The Imperial Presidency

[Labster]

At risk of actually creating a thread #2 on this year's election after it's pretty much over, it's time to create a new thread about Donald J. Trump: the man, the myth, actually it's pretty much all myth.

So one of the first things Trump did was to say that he expects the new Senate leadership to bring back recess appointments.  Any new majority leader would have to say that he (definitely he) will let Trump do it.  And honestly, I think he's probably right?

So the background is that the Senate has the right to review all Presidential appointments above a certain level, unless the Senate is in recess, in which case the President can appoint someone on an interim basis.  This makes sense, right?  What has happened in practice is that the Senate would just not confirm people, hold appointees forever until some political compromise was made.  And then just, like, never actually go out of session.  Even when everyone is gone from DC, to have one or two members of Senate leadership on the floor to like pretend that they still had quorum (which they do until someone makes a quorum call, even if there are obviously only two guys there).  No one gets voted down, they just get eventually withdrawn.  This system sucks.

But what will Trump do with this power?  Well, remember the spoils system of the 1800s, where bureaucrats were given offices based on their support of the candidate?  Basically that.  Our country survived a century on a political bureaucracy, so not so bad, right?

Except, well, let's look at the quality of people Trump wants to nominate:

• Marco Rubio, Secretary of State - "Little Marco"
  
• Robert Kennedy Jr, Secretary of Health and Human Services - thinks vaccines are bad and once left a dead bear in Central Park, as you do
  
• Matt Gaetz, Attorney General - resigned Congress to take this job, just a few days before the Ethics Committee's report would have been released
  
• Doug Bergum, Secretary of the Interior - some state governor I don't know, name sounds like an ingredient in Earl Grey tea
  
• Elise Stefanik, Ambassador to the United Nations
  
• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence
  
• Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, veteran and Fox News host
  
• Sources say: Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security - this former rodeo queen and former governor is best known for securing her home by killing her family dog
  

This list of cabinet members has been carefully crafted to own the libs.  So lets just focus on one of the people above, Tulsi Gabbard.

I think I've made it known for years here that I consider Gabbard a Russian agent, or at least a Russian asset.  She was once Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, but she's always been something of a thorn in the side.  She's anti-war, anti-American imperialism, and in favor of an isolationist United States.  Oddly enough at about the same time as RT news switched from promoting left-wing causes to promoting right-wing causes, Tulsi Gabbard also switched and started having more right wing talking points.  What a coincidence.

So basically, of anyone you want associated with intelligence, why not someone who share's Russia's values?  What can go wrong?  Since I've been doing WWII parallels, this is kind of like Churchill becoming PM and appointing Unity Mitford as head of MI6.  The mind boggles.

Shall I add a bit more fuel to the fire?  The Daily Beast here refers to The Daily Mail's report that Tulsi and her husband are tied to the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), described as an alt-right branch of Hare Krishna, who apparently has a man-god leading them named Chris Butler.  I mean, this report could be tabloid crap, but "alt-right Hare Krishna" was not a phrase I was expecting to hear, ever.

The national security establishment is unimpressed, with an off-the-record comment describing her nomination as "a left turn and off the bridge."  W.'s UN Ambassador called Gabbard the "worst cabinet-level appointment in history."  Well, until the next day when Matt Gaetz was nominated.  If I were FVEY country, I would really consider stopping intelligence sharing with America, to avoid having their own agents compromised.

Honestly, I have no doubts in my mind that I could to a better job than Tulsi Gabbard -- in fact any of the forum regulars here would be a better choice to serve as our intelligence director.  Including the Dutchman and the socialist Irishman, who at least would still have a chance of actually serving the interest of Western civilization, unlike this lady. 

So that's what we have right now: a whole list of cabinet members designed to own the libs, make money, and reduce our republicanism.  Oh, and without needing the Senate to approve them.

[robkelk]

If I were FVEY country, I would really consider stopping intelligence sharing with America, to avoid having their own agents compromised.

Something I learned in an unclassified discussion: All intelligence must be identified with which of the five eyes originally provided it. The rule was put in place so that people receiving the briefings would not assume that a single piece of intelligence that is repeated in the briefing because it was repeated by other eyes is not given undue emphasis.

I'm thinking that this can be leveraged to mitigate (not dispel, just mitigate) Labster's concerns here. I won't say how.

[hazard]

If I somehow ended up the national intelligence director the only thing I would be doing would trying to keep an eye out to shut down any of the 'are you fucking morons' things like 'let us go torture a bunch of people' or 'this politician is annoying, let us shoot him' and otherwise basically let them run wild because fuck if I know how to run intelligence.

Which would no doubt annoy a lot of people who think intelligence is about hard men making hard decisions while hard, but those people are generally useless, especially when hard decisions have to be made.

[Labster]

I get the feeling that most upper management roles are just putting out fires caused by other people.  Also I think the era of assassination and coups was pretty detrimental to America's interests, at least in the long run.  Quite a few times we supported coups in favor of someone far worse -- and then we complain about illegal immigration.  You'd be doing us a favor.

A summary of Cold War intelligence I saw on Reddit once went something like this:

* Pretend to be competent, while flying by the seat of your pants
* Spend most of your time reacting to events at the last minute
* Meanwhile in Russia, everyone is also pretending to be competent
* Something goes wrong in Russia: oh no, let's not go to the gulag
* Blame Western spies for missing production targets
* Western spies don't deny the "victory", because why would you?
* This happens a few times, and Western intelligence gets a reputation for competence
* Actually commies are just incompetent in general
* CIA still flying by the seat of their pants
* Let's try psychic powers, maybe they work?

[MilkmanConspiracy]

A summary of Cold War intelligence I saw on Reddit once went something like this:

* Pretend to be competent, while flying by the seat of your pants
* Spend most of your time reacting to events at the last minute
* Meanwhile in Russia, everyone is also pretending to be competent
* Something goes wrong in Russia: oh no, let's not go to the gulag
* Blame Western spies for missing production targets
* Western spies don't deny the "victory", because why would you?
* This happens a few times, and Western intelligence gets a reputation for competence
* Actually commies are just incompetent in general
* CIA still flying by the seat of their pants
* Let's try psychic powers, maybe they work?

If you want the book version of this, I recommend "The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine" by Andrew Cockburn. ISBN 0-394-72379-1

[robkelk]

AP, breaking: Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s pick for attorney general

And that's pretty much all that's in the article as I post this. There might be more later.