Great and Unmatched Wisdom?

A Bridge Too Far:  Most Republican Senators have kept their distance from the Ukraine quid pro quo fiasco, ducking media appearances and questions.  As Wisconsin’s Senator Johnson learned the hard way, defending Trump by pushing debunked right wing conspiracy theories impresses few outside the Trump orbit and may ultimately be career shortening and as Mitt Romney’s experience shows, sharp criticism of Trump leads to withering twitter attacks, attacks that few besides the super rich, devil may care Romney can afford to endure.  That said, while threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for political favors doesn’t appear to be a bigly problem for Republicans, abandoning Kurdish allies to face possible annihilation at the hands of Turkey is their bridge too far. Led by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the Senator who has spent the better part of the past two years kissing Trump’s butt on the golf course, Republicans lined up to criticize Trump’s unexpected Sunday night pronouncement that he was withdrawing US troops from northern Syria at the request of the Turks.  Graham who has cozied up to Trump in part to prevent that kind of foreign policy decision making called Trump’s action “unnerving to its core,” “shortsighted and irresponsible,” saying that it would lead to the reemergence of ISIS and push the Kurds to align with Syria and Iran. He added that he was confident that the Senate could muster a veto proof resolution pushing back against Trump’s decision for what that’s worth and if you are a recently dead Kurd, that’s not much. The usually Trump supportive  Mitch McConnell emerged from his shell to echo Graham saying that “A precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime. And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorists groups regroup.”  And former UN Ambassador Niki Haley, tweeted “We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back. The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake.”  Former Obama aide Susan Rice spared no words, calling Trump’s decision bat sh-t crazy.  Trump, who appears to have pulled the trigger on the Syria decision without consulting with or even alerting the Pentagon, Congressional leaders or the State Department responded to the criticism by tweeting “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).”  No one knows what he’s talking about with that “I’ve done it before” comment, few believe that the “stable genius” has “infinite wisdom,” but many noted that in addition to lacking empathy for others, people with narcissistic personality disorders frequently have god complexes. In any case, it’s not clear if Trump will stick with his decision to abandon the Kurds, not even the Turks are sure, so last night, as US troops started to withdraw, Turkish forces started launching bombs into Kurdish areas.  By the way, the Kurds who lost 10,000 of their own fighting against ISIS are currently responsible for guarding a like number of captured ISIS prisoners, prisoners who will be free to do their ISIS thing again once the Kurds are no longer around to hold on to them.  And though I did say most Republicans are avoiding the Ukraine mess, another one has uttered a few tepid words.  Ohio’s Rob Portman said it was wrong for Trump to seek help from China and Ukraine but not impeachable.  He said that last part very loud to make sure Trump heard it clearly.  

Back to Ukraine: Despite Trump’s lethal “wag the Kurd” diversionary move, House Democrats remain focused on pushing forward with the investigation into all things Ukraine.  They’ve issued a few more subpoenas, sending the newest ones to Defense Secretary Mike Esper and Acting Head of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought seeking documents related to the hold that Trump ordered in July on nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine in an effort to follow the money because it’s always about the money. Though we still don’t know who either of the whistleblowers are, Whistleblower Two one is reported to have first hand knowledge of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.  Previously one of the Trump defenses was that since Whistleblower One’s accusations were based on hearsay they didn’t count.  With the emergence of a firsthand witness, that defense, which was never much of a defense, has been replaced with the “I already released the transcript of my perfect call so who cares” defense.  Just a reminder, the transcript was only a summary memo, the call wasn’t perfect, and the emergence of another whistleblower is a bigly deal, such a big deal that Democratic leaders are growing increasingly concerned that Trump or one or more of his House enablers will try to unmask one or both of them to scare them off or worse.  To that end, Democratic leadership is considering having Whistleblower One, who’s on tap to testify soon, appear from a remote location, obscuring his appearance and voice in order to prevent their Republican colleagues from revealing his identity to Trump. Trump masks, perhaps? No doubt, Republicans will call foul, but Democrats fears aren’t unwarranted.  Who can forget Devon Nunes’ bizarre midnight run to the White House, the one where he pretended to emerge with newly uncovered dirt proving Trump’s innocence or the unending attacks on Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whose family continues to suffer from absurd claims that he, not the Russians, stole the DNC emails.  Getting back to the money, yesterday a Federal Judge in New York rejected Trump’s lawyers claims that as president he is immune from criminal investigations calling that assertion “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.” The judge ordered that the requested eight years of Trump’s tax returns be turned over to the Manhattan District Attorney.  Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed the decision to the US Circuit Court of Appeals where it is expected to get an expedited review.

Ammo and Open Skies:  Though it’s not clear why, Trump appears to be on the verge of withdrawing the US from the Open Skies Treaty.  The treaty, in force since 2002 with 34 nations as signatories, allows unarmed aerial observation flights for information gathering purposes allowing the US and our allies in Europe to monitor Russian military deployment, in areas like, where else, Ukraine.  House Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel observed that an "American withdrawal would only benefit Russia," which probably explains a lot about why Trump wants to withdraw although to be fair to Trump, former national security advisor John Bolton set the wheels in motion on this move before he left.  A number of polls were released yesterday and despite Trump’s  attacks and pundit assertions that he’s not punching back hard enough, Joe Biden has gained in Wisconsin and South Carolina.  Also, despite Trump’s assertions that his poll numbers are up 17%, they aren’t, if anything he is down a few beeps.  While making that assertion Trump also repeated one of his favorite lies, claiming that  the military didn’t have any ammunition when he took over.  They did.