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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs Nat'l Security Advisor Flynn the scariest aspect of President Trump?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/scariest-thing-about-trump-michael-flynns-team-of-nutters.htmlThe most frightening aspect of the looming Donald Trump presidency is not so much the likely outcomes, many of which are horrifying, as the unlikely ones. Running the federal government of the worlds most powerful country is hard, and many things can go wrong. Full control of government is about to pass into the hands of a party that, when it last had it, left the economy and the world in a shambles. These disasters occurred because the partys ideological extremism made it unequipped to make pragmatic choices, and because its chief executive was a mental lightweight. Sixteen years after it last came to power, the party has grown far more ideologically extreme, and its head of state is much less competent. Many of the tail risks of an extremist party led by an unqualified president are difficult to foresee in advance. But one is especially glaring: the appointment of Michael Flynn to be national security adviser.
National security adviser is a crucial position for any president. It is especially so for a uniquely inexperienced one. (Donald Trump being the only president in American history lacking any public experience in either a civilian or military role.) And it is all the more crucial given Trumps flamboyant lack of interest in getting up to speed (he confounded his aides by eschewing briefing books throughout the campaign, and has turned down most of his intelligence briefings since the election.) Flynns appointment is the one that contains the sum of all fears of Trumpian government.
Flynns portrait seems to reflect the worst qualities of Dick Cheney, but in exaggerated form. Flynn avidly subscribes to conspiracy theories. He believes Islamists have infiltrated the Mexican border en masse, guided along the way by Arabic-language signs Flynn claims to have seen himself. He also believes that Democrats have imposed Sharia law in parts of Florida, and shared a now-deleted tweet that suggested Hillary Clinton could have been involved in child sex trafficking. These claims were frequent enough that his subordinates at the Defense Intelligence Agency gave them a name, Flynn facts, which means a Flynn belief that is the opposite of a fact.
Compounding Flynns susceptibility to conspiracy theories is his professed hostility to any information that undercuts his preconceived notions. According to a former subordinate speaking to the New York Times, in a meeting with his staff Mr. Flynn said that the first thing everyone needed to know was that he was always right. His staff would know they were right, he said, when their views melded to his. What makes this so chilling is that it is the pathology that destroyed the Bush administrations foreign policy, except that what for Cheney was a tragic flaw is, to Flynn, an aspirational credo.
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Is Nat'l Security Advisor Flynn the scariest aspect of President Trump? (Original Post)
Fast Walker 52
Dec 2016
OP
"Flynn's portrait seems to reflect the worst qualities of Dick Cheney, but in exaggerated form"
Bill USA
Dec 2016
#1
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)1. "Flynn's portrait seems to reflect the worst qualities of Dick Cheney, but in exaggerated form"
CHRRRIST!! "in exaggerated form"... Christ, that's about like being a James Bond villain extreme!
A nut advising an idiot! GREAT!
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)4. we are headed for war, looks like, with these nuts
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)2. Great. The one guy that doesn't need senate confirmation
spanone
(135,816 posts)3. he's a fucking nightmare...tweeting that Hillary was involved in a child sex ring...??
what thee fuck?????
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)5. he's sick in the head, something really went wrong with him
maybe he has PTSD
leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)6. Just pick any of the appointments.
They are all a nightmare.
One good thing is that they are all so unqualified that they probably won't know how to do anything but sit in their big office chairs so we may end up with the status quo.
The underlings will just continue to run things the way they always have.