Better Late Than Never, But Not By Much

"History is so cool," Charlie Pierce says weekly. However cool it is, it's not often remembered, as he appears to understand:

Liked that Muslim ban a little too much.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 3, 2023

To be accurate, as I'm able to do absent advertising and political ambition- it was not a Muslim ban but a ban on travel to the USA from several nations, most of them Muslim. Still, point made and six years ago

In October 2017, Roll Call reported

Last year Kelly incorrectly said that (US Representative Frederica) Wilson derailed the dedication of a Federal Bureau of Investigation building to brag about having “called up President [Barack] Obama for the funding,” characterizing her as part of a “long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise.” A video of the event proved that claim to be false.

Wilson said that Kelly’s “empty barrel” insult had racial connotations. Sociologists have described the treatment of Wilson by the White House — namely President Donald Trump’s tweet ridiculing her as “wacky” — as out of a historic playbook characterizing people of color and black professionals as unfit.

In October, Trump and Kelly sought to undercut Wilson after she criticized Trump’s comments in a call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of an Army sergeant killed in an ambush in Niger. Wilson overheard a call in which Trump told Myeshia Johnson that the sergeant “knew what he signed up for.”

Kelly’s claim inflamed supporters of the president. Wilson became the target of death threats, including threats of lynching and nooses through the mail. The threats became so severe that she could not cast votes.

If Kelly didn't want to acknowledge that his accusation was inaccurate, he might have at least called for calm among Trump supporters Nonetheless

Kelly has stood by his comments.

Days after video footage disproved his account of Wilson’s behavior, in an interview with Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle,” host Laura Ingraham asked if the chief of staff if he felt he had a reason to apologize, to which Kelly responded “No. Never.”

“I’ll apologize if I need to, but for something like this, absolutely not,” he said.

Wilson said that comes as no surprise to her.

If you watch center and liberal cable news, you've noticed that the accolades now have poured in for the General and former Chief of Staff to President Trump as

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

        

With or without exposing Trump, Kelly could have walked away from him before the election in 2016. He could have exposed Trump prior to the election of 2020, thereby doing his part to help Joe Biden win. Or he could have exposed DJT soon before the first or the second impeachment trial.

Interestingly, in this statement from Gen. Kelly excoriating Trump, he mentions awful things Trump did during the 2016 election and yet… Kelly happily went to work for Trump after 2016, first at DHS and then at the White House, as chief of staff. 🤷🏽‍♂️ https://t.co/WIpacKUnw0

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 2, 2023

General Kelly finally is speaking out about Donald Trump's blatant contempt for members of the Armed Services and adding to the historical record, so let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.  But the gift needs to be put into perspective. Kelly is no Milley. Timing, like size, matters and Kelly's timing suits his interests and not the best interests of the American people. He is a careerist- of far greater integrity than those who still are keeping their silence, but still self-interested.

Share |

Con Man Supports Con Man

You may say that Zach Fuentes, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff under John Kelly, is no man's fool. A famous right-wing rag reports

“You can put me on record denying that I spoke with The Atlantic,” Fuentes told Breitbart News on Monday. “I don’t know who the sources are. I did not hear POTUS call anyone losers when I told him about the weather. Honestly, do you think General Kelly would have stood by and let ANYONE call fallen Marines losers?”

He specifically also stated that he believes The Atlantic’s sources “are unlikely first hand accounts.”

“They are conflating those people from something the day after,” Fuentes said....

Every person who was allegedly in the room who has spoken up so far has denied the account of what happened. Fuentes’ denial, reported here exclusive on Breitbart News first, deals another strike against The Atlantic’s credibility.

“I also think any President, regardless of political affiliation, deserves to have candid and private conversations with trusted advisors,” Fuentes added in a text to Breitbart News. “If the President decides to talk about it, that is his right, but generally, I don’t think it is my place to divulge private conversations I’ve had with him.”

That was every person allegedly in the room;. Moreover, no one wants the boss, King of Kings Donald Trump, to believe that he or she is the one who leaked this extremely embarrassing andpotentially damaging story.

However, Fuentes completely gives it away when he adds that he believes "any President deserves to have candid and private conversations" and that it is not his "place to divulge private conversations I've had with him."  He could hardly be any clearer that whatever the President said privately should remain private- and that if he were privy to a private conversation, he would not divulge it. 

There is nothing more impressive than a source who outs himself as an untrustworthy source.

Fuentes' credibility is non-existent, not unlike his integrity.  Over three months ago ProPublica found

A former White House aide won a $3 million federal contract to supply respirator masks to Navajo Nation hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona 11 days after he created a company to sell personal protective equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

You have three guesses- the first two don't count- whom that former White House aide was.  It seems

Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, secured the deal with the Indian Health Service with limited competitive bidding and no prior federal contracting experience.

The IHS told ProPublica it has found that 247,000 of the masks delivered by Fuentes’ company — at a cost of roughly $800,000 — may be unsuitable for medical use. An additional 130,400, worth about $422,000, are not the type specified in the procurement data, the agency said.

If you're thinking that there is no way Fuentes could possibly have dreamt that the products would be substandard, you'd be interested in knowing

What’s more, the masks Fuentes agreed to provide — Chinese-made KN95s — have come under intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators amid concerns that they offered inadequate protection.

The episode appears emblematic of Kelly's character, for while he was an aide to the Chief of Staff

In December 2018, as Kelly prepared to leave, The New York Times reported that Fuentes had told associates he planned to “hide out” in a vague role at the White House until he qualified for a Coast Guard early retirement program. Fuentes retired in January from the Coast Guard after 15 years of service. He said his retirement was for medical reasons.

Vouching (literally) incredibly for Donald Trump may not be a bad career move.  Throwing stones at a President who, if re-elected, plans to become an emperor would be unwise if you're living in Zach Fuentes' glass house.

 

 

                                             HAPPY LABOR DAY

Share |

A Silence Inexcusable But Explainable

 

In the middle of the furor over Trump and soldiers is John Kelly, who so far has remained silent. Kelly has told associates that a retired 4-star general should not come out against a sitting president in the heat of a campaign. ⁦@anniekarni⁩ https://t.co/UglfrguBXh

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) September 5, 2020

Reportedly, President Trump on Memorial Day 2017 turned to General John Kelly as they standing in Arlington Memorial Cemetery at the grave of First Lieutenant Robert Kelly and remarked "I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Charlie Pierce writes "I don’t know how John Kelly didn’t flatten the vulgar talking yam right there at Arlington." Generals Kelly, Mattis, and McMaster "took an oath to defend the Constitution, not to hold their tongues until they could get a book deal as a reckless vandal takes the Republic down, brick by brick."

In the case of Kelly, it now appears that it is something more important than a book deal- or being a retired 4-star general,-which is irrelevant, at least with the word "retired."  On Friday, I argued that cowardice probably has prompted former Department of Homeland Security chief (1/17-7/17) and Chief of Staff (7/17-12/18) Kelly from publicly acknowledging the disturbing information revealed by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. However, in April of 2019 CBS News had reported

protesters outside the nation's largest facility for unaccompanied migrant children noticed a familiar face enter the massive, fenced site in Homestead, Florida: former White House chief of staff John Kelly. Soon after, a local television station recorded footage of him riding on the back of a golf cart as he toured the grounds.

It wasn't clear why he was there, but Friday, Caliburn International confirmed to CBS News that Kelly had joined its board of directors. Caliburn is the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates Homestead and three other shelters for unaccompanied migrant children in Texas.

Prior to joining the Trump administration in January 2017, Kelly had been on the board of advisors of DC Capital Partners, an investment firm that now owns Caliburn.

During Kelly's tenure, the administration pursued ambitious changes to immigration enforcement, and the average length of stay for an unaccompanied migrant child in U.S. custody skyrocketed.

Kelly was famous in the Administration for being not only anti-illegal immigration but anti-immigration- period. It's hardly likely that his current involvement in Caliburn is a mere coincidence.  Moreover

While Comprehensive and DC Capital appear to have reaped financial benefits through government contracts during and after Kelly's tenure as White House chief of staff, Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor, said Kelly may not have broken any rules.

"It sounds like he's running between the raindrops. It doesn't sound great, but most likely he's not directly violating any policies," Briffault told CBS News. Briffault said government officials are barred from benefiting from their involvement in matters that involve specific parties, meaning that while serving at the White House, Kelly could not directly influence any decision to award a contract to a DC Capital company.

Briffault argues that Kelly was barred from directly influencing any decision to award a contract to a DC Capital company. 

   

We don't know whether Kelly had a direct influence because investigative reporting is relatively unusual nowadays and is rarely if ever featured on any televised news program, cable or otherwise. (There was very little follow-up by the media to CREW's lawsuit addressed in the 7/19 video above.)

Nonetheless, in the most corrupt Administration in American history, it would be surprising if Kelly did not use his influence to benefit the company he had worked for, and would work for after he worked for President Trump. 

The President then would have something hanging over Kelly's head. Of course, Trump also would be implicated but Teflon Don, he who could arguably shoot someone and not lose any support, realizes he would not be hurt in the least.

And that means General John Kelly is ripe for being blackmailed. He could verify key aspects of Goldberg's story but were he to do so, President Trump might claim, truthfully or otherwise, that Kelly convinced him to pursue the policy and to steer contract(s) to DC Capital.  He may have made it clear to his former employee or it may have been done with a nod and a wink.

But there is a very good chance that this is playing out at this very moment. This fellow believes General Kelly "must, for the sake of our country and his honor, tell what he's seen and do what he can to sink the pirate ship Trump."  However, this story may blow over and Donald Trump may be re-elected.  If John Kelly comes clean, tells all, and Joe Biden is defeated, the ex-general's honor will be no match for the legal horror he'd probably face from an emboldened President Trump.

 

Share |

Bequeath Not

Matthew Yglesias realizes

The action at the border these days, in terms of immigration, is about asylum seekers, whole family units who arrive and either cross at legal ports of entry or else deliberately present themselves to Border Patrol after crossing illegally.

That's part of the reason the Administration is focused instead on the wall, whatever they're trying to pass it off as today. The New York Times' Haberman reports

The concrete border wall that President Trump has repeatedly called for as a signature campaign promise is not actually a wall and has not been since “early on in the administration,” the outgoing White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, said in an interview published Sunday.

The comments further muddy the administration’s position as Mr. Trump demands that Democrats provide $5 billion in funding for a wall on the border with Mexico, an impasse that has led to a partial government shutdown after the president abruptly pulled out of a compromise deal to keep the government funded through February. They were also notable given Mr. Trump’s insistence for most of his term that the border would have a wall, not the “steel slat barrier” he has pivoted toward in the past few weeks.

“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Mr. Kelly told The Los Angeles Times.

Alarmed that the base might hear that and recognize the scam, President Trump on Monday morning tweeted

It’s incredible how Democrats can all use their ridiculous sound bite and say that a Wall doesn’t work. It does, and properly built, almost 100%! They say it’s old technology - but so is the wheel. They now say it is immoral- but it is far more immoral for people to be dying!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018

Whatever Trump means by people dying- he's not referring to children dying while in CBP custody- giving this President any money for a wall is bad policy and probably worse strategy. But Trump's quick response is a sure sign both that he wants a concrete wall badly, and that he is losing.

So the short-term strategy for congressional Democrats must be to deny Trump any money for a wall. Claiming victory is always his goal, the oxygen that gives him life. "And some of you are friends and you're going to call," candidate Trump boasted at a campaign rally, "and you're going to say, 'Mr. President, please, we can't take it anymore, we can't win anymore like this, Mr. President, you're driving us crazy, you're winning too much."

Once the government is re-opened, as Yglesias points out, attention should turn to  long-term issues, primarily "internal enforcement, asylum law, the treatment of long-settled unauthorized migrants, and future flows of legal immigration."

Good luck with that. Internal enforcement involves ICE, which the left generally doesn't like much and the right places miles behind CBPP as its government agency of choice.  Processing asylum claims will require personnel and money but increasing the number of government employees is not high on the wish list of Republicans.  While visa overstays outnumber individuals illegally crossing the border(s), and most Democrats are on principle against throwing law-abiding individuals out of the country, and most Republicans don't have the stomach for it.  While the Trump Administration would like to cut the quota for illegal immigrants, Democrats are a hard sell.

However, running a massive government in a global economy requires difficult choices, ones far beyond demanding that "Dreamers" get a fair shake.

After Democrats smashed Republicans in the mid-terms, Jamelle Bouie argued

when faced with Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his border wall with Mexico, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered the $1.6 billion that Democrats had previously agreed on. This may not constitute support for “the wall” itself, but it does miss how the landscape has changed. The president’s immigration policies are unpopular. Schumer had political space to make a lower bid, or no bid at all. But he doesn’t seem to grasp the extent of his party’s political advantage or understand the value of opposition. He seems stuck in a past where voters rewarded compromise and bipartisanship, unable to see how this doesn’t apply to the Democrats’ relationship with Donald Trump.

President Trump's immigration policies probably are as not unpopular as Bouie believes. However, as he would understand, the best way to make those policies, and Trump himself, popular would be to give him what he wants. And that is to deliver to him any amount of money for what he could credibly claim is a "wall."

Share |

Rhyming with a Tiny, Brittle Witch

I'm Shocked! Shocked to find out that the swagger is gone when he's face-to-face with an adversary. On Tuesday The Washington Post reported

The U.S. president began a remarkable day of transatlantic diplomacy by attacking Germany as “captive to Russia,” later called on NATO countries to double their previous commitment to defense spending and then effectively renounced the gathering altogether.

“He could declare victory . . . and ride off in a blaze of glory as leader of the West,” said Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and to Russia who met with officials on the sidelines of Wednesday’s summit. “But he’s rubbing salt in the wounds.”

Behind closed doors, Trump was cordial and even magnanimous at times with his European counterparts, according to officials who interacted with him. And at dinner, where the leaders mingled as an acrobatic dancer performed, floating in the air, Trump said it was “a very good day at NATO.”

Publicly, however, Trump bristled and bickered, interrupted and impeded — making clear to the world he is impatient and annoyed with an alliance that he says takes advantage of the United States.

“Everything in the room was fine,” Dalia Grybauskaite, the president of Lithuania, said in an interview. But outside the room, she said, Trump was less productive, with his “outspoken rhetoric.”

Publicly, however, Trump bristled and bickered, interrupted and impeded — making clear to the world he is impatient and annoyed with an alliance that he says takes advantage of the United States.

“Everything in the room was fine,” Dalia Grybauskaite, the president of Lithuania, said in an interview. But outside the room, she said, Trump was less productive, with his “outspoken rhetoric.”

During a closed-door working session of all the leaders, Trump was relatively reserved, according to attendees. He repeated the same arguments he made earlier in public that NATO member states needed to up their defense spending and that Germany is too dependent on Russia for natural gas. But he also stressed the common security threats all NATO allies face, according to a senior diplomat who was in the meeting.

This is Donald J. Trump.  Lacking an inner core of belief, he's all bluff and bluster in public while unable to confront anyone directly. Think of it as "The Apprentice" turned upside-down.  Gabriel Sherman reveals that former Fox News vice-president Bill Shine, who has become White House deputy chief of staff for communications, has rapidly become a favorite of the President. There now is

intensified speculation in the West Wing that the president’s long-suffering chief of staff and nemesis, John Kelly, will soon be departing. Kelly opposed the hiring of Shine and has seen his role continue to be diminished, sources said, sometimes in humiliating ways. “They’ve basically stopped telling Kelly when meetings are. People leave him off the calendar,” one administration official told me. “When he finds out, he storms into the room and is like, ‘What’s going on?’” A Republican close to the White House told me that Trump hopes Shine’s expanding role will encourage Kelly to quit. “Trump is too chickenshit to fire Kelly himself,” the source said. The strategy is reminiscent of the president’s decision to hire Anthony Scaramucci as communications director in July 2017 to drive out then-chief of staff Reince Priebus. “This is a more subtle version of Scaramucci,” an outside adviser to the White House told me.

This isn't the first time there has been a big rift, widely reported, between  John Kelly and the President, and not the first time that the firing of Kelly has appeared to be right around the corner.  But Trump hasn't fired the former general for three reasons: 1) Kelly is a former general; 2) Trump can't fire anyone directly; and 3) Trump can't fire anyone directly.

Donald Trump is a windbag. The entire premise of The Apprentice was stagecraft.  John Kelly, who reportedly is unsatisfied with a continental breakfast, may leave the White House, possibly soon.  His job appears to be excruciating and his ticket has been punched for a lucrative, post-White House career on cable or broadcast television news, a conservative think tank, or wherever a reliable conservative is needed.

Nonetheless, he won't be fired, any more than Trump will go toe-to-toe with Angela Merkel and tell her what he really thinks about her and Germany. Back in a more hopeful time, 36 months ago, Bill Maher already had Donald Trump pegged:

Share |

Verify, Do Not Trust

Huffington Post reports

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told a meeting of Democratic lawmakers that President Donald Trump’s campaign pledges to curb immigration ― including his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border ― were uninformed, and that such a structure was unlikely to happen in full, according to multiple media reports.

Kelly made the comments to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday in a closed-door session that was first reported by The Washington Post. His comments were confirmed by Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), who was at the meeting.

“I can confirm that Chief of Staff Kelly said today that the President’s campaign was not fully informed about the wall he was promising to voters,” Gutiérrez said in a statement. “Kelly went on to say that many campaigns are not fully informed about every policy and that campaigning and governing are two different things and that governing is harder.”

We don't have a quote from the Chief of Staff himself, but only an interpretation of his remarks by a member of Congress and immigration advocate.  But it sounds as if Kelly was, if he referred to "campaigns," giving the boss cover while attempting to make himself out as the voice of reason. The latter seems likely because

Gutiérrez also went on to confirm reporting by The New York Times that Kelly took credit as the “one who tempered” Trump’s more extreme opinions on the wall and the viability of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, also known as DACA.

“Kelly took credit for educating the President on the wall and that a concrete barrier from sea to shining sea was no longer the conception of border security barriers supported today by the White House,” Gutiérrez said.

It surely is comforting to know, through Representative Gutierrez, that the Chief of Staff does not except a concrete wall to arise out of the Rio Grande and the Colorado River.  The next day the President went even further, backing down from his campaign boasts while pretending otherwise:

The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water.....

The old joke runs "how do you know when X is lying?" Donald Trump has shattered the punch line "when his lips are moving," for he does it quite effortlessly when he tweets as well as when he speaks (no rhyme intended).

Nonetheless, that puts the President not at odds but on the same terrain as his chief of staff. Let us not forget

Video of a 2015 speech delivered by Representative Frederica S. Wilson revealed Friday that John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, misrepresented her remarks when he accused her of bragging about securing $20 million for a South Florida F.B.I. building and twisting President Barack Obama’s arm.

Mr. Kelly, escalating a feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. Wilson, had cast the congresswoman on Thursday as a publicity-seeking opportunist. However, the video, released by The Sun Sentinel, a newspaper in South Florida, showed that during her nine-minute speech, Ms. Wilson never took credit for getting the money for the building, only for helping pass legislation naming the building after two fallen federal agents.

She never mentioned pleading with Mr. Obama, and she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then the House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo; and Senator Marco Rubio.

John Kelly is different than Donald Trump or Kellyanne Conway or Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He is more serious and reputable, and probably tells the truth more often than he utters falsehoods. But there is a reason all these individuals serve this particular President.





For the latter three, truth is an unpleasant option. For General Kelly, it can be thrown overboard when necessary, which puts him on an ethical plane above Sanders, Conway, or Trump. However, he is a reminder that service in uniform to the country does not inoculate one from dishonesty. As the immigration debate continues, nothing he (or anyone in the Administration) says can be assumed to  be completely accurate.

Share |

And Make Sure To Genuflect

The usually smug Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemingly missed her chance Friday when she remarked "If you wanna go after General Kelly, that’s up to you, but I think that — if you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate."  She could have said "if you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, go at it" or the trite "... go ahead, make my (our) day."

Nonetheless, the White House spokesperson's comment enhanced President Trump's strategy because it was in complete harmony with that made by the four-star Marine general, John V. Kelly. In the portion of  the chief of staff's statement which was neither dishonest nor hostile toward a member of Congress, Kelly maintained

Well, let me tell you what I told him. Let me tell you what my best friend, Joe Dunford, told me -- because he was my casualty officer. He said, Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we're at war. And when he died, in the four cases we're talking about, Niger, and my son's case in Afghanistan -- when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends.....

Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer. But I just thought -- the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred.

And when I listened to this woman and what she was saying, and what she was doing on TV, the only thing I could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk among the finest men and women on this Earth. And you can always find them because they're in Arlington National Cemetery. I went over there for an hour-and-a-half, walked among the stones, some of whom I put there because they were doing what I told them to do when they were killed.

"The finest men and women on this Earth." Kelly could have legitimately described them as "the most courageous men and women in the nation," given that they were Americns who risked their lives. But that doesn't necessarily make them the finest people, and "the Earth" is a very big place indeed (unrelated video on same controversy, below).

Nonetheless, the assertion was fundamental to Kelly's central argument, akin to Sanders':  We wear the uniform of the United States of America- you don't. It was Kelly's way of reminding us not only that he was  the commanding officer of "the very best this country produces" but that he is a general, hence: criticize at your own risk. 

Kelly finished his short speech telling reporters "you get the question" if, and only if, the he or she was a Gold Star parent or sibling, or knows one. Masha Gessen identified this as "a new twist on the Trump Administration's technique of shunning and shaming unfriendly members of the news media, except this time, it was framed explicitly in terms of national loyalty."

That makes it, in Sanders' terms, "highly inappropriate" to enter a "debate with a four-star Marine general." The chief of staff was not so blunt and crude as the presidential spokesperson, but was expressing the same sentiment. Given  "a troika of generals being regularly applauded as the only thing standing between all of us and the abyss," we now have learned we are in serious jeopardy.

Share |

"The Wonderful Joy"

The old lie: Dulce et decorum est... Pro patria mori.
(It is good and honorable to die for one's country.)


We now know that John Kelly lied promiscuously about U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson.  But finding out that the Emperor, or in this case, the General, has no clothes or much integrity might not be very important. He is, after all, not Presidential Press Secretary but Chief of Staff, and he'll have little opportunity in the future to fabricate an event.

And it is not news that anyone with any integrity who comes into contact with Donald Trump comes out with very little. More important, however, is the point Steve M. noted that Masha Gessen made in The New Yorker as she wrote

when Kelly described his own distress after hearing the criticism of Trump’s phone call, the general said that he had gone to “walk among the finest men and women on this earth. And you can always find them because they’re in Arlington National Cemetery.” So, by “the best” Americans, Kelly had meant dead Americans—specifically, fallen soldiers.

... It is in totalitarian societies, which demand complete mobilization, that dying for one’s country becomes the ultimate badge of honor. Growing up in the Soviet Union, I learned the names of ordinary soldiers who threw their bodies onto enemy tanks, becoming literal cannon fodder. All of us children had to aspire to the feat of martyrdom....

Kelly married his celebration of martydom with the Administration's hostility toward the working press. Gessen continues with

... At the end of the briefing, [Kelly] said that he would take questions only from those members of the press who had a personal connection to a fallen soldier, followed by those who knew a Gold Star family.... he was now explicitly denying a majority of Americans—or the journalists representing them—the right to ask questions. This was a new twist on the Trump Administration’s technique of shunning and shaming unfriendly members of the news media, except this time, it was framed explicitly in terms of national loyalty. As if on cue, the first reporter allowed to speak inserted the phrase "Semper Fi"- a literal loyalty oath- into his question.

Before walking off the stage, Kelly told Americans who haven't served in the military that he pities them.  "We don't walk down upon those of you who haven't served," he said. "In fact, in a way we're a little bit sorry because you'll never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our servicemen and women do- not for any other  reason than that they love this country."

It was all there, including the condescending "we're a little bit sorry" and the implication that those servicemen and women "love this country" while the others do not. Easily lost however- except by Gessen and a few others- was the glorification of fighting in a war, dramatically dramatized in the 1921 poem by Wilfred Owen:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, 
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. 

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling 
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling 
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 

In all my dreams before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 
To children ardent for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est 
Pro patria mori.










Share |

Trump-Pence-Kelly Administration

Chris Hayes has tweeted "I still can’t quite get my head around the viciousness of Kelly telling that story about Rep. Wilson, which she says is false."

So does Cowanda-Jones Johnson, widow of La David T. Johnson, so Chief of Staff Kelly gets a pass, deservedly or not, which it is not.

Trump's Chief of Staff on Thursday remarked also

It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred. You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. That's obviously not the case anymore as we see from recent cases. Life -- the dignity of life -- is sacred. That's gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well.

It stuns me that Kelly would be surprised that Mrs. Johnson would allow others in the car with her when she received the President's call to have listened to the call, especially because the congresswoman is a friend of the family. He should be stunned- better yet, embarrassed- because the guy he works for claimed he had "proof" that Representative Wilson's version of events was inaccurate, and has yet to produce such "proof."

Kelly is entitled to use his position to rengage the culture war by lamenting a time when "women were sacred" and were second-class citizens, and when the dignity of life meant depriving women of reproductive freedom. He also is entitled to imagine that religion is "gone as well."

Claiming "religion, that seems to be gone as well," Kelly evidently has slept through Sunday mornings, unaware that tens of millions of Americans gather in their preferred house of worship at that time (or at other times if they so choose).  The plea for vague religiosity, women on a pedestal, and a woman's right to choose as an evil are straight out of Donald Trump's playbook. Kelly now should be held accountable for the Trump presidency in a way that he didn't before, when he was held above criticism as one of the presumed "adults" in the Administration.

Lawrence O'Donnell closes his program on MSNBC by giving someone "the last word." Now the last word will go to Gregg Popovich.  "The people who work with this president," Popovich told The Nation recently, "should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”










Share |

No Soul, No Courage

Donald Trump and Mike Pence," Paul Waldman recognized in early September, "are united in the belief that strength is a performance, not a characteristic,."  For example

North Korea detonated what may have been a hydrogen bomb, a follow-up to a series of tests seeming to show that they could reach the United States mainland with a missile. They seem completely undeterred by a regular stream of taunts and threats from President Trump, who among other things promised just before taking office that they wouldn't be able to do what they've now demonstrated they probably can. It's almost as though they don't take him seriously.

Not only that, Kim Jong Un was not deterred when back in April, Vice President Mike Pence went to the DMZ and made a stern face across the border to show them we mean business. That sounds like something out of a comic satire, but it actually happened. "I thought it was important that people on the other side of the DMZ see our resolve in my face," Pence said afterward.

That look of resolve should have been replaced by a bout of laughter. It's six weeks later, threats from Pyongyang have only been ramped up and the Administration continues to mistake bluster. for resolve and not only as pertains to Korea.

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, Slate's Fred Kaplan explains,

requires the president to certify, every 90 days, that Iran is still in compliance. If he certifies otherwise (in other words, if he acknowledges that Iran has been caught cheating), Congress could vote within 60 days to reimpose the sanctions.

Both as candidate and as President, Donald Trump has condemned the Iran deal in the harshest of terms, most recently as "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into." Therefore

In his speech on Friday, Trump said, “Based on the factual record I’ve put forward, we cannot and will not make this certification.” But there is no such factual record. The Iranians have terminated all the programs that the deal has required them to terminate at this point, and the “violations” that Trump cited are fiction. If anyone is in violation of this deal, it is Trump.

So what will he do about it? At this point, as he has done on many other issues, Trump abrogated his responsibility; he doesn’t want to take the heat for taking any steps that might turn out badly so he put the burden on Congress. He can’t rewrite the Iran nuclear deal, much as he’d like to; so he told Congress to rewrite the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

That's the Donald Trump of reality, once we get past the bluff and bluster. In July 2015 he pledged to "eliminate immediately" President Obama's "illegal executive order" on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. Early last month, he announced that he was ending the program. He then made a deal with Senate Minority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Pelosi to continue it, only later to remark that he still wanted his Mexican-American wall and other concessions.

Bill Clinton once remarked that voters prefer a politician who is "wrong and strong" rather than "weak and right."  When Trump backs down from his earlier positions on Iran and on individuals brought to the USA as children, he is weak and (somewhat) right, turning Clinton's observation on its head. Trump boasts Kim Jong-un  "best not make any more threats against the United States" and sits idly by as threats are made; makes a deal on DACA, then backs out of it: and shirks his responsibility as Chief Executive on the Iranian nuclear deal by shoving the issue onto Congress.

Still, Trump's gift and advantage is that he appears- both to opponents and supporters- as strong and  reasonably resolute.   But he is cowardly and soulless, the latter trait most recently observed by  Cowanda-Jones Johnson and Representative Fredericka Wilson.  And so he may have been best described by the NBA's greatest active head coach, Gregg Popovich, who recently concluded "this man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward."










Share |