US Army Retired

US Army Retired

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

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