Trumponomics: Will Continue in Second Term on Grander Scale Than Before

His Only True Love and Affection

Trump has Co-President in Second Term

Trump’s economy battle, inflation, more tax cuts (extension of his  2017 tax cuts for the very top) and other promises lead the way in this story from MARKET WATCH with this their headline:

“Trump to break all-time federal debt record amid inflation battle”

“Don’t hold your breath,” for deficit reduction, said a Bank of America economist

Trump will enter office with big plans (1) to make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, (1) to solve a generational migration crisis, (3) to beef up the U.S. military to face down a rising China, (4) to remake world trade through tariffs, and (5) have combative negotiations. 

Such a platform would be difficult to implement in the most favorable conditions, but the second Trump administration will have to seek to achieve these goals against a backdrop of historically large budget deficits that are only set to rise in the coming years, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office just published.

The CBO said that the 2024 will come in at $1.9 trillion, or 6.4% of GDP, both record levels outside of wartime, pandemic, or a recession.

The deficit is only set to grow from here, to $2.7 trillion in 2035.

The overall federal debt is also set to balloon as mandatory spending on programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are set to rise faster than revenue (three biggest mandatory spending programs).

The overall federal debt is also set to balloon as mandatory spending on programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are set to rise faster than revenue. 

Federal debt held by the public as a share of the total economy will surpass the previous record of 106.1%, set in the waning days of World War II, by 2029, Trump’s last year in office. 

It will continue to rise to 118% of GDP by 2035, the CBO projects.

Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, an advocate for a smaller budget deficit says: “By any definition, we are on an unsustainable fiscal path. The recent trend of rising interest rates amid Federal Reserve interest rate cuts is an unusual dynamic that reflects market concerns about future debt and inflation.”

Economists say that one of the drivers of the bout of inflation followed the COVID pandemic which hamstrung President Biden’s efforts to win a second term, and was driven by government deficits.

Those same deficits could derail the Federal Reserve’s plans to lower interest rates, a policy vocally supported by Trump.

BofA economist Claudio Irigoyen wrote that historic budget deficits are one reason why the Fed will not be able to lower interest rates again anytime soon and Trump’s proposed policies will only make lower interest rates even more difficult adding: “There is significant uncertainty about the impact of Trumponomics 2.0 both in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Protectionist policies will fuel expectations for higher inflation while excessive fiscal stimulus, including Trump’s plans to spend upwards of $5 trillion extending his 2017 tax cuts, will only add fuel to the inflation fire.”

Another major economic consequence of the sea of red ink facing the incoming administration is that elevated federal deficits can draw investment away from more efficient private activity in order to fund government mandates.

As the Trump administration will want to foster investment in energy production and the burgeoning AI sector, rising deficits also risk blunting private spending, as investors buy up Treasury debt rather than spend that money on new ventures.

The CBO estimates that for each dollar the federal deficit increases, domestic private investment falls by 33 cents, and the effects of depressed private spending will likely lead to slower economic and wage growth. 

Republicans recognize this reality, hence their efforts to find trillions in savings through Musk and DOGE, and cuts to healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. 

But even if these politically painful cuts do materialize — a big if given Republicans’ historically small three-vote majority in the House — they are unlikely to do more than defray the cost of Trump’s plans for massive tax cuts.

Even in a best-case scenario, Irigoyen wrote: “Trump and his allies in Congress will cut the deficit to 4% of GDP from north of 6% today. While that would be significant progress, it’s unclear how much it would do to lighten the economic burden of high deficits. A more plausible scenario is that the deficit doesn’t reduce at all in the next two fiscal years, with tax cuts, interest expenses and rising entitlement spending offsetting DOGE-recommended spending cuts and tariffs. Don’t hold your breath for fiscal consolidation.”

My 2 Cents (taken from this super summary at ABC here and edited and formatted to fit this summary). 

In 2016 Trump campaigned as a billionaire, savvy businessman, champion of the working class, economic prowess, and deal-cutting skills that politicians lacked. 

He summed up his position neatly during that campaign: “I'll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”

On the campaign trail, Trump claimed to be laser-focused on (1) bringing back manufacturing and mining jobs, (2) renegotiating trade deals that led to work disappearing overseas, and (3) curtailing immigration. 

His Clintonian tack of “it's the economy, stupid,” despite the myriad scandals and investigations that dogged him, largely worked as GDP grew at a healthy clip, the stock market soared, and unemployment rates hit a half-century low, until the coronavirus pandemic gutted the job market.

Yet he left office after one-term tenure, and became the first president since Herbert Hoover, during the Great Depression, to depart office with fewer jobs in the country than when he entered. 

His legacy has been defined by (1) his failure in leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic that exacerbated the financial downturn; (2) domestic policies that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy (that 2017 tax cut); and (3) international trade policies that hurt our industry while simultaneously alienating allies. 

We are about to find more in Trump 2.0. Be prepared for the worse ever (at least in my view).

Finally, I read this posted on X (formerly Twitter) from Robert Reich: Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15%. 

This would give...

The 5 largest banks a $4.1B tax cut.

The 5 largest drug makers a $3.1B tax cut.

The 5 largest U.S oil companies a $2.5B tax cut.

The biggest political divide in America isn't “left versus right.” 

It's the people versus the oligarchy. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Elon Musk: World Leaders Raise Serious Concerns About Trump's "Co-President"

Elon Musk on the loose becoming more dangerous

(At home and now abroad as well)

Elon Musk highlighted in this AP news article with the below headline – and the key extract from the article follows (attention getter for sure):

THE AP NEWS HEADLINE:

“Spain’s prime minister joins foreign leaders concerned with Musk’s interest in European politics”

Introduction and Key element from the story:

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez criticized Elon Musk on Wednesday as he joined EU leaders who are voicing concerns that the immensely wealthy backer of Trump is trying to influence politics across the Atlantic. 

Sánchez, a leading European socialist, told a public audience in a speech in Madrid that Musk was working against liberal and progressive values.

Sánchez said during an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco that the international far right “openly attacks our institutions, stirs up hatred said the movement was being led in this case by the richest man on the planet” (referring to Musk but not directly calling him by name). He also said the movement was backing a far-right party in Germany that he described as “inheritors of Nazism.”

Key element: Via a steady stream of posts and re-posts on his own X social media platform, Musk has waded into European politics since backing and funding Trump’s successful campaign in November.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany and he has called British PM Keir Starmer an “evil tyrant who should be in prison,” among other moves.

Here is another fine article from RAWSTORY that is related to Musk and ties into that above with this headline: 

“Elon Musk seeks to install himself as global dictator – and so far it's working: Expert”

From that RAWSTORY article: Elon Musk is building a framework to dominate the global political order with himself standing above nation states, according to an expert analysis.

The tech mogul and the world's richest man injected hundreds of millions of dollars ($250m) into Trump's re-election campaign and is said to be sitting by his side as something like an unelected co-president, and political commentator.

Elad Nehorai wrote for MSNBC analyzing the billionaire's authoritarian ambitions saying in part: “Musk’s embrace of the far right has meant backing parties with authoritarian leanings, including Germany’s AfD. But in truth, Musk doesn’t want a government-centric authoritarianism like fascism. He wants a world in which business swallows government and becomes the actual ruling class. And to understand the larger narrative, we need to examine the strategy he has taken in the United States.”

My 2 Cents: All in all two fine articles related to Muskrat Elon Musk a power seeking broker above all and everyone else including Trump, who BTW unleashed Musk on us, and now Musk has expanded his reach into very thing in our nation. 

With his Trump-backed relations with foreign government and such he wades into possible violations of the LOGAN ACT (explained here and related here). 

Whatever, Trump has unleashed a nobody into the political arena with no skills or reasons except personal & economic. 

Congress must put a stop to Musk, and his DOGE pal Vivek Ramaswamy, too now before it’s too late. 

My related Musk and Ramaswamy posts are here, here, here, here, and here – FYI.

Thanks for stopping by.

Who is following who: Trump Leading or Following Musk or Vice Versa Hard to Tell

“See, government must turn hard right like this” 

(Um, I see. I see - okee dokee)

“Hey, Elon: Go sic Mike Johnson bigly”

From ALTERNET how Trump used (or abused) Musk to blast Speaker Johnson about the chaos over the bill that prevented a shutdown with this headline:

“Blindsided and furious Trump turned Elon Musk loose on House leadership”

According to a deep dive into how House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) managed to get most of his caucus and Trump to agree on a budget package that kept the government working until March, the Washington Post is reporting that Johnson “Blindsided the president-elect by also negotiating with Democrats.”

That, in turn, led Trump to prompt billionaire adviser Elon Musk to launch a war on the House leadership in a flurry of attacks on X that derailed the proposed deal at the time.

According to the report, while attending the Army-Navy game the previous weekend, an insider claims Trump believed he made it clear what his expectations were, which forced Johnson to make concessions to Democrats — which in turn angered his caucus.

According to the Post: “Lawmakers were irate when Johnson laid out details about his bicameral and bipartisan proposal in a Tuesday morning meeting. When Johnson described it as a collaborative process, Ways and Means Chairman Jason T. Smith (R-MO) exclaimed: not true – according to people in the room.”

The Post is also reporting: “Several people close to Johnson say the speaker talked frequently with the president-elect and kept him abreast of ongoing negotiations. But another Trump adviser described him as blindsided by the bill’s contents and furious. The first adviser said the president-elect was with Musk at the time, and Trump told NBC he encouraged Musk to post messages condemning the bill. I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement.”

The report notes that is when Musk flooded his X account with over a hundred posts that had Republicans scrambling to put together the final budget that only passed with the help of Democrats, but still left far-right members of his caucus fuming and refusing to support it.

Related Articles:

·   Dems slam Johnson’s refusal to negotiate as government hurls toward shutdown

·   Mike Johnson seeks significant support from Democrats on stopgap spending bill

·   Trump suggests GOP should shut down gov’t unless they get every ounce of his billpassed

·   Weary GOP senators slam dysfunctional House for budget fiasco

·  How to deal with Mike Johnson — the most extremist speaker in living memory and Trump’s puppet

My 2 Cents: Damn, who is working for whom and who is serving the public Trump or Musk?

The above article shows a contest of sorts between the President-elect and well, the Acting President-elect which is another first for Trump since he always loves being first at any and everything.

The worst is yet to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump's AG Nominee: Pam Bondi Sycophant & Brown Nose Loyalist from FL

Pam Bondi Trump's 2nd Choice for AG

(Not much better than the first nominee)

Pam Bondi is Trump’s second choice for AG of the United States – she is another iron-clad sycophant explained in this NBC News headline story:

“AG pick Pam Bondi past vow: Prosecute the bad prosecutors who indicted Trump”

Current and former DOJ Department officials fear that Bondi, a longtime Trump loyalist, will not hesitate to carry out his push to investigate his enemies.

In 2013, Florida AG Pam Bondi’s office faced a decision: whether to join a NY AG’s investigation into Trump University, where students paid up to $35,000 for business classes that critics claimed were fraudulent. Trump lost the case and paid $25 million in settlement to former students.

Despite receiving complaints of exploitation from students, Bondi and then-California AG Kamala Harris both declined to join the investigation. Both had received political donations from Donald Trump and denied that the funds influenced their office’s decision.

Since then, those two have followed polar opposite political paths. Harris attacked Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections and painted him as a business fraud and threat to democracy and he lost in 2020 but he won re-election in 2024.

Bondi spent the last decade defending Trump and attacking those who investigate him. Now, if confirmed by the Senate, Bondi is set to become Trump’s AG.

A central question is whether Bondi will follow through on vows she made in television interviews to investigate what she called out-of-control federal prosecutors and FBI agents, saying: “The DOJ the prosecutors will be prosecuted, all the bad ones,” Bondi said on Fox News last year after Trump was indicted in GA on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Bondi called the prosecutors part of the “deep state” and said: “The investigators will be investigated.”

She was spreading a false conspiracy theory that DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents were part of a secret cabal trying to undermine Trump, and without citing evidence, she said that since they were no longer “...hiding in the shadows ... they can all be investigated.”

Current & former DOJ officials expressed mixed reactions to Bondi, whom Trump picked to be AG after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration over child sex charges, etc.

The DOJ officials said they view Bondi as a much more favorable pick than Gaetz because she had a long career as a local prosecutor and FL AG. 

At the same time, they see her as a Trump loyalist whom they fear will not hesitate to carry out his push to investigate his enemies. One recently departed senior DOJ official said: “Members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team are very concerned and talking to lawyers they said we would expect her to do exactly what Trump wants her to do.”

The Washington Post citing two individuals close to Trump’s transition, reported that Trump intends to fire Smith and the entire team that helped Smith indict Trump on federal charges of mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, and they also reported that Trump expects the DOJ to investigate his long-discredited claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

Trump’s last AG, William Barr, was dismissive of Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020 and declined to launch DOJ investigations into them, citing a lack of evidence. After publicly stating that there was no evidence of widespread fraud, Barr resigned.

When Trump tried to appoint Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who supported his false 2020 fraud claims, as acting AG a half dozen senior DOJ leaders threatened to resign, and instead three days later, on January 6, 2021, rioters stormed the Capitol to block the certification of the 2020 defeat of Trump by Joe Biden. 

Bondi, in the meantime, supported Trump’s claims of voter fraud and a rigged and stolen election.

She even traveled to Philadelphia and held news conferences where she promoted false claims of widespread ballot fraud and insisted the election had been stolen from Trump, saying at the rallies: “We know that ballots have been dumped. We’ve heard that people were receiving ballots that were in fact dead, and is was happening all over the country.”

Background on Bondi: She also served as a defense lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment, claiming the president was being unfairly investigated. She is currently a partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, where she chairs its corporate regulatory compliance practice, according to the firm’s website.

Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, told The Washington Post that Bondi will be much better for the DOJ than Gaetz, adding: “She is hands-on and she is also loyal to her co-workers, meaning she’s not going to try to push anyone out because they are a Democrat or a career prosecutor who is apolitical. She believes in the rule of law.”

The question now becomes that if she is confirmed: “Will she keep her public promise that prosecutors will be prosecuted, and, if she declines to prosecute the prosecutors for political reasons, will she be forced out by Trump like other AGs before her for not being loyal to him.”

A former DOJ official who worked during the first Trump administration said that he did not know Bondi well but that he did know Trump, saying: “I think whoever he picks is bound to be loyal to him first and foremost. That’s the key test for him. I don’t expect him to pick someone who will be honorable and loyal to the Constitution above him.”

My 2 Cents: Add Pam Bondi to the Trump list of unfavorable choices for the highest legal position in the land that of AG of the United States.

She like all the others is a loyalist who would have to bow to Trump’s his every wish and keep their promise like she has made to go after and “prosecute the prosecutors” who went after and indicted Trump.

Bondi like so many others are sycophants glued to Trump and not to the office they might get... the rule of law it seems does not apply to him ergo it will not apply to them, either.

The Constitution be damned we only serve Dictator Don, at least it appears to be the way of this cabinet is being developed and filled – and that is not good for democracy by any standard, or for our future.

Thanks for stopping by.

Kash Patel FBI Director: Wrecking Ball in Trump's Front Pocket Duck & Cover

Trump's slime deep & wide from the top down

(America's Democracy Days are Numbered)

Super outstanding article from LAWFARE in part about Kashyap “Kash” Patel as Director of the FBI – (edited and formatted with key parts to fit the blog) with this headline from the original article):

“The Situation: The Patel Paradox”

(Written by: Benjamin Wittes (Monday, December 2, 2024)

Patel or anyone can’t consent to impeachable abuses and then object to impeachable abuses. Without going into a whole lot of details, let’s just say that Patel believes that the FBI needs to be redone root and branch.

1. He wants most of FBI headquarters disbanded and sent out in the field.

2. He wants everyone associated with the Russia investigation, which he considers a malicious hoax, fired and prosecuted.

3. He wants the FBI to go after Trump’s enemies. 

4. He wants the FBI brought “to heel” on Trump’s behalf.

5. He wants the D.C. headquarters turned into a museum to the deep state.

6. He wants to stock the DOJ with Trump loyalists.

7. He’s even suggested that the FBI should reduce its intelligence operations, a central part of its mandate. 

Trump has been incredibly unsubtle about what he’s after here with his enemy within comments. 

Remember the threats to put Liz Cheney in jail? 

Or his suggestion that cheating poll workers and election officials be prosecuted? 

Or his promises of retribution against district attorneys like Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg?  

Indeed, Trump has never made the slightest pretense of believing that law enforcement should be apolitical — not even when he named Patel to be FBI director. 

In his statement on Truth Social, Trump explicitly mentioned that Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

Trump will have to remove FBI Director Christopher Wray and replacing him with Patel in order to commit these abuses. He makes no attempt to hide it.

Patel, for his part, has similarly been nothing but explicit about what he wants to do. The Washington Post compiled this helpful montage of video clips of what he has said about going after journalists: “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.” 

In other words, a president-elect who has been explicit and consistent for the past nine years about going after his political opponents and critics using federal law enforcement has decided to remove the FBI director (one he appointed, by the way) and replace him with a man who has been similarly explicit about his plans to pursue the president-elect’s political enemies, protect him from investigations, and go after journalists. 

That’s the first key element of the Patel Paradox. 

When Trump talks about going after the “enemy within” and he specifically mentions Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, this is pure political retaliation — and nothing more elevated than that.

When he talks about investigating Liz Cheney or larding the FBI and DOJ Trump loyalists, there is no “reform” at issue. There is just revenge for political opposition and professionalism — and building an institution capable of delivering that revenge.

Elements in building a law enforcement cadre to maliciously target with selective investigation and prosecutions one’s political opponents and critics is not merely a garden-variety abuse. It is a textbook impeachable abuse. Trump in his candor about his aspirations in announcing his intention to commit offenses a reasonable Congress would find impeachable.

This brings us to the second paradox. Senators have a veto. They know who Patel is; they know who Trump is; and, they know precisely why Trump wants to oust Wray in favor of Patel. There is no resolution of the Patel Paradox. You can’t consent to impeachable abuses and then object to impeachable abuses.

Trump and Patel have left senators no plausible deniability. Because they are not, in fact, talking about reform. The arsonists are promising only arson. They just spell it with an “r.”

My 2 Cents: The original article is intact at the link above and here.

Trump’s “Dictator Only on Day One” (PBS report is here) and my related posts can be seen here and here and several other links therein, and boy oh boy, it’s gonna be one helluva awful horrible sickening day, too.

I truly fear for our national survival and way of life for the first time ever in my entire adult life.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump’s View of Government: Use Project 2025 Nominees & Take a Wrecking Ball

How Trump Sees Himself Riding to Glory

(Three Branches dust one new just for him)

Former staffer with same wild crazy views

(Dingbat Goofy Stephen Miller)

Headline article from AlterNet with more scary PROJECT 2025 stuff from Trump and his House MAGA GOP crazies led by Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) - very concerning headline:

“House passes bill 'giving Donald Trump unlimited authority' to target political enemies”

Thanks to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Trump may now have an extra tool at his disposal to effectively destroy any organization that mobilizes against him. One pushing this is the author of the above PBS quote (Stephen Miller – a true MAGAS Dufus & Trump ass-kisser)

The Intercept reported that H.R. 9495 — also known as the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Ac” — passed the House by a vote of 219-184. 

All the no votes were from Democrats, although 15  joined the Republican majority in supporting the bill including top names: Reps. Colin Allred (D-TX); Yadira Caraveo (D-CO); Henry Cuellar (D-TX); Tom Suozzi (D-NY); and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).

If the bill becomes law, it would allow the U.S. Treasury secretary to deem any nonprofit a “Terrorist supporting organization and strip them of its tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status, that would effectively make it impossible for that group to remain operational.”

H.R. 9495 could feasibly be used against some of the groups that vocally opposed Trump during his first administration, like the ACLU; the Human Rights Campaign; the NAACP; Planned Parenthood; and the Southern Poverty Law Center among others.

It could also potentially be used against nonprofit news outlets like ProPublica; Mother Jones; the Texas Tribune; the Center for Investigative Reporting; and of course ABC; CBS; NBC; CNN; PBS and most print media: WashPost; NY Times: Chicago Tribune; LA Times; plus Radio and TV outlets; but not FOX or MAGA friends.

Then add in the 3-ring circus ring masters of Trump; Musk; and Ramaswamy and their growing lunatic gang of crazy unqualified and mostly criminally-linked nominees to totally implement PROJECT 2025 and AGENDA “47”  and also seen here to gain what? “Doing away with our Constitutional democracy for this lunatic asylum where the inmates are in charge. Sadly no name or label comes to mind except M.D.T.S. that replaces USA as:  “MAGA Disunited Trump States.”

From the “Project 2025” Plan for Trump to govern from are the below 10 key points were summarized from Trump’s spring interviews with Time magazine title: “If He Wins,” April 30, 2024 published in Raw Story by John Stoehr, the editor of “The Editorial Board.” 

1. “…build massive migrant detention camps and deploy the military at both at the border and inland.”

2. “…let GOP-run states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans as criminals.”

3. “…withhold funds appropriated by Congress for more tax cuts.

4. “…fire U.S Attorneys who don’t carry out Trump’s prosecution orders.”

5. “…give pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 (more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury that he calls hostages and patriots).”

6. “…might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense."

7. “…gut the U.S civil service system in effect since Teddy Roosevelt’s implementation.”

8. “…deploy the National Guard to American cities as Trump sees fit.”

9. “…close the White House pandemic-preparedness office.”

10. “…staff his administration with acolytes who back his false sustained assertion that the 2020 election was stolen (Note: Trump is the first President who never conceded losing).

My 2 cents: All the above and links therein and now the daily “Name that nominee” Trump sh*t show with only on ending like that for Former Rep. Matt Gaetz; then Pete Hegseth; then Tulsi Gabbard the Propagandist, then anti-vaxxer RFK Jr., then on to Linda McMahon (She BTW lied about having an education degree; she did not have any degree, and still does not have one and therefore should not even be nominated) – all 5 of some sort of nasty sexual assault and/or Putin-style propaganda, or just outright liars.

Not a very good list of nominees considering the offices at DOD, AG, HHS, Education, and Intelligence and all the other key positions in our government. Trump always picks losers... a fact.

As noted above Trump is taking a wrecking ball to all that we have stood for as a great nation and world leader since 1776 – and smashing to dust and for what? 

Hell who knows for sure except it seems for a hardcore, mean and nasty conservative country that no one knows just to please and appease one man: Trump the First Tyrant and let’s make sure he’s the last, too. Right now voter regrets are running red hot I honestly believe.

Thanks for stopping by,

“Back to the Future”: Great Movie Series as Trump Tries to Make It Happen Now

 

Two Major Post Topics

(1st: Gen. Milley & others may be Court-Martialed)

 Afghanistan Fiasco August 26-30, 2021  

(2nd: Afghans trying to flee anyway possible)

Shocking story from NBC News with this sick and unprecedented headline:

“Trump transition team compiling list of current and former U.S. military officers for possible courts-martial”

Trump wants to nail all the officers involved in the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, even though independent reviews have blamed both Trump and Biden while GOP only blames Biden.

The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan. 

Officials working on the Trump transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including: (1) gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, (2) how it was carried out, and (3) whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the U.S. official and person with knowledge of the plan said the person with knowledge of the plan said and added: “They’re taking it very seriously.”

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counter-narcotics and global threats, is helping lead the effort, the sources said. It is being framed as a review of how the U.S. first got into the war in Afghanistan and how the U.S. ultimately withdrew.

Trump has condemned the withdrawal as: “A humiliation and the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.” 

BELOW ARE THE FACTS AND HISTORICAL TIMELINE VIS-À-VIS THE ORIGINAL TRUMP DEAL AND THE REASON BIDEN CHANGED IT BASED ON KEY RESEARCH.

Below clearly stated is the rational reason early on about the chaos during the Afghanistan pullout – that shortly thereafter, and how and why President Biden got it on track … think of the details below explained in common sense and logical rational military thinking reported on here from the SLATE story with this headline (excellent report by Fred Kaplan. My key emphasis are noted in RED) the subject:

“We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan”

The GOP does not want to talk about this part of the that moment in September 28, 2021 Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.

That moment came when General Mark Milley, Chairman of the JCS, explained why he and the other Service Chiefs all agreed that we needed to pull out by August 31 – based on the Doha agreement, which former President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020, which had NO participation by the Afghan government, and which required a total withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Milley testified that if U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, then the Taliban would have resumed the fighting and, in order to stave off the attacks adding: “We would have needed 30,000 troops and would have suffered many casualties.”

Milley also testified that he, all the Joint Chiefs, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and other officers had all advised President Joe Biden to keep 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the August 31 deadline.

Milley added that the difference would be: “That those remaining troops wouldn’t be attached to or given any military mission, instead they would transition to a diplomatic mission. It was extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction.”

In the Taliban’s eyes, the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of their “diplomatic or military label.”

The fighting would have been fierce.

Milley said the Taliban would resume more fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with two horrendous choices: “(1) To pull out while under attack, or (2) Send in another 30,000 American troops.”

Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan — an increase of 40,000 troops — and a shift to a counterinsurgency (AKA: “Nation-building” strategy).

Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be “boxed in by the generals” saying in essence: “Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, they’ll say they need another 40,000 to win the war.”

Mr. Obama later acknowledged that Joe Biden was right.

Likewise, as Gen. Milley was advising President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting.

It’s easy to imagine President Biden’s thinking: “They’re trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like they’ve always done since the Vietnam War,” (which BTW was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since).

THE NBC NEWS STORY NOW CONTINUES:

It is not clear, though, what would legally justify “treason” charges since the military officers were following the orders of President Joe Biden to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan. 

Further, the 2022 independent review by the Special IG (Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

More Historical Facts: Trump first reached an agreement with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, roughly 13,000 troops, and release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison. 

The Biden administration then completed the withdrawal and badly overestimated the ability of Afghan government forces to fight the Taliban on their own.

Now, Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary is FOX News personality Pete Hegseth, who has criticized the withdrawal, saying the U.S. lost the war and wasted billions of dollars.

Hegseth wrote in his book: The War on Warriors the following: “The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example.” 

Hegseth goes on to call the withdrawal a “humiliating retreat” and says leaders at the Pentagon were not held accountable for the deadly attack at Abbey Gate, which killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians. Nor were they held accountable for a subsequent U.S. airstrike in Kabul that officials thought would kill the Islamic State group leader behind the suicide attack but instead killed 10 innocent Afghans, including seven children.

Hegseth continued: “These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops, and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily. And, to this moment, they keep their jobs. Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values — by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas. They are an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.”

The transition team is looking at the possibility of recalling several commanders to active duty for possible charges. It’s not clear the Trump administration would pursue treason charges, and instead could focus on lesser charges that highlight the officer’s involvement.

Speaking to NBC News days before the 2024 election, Howard Lutnick, one of the two advisers leading the transition, said: “Trump learned after his first administration that he had hired Democratic generals, and he would not make that mistake again.”

Former officials who worked in Trump’s first administration have said they advised Trump against policies they thought would weaken U.S. national security, such as withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria.

They also advised him against actions that they thought might violate the Constitution or inflame tensions domestically, such as deploying active-duty U.S. troops to quell protests after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

My 2 Cents: The Trump nominees thus far and now this one in particular ups the ante on insanity even more so just like this quote often attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But, Einstein did not say it or originate it, either.

ORIGIN: The quote was originally attributed to a fictional character named Jane Fulton in Rita Mae Brown's 1983 book “Sudden Death.” 

THE ACTUAL CREDIT: The quote is actually credited to sociology professor William Bruce Cameron, who included it in a 1963 textbook and a couple of articles. 

Einstein wasn't associated with the quote until the mid-1980s, but carries more weight, I suppose? 

Now with Trump today wanting to go after and nail officers re: the Afghanistan debacle, why not go back to the U.S. withdrawal in VN that gave North Vietnam the entire country.

Or, go back to our own Civil War with President Lincoln and famous Generals and their decisions?

That my friends is true insanity don’t you think? 

I say again, the facts matter always, but apparently not in MAGA world?

Thanks for stopping by.