REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

The Trump Cabinet

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, January 5, 2017 09:03
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Sunday, December 11, 2016 12:14 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I promised myself that at some point I would go through the Trump Cabinet so far, and do some research on them to see if I can find anything insightful, or to maybe detect a pattern on Trump's future policies. Because Trump, being a negotiator, DOES keep his cards pretty close to his vest, and is quite often unpredictable.

Here are my first two finds:

WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE
HISTORY: "Wilbur Louis Ross, Jr. (born November 28, 1937) is an American investor, and former banker, known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel, coal, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles. He specializes in leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses. As of August 2014, Forbes magazine lists Ross as one of the world's billionaires with a net worth of $2.9 billion." (Wikipedia)

So I looked up the businesses that he restructured

He created the International Steel Group which acquired (2002-2005) Acme Steel, LTV (steel), Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Gary plate mill of U.S. Steel, Weirton Steel, Georgetown Steel, and HBI (Trinidad and Tobago). Originally headquartered in Cleveland, he merged ISG with Mittal Steel Company, which took over Arcelor in 2006 to form ArcelorMittal, headquartered in Luxembourg. ArcelorMittal closed the Bethlehem steel location in Lackawanna in 2008 (But to be fair, the facility had been defunct for decades) and LTV Steel in Hennepin. But still has 13 locations in the USA.

Intl Automotive Components was a combination of various USA and foreign-based automotive interior parts manufacturers, now headquartered in Luxembourg*.
International Coal Group is headquartered in W VA
Safety Components intl is headquarerd in Greenville
International Textile is headquartered in Greenville.

Also worked for Bill Clinton. Catholic.

WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT: Ross is very much unlike Chainsaw Al. Chainsaw Al used to buy up failing companies just to declare bankruptcy and sell off their individual parts. Ross buys up companies and gets them funding in order to make them function. His focus is on MANUFACTURING, not "finance". He has headquartered companies in both the USA and abroad (and BTW I looked up Luxembourg's "tax haven" status and see what Trump ic complaining about.)

The upside is that Ross is astutely aware of what it takes to make a successful manufacturing business. The downside is that sometimes it meant cutting safety corners or headquartering abroad. IF Ross can focus on expanding United States manufacturing and not quite so much on cutthroat international competition (which is a loser's game) then he could be a powerful asset. If not, he could be terribly damaging to the American worker, because there's no point in expanding American manufacturing (except strategic ones) if it means everyone is working for $2/hr.

RETIRED GENERAL JAMES "MAD DOG" MATTIS, DEFENSE
HISTORY: Retired US Marine Corps General, Commander of Centcomm (mideast, NE Africa, to Central Asia); who was out on the battlefield with his men even as a colonel. Maybe the best way to understand Mattis is from his quotes:

"If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don't take the shot. Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act."Mattis authored the military's counterinsurgency manual (along with Petraeus).
"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f--- with me, I'll kill you all." Carrot and stick
"A country that armed Stalin to defeat Hitler can certainly work alongside enemies of Al Qaeda to defeat Al Qaeda."
My personal favorite: "PowerPoint makes us stupid." Mattis actually banned briefers from using Powerpoint while he was in charge of US Central Command — a practice other top generals have followed.
Also Catholic.

WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT: Mattis' battlefield experience with terrorists in the Middle East has focused his attention on terrorists as the real threat, not Russia. That one quote seems to be very much in line with Trump's concept of allying with Russia, at least on a situational basis, to take care of that threat first. He does not seem to be a neocon.


Cabinet list so far:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_appointments_of_Donald_Trump

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Sunday, December 11, 2016 12:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Very insightful and educational Sigs. Thanks for that.

I doubt that anything would ever make the REAL Union jobs stateside pay only near minimum wage, but the real threat is all of the Union Jobs go abroad and there are ZERO men in the US left without college degrees making more than minimum wage at a retail BS job.


If any jobs should lose Union Status it would be Teachers.

They are professionals with an education to back them up. They never have to worry about dying early of lung disease from breathing Coal Dust all day or simply being squashed when a mineshaft collapses.

They have no more right to a Union Job and protection than a 16 year old working at Wal Mart does.

Teachers Unions, and all of the Abuse they have done over the years is a HUGE part of the reason why a lot of the People without Union jobs want all Unions destroyed.



Because I am not family to anyone in an Union, as you know and I've talked about here, I was never accepted into one even though I was only a few away in the HVAC union and would have been hired at that number in any pre 2007 economic climate.

But I am still 100% Pro Union, when it comes to jobs where (mainly) men risk their lives everyday, and/or they build things like bridges and buildings and things we take for granted won't just crumble while we're walking in them. Elevator Repair Unions. Electricians. Stone Masons. Iron Workers.

Imagine a US where we didn't have unions for those types of wokers. Where every time you walked into a building you risked it falling on top of you or an electrical fire because they hired a bunch of replacable minimum wage workers with no skills to build it.



So why don't we hold Teachers to the same standards?

They have a Union, and short of raping a kid and getting caught red handed, it's nearly impossible for a teacher to get fired, no matter how shitty they are at their job.


Our fucking buildings and bridges are built rock solid by masters of the trade, but Teachers in general are terrible at what they do and get worse every year.



The TRUE Building Blocks of America are our Children and their education.

For being the Self-Proclaimed "BEST" of the super powers, why are we ranked no higher than the mid 20's in EVERY subject in the world?

It's like Angola spanking the Dream Team back in the day.


I guarantee you that we'd have a TOP SCHOOL SYSTEM if teachers actually had to compete and there wasn't a teacher's union.



As an added bonus, kids wouldn't be indoctrinated in College with their safe spaces either.

It's easy for Professor Dipshit to encourage safe spaces when his tenure ensures he has more protection from losing his job than a Catholic Priest who gets caught raping alter boys

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, December 11, 2016 2:10 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Signy - doing research - that's a great concept! Someone should tell the media about it. Maybe it can adopt that idea too.

STENOGRAPHY CLASS





How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Sunday, December 11, 2016 4:48 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Wilbur Ross. If one was to look for a person who best knew what were the problems created by our government, obstructing the paths of success for our businesses, his resume looks like the template. Although he had to move corporation headquarters outside of the U.S. to be viable, he has intimate knowledge of what the knife-edge decisions were teetering on - which U.S. controlled factors forced the hand.
Not to guarantee which way he will proceed, but he certainly knows where the bodies are buried in this minefield.


Gen James Mattis, USMC. One item I noticed which may be overlooked by some, yet of interest to those in the military. He Enlisted first (1968), and was enlisted during 3 calendar years, but not long enough to warrant a Good Conduct Medal. Many a great officer would have traded a GCM for anything. His entire enlisted period was during the Vietnam War.

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Monday, December 12, 2016 7:54 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Signy - doing research - that's a great concept! Someone should tell the media about it. Maybe it can adopt that idea too.

Latest loon for Trump's cabinet: Young-blood-loving, kidney-market advocate Jim O'Neill
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/08/oneill_latest_loon_for_trumps_cabinet/

8 Dec 2016 at 22:47, Kieren McCarthy

Having chosen a climate-change denier to head the US government's environment agency, an opponent of minimum wage for the Labor Department, a creationist for Education Secretary, a mine-owner for Commerce, and a wrestling exec to oversee small businesses – president-elect Donald Trump is now considering putting a man with very strange ideas about medicine as head of Uncle Sam's Food and Drug Administration.

It is probably no coincidence that Jim O'Neill is a close business associate of gay contrarian Peter Thiel, aka the Only Man in Silicon Valley to Support Trump. Having taken a wild punt on Trump to win, Thiel has now become one of the Donald's advisors.

O'Neill is managing director of one of Thiel's investment funds, Mithril Capital Management, having previously been MD of a different Thiel hedge fund, Clarium Capital. He also launched the Thiel Fellowship, which pays students to drop out of college to take a stab at becoming entrepreneurs. And like his billionaire pal, O'Neill has some peculiar beliefs.

For example, he is on the board of the Seasteading Institute, which envisions setting up independent societies at sea, imbued with libertarian philosophies. That would ensure "freedom," according to O'Neill.

Far more relevant in relation to a possible FDA role, however, is the fact that O'Neill, like Thiel, believes that it is possible to reverse the effects of aging by, um, taking the blood of young people and pumping it into old people like them. Scientists think it's not that simple.

Do you a deal – $500 for your spleen

O'Neill also seems to think that setting up a market for kidneys is a good idea. As opposed to an absolutely terrible, appalling idea. "There are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around, unused," he told his Seasteading Institute in a speech.

And specifically on the FDA, O'Neill said in a speech in 2014 that he feels the FDA's checks on new drugs before approving them were actually killing a lot of people rather than, you know, saving a lot of people from being killed.

"The regulatory costs that the FDA impose kill a lot of people and provide a lot of harm to the economy," he noted, before going on to explain that when he entered the real world, he found out that insane ideologies dreamt up by rich white men were not all they are cracked up to be. "One thing that surprised me is that the actual human beings at the Food and Drug Administration like science; they like curing disease and they actually like approving drugs and devices and biologics."

Yes, amazing. Who'd have thought it? And it's just that kind of insight that we need in a future head of the government agency that oversees the safety of products that millions of Americans put into their bodies every day.

O'Neill does at least have some government experience – he was an associate deputy secretary at the department of health in the Bush Administration – but he doesn't have any medical or scientific experience.

Of the 22 FDA commissioners since it was created in 1907, only three have not been doctors or scientific researchers, but every one of those three had spent their adult working lives focused on food and drug inspections. The last non-medical professional chosen as FDA Commissioner was George Larrick in 1954.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, December 12, 2016 10:05 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Lazy reporting. Given the lack of detail about the broad scope of each individual's history - settling for previously-reported three-word characterizations - I suspect they got their 'news' directly from other recently published 'news' that was just as superficial.

I hope they're doing better than they did for the election. But we won't know until after-the-fact. Or, given how bad reporting is nowadays, maybe not even then.




How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Monday, December 12, 2016 12:25 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.




RETIRED ARMY GENERAL MICHAEL FLYNN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR

47-minute interview



Quote:

“I spoke at DIA last month,” the former secretary of state wrote in a hacked email released this summer. “Flynn got fired as head of DIA. His replacement is a black Marine 3-star. I asked why Flynn got fired. Abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since.”

Those who know Flynn best say the roots of his enmity towards Obama and Clinton —and his startlingly enthusiastic embrace of Trump — dates back to his abrupt dismissal from the DIA, the Pentagon’s intelligence-gathering arm and a longtime bureaucratic rival to the CIA.

In 2012, Flynn proposed overhauling the agency so it would maintain a network of covert operatives to expand its network of overseas spies, according to a long article I co-wrote in Foreign Policy about the fight. The move infuriated the CIA, which worked hard to stop the creation of what could have ultimately come to rival its larger and better-known cadre of covert operatives.



MORE AT http://www.vox.com/2016/11/17/13673280/mike-flynn-trump-new-national-s
ecurity-adviser-russia-isis-obama-clinton-turkey


WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT: Gen Flynn was head of the DIA, which correctly predicted the ascendancy of a "caliphate" (ISIL) out of arming the "rebel" group in Syria. This group (DIA analysts) were the ones who wrote an open letter claiming that their findings were significantly watered down for the WH, which tended to want to hear happy news about its strategy (whatever that was) in Syria. This was AFTER Flynn had left.

In the interview, Flynn was critical of Obama as being too TACTICAL, when a much longer-term strategy was necessary. However, one good call by staff does not a genius make. He believes that the mideast needs a new economic base beyond oil (it does) but also that the west can make it happen (it can't). His concern about Iran appears to be that a weak nuclear deal will set off a round of nuclearization, especially since nations like Saudi Arabia and Turkey haven inked nuclear power plant deals with Russia, but my understanding is that Russia in essence "leases" the power plants to the host nations and manages all operations including nuclear fuel reprocessing, so his fears appear to be groundless. A strong ally in any internal fight between the President and the CIA (State and CIA has been Obama's downfall, IMHO.) Possibly an "outside the box" but lightweight thinker, unable to distinguish "probable" from "unlikely".


-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If I could write inflammatory commentary to scorch the eye brows and lashes off Trump, Signym or 1kiki, I would.- SECOND"

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Monday, December 12, 2016 12:27 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Lazy reporting. Given the lack of detail about the broad scope of each individual's history - settling for previously-reported three-word characterizations - I suspect they got their 'news' directly from other recently published 'news' that was just as superficial.

I hope they're doing better than they did for the election. But we won't know until after-the-fact. Or, given how bad reporting is nowadays, maybe not even then.

A typical 1kiki response, where you brush aside what you don't want to know. But if you look up the Trump people's histories for yourself I suggest you not go to the GOP or Breitbart. They accentuate the positive about the Trump family and their administration.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, December 12, 2016 5:08 PM

RIVERLOVE


B-b-b-baby you ain't seen nothing yet!




ONLY 39 DAYS UNTIL I-DAY!

It'll be raining Trump Men! Don't forget to bring your umbrella.



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Tuesday, December 13, 2016 1:45 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


COPIED FROM HERE (The Electoral College) http://www.fireflyfans.net/mreply.aspx?q=y&mid=1021259

As I parse through Trump's Cabinet picks, I see that he places a very high value on loyalty. So far, I see a person who is willing to go to war against the neocons embedded in the State Department and the CIA. - SIGNY

------

Signym, at least you got the loyalty to Trump thing right, but you got the Neocon thing wrong. Michael Flynn, NatSecAdvisor, is a scary nut, not the scourge of Neocons.

Neocon John Bolton to be #2 at the State Department. Bolton is the neocon still defending President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, if you forgot.

Starting at 2:12 on the video, Bolton shows loyalty to Trump, although that does require him to smear everyone but Trump:



And then there is Goldman Sachs. Trump often railed against the influence of Wall Street investment firms generally, and Goldman Sachs in particular. So Trump hires three Goldmen:

Trump named the chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn to lead the National Economic Council.

Trump named Steve Bannon senior advisor in the White House. Bannon previously worked at Goldman Sachs, in acquisitions and mergers.

Trump named Steven Mnuchin, a partner at Goldman as secretary of the treasury.- SECOND



-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If I could write inflammatory commentary to scorch the eye brows and lashes off Trump, Signym or 1kiki, I would.- SECOND"

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Tuesday, December 13, 2016 5:08 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Department of the Treasury, secretary
Steven Mnuchin
The shadow of 2008 is apparently short. Mnuchin, who most recently served as finance chief for Trump’s campaign, started his career at Goldman Sachs. He’s never held public office, and made billions off the housing bubble by purchasing a subprime lender later fined over dubious foreclosure practices. “Steve Mnuchin is the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said last month. “He managed to participate in all the worst practices on Wall Street.”

Department of Justice, attorney general
Jeff Sessions
An Alabama senator, Sessions served as a DOJ prosector for almost 15 years, and has wasted no opportunity to criticize the evolution of the department under Obama. He has also called the Voting Rights Act “a piece of intrusive legislation” and in an interview with Breitbart last year said it was “appropriate to begin to discuss” a ban on Muslim immigrants. He voted against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and against expanding the definition of a hate crime to include LGBT victims. He’s also against marijuana legalization. Oh, and in 1986, a Republican Senate rejected him for a federal judgeship due to his history of racist comments.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, December 15, 2016 3:34 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


My impression uv Trumps picks iz that they are jokes; az if he knowz they arent going to matter for sum reazon.

Wut that reazon iz coud be very interesting.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Thursday, December 15, 2016 11:01 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Signym, at least you got the loyalty to Trump thing right, but you got the Neocon thing wrong. Michael Flynn, NatSecAdvisor, is a scary nut, not the scourge of Neocons. - SECOND


SECOND, since there are only so many hours in a day and there's only so many sources that I can look at, can you please tell me what Flynn has said or done that's scary? Please be specific, I'd really like to follow up, thanks.

AFA the Energy Department, I can see that Trump thinks its a boondoggle by the person he appointed to head it. I myself have often wondered what the Energy Department does besides nuclear power (so the Pentagon would have its bomb-making material). I see battery research grants and solar cell research grants and I think "renewable energy" venture capital investments (and ongoing subsidies to Elon Musk, who seems to be stuck to the government teat for his business models). Some of these activities seem useful but I'm not really sure what they do overall, it seems a bit unfocused. I guess the only way to find out for sure would be to look at their budget.

And, hopefully, they will focus on cleaning up Hanford, which is a Fukushima-sized radiological disaster waiting to happen.



-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If I could write inflammatory commentary to scorch the eye brows and lashes off Trump, Signym or 1kiki, I would.- SECOND"

Hillary knew all about the Electoral College when she ran for office. All of this after-the-fact bitching is still just an attempt to rewrite history. I guess you're all still in various stages of grief, including anger, denial, and bargaining, all rol

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Friday, December 16, 2016 6:15 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Just bumping this for SECOND: Please provide background for your opinion that Flynn is a "scary nut". I've heard a lot of bad but unspecific things about Flynn along those lines, so I thought I'd go looking for info online. I obviously didn't find what YOU found, but would be interested in knowing the details. Now is your time to be the loyal opposition! All I want is the kind of information I might have overlooked, thanks.

Quotes, actions, events in detail would be helpful.



-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If I could write inflammatory commentary to scorch the eye brows and lashes off Trump, Signym or 1kiki, I would.- SECOND"

Hillary knew all about the Electoral College when she ran for office. All of this after-the-fact bitching is still just an attempt to rewrite history. I guess you're all still in various stages of grief, including anger, denial, and bargaining, all rol

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Monday, December 19, 2016 6:15 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Yanno, I'm just going to point out that after calling Flynn a "scary nut", and being asked for specific information (quotes, events) that would support that characterization, SECONDHAND (as usual) has nothing to add.

That's because she downloads her opinions direct from the MSM onto the board. If not for the download, SECONDHAND (whose opinions are always secondhand and not an original thought among them!) would not have anything to post at all.




-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If you aren't aware, Texans don't have much concern for the well-being of Yankees or Californians, even Yankee factory workers in Indiana "- SECOND

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Monday, December 19, 2016 4:43 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Yanno, I'm just going to point out that after calling Flynn a "scary nut", and being asked for specific information (quotes, events) that would support that characterization, SECONDHAND (as usual) has nothing to add.

That's because she downloads her opinions direct from the MSM onto the board. If not for the download, SECONDHAND (whose opinions are always secondhand and not an original thought among them!) would not have anything to post at all.

Hey Granny, use the Google.- GSTRING

I did. Except it wasn't google, directly, I use an anonymizer.

'Cause you know what google is- don't you? It's a planatir. You think you're looking into it, and it's looking right back into YOU. (It gathers more info from you than you do from it. )

That's how I found a 45-minute interview with Flynn on the mideast. Well, I heard some things that were uninformed, and I think he's a little bit of a fast talker, but not anything that I would call "scary". So I'll be happy to look into your link, thanks.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/colin-powell-blasted-trumps-c
hief-military-advisor?utm_term=.dyYpDbB8o#.inre29ByV





-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If you aren't aware, Texans don't have much concern for the well-being of Yankees or Californians, even Yankee factory workers in Indiana "- SECOND

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Monday, December 19, 2016 8:53 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


One worry is whether Ivanka will sink his legacy. She sounds like the biggest disaster so far.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016 4:18 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


FLYNN

Quote:

“I spoke at DIA last month,” Powell wrote in a July 19 email exchange with his son. “Flynn got fired as head of DIA. His replacement is a black Marine 3-star. I asked why Flynn got fired. Abusive with staff
Such as?

Quote:

didn’t listen, worked against policy
If the policy is wrong, working against it isn't such a bad idea

Quote:

bad management
Such as?

Quote:

etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since. I watched about five minutes on line of his talked [sic] and switched off.”

The Washington Post reported when Flynn was forced out of the DIA that “critics said that his management style could be chaotic” and he clashed with other senior intelligence officials. Flynn, when was being vetted as a possible vice presidential candidate for Trump, wrote in the New York Post that the “military fired me for calling our enemies radical jihadis.” In a profile of Flynn last month, the Washington Post spoke to a former senior U.S. intelligence official who disputed Flynn’s characterization of his firing, saying it was “about turbulence and a destructive climate” during his tenure



When writing someone up, we are required to be very specific and describe the actions which caused the writeup, and general conclusions like "sloppy" or "unmotivated" or "insubordinate" - although potentially very descriptive- are insufficient. For example, instead of "insubordinate" I would have to write that on such-and-such a date, this person was directed to extract and analyze the following samples, and re-directed on this date and this date. Despite being asked, person did not claim any safety concerns, lack of training, or other conditions which would prevent them from completing the task.

For personnel reasons, descriptions of Flynn's management flaws are very non-specific, which is frustrating to read because "abusive with staff" could mean anything from sexual abuse to bullying to nothing.




-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake


"If you aren't aware, Texans don't have much concern for the well-being of Yankees or Californians, even Yankee factory workers in Indiana "- SECOND

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016 3:03 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Powell obviously had reasons for his remarks, or do you think he was just making sh*t up?


I think Powell and Flynn had ZERO professional overlap. Powell may have been making sh*t up, or he may have been repeating gossip. In any case he wasn't speaking from first-hand experience or knowledge.



http://www.biography.com/people/colin-powell-9445708#retirement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell

Powell earned an MBA 1972.
Colonel Colin Powell served a tour of duty in Korea in 1973.
He attended the National War College in Washington D.C. from 1975-1976.
He was promoted to brigadier general in 1976 (wiki has Brigadier general June 1, 1979)
Promoted to major general, (wiki has Major general August 1, 1983) he again assisted Frank Carlucci at the Department of Defense during the transition from the Carter to the Reagan administration.
He then served as senior military aide to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, helping to coordinate the invasion of Granada and the bombing of Libya.
In 1987, Powell became national security adviser (1987–1989)
In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed General Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (1989–1993) He continued as chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the first few months of the Clinton administration.
Colin Powell retired from the Army in 1993.
In 2000, President George W. Bush appointed Colin Powell secretary of state.
In 2004, after acknowledging it was unlikely that Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, Powell announced his resignation as secretary of state.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_T._Flynn
Flynn was commissioned in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in military intelligence, in 1981. His military assignments included the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Flynn served as the assistant chief of staff, G2, XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from June 2001 and the director of intelligence, Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan until July 2002.
He commanded the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade from June 2002 to June 2004.
He was the director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command from July 2004 to June 2007
He served as the director of intelligence, United States Central Command from June 2007 to July 2008
the director of intelligence, Joint Staff from July 2008 to June 2009
director of intelligence, International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from June 2009 to October 2010
September 2011, Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Flynn took command of the DIA in July 2012.
April 30, 2014, Flynn announced his retirement effective later in 2014

According to what Flynn had told in one final interview as DIA director, he felt like a lone voice in thinking that the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamic terrorism in 2014 than it was prior to the 9/11 attacks; he went on to believe that he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration’s public narrative that Al Qaeda was close to defeat.[26] Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that "Flynn confirmed [to Hersh] that his agency had sent a constant stream of classified warnings ... about the dire consequences of toppling [Syrian President] Assad." Flynn recounted that his agency was producing intelligence reports indicating that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian insurgency and "that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria." According to Flynn, these reports "got enormous pushback from the Obama administration," who he felt "did not want to hear the truth."




How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016 4:54 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


This is how propaganda happens. 'G' implies, in outraged terms, and based no evidence at all, that we're to believe Powell.
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
Powell obviously had reasons for his remarks, or do you think he was just making sh*t up?

And then, with no evidence at all, he attacks the facts presented.
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
This is how bad journalism happens. From 2 wikipedia links and another web site ...

And then he posts ad hominem attacks
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
Kiki assumes because it fits what her view of what she wants the world to be

and strawman arguments
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
which suggests that he couldn't possibly be right about Flynn

as if they should be credited with salience in the discussion.

And that's how propaganda happens.




How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016 8:30 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Quote:

There was plenty of evidence - it's in his resume and life experience.
This is another unsubstantiated assertion ...
Quote:

You seem to need a lot of hand holding Kiki, or maybe you just don't want to understand?
... followed by a side of snark.




And that's how propaganda happens.




How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Wednesday, December 21, 2016 12:36 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Donald Trump’s budget honcho has a distressing tendency to threaten global financial collapse
http://qz.com/868083/donald-trumps-budget-honcho-mick-mulvaney-has-a-d
istressing-tendency-to-threaten-global-financial-collapse


When America’s credit hung in the balance, representative Mick Mulvaney headed to the congressional chapel to pray.

Now he’s headed to the White House to lead Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, the nerve center of government activity and a key voice in American fiscal debates. It’s not a big surprise that Trump would appoint a dedicated spending-slasher to the role. But financial markets will note that that this particular OMB director has a haphazard attitude toward America’s credit.

Markets were spooked when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced in May of 2011 that the US was effectively out of money because it could no longer borrow, and would suspend normal operations to find the government equivalent of loose change in the couch cushions. When then-House speaker John Boehner was hunting for lawmakers to vote for a compromise bill to keep the government open, Mulvaney departed to the chapel to reflect. He would vote “no” on the deal.

“I have never believed the threat that this country will default on its debt as a result of any failure to raise the debt ceiling,” he said in a statement at the time.

Markets disagreed.

The US went to the fiscal brink, lost its sterling AAA credit rating, and ultimately saw taxpayers lose $18.9 billion in higher interest-rate payments. By August, Republicans and Democrats had agreed to a framework designed to force the two parties to the negotiating table in the years to follow. Mulvaney voted opposed that, too.

In 2015, Boehner made a two-year deal to suspend the debt limit—but only after the negotiations cost him his speakership. A group of conservative lawmakers calling themselves the Freedom Caucus, including Mulvaney, ousted him in favor of current speaker Paul Ryan.

Next year, that deal will expire. And Mulvaney will be one of the people asking Congress, nicely, to please raise the debt limit again. Anything other than an increase will force the government to take actions leading to either dramatic cuts in vital federal spending, or a constitutional crisis. And that’s before Trump’s plans to cut taxes on the wealthy and increase defense spending.

Investors made complacent by two fiscal-crisis-free years should mark their calendars for March 16, when the debt limit expires, and start saying their prayers.

More about Trump’s budget director's beliefs about economic policy at
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/21/14033896/mick-mulvaney-debt
-ceiling

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Wednesday, December 21, 2016 12:46 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


"KellyAnn, what are people saying about my cabinet?"


Alec Baldwin said he watched hours of rallies and campaign appearances to nail Trump’s style. He learned to mimic Trump’s hand gestures and the pauses in his speech, “I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it. It’s the same dish —— it’s a grilled-cheese sandwich rhetorically over and over again.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, December 22, 2016 2:14 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Carl Icahn, a legendary investor worth about $20 billion, will serve as a special adviser to Donald Trump on regulatory matters. Icahn will be writing rules while doing business deals.

The position isn’t an official government job. Mr. Icahn won’t get paid, but any salary would be peanuts compared to the monetary value of getting to influence federal regulatory policy when you already have $20 billion in outstanding investments.

For example, back in August Icahn was complaining to the media about a particular obscure Environmental Protection Agency rule that was hurting a refining company he owns. But now Icahn is in a position to do the regulatory work for his own companies. That is an open invitation to corruption.
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-15/carl-icahn-calls-on-epa-to-
fix-mother-of-all-short-squeezes


And that’s the kind of thing that past administrations have tried to avoid. But since Donald Trump himself is tied up in unprecedented conflicts of interest, that apparently lowers the bar for the rest of his team too.

www.wsj.com/articles/trump-to-name-icahn-as-adviser-on-regulatory-over
haul-1482354552


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, December 22, 2016 8:54 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by G:
Quote:

Originally posted by JO753:
My impression uv Trumps picks iz that they are jokes; az if he knowz they arent going to matter for sum reazon.


When he pick Perry for the um, uh, what's the name? Energy Secretary, I thought that we were being punked. "He's flipping us the bird with that one." I imagined a call from "the East" saying something like, "Muh huh huh, that was good one." It's like he's seeing how much he can do to really piss off all the people who didn't vote for him. I keep waiting for Palin. Follow the Trump logic: Secretary of Agriculture is still open, he only has one woman so far, she's from Alaska where they have lots of land (land = agriculture in Trump world). And he could delight in all the whining and crying the left leaning media pundits would do. Seriously, gonna happen. You heard it here first.


I thought these picks harkened to when Bush chose Spencer Black to head the Department he had campaigned to abolish. I almost drove off the road back when I heard that on the radio news.

But it is about the same as the Libtards do - only appoint somebody to lead the DoD who despises the military and every person who serves in it.

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Saturday, December 24, 2016 10:53 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr




----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Saturday, December 24, 2016 5:43 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Quote:

Originally posted by G:
No, actually his resume and the various jobs he's held are facts.

Strawman argument that doesn't address the question of Powell's SPECIFIC experience with Flynn that lead him to make SPECIFIC comments about Flynn's abilities and character.
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
From these positions he has gained great experience, much more than you could from checking out 3 web links - another fact.

Strawman argument that doesn't address the question of Powell's SPECIFIC experience with Flynn that lead him to make SPECIFIC comments about Flynn's abilities and character.
Quote:

Originally posted by G:
... followed by a side of Kiki acting like a dullard just 'cuz.

And the required personal insult.

After reiterating assertion after assertion in post after post - never with evidence, mind you - the personal insult is required. It indicates to everyone that they will be ostracized and socially punished for failing to conform to the official story.

Quote:

“I spoke at DIA last month,” Powell wrote in a July 19 email exchange with his son. “Flynn got fired as head of DIA. His replacement is a black Marine 3-star. I asked why Flynn got fired. Abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since. I watched about five minutes on line of his talked [sic] and switched off.” While Powell admitted in an Aug. 10 email to a Washington Post reporter that he never “knew or served with Flynn,” he still sounded off on the Trump adviser. “Talking to people in the know, his real problem was leadership and management issues at DIA. Senior staff was in incipient revolt,” Powell wrote. “He has been over the top in his comments, conduct unbecoming. But he is unchained.”
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
GSTRING, you claim to be a manager.

Well, I don't know how much of a manager you are, but in government agencies, you have to provide SPECIFIC EVIDENCE of how someone is fucking up. You can't just say that someone is "insubordinate", you have to provide the times, dates, and instances where a person was directed (and re-directed) to do something by a certain time and either outright verbally refused or simply failed to perform the task in a timely manner, and that it was not due to safety concerns or lack of training.

Similarly, you can't just say that someone is "incapable" you have to provide the times and dates of training logs, and demonstrate that training was attempted several times with several people.

I addressed this in another post already.

I guess YOUR problem is you (STILL!!!) can't separate "allegation" from "evidence". Saying someone is "abusive" or "working against policy" is an allegation ... i.e. it's an ACCUSATION unsubstantiated by EVIDENCE: times, dates, places, and descriptions documented by testimony from multiple people, or physical evidence such as missing data files, emails sent and received, bruises, broken parts or what-have-you. Now, I realize that for perfectly valid personnel reasons (something you may not know anything about) that specific evidence won't be forthcoming. But that that all means is that whatever Colin Powell said is just so much vapor: it's strictly hearsay (what someone told Powell, not what he witnessed directly), lacking corroborating evidence, and can't be used to judge Flynn's military performance because the allegations could all be purely political. So we will have to go on what Flynn says or tweets directly, plus historical fact.

FACT: Flynn co-wrote the military's counterinsurgency manual.

Just imagine that you are part of a jury every time an accusation comes up, and you have to decide whether the evidence supports the accusation. (And, no, repeating the accusation a few hundred times doesn't raise it to the level of evidence. Although it DOES raise the allegation to the level of "propaganda". That's what KRAPO does, and he's quite proud of it, he even says so in his signature, but it's still just allegation and propaganda.)




WHAT SPECIFICALLY in Powell's experience gives him SPECIFIC knowledge of Flynn? After all, that's what we're talking about. Powell made very SPECIFIC comments about Flynn. So, to repeat - WHAT SPECIFICALLY in Powell's experience gives him SPECIFIC knowledge of Flynn? Or, is he just making things up or repeating gossip?




How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Thursday, January 5, 2017 9:03 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Trump recruited ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state.

Tillerson’s unexpected recruitment into politics could not be more propitious for Exxon itself. At once, the company’s view of the US and the world will be physically represented at the highest levels of political power. How that translates into corporate advantage will unfold quickly should Tillerson be confirmed by the Senate.

When president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia, he inadvertently inflicted a blow on Exxon, too, suspending a colossal deal to drill for oil in the Russian Arctic and Siberia. Tillerson had expected the new relationship with Russia to drive company growth for decades, and as if to underscore that potential, Exxon and state-controlled Rosneft announced the discovery of a 2.7-billion-barrel Arctic field just as the sanctions were taking effect. But no one could say how long the sanctions would remain in place, forcing Tillerson to scramble and patch the chasmal hole left in Exxon’s base of oil reserves.

In one of the industry’s greatest times of uncertainty, it is Russian oil reserves — and Tillerson’s chances to parlay his bond with Putin into a reasonable thaw with Moscow — that could stabilize Exxon. Tillerson would have reached Exxon’s mandatory retirement age of 65 this March. A cabinet appointment would allow him to stay deep in the oil game.

A looming question for the senators will be: When Tillerson is chatting up Putin ostensibly in support of American national interests, to what degree will the potential jackpot to accrue to his friends at Exxon, and a desire therefore not to upset Russia’s leader, be part of his calculus?

https://qz.com/878578/its-clear-why-donald-trump-wants-rex-tillerson-a
s-us-secretary-of-state-and-less-clear-why-the-newly-retired-exxonmobil-ceo-wants-to-work-for-trump
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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