The release of the documents appears to be a last-ditch effort by sections of the intelligence apparatus to prevent the inauguration of Trump, which is only 10 days away.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/11/trum-j11.html)

The Deep State Versus Donald Trump - New Smears And A Ukrainian Connection

As remarked on January 6:

When Hillary Clinton was defeated in the U.S. presidential election the relevant powers launched a campaign to delegitimize the President elect Donald Trump.
The ultimate aim of the cabal is to kick him out of office and have a reliable replacement, like the Vice-President elect Pence, take over. Should that not be possible it is hoped that the delegitimization will make it impossible for Trump to change major policy trajectories especially in foreign policy. A main issue here is the reorientation of the U.S. military complex and its NATO proxies from the war of terror towards a direct confrontation with main powers like Russia and China.

The "deep state" campaign against Trump opened new grounds today with the publication of completely fake and thereby unverifiable anonymous assertions that Trump had some fun in a Moscow hotel and that Russian secret services is using that to manipulate him.

The assertions come in 35 pages of "reports" by an anonymous (claimed) former British intelligence operator with dates ranging from June 20 2016 to December 13 2016. They say that Russia has some tapes of Trump watching sex games in 2013, they claim that Trump campaign officials coordinated the Clinton campaign leaks with Russia and that the Russian President Putin was highly involved in all of this.

Here is how the claimed former intelligence operator describes his sources for some of these assertions:

Speaking to a trusted compatriot in June 2016 sources A and B, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure and a former top level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin respectively, the Russian authorities had been cultivating and supporting U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Donald TRUMP for at least five years. Source B asserted that the TRUMP operation was both supported and directed by Russian President Vladimir PUTIN.
The anonymous asserted former British operator hears from an anonymous asserted compatriot what two anonymous sources, asserted to have access to inner Russian circles, claim to have heard something in the Kremlin.

They assert that Trump was supported and directed by Putin himself five years ago while even a year ago no one would have bet a penny on Trump gaining any political significant position or even the presidency.

There is a lot more of such nonsense in these new Hitler diaries. It is bonkers from a to z.

Even as that is obvious fake the FBI tried to use these "reports" to get a wide warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court to listen in on Trump campaign officials. The court thankfully denied or at least narrowed the request.

The first "reports" were created as part of the opposition research by a Republican candidate running in the primaries against Trump. They were later produced for the Democratic Party campaign. They have been shopped around in Washington for several month. The NYT, the WSJ, CNN and the FBI investigated the assertions in them. Despite their considerable combined investigative capacities they could verify none of them. All publications refrained from publishing the claims during the campaign because there was no evidence at all that supported them. Buzzfeed now pushed these out despite also saying that there is nothing verifiable in them.

Even worse, the Director of National Intelligence Clapper (who once claimed Saddam's non-existing WMDs were shipped to Syria) presented these to Congress and the president elect Trump as "Annex" to the his baseless U.S. Intelligence report of "Russian hacking".

A murky preview of the assertions had been given by David Corn, in a Mother Jones piece in October. He talked with the said to be author of the "reports":

"It started off as a fairly general inquiry," says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit."
The current publication of the full barrel of bullshit comes a day after members of the Trump cabinet have been successfully confirmed by Congress and hours before his long expected press conference. It is thereby destined to overshadow a successful start of the Trump presidency.

There are signs that the "reports" were written with some Ukrainian nationalist and anti-semitic background. Just consider this passage from the July 26 "report":

In terms of the FSB's recruitment of capable cyber operatives to carry out its, ideally deniable, offensive cyber operations, a Russian IT specialist with direct knowledge reported in June 2016 that this was often done using coercion and blackmail. In terms of 'foreign' agents, the FSB was approaching U.S. citizens of Russian (Jewish) origin on business trips in Russia.
Such tropes are typical of the anti-semitic Ukrainian "nationalist" (aka Nazi) narrative. Russian services would, unlike Mossad, not recruit IT hackers conditioned on "Jewish" ethnic relations or believe. We have seen more Ukrainian "nationalists" involved in the "Russian hacks" propaganda claims. A July 2016 Yahoo piece by (Clinton campaign mouthpiece) Michael Isikoff wrote:

Just weeks after she started preparing opposition research files on Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort last spring, Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa got an alarming message when she logged into her personal Yahoo email account.
...
Chalupa — who had been drafting memos and writing emails about Manafort’s connection to pro-Russian political leaders in Ukraine — quickly alerted top DNC officials.
...
“I was freaked out,” Chalupa, who serves as director of “ethnic engagement” for the DNC, told Yahoo News in an interview, noting that she had been in close touch with sources in Kiev, Ukraine, including a number of investigative journalists, who had been providing her with information about Manafort’s political and business dealings in that country and Russia.
Chalupa is somewhat involved with the ProPornOT list, promoted by the Washington Post, of alleged pro-Russian propaganda websites. This website, Moon of Alabama, was also on that list :-). (Unfortunately though we have never received a penny, or anything else, from Russian sources and are critical of Putin's neoliberal economic policies.) The ProPornOT Twitter account says it is “Ukrainian-American” and it used the Ukrainian fascist salute of the OUN-Bandera gangs "Heroiam Slava!" to hail Ukrainian hackers attacking Russia. The ProPornOT list is designed after a Ukrainian model used to smear Ukrainian anti-fascist media and journalists.

Chalupa is a main promoter of the "Russia hacked the Democratic campaign" allegations based on thin if any evidence. She was named by the same Isikoff of Yahoo as one of 16 people who shaped the 2016 election.

Chalupa is also:

founder and president of the Ukrainian lobby group “US United With Ukraine Coalition”, which lobbied hard to pass a 2014 bill increasing loans and military aid to Ukraine, imposing sanctions on Russians, and tightly aligning US and Ukraine geostrategic interests.
Moreover Chalupa coordinated her anti-Trump/anti-Russian campaign with the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC:

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.
A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The foreign influence on the presidential race through the Ukrainian (fascist) connection to the Clinton campaign seems much more grounded in reality than the alleged but unproven Russian connection to the Trump campaign.

We have a Ukrainian-American nationalist Democratic campaign operator promoting anti-Russian and anti-Trump claims in cooperation with the Ukrainian government, a Ukrainian-American ProPornOT blacklist for smearing website of being "Russian propaganda" and Ukrainian fascist tropes used in fact-less "reports" intended to smear Trump as a Russian puppet. Above of this we have a U.S intelligence community that is feverishly fighting against a Trump presidency that is likely to cut back its many excrescences.

The CIA, the MI-6 and the German BND (a CIA controlled outlet) have pampered and promoted the again very active anti-Russian Ukrainian fascist circles since (at least) the late 1040s. A U.S. National Archive book about Hitler's Shadows - Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence and the Cold War (PDF) notes:

British operations through Bandera expanded. An early 1954 MI6 summary noted that, “the operational aspect of this [British] collaboration [with Bandera] was developing satisfactorily. Gradually a more complete control was obtained over infiltration operations and although the intelligence dividend was low it was considered worthwhile to proceed....”
...
In June 1985 the General Accounting Office mentioned Lebed’s name in a public report on Nazis and collaborators who settled in the United States with help from U.S. intelligence agencies. The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the Department of Justice began investigating Lebed that year. The CIA worried that public scrutiny of Lebed would compromise QRPLUMB and that failure to protect Lebed would trigger outrage in the Ukrainian émigré community. It thus shielded Lebed by denying any connection between Lebed and the Nazis and by arguing that he was a Ukrainian freedom fighter. The truth, of course, was more complicated. As late as 1991 the CIA tried to dissuade OSI from approaching the German, Polish, and Soviet governments for war-related records related to the OUN. OSI eventually gave up the case, unable to procure definitive documents on Lebed. Mykola Lebed, Bandera’s wartime chief in Ukraine, died in 1998. He is buried in New Jersey, and his papers are located at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
There is no evidence yet for a direct connection between the three anti-Russian/anti-Trump items above, the Ukrainian-fascist movement and John Brennan's "deep state" CIA. There are only consistencies in tone and message, some common history including the 2014 putsch in Ukraine and possibly some connecting persons in the Clinton campaign.

But even that is more than the baseless assertions in the "Russian hacking" DNI intelligence reports and the now published MI-6 smears. Seen from a distance the "Intelligence Community" is more compromised by these "leaks" than the President elect Trump.

It is not predictable who will win this fight, the "deep state" cabal that wants to keep the U.S. on an anti-Russian course or the somewhat outsider isolationist Trump. My bet is on the bullshit artist Trump.

In the bigger international picture the fight itself, and the publicity it gets, lets the U.S. look like the Banana republic it is destined to become.

Posted by b on January 11, 2017 at 07:39 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/01/the-deep-state-versus-donald-trump-new-smears-and-a-ukrainian-connection.html

Good gawd but it's getting deep, folks. Whatever else, this is not done lightly, the bosses are seriously worried. May they choke on their bile.

The press conference is at 11AM. Shit, I'm gonna have to watch and I'm not even sure how to use the sat tv, it's been so long.

Good gawd but it's getting deep, folks. Whatever else, this is not done lightly, the bosses are seriously worried.

I have been watching (when I don't slam the damned thing off) the morning "news". They just had Samantha Powers on (one of the times I slammed the damned thing off). But it has been "Trump is a Russian spy!" all morning. The "news" people keep saying sotto voce that these "findings" are "uncorroborated" or "unverified", but they seem to not understand what "unverified" means. They asked questions and make statements as though the "information" were "true" and then somewhere in the word salad they stick in "uncorroborated" and move on as if that meant nothing - which it obviously doesn't.

This is one of the most humorous episodes in US history (granted even though it is also extremely dangerous). If the ruling class succeeds in removing from office a legitimately elected President on false, trumped-up "intelligence" simply because it fears it cannot control said President, then how can they maintain the picture show? Will there be JFK-like CT about who and why Trump was removed? There won't really be a need, because it is being played out on national TV and in the national press (that should be National Press).

I hope the Trump presidency crashes and burns. I hope ever presidency afterwards crashes and burns. The only real fear is how heavily armed the US is and how fucking bat-shit crazy the US ruling class is. There had better be sufficient profit in the US becoming a second-tier country, because if not...

In Trump's news conference, he pointed to the CNN reporter and said (paraphrase) "You get no questions, you're fake news." And he never allowed the CNN reporter to ask anything. So, I guess I agree with at least one statement made by the President-Elect. It is amazing, but the reporters still do not know how to deal with Trump. He isn't a "real" politician, so he doesn't talk like one. Reporters can't find their footing, because Trump doesn't seem to have a script. Which just points out how choreographed all this political "reporting" has been for decades, if not forever.

He reiterated his Mexican wall thing, he said companies would pay a heavy price for moving out of the country, and he said his new Neanderthal Supreme Court justice would be nominated within two weeks of the inauguration. He also said that if Putin like him, Trump, that was an "asset" to the country - how could it be bad if Putin likes him? The reporters' composite jaws dropped. They could not understand what he meant. The talking heads afterwards had a hard time with that one, too. What did he mean? If Putin likes him it is an asset to the country? It is a strange thing that these reporter folks can't seem to grasp such a simple point. I think anyone on the street or in the fields would understand that quite well - if you are dealing with someone who likes you, it is better for you, more beneficial, than if you are dealing with someone who dislikes you. Yet, in current political journalism, that statement made no sense, at all.

This is going to be an eventful few months - or ever how long Trump can hang on...

Jesus, that was painful. Whadda weasel.

We'll see what the return volley looks like, he ain't backing down, let's hope his antagonists don't either. This might not only tear down that metaphorical curtain, it might set it on fire.

I think we can see how he's gonna handle all of those impossible promises from his 'Wall', it will be frontloaded, a big groundbreaking then the memory hole, costs will balloon, Mexico won't pay. Rinse and repeat.

Imagine doing a shot for every superlative....maybe I should have.

Jesus, that was painful. Whadda weasel.

We'll see what the return volley looks like, he ain't backing down, let's hope his antagonists don't either. This might not only tear down that metaphorical curtain, it might set it on fire.

I think we can see how he's gonna handle all of those impossible promises from his 'Wall', it will be frontloaded, a big groundbreaking then the memory hole, costs will balloon, Mexico won't pay. Rinse and repeat.

Imagine doing a shot for every superlative....maybe I should have.

It might get even better. I just read a thing on twit from NBC that said the "golden shower" thing was NOT in the security briefing material that was in Trump's and Obama's briefings. So CNN and Buzzfeed got it from someone else. All eyes are turning to John McCain, who had a copy of the unverifiable pee-story last summer and gave it to the FBI (supposedly). So Johnny Boy may have been the leaker (ha, I made a funny). The blood is in the water, it appears, because everybody seems to be throwing everything against the wall right now. Nobody seems to care if any of it can be verified or not, the shit shoveling is going full-tilt. Looks like Trump is prepared to retaliate in kind. A President elect calling a TV news corporation "fake news" and refusing to let them ask questions? I have a feeling the word "unprecedented" is going to be way overused in the next year or so.

I am stocking up on popcorn, because except for the fact that social disruption and international conflagration will be unhealthy for us all, I like to see these assholes meltdown, I like to see the façade being torn to shreds.

It might get even better. I just read a thing on twit from NBC that said the "golden shower" thing was NOT in the security briefing material that was in Trump's and Obama's briefings. So CNN and Buzzfeed got it from someone else. All eyes are turning to John McCain, who had a copy of the unverifiable pee-story last summer and gave it to the FBI (supposedly). So Johnny Boy may have been the leaker (ha, I made a funny). The blood is in the water, it appears, because everybody seems to be throwing everything against the wall right now. Nobody seems to care if any of it can be verified or not, the shit shoveling is going full-tilt. Looks like Trump is prepared to retaliate in kind. A President elect calling a TV news corporation "fake news" and refusing to let them ask questions? I have a feeling the word "unprecedented" is going to be way overused in the next year or so.

I am stocking up on popcorn, because except for the fact that social disruption and international conflagration will be unhealthy for us all, I like to see these assholes meltdown, I like to see the façade being torn to shreds.

It looks like its going to be one hell of a meltdown too

Trump Sex Blackmail, New Twist in Witch-Hunt
worker | January 11, 2017 | 8:18 pm | Analysis, Donald Trump, political struggle, Russia
18:38 11.01.2017(updated 18:40 11.01.2017)
Finian Cunningham
The US Deep State coup against President-elect Trump has taken on a new twist, with salacious-dripping innuendo that Russian agents have “explosive” blackmail material on the billionaire property magnate. Both the Russian government and Trump have rejected the claims as “fake news”. And to discerning observers it is clear that Russia and Trump are most likely telling the truth. What is going on here is a classic “dirty tricks” operation to smear the incoming president and to intimidate him into toeing the policy line of the unelected powerful rulers of the US – the Deep State. The reported involvement of British intelligence operatives is also indicative of a “psychological op” given that the latter are past masters at forgery and slander. Specifically, the powers-that-be want Trump to capitulate on his skepticism about their “intelligence” claims that Russia hacked the US presidential election in November. If Trump does not toe the line, then he is liable to be impeached as a “foreign agent” or have his character assassinated. Or worse, taken out by “executive action” in the ignoble tradition of the CIA as seen over the decades with many other political leaders who stood in the way of the Deep State. John F Kennedy in 1963 shows that being an American citizen offers no protection. In telltale fashion, anonymous US officials, citing anonymous intelligence agents, are leaking like a sieve to the reliably receptive corporate media “unverified reports” alleging that Russian spies have “compromising” personal information on Trump. So ropey are the claims of Trump’s alleged “perverted conduct” that it is hardly worth repeating them here. But it is important to note that the US media are giving these “unsubstantiated reports” of sexual exploits in a Moscow hotel wide coverage without any attempt to verify them. The US intelligence claims have also been widely circulated among top Congressional lawmakers. This is all suggestive of a deliberate, coordinated campaign to pollute the information space. In short, to smear Trump. There is so much inverse-projection going on here. The US intelligence agencies are implying that Russian state forces intend to “coerce” Trump by blackmail when he formally becomes president after his inauguration on January 20. This “coercion”, it is alleged, will be possible because the Russians have gathered highly compromising information on Trump while he was allegedly staying at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow back in 2013. The reality is that it’s not the Russian secret services doing the “coercing” but rather American spy agencies of the Deep State – principally the CIA. US intelligence are also claiming that the alleged Russian blackmail is part of a five-year Kremlin plot to groom Trump for the presidency, which included offering him lucrative financial incentives. It is also claimed that Russian state agents were in communication with Trump’s election campaign team. OK, enough of the amateurish fantasy-telling. We are only in danger of doing the work of the CIA by recounting this nonsense. Nevertheless, we have to delve a little to appreciate the mechanics of the dirty operation unfolding. During the election campaign, the Deep State’s favored candidate was Hillary Clinton owing to, among other assets, her belligerent views towards Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump was routinely denigrated in the corporate-controlled media as a “Russian stooge” because of his opposing view expressing the desire to restore friendly relations with Moscow. To the Deep State’s horror and surprise, Trump won the election on November 8. That’s when its retrograde operation kicked in. Since then, the Deep State and its political operatives in the Obama administration and Congress, in concert with media assets, have been fervently trying to discredit Trump’s mandate with relentless claims that Russia hacked the US election to favor Trump over Clinton. The Russians did this, it is alleged, by releasing damaging information on Clinton’s connections to Wall Street and regime-change plots in the Middle East. What is astounding is the fact that the information on Clinton is authentic and damning of her corruption and criminality. But the US political establishment conveniently ignore that aspect, and instead are conducting a witch-hunt against the alleged Russian messenger, its alleged Wikileaks conduit and its alleged beneficiary – Donald Trump. The climax of this disinformation campaign was reached last week when the chiefs of the misnamed US “intelligence community”, led by James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, briefed Congress and released a report on their findings. The trouble for the spooks was that the much-anticipated report into alleged Russian hacking went down like a lead balloon. The anti-climax was stunning because the US intelligence claims were widely seen to be duds, blanks, damp-squibs, and certainly nothing like a smoking gun incriminating Russia, and by extension Trump. Realizing that they had misfired big time, the Deep State operatives quickly moved to up their game. First, they began exerting pressure on members of Trump’s transition team and his cabinet picks to accept the claims of Russian hacking. Last weekend, Trump’s designated chief of staff, Reince Priebus, was browbeaten by various media interviewers to say whether Trump accepted the intel claims that Russia hacked the election. Priebus appeared to wilt under the pressure and mumbled unconvincingly that Trump had come around to accepting the assessment. The media then fog-horned that admission as if it was a moral victory over Trump. Then during this week’s Senate hearings on Trump’s prospective cabinet members, lawmakers continually badgered Jeff Sessions, for attorney general, and Rex Tillerson, for secretary of state, on whether they accepted the US intel claims on alleged Russian hacking. The atmosphere of the proceedings had the hallmarks of a witch-hunt. Evidently, the game plan here is to drive a wedge between Trump and his incoming cabinet, aimed at forcing the new president to acquiesce or else see his new administration in shambles. Notably, however, Trump has maintained silence on the issue this week. Previously, he has been derisive about “ridiculous” CIA allegations of Russian cyber attacks. Moreover, after his so-called “briefing” last week, Trump commented that only a “fool” would not want to have good relations with Russia. Hence the latest twist of “secret reports” about Trump”s alleged sexual perversion in a Moscow hotel. And, to boot, Russian spies tapping the “shenanigans” of Trump to the extent that he will be their obedient stooge in the White House – lifting sanctions imposed by his predecessor Barack Obama and reversing the build-up of NATO forces on Russia’s border. Just like a medieval inquisition, the “heretic Trump” is being subjected to increasing measures of coercion, as if on the rack. The scowling inquisitors – the intelligence nuncios and Congressional prelates – are demanding that Trump bends the knee and submits to the authority of the Deep State and its anti-Russia agenda. Unable to thwart his election, the Deep State inquisitors, aided by their assets in the media, are exercising their next best option, which is to disembowel Trump of any autonomy. He will not be permitted to pursue a sane, friendly relation with Moscow because that is anathema to the warmongering agenda of the US Deep State towards Russia. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik. Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we’ll keep you up to speed!

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/trump-sex-blackmail-new-twist-in-witch-hunt/

Essentially correct, though a grain of salt given Sputnik's 'cult of personality' issues and some excusable solipsism. Also, this 'Deep State' thing can drift into liberal conspiracy-land, sure it exists , after a fashion, but enforcing policy continuity does not signal anything but service to the ruling class.

Essentially correct, though a grain of salt given Sputnik's 'cult of personality' issues and some excusable solipsism. Also, this 'Deep State' thing can drift into liberal conspiracy-land, sure it exists , after a fashion, but enforcing policy continuity does not signal anything but service to the ruling class.

Agreed. I read "Deep State" as "ruling class". The problem, as always, is following the money. The real target, here, is China. Regardless of the bellicosity of the RC to Russia. The US cannot face China without a docile, enthralled Russia. With Russia in US hands, China is surrounded, with no adequate support from any sector. It is the combination of Russia and China that thwarts US plans. Those two together are just too big a bite. Now the US does not want "partners", it wants underlings. Putin appears to have some silly idea that Russia is (or can be) equal to the US. That can't happen, period. Russia must be brought to heel before China can be confronted. Trump seems to think that Russia can be a "partner" and then China can be confronted. That is a nonstarter.

War with Russia was not necessarily the RC's first option. With Clinton (the great usurper) as President, Russia might be able to be turned, Putin deposed, and a pro-US quisling put in charge to insure Russian compliance with every desire of the Hegemon. War would only be a last, last resort. Lynching with the NATO noose, strangulation by sanctions, and/or the slow-death by a 1000 NGOs might have been sufficient. Trump, now, has become a "huge" fly in the ointment.

Why does it seem to be so hard for the ruling class to exert control over Trump? Why would they need to go to these ridiculous lengths to make him obey? The US ruling class has murdered millions of people over the years in frigidly cold blood - and, in the end, murdered them all for simple profit. Is Trump so bullheaded, so obstinate and mulish that he can't be made an offer he can't refuse? I don't get it. Why doesn't the "bosses" just get a select group of people with Trump in a "sit-down" and go over the facts of life with him? This is all a very odd state of affairs. It is obviously beyond me.

Why does it seem to be so hard for the ruling class to exert control over Trump? Why would they need to go to these ridiculous lengths to make him obey? The US ruling class has murdered millions of people over the years in frigidly cold blood - and, in the end, murdered them all for simple profit. Is Trump so bullheaded, so obstinate and mulish that he can't be made an offer he can't refuse? I don't get it. Why doesn't the "bosses" just get a select group of people with Trump in a "sit-down" and go over the facts of life with him? This is all a very odd state of affairs. It is obviously beyond me.

I think he is so bullheaded, he's had a lifetime of getting away with it, why stop now? You see how hard it is for him to back down on anything. Privilege begets psychopathy.

Only reason they don't cap his ass is his following, there could be blood, a lot of it governmental and not just grunts either. They don't want to permanently alienate those people.

Privilege begets psychopathy

Great line...

Last fall, a week before the election, I broke the story (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump) that a former Western counterintelligence official had sent memos to the FBI with troubling allegations related to Donald Trump. The memos noted that this spy's sources had provided him with information indicating that Russian intelligence had mounted a yearslong operation to co-opt or cultivate Trump and had gathered secret compromising material on Trump. They also alleged that Trump and his inner circle had accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin. These memos caused a media and political firestorm this week when CNN reported (http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/) that President Barack Obama and Trump had been told about their existence, as part of briefings on the intelligence community's assessment that Russia hacked political targets during the 2016 campaign to help Trump become president. For my story in October, I spoke with the former spy who wrote these memos, under the condition that I not name him or reveal his nationality or the spy service where he had worked for nearly two decades, mostly on Russian matters.
The former spy told me that he had been retained in early June by a private research firm in the United States to look into Trump's activity in Europe and Russia. "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," he recalled. One question for him, he said, was, "Are there business ties in Russia?" The American firm was conducting a Trump opposition research project that was first financed by a Republican source until the funding switched to a Democratic one. The former spy said he was never told the identity of the client.
The former intelligence official went to work and contacted his network of sources in Russia and elsewhere. He soon received what he called "hair-raising" information. His sources told him, he said, that Trump had been "sexually compromised" by Russian intelligence in 2013 (when Trump was in Moscow for the Miss Universe contest) or earlier and that there was an "established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit." He noted he was "shocked" by these allegations. By the end of June, he was sending reports of what he was finding to the American firm.
The former spy said he soon decided the information he was receiving was "sufficiently serious" for him to forward it to contacts he had at the FBI. He did this, he said, without permission from the American firm that had hired him. "This was an extraordinary situation," he remarked.
The response to the information from the FBI, he recalled, was "shock and horror." After a few weeks, the bureau asked him for information on his sources and their reliability and on how he had obtained his reports. He was also asked to continue to send copies of his subsequent reports to the bureau. These reports were not written, he noted, as finished work products; they were updates on what he was learning from his various sources. But he said, "My track record as a professional is second to no one."
The former spy told me that he was reluctant to be talking with a reporter. He pointed out this was not his common practice. "Someone like me stays in the shadows," he said. But he indicated that he believed this material was important, and he was unsure how the FBI was handling it. Certainly, there had been no public signs that the FBI was investigating these allegations. (The FBI at the time refused to tell me if it had received the memos or if it was examining the allegations.)
"This was something of huge significance, way above party politics," the former spy told me. "I think [Trump's] own party should be aware of this stuff as well." He noted that he believed Russian intelligence's efforts aimed at Trump were part of Vladimir Putin's campaign to "disrupt and divide and discredit the system in Western democracies."
After speaking with the former counterintelligence official, I was able to confirm his identity and expertise. A senior US administration official told me that he had worked with the onetime spook and that the former spy had an established and respected track record of providing US government agencies with accurate and valuable information about sensitive national security matters. "He is a credible source who has provided information to the US government for a long time, which senior officials have found to be highly credible," this US official said.
I also was able to review the memos the former spy had written, and I quoted a few key portions in my article. I did not report the specific allegations—especially the lurid allegations about Trump's personal behavior—because they could not be confirmed. The newsworthy story at this point was that a credible intelligence official had provided information to the FBI alleging Moscow had tried to cultivate and compromise a presidential candidate. And the issue at hand—at a time when the FBI was publicly disclosing information about its investigation of Hillary Clinton's handling of her email at the State Department—was whether the FBI had thoroughly investigated these allegations related to Russia and Trump. I also didn't post the memos, as BuzzFeed did this week, because the documents contained information about the former spy's sources that could place these people at risk.
When I spoke with the former spy, he appeared confident about his material—acknowledging these memos were works in progress—and genuinely concerned about the implications of the allegations. He came across as a serious and somber professional who was not eager to talk to a journalist or cause a public splash. He realized he was taking a risk, but he seemed duty bound to share information he deemed crucial. He noted that these allegations deserved a "substantial inquiry" within the FBI. Yet so far, the FBI has not yet said whether such an investigation has been conducted. As the former spy said to me, "The story has to come out."
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/motherjones/main/~4/KToHA6ZogqI

More... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/motherjones/main/~3/KToHA6ZogqI/spy-who-wrote-trump-russia-memos-it-was-hair-raising-stuff)

Interference in other people's choices involved in all

January 12, 19:13

http://inosmi.ru/images/23851/34/238513450.jpg

A bit of self-criticism from Foreign Policy.

Interference in other people's choices involved in all

Since the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections in November last year, America's political class is only interested in one question: Will Russia really interfered in the election in the US? The White House, FBI and all intelligence community claim that this is true, although the government has yet to provide the public with specific information on which basis was this conclusion is reached. Because at stake was the legitimacy of the victory of Donald Trump, he gradually moved from the position of complete denial of the charges against Russia (and ridicule over the intelligence community) with the statements that the possible actions of Russia did not affect the outcome of elections. In the end, he wrote on Twitter, not Russian hacking voting machines, and all other their actions do not matter. However, in hot disputes that Moscow did or did not do, and what the consequences of its actions were or were not, I lost the more important question that this incident can tell about the intentions and objectives of Russia. How unusual for the great powers to interfere in the democratic electoral process in other countries? And how strong resentment should these alleged Moscow's actions cause the Americans?

The eminent historian and professor emeritus at the University of California in Los Angeles, Marc Trachtenberg (Marc Trachtenberg) considers this outrage evidence of naivety and a sign of double standards. In his column, which is presented below, he gives a brief historical background, which is able to moderate our collective anger. According to him, US citizens should not be too comfortable with the alleged actions of Russia, but they also should not be surprised or to consider these acts of hostility symptoms suddenly arisen Russia against the United States. In fact, the historian, in the internal affairs of other countries intervention is the type of behavior, the formation of which the US is actively promoted. In fact, active intervention in the politics of other countries was a characteristic feature of the United States for a long time.

You can go even further and say that this kind of thing is "business as usual" in the competitive world of international politics : the country intervened in the affairs of each other even in the era of ancient Greece, the Renaissance and even in the first half of the twentieth century. If this is true, then the US needs to do improvement developed their systems to such an intervention could not have the desired impact, and not to dwell on what did or did Putin.

US political class fanned incredible scandal over hacker attacks on e-mail a few members of the Democratic Party apparently committed by Russian intelligence agents, and around the subsequent publication of the stolen emails during the election campaign in the United States. The general opinion is that these leaks have damaged the reputation of State Hillary Clinton, and possibly cost her the election victory.

According to the view of the overwhelming majority, these Russian actions were unacceptable: that what we face is a daring intervention of foreign powers in our internal democratic political process. Today, almost no one writes or speaks of "transparency" and "the public's right to know the truth." Instead, the emphasis clearly placed on the threat of American democracy posed by Russia's actions. How dare Russian attempt to hack the personal mailboxes of our political leaders ?! How dare they try to influence our presidential elections ?!

But do not you see here is the principle of double standards? Those who complain about Russia, it is well known that the US government eavesdrops on private talks people around the world. National Security Agency (NSA), whose task is precisely the responsibility of such observations, has a budget of 10 billion dollars, and a few years ago wrote a newspaper Washington Post, daily captures and stores "1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other types of communication. "

Considerable progress has been made Over the years, the NSA. According to the recently declassified history of the NSA, at some point during the Cold War, the NSA agents who carried out the operation to intercept the building of the US embassy in Moscow, "collected and used private telephone conversations of the Political Bureau of the leaders." As written by Bob Woodward (Bob Woodward) in 1987, "an elite group of the CIA and the National Security Agency," which are called "special agents of intelligence," showed "the wonders of espionage, producing verbatim transcripts of government meetings in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and telephone conversations between key politicians ". And US intelligence agencies should not be only for the enemies and terrorists. They were very interested and also the fact that the leaders talked to each other a friendly US states. For example, in 1973, Arthur Burns (Arthur Burns), then chairman of the Federal Reserve, wrote in his diary that "the US government obviously knows everything that goes on at the meetings of the German Cabinet."

Should we feel indignation about this? When doing this the United States itself, this behavior is considered acceptable. I doubt very much that there is at least one representative of the establishment of US national security officials, who agreed to return to the days when "gentlemen do not read each other's writing." But if we will continue to eavesdrop on the leaders of other countries, we should not be surprised - and even more angry - what other countries will do the same in relation to us.

But in this case the politicians are outraged not so much by the hacker hacking. Much more they resent the fact that this information was used to influence the elections. But here, we see evidence of double standards. Since 1945, the US intervention in the internal politics of other countries was something self-evident. US opinion that free elections - that's great, if they do not lead to such results, which do not suit the US government. US Examples of such intervention are well known: Indochina, the Congo, Chile, Dominican Republic, and so on. There were also less well-known cases: for example, in Guyana, the Kennedy administration had a very strong pressure on the British to prevent Cheddi Jagan (Cheddi Jagan) come to power by democratic means. During the Cold War, this practice was far more common than many people think.

In fact, the United States considered themselves entitled to intervene - sometimes it does not hide - in the internal political affairs of its democratic allies. Most people are not even aware that such intervention was a common practice in the late 1940s. I can give you one good example. US Ambassador to France, he wrote in his diary in 1947, said the country's prime minister: "There are no Communists in the government, or else ...". But even after the situation is stabilized in Western Europe, the US government continued to interfere in the affairs of its allies in those cases when the stakes were big enough. For example, the Eisenhower administration made it clear to the German people as he needed to vote in the elections in 1953: this intervention, as they say, German political scientists who have studied this question, turned unconditional victory of the conservative government of Konrad Adenauer (Konrad Adenauer). However, ten years later, when the US government had a falling out with Adenauer, it was crucial to remove him from power - an incredible episode, which still little is known on both sides of the Atlantic.

None of the examples of US intervention should not be considered a part of distant history. Formed during the Cold War habits and practices have not gone away. The US government still considers itself entitled to influence the outcome of elections in other countries. All well remember how President Barack Obama just before the referendum on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, warned the British that if they choose to exit from the EU, they will be "at the end of the line" at the conclusion of agreements with the United States. Perhaps Obama just warned British voters about the inevitable consequences, and does not threaten them. But, in any case, he tried to influence the outcome of the referendum.

Much less known is the fact that the US intervention in US policy on Ukraine, which, however, has much to tell us. In 2014 it was recorded - most likely, the Russian special services - call a senior US State Department Victoria Nuland (Victoria Nuland) with Washington's ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt (Geoffrey Pyatt). This recording of their conversation very soon appeared on YouTube. From their conversation soon it became clear who Nuland Payette and want to see in power in Kiev, as well as the fact that the US already had a certain "script" of the political changes in Ukraine, which were favorable to the United States. How then wrote edition of Washington Post, they said, as a "political strategy, or perhaps as the party bosses in smoke-filled back room. Using conditional words and nicknames, they come up with, that we should say and do the opposition, and how you can most effectively influence the decision-making process in the ranks of the opposition. " Then nobody thought this step beyond the bounds of decency, and Nuland did not lose his job. Instead, once again showed the finger at Russian who dared to overhear the conversation and put it in the net.

It turns out, the United States are convinced that we have the right to interfere in the internal politics of countries throughout the world, whereas any such response will be called unacceptable and will cause a storm of anger. We have the right to eavesdrop on the talks the leaders of foreign countries, but at the same time feel totally unacceptable attempt to hack their email American leaders and their assistants. USA - "indispensable nation", so the rules applicable to other countries, simply does not apply to Washington. These Washington's belief, but we can easily imagine how foreigners react to this US behavior. Did you not think of the word "arrogance"?

Personally, I think that double standards are morally repugnant, and politically - is counterproductive. I believe that we should not attribute to itself the right, which we do not provide to other countries. This means that, given our own behavior, we must not be offended if other nations begin to behave the same way. If we approach the recent hacker attacks from this point of view, Russia's actions will no longer cause us such a perturbation. Its action is quite fit into the trends that are now observed throughout the world - in a world that in many ways we ourselves have created.

Stephen Walt

http://inosmi.ru/politic/20170112/238513 474.html - Zinc

http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/

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Wow! MJ is doubling down on the Trump piss story!

Wow! MJ is doubling down on the Trump piss story!

As believable as it is and as much as ya want it to be true this deal seems hinky, given the source. Which doesn't bother MJ and the liberals one bit. I'm only surprised that they couldn't come up with something more solid, perhaps an attempt at plausible deniability. 'Golden showers' is a nice touch, perverted and laughable too, unlike the smear dejour, pedophilia, which I have no doubt actually is rampant among the privileged. That's heinous stuff, so much so that it's very handy for demonizing. I knew a wildlife cop who used to claim that all of the big reptile dealers in Florida were pedophiles. All of them? Really? I've known quite a few of those guys, most are certainly crooks and might imagine a couple being sick fuckers but that sort of thing jumps the shark.

If this is all they got, can't back it up, then Trump will survive this. But I can't see how he will dodge corruption charges within a year for a variety of possible offences.

Hell, the IRS could drop his case, bringing his tax return to the fore, I'm sure that thing is full of smoking guns and unmarked graves.

As believable as it is and as much as ya want it to be true this deal seems hinky, given the source. Which doesn't bother MJ and the liberals one bit. I'm only surprised that they couldn't come up with something more solid, perhaps an attempt at plausible deniability. 'Golden showers' is a nice touch, perverted and laughable too, unlike the smear dejour, pedophilia, which I have no doubt actually is rampant among the privileged. That's heinous stuff, so much so that it's very handy for demonizing. I knew a wildlife cop who used to claim that all of the big reptile dealers in Florida were pedophiles. All of them? Really? I've known quite a few of those guys, most are certainly crooks and might imagine a couple being sick fuckers but that sort of thing jumps the shark.

If this is all they got, can't back it up, then Trump will survive this. But I can't see how he will dodge corruption charges within a year for a variety of possible offences.

Hell, the IRS could drop his case, bringing his tax return to the fore, I'm sure that thing is full of smoking guns and unmarked graves.

Yeah. The whole "I'm being audited" dodge is a pretty lame, thin exercise. The IRS has already said that there was no problem in releasing his tax records, while the audit is on-going - it has no bearing on anything. He has made too much out of these records for them to have no negatives for him. These tax records are probably much more dangerous for Trump than any watersports with Russian hookers. But the thing is that all of the spook groups have gone on record saying that there is nothing to the pee stories. Almost all (but not all) "news" orgs have passed on airing it because it is so salacious and unverifiable. But MJ and others simply continue to bring it up and discuss aspects of the story without saying anything about whether it is true or not. It is really a pretty brilliant operation - it continues to damage Trump, without making the "news" org culpable of anything. "Hey, we're just talking about the general issue!"

My name is Josef Goebbels and I approve of this message.


http://youtu.be/4_Gf0mGJfP8

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Regardless of the truth or untruth of these hilarious accusations reality has been established. Baldwin seems pretty intelligent and I suspect he knows the quote and it's provenance.

Meddling in Presidential Elections: Two Cases

13:55, January 13, 2017
By Markar Melkonian

Americans are outraged by allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an intelligence service to hack email accounts of the Democratic National Committee. How inexpressibly heinous that one country, Russia, would try to influence elections in another sovereign country, in this case the United States! How unprecedented! How diabolical! How uniquely Russian!

In response, the Obama administration has expelled Russian diplomats, hinted at economic sanctions, and promised further retaliation using America’s “world-class arsenal of cyber weapons.” (NYT Dec. 16, 2016) Obama’s Republican opponents, for their part, have demanded “rocks” instead of Obama’s “pebbles.”

But does the USA meddle in the presidential elections of other countries? Our friends in South America might have insights here—hundreds of cases of economic and military blackmail, election fraud, assassination,and the violent overthrow of democratically elected leaders. So too in Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Georgia, Ukraine, etc.), east Asia (Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, etc.), north Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco), and dozens of other countries on five of the six inhabited continents. (Joshua Keating, “Election Meddling Is Surprisingly Common,” Slate.com, 4 Jan., 2017; Tim Weiner, CIA: Legacy of Ashes, 2008; Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, 1992, 2006.)

In the welter of red-faced indignation, the torrents of denunciations from Senate hearings and press conferences, talk shows and podcasts, one might have expected someone to pose the rather obvious question whether American agencies have ever meddled in Russian presidential elections. And yet (surprise surprise!) America’s corporate-owned press of record, an institution that constantly flaunts its “objectivity,” has failed to raise that straightforward question.

So, let us raise it here: Has the USA engaged in this sort of meddling? And if so, what effect has it had on Russia?

The answer to the first question, of course, is a resounding Yes. Even as you read these words, you can bet that one or more of seventeenFederal agencies of the United States are busy hacking Russia. (It is a safe bet that other countries are engaged in cyber espionage against Russia and the United States, too, including China and Israel.)

Let us limit our discussion to one single case. Readers will recall that in the run-up to the 1996 presidential election in Russia, opinion polls put the pro-western incumbent, Boris Yeltsin, in fifth place among the presidential candidates, with only 8% support. The same polls showed that the most popular candidate in Russia by a wide margin was the Communist Party’s Gennady Zyuganov. Moved to desperation by the numbers, well-connected Russian oligarchs suggested just cancelling the election and supporting a military takeover, rather than facing a defeat at the polls. Neocons in the West embraced the idea--all in the name of Democracy, of course. In the end, though, Yeltsin and the oligarchs decided to retain power by staging the election.

In keeping with Russian laws at the time, Zyuganov spent less than three million dollars on his campaign. Estimates of Yeltsin’s spending, by contrast, range from $700 million to $2.5 billion. (David M. Kotz, Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin, 2007) This was a clear violation of law, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

In February 1996, at the urging of the United States, the International Monetary Fund (which describes itself as “an organization of 188 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation”) supplied a $10.2 billion “emergency infusion” to Russia.The money disappeared as Yeltsin used it to shore up his reputation and to buy votes. He forced the Central Bank of Russia to provide an additional $1 billion for his campaign, too. Meanwhile, a handful of Russian oligarchs, notably several big contributors residing in Israel, provided more billions for the Yeltsin campaign.

In the spring of 1996, Yeltsin and his campaign manager, billionaire privatizer Anatoly Chubais, recruited a team of financial and media oligarchs to bankroll the Yeltsin campaign and guarantee favorable media coverage on national television and in leading newspapers. In return, Chubais allowed well-connected Russian business leaders to acquire majority stakes in some of Russia's most valuable state-owned assets.

Campaign strategists for the former Republican governor of California Pete Wilsoncovertly made their way to the President Hotel in Moscow where, behind a guard and locked doors, they served as Yeltsin’s “secret campaign weapon” to save Russia for Democracy. (Eleanor Randolph, “Americans Claim Role in Yeltsin Win,” L.A. Times, 9 July 1996) Yeltsin and his cohorts monopolized all major media outlets, print and electronic, public, and private. They bombarded Russians with an incessant and uncontested barrage of political advertising masquerading as news, phony “documentaries,” rumors, innuendos, and bad faith campaign promises (including disbursement of back pay to workers and pensioners, stopping further NATO expansion, and peaceful settlement of Yeltsin’s brutal war against Chechnya). Yeltsin campaigners even floated the threat that he would stage a coup and the country would descend into civil war if Zyuganov were to win the vote.

It is now public record that the Yeltsin campaign conducted extensive “black operations,” including disrupting opposition rallies and press conferences, spreading disinformation among Yeltsin supporters, and denying media access to the opposition. The dirty tricks included such tactics as announcing false dates for opposition rallies and press conferences,disseminatingalarming campaign materials that they deceitfully attributed to the Zyuganov campaign, and cancelling hotel reservations for Zyuganov and his volunteers. Finally, widespread bribery, voter fraud, intimidation, and ballot stuffing assured Yeltsin’s victory in the runoff election.

The day after his victory, Yeltsin disappeared from the scene and did not reappear until months later, drunk. During Yeltsin’s second term, the “non-ideological” IMF provided another infusion of money, this time $40 billion. Once again, more billions disappeared without a trace, much of it stolen by the President’s chronies, who placed it in foreign banks. The re-elected President didn’t even pretend to make good on his campaign promises.

Serious observers, including leading Democrats, agree that even if the recent hacking allegations against Russia turn out to be true, the “dirty tricks” did not affect the outcome of the 2016 election. By contrast, American meddling and financing of the 1996 presidential election in Russia clearly played a pivotal role in turning Yeltsin from a candidate with single-digit approval at the beginning of the yearinto a winning candidate with an official (but disputed) 54.4% of votes cast in the second-round runoff later that same year.

Let us consider some of the consequences of Yeltsin’s electoral win:

--In the first years of the Chubais-Yeltsin privatization scheme, the life expectancy of a Russian male fell from 65 years to 57.5 years. Female life expectancy in Russia dropped from 74.5 years in 1989 to 72.8 years in 1999.

--Throughout Yeltsin’s terms as President, flight of capital away from Russia totaled between $1 and $2 billion every month.

--Each year from 1989 to 2001 there was a fall of approximately 8% in Russia's productive assets.

--From 1990 to 1999 the percentage increase of people living on lessthan $1 a day was greater in Russian and the other former socialist countries than anywhere else in the world.

--The number of people living in poverty in the former Soviet Republicsrose from 14 million in 1989 to 147 million in 1998.As a result of the 1998 financial collapse and the devaluation of the ruble, the life savings of tens of millons of Russian families disappeared over night. Since then, the Great Recession and low oil pries have only made matters worse.

--In the period from 1992 to 1998 Russia’s GDP fell by half--something that did not happen even under during the German invasion in the Second World War.

Under Yeltsin’s tenure, the death rate in Russia reached wartime levels. Accidents, food poisoning, exposure, heart attacks, lack of access to basic healthcare, and an epidemic of suicides—they all played a role. David Satter, a senior fellow at the anti-communist, Washington DC-based Hudson Institute, writing in the conservative Wall Street Journal, described the consequences of this victory of Democracy: “Western and Russian demographers now agree that between 1992 and 2000, the number of ‘surplus deaths’ in Russia–deaths that cannot be explained on the basis of previous trends–was between five and six million persons.” (Accessed 8 April 2015. American sociologist James Petras has given a figure of 15 million surplus deaths since the demise of the Soviet Union.)

NATO continued its expansion east. Yeltsin turned the Chechen city of Grozy into a field of rubble, and he quickly became the most reviled man in Russia. But as one observer put it at the time, "Yeltsin didn't seem to notice, which is hardly surprising, since he was drunk for most of his tenure in office."By the time he left office, the American-approved President of the Russian Federation had an approval rating of 2%. (CNN, 2002) But by that time it didn’t matter: the kleptocrats were safely installed in power, and American-imposed Democracy had achieved its aims in Russia’s “transition.”

Yeltsin died in 2007, celebrated as an anti-communist hero by the neocons in Washington and New York, but hated by the vast majority of Russians. Four years later, Dmitri Medvedev, then-President of Russia, eulogized Yeltsin for creating “the base of a new Russian statehood, without which none of our future successes would be possible.” But a Time magazine writer reported that, despite Medvedev’s public praise, the story he told privately was quite different. On 20 February 2012, he reportedly told attendees at a closed-door meeting: “Russia’s first President did not actually win re-election in 1996 for a second term. The second presidential vote in Russia’s history, in other words, was rigged.” (Simon Shuster, “Rewriting Russian History: Did Boris Yeltsin Steal the 1996 Presidential Election?” Time online, 24 Feb. 2012.)

Some readers, perhaps, do not see the point of reminding ourselves of America’s role in the election of Yeltsin and America’s responsibility for the resulting misery and mass death. But let us remind ourselves that the recent hacking accusations are just one element of a full-on media assault against Russia, led by Washington. From supposed Russian war crimes in the fight against the murderous jihadi occupiers of Syria to Russia’s re-annexation of overwhelmingly pro-Russian Crimea and the doping of Olympic athletes, America’s neocons are engaged in a propaganda blitz with high stakes.

Armenia is one of many frontline positions in Washington’s escalating media campaign against Russia. Yes, the Russian Federation is an imperialist state, in V.I. Lenin’s technical sense of the term. And yes, Russia wields undo influence in Armenia. But by now it is clear that greater sovereignty for Armenia is not what is at stake when it comes to the Russophobe opposition. After all, the Russia haters do not seem to have much problem with the idea of giving up sovereignty to the American imperialists and their regional surrogate, the Republic of Turkey. More importantly, the cause of greater national sovereignty will be harmed if the Russia haters have their way. They only confirm the pervasivesense of vulnerability, economic isolation, and military encirclement among Russians, a people who have endured three decades of enormous destruction and humiliation, after a century of invasion and wars that claimed the lives of tens of millions of their compatriots.

Let us remind ourselves that the loudest of Yerevan’s Russia haters are the same fanatics who led Armenia to its present state of ruin. After so much failure and disaster, they continue to hawk the old dangerous fantasy of Uncle Sam as Armenia’s savior. They are unrepentant, and like Yeltsin, they take their marching orders from Washington.

Markar Melkonian is a teacher and an author. His books include Richard Rorty’s Politics: Liberalism at the End of the American Century (1999), Marxism: A Post-Cold War Primer (Westview Press, 1996), and My Brother’s Road (2005).

http://hetq.am/eng/news/74607/meddling-in-presidential-elections-two-cases.html

The myth of the "Russian hacking personally led by Putin" contains and hides the true story: people themselves are now more and more forming their own minds on the social media and the Internet


If the "hacking story" is stripped of its misdirection noise, the bottom line is: Obama and the establishment are deeply upset that the "mainstream" corporate media have lost their hold on people's minds and that people themselves began forming and molding their views on the social media by themselves. In other words, the true story is not about Russia or even about Putin (his personality cult is still being propped up by the media and the West). The true story is about what, several years ago, Brzezinski decried as the "unprecedented global awakening" of the people.







Obama: “You have I think the clear example of how, if we're not vigilant, foreign countries can have an impact on the political debate in the United States in ways that might not have been true 10, 20, 30 years ago ... because so many people are skeptical of mainstream news organizations that everything's true and everything's false. ...I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation, for cyberhacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating."

CFR Meeting: Zbigniew Brzezinski Fears The Global Awakening

http://youtu.be/HEHsUojUgzk

http://vladimirsuchan.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-myth-of-russian-hacking-personally.html

Vlad is right about this and it is only our abject condition prevents the mobilization of the people, allows dead-end ratholes like Trump to have any traction whatsoever. The Masters Of The Universe would like to continue making enormous profit off of this rope without us dropping it around their collective necks and expend no small effort to keep it that way. Trump is a result of the media environment and with a little luck will be a cause of disillusionment with the current state of affairs. But somebody gotta be there with that 'better idea'.

"It Can't Happen Here" - Color Revolution By Force

The "Donald Trump likes Russia" and "Russia bad" strategy was propagated by the Clinton election campaign. It build on constant U.S. incitement against Russia after the U.S. coup in Ukraine partially failed and after the Russian intervention on the side of the government in Syria. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was the main force behind the original anti-Russian campaign. When Clinton lost the election to Trump the theme connecting Trump and Russia was continued and fanned by parts of the U.S. intelligence community.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI published a propaganda report claiming nefarious Russian cyber activities during the election without providing any evidence. The report came together with the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats by the Obama administration. The DHS then planted a false story of Russian cyber-intrusion into a Vermont utility with the Washington Post.

The Director of National Intelligence Clapper followed up with a "report" of alleged Russian interference with the election. Even the Putinphobe Masha Gessen found that to be a shoddy piece of implausible propaganda. The DNI then helped to publish an MI6 "report" of fakes asserting Russian influence on Trump. In an unprecedented threat escalation the Pentagon sends a whole brigade and other assets to the Russian border.

Now the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, warns the President elect to "watch his tongue". Is there any precedence of some "intelligence" flunky threatening a soon to be President?

This has been, all together, a well though out propaganda campaign to reinforce the scheme Clinton and her overlords have been pushing for quite some time: Russia is bad and a danger. Trump is aligned with Russia. Something needs to be done against Trump but most importantly against Russia.

Propaganda works. The campaign is having some effects:

Americans are more concerned than they were before the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign began about the potential threat Russia poses to the country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Jan. 9-12 survey found that 82 percent of American adults, including 84 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans, described Russia as a general "threat" to the United States. That's up from 76 percent in March 2015 when the same questions were asked.
Such extensive and expensive campaigns are not run by chance. They have a larger purpose.

Originally the campaign was only directed against Russia with the apparent aim of reigniting a (quite profitable) cold war. Seen from some distance the campaign now looks more like the preparation for a typical CIA induced color-revolution:

In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections, or requests for fair elections, and led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian.
What is missing yet in the U.S. are the demonstrations and the large civilian strife.

Unlike the earlier CIA launched color revolutions in Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004) and elsewhere, all recent U.S. instigated "color-revolutions", i.e. putsch attempts, have been accompanied by the use of force from the side of the "peaceful protesters". Such color-revolutions by force were instigate in Libya, Syria and Ukraine.

A common denominator of these was the primary use of violence occurred from the "good side" against the "bad side" while the propagandists claimed that it was the "bad side" that started the shooting and strife. The "good site" is inevitably "demonstrating peacefully" even when many policemen or soldiers on the "bad side" die. Thus was the case in Libya where the U.S. and its Gulf proxies used al-Qeada aligned Jihadis from Benghazi as "peaceful demonstrators" against the government, in Syria where the NATO and Gulf supported Muslim Brotherhood killed policemen and soldiers during "peaceful demonstrations" in Deraa and in Ukraine where fascist sharpshooters killed demonstrators and policemen from a hotel roof in the hand of the opposition. All three happened while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

There have been claims of an upcoming color-revolution in the U.S. from different extremist sides of the political spectrum. Before the election Neocon Jackson Diehl claimed that "Putin" was preparing a color-revolution against a President-elect Clinton to enthrone Donald Trump. But as Trump won fair and square and Clinton lost that plot did not make it to the stage. After the election the conspiracy peddler Wayne Madsen immediately "discovered" that Clinton and George Soros were launching a color-revolution against Trump.

Remnants of the Clinton campaign have called for a large anti-Trump demonstration during the inauguration on January 20 in Washington DC.

Mass shootings in the United States by this or that type of lunatics happen every other month. There are no wild conspiracy theories or nefarious plots necessary to consider some what-if questions around such an event.

So what happens after some "Trump supporter" on January 20 starts to shoot into the demonstrating masses (and also into the police cordons)?

What if the CIA, DHS and DNI then detect and certify that the ensuing "massacre" was a "Russian plot"?

Posted by b on January 15, 2017 at 12:28 PM

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/01/it-cant-happen-here-color-revolution-by-force.html

So what happens after some "Trump supporter" on January 20 starts to shoot into the demonstrating masses (and also into the police cordons)?

What if the CIA, DHS and DNI then detect and certify that the ensuing "massacre" was a "Russian plot"?


This isn't as far-fetched as it might at first appear. I saw on the twit a few days ago that some prominent liberals were calling for "marshal law" in order to prevent Trump's inauguration. It is unclear who would declare marshal law, at this point - Obama? The Pentagon? The Republican congress? Batman? But it just goes to show how unreal the bottom rung of this shithole is. These are liberals asking the state to institute a fascist regime, to choose some US Pinochet to "bring order". Why have the liberals/Democrats lost their minds, here? What is so massive and untenable that Democrats would call for the delegitimizing of a presidential election? Could it be that the Democrats and the pro-Clinton Republicans understand that the Presidency is, in reality, a Dictatorship and that if someone clues in Trump to this little secret all bets are off? You would think that if Trump knew or grasped the nature of the "game" that he would simply give lip-service to everything the pro-Clinton Republicans say and want. For once that oath is given, and taken, then its the 'devil takes the hindmost'. Emperor Trump is a nightmare, but a color revolution in the US is probably an even bigger one. I have a hard time believing the ruling class will allow it. It strikes me as much more likely that Trump will just get the ax here a couple of months and President Pence will be a much more palatable emperor for the ruling class - he understands the game and wants to be with the big boys. But whatever happens in the next few weeks - everybody should hold on to their asses...

Four Reasons Trump Will Quit
by DAVID MACARAY

As startling and unprecedented as it may be, there’s a good chance Donald Trump won’t finish out one term as president. Yes, Richard Nixon resigned from office, so technically, there was a “precedent,” but Nixon’s case was different. Nixon resigned in disgrace to avoid being impeached—to avoid being exposed as the Machiavellian felon and borderline neurotic he was. Trump won’t face impeachment. He’ll just quit.

Here are four reasons:

1. The job will simply prove to be too much of a grind. Even priding himself on being an accomplished delegator, the amount of work required of a sitting president—much of it tedious and enervating—will overwhelm him. He can delegate all he likes, but he’s still going to be president when he wakes up in the morning, and the demands of the job are going to put the zap on his head. They will crush him.

The fact that Trump himself has said he was “surprised” to have won (not nearly as surprised as the rest of us, Donald) indicates that running for president was, for him, just one more splashy opportunity to assert his ego and bask in the limelight. As for hard-boiled political commitment, there was never the barest trace of it.

People will argue that Ronald Reagan, who served two full terms, was a notorious, often distracted, delegator, and that’s true. But Reagan was not only governor of California, he was a seasoned political animal with a consistent and well-oiled three-pronged mantra: deregulation, low taxes, anti-communism. Trump has no such mantra, and no bedrock ideology to sustain him. Go back and look at what Trump has said. He’s been all over the map.

Once he settles into the job, and the novelty and luster wears off, he will not only grow restless and bored, he will realize that being president isn’t what he thought it was. Being U.S. president is not so much like being Emperor as is it like being Head Bureaucrat. And one thing Trump ain’t is a bureaucrat.

2. The economy will tank and he will get blamed. To paraphrase Alan Greenspan, circa 2007, the stock market is “irrationally high.” The Dow-Jones is now close to 20,000. Let us not forget that when Obama took office it was less than 6,600. Cycles being cycles, the market will fall, fortunes will be lost, new religions will be formed, and Trump, rightly or wrongly, will get blamed. And we already know how thin-skinned he is.

3. The media have a prodigious memory and are vindictive bastards. They will ravage him. After all the shoot-from-the-hip insults and nasty, juvenile remarks Trump leveled at the media during the campaign, there will be a veritable shit-storm of payback. These people don’t forget.

As gutless and co-opted by the Establishment as the MSM is, even presidents who are somewhat liked and respected occasionally get nipped up. And once the honeymoon is over, Trump will realize that he is neither liked nor respected. As a consequence he will remain squarely in the media’s crosshairs. It will be open season, a feeding frenzy.

4. He’s a quitter. Look at his history. Trump is a real estate tycoon, a mogul, an opportunist who buys when it’s low and sells when it’s high. Yet, even adhering to that practice, Trump has filed for bankruptcy protection four times and walked away from numerous ventures. He has no staying power and no interest in the long haul. He will quit. Mike Pence will become president. And how weird will that be?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/17/four-reasons-trump-will-quit/

Not so bad, plausible. But I would amend the point concerning the press. If they engage in a non-stop savaging of Trump it will not be because they got a mean streak and are not to be fucked with but because their masters willed it, they are curs.

Not so bad, plausible. But I would amend the point concerning the press. If they engage in a non-stop savaging of Trump it will not be because they got a mean streak and are not to be fucked with but because their masters willed it, they are curs.

Agree. It is harder to envision a full four year Trump term than to see a truncated mess of a presidency and resignation. Also the media isn't "tough" it is owned and there is a big difference. If they were told tomorrow to love Trump and praise Putin, they'd fall all over themselves to do just that - and completely deny they ever had any other stance.

Live feed & updates from the coronation provided by J20 folks here:

https://itsgoingdown.org/disruptj20-washington-dc/

BLM women were sit down/blocking entry checkpoint, white male Trumpsters kicking & beating them, cops look on, laughing. App 8:50

This is looking more organized than I'd thought. Appears different groups have been assigned specific gates to block. More than happy to see a semblance of organization but question tactics that bring protesters into direct conflict with Trump supporters. Trump and the ruling class are the enemies.

Wasting no time...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2obpEtUUAAV9rw.jpg:large

Meet the New Boss....

The Speech


President Donald Trump just delivered a searing inaugural address, attacking Washington and promising a new hope for Americans who want to dream big.

A transcript of Trump's first speech as president follows.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.

And we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition.

They have been magnificent.

Thank you.

Today's ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.

For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment.

It belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America.

This is your day.

This is your celebration.

And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves.

These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists.

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.

An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.

And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation, and their pain is our pain.

Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.

For many decades we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.

We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own. And we've spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.

The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our product, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.

Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs.

We will bring back our borders.

We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example.

We will shine for everyone to follow.

We will re-enforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear. We are protected and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It's time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.

We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms and we all salute the same great American flag.

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator.

So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together we will make America strong again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe again.

And, yes, together we will make America great again.

Thank you.

God bless you.

And God bless America."

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/transcript-of-president-trumps-inauguration-speech.html

Playing to his base. I am sure the hammering on patriotism is in part reassurance concerning Russia. But the other portion of 'total allegiance' screams "you're with us or against us."

Tracking Trump


The 2016 election taught many lessons, few of which have penetrated the talking heads of the mainstream media. Most of what we could learn has been lost in the frenzy of the most outrageous political maneuvering witnessed in decades.

One of the more notable lessons is the diminished role of campaign money in determining this Presidential election outcome. Trump spent a third less than Clinton in this election (Washington Post: $932 million versus $1.4 billion). Some have made much of this discrepancy, along with the fact that Trump largely ignored the advice of his hired consultants and advisors. Of course, Clinton’s money actually bought over 3 million more votes in the nationwide count. And the mass media enthusiastically provided Trump with uncountable dollars’ worth of free coverage (Remember CBS CEO Les Moonves’s comment on Trump’s loud mouth, Berlusconi-like antics during the primaries: “I've never seen anything like this, and this is going to be a very good year for us… Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ...Who would have thought that this circus would have come to town?”)

Nonetheless, the Trump election undeniably showed that it is possible to mount an impactful campaign outside of the conventional rules of the game, especially when a substantial portion of the electorate has soured on the rules of the game.

It was this fact-- the fact that there was a new mood emerging, especially among those most devastated by the continuing economic crisis -- that was underestimated or missed by the punditry and is still largely ignored.

While the Trump election was a surprise, something new is clearly in the air. I wrote nearly a year ago:

The Sanders and Trump successes suggest that voters are not appeased by the thin gruel offered by the party elites this go-round. But something more profound is occurring—a refusal to settle for the usual charade. Moreover, party loyalty is unusually thin this time, challenging party leaders’ ability to count on a transfer from one candidate to another. What the pundits call “unpredictability” is actually the exercise of a new level of political maturity and independence. A recent Pew Research Center poll (December 8-13, 2015) bears out the mood of voter alienation: 62% of all respondents maintain that “the federal government does not do enough for middle-class people.” Thus, the notion that anti-government sentiment runs deep in the populace is a media-inspired illusion. Instead, people want better government. (A Moment Charged with Possibility 2-11-16)

We now know, thanks to Wikileaks, that the Democrats had no intention of allowing an insurgent like Sanders to address the “new mood” of the electorate. Instead, they chose to covertly ensure the nomination of the candidate of more-of-the-same-- Hillary Clinton. In undermining Sanders, Democratic Party elites guaranteed that Trump would be perceived as the only authentic “outsider” candidate.
I wrote last year, in April, that the failures of the traditional support system for the “working class and poor people-- unions, religious institutions, the Democratic Party, ethnic organizations, etc.-- explains, in no small part, the desperate turn to Trump. Tepid, aloof liberalism breeds desperate options, like the outlandish Trump, when conditions deteriorate sharply and no radical options appear available.”

Thus, a careful assessment of the Trump victory should ascribe a role to working class disaffection with business-as-usual politics, but without a simplistic blanket condemnation of the working class, without a calloused dismissal of white workers as wholly racist, misogynist, or xenophobic.

But careful assessment is not popular after the recent election. Liberal pundit and darling of the “responsible” left, Paul Krugman, penned a harsh attack on the white working class:

...the fact is that Democrats have been pursuing policies that are much better for the white working class than anything the other party has to offer. Yet this has brought no political reward… The only way to make sense of what happened is to see the vote as an expression of, well, identity politics-- some combination of white resentment at what voters see as favoritism toward non-whites (even though it isn’t) and anger on the part of the less educated at liberal elites whom they imagine look down on them. The Populist Perplex, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11-26-2016.

Krugman is hardly out of step with mainstream liberals with his barely concealed contempt for the motives of white workers. But compare this statement with what he said eight years earlier when he was shilling for Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama in the midst of their primary competition:

[Princeton colleague Frank] Bartels cited data showing that small-town, working class Americans are actually less likely than affluent metropolitan residents to vote on the basis of religion and social values… Does it matter that Mr. Obama has embraced an incorrect theory about what motivates working-class voters? His campaign certainly hasn’t been based on Mr. Frank’s book [What’s the Matter with Kansas?], which calls for a renewed focus on economic issues as a way to win back the working class. Indeed, the book concludes with a blistering attack on Democrats who cater to “affluent, white collar professionals who are liberal on social issues” while dropping the class language that once distinguished them sharply from Republicans.”... Anyway, the important point is that working-class Americans do vote on economic issues-- and can be swayed by a politician who offers real answers to their problems. Clinging to a Stereotype, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4-19-2008.

Apart from the blatant hypocrisy exhibited by the marked reversal of Krugman’s views in only eight years, the earlier Krugman gets it right. Economic issues have been decisive in working class vote patterns, especially since the deindustrialization of the 1970s and 1980s and the economic catastrophe of 2007-8. And the earlier Krugman’s judgement that “working-class Americans… can be swayed by a politician who offers real answers to their problems” proved accurate with the campaign of Bernie Sanders. But with the Democratic Party actively burying that option, many workers misguidedly turned to the only other candidate promising to address their interests.

Contrary to the widespread impressions disseminated by media elites, the working-class vote was not overwhelmingly for Trump, nor was the working class vote the backbone of his success. The Electoral College totals swung his way thanks to narrow victories in a few key rust-belt states. Many factors contributed to the Trump victory, but two stand out, especially for a left analysis.

First, there was a discernable shift among many voters in working class strongholds previously giving majorities to Obama to turn in the direction of Trump in 2016. As Krugman noted in his 2008 alert and warning to the Democrats, addressing relevant economic issues is decisive in winning the working class vote. With the Sanders economic program strangled in the cradle, desperate voters saw nowhere to turn but to the false, demagogic hope of putting the industrial toothpaste back into the tube, of creating jobs out of Trump’s magic.

Democratic Party operatives and their media lapdogs have done their most to evade blame for the Party’s abandonment of working people’s interests. Instead, they have painted workers as pathologically bigoted and ignorant, a handy theme reinforced by elite media since the era of TV stereotype, Archie Bunker. Today’s archetypes for the socially dysfunctional (white) worker is found in the best-selling tell-all from a working class “escapee” (Hillbilly Elegy, J. D. Vance). By diverting the spotlight to working class dysfunction, the third-way, New Democrats who dominate the party can escape blame for their willful neglect of the multiracial working class’s increasingly desperate plight.

Second, Trump was a magnet for every backward, reactionary, racist element in the US. They, too, saw the arrogant, abrasive, loud-mouth as someone in whom they could place their hopes. Trump’s aggressive break with the typical politician’s syrupy civility was taken as a sign of contempt for the alien, the different, those perceived as threatening (Ironically, these same hates and fears were, in the past, invested in soft-spoken religious leaders and smooth-tongued conservative gentlemen). Trump engages in the Old South tactic of drawing attention by surpassing all others in race baiting and fear mongering, but it’s important to note that this simplistic tactic only works where an atmosphere of racial friction and fear already exists. It’s just that Trump opportunistically says it the loudest.

The contradiction between Trump’s appeal to workers and his courtship of the extreme right is unresolvable. Nevertheless, it is a common feature of right-wing populism, a political phenomenon emerging strongly in Europe and the US. It takes root where both objective and subjective conditions are ripe for radical change, but a weak or discredited left offers little hope. The extreme right reaches to fill the void with vague populism.

While it is not yet possible to entirely discern how Trump will attempt to resolve this contradiction, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is surrounded by advisors, confidents, and attendants fully committed to a pro-corporate, pro-capitalist domestic agenda, an agenda that, apart from theatrical moments, will leave little for workers.

Trump’s foreign policy is, however, a different kettle of fish. Domestic policy is crafted by many hands. Congress, which is 100% bipartisan for the interests of capitalism over any other interest, will have a big say over where Trump takes it. Moreover, there is space for debating divergent interpretations of the best interests of capital.

But foreign policy is largely crafted through the executive (even war powers have been commandeered by the executive branch). And there is little tolerance for dissidence from the policies of the foreign policy establishment. The tight reign over policy fixed by generations of rabid Cold Warriors continues to be a feature of governing. Many of Trump’s comments on prospective foreign relations challenge both the current consensus and those who police that consensus.

Trump’s deviance from that consensus on relations with Russia, NATO, and other matters explains the brazen intervention of US security services in post-election politics. A massive media campaign was mounted to distract the people from the Democratic Party fiasco and construct a reliable straw man, Russia, to take the blame for the embarrassing loss. The mainstream media shamelessly and nearly uniformly spread the speculative story that Russia had intervened profoundly in the US election. With skepticism rising, the joint US security agencies released an amateurish report, allegedly confirming Russian intervention. Many private security experts remained skeptical. Trump challenged the report.

Within days, government insiders released a second document-- an addendum-- reputedly based on a UK private investigation, alleging outrageous misconduct on Trump’s part and an extensive Russian disinformation campaign. The security agencies admitted sharing the report with Obama and Trump, denied leaking it, and refused to attest to its accuracy. In a recent interview, CIA Director Brennan was said “to give it no particular credence.” He said, instead: “I would have no interest in trying to give that dossier any additional airtime.” That, he says, “...would make no sense at all.”

So, if the report had no credence, if it made “no sense” to give it “more airtime,” why was it shared with the President and President-elect and leaked to the press in the first place?

The answer should be obvious to all but the gullible and kept corporate press: The memorandum was meant, on the part of the security agencies, as a threat to Donald Trump, a reminder that wandering off the establishment reservation is not tolerated.

The media’s failure to challenge this “memorandum,” its veracity, its timing, its source, and its leak is a new low in groveling before power. To think that the head of the CIA, the most formidable intelligence apparatus in the world, had a hand in confronting Trump with a document that Brennan claimed “he had no way to assess the allegations contained in the dossier of political opposition research…” (Wall Street Journal, 1-19-17) is outrageous (Brennan even claimed that he hadn’t read it). That the CIA held no interest or lacked the ability to confirm a dossier written by a former member of the close-knit intelligence community is preposterous. That the security agencies promoted a dossier that bore “no credence” and that they released it for any other reason than to intimidate Trump is unbelievable.

Of course, this would not be the first time that security agencies scared the hell out of politicians challenging establishment shibboleths. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover famously kept extensive files on virtually all political players and would frequently leak embarrassing information to media friends whenever he felt it was necessary to bring dissenters back into the fold. Among many other political maneuvers, the CIA notoriously overstated Soviet capabilities in order to influence US Cold War policies, elections, and funding. And beyond any dispute, the intelligence and foreign policy communities constructed an argument of lies to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq. We are asked to trust them today? And the too-often uncritical, gullible media believes them today?

In the wake of contemporary revelations of torture protocols and comprehensive spying on everyone, apparently witting opinion makers have now found the intelligence community to be wholly reliable and trustworthy. They surrender their critical faculties to the professional liars and plotters. Even George Orwell would be aghast!

We assuredly have every reason to fear the policies of President Trump and his supporters.

But based on recent events, we equally have every reason to fear the brazen power and intrusion of clandestine security agencies and the unreliability of the fawning, supine corporate media.

Zoltan Zigedy
zoltanzigedy@gmail.com

We assuredly have every reason to fear the policies of President Trump and his supporters.

But based on recent events, we equally have every reason to fear the brazen power and intrusion of clandestine security agencies and the unreliability of the fawning, supine corporate media.

This is the best analysis so far. It isn't complete, but it is an excellent start.

This is the best analysis so far. It isn't complete, but it is an excellent start.

A lot of anti-Trump sentiment is being channeled into anti-Russian. This water-carrying for war-mongering imperialism should be opposed at every opportunity. I've been told it is the surest way to undermine his support among the working class and perhaps there's a little to that and maybe it makes sense if you don't give a damn if the US and it's arms are slaughtering people every day all over the world as long as you're comfortable in your privileged bubble.

Trump Signs Executive Orders Pushing Dakota, Keystone Pipelines

Published 24 January 2017

The decision comes as a blow for environmentalists and Indigenous groups pitted against the controversial projects.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders Tuesday to revive the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

Trump’s signature has left Indigenous groups and environmentalists fuming but determined to carry on their struggle against the projects, which critics say will destroy local ecosystems and damage Native American sacred sites while lock the United States into a future dominated by fossil fuels.

The move is seen as a stark example of Trump’s blatant support of the oil industry as he aims to boost the U.S. economy and the job market by restoring dirty industries and backing protectionism for U.S. manufacturing.

During a meeting with U.S. auto companies for his plan to boost local production by relaxing regulations and Trump claimed that “environmentalism is out of control.”

Environmental groups have signaled that Trump's move will be met with renewed resistance.

“Trump clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing," said Bill McKibben from environmental group 350.org. "Indigenous peoples, landowners, and climate activists did everything in our power to stop Keystone XL and Dakota Access, and we’ll do it again."

"These orders will only reignite the widespread grassroots opposition to these pipelines and other dirty energy projects," he added. "Trump is about to meet the fossil fuel resistance head on.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trump-Signs-Executive-Orders-Pushing-Dakota-Keystone-Pipelines-20170124-0023.html

Ya knew that was coming, though in fairness Hillary would probably done the same, just more subtly. I swear I'd arm the Lakota with nukes if I could.

Trump is digging himself quite a hole, conflict of interest wise, izzat the plan?

Trump is digging himself quite a hole, conflict of interest wise, izzat the plan?

Well, you have to admit, he ain't lazy. He seems to be doing everything he can think of, as quickly as he can do it, that will set the liberal/progressive/Democrats on fire. Even some Republicans think he ought to slow down if he wants to be successful. Maybe he is just trying to do as much damage as he can before somebody pulls the plug on him? Beats me; but that hole he is digging is oblong and it's reaching six feet deep.

Well, you have to admit, he ain't lazy. He seems to be doing everything he can think of, as quickly as he can do it, that will set the liberal/progressive/Democrats on fire. Even some Republicans think he ought to slow down if he wants to be successful. Maybe he is just trying to do as much damage as he can before somebody pulls the plug on him? Beats me; but that hole he is digging is oblong and it's reaching six feet deep.

Key Trump Donor Stands to Profit from Order to Approve Keystone XL, Dakota Access Pipelines
By Steve Horn • Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 09:21

https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/blogimages/dapl-water-defender-arrest-construction-equipment_credit-Rob-Wilson_Bold-Alliance_0.jpg?itok=AD5MLLd0

On January 24, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders calling for the approval of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, owned by Energy Transfer Partners and TransCanada, respectively. He also signed an order calling for expedited environmental reviews of domestic infrastructure projects, such as pipelines.

Fights against both pipelines have ignited nationwide grassroots movements for over the past five years and will almost assuredly sit at the epicenter of similar backlash moving forward. As DeSmog has reported, Donald Trump's top presidential campaign energy aide Harold Hamm stands to profit if both pipelines go through.

Hamm, the founder and CEO of Continental Resources who sat in the VIP box at Trump's inauguration and was a major Trump campaign donor, would see his company's oil obtained from hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the Bakken Shale flow through both lines. Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, was also a major Trump donor.

Trump Donors Inauguration

https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/01/Names-donors-trump-1485018387.jpg

Rick Perry, Trump's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Energy, served on the Board of Directors for Energy Transfer Partners until he received the nomination from Trump.

The signing of the orders comes as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under order to undergo a thorough environmental impact statement process.

Trump claimed constructing Keystone XL would create 28,000 jobs at the executive orders signing ceremony, also saying all of the steel for the pipelines would be manufactured in the U.S.


http://ondemand.abcnews.com/playback/abcnews/2017/01/170124_abc_trump_exec_order_pipelines_700.mp4
ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

But a September 2011 report published by Cornell Unversity's Global Labor says the project will generate 2,500-4,650 construction jobs, also pointing to research which it said showed “there is strong evidence to suggest that almost half of the primary material input for KXL—steel pipe—will not even be produced in the United States.”

“TransCanada’s decision to contract steel pipe for KXL from outside of the US is consistent with past practice,” the report stated. “TransCanada imported almost all of the steel pipe needed for the US portion of Keystone Phase 1 (Hardesty, Alberta to Patoka, Illinois) from Welspun’s plants in India.”

In November 2015, the Obama State Department denied issuing a permit for Keystone XL, citing lack of job creation which would come from giving the pipeline a permit.

“The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy. So if Congress is serious about wanting to create jobs, this was not the way to do it,” Obama said in nixing the pipeline. “If they want to do it, what we should be doing is passing a bipartisan infrastructure plan that, in the short term, could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year as the pipeline would, and in the long run would benefit our economy and our workers for decades to come.”

Trump's U.S. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, would presumably have some say over the approval of the U.S.-Canada border-crossing Keystone XL, which must receive a presidential permit by the U.S. Department of State. Exxon, as reported by DeSmog, extracts tar sands in Alberta which would flow through Keystone and also has refining capacity in Texas.

Expedited permitting of pipeline projects has long been on the oil and gas industry wish list, having recently generated comments submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — tasked with key permitting tasks for domestic pipeline projects — calling for a more rapid approval process.

Environmental leaders say they intend to fight back.

“Keystone, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and fossil fuel infrastructure projects like them will only make billionaires richer and make the rest of us suffer,” said Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. “We will resist this with all of our power and we will continue to build the future the world wants to see.”

Erich Pica, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth-U.S., echoed Leonard.

“Trump has emphatically pledged his allegiance to the oil companies and Wall Street banks that stand to profit from the destruction of public health and the environment,” said Pica. “The movement to defend Indigenous rights and keep fossil fuels in the ground is stronger than oil companies’ bottom line.”

The industry, by juxtaposition, finds itself in a state of elation.

“We applaud and appreciate President Trump’s immediate and decisive action to expedite the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline,” said Craig Stevens, spokesman for the front group Midwest Alliance on Infrastructure Now, which is run by the Republican Party public relations firm DCI Group. “President Trump’s decision shows businesses that the rule of law will be respected and demonstrates an affirmation of regulatory certitude to those looking to invest in America.”

https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/01/24/trump-harold-hamm-keystone-xl-dakota-access-approval-order

Remember how they made a big deal out of Teapot Dome?

An Exchange of Views on Trump: Is This An Emerging Fascism in USA?
January 25, 2017 by jackrasmus
I recent gave an interview with Global Research in Canada, on the significance of Trump and whether the US traditional elites will eventually ‘tame’ him. (The interview will be posted on my website shortly and will be announced here). A listener of the Global Research radio interview replied to me on the subjects covered in the interview, making some very good points. I replied briefly. The exchange follows below:

“Jack,

I was very interested to hear you’re recent interview on the GLOBALRESEARCHNEWSHOUR, and then was
BLOWN AWAY by the volume of serious material you have
on your websites.

As a dedicated observer of “events,” critical websites, etc, I was shocked that I had not heard your name before; and there… recalled yet another affirmation of the mainstream media’s success in isolating our eyes and ears from the wealth of wisdom which is ours to enjoy, so soon as we’re able to connect.

Listening to the interview and your latest podcast, I found myself agreeing on so many points: Trump’s rhetoric vs. real intent, (tax cuts for rich, de-regulation); pivot to China; neo-liberal-con 2.0; Japanese re-armament, etc.

I’m writing to you today because I believe you’re able to see what many otherwise-intelligent critics lately do not; namely, that Trump is NOT anti-establishment.

As you know, there’s a whole campaign underway, (by the corp-rat “liberal” media and CIA) attacking Trump with the lamest, most ridiculous charges.

“Russia did it.”

This would be laughable if it weren’t for the many serious critics who are taking this as evidence of Trump’s “opposition” to the establishment.

Some, like Michel Chussudovsky, describe this as the friction between two factions of the Elite. Chris Hedges speaks of a possible “coup.” Many take this as an opportunity to expose the thoroughly-corrupt, presstitute media and state, (“a shocking, unprecedented intrusion”, etc).

By acknowledging such charges as “attacks,” progressive observers affirm his “anti-establishment” credentials… the core of his credibility amongst intelligent conservatives.

Yet the weak, lame, luridly-absurd nature of the “attacks” on Trump could only be expected to strengthen him; for the very essence of his persona is STRENGTH – the “winner against all odds,” brushing off criticism with nary a care.

In keeping with their character, the Lamestream ‘liberal’ media and the Demoncratic Party are INTENTIONALLY flinging weak, irrelevant shit at him in order to STRENGTHEN his credibility, and then poison/hijack the real resistance.

(Chussudovsky speaks of this latter point quite succinctly… infiltrators, provocateurs, etc).

They’re infecting the widespread shock/outrage over Trump’s seizure-of-power with ridiculous, (facile) self-defeating logic. They’re turning the movement’s eyes away from those liberal/Demoncrats who laid the foundation for Trump, and who keep propping him up in various forms.

This further makes impossible any effective communication with intelligent conservatives, who then see such anti-Trump protests as NOTHING MORE than Demoncratic, liberal mainstream machinations.

Now, it’s true that some are using the term “fascist” quite loosely. Comparisons with Hitler are usually clumsy, at best. Yet lost in the muddle is the historical fact that the Nazis, (and mussolinin’s blackshirts) first represented themselves as REBELS… against “the establishment” – first against the Conservative
Parties, before moving to destroy the liberal state and the left.

While Trump today may be more thug than fascist, the trajectory of his play is certainly FASCISTIC, and the character of his cabinet is decidely so.

Trump is simply serving as a useful front-man for the nasty business going on behind the scenes. TPTB may certainly bump him off or depose him if/when it serves their interests; but for now, the “Trump as rebel “meme is strengthening his position.

On the international scale, the Trump phenom is falling in with a long line of reactionary, anti-immigrant,”strong-man” parties… on the rise in Europe, each… but a few steps away from an openly fascist declaration.

This is entirely in keeping with the decay of capitalism, and the last refuge of the Elite, (for maintaining power): the descent into barbarism, chaos as a tool for social re-organization along military lines, mass murder.

(This may also help to explain a “deal” that may have been made with Putin’s Russia, backing off in return for support of the “populist” movements in Europe, and the “pivot to Asia” instead).

We’ve entered a dangerous new phase, yes?

Yet so long as our critical community, (progressives, left, etc) continues to allow the “anti-establishment Trump” meme to linger, so long as don’t denounce such Demoncratic/liberal attacks as FALSE criticism, then we allow them to hijack the resistance and give fresh (stale) wind to Trump’s sails.

So I’m writing to you, Jack, to encourage you to get the word out wherever you can.

Trump is a con-man/front-man for a fascist advance; and the so-called “liberal” establishment, (media, CIA, Demoncrat Party) are providing a PHONY, (weak, baseless) “opposition” in order to STRENGTHEN him and poison the resistance.

We must dump the Trump and the Demoncrats at the same time, in the same breath.

We must denounce the lying “liberal” presstitute, corp-rat media as useful tools of Trump’s ascendancy, and utterly purge every ounce of Demoncratic influence from the ranks of our resistance.

Thanks for listening Jack,

keep up the great work.

Anthony”

.
Jack Rasmus reply to Anthony

“Thanks for your commentary, and for watching, listening, reading my perspective. I agree, Trump is not yet fascist (in the 1930s sense, but that sense by no means is the only form fascism may take). We should see him as a forerunner, with the potential to become one, a kind of ante-room or proto-fascist form. But first he must neutralize the liberal democratic media, which he is out to do. And he must solidify working class support with more jobs, appearance of anti-free trade, etc. And deliver on the ‘enemy within’ (jews in Germany; immigrants in the US), while appealing to nativist pride (the new nationalism) and identifying with ‘greatness’ (myths mostly) of the past (roman imperialism, the aryan ‘volk’, for US ‘founding fathers’-US Constitution), and reestablishing ‘law and order’ (crush the commies and unions in 1930s; now the central american immigrants killing our kids and muslim immmigrants planning terrorism). This is a fight between two wings of capitalism–one a liberal order that tolerated a certain amount of ‘freedom’ (i.e. minimal voting democracy, minimal civil rights, etc.) but an order that has failed to prevent the collapse of standards of living for millions–and a new virulent wing of capitalists (wheeler-dealer property developers, shadow bankers, big oil, right wing generals, and financial speculators) who want to roll the dice and take bigger risks to re-establish US total control the global economy (as in the 1950s-60s) and bring more ‘law and order’ (aka less democracy, civil rights, liberties, contain protests, check any opposition media–left, internet, NYT-Post-CNN-hollywood crowd)–that might challenge them in re-establishing that total dominance.

If Trump fails to deliver, he will ‘double-down’. And the liberal democratic traditional wing will meantime build a case for his removal in the short run, which they’ll employ if and when he fails (if he doesn’t bring himself to heel). But Trump could also take bigger risks if he feels he is failing, That could also mean more direct conflict with China which is the real target now, not the middle east or Russia. The US elite’s won’t touch him if he is about to get into a war there, or if he delivers jobs, law and order, etc. to his US popular base. In the meantime, as they develop the real ‘dossier’ on him, he will launch his own anti-media offensive against them. You can’t have fascism without taming the media and the press, without crushing popular opposition movements, and without neutralizing the potential opposition from within the more ‘liberal’ and tolerant wing of the capitalist class itself. We’ll see what happens in the coming year. The crisis will erupt no earlier than 2018 I believe.

https://jackrasmus.com/2017/01/25/an-exchange-of-views-on-trump-is-this-an-emerging-fascism-in-usa/

Interesting speculation.

“Thanks for your commentary, and for watching, listening, reading my perspective. I agree, Trump is not yet fascist (in the 1930s sense, but that sense by no means is the only form fascism may take). We should see him as a forerunner, with the potential to become one, a kind of ante-room or proto-fascist form. We should see him as a forerunner, with the potential to become one, a kind of ante-room or proto-fascist form.

Jack may be "coddling" Anthony, taking it easy on him, but the whole idea here seems baseless in some way. "Trump is not yet fascist" - so he will "become" fascist somehow? Then he qualifies it as not "in the 1930s sense" and that fascism can take other "forms". So, Jack is saying that there is a "quality" of fascism, a "definitional form", that Trump has yet to achieve - a "proto-fascist".


But first he must neutralize the liberal democratic media, which he is out to do. And he must solidify working class support with more jobs, appearance of anti-free trade, etc. And deliver on the ‘enemy within’ (jews in Germany; immigrants in the US), while appealing to nativist pride (the new nationalism) and identifying with ‘greatness’ (myths mostly) of the past (roman imperialism, the aryan ‘volk’, for US ‘founding fathers’-US Constitution), and reestablishing ‘law and order’ (crush the commies and unions in 1930s; now the central american immigrants killing our kids and muslim immmigrants planning terrorism).

This is fascism defined by action. Here is everything Trump is doing that "looks" like what a fascist would do. And there are some pretty pointed comparisons, that gives one pause. Trump IS a reactionary, bourgeois, narcissistic cretin - there can be no doubt. And he is heavy-handedly doing exactly what Jack says he is. Does this make him more of a "fascist" than Clinton, Bush, or Obama? Hell, more of one than Nixon, Carter, Ford, or Regan?

Jack more or less admits all this with his next paragraph:


This is a fight between two wings of capitalism–one a liberal order that tolerated a certain amount of ‘freedom’ (i.e. minimal voting democracy, minimal civil rights, etc.) but an order that has failed to prevent the collapse of standards of living for millions–and a new virulent wing of capitalists (wheeler-dealer property developers, shadow bankers, big oil, right wing generals, and financial speculators) who want to roll the dice and take bigger risks to re-establish US total control the global economy (as in the 1950s-60s) and bring more ‘law and order’ (aka less democracy, civil rights, liberties, contain protests, check any opposition media–left, internet, NYT-Post-CNN-hollywood crowd)–that might challenge them in re-establishing that total dominance.

So this isn't the actual rise of fascism, it is "a fight between two wings of capitalism". Now there are some slim comparisons with Weimar: the "collapse of standards of living", the perception of a lack of "law and order". But Jack, here, isn't talking about conditions that enhance the rise of fascism, he is talking about why someone might call what is happening "fascism". His saying that liberal capitalists have failed and now "a new virulent wing of capitalists" has risen. Jack gives a list of these "new" capitalists: "property developers, shadow bankers, big oil, right wing generals, and financial speculators". Who are these "shadow bankers"? (Jack may be channeling someone he doesn't want to, heh.) Also, "right wing generals" don't actually fall within any kind of "capitalist" list. Jack may just be playing fast and loose with category definitions, here, but it matters.

These "new" capitalists want to "take bigger risks to re-establish US total control the global economy (as in the 1950s-60s)" Well, the US arguably had less "total control" of the global economy in the 50s-60s than it does now. But these "new" capitalists also want to "bring more ‘law and order’ (aka less democracy, civil rights, liberties, contain protests, check any opposition media–left, internet, NYT-Post-CNN-hollywood crowd)–that might challenge them in re-establishing that total dominance. So Jack thinks NYT, Washington Post, CNN, and the "Hollywood crowd" don't want "total US dominance"? Why would he think that?

Jack is in the throws of an elaborate version of "lesser evilism". He says there are two competing "wings" of capitalism. One wing is relatively benign, the other is "virulent". One does not seek world domination and the other does. One wing of capitalism is not fascistic (or "proto-fascist", if you will), while the other is in the "ante-room" of fascism. The good capitalists "tolerated a certain amount of ‘freedom’ (i.e. minimal voting democracy, minimal civil rights, etc.), but the "new, virulent" wing of capitalism wants "less democracy, civil rights, liberties, contain protests, check any opposition media".

Ol' Jack wraps up with this:


And the liberal democratic traditional wing will meantime build a case for his removal in the short run, which they’ll employ if and when he fails (if he doesn’t bring himself to heel). But Trump could also take bigger risks if he feels he is failing, That could also mean more direct conflict with China which is the real target now, not the middle east or Russia. The US elite’s won’t touch him if he is about to get into a war there, or if he delivers jobs, law and order, etc. to his US popular base. In the meantime, as they develop the real ‘dossier’ on him, he will launch his own anti-media offensive against them. You can’t have fascism without taming the media and the press, without crushing popular opposition movements, and without neutralizing the potential opposition from within the more ‘liberal’ and tolerant wing of the capitalist class itself. We’ll see what happens in the coming year. The crisis will erupt no earlier than 2018 I believe.

I have no idea what all this means. I, personally, am afraid of what Trump may do. He is proving himself to be a very reckless idiot, who is way out of his depth. You cannot manage such a huge nation as the US as though it were a corporation - and certainly not a privately owned corporation. Everyone curses the bureaucracy, but it is there because it works and there has yet to be any, remotely adequate replacement found for it. Trump is a fool, being advised by charlatans who are all Grover Norquists on steroids.

It is possible that many ruling class members simply think that Trump is not equal to the job and are worried about that fact. Every day Trump displays his inability to function as the ruling class' front-man. I don't think this has anything to do with the advent of fascism - apart from the growing fascistic tendencies of the US government over the last half century or more. If Trump's idiotic behavior and actions bring profit and growth to ruling class interests, he will be the hero; if he crashes and burns he will be discarded. I always said that I was not shocked that Trump won the election, I was shocked that he was allowed to win it.

If the new president were Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, or some other milk-toast Republican, everything would be sailing along. Oh there would be the odd protest and the women's march and such, but there would be no "two wings of capitalism" stuff - this is purely the presence of Humpty Trump...

It is possible that many ruling class members simply think that Trump is not equal to the job and are worried about that fact. Every day Trump displays his inability to function as the ruling class' front-man. I don't think this has anything to do with the advent of fascism - apart from the growing fascistic tendencies of the US government over the last half century or more. If Trump's idiotic behavior and actions bring profit and growth to ruling class interests, he will be the hero; if he crashes and burns he will be discarded. I always said that I was not shocked that Trump won the election, I was shocked that he was allowed to win it.

If the new president were Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, or some other milk-toast Republican, everything would be sailing along. Oh there would be the odd protest and the women's march and such, but there would be no "two wings of capitalism" stuff - this is purely the presence of Humpty Trump...

Yeah , I just addressed his simultaneous elevation of Bannon while dissing the generals and spooks. Think he got that 'What Would Hitler Do?' moment all wrong, he is far from that well established in the confidence of his peers.

These 'hair on fire' liberals make me sick, where the fuck were they while 'their' government was slaughtering by the thousands, driving people to suicidal risks to escape the hell which the US is causing?

All of this 'protest in the air' needs to be wrenched away from the Dems and all the rest of the half-assed assholes like anarchists too, they is energy to be harnessed.

Yeah , I just addressed his simultaneous elevation of Bannon while dissing the generals and spooks. Think he got that 'What Would Hitler Do?' moment all wrong, he is far from that well established in the confidence of his peers.

These 'hair on fire' liberals make me sick, where the fuck were they while 'their' government was slaughtering by the thousands, driving people to suicidal risks to escape the hell which the US is causing?

All of this 'protest in the air' needs to be wrenched away from the Dems and all the rest of the half-assed assholes like anarchists too, they is energy to be harnessed.

Yeah. It all goes back to class consciousness. If half the folks in the street were acting as/for/by class we'd have something. How do get class back into the brains of working class folks. I know there will be lots of lefties who will say, "class is in their brains!" But we don't act on it. Class consciousness must include action. Class consciousness is twenty-four/seven, it permeates everything one thinks or does. Eat and sleep class. Instead of talking about candidates, talk about what benefits or hinders the working class. The CPUSA doesn't do this any more - it only talks about electing Democrat candidates. The tying of working class interests to a bourgeois political party is anathema to working class advancement. That is true of the CPUSA and BLM and NOTMYPRESIDENT.
The tweeterverse is eat-up with 'let's concentrate on anti-imperialism and put socialism on the back burner.' NO. Socialism IS anti-imperialism. When I ask how can you stop imperialism without socialism - I get nothing back that even sounds like adult thought. I usually just get blocked - ha.

Whadda piece of work...


In an interview with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, which will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his “respect” for Putin — even in the face of accusations that Putin and his associates have murdered journalists and dissidents in Russia.

“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Trump told O'Reilly.

O'Reilly pressed on, declaring to the president that “Putin is a killer.”

Unfazed, Trump didn't back away, but rather compared Putin's reputation for extrajudicial killings with the United States'.

“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/04/oreilly-told-trump-that-putin-is-a-killer-trumps-reply-you-think-our-countrys-so-innocent/?utm_term=.7b2bd1e4596a

Whodda thunk, exceptionalism vs false equivalency. Blasphemy to liberals, conservatives and decent, poorly informed people too. Which I like, this asshole is a promising wrecking ball to the whole facade of the American illusion. But, coming from this asshole, we can be assured that this statement is a promise and a threat.

Trump Administration calls for Russia to return Crimea


http://youtu.be/-ZTh6NJz57Q

Looks like the accusations of being a Russian tool or dupe are getting under the Donald's skin, mebbe making him nervous. There is much consternation among the internet Putinistas, the dumb fucks. Watch, soon we will hear of cunning plans, too deep for mere mortals to comprehend.(actually had that conversation with @InThe Pennisula today, goodbye.)

So the bosses try to corral their errant peer. I doubt the fix will take, think this a throwaway. Trump is ruled by ego and avarice and that is where he draws a line in the sand. All else is negotiable as long as those factors are massaged. Fulfilling or at least presenting the appearance of fulfilling those thought-free campaign promises will be his goal, gotta keep up the brand. Which ain't gonna stop the bosses from trying, got an empire to run. The screwhead probably already has enough conflicts of interest to put him under the jail, if not then by April. But I'm sure they'd rather not go that route, a matter of propriety for "The World's Greatest Democracy". And so they'll try to 'break' him, like a young horse, but like the psycho booj that he is he will not go quietly, he's never had to before. I hope this struggle makes shambles of the place.

The Saker has a conniption...


The consequences of this will be immense. For one thing, Trump is now clearly broken. It took the ‘deep state’ only weeks to castrate Trump and to make him bow to the powers that be. Those who would have stood behind Trump will now feel that he will not stand behind them and they will all move back away from him. The Neocons will feel elated by the elimination of their worst enemy and emboldened by this victory they will push on, doubling-down over and over and over again.

It’s over, folks, the deep state has won.

From now on, Trump will become the proverbial shabbos-goy, the errand boy of the Israel lobby. Hassan Nasrallah was right when he called him ‘an idiot‘.

more.....

http://thesaker.is/the-neocons-and-the-deep-state-have-neutered-the-trump-presidency-its-over-folks/

Hysterical, what were these fools thinking?

The Saker has a conniption...



Hysterical, what were these fools thinking?

The poor Saker is acting like all this is new news! OMG! Trump is a stooge! OMG! Trump is just an errand boy! Trump never meant all these things he said about the good Lord Putin!

Does he really think that "the powers that be" have "broken" Trump? Trump is and has always been a full-fledged member of the ruling class. A wildcard, yes. A "maverick", sure. A narcissistic goomba, of course. Trump is about three inches deep; what you see is more than what is actually there - there is much less there than it would seem. And now he has "stabbed Putin in the back!" Get out the smelling salts, the Russian drama queens are in the Big Swoon!

snip

In the Grand Chessboard, what Flynn’s fall spells out is just a pawn out of the game because the King would not protect him. We will only know for sure “draining the swamp” – the foreign policy section – is doomed if neocons and neoliberalcons continue to run riot; if neoliberalcons are not fully exposed in their complicity in the rise of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh; and if the much vaunted possibility of a détente with Russia flounders for good.

What’s certain is that the fratricide war between the Trump administration and the most powerful Deep State factions will be beyond vicious. Team Trump only stands a chance if they are able to weaponize allies from within the Deep State. As it stands, concerning the Kissinger grand design of trying to break the Eurasian “threat” to the unipolar moment, Iran is momentarily relieved; Russia harbors no illusions; and China knows for sure that the China-Russia strategic partnership will become even stronger.

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201702151050696849-flynn-trump-administration-swamp/


'Bout sick of hearing about 'neocons', neolibs', 'Deep State', it's the Capitalists, stupid. This must be hammered home and the possibility that this 'Deep State' is the source of our ills must be squashed cause ya know that's the next deflection.

That said I will agree with Pepe that this is far from over and Saker's obit is premature.