Trump Doesn’t Need a Veep. He Needs In-House Counsel.

MUCH SPECULATION has surrounded who 45th President Donald Trump will select as his running mate. The list includes many, such as:

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won’t be chosen despite her MAGA zealousness because she would likely be too controversial for undecideds and is, in any event, such a good activist in the House, so why move her? As for female voters wanting a woman? Forget it. We just want the best person… 

Former South Carolina Gov. and current GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley will absolutely not be picked because she’s shown herself to be disloyal to the MAGA king which his supporters hate even more than he does. Besides, she can’t even win her home state, so what use is she?

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake is undoubtedly on Trump’s short list as the loyal belle of MAGA, but won’t be selected because she is badly needed in the Senate if she wins, and if she doesn’t, well, then, she’s not a winner.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem*, who has impeccable MAGA bona fides and a desire for the position, will not be picked because her red state carries only three electoral votes.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is MAGA from the start, having been Trump’s White House press secretary, but won’t be picked because the state only has six electoral votes and she may be viewed as too extreme for much of the rest of the country (e.g., like me).

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has become pro-MAGA and would take the gig, will not be picked because she probably can’t deliver blue New York. (If the state looks close, think again, though.) Besides, with her as fourth-ranking member in House leadership, she’s well placed.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson*’s name has been bandied about, but his lack of direct political experience makes his selection next to impossible despite his in sympatico beliefs and besides, he’s better placed in social media—or the C.I.A.

Former C.I.A. director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo* is definitely loyal and could take off running once at the White House, but he brings no particular political benefit (or electoral votes) during the campaign. He’s much better off in his old positions.

Former 2024 presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy* is almost more MAGA than the MAGA king himself as well as being ‘a person of color’ that is so coveted today for some reason, but won’t be chosen for veep because he really adds nothing politically. 

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is a twofer: he’s not only mostly-MAGA, but black. Still, Trump doesn’t need him to win the state, so he’s out.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance is pure MAGA today (but wasn’t always) and a really good and seemingly now-loyal man, but whose assistance isn’t needed for Trump to take Ohio. Besides, he’s well situated  and greatly needed in a senate now controlled by Dems.

The * designates those who would be well-suited for appointments in the next Trump administration, IMO, but none of the names above appeal to me as much as a name never mentioned: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. What’s not to like? Here’s my pitch for him:

The Kennedy name conjures up an image of greatness in many peoples’ mind (even if it maybe shouldn’t.) In combination with the name ‘Trump,’ it’s a power-ticket. The two men aren’t in agreement on all, or perhaps even most issues, but they both grok—from the school of hard knocks— that politics is politics. On major issues of importance to both, they agree enough for government work. I’m talking broadly about constitutional rights. More specifically about First and Fourth Amendment, Due Process and Equal Protection rights, to name just a few. 

Kennedy is also on board with Trump’s consternation over the Biden border crisis, and is running his campaign on this issue, too. In a fund-raising email, he said:

“America’s open borders have created a flood of illegal immigrants that has overwhelmed the resources of cities and states across the country and caused a dire humanitarian crisis. 

“At the same time, ruthless cartels have woven drugs and human trafficking into a multibillion-dollar criminal empire, and violent terrorists are sneaking into our country.

“We simply must reassert control over our border by rebuilding the technological and physical barriers dismantled by the Biden administration.

“We have both the means and personnel to control the border. We just need to use them.

“But we also need to realize that illegal immigration will not abate until we change the conditions that make so many people desperate to flee their homelands. Sadly, the United States has contributed to those conditions.” 

Kennedy then recites our ‘contributions,’ including our military adventurism. And he’s right on this issue, just as Trump is. The two men also echo each other in regards to what Dwight D. Eisenhower warned America about: the so-called military industrial complex. 

Kennedy has at least some political instinct, genetic and/or environmental, and although he can’t deliver any electoral votes, he can probably contribute some moderate Dems (i.e., on his stance on so-called climate change) or small ‘l’ libertarians (i.e., on his position on Covid shots) who might otherwise stay home—enough to make a difference, perhaps. But perhaps most critically, Kennedy is a pretty damn good lawyer and advocate for what he believes, and isn’t that what Trump really needs now more than ever?

Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, and Conventional Weapons Everywhere. Oh My!

FOR YEARS, THE U.S. AND ITS ERSTWHILE PARTNERS have been wringing their hands over the inevitable Manhattan Project that Iran was pursuing. Tehran’s nuclear ambition was insatiable and weapons-grade uranium was said to be imminent. Today, there appears to be evidence it is true. 

A report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (the U.N. watchdog)  was leaked on Tuesday which said IAEA inspectors found 83.7% enriched uranium in the Islamic State’s Fordo underground nuclear site near the holy Shiite city of Qom, 55 miles southwest of Tehran. Weapons grade is 90%. The report did not specify the number of particles found, but confirmed Iran is not stockpiling uranium enriched beyond 60% purity, used for a nuclear power plant to produce electricity. 

Naturally, Iran denies any desire to create weapons-grade uranium, saying the 83.7% particles may have formed accidentally during ‘cascade configuration,’ which caused “unintended fluctuations” in enrichment levels. So far, the IAEA buys the explanation, but if configuring ‘a cascade’ can generate enrichment to 83.7%, it sounds as though the mullahs are onto something hot. 

Yet on Sunday, C.I.A. Director William Burns told CBS News‘ “Face the Nation”that Iran is “not resuming” its nuclear weapons program. For decades, Tehran has denied trying to use uranium for anything other than peaceful purposes, so the admission by Burns was novel coming from Langley. 

In 2018, 45th President Donald Trump withdrew from a hastily negotiated and poorly drafted nuclear treaty with Iran. That treaty had been made between then-Secretary of State John Kerry, under the Barack Obama administration, and Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, during 2015 Iran nuclear talks in Vienna. 

Since then, Biden waived sanctions against Iran, but has been unwilling or unable to renegotiate a sensible treaty with the Supreme Leader, despite overtures from the Islamic government to do so. The spooky question is begged as to whose interests are advanced by this leak, as well as from Burns’ admission.

On Monday, reports that the Covid pandemic originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan virology lab were bandied about by the Dept. of Energy as if it was news. Recently the F.B.I., too, reached this conclusion. It isn’t. But at least it’s not repeating the World Health Organization’s and others’ propaganda that a lab leak was “highly unlikely.” The roughly 83.7% with an IQ higher than Biden’s have known the virus came from the Wuhan lab for years. Some have further suggested it wasn’t a lab leak, but an intentional weapon released by the C.C.P., presumably to cause economic turmoil throughout the world (which it certainly did in spades.) 

Yet others have been quick to claim the Pentagon and C.I.A. were behind the viral pandemic by funding the gain-of-function research that produced it. Until a vigorous investigation is concluded and more data released to the public, it is hard to tell what is really true, but I would not be surprised to learn that the C.C.P. weaponized the virus, engineered illegally using Pentagon funds and/or other U.S. taxpayer money, and either intentionally or accidentally released it, causing a worldwide disaster. U.S. and allied intelligence probably figured it out and realized they shouldn’t let this good opportunity go to waste in tyrannizing, locking down, and controlling their populations. And, as luck would have it, it was election time in the U.S. 

No one pays attention to Syria anymore, but earlier this month, Russia claimed a chemical attack blamed on Syria in Douma (slightly northeast of Damascus) in 2018 was a political hit piece by a chemical weapons watchdog, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to rationalize continued military aggression by the West against the Syrian government. Syria has been blamed for such attacks with some regularity for years, but accusations are, at best, below the fold, or at worst, buried in the classified section these days. It’s Ukraine all the time now.

The one-year anniversary of the Russian incursion into Ukraine was marked by the regime in Washington, D.C. by announcing another $2 billion arms package for conventional weapons for the corrupt nation, along with more sanctions targeting Russia. For now, Joey Biden won’t send them F-16 fighter jets, but may do so later. 

And finally, on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Ukraine with a promise of $10 billion from U.S. taxpayers to fund the government in Kyiv for government services and pensions for…Ukrainians.

Lucky for the world, the IAEA has publicly released a report on nuclear safety in Ukraine. The gist of the 52-page report (here) is that they’re on the case. Whew! The Military Industrial Complex is alive and well.

“Tiger Team” to Challenge China

LAST WEEK, THE ILLEGITIMATE sometimes-occupant of the White House ran out of money to send to Ukraine, so he got ahold of more. Ukraine isn’t the 51st state, it’s the beneficiary of the Biden family, so there can be no end to this until Joey’s out the door on his ass. That’s not enough, though. Joey wants to stir up more upheaval in the world, and his State Department has approved a $1.1 billion weapons package for Taiwan. It is expected Congress will be okay with that. (?!) Needless to say, Beijing is pissed. Apparently, the D.O.D. has created something it calls the “tiger team” to accelerate weapons sales worldwide to compete with Russia and China. 

Here, it appears Taiwan will be the beneficiary, but will it, really? Fueling animosity between the island democratic state and mainland Communist China may sound like a David and Goliath story, but it will take a helluva lot more than a slingshot and rock to rock Beijing. It will take the United States, and I want to be involved in that just a wee bit more than I do in Ukraine, which is to say, not at all. But here we are, with a crazy old man. We are, by implication, committing to war involvement in the China Sea, after all. The Taiwanese will surely expect us to go all the way and fight for their independence, even if it threatens U.S. peace and stability with China. And it will. Beijing has made it clear Taiwan is their red line.

This comes on the heels of Nancy Pelosi’s unwelcomed visit to Taiwan that provoked anger in China. While we should never allow China, or anyone else for that matter, to determine our foreign policy, this was a perilous move because of the equivocation of the White House who was probably in Delaware at the time.

It also comes at a time where the U.S., and indeed, the world, is in a state of  near financial crisis due to extremely poor fiscal and monetary policy, along with lockdowns due to Covid-19, and other more usual factors. This means Joey is banking on his new army of 87,000 new armed I.R.S. agents to extort money from taxpayers to fund his war game fantasies before he goes to the la-la land in the sky.

And, of course, the U.S. has been engaging in military maneuvers near the island which China understandably views as hostile. Just last week, two American warships crossed the Taiwan strait which China considers its sovereign waters. Dwight Eisenhower rightly warned beware the military industrial complex.

Another ‘Conspiracy’ Theorist Bites the Dust.

G. GORDON LIDDY REDEEMED HIMSELF. History has called him the “mastermind behind Watergate Burglary” that ultimately forced President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Paul Craig Roberts tells a story about Liddy’s take on that burglary since Liddy can no longer: Liddy died on March 30th at age 90. He had Parkinson’s Disease and was in declining health. 

Liddy was a prosecutor when Timothy Leary’s communal home in New York’s Dutchess County was raided in 1966. Leary was arrested for use and possession of hallucinogens, notably LSD. Because Leary had been a psychology professor at Harvard and had been rather public about the drug’s possible clinical uses, he was a perfect target for ambitious Liddy, who was looking to make a name for himself. Leary was not Mirandized, however, and the charges were swiftly dismissed against him. (N.B. Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court case that held arrestees had to have their rights read to them was decided on June 16, 1966, and was therefore, very new.)  Leary would be hounded by the law for years thereafter.

Liddy was also a former F.B.I. agent and ultimately disbarred lawyer who refused to testify in the Watergate matter. He was sentenced to 6-20 years, but served less than 4 1/2 after President Jimmy Carter’s commutation of sentence in 1977. Liddy was enigmatic, which probably helped his career when he was released from prison. He went on to write articles and books and host a successful syndicated conservative radio talk show from 1992 to 2012. 

In a life twist that’s usually reserved just for fiction, Liddy also went on a college campus speech circuit with his former target, Timothy Leary, for friendly debates covering past and current events. Lorenzo Hagerty has archived these debates for his podcast, Psychedelic Salon, here, and are a good listen. (He has also curated talks by Terence McKenna.) The twist to the twist is a movie was made about these odd debates called “Return Engagement” in 1983.

The break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters was so archaic — today, a simple hack into the network would likely find any information any burglars wanted. Detection would be more difficult; deniability more plausible. But back then, Nixon learned about the burglary earlier than he said he did and that lie made a simple dirty trick into an existential threat to democracy as we then knew it. An anonymous source calling himself Deep Throat was later discovered to Assistant F.B.I. Director W. Mark Felt, but today, we’d probably just recognize him as Deep State and blow the whole thing off (especially if it outed mortals named Trump). Felt apparently leaked to then well-regarded The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein out of anger at Nixon for having overlooked him as F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover’s replacement after his death.

Some have argued the C.I.A. set up Watergate to get Nixon out of office. They wanted him out, it’s claimed, because he was entering into arms limitation agreements with the U.S.S.R. and normalizing relations with China — something the Deep State didn’t want. They didn’t want security because it would limit the budget and power of the military industrial complex where they made their money and influence. This notion dated back at least to President Dwight D. Eisenhower who warned Americans to beware the Military Industrial Complex in 1961. (Transcript here.)

Paul Craig Roberts thinks the C.I.A. had J.F.K. assassinated for similar reasons. If anyone thought the C.I.A. was the boogey man, they’d just be discredited by being called “conspiracy theorists,” a term probably first coined by the C.I.A. itself. Over the years, reading a fair amount about both Kennedy and Nixon, I remained agnostic to these ideas, largely because it was unthinkable the C.I.A. would do things so un-American, but I’ve rethought it. I’ve admittedly become cynical about American government, including the elusive Deep State. Nothing’s ‘unthinkable.’ The Deep State quite possibly has more control over who’s in the White House than we care to think. Liddy got us to think about this, and a lot of other things. It’s enough to redeem himself for his ‘third-rate burglary’ that seems so quaint today.

It’s the end of an era. Liddy’s era. The Washington Post’s era. That Liddy didn’t have to break into the Pearly Gates will likely be misreported by The Washington Post no matter how accurately they may have gotten the rest of the story.