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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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President Trump has called the impeachment inquiry facing him “bullshit” and tweeted furiously that it is nothing less than a coup. He has even warned of a civil war. These claims are as incendiary as his demonization of immigrants, his barely veiled https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/21/trump-keeps-pushing-anti-semitic-stereotypes-he-thinks-hes-praising-jews/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2 (anti-Semitism) and his embrace by and of https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/19/far-right-proud-boys-chairman-sat-behind-trump-his-latest-speech/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2 (white supremacists), all of which have already led to violence, hate crimes and slaughter.
That is the threat he holds over our heads: to “tear our country apart” if Congress holds him accountable, a threat militia groups, including those with ties to white power organizing, are taking seriously. Yet if we bow down to his threats, it will once again be the United States capitulating to extortion, something made possible by Trump’s commitment to a raft of racist policies he promises his base in return for unchecked power.
When it comes to a nation held hostage to racism, we have been here before.
...
In other words, even when faced with the potential of nuclear annihilation, protecting Jim Crow trumped protecting the nation.
That same destructive pattern defines the United States today as it sits at another crossroads: Are we going to defend American democracy, equal rights and the rule of law or bow down to protect Trump and the white supremacist state he is attempting to rebuild?
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From the very beginning then, Trump has staked his presidency on a 21st-century version of white supremacy, emerging around the globe. It is in the service of both white nationalism and his own interests that Trump has repeatedly abused his office and American power and, in the process, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-us-has-no-rules-for-when-the-president-is-a-national-security-threat/2019/09/20/68c84412-dbac-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_36 (threatened U.S. national security). All of this should have triggered the constitutional guardrails to protect the Republic. It didn’t.
Why? Because Trump remains in high standing with predominantly white Republican base voters who have been vocal about their fears of diversity. A Pew Research Center study showed 46 percent of white adults believe “a majority nonwhite population will weaken American culture.” A New Jersey police chief blatantly expressed his belief that Trump is the “last hope for white people.” It is Trump’s policies that valorize such views and so endear him to https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-claims-higher-job-approval-among-republicans-than-recent-polls-have-found/2019/08/23/0e6c68c8-c599-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_38 (Republicans), which, in turn, protects him from accountability.
Until now.
It took a Democratic House of Representatives and his attempt to shake down the Ukrainian president to get dirt on a political opponent to finally launch an impeachment inquiry.
Trump’s response to the impeachment investigation is revealing: He has encouraged the well-armed and unregulated right-wing militia to go to war if he is held accountable for violating his oath of office and betraying the United States. Just as Southerners did on the eve of the Civil War, historian Heather Cox Richardson has noted, “when Trump threatens civil war, he is not just talking about saving his own hide; he is calling for his supporters to rally around race and gender so they protect the oligarchy that has been gathering power for a generation or more.”
Since the nation’s founding, the refusal to believe in democracy and follow through on the nation’s ideals — equality and freedom — has been the nation’s consistent enemy. Time and time again, white supremacists have sacrificed these principles to advance their own interests and that of their white supporters. Trump has followed suit, adding the disregard for the rule of law to the list. When challenged, he has also invoked the strategy white supremacist leaders have also mastered: threats of violence and extortion.
Unfortunately, Trump’s threats seem to be working. Although “democracy is fighting for its life,” some have contended that regardless of how well justified impeaching him is, it would be https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-best-antidote-for-a-bad-election-is-a-better-election/2019/09/27/3c2105e2-e080-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_45 (perilous) for the nation to follow the constitutional mandate for accountability and the rule of law. It would be “dragging America into new and stormy seas.” But that sentiment is the same Damocles’ sword that has hung over the United States since the Revolutionary War.
It is time we have to call white supremacy’s bluff.
It is not a belief in democracy that could tear this nation apart. Rather, it is not believing in it that has been this nation’s consistent enemy.
I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken.
"I am ashamed for the first time in my career."
This veteran US Special forces soldier has trained indigenous forces on multiple continents. He is on the frontlines tonight and said they are witnessing Turkish atrocities.
"Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It's horrible," this military source on the ground told me.
"We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks - NONE - from this side of the border." "This is insanity," the concerned US service member told me. ""I don't know what they call atrocities but they are happening."
This American soldier told me the Kurds have not left their positions guarding the ISIS prisoners. In fact "they prevented a prison break last night without us."
"They are not abandoning our side (yet)."
The Kurds are "pleading for our support." We are doing "nothing."
Troops on the ground in Syria and their commanders were "surprised" by the decision Sunday night.
Of the President's decision: "He doesn't understand the problem. He doesn't understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level headed actor."
Acc to this US soldier on the ground tonight in Syria: "The Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone. "It's a shame. It's horrible." "This is not helping the ISIS fight." Re: ISIS prisoners: "Many of them will be free in the coming days and weeks."
This US Special Forces soldier wanted me to know: "The Kurds are sticking by us. No other partner I have ever dealt with would stand by us."
Disappointed in the decisions coming from their senior leaders.
Thread by @JenGriffinFNC: "I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the S […]"
"I am ashamed for the first time in my career."
This veteran US Special forces soldier has trained indigenous forces on multiple continents. He is on the frontlines tonight and said they are witnessing Turkish atrocities.
"Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It's horrible," this military source on the ground told me.
"We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks - NONE - from this side of the border." "This is insanity," the concerned US service member told me. ""I don't know what they call atrocities but they are happening."
This American soldier told me the Kurds have not left their positions guarding the ISIS prisoners. In fact "they prevented a prison break last night without us."
"They are not abandoning our side (yet)."
The Kurds are "pleading for our support." We are doing "nothing."
Troops on the ground in Syria and their commanders were "surprised" by the decision Sunday night.
Of the President's decision: "He doesn't understand the problem. He doesn't understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level headed actor."
Acc to this US soldier on the ground tonight in Syria: "The Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone. "It's a shame. It's horrible." "This is not helping the ISIS fight." Re: ISIS prisoners: "Many of them will be free in the coming days and weeks."
This US Special Forces soldier wanted me to know: "The Kurds are sticking by us. No other partner I have ever dealt with would stand by us."
Disappointed in the decisions coming from their senior leaders.
Thread by @JenGriffinFNC: "I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the S […]"
(CNN) President Donald Trump first came to national attention with his 1987 ghostwritten bestseller, "The Art of the Deal."
As commander in chief he has excelled in The Art of Creating a Crisis.
Exhibit A is the unfolding debacle in Turkey, where an invasion of Syria by the Turks -- green-lighted, in effect, by President Trump -- is exposing America's Kurdish allies to the wrath of the second-largest military in NATO.
This came after a call Sunday between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which Trump said he would be pulling American forces out of northeastern Syria. Their presence there was effectively preventing a Turkish invasion.
Trump tweeted "it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home."
Then he shifted gears, threatening on Twitter to "obliterate" the Turkish economy if the Turks did "anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits."
The United States doesn't generally threaten longtime NATO allies in this manner.
Trump has taken us here before: He abruptly ordered all US troops out of Syria in December and then changed his mind when his advisers pointed out that this benefited a quartet of American adversaries: ISIS, Iran, Russia and the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
As I wrote Monday in this space, can anyone make sense of President Trump's Syria policy, other than Donald Trump?
But the fact is, Trump's Syria policy is of a piece with his approach to other key national security challenges that he has made worse by his consistently inconsistent foreign policy.
George Conway and 15 other high-profile conservative lawyers argued Thursday that the House should begin an "expeditious" impeachment investigation into President Trump's interactions with foreign governments, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-conway-and-other-prominent-conservatives-call-for-expeditious-impeachment-probe/2019/10/09/4971b404-eade-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html (reports the Washington Post).
Why it matters: The lawyers are targeting their joint letter at Republican lawmakers who — for the most part — have backed Trump's version of events, especially when it comes to his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We have not just a political candidate open to receiving foreign assistance to better his chances at winning an election, but a current president openly and privately calling on foreign governments to actively interfere in the most sacred of U.S. democratic processes, our elections."
The big picture: The group of lawyers is part of the Check and Balances coalition that Conway formed a last year to call out Trump when he acts in a manner they deem illegal and unconstitutional.
- Many of the lawyers who've signed onto the letter have worked in previous Republican administrations.
- Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, told the Post he thought the letter was too measured: "I would vote for impeachment, and I would vote for conviction and removal in the Senate as well."
