Trump Staff Picks, Co-Conspirators and the Revolving Door of Departures

[logan1]

I had an argument with someone here in NZ about Trump. I asked how 70 million people voted for him. This guy says it's because he's the only one who sticks up for Western values. Western values ?!?! , I shouted, with derision. What he does is NOT western values. Western values is not lieing through your teeth, bullying anyone who disagrees with you, and looking out only for yourself and 'winning'. These are the values of North Korea and Nazi Germany.

 

[KaraBulut]

...I'm both disturbed and scared of what could happen in the next couple months. I am utterly confused as to how Trump has so much control over half the country's population? What the hell is going on?

I'm an atheist. But if the anti-christ is real, I think Trump might be it.

You have to keep in mind that Trump has a lot of support from evangelicals who are in the End-Timers crowd. They've been taught about certain events that will happen in Revelations that will precede the second coming of Christ. They seriously view Trump as the agent that is going to bring those things to pass.

And keep in mind that Pompeo and Pence are true believers in the evangelical movement.

It sounds crazy to say, but it is the most logical explanation for the irrational thinking and it is consistent with cult-like behaviors.

I had an argument with someone here in NZ about Trump. I asked how 70 million people voted for him. This guy says it's because he's the only one who sticks up for Western values. Western values ?!?! , I shouted, with derision. What he does is NOT western values. Western values is not lieing through your teeth, bullying anyone who disagrees with you, and looking out only for yourself and 'winning'. These are the values of North Korea and Nazi Germany.

Trump's true talent is for being the blank canvas that less-educated people are able to morph into whatever they want to see.

Anyone who has lived outside the US in an autocracy or under a military dictatorship sees Trump much different, as does anyone who sat through college level history classes.

People in the US are brought up to be suspicious of government. They also don't understand that the same government that sends them a Social Security check is the same government that they claim is "the problem". They also don't understand that the government that fixes the potholes in the road is the same government that they think isn't needed. They also are deluded into believing that the things they want- like Social Security and fixing the roads can't be done without tax revenues; they have been convinced by the Republican party that they can get $1.00 worth of government services, yet only pay 75 cents for those services (which is why we have an out-of-control deficit).

 

[TX-Beau]

I had an argument with someone here in NZ about Trump. I asked how 70 million people voted for him. This guy says it's because he's the only one who sticks up for Western values. Western values ?!?! , I shouted, with derision. What he does is NOT western values. Western values is not lieing through your teeth, bullying anyone who disagrees with you, and looking out only for yourself and 'winning'. These are the values of North Korea and Nazi Germany.

The "western" value in question is white supremacy. The toad did not increase his performance over 2016, he lost by a bigger margin which just keeps getting bigger. The racists all came out to vote, and they still lost. Because so did everyone else.

What that tally tells you is how unforgivably low voter participation in the U.S. normally is.

 

[Dominus]

I had an argument with someone here in NZ about Trump. I asked how 70 million people voted for him. This guy says it's because he's the only one who sticks up for Western values. Western values ?!?! , I shouted, with derision. What he does is NOT western values. Western values is not lieing through your teeth, bullying anyone who disagrees with you, and looking out only for yourself and 'winning'. These are the values of North Korea and Nazi Germany.

I had written this earlier but deleted it. But what the heck I'll say it here.

Trump's "spell" reaches far beyond white racists.

My parents who are in their mid 70s came from a country with an oppressive regime. Heck, my dad was in a communist "reeducation camp" for 7 years because he supported the democratic government.

This morning, they called me. Told me over the phone Trump should use his presidential power to nullify the election and take over. I asked them what about the democratic process of voting? They said Trump is the greatest president ever and he will make everything great if he remains in power. They also said this election proves that there is too much widespread fraud that elections cannot be trusted anymore. Trump will solve everything.

I have been finding the way they talk disturbing to me for a couple years now. They used to refer to the government as "government" in our native language of course. But in the last couple years, they started using the word "Trump" as synonymous with the word "government" in our language. For example, instead of saying "the government sent the SS check last week", they would say "Trump sent the SS check last week". When I did my taxes this past tax season, at one point they asked me if I already sent my tax return to Trump? Instead of saying IRS, they actually said Trump.

Again, I'm an atheist. But I'm starting to think the anti-christ is real. How on earth could one person make tens of millions of people become fanatics like that? Especially people like my parents who of all people should know how an oppressive dictatorship would end up.

I don't know about the rest of you, but all of this is creeping me out.

Edit.

Directly translated from our language, it's Mister Trump. Our language doesn't say people's name without a prefix.

 

[TX-Beau]

I had written this earlier but deleted it. But what the heck I'll say it here.

Trump's "spell" reaches far beyond white racists.

My parents who are in their mid 70s came from a country with an oppressive regime. Heck, my dad was in a communist "reeducation camp" for 7 years because he supported the democratic government.

This morning, they called me. Told me over the phone Trump should use his presidential power to nullify the election and take over. I asked them what about the democratic process of voting? They said Trump is the greatest president ever and he will make everything great if he remains in power. They also said this election proves that there is too much widespread fraud that elections cannot be trusted anymore. Trump will solve everything.

I have been finding the way they talk disturbing to me for a couple years now. They used to refer to the government as "government" in our native language of course. But in the last couple years, they started using the word "Trump" as synonymous with the word "government" in our language. For example, instead of saying "the government sent the SS check last week", they would say "Trump sent the SS check last week". When I did my taxes this past tax season, at one point they asked me if I already sent my tax return to Trump? Instead of saying IRS, they actually said Trump.

Again, I'm an atheist. But I'm starting to think the anti-christ is real. How on earth could one person make tens of millions of people become fanatics like that? Especially people like my parents who of all people should know how an oppressive dictatorship would end up.

I don't know about the rest of you, but all of this is creeping me out.

Edit.

Directly translated from our language, it's Mister Trump. Our language doesn't say people's name without a prefix.

This doesn't say anything at all. The most charitable interpretation is that it's alarmist insinuation backed up by irrelevant anecdote.

Yes Trump's support was about racism, it's why that was his sole policy agenda, and the only thing he has ever been consistent about. Not because he's cleverly using racists, but because he's always been one of them.

I find it odd that you think evangelicals are somehow not racist - or that racism is somehow absent in communism? Or Asians? No idea what all of that was about.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The brainwashing of Americans is a predictable outcome of polarizing media and echo chambering.

When the news outlets are consistently biased, overtly, to the right and to the left, then people without much critical thinking skills are eventually saturated by a constant diet of NYTimes, Fox News, PBS & NPR, the Washington Post, and the rest. All of them are nakedly propagandists.

My brother was here two weeks ago working with me. I was dumbfounded when he rather plaintively protested that he didn't know who to believe. It was in response to some comment I made about Trump and the coming election. He lives in a bubble in Arkansas, surrounded by uneducated people, no one around him even having a college degree. He served briefly in the Army and before that in the Navy, but has always worked blue collar jobs and gone to Fundamentalist churches.

And he's a fan of Christian radio, and it's been a shill for the GOP now for decades, so he can't tell the difference.

Sadly, like most politics, the people at the bottom believe propaganda while cynical people at the top, on both sides of the aisle, know better.

 

[Dominus]

This doesn't say anything at all. The most charitable interpretation is that it's alarmist insinuation backed up by irrelevant anecdote.

Yes Trump's support was about racism, it's why that was his sole policy agenda, and the only thing he has ever been consistent about. Not because he's cleverly using racists, but because he's always been one of them.

I find it odd that you think evangelicals are somehow not racist - or that racism is somehow absent in communism? Or Asians? No idea what all of that was about.

Uh.... I'm not sure you read my post right. In any event, not here looking to argue with anyone.

 

[KaraBulut]

Another staff member fired from the Pentagon:

Another Official Dismissed at the Pentagon as Trump Continues Unusual Shake-Up [The Intercept]

The Intercept has learned that Mark Tomb, the deputy chief of staff to the undersecretary of defense for policy, was ousted from his position yesterday.

Tomb, who declined to comment when reached by phone, was forced into retirement as part of a wave of firings of top Defense Department officials that included James Anderson, the Pentagon’s acting policy chief; Joseph Kernan, the undersecretary for intelligence; and Esper’s former chief of staff Jennifer Stewart.

 

[KaraBulut]

Hmmm... dumping the DHS' cybersecurity head?

Two top Homeland Security officials forced to resign by White House [CNN]

Two senior Department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign by the White House, according to sources familiar with the resignations.

Among them was a top official in DHS's cyber arm, who resigned amid a national security shakeup by the Trump administration. Bryan Ware served as assistant director for cybersecurity at DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Valerie Boyd also resigned amid pressure from the White House, officials tell CNN.

 

[Kulindahr]

You have to keep in mind that Trump has a lot of support from evangelicals who are in the End-Timers crowd. They've been taught about certain events that will happen in Revelations that will precede the second coming of Christ. They seriously view Trump as the agent that is going to bring those things to pass.

And keep in mind that Pompeo and Pence are true believers in the evangelical movement.

It sounds crazy to say, but it is the most logical explanation for the irrational thinking and it is consistent with cult-like behaviors.

The assertion that "Pompeo and Pence are true believers in the evangelical movement" is inaccurate and misleading. What they are part of isn't "the evangelical movement", it's a very specific group that uses evangelicalism as a cover: they are both Dominionists. Dominionism is a politicization of Christianity that throws out the Gospel, replacing it with Old Testament law, and aims to implement that law on a national level. At its extreme, it would allow gays to be publicly stoned -- no courts needed.

As for "the End-Timers crowd", there are actually three different groups in it, viewed from an action perspective: those who watch and track what they regard as signs of the End, but just keep living their lives because they trust God to keep His (supposed) schedule; those who watch and if they see some (supposedly) prophesied aspect of the End Times happening that impinges on their life or is something they can get involved in, they will act to try to help (e.g. the idea that the Temple has to be rebuilt; there are at least two different groups who have reportedly got pre-fab pieces of a new Temple ready so it can be constructed in a week, plus all of the items needed for the Temple stored to be ready to go), but they don't go out of their way to try to make things happen; and those who have the bizarre conviction that it is up to them to set things up for the End Times, to work to make them happen. From my research Dominionists tend to fall into the third group, and both Pence and Pompeo show symptoms of doing so.

In gob-smacking irrational fashion that just can't be beat, there's even a strain of this last group who believe that when the Antichrist appears they will need to pitch in and help his rise to power in order to help bring the Second Coming of Christ! So that there are many who think that they should help bring on Armageddon isn't surprising.

The ludicrous side of this is that logically they have to believe that God needs help to get things done, even though they say that God is all-powerful. But they do believe that -- and anyone who can hold to that particular piece of irrationality shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the reins of power, even reins so lowly as county Commissioner, let alone the federal government of the United States!

 

[Kulindahr]

People in the US are brought up to be suspicious of government. They also don't understand that the same government that sends them a Social Security check is the same government that they claim is "the problem". They also don't understand that the government that fixes the potholes in the road is the same government that they think isn't needed. They also are deluded into believing that the things they want- like Social Security and fixing the roads can't be done without tax revenues; they have been convinced by the Republican party that they can get $1.00 worth of government services, yet only pay 75 cents for those services (which is why we have an out-of-control deficit).

The federal government is so large and has so many programs it isn't at all hard to accept good it does with programs like Social Security while decrying the damage it does elsewhere. My current favorite example of damage is the anti-scientific management of national forests that has gone on for forty years after it was shown to be anti-scientific. Why? Because federal policy in national forests has been in reality an endeavor to make big and devastating forest fires more common by guaranteeing a phenomenal amount of ready fuel in the form of dead and diseased trees that not infrequently outnumber the live trees. So being suspicious of government is not incompatible with the existence of programs that work.

I got a laugh about "fix[ing] the potholes in the road" because the government here doesn't know how: this year especially I've watched the "repairs" to potholes just make things worse because the people making them haven't got a clue how to do it -- when private sector contractors brought in to repair the exact same problem in private roads and parking lots do it darned close to perfection (we had three potholes about a foot across and two to three inches deep, in a row of a dozen that were just inches across, on the street leading here from the main road; the city repair people spent several hours working on them, and at my first sight of what they'd done I told a friend that it wouldn't be long till we had really impressive potholes -- sure enough, we now have two potholes that are eight to nine inches deep and nearly two feet across in a row of others that are over a foot across and four to six inches deep).

I hope everyone saw the irony in your last line: they regard government as inherently less efficient that the private sector, so logically they should think that they would only get 30 cents worth of services for each dollar they pay!

 

[Kulindahr]

This doesn't say anything at all. The most charitable interpretation is that it's alarmist insinuation backed up by irrelevant anecdote.

Yes Trump's support was about racism, it's why that was his sole policy agenda, and the only thing he has ever been consistent about. Not because he's cleverly using racists, but because he's always been one of them.

I find it odd that you think evangelicals are somehow not racist - or that racism is somehow absent in communism? Or Asians? No idea what all of that was about.

Evangelicals overall are actually slightly less racist than the general population. It's just that when evangelicals are racist, they make everyone else look like mere dabblers.

And when they get caught up in a personality cult, they make everyone else look like lukewarm fanboys.

 

[Kulindahr]

The brainwashing of Americans is a predictable outcome of polarizing media and echo chambering.

When the news outlets are consistently biased, overtly, to the right and to the left, then people without much critical thinking skills are eventually saturated by a constant diet of NYTimes, Fox News, PBS & NPR, the Washington Post, and the rest. All of them are nakedly propagandists.

My brother was here two weeks ago working with me. I was dumbfounded when he rather plaintively protested that he didn't know who to believe. It was in response to some comment I made about Trump and the coming election. He lives in a bubble in Arkansas, surrounded by uneducated people, no one around him even having a college degree. He served briefly in the Army and before that in the Navy, but has always worked blue collar jobs and gone to Fundamentalist churches.

And he's a fan of Christian radio, and it's been a shill for the GOP now for decades, so he can't tell the difference.

Sadly, like most politics, the people at the bottom believe propaganda while cynical people at the top, on both sides of the aisle, know better.

This reminds me of something I encountered in a communications class in a university education program: the phenomenon of "too much data". Our professor maintained that as information technology improved, society would become more and more polarized due to having too much data. The argument is that when there is more data than people can handle, they naturally read or listen to things they like and thus reduce the data set they operate on and so cognitively they are steered away from the possibility of being objective. I have to admire his foresight; this was back when text-based "bulletin boards" were the leading edge of social media!

BTW, you've got it backwards: Christian radio isn't a "shill for the GOP", it was part of the tool set that enabled right-wing Christianists to hijack the GOP -- a process I lived through, watching the GOP stop being a party standing for republican principles and shift to being a party based on reactionary ideology.

 

[Kulindahr]

Another staff member fired from the Pentagon:

Another Official Dismissed at the Pentagon as Trump Continues Unusual Shake-Up [The Intercept]

Hmmm... dumping the DHS' cybersecurity head?

Two top Homeland Security officials forced to resign by White House [CNN]

When top leadership in military and intelligence gets changed, in most countries it's a sign someone doesn't want to play fair.

 

[NotHardUp1]

BTW, you've got it backwards: Christian radio isn't a "shill for the GOP", it was part of the tool set that enabled right-wing Christianists to hijack the GOP -- a process I lived through, watching the GOP stop being a party standing for republican principles and shift to being a party based on reactionary ideology.

I readily concede your point, but I meant that the radio broadcasts are from within the cloaking device. They claim to simply be championing "Christian values" when they are quite knowingly wading into politics and leading churches and their members to become PACs instead of mere congregations.

In that way, they act as GOP operatives without wearing the badge, so to speak.

 

[KaraBulut]

...You are absolutely correct, but I have lived in their midst for six decades, and I wouldn't start worrying about those doctrines until you see them getting skinny. It's basically the same as talking about eating healthy and then waddling up to the buffet to get more mac and cheese and pizza. It's all in saying the right things, not in actually wanting them to happen...

An off topic but apocalyptical sidebar:

Speaking of getting skinny... one of the things that was befuddling was that some of these evangelical ministers have side businesses selling food packaged in "survival kits". Some of these kits are sold as a "4 week emergency food supply". Others are being marketed as "apocalypse food buckets" intended to last for longer periods.

It's a little puzzling. On one hand, they're peddling the "end of days". On the other hand, they're worried that people might get hungry waiting for Jesus to show up.

And of course, if there's an opportunity to make a profit while waiting to be raptured...

Here's a satirical taste test of an emergency food bucket:

 

[gsdx]

^ Here's the real thing with Jim Bakker's buckets. Seriously, you won't believe your eyes or your ears.

Very entertaining, though. I watched this a few weeks ago and I'm still stunned by it.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

^ Lovely, but... This here's the best evangelical video ever. Wow. That's right. I love that.

 

[rareboy]

Christopher Krebs.

Fired by tweet for debunking TrumpCo. conspiracy theories about the election.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/christopher-krebs-defended-election-integrity-trump-fired-him?

 

[KaraBulut]

During a transition in wartime, perfect time to fire the Director of the DoD Defeat-ISIS Task Force, right?

Pentagon shake-up continues as another top official departs [CNN]

The top official leading the Pentagon's Defeat-ISIS Task Force resigned Monday, becoming the latest senior official to be fired or asked to resign in recent days, part of a White House-directed post-election purge that saw some of the senior-most Defense Department civilians ousted in a matter of days.

"Today, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller accepted the resignation of Christopher Maier, the Director of the DoD Defeat-ISIS Task Force," a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.

Maier had led the task force since its inception in March 2017. The task force was responsible for overseeing policy and strategy development as well as international negotiations pertaining to the fight against ISIS.