Let’s face it, most Americans with any semblance of independent thinking, have been angry and terrified by the election of our virulent Presidential buffoon.  His performance thus far has actually amplified our initial trepidation.  The situation seems so dire that we grasp for any straw of hope that we and our nation will be saved from this mean moron.  The pundits and newscasters of our corporate mainstream news media are ill equipped to deal with this awful person. Historically, the mainstream media’s role has been to present an “establishment” view of politics, seeing all political positions as falsely equivalent.  They accomplish this mostly by avoiding key political issues, while focusing on electoral horse races. Some cable news journalists have been bravely active in deconstructing the Trump disaster and beyond the FOX propagandists who pose as newscasters,  most others have often waxed critically at the latest Trump idiocy,  but within the constraints commensurate with their status as corporate employees.

A curious development of the Trump news coverage has been the impression given, through the overuse of centrist pundits, that there are some “adults” in the Trump administration trying to maintain a leash upon this  crazy  choleric Commander In Chief. The hope of this establishment punditry serving as news analysts is that these “adults” in the administration will rein Trump in enough to prevent his starting a nuclear holocaust, for instance. Call me a skeptic though, but I am suspicious as to whether these individuals are indeed “adults” in their political leanings, or merely that in comparison to the tumultuous Trump they appear to be sober in temperament. This is the first of a series of sketches I am planning to write about these supposed “adults“,  who are presented as giving us hope that they will prevent Trump from destroying us all.

The first I heard of Marine General John F. Kelly was when he was appointed to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On the cable news channels, the usual gaggle of neocon pundits who are typecast as sober thinkers on policy, came on professing to know Kelly as a serious thinker.  My personal view is to distrust the assessments of these pundits, because they all represent rather centrist conservative perspectives of world affairs and are closely related to the Corporate/Military/Intelligence Complex.  These pundits seem to uniformly have a high regard for any person of an Admiral of General’s rank and pay them the due deference that these people would expect from their troops. The pundits generally rated Kelly highly, though others expressed concern that his affirmation of Trump’s hard-line immigration stance may not bode well:

“Kelly has stated his respect for religious diversity and freedom, but has also made it clear that he wants to “put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security.”………..

Kelly said that Trump supporters had voted to “take back sovereignty at our borders.”……

“He personifies a military approach to the border,” says Chris Rickerd, an immigration-focused policy counsel at ACLU. “That hasn’t gone well over the last 15 years. The border can’t become this zone where the Constitution doesn’t matter, where due process is thrown away, where the historical role of this country as a refuge is abandoned.”  Here.

One of the signature Trump issues, that upsets the majority of Americans,  has been his racist and xenophobic stance on immigration.  It seems that General Kelly’s views are similar to those of his boss, with less overt invective. How will that rein Trump in?

Further wisdom of General Kelly:

“In an April 2017 speech at George Washington University, Kelly said, “If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws. Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”[26]

“Kelly indicated days into the administration his interest in having the U.S.–Mexico border wall completed within two years.[27] On April 21, 2017, Kelly said the U.S.–Mexico border wall would begin construction “by the end of the summer.”[28] Two days later, Kelly said he believed “a border wall is essential” as there were “tremendous threats” such as drugs and individuals coming into the US.[29] On May 2, Kelly stated his surprise in office holders “rejoicing in the fact that the wall will be slower to be built and, consequently, the southwest border under less control than it could be.”[30]

“In May 2017, Kelly said of terrorism, “It’s everywhere. It’s constant. It’s nonstop. The good news for us in America is we have amazing people protecting us every day. But it can happen here almost anytime.”[31] He said that the threat from terrorism was so severe that some people would “never leave the house” if they knew the truth.“[31]

So those of us hoping against hope that General Kelly will serve us by keeping our mad, bad President from being even more despicable, may be placing their hopes in the wrong person. The border wall and immigration are two intertwined issues that expose the virulent racism and irrational ideation of Donald Trump. They serve as metaphors for why this malevolent clown is such a danger to us all.  Yet the supposed adult in the room, General Kelly, is on board with these ideas.  Kelly’s presence does nothing to assuage my trepidation.