* “A shit sandwich”
is how Vice Admiral Robert Hayward described the job of National Security Advisor in the current administration, offered to him by The Donald, to replace fired Mike Flynn.
from CNN
Ret. Vice Admiral Bob Harward has turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to be national security adviser, sources told CNN Thursday.
A friend of Harward’s said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a “s*** sandwich,” the friend said.
Something tells me that Trump isn’t going to have any trouble finding incompetent and completely unqualified people to keep filling jobs. For a career officer to essentially spurn his own president in a time of war means something. I think it means we are headed for uncharted waters, and the falls are around the corner.”
**”Unchartered waters”, indeed. But I see it as perhaps a positive development, in so far as Hayward’s “spurning” of the position could be viewed as a very public act of resistance to the Trump administration.**
* “John McCain just systematically dismantled Donald Trump’s entire worldview
Speaking Sunday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, U.S. Sen. John McCain criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Syria’s nearly five-year civil war. ‘Mr. Putin is not interested in being our partner,’ said McCain. John McCain is increasingly mad as hell about President Donald Trump. And on Friday, he went after Trump – hard. During a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the Republican senator from Arizona delivered a pointed and striking point-by-point takedown of Trump’s worldview and brand of nationalism. McCain didn’t mention Trump’s name once, but he didn’t have to. And even considering the two men’s up-and-down history and the terrible things Trump has said about McCain, it was a striking display from a senior leader of a party when it comes to a president of the same party.
In his speech, McCain suggested the Western world is uniquely imperiled this year – even more so than when Barack Obama was president – and proceeded to question whether the Western world will survive.
“In recent years, this question would invite accusations of hyperbole and alarmism. Not this year,” McCain said. “If ever there were a time to treat this question with a deadly seriousness, it is now.”
In case there was any doubt that this was about Trump. Here’s what followed:
–“[The founders of the Munich conference] would be alarmed by an increasing turn away from universal values and toward old ties of blood and race and sectarianism.”
–“They would be alarmed by the hardening resentment we see toward immigrants and refugees and minority groups, especially Muslims.”
–“They would be alarmed by the growing inability, and even unwillingness, to separate truth from lies.”
That’s Trump, Trump and Trump.
McCain continued: “But what would alarm them most, I think, is a sense that many of our peoples, including in my own country, are giving up on the West, that they see it as a bad deal that we may be better off without, and that while Western nations still have the power to maintain our world order, it is unclear whether we have the will.”Trump has repeatedly suggested a desire to pull out of or scale back on international involvement and agreements. His slogan is “America first,” after all. And it’s not just on free trade: It’s also when it comes to things like NATO, the transatlantic military alliance that Trump suggest the United States is getting a bad deal on.
Then McCain invoked some of those close to Trump and emphasized that his message won’t square with theirs: “I know there is profound concern across Europe and the world that America is laying down the mantle of global leadership. I can only speak for myself, but I do not believe that is the message you will hear from all of the American leaders who cared enough to travel here to Munich this weekend. That is not the message you heard today from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. That is not the message you will hear from Vice President Mike Pence. That is not the message you will hear from Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly. And that is certainly not the message you will hear tomorrow from our bipartisan congressional delegation.” McCain then saved the biggest hit on Trump for the end. “I refuse to accept that our values are morally equivalent to those of our adversaries,” he said. “I am a proud, unapologetic believer in the West, and I believe we must always, always stand up for it. For if we do not, who will?”
Two weeks ago, you may recall, Trump suggested the United States didn’t exactly have the moral high ground on Russia. Asked by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly about wanting good relations with a “killer” like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump demurred. “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent? ” Ever since, it seems, he and McCain have been on a collision course. McCain didn’t fight back when Trump questioned his war-hero status long ago – perhaps because both men were trying to win elections – but the battle between McCain and the White House is picking up steam. And on Friday, McCain traveled across the Atlantic to deliver a calculated, planned attack on Trump’s entire system of beliefs.”
**This speech by McCain is the first significant Republican rebuke of the President. Hopefully, it will embolden others in his party to speak up, and to oppose Trump’s agenda. It’s up to the Republicans to save us from this maniac.**
*Mass deportations:
From Shareblue:
“Paul Ryan’s staff kicks Hispanic caucus members out of meeting on ICE raids
A Senior Democratic aide told Shareblue, “The Trump administration was given control over who got to attend the meeting. And Ryan’s staff were the enforcers.”
With families already being torn apart as a result of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were looking forward to meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to discuss the current and future impact on their communities.
However, ICE abruptly cancelled the meeting that had been arranged earlier this week, claiming that the Caucus had submitted a larger guest list than they anticipated.
After the cancellation, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, reached out to the GOP leadership of the House for direction. According to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a press conference, the Trump administration decided it wanted the meeting to be bipartisan and took the “highly unusual” step of designating who would attend from both parties — which did not include any members of the Hispanic Caucus.
When Caucus members arrived at the meeting in the trust that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) would grant them the courtesy of attending as guests, they were kicked out because they were not on the list of invited attendees.
After outcry by House Democratic leadership, Caucus Chair Representative Joaquín Castro (D-TX) was allowed to participate in the meeting…
Few Americans — even few Republicans — support mass deportations: An overwhelming 79 percent of Americans support a path to citizenship or permanent legal resident status for immigrants. Nonetheless, the Trump administration appears to be proceeding with plans to target as many immigrants as possible in its racist and nationalistic fervor.
Americans are stepping up to protest and try to prevent ICE raids, but the challenge of stopping the destruction of immigrant families and communities within the United States under Trump should not be underestimated — especially when even Hispanic members of Congress are treated with such disrespect by their own colleagues.”
**What a bunch of pricks!**
* Fox News (!) is turning on Trump
“Frustrated FOX News Anchor Shepard Smith Drops 8 Minutes Of Epic Truth Bombs On Live TV
Moments ago, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith unleashed 8 minutes of truth bombs during a live segment of his daytime cable news commentary TV show “Shepard Smith Reporting.” The moment happened just following the live broadcast of Donald Trump’s insane press conference. These wacky occurrences have become frequent directly preceding or directly following an event that Mr. Trump would like to deflect attention away from, though today’s performance only seemed to highlight the very things he was seeking to minimize.
And today, Shepard hit his breaking point, challenging Trump to tell the truth, admitting that Russians hacked the elections with the express goal of hurting his opponent and that questions as to whether he was aware and when he was aware of the hacking is pertinent and that Americans have a right to know.
Check out the full 8 minute segment below.
**Another important rebuke of Trump**
