Only the Afghan government has an excuse - they haven't got enough money to pay the troops. No wonder the enlistment/desertion system operates like a turnstile.
What's Trump's excuse? First his nominee for labour secretary bails out, apparently fearful of the grilling he would face during his confirmation hearings.
Trump's national security adviser is either fired or quits, fired or quits, depending on which White House staffer is talking on any given day. Trump himself, who claims he fired the guy blames it on the fake news media.
Now the guy lined up to replace the disgraced General Mike "altnerative facts" Flynn, US Navy seal and three star admiral, Robert Harward, has decided to call off the wedding.
Two sources familiar with the decision told Reuters that Harward turned down the job in part because he wanted to bring in his own team. That put him at odds with Trump, who had told Flynn’s deputy, KT McFarland, that she could stay.
During a freewheeling press conference on Thursday in which Trump claimed his administration was running like a “a fine-tuned machine”, the president implied that he was able to let Flynn go in part because he already had a replacement in mind.
“I have somebody that I think will be outstanding for the position – and that also helps, I think, in the making of my decision,” he said.
It's rumoured that Trump's secretary of state, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, is also thinking of bailing out while the getting's good. Tillerson and the State Department have apparently been cut out of the Trump-Bannon loop which would render Tillerson's job impossible.
The American media, meanwhile, have turned on Trump like Newfoundlanders on a harp seal. You can tell how toxic Trump's relations with the media have become when even FOX News' Shep Smith has had it up to the tits with Trump.
* apologies to the Afghan National Army for comparing them to Trump's cabinet.
I watched the news conference and I was just in disbelief. This is real Banana-Republic stuff. His performance reminded me of politicians I have seen in countries like Honduras. At this point I just can't get my head around it all. But on the other hand I think to myself that there is an irony in all this. Watching the lies and hypocrisy of Trudeau, it occurs to me that all a politician has to do is to is be smooth and relatively sophisticated and they can get away with almost anything. His lies concerning electoral reform have been straight-up Trump like in depth and profundity, but he delivers them with a smile and he gets away with it. If Trump was just a little bit brighter and smoother people would be lapping it up. They would ignore the fact that he is gutting the endangered species act and practically eliminating the safe food functions and animal protections of the USFDA. Either way, we are, as the saying goes, in deep doo-doo.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Trump's sideshow act is deliberate. He may be using the 'mad emperor' thing to distract attention from his other pursuits.
ReplyDelete"The American media, meanwhile, have turned on Trump like Newfoundlanders on a harp seal."
ReplyDeleteHo fucking ho. You oh so civilized West Coast gent. Not much different from making jokes about Moslems or women. Same superior attitude.
Not impressed.
BM
Sorry, BM, but I didn't set out to impress you. Keep your vulgarity to yourself or take a hike. Your choice.
ReplyDelete