Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
James “Mad Dog” Mattis resigns as Secretary of Defense The retired Marine Corps General was fed up with a President who refused to learn anything or take advice. He didn’t sign on as a babysitter for a geriatric “toddler”. This was in reaction to Trump’s unilateral decision to declare victory and pull all US troops out of Syria, without consulting with any of our allies in the conflict.
The guesses are: he did it to get Turkey to stop threatening Saudi Arabia and MBS over the Khashoggi murder; it made Putin happy; he decided Assad was his buddy; or he has stopped hating on Iran. Of course it could have been to change the news coverage of all of the legal trouble he, his family, and friends are in. Not even Fox & Friends approves of this move.
Then, after signaling that he would accept the bill that Mitch McConnell got passed in the Senate, he refused to sign it because of a lack of funding for his boarder wall. The outgoing Republican Speaker managed to pass a stopgap funding bill with $5 billion for Trump’s border wall, but there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to bring it to the floor.
As with the earlier DACA compromise that Trump made with Pelosi and Schumer, Trump reneged on the deal. There will be a shutdown and Trump owns it.
December 20, 2018 1 Comment
