President Trump has been president for 413 days -- and HALF of his nominees have not been confirmed because of Senate Democrat obstructionists.
This is OUTRAGEOUS. Democrats think they can govern by hijacking, sabotaging, and subverting the will of the people. It’s time for YOU to fight back.
Also:
It is time for Mueller to wind up that portion of the Russian Collusion investigation which has not only led to a dead end, concerning Trump, but has revealed Hillary, The DNC and the FBI were involved up to their armpits.
Trump's law team is trying to work out an accommodation that suits the president and the nation's interests as well as Mueller's.
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An excellent explanation of Trump's attempt to meld the chasm between Republican globalists and nationalists. It might still work because there is good ideas in both camps and if they want to remain in office and a constructive political power they must learn to work together and integrate the good from both political views/philosophies.
The one thing Trump has going for him is that he is not a politician. He is a pragmatist who wants to accomplish. Politicians are ideologues and often disregard what is best for the country because their peacock fathers get in the way of their sight-line. The issue for The Republican Establishment is can they bend and for the "Republican Renegades" can they embrace? (See 1 and 1a below.)
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Keep an eye on Turkey because Obama's closet friend, Erdogan, is no friend of America, The West and NATO. (See 2 below.)
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Adam Van Brimmer, the new Editorial Page Editor of the local paper, published a letter I sent him which exceeded their 400 word limit. I told him he was welcome to edit it so he could publish and he did. It was published today and I told him he could edit all my letters.
In the tradition of Hemingway's laconic ability Adam kept the essence of my message and eliminated my verbosity. Kudos Adam.
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Kim Jong Un Reveals He Is Just Using Trump to Meet Stormy Daniels
Andy Borowitz
Photograph by Ethan Miller / Getty
PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)—Kim Jong Un has revealed to close associates that he has offered to meet Donald J. Trump only as a means of achieving his real goal: meeting the former adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
A confidant of the North Korean dictator said that Kim revealed his true intentions behind the Trump invitation at a high-level government meeting on Thursday night. “Kim said that he was a big fan of Stormy’s, and he decided that meeting with Trump would be a ‘necessary evil’ if he wanted a chance to meet her,” the confidant said.
According to the confidant, Kim first attempted to arrange a meeting with Daniels through his close friend, the former N.B.A. player Dennis Rodman, “but, when Dennis said that he didn’t know Stormy, Kim was, like, ‘Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to go through Trump, then.’ ”
Kim reportedly is prepared to use whatever leverage is necessary to force Trump to broker the meeting with the erstwhile porn performer. “If Kim doesn’t get to meet Stormy, the missile tests resume,” the confidant said.
When told about Kim’s real reason for offering to meet with Trump, a White House aide initially expressed shock, but then added, “Now everything makes sense.”
Andy Borowitz is the New York Times best-selling author of “The 50 Funniest American Writers,” and a comedian who has written for The New Yorkersince 1998. He writes the Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news, for newyorker.com.
And:
A guy is walking along a Florida beach when he comes across a lamp partially buried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub.
A genie appears and tells him he has been granted one wish.
The guy thinks for a moment and says, "I want to live forever."
"Sorry," said the genie, "I'm not allowed to grant eternal life."
"OK, then, I want to die after the Democrats balance the budget and eliminate the debt.
"You crafty little bastard," said the genie.
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Dick
1) Trump Brings Republicans to Moment of Truth on Trade
Plan for steel and aluminum tariffs forces party to choose between its core business supporters and populist voters
By Gerald F. Seib
Second, it was inevitable.
From the beginning, the Trump administration has represented an attempt to weld together establishment and populist economic thinking. It was possible for the two to coexist when the agenda was dominated by debates on health care, which isn’t central to either philosophy, and tax cuts, where the two sides could come together.
Yet the marriage was always an uneasy one, and the deep divide was bound to burst to the surface when the agenda turned to immigration and trade, as it has this year. Any administration staffed on the one side by National Economic Council head Gary Cohn, alumnus of Goldman Sachs and personification of the establishment’s beliefs in globalization, and on the other side by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House adviser Peter Navarro, personification of a belief in a new economic nationalism, was always headed for a family feud.
The only thing delaying the feud was the wait for the president to decide where his true allegiances really lie: with the globalists and the GOP’s core business supporters, who have been so happy with his tax cut and deregulatory impulses, or with the populist voters who propelled him to office in part because of his promises to attack “unfair” and “stupid” trade deals. He has tried to have it both ways and, true to form, made it hard to know where rhetoric ends and true beliefs begin.
Now, the president appears to have made his choice—prompting Mr. Cohn to resign and presenting his party with its own choice, one its congressional wing had badly hoped to avoid. Most Republicans in Congress grew up in a party deeply devoted to the belief in free trade and open markets and opposed to the kind of protectionist action Mr. Trump’s new move represents. That came into plain view in the form of a letter signed by more than 100 GOP House members expressing misgivings about the president’s course, and a personal statement from House Speaker Paul Ryan that began, “I disagree.”
For starters, Mr. Trump is acting against imports not by using legal authority designed to provide narrow and temporary relief to an industry being hurt by unfair trade practices abroad, as Mr. Bush did. Instead, the president is acting under a provision that declares imports of aluminum and steel a threat to U.S. national security, a much broader and less transparent process that could open the way to more actions in other sectors.
An even bigger difference, Mr. Fratto says, is that “both Reagan and Bush really were free traders” who took their actions as steps to buy political support at home that in turn would help them move on to bigger free-trade agreements. Mr. Reagan was trying at the same time to negotiate a new global free-trade pact and a free-trade agreement with Canada. Mr. Bush was proposing a series of free-trade agreements, both bilateral and multilateral, while he moved on steel.
Both, in short, were trying to show to skeptical industries and workers that they could be tough in enforcing free-trade deals even while trying to cut new free-trade deals.
“Trump is in a different place,” Mr. Fratto says. “He’s not trying to expand trade agreements. He’s trying to roll them back.”
Politically, the key question is whether the rest of the Republican party follows him. Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling has shown a slight decline in support for free trade among Republicans in recent years. Still, the party is split. When asked a year ago whether free trade was good or bad for the country, 46% of Republicans said it was good and 48% bad. Mr. Trump is making that more than an academic question.
1a) Après Cohn, le Deluge?
Trump’s top economic adviser departs, and the administration’s grown-ups worry.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
In the daily soap opera that is the Trump White House, few episodes have ever merited serious viewing. Gary Cohn’s resignation as chief economic adviser is an unfortunate exception. It’s a knock from which this presidency—and the economy—will struggle to recover.
Omarosa, Hope Hicks, Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Reince Priebus—who cares? None of these departures took anything away from this administration; many improved it. The intellectual heavyweights who have mattered most to Donald Trump’s policy victories have remained from the start, even as new grown-ups like Chief of Staff John Kelly provided those players the order necessary to accomplish the likes of tax reform. Mr. Cohn is the first of the relevant to leave.
And it didn’t have to happen. Mr. Trump ran on tariffs—yes, yes—though the economic devil is in the detail. The forces of protectionism (led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ) and the forces of the free market (led by Mr. Cohn ) had in fact met in an uneasy middle—and had put on paper a very specific plan. Mr. Trump’s washing-machine and solar-panel salvo was to be followed by a focus on China’s unfair trade practices, namely intellectual-property theft. The president would announce narrowly targeted trade actions against that country, while holding aluminum and steel tariffs in reserve. All this would be choreographed around renegotiation of the North American and Korea-U.S. free trade agreements.
But running point was former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, and the drama of his departure led to a breakdown of Mr. Kelly’s procedures. Mr. Ross took advantage of the situation last week to get the president’s ear, and back we were to the days of Mr. Trump spinning out on the advice of the last person in the room. He made up some numbers, turned China into the world, and off went the U.S. to the trade wars.
Mr. Cohn had grounds to resign on that double-dealing alone, but few know that he spent this past weekend talking the president down from an even more Planet Mars idea from Team Ross —to set tariffs closer to 50%. When it became clear Mr. Trump would not rethink the broader strategy, Mr. Cohn, the man who won this White House its biggest legislative victory, decided he had better things to do than spend his second year kneecapping his first.
The fallout could prove extensive. Most immediate is that the protectionist Mr. Ross (a former steel executive) and the nativist Peter Navarro have driven out their biggest free-market opponent, increasing their ability to wreak harm on the economy. The voices of those who actually understand economic policy are greatly diminished, as evidenced this week by the administration’s endless loop of fact-free and near fantastical claims about the effects of the tariffs.
Then there’s staff. Mr. Cohn, a Democrat, developed a surprising loyalty from the Trump free-marketers through sheer economic smarts and collegiality. His shabby treatment has more than a few of the grown-ups now actively considering their own exit plans. It’s one thing to do battle daily; it’s another to watch months of work get flushed on a whim, and get publicly branded a “globalist” to boot. Mr. Cohn’s top deputy, Jeremy Katz, departed just as soon as the tax deal passed, and watch for other Cohn staffers—many of them important free-market voices—to follow.
But the bigger risk to Mr. Trump is that the exodus extends to higher levels. To the extent the Trump presidency functions at all, it is due to a handful of seasoned and sober conservatives—wise to both policy and politics. Many already felt beaten down by the daily feuds, leaks and drama, and some view the Cohn departure as another good reason to get out. Imagine a Trump presidency without Mr. Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, Don McGahn, Mick Mulvaney, Kevin Hassett. Consider, too, that no one as good is likely to replace them—now having seen how the White House works.
And don’t forget congressional Republicans, whom Mr. Trump has potentially set up for a midterm rout. Many are furious that he has forced them to call him out, splitting the party. But they are also legitimately fearful the tariffs will spark trade war and destroy tens or hundreds of thousands of jobs, neutralizing the benefits of the hard-won tax reform. The economy is the best thing Republicans have going for them in November, and the Trump-Ross-Navarro trio just embraced the only policy that could kill it.
Just how bad it is will depend hugely on Mr. Cohn’s successor. A strong free-market voice could reassure staff, minimize departures, and push to limit the tariffs. Yet who is that? The press is throwing out names, but all are idle speculation. Within the White House there is no official short list. Seriously.
Besides, who in his right mind would even want the job?
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2)Turkey Flexes Muscles as Soft Power Melts Away
Turkish cultural influence in the Arab world gives way to military action
AMMAN, Jordan—There were two big events in the Turkish news in recent days. Turkey’s army showed prowess in Syria, advancing on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin. And the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab broadcaster MBC took Turkish TV dramas, massively popular across the Arab world, off the air.
These two developments—seemingly unrelated—highlight Turkey’s transformation at a key moment in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 15-year rule.
Turkey, once admired across the Middle East and beyond for marrying Islam with democracy and prosperity, has squandered much of the “soft power” it used to enjoy. Instead, it is increasingly getting into armed conflict and acrimonious fights with its neighbors and allies.
Turkey’s TV dramas, which brought the country’s much freer lifestyle into Arab living rooms, were a key instrument of its influence, instilling admiration for Turkey the way Hollywood bolstered America’s image around the world.
A popular Turkey also meant acceptance of Mr. Erdogan’s oft-expressed nostalgia for the Ottoman imperial past.
Now, Mr. Erdogan’s musings on the Ottoman Empire, abolished in 1922, have gone from appreciations of common history and culture to thinly veiled territorial claims and complaints about the “disgrace” of losing lands.
That, naturally, elicits little sympathy among the Ottomans’ historical foes, the ruling families of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The Syrian regime—and the Kurds—have stoked similar resentment by describing Turkish troops in Afrin as “Ottoman invaders.”
MBC’s decision to cancel all of its Turkish TV series—the company didn’t explain the move—came weeks after a spat between Mr. Erdogan and the U.A.E. about the behavior of an Ottoman commander in Medina (in current Saudi Arabia) during World War I.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a conversation Monday with Egyptian newspaper editors on a visit to Cairo, accused Mr. Erdogan of trying to revive an “Ottoman Caliphate” and described Turkey as part of a “triangle of evil” alongside Iran and terrorist organizations, according to Egypt’s state-run al Ahram newspaper.
“Saber-rattling is not what builds soft power,” said Saudi analyst Mohammed Alyahya, a senior fellow at the Gulf Research Center. “Turkey has a lot to offer, but Erdogan’s politics have been overshadowing those things.”
Even more so, a crackdown on the press and political opposition in Turkey itself, particularly after the failed 2016 coup attempt against Mr. Erdogan, has taken the luster off Turkey’s image. A controversial referendum last year, marred by reports of fraud, was another blow: It gave the Turkish president near-absolute powers—and could allow Mr. Erdogan to rule for another decade.
“Before, people in the Arab world were coming to Turkey to see freedom, democracy, the rule of law. They were seeing Turkey as a model,” said Turkish lawmaker Ozturk Yilmaz, vice chairman of the country’s biggest opposition party, CHP. “Now, they see that Turkey is like any Arab country.”
What is left is military force—something that Mr. Erdogan is increasingly willing to exercise in Syria.
The Turkish army, weakened by purges before and after the 2016 coup attempt, struggled against Islamic State in the so-called Euphrates Shield operation in northern Syria that year. But it is showing more rapid progress in the Olive Branch operation launched this January to seize the Syrian mountainous enclave of Afrin from a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia.
The militia, the YPG, is affiliated with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a group that is considered terrorist by Ankara and Washington alike.
It is unclear whether Turkish advances will continue as rapidly now that the YPG has pulled a large number of fighters from battling the remnants of Islamic State in eastern Syria and sent these forces to the front lines of Afrin.
Mr. Erdogan, in a speech Monday, indicated that Afrin is just the beginning, and that he is heading next for the much larger—and U.S.-protected—Kurdish-controlled areas of eastern Syria, starting with the town of Manbij, which hosts American troops.
“Today we are in Afrin, tomorrow we will be in Manbij, the day after we will be east of the Euphrates to clean up all the terrorists all the way to the border of Iraq,” Mr. Erdogan said.
Such pronouncements are directed in large part at hard-line Turkish nationalist voters hostile to the Kurds or the U.S.
Mr. Erdogan, who sought reconciliation with Turkey’s Kurdish minority in the early years of his rule, veered sharply toward the hard-line nationalists after 2016. His new powers only vest after the next presidential election, which is due next year but—according to many Turkish politicians—may take place early. He needs nationalist support to win that vote.
“The only aim of the Turkish government is to keep its majority and power in Turkey. What it is doing in Syria is based on this, and not on rational analysis,” said Osman Can, a prominent constitutional lawyer and a former lawmaker from Mr. Erdogan’s party.
Turkey, which has the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s second largest army, isn’t just flexing its muscles in Syria. In recent days, Ankara detained Greek border guards who mistakenly strayed across the frontier, sent its navy to harass an Italian gas-exploration ship in Cypriot waters, and threatened the Czech Republic with reprisals for failing to extradite a leader of the YPG.
“This is the way the new Turkey acts: very transactional and very belligerent,” said Aaron Stein, an expert on Turkey at the Atlantic Council think tank. “It’s using all its tools and a ‘crazy man’ approach to get more concessions from its ostensible allies.”
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