US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

well that's fucked up

no fucking way

Kinda feel like they did it just to prove Pelosi wrong. It’s def DOA in the Senate tho.

Requires 60 votes in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, around half of what the American military has there now.

Mr. Trump made the decision at the same time he decided he was pulling American forces out of Syria, one official said. The move is likely one of the first steps to end the United States’ involvement in the 17-year-old war.

The 14,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan are divided between training and advising Afghan forces and a counterterror mission against groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The reduction, one official said, is in an effort to make Afghan forces more reliant on their own troops and not Western support.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/politics/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal.html

hell of a day

t’s def DOA in the Senate tho.

what makes you think this?

There are not 9+ Dem Senators that will vote for it

It needs 60 votes

House republican headbangers convinces trump this was legislative jujitsu to get dems to share the blame for the shutdown. We’re getting a shutdown.

We definitely don’t have to worry about breakaway dem senators right? I just know how much Schumer sucks at holding together his caucus.

he sucks, but not 9 senators sucks. and of course the dems who might flip have mostly lost their seat already, so aren't worried about electoral politics. and trump's "i want a shutdown" means that the GOP plan to share the blame is ... obviously not a very good one, even to the most craven dems.

BREAKING: The U.S. plans to withdraw 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, about half the number that are currently there, according to a U.S. defense official https://t.co/5AvyS2zrOs

— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) December 21, 2018

Sorry, old news

This is all so he doesn’t have to visit the troops right?

lol

Yeah there’s gonna be a shutdown now, maybe all the way until next congress and a bit beyond

Whoever runs against this guy has their campaign ad

Tonight, I asked Scott Perry (R-Pa.) about effect of fed employees being furloughed. He argued it had no real impact since employees eventually get paid back.

"Who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?"

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) December 21, 2018

Yeah there’s gonna be a shutdown now, maybe all the way until next congress and a bit beyond

How Can The Dems Take Over Congress If We Don't Reopen Congress?

https://media.giphy.com/media/d3mlE7uhX8KFgEmY/source.gif

scott perry can fuck himself with a hatchet imo

Wait -- where is the news that the Dems caved? Looks like a party line vote:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/shutdown-looms-after-house-caves-to-trump-on-funding-bill-with-wall-money

I read “mostly party line” vote which i assumed meant some GOP reps (like yr boy Curbelo) voted no

https://crooked.com/articles/sheldon-whitehouse-democrats-win/

The time has never been better for someone to write an anonymous OpEd.

and despite resigning in protest won't say a bad word about the president from his perch in the private sector.

bbbbut he'll be a pariah! Shakey said so!

You know how crazy this shit is, is that we're already thinking "I hope he can get another clear-headed former general lined up for this role that is specifically and explicitly supposed to have only ever been for civilians".

— Dan Curtis Johnson (@dcurtisj) December 20, 2018

Damn. After reading the letter, I noticed that the only kind thing Mattis says to Trump is "Dear Mr. President."

Senator Mitch McConnell should fight for the Wall and Border Security as hard as he fought for anything. He will need Democrat votes, but as shown in the House, good things happen. If enough Dems don’t vote, it will be a Democrat Shutdown! House Republicans were great yesterday!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018

no, Dan Curtis Johnson, "we" are not

Yeah I would actually have some Mattis acolyte or career military person than John Bolton

dove > hawk who understands war is hell > hawk who has gamed it out on paper

Astute observation made by talking head: the biggest difference between Fox and state TV is that in an authoritarian government the head of the state dictates what the TV says, but here the TV dictates what the president says.

https://img.discogs.com/HxVP7CeNrgPUONlgYGD8cJ-l3Oo=/fit-in/600x1082/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-11089398-1509654495-4524.jpeg.jpg

lol

when you lose Fox & Friends...

Brian Kilmeade just called out Trump to Sarah Sanders on Syria:

"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." pic.twitter.com/PC48rTkQ77

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 21, 2018

he said he had a plan to defeat ISIS, he meant once. Balboa didn't keep fighting Ivan Drago!

Refounded? Is that like being reborn?

good morning!

lost and refounded

Smirnoff is currently earning a doctorate btw

https://apnews.com/ec2ed217357048ff998225a31534df12

jfc !

2019 is going to be a terrible year for Trump. and quite probably, us as well.

but we'll have the tax returns

“The talking points were very firm,” said one of the officials, explaining that Trump was advised to clearly oppose a Turkish incursion into northern Syria and suggest the U.S. and Turkey work together to address security concerns. “Everybody said push back and try to offer (Turkey) something that’s a small win, possibly holding territory on the border, something like that.”

Erdogan, though, quickly put Trump on the defensive, reminding him that he had repeatedly said the only reason for U.S. troops to be in Syria was to defeat the Islamic State and that the group had been 99 percent defeated. “Why are you still there?” the second official said Erdogan asked Trump, telling him that the Turks could deal with the remaining IS militants.

With Erdogan on the line, Trump asked national security adviser John Bolton, who was listening in, why American troops remained in Syria if what the Turkish president was saying was true, according to the officials. Erdogan’s point, Bolton was forced to admit, had been backed up by Mattis, Pompeo, U.S. special envoy for Syria Jim Jeffrey andspecial envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition Brett McGurk, who have said that IS retains only 1 percent of its territory, the officials said.

Bolton stressed, however, that the entire national security team agreed that victory over IS had to be enduring, which means more than taking away its territory.

Trump was not dissuaded, according to the officials, who said the president quickly capitulated by pledging to withdraw, shocking both Bolton and Erdogan.

Caught off guard, Erdogan cautioned Trump against a hasty withdrawal, according to one official. While Turkey has made incursions into Syria in the past, it does not have the necessary forces mobilized on the border to move in and hold the large swaths of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops are positioned, the official said.

The call ended with Trump repeating to Erdogan that the U.S. would pull out, but offering no specifics on how it would be done, the officials said.

this is insane !! Erdogan is even taken aback at how fucking stupid this turd is

The Democrats now own the shutdown!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018

I mean I know we always say "lol guys nothing is gonna sink this guy" but ignoring decorated military brass and going rogue, refusing to defeat ISIS is something that has even GOP politicians shook.

Not all of them, naturally, like I doubt the Freedom Cockfarmers care, and not necessarily enough to publicly criticize him, but even McConnell seems spooked.

I wouldn't be shocked for Trump to then say "welllll, ok so we're not leaving NOOOOOW, but...". Mattis won't reverse course naturally but I mean bad press, ,esp in Fox News, often causes Trump to change his mind.

oh yes, we own the shutdown, good one

Dem senators will not cave on this ,right ?

not 9 of them, no

Fox News and liberals united on American war policy

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/422426-fox-friends-co-host-trump-just-refounded-isis-by-pulling-troops-out