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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
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WASHINGTON—In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that throws the American strategy in the Middle East into turmoil.
U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.
The move follows a call last week between President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America’s Kurdish partners in Syria.
Trump used his foundation for personal purposes so casually (he apparently paid Don Jr.’s Boy Scouts annual fee with Foundation money) that one suspects he simply doesn’t see the ethical issue here at all.
The Trump Foundation is his foundation, so he seems to believe he can use the money as he sees fit. Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., is his campaign so there’s nothing wrong with him spending campaign money to stay at overpriced Trump hotels. The Republican National Committee is now his party committee so it’s fine to spend RNC money also enriching Trump through his hotels.
The scary step is the next one: To what extent does he see the federal government as his own? We know he holds this belief at least bit. His staff say “he runs the country’s economy.” His hiring of family and firing of irritants also convey that sense of ownership.
But of course, it’s not Trump's government to do with as he pleases. It’s ours -- he’s only the trustee. Similarly, he is not free to use his campaign coffers and his foundation money to benefit himself. All of that is abuse of power and privilege.
New York’s State government has responded to Trump’s abuse of the Foundation’s privileges by shutting down the Foundation. How will America react if Trump shows a pattern of abusing his government power?
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WASHINGTON — President Trump is considering pulling the country’s 2,000 troops out of Syria, in a move that would seek to describe the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday.
An announcement could come as early as Wednesday, administration officials said. But Pentagon officials were still trying to talk the president out of the proposed withdrawal, arguing that such a move would betray Kurdish allies who have fought alongside American troops in Syria and who could find themselves under attack in a military offensive now promised by Turkey.
In a series of meetings and conference calls over the past several days, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other senior national security officials have tried to talk Mr. Trump out of a wholesale troop withdrawal, arguing that it would be a significant national security policy shift that would essentially cede Syria to Russia and Iran at a time when American policy calls for challenging both countries.
And abandoning the American-backed Kurdish allies, Pentagon officials argue, will hamper American efforts in the future to gain the trust of local fighters, from Afghanistan to Yemen to Somalia.
The dramatic https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/im-not-hiding-my-disgust-or-my-disdain-veteran-judge-upends-hopes-of-trump-allies-as-he-spotlights-flynns-misdeeds/2018/12/18/6fe78382-02f1-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.b7740470cec3 (courtroom evisceration of a onetime Trumpworld lieutenant) might have been the absolute turning point, but the arc of history indeed seems to have had just about enough of President Trump’s detour from justice.
And how does it feel? I’m sure to Trump it feels a little bewildering. For the rest of us, it feels like waking up from bewilderment. When a sizable proportion of the information you receive is that up is down, and good is bad, and bad is president, it begins to get disorienting. Is ignorance strength after all? Is the truth determined by who has the votes in the Senate? Is science really decided by belligerent assertion? How long can this go on?
Long. But maybe not as long as we feared. The good that voters accomplished in November is already being felt before a single new member of Congress is seated. The mere existence of an opposition party speaking some recognizable version of English and using basic logic and honesty is enough to trigger the dormant sensation of sanity. It is like the lifting of a persistent fever. And it emboldens people to speak up again. Now we know how the Winkie guards felt when Dorothy doused the Wicked Witch (witch hunt!).
A system of lies and a system of truth cannot coexist. One will inevitably drive out the other. This was the existential danger of Trump, but also his vulnerability. Everyone with eyes could see that the Trump version of reality was naked, but as long as everyone in power was silent (yes, you, Republican Party), we were all trapped in a world of total cognitive dissonance. When the voters rallied to say, “No, the emperor, in fact, has no clothes,” the beginning of the end was at hand. Trumpworld might unravel slowly, or fast, but the spell is broken.
And there is much work to do.
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WTFU ...
The Pentagon opposes withdrawal from Syria, yes. But to be fair, the Kremlin totally supports it.
Senorman
Well-known Member
Trump's only legislation that will be judged kindly by history.
Senate approves Trump-backed criminal justice overhaul
Senate approves Trump-backed criminal justice overhaul
