The CEO President. THIS is Trump’s idea of “The Best People”?
November 21, 2016

 
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In 2005, when President Bush proposed appointing his personal lawyer and longtime friend Harriet Meyers to the Supreme Court, both Democrats AND Republicans rolled their eyes. Out of every qualified lawyer/judge/academic in the nation, Bush searched “far & wide” the hallway just outside his office door to find what he thought was “the best person to serve on the nations highest court”. Seriously? Bush was roundly criticized for such a lazy pick, and rightly so. So why is it now that Donald Trump… whose pitch for electing his president was his experience as a successful CEO who would find “the best people” to fill his cabinet… “SO great” we “wouldn’t believe it”… seems to only be picking sycophants, campaign lackies, and even family members to fill key roles in his administration, and no one seems to be calling him out on it?

Even Chris Wallace during his interview with VP-elect Mike Pence on Fox “news” Sunday yesterday pointed out that so far, all of Prez-elect Trump’s nominees appear to be “All loyalists and all white men.”

You know it’s bad when even Fox “news” is calling a Republican out for cronyism. Just take a look at what this “CEO president’s” idea of “the best people” looks like:

o Trump appointed his Campaign Manager Steve Bannon… the editor in chief of a right-wing tabloid… to be his “Chief Strategist”. In her divorce decree, Bannon’s ex-wife said he “didn’t want his kids going to school with all those Jews.” Brietbart promoted Trump’s birtherism for nearly Obama’s entire presidency, heralded pride for the Confederate flag, and brags of wanting Brietbart to become “the platform of the “alt-Right” White Nationalists movement within the GOP. But you’d expect nothing less from a man who praises “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader and Satan” (in that order) as his political role-models.

You KNOW you’re bad when even freakin’ Glenn Beck calls you a “horrible, despicable human being”.

o Next questionable appointee on the prez-elect’s list: Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions for Attorney General. Sessions was the first and only senator to endorse Trump prior to him becoming the nominee way back in August of 2015 and remained one of his go-to defenders every time Trump was caught saying something inexcusable. Sessions once called the NAACP & ACLU “Communist inspired” for “Trying to force Civil Rights down the throats of people”, and reportedly said the KKK was “okay until I learned they smoked pot” [ibid]. Sessions called the 1965 Voting Rights Act “intrusive legislation” and denied his state (Alabama) had “a history of denying voters” when the Supreme Court undid much of the Act in 2013. Sessions also condemned the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage as a strike against our “shared faith and traditions from every place of respect” and “part of a continuing effort to secularize, by force and intimidation” a society based upon that faith.

Now, it is true that Sessions prosecuted the KKK for murder while he was Attorney General of Alabama back in the 80’s. But it was his job. It’s not like he had a lot of say in the matter. And we ARE talking about “murder”… which tends to trump (no pun intended) any personal beliefs “people of faith” like Sessions tend to have about racial equality.

One bright spot in Sessions’ otherwise questionable views of minorities was his support in 1999 to honor Rosa Parks with the “Congressional Gold Medal”, calling Parks the “living embodiment of [the] principle” of “True equality [and] the total elimination of discrimination”. I guess “celebrity” really does have its’ privileges.

Other cronies floated for the AG position: other Team Trump loyalists Rudy “Noun/Verb/911” Giuliani & Chris “BridgeGate” Christie. Once again, Trump’s “far & wide” search for the “best people”… (head slap) whatdayaknow! They’re right here is the same room! How serendipitous!

o Trump’s pick to be his “National Security Advisor” is someone who said “Islam is a cancer”, “a political ideology masquerading as a religion” (because clearly no other religion does that), and tweeted a “Fear of Islam is rational”: General Mike Flynn. I’m sure that’ll go over just great in a part of the world that believes the United States is “at war with Islam”. Just how likely are our enemies to surrender rather than fight to the death… possibly dragging the war on for another decade… against an enemy that calls their religion a disease and defends the use of torture on those we capture? Flynn was also a huge Trump supporter and led the chant of “Lock her up!” at the RNC Convention.

o Perhaps less controversial but no less disturbing, Trump has tapped Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS)… best known for his attacks on Hillary Clinton regarding Benghazi!TM… for CIA Director. Pompeo also supports waterboarding [ibid] and called Gitmo an “Important Asset” that must stay open. Pompeo also was an endorser of Donald Trump. Arguably, Trump did have to look further than “outside his office door” to come up with Pompeo as his pick. But is picking yet another Right-Wing Republican Congressman Trump’s idea of “draining the swamp” in Washington?

o Speaking of “draining the swamp”, Trump picked the current head of the freakin’ RNC, Reince Priebus to be his Chief of Staff… arguably the second most powerful job in the White House… a normal White House anyway. When it comes to having the president’s ear, Bannon already has that job. A lot of Trump supporters were actually quite upset that he picked such a Washington insider to run his White House. If Trump had lost the election, there is no question Priebus would have been fired, relegating him to the TV talk show circuit. So Priebus jumping ship to run Trump’s White House spares them the messy job of publicly criticizing him for allowing someone like Trump… who won… to become the GOP nominee in the first place, forcing them into the abyss of supporting “President Trump” for the next four years and into political irrelevance for the next decade. Priebus always struck me as a guy way in over his head, attempting (and failing) to come up with clever remarks whenever appearing on the Sunday talk shows.

o Like Pompeo, Trump had to actually swivel his head more than a few degrees to come up with James “Mad Dog” Mattis for as his nominee for Secretary of Defense. A four-star Marine Corps General, Mattis famously said: “Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.” Wonderful. Just the kind of even temperament you want advising the president on matters of National Defense. If anyone had concern that Trump’s “secret plan to win the war” was a massive invasion of the Middle-East… see! You were worried over nothing!

Mattis is also a harsh critic of the Iran nuclear deal and called Iran the “biggest threat to peace in the Middle East”. Not ISIS. Not alQaeda. Iran.

Early on, there were some who actually wanted Mattis to run for president as a third party candidate against Trump, but he refused.

o Another “far & wide” search for “the best people” has led “the CEO Prez” to consider far-Right hate-talk radio host Laura Ingraham for Press Secretary. This is a pick that probably involved turning on a TV or radio at some point and tuning into Fox.

During the 2014 Ebola scare, Ingraham (citing perennial nutjob Dinesh D’Souza’s idiotic “Obama 2016” movie), suggested Obama was willing to expose U.S. troops to the lethal disease because of his disdain for “American Colonialism” (a D’Souza term.) Ingraham agreed with Trump on her radio show, saying Mexicans “have come here to murder and rape our people” and called for returning-deportees to be “shot”. Laura also suggested only immigrants who can prove they are “Christians” be allowed into the country (no Muslims, but no Jews or Atheists either), said everyone should protest trans-gender bathrooms by wearing “adult-diapers”, and called Planned Parenthood employees “Heinous, Hitlerian Freaks.” Just the kind of person you want as the voice of your Administration talking to the Press Corps everyday.

During Fox “news” Sunday yesterday, Ingraham took offense when fellow panelist Juan Williams called Trump’s proposed staff nominees a “Team of radicals” (a reference to Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals”), calling his language “divisive”. Seriously.

o Another absurd proposed nominee: Sarah Palin for Secretary of the Interior? You’re telling me this “CEO President”… who ran on appointing “the best people” to staff the most amazing White House team ever… searched far and wide and the best person he could find to be in charge of our land, parks, forest, nuclear waste & toxic clean-up, and basically everything outdoors, is a Community College graduate with degree in journalism, former beauty queen turned sportscaster, turned half-term Mayor of Wasilla, turned half-term Governor of Alaska? Although she too was a reality TV star, so they have that in common. Like Priebus, Palin has always been in over her head, always trying to sound clever in her stump speeches only to vomit the most ridiculous word-salad time & time again.

o And most recently, we learned of the possible nomination of Mitt Romney… the exception that proves the rule… to be “Secretary of State”. I liken the Romney pick to Bush’s pick of Colin Powell to be his “Secretary of State” in 2001. Powell had nothing in common with all the other ideologues and hawks in President Bush’s cabinet, and was clearly picked simply to give it an aire of maturity & responsibility. But Powell famously did not get along with the rest of Bush’s Administration… most famously Dick Cheney who actively worked to shut Powell out of Staff Meetings. If Romney is picked, we will see history repeat itself in this way as well.

I’m trying to imagine the meeting between Trump & Romney, with Mitt telling him, “I got more votes than you too!” The only reason Trump won his election when Romney did not is because Trump had the good fortune to be running against an even more disliked opponent. He’s probably kicking himself for not running a third time this election.

And that’s just Trump’s picks so far. Try to imagine Gov. Rick “oops” Perry as Secretary of Education, Ben Carson for Surgeon General or Newt Gingrich for Director of Homeland security?

Traditional Wisdom has been tossed out the window. Remember the awful RNC Convention? Trump’s top celebrities were Chachi and a male underwear model. I described the entire event as “Orwell’s 2-minutes of hate stretched into a 4-day event.” Trump himself insulted EVERY minority demographic there is… Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, veterans, the disabled… joked of sexually assaulting women, used foul language, was caught on tape God knows how many times saying things he denied ever saying (and then continued to deny saying them), flip-flopped on every issue from Abortion to how great Hillary was… and his supporters defended it all, swooning how “politically incorrect” he was and how refreshing it was for them to hear.

During “Meet the Press” yesterday, a former Obama-voter-turned-Trump-supporter rationalized his vote by saying “I think Hillary is a criminal.” By the end of the program, they were talking about the president-elect settling his “Trump University” lawsuit for $25 Million dollars.

What Hath God Wrought? A short aside. This is what you elected America by not showing up (be it the Primaries or in November):

Trump:

  • Wants limits on the First Amendment (wants to be able to sue people for saying things he doesn’t like) but not the Second.
  • Admitted to committing sexual assault.
  • Has called for the “total repeal of Obamacare”… which he now appears to want to replace with… Obamacare?
  • A president that believes he can fire generals… the ones he says he knows more than, and yet is now loading his cabinet with.
  • Promised to “Build a wall…” or is it a fence… or is it now a “virtual fence” patrolled from the air by drones?
  • His vow to expel “11 Million illegal immigrants” is now “2-3 Million dangerous illegal immigrants.” Any illegal immigrant arrested committing a violent crime is already deported, so the only way to round-up 2 to 3 Million unaccounted for “gang-bangers“, “drug-dealers”, and petty-thieves would be if you create a National “Deportation Force” committing unconstitutional house-to-house searches looking for evidence that the residents are both undocumented AND committing crimes, letting the “non-criminals” go (for now) and deporting the “guilty” ones without trial.
  • Trump… who just settled one criminal case against himself… will be appointing the Attorney General while he himself is still under investigation.
  • Called Climate Change “a Chinese hoax” and is threatening to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords.
  • Said during the campaign that “We desperately need the Keystone XL pipeline”.
  • Thinks “ObamaCare” is an insurance program, calling it “the worst insurance there is”.
  • Will unquestionably escalate the war in the Middle East, bring back torture, keep Gitmo open, and threaten to use nuclear weapons.
  • Doesn’t understand what “Blind Trust” means (“I’ll put all my assets in a blind trust. I’ll put Ivanka and my kids in charge of all my properties. Is that a “blind trust”? I don’t know.”)

Meanwhile, VP-Elect Pense is:

  • The most Anti-choice governor in the nation, calling to outlaw the IUD & The Pill while calling to abolish Roe.
  • The most Anti-gay rights gov. Signing Indiana’s controversial “right to be a bigot” Religious Freedom Act into law before being forced to rescind (most of?) it following a nationwide uproar and numerous corporate boycotts.
  • Called to shut down the government in 2010 (rather than raise the “Debt Ceiling” to pay our obligations.)

You know why Trump wants his kids to be his advisors and given Security Clearances? Because he doesn’t trust anyone else. Not even his closest advisors. Think about that. For the next four years, we’ll have a paranoid xenophobic bigot with trust issies in charge of our government. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.

“May you live in interesting times.” – Ancient Chinese curse.
 


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November 21, 2016 · Admin Mugsy · One Comment - Add
Posted in: Civil Rights, Election, myth busting, National Security, Partisanship, Politics, Right-Wing Hypocrisy, Right-Wing Insanity, Seems Obvious to Me

One Response

  1. Admin Mugsy - December 9, 2016

    Updates:
    Andy Puzder, CEO of Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr as Sec of Labor.
    Linda McMahon, Co-founder of WWF Wrestling, to run SBA.
    Ben Carson, neurosurgeon, to run HUD.

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