Capital "T" — Trump Triumvirate Troika: Clear and Present Danger Rapidly Growing

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President Trump's decision to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance is bad for the country in from the Washington Post –  

(Article was written by David Kris, founder of Culper Partners, a security and technology consulting firm. He was an Assistant AG for national security from 2009-2011 and it is an excellent piece - highlights with my emphasis added):

First: This is clearly retaliation for public criticism of the president, and it appears designed to intimidate others who might consider doing the same. 

Brennan has been a fierce Trump detractor, and now he is being punished. Trump is intent on sending a message to millions of current and former government officials that their clearances now depend on good behavior as defined by Trump's personal preferences.

Trump's revocation of the security clearance also has a more pointed effect. Brennan was the CIA director when the U.S. intelligence community made a public assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “[…] ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Hillary] Clinton.”  The following year, special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”

Second: Trump says: “I call it the rigged witch hunt . . . So I think it's something that had to be done” is that the administration will not defend his actions on those grounds. 

The administration has already begun the process of dressing it up for court with generic, post hoc rationales. We should expect to see a rerun of the strategy used to defend the president's travel ban against mostly Muslim visitors to the United States, which appeared to have been conceived in religious animus but was ultimately defended — and upheld — on a more anodyne basis. If a legal challenge is brought, the president's lawyers will spend down the accumulated credibility of his office as they try to persuade judges that the decision was aboveboard and does not implicate the First Amendment. But Americans will know what is really going on: If you criticize the president, you lose your clearance.

Regardless of whether this strategy yields a favorable legal judgment for Trump, it corrodes the rule of law when the government defends a president's actions with profoundly false justifications.

Third: The president's action harms national security. 

Intelligence agencies rely on outside advisers, often former government officials, to provide advice and assistance on an ad hoc or continuing basis.

But again, the real significance of the president's decision goes well beyond Brennan.

The intelligence community relies on candid advice from former officials, and it undermines that reliance to try to frighten them into political support for the current administration.

In the end, we all pay the price for the president's relentless attempts to advance his personal agenda.

My 2 cents on that last point: We will all pay a price for Trump’s actions like on immigrants (not his own family of course, just others) and then his new focus on those who have been naturalized – this story from the LA TIMES – a growing story – quite detailed and critical on several key points therein. Check it out.

Then ask yourself – is Trump really doing now as Bannon once said (in essence: Deconstruct and rebuild in our image (his and Trump’s) – cite: 

“Like Andrew Jackson's populism, we're going to build an entirely new political movement. It's everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I'm the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it's the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Shipyards, ironworks, get them all jacked up. We're just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930’s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives plus populists in an economic nationalist movement.”

Then several days after the Trump inauguration, Bannon told the NY TIMES:  “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. I want you to quote this: “The media here is the opposition party.” They don't understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

So, I ask, is it ongoing now or not? Just look around since January 20, 2017 – the answer is clear as this:

Remember the classic court scene in “A Few Good Men” (between Navy prosecutor Lt. Kaffee (Tom Cruise) and witness Marine Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) who asks: “Are we clear? Yes Sir. Are we clear? Crystal.”

And we saw what happened to “Colonel Jessep” – he went to jail. Are you paying attention, Mr. Trump? Probably not. So, if all that Trump is doing is in fact eroding the “Rule of Law” and we end up with his rules for the law or no rules at all. What would we call that? Oh, yeah, right: anarchy.

Just hot air and more hate for Trump DEM rating, um? Hardly — just look around and apply good old-fashioned common sense.

Thanks for stopping by.