CONCERN AT HOME & ABROAD THAT AMERICA HAS LOST IT WAY & VALUES.

By

Harry C. Blaney III

There is deep concern at home and abroad that America has lost it way and its values. The process of “de-construction” or really just destruction of our federal government is real as it seems that we are witnessing major attacks on a broad range of vital and needed programs that have been at the heart of decent and caring government that saves lives, provides for the “common good” and protects our nation from enemies within and without in a very high risk world made even more so by indifferent, spiteful and unbalanced president.

These destructive acts are now on going in our departments and agencies Clear existential dangers that have solutions are instead made worse deliberately by people who have no interests in the common good but very much have the aim to make the rich even richer at the expense of the middle class and poor. We see this in the destruction and non-enforcement of environmental laws and regulation at EPA, we see it at the Energy Department with the gutting of clean energy programs, and we see it in HHS with the forceful effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act which means that thousands of people will lose their life earlier and suffer from sickness than would be the case with decent medial care. The planed Trump efforts to decimate our National Monuments will destroy the beauty and grander of many of America’s key great natural wonders.

Globally, millions of our most vulnerable fellow inhabitants of this earth will die because of Trump brutal and mindless cuts in our assistance programs for food, Health care, medicine and clean water and education efforts to the most needed. This is like committing mass murder!

Undercover the GOP, with encouragement of the right wing media, the GOP Congress has largely gone along with these cuts like climate change research, new clean energy technologies, funding for adequate IRS oversight, massive cuts to EPA and for childhood education in public schools (where 90 of our children go), and on and on. But now we have attacks on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and putting more burdens on retired Federal workers by increasing their health contributions, retirement and other benefits and many other destructive goals. The decimation of our civil service is going on massively as part of a White House  and GOP strategy to eliminate any programs that actually do good for our citizens while expanding those that hurt our citizens.

A key problem is we need our citizens to have better education in order to tell lies from truth, science-based confirmed knowledge from denial of science truth. We also need a media that tells the truth and not repeats Trump’s world of lies and hates without question.

This however is all part of a larger far right or Alt-Right effort to destroy government for the people and by the people to make it a government that protects the very rich. How else can you assess the nefarious tax bill? For the State Department the cuts and gutting of its professional core reflect the desire to run our foreign policy only from the White House where “transactional deal”s can be made to benefit Trump, his family and his rich supporters. This has cost us the respect of the rest of the world. And provides crazily aid and support for some authoritarian states and our opponents.  But not of course help the American people or strengthen our national securit,y or friendship with our allies.

We welcome your comments! (See comments line to give your views.)

THE UNWINDING OF AMERICAN SECURITY: WHITE HOUSE CREATED CHAOS ON DISPLAY AT THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE

THE UNWINDING OF AMERICAN SECURITY:

WHITE HOUSE CREATED CHAOS ON DISPLAY AT THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE

By

Harry C. Blaney III

The Trump press conference on Thursday was one of the most surreal experience I have ever had in Washington for 45 plus years. But it was emblematic of the whole Trump world. It was filled with lies and exaggerations. It was aimed at attacking his critics and trying to undermined especially the press and news outlets and not least also the intelligence community. But its strategic aim was to deflect attention from his most recent serious debacle namely the relationship of him and his people to Russian intelligence and officials and the failure of himself to run an effective logical and constrictive White House let alone the government that remains in disarray.

The embarrassments of his key NSC head Mike Flynn who made a surreptitious contact that likely was illegal with the Russian Ambassador showed an out of control dysfunctional staff. And we still do not know if Trump knew of or order that meeting, as Trump at the press conference avoided a direct answer. One key question is whether US sanctions on Russia were discussed. At the likely urging of Bannon Flynn was picked but Trump should have known Flynn was a total flake. It seems Trump had no intention of running a true professional NSC. This was proved by appointing Bannon to an official NSC seat and initially taking his intelligence chief and Military Chief of Staff off of the NSC Principles Group all indicating his aim was to conduct a secretive truly only personally directed “disruptive” foreign and security policy.

An example of how chaotic is Trump’s White house his next pick for head of the NSC was retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward who declined the offer. It was reported that he was not promised the ability to pick his own staff as he saw the need for staff that actually know what they were doing given what was at stake. It was said theat there were three persons on a new list and they seem all to have problems. One John Bolton is an extreme war hawk and disliked for his rough personality, in the end the head of the NSC turned out to be Lt. General H.R. McMaster, an active duty officer without any high policy coordinating experience. Trump has almost entirely picked active or former military flag officers in un-presidented numbers for national security and diplomatic positions that normally are largely filled by high ranking civilian officials and experts. At the recent Munich strategy conference Senator John McCann decimated the Trump security and foreign affairs record of Trump in front of the European defense community but later praised the selection of McMaster and the revised NSC team.

Trump a made no attempt at the conference to discuss in a serious way key challenges like climate change, what to do about North Korea, the issues of Iran, nuclear weapons, poverty, not least his failure to maintain American respect or how exactly to deal with Russia and Putin and a host of domestic issues including immigration and refugees.

He avoided serious questions from the press. Probably he has no clue on how to seriously deal with the issues that are on his desk. He has not advance a rational or even creditable national strategy or program. This was proven by choosing many individuals who’s main aim is to destroy the agencies that they head or to put forth policies that are clearly destructive of our nation’s moral, economic, and security fabric and interests. It almost seems that he wanted to choose people who were even less experienced but as destructive as he was.

My main view is again that Trump’s aim was to attack the media and their coverage and thus deflect from the chaos that he himself has caused. Phrases like “dishonest media” and ‘fake news” were designed to fend off criticism or public understanding of accurate facts and objective news analysis of his incompetence which has taken on a crescendo recently given the massive dysfunction and stench emanating from Trump and his people. Trump’s attacks oddly are to attack others for the same characteristics and flaws he has himself!

During the conference Trump tired to depict himself as popular with our citizens and quoted one Republican orientated poll of 56% support when in reality it is closer to 40% in recent polls. He said he inherited “a mess” at home and abroad but the reality is that he inherited fewer large wars, normal global challenges and a growing economy. His acts are undermining of American respect. He has made enemies of our friends and brought joy to our opponents. He and Bannon support far right parties in Europe whose main aims are to destroy both the EU and the unity of the Atlantic community. He argues the moral equivalence of Russia and America. He even took credit for pre-Trump growth of our economy.

Russia may turn out as his most vulnerable arena and challenge. Trump denied that his people had contact with Russians during the campaign and transition while the intelligence agencies has clear evidence that in fact there was contact with Russians during the campaign by his associates which some of these associates deny. Reports in the news seem to indicate that the professionals in the intelligence community do not fully trust him and his staff with the most sensitive data, while still providing him with the main intelligence and assessments to make key decisions. Frighteningly, Trump seems bent on destroying the objectivity and competence of the intelligence community which, if carried out in a political “house cleaning.” could endanger the security of our nation.

The simple fact is the White House under Trump is a disaster zone without rational leadership and the people that Trump has surround are, and there is no other way to put it, a bunch of the most ignorant, bigoted, and incompetent people every to have inhabited the White House in its history. I simply cite Stephen Bannon a White nationalist supremacist and formally key founder and manager of the fascist Alt-Right news outlet Beritbart and follower, like Trump, of Ayn Rand’s version of brutal extreme right ideas and avaricious destructive capitalism. But look at the likes Kellyanne Conway who also lies and violates civil service rules, disgraced Mike Flynn who we have already described, a press assistant that also lies, and a host of others without any government experience and with far right ideology that drives bad decisions and reinforces prejudices.
Trump’s excuse for his actions is that there was a “mess” before he arrived, and he alone with unlimited powers can fix it. But he has deliberately made our nation and whole globe a real “mess” with his twisted madness and made us all more insecure.

There is in short, dysfunction but more than that it is, in my view, in key part deliberate misleading and manipulation of our citizens and the media (which they have too often acted as accomplices), accompanied by a destructive world view. He acts so as to run, in time, an authoritarian state based on one man and his family’s interests. A kind of conspiracy to up-end our best values, decency within our diverse society, to rip out the effort of government to help our most disadvantage citizens, and to create a world of even more conflict and chaos. This all to justify such rule. Already, he has undermined the institutions that have held this nation together protected our citizens and surely take from us all a nation truly great and doing good.

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