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mcar

(42,334 posts) Fri Mar 1, 2019, 08:21 PM Mar 2019

Pierce: How in the Name of Our Bearded Lord Are We All Still Alive?

How in the Name of Our Bearded Lord Are We All Still Alive?
A report on the chaos in the early days of Trump's National Security Council is absolutely terrifying.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
MAR 1, 2019

't want to alarm anyone unnecessarily, but the following things are going on right now, at this very moment, around the world: India and Pakistan are shooting at each other's airplanes but have not yet decided to drop nuclear bombs on each other. A summit aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean peninsula collapsed before lunch in Hanoi. There is an Ebola outbreak in the Congo to which Doctors Without Borders has had to stop responding because there's also a civil war in the Congo. (One infected person from that area lands at Kennedy and Camp Runamuck goes to ClownCon 1.) And the foreign policy of the United States is not far removed from the days in which it was being run by crazy people.

This astonishing—and frankly, terrifying—tale of the early days of this administration* appears in Politico, and it genuinely makes you wonder how we all happen still to be alive.

What [Susan] Rice didn’t — couldn’t — tell these government employees was that the dawn of the Trump administration would be a time of extraordinary personal and professional torment for them; that they’d be asked to make ethically, and legally, dubious decisions while ignoring facts and evidence on basic issues to fit the president’s whims; that they would be vilified as “Obama holdovers” and treated like an enemy within, to the point where some of their lives were threatened; that they’d grow so paranoid they would seek “safe spaces” to speak to each other, use encrypted apps to talk to their mothers, and go on documentation sprees to protect themselves and inform history; that at least one career staffer would cry on the way home from work every night; and that another would call Trump a “dumpster fire” in a farewell message.

...

The story illustrates that the administration* came into office determined to "disrupt" the workings of the National Security Council, but with no earthly idea how to do it—or, for that matter, what the NSC was supposed to do in the first place. Security clearances were handed out like chocolate eggs at Easter. (Hi, Jared!) Michael Flynn was the primary agent of chaos, but there was a whole brigade of bungling elves behind him...

One Trump appointee, conservative commentator Sebastian Gorka, would show up at random meetings, even though it was never clear whether he had the proper security clearance, and he would often raise unrelated points. One former White House official recalled Gorka saying such things as, “‘If you look at what Napoleon did ...’ and we’d all be like, ‘I don’t even know how to respond to that.’” (Asked for comment, Gorka told a POLITICO reporter, “Take a long run off a short pier, you utter hack.”)

Gorka then returned to the crypt for a long, leisurely siesta in the soil of his native land.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26590192/trump-national-security-council-chaos/

14 replies

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Highlight:

Pierce: How in the Name of Our Bearded Lord Are We All Still Alive? (Original Post) mcar Mar 2019 OP

We are in the "worst of times". sheshe2 Mar 2019 #1

Sometimes I worry that we won't survive this mcar Mar 2019 #7

I worry too, mcar. sheshe2 Mar 2019 #9

WTF! I'm certain that I hadn't heard about this one before htuttle Mar 2019 #2

So many abuses mcar Mar 2019 #8

Republicans run on the platform that government doesn't work well. gtar100 Mar 2019 #3

they really bdamomma Mar 2019 #4

+1 2naSalit Mar 2019 #5

+1000 smirkymonkey Mar 2019 #6

Republicans hate non-fascist government Hermit-The-Prog Mar 2019 #12

They are now ALL Trump-Republicons. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Mar 2019 #13

Love Charles P. Pierce! N/T worstexever Mar 2019 #10

The billionaire owners of the Republican party want a chaotic world. KY_EnviroGuy Mar 2019 #11

"Camp Runamuck (R) goes to ClownCon 1" Achilleaze Mar 2019 #14

sheshe2

(83,785 posts)

1. We are in the "worst of times".

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:09 PM

Mar 2019

Not sure how much more the world can stand. Trumps America is destroying us all. Unsettled, unbalanced and on the eve of destruction. We are on the eve of destruction.

mcar

(42,334 posts)

7. Sometimes I worry that we won't survive this

Reply to sheshe2 (Reply #1)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 10:14 PM

Mar 2019

200+ years and we're brought down by a grifter and the political party that made him possible.

sheshe2

(83,785 posts)

9. I worry too, mcar.

Reply to mcar (Reply #7)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 10:29 PM

Mar 2019

Their silence at the Cohen hearing on trump and their denial that he could do anything wrong and everyone else was a liar. They know full well what he is and they are complicit in his crimes. They are in fact crimes against humanity.

htuttle

(23,738 posts)

2. WTF! I'm certain that I hadn't heard about this one before

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:16 PM

Mar 2019

In the days immediately following the inauguration, a former Marine intelligence officer named Robin Townley showed up in the offices of the Africa directorate, having been let on the White House grounds by someone in the administration. Townley was expecting to take over the Africa division as a senior director. NSC staffers welcomed him, and soon he was reading their top-secret material. But within days, Townley vanished. A person from the NSC’s resource management section soon arrived to inform career staffers that Townley had lacked a proper security clearance. If they saw Townley again and shared anything remotely sensitive with him, this person warned, they could lose their own security clearances.

I found a few things about Townley. Apparently, he worked for Flynn at some point.

mcar

(42,334 posts)

8. So many abuses

Reply to htuttle (Reply #2)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 10:15 PM

Mar 2019

Books will be written, and documentaries produced, for decades after this.

gtar100

(4,192 posts)

3. Republicans run on the platform that government doesn't work well.

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:37 PM

Mar 2019

And they prove it everyday with the decisions they make.

bdamomma

(63,868 posts)

4. they really

Reply to gtar100 (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:44 PM

Mar 2019

want to drown us in the bathtub. Drugging up millions of Americans, gun killings. I don't know how people think this POS is the best pResident heard that just now on Chris Hayes from the CPAC, boy they are fucked up.

2naSalit

(86,643 posts)

5. +1

Reply to bdamomma (Reply #4)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:52 PM

Mar 2019

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)

6. +1000

Reply to gtar100 (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 09:53 PM

Mar 2019

Hermit-The-Prog

(33,349 posts)

12. Republicans hate non-fascist government

Reply to gtar100 (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 11:55 PM

Mar 2019

Republicans want a tiny government -- of Republicans -- that works for industry.

Bernardo de La Paz

(49,002 posts)

13. They are now ALL Trump-Republicons. . . . nt

Reply to gtar100 (Reply #3)

Sat Mar 2, 2019, 02:39 AM

Mar 2019

worstexever

(265 posts)

10. Love Charles P. Pierce! N/T

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 11:06 PM

Mar 2019

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,492 posts)

11. The billionaire owners of the Republican party want a chaotic world.

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Fri Mar 1, 2019, 11:17 PM

Mar 2019

Sort of like the owners of an NBA or NFL sports team - invisible but extremely powerful.

Trump and his carefully selected cabinet and staff are a perfect fit for their mission.....

Achilleaze

(15,543 posts)

14. "Camp Runamuck (R) goes to ClownCon 1"

Reply to mcar (Original post)

Sat Mar 2, 2019, 07:24 AM

Mar 2019

sad

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