There are a number of people on the Trump team who are singing a different song than Trump. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:
It did not take long before we knew there was no hope of change from President Obama. But at least he went into his inauguration with an unprecedented number of Americans on the Mall showing their support for the President of Change. Hope was abundant.
But with Trump, we are already losing faith, if not yet with him, at least with his choice of those who comprise his government even before Trump is inaugurated.
Trump’s choice for Secretary of State not only sounds like the neoconservatives in declaring Russia to be a threat to the United States and all of Europe, but also sounds like Hillary Clinton in declaring the South China Sea to be an area of US dominance. One would think that the chairman of Exxon was not an idiot, but I am no longer sure. In his confirmation hearing, Rex Tillerson said that China’s access to its own South China Sea is “not going to be allowed.”
Here is Tillerson’s statement: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to those islands also not going to be allowed.”
I mean, really, what is Tillerson going to do about it except get the world blown up. China’s response was as pointed as a response can be:
Tillerson “should not be misled into thinking that Beijing will be fearful of threats. If Trump’s diplomatic team shapes future Sino-US ties as it is doing now, the two sides had better prepare for a military clash. Tillerson had better bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories.”
So Trump is not even inaugurated and his idiot nominee for Secretary of State has already created an animosity relationship with two nuclear powers capable of completely destroying all of the West for eternity. And this makes the US Senate comfortable with Tillerson. The imbeciles should be scared out of their wits, assuming they have any.
To continue reading: Is Trump Already Finished?
While in no way do I dismiss PCR’s fears about the direction of Trump and his administration, I have to take issue with his statement “If the Chairman of Exxon and a Lt. General are not capable of standing up to the imbecilic Congress, they are unfit for office.” Although he himself may have stood up in his confirmation hearing, those were, to put it mildly, different times, when confirmation was arguably at least somewhat a civilized, rational process. Not so today, and operating as if it were is foolhardy. The art of war is the art of deception, and as I’ve pointed out ad nauseum, politics now IS war. Under such conditions ‘watch what they do, not what they say’ can cut both ways, good as well as bad, and I’ll reserve judgment until I see what they do, and disregard what they may have to say in order to even reach the battlefield.