulgarities, caustic attacks on political opponents, including former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and an accusation that Democrats who have begun an impeachment inquiry are carrying out “a brazen attempt to overthrow our government.”

For the president it was all in a day’s work, and ever since the first stories broke three weeks ago about Trump’s efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to help find damaging information about the Bidens and about Hillary Clinton, there has been some version of the Minnesota performance virtually every day.

Many Americans have become inured to the president’s volatile behavior. Yet even by the standards of this presidency, Trump has been operating beyond his often-untethered bounds. His Twitter feed has been more frantic, his public comments angrier and more abusive, his sense of victimhood more on display than ever. Including his attacks on the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, there may be no period in the entirety of Trump’s presidency comparable to the behavior now on display.

Along the political spectrum, there is a shared sense that the country has entered into a new and more worrisome phase of Trump’s presidency. To some who have long been critical of the president, Trump’s actions with regard to Ukraine and his call to China to launch its own investigation of Biden and his son have brought a heightened sense of alarm. Others, who have been more measured in their assessments of the president over time, see the country in a period of crisis that will test the strength of America’s constitutional democracy and its institutions.

“The crisis of the last few weeks over President Trump’s unlawful and unethical behavior is different and more damaging than any other involving past presidents over the past half century,” Nicholas Burns — a retired career diplomat, former undersecretary of state and Trump critic for some time — noted in an email exchange. “Trump’s behavior in the Ukraine scandal is qualitatively different and more challenging to our democracy.”

Andrew Card, White House chief of staff to President George W. Bush, called the contents of the call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “grossly inappropriate.” He supports the opening of the impeachment inquiry, though he has reserved judgment as to whether the president committed impeachable acts. Still, he worries about the way it is all unfolding.

“Social media has brought the mob very close to the rule,” he said in an interview. “I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this. I blame all parties. The president takes advantage of emotions, and I think that some of the leaders of the Democratic Party take advantage of it by generating emotions.”

The signs of the damage to Trump’s standing have begun to pile up as the investigations continue. Last week, one poll after another highlighted the degree to which public opinion about impeachment has shifted, with majorities now in favor of the inquiry started by House Democrats after months in which a majority opposed such a proceeding. The percentage of people who say Trump should be impeached and removed from office also has risen. One of those polls came from what has long been the president’s favorite news organization, Fox News, which brought a cry of condemnation from the president.

The president’s behavior gives expression to the judgment he seems to have reached, that what he faces is not going away and requires him to fight back with all the energy he can muster. The urgency and defensiveness of his statements — he has repeated again and again that the call with Zelensky was “perfect”— and the sharpness of his attacks on those who are closing in on him underscore the frustrations and anger.

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who has attacked the current impeachment inquiry as “an unconstitutional coup d’etat” and who says Trump will emerge victorious in his reelection bid, is among those who sense a deeper level of frustration — and therefore combativeness — on the part of the president. On Fox News on Friday morning, he suggested Trump would benefit by ratcheting back. “On occasion, I think he would be better off to edit his tweets,” he said. “He says things that are stronger than he needs to say them.”

Most Republican elected officials have remained silent. For many, what they see is troubling but not necessarily impeachable. They contend there is nothing to be gained and likely much to lose by taking on the president at this moment. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has not called for impeachment but nonetheless has been sharply critical of the president’s actions with regard to Ukraine and China, has felt the lash from the president. Others are not eager to jump into that spotlight.

Trump has also given Republicans another way to vent with his decision to allow Turkish forces to move into northern Syria against the Kurds, who have been among America’s staunchest allies in the fight against Islamic State forces there. Even loyalists like Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) have condemned the decision as one of the worst foreign policy blunders of the Trump administration. The breach within the GOP comes at one of the most vulnerable moments of Trump’s presidency.

This is just the fourth impeachment process in the nation’s history, but it is the third in the past half-century. No two are alike. The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 involved a long struggle between the president and Congress over race and equality in the period of reconstruction after the Civil War that ultimately was triggered when Johnson ignored an act of Congress (later declared unconstitutional).

The impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon grew out of a politically motivated burglary that ultimately revealed efforts to subvert the Constitution and Nixon’s role in trying to cover it up. President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power, but the triggering cause was his having had sex with a White House intern.

What the current inquiry will become is still an open question, with Democrats facing difficult questions about how narrowly or broadly to make the investigation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to ask for a vote of the full House for any aspect of the proceeding. There is no requirement that she do so, but it was done in previous cases.

Meanwhile, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the point person as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has made at least two missteps — reading at a public hearing what was a bogus version of the Trump call and separately claiming no contact with the whistleblower before the complaint became public knowledge — that have drawn legitimate criticism.

The core issue in the impeachment inquiry remains Trump’s willingness to pressure Ukraine to go after political rivals, including one, Biden, who could become his 2020 challenger, a project in which he allowed his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani to circumvent the State Department and the National Security Council to run a shadow operation. Adding to the intrigue were the arrests on Thursday of two Giuliani associates, who were detained shortly before they were to depart the United States carrying one-way tickets.

A look at Trump’s Twitter feed from the time of the first revelations about the phone call with Zelensky and the existence of a whistleblower’s complaint that had been reviewed by the intelligence community’s inspector general shows a president under great stress and flailing as he fights back.

“Another Fake News story out there – It never ends!” he tweeted in part on the morning of Sept. 19, at a time The Washington Post was revealing first details of the call. The tweet continued, “Is anyone dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call.”

The next day he was attacking “the Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff.” A day later, he said “the pretend Ukraine scandal is another malicious seditious effort to protect the Obama/Clinton gang.”

The following week, while at the United Nations, he sent out 11 tweets or retweets, in part to announce that he was going to release a transcript of the telephone call. He sent out another nine between 10:25 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. that night. The next day, in the space of 15 minutes, his Twitter feed spewed out 11 retweets from people calling the rough transcript proof that he did nothing wrong or attacking Democrats.

The morning of Sept. 26, the day that acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before Schiff’s committee, brought another burst, with 40 tweets or retweets going out between 7 a.m. and 8:35 a.m. One, in all capital letters, read, “THE GREATEST SCAM IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS!”

As the week progressed, Trump used Twitter to escalate his attacks on Schiff and to defend himself. “IT WAS A PERFECT CONVERSATION WITH UKRAINE PRESIDENT!” read one. Another said, “I AM DRAINING THE SWAMP!” Three tweets popped within minutes on the morning of Sept. 28: “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” “MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN!” “KEEP AMERICA GREAT.”

On the night of Sept. 28, there were two dozen mostly retweets after 10 p.m. followed by another roughly two dozen retweets before noon on Sept. 29. That night he began to attack the whistleblower and, again, Schiff. “His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber,” read one tweet.

The next days brought more denunciations of Schiff, the Democrats and his accusers. He described Schiff as a “lowlife” and attacked the “Do Nothing Democrats” for “wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT.”

On Oct. 2, his anger moved from Twitter to words spoken in the White House. During an Oval Office appearance with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, he said Schiff should be looked at for treason and, comparing Schiff with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said: “I won’t say it because they’ll say it was so terrible to say. But that guy couldn’t carry his ‘blank’ strap. You understand that?” He was referring to a jock strap.

He attacked the media. “We have the most dishonest media that you can imagine and you should be ashamed of yourselves,” he said to the assembled reporters. He likened the whistleblower to a spy and called Biden and Hunter “corrupt.” “I think Biden has never been a smart guy, and he’s less smart now than he ever was.” He ended that encounter by calling the media “the enemy of the people,” adding, “Have a good day everybody. Go write some phony stories. . . . Just another day in paradise.”

Later in the day, at a joint news conference with Niinisto, Trump said, “I always cooperate” when asked if the administration would cooperate with subpoena requests from the House, while labeling the inquiry “a fraudulent crime on the American people.” Later, his White House counsel sent a letter to Congress calling the impeachment effort unconstitutional and asserting there would be no cooperation.

In the news conference, Jeff Mason of Reuters asked what Trump wanted about Biden from the Ukrainians. That set the president off on a long but unresponsive answer. Mason tried repeatedly to get a belligerent Trump to answer the question, which he would not do.

The following two nights, in tweets, he claimed the power to do what he had done with Ukraine. “As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!”

A day later he called Romney “a pompous ass” who “never knew how to win.” He added, “He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY.”

Last week, as criticism mounted over his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria, giving Turkey the opening to attack the Kurds, he blasted out another tweet that revealed how he thinks about his powers. “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I have done before!).”

“I suspect part of what has happened,” Gingrich said in an interview, “is just kind of exhaustion. It’s a little bit like being in the batter’s box, and you endure the entire Mueller process. It disappears. You take a deep breath and think you can go out for a beer, and you’re still in the batter’s box. And there’s a cycle which I think drives him crazy.”

He added, “I think Trump’s a pretty good fighter who sort of thought in his mind we’d get to the end of this cycle. And what he’s discovered is, he can’t move on. . . . I think there will come a point where he will shift gears and go into more of an endurance mode.”

Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster, said he sees Trump as ill-suited by temperament for the impeachment test. Impeachment is a lengthy process, he said, but Trump “looks at every day as a fire sale. How many things can I do to control or dominate the day. . . . Every day is a new day and a new war.”

Tom Ridge, the former secretary of homeland security and governor of Pennsylvania, has long criticized Trump’s behavior but said the impeachment inquiry “has probably brought it to the fore in a much more dramatic way.” The president’s use of Twitter to respond is “the worst possible use of his platform as president of the United States to deal with these issues.”

Card offered a final observation by taking a step back. “I feel our democracy is tarnished today, and I want to get out there today and start to polish it up,” he said. “Impeachment is always a stain on democracy. I think leaders should always be picked and removed by the ballot box. But impeachment is there. It should be respected. It should be taken very seriously, without hyperbole.”

 

[fraurosena]

He’s put innocent kids in cages. Now he’s gone a step further. He’s put kids in the way of an invading army, and getting them killed. 
Really something to be proud of to have as your legacy, isn’t it:  ‘caused the death of innocent women and children’
 

 

[Howl]

Stolen from Twitter re Kurds:   Donghazi. 

[WiseGirl]

I love Sarah but I hate that she is being proven correct time and time again.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Dandruff]

27 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Considering what he does when he's "working", folks may be better off with him on a golf course...sickening as it is.

[WiseGirl]

If I knew how to put her whole thread together I would. Damn her insight makes me nervous. *side note must get off of Twitter or I'll never sleep. I miss the days when I was just following comedians and weather forecasters.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[GreyhoundFan]

An interesting op-ed: "It’s clear. Trump doesn’t want to be president anymore."

Spoiler

Nancy Gibbs, a former managing editor of Time, is the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

With each passing day, President Trump flaunts his great and unmatched wisdom and so invites us to play armchair, arm’s-length therapists. So let me float an untested theory about what is unfolding before our eyes. And then let’s test it.

What if the president wants out? There’s much about the job he never liked, which is one reason he spends so much time watching TV rather than actually doing it. Under normal circumstances, it involves any number of things he once avoided; shaking hands with germy people, being talked at by experts who know more than he, sitting still for extended periods, being criticized no matter what he does, empathizing — all important parts of the job. He has gone to considerable lengths to reshape the role, fired the experts, cleared his schedule, kept up his golf game … but still. The campaigning was fun, but the best evidence of how little he likes presiding is how seldom he’s actually done it.

I got a glimpse of this before he even reported for duty. It was a few weeks after the 2016 election, and I interviewed him in his Trump Tower aerie. He was jovial, gracious, answered all the questions, was reveling in his impending power. As we were finishing, I asked if I could come back later and see him in the White House, to see how it was going. “Yes, of course,” he said. But then he paused and asked, “But … what if I don’t like it? What if I don’t want to do it anymore?” Sometimes half-joking questions are the most serious.

He has claimed so often to love being president that it’s easy to think he protests too much. And he’d hardly be the first to be restless: Harry S. Truman called the White House the “great white jail.” Bill Clinton dubbed it “the crown jewel of the federal penal system.” Most presidents endure the serial stresses of hard decisions, the weight of making life-and-death choices, all the teetering values and visions that leadership entails. They live with the fallout, find solace where they can, including in commiseration with their predecessors.

Trump escapes the frustration of failing to accomplish his agenda by not having ever had one, beyond his continued exaltation. He could count this moment as a high point: record-low unemployment, still soaring stock markets, judicial transformation. It’s easy to imagine it’s all downhill — and fast — from here. His confidence in his supreme wisdom leads him to make even reckless decisions, such as his abandonment of America’s trust with its Kurdish partners, with no evidence of regret or remorse other than disliking the criticism for doing it. But ever since the Ukraine scandal erupted, his rage-tweeting and Wagnerian self-pity suggest that the incoming fire for his misconduct, occasionally even from his defenders and enablers, has made these days even less fun than usual.

All of which raises the question: the release of the Ukraine information, the double-dare-you defiance of congressional oversight, the sellout in Syria, even the rising profanity of his Twitter stream each seem expertly suited to inflaming one constituency or another, and not just the people who have loathed him from Day One. The polls are moving for a reason: Republicans and independents, even those serving in Congress, may not agree where the line is, but they know there’s one somewhere, and it does not involve a shooting on Fifth Avenue.

Consciously or not, might he conclude that impeachment and removal is his least bad option for escaping the “great white jail”? Resigning is out; that’s for quitters. Defeat in 2020 is worse; losing is for losers. But being impeached and removed from office is the one outcome that preserves at least some ability to denounce the deep state and the quislings in the Senate who stabbed him in the back, maintain his bond with his tribe, depart the capital and launch a media business to compete with the ever more flaccid Fox News. (This all presumes that President Pence pardons him, for which there’s some precedent.) Impeachment lets him go down fighting, and he will call it rigged and unfair and illegitimate and a coup, all of which would be harder if the verdict was rendered next November by millions of voters.

So what would count as a sign of his escape velocity? Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump decamping for Manhattan. Trump issuing an executive order renaming Reagan National Airport after himself. He fires Elaine Chao and starts campaigning against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. He kicks a puppy on the South Lawn, in front of the cameras.

When you think about it, with a choice of bad options, impeachment doesn’t look so bad, and gets you home to your gilded tower sooner. Assuming, that is, that you don’t think you can just burn the Constitution to the ground and be the last one standing.

 

[WiseGirl]

Watching the news this morning.  Fuck you 45, fuck you. Washing your hands of the Kurds. You have their blood on your hands and your conscience.  Oh that's right you don'thave one. ISIS has risen again, Americans are in danger before they can evacuate, and who is helping the Kurds right now? The Syrian Army. Your threat of sanctions are like pissing in the wind.  I can't is this how WWIII starts? Does Putin give you America to rule over forever as your reward? I am so angry and so fearful for America's future right now.

[AnywhereButHere]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/abandoned-by-us-in-syria-kurds-find-new-ally-in-american-foe/ar-AAIICaG?ocid=ientp

Quote

DOHUK, Iraq — Kurdish forces long allied with the United States in Syria announced a new deal on Sunday with the government in Damascus, a sworn enemy of Washington that is backed by Russia, as Turkish troops moved deeper into their territory and President Trump ordered the withdrawal of the American military from northern Syria.

The sudden shift marked a major turning point in Syria’s long war.

For five years, United States policy relied on collaborating with the Kurdish-led forces both to fight the Islamic State and to limit the influence of Iran and Russia, which support the Syrian government, with a goal of maintaining some leverage over any future settlement of the conflict.

 

On Sunday, after Mr. Trump abruptly abandoned that approach, American leverage appeared all but gone. That threatened to give President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian and Russian backers a free hand. It also jeopardized hard-won gains against the Islamic State — and potentially opened the door for its return.

The Kurds’ deal with Damascus paved the way for government forces to return to the country’s northeast for the first time in years to try to repel a Turkish invasion launched after the Trump administration pulled American troops out of the way. The pullout has already unleashed chaos and bloodletting.

With all of the chaos, I can't imagine the job the next president (I refuse to believe Fucknut will win again) will have to get it all fixed. How do you even begin to repair the mess this guy has landed us in?