Esper Explains Why He Wouldn't Vote For Trump In 2024
My ballot arrived in the mail yesterday. Trump's name is nowhere on it. But other Republicans' names do appear-- crackpots and stooges like state Sen. Brian Dahle, a Trumpist candidate for governor, Johnny Nalbandian, who's running against Adam Schiff on behalf of Trump, Eric Early, one of my neighbors, who's running for Attorney General. I didn't vote for any of them. If you care about our freedom and our country at all, you shouldn't either-- nor for any Republicans anywhere.
Yesterday top American fascist Steve Bannon-- for some reason not in prison and instead allowed to continue broadcasting his poisonous and insurrectionist treason-- was talking about "when we come to power." Is that what Merrick Garland is waiting for? When they come to power? Eric Holder on MSNBC this morning: "To let the [Trump] administration simply off the hook, given all that they've done, all that I think we're gonna hear that they did-- that's very dangerous for our nation."
Steve Bannon yesterday: "Esper, you’re going to be held accountable for this bro. When we come to power, don’t think you’re going to skip away from this!" Bannon was going on about Mark Esper's new book, A Sacred Oath, and the revelations in it. He insists they will put Esper in prison: "We’re gonna have a massive investigation of this, sir. I hope and I believe you’ll go to prison. Cause you belong in prison." And not just Esper: "This West Point mafia... Mike Pompeo... Dave McCormick... Esper, should be ashamed of themselves and should be... apologizing. You can either apologize or we’re going to force an apology. We’re not gonna sit down and just take this." Force an apology? Like in the Chinese Cultural Revolution? Bannon's come a long way from Mussolini... or not so long.
And I always thought Bannon was the top leaker in the Trump Regime. Esper thinks otherwise, acknowledging that "leaks were a chronic problem" and that Señor Trumpanzee was the worst abuser. "The individual motivations for the leaks ranged from advancing a preferred policy outcome to enhancing the leaker’s own role or credentials to currying favor with the president. It was a noxious behavior learned from the top. The president was the biggest leaker of all. It turned colleague against colleague, department against department, and it was generally bad for the administration and the country."
Let me share a thread of the indomitable Ron Filipkowski from yesterday. I put it in narrative form. He reminded his followers that in August 2015 Trump announced to the voters that he would surround himself "with only the best and most serious people. Top of the line professionals."
Now that time has passed, Trump has had some time to reassess some of his appointments to lead our country in senior positions in his regime. Filipkowski listed some of Trump's judgments, most of them projections, of his appointments:
Rex Tillerson- "Dumb as a rock."
John Kelly- "No temperament" "He got eaten alive" "Unable to handle the pressure of the job."
Anthony Scaramucci- "Highly unstable nut job," "A fool" "Abused staff."
Mark Esper- "Weak and totally ineffective." "A lightweight."
Reince Preibus- "Weak" "A disgrace"
Jeff Sessions- "Weak and ineffective" "Dumb southerner" "Mentally retarded" "Disgraceful" "Scared stiff" "Idiot" "Mr Magoo"
Jim Mattis- "world’s most overrated general."
Bill Barr- "Never had the energy or the competence to do the job." "Slow and boring."
Mick Mulvaney- "Fucked it all up."
John Bolton- "Washed up" "Disgruntled boring old fool" "Never had a clue." "Dope" "Liar."
Kirstjen Nielsen- "Too short" "Didn’t look the part" "Not tough enough."
Steve Bannon: "Sloppy Steve cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog."
And now Sloppy Steve is Trump's top political advisor again. A marriage made in Hell. Asked on Morning Joe today if he would vote for Trump in 2024, Esper didn't beat around the bush: "No, and I’ll tell you why. Because in my view, any elected leader needs to meet some basic criteria: they need to be able to put country over self, they need to have a certain amount of integrity and principle, they need to be able to reach across the aisle and bring people together and unite the country. Look, Donald Trump doesn’t meet those marks for me."