Electoral College Does It’s Duty: Donald Trump is the 45th President

The campaign to stop Trump at the Electoral College utterly failed, as anticipated, and Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States.

This kind of campaign should never be attempted again, by activists on either side.  The Constitutional quagmire that would result if the College was disrupted cannot be allowed to happen, under any circumstances.

The effort was an attack on the Constitution itself, by desperate people who seem to want to feed parts of the Constitution into a shredder, without any thought of what would happen afterwards.

Yes, the election would go into the House of Representatives, and the majority party would almost certainly vote for their candidate, but why do that?  We have a system that works without getting the do-nothing Congress involved.

Hey, I didn’t like the College very much either, when they voted for Barack Obama twice and for Bill Clinton twice.  But they did their duty, which is something that is very necessary to the health of our electoral system, no matter who is elected. 

The Constitution must prevail.

Intel Briefing for Electoral College Electors is Unnecessary and Possibly Unconstitutional: They’re There to Do a Job and Vote For Whichever Candidate Won Their State

I am opposed to having the Electoral College receive any kind of intelligence briefing.  They’re simply there to vote for whichever candidate won their state, and nothing else.

I find it distasteful that nearly all the electors demanding a briefing are Democratic electors and won’t be voting for Donald Trump anyways.  They’re from states that Hillary Clinton won and who they’re supposed to vote for.

Only one Republican has joined in the call for a briefing, which is not enough to sway the Electoral College vote.

Electors refusing to do their duty to the Constitution and their respective states should be replaced by their home states that they’re at the Electoral College to represent.  The various state laws as they pertain to electors are available for download here through the National Association of Secretaries of State web site as a PDF.
 
I’m going to add that it’s highly hypocritical that the Democrats who were screaming about the Electoral College before the general election are now making all this noise about using the Electoral College to stop Trump from taking office.  Get over it.

Rex Tillerson Will Be Trump’s Nominee for Secretary of State: Senate Needs to Block This Nomination

Donald Trump confirmed that Rex Tillerson will be his choice as the new Secretary of State.

This is a mistake, and I hope that the Senate blocks the nomination.  He’s not qualified for the reasons stated in an earlier post. 

Russia and China will run in circles around him, no matter how much they say they like him.   I’m sure they’ll be nice to him at first, but when the new President comes into conflict with Putin or with the Chinese government (and he will), they won’t pull any punches.

I dislike this nominee as much as I disliked Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and that’s saying something.  His name was well-known to me prior to President-elect Trump putting him under consideration for the Secretary of State position.

The more I read about his activism (not only with the BSA, but elsewhere too), the more opposed I get to the idea of this nominee making it through the confirmation process.

Did Trump really do his homework on this nominee?

Those Protesting “Star Wars: Rogue One” As Being Anti-Trump Are Not Well-Read: They Ought to Spend a Few Weekends Reading Some Books

I’m really finding it amusing that some Trump fans are threatening to boycott the new “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” movie hitting theaters on Friday as they’re claiming some of the reshoots establish the Empire as a racist outfit with a Trump-like figure having a prominent role in the construction of the Death Star.

They obviously haven’t read any of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books.  Unfortunately for them, I have.  This is going to be a fun entry.  For me.

It’s pretty clearly established in multiple books that the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars Expanded Universe WAS a “humans only” organization. 

The Emperor’s circle of advisors was entirely human, the stormtroopers and clonetroopers were all human, and they enslaved races such as the Wookies and the Bothans.  You don’t see aliens in Imperial service in any of the seven Star Wars movies so far, but tons of them in Rebel/Resistance service. 

Here are the Emperor’s Advisors posing on the Death Star II set:

Nice hats.  Crabby looking bunch.

The only alien in Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial command structure in the Expanded Universe was Grand Admiral Thrawn, a blue-skinned, red eyed Chiss who the Emperor liked because of his proven military genius and his dedication to the Empire.  He was featured in the “Heir to the Empire” series and is currently appearing on “Star Wars Rebels.”

Grand Admiral Thrawn as he appears in “Star Wars Rebels.”

In contrast, the Rebel Alliance had many alien species in it, from Mon Calamari to Wookies to Bothans to dozens of other sentient species.

Admiral Ackbar, Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel fleet, in “Return of the Jedi.”

True science fiction fans take these things in stride, but political hacks interpret a humans-only Empire (that has been established over dozens of books and long before Trump entered politics) as an anti-Trump thing. 

Sorry, boycott participants, but enjoy your weekend at home.  I’m planning on seeing it once in our little theater in town, and then once in a larger theater within a week or two, and I’ll plan on not having to share any theater space with the likes of you.

Couple of questions:

Have you even considered that your boycott may be base on fake news?

And you’re not the same group that boycotted “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” because there was a black stormtrooper, are you? 

One note: the Expanded Universe was scrapped by Disney as they’re re-writing Star Wars canon.  They did pull Grand Admiral Thrawn over from the scrapped EU, and some other interesting characters and ideas, but it remains to be seen as to what else Disney’s going to do as they expand the Star Wars franchise.  They may not carry over the “humans only” part of the Empire into the new stories.  It is what it is, and what it will be, and I’m fine with it.

ExxonMobile’s CEO to Be Secretary of State? This May Not Be a Good Idea: The Chief Diplomat of the United States Should Have Some Diplomatic Experience

I’m not sure if this is accurate, but NBC is reporting that Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobile, is expected to be nominated by President-elect Trump to be his Secretary of State.

I’m opposed to this idea, and only for the fact that Mr. Tillerson has not held a government office or position before, and has no diplomatic experience.  The Secretary of State is fourth in line of succession to the President, and is the chief diplomat of the United States.  

The international situation is very complex, and requires someone who has an idea of how to deal with the EU/Brexit situation, the ISIS situation, the Middle East troubles, Iran, piracy on the high seas, the China/Taiwan situation, international terrorism, and a whole myriad of other entanglements.
Russia’s and China’s foreign ministers will be challenging enough for an experienced American diplomat, but putting someone with no diplomatic experience up against them is not an appealing idea.  

I think the U.S. and Russia will engage in a conventional war over Syria, or at least a limited battle (probably a clash between the U.S. and Russian air forces), and it will take a skilled American diplomat to lower tensions.  Negotiating a gas contract is not the same as negotiating a cease-fire between nations at war.

I hope this story is wrong and the President-elect is going in a different direction with his choice for Secretary of State.

As Anticipated, Trump Calls Air Force One a Step Down From His Own Aircraft; Calls on Boeing to Cancel Air Force One Order Over Potential Costs

I saw this one coming.

Trump doesn’t like the idea of flying in Air Force One, with all of its advanced communications and on-board defense technology and considers it a step-down.

It’s easy to see why:

The above photo is one section of Air Force One.  That’s pretty much the motif throughout the aircraft in terms of design and comfort.

The photo below is a shot from Trump One, or whatever he’s calling his personal aircraft.   It’s gorgeous.     

 

The President-elect fired off a Tweet yesterday citing the potential $4 billion development cost for a new-generation Air Force One currently under design over at Boeing and calling for the order to be canceled.   That caused a stir.

Just wait until then-President Trump has to fly aboard a no-bells-or-whistles Air Force transport into a conflict zone.  The Air Force may get some nice upgrades afterwards.

In any case, I don’t like the idea of putting military tech onto a civilian aircraft.  He should bite the bullet, and get used to flying on Air Force One.  

The development cost should be looked at.   Is it better to upgrade a 25 year old airframe, or buy a new one?