Mick Mulvaney is the 4th chief of staff that Trump has had in less than 3 years, but don't be surprised if he is gone before the end of the year. He admitted on the air that there WAS a quid pro quo about Ukraine. Since Trump has stated that there was not, it will make it harder for him to defend himself.

Over the course of 8 years, Obama had THREE chiefs of staff.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-is-furious-over-news-coverage-of-mick-mulvaneys-flub-and-hes-growing-increasingly-frustrated-and-agitated/?utm_source=push_notifications

Thursday, October 24, is United Nations Day.

In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a further resolution (United Nations Resolution 2782) declaring that United Nations Day shall be an international observance or international holiday and recommended that it should be observed as a public holiday by United Nations member states.

I think it's a good idea, but I don't believe that many nations actually use the day as a holiday.

Like NATO, the United Nations has been an important tool to achieve world peace. Trump, naturally, is trying to diminish both of them.

The United Nations member states are the 193 sovereign states that are members of the United Nations (UN) and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. In addition to the member states, the UN also invites non-member states to become observers at the UN General Assembly (currently two: the Holy See and Palestine), allowing them to participate and speak in General Assembly meetings, but not vote. Observers are generally intergovernmental organizations and international organizations and entities whose statehood or sovereignty is not precisely defined.

There have been surprisingly few changes since 1945, and virtually every country in the world, with very few exceptions, is a member.

Not included in this total count of 195 countries are:

• Taiwan - the United Nations considers it represented by the People's Republic of China
• The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand which are members of several UN specialized agencies and have been recognized "full treaty-making capacity", but are neither member states nor non-member observer states.
• Dependencies (or dependent territories, dependent areas, dependencies) and Areas of Special Sovereignty (autonomous territories)
• Other countries recognized by the United Nations as not being self-governing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Day

The one glaring exception to the list shown above is Russia.

The Russia–NATO Council was established in 2002 for handling security issues and joint projects. Cooperation between Russia and NATO now develops in several main sectors, including: fighting terrorism, military cooperation, cooperation on Afghanistan (including transportation by Russia of non-military International Security Assistance Force freight (see NATO logistics in the Afghan War), and fighting the local drug production), industrial cooperation, and weapons non-proliferation

On 1 April 2014, NATO unanimously decided to suspend co-operation with the Russian Federation, in response to the Ukraine crisis. On 18 February 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said he supports the resumption of military cooperation with the NATO alliance. In late March 2017, the Council met in advance of a NATO Foreign Ministers conference in Brussels, Belgium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93NATO_relations

Further complicating the status of Russia is the fact that it is one of the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/current-members

Russia's membership on the Security Council has created some interesting speeches over the years. Here is one from 1959:

This picture was likely taken after Eisenhower told him that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland. Government authorities feared that the crowds would pose a safety hazard for the premier, but Kruschev was not convinced. He left Los Angeles the next day, but continued the rest of his visit in America without incident.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/khrushchev-barred-from-visiting-disneyland

Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers has visited Jordan to discuss "the deepening crisis" in Syria amid a shaky U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Jordan News Agency says Abdullah stressed in the meeting the importance of safeguarding Syria's territorial integrity.

Turkey has demanded both Kurdish and Syrian government forces withdraw from a designated border zone.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/ml-mideast-pelosi/2019/10/20/id/937835/?ns_mail_uid=55284481-e237-4dcf-a870-3b9d22910c8d&ns_mail_job=DM58855_10202019&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010102gp13qf

Trumpstock was held in Kingman, Arizona on October 4-6> A quick review of the participants will confirm the fact that Trump supporters REALLY ARE deplorable.

https://www.azmirror.com/2019/09/23/trumpstock-brings-rap-extremists-and-elected-officials-together/

Donald Trump Jr. has been touring college campuses recently, and he has met with protests just about everywhere that he goes. On Friday, he was at the University of Florida, but he had been at a campus in Phoenix about a week ago. His defenders say that he has a right to be there due to our guarantee of free speech - and they are right. However, when the Charles Koch foundation supports 300 campuses and 800 faculty positions, it's important to make sure that the universities make sure that REAL facts are presented as an alternative to their right wing talking points.

https://tucson.com/opinion/local/local-opinion-conservatives-not-on-campus-tell-that-to-the/article_75f2c799-9cdb-5f1f-86f4-3bafe0ae3ea5.html

On October 20, 1962, JFK flew from the World Fair in Seattle to D.C. in order to meet with his advisers in order to determine how best to handle the missiles that the Soviets had installed in Cuba. Four days earlier, Kennedy had seen photos of 40 ballistic missile sites in Cuba.

The group believed that Kennedy had three choices: to negotiate with the Russians to remove the missiles; to bomb the missile sites in Cuba; or implement a naval blockade of the island. Kennedy chose to blockade Cuba, deciding to bomb the missile sites only if further action proved necessary.

The blockade started on October 21, and Kennedy called Kruschev ro remove the missiles. By October 28, Kennedy and Khrushchev had reached a settlement and people on both sides of the conflict breathed a collective but wary sigh of relief. The Cuban missile sites were dismantled and, in return, Kennedy agreed to close U.S. missile sites in Turkey.

You may remember that some of the hardliners in Russia sent a defiant message to Kennedy at some point during the crisis. Upon discussion with his advisers, Kennedy determined that it had not come from Kruschev - and he ignored it.

8 months before the 2016 election, der Spiegel published an article titled " Donald Trump is the world's most dangerous man". It's a lengthy article, but is worth reading again because it is absolutely accurate.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-is-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-a-1075060.html

I shudder to think what would have happened if Trump had been president in 1962. I'm pretty sure that a lot of us would not even be alive today.

wwjd:

Trump was getting a lot of flack from everyone, even many Republicans. Naturally, he blamed the media:

...." Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you! "

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2019/10/19/untitled-n2555051

The storm clouds seem to be gathering over Trump.

The Washington Post reported today that Trump is "weakened on virtually every front".

“Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. “Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. And polling shows a growing share of Americans disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-is-weakened-on-virtually-every-front-as-impeachment-intensifies-washington-post-analysis/?utm_source=push_notifications

The next Democratic debate will be on November 20, in Georgia and co-hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post. At this point, only 8 candidates have qualified to participate.

The candidates are: former Vice President Joe Biden; Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Kamala Harris of California; Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; billionaire activist Tom Steyer; Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/10/08/democratic-debate-november-debate-held-georgia-msnbc/3913464002/

Is anyone else confused by the battle of words between Hillary Clinton and Tulsi Gabbard?

"I think they've got their eye on somebody who's currently in the Democratic primary, and they're grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said on the "Campaign HQ" podcast that first aired on Thursday.

"She's the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far."

Hillary should just STFU.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/democratic-hopeful-criticises-clinton-russia-remarks-191019074533344.html

Apparently Rick Santorum and I think alike.

“He has really stepped in it,” Santorum said on CNN on Thursday night. “This was a poor decision, this is having really startling ? even startling to him ? consequences.”

Santorum was referring to Trump's decision to pull our troops out of Syria, saying that it will cost Trump a lot of Republican votes, and will likely doom his 2020 re-election effort.

Ominously, even Mitch McConnell said that withdrawing from Syria "is a grave mistake".

This morning's Washington Post also published the fact that a "growing number of Republicans struggle to defend Trump on G-7 choice, Ukraine, and Syria". One Republican, Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida, compared the situation to Watergate and did not rule out voting to impeach President Trump.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rick-santorum-donald-trump-2020_n_5da94972e4b0e71d65b67f06