Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Trump Ponders Petraeus for Senior Job, by Ray McGovern

Posted on December 1, 2016 | 1 comment

Ray McGovern obliterates Gen. David Petraeus, under consideration for a choice cabinet position. From McGovern at antiwar.com:

The news that President-elect Donald Trump called in disgraced retired Gen. David Petraeus for a job interview as possible Secretary of State tests whether Trump’s experience in hosting “The Celebrity Apprentice” honed his skills for spotting an incompetent phony or not.

Does Trump need more data than the continuing bedlam in Iraq and Afghanistan to understand that one can earn a Princeton PhD by writing erudite-sounding drivel about “counterinsurgency” and still flunk war? Granted, the shambles in which Petraeus left Iraq and Afghanistan were probably more a result of his overweening careerism and political ambition than his misapplication of military strategy. But does that make it any more excusable?

In 2007, Adm. William Fallon, commander of CENTCOM with four decades of active-duty experience behind him, quickly took the measure of Petraeus, who was one of his subordinates while implementing a “surge” of over 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq.

Several sources reported that Fallon was sickened by Petraeus’s unctuous pandering to ingratiate himself. Fallon is said to have been so turned off by all the accolades in the flowery introduction given him by Petraeus that he called him to his face “an ass-kissing little chickenshit,” adding, “I hate people like that.” Sadly, Petraeus’s sycophancy is not uncommon among general officers. Uncommon was Fallon’s outspoken candor.

The past decade has shown that obsequiousness to those above him and callousness toward others are two of Petraeus’s most notable character traits. They go along with his lack of military acumen and his dishonesty as revealed in his lying to the FBI about handing over top-secret notebooks to his biographer/lover, an “indiscretion” that would have landed a less well-connected person in jail but instead got him only a mild slap on the wrist (via a misdemeanor guilty plea).

To continue reading: Trump Ponders Petraeus for Senior Job

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Trump Fills the Swamp with Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s Wife) for Transportation Secretary, by Michael Krieger

Posted on December 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Michael Krieger throws in another towel on draining the swamp. From Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

I know this is a couple of days old, but bear with me.

CNN reports:

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Elaine Chao, the former labor secretary and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to be his choice for transportation secretary, an official briefed on the matter told CNN on Tuesday.

Chao served as secretary of labor under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2009 — the longest tenure in the position since World War II — and has been married to McConnell since 1993. She was the first Asian-American woman to serve in a Cabinet position.

Chao also served as the deputy secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1991. Following her time in government, Chao has held a position as a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation in addition to conducting media appearances.

Two Bushes and a Mitch McConnell, sounds like some serious swamp draining to me.

Meanwhile, you know someone’s really a threat to business as usual in D.C. when Chuck Shumer comes out with unbridled praise. As Politico notes:

Top Senate Democrats signaled that Chao may not face much of a fight to get confirmed, with incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) congratulating her earlier on Tuesday for her exepcted nomination and praising her for her “long history of service to our country.”

To continue reading: Trump Fills the Swamp with Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s Wife) for Transportation Secretary

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There Will Be Swamp – Steve Mnuchin Confirms Treasury Secretary Nod, by Michael Krieger

Posted on December 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Michael Krieger throws in the towel on draining the swamp. From Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

While I’m not a Dodd-Frank fan, it’s not because it was too harsh, but because it didn’t really do much of anything. It was the typical neoliberal bait and switch, designed to look tough for public consumption, while merely making tweaks around the edges of a financial system that requires systemic, paradigm level change.

Trump’s support of repealing Dodd-Frank tells you all you need to know. A Trump Presidency will see Wall Street felons who should be in prison, running as wild and free as ever.

He will be the same thing to distressed working class whites that Obama was to the black community. A fake messiah and a shyster.

– From May’s post: Donald Trump’s True Colors Emerge as He Snuggles up to Wall Street

The fact that Steve Mnuchin was a Goldman Sachs partner is the least of my concerns when it comes to the man. Indeed, if someone wanted to create a playing card deck of sleazy Wall Street financial crisis opportunists, it’d be hard not to include Steve Mnuchin.

What exactly am I talking about? Specifically, I’m referring to the collapse of IndyMac (renamed One West), and the generous helping of government welfare Mnuchin and his partners received upon purchasing the failed banking institution. This is a financial crisis saga that is unknown to most, despite having received some extensive coverage over the past year. One of the best articles on the topic was written by David Dayen in his piece, Donald Trump’s Finance Chair Is the Anti-Populist From Hell. Here are a few excerpts:

To continue reading: There Will Be Swamp – Steve Mnuchin Confirms Treasury Secretary Nod

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The Real Reasons Why Another American Civil War Is Possible, by Brandon Smith

Posted on December 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Actually, according to Brandon Smith, civil war is inevitable. From Smith at alt-market.com:

You have to hand it to the regressive left, when they conjure propaganda they really know how to run with it. When their indoctrination doesn’t take, and the public stops them cold with a wall of skepticism, they don’t give up! No — the little buggers double down and go for broke!

I would point out, however, that this seemingly boundless drive to forsake all logic and reason in the name of ideology is not due to these people being special in their ambition. Rather, they are following a somewhat successful historic model; the model of communism. And by successful, I mean successfully destructive.

With Donald Trump on the way to the White House in January, along with a Republican majority in Congress and the Senate, leftists long accustomed to dominating the public narrative through the mainstream media have found themselves without leverage. Now, they must resort to ankle biting with efforts like the “fake news” meme, which is designed to undermine the alternative media through ad hominem. Obviously this will fail. It is far too late for the mainstream media to gain back any social capital, and they will have to adapt or die out.

With this avenue closing for the left, the next stage will be direct asymmetrics; they will use subversion at a more localized level; working to provoke “marginalized” groups into taking extreme action in order to illicit a negative and totalitarian response from conservatives.

To continue reading: The Real Reasons Why Another American Civil War Is Possible

 

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How Trump Could Ruin His Presidency, by Ann Coulter

Posted on December 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Ann Coulter throws down a gauntlet at Donald Trump. Her argument is almost certainly correct. From Coulter at anncoulter.com:

Soon after Trump’s announcement speech, I said he would win the nomination and likely the election. It wasn’t that hard to predict. For anyone familiar with the Republican Party’s repeated betrayals of the American people, it was a 2-foot putt.

I issue this warning with the same certitude — in fact, for the exact same reason I knew anyone running on Trump’s platform would have unbreakable support from millions of voters.

What coalesced Trump’s base, what made his support tempered steel, was the fact that voters had been lied to, over and over again — on many things, but most smugly and repeatedly on immigration.

How many times did we have to see the GOP choke? There’s 30 seconds left in the game, Republicans are down by two, they move the ball up the court, have a man in position — and, every time, the GOP would do anything to avoid taking the 3-point shot.

That is the beating heart of the anger that voters felt toward the party. No one trusted Republicans to ever score when they had the ball.

It’s why Trump’s supporters stuck with him through thick and thin — his attack on war hero John McCain (he deserved it), his mocking a disabled reporter (a lie), his lazy first debate performance (totally true), and the “Access Hollywood” tape (oh well).
After he gave that Mexican rapists speech, and never backed down, Trump’s base would have brushed off six more “Access Hollywood” tapes. All because they think Trump will take the shot.

He’d better! As the popular vote proves, we don’t have 30 seconds on the clock. It’s only three.

But if he breaks a major campaign promise, his supporters will turn on him with a blind ferocity, dwarfing their rage toward Jeb! because Trump’s is the more exquisite con. He will have duped them. And he will never, ever, ever get them back.

To continue reading: How Trump Could Ruin His Presidency

 

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Winning Trump Loves to Do It, But American Generals Have Forgotten How, by Andrew J. Bacevich

Posted on November 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

This is a 5-Star article that asks the questions: what happened to American generals who could win wars? From Andrew Bacevich at tomdispatch.com:

President-elect Donald Trump’s message for the nation’s senior military leadership is ambiguously unambiguous. Here is he on 60 Minutes just days after winning the election.

Trump: “We have some great generals. We have great generals.”

Lesley Stahl: “You said you knew more than the generals about ISIS.”

Trump: “Well, I’ll be honest with you, I probably do because look at the job they’ve done. OK, look at the job they’ve done. They haven’t done the job.”

In reality, Trump, the former reality show host, knows next to nothing about ISIS, one of many gaps in his education that his impending encounter with actual reality is likely to fill. Yet when it comes to America’s generals, our president-to-be is onto something. No doubt our three- and four-star officers qualify as “great” in the sense that they mean well, work hard, and are altogether fine men and women. That they have not “done the job,” however, is indisputable — at least if their job is to bring America’s wars to a timely and successful conclusion.

Trump’s unhappy verdict — that the senior U.S. military leadership doesn’t know how to win — applies in spades to the two principal conflicts of the post-9/11 era: the Afghanistan War, now in its 16th year, and the Iraq War, launched in 2003 and (after a brief hiatus) once more grinding on. Yet the verdict applies equally to lesser theaters of conflict, largely overlooked by the American public, that in recent years have engaged the attention of U.S. forces, a list that would include conflicts in Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

To continue reading: Winning Trump Loves to Do It, But American Generals Have Forgotten How

 

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If World War II Breaks Out Again, We’ll Be Ready for It…, by Bill Bonner

Posted on November 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

The military-industrial-intelligence complex has become a welfare racket. From Bill Bonner at bonnerandpartners.com:

BALTIMORE – Mr. Trump is still assembling his lieutenants for his triumphal march on Washington.

Yesterday, he chose Steve Mnuchin, a Goldman guy, as his Treasury secretary.

He will be the third U.S. Treasury secretary from Goldman, following Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson. But Mnuchin is probably more Goldman than any of them. His father worked there. So did his brother.

Trump was supposed to “shake things up.” He promised to “drain the swamp.”

With only two months until the inauguration, there should be crying and gnashing of teeth on Capitol Hill.

You’d expect terror and panic up and down Connecticut Avenue. The Chevy Chase Club should be cleared out as the insiders run for the hills with their silver and their daughters.

But things are calm on the Potomac. The swamp critters show no sign of alarm. Instead, they seem to be collected and complacent, sure that no harm will come to them.

Maybe they know something…

McMansions in McLean

Washington has seen new administrations come and go.

The Republicans come in. The Democrats go out. One Goldman guy arrives. Another Goldman guy departs. The gators, snakes, and slugs have seen this show before. They’ve watched the reruns. And every time, the ending is the same. No matter what happens to the rest of the country, the Parasitocracy on the Potomac grows richer and more powerful.

It has always been thus… thus will it always be.

Over on the Virginia side of the river – the most treacherous part of the swamp, where the “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned us about resides – the calm has turned into euphoria.

To continue reading: If World War II Breaks Out Again, We’ll Be Ready for It…

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Following the Fourth Amendment Would Help Make America Great Again, by Kelli Sladick

Posted on November 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

The federal government might want to shore up the Fourth Amendment out of sheer self-interest. From Kelli Sladick at tenthamendmentcenter.com:

During the last eight years, the Obama administration failed to live up to its promise reverse the Bush era’s mass surveillance of American citizens. In fact, it was expanded and justified. If you were silent, the sweeping power controlled by the president may not be on your radar for the right reasons. While there is a deep fear resonating, at least half looked the other way when “their guy” held the powers of the presidency.

So let’s put aside the distractions roaring through the media, and let’s walk down memory lane.

The Fourth Amendment was assaulted relentlessly under Bush and it continued through both of Obama’s presidential terms. The hits came from two sides, one by mass surveillance and the other by undermining data security. Now, as my focus may just be on progressives for the moment, the truth remains that neither party, Republican nor Democratic has limited its power, especially in regards to surveillance. Know full well, I have no illusion that Trump will set a new trend of limitations.

Has the federal government moved because of its love of the Constitution, or rule of law? No, but it should at least be motivated to protect the Fourth Amendment because if there is one thing that we have seen in the past few years, it is that DC is not untouchable. Whether that is the silver lining for progressives or disdain for Republicans, we have seen just in the past few years how mass surveillance and the undermining security affects everyone, including the federal government – maybe even your dear leader. While the Fourth Amendment was assaulted relentlessly under Bush and Obama’s presidential, the hope is to end that trend during the Trump years.

To continue reading: Following the Fourth Amendment Would Help Make America Great Again

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NATO’s Rear-Guard Actions, by Brian Cloughley

Posted on November 30, 2016 | 2 comments

Why should the US be paying the bulk of the freight to defend Europe from largely nonexistent threats? From Brian Cloughley at strategic-culture.org:

In the military a rearguard action is defined as ‘a defensive action carried out by a retreating army’ and it is an appropriate description of the desperate scrabbling by NATO to convince the rest of the world — and especially Donald Trump — that its existence is justified.

President-elect Trump has never said that the US should actually leave NATO. Certainly Hillary Clinton declared that he ‘wants to pull out of NATO’ but this was just another of her lies, and what he said back in April was that it is ‘obsolete’ which is a gentle way of indicating that it’s hopeless. He did, after all, tell a town hall meeting in Wisconsin: «Maybe Nato will dissolve and that’s OK, not the worst thing in the world», but although that may have sent shivers up the supple spine of NATO’s Secretary General Stoltenberg, it was by no means a definitive statement of intention.

The fact remains that The Donald is unhappy with NATO, and he’s perfectly right to consider that it’s a vastly expensive and largely ineffective military grouping that indeed should be disbanded. On the other hand, the massive propaganda campaign waged against Russia has convinced much of the world that Moscow has expansionist plans and that the only way to counter its supposed ambitions is to spend more money — lots and lots more money — and deploy troops and aircraft and ships all over the place to make it look as if gallant little NATO is defending the so-called Free World against the might of an illusory aggressor.

To continue reading: NATO’s Rear-Guard Actions

 

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FBI and NSA Poised to Gain New Surveillance Powers Under Trump, by Chris Strohm

Posted on November 29, 2016 | Leave a comment

Two trends in government that Donald Trump appears set to embrace rather than oppose: the ongoing shrinkage of Americans’ civil liberties and the continuing expansion of the surveillance state. From Christ Strohm at bloomberg.com:

The FBI, National Security Agency and CIA are likely to gain expanded surveillance powers under President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, a prospect that has privacy advocates and some lawmakers trying to mobilize opposition.

Trump’s first two choices to head law enforcement and intelligence agencies — Republican Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Republican Representative Mike Pompeo for director of the Central Intelligence Agency — are leading advocates for domestic government spying at levels not seen since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The fights expected to play out in the coming months — in Senate confirmation hearings and through executive action, legislation and litigation — also will set up an early test of Trump’s relationship with Silicon Valley giants including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Trump signaled as much during his presidential campaign, when he urged a consumer boycott of Apple for refusing to help the FBI hack into a terrorist’s encrypted iPhone.

An “already over-powerful surveillance state” is about to “be let loose on the American people,” said Daniel Schuman, policy director for Demand Progress, an internet and privacy advocacy organization.

New Hacking Rule

In a reversal of curbs imposed after Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013 about mass data-gathering by the NSA, Trump and Congress may move to reinstate the collection of bulk telephone records, renew powers to collect the content of e-mails and other internet activity, ease restrictions on hacking into computers and let the FBI keep preliminary investigations open longer.

To continue reading: FBI and NSA Poised to Gain New Surveillance Powers Under Trump

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