After prowling the streets of Santa Fe for a number of days and avoiding all news and disasters--other than my NCAA men's basketball brackets--it is time to get back to it.
So, where are we? Ah yes, the White House chief National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster has just been sacked. The reason is up to speculation, but the best guess is that over the past year the former General didn't tell Donald J. Trump exactly what he wanted to hear on a daily basis. Hey, if we've learned anything during this administration it is Trump will hire anyone. However, getting the job isn't nearly as hard as keeping it. Indeed, as soon as you start to act a little sane, or overwhelming evidence comes to light you're either an unapologetic wife beater, or have committed treasonous acts, he will have security show you the door.
The Big Orange Guy's pick to replace McMaster is John Robert Bolton. According to a tweet from former G.W. Bush chief White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, "John Bolton was by far the most dangerous man we had in the entire eight years of the Bush administration. Hiring him as the president's top national security advisor is an invitation to war, perhaps nuclear war."
As the Business Insider pointed out on line today, considering Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld were also part of that happy band of brothers, claiming Bolton was the most dangerous of the bunch should give everyone reason for pause.
Bolton was the younger Bush's ambassador to the U.N. from August of 2005 until the end of December 2006. He was considered such an asshole a republican controlled Senate wouldn't confirm him, forcing, "W," to slide him through the back door with a recess appointment. Bolton resigned shortly before the legal time limit for the political maneuver ended only because it became obvious the same Senate, on the cusp of a takeover by democrats, still wouldn't confirm him.
Wikipedia notes he briefly considered presidential runs in 2012 and 2016, but decided against it both times. The site also provides us with another bit of truth. John Bolton, who is so casual with the concept of war isn't much for fighting one himself. During the Vietnam conflict, he joined the Maryland National Guard, thereby serving in the armed forces while making sure he never put himself at risk by getting stuck on some bleak and deadly hill in the central highlands.
He is also a bit of a conspiracy theorist. The former ambassador once went on FOX news and claimed Hillary Clinton faked a concussion to avoid testifying before congress about the attack in Benghazi which cost the life of the American ambassador to Libya among others. Then, within a few short years, citing the formerly, "faked," head injury, he was publicly questioning her health during the 2016 campaign.
In December of that year, after Trump won, he told FOX viewers he had received word from the U.S. intelligence community they believed the accusations Russia had covertly intervened in the presidential election on Donald Trump's behalf was a false flag operation. Shortly afterward, presumably without blinking an eye, he blamed the Obama administration for not taking sufficient action against the Russians in response to their meddling in--that's right--the 2016 election.
Oh yeah, this guy is going to fit right in.
Or not. Brother Bolton has also been a wildly vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and Russia for all sorts of reasons. He's been so vociferous at times it seems he's advocating for a new cold war, up to and including fingers sitting squarely on the nuclear buttons. Obviously Johnny B. is going to have to tone that part of his act down since even casual observers realize Putin has some real shit on Donald Trump--and as long as he does the current President isn't going to say, or do anything to piss Vlad off.
Yes, if there is one piece of optimism available in this affair it's that Don Trump has already blown through two previous National Security Advisers. One lasted barely three weeks, the other 13 months. The odds of John Bolton hanging on long enough to cause any real catastrophe are fairly long, especially if he can't keep his mouth shut about the President's, good pal, Vladimir Putin.
That's the hope anyway, but, let's face it, I'm the one who picked Virginia to win the NCAA men's basketball championship. They went out in the first round to that great hoops power, the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Unfortunately for many like me the bookies scored big this March. With the appointment of John Bolton we can only hope they'll have time to spend their early spring windfall wisely, or at all.
sic vita est
3-24-18
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