US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Why the Government is Shut Down, Critics Knock Trump, Syrian Women Want to Know Where Their Men are, and lots more for December 29, 2018


Trump's Presidency Has Changed Washington, Defied Convention
Exactly what we elected him to do!!!
And we’re supporting every further effort he makes to get rid of entrenched bureaucrats and blood-sucking politicians and lobbyists.
Mr. Trump went to Washington. And he changed it.
In his first two years in office, President Donald Trump has rewritten the rules of the presidency and the norms of the nation's capital, casting aside codes of conduct and traditions that have held for generations.
In Trump's Washington, facts are less relevant. Insults and highly personal attacks are increasingly employed by members of both parties. The White House press briefing is all but gone, international summits are optional, the arts are an afterthought and everything — including inherently nonpartisan institutions and investigations — is suddenly political.
Taking a wrecking ball to decorum and institutions, Trump has changed, in ways both subtle and profound, how Washington works and how it is viewed by the rest of the nation and world.

Why is the Government Shut Down?
It’s really easy to see how the budget process works for the executive branch. The president tells the various branches to submit a plan of what they need for the next year. The president goes over it and sends what he wants to the House and Senate. Both bodies have standing budget committees and they go over the figures and decide what can be spent. They write up and pass budget resolutions and send them to the president for his signature.
It should be noted that before President Trump was elected, the US operated for over a decade without an approved budget!
Major events and policy announcements on the budget:
President Donald Trump signed the first minibus, a $147 billion minibus bill that included funding for military construction and veterans’ affairs, the legislative branch, and energy and water, on September 21, 2018.
Notice how congress made sure it had its money to operate. And there’s nowhere on the net that I can find that tells how that money is determined. But, here’s the 2019 budget for the House @ https://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=395271 for$1.2 billion. I can’t find one for the senate.
The judicial branch budget for 2019 is @ https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/fy_2019_congressional_budget_summary_final_0.pdf for $7.22 billion and it includes the entire federal judiciary.
The president signed a second minibus spending bill on September 28, 2018. The $854 billion bill included funding for the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Education. It also included a short-term stopgap bill to fund departments that were not funded through the appropriations process through December 7, 2018.
Legislators are also working on a third minibus spending bill to fund the departments of Interior, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.
Legislators chose not to address funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Trump’s request for border wall funding, until after the midterm elections.
So, it’s the last budget bill that’s hung up in Congress. The government in the agencies in the 3rd bill are the ones who don’t have money to operate.
In other words, THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT IS NOT SHUT DOWN!!!
And the 3rd included money for DHS, which is the department responsible for building the wall. That’s where the president has said enough. Don’t give him the money and he’ll let that part of the government shut down, sending the employees home.
A big note: 44,000 members of the Coast Guard are still performing their duties along with Border Patrol and I.C.E. agents.
I hope the whole thing now makes sense.
My question is; how long can this shutdown go on?

America’s Abysmal Divide Over President Trump
The political division in today’s America is deeper than the Mariana Trench.
And it seems to deepen every day the president does something to further his campaign promises.
Those who support him strengthen that support daily. They deeply believe in what he’s doing and wish him nothing but success.
On the other hand, the fervent, even unbalanced, hatred of the president strengthens every day too.
It’s deeply saddening.
I must admit that I had little respect for President Clinton and his adventures with women other than his wife.
I wanted to admire President Carter because of his naval service but quickly felt disappointment with his policies and actions. I deeply admire him today for his dedication to building homes for the needy.
I was disappointed with President Obama and freely admit to expressing my dislike for him on a frequent basis. I even admit to being a Birther and have a strong feeling that his Christianity was not real.
But, I never hated any of them. And certainly not similar to the hatred shown by Antifa, Democrats, or Progressives and Socialists.
I strongly believe in the adage; The vessel that contains hatred soon corrodes.
How can the haters go through their daily lives? How can they productively fulfill the requirements of their jobs? What kind of family lives do they have?
Is there even a sliver of joy in their lives?
Their hatred saddens me.
The final question is; will it ever end? Or is it only going to get worse?
What will the results be?
Too many questions and too few answers.

Adding to my Oped on the subject:
Why (Most) Right-Wing Intellectuals Hate Trump
Similarly, the anti-Trump right-wing intellectual bristles at a political system that does not “appropriately” value their “expertise” and “superior” knowledge and which, consequently, elevates a “buffoon” like Trump to the presidency—and on the shoulders of millions of those “deplorables,” no less. Anti-Trump right-wing intellectuals traffic in information, the gold standard in today’s world, something upon which we are ever-more reliant. Yet, in this arena, the American electorate defied them and their harebrained “proposals,” offered coercively, not through persuasion. Brazenly so. Thus, they resent the man who smashed their pretensions of politics-as-white-paper-drafting-session and roundly repudiated their perceived “right to rule.”
No wonder they hate him!
Joe Scarborough: ‘Donald Trump Is on Track to Be the Worst President in Modern Times’ @ https://ijr.com/scarborough-trump-worst-president-modern-times/
Jemele Hill Does Not Regret Calling Donald Trump a ‘White Supremacist’ @ https://www.lifezette.com/2018/12/jemele-hill-does-not-regret-calling-donald-trump-a-white-supremacist/
Rev. Graham: 'News Media' Attacks on Trump Are 'Vicious and Relentless,' 'Sickening' @ https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/rev-graham-news-media-attacks-trump-are-vicious-and-relentless-sickening
Amen!
How long have they been digging and seeking to dig up 50 year-old dirt on Donald J. Trump? They’ll never give up.

And a bit of Trump support:
PARENTS OF 7-YEAR OLD Whose Phone Call With Trump Went Viral Tell The Media To Knock Off Politicizing The Call: Trump Was “Very Kind, Generous” @ https://100percentfedup.com/parents-of-7-year-old-whose-phone-call-with-trump-went-viral-tell-the-media-to-knock-off-politicizing-the-call-trump-was-very-kind-generous/

Critics Knocked Trump for Not Visiting Troops on Christmas
Oh yeah? Then how did these pictures of he and Melania [I don’t remember Moochelle ever going] at Al Asad Air Base near Baghdad in Iraq come about?
 Additionally, the president, accompanied by National Security Adviser John Bolton, met with political and military leaders during his visit to Iraq.
“We don’t want to be taken advantage of any more by countries that use us and use our incredible military to protect them. They don’t pay for it, and they’re going to have to.”
The media is so damned quick to jump all over him!
Fake News Media Eats Crow After Reporting, ‘Trump Becomes First US President Since 2002 Not to Visit Troops at Christmastime’ @ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/fake-news-media-eats-crow-after-reporting-trump-becomes-first-us-president-since-2002-not-to-visit-troops-at-christmastime/
Trump finally hews to ritual of meeting troops in harm's way @ http://myconnection.cox.com/article/world/fa8ecd24-0995-11e9-8b17-3dc8a2e31599/

Dems Delaying Confirmation of '350 Great People'
It’s not easy to find out just who those 350 are. From what I understand, they are a mix of judges and sub-department heads and agency chiefs. The clearest piece on this is a press release by Senator Alexander (R-Tenn) @ https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/5/sen-alexander-democrat-delays-could-cause-trump-to-bypass-senate-on-350-key-nominees
"The Democrats OBSTRUCTION of the desperately needed Wall, where they almost all recently agreed it should be built, is exceeded only by their OBSTRUCTION of 350 great people wanting & expecting to come into Government after being delayed for more than two years, a U.S. record!" he added.

No, Trump Didn’t Reveal A ‘Covert’ Navy SEAL Team In Iraq
Another bullpoop report by an anti-Trump Newsweek reporter. I watched the video and didn’t see a single thing that would have outed a covert mission or outed members of a SEAL team.
The media stumbles all over itself trying to find negative things to say about our president.

Celebrities Supporting Our Troops Over this Holidays
Of all the charities floating around out there, the USA tops my list. It was always there for me when I traveled and USO shows in ‘Nam were jewels.
So, here’s something you won’t see on ABC, CBS, NBC, and for sure not on CNN:
Many stars — including actors Wilmer Valderrama (“That ’70s Show,” “NCIS”)(shown above right) and Milo Ventimiglia (“Rocky Balboa,” “This Is Us”), Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White, singer Kellie Pickler (above left), CrossFit world champion Mat Fraser, DJ J. Dayz, and comedian Jessimae Peluso — participated in the 18th annual USO Holiday Tour. They traveling to U.S. military bases in Norway, Bahrain and Iraq over the past week, showing their appreciation for all that the military does for our nation.

Kwanzaa: A Fraud Holiday With A Racist Goal, Created By Criminal Madman
Oh boy, Posting this is going to ramp up the rhetoric and I’m going to be called all sorts of racist names for doing it.
One thing I’ve noticed this year; almost nothing on the boob tube about it nor in the news feeds.
Suddenly lost its popularity?
Those who are around my age woke up one December and discovered that the “holiday season” of Christmas and New Year’s became a trio, with the addition of something called Kwanzaa. Oh, sure there were rumblings of a new holiday. But strangely in this country where political correctness is on overload, a day invented in 1966 by a rapist who ran a Black separatist group is considered by some as a holiday on par with Christmas, or New Year’s. Kwanzaa is exclusively an American holiday and is not celebrated in any other part of the world (including Africa). The name Kwanzaa comes from a phrase of Swahili origin, “Matunda Ya Kwanza”, and translates as “First Fruits of the Harvest.” That’s right it’s supposed to be spelled with only one “a,” the very name of this supposed holiday is a typo.
Kwanzaa runs from December 26th-January 1st. It’s supposed to be a week-long holiday honoring African culture and traditions but is tainted by its founder and original purpose.
The man who created the holiday, Maulana Karenga, was convicted in 1971  of torturing two women who were members of US (United Slaves), a black nationalist cult he had founded. A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times related the testimony of one of the women:

Guatemalan Migrant Father Declined Medical Treatment For Sick Child Before Death
At last! The truth.
The media rants and raves at the abject cruelty of ICE and the Border Patrol for letting another poor immigrant child die in their custody.
Cold hearted bastards.
Following the child’s first discharge from the hospital, both he and the father were put into a temporary holding facility where agents were aware of the child’s illness and provided the child with his medication. A few hours after the father and boy entered the facility, the child complained of being nauseous and later vomited.
It was at this point the father declined further medical treatment for his son and told officials he “had been feeling better,” an official said.
During a subsequent welfare check, agents at the facility noticed the child’s condition and transported him to the hospital. The child later lost consciousness during transit and was eventually declared dead just before midnight.
Government officials did not comment on why exactly they think the father denied further treatment for his child, despite him exhibiting more severe symptoms.
Get that? The father knew the child was ill and wouldn’t let the doctors do more to save the child’s life. The father – if he was really the father – let the child die.
Illegal Alien Children In CBP Custody To Be Medically Examined After Second Death, Agency Says @ https://www.weaselzippers.us/406677-illegal-alien-children-in-cbp-custody-to-be-medically-examined-after-second-death-agency-says/
What good will that do is the so-called parents won’t let the medical people do their job?
CBS Anchor To DHS Official: How Could You Let Sick Immigrant Child Out Of Hospital? Official: Uh, Have You Heard Of Doctors? @ https://www.dailywire.com/news/39699/watch-cbs-anchor-dhs-official-how-could-you-let-hank-berrien

‘Kick Them Out’: Syrian Women Tell Europe to Send Men Home to Rebuild Country
This is, by far, one of the best headlines I’ve read in many months. Too bad it’s only Syrian women complaining. Women from a whole lot of countries need to be speaking up.
Syrian women are complaining that there are not enough men to rebuild the county, and have told Europe and other Western countries that have absorbed their young men to “kick them out” and send them home.
Journalist at Swedish public broadcaster SVT Johan-Mathias Sommarström travelled to Damascus, Syria, and spoke to some of the students at the University of Damascus, 70 per cent of whom he observed are women.
“Look around, you just see women. The university, on the street, in cafes, just women,” students Safaa and Sheima told Sommarström.
And the article ends with this:
The conflict sparked the mass migration of mostly young men out of Syria to Europe in 2015. In response, the United Nations wrote the world’s first global governance compact on migration.
Two dozen countries rejected the agreement when signed this month, with President Trump saying in September at the UN General Assembly, “Ultimately, the only long-term solution to the migration crisis is to help people build more hopeful futures in their home countries [and] make their countries great again.”

Oh, great. Russia takes over Venezuela’s oil industry
The oil workers have quit and Maduro’s military can’t take up the slack. The once oil-rich country is near bankruptcy and Cuba is too poor to help more.
So, who steps in?
Why Russia, of course.
We already learned that Russia was sending bombers to Venezuela for military exercises and supporting the country’s imploding economy. What could Vladimir Putin have wanted in exchange? We’re probably seeing the answer come into focus as Russia moves in to “help” Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as we head into the new year. Putin is going to bail out Maduro’s failing government with some cash in exchange for establishing some measure of control over that nation’s vast crude oil reserves that are currently lying mostly dormant.
Do you think Putin will also step in to the argument between Venezuela and Guyana? I wouldn’t be surprised.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system
This appears to be an honest assessment of the system set up in 1948 after WWII.
Why should we Americans care about it? Because the Democrat party line is to establish universal care here. We must look at these pros and cons in order to make an informed decision.
The National Health Service, or NHS, is the United Kingdom's public universal health system. It was established in 1948 after World War II, and has since grown to become a massive operation: The NHS sees a million patients every day. It employs 1.7 million people, which makes it the fifth biggest employer in the entire world. And of course, it is free at the point of use for U.K. residents. If you walk into an NHS hospital with a broken arm, you'll walk out with a cast, a few x-rays, and zero bills to pay. That's because people who live in the U.K., myself included, contribute to the NHS through taxes and national insurance payments (the U.K.'s version of Social Security).
And, here’s the biggest problem:
But this system is far from perfect. It is plagued by funding problems and staff shortages. We encountered the NHS's dark underbelly after postnatal complications landed us in the hospital. The NHS gave me a healthy baby, yes. But the NHS also gave me nightmares that still wake me from a dead sleep, even nine months on.
The NHS is practically begging doctors from other countries to come to work for it, even offering fully-paid tuition to medical school for pre-med students.
A similar system exists in Canada and it should surprise nobody that many Canadians cross the border to get their much-needed treatments here. The only advantage to us is, that like Mexico, medications there are much cheaper than here.

Fast-food industry turns to seniors as reliable workers
Have you seen it where you live?
But here’s a News Flash that potential employers seem to be rediscovering: Senior citizens have a lifetime of job discipline experience in work and social settings in the real world, not online, an attention span beyond four seconds and the accompanying self-confidence that makes them ideal for customer interactions in such retail work.
Many retired folks are looking for part-time work, a little extra cash and don’t have the long-term career ambitious expectations for advancement and pay increases.
So, where are young people going to start out their work careers?

How Much of the Internet Is Fake?
Some of us [like me] spend hours every day scanning the web for news and information. How many of us stop to ponder just how much of what we see is generated by humans? According to this, a lot of it isn’t!
How much of the internet is fake? Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years, according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot. For a period of time in 2013, the Times reported this year, a full half of YouTube traffic was “bots masquerading as people,” a portion so high that employees feared an inflection point after which YouTube’s systems for detecting fraudulent traffic would begin to regard bot traffic as real and human traffic as fake. They called this hypothetical event “the Inversion.”
The metrics are fake.
The people are fake.
The businesses are fake.
The content is fake.
Our politics are fake.
We ourselves are fake.
And the final paragraph asks; “Where does that leave us?”
My response is; screwed!

The Babylon Bee
Waiting Period Mandated For Nerf Gun Purchases @ https://babylonbee.com/news/waiting-period-mandated-for-nerf-gun-purchases

Public Service Announcement: You May Now Play Christmas Music @ https://babylonbee.com/news/psa-ok-now-you-can-play-christmas-music
Survey: Most Voters Skeptical of Polling Accuracy
A poll to learn that people don’t trust polls. How’s that for irony?
A HarrisX survey posted on The Hill's website found 52 percent of registered voters are doubtful about surveys they hear about in the news media.
According to the survey, 29 percent of respondents said they do not believe most polls, but they do trust a few; 19 percent said they "almost never" believe polls are accurate.
While the majority were mistrustful of polls, 15 percent of respondents said they "almost always" believed in polls they heard about in the press. Thirty-three percent said they believed most polls but not all of them.

Posted by Dale Day at 3:26 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, December 26, 2018

The Wall, Government Shutdown, The Middle East and a Whole Lot More for December 26, 2018

The President’s Enemies and Their Confected Drama
He’s attacked from all sides.
Daily.
Everywhere one looks the pundits come after every decision he makes.
But remember; they’re not just attacking him.
They are attacking the millions of Americans who put him into office and still support him.
You and me.
These endless cyclonic attacks on Trump have moved most of the polls 1 or 2 percent, but have not undercut the strength of his support. And it is hard to see what more the Democrats can do—all their tame commentators are wagging their heads and tongues and fingers as strenuously and constantly as they can.
The academics are all in. The elected Democratic hate-leaders are all in. The tenacity of the swamp-dwellers is formidable, and demands respect. They have ruled the country with their front feet in the trough essentially since Ronald Reagan rode into the sunset more than 20 years ago, but there is no indication that the decay and failure of their stewardship has reduced in the slightest their assurance of their moral right to rule and to destroy anyone who would challenge them, especially this, admittedly very provoking enemy.

Trump's campaign promises - has he delivered on them?
There’s another thread on this just about every other day. I would love to see some comparisons between this president and previous ones.
Here the list from this particular site and I know it’s not complete:
Tax Cuts ✔ Delivered
Paris Climate Deal ✔ Delivered
Supreme Court Nominee ✔ Delivered not only once but twice. And maybe a third time.
Bombing IS ✔ Delivered
Bringing troops home … partially delivered
Trade deals … Partially delivered
Ban on Muslims … Partially delivered
Cuba thaw no more … Partially delivered
Obamacare … Partially delivered
Moving Israel embassy … Partially delivered
A Border wall paid for by Mexico 👎 No progress
Deporting all illegal immigrants 👎 No progress
Ditching NATO 😡 Abandoned
China as currency manipulator 😡 Abandoned
Torture 😡 Abandoned
Prosecuting Hillary Clinton 😡 Abandoned [But, with a new AG, perhaps not]
Rebuilding infrastructure 👎 No progress
Explanations for each of these @ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37982000

U.S. Taxpayers Billed $115M to Study Quails on Cocaine, Donkey Hunting
And there’s a whole lot more! Damn pols keeping promises to cut the pork and they never do. Never.
American taxpayers this year have also been forced to subsidize:
$76 million to provide stipends to Somali National Army
$18 million to promote tourism in Egypt
$2.4 million to study daydreaming
$1 million to support “legislative priorities” in Libya
$875,000 to study the sexual habits of quails on cocaine
$635,000 to develop a Pashto-language TV drama series for Afghanistan
$400,000 to support asset seizure programs in Paraguay
$360,000 to study horse and donkey hunting on the ancient Anatolian Peninsula
$250,000 to teach Rwandan special interest groups how to lobby elected officials
$75,000 to make videos marketing U.S. colleges to Indian students
$75,000 to blow leaf blowers at lizards
$35,000 to encourage people in the Republic of the Congo to use local resources
$15,000 to fund a fictionalized opera about Prince Harry, called “Stone Prince”
$50,000 to create conceptualized games in India
$50,000 to teach female entrepreneurs in India how to “vlog”
$50,000 to fund museum trips in Bosnia & Herzegovina
American taxpayers have paid nearly $30 million since 2014 to fund “reintegration” gift bags for illegal aliens and their children who were deported from the U.S. to their home countries, Breitbart News reported.

President Trump to Stay in Washington During the Holidays
And the media’s going nuts about it!
No chance of going after him for making a budget-shattering trip to Mar-a-Lago. [And no chance for the press who follows him to head for warm weather.]
Even Politico seemed a bit miffed that journalists didn’t get to harp on the “optics” of the situation.
“Trump’s decision to stay in D.C. for the time being is a recognition of the poor optics of having the president at his luxury resort while the government is closed — furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and halting some federal services near the holidays,” they reported.
In other words, that’s one less Christmas present for the media this holiday season. And the very prospect makes me all the merrier.
Trump Cancels Christmas In Florida To Deal With Shutdown In DC Which Will Continue Until Thursday @ https://www.weaselzippers.us/406456-trump-cancels-christmas-in-florida-to-deal-with-shutdown-in-dc-which-will-continue-until-thursday/

BORDER CHAOS:
Border Patrol Nabs Group Of 306 Central Americans, Sex Offenders, Gangs, Drugs Crossing
Yet Schmurrmer and Peslopi don’t want to authorize the money to secure the border! Will someone please explain why to me?
Caught near the Tucson, AZ border. A massive stretch of the Tonto O’Ohdam reservation.
This is a trend that we’re seeing of large groups bold enough to try to cross. Could it be that they feel emboldened by the immigrant rights groups who want open borders? They call Americans the “invaders’ and believe immigration is a right.
And the arrests stretch all along the border to the Gulf of Mexico.


This is trash left by illegals at an Arizona desert on the border. This goes on for MILES and MILES. Why don't liberal "environmentalists" want to end this trashing of America's land?
Another reason why we need the wall!

ICE Drops Off 400+ Undocumented Immigrants at El Paso Greyhound Station
Where the hell are they going? And who’s paying for their tickets? Nothing said about those.
Possibly 200 more immigrants are expected to be released on Christmas Day, said Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar.
"Everything keeps changing by the hour," Escobar said.
Lori Burnett, a volunteer at Nazareth Hall, said Annunciation House, which helps immigrants passing through the area, took them in.
ICE, when reached by CNN, blamed inaction by Congress.
"To mitigate the risk of holding family units past the timeframe allotted to the government, ICE has curtailed reviews of post-release plans from families apprehended along the southwest border," reads an emailed statement. "ICE continues to work with local and state officials and NGO partners in the area so they are prepared to provide assistance with transportation or other services."

The President Can Build the Border Wall Without Congressional Approval
I’ve seen a number of similar reports, including a commentary from Rush Limbaugh. As Chief-Executive of the United States, the president has power over the entire executive branch and can allocate unused funds wherever he wishes. With literally hundreds of billions just hanging around, he can redirect enough to the US Army Corps of Engineers to have that body let out contracts to have the wall built.
Is that what he’ll do? For how much? And when?
A week ago, the White House put out a call to federal agencies to look for “pots of money” in their existing budgets that could be cobbled together to pay for border wall construction. Immediately, Sen. John Thune, the Republican whip in the upper chamber, shot down the idea of shifting funds from executive departments to the border, saying, “I’m not a big fan of moving money.” Like it or not, there are sources of revenue in the executive branch that the president has authority to use without congressional approval.
Minus an 11th-hour deal in the Senate, the only way a border wall will get built is if the president uses executive power to do it. He has the funds available and the authority to build the wall on his own. The only question is whether President Trump will finally start taking advice from those who actually support his goals rather than continuing to trust the internal obstructionists.

Trump Says Contract Awarded to Build 115 Miles of Border Wall in Texas
Certainly not a penny ante deal.
No word on how much the contract was for.
The announcement comes after President Trump met with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other officials on Monday to discuss border security issues as a partial government shutdown over the U.S.-Mexico border wall entered Christmas without a clear resolution in sight.

Trump Points Out Media Double Standard on Syria Withdrawal
Should this surprise anyone? It’s amazing the turn around since the time Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency. What they wanted then, they now oppose.
Just going back to The Times, the newspaper had no problem exposing its own hypocrisy, if only to lambaste the president.
“Syria is a complex problem. But this plan seems poorly conceived, too dependent on military action and fueled by wishful thinking,” The Times wrote in a January 2018 editorial.
And here they are now:
Fast forward 11 months, however, and The Times editorial board was  writing Thursday that “Jim Mattis Was Right” and wondering, “Who will protect America now?”
“It could also risk getting American soldiers killed or wounded for objectives their commanders had already abandoned,” The Times wrote about Trump’s decision to leave Syria.

Pelosi ‘shaken’ by Mattis’ resignation
Why wasn’t she “shaken” when Obama fired him?
Doncha love the double standards of the Left? They were “for” Syria before the president announced the pull out.
I am told that General Mattis was traveling and in a meeting when an aide passed him a note telling him that the Pentagon had announced his replacement as head of Central Command. It was news to him — he hadn’t received a phone call or a heads-up from anyone at the Pentagon or the White House.
The reason for the firing, Ricks writes elsewhere, was his and the president’s differing views on Iran. The whole business sounds remarkably similar to the situation now.
So what was Pelosi’s reaction to back then? Remarkably, a search for the key terms Pelosi’s reaction to Obama’s firing of Mattis for the date range Jan. 4, 2013 to Feb. 20, 2013 turns up nothing.

France take first step toward replacing U.S. troops in Syria
No word in this about troops from nearby countries entering Syria.
Armored vehicles of the French army on the line of the river of Sajor separator between Manbj and Jarablus this afternoon.
These patrols are the first of its kind following US statements to withdraw its troops participating in the International Alliance of Syria pic.twitter.com/uHeFjPrQgi

Turkey-backed Syrian Fighters Prepare to Replace US Forces
This worries me as they are out to do away with the Kurds.
A Kurdish-led force captured much of northern and eastern Syria from the Islamic State group, with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Turkey views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists because of their links to an insurgent group inside Turkey.
Youssef Hammoud, of the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, said Monday "there is no alternative" to U.S. forces except Turkish forces and allied Syrian fighters.
Hammoud said that Syrian fighters and weapons were deployed along the front line with the northern town of Manbij a day earlier.

Trump Arms Kurdish Allies After US Pulls Out of Syria
The president may have ordered the pullout but he didn’t leave the Kurds defenseless.
But Trump did assist the Kurdish fighters in Derik and Qamishi Syria.
He sent them 150 truckloads of weapons to defend themselves from ISIS and Turkish forces.
Turkish media Yeni Safak reported:

US dispatches 150 truckloads of weapons to PKK/PYD after Syria pullout decisionhttps://t.co/tUtkkqekUV pic.twitter.com/V2ArtBNeFt
— Yeni Şafak English (@yenisafakEN) December 23, 2018
Kurdish officials are worried about the continued attacks by Turkey on their communities.

Are there any 'good guys' left in Syria?
The two longest borders are with Turkey and Iraq. As we will see in another post, Iraq isn’t all that safe. And Turkey has clearly stated that it is going to “eliminate” the Kurds who have been fighting them for decades.
The protracted conflict in Syria has led to the fact that, as often happens, there are almost no "good guys" among the opposing sides. Everyone knows a case when, during the time of President Obama, a group of militants in Syria, supported by the Pentagon, fought with a group of militants in the same Syria, sponsored by the CIA.
In the current situation, Trump has made the only right choice: to take the American guys out of harm's way and extinguish the conflict with the help of oil and gas weapons.
The withdrawal of the American infantry from Syria was prepared long ago and came as a surprise only to the uninformed.  Trump ordered the development of a plan for leaving Syria as early as February of this year, and in April, this plan was partially declassified and made public.
Get that? The plan has been developing for more than 9 months. So, why did it catch Mattis but surprise? And the DimocRATs?

Iraq: Scary Neighbors
Despite claims that ISIL has been wiped out, they still exist in Iraq and are sending replacements into Syria.
Our payback for precipitously removing our troops from Iraq.
December 21, 2018: The U.S. granted Iraq a 90 day extension on the original 45 day exemption on some Iranian sanctions. Iraq made a case that they needed an exemption to some of the Iran sanctions because otherwise the Iraqi economy would suffer. This was especially true with Iraqi dependence on Iran for electricity and natural gas imports.
In the south (Basra) for the second week in a row police used bullets as well as teargas to try and disperse continued weekly demonstrations against the local government (which continues to be too corrupt and ineffective for most people living in the area). The demonstrations have been going on since July.

U.S. Has No Permission to Redeploy Troops From Syria to Iraq
Iraq has not received any formal U.S. request to allow U.S. troops withdrawing from Syria to temporarily redeploy in northern Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said Monday.
At a press briefing in Baghdad, he denied reports that Washington had asked the Iraqi government if it could temporarily deploy departing troops at a U.S. military base near the city of Erbil, the administrative capital of northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
So, how does he plan to get them out of there?
I would guess airlift with STL aircraft – which has no need of leaving Syria.
This is but another reason why we have absolutely no business anywhere in the area.

Islamic State Has Lost Control of All Its Territory in Iraq and 99% of Its Territory in Syria
What did President Trump say he would do? And, if it’s done, what else did he say he would do?
Keeping more promises.
The Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, said in his latest report, released Nov. 5, that the Islamic State had lost all of the territory it had once held in Iraq and 99 percent of the territory it once held in Syria.
"U.S. officials said the number of foreign fighters coming into Iraq and Syria has decreased greatly, and that the number still active on the battlefield was “not that large” and concentrated in the middle Euphrates River valley.254 More information on ISIS in Syria can be found in the classified appendix."

A New Migrant Caravan of 15,000!
But it’s not headed to the USA!
The new president of Mexico, along with President Trump, is seeking ways to ease the terrible conditions faced by the peoples of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
The group is headed to Chiapas to seek work. The two projects are:
The Maya Train Project
Reforestation
“A new caravan of 15,000 people has already left Honduras for Chiapas,” said Irma Garrido, a member of the migrant advocacy group Reactiva Tijuana Foundation.
“We assume that this caravan . . . will pick up more people in El Salvador and Guatemala. But their aim is to arrive in Chiapas and request work there” on the Maya Train project and the reforestation announced by President López Obrador.
The new president has pledged that Central Americans who want to work in Mexico will be given a work visa, while the governments of Mexico and the United States last week agreed to work together on a development plan in southern Mexico and Central America to curb migration.

Charro Police Return to Mexico City
Not just for protection but a tourist attraction.
The Charro Police, a force of mounted officers of the law whose uniforms resemble those of traditional charros, or cowboys, is returning to Mexico City.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum reintroduced the police force on Saturday, explaining that it will patrol the Alameda Central park and the Plaza Garibaldi, the home of mariachi music and a popular spot for tourists and chilangos alike.
Not only will the Charro Police maintain order and enforce the law, they will also serve as another tourist attraction, Sheinbaum said.
The 30 police officers and their steeds went to work on the weekend. After the holiday season is over, the city will analyze making the Charro Police a permanent fixture.

Venezuela Invades Guyana to Block Exxon Mobil Oil Exploration
What the …..
The Venezuelan Navy illegally entered the waters of Guyana this weekend and forced a ship contracted by Exxon Mobil to conduct oil research in the area to vacate, claiming that Guyana’s permission to explore its sovereign territory was not enough for the ship to be legally present in the water.
And not a word about it in the Lame Street Media.
An outright attack by one country on another right here in the Americas and nobody’s talking about it? What on earth is going on?
The incident, which Guyanese authorities angrily denounced and vowed to bring to the attention of the United Nations, reignites a feud Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro began with the neighboring country in 2015, claiming as much as two-thirds of Guyana itself belonged to Venezuela. Guyana has repeatedly noted that Venezuela signed an agreement in 1899 on the territory in question and no disputes remain as to who owns that land.
With his country falling apart around him, Maduro seems to be using adventurism to try to protect his tyranny.

Mount Etna erupts in Sicily amid dozens of tremors
Just one of 40!
And for those of living in Las Vegas, a reminder that there’s one just a bit over 100 miles to the west of us.

Cop With an Amazing Arrest Record
What did you expect? According to this, he nabbed 3 perps in just one shift.
With Thursday’s captures, Stark’s career total of apprehensions stands at 186, a fairly impressive total for any four-legged law enforcement officer.
“He just loves searching, it’s his favorite thing,” Cpl.l Micah Akin, Stark’s human partner, told KPTV-TV.
Posted by Dale Day at 3:43 AM 0 comments
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