To end shutdown, Trump needs to ‘put something on the table’: Morgan Ortagus

Amid the partial government shutdown, President Trump may have to offer something in return for funding his border wall, national security analyst Morgan Ortagus suggested on the "Special Report" All-Star panel Tuesday night.
Now several days into the partial closure, which began at midnight Saturday, the president is standing firm with his demand for border funding, something Democrats on Capitol Hill are refusing to hand over.
“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you that it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence -- whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office.
Tuesday's All-Star panel, which included Ortagus, Bloomberg opinion columnist Eli Lake and Washington Post opinion writer Charles Lane, weighed in on who has the better standing during the shutdown.
Ortagus began by saying neither side has been “willing to take a loss” and that the “only way out of this” is for President Trump to “put something on the table.”
“Once when they go into the new Congress, as we know, the Democrats are even going to have more power as they will be in control of the House. So what I’m looking for is a long few weeks going into the new year where we’re trading a lot of back and forths. But until the president and his team put something like DACA or something on the table that will make Democrats salivate, I think we’re going to be at status quo,” Ortagus told the panel.
DACA refers to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program for assisting the U.S.-born children of parents who entered the country illegally.
Lane questioned whether it was more important to Trump and likely incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to "get a deal" or show their supporters they're "willing to shut down the government," something he thought “played into their interests.”
Lane agreed with the other panelists that ending the shutdown would require a “bigger solution” to address immigration, adding that the shutdown also benefits both sides politically.
The Washington Post opinion writer also noted how the president’s rhetoric on the border wall has shifted and how he’s “modifying his position” in the interest of ending the partial government shutdown.
“All along, this has been about posturing on both sides towards those parts of the party base that wants to see a struggle over this," Lane said. "Possibly in between the lines of that statement, you see the beginning of the end of this crisis, but it could go on well into next year.

Francis B. Church

Editor of the New York Sun

1897

Virginia O’Hanlon

“Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps

 

The Editorial

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
 VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

 

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Who is Patrick Shanahan? A look at Trump’s new acting secretary of defense

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure of Jim Mattis, President Trump said Sunday in a tweet. (U.S. Army / Monica King)

President Trump on Sunday said deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary of the department on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure of Jim Mattis — after a string of disagreements between Trump and Mattis.
“I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning. ”Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!”
Read on for a look at five things you should know about Shanahan.

His role is unusual.

Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said the former Boeing Co. executive will accept the appointment as acting secretary.
“Deputy Secretary will continue to serve as directed by the president, and the Department of Defense will remain focused on the defense of the nation,” Buccino said on Sunday.
It is unusual for the Pentagon to have an acting secretary of defense. Historically when a secretary has resigned, he has stayed on until a successor is confirmed. For example, when Obama-era Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his resignation in November 2014, he stayed in office until Ash Carter was confirmed the following February.

He was a Boeing “fix-it” man.

Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, was nominated for the job of deputy defense secretary in early 2017.
He'd moved up through the management ranks at Boeing over a career that began in 1986. The Puget Sound Business Journal called him a Boeing “fix-it” man in a March 2016 report. He oversaw the company’s global supply-chain strategies and use of advanced manufacturing technologies. Shanahan was central to getting the 787 Dreamliner on track after production problems in the program’s early years, the report said.
The pedigreed engineer, according to his bio, has two advanced degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

His father, a military vet, taught him manhood is about “service before self.” 

Shanahan is the son of Vietnam veteran Mike Shanahan, who served in the U.S. Army. “He returned home and continued his selfless service to his fellow Americans with another 25 years in law enforcement,” Shanahan said, according to an October 2017 article on the Department of Defense’s website. “Growing up, my understanding of the war came from my Dad, his friends and the few stories they would share.”
The Washington state native also said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that his veteran father raised him and his younger brothers with the American ideology of “service before self.”
Before Shanahan was confirmed by the Senate in a 92-7 vote, the late Arizona Sen. John McCain said he wasn’t overjoyed that a defense industry executive with no prior military experience would come to lead the Pentagon.

“I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019,” President Trump tweeted Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump and Pence like him.

The Hill reported that Shanahan wasn’t close with Mattis; however he is liked by the White House.
“He’s not a policy or geopolitics guy. He’s a business guy,” a source told Defense News. “But he’s spent the last year learning from the best. And Shanahan is known for having a good relationship” with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The Hill reported that Shanahan frequently visited Trump and Pence as project leader within the Pentagon of the proposed Space Force military service.

He believes the Pentagon’s focus is “to increase our performance on lethality, alliances, and reform.”

“Too often we focus on process, or budget, or level of effort,” Shanahan told Defense News. “The Pentagon should focus on outcomes and outputs — our performance. This focus on performance should drive us to field unmatched lethality, execute on our modernization plans and achieve this affordably.”
“It’s all about the system and then the reinforcing mechanisms to make that change enduring. Without a system, things fall apart when the leader moves on,” Shanahan continued. “The system or the environment shouldn’t be dependent on the leader’s presence.”
“It’s very easy in a complex environment like this to get distracted. The tactical can consume an enormous amount of time,” he added. “But my job is really to drive change at scale and there’s a formula for doing that. And the formula really has to do with change [which] must be systemic.”

Rand Paul defends Trump plan on Syria, backs similar pullout in Afghanistan; others in GOP remain skeptical

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul reiterated his support for President Trump's decision last week to remove 2,000 American troops from Syria, appearing on Sunday talk shows to assert that the president had made the right move and was doing "exactly what he promised" voters when he campaigned in 2016.
Paul also urged a similar U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, a nearly two-decade undertaking that Paul compared to the ill-fated Vietnam War.
“We’ve been there 17 years. We think now we’re going to take one more village and we’ll get a better-negotiated deal?” Paul said during an appearance in CBS's "Face the Nation." "The North Vietnamese and Vietcong "waited us out and the Taliban are going to wait us out. They know we will eventually leave and leave we must.”
He added: “The president’s right and I think the people agree with him. Let’s rebuild America. Let’s spend that money here at home.”
Trump acknowledged Rand's support for an Afghanistan withdrawal in a Twitter message late Sunday night, in which the president simply quoted Rand's comments.
The president did the same earlier Sunday with a quote from Rand's appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," adding a simple "Thanks @RandPaul."
"This is exactly what he promised," Rand had said of the president's Syria announcement, "and I think the people agree with him. We’ve been at war too long and in too many places ... spent several trillion dollars on these wars everywhere. He’s different ... that’s why he got elected."
But other Republicans have been critical of Trump's decision, which reportedly prompted last week's sudden resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis -- and Trump's countermove this weekend of forcing Mattis to leave by year's end -- two months early -- and installing former Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan as acting defense secretary.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., cautioned that Trump’s base may not support his decision to withdraw troops from Syria “without a plan.”
“There are very few Rand Pauls in the United States Senate, there are very few Rand Pauls in the House,” Santorum said on CNN. “There are very few Rand Pauls in the Republicans Party. There are very few Rand Pauls in the base of Donald Trump’s voters.”
Santorum acknowledged the president’s campaign pledge to “get out of Syria,” but added, “I don’t know of too many Republicans, I don’t know of too many base voters, who believe that the president in response to a call from the Turkish president should be capitulating in front of the Turks and allowing our allies to be slaughtered by the Turks.”
Former Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey also expressed doubts about Trump's Syria withdrawal.
“There are good weeks and bad weeks when you’re an executive in government," Christie said on ABC’s "This Week." "And this wasn’t one of the best weeks that he’s had."
On Wednesday, Trump had declared victory over the Islamic State group (ISIS) and announced plans to withdraw some 2,000 American troops from Syria.
The U.S. began airstrikes in Syria in 2014, and ground troops moved in the following year to battle ISIS and train Syrian rebels in a country torn apart by civil war. Trump declared their mission accomplished in a tweet.
Trump later acknowledged that he had spoken with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and said the Turkish leader had affirmed his country’s ability to maintain order in the region.
ISIS is significantly diminished but remains a deadly force, military advisers say. U.S. partners warn that a premature American withdrawal will allow them to storm back.
ISIS militants still hold a string of villages and towns along the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, where they have resisted weeks of attacks by the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces to drive them out.
The pocket is home to about 15,000 people, among them 2,000 ISIS fighters, according to U.S. military estimates.

Treasury chief Mnuchin talks to bank CEOs amid Wall Street jitters

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (AP)

WASHINGTON – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the CEOs of six major banks Sunday in an apparent attempt to reassure jittery financial markets coming off a turbulent week in the stock market that is now bracing for potential repercussions from a partial shutdown of the U.S. government.
In an unusual move, Mnuchin disclosed the calls with the heads of Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo in a tweet about the private conversations.
Mnuchin said the CEOs all assured him they have ample money to finance all their normal operations, even though there haven't been any serious liquidity concerns rattling the market.
Worries about slowing economic growth and rising interest rates saddled the U.S. market with its worst week in more than seven years. Barring a turnaround, stocks are now headed for their single worst month since October 2008, when the market was being battered by the global financial crisis. That crisis was triggered by a reckless lending spree that prompted a taxpayer-backed bailout of several U.S. banks.
But the circumstances are dramatically different now that the U.S. economy has been growing steadily since 2009. Most experts believe the growth will continue in the U.S., but there are signs things are slowing down in Europe and China.
Dysfunction in Washington isn't helping the situation, with a budget impasse between President Donald Trump and Congress triggering a partial U.S. government shutdown that could last into the new year.

Defense Secretary James Mattis signs Syria withdrawal orders, official says

Outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has signed orders to pull all American troops out of Syria in the coming weeks, a senior defense official told Fox News on Sunday.
Pentagon officials refused to discuss specifics including the timeline citing operational security for the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria.
Plans were set in motion hours after President Trump declared the Islamic State terror network “defeated” in Syria in a tweet Wednesday and ordered all American diplomats and soldiers out of the country.
Trump pledged in campaign rallies last spring U.S. troops would be leaving Syria “very soon.”
While the U.S. military is planning to leave Syria, it has no plans to withdraw the more than 5,000 American troops in neighboring Iraq. Some of those special operations forces could be used for raids against “high value targets” in Syria from bases in Iraq if necessary, officials said.
The last ISIS stronghold in eastern Syria is the city of Hajin located not far from the Iraqi border. U.S. and allied artillery continue to fire on ISIS positions from Iraq. U.S.-led coalition air strikes also continue against the terrorist army in Syria.
But questions remain about what will happen once all American forces are out of Syria. “Challenges are ahead,” one U.S. official said. Currently, no Kurdish or Arab fighters in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have the ability to call in American airstrikes.
It’s not clear whether the SDF will continue to receive arms and funding from the United States to sustain the fight against ISIS.
Trump said in a tweet Sunday the U.S. withdrawal from Syria would be “slow & highly coordinated,” after speaking to his Turkish counterpart, his second call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since Dec. 14. Fox News first reported it was Erdogan who convinced Trump to pull out of Syria.
Turkey’s president has called the Kurdish-dominated SDF a terrorist organization over its links to a Kurdish separatist group in Turkey which has killed thousands in recent decades.
In a separate tweet Sunday, President Trump said Mattis would be leaving by Jan. 1, forcing him out two months earlier than expected.
American military leaders have said the SDF is the best allied force on the ground in Syria to crush ISIS. Today, ISIS only controls one percent of the area it once held across Syria and Iraq — an area at its peak the size of Ohio — due in part to the U.S. military's alliance with the SDF in Syria.
Critics of the president’s decision to pull out of Syria said ISIS has not been defeated yet -- and lawmakers have urged Trump not to repeat the mistakes attributed to former President Obama when all U.S. troops were pulled out of Iraq in 2011, helping give rise to ISIS.
Some officials have said the hundreds of American special operations forces in Syria had run out of targets and could be put back in if necessary. Others have said it would be a betrayal to the Kurdish and Arab fighters loyal to the U.S. military to leave Syria now. Hundreds of Kurdish fighters of the SDF have been killed fighting ISIS in Syria.
U.S. airstrikes began in Syria against ISIS in 2014 a year before any U.S. troops were on the ground.
Trump's envoy to the ISIS coalition, Brett McGurk, resigned Friday just one day after Mattis announced his retirement.
French and British special operations forces will remain in Syria, according to both countries defense ministries.  Air strikes from those nations are set to continue.

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