Tag Archives: Donald Trump

An Inauguration Day Surprise? by Justin Raimondo

Posted on January 16, 2017 | 1 comment

It’s low probability, but there are elements of the US government, including perhaps President Obama, who would like to stir up a war with Russia before Trump’s inauguration to prevent him from pursuing détente with Russia. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

Is the Obama administration out to provoke a military conflict with Russia in the days before Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office?

In July of 2014, the US announced the start of “Operation Atlantic Resolve” in response to the vote by Crimea – which took place nearly three years ago — to rejoin the Russian Federation. Now the Obama administration has announced that 6,000 more US troops will be deployed, initially in Germany and Poland, and eventually fanning out to Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia. Accompanying them will be 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, 87 M1A1 tanks, heavy artillery, and aircraft.

Europe hasn’t seen such an increase in the US troop presence since the fall of the Soviet Union. Coming as it does with mere days left in Obama’s term of office, this action invites all sorts of speculation: however, one need not speculate as to whether this is a political move. Clearly it is: the idea is to box in President-elect Trump, who has expressed his desire to improve relations with Russia.

The mere expression of such a view has provoked a storm of abuse from the War Party, and a relentless campaign of calumny orchestrated by the CIA to the effect that Trump is “Putin’s puppet.” The deranged Democrats, looking for some way to excuse why their weak and widely disliked candidate lost the election, have explained it all away by claiming that a Russian conspiracy “stole” the White House from Hillary Clinton by revealing truthful and embarrassing information via Wikileaks. It doesn’t matter that there’s no evidence for this contention: in alliance with anonymous “US officials,” spooks, and “journalists” who believe everything the CIA tells them, this has become the elite consensus.

To continue reading: An Inauguration Day Surprise?

 

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Trump’s Delusion: Halting Eurasian Integration And Saving ‘US World Order’, by Federico Pieraccini

Posted on January 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

Proponents of US unipolar domination are terrified that Donald Trump will disavow the US’s global role. However, the rest of the world is already disavowing the US’s global role. From Federico Pieraccini at strategic-culture.org:

The preceding three parts of this series analyzed the mechanisms that drive great powers. The most in-depth understanding of the issues concerned the determination of the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of an empire. Geopolitical theories, the concrete application of foreign-policy doctrines, and concrete actions that the United States employed to aspire to global dominance were examined. Finally, the last bit of analysis focused particularly on how Iran, China and Russia have adopted over the years a variety of cultural, economic and military moves to repel the continual assault on their sovereignty by the West. Finally, specific attention was given to the American drive for global hegemony and how this has actually accelerated the end of the ‘unipolar moment’, impelling the emergence of a multipolar world order.

In this fourth and final analysis I will focus on a possible strategic shift in the approach to foreign policy from Washington. The most likely hypothesis suggests that Trump intends to attempt to prevent the ongoing integration between Russia, China and Iran.

The failed foreign-policy strategy of the neoconservatives and neoliberals has served to dramatically reduce Washington’s role and influence in the world. Important alliances are being forged without seeking the assent of the United States, and the world model envisioned in the early 1990s – from Bush to Kagan and all the signatories of the PNAC founding statement of principles – is increasingly coming undone. Donald Trump’s victory represents, in all likelihood, the last decisive blow to a series of foreign-policy strategies that in the end undermined the much-prized leadership of the United States. The ceasefire in Syria, reached thanks to an agreement between Turkey and Russia, notably excluded the United States.

The military, media, financial and cultural assault successfully prosecuted over decades by Washington finally seems to have met its Waterloo at the hands of the axis represented by Iran, Russia and China. The recent media successes (RT, Press TV and many alternative media), political resistance (Assad is still president of Syria), diplomatic struggles (negotiations in Syria without Washington as an intermediary) and military planning (Liberation of Aleppo from terrorists) are a result of the efforts of Iran, Russia and China. Their success in all these fields of operations are having direct consequences and implications for the internal affairs of countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

To continue reading: Trump’s Delusion: Halting Eurasian Integration And Saving ‘US World Order’

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In Stunning Pair Of Interviews, Trump Slams NATO And EU, Threatens BMW With Tax; Prepared To “Cut Ties” With Merkel, by Tyler Durden

Posted on January 16, 2017 | 1 comment

Trump upsets European apple carts. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

In two separate, and quite striking, interviews with Germany’s Bild (paywall) and London’s Sunday Times (paywall), Donald Trump did what he failed to do in his first US press conference, and covered an extensive amount of policy and strategy, much of which however will likely please neither the pundits, nor the markets.

Among the numerous topics covered in the Bild interview, he called NATO obsolete, predicted that other European Union members would join the U.K. in leaving the bloc and threatened BMW with import duties over a planned plant in Mexico, according to a Sunday interview granted to Germany’s Bild newspaper that will raise concerns in Berlin over trans-Atlantic relations. Furthermore, in his first “exclusive” interview in the UK granted to the Sunday Times, Trump said he will offer Britain a quick and “fair” trade deal with America within weeks of taking office to help make Brexit a “great thing”. Trump revealed that he was inviting Theresa May to visit him “right after” he gets into the White House and wants a trade agreement between the two countries secured “very quickly”.

Trump told the Times that other countries would follow Britain’s lead in leaving the European Union, claiming it had been deeply ­damaged by the migration crisis. “I think it’s very tough,” he said. “People, countries want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity.”

To continue reading: In Stunning Pair Of Interviews, Trump Slams NATO And EU, Threatens BMW With Tax; Prepared To “Cut Ties” With Merkel

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Charles Schumer and the “Dog-Whistle” Democrats, by William L. Anderson

Posted on January 15, 2017 | 3 comments

The Democrats are playing with fire crawling into bed with the intelligence agencies of which they were once so justifiably skeptical. From William L. Anderson at lewrockwell.com:

In a recent interview with Rachel Maddow on the MSNBC network, Sen. Charles Schumer, who is the Minority Leader in the U.S. Senate, recently hinted darkly that the federal intelligence agencies could decide to harm Donald Trump. He told an approving Maddow:

Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you, So, even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he is being really dumb to do this.

The article continues:

Schumer said he didn’t know what agents would or could do to Trump. “But from what I am told, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them,” he said.

The Left often likes to speak of “dog whistles” put out by Republicans when they speak, leftists claiming what is said seems to have one meaning, but actually, is said in order to “signal” other groups covertly about what the politician really believes about a certain subject. For example, if a Republican politician says he believes in “states’ rights,” or a federal system of government in which individual states have delegated powers not given to the federal government, the Left claims he actually is letting white supremacists know that he supports oppression of black people and wants whites to lynch blacks. It doesn’t matter that a federal system which gives state governmental bodies the opportunity to resist federal policies is a bulwark against tyranny. To oppose the federal government is to endorse racist violence, period, according to the Left.

Except when Democrats look to resisting the federal government. Interestingly, the Left is silent now that California and other Democratic-run states are looking to resist federal policies, California having gone as far as to hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to lead the state’s legal resistance. The irony of Democrats now appealing to “states’ rights” is thick, to say the least.

To continue reading: Charles Schumer and the “Dog-Whistle” Democrats

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Is Trump Already Finished? by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on January 14, 2017 | 1 comment

There are a number of people on the Trump team who are singing a different song than Trump. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:

It did not take long before we knew there was no hope of change from President Obama. But at least he went into his inauguration with an unprecedented number of Americans on the Mall showing their support for the President of Change. Hope was abundant.

But with Trump, we are already losing faith, if not yet with him, at least with his choice of those who comprise his government even before Trump is inaugurated.

Trump’s choice for Secretary of State not only sounds like the neoconservatives in declaring Russia to be a threat to the United States and all of Europe, but also sounds like Hillary Clinton in declaring the South China Sea to be an area of US dominance. One would think that the chairman of Exxon was not an idiot, but I am no longer sure. In his confirmation hearing, Rex Tillerson said that China’s access to its own South China Sea is “not going to be allowed.”

Here is Tillerson’s statement: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to those islands also not going to be allowed.”

I mean, really, what is Tillerson going to do about it except get the world blown up. China’s response was as pointed as a response can be:

Tillerson “should not be misled into thinking that Beijing will be fearful of threats. If Trump’s diplomatic team shapes future Sino-US ties as it is doing now, the two sides had better prepare for a military clash. Tillerson had better bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories.”

So Trump is not even inaugurated and his idiot nominee for Secretary of State has already created an animosity relationship with two nuclear powers capable of completely destroying all of the West for eternity. And this makes the US Senate comfortable with Tillerson. The imbeciles should be scared out of their wits, assuming they have any.

To continue reading: Is Trump Already Finished?

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Can Trump Tame the Pentagon? by William J. Astore

Posted on January 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

Clearly after being unable to win a major war since World War II despite superior armaments and manpower, the Pentagon deserves every American’s unwavering and unquestioning support. Actually it’s time somebody started asking hard questions and gettting straight answers, and Trump may be just the man to do it. Or maybe not. From William J. Astore at antiwar.com:

Will Donald Trump keep his campaign promise to end America’s wasteful wars overseas? Since he’s stated he knows more than America’s generals, will he rein them in? Will he bring major reforms to the military-industrial complex, or will he be nothing but talk and tweets?

At Trump’s first news conference as president-elect, he had little to say about the military, except once again to complain about the high cost of the F-35 jet fighter program. The questions asked of him dealt mainly with Russia, hacking, potential conflicts of interest, and Obamacare. These are important issues, but how Trump will handle the Pentagon and his responsibilities as commander-in-chief are arguably of even greater import.

Ironically, the last president who had some measure of control over the military-industrial complex was the retired general who coined the term: Dwight D. Eisenhower. Another president – Jimmy Carter – attempted to exercise some control, e.g. he canceled the B-1 bomber, a pet project of the U.S. Air Force, only to see it revived under Ronald Reagan.

Excepting Carter, US presidents since Ike have issued blank checks to the military, the Pentagon, and its bewildering array of contractors. Whether Democrats (JFK, LBJ, Clinton, Obama) or Republicans (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, the Bushes), rubber-stamping Pentagon priorities has been a common course of presidential action, aided by a willing Congress that supports military spending to “prime the economic pump” and create jobs.

To continue reading: Can Trump Tame the Pentagon?

 

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2017: Change Can Be A Bitch, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on January 13, 2017 | Leave a comment

Present economic arrangements are not working for a lot of people, notwithstanding the puffery from the powers that be. From Raúl Ilargi Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

2016 brought a lot of changes, or rather, brought them to light. In reality, the world has been changing for many years, but many prominent actors benefitted from the changes remaining hidden. Simply because their wealth and power and worldviews are better served that way.

It’s entirely unclear whether we will ever get a chance to see to what extent the efforts to hide developments have been successful, or even been perpetrated at all, because we don’t know to what extent truth and reality will be accessible in the future.

What we can say at this point in time is that the changes 2016 delivered were urgently needed. There are many people out there who just want to turn back the clock, and change everything back to how it was, but they can’t, and that’s a good thing, because the way things were was hurting too many people.

2016 will go down in history as the year when a big divide between groups of people in the western world became visible, a divide that had until then been papered over by real or imaginary wealth, as well as by ignorance and denial.

When politics and media conspire to paint for the public a picture of their choosing, they can be very successful, especially if that picture is what people very much wish to see, true or not. But as we’ve seen recently, our traditional media have become completely useless when it comes to reporting news; the vast majority have switched to reporting their own opinions and pretending that is news.

To continue reading: 2017: Change Can Be A Bitch

 

 

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The Crazy Thing Trump Could Do . . ., by Eric Peters

Posted on January 12, 2017 | 1 comment

Trump has made noises about reining in the regulatory state. That’s absolutely essential to making America great again; he’d better follow through. From Eric Peters on a guest post at theburningplatform.com:

Borrowing – bowdlerizing – a line from Shakespeare: First thing we do, let’s kill all the regulators.

Well, maybe not kill them.

Firing them would be enough.

Or even just threatening them with being fired.

Like on Trump’s Apprentice reality show – except for real. Because now it’s President Trump – or soon will be. And if The Donald, as he likes to style himself, intends to make America great again, the best way to do that is to put Americans back to work again. And the best way to put them back to work is to get the regulatory apparat off their backs.

It is hard to do anything in this country anymore except pay taxes – which fund the regulatory apparat.

Henry Ford would likely never have made his Model T – or any of the preceding models – if he’d had to deal with the DOT and EPA. Let alone OSHA. Most people have no idea that it is necessary to destroy a dozen or more cars in crash tests to establish compliance with federal side-impact, offset barrier and roof crush mandatory minimums before one may legally sell a single car. This alone amounts to hundreds of thousand of dollars in costs. A huge corporation can afford this (and can write it off, too).

A latter-day Henry Ford just starting out can’t.

Which is why there aren’t any latter-day Henry Fords. Or at least, none whose names we know. Their efforts – if they haven’t give up – are confined to tinkering that never goes beyond their own garages.

To continue reading: The Crazy Thing Trump Could Do . . .

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Will the CIA Retaliate Against Trump? by Jacob G. Hornberger

Posted on January 12, 2017 | 1 comment

The last president to take on the CIA was John F. Kennedy, and look what happened to him. From Jacob G. Hornberger at the Future of Freedom Foundation via lewrockwell.com:

In a truly remarkable bit of honesty and candor regarding the U.S. national-security establishment, new Senate minority leader Charles Schumer has accused President-elect Trump of “being really dumb.”

Was Schumer referring to Trump’s ideology, philosophy, or knowledge about economics or foreign policy?

None of the above. According to an article in The Hill, he told Rachel Maddow on her show that Trump was dumb for taking on the CIA and questioning its conclusions regarding Russia.

“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you…. He’s being really dumb to do this.”

Maddow then asked Schumer what he thought the intelligence community might do to Trump to get back at him.

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Schumer’s response was fascinating and revealing. He responded, “I don’t know.”

So, Schumer knows that there are six ways from Sunday for the intelligence community to get back at Trump but then, a few seconds later, can’t enumerate even one of those ways? That makes no sense unless he was a bit scared to go into the details for fear that one of those “six ways from Sunday” might be employed against him.

In any event, Schumer’s point is a good one, even if he is reluctant to clarify it. No president since John F. Kennedy has dared to take on the CIA or the rest of the national security establishment or to operate outside the bounds of permissible parameters within the paradigm of the national-security state.

To continue reading: Will the CIA Retaliate Against Trump?

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The Empire Strikes Back, by Michael Krieger

Posted on January 11, 2017 | Leave a comment

Just when you think they can’t go any lower, the intelligence agencies and their media arm plumb new depths. From Michael Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

The new year is less than two weeks old, and we can already say one thing with confidence. 2017 is not going to be boring.

By now, all of you have heard about the fake news “dossier” created by an ex-Britisth spy working on opposition research funded, first by Trump’s GOP primary rivals, and then Democrats after he clinched the nomination. As has been widely reported, the contents of this document have been floating around media outlets since at least last fall, yet not a single one of them was willing to report on it in any detail or publish it in full as Buzzfeed did last evening. This is pretty remarkable considering how heated the election was, and the extent to which so many in the media desperately wanted Hillary Clinton to win. The reason nobody touched it is because, as Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith himself admitted, the claims are unverifiable and “there is serious reason to doubt the allegations” (his words not mine). So why did CNN and Buzzfeed decided to publish this now?

To understand what I think happened, we have to go back to last week’s post titled, Did Chuck Schumer Just Threaten Donald Trump? Here’s what we learned:

The new leader of Democrats in the Senate says Donald Trump is being “really dumb” for picking a fight with intelligence officials, suggesting they have ways to strike back, after the president-elect speculated Tuesday that his “so-called” briefing about Russian cyberattacks had been delayed in order to build a case.

“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday evening on MSNBC after host Rachel Maddow informed him that intelligence sources told NBC news that the briefing had not been delayed.

To continue reading: The Empire Strikes Back

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