Tag Archives: Homeland Security

national security, national security team

Sen. Hothead joins Trump team

Well now, Donald Trump has just fired one of the most incompetent members of our national security team and replaced her with a fellow who once challenged a Senate committee witness to a fistfight in the middle of a hearing.

I don’t know about you, but I do not feel one little bit safer now than before.

Kristi Noem made a hash of our Homeland Security Department with her handling of the ICE goons she loosed on the streets of our cities. She spent $200 million of our tax money to produce glam-shot ads featuring her and touting the successes she insisted occurred during Trump’s administration.

We started a war with Iran, several American warriors died right away, and Noem couldn’t bring herself to offer a word of condolence to the survivors of the soldiers who died.

Trump cut her loose. Fine. Good bye and good riddance!

Up steps Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to become the Homeland Security secretary. He’s a Trump loyalist through and through. No surprise there, given that’s what Trump wants in Cabinet nominees. What is astounding to me is that Trump would select a guy who about a year ago had to be called down by a committee chairman for wanting to settle a dispute with a witness with his fists.

Sen. Hothead actually stood up and challenged the witness right there in front of the whole world!

This is the guy whom Trump has chosen to lead our homeland security defense team? Trump said he always intends to hire “the best people” to advise him. Markwayne Mullin, to my eyes, appears to be one of the worst.

International news, military news

Chaos reigns at DHS

All righty, kids, here is what I understand has happened in the war with Iran … and make no mistake, we are at war with a nation of 90-plus million individuals who are governed by a group who made “Death to America” a household phrase in the Middle East nation.

Donald Trump sends in air power off the deck of two nuclear-powered air craft carriers. U.S. and Israeli pilots bomb the crap out of Iranian command and control centers. Iran strikes back and already we have service personnel listed as killed in action.

The POTUS trots out his incompetent homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to lie to us about motives for going to war. Noem spends more time fighting with reporters than answering their questions. Noem is supposedly our go-to Cabinet official, correct?

Then Trump fires Noem. He brings in Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Mullen’s got to go from zero to 150 in an instant.

We have witnessed a prescription for chaos … at precisely the worst time, while we have launched a war with a regional power such as Iran.

I support the removal of Kristi Noem as DHS secretary. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. The brutal truth, though, is this: There could no “good time” to cut her loose. Trump started this war with no clear goal in mind, no exit strategy if we ever achieve that unknown goal, and little support from Americans who are sending their young treasure into battle.

God help us … please!

national security

Defending the ‘homeland’

The term “homeland” emerged from the rubble after the 9/11 terror attack that sent the United States hurtling into what amounted to a new world war … against international terrorism.

I want to discuss a couple aspects about the term briefly here and I might piss some folks off with what I am about to assert.

First of all, I dislike the term “homeland” to label the United States of America and our territories scattered around the world. Why does it bother me? I cannot explain it fully, but I will start by asserting that the very term sounds antiquated. It’s as if it belongs in the 19th-century glossary of terms.

The 9/11 attacks prompted President Bush soon afterward to create a Homeland Security department in the Cabinet. The first DHS secretary was Tom Ridge, the governor of Pennsylvania. He took office in 2003. The current DHS head is Kristi Noem, former governor of South Dakota. More on her in a moment.

I have believed almost since the beginning of our war against terror that the national security adviser could assume the role of protector of our nation. Think for a moment about the term “national security.” I know it encompasses worldwide threats, but they all have a common denominator: Do they affect the security of our home country?

Furthermore, I also have believed — since the 9/11 attacks — that President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, has escaped any serious responsibility for her office’s failure to act on known threats to our security. I heard little commentary from the pundit class wondering: Why didn’t Rice’s team pick up on the clues that reportedly had been spread like bread crumbs along the trail?

Homeland Security has become the subject of recrimination these days, as DHS Secretary Noem has presided over the immigration cops’ handling of the task of ridding the country of criminals who are here illegally. She has lied her way through hours of testimony before Congress and has laid blame on the victims of two fatal shootings who died at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons in Minneapolis.

Is it at all possible to roll Homeland Security issues into the national security adviser’s team, kick in a few billion bucks that are now being squandered at DHS and then charge the NSA with protecting the nation against the criminals hiding as undocumented immigrants.

national news

Trial starts … and then ends

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It looks as though Alejandro Mayorkas is going to keep his job as homeland security secretary after all.

You see, the U.S. House impeached Mayorkas because Republicans didn’t like the way he is running his department’s immigration policy. So … lacking a “high crime and misdemeanor,” they impeached him anyway.

The case went to the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

The Senate then managed, by a narrow partisan vote, to dismiss the impeachment charges against the DHS boss.

I’m an admitted partisan on this issue. Mayorkas didn’t deserve to be impeached simply because he has done a lousy job of controlling our southern border. To the Senate Democrats’ credit, they managed to hold together to fend off this scam trial.

My hope is that Mayorkas has been issued a wake-up call and tends to the need to protect our southern border against those seeking illegal entry into the United States.

national news

Where is the ‘high crime’?

Alejandro Mayorkas has made history in a fashion he likely never imagined.

He is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876 by the U.S. House of Representatives, which made another run at it and got the job done by a single vote.

Here’s the rub … and it’s a beaut. The House GOP caucus, led by the MAGA mob of malevolent misfits, cannot find a “high crime” or a “misdemeanor” to allege against the Homeland Security secretary. It states only that he is derelict in his duty to secure the southern border.

What utter, compete and nonsensical bullsh**!

The House GOP caucus is not interested in the least in governing. It wants to stick it to the Democrats whenever possible. Mayorkas has done his job, but it isn’t nearly good enough to satisfy the MAGA goons in charge of the House’s lower congressional chamber.

Good news can be found. The Senate won’t convict Mayorkas of any so-called crime. Why? Because there isn’t any. More good news: Democrats can use this sh** show as a campaign argument in their effort to solidify their Senate majority and the taking back of control in the House.

We are witnessing a disgraceful hijacking of a once-great political party. It sickens me to my core.

national news, State news

Definition of ‘derelict’?

Rafael Edward Cruz believes Alejandro Mayorkas is guilty of “dereliction of duty,” and should be impeached because he has allegedly mishandled the illegal migrant crisis on our southern border.

Hold on a second.

Cruz is the Republican U.S. senator from Texas; Mayorkas is secretary of homeland security.

Now I want to get down to brass tacks. First, though, is a full disclosure alert: The example of utter hypocrisy I am about to cite comes to me from a reader of this blog; I merely am appropriating it.

Those of us who live in Texas remember full well the Freeze of February 2021, when the state’s power grid failed. Millions of Texans lost power. Hundreds of them froze to death in sub-zero temperatures.

Many of us also remember what Sen. Cruz did in response to that crisis. He decided to take his family to Cancun, Mexico, where it was, um, decidedly warmer. Someone saw him boarding an airplane and ratted him out.

Cruz came back and then decided to blame one of his daughters for talking him and his wife into taking a vacation while his constituents were freezing to death.

Ladies and gentlemen, that right there is the definition of dereliction of duty. Sen. Cruz, therefore, has zero moral standing to lecture anyone on this good Earth about how you should stand your public service post in times of emergency.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, Donald Trump, national news

‘Gross dereliction of duty’?

Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham have redefined “gross dereliction of duty,” attaching a partisan label to conduct that should defy partisanship.

The two U.S. Republican senators have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of “gross dereliction of duty,” and suggesting he might be impeached on those grounds if the GOP takes control of Congress after the midterm election. They suggest the “illegal immigrant” crisis has become too much to bear.

Hmm. Interesting, yes? Mayorkas has presided over a Cabinet office that has taken charge of arresting and detaining more migrants than ever. I agree that the situation on our southern border needs immediate repair and reform, but impeach Mayorkas? He’s doing his job.

Ted Cruz says DHS chief could be impeached over rise in migrant crossings | The Texas Tribune

As for the redefinition of “gross dereliction of duty,” I want to remind Cruz and Graham that the immediate past president committed a “gross dereliction” of the duty he assumed when he took office in January 2017. The dereliction of duty occurred during the 1/6 assault on our government, when Donald J. Trump did not a damn thing to prevent the attack.

Cruz and Graham gave Trump a pass.

Dereliction of duty? There you have it. Indeed, I could argue that the senators, too, are guilty of dereliction of duty by refusing to make Trump accountable for inciting the insurrection against the government he took an oath to protect.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Of all the ‘firsts,’ this one stands out

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden has scored a few “firsts” with his initial list of Cabinet and key administration aides.

He has named the first woman to lead Treasury, Janet Yellen; the first woman to become the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines.

However, his choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, is truly an inspired “first.” Mayorkas is the first Hispanic to lead the DHS. More importantly, he is the first immigrant, for crying out loud. Mayorkas is a refugee from Cuba.

We’ve been given four years of Donald Trump trashing Hispanics. His immigration policy has been, shall we say, decidedly anti-immigrant, given that he has been advised on that matter by the prince of immigration darkness, Stephen Miller.

Mayorkas worked at DHS for years during the Obama administration, The agency is huge. It deserves someone with a wealth of experience to run it.

Moreover, Mayorkas’s perspective as an immigrant casts DHS in a whole new light. Immigrants by themselves do not pose the existential threat that Trump and his team occasionally seemed to portray them.

As the grandson of immigrants, I am delighted to see President-elect Biden casting about for a diversified and qualified supporting cast that can help him craft a government that represents all Americans.

My strong hunch is that Joe Biden is far from finished providing us with more “firsts” as he forms the new government.

national news

Now the acting homeland security boss hits the road

Surely I am not the only American who has this nagging sense that the Donald Trump administration is continuing to unravel, that it is a ship without a rudder, that the “fine-tuned machine” needs a serious overhaul.

Perhaps it should come at the very top of the chain of command.

The acting homeland security secretary, Kevin McAleenan, is calling it quits. Think of this for a moment: At the time when the president wants to crack down on illegal border crossings, trying to secure the “homeland” against evil doers intent on harming us, the guy charged with running the department is bailing.

Sure, the president said some nice things about McAleenan, who inherited the “acting” gig upon the (forced) resignation of Kirsteijn Nielsen. Then again, he often does even when he doesn’t mean it. McAleenan reportedly had been clashing with other senior Trump administration officials, perhaps even with the president himself, over policy matters.

So now the latest acting Cabinet secretary is hitting the road.

There are damn near too many acting secretaries and senior agency heads to count. We do have an acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who’s basically taken a powder while the president struggles against the rising tide of evidence that is likely to lead to his impeachment.

But what the heck. Trump has said he likes having all these acting secretaries and senior agency bosses. It gives him “flexibility” in enacting policy pronouncements that pour forth from his Twitter account.

Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

So now the individual charged with protecting our “homeland” is gone. Who’s next, and when will that fine-tuned machine start functioning as one?

I don’t know the answer to the first part of the question. The second part? The executive branch of government will right itself when we get a new president of the United States.

national news

Trump throws lunches with Pence aside

This shouldn’t be a big story, but it kind of is a big one.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence aren’t eating lunch together these days. The president has decided to ditch his “intimate” lunches with the vice president. He is sending aides to break bread with the VP.

What does this portend? It’s anyone’s guess, given the mercurial, unpredictable, whim-whipped decision-making that drives the president.

I am left to wonder: Is the president so angry with the VP that he’s going to toss him over when he runs for re-election in 2020?

The report of Trump and Pence no longer breaking bread comes from The Atlantic, which reports that Trump was miffed that Pence endorsed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz prior to the Indiana Republican presidential primary in 2016. The Atlantic also reports that Trump chided Pence in 2017 about the endorsement Trump received from former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight. “I won the primary and now look where you are, Mike,” Trump supposedly told the VP.

Well, so much for the fealty that Pence has exhibited while standing by his man, the president.

I don’t know yet where this will go. Nor do I know whether it portends yet another big political shakeup within the Trump administration. Trump has demonstrated quite a propensity for shaking things up. He has tossed aside the Homeland Security chain of command. Trump has yet to name permanent replacements at several key Cabinet and senior advisory posts.

Now it’s the vice president — the next in line for the Big Chair — who might be tossed aside for someone else?

If we play that scenario out, I am baffled as to how Donald Trump could have found a more loyal foot soldier than Mike Pence. He demands loyalty. In Pence, he has gotten what he has demanded . . . and then some!

These private POTUS-VPOTUS lunches have become a staple of many previous administrations. President Obama and Vice President Biden met regularly; so did President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Yes, others at the top of the chain of command have met regularly.

To my admittedly distant vantage point, I just haven’t picked up on the body language exhibited by many previous presidents and vice presidents. Let’s face it: Pence is the straightest arrow in the quiver; Trump is, well, let’s just say he has behaved badly for damn near his entire adult life.

I guess that is why news of the end of the Trump-Pence lunches is a big deal. It might become a huge deal.