The government shutdown: Never forget what it revealed about Obama's character.

Rich Terrell

NO DEAL: Government Heads to Partial Shutdown at Midnight After Congress Fails to Reach a Funding Deal  . . . "It should not be controversial to ensure the security of any of our borders, and yet… the Democrats have made this a hill to die on." . . .

It’s not about the $5 billion for border security in the bill the House passed tonight. It’s about Democrats wanting to break Trump.

Remember the shutdown in Obama's day? Dr. King said we should never judge a man by the color of his skin but by the content of his character; I've judged Obama by the content of his character and found him reprehensible. The Tunnel Dweller


Obama Acting Like Vindictive Child With National Parks Shutdown  . . . "As with the sequester, this President is using the shutdown of 17% of the government to punish the American voters into submission.  For example case of open-air monuments that have no physical barrier, such as the World War II memorial in downtown D.C., the White House has ordered park police to take the extra step of making sure no one can get to the memorials.  This led to the now famous incident where WWII veterans, who took an “honor flight”  to D.C.  went through the temporarily erected barricades to visit their monument." . . .

"Obama is one mean, vindictive bastard"  " . . .There is no other way to put it. During the last government “shutdown” Obama blockaded the WWII memorial, which is normally is open and ungated. He spent money on personnel and materials to prevent WWII vets from gaining access to their own shrine."

Shut Down Obama - Simply Vindictive

It is not hyperbole to say with the utmost clarity that the narcissist-in-chief is not a leader, but a petty, vindictive despot working his damndest to offend, hurt, and punish as many real Americans whom he is charged to serve. Obama is personally inflicting as much pain, suffering, and inconvenience upon veterans, children, and vacationers as possible, not just in these United States, but overseas as well.

There are more than 9,300 American World War II troops turning over in their graves in the Normandy American Cemetery in France while Obama has ordered it off limits to visitors – people who have traveled at pronounced expense to pay homage to real heroes of the Greatest Generation. Obama is simply spitting on their memories.

The Departure of Mattis and Engagements in the Middle East

With the Mattis departure ends the Kelly/Mattis/McMaster troika of generals, who in retrospect served the administration — and the country — honorably and effectively in difficult times.

Victor Davis Hanson  The near-destruction of ISIS in a matter of months (losing 99 percent of its landed caliphate), the restoration of sound defense budgeting, a reestablished sense of deterrence, and stable recalibration with allies were the signature achievements of James Mattis. And it seems a mistake not to have him finish a four-year stint at Defense.
"No doubt continued U.S. deployments in both Afghanistan and Syria loomed large in Trump’s sudden decision to leave the latter even if it would cause Mattis’s departure, as well as the sense that as 2020 looms he wants MAGA orthodoxy throughout the cabinet.
"The abrupt pulling of U.S. troops out of Syria is likely a mistake — given that for the size (about 2,000 troops on the ground) and cost of the deployment (few casualties), we were keeping ISIS moribund, somewhat checking Iran as well as Russia, and protecting the Kurds and what was left of the democratic Syria resistance. True, Syria was a mess, unlike a relatively stable Iraq in late 2011 (see the comments of Vice President Biden and President Obama), when the U.S. likewise abruptly left and opened the door for ISIS.  Yet Syria’s future now is either going to be much more of a mess or soon a calmer colony of Russia and Iran.
"No doubt the U.S. will likewise be reexamining the soon to be 18-year-long slog in  

Afghanistan.

"The problem with all these deployments as they transitioned from emergency interventions to near-permanent stationing was that grand strategists never clearly articulated to the public how such investments kept the U.S. far safer and how long such basing would be necessary, especially in terms of costs to benefits. Both arguments in theory could be made (cf. South Korea), but the public at least never was assured by a series of Afghan deadlines, surges, redirects, recalibrations, withdrawals, and radical changes in command, tactics, and strategies, or by a Syrian tragedy of false red lines, lies about the elimination of poison gas, invitations to the Russians to adjudicate U.N.-enforced WMD compliance and with it entrance back into the Middle East after a 40-year hiatus, ISIS as “jayvees,” the role of NATO “ally” Turkey, and prior restrictive lawfare tactics, etc. Ditto the Clinton “We came, we saw, he [Khadafi] died” misadventure in Libya, ending in Benghazi." . . .

NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. @vdhanson

Hall of shame: Advertisers sign up for boycott of Tucker Carlson for telling the truth on illegal immigration

Thomas Lifson  . . . "Update: Fox News has provided us a statement on the boycott:

Statement from FOX News 12-18-18

"We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants.

Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home. He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far left activist groups with deeply political motives.

While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view."

"HuffPost seems to approve of the boycott and repeats the common distortion of conflating illegal aliens with immigrants.  But it usefully provides a list of advertisers trying to silence Carlson for me – and maybe you –  to boycott.  Go and read the whole thing, but here are numbers one through three:

Stephen Colbert Piles On Tucker Carlson: ‘The Little Racist Who Could’

HuffPo gives us the list of sponsors boycotting Tucker's show:

What’s Happening to Tucker Carlson (and Others) Is Called ‘Blacklisting’ 
. . . "Back in the 1950s, a number of private corporations (most famously, movie and television studios), that had every legal right to choose who they did and did not want to do business with, enforced an appalling blacklist as a means to intimidate, silence, and punish those who held beliefs and opinions unpopular with the establishment.
"This never should have happened in America, and today we rightly look back on this era with shame.
"Moreover — and this is important — no one looks back at the infamous 1950’s Hollywood blacklist and says, “Hey, the studios were corporations, not the government, so they had the right to hire and fire whoever they wanted.”
. . . 

"We even have large media corporations, like the far-left CNN, openly demanding the blacklisting of certain opinions.

"What’s more, in a truly ironic example of history repeating itself, we have the powerful in Hollywood calling for the blacklisting of certain opinions.

"Yep, just as we saw happen to television personalities in the McCarthy era, Hollywood director Judd Apatow is openly calling for Fox News primetime star Tucker Carlson to be blacklisted, for his commercial sponsors to pull their support, for him to lose his platform and career." . . .

Syria: President Trump, let Obama's cut-and-run foreign policy die in shame!

Trump Courts Catastrophe in Syria

Islamic State is not defeated, and a U.S. withdrawal would be an abandonment of Kurdish allies.

Does the U.S. really want to abandon them?

"President Donald Trump is on the verge of making a spectacularly bad decision. The White House is soon expected to announce its plans to remove the 2,000 U.S. troops now serving in northeastern Syria. 

"This is not totally unexpected. Trump ran for president in part on the idea of smashing the Islamic State, but he also said there was no point in trying to stabilize the country after the terrorists were defeated. Since getting elected, he has regularly signaled that its time for U.S. forces to leave Syria. In March he promised the U.S. would be getting out of Syria “like, very soon.” In June, he floated a plan for an all-Arab army to replace the U.S. in a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

"Nonetheless, special-operations forces have remained in Syria, where they train and fight alongside largely Kurdish troops. Together they coordinate air strikes against the remaining pockets of Islamic State fighters and serve as a buffer between Turkey and Kurdish militias.

"This time it looks like Trump is serious. " . . .

The Syria Trickery  . . ."The move, the Times says, has “sowed new uncertainty about America’s commitment to the Middle East, its willingness to be a global leader and Mr. Trump’s role as commander in chief.” So, suddenly, the Times is on the side not only of Mr. Bolton but of Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham and our own famed leg at the United Nations, Benny Avni." . . .

U.S. Prepares to Fully Remove Troops From Northeastern Syria  "The Wall Street Journal has reported that the US military has started preparations to remove all of its forces from northeastern Syria:

U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.

The move follows a call last week between President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America’s Kurdish partners in Syria. . . .

Trump’s troop pullout from Syria is a terrible idea  . . . "We knew Trump wasn’t a foreign policy wizard, but we hoped he’d surround himself with smart people.  It took him a while but he had a good team with Haley, Bolton and Pompeo.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Bolton bails after this completely boneheaded move by Trump.

"The bottom line is that everyone wise enough to understand how awful it was for Obama to pull out of Iraq is either a hypocrite for not calling this out or sick to their stomachs that this is happening.

"If President Trump does follow through with this, he should officially recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights just as he moved the embassy to Jerusalem. Senators Cruz and Cotton have introduced a resolution in the Senate to that effect. That’s the least he can do to help Israel survive attacks by Iran and its proxies that surround her. " . . .

Incoming Dem Rep Ilhan Omar Mocks VP Pence’s Christian Faith

Legal Insurrection  "Representative-elect Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has demonstrated that she has no more use for Christians than she does for Jews.

"In a remarkably snarky tweet devoid of any degree of self-awareness, she mocks Vice President Mike Pence’s Christian faith, but don’t expect her to get the same treatment that conservative commentator Laura Loomer received when she was banned from Twitter for pointing out proven facts about Omar.

"Omar, you may recall, is an avowed Islamist who has tweeted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Ilhan Omar

✔@IlhanMN

Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel

Twitter Ads info and privacy

JohnGilmore@Shabbosgoy

Does @maroon5 know that @IlhanMN is a proud Jew hater? cc @thauserkstp @esmemurphy @jburcum @JamieGlazov @HireLearning @webertom1 #dfl

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Additionally, Omar is a proud supporter of the BDS movement that calls for a boycott, academic and otherwise, of Israel.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that someone so steeped in misguided and visceral hatred for Israel and the Jewish people would also disdain and mock Christians.

She tweeted:

View image on Twitter

Ilhan Omar

✔@IlhanMN

Jesus take the wheel! #BorderWall

Twitter Ads info and privacy

"Can you even begin to imagine the blow-back if a conservative Christian or Jewish representative-elect posted a tweet mocking Islam and Mohammed?"

The trials of General Flynn

Flynn sentencing hearing devolved into a fiasco   "It was a bad day all around yesterday in Judge Emmet Sullivan's courtroom.  Bad for General Flynn, bad for Judge Sullivan, and bad for the prosecutors from Robert Mueller's Special Counsel's Office (SCO).

"The Washington Post exults that "Trump backers just had their anti-Mueller hopes and dreams dashed" in the wake of yesterday's sentencing hearing for General Michael Flynn.  Judge Emmet Sullivan not only failed to throw out the case against Flynn for lying to the FBI, but he threatened incarceration for the general, despite the recommendation of the SCO for no prison time. " . . .

Flynn's Fate  "The sentencing hearing before Judge Sullivan in the case of Michael Flynn was weird beyond belief yesterday. Judge Sullivan came across as a loose cannon, sounding off like a barroom loudmouth vaguely aware of the relevant facts but not too careful about them. Byron York provides a good summary. In its editorial today (accessible here via Outline), the Wall Street Journal tactfully characterizes the hearing as a “fiasco.”

Flynn is a bit player the Russia hoax production. He is a casualty of the FBI investigation leading to the Mueller Switch Project. A former head of the Defense Intelligence, he has pleaded guilty to lying about the substance of his post-election conversation with the Russian ambassador. He may well be guilty of that and more. Reading the McCabe memo filed by the Special Counsel with the court last Friday, however, we see that Flynn believed that his conversations were probably intercepted and known to the FBI.

"What we would like to know is whether Flynn lied to the FBI about these conversations. If so, why? If not, the judge won’t take his plea. Flynn is sticking with his guilty plea despite the issues he raised with it in his sentencing memo perhaps because he may be guilty and certainly because he wants the deal offered by the Special Counsel." . . .

Ocasio-Cortez Compares Trump To Clinton, Calls For Impeachment, Gets Roasted

The Federalist Papers  "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made a name for herself in her short career in politics.

"Granted the majority of that name has come by making herself look like a twit.
"And history is one of the subjects she continues to embarrass herself on.
"She did it again on Friday when she compared the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton to the impeachment Democrats want against President Donald Trump.
"She quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham’s speech on the Clinton impeachment to push for one for President Trump.
"But she failed to realizes why the two situations are not the same.

““You don’t need to have been convicted of a crime. Impeachment isn’t about punishment. It’s about cleansing the office.” – @LindseyGrahamSC

“ 'Sen. Graham himself established a standard that demands Trump’s impeachment,” she wrote as she shared a video from the liberal “Now This.' ” . . ,

Ann Coulter writes: "Gutless President In Wall-less Country"

Ian Macfarlane

Human Events:  "If you were elected president after decades of politicians doing nothing about the millions of illegals pouring into our country every year, committing crimes, dealing drugs, driving drunk, molesting children and killing Americans like Kate Steinle, and your central campaign promise — repeated every day — was to build a wall, wouldn’t you have spent the entirety of your transition period working on getting it done?

"Wouldn’t you have been building prototypes, developing relationships with key congressional allies and talking to military leaders about using the Seabees or the Army Corps of Engineers to build the wall?

"Wouldn’t you skip the inauguration and take the oath of office in San Diego so you could get started on supervising wall construction immediately after putting your hand on the Bible and being sworn in as the leader of the free world?

"You would if you meant it.

"Well, Donald Trump didn’t do that.

"OK, sure he could have taken the oath in D.C., gone to a few balls, then started the wall on day two of his presidency. But he didn’t do that either.

"Maybe I’m a literalist. A zealot. When people kept telling me to be patient — the wall is coming! — I nursed a private hope that I was wrong, and they were right.

"It is now crystal clear that one of two things is true: Either Trump never intended to build the wall and was scamming voters all along, or he has no idea how to get it done and zero interest in finding out." . . .

If a Green Beret Is a War Criminal, then So Is Obama

Barack Obama teams up with Major Golsteyn to keep the Taliban from killing more Americans. From 2009.

Daniel John Sobieski  "One would think that in war the duty of a soldier is to kill the enemy before he kills you or your fellow soldiers. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are different in that the enemy doesn’t usually obey the rules of war, like wearing uniforms and rank insignia, and there are no “front lines” per se, only improvised explosive devices and sniper fire from second-floor windows or civilians used as human shields.

"That is where Mathew Golsteyn found himself in 2010 when the Green Beret killed a Taliban bomb-maker who had killed two Marines, Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary and Lance Cpl. Raymon A. Johnson,  in a war where only one side obeys the rules and the other is trapped by rules of engagement that make no sense and an Obama administration treating the whole thing as a law enforcement matter:

. . . 

"So, no doubt, was Mathew Golsteyn’s decision not to wait till he was added to a “kill list” to kill the Taliban bomb-maker before he could kill more American soldiers. But why wasn’t he charged with murder in 2011 when he took a polygraph test for a job at the CIA and volunteered the information?"

. . . 

"Yet he was not charged with murder in 2011. Would it have jeopardized the reelection chances of President Obama in 2012 to have a Green Beret charged with murder while you are using drones to kill other bomb-makers from high altitude? So why charge him now? Has the military justice system become as corrupted by political correctness as the civilian version, and come to embrace the liberal notion that terrorists are not enemy combatants but merely civilians who need to be read their Miranda rights? 

"Few are rushing to Mathew Golsteyn’s defense as they did with  deserter Bowe Bergdahl, with Obama willingly trading terrorist Taliban leaders who slaughter Americans for such a traitor, and welcoming and consoling Bergdahl’s parents at the White House while he ignored Bergdahl’s desertion in the heat of battle in Afghanistan." . . .

A Taliban bomb-maker who was arrested metres from the gates of parliament armed with knives has been convicted of plotting to kill police and MPs.

2013; we gave Obama attaboys for doing this.. Sometimes Democrats do the right thing.

More posts from the Tunnel Wall here.

Clinton-Appointed Judge APOLOGIZES to Flynn for Treason Remark During Sentencing

Byron York: Judge's accusations mar Michael Flynn sentencing hearing

. . . Now the case will be on hold for at least a few months. But for a few moments, the craziness that can surround political debate over the Trump-Russia affair — hot tempers, unfounded charges, promiscuous accusations of treason — made its way into a federal courtroom. And Michael Flynn's future remains uncertain."  . . .

Big League Politics  "Judge Sullivan apologizes for his “treason” comments, noting that he was confused about the dates during which Flynn acted as a foreign agent.
“ 'I felt terrible about that,” he reportedly said. “I’m not suggesting he committed treason,” Sullivan adds, further apologizing for his remarks in the prior session.
"Flynn’s conduct as a foreign agent ended in mid-November of 2016, far before Trump took office.

Photo of General Flynn added by TD

"In another example of the thuggery that has become the American “justice system” the presiding Judge in Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s sentencing hearing suggested from the bench that Flynn should be charged with treason.

“ 'You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the president!” said Judge Emmet Sullivan of United States District Court for the District of Columbia, according to Steven Portnoy of CBS Radio.

“ 'Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for! Arguably, you sold your country out!” the Judge reportedly continued.

. . . 

"Townhall has reported that Sullivan said he cannot hide his “disgust” or “disdain” with Flynn’s alleged behavior.

"Does this sound like an impartial judge to anyone? The political right is steadily losing confidence in high level law enforcement and a judiciary that seem bent on destroying the lives of President Donald J. Trump and those who supported him – and rightfully so.

"This story is developing." .  . .

45 Democrats jostling to challenge Trump in 2020

Washington Examiner  "An unprecedented 45 Democrats are jockeying for the party's nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020 — shattering the record for the number of candidates aspiring to be commander in chief.

"A review of potential contenders by the Washington Examiner reveals that up to 45 candidates could mount a serious bid to become leader of the free world. While many will undoubtedly decide against formally entering the race, most Democratic strategists expect at least two dozen to do so.

"Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, co-chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, said recently that the 2020 presidential contest could draw up to 40 Democratic hopefuls. “Look, we’ll have between 30 and 40 great candidates running for president,” he told MSNBC. “Everyone recognizes how urgent this moment is in our country’s history.”

"To have more than 40 Democrats seeking to win the White House would be "historic," James Thurber, the director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, told the Washington Examiner.

"That number would be well over the 17 major Republicans who drew ire in 2016 for crowding the GOP primary field, ultimately to the benefit of Trump. And it would be more than six times as large as the "seven dwarfs," who were mocked for competing for the 1988 Democratic nomination, which went to then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Dukakis went on to lose to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.

"So who are the 45 contenders who could soon be vying to become the 46th president of the United States?" . . .