Mr. Trump - Stay away from ideologues ...

IMO President Elect Trump would do well to avoid appointing ideologues to jobs in his administration.  Republican Part hacks, neocon war-mongers, R2P do-gooders, all these will, if they can, drag him toward high risk positions that he can ill afford given the high level of resistance to his legitimacy among left wing Americans.

He will have Steve Bannon in the building to give him the right wing's point of view and Priebus for balance in trying to deal with the Congress and everyone else in Washington.

President Trump IMO has little regard or respect for the traditional Republican leadership.  IMO that is a good thing.  The GOP wants to gut entitlements and other popular programs.  Trump knows he can't do that without destroying his position in the minds of his supporters. 

Therefore he is going to have to work with the Democrats in Congress.  They may be in the minority but their votes will be needed to overcome GOP resistance to many of the things he will want to do.

For God's sake, no neocons and no "movement conservatives."  pl

Comments

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

After writing this piece:
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/11/10/to-an-anxious-friend/

Eliot has been told "to get lost"
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html

and Mike Rogers is out of the transition team

[turcopolier]

beaver

Good riddance to both. pl

[Origin]

It is always hard to understand why the best people are not dominant in history and government. Perhaps, with Trump, it is the Almighty's intention to humble us?

Trump sure humbled the Democratic establishment and the coasters. He is well on the way doing it to the Republicans even though they falsely believe they will be able to corral the whirlwind as Trump humbles himself and his policies further impoverish the gloating rustbelt middle class left behind in the dust of technological change and globalism.

The humbling will be nearly universal.

[different clue]

Pacifica Advocate,

A good first step would be for the Berniecrats to primary every Clintonite just ahead of every Clintonite's upcoming election. And every such primary challenge that the Berniecrats lose, I would like to see the Berniecrats all vote Third Party to Naderize the Clintonite primary winner.
It will take time to purge and bern all the Clintonites from out of the Democratic Party. But it will remain a Free Trade Treason Party until every last Clintonite has been purged and berned. Let them all join the Country Club Wall Street wing of the Republican Party, where they belong.

[different clue]

Fred,

I think a lot of the Blue State Americans retiring to Florida are fleeing winter. A piece of mere anecdata: a retiring relatives couple of mine retired at first to near-beachside Rhode Island and only when they discovered they could not take the bleak cold winter then moved to Florida.

[Fred]

Origin,

"...filling the judgeships and getting the real power."

You mean the current male judges are not impartial because of their sex or that non judges do not have power?

[Fred]

Babak,

And there are things that women absolutely refuse to do, no matter how much they are bribed."
"Sanitation engineers", which are mostly unionized positions and thus that equal pay for equal work thing is a fact not a talking point. But who wants to drive a garbage truck all day?

[Fred]

DC,

That is certainly a factor. As Horace put it "They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea." I think that is applicable to many who move (or retire) across state lines.

[kao_hsien_chih]

If Trump does not implement even a semi-honest WPA program, I think he's toast. No amount of boorish talk can make up for it. Millions of people across Midwest voted for him because he said he'll protect jobs and minimum floors for everyone, and he will take the whole Republican Party with him too. What happened to Clinton and the Democrats now will be what happens to the GOP when they pull back.

If the Republican leadership is smart--and, the sad truth is, there is no guarantee of that--they should try to go along with a real comprehensive program. They will have a harder challenge than Obama did in 2009: they have too small a majority in Congress and many among their ranks will refuse to go along. Democratic cooperation will be the key for Trump to get anything done, but will the Democrats play naysayer, if things get that far, just to discredit Trump and the GOP, or will they cooperate? Will the Democrats split over this question? That seems exactly the most plausible scenario, if we are willing to give Trump any amount of credit (It'd be easier to put our heads in the sand and say that he's a liar who won't deliver, but that's how we got the Trump presidency--too easy to pretend that "it'll never happen.")

[Edward]

Maybe Trump should recruit James Webb, assuming he can live with his democratic affiliation.

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

The latest : on SIL ( who btw wrote his speech for AIPAC last March)
https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/status/798675613733109760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"Trump team has asked for son in law Jared Kushner to have top secret clearance for Presidential Daily Brief no precedent for that"

[Tyler]

Origin,

If you really believe that I wonder what color the sky is in your world.

[different clue]

BuddhistHarmony,

If Trump pardoned Clinton ahead of time, as Ford pardoned Nixon, the cancer of Clintonism will be left free to keep metastasizing throughout the American political and economic system.

If investigation reveals Clinton to be credibly indictable for something, let her be indicted and let her be tried. If she is found guilty and convicted, let her then be pardoned at that point. At least her reputation would be properly degraded and diminished, and perhaps that of her husband as well. They would be less of a threat to the system. They would be less able to plot a Clinton Restoration.

" What? A Clinton Restoration?" Yes. Here is a link to an article about "Chelsea Clinton being groomed to run for Congress."
http://nypost.com/2016/11/10/chelsea-clinton-being-groomed-to-run-for-congress/
If she gets into Congress, the Clinton Restoration begins right there. At the very least, the international feast of grift and con and selling influence known as Clinton FoundationLand will have a new lease on life and wealth. We should carry out a legal and non-violent form of "proscription" against the Clinton Crime Family. And that includes Chelsea. Burn down the Clintons' reputation so thoroughly that Chelsea is also rendered too toxic to enter public life.