[Salon] Trump taps billionaire Stephen Feinberg for deputy defense secretary - The Washington Post

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

This gives the lie to Trump desiring peace with Russia, as does Trump's appointment of Elbridge Colby referred to in the article at bottom, speaking here not long ago with other Trumpite War Fanatics: https://www.heritage.org/defense/event/decade-decline-the-need-restore-americas-military-power

The Financial Times, December 20, 2024

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So does what follows, which I shared yesterday with some "Peace" activists I'm acquainted with, including former intelligence/military officers, some of whom pathetically bought into Trump's "Mass Consciousness Deception Campaign," manufacturing the lie that Trump was some kind of "Right-wing Peacenik," and lying that something like that even ever existed, such as this promoted: https://quincyinst.org/events/the-new-right-ukraine-marks-major-foreign-policy-shift-among-conservatives/

So, with today's news (see below), as everyday's now, it's getting darker, and darker, just the way Trump's National/Traditional Conservative proponents intended, while cloaking Trump as a "Right-wing Peacenik," and simultaneously promoting for election his National Conservative political collaborators in bringing "Totalitarian Democracy" to the U.S. Or, "“absolute majoritarianism,”  as the U.S.' most exulted proponent of it, Willmoore Kendall, called it. With that term a salable form of American Fascism, as was "Conservatism," for the fascist political theory Kendall, Burnham, and Buckley so admired, and spent their lives working for!

"Conservative" was a more appropriate name to call their Movement post-WW II they realized with the word "Fascism" in such disrepute following the war, for he and his fellow founders of the Conservative Movement's Plan to debauch Constitutional government. Here is a succinct description of it by one of Kendall's most zealous panegyrists, who was introduced to us by Kendall's most zealous panegyrist, the Traditional Conservative, as a "rebuttal witness" against me, and my condemnation of Kendall: 

"He set out to expand upon his previous position “that in any decision-making group one half of the members, plus one, have a right to commit one half of the members, minus one, to any policy they see fit to support.” Majority rule, if taken seriously, meant that individual liberties had to come second to the people’s right to enforce principles they believed important and true. Moreover, a democratic society had the right to impose its political orthodoxy upon dissidents. At discretion, the community might provide wide latitude for disagreement, but it retained the power to discipline citizens who threatened to undermine its principles."

Yeah, that would include"disciplining" that tiny fragment of people here who criticize Israel for its genocide, against Trump's absolute support for it. Yet, when such totalitarian ideas are introduced here for the purpose of "influencing consciousness," as "thought control" by today's Thought Control Conservatives (Traditional Conservatives), all one hears (besides myself) are "crickets," silence by this largely Republican email list. One can only surmise that silence is acquiescence in support of what is clearly a "mass consciousness activity" (as they're called, and recognized as, in Israel, from which National Conservatism originated). Here is an explanation of the theory behind such mass consciousness activities employed on this email list by Trumpites: 

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BLUF: "When discussing the issue of influencing consciousness, it is customary to refer to two layers of consciousness: a basic essential one that includes “belief in religion” or “affinity for the nation,” and a second layer, which is made up of “positions and opinions.” Two people who have an identical basic  layer of consciousness can have differing opinions on many topics.

"This article focuses on changing public opinion. . . "In these cases, it is possible to conduct an influence campaign that is made up of a number of stages: the first stage is an attempt to create “a degree of discomfort” among the target audience by intensively disseminating information (see “information  bombardment” below). . . . Influence means changing the opinion of a public, which is defined as having  a specific position that we seek to change and replace with an alternative one. What characterizes the population as a target audience and as a uniform object is its “basic cognition.”

In other words, if a target audience such as this email list opposes, or is tired of war, and one is a Trumpite; lie, and tell the target audience that Trump too opposes war, even against the overwhelming evidence that he isn't, when it "serves his interests." That if the Trumpite's definition of an "interests based foreign policy." Simultaneously, work to change the "basic essential layer of consciousness" by revising history while "flushing down the memory hole" true history. Like in 1984!

 

The Traditional/National Conservative Trumpite's (with libertarians along for the tax cuts, deregulation, and privatization they demand for the benefit of the Plutocrats/Übermensch whom they so diligently serve) anti-Constitutionalism and ultra-militarism culminates in this Trump administration, and they're not even hiding it. 

This email list deserves a lot of credit for that as people here zealously touted Kendall, James Burnham, William Buckley, the "Thought Control Conservatives," as "real Conservatives," the Traditional Conservatives, who damned near took us to Nuclear Armageddon in 1962 over Cuba, with their pushing for preemptive Nuclear attack on not just Cuba, but also the USSR, China, and tiny Albania! That's the actual "Right-wing Peacenik Tradition" as so vigorously concealed by Koch-funded right-wing revisionists here, while using "Realism and Restraint" as a euphemism, a ruse, even while Trump waged "Irregular War" against Russia. Even the non-New Right, wing of the Koch-funded "Republican Statecraft" revealed that, as here, making it so pathetically tragic how some "true believers" in Trump, who also oppose the US war against Russia, continue to defend and promote Trump as the only option we have for "Peace." Such as the well meaning, but naive, Jeffrey Sachs does, as do some other well-meaning people like former intell officers I know, but others duplicitous Trump promoters like the Heritage Foundation connected Tucker Carlson. 

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/cia-ukraine-russia/

Quote: "Kyiv routinely pushed this relationship’s boundaries, violating the Obama administration’s red lines around lethal operations by carrying out assassinations of high-profile Russian fighters on territory controlled by Russian-aligned separatists. The Kyiv-CIA partnership deepened under the Trump administration, yet again putting the lie to the baseless idea that former President Trump was somehow amenable to Russia’s interests while in office.

"As Budanov reportedly put it, “It only strengthened. It grew systematically. The cooperation expanded to additional spheres and became more large-scale.” This cooperation, as painstakingly outlined by the Times, went far beyond helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia in a narrow, technical sense — rather, Ukraine was drawn into a Western coalition for the purpose of waging a broad-based shadow war against Russia." (TP-Under Trump, for those who can't maintain concentration from one sentence to another.)

https://www.armytimes.com/flashpoints/2017/12/23/us-agrees-to-send-lethal-weapons-to-ukraine-angering-russia/

"WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, a long-awaited move that deepens America’s involvement in the military conflict and may further strain relations with Russia. Moscow responded angrily on Saturday.

"The new arms include American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, U.S. officials said late Friday."

. . .

"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S. decision will only make the conflict more deadly and suggested that Russia could be forced to respond. He also said the U.S. can no longer cast itself as a mediator. “It’s not a mediator. It’s an accomplice in fueling the war,” Ryabkov said in a statement."

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2018-04/news-briefs/us-anti-tank-missiles-headed-ukraine

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-praised-first-us-weapons-sale-ukraine-1857509

Quote: "Who sold the first American weapons to Ukraine? President Trump - Javelins," Kuleba said. "Who started the program of free transfer of the first naval vessels, Island and Mark-6 type boats to Ukraine? Trump. Who fought Nord Stream 2 and sanctioned the famous but now forgotten Russia's Fortuna vessel that laid this pipeline? It was Trump."

"While Trump and many of his allies have seemingly became less enthusiastic about aiding Ukraine as the war drags on, the former president repeatedly took credit for Ukraine's military success in the immediate aftermath of Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022.

"Speaking to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo less than two weeks after the conflict kicked off, Trump said that "Russia has gotten in deeper than they ever thought possible" because of "the weapons that I gave and that the Ukrainians used so well."

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2024/11/how-trump-may-shake-dod-insiders-view/400911/

BLUF: "Few people, if any, have a better window into Donald Trump’s plans for the Pentagon than Christopher Miller, the final acting defense secretary of Trump’s first term and architect of the defense chapter of the Project 2025 document.

"Two people with knowledge of the Trump campaign’s internal deliberations told Defense One that Miller is well-placed to play a key role in the next White House’s national security apparatus. And while Trump sought to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation document after its many controversial elements rose to public attention, it was written largely by his former appointees and staff and mirrors many of his policy proposals.                                                                                                                                              

. . .                                                                                                                                                                             

“Let Special Operations Command, irregular warfare command, handle Latin America and AFRICOM. Let them compete against whoever it is out there. Let the services just focus on INDOPACOM and the Russian bear.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     . . . 

"Miller sees a possible combined role for defense intelligence and special operations, in effect transforming the latter into a quasi-intelligence service in order to better anticipate rapidly shifting geopolitical crises. It’s a vision similar to that espoused in 2016 by then-SOCOM commander Gen. Tony Thomas. (TP-Like the SS was.)

. . . 

"The public perception of Trump as eager to abandon NATO—a perception Trump himself has at times advanced—doesn’t represent his previous administration’s actual policy or current thinking, which primarily emphasizes a need for NATO nations to spend more on collective defense, an idea that alliance officials have also supported. 

"Miller, too, dismissed the notion that Trump was preparing to storm out of the alliance."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxDe0KtJJio           Pete Hegseth: The Biden admin isn’t doing this fast enough

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/22/trump-defense-department-stephen-feinberg/

Trump picks billionaire financier for deputy defense secretary

The choice of Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus Capital Management comes as Pete Hegseth continues to face questions in the confirmation process for the top Pentagon post.

Dan Diamond

Stephen Feinberg, second from left, seen in 2008 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday night announced that he will nominate Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire political supporter who has been involved in the defense contracting business, to the job of deputy defense secretary.

The announcement on Trump’s social media came as it continues to be unclear whether Trump’s choice for top Defense Department post, Pete Hegseth, has enough support for confirmation in the Senate.

The Washington Post first reported in early December that Trump had offered the job to Feinberg.

Feinberg is the co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and previously owned the private military contractor DynCorp, a company that was acquired by another defense firm, Amentum, in 2020.

During the first Trump administration, Feinberg led the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which provides the U.S. leader advice on intelligence assessments and estimates and counterintelligence matters. In his announcement on Truth Social Sunday night, Trump said Feinberg is “an extremely successful businessman” who will “help Make the Pentagon Great Again.”

Feinberg, who has been a reclusive Wall Street executive, is likely to be questioned about whether there is any conflict arising from his work in defense contracting matters and whether he is qualified to play such a major role in helping run the Pentagon.

The deputy defense secretary typically manages day-to-day operations of the massive bureaucracy with a combined workforce of more than 3 million service members and civilian employees. The search for a capable No. 2 took on heightened significance as lawmakers weigh the pick of Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, to be defense secretary.

The Post reported earlier this month that allegations against Hegseth of excessive drinking have shadowed his career.

In addition, Hegseth’s attorney has said that Hegseth paid an undisclosed sum to a woman who alleged that she had been raped by him in 2017 at a California event for Republican women. The local police and district attorney looked into the allegation and brought no charges against Hegseth. The attorney said that a consensual sexual encounter took place, that Hegseth was “visibly intoxicated” and that the woman was the aggressor.

Hegseth has been among Trump’s most controversial picks. Sen.-elect John Curtis (R-Utah) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he recently met with Hegseth and “there was no way that we’re going to resolve those [issues that have been raised] in a 30-minute conversation,” saying the matter came up “only so slightly.”

Curtis said he was gathering more information about Hegseth, so “for me, they remain unresolved, and I shouldn’t try to resolve them until I have this big, broad canvas of information about him.”

Trump also announced several other Defense Department picks Sunday night. He tapped Elbridge A. Colby as undersecretary for policy at the Defense Department. Colby served as deputy assistant secretary of defense in the first Trump administration. Colby has been a longtime China hawk and has advocated defending Taiwan if there is a conflict with China.

Trump also tapped Keith Bass, a retired Navy officer, to serve as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Bass led the White House Medical Unit, which provides health care to the president and other senior officials, during the Obama and Trump administrations.

Bass’s tenure in that role drew scrutiny and complaints from staff members who said that he and his ally Ronny Jackson, who served as physician to the president, oversaw an operation that widely dispensed sedatives and stimulants, among other concerns. The Pentagon’s inspector general earlier this year issued a report that substantiated some of those allegations and called for changes to the White House Medical Unit’s operations.