Posted on 09/17/2017 5:05:23 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
The U.S. State Department has backed away from a demand that Israel return $75 million in military aid which was allocated to it by the U.S. Congress.
The repayment demand, championed by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was described as an underhanded attempt by the State Department to derail a campaign pledge by U.S. President Donald J. Trump to improve relations with the Jewish state.
The dispute is the just the latest example of what appears to be a growing power struggle between the State Department and the White House over the future direction of American foreign policy.
The controversy goes back to the Obama administration's September 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel, which pledged $38 billion in military assistance to Jerusalem over the next decade. The MOU expressly prohibits Israel from requesting additional financial aid from Congress.
Congressional leaders, who said the MOU violates the constitutional right of lawmakers to allocate U.S. aid, awarded Israel an additional $75 million in assistance in the final appropriations bill for fiscal year 2017.
Tillerson had argued that Israel should return the $75 million in order to stay within the limits established by the Obama administration. The effort provoked a strong reaction from Congress, which apparently prompted Tillerson to back down. (Excerpt.....continued)
We’ve been on life support since the 2008 crash. It started hitting me in 2005. By 2006 I was waving my arms. Most didn’t believe me.
2008 was far worse than even I had imagined. Banks not loaning money to other banks. I knew that borrowing money to pay for nation-building (that alone) had us on a very dangerous course.
Meanwhile, the war on regular Americans in the job market was ongoing.
I’ve managed to prepare - just a little bit in the midst of this disaster. Still, hang on, for sure.
[State Dept. always seems to be anti-Israel, no matter who is POTUS.]
I know many of us here believed it is basically Saudi-owned. That would certainly explain a whole lot of things about them.
You have a real knack for explaining the situation in a single image.
Yes, I was saying last year and this year, we’re better off with Trump at the helm than Her Thighness.
Obama added all the debt he could and the disaster called Obamacare.
Then, add in all the insurgency helped along by Obama.....not good.
Trying to disrupt, bankrupt, denigrate, morally-bankrupt, sully, pervert the most powerful nation on Earth? Some serious ramifications for the world, too.
Sounds like State has a bit of partisan politics if not rampant sedition in play. The following would be a alternative to investigation and criminal prosecution of such activities.
If the business about JFK’s 1962 EO 10988 is true, cut a EO abolishing it. Reasonably so, a fifty-plus year old EO is an obsolete bit of work-around patches.
Hand-in-glove with abolition, issue a new EO ordering OPM to bring State’s staffing and conditions of employment into line with 21st Century workplace requirements. Involvement of any State personnel would be at the direction of Secretary Tillerson.
Government employees unhappy with “get’n with the times” are encouraged to seek other employment. Though no announcement has been made, time for federal employees playing silly buggers is over.
The Soetero residue needs to be removed from every nook and cranny, and not just at State.
Goes way back before Soetero.
State Dept has been a home for anti-American scumbags since at least FDR’s time.
Who might be some of the loyalists you have in mind? I thought Bannon was one, but he is now out.
Unions can be a pain, but they can also be useful. Many years ago I was a shop steward for almost a decade. We would have employees coming to the Grievance Committee want us to file a grievance. After the worker explained the problem, we would go over the contract with them and explain why the remedy to their complaint was not there. One complaint was that the personnel director had a large Playboy pinup as the first thing you saw as you entered his office. The secretaries didn’t like it but the contract didn’t cover it. I went to management and after a talk with them they ordered personnel director to remove the pinup. In another instance management was complaining about an especially incompetent employee. I said, “Well, if you keep them after the 90 day probation period, then we have to represent them, even if we agree with you.” After that, several new employees did not work past the 90 day period. Less trouble for everyone.
FDR’s 2nd veep was a leftist creep (nice rhyme scheme) and dropped from the ticket in 1944, in favor of Truman. The pro-Soviet jackasses that riddled the gov’t did it because they wanted the same for all of us. In “The Managerial Revolution”, the author referred to the Roosevelt regime as a failed or poor-man’s version of the same kinds of regimes in power throughout the world at that time (I don’t recall the exact wording, read it 40 years ago). A good many people who grew up in that period (including most Great Depression kids, such as my late parents) came away with an odd devotion to the notion that, yes, two parties are somehow a necessity, but that just the one needed to be in power all the time.
Why should we believe this story? I automatically assume it’s fake news until I see Trump tweet it.
As soon as Trump tells me via Twitter that Tillerson and the rest of his cabinet is out to get him, I’ll believe it.
Until then, I’ll assume it’s just more fake news designed to paint a picture of an incompetent administration and a POTUS who breaks all his campaign promises, so that Trump’s supporters will lose faith.
What am I missing? Why do FReepers believe these stories? Serious question.... Is there some reason I’m not aware of that we should be trusting people that lie constantly?
I really want to know.
I would have made Newt Secretary of State and let him populate the key positions at State. There are a number of good Trump supporters who could have gone to Defense and done the same thing there. Bannon and company should have stayed in the WH, Trump is surrounded now by Obama’s military PC generals.
Interesting that the pic includes Ted Turner. I’ve always thought he’s the man behind the Georgia Guidestones.
Incredibly evil men in that pic.
Maybe “the establishment” actually wants to get us into an unwinnable conflict (because they can make more money). It may be possible to take out the NK artillery and nukes without getting into another such conflict. However, it may be foolish to wait until they can credibly threaten Our bases in Japan, plus Seattle, San Francisco-San Jose, and LA.
Here we have another example of Trump’s agenda being purged. I supported Rudy for Secretary of State.
Correct! Different approach required. Starts with the next election cycle. Rinse and repeat. Speak your stomach America, do what’s natural!
The Commander in Chief needs to lay down the law with those who are, to quote Jane Eyre, his paid subordinates.
Three words, Mr. President: You’re fired. Worked for Truman against McArthur. Made your reality show a smash hit. Use those words.
Tillerson is a Globalist / Global warming nutter .
He has been at odds with Trump from day one .
Why is he still employed at the WH ?
Why is Globalist McMaster still there?
Why is Globalist Kelly ?
Why is Gary Cohn , a Globalist Clinton supporter and Goldman Sachs spy .
The wheels are coming off the Trump bus after the Javanka Coup .
Very sad .
Isn’t that Tony Blair? I asked SP but I don’t think he saw my question.
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