On March 14, in the course of previewing the first veto of the Trump presidency (officially issued the following day in the interest of overriding a bipartisan resolution aimed at nullifying the border emergency), we reminded you that a second veto was locked and loaded.
For months, Congress has been angling to cut US support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, the scene of what, arguably, is the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.
Read more
Trump’s border emergency veto came during the same week that the Senate supported a resolution to end US involvement in the years-long conflict. The vote was 54-46. As a reminder, lawmakers passed the same resolution (basically) last year, but the House never took it up. Once the House flipped to Pelosi, the push to hold the Saudis accountable for the catastrophe on their doorstep and also for the extrajudicial killing of Jamal Khashoggi moved forward. The House approved the measure earlier this month on a 247-175 vote.
Needless to say, Trump’s behavior with regard to Crown Prince Bin Salman has been the subject of vociferous debate. I don’t think we need to go over this again, but the president has angered lawmakers with his willingness to look the other way on the Khashoggi killing despite a CIA assessment that faulted Prince Mohammed and despite voluminous evidence to support the common sense assessment that Riyadh was behind the murder. Trump and Mike Pompeo variously dragged their feet on complying with a Magnitsky Act request, exacerbating the situation.
Meanwhile, investigative reports showing that US weapons are ending up not only in the hands of Sunni militants allied with AQAP but also with Houthi-allied militia, suggest the US is inadvertently arming both jihadists and Iranian proxies, a situation so absurd that the English language isn’t a sufficient tool to convey the scope of the ridiculousness.
Read more
Make Salafi Militants Heavily Armed Again! Can We Please Stop Selling The Saudis Weapons Now?
Of course Trump can’t abide by Congress’s demands to end military assistance to the Saudis in their endless quest to rout the Houthis because i) it would be an affront to Prince Mohammed, ii) the Houthis are backed by the IRGC, which the US just designated as a terror group, iii) it would be embarrassing domestically for Trump to back down and iv) it could potentially erode his ability to influence oil prices by weakening his leverage over Riyadh.
It’s not clear which of those takes precedence in this scenario, but whatever the case, Trump has vetoed the resolution and here’s his official excuse:
This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future.
Literally none of that is true.
And because none of it is true, we’re not going to dignify it with any further analysis – or at least not until America’s involvement in this historic debacle blows up in everyone’s face, figuratively and maybe literally too.
Every day it becomes more pressing that the big brain be defeated. It will be a long road back to respectability for America once he’s gone and every day it only gets longer. He will bury the do-nothing Republican Party who sit on their thumbs and watch it all unfold.
We as American’s are letting this human piece of garbage tell the world we don’t have a moral bone left in our nation. Republicans I hope you are so very proud of yourselves. Republicans Karma can be a bitch……… especially you McConnell.
This is the kind of thing you get when a spoiled brat stuck in a time warp is put in charge of policy. He’s a dinosaur stuck in his own past ‘glory days’ (whatever tf that means), and not because of his age. Sanders, for example, is not that, at all.
If you asked Trump what’s the best invention of modern times, he would probably say cable news. Then when informed that cable news is not a modern invention, he would probably then say Twitter, and claim he never said cable news. (“Fake news”)
It’s not hard to understand that economic growth comes from the bottom up. What happens to areas of shale? Money comes flooding in, workers get paid ‘well’, and spurs economic growth. The whole province of Alberta, Canada is based on oil, where people get paid well and can stimulate economic growth. Silicon Valley, new tech industry, lots of high paying jobs, high economic growth. Look back post 80’s, where CEO salary was 30x rather than 300x like today. More money for everyone = more economic growth. What will it take for these idiots to realize making rich people richer does not trickle down in any meaningful f’n way.
Kind of ended on a tangent there but w/e. Point made.