There was no single reason for the Sec of State Tillerson Firing…there was a laundry list.
According to various sources, Tillerson was pretty much against implementing President Trump’s foreign policy, trade and immigration agenda for Trump’s 2nd year as President and chaffed Pres. Trump over Russia besides:
1. Tillerson was working with the EU to stop the President from tearing up the Iran deal.
2. Tillerson wanted to remain in the TPP, TAP, & NAFTA.
3. Tillerson was against NK talks.
4. Tillerson was against China Tariffs.
5. Tillerson wanted to remain in the Paris Climate accord.
6. Tillerson did not support making Jerusalem the home of our embassy.
7. Tillerson wanted to keep open borders/high refugee resettlement.
8. Tillerson was talking that Russia affected our election results just before the Nunes Committee put a bullet in the head of the “Muh-Russia Collusion Delusion.”
Working behind Pres. Trump’s back with the EU over maintaining Pres Obama’s Iran nuclear deal — which Pres. Trump wants eliminated and the abandoned sanctions reinstated — was the last straw for Tillerson.
Discuss.
Yup, pretty well. Now if Pompeo makes it, and he will, there will be war.
As a 100% anti-swamper, I thought the theory of Tillerson was fine. The reality never seemed to make any sense. I dunno who would be a good pick–maybe Angelo Codevilla?
Brian,
Tillerson was a suggestion of Condoleza Rice and likely the only choice he could get through the Senate at the time.
Things have changed.
The question in my mind is when AG Sessions will go. He has done — or rather not done — things far more painful and distracting of the Trump agenda than Tillerson.
Yet here he stands.
I’m waiting for the DoJ Inspector General report to make up my mind on Sessions.
I think him more likely goat than hero in the FBI/CIA/DNC/MSM subversion of the 2016 election and post election attempted Deep State coup via ‘Made-up Russia Narrative’ impeachment.
“The question in my mind is when AG Sessions will go.”
I am still wondering about Sessions. He might be working under the covers to get some of the swamp creatures into the gray bar hotel.
Tillerson had been CEO of a huge corporation and probably could not take orders.
I agree Rex and Trump were not on the same page on much of anything, but who is on the same page as Trump? He reacts to events and makes seemingly split decisions on gut instincts. One day Trump likes Assad, the next day he’s bombing him. One day he wants to bomb North Korea, the next he’s planning peace talks.
Now, I’m not complaining, as I think Trump’s force of personality and unpredictable nimbleness are working. However, Tillerson is just too sturdy and deliberative to play along with this strategy. Their “good cop/bad cop” routine was not really clicking.
Tillerson was indeed reluctant about moving the embassy to Jerusalem, but he was still supportive of Israel in his own way. I was paying close attention to his visit to the Middle East last month. He walked into those countries and firmly defended both our interests and Israel’s.
I was sort of holding out hope that natural gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean might provide a route for a breakthrough in peace. Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Turkey all have developments underway, but none are capable of both drilling and exporting on their own. There will have to be some sort of collaboration between at least two and possibly more to get it done. It can and should be a springboard for further diplomacy
Tillerson touched on the issue a little bit while he was there. It’s something that is right up his alley. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it was to be. It’s too bad because it would also provide leverage to pry Iran and Russia out of the picture.
Grurray,
Put the following — “lng bunker barge design” — into your favorite internet search engine and limit the searches to the last couple of years.
Hint — US LNG bunker barges scaled for the American inter-coastal waterway are also the right size for the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf littorals.
There is a new generation of smaller LNG/gas transfer facilities that has already begun to upset the previous status quo in energy exports, probably in favor of Israeli, U.S. and other high tech LNG exporters.
See:
https://phys.org/news/2017-12-liquefied-gas-natural-energy-firms.html
The issue of the inefficiency of lots of smaller LNG ports is balanced by the fact of large ocean going motorized barges pulled by large tugs can get into smaller and shallower ports that have legacy railway right of way connections usable for new pipelines.
Distribution via legacy rail right of way and small/quick barge shake and bake ports gets you much deeper market penetration world wide via avoiding the entrenched interests at the large container and oil ports.
The Upshot —
Russia and Norwegian natural gas just got a price ceiling in Europe.
And Asia just entered the U.S. Natural Gas market.
Oil distribution by barge has been an American logistical specialty for going on 120 years. LNG via the same economic-logistical niche was a natural development path for the US oil biz which is now happening.
CEOs of a huge corporations take orders all the time. From regulatory agencies. From the board of directors. From customers. They serve many masters.
Tillerson bullyragged the Boy Scouts into accepting queers into their ranks — not because he thought it was best fir the boys, or that it was a non-issue, but solely because he argued that the BSA could not financially survive the legal battles being inflicted on them by the likes of the Lambda Legal Foundation. The ex-head of the LLF is currently on trial, along with his ‘partner’ for raping a 16-year old boy in a hotel room; I forget the sick bastard’s name. We have queers in the Scouts as the result of a lawsuit brought by a homosexual child molester. And Tillerson knelt to him, and convinced the BSA to do likewise. Over money.
That tells you everything you need to know about the SOB, and I have been saying so since he was first appointed. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I’m with Lifson:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/why_gary_cohns_departure_from_the_white_house_could_be_good_news.html
Once a project is complete dispatch the players for the new goal.
I will agree with Pengun [mark your calendars, as this will not come around again for a long time if ever]; but I am pretty sure it is not in the way he meant at all.
He is thinking foreign. Mind you, if Hillary was president we would be no less likely to go to war overseas. But we would be guaranteed to lose while various Leftist Nomenklatura bank accounts were swelled.
No, what I am hoping is this is the beginning of the domestic war for control of our country. Tillerson was working to preserve the Democrat foreign policy structure and paradigm. Sessions is desperate to preserve the control of the Ruling Class over the Country Class [Codavilla has the smarts, but I don’t know if he has the iron will to do what must be done to the enemies of the Constitution and the American people.]
Cabinet shuffles are neither unusual nor wrong when facing changing circumstances. If you have a strong and non-submissive foreign policy, you have to have a cabinet that supports such. Tillerson didn’t. I suspect that Pompeo will. I also suspect that Haspel has a higher testosterone count than the entire pre-2016 cabinet combined.
Since we have the entire Federal law enforcement structure that is still working for the DNC and its foreign allies; that will have to be overturned too. My confidence in Sessions is basically zero. His only moves are like the putative Republican confirmation process. They will only show results sometime 2 presidents down the road. If we are very lucky, we have a time span measured in months, not years. Trump was the last chance to fix things electorally. And the GOPe conspired with their Democrat partners to waste most of that.
First Tillerson. Next Sessions.
Subotai Bahadur,
Sorry for the delay in posting your comment.
The WordPress nannybot is being stubborn again.
I’m with Lifson:
Once a project is complete dispatch the players for the new goal.
That’s exactly correct. Cohn’s job was get a corporate tax cut in order for Trump to safely raise tariffs. He did his job and left honorably.
Tillerson’s main accomplishment was cutting the State Department staff by almost 5000 in only a year. 60% of top ranking career diplomats (or parasites as I like to refer to them) resigned. The left wing media claims State will be weakened for a generation. I only wish it could’ve been weakened for longer. More than anyone else in the Trump Administration, Tillerson actually did drain the swamp.
Good comments about Tillerson and Cohn.
I am still neutral on Sessions.
I like Perry at Energy but maybe Trump needs him to be a fireman elsewhere.
If he can clean up the VA, like Romney fixed the Olympics, maybe he can rehabilitate his reputation.
What to think about Sessions depends on whether the internet crazies are right about the IG report. We’ll get a solid glimpse of what we should think in the next couple of days it appears:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-fbi-firing-recommendation-justice-department.html
“The Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that Mr. McCabe was not forthcoming during the review, according to the people briefed on the matter. That yet-to-be-released report triggered an F.B.I. disciplinary process that recommended his termination — leaving Mr. Sessions to either accept or reverse that decision.”
“He is thinking foreign.” I don’t disagree with your domestic analysis, but Pompeo has wanted to attack Iran for a long time. He has a serious problem with Muslims in general.
An intelligent psychopath, and very dangerous.
>>but Pompeo has wanted to attack Iran for a long time.
This means he knows who America’s enemies are, a nice thing in both a CIA director and a Secretary of State.
>>He has a serious problem with Muslims in general.
Pompeo would disagree.
At 54 years of age, his formative years were the 1973 and 1979 oil embargos and the 1983 Marine Beirut barracks bombing, followed by the 9/11/2001.
He’d put it that the Muslim world has a problem with America.
Iran has been at war with America for a very long time, but only a “psychopath” would notice this and recommend fighting back.
We’re not going to go to war with Iran. Good grief. Trump’s going to run on the fact that he started no wars, and made a deal with North Korea, and, based on reading the tea leaves, there are lots of under-the-hood actions going on regarding pushing for regime change in Iran. If he has those accomplishments to brag about, it’ll be YUUGE for his reelection.
To say it another way, Trump’s sloppy approach to ‘vetting’ prospective Cabinet members and advisors has been about as successful as his approach to vetting prospective wives. Can’t wait till he works his vetting magic on our immigration system.
“Trump’s sloppy approach to ‘vetting’ prospective Cabinet members and advisors has been about as successful as his approach to vetting prospective wives.”
Very good. Send that in to the DNC and you will get a small prize.
Not only will you go to war with Iran it may start next month, on Friday the 13th. That’s when Trump will decertify the deal.
Britain is full hue and cry, over this obviously false flag attack, on a Russian spy who was sentenced to 15 years and then swapped in a deal with the US and UK. They would have never let him go if they thought him worth killing.
This is crap but has a reason. To bring the NATO countries into the furor and create more anti Russian propaganda.
The Russians have said that an attack on Damascus, which Niki really wants, would result in both the missiles and the launchers being destroyed. That’s the Sixth Fleet folks.
The stupid is off the chain. I tried my best to address it with intelligence, but that’s not gonna fly. Good luck everyone.
Learn from George…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y_6fZGSOQI
And yet even think tank people admit I am very seldom wrong. This has been the case for quite a while now, maybe eight years now.
Being consistently right about geopolitics, has given me some confidence I understand what’s going on.
It appears that Tillerson was only the beginning.
See this link” http://thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/fox-news-john-kelly-h-r-mcmaster-david-shulkin-purged-white-house-bloodbath-video/
Short form:
Out — AG Sessions, National Security Advisor McMaster, Chief of staff Kelly, Veteran’s Affairs Sec. Shulkin
In —
E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt as Attorney General, ’cause as a cabinet Secretary and lawyer he does not need Senate approval to get shifted there.
John Bolton as National Security Advisor
Energy Secretary Rick Perry replacing Shulkin at the VA
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney replacing Kelly as Chief of Staff
And Ray Washburne, the chairman of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, would replace Perry as energy secretary.
Reasons:
Kelly’s screw ups on staff vetting seem the “last straw” reason for his ouster.
Sessions we know the reasons for.
The VA still sucks.
And McMaster has been caught speaking to Obama’s NSA Susan Rice without Pres. Trump’s knowledge or permission.
The sourcing on that is ridiculous. Unnamed sources leaking to Vanity Fair???? Believe nothing until Trump tweets it.
Brian,
The Washington Post filed a similar story about McMaster’s firing to the Gateway pundit story.
It looks like Pres Trump took the opportunity of Tillerson’s firing to ‘launch a flock of canary traps’ — that is false leaks to suspected leakers — in order to identify leakers.
This has happened often enough that is seems to be the Trump counter-intelligence standard operating procedure.
Which is why the Press is b-tching about “Chaos in the White House” because they don’t have a go-to list of leakers to influence policy with.
See:
Intelligence PR Firm Gets Caught in Leak Trap – WaPo Runs Story of McMaster Firing…
Posted on March 15, 2018
by sundance
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/15/intelligence-pr-firm-gets-caught-in-leak-trap-wapo-runs-story-of-mcmaster-firing/
We know now five people in/near the White House talked to four different Washington Post reporters.
If Trump had been watching these reporters with private investigators (Trump’s a billionaire and knows the best from his days as a Hotel-casino operator) and/or Secret Service during this round of leaking.
He now knows who they are.
See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-decides-to-remove-national-security-adviser-and-others-may-follow/2018/03/15/fea2ebae-285c-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html?utm_term=.0ac99d499834
By Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig March 15 at 8:51 PM Email the author
President Trump has decided to remove H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser and is actively discussing potential replacements, according to five people with knowledge of the plans, preparing to deliver yet another jolt to the senior ranks of his administration.
Trump is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled, but is willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up, these people said.
Trent: Right. I think with this administration in particular you have to be extremely wary of what the media is printing. I don’t think they just make up these stories. But clearly some are designed to just feed the “CHAOS!!!!” idea, and some are designed to feed the “FAKE NEWS!!!!!” idea, and some are actually real leaks by people who know what they’re talking about (this seems to be the smallest group of all), and there’s no way a reader can tell which is which, since we don’t have any way to know the agenda of the sources.
Vanity Fair is an absurd source, though. Why would Team Trump leak something like that to them? We know from decades of experience that Trump loves the New York Times. If they had the slightest bit of sense, they’d know that they could influence him to do whatever they want if they just stroked his ego every once in a while.
>>Why would Team Trump leak something like that to them?
Did you see the male model looks class ‘body assistant’ that got perp-walked out of the Trump White house a week ago today for a “security failure” three days before the Tillerson firing was announced?
That timing was why Gateway Pundit bit on the Vanity Fair story…and why the Washington Post (and I) bit on Gateway Pundit.
It may be Bolton who will replace McMaster. At that point the deep state has taken back control of government.
What is important to them is continued pressure on Russia, an undeclared war, and the consolidation of the middle east, a war in progress. As they have taken control, this is what will happen, war.
An attack on Damascus after a false flag chemical incident is the most probable immediate outcome. That will by itself, be enough to kill us all if cool heads do not prevail. Putin can destroy the Sixth Fleet and probably will if you use it in this attack., I keep writing Sith for some reason. ;)
The full court press NATO is running over this ridiculous poison attack is just part of the opening salvos of a much more serious American deep state operation.
Now some of you may think this is a good idea. You are fools.
Now I think I understand Bernie’s foreign policy. Don’t mess with the Russians, those enlightened statists.
The whole Russia conspiracy narrative by the Hildabeastees is to disavow Obama’s and her cozy reset initiatives for those 8 years? And why? As this is pleasing Sanders and the one worlder’s so much? Time to call BS. It is solely based on needing an excuse to unelect Trump or hobble him.
But in the larger sense it foils much of the opposition to Trump’s containing Putin’s aspirations. Now all the “Weaken America Again” trolls (including Sanders) have left is the fear that Putin actually wants to or would start thermonuclear war in retaliation for effective curbs on his foreign expansion operations. Same was argued by the same sources during the cold war. Turned out that strength wins and appeasement/fear does not.
Putin’s economy has limited long term prospects as we begin marketing our liquefied natural gas to Europe and Asia. Can he continue to escalate? I don’t think so as long as we continue to take him seriously. Which includes granting him the same sort of cold rationality we operate by. I give him that credit, but not Bernie and the trolls (new leftist folk group I think). I believe that the 8 years of grinding down our national defenses and largely ignoring growing asymmetric technological infrastructure threats has still left us sufficierntly capable to be dealing from strength over the near term. Putin moves into vacuums not strength. The calculus for him is changing.
Death6
Putin moves into vacuums not strength. The calculus for him is changing.
Indeed. All it takes is western leaders who show some of the backbone that western leaders used to have. Let’s hope Obama was an aberration. Unfortunately the western Europeans have left themselves vulnerable to Putin in ways that will be difficult to reverse.
Tell ya what. You compete with pipelines, which you are doing your best to either derail or close down, with your gas shipments and I’ll watch. ;)
I am reading (listening to audio) of Buchanan’s book “Nixon’;s White House Wars” and was listening today to the Pentagon Papers story.
Buchanan begged Nixon to go out and give a speech attacking the New York Times, which published them.
His theory was that the Times was trying to sell the story that it had been lied to by Kennedy and Johnson and, therefore, its support for the Vietnam War was not its own fault.
He was asked to run the “Plumbers” and refused. He wanted them to go public.
The Plumbers approach took them all down.
If only Nixon had had some of Trump’s gusto and devil may care attitude. Nixon was a worrier and a brooder.