They’re not being conscripted. A job in the White House is not necessarily a promotion, especially to someone who’s running a state executive. Those governors won’t agree to go if it doesn’t make sense for them to go.

If the name is being released, it almost certainly was worked out with them beforehand, or it’s been planted in the media by that person hoping for the position, or it’s the media making stuff up from anonymous sources with no direct knowledge.

why aren’t we hearing about more people from business

Business leaders expect to be able to fire people and may not be as good a fit as you might think. I know Trump tried that the first time, Rex Tillerson from Exxon.

Honest Abe? I Like Ike? Teddy Roosevelt?

1) I hate this trend of politicians using or being routinely identified by diminutive given names, even in what should be relatively formal contexts. “Mike,” “Chuck,” “Dave,” “Bill,” etc. What is it for? An attempt to seem folksy? I find seeing the nickname “Chuck” attached to a senator especially revolting. Not only because I dislike my state’s senior senator – I have no particular beef with Grassley, for example (well, other than that I believe that just about no one of his age should be in public office – compensated for by his being useful, I guess – well, and the fact that I’m sympathetically disposed toward Iowa).

(Are female politicians less susceptible to this? I’ve never seen Collins from Maine denoted as “Sue” in similar contexts, for example. Maybe I’m just not paying attention.)

I got onto this seeing something about a news item about “Doug” Collins being nominated for the VA.

2) News item about the large number of migrants (or I suppose, former migrants, now) receiving German citizenship along with voting rights caught my eye.
* First thought in my head: See? They’re not going “back to Syria,” they’re there to stay.
* Second thought: this is the beginnings of the German establishment’s fall-back plan in case the currently brewing attempt to ban the AfD outright fails: raise up the migrant Islamic population, maybe even grant them an Islamist political party (which would surely have no problem reaching the five-percent minimum for Bundestag representation in relatively short order), as an additional tool against the “far right”.
* Third thought: a couple of generations down the road, what if the old GDR states move or will have moved to collect and concentrate the remaining patriotic Germans, then re-separate from the former West Germany, which might by then be called (Islamic Republic of) Alemanistan on the maps? What sorts of geopolitical scenarios would that generate? The mind reels. Well, my mind reeled, at any rate.

3) I’m not a superfan of the trends in the Trump cabinet and semi-cabinet nominations making the news. Specifically, how many GOP governors are going to be pulled out of their natural and perhaps more sensible places in order to put together what Trump seems to believe is some kind of Dream Team? If he wants outsiders, which I think is a fine thing, why aren’t we hearing about more people from business or something like that taking roles? Is it that Trump or his personnel decision-makers don’t want them, or can’t get them?

I will say that, if the choice were mine, I would be immediately circular-filing pretty much every job application with any Ivy League history on it, the provenance of Vance’s law degree notwithstanding. I’ve thought this for a few years now.

Karmi, that’s good news. Our larger objective should be to decouple Russia from Iran – Brian E

Yes, agree that it is good news.

“decouple Russia from Iran” – a Pipe Dream. Would be much easier to “decouple” Russia from Ukraine with Ukraine’s help. Russia had their chance—they need to be dropped – left for the likes of Iran & North Korea.

Mikhail Khodaryonok:

Russia will expand its territory, gathering lands and spaces, because constant expansion is not just one of the ideas, but a genuine existential of our historical existence. This opinion is expressed by individual representatives of the country’s political class.

In their opinion, for centuries the Russian state with its harsh and sedentary political interior was preserved solely due to its tireless striving beyond its own borders. It has long forgotten how, and most likely never knew how, to survive by other means.

External expansion, domestic thinkers believe, serves to relieve the internal tension that accumulates in society and which should in no case be released through liberal experiments.

Russia is a pariah historically – anyone trying to make friends with them now is equal to Iran & North Korea.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The Ukraine-Russia War forced Russia into an alliance with Iran, away from the transactional proxy status previously. Hopefully we can persuade Russia it’s in their interest to force Hezbollah north.
It’s my understanding that was the original deal in 2006. Yep.

United Nations Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, was intended to demilitarize southern Lebanon and protect Israel from cross-border attacks by Hezbollah. It called on Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River.

What will be different now is the IDF will be allowed to project power into the buffer zone.

Israel seeks cease-fire as a Trump ‘welcome gift’

Sunday’s discussions at Mar-a-Lago centered on an Israeli cease-fire in Lebanon that involves Western and Russian cooperation, according to the Post. Dermer secretly visited Russia last week for follow-up discussions, after Russian officials visited Israel on Oct. 27 to discuss the plan.

The proposal calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying via Syrian land routes.

According to Israeli officials, other details of the plan include moving the Hezbollah terrorist group north of the Litani River. The Lebanese military would then take control of the border area for a period of 60 days, overseen by the United States and Britain.

A source close to the Iranian terror proxy told the Post that Hezbollah would be willing to withdraw its forces north of the Litani as part of a temporary ceasefire deal.
***
Jerusalem is rushing to advance a ceasefire plan in Lebanon as a “welcome gift” to Trump. This would hand the Republican an early diplomatic victory upon his return to the White House.

“There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon,” an Israeli official said.

Israel is closer to reaching a deal to stop the fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but it must retain the freedom to act in Lebanon should any deal be violated…
***
The official emphasized that the Israel Defense Forces will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements or paper agreements.

However, the source close to Hezbollah told the Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.”

Iran’s new bestest-buddy Russia working with Israel & Trump for a cease-fire? As long as Israel can reenter Lebanon when Hezbollah breaks cease-fire should be fine. Could open the door to other options for Trump…

She has been accused of being a Russian asset, a Russian fanboy, of being against the war against Assad. So much of the criticism is coming from out own Intelligence agencies, and given their track record of creating their own conduit of misinformation for a particular political view, it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I don’t think it is disqualifying that she opposed the removal of Assad.

What would be her role in the administration as DNI?

Here is a post on Conservative Treehouse to the role of DNI– it purpose in formation and the potential role Gabbard could play. (I am taking a face value that Sundance at CTH is someone who knows the workings of this agency).

He was surprised by the pick, and appears neutral about it, other than to lay out how she can transform the position to fulfilling it’s intended role.

Washington DC created the modern national security apparatus immediately and hurriedly after 9/11/01. DHS came along in 2002, and within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the ODNI was formed.

When Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived a few years later, those newly formed institutions were viewed as opportunities to create a very specific national security apparatus that would focus almost exclusively against their political opposition.

Here is the weird part. The ODNI was formed in 2004, with the intent for the office to be the pivot point of a national security radar. The DNI was intended to provide information to domestic agencies about foreign terror networks that would prevent something like 9-11 from happening again. However, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has never, not for one day, operated on this intent. This is why they are such a critical position from my perspective.

The office was new, not established yet as a functioning silo, when Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived in 2009. They quickly dispatched an idiot, James Clapper, into the operation so they could weaponize around the offices’ fulcrum point, the intelligence hub.

Prior to the DNI office existing, the CIA radar would sweep externally and then report to the Office of the President. The DNI was intended to take external radar sweep (CIA) and make it a full 360° circle, adding a sweep inside the USA that would be handled by the Dept of Homeland Security.

The DHS sweep and the CIA sweep would then be combined into a central collection hub called the ODNI. Everyone with responsibility for “national security” could access the ODNI material. Essentially and presumably, post 9-11 nothing like jihadists practicing flying airplanes would be missed again; at least that was the intent.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/11/13/president-trump-announces-nomination-of-tulsi-gabbard-to-director-of-national-intelligence/

The plain fact is that AI soaks up huge amounts of power. Which Green Energy can’t supply. Therefore:
_______________________________

… tech giants have to ditch green energy. To compete with Asia, which is also going big on AI technology, they need rock solid reliable energy supplies at a price comparable to what Asian tech giants pay. Which is why tech giants now want their own in-house nuclear reactors….

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/15/artificial-intelligence-a-working-demonstration-and-why-big-tech-ditched-big-green/

Good riddance, but far too late… loved SciAm since High School, but cancelled long ago due to junk science and leftist political mixture! Brits bought it, and then ruined it!