Tag: Appointments

My Concerns For National Security

I have always said the foreign policy and national security should be paramount in Trump’s mind….but recently I read something that gives me concern….

George W. Bush and Bill Clinton received daily intelligence briefings after winning their elections, and Barack Obama was said to be an “avid consumer of intelligence” as president-elect. But US officials tell the Washington Post that Donald Trump has only had two intelligence briefings since defeating Hillary Clinton and has been turning down further briefings. The daily intelligence briefings include information on “global developments and security threats” from all 16 US intelligence agencies. “Trump has a lot of catching up to do,” one senior US official says.

But Trump’s team says the president-elect has simply been too busy putting together his administration. “National security is Donald Trump’s No. 1 priority, and I think he’s taking it very seriously,” a senior member of his transition team tells the Post. The official points to Trump’s meetings and phone calls with world leaders as evidence and says people criticizing Trump “need to get a life.” But government officials critical of Trump say it’s further evidence he doesn’t really care about the ins and outs of the job. A former deputy CIA director says Trump is “missing out on a golden opportunity.” On the other hand, Mike Pence has been receiving intelligence briefings nearly everyday. Read the full story here.

Sorry Donald but the prez needs to be able to walk, talk and chew gum all at the same time…..

I cannot tell if his hesitation to pick a SecState and SecDef is a good thing or a bad one…..I am anxious to see who he will choose for these two positions….that will be very telling of the direction Trump wants our foreign policy to travel.

As I watch the Trump government take shape there are a few concerns I have and I list them here……

  • Publicly reveal all potential international conflicts of interest among his business holdings and place all of his business assets in a blind trust—not managed by family members, which is an obvious conflict of interest—to avert running afoul of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
  • Allow the IRS to indicate a timeline for the completion of his most recent audit so that he may fulfill his pledge to release his tax returns to further ensure no conflicts of interest in executing U.S. foreign or domestic policy.
  • Direct his choice for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, to publicly disclose all financial payments and consulting arrangements from foreign governments and to release a detailed record of all communications with Russian and Turkish officials or agents, including during the election period.
  • Join with his incoming secretaries of defense, state, and homeland security to provide details on his plan to defeat the Islamic State and clarify how his avowed war on radical Islamic terrorism will be waged and the metrics for which its success should be gauged.
  • Join with his national security appointees to clarify how his commitment to a no-fly zone over Syria will be enforced, what allies would participate in such an effort, and its likely duration.
  • Join with his incoming attorney general and secretaries of homeland security and defense to make an unequivocal vow that in their confirmation hearings, they will both recuse themselves and not impede investigations into Russian interference in the recent U.S. elections and links to WikiLeaks hacks.
  • Direct his secretary of state and U.S. Department of Defense nominees to reconfirm the nation’s long-standing commitment to treaty obligations to U.S. allies in NATO and in Asia.
  • Direct his incoming secretaries of defense and state to make clear their view of the illegal occupation of Crimea by Russian forces and the role of Russia in downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.
  • Join with his national security appointees to explain the mechanics and ramifications of the United States canceling all pledged support to the United Nations for addressing the increasingly severe challenges of global warming.
  • Immediately outline the details of his plan to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon if he dismantles the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
  • Immediately commit publicly not to ban anyone from entering the United States based solely on race, religion, or any other basis that would violate U.S. values.
  • Immediately outline his plans for preventing North Korea from advancing its nuclear and missile programs.
  • Immediately commit to nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

These are the aspects of foreign policy that will help make me more confident on the leadership of Donald Trump….I am not naive and realize that he may not address each of these issues…..but the ones he does will be very telling.

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?

How Important Is Education?

To me the answer is…..an absolute necessity.

When I left the service of my country I asked for one thing and one thing only…..an education….and I was fortune enough to get my request.  So education in my book should be free and public from K-12….it should NOT be a money making industry….period.

Pres. trump has made his selection for Sec of Education…..and what do we know about her…yes he chose a woman…..

Education will be set back a 100 years…..once again it will be the wealthy and privileged that get the good education…..

But her best statement….was this……

Now that we know President-elect Donald Trump has tapped right-wing megadonor Betsy DeVos as his pick to lead the Department of Education, now is a good time to examine some of the many shady organizations she’s funded.

One such organization is the Acton Institute, a think tank on whose board DeVos has served, and whose self-described goal is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”

And one way to promote a virtuous society, it seems, is to bring back child labor.

Source: Think Tank Funded by Trump’s Education Secretary Pick Advocated Bringing Back Child Labor | Alternet

I do not see the GOP in Congress growing a set of nuts and challenging Trump on much at all….

I was giving Trump some time to make his picks…..but so far I have little confidence that this will be an admin for ALL Americans.

Trump’s Tulsi Gabbard Factor

Yipee!  Today is “cyber-Monday” so internet will slow to a snails pace….so I will be posting a small amount today…hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I admit I was a Bernie supporter basically because he was an non-interventionist….when he sold out to the Dems I switched to the Green Party……during Bernie’s run up to the nomination a Rep named Tulsi Gabbard was one of his best surrogates….and she was asked to meet with Trump by his camp (say what?)

I have been concerned with Trump’s possible climbing into bed with the M-IC….but on a bright note he has had a face to face with Gabbard…

Could this be a vision of the future form a Trump foreign policy?

By inviting in Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat hostile to “regime change” wars, President-elect Trump may be signaling a major break with Republican neocon orthodoxy and a big shake-up of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, writes Robert Parry.

Two weeks after Donald Trump’s shocking upset of Hillary Clinton, the imperious and imperial neoconservatives and their liberal-interventionist understudies may finally be losing their tight grip on U.S. foreign policy.

The latest sign was Trump’s invitation for a meeting with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, on Monday. The mainstream media commentary has almost completely missed the potential significance of this start-of-the-work-week meeting by suggesting that Trump is attracted to Gabbard’s tough words on “radical Islamic terrorism.”

Source: Trump’s Tulsi Gabbard Factor – Consortiumnews

Now the question is…is this a positive sign or just window dressing?

Trump Needs Good Advice

We now have a new president-elect and he is in the process of putting together a government for the nation……and its people……

So far I am not sure about some of his choices, although it is by NO means complete, but since he has no direct experience in governing then he needs good advisers with good advice….not yes men….he needs advice that will be the best for the nation and its people…..

The American Conservative has a good article on this situation….I may not agree with them on everything but they do have some excellent writers and analysts………this article makes some very good points…..

I would very much like to see the White House revert to a George Marshall type of foreign policy, in which the United States would use its vast power wisely rather than punitively. As Donald Trump knows little of what makes the world go round, senior officials and cabinet secretaries will play a key role in framing and executing policy. One would like to see people like Jim Webb, Chas Freeman, Andrew Bacevich, or even TAC’s own Daniel Larison in key government positions, as one might thereby rely on their cool judgment and natural restraint to guide the ship of state. But that is unfortunately unlikely to happen.

Source: Trump Needs Good Advice | The American Conservative

Everyone needs to remember that Trump is the president for all Americans not just the ones that will kiss his ring.

I Remember Trent

Nine years ago this month the US Senate no. 2 Repub, Trent Lott, offers up his resignation….26Nov07 to be exact……

This took the country by surprise…..

Lott, 66, said he had notified President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Sunday about his plans. Barbour, a Republican, will name someone to temporarily replace Lott.

This was not unexpected……you see a couple years prior he had made some inappropriate comments……

The smooth-spoken Lott found himself in hot water in December 2002 after Thurmond’s party.   Lott said Mississippi voters were proud to have supported Thurmond when he ran for president on a segregationist platform in 1948, and added: “If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either.”

A few days later, Lott issued a statement saying he had made “a poor choice of words” that “conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement.”

But the damage was done. President Bush distanced himself from Lott’s remarks, telling an audience the comments “do not reflect the spirit of our country.”

Sad to see a good man good down right?  Not to worry he became a super high paid lobbyists……

I stroll down this nostalgic path because of the choice Trump has made for his AG….Sen. Jeff Sessions……

Donald Trump has made two more key picks for his administration: He’s chosen GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama for attorney general and Republican congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas to lead the CIA, reports Politico. Both will require Senate confirmation, and the AP notes that Sessions could run into trouble because he has been by dogged by accusations of racism over the years. More coverage on that and more:

  • When the 69-year-old Sessions was up for a federal judgeship in 1986, four different lawyers testified that he made racist comments. One black prosecutor accused Sessions of calling him “boy” and of joking that he thought the KKK was fine “until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions, who also allegedly called the NAACP “un-American,” didn’t get the post. See CNN.
  • In a “10 things to know” post about Sessions, the Washington Post notes that he was in 2014 called “amnesty’s worst enemy” by the National Review for his hardline positions on immigration. See the full list here.
  • A take from Politico: Sessions “is well-regarded by his Republican colleagues, although his breed of hardline conservatism falls outside the GOP mainstream. He is opposed to creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a vocal critic of marijuana legalization, though he worked with the Obama administration and Democrats on legislation supported by civil rights groups that reduced the sentencing disparity for cocaine possession.”
  • Sessions was Trump’s first supporter in the Senate, and he played down Trump’s comments in the infamous Access Hollywood leaked tape, notes the Huffington Post.
  • Sessions’ official Senate bio is here.

Sessions is more than qualified by his experience to be AG…..but I ask will his racist rants hold the same weight as they did when Lott made them?

My guess is…they WILL NOT!  His disqualification before was 30 years ago and the country has become more tolerant of racist thought in those years.

Isolationist or Imperialist?

I will be posting this week on my favorite subject…..foreign policy……the new prez is an unknown quantity and his policies have not been given a fair judgment by the analysts…..

We have been listening to all sides on this debate….some claim that Trump will be an isolationist…..and others think he will continue the line of psuedo-imperialism……he has said so much in the days of the campaign that few know for sure what we are getting when it comes to foreign policy.

I have said several times….his appointments to DoD and State will be very telling in the direction he wants this country to travel…..

What comes next? Two foreign policy scenarios for a Trump presidency.

In the hit musical Hamilton, King George, newly estranged from the revolutionary American colonies, challenges his former subjects to justify their choice. “What comes next?” he asks, “You’ve been freed. Do you know how hard it is to lead? You’re on your own. Awesome, wow! Do you have a clue what happens now?”

We might well ask the same question.

The unexpected elevation of Donald Trump to the Presidency presents a failure for pollsters, a reorientation of American politics, and raises the fundamental question of what kind of policies a Trump administration is likely to pursue. On foreign policy, Trump’s statements throughout the campaign have been profoundly incoherent, ranging from more traditional hawkish Republican views on issues like the Iran deal, to more unorthodox, restrained views on Syria and other Middle Eastern conflicts, to his more conciliatory approach to Russia and truly bizarre fixation with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

Source: Isolationist or Imperialist? | Cato @ Liberty

Analysts such as myself are waiting for the hammer to drop…..his appointees will be that hammer and foreign policy will be the nail….the fave for SecState does not fill me with optimism….

Please NO excuses…..comment on the two types of foreign policy….our citizens will have to enforce whatever set of policies this new prez has eventually decided on as his……

Mr. Burris, Take Your Seat

Roland Burris on Monday won his bid to fill the seat in the U.S. Senate vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, overcoming objections from Democratic leaders who now stand ready to enjoy their biggest majority since 1981.

Barring unanticipated roadblocks from Senate Republicans, Burris, appointed to the seat by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in December, could be sworn in within days, giving Democrats 58 of the Senate’s 100 seats.

The decision by Senate officials to swear in Burris was a major about-face by the Democratic leadership, which initially vowed that the appointment would not stand because Blagojevich has been charged with having earlier tried to sell the seat.

A New Chief Performance Officer (CPO)

President-elect Barack Obama has picked Nancy Killefer to serve as the federal government’s chief performance officer (CPO), a newly created post designed to help improve government efficiency and reform budget practices.  That sounds familiar for some reason.

Obama said Killefer is “uniquely qualified” to serve as the nation’s first CPO, calling her “an expert in streamlining processes and wringing out inefficiencies so that taxpayers and consumers get more for their money.”  Huh?

To illustrate her strong desire to enact reforms, Obama said that when she was offered the opportunity to serve in the Clinton administration, Killefer said “If you’re willing to embrace significant change, then you’re looking at the right person. But if you just want to keep the trains running on time, don’t ask me to do this job.”

Wait just a damn minute!  Why is Obama creating a job that is already being done?  Why is he creating yet another massive bureaucracy?  Why not let the GAO do the job it was created to do?

The GAO was established as the General Accounting Office by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (Pub.L. 67-13, 42 Stat. 20, June 10, 1921). This Act required the head of GAO to “investigate, at the seat of government or elsewhere, all matters relating to the receipt, disbursement, and application of public funds, and shall make to the President…and to Congress…reports (and) recommendations looking to greater economy or efficiency in public expenditures” (Sec. 312(a), 42 Stat. 25).

Does anyone really know what the hell is going on?  This is just absurd.  To think that earmarks and inefficient programs can be eliminated is foolish.  All it is doing is creating another payroll for the taxpayers to fund—wait is that not an inefficient use of funds?  Maybe her first action should be to dissolve the position of CPO.  The move would be efficient, would streamline government and save us money.  She would be doing everything the position calls for.

Just a thought.