The Trumpster Fire: A visit to the “dangerous” border, the “rat” speaks, Ukrainians at the ball, the Middle East is Obama’s fault, and the only person to be believed is Donald Trump.

  Just another day in Trumpmerica.

  First, breaking this morning, the US has begun withdrawing troops from Syria, contrary to what National Security Adviser said last week, that they would be there until the Islamic State is erased. Bolton had reversed the declaration of the President who said they were leaving immediately, and then Trump said he never said that.

   You can’t believe a thing they say out of the White House. Just watch what they do.

  President Trump travelled yesterday to McAllen, Texas, one of the safest border towns, to advertise the dangers of the hordes of illegal immigrants invading the country — or so he says. The majority Hispanic city of 142,000 has become a haven in recent years for migrants fleeing Central America.

   Some residents want Trump’s wall, and many don’t. Protesters carried signs saying, “Our home is not a crisis.” 

  But, standing beside Border patrol officers displaying seized drugs, money, and guns, Trump said that without his wall,  “You’ll have crime in Iowa, you’ll have crime in New Hampshire, you’ll have crime in New York.”

  About 800,000 federal employees are missing a paycheck today. As the government shutdown enters its 21^stday, Trump is stepping up his threat to declare a national emergency and build the wall without congressional approval. At the White House before leaving for Texas he told reporters, “If we don’t make a deal I would say it would be very surprising to me that I would not  declare a national emergency.”

  The White House has begun looking for money to be diverted from disaster aid and the Pentagon to pay for his wall.
   Democratic leaders have shown willingness to spend a lot of money tightening border security but they refuse to pay for a wall. Trump said yesterday, “If you don’t have a steel barrier or a concrete wall, forget it.”

  Trump also denied yesterday that he ever said Mexico would directly pay for his wall, even though he campaigned on the promise. Yesterday he said he always claimed Mexico would pay indirectly through tariffs and fees. “I never meant that they’re going to write out a check,” he said,but during his campaign that’s exactly what he said.

 Challenged by reporters about when the border “crisis” began, Trump told the gaggle, “You can all play cute, and I would say 80 percent of you are possibly in coordination with the opposition party.”

The Rat Squeaks:In what could turn out to be a very bad day for the President, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has agreed to testify openly to Congress before he packs off to prison. He’s scheduled to sit before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 7^th.

   Cohen was a close adviser to Trump, the man who engineered payoffs to a Playboy model and a porn star and who now admits previously lying to Congress. Cohen said in a statement yesterday, “I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired.”

  Cohen has spent 70 hours talking to federal prosecutors and may not be able to say as much to Congress as he has to the feds. They won’t want him to reveal everything they’ve got.

Ukrainian Dancers: Now federal prosecutors are looking into Ukrainian guests at the Trump inaugural balls. Why were Ukrainians paying to celebrate Trump’s election?

 The NY Times reports that the Ukrainians were promoting bargains and “peace” plans that favored Russian interests, including the lifting of sanctions. The paper reports that, “Such a deal would not just have given the new administration additional flexibility to bring Moscow into American diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, but could also have eased the way for a cast of characters with ties to Mr. Trump — some of whom in turn had ties to the Ukrainians who came to Washington — to move ahead on business deals that had been complicated by the sanctions.”

The Last Days of Pompeo:Speaking in Cairo yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “the age of self-inflicted American shame is over” and that the United States would pursue a more active policy in the Middle East, despite President Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria.

  In a rare attack by a cabinet member on a former President, “Pompeo dumped on Barack Obama for “fundamental misunderstandings” about the region that “underestimated the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islamism.”

  This is the same guy who had the nerve to tell Turkey it can’t attack the Kurds after America abandons them.

Girl Found: A 13-year-old Wisconsin girl, who disappeared in October on the night her parents were shot to death in their home, has been found. The details are scarce, but Jayme Closs was discovered in a neighboring county about 65 miles from home and a suspect was taken into custody.

  It appears that a neighbor rescued the girl.

  Her parents worked in a local turkey plant. The reason for their killing has been a mystery and the case has been the subject of national attention.

The Obit Page:Carlos Sánchez, who for nearly forty years appeared in commercials as Juan Valdez, the face of Colombian coffee, died Dec. 29 in Medellín. He was 83.

  With a straw fedora and a blanket draped over his left shoulder, Juan Valdez was a cultural stereotype, but he sold a lot of coffee.

 — Herb Kelleher, the colorful and revolutionary co-founder of Southwest Airlines, died a week ago at age 87. The company was started as a low-cost carrier for Texas only, but it went national.

  Kelleher introduced humor to air travel with singing and rhyming flights crews. He used to appear in his own commercials. In one of them he had a bag over his head and said, “Recently another airline suggested you might be embarrassed to fly Southwest Airlines.” 

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