{"id":9993,"date":"2016-12-31T15:26:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T22:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=9993"},"modified":"2017-02-02T15:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T22:30:20","slug":"the-president-elect-channels-the-ghost-of-richard-nixon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=9993","title":{"rendered":"Huffington Post: The President-elect channels the ghost of Richard M. Nixon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Huffington%20Post%3A%20The%20President-elect%20channels%20the%20ghost%20of%20Richard%20M.%20Nixon\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Nixon-Marine-One-leaves-WH.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-10005\" title=\"Nixon Marine One leaves WH\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Nixon-Marine-One-leaves-WH.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Nixon-Marine-One-leaves-WH.png 355w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Nixon-Marine-One-leaves-WH-300x290.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By Peter Lance Dec. 30th, 2016. <strong><a title=\"Huff Post\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/58681f63e4b068764965c273?timestamp=1483221570212\">Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Special to<strong><a title=\"trump.com\" href=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\"> investigatingtrump.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>The man who\u2019ll soon occupy the same Oval Office as the man who once insisted that,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.historycommons.org\/context.jsp?item=a040677nixonnotillegal\">\u201cif the President does it, that means it\u2019s not illegal,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0ended the year with a message on Twitter proving that he hasn\u2019t changed in two years.<\/p>\n<p>Back then on New Year\u2019s Eve of 2014 even before he\u2019d declared his candidacy Mr. Trump Tweeted, \u201cTo EVERYONE, including all haters and losers, HAPPY NEW YEAR. Work hard, be smart and always remember, WINNING TAKES CARE OF EVERYTHING!\u201d<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/donald-trump-tweets-new-years-eve-message-to-his-many-enemies\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-31-at-11.05.43-AM-300x129.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-11-05-43-am\" width=\"300\" height=\"129\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This morning as he prepares for a \u201cbig league\u201d New Year\u2019s Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago, he proved that\u00a0<em>forgive<\/em>and\u00a0<em>forget<\/em>\u00a0are two words missing from his vocabulary. Choosing his 140 characters carefully he Tweeted \u201cHappy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d he ended, as if he really meant it with \u201cLove!\u201d<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-31-at-11.05.35-AM-300x133.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-11-05-35-am\" width=\"300\" height=\"133\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>THE GHOST OF PRESIDENT\u2019S PAST<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On September 9th, 1971 Richard Nixon, who ended his presidency with a double handed \u201cvictory\u201d salute in the doorway of Marine One as his family and staff stood weeping on the White House lawn, ordered his lawyer John Dean to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List\">draft a memo\u00a0<\/a>with a\u00a0list of names designed, according to Dean in his memoirs,\u00a0to \u201cscrew\u201d Nixon\u2019s political enemies, by means of tax audits from the Internal Revenue Service and by manipulating \u201cgrant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the 20 names on the original \u201clist,\u201d which was later expanded, were Congressmen John Conyers, columnist Mary McGrory, CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr, and Paul Newman. The latter two \u2014 hard hitting reporter and activist actor later noted that their inclusion on the list was their greatest accomplishment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List#\/media\/File:Dean-enemies-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-31-at-11.00.51-AM-287x300.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-11-00-51-am\" width=\"287\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>HINTS OF A NEW WAVE OF McCARTHYISM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On December 9th, The Washington Post, the paper that dogged Nixon so tenaciously,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/energy-environment\/wp\/2016\/12\/09\/trump-transition-team-for-energy-department-seeks-names-of-employees-involved-in-climate-meetings\/?utm_term=.089ace3151ee\">reported\u00a0<\/a>that the\u00a0Trump Transition team had compiled a list of 74 questions so that Energy Department officials might \u201cout\u201d career employees and contractors who supported the Obama administration\u2019s efforts to fight climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically as noted in the piece, \u201cThe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/apps\/g\/page\/politics\/questions-posed-by-president-elect-trumps-transition-team-to-energy-department-officials\/2143\/?rtef\">questionnaire<\/a>requests a list of those individuals who have taken part in international climate talks over the past five years\u00a0and \u2018which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the goals of President Obama\u2019s Climate Action Plan.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The President-elect has repeatedly called climate change a \u201choax,\u201d perpetrated among other nations, by China.<\/p>\n<p>But the Obama Department of Energy was quick to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2016\/12\/13\/energy-dept-rejects-trumps-request-to-name-climate-change-workers-who-remain-worried\/?utm_term=.6c740347ca15\">push back<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will be forthcoming with all publicly-available information with the transition team.\u00a0We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The last sentence of that emailed statement\u00a0from DOE Spokesman Eben\u00a0Burnham-Snyder, was inboldface\u00a0for emphasis.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact that Rick Perry, Trump\u2019s choice for DOE secretary,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4598910\/rick-perry-department-energy-oops-gaffe\/\">\u00a0forgot got the name<\/a>\u00a0of the Department that he may soon run (after suggesting that it should be abolished) and the appointment of fossil fuel advocate and climate change doubter\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2016\/12\/14\/politics\/scott-pruitt-trump-epa\/\">Scott Pruitt<\/a>\u00a0to run the EPA, suggests that the President-elect will merely bide his time before he gets a chance to commence the purges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The use of that decidedly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Moscow_Centre\">Moscow Centre\u00a0<\/a>term for \u201chouse cleaning\u201d is appropriate when you simply connect the few dots that explain Trump\u2019s affection for the ex-KGB head\u00a0and the man John McCain called a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/videos\/sen-john-mccain-says-putin-is-a-thug-and-killer\/\">\u201cthug\u201d and a \u201ckiller,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Vladamir Putin.<\/p>\n<p>Those pundits still scratching their heads to understand the motivation behind Putin using hackers to hand Trump the presidency need look no further than ExxonMobile CEO and Secretary of State designee\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/dec\/13\/rex-tillerson-quandaries-trump-russia-conflicts-of-interest\">Rex Tillerson<\/a>\u00a0whom\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2016\/12\/13\/what-is-the-russian-order-of-friendship-and-why-does-trumps-pick-for-secretary-of-state-have-one\/?utm_term=.31c18b1a6d77\">Putin gifted\u00a0<\/a>with the rare Russian Order of Friendship.<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-31-at-12.38.38-PM.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-12-38-38-pm\" width=\"489\" height=\"383\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The sanctions slapped on Russia following its annexation of Crimea\u00a0<em>tanked<\/em>\u00a0(to use an Exxon Valdez metaphor) the $723 million joint venture between Tillerson\u2019s company and Rosneft, the Russian\/Putin state-owned oil conglom, to drill for crude in the Arctic Circle\u2019s Kara Sea \u2014 a loss estimated by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kenrapoza\/2015\/02\/27\/heres-what-exxons-lost-from-russia-sanctions\/#5894c92856b3\">Exxon itself<\/a>\u00a0 at upwards of $1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>That deal could be\u00a0<em>reset<\/em>\u00a0(to use a Hillary Clinton metaphor) with the stroke of a pen on January 20th after Mr. Trump takes command. And that could mean a payday for Tillerson of exponential proportions, given his ExxonMobile stock and options.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WAS IT A QUID PRO QUO?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Will Donald Trump\u2019s treasure chest get fatter on Inauguration morning on the strength of that single deal alone? We can\u2019t say for sure at this point, because he\u2019s kept his tax returns secret and we don\u2019t know how much ExMo stock he\u2019s holding (or not) or how much of it might have been promised to him (if any) and we\u2019re unlikely to know\u00a0<em>that<\/em>\u00a0because he\u2019ll soon control Treasury and thus the IRS, not to mention Energy and Justice.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP controls both Houses of Congress and there\u2019s little chance that the \u201coversight\u201d committees on either side of the Capitol will jump into the breach.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s understandable why Vladamir Putin must have been tossing down the vodka shots yesterday when he outflanked Barack Obama on the Global chessboard, not once but\u00a0<em>twice.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First by making it appear that the current President\u2019s\u00a0<em>feckless<\/em>\u00a0policy on Syria (as Mike Pence would call it) had cut the U.S. out of the cease-fire talks, when it\u2019s clear that by propping up Bashar al-Assad, the Russians and Iranians have handed him a victory, even if it meant turning Aleppo into the Dresden of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>In short, Vlad looks like a peacemaker when he\u2019s merely overseeing what amounts to a Carthaginian victory over the anti-Assad rebels.<\/p>\n<p>His next move was to appear to be magnanimous. He not only refused to (openly) retaliate against Obama\u2019s ouster this week of Russian diplomats, but he went so far as to invite the children of U.S. officials in Moscow to a Christmas\/New Year\u2019s party at the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>That chess play provoked this\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-12-30\/russia-set-to-expel-35-u-s-diplomats-in-reprisal-interfax-says\">love Tweet<\/a>\u00a0from the President-Elect: \u201cGreat Move on delay (by V. Putin) \u2013 I always knew he was very smart!\u201d\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-31-at-11.33.33-AM-300x115.png\" alt=\"screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-11-33-33-am\" width=\"300\" height=\"115\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>TRUMP\u2019S LIST OF FRIENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now, in addition to whatever \u201cenemies list\u201d he\u2019s compiling, between his cabinet and WH picks \u2013 pregnant with enough generals to constitute a junta in most Third World countries \u2013 and billionaires so rich that collectively 17 of the cabinet-level choices have more dough than\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/qz.com\/862412\/trumps-16-cabinet-level-picks-have-more-money-than-a-third-of-american-households-combined\/\">1\/3 of U.S. Households combined<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Donald Trump has a new list of \u201cfriends,\u201d who, given their economic and political priorities and his staggering conflicts-of-interest, will almost assuredly make him richer.<\/p>\n<p>How long will this new plutocracy last? My guess is at least through the 2018 elections. If Mr. Trump fails to deliver his white blue collar base the jobs they deserve and if he doesn\u2019t completely divest his holdings, the Dems will likely regain control of the Senate and they\u2019ll have the juice to begin the kind of hearings Hillary faced over her email server and Benghazi.<\/p>\n<p>At that point I predict that Donald Trump will cash out with at least as much money as he\u2019s told the American voters he has right now. When and if that happens he\u2019ll have pulled off the greatest game of three-card monty in world history.<\/p>\n<p>The conventional bribery made famous by Democratic ward heelers in big cities from Chicago to Philly \u2014 those envelopes full of cash passed to elected officials by \u201cbag men\u201d \u2014 will \u00a0pale in comparison to the level of profiteering we\u2019re about to witness.<\/p>\n<p>I hope I\u2019m wrong. But the genius of all great con-men is to tell you just enough of the truth that you\u2019ll believe them. And day by day, appointment by appointment, Tweet by Tweet, Donald J. Trump is showing his cards. @PETERLANCE_ \u00a0<a title=\"Enemies\" href=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/trump-channels-the-ghost-of-nixon-begins-new-year-with-a-tweet-to-his-enemies\/\"><strong>investigating trump.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Huffington%20Post%3A%20The%20President-elect%20channels%20the%20ghost%20of%20Richard%20M.%20Nixon\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; By Peter Lance Dec. 30th, 2016. Huffington Post\u00a0Special to investigatingtrump.com\u00a0The man who\u2019ll soon occupy the same Oval Office as the man who once insisted that,\u00a0\u201cif the President does it, that means it\u2019s not illegal,\u201d\u00a0ended the year with a message on Twitter proving that he hasn\u2019t changed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9993"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10003,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9993\/revisions\/10003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}