Video: MSNBC panel stunned by surprise Mattis resignation

READ IT: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis takes aim at Trump's Syria pullout in resignation letter

In his resignation letter, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made jabs at Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria — and his apparent disagreement with it.

“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” Mattis wrote, “I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/read-defense-secretary-jim-mattis-takes-aim-trumps-syria-pullout-resignation-letter/?utm_source=push_notifications

Edit for this: Someone who read it tweeted this: Wow! Explicitly resigning over conflict in views about supporting allies rather than authoritarian nations.



https://twitter.com/Elizabeth_McLau/status/1075881565216010246

Dems happily sitting back and watching the GOP turn into a trainwreck: Wall Street Journal reporter

Democrats happily sitting back and watching the GOP turn into a trainwreck: Wall Street Journal reporter

MARTIN CIZMAR
20 DEC 2018 AT 16:41 ET

Snip:

“The Democrats are looking at this and saying, ‘This is a train wreck that is happening in front of us and we’re happy to stand back and let it happen.’ It’s Republicans within his own party who disagree with whether or not there should be a stopgap funding bill through to February or not,” Bussey said. “The Democrats are sitting back and saying ‘He’s already said I’m going to take responsibility for a shut down if it happens.’ They’re willing to let that happen. As every day goes by, there are fewer Republicans there to vote because they have gone back to their districts, they’re retiring or maybe they got voted out of office… The Democrats are pointing out, this is not how you negotiate over an issue. There’s many issues that Republicans and Democrats disagree on in the Congress. But you don’t hostage the federal government and closure of the federal government for your particular issue. It’s meant to be negotiated, compromise is meant to be reached.”

Trump put himself in a box. Without the wall he has done nothing for the base and will get clobbered

in the next election. This is how much of the base is going to react:

Coulter, who has clashed with Trump over the wall in the past, told The Daily Caller that without the wall, the linchpin of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump will “just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populist for a while, but he’ll have no legacy whatsoever.”


"My prediction is his support will evaporate and Trump will very likely not finish his term and definitely not be elected to a second term,” Coulter told The Daily Caller.


https://www.ajc.com/news/ann-coulter-rips-trump-for-failing-build-border-wall/63GJEDYSRKZzGxm7YvtKiI/?fbclid=IwAR2RisFNQUeA3-YwiWvGn6x-Jr9trxeTbkkqVHggKpEreurwmg3GyGMy08M


So he probably sees shutting down the Gov. as his only option.

It's always nice to use a link from the ultra-conservative CATO Institute that bashes Trump's wall

Why the Wall Won’t Work
By David Bier

This article appeared in the May 2017 issue of Reason.
Donald Trump captured the imagination of many American voters with a single campaign promise. “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border,” he boasted in June 2015. For good measure, he added, “And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.” The twin pledges-which followed a tirade about Mexican rapists and drug dealers-neatly captured everything that was either attractive or repulsive to voters in the real estate mogul’s presidential run: bravado, nationalism, and controversy.

Trump was often criticized for lacking precision in policy ideas, but he had bold and detailed requirements for his wall. It would be 1,000 miles long. (The other 1,500, he said, were covered by “natural barriers.”) He gave various estimates of its height-between 30 and 50 feet, with the most common number being 35. His barrier would be an “impenetrable physical wall” composed of “precast [concrete] plank…30 feet long, 40 feet long.” He also insisted that it would be aesthetically pleasing.
While he said after the election that a fence may be appropriate in “some areas,” he added that a wall would be better, and he has since vigorously corrected reporters who describe the project as a “fence.” Throughout the campaign, he described the current fences as a “joke,” implying that he would not only build a superior barrier, but that he would replace the one that exists at some points now.

More: https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-wall-wont-work

Malcolm Nance escalates feud with Fox News' Tucker Carlson:Did Fox News just learn about the Russia

scandal?

Got to love Malcolm Nance! He knows how to beat these assholes at their own game.

Malcolm Nance escalates feud with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson: Did Fox News just learn about the Russia scandal?

SARAH K. BURRIS
20 DEC 2018 AT 00:15 ET

Counterintelligence expert Malcolm Nance escalated the feud between he and Fox News host Tucker Carlson during his appearance on Dean Obeidallah’s SirusXMProgress show this week.

Nance, who is the definitive expert in terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture. He’s written extensively about ways in which Russian hackers managed to target the weaknesses in the United States. Tucker Carlson, by contrast, has a Bachelor’s in history from Trinity College and does commentary for Fox News.

Still, Carlson attacked a theory from Nance that the Russians were involved in a decades-long disinformation attack against the US. The long-term research into American behavioral patterns, culture and politics enabled them to easily execute their campaign in 2016.

Carlson, naturally, took the nuanced look at foreign espionage and turned it into a sound-bite that misconstrued the position entirely.

More: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/malcolm-nance-escalates-feud-fox-news-tucker-carlson-fox-news-just-learn-russia-scandal/?utm_source=push_notifications

If Donald Jr. gets indicted that would be explosive! Seriously, every news program in the world

will go berserk with the President of the United States of America's son being indicted! I think it would be so explosive the pressure on Trump would multiply tenfold. It would be a major turning point. Historical on an epic level!

Only bringing this up because several DU threads are suggesting that could happen soon.

WATCH: Malcolm Nance predicts Julian Assange will be indicted the same day as Roger Stone

WATCH: Intel expert Malcolm Nance predicts Julian Assange will be indicted the same day as Roger Stone

BOB BRIGHAM
19 DEC 2018 AT 19:55 ET

Intelligence expert Malcolm Nance predicted on Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller would indict longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone at the same time as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Nance, the author of the 2018 book The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West, made the prediction on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.

“We have breaking news tonight from the Washington Post. This suggests special counsel Robert Mueller may have just taken a big step towards indicting Trump’s longtime advisor, Roger Stone,” Matthews reported.

More: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/watch-intel-expert-malcolm-nance-predicts-julian-assange-will-indicted-day-roger-stone/?utm_source=push_notifications

David K Johnson said Trump has turned Mueller into a legal centipede

with a crap load more shoes to drop. Don Lemon could not stop laughing at the comparison.

Did Flynn's lawyers buy into Jeanine Pirro conspiracy BS defence and it backfired on them?

Maybe they got watching FOX and Pirro's talk about this judge got them wondering and so they thought "Hay, worth a shot?"

Sounds like the judge wants them to come back and leave that conspiracy crap behind. He wasn't amused by this type of shit coming from people like Pirro and them running with it.