Hey, the Roman Empire survived Caracalla and Heliogabalus.
I doubt the country will descend into chaos, as many fear. GOP leaders in Congress will become the de facto Executive Branch, so far as making sure the lights get turned on every morning and the essential business of governing and making policies and laws get conducted. Unfortunately that means people that are Trumpâs equals as far as being odious sociopaths will be driving the agenda of undoing the last eight years of Obamaâs Presidency. Far from chaos, I expect itâll be a quite efficient gutting of everything progressives, liberals, Democrats, environmentalists and women/immigrants/minorities rights advocates have worked for the over the last generation.
I agree with what youâre saying. I only add in the âchaosâ because of the many people whose lives are going to be turned completely inside out and wonât quite understand what to do, who to contact about it or where to go from here.
That should be interesting. getting a Secret Clarence is no small thing. You get grilled. They comb through your history and they find shit. Let me give an example.
When I was kid I lived in the Limburg Province of the Netherlands. My best friend there was a Russian named Karl. One night after about 10 glasses of beer we decided to climb up the speaker poles at the Maastricht train station and drop the refrigerator sized speakers to the tracks. YupâŚstupid but we were about 16 at the time. Got caught and it was a big damn mess. Queen Juliana was pissed and she sent us to the âhouse of waitingâ in Maastricht. Thatâs the can and we were âdetained for Her Majestyâs pleasureâ. No courts. No trials. I sat in a stone room with an art thief and a guy that beat his mother to death with a giant spoon. Pissed in a bucket and drank coffee all day.
My father was a DIA guy, posing as a business man, and I was cut loose because of that. They cleaned up everything. Wiped it all away. Not a trace of any of it kept on record. That was 1966.
In 1978 I was assigned to an 8 inch artillery battalion in Kitzingen Germany. That weapon could launch nuclear rounds so to be in Fire Control you had to have Nuclear Release clearance. Thatâs what folks call âTop Secretâ. The FBI set my interview in a GP small tent byf my FDC in in Grafenwoehr. They all but put electrodes on my balls. It was a 3 day affair. After day one the incident in Holland came up. How? Hell Queen J herself cleaned that shit up. The DIA and CIA were satisfied it was gone. But those security assholes found it. They knew Karl was a Russian too and that was a problem. They knew it all. They found crap that was cleaned up by the DIA and the fucking Queen.
Kush better have very clean balls.
True, but theyâre all in the 99% that doesnât merit concern, right? And I donât think saying âYes, but Congress members have constituents they have to keep happy and answer to, and they want re-elected, so keeping that 99% happy is important.â
Nah, Congress will assume in 2018 and beyond voting still comes down to either voting Democrat or Republican. They can abuse their flock and still get their votes. Just as I wouldnât vote for a Republican under any circumstances, Republicans will stay loyal to Trump and the GOP Congress despite any disappointments along the way.
Iâm curious if a President can overrule whatever agency theoretically is in charge of tanking a security clearance request. Is that within their power? Say the NSA/DIA/FBI/CIA says âNope, this guy embezzled funds meant for relief aid to Somalia back in '89.â
The President says âOh, well, I pardon him for that. Now whatâs your reason?â
How does procuring a security clearance proceed if the President chooses to push back against those asserting the right to turn it down?
This all has to have a chilling effect on any spies weâve got inside, for ex, Russia or China,
If I were one, Iâd be scared to death of being compromised by these morons in the White House.
Hopefully Ivanka would have a secure e-mail account, lest all her special discount offers on jewelry and clothing to the nationâs intel community result in a security breach.
Well, and also Grima Wormtongue Bannon. See, this is how they are gonna make America great again?
I truly believe that he trusts his children and Kushner completely and would not hesitate to share sensitive information with them regardless of their clearance levels. He has always thought he has the best judgement, and he will continue to believe that now that heâs the leader of the country. Nobody is going to tell him he canât talk to his own children.
Shorter Spicer: The president shouldnât have to ask for security clearances for his children. They should just be allowed to sit in on the meetings since itâs part of the family business
Makes sense. POTUS, his top general and the guy that runs his state-owned newspaper all making sure together that they know what the briefings say so they can all discuss how to misinform the public about them as they cause a war.
âŚso the spouse of the person who will be put in charge of the Trump Organization should be given Top Secret clearance. Nothing wrong with that I am sure that none of that information will get to his wife to be used for business advantage not to mention that this armature at governance is the publisher of a major newspaper. It might be much easier if we just published all the classified information in our possession in Kushner;s newspaper. That will make America Great Again!
NPR reports that the Trump crew is admitting the request was made, but by a low-level staffer. The old âblame it on the fired internâ excuse.
ETA: I guess itâs entirely possible the kids did this behind his back since heâs probably not paying much attention to the details.
HR rules require the identity remains confidential, all we can tell you is their initials are DT.
Looking at those smug punks and their trophy kills makes me want to turn their own guns on them. And Iâm a peaceful person.
Agree. If our nation survives the utter and complete devastation of all our social agreements and the safety net, it will take decades to build it back up. The survivors might not be up to the task. Weâll be a nation in decline, dominated by Russia and China.
At which point the nation will elect Barron Trump to the Presidency and heâll tear it all back apart.
Fake news will become the crime du jour. The Trump administration will create their own and also have surrogates create it to supplement the drivel put out by Fox.
Fox will effectively have become the administrationâs Pravda (âtruthâ in Russian) a GOP and Trump house organ.
Will there be truth in the news? âi read it in the newsâ ( or âheard it on Foxâ) will cause eye rolling and cynical smiles.
Iâm re-reading âWhy Orwell Matters,â by the late Christopher Hitchens, more of a long essay than a book.Orwell, and his warnings are more relevant now than they ever were.
You heard it here.Weâre fucked, on the down slope to fascism.
Friend of a friend said the other day that Trumpâs saying heâd not take a salary as President proved heâs not in this for the money.
Yeah, I know. Good stuff, huh?