Donald Trump may have done the impossible. He just may have planted a spine in the Republican Party. Mitch McConnell has flat out told Nancy Pelosi that the Senate will not vote on any spending bill that Trump will not agree to sign. So far, no Republican Senator is even hinting at opposition to Trump.

I am sure that the plan for both Schumer and Pelosi was to hold the government hostage and score a cheap political victory over Donald Trump. Before Trump, this would have almost certainly worked. Republican RINOs are famous for folding under pressure. But things are different now. Donald Trump has proved that sometimes the only thing necessary to win is the willingness to fight for what you believe. Many of these Republicans may despise Trump, but they recognize who is winning and who is not.

Schumer and Pelosi may have stupidly chosen to fight a battle against Donald Trump on the worse possible battle field. In spite of the spin by the main stream media, the majority of Americans WANT the government to build a wall/fence/ditch along our border.

So far, Republicans are not turning tail. If anything, they are encouraging Trump to stay the course. Even his former enemies, like Lindsey Graham, are loudly supporting him. John Kennedy once said that: “victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” Donald Trump is winning and the size of his bandwagon is going to surprise a lot of folks.

Mitt Romney, probably on a mission to fill the void left by Corker, Flake and McCain wrote a self-righteous sermon slamming Trump. No one applauded. Instead he was met with a furious backlash. He has already started backing down big time. It looks like a lot of those Republican Senators have figured out something. Perhaps they have done some research and read up on Benjamin Franklin:

“We must, indeed, all hang together or, must assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Or maybe they understood what Lindsey Graham meant during the Kavanaugh hearings:

 “Boy, you all want power. God, I hope you never get it.”

If Trump loses, every Republican in congress loses. Even worse, the country loses. Democrats have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they have zero interest in compromise or sharing power. Their mission is nothing less than to attain absolute power. Republicans either stand together and fight back or risk extermination. Donald Trump, for all his faults, knows how to fight back.

There is an old joke about what do you call a 300 pound tattooed biker with bad breath shouting insults at you from a dark alleyway. The obvious answer is: “sir.”

The whole world has figured this out. The Chinese, the North Koreans, the Canadians, the French and even the Mexicans are all calling Donald Trump: “sir.” Not because they like him, but rather because they fear and respect him.

How do you thank someone who has got North Korea to back away from nuclear weapons? How do you thank someone who got China to blink and at least consider a more balanced trade agreement? How do you thank someone who just got Mexico to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants? How do you thank someone who called Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s bluff by refusing to back off support for Brett Kavanaugh and for the absolutely necessary border wall?

They actually wrote a song about this and even made it into a movie: “To sir, with love.”

You don’t have to love Donald Trump, but you sure should love what he is doing for our country.

TDM

If Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi score a huge political win over Donald Trump, it may prove to be a very short term and catastrophic victory. There are already reports of a new caravan with more than 15,000 people forming in Honduras. If Trump is forced to give up on constructing a barrier on our Southern Border, the problem will become much worse and it will create enormous problems. I suspect both Schumer and Pelosi know that. The plan is to probably to publicly humiliate Trump, but behind the scenes to secretly support protecting our border. The problem is that if the President of the United States is viewed as weak and impotent, it endangers all of us. This will not be limited to our southern border. Our enemies all over the world will be emboldened to attack us.

If you think this is a reach, go back and look at the way a Democratic congress handled things following the resignation of Richard Nixon. Nixon won the war and North Vietnam signed a peace treaty. But when Nixon was removed from office, the Democratic controlled congress cut off all funds for the war and refused even to allow South Vietnam to purchase the military weapons and supplies necessary to defend itself. President Ford begged congress to change course, but they ignored him, and our country endured a humiliating defeat.

The speed at which this happened was shocking. Nixon was forced to resign on August 8, 1974. North Vietnam immediately realized that the U.S. was vulnerable and by December of 1974 North Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary Le Duan developed a two-year plan for the “liberation” of South Vietnam. In reality, it only took 55 days. On April 23, 1975, President Ford announced to students at Tulane University that as far as American participation was concerned the war was over.  The students cheered joyfully. On April 30, Saigon fell, and the last American personnel were evacuated. The liberal left was too busy rejoicing to give any consideration to the millions of people who were slaughtered as a result of their “victory.”

If Democrat succeed in humiliating President Trump, with regard to what he considers to be a grave threat to national security, we may see similar results all over the world. The problem will not be limited to our southern border. Imagine this country facing grave threats, all over the world, in the Ukraine, the South China Sea, North Korea and Iran. Now imagine a committee, lead by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durban developing an effective strategy for dealing with these threats. A strategy that will take weeks, if not months to develop and which will always be a day late and a dollar short.  Be very, very afraid.

TDM

Donald Trump made a very interesting tweet that borders on brilliant:

Have the Democrats finally realized that we desperately need Border Security and a Wall on the Southern Border? Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking,Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our Country. Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?

I have frequently remarked that the famous Trump tweets are not actually written by a bitter and angry old man sitting in his underwear in the oval office. Trump actually has a team of people who “help” him with his tweets. While his tweets occasionally wander off course, they are actually the result of a well-choreographed media campaign. They definitely drive liberals insane, but if you look at them, they are the polar opposite of being spontaneous and unfocused. Trump, the master performer, knows his audience.

Trump is spot on in his observation that most people not being paid by the partial government shutdown are Democrats. A lot of these people are part of the entrenched bureaucracy who have been in place for years. They consider any President to be the temporary occupant of the White House. The real power lies with them, the unelected and unmovable mass of bureaucratic employees who really don’t pay much attention to elections. But there is a reason they are considered non-essential employees. The world will continue, relatively unscathed, whether they draw a paycheck or not.

Oh, shutting down the government will result in a lot of stink and steam, but most of the people affected will be those drawing a paycheck from the federal government. The rest of us will quickly understand why non-essential really does mean “non-essential.” There is a real risk that if the shutdown lingers for too long that a lot of people will start asking a very obvious question. “Why are we paying all this money for people we don’t actually need?”

The main stream media, totally dominated by the Democratic Party, will spin this as an unprecedented disaster. They will focus entirely on a couple of antidotal cases intended to tug at our heart strings by showcasing the inhumanity of it all. This is similar to the current attempts to represent all illegal immigrants and people banned from countries that harbor terrorists as wonderful people we all want living next door. The reality is that while some of them are like this, there are also others like this animal that shot a police officer in Newman, CA.  There is an old saying that one should avoid throwing out the baby with the bath water, but they leave out an important part of that quote. No one benefits by keeping the old bath water.

The result is that while Nancy Pelosi is relaxing in Hawaii, Trump is holed up in the White House looking like the only adult left in Washington, D.C. At some point, this will become so obvious that even the Kool-Aid drinking progressives just elected to congress will figure it out. In spite of the rhetoric, Trump is spot on in his analysis. If we don’t stop people from flooding in over our southern border, we are going to have enormous problems that cannot and will not be ignored. In addition, if we allow non-essential people to stay home, we are likely to learn that they really are non-essential.

This reminds me of an employee who was habitually late to work. I finally met with her and gave her a final written notice saying that if she was late again, she would be fired. She came in to see me the next day and asked for a raise. Apparently, she though she needed more compensation for not doing her job. It was a very short meeting and I wished her well in her next employment adventure.

Sometimes, when people take their ball and go home, we learn that we didn’t actually need their ball anyway.

TDM

My mother used to say: “You might as well get hung for a goose as a gander.” I always wondered where this came from. Later I realized she probably got this from the phrase “might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.” The point is that if you are going to pay for a crime anyway, you might as well do something worse as the penalty is the same.

This reminds me of a personal moment of enlightenment during my second combat tour in South East Asia. I suddenly realized that, short of committing a crime, there really was nothing else the Air Force could do to me that would be worse than my current assignment.  I was flying daily combat missions on rickety aircraft over hostile territory.Then at night we could look forward to rocket and/or mortar attacks.Even the coveted re-assignment to Fairbanks, Alaska wasn’t much of a threat. I literally laughed out loud.

I suspect Donald Trump is in a very similar position. Granted, he will be blamed, by the MSM, for the government shutdown. But he is blamed by the MSM for everything anyway. He was even blamed for daring to visit the troops in Iraq over the Christmas Holiday. We are at the point where it is literally impossible for Trump to get worse press coverage. When you think about it, Trump has almost nothing to lose. He is hardly going to get impeached over this.

If Trump refuses to budge, the only way Democrats win is if they can get 2/3rds of the House AND 2/3rds of the Senate to override a Trump veto. Good luck with that. Republicans are not pressuring Trump to fold, they are instead encouraging him to stay the course.

At some point, sooner rather than later, the American public is going to realize that unless Democrats compromise, this partial shutdown will continue. The people most affected will be public sector employees and odds are a high percentage of them are Democrats. Don’t assume that Chuck and Nancy won’t start to get a lot of heat. Dumping on Trump is great fun, but so is paying the mortgage.

There is a long history of Republicans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and it would be naïve to expect anything different. But this time there is at least the potential for a different outcome, if for no other reason than Trump actually has little left to lose.

TDM

It appears as though the Trump administration has finally figured out how to win the border wall funding debate. It is quite simple; just give Democrats exactly what they want. Democrats don’t want a border wall at all, they just want open borders. So, let people come in and deliver them to, gasp, Democrats. They can invite CNN and others in to report on how great this is working out. ICE has already figured this out and they know that Beto O’Rourke is the right man for the job. So they just dropped off 200 migrants at the El Paso, Texas, bus station:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/25/beto-orourke-seeks-help-after-ice-leaves-200-migra/

Veronica Escobar, the Democrat who is replacing O’Rourke, calls this “really alarming.”  Why? These are wonderful people just seeking a better life. She should be thrilled at the opportunity to help. What better plan than to hand over responsibility for their care and feeding to their strongest supporters. And, in the ultimate act of kindness, they were delivered on Christmas Day.

Imagine buses arriving in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C.  All of them are full of fresh arrivals, ready to start their life in the U.S. Since most of them are guaranteed to vote only for Democrats, send them to Democratic strongholds where they will be most welcome.

Perhaps some buses could even be sent to the home addresses of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris. They will know what to do.

If this continues, then just give ICE and the border patrol New Year’s Day off. Be sure to let everyone at CNN know this is happening. All these wonderful people will flood into our country, in places like San Diego and El Paso. The California dream will become available over night. The budget war will be over, because this will prove once and for all why a border wall is completely unnecessary. What a great way to start the New Year.

Happy New Year

TDM

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a convoy of troops has been sent by Saudi Arabia and UAE to areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG group.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/12/21/checkmate-saudi-crown-prince-mbs-sends-replacement-troops-to-defend-kurds-in-syria/

This would be in the same area where Trump just authorized the withdrawal of American troops. There are two major concerns in this area. One is that Turkey was getting ready to launch a military exercise against the Kurds. That would be the same Turkey that tried to use the Kashoggi affair to point the finger at the Saudi Crown Prince. The same Crown Prince that Trump refused to throw under the bus, even though people like Lyndsey Graham were and are demanding exactly that. Now we may know why, as the Crown Prince is the one sending in the Saudi Troops. Like Trump said, we need Saudi Arabia as an ally.

The other was the fear of a resurgence of ISIS or the continued influence of Iran. Both those concerns just disappeared over night. So, has the fear of a Turkey invasion of the Kurds. We are likely to hear very little about what happens in this region, and that is a very good thing.

If this is accurate, and it looks very accurate. Trump has shown why the military reports to the President and not vice versa. Trump has been very consistent about demanding  that allies put forth more effort to defend their own interests. Saudi Arabia appears to be doing just that. I doubt that either Syria, Russia, Iran or Turkey will be very interested in a conflict with Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, those people predicting a rapid return of ISIS are facing the reality of Saudi Arabia ready, willing and able to finish the job. Unlike our troops, Saudi Arabia will do the necessary without being hampered by the smothering presence of the main stream media. If nothing else, the Kashoggi affair shows us that the Saudis are far less tolerant of resistance in the media.

In summary, instead of creating a vacuum with the removal of U.S. troops, Trump has instead sent in a vacuum cleaner. He has done exactly what he promised. Once again, his opponents may have seriously underestimated Donald Trump.

TDM

President Trump met with the GOP leader in the House and just announced that he will not sign the current continuing funding resolution. Democrats really thought they had won a big victory here. It sure looked like Trump was also going to bow to pressure. That has all changed. Now Trump is standing up to Pelosi and Schumer and the GOP leadership, including both Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy are standing behind him.

This is a remarkable change from RINO Republicans who routinely faint in despair at the slightest hint of opposition. While Trump definitely sent some very mixed signals, ultimately he appears to be back on track. That puts the pressure where it belongs, squarely on Chuck Schumer. He needs to explain why his opposition to the border wall justifies shutting down the government. Trump has most definitely explained why he considers funding the wall to be worth the price. So far Schumers main argument is that he refuses to give Trump a political victory.

Don’t be surprised if even the news media covers this honestly. It is clear to any objective observer that Schumer’s position is entirely political. Democrats are publicly on record approving a border wall while Obama was President. If the media reports objectively on this, it is Schumer who has some explaining to do. He has to explain why a border wall was a great idea, until Trump was elected President. He has to explain why he would have approved something he now says is unnecessary while Obama was President. What, other than the election of Donald Trump, has changed? Was he wrong then or is he wrong now.

Even if the MSM fails to report honestly on this, we can be sure that FOX News and people like Rush Limbaugh will be all over it. I think the liberal left may be shocked at the surged in support for Trump. Even people opposed to the wall will understand something important. Trump is unwilling to back down because he clearly believes national security is at stake. If it wasn’t important, he shouldn’t have requested it in the first place. If it is important, he should refuse to back down. Even if you disagree with the need for a border wall, it is refreshing to see someone stand up for what they believe.

TDM

Who knew? William Shakespeare may have predicted the end of the Mueller Investigation while writing Hamlet around 1602. In the play, Hamlet discovered a plot on his life by Claudius and responds by saying: “For tis the sport to have the enginer hoist with his owne petar:”

One could argue that Hamlet pretended to be mad to expose those who were out to destroy him. Sound familiar? For the record, Shakespeare was referring to a “petard” which was an explosive device used in warfare. It was a small bomb made of wood or metal and filled with gunpowder. It would be set off by lighting a fuse. If the fuse was too short, the petard would blow up before the person placing it could get away. Hence, they would be hoisted by their own petard. Contemporary meaning is to be injured by a device that you intended to use to injure someone else.

In this case, Mueller may have been so focused on destroying Trump, that he may exposed himself to legal jeopardy. The following article by Sidney Powell, who is a former Federal Prosecutor, asserts that new facts indicate that Mueller obstructed justice:

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/mueller-destroyed-evidence/

What makes this interesting is that, unlike the Mueller investigation, she actually points out some well documented facts. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has demanded that Mueller provide the defense with all the “Brady” material. The “Brady” material means that the prosecution must give the defense all evidence favorable to the defendant, whether it impeaches a witness, mitigates punishment or shows his innocence.

The Judge specifically asked for the 302s relevant to the original interview of Michael Flynn. Those have been requested by Senator Grassley for over two years. It looks like Mueller did not comply.  He allegedly only provided a 302 that was produced seven months after the fact. He also redacted the name of Special Agent Joe Pientka, who wrote the original 302.  If the original 302s exist and were not presented that is a problem. If the original 302s were destroyed, it is an even bigger problem.

It is important to consider the legal doctrine of “spoliation of evidence” and “adverse inference.” Basically this means that if someone has material evidence and it is destroyed the jury is instructed to presume that this evidence was bad for the person destroying it. If Mueller destroyed evidence the judge not only has a right, but a duty to assume that this evidence would have been beneficial to Flynn and adverse to Mueller.

Now add in the remarkable report last week that the FBI destroyed the cell phones of Page and Strzok containing text messages sent between December 2016 and May 2017. The IG not only reported that the phones had been reset to destroy these messages; it appears as though his cyber experts were still able to recover over 19,000 of them.

When you add in the obvious problems with the FISA warrants, it gets worse. Then, to cap things off, James Comey admitted he leaked his notes to the press with the express intent of getting Jeff Sessions to recuse himself resulting in the appointment of a Special Prosecutor. Add in the appointment of Robert Mueller, who is reportedly a BFF of Comey and this looks increasingly suspect. Now consider the fact that Comey admitted, under oath, that he deliberately took advantage of Flynn by interviewing him without the presence of legal counsel. It sure looks like a perfect storm to me.

Sadly, we are at the point where either Mueller has smoking guns that will destroy Trump, he is incredibly incompetent, or the entire FBI and Special Prosecutor fiasco was literally an evil plot to obstruction justice in a botched attempt at a coup d’é·tat to remove President Donald Trump from office.

This would sure explain the loud opposition by the liberal left to anyone Trump appoints to be Attorney General. It would also explain why being hoisted by one’s own petard may be mild compared to what may be heading the way of Trump opponents.

TDM

We should have known better. There have been numerous congressional hearings, run by Republicans that have accomplished close to zero. The most recent was the absurd hearing on the Clinton Foundation. In the case of the Clinton Foundation hearing it soon became clear that some of the whistle blowers were actually private investigators trying to find tax evasion so they could collect a finder’s fee. Even if they are right, it is hard to have any respect for them. In addition, it is always difficult to assign credibility to someone who stands to make big bucks depending on the outcome. If these guys didn’t find tax evasion, they wouldn’t get paid. Speaks to motive!

At best, every congressional hearing is an exercise in futility. When is the last time you saw serious action taken because of a congressional hearing. At best, you get a “criminal referral” which is sent to the DOJ to do a real investigation. The same scene is played over and over again with identical results. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are more interested in getting camera time than they are in getting real answers. With questioning limited to 5 minutes even if someone asks a hard question, it is pretty easy for a skilled witness to avoid answering. The MSM can be counted on to over hype anything that looks bad for Trump and ignore anything that looks bad  for Obama or Clinton.

The good news is that Democrats will have identical problems with hearings designed to investigate Trump. The biggest difference is that Trump is unlikely to even pretend to cooperate with House committees run by people like Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings, Maxine Waters or Jerrod Nadler. By the time the legal dust clears, the 2020 elections will be here. The MSM will be in nightly meltdown, but they are already in nightly meltdown. At some point everyone, even liberals, will become sick of this.

However, there are real investigations going on by real professionals. Those investigations are far more dangerous than silly congressional hearings. A lot of people think the FBI is withholding information to protect itself from congressional oversight. But perhaps they are withholding stuff so that an inept congressional committee will not muck it up. There is a report today that the IG recovered 19,000 text messages by Page and Strzok for the period from December 15, 2016 through May 17, 2017 that the FBI thought had been erased. Hmmm.

In addition, while Democrats are doubling down on investigating Trump in a desperate search for something. They are ignoring something that is beyond obvious. If the newly elected Attorney General for New York can investigate Donald Trump and his family without requiring any evidence of a crime, how, exactly can they complain if Donald Trump orders the FBI and the DOJ to investigate someone for similar reasons. That would, of course, be abuse of power. But is it any less abuse of power than Democrats investigating everything Trump for purely political purposes? I would wage a large bet, assuming I had any money to bet, that the loudest voices demanding an investigation of Trump could not withstand a similar investigation of themselves.

Keep in mind that the “me-too” movement, clearly aimed at Donald Trump, resulted in no impact on him, but a whole lot of high level Democrats and liberal celebrities bit the dust. High level Republicans, not so much. Expect similar results if this insane mission to investigate Trump continues. He will find a way to fight back and he can afford the best attorneys in the world who will find a legal way to get it done. This is another example of tweaking the tail of the tiger. Gary Hart can tell you all about that:

https://www.thedailyreview.com/opinion/columns_editorials/don-t-tweak-the-tail-of-the-tiger/article_ff4fe044-ae03-11e7-b077-2302014c22b1.html

Right now liberals are celebrating what they expect to be a continued relentless witch hunt of everything Trump. The liberal media is literally foaming at the mouth in breathless anticipation. Even conservatives who support Trump are predicting this. But, this may come at a cost that liberals can’t even imagine.

TDM

Donald Trump is routinely accused of Abuse of Power. That is why every night on the MSM they explain why this man is so dangerous and why he must be removed from power. This is always accompanied by absurd predictions that the legal noose is closing in on the worst villain in American, if not world, history. So I thought it might be interesting to see the specific actions allegedly taken by Trump that suggest abuse of power.

Washington Post – August 28, 2017

• Trump’s family, associates and campaign staff had numerous contacts with Russia during the campaign and post-election transition. Evidence exists that Trump’s personal attorney was seeking help from Putin as Trump was running a peculiar campaign that omitted any harsh talk about Russia.
• Trump lied in saying no such contacts occurred. Other members of his administration omitted mention of their Russian contacts on required security applications.
• Trump’s son and son-in-law met with Russian officials for the purpose of obtaining damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
• Trump openly encouraged Russian hacking of his opponent and in the closing days of the campaign made dozens and dozens of references to WikiLeaks.
• Once in office, he tried to pressure then-FBI Director James B. Comey, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to curtail the investigation into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.
• After Comey refused, Trump fired him, concocted a fake reason for the firing, attempted to intimidate him before his testimony (e.g. hinting at tapes, threatening to investigate for leaking information) and publicly continued to hint at his power to remove both the attorney general and special prosecutor.

Trump has embarrassed the presidential office in innumerable ways, and members of the House and Senate are obliged to organize these incidents in their heads and get a handle on their constitutional significance. There is a wrong way and a right way to go about this task. The wrong way is to treat the launch of an impeachment inquiry as a matter of political popularity or opportunism. … The right approach is to commit to a clear-eyed and ongoing assessment of Trump’s words and actions against the obligations of the office and to trace out the effects of his misconduct on the security and welfare of the United States.

When we consider the myriad other ways in which Trump has used and misused the presidency — e.g. praising police abuses, insulting federal (“so-called”) judges, pardoning someone who defied a court order, enriching himself while in office, putting unqualified relatives in office, refusing to reveal his financial dealings or to free himself of conflicts of interest — it becomes clear that Trump is not fulfilling his oath or faithfully executing the law; he’s enriching himself, deflecting inquiry and undermining the rule of law. How could impeachment not be on the table?

Here’s more: Washington Post – September 18, 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-declassification-order-is-an-obvious-abuse-of-presidential-power/2018/09/18/a3a5af5e-bb7b-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html?utm_term=.118fc71e1c6a

Contrast this with the outrageous claims by the Federalist that Saint Obama might be considered, by some delusional Tea Party radicals, to have abused power:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/19/10-ways-obama-violated-constitution-presidency/

Now you understand why Trump is so dangerous and why the country desperately needs another President like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Any questions?

TDM