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Walls & Weapons Portend War



“It doesn’t take a declaration, or an invasion, to start a war, all it takes is an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’ And a spark.” ― Ada Palmer, Seven Surrenders



DAILY SPECIALS







Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday claimed that ISIS “has been defeated,” just hours after four Americans were killed in an attack in Syria that ISIS later claimed. Early Wednesday, a suicide bomber in the Syrian town of Manbij reportedly killed 16 people at a local restaurant, including two U.S. troops, one Department of Defense civilian, and one contractor supporting DOD work. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, Pence told the Global Chiefs of Mission conference that “The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated,” and made no mention of the suicide bombing during his talk. Pence also backed Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the war-torn nation, arguing that “Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we’re now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners and we’re bringing our troops home.” A White House official later told CNN that “The White House hadn’t publicly confirmed the deaths at the time he spoke.” [The Daily Beast: PM Cheat Sheet, January 16, 2019]




Other key shutdown developments:
  • Trump Administration Will Bring Back Thousands of IRS Workers for Tax Season: The Trump administration has ordered thousands of furloughed federal employees to resume working, without pay, in order to minimize disruptive effects of the shutdown. As part of that plan, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that it will bring back nearly 60 percent of its workforce — more than 46,000 employees, including more than 34,000 workers in the agency section that processes tax returns and refunds, according to the Washington Examiner. The agency will still not perform audits during the shutdown. When the shutdown began last month, fewer than 10,000 workers, or about 12 percent of the IRS workforce, were kept on the job, according to The Washington Post.
     
  • Mitch McConnell Blocks Vote to Reopen Government: For the second time in two weeks, Senate Republicans blocked a package of bills passed by the House to reopen the government. "The solution to this is a negotiation between the one person in the country who can sign something into law, the president of the United States, and our Democratic colleagues," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, according to The Hill. His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer, urged McConnell to enter the negotiations. “There's only one person who can help America break through this gridlock: Leader McConnell. For the past month Leader McConnell has been content to hide behind the president, essentially giving him a veto over what comes to the floor of the Senate,” Schumer said.
     
  • House Dems Won’t Leave D.C. Next Week: House Democrats cancelled their planned recess for next week and will have lawmakers stay in Washington unless the shutdown is resolved. [The Fiscal Times, January 15, 2019]





ISIS







TECHNOLOGY







U.S. FOREIGN POLICY


The war in Yemen - Bruce Riedel

Bruce RiedelThe urgent humanitarian priority in the Middle East is to end the war in Yemen where millions of lives are endangered: This will require Congress to use intense pressure on the Saudi government to end the war and its blockade. It’s imperative to also begin the process of holding those responsible for the war and its crimes accountable. [2019 trends to watch, January 14, 2019]

Notable in 2019: "a new atmosphere of unease inside the Pentagon, particularly among some of the most senior ranks, over the President's inclination to use the military to achieve certain partisan policy objectives," Starr writes, citing "some of the highest-ranking officers" in the building. [The D Brief, January 17, 2019]






MICHAEL COHEN

The Wall Street Journal reported that in early 2015, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen gave a bag of cash at Trump Tower to a guy who runs a small technology company, payment for trying to rig online polls to falsely show that Trump had more public support in a run for president than he actually did. The story says Trump gave Cohen $50,000 for the job, but Cohen gave the IT guy, who worked for Jerry Falwell Jr. at Liberty University, only $12,000 to $13,000. And he handed it to him in a blue Walmart bag for some reason. That should have been the guy's first clue that his fee was being deeply discounted. [Fast Forward , January 17, 2019]


Michael Cohen: I Rigged Online Polls for Trump




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WHIMSEY

Trump heads to the Pentagon to release the results of the firstmissile defense review in nine years, including a plan for an early-warning system and interceptors mounted on satellites based in space. Here are more details. I can't shake the image of Trump as Slim Pickens, riding the missile to earth at the end of "Dr. Strangelove." Of course, the big difference is that Trump's missile wouldn't be aimed at Russia. Probably California. [Fast Forward, January 17, 2019]



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Any commercial or business interest information shared is purely informational, not an endorsement.  I have no connection with any such commercial or business interest.

Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post.  Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse.  They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended.
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