So far it’s looking like a mix of good and bad. His national security adviser, Retired Gen. Michael Flynn, isn’t too bad, but the AG (Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions) and CIA Director (Republican congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas) suck.
I think Flynn’s wiki page has been edited to make him look as bad as possible, but he does have some redeeming qualities. In the past, Flynn has opposed waterboarding and other extreme interrogation techniques. He has given speeches at Russian political events, was a pundit on RT, and seems willing to work with the Russians.
The AG is anti-pot and the CIA Director is pro-domestic surveillance. I think Sessions is a racist, a term I don’t use lightly; and Pompeo actually said Snowden should be put to death.
In 1986, Sessions became only the second nominee in 50 years to be denied confirmation as a federal judge (by a republican committee) after allegations that he had made racist remarks. Citing DemocracyNow, two Republicans, including Arlen Specter, voted against him. His fellow senator from Alabama, Howell Heflin, also voted against him, citing, quote, “reasonable doubts” over Sessions’ ability to be “fair and impartial.”
Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified that Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was “OK until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, and apologized for it – but still, I think that joke shows you where his mind is at.
I suspect we will see a lot of polarizing appointments in terms of libertarian values from the Trump camp. If I had to guess how this will play out, we’ll probably see some great appointments in terms of regulatory bodies or finance, with absolutely abhorrent appointments to any posts dealing with civil rights issues, like the DEA, NSA or justice department.
I’ll try and update this post as more nominations become public.
Update 11/19
The NYT put together a short list of appointments.
I wouldn’t mind seeing McChrystal as Secretary of State, but he’ll probably put John Bolton there just to piss me off. I wouldn’t mind seeing Palin or Brewer for the Interior Secretary. The rest of the lot are pretty much a steaming pile of shit. If he goes with James Mattis for Sec Def, we can be pretty sure we’re going to end up in a war with Iran at some point.
His short list looks like it could have been made by any of the other Republican monkeys that ran against him. I suppose that’s to be expected.
