Trump and his foreign policy team are making two bound-to-be tragic mistakes: overestimating combined Israel-U.S. strength and underestimating that of their enemies. From Alastair Crooke at strategic-culture.su:
Trump may not appreciate just how isolated the U.S. and Israel are among Israel’s Arab and Sunni neighbours.
Israelis, as a whole, are exhibiting a rosy assurance that they can harness Trump, if not to the full annexation of the Occupied Territories (Trump in his first term did not support such annexation), but rather, to ensnare him into a war on Iran. Many (even most) Israelis are raring for war on Iran and an aggrandisement of their territory (devoid of Arabs). They are believing the puffery that Iran ‘lies naked’, staggeringly vulnerable, before a U.S. and Israeli military strike.
Trump’s Team nominations, so far, reveal a foreign policy squad of fierce supporters of Israel and of passionate hostility to Iran. The Israeli media term it a ‘dream team’ for Netanyahu. It certainly looks that way.
The Israel Lobby could not have asked for more. They have got it. And with the new CIA chief, they get a known ultra China hawk as a bonus.
But in the domestic sphere the tone is precisely the converse: The key nomination for ‘cleaning the stables’ is Matt Gaetz as Attorney General; he is a real “bomb thrower”. And for the Intelligence clean-up, Tulsi Gabbard is appointed as Director of National Intelligence. All intelligence agencies will report to her, and she will be responsible for the President’s Daily briefing. The intel assessments may thus begin to reflect something closer to reality.
The deep Inter-Agency structure has reason to be very afraid; they are panicking – especially over Gaetz.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have the near impossible task of cutting out-of-control federal spending and currency printing. The System is deeply dependent on the bloat of government spending to keep the cogs and levers of the mammoth ‘security’ boondoggle whirring. It is not going to be yielded up without a bitter fight.
He never read any Sun Tzu?
We lost that deterrence of FAFO due to the Long March comrades.
Ukraine proxy WAR has shown our manufacturing can’t keep up.
These are dangerous ideas to have out there in the wild just as KGB dogma is dangerous to EDU skull fulls of mush. (H/T-El Rushbo)
Breaking from Scorn:
The Wizard (Black Sabbath Cover)
“Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have the near impossible task of cutting out-of-control federal spending and currency printing. The System is deeply dependent on the bloat of government spending to keep the cogs and levers of the mammoth ‘security’ boondoggle whirring.”
You have to add in Ron Paul. The reason that you want to ‘Audit the Fed’ (at this point – post 401k dependency) as opposed to ‘Ending the Fed’ abruptly, is that it is a win/win.
The Fed is where the money is. full stop.
“When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton simply replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” (Willie Sutton)
If I embezzle 1 million from my employer, use these funds to make 250k through market gambling, and then return the Million bucks.. I still stole 1 Million bucks.
There is no money to be sheared off in cutting food stamps or whatever the scheme was last time, because this does not constitute any meaningful actual spending, however what I will guarantee you, is that you will find Trillions, with a capital ‘T’ that have been sheared from the public treasury or invented out of thin air to underwrite Fed actors and their postions, as well as international interests, in some cases through schemes so simple as merely allowing their actors to hold Fed ‘deposits’ and to then buy it back from the institution a day later for more than the original borrowing cost.
What makes it hard to attack effectively, is that the entire economy is now based on the Fed promising something that is impossible – especially in a financialized economy that produces little of its own actual goods. It is effectively protected by a hedge of 401k holders who will all go down like a barricade of hostages if the Fed promise of an ever increasing GDP is even momentarily reined in.
If I embezzle that 1 Million, as a private actor, (the Fed is also a private actor) my employer is not accountable for that act, the bad actor is, meaning there is substantial Fed debt that the USA does not in fact owe.. Its actors are on the hook for actions that are fraudulent, meaning that you can shave off literally Trillions, and hold bad actors accountable, merely through the audit.
There is no faction of the general population that is going to oppose auditing the financial overlords, and holding them criminally and civilly accountable. I think that someone Ramaswamy or Musk has certainly made use of Fed liquidity, however they are also among the most likely to understand that bringing the Fed to heel actually stabilizes good market actors while punishing non-productive scammers, betting and gambling that is the source of boom/bust.