Commentary
From Out on My Limb
In my November 8, 2024, edition, I suggested that Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (Ret.) would be an excellent choice to serve as President Trump’s national security advisor.
While the president elect named Florida Rep, Mike Waltz to that position, he has named Kellogg to be his Envoy to Russia and the Ukraine and could play a crucial role in Trump’s plan to broker an end to the war that began there three years ago.
Kellogg advised Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and has been a strong loyalist, publicly defending him against charges of wrongdoing or holding dangerous views, despite being former Vice President Pence’s national security advisor.
“He was with me right from the beginning,” Trump said in making the announcement on Kellogg,” adding that “Kellogg supports his vision of peace through strength.”
Hegseth Follow-Up
I wrote of my support for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation to secretary of defense in my November 28 edition.
During an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, Hegseth confirmed his disdain for the implementation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the Department of Defense, a sort of cancer that has metastasized in the service academies.
“The dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is ‘our diversity is our strength,’” said Hegseth referring to a year-old video of Air Force Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces, emphasizing the importance of DEI.
Asked what the Air Force hopes to achieve in incorporating DEI policies, the transcript shows Schneider with six uses of “you know,” and five uses of “um” or “uh” in a single paragraph trying to explain that the service hopes to have “the best most capable force,” while “identifying the barriers that currently exist.”
Hegseth was particularly critical of the general’s response to how we will know when we’ve made considerable gains with respect to DEI? “It becomes part of our DNA, you know, then we’ve achieved success,” said Schneider.
Oddly enough, Schneider holds a position formerly held by Gen. Charles Q. Brown in the Pacific. Brown, an advocate of DEI, incidentally … wait for it … became the first African American to become Air Force Chief of Staff in the Pentagon.
I have been critical of Pentagon brass for instituting DEI, understanding that they were instructed by President Biden to do so with his claim that the services were rife with extremists and racism. Following the instructions of the president as commander-in-chief under war conditions is one thing, but I have found no record of a general or admiral expressing opposition to DEI choosing to preserve their rank and position.
Biden Spending Spee
In an earlier edition, I wrote about President Elect Trump’s plan to secure unspent funds from the Biden administration, especially that committed to battling climate change in the Green New Deal.
Even though John Kerry, 80, announced plans in January to step down as Biden’s climate envoy, he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos and to the International Energy Agency in Paris in February committing U.S. support. A November meeting with China to stop building coal plants fell short of his goal.
Speaking at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum last week, he said, “I think, personally, we’re on the brink of needing to declare a climate emergency which is what we really have. We have the challenge of getting people to understand that the economics of climate work favors people who are feeling the pinch of inflation.” However, he failed to explain how.
Looking ahead to the Trump administration, Kerry said, “I assure you that when Donald Trump takes the oath of office on January 20th, no CEO, in this country, of an automobile company, after spending billions of dollars retooling their plans, is going to suddenly go back to internal combustion engine cars.”
Surely, Kerry knows he’s whistling past the graveyard of EV’s limited future. Those auto CEO’s lost billions of dollars when they went weak-kneed under Biden, but they see the unsold EVs on car lots and have shut down manufacturing on some.
While Trump isn’t vehemently opposed to EVs, he believes their purchase should be a matter of consumer choice. The EV mandate and rebates may end. If they do, California’s wacko Governor Newsom plans to continue paying the rebate in his state.
Before leaving office, Biden approved his Commerce Department’s “loan” of $6 billion to struggling Rivian Automotive.
In other spending moves, Commerce made a final award of $7.87 billion to Intel Corp under the CHIPS and Scientific Act, on the heels of $6 billion to TSMC.
Trump’s newly designated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be looking into legal routes to curb committed spending.
Vindictive Spending
With Special Counsel Jack Smith opting to dismiss charges against Trump, we learn that his effort to influence the former president’s election by keeping him in courtrooms while campaigning with the goal of conviction, cost taxpayers more than $60 million.
The cost of other lawfare attempts to keep Trump from returning to office, in New York, Washington and Atlanta are still to be revealed.
Clearly, American voters became aware that the weaponization of justice was concocted to influence the public and it failed decisively on November 5, 2024.
May God continue to bless the United States of America in Transition.
