Day: November 29, 2016

Closing Thought–29Nov16

The Adviser……….

All of his bluster during the campaigns lead many to think that Trump as president would lessen our footprint in the Middle East….but watching the people that is naming for the foreign policy slots that will be open leads me to believe something different…..

He has named people like Flynn, a big mouth that is a war monger from the get go….and now his announcement of his Terrorism adviser is another big mouth warmonger….

In naming KT McFarland his deputy national security adviser Friday, Donald Trump is adding another person with “hard-line views on the fight against terrorism” to his team, the New York Times reports. According to Bloomberg, McFarland served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affair under Ronald Reagan. She also worked for the Nixon and Ford administrations, spent time as a national security analyst and adviser to Henry Kissinger, and is a frequent guest on Fox News. She also unsuccessfully ran for Hillary Clinton’s senate seat in 2006. In her new position, McFarland will work with Trump’s new national security adviser, former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

McFarland has been a frequent critic of President Obama’s approach to terrorism and says the threat of global Islamism needs to be addressed. “She has tremendous experience and innate talent that will complement the fantastic team we are assembling, which is crucial because nothing is more important than keeping our people safe,” CNN quotes Trump as saying in a statement. In a statement of her own, McFarland says: “Nobody has called foreign policy right more than President-elect Trump, and he gets no credit for it.” Flynn added in a tweet that McFarland “will help us #MAGA.” Her appointment doesn’t require senate confirmation.

Many have overlooked this person’s lies in the past….when she was running for office…..she lied about being a speech writer, a Pentagon big wig and other stuff…..once a liar…always a liar.

These appointments do not bode well for the US foreign policy……more conflicts are at hand….

Abu Omar Khorasani, an Isis leader in Afghanistan, is quoted as saying that “our leaders were closely following the US election, but it was unexpected that the Americans would dig their own graves.” He added that what he termed Trump’s “hatred” towards Muslims would enable Isis to recruit thousands of fighters.

The Isis calculation is that, as happened after 9/11, the demonisation and collective punishment of Muslims will propel a proportion of the Islamic community into its ranks. Given that there are 1.6 billion Muslims – about 23 per cent of the world’s population – Isis and al-Qaeda-type organisations need to win the loyalty of only a small proportion of the Islamic community to remain a powerful force.

Source: Trump’s Team Will Start New Wars in the Middle East | Alternet

As an international analyst….I do not see much change in foreign policy direction at this time….but I will admit it is early and things could change…I will watch and rant.

Is a Trump Presidency Good News for the Military-Industrial Complex?

During the campaign Mr. Trump made all sorts of promises……the one that I was impressed with was his unswerving commitment to “draining the swamp” of elites and his non-interventionists rhetoric….

I was hoping that his disdain for the M-IC elites would help put the US on new footing in international affairs…

Now that he was won the election and started naming his cabinet my enthusiasm is waning……he seems to be embracing the very people that he bad mouthed all through his campaign……

As with so much of what Donald Trump has said in recent months, his positions on Pentagon spending are, to be polite, a bundle of contradictions. Early signs suggest, however, that those contradictions are likely to resolve themselves in favor of the usual suspects: the arms industry and its various supporters and hangers-on in the government, as well as Washington’s labyrinthine world of think-tank policymakers and lobbyists. Of course, to quote Yogi Berra at this strange moment: it ain’t over till it’s over. Eager as The Donald may be to pump vast sums into a Pentagon already spending your tax dollars at a near-record pace, there will be significant real-world obstacles to any such plans.

Let’s start with a baseline look at the Pentagon’s finances at this moment. At $600 billion-plus per year, the government is already spending more money on the Pentagon than it did at the peak of the massive military buildup President Ronald Reagan initiated in the 1980s. In fact, despite what you might imagine, the Obama administration has pumped more tax dollars into the military in its two terms than did George W. Bush. According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.S. currently spends four times what China does and 10 times what the Russians sink into their military.

Source: Is a Trump Presidency Good News for the Military-Industrial Complex?

For all Trump’s disdain for the “elites”….not to mention all of it by Right wing turds….they, the elites, seem to be falling in line with Mr. Trump……

The swamp that was suppose to be drained….seems to be getting a bit more crowded as the days go by……

One last question….is Trump’s phone secure?  I mean he thinks that Twitter is better than sliced bread….is it secure?  What else does he do on that phone?

Why Democrats Lost

How many of my readers have been lured out of the lairs to partake in annual ritual of “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday”?

Since the voting ended and Trump was declared the winner…how many times have you heard some pundit trying to explain the results?  A desperate attempt at an explanation……yawn!  My thought is…you had a crappy candidate.

Well how about one more reason?

The Democrats lost because they fielded a candidate whose personal negatives were too high, whose image as a thoroughly establishment candidate was out of tune with too many people, people seeking change at almost any price.

Source: Why Democrats Lost – LA Progressive

That is enough of the excuses…..Dems lost….get a grip!

A small update…..

A Progressive Agenda for Renegotiating NAFTA

Does anyone remember the rhetoric by the Trump camp around that dismal trade agreement commonly called “NAFTA”?

If he truly wants to renegotiate the agreement then I believe there needs to be some progressive ideas incorporated into the process…..

During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, or withdraw the United States from the pact.

Although no one at Trump Tower so far has asked me for advice (and I’m not waiting by my phone for a call), I know a little bit about this subject: Eight years ago I helped convene a panel of experts to make recommendations to another president who promised to rewrite NAFTA.

That would have been Barack Obama, who, as a candidate in 2008, was clear on the issue: “NAFTA’s shortcomings were evident when signed and we must now amend the agreement to fix them.”

Source: A Progressive Agenda for Renegotiating NAFTA

I have been criticizing NAFTA since the days of Bubba……I agree with Trump that it needs to be either changed or eliminated……my problem is I do not see Trump as doing what he promised….at least not right now….my opinion could change in the future but it will take some work….so far none of his appointees have impressed me with their resolve.

Drug War Has Failed

Policy choices have consequences.

Trump made many many promises during his “glorious” campaign but the one failed policy that he seem to overlook was that of the Drug War….after 35+ years of wasted money this war is far from won…..

This whole war thing needs to be reconsidered….we keep wasting billions upon billions of dollars and NO substantial results can be found.

The opiate epidemic has reached an all-time high in the United States, with drug-related deaths now surpassing deaths from vehicle accidents. Statista’s Niall McCarthy wrote, “drug-induced deaths (have) reached 49,714 while road crash deaths fell to 32,675,” in 2014. Opioid- and heroin-related deaths have reached epidemic levels. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137%, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin).”

With over 1 million heroin users in the U.S., heroin-related deaths are skyrocketing, made possible in part, as McCarthy says, by the cheap supply of heroin, governmental regulations, and Fentanyl-infused heroin (50 times more potent than heroin).

Source: Drug War Fail: Drugs Now Kill More People Than Car Crashes | Alternet

If Trump wants to impress more people then he needs to attack this policy and do something that will address the problem and save some taxpayer dollars……

Just a thought.