Government by Cronies for real?

So, Steve Bannon is elevated to the Principals Committee and the DNI as well as the CJCS is removed from automatic attendance for some actions?  Ah, well, now we are headed for trouble ...  Issues "accidentally" arise that involve you when you are not at the table.  Flynn will protect the IC's interests?  Flynn is essentially a glorified technician in the combat intelligence trade and not a deep thinker.  Several of the men appointed to supply Flynn's staff are men like Flynn.  We must remember that when these fellows were promoted to their retirement ranks, promotion rates were very high, too high.  Would some of them have been promoted that high in ordinary circumstance?  Perhaps they would have been but I have doubts.

It was fairly easy to excuse the fumbling "bull in a China stop" style of the first week by attributing it to inexperience, but this indicates a desire to govern by "kitchen cabinet." that is a menace.

Worse things to come are likely.  pl 

Note:  That does not make HC a better candidate than she was.

 

 

Comments

[Nancy K]

I don't dislike Bannon because he has been married and divorced 3 times not because as someone mentioned he looks like a skid row derelict. I dislike the direction he and Trump are taking the Country.

[Nancy K]

Do you think Native Americans were happy when invaded by white Europeons and their land was stolen, probably not. Maybe they were waiting for the Europeons to assimilate. I imagine some did, becoming the legendary mountain men. People may assimilate in some ways but most like to retain their cultural differences.

[Origin]

Perhaps, this is a more accurate view.

The election of Trump is like a major volcanic event or meteor strike that brings about the extinction of the Republican/Democratic dinosaurs and creates space for the libertarians and progressives to expand unless the authoritarian/corporatists simply take it all for themselves and snub out both parties by creating so much chaos that Trump or his proxy steps in to save US in a transitional break event like the Reichstag Fire leaving us with an autocracy of a neo-aristocratic billionaire class. (Senator Isaacson just introduced another bill to kill the "death tax" that was originally conceived to prevent hereditary fortunes from becoming perpetual.)

I see a tri-partite contest for power, not a dualistic one.

No matter who may prevail, the classic U.S. with two benign, cooperatively competing parties is now gone forever.

[turcopolier]

Laura

Is Trump sending these people back to the gas chambers and the overs? Grow up. pl

[turcopolier]

Nancy K

I once asked a rather silly Arab woman who was saying that people like your husband (a descendant of European Jewish colonists in Palestine ?)if she thought I should leave America for some place in Europe. she got red in the face and said "of course not." Well, my ancestors came to the New World 400 years ago. Screw the Indians! I am as American as they and I am tired of the multi-culti bullshit. you people on the multi-culti left who weep for everyone are simply seeking someone, anyone will do , to whom to surrender the country. pl

[turcopolier]

Nancy K

Ah, lookism! From where the sun now stands I will wash or shave no more. pl

[Origin]

The texts of these proposed orders are masterfully divisive whether they are ever signed or not. Its red meat to the hungry right and red flags to the human sensitive left.

These guys are willy-nilly tossing Molotov cocktails and stun grenades and they are certain to do an immense amount of damage to domestic tranquility.

This stuff is straight out of the hybrid war textbooks as chronicled by Andrew Korybko about whom I have previously written.

[turcopolier]

nancy K

You have been asked several times to tell us what Trump's program of devilry will be. Well? Or are you just a hysteric? Sing us a few lines of "Kumbaya," "We are the children," "This land is my land," or whatever. pl

[Eric Newhill]

Nacy K,

Your response is exactly what I'm talking about. How is it helpful to the current situation?

Do you really believe that it was going to be possible for American Indians to live a stone age existence in a massive nature preserve full of resources into perpetuity? If the "white man" hadn't come, it would have been the yellow man, or Muslims. Do you not know that within pre-Columbian America the Indians themselves killed and drove other tribes out of their "ancestral lands" , destroying cultures along the way? The plains buffalo hunting "Sioux" Indians of "Dances with Wolves" once lived in the woods in Minnesota until the Ojibwa drove them out. The Aztecs slaughtered smaller tribes.

What's your point? Oh yeah, the America is an evil society founded on original sin and thus without moral authority. Exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly.

[Edward Amame]

Jack

IMO, it will go nowhere. The warmongers in both parties have the majority in Congress.

Agreed.

[Edward Amame]

English Outsider

Best of luck with your issues over there. As for here, I haven't seen much evidence of swamp-draining yet, but maybe others have.

[Babak Makkinejad]

I think the preservation of domestic culture (the way of doing things)and the traditions and customs of a country is a legitimate concern and there is nothing morally wrong about airing such concerns - and if appropriate - seek ways to ameliorate or to otherwise address and assuage such concerns.

I recall a quote by M K Gandhi - that icon of the Liberals and Bleeding Heart Humanitarians Everywhere, the single individual most responsible for the carnage and destruction of The Partition - to the effect that he would not let the gentle breeze of foreign cultures to turn into a storm which would uproot his culture.

More recently, a bill to give citizenship to the children born to Iranian women by Afghan men died in the Iranian Parliament; "we do not want our culture to be diluted", "they are going to flock here to get married to Iranian women to take advantage of our social benefits."

And in case of the Culture of Afghans - but by the Grace of Oil there would go Iran as well.

Categories of Left and Right cannot adequately grasp these issues, in my opinion.

[Origin]

Bannon is executing a well planned psy-op. It all works together, the attack on the media, the Tweets, the insults, the derogation of just about everyone, the lies, the stimulation of social media. Everything is by designed to destroy common cognition and common understanding of reality. It is an old game, played often in history in Germany, Venezuela, Cuba, Hungary, and many other places and times.

It is our own tactics being turned around against us.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/11/experiencing-the-nemesis-of-hubric-exceptionalismwho-are-we-now-origin.html?cid=6a00d8341c72e153ef01bb0892ec50970d#comment-6a00d8341c72e153ef01bb0892ec50970d

A worthwhile $4.99 eBook https://www.amazon.com/Hybrid-Wars-Indirect-Adaptive-Approach-ebook/dp/B014GA5SX8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1485902790&sr=8-3&keywords=hybrid+warfare

Aren't both sides, right and left, being played by the Trumpists; perhaps even Trump himself?

It is a war against US all, Left, middle, and right.

[Eric Newhill]

EA,
Yes, I am describing a backlash against the multi/culti obsession that some people have. Some cultures are inferior. If you did not inherently accept this, you would probably be living in some other culture enjoying all that exciting diversity.

But am also describing a backlash against people that do not accept some cultures as inferior and who think that western civ is a crock or, at best, equal to say, what we see in Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa. Something they say, but don't really believe because these same people are also against lots of what they do in these other cultures; things like genital mutilation, stoning women to death, hanging homosexuals, being hyper-religious, banning books and art work (even blowing up historic statues). So really a backlash against people who cynically or insanely (I can't tell which)use multi/culti as a weapon to destroy western civ., which yes, happens to be mostly associated with whites. Yet, ever notice that there is no call for banning Asian immigration? They're not white, but they have similar cultural values.

This is not about discrimination. It's about preserving a culture that is worth preserving. I know you think it isn't. I don't get that. You live in it and enjoy it's benefits and yet hate it - or at least heckle it mercilessly. Again, why don't you move to sub-Saharan Africa or convert to Islam and move to Afghanistan. You should find these places to be paradise. But even you aren't that silly when the rubber meets the road.

So given that, tell me, please, what level of third world immigration, combined with the welfare state and our current economic and political situation, can be absorbed before our culture - the one you clearly actually enjoy despite your rhetoric to the contrary - is diluted toward third world characteristics at an unacceptable level? How many people? Consider what is happening in countries like Sweden and Germany and incorporate that into your answer. I'm curious. Thank you.

[Edward Amame]

Origin

I hadn't seen your reference to hybrid war/Andrew Korybko before. Thanks for the info.

There's creative chaos too, where big systemic disruption paves the way for whatever's envisioned to take its place. This may be the first in a series of disruptions. What's envisioned may be coming straight from Jim DeMint's Heritage Foundation.

[kooshy]

I don’t think is right for the head of executive branch being able to fire or dismiss the acting head of the supposedly independent other branch (of government the judiciary (president Nixon did much similar thing firing SP Cox) the. IMO president Trump got elected to the ultimate reality show in the land, one that is called the presidency of USA, I hope he is not treating it like it is a reality TV show, which is not. IMO he will soon learn there are lots of realities with this job to face and no show can mask them.

[Fred]

Edward,

Yes "we'll be shaping the future of the Dem Party from the ground up." by replacing the unacceptable Americans with new and improved people imported for that purpose.

[mike]

Bannon in the NSC is just the tip of the iceberg. It seems both he and Trump get advice from the shadows by disgraced mercenary Erik Prince.

Erik Prince's Blackwater firm taught 'counter-terrorism' techniques at his training center on the VA/NC border. One of the trainees there, Gulmurad Khalimov, is now the 'minister of war' for the Daesh in Mosul. Good job Erik! (snort)

http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/30012017

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/17/notorious-mercenary-erik-prince-is-advising-trump-from-the-shadows/

[Tyler]

EA,

OFO is not the Border Patrol. You are out of your depths.

You have no idea how imm law is set up, how the EOs and injunctions works, or how badly the judged erred regarding 8 USC 1182.

[Cee]

Jack,

It is all about business with Trump. How do you explain Saudi Arabia not being on that List? Plus these folks who are also granted Visas for cash.

https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/30/01/2017/Hike-in-US-Green-Card-investment-surprises-Qatar-investors

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/whos-funding-isis-wealthy-gulf-angel-investors-officials-say-n208006

From another article

Increasingly, the skilled and the poor are out of luck. But the rich are another matter. The program (EB-5 is short-hand for the government’s fifth employment-based visa “preference”) allows well-heeled foreigners to leap to the front of the line by simply plunking down $500,000.

[ked]

" ... whether the Trumpists are stupid or whether they are masters of rhetoric and did what they did knowingly intending to bait all of the People. "

I'm pretty old school. Your Masters of Rhetoric model (w/ excellent step by step procedural analysis) seems a too-less-than-simplest line of reasoning. The Trumpists are definetly not stupid ... shallow & self-absorbed, but not stupid. And yes, they are really into baiting - it's the style they come by naturally, not deeply crafted.
Col. Lang has pointed to Congresional Republicans being the biggest headache for the Trump vision. I agree, but it may take awhile - party discipline runs deep in victory, and his Staff will be big on taking names & vengence. It is most effective upon those who bias towards fear-driven reaction. I expect inside WH "soap opera" behaviors are going to equal or exceed external sources of suffering in the Trump Empire. These first days aren't a transitional aberration, but a warm-up. Just wait until he finds out he doesn't control his own destiny & his audience looses interest in the show anyway. He won't be the Happy Warrior.

[different clue]

Nancy K,

That is a very fair caution, to be sure. So perhaps I should walk back my promise-to-self.

If the Democrats nominate another Clintobama-type figure, I will find such a figure too noisome and odious to vote for. But I might, as you suggest, find more Trump too scary to vote for that, either. In which case, I would either have to vote for some pursuit-of-perfection minor party candidate or leave the President bubble unfilled in.

Don't feel too bad over "guessing wrong" about which candidate "could have" defeated Trump. If Sanders had won the nomination, millions of bitter Clintonites along with the whole Democratic Party establishment would have worked to throw the election to Trump in order to accuse Sanders of "costing us the election". They would then have gone on to try purging every Sander-backer out of the DemParty.

[turcopolier]

kooshy

The Department of Justice IS NOT an independent branch of government. It never was. DoJ is just one of the departments of the Executive Branch and completely subordinate to the president. You may be confusing DoJ with the federal courts. He can and often has fired the Attorney General. A lot of crap is being said about this in the media.

[ked]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/31/steve-bannon-builds-a-new-node-of-power-in-the-trump-white-house.html

[mike]

Colonel Lang -

Sad to hear you feel that way about the Indians. My grandmother's grandmother, an orphaned Acadian/Wabanaki girl from Madawaska, is spinning in her grave that a fellow State of Mainer feels that way.

I am going to Standing Rock in protest of your remark.