{"id":136223,"date":"2018-05-05T15:25:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T21:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=136223"},"modified":"2018-05-06T01:19:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T07:19:47","slug":"the-ad-hominem-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/05\/the-ad-hominem-president.html","title":{"rendered":"The Ad Hominem President"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s long been obvious that, rhetorically, Trump is completely comfortable with attacking the character, background, or physical appearance of individuals he doesn’t like, rather than opposing their positions with reasoned argument. He’d sooner call someone “lazy” or “crooked” or “lying” than actually addres what they have to say.<\/p>\n

It appears he also puts his money where his mouth is:<\/p>\n

Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a \u201cdirty ops\u201d campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.<\/p>\n

People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to \u201cget dirt\u201d on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama\u2019s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.<\/p>\n

According to incendiary documents seen by the Observer, investigators contracted by the private intelligence agency were told to dig into the personal lives and political careers of Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and Kahl, a national security adviser to the former vice-president Joe Biden. Among other things they were looking at personal relationships, any involvement with Iran-friendly lobbyists, and if they had benefited personally or politically from the peace deal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Team Trump didn’t hire Israelis (!) to try to attack the basis for the deal, or the particulars, or anything about the deal itself. They were hired to find material to smear the Obama people<\/i> who had helped negotiate the deal, to discredit it through association.<\/p>\n

Richard Nixon hired “dirty tricks” operatives, too. Just saying.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nRevealed: Trump team hired spy firm for \u2018dirty ops\u2019 on Iran arms deal | UK news | The Guardian<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s long been obvious that, rhetorically, Trump is completely comfortable with attacking the character, background, or physical appearance of individuals he doesn’t like, rather than opposing their positions with reasoned argument. He’d sooner call someone “lazy” or “crooked” or “lying” than actually addres what they have to say. It appears he also puts his money … Continue reading “The Ad Hominem President”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,10,349,380,1071],"tags":[1349,1077],"class_list":["post-136223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-military","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-trump","tag-iran","tag-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/unnamed-6.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132730,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/01\/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-trump-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":0},"title":"How to Win Friends and Influence People (Trump Style)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Feb-17 10:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's almost like the Trump & Co. have a bet as to how many crises they can foment in a single day through being obnoxious, obscure, or both.On today's list: Iran, Mexico, and Australia!IRANNot that the Gang in Tehran is a particularly nice set of guys, but vague saber-rattling doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133906,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/trump-re-certifies-the-iran-nuclear-deal-is-going-okay.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":1},"title":"Trump re-certifies the Iran nuclear deal is going okay","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jul-17 3:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite calling it the worst deal ever, dumb, dangerous, the prelude to nuclear holocaust, and his number one priority to repeal upon assuming office, the President has acquiesced to all his top national security advisers, agreeing that Iran is honoring the nuclear deal they signed with the US and other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136393,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/11\/the-trump-of-the-deal.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":2},"title":"The Trump of the Deal","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-May-18 9:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"So basically Trump demonstrated leadership by not engaging with Iran, by avoiding negotiations with our frenemies China and Russia, and getting our actual European allies to agree to all sorts of concessions and come supplicate themselves to keep the deal in place, only to throw them under the bus. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-making-a-point.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132142,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/01\/people-are-becoming-concerned-that-trump-might-do-what-he-said-hell-do.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":3},"title":"People are becoming concerned that Trump might do what he said he'll do","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Dec-16 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To the point that the head of the CIA is now publicly warning the President-Elect that his oft-promised scrapping of the Iran nuclear accord would be a huge mistake, no matter what his Iran-hating advisers are advising.Ah, well, not to worry -- I believe that Trump will be able to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136435,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/still-not-clear-what-trump-is-on-about-regarding-zte.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":4},"title":"Still not clear what Trump is on about regarding ZTE","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-May-18 8:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it a sop to American high-tech companies that were suppliers to the Chinese telecomm giant? Is it negotiating tactics regarding other Chinese trade kerfuffles? Is it that the original charges against ZTE were filed during the Obama Administration, so Trump thinks this is more dismantling of the Obama legacy?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/zte.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131749,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/08\/evangelical-trump-supporters-believe-the-ends-justify-the-means.html","url_meta":{"origin":136223,"position":5},"title":"Evangelical Trump supporters believe the ends justify the means","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Oct-16 8:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"It should come as no surprise that some folk on the Religious Right are more than happy to handwave aside Donald Trump's released remarks about sexual predation. They've been making excuses for backing him since he came on the scene and started climbing in the polls, even in the face\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136262,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136223\/revisions\/136262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}