41 thoughts on “Trump Breaks Wall Promise”

  2. He promised supporters that taxpayers would not have to pay for a border wall. Now he’s demanding they (we) do just that. Any questions?

  3. I am starting to think that Whitaker told SFB that his inner circle mob family are about to be indicted which caused the super temper tantrum.  What is most scary is that the simpleton probably realized that he has unlimited powers due to no greedy old perverts interested in controlling him, and by twitter he is “commanding” the military.  Hopefully the r’s get a talking to by those constituents allowed to be near them, r’s have a thing about not holding town hall meetings where people can actually meet them.  Maybe they will join with Dems’ and impeach the guy out of the WH.

  5. Not sure that even the most right leaning of GOP have the stomach for a Kurdish genocide which is likely if Trump gets away with pulling troops on an order from Erdogan.  It is daily more obvious that our weak, feckless POTUS has caved to Russia, Syria, and Turkey while deserting our allies around the globe.  

  6. IMPOTUS’ tweet about Mattis’ retirement Shows his utter cluelessness. I’m sure he believes he can spin it to his advantage, but really? The letter was a little more eloquent than one saying Fuck you, I’m out of here before the fire you’re lighting burns this place down.

  8. Eagle soap opera update:  Romeo is still incubating with short food breaks.  Young, ignorant lady eagle (henceforth dubbed Jezebel) visits nest regularly but doesn’t have a clue how to help so has settled for guarding the nest from a branch above.  She is obviously in a mood to mate, but Romeo is busy doing his job, tolerates her visits but she follows him if he leaves the nest so no help at all.  Almost time for pipping.  No way to know if Romeo will be able to handle feeding young without help.  

  9. as one of the talking heads said this morning, Mattis subtlely hints in his letter that impotus infantus by not working with our allies is aiding and abetting our enemies:  
    …our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. […]
    … we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions—to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies.  That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
    My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
     

  10. **HAPPY SATURNALIA** December 17-23. Predating the birth of Jesus by centuries, this Ancient Roman celebration, in honor of the God Saturn, is marked by parties, gift-giving, and role reversals.
     

  11. jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the atlantic:
    […]
    But the Mattis critique is foundational: The president he serves, he suggests in his letter, does not understand the value of allies, or the immorality of disparaging and abandoning them. Trump, as my colleague David Frum notes, is abandoning America’s Kurdish allies in Syria to extremism and terror, and he is abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban. Mattis always knew that Trump lacked an understanding of why autocracy is the enemy of the American idea. But Mattis operated under the illusion that he could change Trump’s views, or at least some of his foolish ways. Yesterday marked the end of the illusion.
    Mattis’s departure also means that the United States is entering the third phase of Trump’s foreign policy. In the first year of his presidency, Trump paid attention mainly to domestic issues, and did not afflict America’s diplomatic and national-security establishment with an undue number of his ignorant and damaging foreign-policy views. In the second year, he became more destructively engaged, but he listened, on occasion, to those in his administration who possessed actual expertise in foreign policy. We are now entering the third year of his presidency, and third phase of his foreign policy: Trump alone, besieged, but believing, perhaps more than ever, in the inerrancy of his beliefs.
    James Mattis knew who Trump was, and joined him anyway, because he is a patriot. And because he is a patriot, he would have remained with Trump, if he thought he could influence Trump’s policies. But whatever influence he had, he lost.
    And now the dangerous part begins.

  13. ny times:
    Stocks Drop Around the World, Suggesting Another Grim Day on Wall St.
     
    HONG KONG — Global investors signaled on Friday that a weeklong swoon on Wall Street might stretch into another day.
    Investors in Asia drove most major markets lower, with a few notable exceptions. European markets followed, sinking lower in early trading and remaining down into the early afternoon.
    Nonetheless, futures that track the S&P 500 index in the United States suggested stocks on Wall Street would open down.
    Stocks in Asia have been buffeted by signs of trouble in the United States and by the slowing of the Chinese economy, the region’s main driver of growth.
    After the Asian markets closed on Friday, a top Chinese policy committee, the Central Economic Work Conference, pledged to “implement active fiscal policies,” a signal that Beijing might increase government spending to hasten growth.
    Without including details, the committee also reiterated recent promises by President Xi Jinping that taxes for business would be cut, among other measures.
    There were some bright spots in trading on Friday. Most stocks did not fall as far as the S&P 500 had on Thursday, when it ended the day down 1.6 percent. Still, a tumultuous day in Washington and continuing worries about the global economy gave investors little to cheer about.
    • In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index fell 1.1 percent. In China, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.8 percent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose late in the day, finishing 0.5 percent higher. The Kospi index in South Korea also ended higher.
    • In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure of blue-chip shares, was down almost 0.5 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 pared some of its losses after sinking through the morning and was down just over 0.2 percent by early afternoon. France’s CAC 40 fell a little further, about 0.3 percent, and the Dax in Germanyslid about 0.3 percent.

  14. For the real old timers:  Chef Shiela just told her contacts on Facebook that Kathleen O’Donnell has passed away from a stroke a few days ago.  Over at Crawfordslist she was “Unlikely Burrito”. She came in just before it became Trail Mix.

  18. Geez… I never realized that Unlikely Burrito lived here in NH also.  She lived pretty close to me.  My condolences to her family and friends.

  19. Wait a minute….   Jamie…  I just clicked again on that link you provided to Kathleen O’Donnell.  She posted on that FB page only 7 minutes ago.  Maybe Sheila has the wrong person or linked to the wrong site.

  20. My very bad.  I meant to put Shirley Shep https://www.facebook.com/shirley.trevor27 not Kathleen O’Donnell as the report of her passing was very very premature.  Messed up on the links in the chain of the report. 

  21. Whenever someone dies, now, i can’t help but thinking, “well, at least they won’t be around when this shitstorm rains holy hell down upon us all”.  Good job, Republican voters.

  22. Meanwhile, evangelical Republicans are reading my post, thinking: “you moron, a ‘shitstorm that rains down holy hell upon us all’ is why we’re doing all this.”

  24. business insider via msn
    “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade on Friday ripped into President Donald Trump over his abrupt withdrawal of US troops from Syria, accusing him of opening the door for the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, to make a major comeback.
    Speaking with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kilmeade said, “Sarah, he’s giving Russia a big win. Vladimir Putin praised him. He’s also doing exactly what he criticized President Obama for doing. He said President Obama was the founder of ISIS. He just refounded ISIS.”
    Kilmeade noted that ISIS still has thousands of fighters in the region despite the fact it’s lost its self-declared caliphate, or the large swath of territory it held across Iraq and Syria. “The president is really on the griddle with this,” Kilmeade said.
    Looking somewhat shocked and bemused at Kilmeade’s assertion, Sanders replied, “Brian, I have to respectfully and vehemently disagree with you.”
    The White House press secretary added, “The idea that the president has had anything to do with helping ISIS reemerge is absolutely outrageous.”
    Kilmeade, who often defends Trump’s policies, then said, “Leaving is helping.”
    Sanders continued to push back, stating that if ISIS wants to “pick a fight” with Trump then he will “destroy them and defeat them.”
    In announcing the Syria pullout, Trump declared ISIS was defeated, despite much evidence to the contrary.
    Defense Secretary James Mattis, who did not agree with Trump’s thinking and decision on Syria, resigned on Thursday.
    During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of being the “founder of ISIS” because of the power vacuum created after he withdrew US troops from Iraq in 2011.
    “He was the founder,” Trump said at the time. “His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?” 

  25. the guardian:
    US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery on her lung today to remove cancerous growths.
    The 85-year-old judge recently recovered from broken ribs after a fall at her office in Washington shortly after the midterm elections.
     
    A statement put out by the supreme court said she underwent a pulmonary lobectomy in New York on Friday to remove two nodules from her lung.
     
    They were discovered to be malignant. “Post-surgery, there was no evidence of any remaining disease,” the court’s public information office said.
     
    A lengthy statement provided by the supreme court said “two nodules in the lower lobe of her left lung were discovered incidentally during tests performed at George Washington University Hospital to diagnose and treat rib fracutres sustained in a fall on 7 November”.
     
    Ginsburg was operated on on Friday morning at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, a renowned oncology hospital.
     
    The procedure was carried out by thoracic surgeon Valerie Rusch, the statement said. “Both nodules removed during surgery were found to be malignant on initial pathology evaluation … scans performed before surgery indicated no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.”
     
    Ginsburg was said to be resting comfortably and was expected to remain in the hospital “for a few days”. No further treatment is currently planned.
     
    [continues]
     

  29. SFB has been looking at the wrong model for his barrier between Mexico and los Estados Unidos. Instead of constructing a Great Wall, consider copying the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) that has separated the two Koreas since full-scale hostilities ended there in 1953. Do not discard this idea out of hand—choose the good parts of the DMZ that are cited in this Encyclopedia Britannica article.

  31. Flatus
    I have several but I’m expert at scratching sand over them .. Learned that trick from my cats. 

  32. How badass is the notorious RBG?
    She voted against Trump’s asylum ban yesterday and then had cancer surgery this morning.
     

  35. Cap’n,
    Do you think it is safe to 25th donald trump, if pence is still around to inherit the Oval Office ?

  39. Sorry folks – been on the wrong thread (idiot).  Below are the posts I put on the prior one.

     

    Pogosays:
    December 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    BB, ” a rather pathetic, low intelligence, senile and possibly syphilitic bastard”.  I love that very apt description of our “president”.Poobah, this appears to be one of those – “you can’t fire me, I quit” deals.Lot of noisy shit coming out of DC today – hard to remember how bad a week it was for SFB. But if you do have trouble focusing on that, Google djia and it will remind you of how the market has taken to the chaos of the SFB “administration.”  

     
    Click to EditDelete

    Pogosays:
    December 21, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    Jack, what’s even a bit better, Adm. James Stavridis (USN, ret.) said that when Mattis was a full Colonel, actively engaged in  war stuff, his call sign was not Mad Dog – it was CHAOS.

     
    Click to EditDelete

    Pogosays:
    December 21, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    Although I don’t really give presidents credit or blame directly for the stock market, since SFB likes to take credit for it he should also be willing to take the blame for its continued downward trend.  If he does have power over the market (and the chaos of his WH seems to) he seems intent on driving it to the mat.

     
    Click to EditDelete

    Pogosays:
    December 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    “So I will take the mantle,” he [IMPOTUS] said [last week]. “I will be the one to shut it down. I won’t blame you for it.” “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” Trump insisted in one of his Friday morning tweets.

    Dumbass.  Wear your mantle proudly.

  40. I echo KC’s Solstice greetings although I’m about an hour and a half late to the party. Tomorrow will be a longer day.  Yippee.

  41. “I will be the one to shut it down. I won’t blame you for it.” 
     
    “I won’t blame you for it.” 
     
    fitting end to a thread re breaking promises

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