Last Call For The Drums Of War

Trump's generals are preparing for conflict.  They know Trump will order them to war, and soon.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Neller, told troops Thursday that "there's a war coming" and urged them to be prepared. 

"I hope I'm wrong, but there's a war coming," Neller told Marines stationed in Norway, during a visit there, according to Military.com. "You're in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence," he added.

The commandant pointed to Russia and the Pacific theater as the next major areas of conflict, predicting a "big-ass fight" in the future.

"Just remember why you're here," he said. "They're watching. Just like you watch them, they watch you. We've got 300 Marines up here; we could go from 300 to 3,000 overnight. We could raise the bar." 

Neller's visit comes amid tensions between Russia and NATO allies. Russia warned neighboring Norway that the presence of American troops could hurt relations, after Norway decision to host a new unit of U.S. soldiers through the end of 2018.

The administration says the Marines are there to enhance ties with European NATO allies and train in cold-weather combat.

China, North Korea, Russia, Iran?  Who will Trump start World War III with in order to stay in power?  It's so obnoxious.

Trump Cards, Con't

So as I was talking about earlier this week, Thursday's UN General Assembly vote happened on America's stupid decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and yes, the world absolutely called out Trump's bluff.

In a stinging rebuke of President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel earlier this month, 128 countries, including some of the US’s most trusted and reliable allies, voted in favor of a United Nations resolution on Thursday calling for a reversal of his position. Only nine countries voted against it. 

Though the resolution doesn’t explicitly refer to the US, it’s clearly directed at the White House. The measure declares that any changes to the status of Jerusalem “have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.” 

It also “calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem” — another shot at the administration, which announced plans to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

The closest thing the US got to support from allies was 35 abstentions. Friends of the US like Canada, Mexico, and Australia refrained from voting on the resolution — which means that while they didn’t support the US with a vote against it, they didn’t criticize the US either with a vote in favor of it. 

While the passage of the resolution isn’t binding — meaning the US doesn’t actually have to reverse its position — it’s a stark illustration of just how isolated the United States is in its stance toward Israel.

While Canada and Mexico understandably abstained (after all they both share very large borders with a dangerous and ludicrously armed rogue nation helmed by a madman) and Australia looked the other way, the other member nations of the UN Permanent Security Council all told Trump to go screw himself.  China, Russia, the UK and France all voted in favor of the resolution, as did India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Spain, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Turkey.

We look like stupid assholes right now unless you think Honduras, Togo and the Marshall Islands are the arbiters of global diplomatic opinion.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world will simply deal with us and move on.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that he intends to open an embassy in East Jerusalem — the part of the city that Palestinians officially want as the capital of a future Palestinian state. That came days after he convened a gathering of Muslim leaders to call for the world to see East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state. 

A statement signed by more than 50 Muslim-majority countries at that summit declared that the US had lost its role as a “sponsor of peace” in the Middle East. And Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech last week that Trump’s Jerusalem announcement was a “crime” and that he no longer wants the US to broker peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The other major nations of the world will step up in our absence, most notably China.  We're handing them the reins apparently, because we're now headed by a petulant toddler.

Setting Up For Battle

With Dem Rep. John Conyers stepping down, the post of the Democrats' ranking member on the House Judiciary needed to be filled, and as the Washington Post's Paul Kane tells us, the Dems chose a happy warrior to go square after Trump.

To fill their top spot on the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats had a choice between experts in two critical policy arenas: a constitutional law ace with firsthand experience battling President Trump, and an architect of sweeping immigration legislation. 

By a wide margin, they chose the constitutional law expert. Why? To ready themselves for a battle with Trump that could end with impeachment proceedings. 

The selection of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) as the ranking member on Judiciary was the clearest sign yet of how seriously House Democrats consider the possibility of a full-blown constitutional showdown with Trump.

You wouldn’t know it from how many of them talk. When it comes to the I-word, most Democrats have walked a tightrope — with even Nadler hesitant to mention impeachment in interviews before votes were cast Wednesday.

Leaders have cautioned the rank and file not to push for impeachment because the public might view it as an overreach. The House’s few remaining moderate Democrats from swing districts have regularly warned the party’s liberal flank against making the 2018 midterm elections about Trump or the investigations into his presidential campaign.

Luckily, those swing district moderates were outvoted.  With Nadler in, the game is on.

Nadler won a secret ballot 118 to 72, demonstrating that this caucus wants to be ready to clash with Trump if it vaults into the majority after next year’s midterm elections. 

“There is nobody better prepared, if the president messes around with the Constitution, to handle it than Jerry Nadler,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the vote.

Nadler's oppoenent in the race was California's Zoe Lofgren, who argued that immigration should be the Dems' top focus in 2018 heading into the midterms, and not Trump.  It's a nice thought and if the Dems had control of Congress and the White House, that would be a solid argument.

But right now we need to be on a war footing.  Trump must be removed from office.  It's good to see the Dems get serious about this.