444156
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: rump's chumps...
URL: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/15/roaming-charges-trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/
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It’s been a hallucinatory week, which I hope explains my momentary lapse of reason in believing that an unshackled and restored Trump might follow through on his vow to drive the neocon contagion from the halls of executive power, if only out of revenge for plotting against him for the last eight years. After all, this was the man who evicted John Bolton. (The right side of my brain reminds me that this was also the man who hired John Bolton and the equally evil Elliot Abrams.) The early visions were promising. Trump slamming the door firmly in the face of two neocon job applicants, Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, the man who plotted the assassination Julian Assange, acted on my political psyche with the chimeric allure of Lemon tekking a dose of Psilocybe cubensis, which are currently popping up in pastures all along the Oregon coasts. But before reaching peak high, the whole exciting illusion began to melt into some Daliesque hellscape populated by a grotesquerie of neocons, Christian nationalist end-timers, and billionaire defense contractors. First, news broke that Trump had tapped Lil Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, then a mini-Goebbels himself, Stephen Miller, as his deputy Chief of Staff. This was quickly followed by the termagant from Albany, Elise Stefanik, as UN ambassador, resumé-embellisher John Ratcliffe at the CIA, Christian fundamentalist Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, and FoxNews star Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon. The fantasy had dissolved into another Bad Trip. Like capitalism itself, neoconservativism seems endlessly adaptable, capable of filling any void, assuming any visage, from Rumsfeld to Hillary Clinton. Trump’s rogues gallery aren’t the apex neocons of the Bush-Obama-Clinton-Biden era. There’s no pretense of intellectualism. These are the grunts. This is neoconservatism run by the gut. The very wise Stephen Walt referred to Trump’s national security peaks as a Team of Lackeys. But in the Man’s own coarse, simplistic language, they’re just Trump’s Chumps, hand-picked for their obsequiousness and blind fealty to their boss. People who follow orders and don’t ask questions. Whether they’re competent enough to implement Trump’s plans remains to be seen. Trump rolled out his cabinet of curiosities like a carnival barker at a tent show, with the introduction of each new act yielding a louder gasp from the audience… Rubio is the most peculiar case. But then, he is a peculiar man who has fashioned his political career in Florida out of a histrionic hostility toward Cuba while largely concealing the fact that his family fled the island to escape the dictatorial grip of Fulgencio Batista. Some may find it odd that Trump picked Rubio off the trash heap where he’d flung him after Rubio signed on to a Senate report documenting Russia’s courting of the 2016 Trump campaign, particularly its entreaties to Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. But there’s no loyalty stronger than the rehabilitated man. And Rubio had been put through a process of Trumpian operant conditioning: abuse, humiliation, exile, supplication, return, reward. Rubio has bent the knee, licked the boots (or Ferragamo’s in Trump’s case), and kissed enough ass to be sent forth to excoriate the rest of the world with his juvenile style of bluster and bombast. Rubio’s hectoring brand of anti-diplomacy will accompanied by the coruscating keening of his backup singer, Elise Stefanik, who impressed Trump with her McCarthyite scolding of Ivy League presidents for their laxity in not violently crushing the campus anti-genocide protests last spring. It’s hard to envision a UN ambassador more ill-equipped for the job than Biden’s Linda Greenfield-Thomas, the hapless enabler of Palestinian genocide, may fill the bill as Trump’s one-note Jeanne Kirkpatrick–one shrill note at that. Someone said that instead of a cabinet to Make America Great Again, Trump had drafted a team to Make Greater Israel. You’ll scan futilely for any peacenik libertarians or even hardcore isolationists in this gung-ho retinue, all of whom seem eager to greenlight the immediate annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories on route to more glorious (and insane) confrontations against Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, China and any stubborn nation that refuses to hand over its lithium to Elon Musk. Not only aren’t there any guardrails in sight, there’s not even a handbrake. |
444158
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: rump's chumps...
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so bopp, Jeffrey's 'negativity' is fine with you, as long as he isn't targeting liberals? lol. just like your followers here. Big surprise. |
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[444159]
444159
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: rump's chumps...
| poor baby...still living in fantasyland, coming to erroneous conclusions...lol... |
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444157
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: rump's chumps...
URL: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/15/roaming-charges-trumps-cabinet-of-curiosities/
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+ Craig Mokhiber, human rights lawyer: ‘Donald Trump has drained the swamp – and appointed every loathsome swamp creature he found there to his administration. In January, the US will be governed by a hodgepodge of white nationalists, Christian fundamentalists, fascists, Zionist loyalists, neocons, Islamophobes, xenophobes, and racists. To which people in the Middle East reply, “So, more of the same?”’ + Sure, Rubio’s a neo-con hawk, but can he play guitar while he runs diplomatic cover for a genocide? + NBC reported on Tuesday that some Democrats in Congress are “pleasantly surprised” by several of Trump’s picks, such as Marco Rubio. “Some Democrats” have replaced “Florida Man” as the annual favorite in the Darwin Awards… + Rubio introduced a bill last year to prevent a future president from leaving NATO, and Biden signed it into law. + What’s the over/under in the number of months before Trump starts bad-mouthing Rubio? + Sen. John Fetterman: “Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own. That being said, my colleague Sen. Marco Rubio is a strong choice, and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.” Ladies and gentlemen, the future leader of the Democratic Party, according to no less of an authority than Chuck Todd… + Elise Stefanick is so abrasive that she might even alienate those three or four Pacific Island nations that tag along with the US votes, shielding Israel from UN sanctions. So maybe it’s not all bad, at least on Gaza, where it could scarcely get much worse. + Ivana would have been the better choice… + So, no long-desired cabinet post for poor Lindsay Graham, always a bridesmaid, never the bride… + Trump’s pick to run the CIA, John Ratcliffe, has accused Iran of committing “acts of war” against the US by allegedly hacking Trump campaign emails and allegedly plotting to assassinate Trump. Ratcliffe wants the US to conduct joint attacks with Israel on Iran. + This is the third time Trump has nominated John Ratcliffe for a top intelligence post. In 2016, Ratcliffe withdrew his nomination to become director of National Intelligence after it was revealed that he had “exaggerated” resume by claiming he was a terrorist-fighting federal prosecutor in East Texas under George W. Bush, even though court records showed no there were “no significant national security prosecutions in that jurisdiction during his tenure.” Ratcliffe also took sole credit for a major crackdown on the employment of undocumented immigrants by a poultry producer when the case was actually “a multistate, multiagency operation.” + In 2020, Trump again nominated Ratcliffe to head the DNI, and this time, Ratcliffe narrowly won the approval of the Senate after vowing to be impartial and apolitical. A few weeks later, the NYT reported that Ratcliffe had “approved selective declassifications of intelligence that aim to score political points, left Democratic lawmakers out of briefings, accused congressional opponents of leaks, offered Republican operatives top spots in his headquarters and made public assertions that contradicted professional intelligence assessments.” + For Ratcliffe’s old job as DNI, Trump has tapped the Harris-slayer, Tulsi Gabbard. In 2019, Gabbard told Trump’s pals (and financial underwriters), the Saudis where to stuff it… + Of course, as always with Gabbard, we must confront the question of what animates her anti-Saudi animus: the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, their genocidal war on Yemen, their involvement in the 9/11 attacks, or her well-documented Islamophobia? + A Middle East History Moment with Pete Hegseth: “Open up your Bible. God granted Abraham this land. The twelve tribes of Israel established a constitutional monarchy in 1000 BC. King David was their second king and established Jerusalem as the capital. Jews were fighting foreign occupiers for centuries, ultimately maintaining a presence there. And right now, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, are trying to erase the Jewish ties to Jerusalem, as we speak. I’ve been there multiple times. They’re trying to make it look like Jews were never there. The most important aspect of this is the international community granted sovereignty to the Jews, to the Jewish state, after World War II, and Israel has had to fight defensive war after defensive war, with every country coming to crush it, ever since then just to exist.” + Of course, this was almost precisely the position Bill Clinton took when he scolded Arab-American voters in Michigan for being hesitant to vote for Harris. + More Hegseth: “Zionism and Americanism are the front lines of Western civilization and freedom in our world today.” + Back in 2019, Hegseth bragged on FoxNews about never washing his hands and claimed he couldn’t remember washing them once in the past 10 years. + Hegseth wants women on KP duty, not in combat: “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.” + Sen. Tammy Duckworth responding to Pete Hegseth saying women shouldn’t be allowed to serve in combat: “I would ask him, ‘Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight?’ I’m pretty sure I was in combat when that happened.” + Using his direct pipeline to Trump as a FoxNews contributor, Hegseth convinced Trump to pardon three service members convicted or accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Eddie “the Blade” Gallagher. + From 2012 to 2015, Pete Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, an NGP funded by the Koch brothers’ network, whose top priority was privatizing Veterans Administration health care. Hegseth’s leadership of the organization came under scrutiny after he hired his brother at an annual salary of $69,497. + A social conservative, Hegseth’s two marriages ended in divorce after extra-marital affairs, one with a staffer and another with a FoxNews producer who later bore his child. + Vanity Fair reported that on Thursday, the Trump transition team held an emergency meeting over newly surfaced allegations of sexual misconduct by Pete Hegseth involving a woman he had what is described as an “inappropriate” encounter with in Monterey, California, in 2017. Hegseth apparently told the transition team that the relationship was consensual and had been investigated by the Monterey police, who declined to file charges. A case “he said, she said,” according to Hegseth, which is hardly the most exculpatory denial. Say this much, Trump hasn’t picked a team of incel fanboys. + NBC News’ Elise Jordan put together a timeline of the latest allegation against Hegseth. (A point of clarification: Hegesth’s second wife was previously his mistress, who he’d had an affair with during his first marriage.) + Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America: “Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history. And the most overtly political. Brace yourself, America.” + In picking Hegseth, Trump passed over Iowa Senator Joanie Ernst, who’d been lobbying for the post. Ernst is best known for castrating hogs in a campaign ad, which I guess would have qualified her to run the biggest porkbarrel feedlot on the Hill… + Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for Ambassador to Israel, on the principles guiding his approach to the Middle East: “I believe the scripture. Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed; those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side, not the curse side.” Megiddo Now! As National Security Advisor, Trump tapped Mike Waltz, an ultra-rightwing congressman from Florida. Waltz is a former Army Green Beret who said he wants to “take the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine.” The Wall Street Journal called Waltz “among the most hawkish members of Congress on China.” + In 2017, Walz argued at the CPAC conference that the US should be ready to remain in Afghanistan for several generations until the very “idea” of radical Islam is defeated. + Kristi Neom, Trump’s choice to run the Dept. of Homeland Security, is banned from stepping foot on every tribal reservation in South Dakota after repeatedly slandering the tribes as acting like subsidiaries of the Mexican drug cartels… + The party that obsessed over the seizure and killing of P-Nut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon is about to make a confessed puppy killer the head of a national department that can do warrantless no-knock raids, where dogs are often killed merely for barking. + Sen Markwayne Mullin on Trump’s AG pick Matt Gaetz: “The first time I ever met this guy, he walked up to me, and Kristi Noem was at the podium. We were just elected, so we were going through orientation. And he walked up to me and said, ‘Man, she’s a fine bitch!’” Cabinet meetings should be a blast! Does Corey Lewandowski, with whom Noem has become especially intimate, according to reporting by Ken Silverstein, know about this? + Back in April, Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Arizona) had this to say on CNN about Matt Gaetz: “I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.” + “I hereby resign as a US representative…effective immediately, and I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress. To pursue the position of attorney general in the Trump administration. Signed, sincerely, Matt Gaetz.” + The House Ethics Committee has been investigating Gaetz since 2021. Gaetz resigned from Congress on the same day Trump announced his plans to nominate him for Attorney General and two days before the House Ethics Committee was set to vote on releasing its “highly damaging” report outlining its investigation into the Republican for sexual misconduct. The committee loses its jurisdiction over Gaetz after he leaves Congress. + John Clune, the attorney for the woman at the center of the child sex trafficking allegations involving Gaetz, is urging the committee to release its report, saying, “She was a high school student, and there were witnesses.” + After being told of Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said: “Are you shittin’ me?” + Charlie Sykes, a former Republican congressman from Ohio: “Appointing Gaetz as attorney general is designed to trigger the Libs. In reality, it is humiliating the Senate’s new GOP majority. Before they even take office.” + To Gaetz’s credit, he has called on Trump to pardon Edward Snowden… + Why Gaetz may have a shot at confirmation by the Senate, despite allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct: He’s married to Ginger Luckey, the sister of Oculus V.R. founder Palmer Luckey, who, along with three Palantir executives, started the surveillance technology company Anduril, which has won several billion dollars worth of Pentagon contracts for counter-drone weapons and “Advanced Battle Management Systems”… + Still, it’s ludicrous to think that Matt Gaetz could further debase the office of Attorney General, where the likes of Mitchell Palmer, John Mitchell, Richard Kleindeist, Ed Meese, Janet Reno, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr have already roosted… + Trump’s pick for “border czar,” Thomas Homan, developed the “child separation” policy in 2014 while he headed ICE under Obama. A year later, Obama gave him an award for how well he had done his job of deporting people. Now he’s going to reprise his role on steroids under Trump. Homan said he plans to enlist the military to execute Trump’s plan to track down, detain, hold in concentration camps, and deport more than a million immigrants under the Alien and Sedition Act of 1797. + Cecilia Vega asked Homan on 60 Minutes: “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?” Homan: “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.” + Richard D. Wolff: “A strong, growing economy attracts and integrates immigrants. A weak, declining economy deports them. What made America great was immigration, not deportation. Don’t be fooled.” + According to Politico, Trump is expected to nominate RFK Jr to head the Department of Health and Human Services, which, given Jr.’s views on vaccines, would make a strange repudiation of one of Trump’s best policies during his first term, Operation Warp Speed, which demonstrated that the federal government could actually spring into practical action. (The main reason Trump might want to elide it from the collective memory.) + During a TikTok town hall in June, RFK Jr. said he would order NIH to stop all research on drug development and infectious disease for 8 YEARS. |
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