Ex-CIA officer: Trump's 'horrifying' incompetence poses worst threat to US since the Civil War

Veteran CIA officer Glenn Carle said in an interview with Radio Boston that the widening rift between the intelligence agency and President-elect Donald Trump is a historic crisis.

I think this story fits under incompetence and big threats to country, so I’ll park it here.

Trump’s Economic Team of Rivals The incoming president’s advisers are all over the ideological map. By ZACHARY KARABELL December 24, 2016 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/trumps-economic-team-of-rivals-214552 Donald Trump ran his company and campaign, as many have observed, like an episode of “Game of Thrones": Pit various factions against one another and see who comes out on top. It may be an inelegant and crude way to manage, but it has a certain logic if you are interested in power and who can wield it effectively. And that is precisely what appears is happening with Trump’s nascent economic team – a group that will be charged with running an $18 trillion economy and fulfilling the dreams of the 63 million Americans who voted for him in the expectation that he will make their pocketbooks great again. The result looks to be an economic “Team of Rivals"— a mishmash of aides with vastly different philosophies and backgrounds, with seemingly little in common other than their shared desire to serve in his administration. Gary Cohn, ... Wilbur Ross, ... Steven Mnuchin, ... Peter Navarro, ... Rep. Tom Price at health and human services with his hard-on against Obama Care, add in the possibility of Larry Kudlow ... ... It will be hard, and indeed structurally impossible, to reconcile the views on this team. The equivalent in foreign policy would be appointing a group comprised of isolationists, interventionists, realists and moralists. Something’s got to give. How to square deregulation with abiding by environmental standards, as Cohn favors? How to square tariffs on imports designed to boost domestic production (Navarro and Ross) with the free flow of capital (Kudlow)? How to balance deconstructing Obamacare without price gouging and chaos in the health-care system that will surely hurt the working class that supported Trump? How to balance punitive tariffs with affordable goods? How to start mini-trade wars without the costs falling on, say, Walmart shoppers? How to juxtapose tax cuts that will benefit the 1% with the need to boost wages and employment for millions of disgruntled workers and unemployed who see Trump as a best last chance to turn things around? The answer is that you can’t. If Trump’s goal is to create tension and conflict and see who emerges bloodied but victorious from the fighting, he’s setting up one hell of a battle. Less clear, however, is whether coherent, cohesive and constructive policy will follow. You never know till you know, but take Navarro as a start. ...
• Turmoil at the National Security Council. By DAVID E. SANGER, ERIC SCHMITT and PETER BAKER - FEB. 12, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/national-security-council-turmoil.html Investigators are looking into what Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, told Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. about sanctions imposed by the Obama administration. And some staff members have turned to encrypted communications with their colleagues, amid worries that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks. WASHINGTON — These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world. Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat" program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks. The national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His survival in the job may hang in the balance. Although Mr. Trump suggested to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that he was unaware of the latest questions swirling around Mr. Flynn’s dealings with Russia, .... There are transcripts of a conversation in at least one phone call, recorded by American intelligence agencies that wiretap foreign diplomats, which may determine Mr. Flynn’s future. ...