The Trump administration, being the chaotic dumpster fire that it is, is going through more convulsions. John Kelly, Donald Trump's chief of staff, is out. A new attorney general has been selected, as well as a UN ambassador.
It's often said that Trump demands loyalty from his aides. This is wrong: he demands ass-kissing, sucking up and brown-nosing.
Loyal people have the best interests of their bosses -- and the country -- at heart. They have integrity and are usually competent. They will tell their bosses the truth even when it hurts, and give the best advice for the long term, even when they might take a temporary hit. Their primary concern is the safety and welfare of the American people.
Suck-ups and ass-kissers are opportunistic weasels. They are usually incompetent, having risen through the ranks solely by means of brown-nosing and backstabbing. They tell their bosses what they want to hear, even when they know it's wrong and will hurt the country in the long run. They are selfish and self-serving.
Trump started out by hiring a few people who had some semblance of competence and loyalty. But after two years he has fired every person with a shred of integrity, or they have quit. For all their faults, people like Nikki Haley, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly and Rex Tillerson had some semblance of competence, dignity or self-respect (though rarely all three at the same time).
Their replacements are all ass-kissing sock puppets who simply regurgitate Trumpian double-talk.
Heather Nauert will be the next UN ambassador. Her qualifications? She is attractive, blonde and worked on Fox & Friends. No diplomatic training or experience, except for blabbering at State Department press conferences in the last year.
Trump appointed Matt Whitaker attorney general, but when it became obvious his nomination would go down in flames Trump had to take his third choice, which Trump now inanely says was always his first choice.
The new AG nominee is William Barr, who was attorney general from 1991 to 1993. His qualifications? He thinks presidents have unlimited authority, that they should use pardons to cover up their crimes and that Hillary Clinton should be hounded to the grave for having an email server.
Barr was the AG who advised George H.W. Bush to cover up his own involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal with executive pardons.
In 1979 Iranian revolutionaries overran the American embassy in Tehran and took 50 Americans hostage. A couple years later the Reagan administration sold missiles to Iran and then used the profits to illegally fund the Contras (right-wing death squads) in Central America.
Yes, incredible as it seems, Ronald Reagan and George Bush broke the law to sell weapons to Ayatollah Khomeini while Iranians continued to yell "Death to America!" so Reagan could beat Jimmy Carter in 1980. And then they used the profits to illegally fund killers who murdered American nuns in Nicaragua.
That's the kind of criminal behavior that Trump's new attorney general thinks is just fine: but running your own email server is against the rules! Lock her up!
Clearly, Trump hired Barr because he has experience using executive pardons to allow the president to break the law.
But Bush only got away with pardoning his Iran-Contra co-conspirators because he had already lost to Bill Clinton. A better example is Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon: Ford lost his re-election bid, in large part due to that pardon.
Federal officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is the only loyalty real Americans should have.
Trump is trying to turn this country into a nation of ass-kissers and suck-ups instead of loyal patriots.
Loyal patriots will eventually sell Trump out to save the country. Ass-kissers, having no real loyalty, will ultimately sell Trump out to save their own asses.
Ass-kisser Michael Cohen has already turned states evidence against Trump, while suck-up Paul Manafort and brown-noser Roger Stone are still wangling for executive pardons, so they have yet to sell Trump out.
The Mueller investigation may be proceeding too quickly for Trump to wait to pardon Manafort and Stone. But doing so while still president risks impeachment. It would also have a catastrophic effect on his re-election prospects -- and those of every other Republican office holder.
In the end, Trump can't win: the ass-kissers will eventually sell Trump out. And then they'll paint themselves as loyal patriots.
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