Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The Many Faces of Donald Trump and Company


Apparently the video of the Alt-Right gathering with the "Heil Trump" and Nazi salutes was just too much for America's president-elect. Trump now says he denounces the Alt-Right movement. The only problem is that he's keeping Alt-Right champion, former Breitbart chief and white supremacist, Steve Bannon as his chief political strategist. Sorry, Donald, but words are cheap especially the "best words" that come out of your mouth.

Then there's Trump's choice for attorney-general, a man with a racist track record going back decades, Jeff Sessions.

Then there's Trump's pick for national security advisor, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. This guy's as bent as a two penny nail. His involvement in the attempted coup of Turkey's Recep Erdogan tells you all you need to know:

Flynn has feted Russian propaganda efforts alongside President Vladimir Putin; offered initial support for the attempted July coup against Turkey’s president — before changing his position after being hired as a lobbyist for an Ankara-linked outfit — and has described the United States and the West as participants in an apocalyptic clash with Islam, which he has called “a cancer.”

On the same day the Turkish military was launching its failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Flynn praised the putsch in a July 15 speech. The Turkish military, Flynn said, wanted to build a “secular nation,” in contrast to Erdogan’s Islamist tendencies. As the crowd began to applaud, Flynn chimed in: “That is worth clapping for.”

Flynn described Erdogan as “actually very close” to U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration quickly sided with the sitting government against the putschists. By vaguely backing the Turkish generals behind the coup, and neglecting to offer support for Erdogan’s democratically-elected government, Flynn challenged a bulwark of the Obama administration’s Middle East diplomacy, and left a NATO ally hanging.

But by a few months later, Flynn had changed his tune. In an Election Day op-ed, Flynn urged the United States to lend more support to Erdogan’s government and to surrender to its top demand: the extradition of its chief political rival, Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania.

...The change of heart may be explained by Flynn’s business interests. In September, Dutch firm Inovo BV, which has apparent ties to the Erdogan government, hired Flynn’s consulting company, Flynn Intel Group. Flynn founded the Virginia-based lobbying and consulting firm after retiring from the Army in 2014.

Flynn should fit in perfectly in Trump's cabinet. He's as dishonest as he is morally vacuous.





7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure dishonest really captures it. Flynn seems more like a whore willing to change positions to suit paying clients. It'll be interesting to see how he enjoys the three-way he's set up with Putin, Erdogan and Trump.

Lorne said...

Perhaps the shape of the new administration helps to explain this provocative action near Poland's border, Mound: http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/281020,Poland-targeted-by-Russian-missiles

Anonymous said...

...President Barack Obama, whose administration quickly sided with the sitting government against the putschists...
“Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.”
Edgar Allan Poe

Turkey's very quick rapprochement with Russia after the failed coup points to the usual culprit...
A..non

Anonymous said...

1:23 PM Anyong.....How dare you compare whores to that man. They are way better. Besides, a little whoring around makes you sound like Trump actually.

Anonymous said...

John Cleese summed it up well: "It looks as though Trump is assembling the crew for a pirate ship."

Cap

The Mound of Sound said...

Lorne, I think the Onyx missiles are probably part of an A2/AD, anti-access, area denial system capable of sealing off NATO ships from the Baltic states. With a range of 185 miles and speed of more than 1900 mph on the deck, those missiles could easily send smaller warships to the bottom. What Poland needs to worry about are the nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles the Russians deployed to Kaliningrad over the past two months. Russia has certainly put its bootprint over the Baltic, a powerful means of reasserting its influence in the region.

An interesting take on the dangerous future of a Trump-Putin detente can be found in Foreign Policy: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/21/get-ready-for-the-most-violent-detente-ever/

Northern PoV said...

"Russia has certainly put its bootprint over the Baltic, a powerful means of reasserting its influence in the region."

Nasty Putin. He had the gall to place Russia's borders right next to NATO missiles.

Oh and remember those nasty Russians, Napoleon and Hitler who invaded western Europe?