Syria

Since everyone is suddenly an expert in Syria (mostly by just echoing what everyone else is saying), I might as well chime in my scattered thoughts:

1. The Syrian civil war is complicated.

2. The Obama Administration made a lot of really bad decisions in Syria, but because the civil war is so messy I don't think I would have done much better if I were in their shoes.

3. A lot of the "Obama should have..." commentary seems to be based on pretty wild assumptions about the U.S. military's ability to do exactly what the president wants to do and to completely control the situation in a country with numerous local factions and intervening foreign powers, each with their own agendas. (Doesn't anyone remember Iraq?)

4. I agreed and still agree with Obama's overall strategy of trying to avoid a large-scale outright U.S. intervention in the civil war.

5. Obama's decision to put a small force in Syria was also a mistake. The mess created by their abrupt departure/movement away from the Turkish border, is just a symptom of what a bad idea it was to put them there in the first place.

6. Just because U.S. soldiers should not have been in Syria to begin with, doesn't mean that it is not a terrible idea to abruptly removing those soldiers without any forethought while giving the green light to Erdogan to come in and slaughter all the Kurds he wants.

This is what the waning days of an incompetent moron president looks like

It's a scramble to grab as much as possible while Trump is still in the White House. And it won't only be by Erdogan. The time between now and the 2020 elections (or Trump's removal by impeachment, if it happens) will be marked by bad actors extending and protecting their gains. https://t.co/xKqsZjyWyo

— İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي (@iyad_elbaghdadi) October 13, 2019

If you think the world is crazy now, it is just going to get worse over the next year.

How can that poll have a valid sample when almost half of the people surveyed are part of the two major political parties?!?!?!?

The clownishness of the Trump campaign knows no bounds:

A Trump campaign official also hit the poll, saying: “It’s not hard to get 51 percent in favor of impeachment when nearly half of those polled were Democrats. The media should put this poll where it belongs — in the garbage.”

There are lots of charities that aren't really charities

Is anyone going to check to see what "charity" McCarthy and the NRCC is going to donate these contributions to?

They could, for example, donate it to the NRA, who could then turn around and contribute the money right back to them.

Bob Barr isn't even pretending to do his job

Is Bill Barr doing anything to enforce the laws of the United States in an even-handed manner? You know, his actual job as Attorney General.

It seems to me that all Barr is doing is going on wild goose chases in Europe to substantiate internet conspiracy theories that the President happens to believe because he is demented, and meeting with members of the media to make their coverage of the President even more fawning. Neither of those things are part of the job of the U.S. Attorney General.

If only there were some mechanism to remove an AG who has completely stopped doing the job from office? And if only there was a Senate that would ever remove him if that mechanism were ever activated.

yeah I'm posting a Bill "not Billy" Kristol tweet, just get over it and play the video

Lindsey Graham: A president who doesn't comply with Congressional requests for information is subject to impeachment. pic.twitter.com/Dhw5VBxbf0

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 8, 2019

what is there to investigate?

Yeah I know that this President has done so much stuff there is almost too much to investigate. But when that stuff includes the President of the United States going on TV and commits a felony on camera and his attorney sending a letter to the House leadership promising to obstruct justice, do we really need months of hearings to figure out what did the president know and when did he know it?

Congressional Republicans care about the Kurds more than they care about the rule of law in the U.S.

I'd take this a step further. The fact that the Republicans are seriously pushing back against Trump over his decision to betray the Kurds in Syria, tells us that all the previous Republican posturing about how they disapprove of Trump's other actions but whatchagonnado reactions are simply horseshit. When Trump does something bad that Republicans really care about, they will take action. They won't just release a statement tut-tutting what the President did.

For whatever reason, Republicans care about the Kurds. They don't care about clear criminal activity like abetting foreign interference in American elections, or ignoring a subpoena. If they did care, they would do more than issue bland statements of disapproval. They would pass resolutions and threaten to withhold their votes on issues that are important to the President.

The price of betrayal

I bet the Kurds are about to release all of those ISIS prisoners they were holding in Syria.

Trump has never had to submit a resume to get a job in his whole life

I guess this does tell us that Trump cares about his legacy.

It also tells us that he is pretty clueless of what his legacy is likely to be, regardless what happens with the current impeachment effort.

More than a year later and I am STILL updating

Currently there are 24 different things on the list and I'm sure I've missed something. (Feel free to let me know what I've missed)

The Trump Administration is taking more action against legal immigration than illegal immigration.

The Fireside Chat for Our Era

I see we are settling into a new tradition: daily on-camera unhinged rants from the President of the United States.

I can only imagine all the stuff this idiot will blurt out over the next few weeks as his impeachment proceeds in the House.

The real scandal is he's completely unqualified for the job but

aaaaaaand the only member of the Trump cabinet without a corruption scandal gets a corruption scandal.

No wonder he's jumping ship. (Not that the ship is unwelcoming to corrupt people)