If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If you are having difficulty logging in, please REFRESH the page and clear your browser cache and try again.
If you still can't get logged in, please try using Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari to login. Also be sure you are using the latest version of your browser. Internet Explorer has not been updated in over seven years and will no longer work with the Forum software. Thanks
Mnuchin asks the country's six largest banks if they have enough money on hand and no one knows why. Current Dow futures indicate it'll open 200 points down on the news.
....... moreover, if this is being offered as a a defense of Trump's action regarding Mattis, it misses the larger point.
What precipitated Mattis' resignation was what appears to be General Mattis' view that after providing the president with advice and council on US military presence in Syria - his duty to do as SecDef - Trump, against that advice, undertook a complete withdrawal of US forces from Syria. It also appears that this was done at the behest of Regip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. There are good reasons to be alarmed by that. After Mattis uncharacteristically expressed his many disagreements with the president as an underlying reason for his resignation, Trump petulantly moved the date of his departure from office up a month.
The point here is that the president is demonstrating a pattern of a rogue actor. That is destabilizing and leaders abroad are reacting to that. The markets are reacting to what appears to be a state of chaos in Washington. Whether or not there actually is a state of chaos, the perception that there is is what matters. Again, Trump appears to savor this kind of circumstance where he can then jump in, do something meaningless yet dramatic in appearance and claim that he has saved the world from catastrophe. It's unnerving to have a president like this. At least it is for me and plenty of other reasonable Americans.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. JH chased Saban from Alabama and caused Day, at the point of the OSU AD's gun, to make major changes to his staff just to beat Michigan. Love it. It's Moore!!!! time
Few who work at senior levels in the administration of President Donald Trump leave with their reputations unsullied. James Mattis is one of the few, Peter Bergen writes.
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx
The push to illustrate a parallel with Obama (but, why?) can't be seen as anything more than an impotent whataboutism.
Above is a fairly specific chain of events (not a vague hyperbole references to failings) that explain how far Trump is out of water not only in undercutting his own SecDef -- but, for whom he is undercutting for. It also describes a situation where a fairly respected General, and certainly the lastly revered in this cabinet, approached understandable fatigue at a position that would seem to be a dream job for any hawkish military man making the transition into politics.
Those should be the alarms -- and trying to remedy them with suspect timelines for SecDef in a democratic admin following Bush comes off desperate.
Again, Trump appears to savor this kind of circumstance where he can then jump in, do something meaningless yet dramatic in appearance and claim that he has saved the world from catastrophe. It's unnerving to have a president like this. At least it is for me and plenty of other reasonable Americans.
Yes. When you describe it like this -- it literally describes munchausen syndrome by proxy
When you are president, you are going to get criticized every day no matter what you do. LBJ joked that one day if he walked across the Potomac the headline in the next day's paper would read "President Can't Swim." You have to have a thick skin, Trump would be advised to grow a thicker one.
If he was actually thinking about trying to fire Powell, there's no words to describe how stupid that is.
Trump is no LBJ. I know you're not comparing him but I just wanted to point that out.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. JH chased Saban from Alabama and caused Day, at the point of the OSU AD's gun, to make major changes to his staff just to beat Michigan. Love it. It's Moore!!!! time
No he pretty much is the exact opposite of LBJ in a lot of ways especially legislatively.
We are seeing the problem with a president who pays attention to cable news and its a negative feedback loop. Turn off the TV and get to being president.
Gates, Panetta, and Hagel were the first three of Obama's Secretaries, not the last three, and at least two of them had tenures longer than what Mattis will end up having (because Trump wants him fired right away and doesn't care about an orderly transition). Gates in particular (holdover from Bush) lasted until the summer of Obama's third year. So he at least was considerably longer than Mattis.
Its well worn trope to liken this presidency to the other movies but it's normally like a Coen brothers movie or Goodfellas, today a surprise appearance by It's a Wonderful Life with the Mnuchin bank panic nonsense statement yesterday.
This NRO, Andrew McCarthy piece illuminates the complexity of the Syria-Turkey-Kurd relationship and why it is a good thing Trump is ordering a pull-out of US troops in Syria. As is usually the case, folks lose site of the facts - no surprise as the media tens to gloss over complexity to get us all stirred up - in these complicated matters.
McCarthy, though, does not let Trump off the hook:
I share that view and question why the heck Turkey, under Erdogan's Islamist leadership, is considered among our allies. That Trump consorts with this bully is consistent with Trump's cozying up to such unsavory characters and at the same time repugnant for that same reason.
Someone needs to explain why I should be outraged at Trump, but not outraged that we got into this mess without making sure the public was on board.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. JH chased Saban from Alabama and caused Day, at the point of the OSU AD's gun, to make major changes to his staff just to beat Michigan. Love it. It's Moore!!!! time
Tweet
Comment