Trump to name Gay anti-Russian Globalist (who shit-talked him) as NATO Ambassador

[Skroe]

Today in "wtf?!"....

http://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/8/14...ato-ambassador
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-for-nato-post

Richard Grenell, a well-known conservative communications professional, will reportedly soon be announced as the Trump administration’s ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s an important job given the alliance’s mission of standing up to Russia — and a tough one given President Trump’s harsh criticism of the organization.

Which makes it interesting that Grenell, unlike his potential boss, is a strong supporter of maintaining the NATO alliance and using it as a counterweight to Russia’s efforts to expand its influence in Eastern Europe. Grenell, who served as a foreign policy spokesperson in the George W. Bush administration, seems more aligned with the moderate wing of the administration (represented by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis) than the radical revisionist one (represented by senior strategist Steve Bannon).

“[It’s] confusing,” Steve Saideman, a professor at Carleton University who studies NATO, tells me. “As far as I know, Grenell does not hate NATO or want to burn it down.”

Grenell is also somewhat controversial in conservative circles, owing to the fact that he’s openly gay and a supporter of same-sex marriage. The Romney campaign picked him to be its foreign policy spokesperson in 2012, but a social conservative backlash ended his tenure very quickly. This time around, Grenell is less likely to get into trouble for who he is than what he’s tweeted: The tone of his comments about Trump during the primary, especially on Twitter, was highly critical.

“If you think Trump knows foreign policy issues then absolutely yes, you are stupid,” Grenell tweeted in March 2016.

And he is no friend of Russia.

The US ambassador to NATO, also called the permanent representative, sits on the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s decision-making body. The council is where NATO countries vote on key issues like whether to undertake collective military missions such as NATO’s involvement in the Afghanistan war. The ambassador votes on behalf of the US, and also plays a role in negotiating the text of any NATO-wide agreement.

These are important tasks, but typically the person doing them doesn’t have a lot of freedom. Historically, the ambassador’s job is more to do what his bosses tell him than make independent decisions. “The [ambassador] is both a very important position as the US representative in the room when big decisions are being made and also not so important since they are very closely guided/managed by DC,” Saideman explains.

That may be less true in the Trump administration, given its deep internal divisions over foreign policy and well-earned reputation for disorganization. In this environment, clear guidance could be lacking, leaving the ambassador with a lot more discretion. That would make Grenell’s personal background and views, if he’s confirmed by the Senate, a whole lot more important than those of previous NATO ambassadors.

Grenell does have a lot of experience in conservative foreign policy land. Prior to his job with Romney, he served as the spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations under George W. Bush, holding that job longer than any other individual.

As you might expect from someone with this background, he holds fairly conventional conservative views on foreign policy — including on issues relating to NATO, which he has called “the world’s greatest alliance.” When Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in July 2014, he called for an immediate and forceful response.

“The US leads NATO ... they should have been on the ground in Ukraine immediately,” he tweeted. “We should sell Ukraine arms immediately.”

In a March 2016 appearance on the Fox Business Channel, Grenell defended the alliance against the fact that it’s not spending enough on its own defense — a charge that President Trump has made repeatedly. NATO countries are supposed to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, but only five countries hit that target in 2016.

In Grenell’s view, the issue is that the Obama administration has been too disengaged from the alliance, weakening it as an institution.

“You can’t blame NATO,” Grenell told host Charles Payne. “I would say the reason why we’re having this debate about NATO right now ... is because you don’t have US leadership.”

Grenell had also been a tough critic of Putin, attacking his intervention in Ukraine and meddling with foreign elections in a number of op-eds and numerous tweets published in the past several years. Once again, Grenell saw this as a product of Obama’s weakness.

“The Russian president has successfully used propaganda, natural gas, intimidation, money laundering, military hardware, corruption, and his opponents’ weaknesses to chip away at the West’s influence throughout Eastern Europe and the Baltic states,” he wrote in the conservative tabloid Newsmax last year. “Russia is calculating how best to continue its offense undeterred by the West and President Obama.”

The point, then, is that Grenell seems to have broadly conventional foreign policy views: He sees NATO as a vital alliance and bulwark against an expansionist Russia. His critique of the Obama administration was that it was too withdrawn, too disengaged from allies and unwilling to come to their aid when they’re threatened.

And his thoughts on his soon to be boss:

There was a lot of stupid that came out of the 2016 election. Two of the dumber things were (1) "Globalism" and (2) "We should be friends with Russia.

Globalism, used in the manner it has in the past year is a perjorative way of describing the rules based international system that promotes free trade, human rights, international law, international solutions and international organizations. The far right adotpted the term as a catch-all phrase to encompse their foreign policy opposition - nativism versus globalism in other words. Yes... it's deeply paranoid, extremely out of context and counter productive... but hey it's what the crazies believe.

"Being Freinds With Russia", the other absurdity, came about because the far right, for lots of reasons obsessed with Radical Islam (or as some call it "Islamo-Fascism, which is a really embarrassing, nonsense phrase by the way), thought it fine to turn the other cheek to Russia's mounting aggression since 2006 in order to team up with them to "fight ISIS", never mind from the Pentagon's own expert assessment, Russia remains the only existential threat to the US, and China is ranked ahead of ISIS and terrorism as a whole. The Bipartisan foreign policy consensus has been pretty clear on Russia for some time.

So with Richard Grenell, Trump or someone in his team, is yet again, showing a big middle figure and a big "fuck you", to his most rabid supporters.

First of all, Grenell is gay. That actually got him pushed out of his last job with Romney.

Secondly Grenell, a former spokeman at the UN, is deeply enmeshed in the American foreign policy establishment standards. Go look at the top picture: there he is, at the UN, under George W Bush, speaking on behalf of America. In other words, he is a globalist.

And thirdly, he was Mitt Romney's foreign policy advisor and spokesman. The Mitt Romney who said this.


Grennell certainly has some... let's say... "Fox News soundbyte friendly" positions (go youtube him). But on the balance, yeah... enjoy your shit sandwich Trumpkins! Yet again, you've been had.

[Underverse]

Political move. Trump's trying to win a lot of points by combining all of the traits people know he hates into one person and then assigning them to a relatively removed position.

[Mad_Murdock]

So what exactly is your complaint? I don't recall Trump ever being anti-gay as part of his platform, so why is that even an issue? Trump is bringing in a Anti- Russian guy, isn't that exactly what you wanted?

[Bullettime]

Definitely feels like a political move to buy some brownie points and give Trump a bit of a win outside of just his hardcore base who will gloss over it anyways even if it does go against why they voted for him.

Overall a solid move though, regardless of his reason. I'll take it.

[Kujako]

Trump is just trying to prove that things said on Twitter yesterday never actually happened.

[rogueMatthias]

Hats off to Trump if he is put forward. Employing people who are critical of your own views and can still continue an open discussion and debate can be a good thing.
It's far more helpful than a team of "Yes men" at least.

[Skroe]

Political move. Trump's trying to win a lot of points by combining all of the traits people know he hates into one person and then assigning them to a relatively removed position.

That's what Postmaster General or Ambassador to the Vatican is for, not NATO Ambassador... which is not a "relatively removed" position.

He was also a finalist for UN ambassador fwiw.

So no, I doubt that's what's going on. I think Rex Tillerson, Mattis and the establishment crew are trying to squeak one by and see if Tsar Watersports notices... which if it does, will be entirely counterproductive to the alt-right's crazy agenda.

[Bullettime]

That's what Postmaster General or Ambassador to the Vatican is for, not NATO Ambassador... which is not a "relatively removed" position.

He was also a finalist for UN ambassador fwiw.

So no, I doubt that's what's going on. I think Rex Tillerson, Mattis and the establishment crew are trying to squeak one by and see if Tsar Watersports notices... which if it does, will be entirely counterproductive to the alt-right's crazy agenda.

We can hope. Someone has to try to get control of this trainwreck.

[Underverse]

Hats off to Trump if he is put forward. Employing people who are critical of your own views and can still continue an open discussion and debate can be a good thing.
It's far more helpful than a team of "Yes men" at least.

If he employs more of them I'll be impressed. Until then, this guy is just a painfully obvious token.

[Skroe]

So what exactly is your complaint? I don't recall Trump ever being anti-gay as part of his platform, so why is that even an issue? Trump is bringing in a Anti- Russian guy, isn't that exactly what you wanted?

It's a multi-dimensional point.

(1) This is probably good for US foreign policy on the balance, which is something that matters.
(2) It's entirely contrary to Trump's stated agenda
(3) It is entirely against the agenda of his pathological base, particularly the "globalism" bit, with a side helping of anti-Russia.

There is lots amusing about this. I'm glad the choice looks good. I'm also glad it is basically a big "fuck you" to the Trumpkin's anti-globalist (god I hate that word) delusions.

[Gorgodeus]

Really simple. Trump hates NATO. So appoints someone he thinks will do a shit job as ambassador.

[sarahtasher]

''Globalism'' is a pathetically unsubtle code word for Jews.

I know that Nazism was made for people imbecile enough to believe that that the Protocols of the Elder of Zion and/or Santa Claus were real, but this ruse fool no one. Except maybe alt-righters, who would be fooled by peek-a-boo.

[Skroe]

Really simple. Trump hates NATO. So appoints someone he thinks will do a shit job as ambassador.

Except this guy, in most regards, is a good choice for NATO.

[Underverse]

''Globalism'' is a pathetically unsubtle code word for Jews.

I know that Nazism was made for people imbecile enough to believe that that the Protocols of the Elder of Zion and/or Santa Claus were real, but this ruse fool no one. Except maybe alt-righters, who would be fooled by peek-a-boo.

No, this is dumb. Globalism is a real thing, it's just not something to be afraid of or something that can be avoided.

[Kujako]

''Globalism'' is a pathetically unsubtle code word for Jews.

The hell you say... pretend this is math class, show your work for coming up with this.

[Saucexorzski]

Trump does something good, proves just how bad he is! Top kek folks.

[Gorgodeus]

Except this guy, in most regards, is a good choice for NATO.

Key words in my previous statement - "he thinks"

[sarahtasher]

No, this is dumb. Globalism is a real thing, it's just not something to be afraid of or something that can be avoided.

Globalism specifically mean this. Mondialisation is the trend of global exchanges.

[Kujako]

Except this guy, in most regards, is a good choice for NATO.

If he's so good, why isn't he a millionaire crony capitalist!?

[primalmatter]

''Globalism'' is a pathetically unsubtle code word for Jews.

I know that Nazism was made for people imbecile enough to believe that that the Protocols of the Elder of Zion and/or Santa Claus were real, but this ruse fool no one. Except maybe alt-righters, who would be fooled by peek-a-boo.

Spit my coke through my nose you jerk.

What kind of insane logic is this...?