Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Ship of State, Ship of Fools
It's kind of creepy watching our next door neighbour's descent into the depths of fundamentalism. Yet that's the image emerging from Trump's cabinet choices.
His Veep is a Christian fundamentalist. The rest are mainly free market fundamentalists, Social Darwinists right to the bone. That includes the Goldman Sachs trio, the nominee for Secretary of State, Putin-Pal Rex Tillerman, and the billionaire club.
Then there's that 5-watt bulb, former Texas governor, Rick Perry. The New York Times has tagged Perry as Trump's pick for energy secretary. Shit, the fossil fuelers are on a roll. It's a good thing Trump has picked an Oklahoma axe man, Scott Pruitt, to dismember the Environmental Protection Agency.
When it comes to global warming and climate change, Trump has promised to keep an "open mind." Unfortunately that's code for "empty mind." Again it's utter folly to judge Trump by what he says because that rarely comports with what he actually does.
And that's why Trump is poised to become the most dangerous president of the United States to confront America and the world.
It will be a real test of political integrity (a bit of an oxymoron, I know) to see whether the Congress will put any roadblocks to Tillerman's confirmation as Secretary of State. While a few Republicans are making noises about his ties to Putin, will the rest of them fall into line, eager not to displease their new quasi-dictator?
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ReplyDeleteFrom what I'm reading, Lorne, Congressional Republicans have been tamed.
Noam Chomsky asserts that the Republican Party is the most dangerous organization in the world. He knows his villains.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Congress is being tamed, any remaining Repug with the least amount of sales resistance is being neutered. Goodbye Mitt. This drummer knows his customers.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Wolf Blitzer lets Sean Spicer deliberately confuse the WikiLeaks emails with the private server issue - again. You'd think that professional interviewers would be trained in how to handle a Gish Gallop.
Again it's utter folly to judge Trump by what he says because that rarely comports with what he actually does.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you're right about this. Trump's personnel appointments reflect the long-standing GOP desire to destroy the US government. Trump promised repeatedly to scrap the EPA, as did other GOP candidates. He criticized the agency formed by Richard Nixon for "making it impossible for our country to compete.” What better way to destroy the EPA than making it respond to a guy who's made his career litigating against it.
Trump promised to push through DAPL and Keystone XL, and now he's appointed Rick Scott, a board member of Energy Transfer Partners (DAPL's owner) to head the Energy Department. Again, Rick Scott as a 2012 presidential candidate vowed to scrap the Energy Department, although he forgot its name at the time.
Trump called repeatedly to eliminate the Education Department: "A lot of people believe the Department of Education should just be eliminated. Get rid of it. If we don't eliminate it completely, we certainly need to cut its power and reach. Education has to be run locally. Common Core, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top are all programs that take decisions away from parents and local school boards. These programs allow the progressives in the Department of Education to indoctrinate, not educate, our kids." Again, he's appointed Betsy DeVos to oversee a "transformational change" in education.
I could go on, but you get the point. If personnel is policy, Trump is well on his way to meeting his and his party's campaign promises.
Cap
I'd be surprised if Rick Perry survives the nomination process. The Department of Energy matters to the United States in an existential way, more so than some other Departments (Education or Interior, for example).
ReplyDeleteThe Senate is going to have to focus on triage. His cabinet picks are almost all so inappropriately bad that trying to save every Department from his picks will simply exhaust the Senators' mental and physical capabilities. Save the critical Departments, and hope to resurrect the remainder over the next few years without too much damage being done.