{"id":7044,"date":"2016-12-07T17:33:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T23:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=7044"},"modified":"2016-12-07T17:33:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T23:33:29","slug":"amidst-the-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/12\/07\/amidst-the-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Amidst the Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The appointments planned by Trump continue. Lawfare<\/b><\/i>‘s Christopher Mirasola evaluates <\/a>the two latest:<\/p>\n

[Marine General John] Kelly [for DHS] has <\/span>spent<\/a> his entire professional career in the Marines. Until February 2016, General Kelly was the commander of U.S. Southern Command, overseeing military operations in South and Central America. Unlike other regional combatant commands, Southern Command is known for emphasizing<\/a> \u201csoft power,\u201d and playing a particularly active role in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and local military training. Before his time at SOUTHCOM, Kelly previously commanded forces in Iraq and was an aid to Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta and Robert Gates. …<\/p>\n

General Kelly is likely to face an easy confirmation. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson <\/span>told<\/a> reporters that Kelly \u201cwould be an outstanding pick.\u201d Former Obama administration Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also endorsed<\/a> Kelly, saying that \u201che has led our women and men in uniform and understands what it takes to keep our nation safe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And for ambassador to China?<\/p>\n

[Iowa Governor Terry] <\/span>Branstad has had experience with China, and Chinese President Xi Jinping in particular, over the course of his governorship. He first <\/span>met<\/a> Xi in 1985 during Xi\u2019s visit to Iowa as a provincial agricultural official. The pair subsequently reconvened<\/a> in 2012, when Xi was vice-president of China. …<\/p>\n

Branstad\u2019s appointment has been met with expert approval, and he is likely to be easily confirmed. China scholar Bonnie Glaser <\/span>said<\/a> that the appointment \u201cmeans that the Trump team understands that it is important to have an ambassador who has access to Xi Jinping.\u201d Obama administration Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also commented<\/a> that Branstad is \u201ctenacious, and trust me, with the Chinese, you need to be tenacious.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These two seem a little more reasonable than most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The appointments planned by Trump continue. Lawfare‘s Christopher Mirasola evaluates the two latest: [Marine General John] Kelly [for DHS] has spent his entire professional career in the Marines. Until February 2016, General Kelly was the commander of U.S. Southern Command, overseeing military operations in South and Central America. Unlike other \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7045,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions\/7045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}