Friday, November 18, 2016

CrossTalk: Donald and Vladimir (RT)


Nov 18, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to improve relations with Russia. The Russian President Vladimir Putin tells us he agrees. What does it mean to have better relations and will the American foreign policy establishment allow this to happen?
CrossTalking with Daniel McAdams, an Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, and Andrew Langer, a President of the Institute for Liberty.

Obama and Merkel meet as their world order crumbles ADAM GARRIE



Obama and Merkel meet as their world order crumbles



When John F. Kennedy went to Berlin he is remembered for saying to his opponents ‘Let Them Come To Berlin’ and ‘I am a Berliner’.  When an even more militant Ronald Reagan came, he said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’. When Obama came to Berlin yesterday for a fawning session with Angela Merkel, not many people will remember anything other than a sore loser standing up for a broken system that has been totally rejected in his own country and is being rejected throughout Europe, including in Germany.


Obama’s words were a paradox of weakness and defiance, all amounting to an attempt at sabotaging Donald Trump before he has taken his oath of office.
The failed Obama and Chancellor Merkel, who may well be ousted by her own party before she even gets to decide whether she’s arrogant enough to fight a further election, didn’t look like two mighty leaders standing on a global platform.  They instead looked a bit like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet clinging onto a plank in the Atlantic after the Titanic sunk….who would sacrifice whom?
The context of the press conference was predictable. Crimea, which is a Republic of the Russian Federation, was ‘annexed’, Russia has ‘invaded Ukraine’ (many Russians wish that Russia would intervene militarily against an alliance of fascists, terrorists and mercenaries), Brexit was bad, the EU’s collapse could lead to war and America must remain committed to aggressive policies in Europe.
Whilst unsurprising, it was still shocking when Obama seemed to openly endorse and encourage the gangs of miscreants running wild on America’s streets. He said he would not advise them to remain silent. What an irresponsible and dangerous statement to make at a time when he ought to appeal for peace and the rule of law rather than anarchy and subversion.
Although Obama is still technically the President, if he had honoured the commitment he made to make Donald Trump’s transition to power smooth and dignified, he would have toned down his discredited rhetoric. The defiance is a sore loser mentality which sends dangerously mixed messages to other world powers.
The only enjoyable moment came when Obama was asked if he’d endorse Merkel should she decide to fight a forthcoming election as leader of the CDU. He admitted that he would, but expressed hope that such an endorsement would not hurt her chances should she wish to fight the election.
This is of course is a clear reference to Obama’s trip to London prior to the Brexit vote where he threatened British voters to remain in the EU or else suffer the punishment of being isolated by the US. Many, including Nigel Farage believed that this helped the Brexit side gain momentum.
Indeed, whilst the political class in Berlin remain shocked by Trump’s victory, which to some, including Swedish foreign minister and prime minister Carl Bildt represents the ‘end of the west  as we know it’, the wider world, including a majority in the west, see a changing of political realities in the west as a political renaissance and an opportunity to engage with the multi-polar world on an equal basis rather than on the basis of nuclear armed post-colonial cry-babies.
Whilst the scenes in Berlin looked like a political wake, more good news was coming out of Damascus. As the Syrian Arab Army and their Russian allies make a further big push against Islamic terrorists in eastern Aleppo, Syrian government spokeswomen Bouthaina Shaaban made a statement at Damascus University in which said expressed her optimism about Syria working cooperatively with a Trump-led United States.
“We are currently observing and studying… and we are not making any judgments now, but the signs so far are good”, – Shaaban said.
This must really make Obama and Merkel feel useless.  Events have outpaced their tired, old globalist ideology and what has replaced it is a true spirit of international cooperation. What Obama derided as realpolitik, is actually a return to normalcy and away from the insanity of money-driven infantile  ideology.
I’ll end on a charitable note. Obama and Merkel will soon be out of a job, maybe they can rent a retirement penthouse at Trump Tower together and pretend they hold the power that is slipping away from their blood stained hands.

Fear and Loathing Inside The Deep State

Everyone in the Deep State is threatened by the Trump Presidency. The Deep State understands that power, funding, ideological stratagems and domination of government, media, academia, think tanks and NGOs are in the ‘field of fight’, to use the book title by a prime target the Deep State intends to destroy in order to save itself from Trump.

Lt. General (ret.) Michael T. Flynn
Lt. General (ret.) Michael T. Flynn, three-star expert in Military Intelligence, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), counselor to Trump for the last fifteen months, is a vital Trump ally the Deep State is attempting to discredit.
We have seen the one-week ferocious political and media attack on Stephen Bannon, begun the instant that Bannon was named Trump’s number one strategist-advisor. Bannon is the theologian of Drain the Swamp, the Trump policy to rid the system of corruption and catastrophically disastrous policies and bureaucrat enablers.
To understand Steve Bannon, take the time to read this transcription or listen to the audio Q&A from a 2014 event in the Vatican. He lays out his philosophical agenda, and used the 2016 campaign to advance his war on the Elites.
Drain the Swamp pertains to more than getting the corruption out of the system.

Steve Bannon
Bannon now has Trump’s full backing to destroy the UniParty, defeat the Globalists, banish the warmongers of the MIC and help the legal prosecution of the corrupt. This is the Revolution to end the domestic Tyranny and the global Hegemon.
The usual weapons of personal destruction have been launched at Bannon to destroy him and to deprive Trump of his most effective counselor and field marshall. Bannon has been branded a racist, an anti-semite, a white supremacist, an Islamophobe and a misogynist. In every forum and media outlet, the meme of Bannon being the worst human on the planet played as intensively as how the Dems attacked Trump during the campaign.
Relentless lies, chorused by every host, talking head, and hater of every value Trump and Bannon had campaigned for were spewed on Bannon’s name. All fabricated, most based on a few headlines written by Milo Yiannopoulos in Breitbart.com, alt right agitprop pieces constructed to collect reader clicks, revenues for Breitbart and fame for Milo. Bannon as chief of Breitbart was then scourged for those headlines. Mockery by Milo used against Steve Bannon.
It was all the Media needed. But the Deep State directed it for good reason. Bannon is the Pale Rider coming to destroy them.
Steve Bannon is dedicated to cleansing government and the financial system controlled by all those who have reigned over the foreign regime changes, the transfer of middle class wealth and income to Wall Street, paper wealth from derivatives to hedge fund and corporate global leaders, trillions to the 0.01% elites, all of whom populate the Ultra Wealthy Class, a new feudalism of billionaires and millionaires.
Bannon’s life long credentials and work with Jews, Blacks, females and Muslims eventually helped stifle the Media excesses. But the vicious branding may stick long after the inauguration.
The fear and loathing of the Deep State is focused on another nemesis and threat in the person of General Flynn. Flynn challenges the Deep State’s incompetence, particularly its lack of results in the fight against terrorism. Flynn dealt with this in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wrote a white paper on the state of US military Intelligence and the need to fix it.
Flynn also is sickened with the 2012 Benghazi event and coverup, the lies of Clinton and the abandonment by the command structure of CIA, Pentagon, State and NSC. The Syrian war, the attempted coup of Erdogan, and the carnage wrought by bad policies, sheepish leadership and less-than-best methods of Intelligence gathering and usage motivated the General to join Trump.
Flynn is now Trump’s guide into the Presidential raw data Intel reports and briefings. General Flynn is Trump’s personal analyst for interpretation of the data. Flynn has attended every briefing Trump has received. He is in place and the Deep State is out. So, they have mounted their counter-attack as soon as it was clear he would head the reform of the Intelligence community, and serve the newly elected President.
Flynn has recruited over two hundred generals and admirals and twenty-two Medal of Honor recipients to the successful Trump campaign. Now some of the generals are possible cabinet or undersecretary department nominees or agency appointees.
The Deep State is in deep trouble. General Flynn will probably be NSC head and I think he will have real power over fifteen other Intelligence agencies. Flynn may have great power over huge swaths of the MIC. He certainly will assist in the cleaning out of neocons and feckless employees, managers, supervisors and directors.
Against Flynn, the Deep State is using a more traditional model of career attack and personal destruction than it did with Bannon. Multiple articles written to show that Flynn and Putin, Flynn and Russia, Flynn and RT media are part of the Trump gang of pro-Russian contacts connected to the Kremlin.
Below is General Flynn at dinner with President Putin in Moscow. He explains in an interview.
Other Trump-Putin supposed contacts are Carter Page and Paul Manafort, both of whom were attacked by the Media for the Deep State months ago. They resigned under political pressure applied through the media.
In a payback, the Deep State lost some of their own sent to the Trump campaign who were unable to survive first inspection. They were dropped from the Trump campaign transition team.
But, once Trump is sworn in, Carter Page will be back, most likely. He has connections to Gazprom, is well-liked in Moscow, and will be a link for American energy companies and perhaps some joint ventures in the gas field development and pipeline industry. Several friends of Trump are from the gas and oil industry, and the world is a small world when energy is the issue. The Arctic, the eastern Mediterranean, the South China Sea and other large development zones have enormous new fields to be tapped and exploited. Even the Black Sea zone around Crimea has yet-to-be-tapped energy stores.
The primary interest of the Trump foreign policy will be to make America wealthy again. The Eurasian development has already attracted Trump to the OBOR of China and the AIIB infrastructure bank. Probably the entire New Silk Road of China and EAEU of Russia is not going to be without major US participation. The difference now is facilitation, participation, investment and benefits instead of obstruction, destabilization and terrorism used to thwart it all.
To destroy Flynn and weaken Trump with the Intelligence and Military communities, the classic Washington technique of long articles with many negative anonymous sourced comments was used, carefully crafted headlines and paragraph headers, all designed for very negative Google Search feeds.
The latest is about Flynn and Turkish “operatives”. Sounds like they met in dark alleys or underground passageways. Maybe in some Ankara safehouse, eh?
It turns out quite differently.

Hilal Mutlu (left) and Ibrahim Kurtulus (center) with Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at Oct. 10, 2016 event. (Youtube screen grab)
But Flynn is obviously being watched closely by CIA/State Dept. They know he is doing the bidding of Trump. And for good reason, Trump needs to know which way Turkey is leaning post-coup? And how sensitive is the Kurd issue in Syria? What are the ramifications of the US and Russia working in tandem against ISIS in Syria? Will Turkey help with safe zones for refugees? Will Turkey leave Syria after the war or does it plan to resist Russia and Assad? What about NATO? What about the Uyghurs Turkey protects, and is China being forced to come with military to put down the Uyghurs inside ISIS? Will the issue of demanding Fethullah Gulen’s extradition continue? Will there be mass death penalties for the imprisoned coup participants and Gulen’s followers?
Flynn had a panoply of possible questions to be answered by the operatives from Erdogan. And the Turks would have questions they wanted answered with some hint of Trump’s positions.
The Deep State are tracking Flynn and the Turks and are now exposing his links as a professional consultant. Nothing illegal. Nothing suspicious. Nothing out of the ordinary. But it was General Flynn, Trump’s guy. Smear him.
How else would this information surface in the Washington Post except from the Deep State? And if you know the history of the Deep State, the WaPo is their first choice for all leaks, briefings in depth, exposes used to undermine officials who cross them or who point to the Deep States’ misdeeds or failures. You won’t find Sy Hersh’s articles in WaPo.
The point of the articles about General Flynn was to shame him, to put down his personality, his lack of obedience to the Obama regime. He was investigated for giving Intel to foreign nations, we are told. He shared Intelligence with the Pakistanis, we are told. Read how his fellow generals talk about him.
Imagine if the Deep State decided that Intelligence should never be shared. Well, the U.S. would have no allies. No nation joins a war effort without Intelligence for their military. Flynn, whose entire thirty-plus year career has been in Intelligence understands that. And he did it. Proudly, he related to the investigators, and it all was dropped except the record and the reporting of it now.
The investigation was actually to cast a black mark on Flynn to be found later, by the uninformed, at the most sensitive of times. In this case, it is to weaken Flynn, to weaken Trump.
“Mike Flynn shares Intel. Mike Flynn acts without checking with what the Deep State wants.” It turns out that Flynn did get approval for all he did. But he simply did the professional thing. He acted in behalf of his specialty, his profession, his oath of duty and the American people who paid him to protect America.
There is something to be gained by studying this meeting with Turkey’s operatives. Flynn’s meeting signals that Trump will not likely arm the Kurds with heavy weapons. That would drive Turkey into the Russian-Iranian embrace fully. A practical solution to defeating ISIS and AQ and ending the Syrian war has to avoid losing Turkey. Trump is not going to be trying to coup anyone. His policy is no regime changes. He also does not like these secret wars of the CIA. If there is to be war, he wants it fought by the military, with a plan for victory. Principally, Trump’s wars will be like President Eisenhower’s. There were none for eight years.
The warmongers and neocons of the Deep State and surface government will try to work over all the Trump nominees in the security and policy arena. Trump has refused to listen to any of them, though a few have been invited in to the goings on. However, we don’t know who is talking to Trump and who is talking to the various panels of experts that will advise who they think he should select. So a few neocons and warmongers like John Bolton and General Keane have made it into Trump Tower. But he eschewed them all these years and throughout the campaign. I doubt they will have any role in policy. He considers them failures.
Expect very deep shakeouts at CIA and State. I think Flynn will use fellow military he knows and trusts as deputies and undersecretaries. General Keith Kellogg and General Ronald Burgess are likely for important positions.
There has to be this cleaning out of the subterranean world of the Deep State.  If President Carter got rid of 800 officers when Stansfield Turner tried cleaning out the CIA, I’m betting there are 1500 officers in the CIA who need retirement now.
As for the State Department and the Clinton corruption of pay for play, that is only half the problem. The eighty years of Khazarian dominance of the State Department has created the need that whole thing ought to be shut down except for visas at embassies and consulates. (I’d use the Commerce Department in the interim. Send everyone else from State home. Board up Foggy Bottom for ten years.)
Addendum: General Flynn early in the primary campaign consulted as advisor to five candidates. Carly Fiorina, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump. He chose Trump as the one who wanted to be President in order to fix the country and make America great again. Now, Trump, Bannon and Flynn are going to drain the swamp, if they can survive.
(Flynn has been named NSC Advisor and will command a staff of 400 from all the other Intel agencies, it has been reported by Fox and AP.)
Larchmonter445
Sources:

Trump ernennt General Michael Flynn zum Chef für Nationale Sicherheit

Michael Flynn, ehemaliger Chef des Geheimdienstes des amerikanischen Militärs, der Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), auf einer RT-Konferenz im Oktober 2015.
Michael Flynn, ehemaliger Chef des Geheimdienstes des amerikanischen Militärs, der Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), auf einer RT-Konferenz im Oktober 2015.
Der ehemalige Chef des militärischen Geheimdienstes DIA kritisierte die Syrien-Politik der Obama-Regierung und besuchte regelmäßig Moskau. Die wichtigste Funktion für die Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik der USA besetzt damit künftig ein Dissident.
Quelle: RT
Die Amtsübergabe an den gewählten Präsidenten Donald Trump schlägt weiter hohe Wellen in den amerikanischen Medien. Wie Donald Trump gestern bekannt gab, ist sein Berater für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, General Michael Flynn, für das Amt des Nationalen Sicherheitsberaters vorgesehen. 
Diese Funktion ist im Weißen Haus politisch für die Arbeit des National Security Council verantwortlich. Außerdem kontrollieren die Nationalen Sicherheitsberater das Pentagon und das Außenministerium. Damit handelt es sich im politischen System der USA um die wichtigste Funktion neben dem Amt des Präsidenten selbst. 
Der National Security Council wurde im Jahr 1947 eingerichtet, um die Bereiche Militär, Außenpolitik, internationale Wirtschaftspolitik und die Geheimdienste langfristig zu steuern. Mit dem National Security Act kann der Präsident verbindliche Richtlinie erlassen, die auch über die eigene Amtszeit hinaus gelten. Diese strategischen Grundlinien der amerikanischen Politik sind normalerweise geheim und werden mit dem berühmten "Roten Buch" an den Amtsnachfolger übergeben.
Der nun benannte ehemalige Chef des Militärgeheimdienstes, Generalleutnant Michael Flynn, spielte in den vergangenen Jahren eine zentrale Rolle bei den Diskussionen um die gescheiterte Nahost-Politik der vorhergehenden amerikanischen Regierungen. Als im vergangenen Jahr bekannt wurde, dass die amerikanischen Geheimdienste bereits seit 2012 darüber informiert waren, dass die von ihnen unterstützten Aufständischen in Syrien planen, einen "islamischen Staat" aufzubauen, bestätigte Michael Flynn gegenüber Al-Jazeera, dass dies eine bewusste politische Entscheidung war.
Demnach war die Politik, die zum Aufstieg des IS im Irak und in Syrien führte, nicht das Ergebnis von Ignoranz. Auf die Frage von Al-Jazeera-Reporter Mehdi Hasan, ob die Regierung die Analyse der Geheimdienste „wissentlich ignoriert“ habe, antwortete Flynn:
Ich weiß nicht, ob sie sie wissentlich ignoriert haben. Ich denke, es war eine Entscheidung. Ich denke, es war eine vorsätzliche Entscheidung.
Ein Jahr zuvor, im Sommer 2014, hatte sich General Michael Flynn aus dem aktiven Dienst zurückgezogen. Vorher hatte er den militärischen Geheimdienst geleitet und als Stellvertreter für den Geheimdienstkoordinator gearbeitet. In dieser Funktion hatte er die Arbeit der amerikanischen Geheimdienste in Afghanistan massiv kritisiert.
Generalleutnant Michael Flynn gilt als möglicher Running Mate des designierten republikanischen US-Präsidentschaftskandidaten Donald J. Trump. Flynn gilt als Verfechter eines realistischen Ansatzes in der Außenpolitik.
In einem entsprechenden Bericht warf General Flynn den Geheimen vor, keinerlei Verständnis für die politischen und kulturellen Gegebenheiten in dem nordostasiatischen Land entwickelt zu haben. In dem Bericht hieß es vernichtend:
Die gesamte Geheimdienst-Community ist nicht in der Lage, die grundlegendsten Fragen zu beantworten, etwa dazu, in welchem Umfeld sich die US-amerikanischen und alliierten Streitkräfte bewegen und die Menschen, die sie zu überzeugen versuchen. Sie sind ignorant gegenüber der lokalen Ökonomie und den Besitzverhältnissen an Grund und Boden. Sie haben nur eine verschwommene Vorstellung, wer die lokal Mächtigen sind und wie sie beeinflusst werden könnten.
Mit solchen Einschätzungen dürfte sich General Michael Flynn in Washington keine Freunde gemacht haben. Der bekennende Unterstützer der Demokratischen Partei sprach sich frühzeitig für Donald Trump aus. Trotz der umfassenden militärischen und geheimdienstlichen Erfahrung des inzwischen 57-Jährigen beschreibt ihn die New York Times heute als "unerfahren" und als "Außenseiter". 
Zu den Vorwürfen und kritischen Einschätzungen des Generals schweigt hingegen die gesamte etablierte US-Presse. Die New York Times behauptete heute, General Flynn glaube, man befände sich in einem "Weltkrieg mit islamistischen Extremisten" und müsse deshalb auch mit der Regierung der Russischen Föderation zusammenarbeiten.
Tatsächlich pflegte Michael Flynn in den letzten Jahren entspannte Beziehungen mit Russland. Damit befand er sich keineswegs in einer politisch isolierten Position. Gegenüber der Presse wies das Weiße Haus selbst darauf hin, dass man sich mithilfe  einer "DIA-Verbindung" über Moskau indirekt auch mit der syrischen Regierung in Damaskus abstimme. Der Ex-General hielt sich in den vergangenen Jahren mehrmals in Moskau auf und führte zum 10. Jahrestag von Russia Today ein ausführliches Interview mit Sofija Schewardnadse.
Gegenüber dem Washingtoner Korrespondenten des Magazin Der Spiegel betonte General Flynn, dass man die russischen Positionen in Syrien nicht mehr ignorieren könne. 
Wir müssen jetzt konstruktiv mit Moskau zusammenarbeiten. Russland hat sich entschieden, in Syrien militärisch zu handeln, und das hat die Lage dramatisch verändert. Wir können nicht mehr sagen, dass Russland böse ist und sich zurückziehen soll.