Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
Intel services 'tapped' more than Trump Tower. The below is top secret spook tape, which carries built-in nano-electronics, solar panel, and RF antenna. They are tracking his every word.
Just Saying Who's Trumping der Fuhrer?
- Thread starter Richard Stanley
- Start date
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
This is pretty interesting stuff, it was discussed long ago that Flynn should have been registered as a foreign agent, but now is finally getting around to doing so. After der Grop'n Fuhrer fired Flynn "for doing nothing wrong". Flynn was also being paid by the Russians, including state media outlet RT.
But additionally, it was Turkey that facilitated the ingress of ISIS personnel into Syria, all while under the eye of Erdogan. Russia and the USA have a common interest in ISIS, as they combined to create the controlled opposition entity. Russia seems to never attack ISIS, and the USA mostly uses Iraqi and other ground surrogates. Also that the nomenclature of the "Islamic State" belies that these, like al Qaeda before them, are far from Islamic orthodoxy. But who cares about such 'trivialities' when the goal is an apocalyptic war between civilizations?
The following clip, ~3 minutes in, admits that the Trump team was aware of Flynn's foreign agent status, of course, choosing to spin it to reflect better on them.
http://www.msnbc.com/30-seconds-to-know/watch/the-fight-for-labor-rights-321900611538
The amazing thing is just how brazen Flynn's activities were .
Flynn looked down the barrel of a gun once, and it was fired into his chest. The gun was fired on an 'homeland' Army shooting range, by another officer. Supposedly it was David Petraeus who saved his life. Flynn was selected for head of the DIA by Obama, and then fired because most everyone hated him. Was he shot for the same reason? I wonder what happened to the shooter?
In any case, shortly after he gets fired by Obama, he becomes an undeclared foreign agent, AND goes to work for der Grop'n Fuhrer. He even makes himself highly visible at campaign rallies and such by starting the chants for Hillary to be arrested.
And now we know that the Russian Fertilizer King was also shadowing Double Agent Orange Leaks' campaign stops.
But additionally, it was Turkey that facilitated the ingress of ISIS personnel into Syria, all while under the eye of Erdogan. Russia and the USA have a common interest in ISIS, as they combined to create the controlled opposition entity. Russia seems to never attack ISIS, and the USA mostly uses Iraqi and other ground surrogates. Also that the nomenclature of the "Islamic State" belies that these, like al Qaeda before them, are far from Islamic orthodoxy. But who cares about such 'trivialities' when the goal is an apocalyptic war between civilizations?
Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for his lobbying work linked to the Turkish government, according to paperwork filed Tuesday. Just weeks after Flynn was ousted from the Trump administration, the early Trump supporter and campaign adviser registered with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent Registration Unit for lobbying that his firm—Flynn Intel Group Inc.—did on behalf of Inovo BV, a Dutch consulting company owned by a Turkish businessman with ties to Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Flynn’s firm took on the Inovo job late in the campaign, in late August, and was paid $530,000 for consulting work on behalf of the company during the final stretch of the presidential campaign. “The new documents show Inovo wrote six-figure checks to Flynn's firm in September and October as he served as a top national security aide on Trump's campaign,” USA Today reports. “The final payment of $145,000 came on Nov. 14, 2016, just days after Trump captured the presidency.” ...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/08/flynn_registers_as_foreign_agent_with_justice_dept_for_turkey_work_during.html
Flynn’s firm took on the Inovo job late in the campaign, in late August, and was paid $530,000 for consulting work on behalf of the company during the final stretch of the presidential campaign. “The new documents show Inovo wrote six-figure checks to Flynn's firm in September and October as he served as a top national security aide on Trump's campaign,” USA Today reports. “The final payment of $145,000 came on Nov. 14, 2016, just days after Trump captured the presidency.” ...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/08/flynn_registers_as_foreign_agent_with_justice_dept_for_turkey_work_during.html
The following clip, ~3 minutes in, admits that the Trump team was aware of Flynn's foreign agent status, of course, choosing to spin it to reflect better on them.
http://www.msnbc.com/30-seconds-to-know/watch/the-fight-for-labor-rights-321900611538
The amazing thing is just how brazen Flynn's activities were .
Flynn looked down the barrel of a gun once, and it was fired into his chest. The gun was fired on an 'homeland' Army shooting range, by another officer. Supposedly it was David Petraeus who saved his life. Flynn was selected for head of the DIA by Obama, and then fired because most everyone hated him. Was he shot for the same reason? I wonder what happened to the shooter?
In any case, shortly after he gets fired by Obama, he becomes an undeclared foreign agent, AND goes to work for der Grop'n Fuhrer. He even makes himself highly visible at campaign rallies and such by starting the chants for Hillary to be arrested.
And now we know that the Russian Fertilizer King was also shadowing Double Agent Orange Leaks' campaign stops.
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
On July 6, 2011 Trump helped celebrate the opening of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower in Panama, along with the then Presidente of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli. Now, with Trump having gutted the US State Department and Justice Departments, without replacements in hand, he must ponder on whether or not to extradite his friend back to Panama. A friend whose deal Trump & family pockets $50 million a year from at no other cost to him but the use of his name. The long article discusses that Martinelli, also a business mogul, practiced the exact same kind of faux populist politics as Trump has done. Perhaps Martinelli's rude expulsion from power is a good indicator for us, but who knows. Panama is not the USA, in terms of a world power player.
The article goes on considerably about laundering global money through Panamanian real estate, luxury properties, and including a heavy mix from Russia.
End of Part 1
The article goes on considerably about laundering global money through Panamanian real estate, luxury properties, and including a heavy mix from Russia.
...
More than five years later, Trump has taken over the Oval Office and Martinelli is a fugitive from justice wanted on multiple corruption charges and investigations, ranging from allegedly helping to embezzle $45 million from a government school lunch program to insider trading to using public funds to spy on more than 150 political opponents, lawyers, doctors, and activists. But their paths could intertwine again very soon in what may be a thorny dilemma for the Trump administration. At the end of September, Panama’s Supreme Court asked the United States to extradite Martinelli, who left office in 2014 and now lives in exile in a luxury waterfront condo in Miami.
While the United States has codified policies to deny visas to foreign officials facing criminal charges in their home countries, and Trump’s recent executive order on immigration enforcement targets for removal individuals with even unresolved criminal charges, Martinelli entered the U.S. in 2015 on a visitor visa as the criminal investigations around him and his inner circle were tightening and has reportedly remained since.
...
Before fleeing Panama, Martinelli sat on the board of a bank that became the co-trustee for the Ocean Club, a role that left it in charge of managing funds coming in from rentals and sales, and of disbursing money to Trump, who gets millions in fees from the project. The Ocean Club has been Trump’s largest individual source of branding fees, reports the Economist, earning Trump “at least $50 million on the project on virtually zero investment,” reported the Washington Post in January.
Now, the extradition request highlights the potential conflicts of interest that have swirled around Trump: A decision that is usually made on the merits by career diplomats could be complicated by the president’s personal and business ties to Panama. Officials at the State Department could be inclined to approve the extradition, mindful of not antagonizing the current government of Panama, which exerts plenty of influence over the fate of a development that makes millions for the president’s family—or to decline the request out of their awareness of Martinelli’s support for the Ocean Club and his admiration and kind words for Trump.
How Global Deals Could Complicate Diplomacy
The Panama skyscraper was the first building outside of America to bear the Trump name, in a licensing and management deal with local development company Newland International Properties. Trump’s companies today “have business operations in at least 20 countries, with a particular focus on the developing world, including outposts in nations like India, Indonesia, and Uruguay,” according to the New York Times. An analysis of Trump’s global deals published on January 25 by the Washington Post found that the Trump name has been contracted out “to at least 50 different licensing or management deals.” As the Post explained, “for his international projects, he has done a majority of his work through licensing—where a developer who is liable for the actual cost and responsibility of the contract uses Trump’s name for their hotels. This allows Trump to spread his brand and image worldwide without actually being liable for the project.” ...
...
Michael H. Fuchs, who until recently helped to oversee American relations with the Philippines as deputy assistant secretary of state, explained to the Times that “the biggest gray area may not be a President Trump himself advocating for favors for the Trump Organization. It’s the diplomats and career officers who will feel the need to perhaps not do things that will harm the Trump Organization’s interests. It is seriously disturbing.”
Ethics experts have raised concerns about the potential for these global deals to complicate international diplomacy and whether Trump will weigh his political actions against their impact on his business allies. Another concern is that foreign officials might take actions to benefit Trump’s local business in order to curry favor with the White House.
“Trump-branded buildings standing like monuments to the decay of American ethics.”
“America has been treated to reports of multi-billion-dollar projects across the planet, to photos of Mr. Trump glad-handing businessmen and to images of exotic, Trump-branded buildings standing like monuments to the decay of American ethics,” noted the Economist in November.
Despite his global financial entanglements, as Trump and his inner circle have repeatedly emphasized, the conflict of interest laws that restrain other federal employees don’t apply to the president. “As you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president, which is—I didn’t know about that until about three months ago, but it’s a nice thing to have,” Trump said at his January 11 press conference. Days after his inauguration, a group of ethics lawyers filed a lawsuit against Trump claiming that his holdings violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments. Trump also hasn’t released his taxes or a list of his lenders, obscuring a complete picture of his potential global conflicts. ...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067820/trumps-panama-problem
More than five years later, Trump has taken over the Oval Office and Martinelli is a fugitive from justice wanted on multiple corruption charges and investigations, ranging from allegedly helping to embezzle $45 million from a government school lunch program to insider trading to using public funds to spy on more than 150 political opponents, lawyers, doctors, and activists. But their paths could intertwine again very soon in what may be a thorny dilemma for the Trump administration. At the end of September, Panama’s Supreme Court asked the United States to extradite Martinelli, who left office in 2014 and now lives in exile in a luxury waterfront condo in Miami.
While the United States has codified policies to deny visas to foreign officials facing criminal charges in their home countries, and Trump’s recent executive order on immigration enforcement targets for removal individuals with even unresolved criminal charges, Martinelli entered the U.S. in 2015 on a visitor visa as the criminal investigations around him and his inner circle were tightening and has reportedly remained since.
...
Before fleeing Panama, Martinelli sat on the board of a bank that became the co-trustee for the Ocean Club, a role that left it in charge of managing funds coming in from rentals and sales, and of disbursing money to Trump, who gets millions in fees from the project. The Ocean Club has been Trump’s largest individual source of branding fees, reports the Economist, earning Trump “at least $50 million on the project on virtually zero investment,” reported the Washington Post in January.
Now, the extradition request highlights the potential conflicts of interest that have swirled around Trump: A decision that is usually made on the merits by career diplomats could be complicated by the president’s personal and business ties to Panama. Officials at the State Department could be inclined to approve the extradition, mindful of not antagonizing the current government of Panama, which exerts plenty of influence over the fate of a development that makes millions for the president’s family—or to decline the request out of their awareness of Martinelli’s support for the Ocean Club and his admiration and kind words for Trump.
How Global Deals Could Complicate Diplomacy
The Panama skyscraper was the first building outside of America to bear the Trump name, in a licensing and management deal with local development company Newland International Properties. Trump’s companies today “have business operations in at least 20 countries, with a particular focus on the developing world, including outposts in nations like India, Indonesia, and Uruguay,” according to the New York Times. An analysis of Trump’s global deals published on January 25 by the Washington Post found that the Trump name has been contracted out “to at least 50 different licensing or management deals.” As the Post explained, “for his international projects, he has done a majority of his work through licensing—where a developer who is liable for the actual cost and responsibility of the contract uses Trump’s name for their hotels. This allows Trump to spread his brand and image worldwide without actually being liable for the project.” ...
...
Michael H. Fuchs, who until recently helped to oversee American relations with the Philippines as deputy assistant secretary of state, explained to the Times that “the biggest gray area may not be a President Trump himself advocating for favors for the Trump Organization. It’s the diplomats and career officers who will feel the need to perhaps not do things that will harm the Trump Organization’s interests. It is seriously disturbing.”
Ethics experts have raised concerns about the potential for these global deals to complicate international diplomacy and whether Trump will weigh his political actions against their impact on his business allies. Another concern is that foreign officials might take actions to benefit Trump’s local business in order to curry favor with the White House.
“Trump-branded buildings standing like monuments to the decay of American ethics.”
“America has been treated to reports of multi-billion-dollar projects across the planet, to photos of Mr. Trump glad-handing businessmen and to images of exotic, Trump-branded buildings standing like monuments to the decay of American ethics,” noted the Economist in November.
Despite his global financial entanglements, as Trump and his inner circle have repeatedly emphasized, the conflict of interest laws that restrain other federal employees don’t apply to the president. “As you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president, which is—I didn’t know about that until about three months ago, but it’s a nice thing to have,” Trump said at his January 11 press conference. Days after his inauguration, a group of ethics lawyers filed a lawsuit against Trump claiming that his holdings violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments. Trump also hasn’t released his taxes or a list of his lenders, obscuring a complete picture of his potential global conflicts. ...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067820/trumps-panama-problem
End of Part 1
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
Part 2:
...
Corruption, Bullying, And Blackmail
The Trumps’ admiration of Martinelli appeared to be unaffected by the cascade of international news about his increasingly authoritarian and vindictive behavior, blown open by WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of U.S. diplomatic cables, in the year before the family publicly heaped praise on him. Mainstream news outlets like the Times covered these revelations published by WikiLeaks—one of Trump’s favorite sources during the U.S. election—about Martinelli in great detail starting in late 2010. According to the cables, Martinelli ruled by “bullying and blackmail,” and had threatened to stop cooperating with the United States unless American officials helped him with a wiretapping program. The cables documented U.S. Embassy officials in Panama sounding red alarms over Martinelli beginning as early as the second week of his 2009-2014 administration. That’s when, as McClatchy noted, the U.S. Ambassador to Panama presciently warned that he was “almost certain to spell trouble for Panama’s democratic institutions.”
...
Panama’s anti-corruption czar Angélica Maytín Justiniani said that the amount lost to corruption in Martinelli’s administration is “possibly in the billions of dollars,” and that “it’s obvious that a lot of the money is outside Panama,” McClatchy reported in 2015. She added that “we’re learning of midlevel [former] officials who have assets of $25 million and 10 properties. We never saw anything like this, even under the military dictatorship.” A Panamanian law professor and human rights activist concurred in an interview with NPR that Martinelli “did more harm to the country than even the dictatorships of the last century,” as “even the militaries, they were not able to develop the degrees and the practice of corruption like Martinelli did.”
Trump’s previous statements implying that overseas corruption was just another cost of doing business suggest that the allegations wouldn’t have raised many red flags anyway. When Walmart’s massive Mexican bribery scandal broke in 2012, Donald Trump said that the U.S. anti-bribery law that applies internationally, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, is a “horrible law and it should be changed.” “Every other country in the world is doing it and we’re not allowed to. It puts us at a huge disadvantage…the world is laughing at us,” he said.
...
The American Martinelli
Trump and Martinelli’s mutual affection seems to be partly based on their status as wealthy men with political ambitions who appear to be unmoved by concerns over conflicts of interest. By 2015, Martinelli’s net worth had risen to $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Aside from Super 99, he has other large holdings in media, real estate, banking, energy, and sugar, and owns a plane, two helicopters, and a yacht, according to Bloomberg. Martinelli was elected on the promise that he would run Panama as he ran his businesses. With his election in 2009, he had perfected the style of right-wing populism that Trump is selling to Americans today. Martinelli’s massive personal wealth, the campaign sales pitch went, made him the only outsider immune to influence and able to dismantle an entrenched and corrupt political establishment.
He had perfected the style of right-wing populism that Trump is selling to Americans today.
Trump’s campaign was so resonant with Martinelli’s that many Panamanians today refer to Trump as the “American Martinelli.” They even shared the same political operative, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who worked on Martinelli’s campaign in 2009 and guided a pro-Trump super PAC in 2016. Castellanos, a high-profile political and corporate consultant, appeared regularly on Meet the Press and CNN during the campaign as a Trump supporter (though he was a Trump critic before the nomination). ...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067820/trumps-panama-problem
Corruption, Bullying, And Blackmail
The Trumps’ admiration of Martinelli appeared to be unaffected by the cascade of international news about his increasingly authoritarian and vindictive behavior, blown open by WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of U.S. diplomatic cables, in the year before the family publicly heaped praise on him. Mainstream news outlets like the Times covered these revelations published by WikiLeaks—one of Trump’s favorite sources during the U.S. election—about Martinelli in great detail starting in late 2010. According to the cables, Martinelli ruled by “bullying and blackmail,” and had threatened to stop cooperating with the United States unless American officials helped him with a wiretapping program. The cables documented U.S. Embassy officials in Panama sounding red alarms over Martinelli beginning as early as the second week of his 2009-2014 administration. That’s when, as McClatchy noted, the U.S. Ambassador to Panama presciently warned that he was “almost certain to spell trouble for Panama’s democratic institutions.”
...
Panama’s anti-corruption czar Angélica Maytín Justiniani said that the amount lost to corruption in Martinelli’s administration is “possibly in the billions of dollars,” and that “it’s obvious that a lot of the money is outside Panama,” McClatchy reported in 2015. She added that “we’re learning of midlevel [former] officials who have assets of $25 million and 10 properties. We never saw anything like this, even under the military dictatorship.” A Panamanian law professor and human rights activist concurred in an interview with NPR that Martinelli “did more harm to the country than even the dictatorships of the last century,” as “even the militaries, they were not able to develop the degrees and the practice of corruption like Martinelli did.”
Trump’s previous statements implying that overseas corruption was just another cost of doing business suggest that the allegations wouldn’t have raised many red flags anyway. When Walmart’s massive Mexican bribery scandal broke in 2012, Donald Trump said that the U.S. anti-bribery law that applies internationally, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, is a “horrible law and it should be changed.” “Every other country in the world is doing it and we’re not allowed to. It puts us at a huge disadvantage…the world is laughing at us,” he said.
...
The American Martinelli
Trump and Martinelli’s mutual affection seems to be partly based on their status as wealthy men with political ambitions who appear to be unmoved by concerns over conflicts of interest. By 2015, Martinelli’s net worth had risen to $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Aside from Super 99, he has other large holdings in media, real estate, banking, energy, and sugar, and owns a plane, two helicopters, and a yacht, according to Bloomberg. Martinelli was elected on the promise that he would run Panama as he ran his businesses. With his election in 2009, he had perfected the style of right-wing populism that Trump is selling to Americans today. Martinelli’s massive personal wealth, the campaign sales pitch went, made him the only outsider immune to influence and able to dismantle an entrenched and corrupt political establishment.
He had perfected the style of right-wing populism that Trump is selling to Americans today.
Trump’s campaign was so resonant with Martinelli’s that many Panamanians today refer to Trump as the “American Martinelli.” They even shared the same political operative, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who worked on Martinelli’s campaign in 2009 and guided a pro-Trump super PAC in 2016. Castellanos, a high-profile political and corporate consultant, appeared regularly on Meet the Press and CNN during the campaign as a Trump supporter (though he was a Trump critic before the nomination). ...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067820/trumps-panama-problem
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The following video discusses that Mike Pence was indeed aware that Gen. Flynn was a paid (yet illegally undeclared) foreign agent of Turkey, and that he had indeed discussed the sanctions on Russia, the day that Obama announced them. Pence was in charge of the Trump transition team, and Flynn's lawyer informed transition team that Flynn was acting so.
One of the sanctions regarded Tillerson's Exxon deal with Russia worth $500 billion. Now Tillerson is running the State Department and still has his Exxon stock - while Trump just gives a huge PR boost for Exxon. And now Trump has gutted the State Department ... and the Justice Department, with no replacements in mind yet.
The second portion of the show (~23 minutes in), the subject seeming related. This because of the termination of all the US Attorneys, especially the key US Attorney for NYC. Trump had told this US Attorney that he was going to be retained. The NYC US Attorney handles the bulk of national security cases. Interestingly, this general process (via Trump) happened to Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, both prior US Attorneys. New Presidents have bulk fired US Attorneys before, but this time is unique in that the fired individuals were told to pack up and leave immediately, with no replacements known.
One of the sanctions regarded Tillerson's Exxon deal with Russia worth $500 billion. Now Tillerson is running the State Department and still has his Exxon stock - while Trump just gives a huge PR boost for Exxon. And now Trump has gutted the State Department ... and the Justice Department, with no replacements in mind yet.
The second portion of the show (~23 minutes in), the subject seeming related. This because of the termination of all the US Attorneys, especially the key US Attorney for NYC. Trump had told this US Attorney that he was going to be retained. The NYC US Attorney handles the bulk of national security cases. Interestingly, this general process (via Trump) happened to Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, both prior US Attorneys. New Presidents have bulk fired US Attorneys before, but this time is unique in that the fired individuals were told to pack up and leave immediately, with no replacements known.
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
This more detailed account of the Flynn 'business' also demonstrates that he is a double sided player on the Islam issue, just as 'holy warrior' Bannon was, and is, with the alt-right and Zionism. Let's remember here that Turkey was the physical conduit for ISIS personnel into Syria and on into Iraq. This is much like the deep Saudi connection with al Qaeda and bin Laden. And the latter's familial close ties with the Bush family and the Carlyle Corporation.
...
One of the first signs of these foreign ties was reported in Politico on November 14, in a headline “Trump Adviser Linked To Turkish Lobbying.” This was six days before Mike Pence would receive the letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings asserting the same thing.
The same day that Vice President-elect Mike Pence received that letter, the Associated Press released a report titled “Flynn: Critic of Muslim Militancy And Culture.” The report detailed Michael Flynn’s criticism against Muslim extremism, and his frequent use of the term “radical Islam.”
That same report revealed that while Flynn was issuing dark warnings about the fear-based term “radical Islam,” he was privately lobbying for Turkey, a known authoritarian and Islamist leaning government.
On November 29, Al Ahram Weekly published an opinion column called “Trump’s Terrorist Friends.” That report revealed Trump’s Saudi connections, Flynn’s Turkey connections, and Rudy Giuliani’s lobbying in Iran, among other things. On December 15, Bloomberg went public with a report that Michael Flynn has deep ties to defense contractors overseas, with a Dutch company connected to Turkish president Recep Erdogan.
These are just a few examples of the many chronicling Michael Flynn’s Turkey connections. A Google search using the words “Michael Flynn Turkey” yields over 500 thousand results.
For Donald Trump’s White House, and any member of Donald Trump’s White House, to say they were not aware of Michael Flynn’s lobbying in Turkey is demonstrably false. Or, the statements of the Press Secretary, the President, and the Vice President suggest they do not read.
http://www.inquisitr.com/4048105/fact-check-donald-trumps-white-house-fails-fact-check-on-michael-t-flynn/
One of the first signs of these foreign ties was reported in Politico on November 14, in a headline “Trump Adviser Linked To Turkish Lobbying.” This was six days before Mike Pence would receive the letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings asserting the same thing.
The same day that Vice President-elect Mike Pence received that letter, the Associated Press released a report titled “Flynn: Critic of Muslim Militancy And Culture.” The report detailed Michael Flynn’s criticism against Muslim extremism, and his frequent use of the term “radical Islam.”
That same report revealed that while Flynn was issuing dark warnings about the fear-based term “radical Islam,” he was privately lobbying for Turkey, a known authoritarian and Islamist leaning government.
On November 29, Al Ahram Weekly published an opinion column called “Trump’s Terrorist Friends.” That report revealed Trump’s Saudi connections, Flynn’s Turkey connections, and Rudy Giuliani’s lobbying in Iran, among other things. On December 15, Bloomberg went public with a report that Michael Flynn has deep ties to defense contractors overseas, with a Dutch company connected to Turkish president Recep Erdogan.
These are just a few examples of the many chronicling Michael Flynn’s Turkey connections. A Google search using the words “Michael Flynn Turkey” yields over 500 thousand results.
For Donald Trump’s White House, and any member of Donald Trump’s White House, to say they were not aware of Michael Flynn’s lobbying in Turkey is demonstrably false. Or, the statements of the Press Secretary, the President, and the Vice President suggest they do not read.
http://www.inquisitr.com/4048105/fact-check-donald-trumps-white-house-fails-fact-check-on-michael-t-flynn/
Sgt Pepper
Active Member
Related to your Pence Prediction @Richard Stanley
The rollout continues:
Assange Claims Hillary, Intel Officials "Quietly Pushing A Pence Takeover"
The rollout continues:
Assange Claims Hillary, Intel Officials "Quietly Pushing A Pence Takeover"
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
Wow, take a look at the Zealous [sic] apocalyptic fervor that this suggestion (the Dump of Trump) has incited. This is exactly what I thought would happen. Although I interpret matters a bit different than proposed in the ZeroHedge proposition.
These guys have all bought into the us vs. them tribe model. Therefore, no amount of data that might suggest that Trump is part of the scam will dissuade them. Same for a Clintonista. There are no shades of grey, just my tribe against them. If Trump starts rounding people up, or Trump is dumped, they are predicting civil war. That's what Clinton/Bushco/Trumpswamp Inc. and the Shadow state want. Or will another false flag event distract towards Islam first?
These guys have all bought into the us vs. them tribe model. Therefore, no amount of data that might suggest that Trump is part of the scam will dissuade them. Same for a Clintonista. There are no shades of grey, just my tribe against them. If Trump starts rounding people up, or Trump is dumped, they are predicting civil war. That's what Clinton/Bushco/Trumpswamp Inc. and the Shadow state want. Or will another false flag event distract towards Islam first?
tmosley NidStyles Mar 14, 2017 1:15 PM
If Trump is forced out of the white house, we start cutting throats. Democrats and other seditious fucks beware.
El Vaquero tmosley Mar 14, 2017 2:44 PM
I hope the "elite" understand this. I hope that they understand that their blood is red when spilled, just like ours.
Jack's Raging B... NidStyles Mar 14, 2017 2:12 PM
Half of the people who voted are proto/neo-communists. The current schism within the Democractic party is largely because much of the membership are openly avowed communists and resentful that the Democratic platform doesn't admit this. Furthermore, these are statists-through and through. Centralization is something they embrace--hence their love of communism. They have no taste for the constitutional republic or any limits it places on state power. Globalism to them is cloaked in political correctness and has no link to ecomonic activity in their eyes. You may want to examine your preception biases. If Trump starts rounding up anybody, it's going to be civil war.
El Vaquero NidStyles Mar 14, 2017 2:42 PM
If Trump decided to declare a state of emergency and start rounding up Communists and the Globalists for deportation to a penal colony, I have zero doubt that everyone in the US would support him. Especially once it was done, and the rest of us were able to move on in our lives without having to constantly drop everything to fight these pieces of shit back every other week.
And that, my friend, is how totalitarian states are born. As I said in another thread the other day, I never used to understand how people could let such things happen, then the insane and regressive left appeared. Then I understood the allure of having a big, bad state that would kick their asses. In the long run, we'd be better off showing up and kicking their asses ourselves.
If Trump is forced out of the white house, we start cutting throats. Democrats and other seditious fucks beware.
El Vaquero tmosley Mar 14, 2017 2:44 PM
I hope the "elite" understand this. I hope that they understand that their blood is red when spilled, just like ours.
Jack's Raging B... NidStyles Mar 14, 2017 2:12 PM
Half of the people who voted are proto/neo-communists. The current schism within the Democractic party is largely because much of the membership are openly avowed communists and resentful that the Democratic platform doesn't admit this. Furthermore, these are statists-through and through. Centralization is something they embrace--hence their love of communism. They have no taste for the constitutional republic or any limits it places on state power. Globalism to them is cloaked in political correctness and has no link to ecomonic activity in their eyes. You may want to examine your preception biases. If Trump starts rounding up anybody, it's going to be civil war.
El Vaquero NidStyles Mar 14, 2017 2:42 PM
If Trump decided to declare a state of emergency and start rounding up Communists and the Globalists for deportation to a penal colony, I have zero doubt that everyone in the US would support him. Especially once it was done, and the rest of us were able to move on in our lives without having to constantly drop everything to fight these pieces of shit back every other week.
And that, my friend, is how totalitarian states are born. As I said in another thread the other day, I never used to understand how people could let such things happen, then the insane and regressive left appeared. Then I understood the allure of having a big, bad state that would kick their asses. In the long run, we'd be better off showing up and kicking their asses ourselves.
Sgt Pepper
Active Member
Although it is ludicrous hope that Trump will be impeached by his own party in cahoots with Pence. It’s delusional.
Not throwing my hat into that ring.
Not throwing my hat into that ring.
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
What about Pence taking the 25th? All he needs is a majority of the Cabinet to go along.
On this one, I am sticking with my usual view that it's almost impossible to make predictions, especially about the future.
But, regarding the prophecy in "Last Man on Earth" which held that President Pence would die and be replaced by a succession of congressional figures and cabinet officers, ultimately ending in oblivion: would you say, Rick, that it is necessary to treat this as a prophecy that only would have meaning in the context of a worldwide death plague? Or could this be a metaphor for a sudden end of political and economic life as we know it? If Pence never takes office, would we then view "Last Man on Earth" as a failed prophet?
But, regarding the prophecy in "Last Man on Earth" which held that President Pence would die and be replaced by a succession of congressional figures and cabinet officers, ultimately ending in oblivion: would you say, Rick, that it is necessary to treat this as a prophecy that only would have meaning in the context of a worldwide death plague? Or could this be a metaphor for a sudden end of political and economic life as we know it? If Pence never takes office, would we then view "Last Man on Earth" as a failed prophet?
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
I think that the Last Man on Earth episode could mean a number of things. Maybe it is like the Lone Gunmen episode on X-Files. Or maybe it was just some fanciful thinking of the show's creative thinkers, meant to draw attention to the Fox show?
As such, I think we can only continue to keep a close watch on what's going on with Trump, particularly since he has continued to act like in a seemingly unhinged fashion. Is this just being "Crazy like a Fox, Crazy like a Faux, or just Plain Crazy?
Not unrelated, and strictly on the thread topic: as I just mention Dr. Cuddy on the Oz thread:
As such, I think we can only continue to keep a close watch on what's going on with Trump, particularly since he has continued to act like in a seemingly unhinged fashion. Is this just being "Crazy like a Fox, Crazy like a Faux, or just Plain Crazy?
Not unrelated, and strictly on the thread topic: as I just mention Dr. Cuddy on the Oz thread:
With military defeat of the Nazis in World War II, many people began to fear the threat of communism. However, what most people don t realize is that the Power Elite (PE) has used both communism and Nazism in a dialectical process to bring about a techno-feudal world socialist government. While much of the world celebrated the Allied defeat of Hitler in 1945, what they didn t know was that the Nazis were winning the war for control of much of the world s economy. By 1943, Hitler s second-in-command, Martin Bormann, had $180 billion in assets (today worth trillions of dollars) that he could use to execute a secret plan to spread national socialism around the world. In 1944 Sumner Welles wrote in The Time for Decision of a secret Nazi plan to be fulfilled perhaps two generations from now. Moreover, the secret Nazi plan is simply one part of a larger PE plan to control the world. This book covers all the above, including how America is being moved more and more toward a techno-feudal national socialism in order to fit into the PE s master plan.
The Power Elite and the Secret Nazi Plan
The Power Elite and the Secret Nazi Plan
The view of the "Power Elite" plan as being essentially National Socialist in its character, and stemming primarily from German refugees of WWII, is not as broad a conception as our Postflavian views.
And for more examples of ways Dr. Cuddy's thinking is not so much along the same lines as ours, see his regular column at newswithviews.com, and in particular this example, where Cuddy is threatening his readers with everlasting punishment if they don't send money to help pay for his mother's condo:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cuddy/dennis315.htm
And for more examples of ways Dr. Cuddy's thinking is not so much along the same lines as ours, see his regular column at newswithviews.com, and in particular this example, where Cuddy is threatening his readers with everlasting punishment if they don't send money to help pay for his mother's condo:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cuddy/dennis315.htm
But more important than my mother's crisis is what's going to happen to the souls of those not helping her. From Jesus' statement in Matthew 25:45-46, it is as though Jesus has been saying to all those asked to help my mother, "Look at Me (Jesus) with My fractured ribs, having been almost comatose and with a hematoma, with only $32 from the VA to buy food, etc. Will you help Me (Jesus)? And nearly all of the people reading NewsWithViews, and nearly all of those contacted by phone or email, have said, "No Jesus, I am not going to help You."
What do you think Christ's response to these people will be on judgment day as they stand before Him? And how will they feel as He repeats what He said in Matthew 25:46 "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment"?
What do you think Christ's response to these people will be on judgment day as they stand before Him? And how will they feel as He repeats what He said in Matthew 25:46 "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment"?
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
OK, I should have qualified the overlap better, but I have only read the synopsis that I copied, and his book titles so far. That said, I put this in the category that some individuals have the ability to get past some of the programming to see at least part of a larger construct, one foot out the door and one foot left in. Different people put either the left or right foot out the door.
In any case, the global populists are indeed being sold on the national socialist model that was earlier advanced by the fascists, even though they currently think Trump is delivering them back to a romantic ideal of capitalism for all (sort of).
But in any case, maybe we would do better to extort payment .. err contributions. What could our threatened punishments be?
In any case, the global populists are indeed being sold on the national socialist model that was earlier advanced by the fascists, even though they currently think Trump is delivering them back to a romantic ideal of capitalism for all (sort of).
But in any case, maybe we would do better to extort payment .. err contributions. What could our threatened punishments be?
Sgt Pepper
Active Member
I'll eat my hat
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
Make sure to at least use mayo, salt, and pepper. Also, it's good fiber most likely.
I suspect, that if it does happen it will be a little ways off yet. (I have to buy time somehow.) Or maybe the false flag will kill two birds with one stone?
I suspect, that if it does happen it will be a little ways off yet. (I have to buy time somehow.) Or maybe the false flag will kill two birds with one stone?
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The below excerpted (long and detailed) article, focuses on the Mercer family, extreme Randians, whose wealth comes from having added high volume computerized equities trading to a hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies. The big irony here is in these Randy oligarchs using their vast data mining operations to figure out how to place their unSmith faux populist (Trump), and their minions, into the seat of power by politically manipulating the downcast plebes.
And, of course, one of the tenets of Randian philosophy, is how the rugged individual succeeds because of his creation of value. In this case, high volume equity trading is really just a scheme to transfer wealth from the investor class to get rich quick traders. 'Trading' only really provides value to the larger economy via increasing market liquidity, which in many cases isn't really needed. Mathematical trading schemes are the short term gaming of markets, not the original intent of the deployment of capital as a productive 'investment'. In Bannon's speech to the Vatican audience he claimed that he (they) would promote a defanged 'Christian' form of 'historical' Capitalism, ostensibly because this would not be Crony Capitalism -- which is a convenient term to employ before a populist audience. Instead, we appear to be getting an Oligarchic Capitalism in place of the Crony Capitalism. Hooray.
The industrialists, such as Bayer, did quite well under Hitler's National Socialism. This, as soon as Hitler consolidated his power over the NSDAP, the worker's party.
Trump, BTW, had already long established populist appearing bona fides with such as his 1990 Playboy Magazine interview. The only question in most minds then, and now, was his personal temperament, which is only appearing more so that he is someone that can be easily steered by President Bannon and the Mercer team.
From earlier in the article:
And, of course, one of the tenets of Randian philosophy, is how the rugged individual succeeds because of his creation of value. In this case, high volume equity trading is really just a scheme to transfer wealth from the investor class to get rich quick traders. 'Trading' only really provides value to the larger economy via increasing market liquidity, which in many cases isn't really needed. Mathematical trading schemes are the short term gaming of markets, not the original intent of the deployment of capital as a productive 'investment'. In Bannon's speech to the Vatican audience he claimed that he (they) would promote a defanged 'Christian' form of 'historical' Capitalism, ostensibly because this would not be Crony Capitalism -- which is a convenient term to employ before a populist audience. Instead, we appear to be getting an Oligarchic Capitalism in place of the Crony Capitalism. Hooray.
The industrialists, such as Bayer, did quite well under Hitler's National Socialism. This, as soon as Hitler consolidated his power over the NSDAP, the worker's party.
Trump, BTW, had already long established populist appearing bona fides with such as his 1990 Playboy Magazine interview. The only question in most minds then, and now, was his personal temperament, which is only appearing more so that he is someone that can be easily steered by President Bannon and the Mercer team.
...
Cambridge Analytica is not the only data-driven political project that the Mercers have backed. In 2013, at a conservative conference in Palm Beach, an oil tycoon named William Lee Hanley, who had commissioned some polls from Patrick Caddell, asked him to show the data to Mercer and Bannon, who were at the event. The data showed mounting anger toward wealthy élites, who many Americans believed had corrupted the government so that it served only their interests. There was a hunger for a populist Presidential candidate who would run against the major political parties and the ruling class. The data “showed that someone could just walk into this election and sweep it,” Caddell told me. When Mercer saw the numbers, he asked for the polling to be repeated. Caddell got the same results. “It was stunning,” he said. “The country was on the verge of an uprising against its leaders. I just fell over!”
Until Election Day in 2016, Mercer and Hanley—two of the richest men in America—paid Caddell to keep collecting polling data that enabled them to exploit the public’s resentment of élites such as themselves. Caddell’s original goal was to persuade his sponsors to back an independent candidate, but they never did. In 2014, Caddell and two partners went public with what they called the Candidate Smith project, which promoted data suggesting that the public wanted a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” figure—an outsider—as President. During the next year or so, Caddell’s poll numbers tilted more and more away from the establishment. Caddell’s partner Bob Perkins, an advertising executive and a former finance director of the Republican Party, told me, “By then, it was clear there wouldn’t be a third-party candidate. But we thought that a Republican who harnessed the angst had a real chance.” At one point, Caddell tested all the declared Presidential candidates, including Trump, as a possible Mr. Smith. “People didn’t think Trump had the temperament to be President,” Caddell said. “He clearly wasn’t the best Smith, but he was the only Smith. He was the only one with the resources and the name recognition.” As Bernie Sanders’s campaign showed, the populist rebellion wasn’t partisan. Caddell worried, though, that there were dark undertones in the numbers: Americans were increasingly yearning for a “strong man” to fix the country. ...
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency
Cambridge Analytica is not the only data-driven political project that the Mercers have backed. In 2013, at a conservative conference in Palm Beach, an oil tycoon named William Lee Hanley, who had commissioned some polls from Patrick Caddell, asked him to show the data to Mercer and Bannon, who were at the event. The data showed mounting anger toward wealthy élites, who many Americans believed had corrupted the government so that it served only their interests. There was a hunger for a populist Presidential candidate who would run against the major political parties and the ruling class. The data “showed that someone could just walk into this election and sweep it,” Caddell told me. When Mercer saw the numbers, he asked for the polling to be repeated. Caddell got the same results. “It was stunning,” he said. “The country was on the verge of an uprising against its leaders. I just fell over!”
Until Election Day in 2016, Mercer and Hanley—two of the richest men in America—paid Caddell to keep collecting polling data that enabled them to exploit the public’s resentment of élites such as themselves. Caddell’s original goal was to persuade his sponsors to back an independent candidate, but they never did. In 2014, Caddell and two partners went public with what they called the Candidate Smith project, which promoted data suggesting that the public wanted a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” figure—an outsider—as President. During the next year or so, Caddell’s poll numbers tilted more and more away from the establishment. Caddell’s partner Bob Perkins, an advertising executive and a former finance director of the Republican Party, told me, “By then, it was clear there wouldn’t be a third-party candidate. But we thought that a Republican who harnessed the angst had a real chance.” At one point, Caddell tested all the declared Presidential candidates, including Trump, as a possible Mr. Smith. “People didn’t think Trump had the temperament to be President,” Caddell said. “He clearly wasn’t the best Smith, but he was the only Smith. He was the only one with the resources and the name recognition.” As Bernie Sanders’s campaign showed, the populist rebellion wasn’t partisan. Caddell worried, though, that there were dark undertones in the numbers: Americans were increasingly yearning for a “strong man” to fix the country. ...
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency
From earlier in the article:
...
Caddell and Bannon made an unholy alliance, but they had things in common: both men were Irish Catholic sons of the South, scourges to their respective parties, and prone to apocalyptic pronouncements. “We hit it off right away,” Caddell told me. “We’re both revolutionaries.” Bannon was excited by Caddell’s polling research, and he persuaded Citizens United to hire Caddell to convene focus groups of disillusioned Obama supporters. Many of these voters became the central figures of “The Hope & the Change,” an anti-Obama film that Bannon and Citizens United released during the 2012 Democratic National Convention. After Caddell saw the film, he pointed out to Bannon that its opening imitated that of “Triumph of the Will,” the 1935 ode to Hitler, made by the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Bannon laughed and said, “You’re the only one that caught it!” In both films, a plane flies over a blighted land, as ominous music swells; then clouds in the sky part, auguring a new era. The disappointed voters in the film “seared into me,” Bannon said, the fact that middle-class Americans badly wanted change, and could be lured away from the Democratic Party if they felt that they had been conned.
In 2012, Citizens United’s foundation paid Bannon Strategic Advisors, a consultancy group founded by Bannon, three hundred thousand dollars for what it described to the I.R.S. as “fund-raising” services. Bossie told me that the tax filing must have been made in error: the payment was actually for Bannon’s “film development” work. Charitable groups are barred from spending tax-deductible contributions on partisan politics, yet, as Breitbart News noted at the time, “The Hope & the Change” was a “partisan” film “targeting Democrats” during an election year. Even so, the Mercers took a hefty tax deduction for their two-million-dollar donation to Citizens United. ...
Caddell and Bannon made an unholy alliance, but they had things in common: both men were Irish Catholic sons of the South, scourges to their respective parties, and prone to apocalyptic pronouncements. “We hit it off right away,” Caddell told me. “We’re both revolutionaries.” Bannon was excited by Caddell’s polling research, and he persuaded Citizens United to hire Caddell to convene focus groups of disillusioned Obama supporters. Many of these voters became the central figures of “The Hope & the Change,” an anti-Obama film that Bannon and Citizens United released during the 2012 Democratic National Convention. After Caddell saw the film, he pointed out to Bannon that its opening imitated that of “Triumph of the Will,” the 1935 ode to Hitler, made by the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Bannon laughed and said, “You’re the only one that caught it!” In both films, a plane flies over a blighted land, as ominous music swells; then clouds in the sky part, auguring a new era. The disappointed voters in the film “seared into me,” Bannon said, the fact that middle-class Americans badly wanted change, and could be lured away from the Democratic Party if they felt that they had been conned.
In 2012, Citizens United’s foundation paid Bannon Strategic Advisors, a consultancy group founded by Bannon, three hundred thousand dollars for what it described to the I.R.S. as “fund-raising” services. Bossie told me that the tax filing must have been made in error: the payment was actually for Bannon’s “film development” work. Charitable groups are barred from spending tax-deductible contributions on partisan politics, yet, as Breitbart News noted at the time, “The Hope & the Change” was a “partisan” film “targeting Democrats” during an election year. Even so, the Mercers took a hefty tax deduction for their two-million-dollar donation to Citizens United. ...
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
In light of the recent question, on the End Times thread, as to the significance of the NOT moving (or delay in moving) of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, it should be noted just what our Zionist Presidents (both Trump and Bannon and Pence) have already done for Israel, as opposed to the longstanding positions of the cryptoZionist [sic] UN. This is per the whole central underlying operating principles of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. WWII, and hence Hitler, gave us the modern state of Israel. Israel's raison d'etre, originally as now, is to 1) be a distractionary foil while the goals of globalism are being achieved, using the cultural fetishes of nationalists against themselves, and 2) to become the apocalyptic seed for broader violent upheaval that will facilitate the geopolitical new order du jour.
The hiring of such as Mattis (see below), merely provides plausible deniability to suspicions that President Trump/Bano/Pence has such an agenda.
The hiring of such as Mattis (see below), merely provides plausible deniability to suspicions that President Trump/Bano/Pence has such an agenda.
...
Yet now, thanks to the Trump administration’s self-destructive devotion to Israeli interests — an odd posture for a president who ran on a platform of “Putting America First” — it is impermissible for U.N. officials to note this reality lest Israel be offended. In its report on the ouster of Khalef, CNN was surprisingly blunt about what this all means:
Memo to critics of Israel inside the U.N. system: Prepare to pay a price. … The U.S. under Trump has made it quite clear it will defend Israel perhaps more than all other countries at the U.N.
Early on his campaign, Trump issued controversial positions about Israel, including his statement that the U.S. should be “neutral” in the Israel-Palestine conflict and his proclaiming his immunity to AIPAC influence. But, as I noted last July, once he secured the nomination, he quickly switched to the standard pro-Israel line, beginning with his Jared Kushner-written AIPAC speech, and then went even beyond U.S. orthodoxy on Israel by explicitly endorsing expansion of Israeli settlements.
Since his inauguration, all signs indicate Trump will be an inflammatory fanatic when it comes to U.S. support for Israeli aggression, even at the expense of U.S. interests. He nominated a pro-settlement extremist to be his ambassador to Israel. He has repeatedly suggested that his son-in-law Kushner, whose family has long supported extremist settlements, will be his key envoy in the region. And he even appeared to abandon the long-standing U.S. rhetorical commitment to a two-state solution (a commitment it long ago abandoned in action), before his administration re-affirmed it.
What makes all of this most extraordinary is that Trump’s own Pentagon chief has previously warned that exactly this kind of mentality — defending Israeli aggression and expansion — is directly harmful to the U.S. At the Aspen Security Forum in 2013, Gen. James Mattis said:
I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians.
Indeed, people charged with anti-U.S. terrorism frequently cite U.S. support for Israeli aggression as a key grievance. Moreover, Mattis “called the current situation in Israel ‘unsustainable’ and blamed the settlements for harming prospects for peace.” Most ironically of all, Mattis “called it a choice between giving up the idea of a Jewish state or becoming an apartheid state” — exactly the point the Trump administration is now trying to make unutterable at the U.N. ...
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/18/trump-administration-ousts-un-official-to-protect-israel-from-criticism/
Yet now, thanks to the Trump administration’s self-destructive devotion to Israeli interests — an odd posture for a president who ran on a platform of “Putting America First” — it is impermissible for U.N. officials to note this reality lest Israel be offended. In its report on the ouster of Khalef, CNN was surprisingly blunt about what this all means:
Memo to critics of Israel inside the U.N. system: Prepare to pay a price. … The U.S. under Trump has made it quite clear it will defend Israel perhaps more than all other countries at the U.N.
Early on his campaign, Trump issued controversial positions about Israel, including his statement that the U.S. should be “neutral” in the Israel-Palestine conflict and his proclaiming his immunity to AIPAC influence. But, as I noted last July, once he secured the nomination, he quickly switched to the standard pro-Israel line, beginning with his Jared Kushner-written AIPAC speech, and then went even beyond U.S. orthodoxy on Israel by explicitly endorsing expansion of Israeli settlements.
Since his inauguration, all signs indicate Trump will be an inflammatory fanatic when it comes to U.S. support for Israeli aggression, even at the expense of U.S. interests. He nominated a pro-settlement extremist to be his ambassador to Israel. He has repeatedly suggested that his son-in-law Kushner, whose family has long supported extremist settlements, will be his key envoy in the region. And he even appeared to abandon the long-standing U.S. rhetorical commitment to a two-state solution (a commitment it long ago abandoned in action), before his administration re-affirmed it.
What makes all of this most extraordinary is that Trump’s own Pentagon chief has previously warned that exactly this kind of mentality — defending Israeli aggression and expansion — is directly harmful to the U.S. At the Aspen Security Forum in 2013, Gen. James Mattis said:
I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians.
Indeed, people charged with anti-U.S. terrorism frequently cite U.S. support for Israeli aggression as a key grievance. Moreover, Mattis “called the current situation in Israel ‘unsustainable’ and blamed the settlements for harming prospects for peace.” Most ironically of all, Mattis “called it a choice between giving up the idea of a Jewish state or becoming an apartheid state” — exactly the point the Trump administration is now trying to make unutterable at the U.N. ...
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/18/trump-administration-ousts-un-official-to-protect-israel-from-criticism/
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The following excerpted article discusses the trend(?) of terrorism events to benefit the governing state, or perhaps better put - Shadow State, interests, of the apparently attacked. Hmmm, one might even posit that such interests fomented the attacks, --- no that would be paranoid -- or Machivellian aware-esque.
If one properly (from a statistical POV) throws out the anomalous high casualty rate of 9/11 then the odds of not being killed by a foreign-born terrorist are even much higher.
If one properly (from a statistical POV) throws out the anomalous high casualty rate of 9/11 then the odds of not being killed by a foreign-born terrorist are even much higher.
...
This macabre turn, in which terrorism becomes an opportunity rather than a curse, has ample precedents that tell us one thing: be prepared.
It wasn’t long ago that 9/11 was used as a pretext for invading Iraq. Although it was almost immediately clear that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told President George W. Bush on the evening of September 11, “Part of our response maybe should be attacking Iraq. It’s an opportunity.” Just a few years earlier, Rumsfeld, along with Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney, had signed a now-infamous letter calling for the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The with-us-or-against-us atmosphere after 9/11 enabled them to carry out the task.
It has happened overseas, too. Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in Russia was accelerated by a series of mysterious bombings against apartment buildings across the country, and the bombings were so essential to consolidating Putin’s rule that he was suspected of organizing them. There was also, most famously, the Reichstag fire in 1933, in which the German Parliament burned to the ground, leading Adolf Hitler, the new chancellor, to warn that “there will be no mercy now. Anyone standing in our way will be cut down.”
The Trump administration has already begun laying the groundwork for extreme initiatives if — or more likely when — a terror attack occurs on U.S. soil and is tied to ISIS, al Qaeda or another Muslim group, according to civil liberties lawyers and activists. Under the guise of protecting national security, a blitz of presidential actions could target not just immigrants and Muslims but other minority groups as well as the media and the judiciary. These initiatives will be “more dire and much more severe” than Trump’s first executive order in late January against the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, according to Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
While the bad news is stark — expect the worst from Trump when an attack happens on U.S. soil — the better news is that people are already organizing to prevent the worst from happening. There is, it turns out, quite a bit that can be done to prepare for the nearly inevitable moment when the Trump administration tries to take advantage of the tragedy of a man or a woman using a bomb, a gun, a knife or a truck to kill Americans in the name of an Islamic terror group.
The first thing to understand is that attacks by foreign-born terrorists are rare. From 1975 through 2015, a total of 3,024 Americans were killed in such attacks, with most of those occurring on 9/11, according to a recent Cato Institute report. In other words, the annual odds of being killed by a foreign-born terrorist are 1 in 3,609,709. Each of these deaths is a tragedy, of course, but they represent a fraction of the preventable fatalities from any number of causes, including spouse-on-spouse violence, traffic accidents, and even toddlers with unsecured guns.
Trump’s eagerness to exploit only a particular type of terror attack — by Muslims — was reflected in his selective reaction to two incidents in his first month in office. In late January, he remained silent when a white Christian shot dead six Muslims in a Canadian mosque. A few days later, an Egyptian with a machete attacked French soldiers at the Louvre while shouting “Allahu Akhbar.” Nobody was killed, not even the attacker — one soldier was slightly injured before the Egyptian was shot four times. Yet within hours, Trump tweeted, “A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.”
His disingenuity exposes a glaring fallacy in his executive orders. The handful of Muslim-majority countries named in the orders represent a negligible threat for domestic terrorism. The few attacks in America that have involved Muslims, including 9/11, drew largely on people from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt — but those countries were not included in either order from the Oval Office. A ruling by Judge Theodore Chuang that blocked the second order noted “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose of the travel ban.” ...
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/19/for-donald-trump-a-terror-attack-will-be-an-opportunity-not-a-curse/
This macabre turn, in which terrorism becomes an opportunity rather than a curse, has ample precedents that tell us one thing: be prepared.
It wasn’t long ago that 9/11 was used as a pretext for invading Iraq. Although it was almost immediately clear that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told President George W. Bush on the evening of September 11, “Part of our response maybe should be attacking Iraq. It’s an opportunity.” Just a few years earlier, Rumsfeld, along with Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney, had signed a now-infamous letter calling for the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The with-us-or-against-us atmosphere after 9/11 enabled them to carry out the task.
It has happened overseas, too. Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in Russia was accelerated by a series of mysterious bombings against apartment buildings across the country, and the bombings were so essential to consolidating Putin’s rule that he was suspected of organizing them. There was also, most famously, the Reichstag fire in 1933, in which the German Parliament burned to the ground, leading Adolf Hitler, the new chancellor, to warn that “there will be no mercy now. Anyone standing in our way will be cut down.”
The Trump administration has already begun laying the groundwork for extreme initiatives if — or more likely when — a terror attack occurs on U.S. soil and is tied to ISIS, al Qaeda or another Muslim group, according to civil liberties lawyers and activists. Under the guise of protecting national security, a blitz of presidential actions could target not just immigrants and Muslims but other minority groups as well as the media and the judiciary. These initiatives will be “more dire and much more severe” than Trump’s first executive order in late January against the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, according to Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
While the bad news is stark — expect the worst from Trump when an attack happens on U.S. soil — the better news is that people are already organizing to prevent the worst from happening. There is, it turns out, quite a bit that can be done to prepare for the nearly inevitable moment when the Trump administration tries to take advantage of the tragedy of a man or a woman using a bomb, a gun, a knife or a truck to kill Americans in the name of an Islamic terror group.
The first thing to understand is that attacks by foreign-born terrorists are rare. From 1975 through 2015, a total of 3,024 Americans were killed in such attacks, with most of those occurring on 9/11, according to a recent Cato Institute report. In other words, the annual odds of being killed by a foreign-born terrorist are 1 in 3,609,709. Each of these deaths is a tragedy, of course, but they represent a fraction of the preventable fatalities from any number of causes, including spouse-on-spouse violence, traffic accidents, and even toddlers with unsecured guns.
Trump’s eagerness to exploit only a particular type of terror attack — by Muslims — was reflected in his selective reaction to two incidents in his first month in office. In late January, he remained silent when a white Christian shot dead six Muslims in a Canadian mosque. A few days later, an Egyptian with a machete attacked French soldiers at the Louvre while shouting “Allahu Akhbar.” Nobody was killed, not even the attacker — one soldier was slightly injured before the Egyptian was shot four times. Yet within hours, Trump tweeted, “A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.”
His disingenuity exposes a glaring fallacy in his executive orders. The handful of Muslim-majority countries named in the orders represent a negligible threat for domestic terrorism. The few attacks in America that have involved Muslims, including 9/11, drew largely on people from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt — but those countries were not included in either order from the Oval Office. A ruling by Judge Theodore Chuang that blocked the second order noted “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose of the travel ban.” ...
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/19/for-donald-trump-a-terror-attack-will-be-an-opportunity-not-a-curse/
Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The following excerpted WaPo article discusses some different POVs on the debatable 'fascist' nature of the Trump presidency. As I have noted before, the definition of what 'fascism' is - is fluid and malleable. For some, fascism is necessarily associated with some form of 'socialism', as witnessed by the Nazi's National Socialism, but oddly others associate fascist regimes with being far right. I claim that this is due to a misunderstanding, that fascism is really authoritarianism that uses many forms of deceptive masks, or faces.
Hitler profited himself handsomely (through corruption and such as massive sales of Mein Kampf), and dumped the workers of the NSDAP workers' party to advance the interests of the German industrialists as soon as he consolidated his takeover of the NSDAP. Most of Trump's presidential actions so far have done the same. Now, with the health care drama, he has turned on the Tea Party radicals, and is making noises that he will work with the Dems, because only 17% like Ryan's ObamaCare Lite. This might mean Medicare for all, which in this case, would be a huge political coup for Trump.
Hitler profited himself handsomely (through corruption and such as massive sales of Mein Kampf), and dumped the workers of the NSDAP workers' party to advance the interests of the German industrialists as soon as he consolidated his takeover of the NSDAP. Most of Trump's presidential actions so far have done the same. Now, with the health care drama, he has turned on the Tea Party radicals, and is making noises that he will work with the Dems, because only 17% like Ryan's ObamaCare Lite. This might mean Medicare for all, which in this case, would be a huge political coup for Trump.
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In a world racked by the Great Depression, fascists promised the promotion of social welfare, state intervention into the economy and better fortunes for the downtrodden. (The New Deal in the United States was a response to similar conditions, but without the extreme political outcomes.)
“There can be no question that violence and racism were essential traits of fascism,” wrote Berman. “But for most Italians, Germans and other European fascists, the appeal was based not on racism, much less ethnic cleansing, but on the fascists’ ability to respond effectively to crises of capitalism when other political actors were not.”
The Trump campaign’s platform of economic populism did harness a similar argument: The existing status quo left behind millions of “forgotten” Americans, sold out the nation’s interests for collusion with “globalist” elites and was weak in the face of foreign enemies. But everything we’ve seen since the inauguration — the White House’s systematic attempts to dismantle the “administrative state,” its initial moves to gut the safety net for the poor, Trump’s lavish spending of taxpayer funds at his own properties — suggests a more self-interested agenda.
For this reason, Italian historian Enzo Traverso argues in a new essay for the World Policy Journal that it’s not useful to look at Trump “through the old category of fascism.”
“The fact is there is no fascist organization behind Trump. He does not lead a mass movement; he is a TV star,” wrote Traverso, a humanities professor at Cornell University. “He does not organize and mobilize the masses; he attracts an audience in an atomized society of consumers.”
Traverso goes on: “Fascist ideas are also less widespread in America today than they were 70 or 100 years ago, during McCarthyism or the Red Scare. The Bolshevik threat no longer exists, and the specter of terrorism isn’t sufficiently frightening for Americans to readily give up their freedoms in exchange for promises of security.” Instead, we’re straying into the political unknown.
“Trump’s rise is not a sudden return to barbarism, nor is it a meteor crashing down onto a peaceful country,” wrote Traverso. “It is not a resurgence of fascism, but something new and not yet realized.” Traverso, a leftist academic, suggests we call Trump’s politics “post-fascism,” “a capitalism without a human face.” ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/28/the-post-fascism-of-donald-trump/
In a world racked by the Great Depression, fascists promised the promotion of social welfare, state intervention into the economy and better fortunes for the downtrodden. (The New Deal in the United States was a response to similar conditions, but without the extreme political outcomes.)
“There can be no question that violence and racism were essential traits of fascism,” wrote Berman. “But for most Italians, Germans and other European fascists, the appeal was based not on racism, much less ethnic cleansing, but on the fascists’ ability to respond effectively to crises of capitalism when other political actors were not.”
The Trump campaign’s platform of economic populism did harness a similar argument: The existing status quo left behind millions of “forgotten” Americans, sold out the nation’s interests for collusion with “globalist” elites and was weak in the face of foreign enemies. But everything we’ve seen since the inauguration — the White House’s systematic attempts to dismantle the “administrative state,” its initial moves to gut the safety net for the poor, Trump’s lavish spending of taxpayer funds at his own properties — suggests a more self-interested agenda.
President Trump is now at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, per pool; it's his 12th golf course trip since taking office 9 weeks ago
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 25, 2017
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 25, 2017
For this reason, Italian historian Enzo Traverso argues in a new essay for the World Policy Journal that it’s not useful to look at Trump “through the old category of fascism.”
“The fact is there is no fascist organization behind Trump. He does not lead a mass movement; he is a TV star,” wrote Traverso, a humanities professor at Cornell University. “He does not organize and mobilize the masses; he attracts an audience in an atomized society of consumers.”
Traverso goes on: “Fascist ideas are also less widespread in America today than they were 70 or 100 years ago, during McCarthyism or the Red Scare. The Bolshevik threat no longer exists, and the specter of terrorism isn’t sufficiently frightening for Americans to readily give up their freedoms in exchange for promises of security.” Instead, we’re straying into the political unknown.
“Trump’s rise is not a sudden return to barbarism, nor is it a meteor crashing down onto a peaceful country,” wrote Traverso. “It is not a resurgence of fascism, but something new and not yet realized.” Traverso, a leftist academic, suggests we call Trump’s politics “post-fascism,” “a capitalism without a human face.” ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/28/the-post-fascism-of-donald-trump/