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Paul Craig Roberts - Is Trump already finished?

Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts Org
Sat, 14 Jan 2017 20:06 UTC
Rex Tillerson
© Twitter
It did not take long before we knew there was no hope of change from President Obama. But at least he went into his inauguration with an unprecedented number of Americans on the Mall showing their support for the President of Change. Hope was abundant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How can we miss a Lame-duck President who won't go away?

Richard Benedetto
Wall Street Journal
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Obama's farewell address
© Michael Ramirez
Most former presidents return to where they came from and fade into the background, re-emerging in the capital mostly for ceremonial occasions. If they've served two full terms, the norm is to express relief, at least publicly, at the lifting of the office's great burdens after eight long years.

George Washington put it this way in his 1796 Farewell Address: "Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications . . . every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome."

Comment: See also:

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Snowflake Cold

Rex Tillerson confirmation hearing: 5 key climate takeaways and how Fake News perceives his answers (PS: hold your nose!)

Andrew Seifter
Media Matters
Thu, 12 Jan 2017 12:13 UTC
tillerson
© Eric Piermont, AFPRex Tillerson on issues of climate.
Secretary of state nominee and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 11. Tillerson is already under fire for making the seemingly false claim that Exxon has not lobbied against sanctions on Russia and other nations that would affect Exxon's business dealings, but here are five other climate change-related takeaways that reporters should keep in mind in their coverage of the hearing and Tillerson nomination going forward.

1. Tillerson distorted climate change science ... again.

As researchers at Harvard and MIT have documented, Tillerson has falsely claimed in the past that the temperature record "really hadn't changed" over the previous decade and repeatedly made scientifically inaccurate claims "seeking to sow doubt about the reliability of climate models."

Tillerson again wrongly cast doubt on climate models during the confirmation hearing. When asked by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) whether climate change is caused by human activities, Tillerson replied that the "increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect," but that "our ability to predict that effect is very limited."


Comment: As far as candidates go, Tillerson is poised, savvy and adept.

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Snakes in Suits

Yet again a Western MSM failure: China did NOT threaten the US with war in South China Sea

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 13 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Tillerson
© ABC News
Western media misrepresents discussion of Rex Tillerson's Senate confirmation hearing in English language Chinese government website Global Times as threat by China to go to war with US over South China Sea.

An editorial in The Global Times - an English language website owned and run by The People's Daily, which is the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party - is being widely reported around the world as a threat to go to war with the US over the South China Sea. Examples of the way in which this editorial is being reported can be found in The Guardian.This is a complete misunderstanding of what the editorial said.

The editorial was written in response to certain comments made by Rex Tillerson - Donald Trump's nominee for the post of US Secretary of State - in his confirmation hearing before the US Senate. The editorial can be found here, but the words in it which have created so much uproar are these
China has enough determination and strength to make sure that his (Tillerson's - AM) rabble rousing will not succeed. Unless Washington plans to wage a large-scale war in the South China Sea, any other approaches to prevent Chinese access to the islands will be foolish.
These words are not a threat to the US to start a war over the South China Sea. They are a reminder to the US that it can only impose its will in the South China Sea by starting a war against China.

The editorial however makes it quite clear that China considers the threats coming from Washington to be no more than an empty bluff. The title of the editorial is "Is Tillerson's bluster just a bluff for Senate?". It answers the question in the title in the affirmative and also makes clear what it believes to be the reason for the bluff
It is suspected that he (ie. Tillerson - AM) merely wanted to curry favor from senators and increase his chances of being confirmed by intentionally showing a tough stance toward China.
The point the editorial is making is that Tillerson is bluffing because the only way the US can act on the threats he is making is by going to war with China over the South China Sea, which because of China's "determination and strength" it is not in a in fact in a position to do. The editorial says that Tillerson's threats are therefore on the face of it "foolish", but in reality since they are simply intended to help him get confirmed by the Senate they are no more than bluff. It takes a particular alchemy to twist this cynical but realistic appraisal of Tillerson's comments into a threat to go to war, but that seems to be what parts of the Western media are seeking to do.

Comment: According to the Guardian: China's official response was more tame. Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China-US relations were based on "non-confrontation, non-conflict, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation". Tillerson's remarks "are not worth taking seriously because they are a mish-mash of naivety, shortsightedness, worn-out prejudices and unrealistic political fantasies". Well, that is just about the mentality he is dealing with and presenting to, so it is easy to see Tillerson mastering that play.

See also: China state media: Only under a large-scale war could US block Beijing from South China Sea islands

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Star of David

Israeli court's conviction of Israeli soldier killing injured Palestinian youth temporarily fends off ICC

Daoud Kuttab
Al-Monitor
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Elor Azaria
© Reuters/Heidi LevineIsraeli soldier Elor Azaria awaiting verdict on manslaughter charge in a military court for killing incapacitated Palestinian teen in cold blood.
The documented case of the Israeli soldier shooting and killing an injured Palestinian youth in March 2016 in Hebron could have provided the perfect case for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a war crimes investigation. The Hague-based ICC is authorized to look into violations of international humanitarian law in areas under its mandate. The Palestinian occupied territories became part of its jurisdiction on April 1, 2015, after Palestine was accepted as a full member of the court.

The ICC doesn't indict governments or organizations, but goes after individual war criminals if there is a strong case for indictment. The evidence was damning in the case of Elor Azaria shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif. A video taken by a human rights activist clearly shows that the Israeli soldier killed an injured person lying on the ground incapacitated. It was not the first time that an Israeli soldier had shot a Palestinian in violation of international law, or even in violation of his own military's rules of engagement, which specify that soldiers are not allowed to open fire unless their lives are in danger.


Comment: Israeli military rules that regulate soldiers' ability to open fire are contradicted by verbal orders to shoot first no matter the situation, victim or consequences. See link below.


Amnesty International (AI) has shone a light on this issue, documenting that Israeli soldiers often carry out "unlawful" killings that amount to war crimes. In September 2016, AI sent a memo to the Israeli government noting that in at least 15 cases documented between September 2015 and September 2016, "Palestinians were deliberately shot dead, despite posing no imminent threat to life, in what appear to be extrajudicial executions." Earlier, in a 2014 report, Trigger-happy: Israel's Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank, AI documented 19 cases that "amounted to possible unlawful killings, including three cases where there was evidence of willful killings, which amount to war crimes."

When the Israeli army prosecutor decided to charge Azaria with manslaughter, the military was aware that ICC prosecutors were considering investigating the case. Even before the Azaria case, the Jerusalem Post had reported that the ICC was looking into hundreds of incidents of possible war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza war. The Palestinian government and human rights organizations have supplied the ICC with information documenting alleged war crimes committed during that conflict. The ICC has yet to indicate what it plans to do with the information.

Comment: Israel is adept at keeping international investigations away from its doorstep while going about its nasty business as it pleases in self-determined impunity. When you are based in ruthlessness, laws and empathy have no effect. The trick is to make ruthlessness a commonality and impervious to the justice of regular society and international inquiry. The killing of al-Sharif was definitely not manslaughter, but this is the least charge that would satisfy ICC's policy of hands off. Having accomplished that, a pardon could then take place.

See also:

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Eye 1

Terrorists and torturers: The suffering of Syrian women under the "moderate rebels" of East Aleppo

Afraa Dagher
Syrian News
Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:50 UTC
torture victim
© Sputnik
The western media always tries to discriminate FSA from ISIS, calling the first "moderates" as if they were any different than "ISIS" in terms of degrading secular Syria into a theocratic state, using all forms of barbarism and atrocities.

The video below is of a woman who survived life in FSA-controlled eastern neighborhood of Aleppo, telling her personal story, after her neighborhood was liberated by the Syrian Arab Army. It should convince its viewers that FSA "jihadists" are the same, and even worse, than those horrific acts of "ISIS."

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

The anti-Trump Steele dossier and its astonishing lack of credibility, or the Hitler Diaries Mark II

Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Christopher Steele
Christopher Steele, paid to lie, put his name on a report, and is now in hiding. How convenient.
The mainstream media's extreme enthusiasm for the Hitler Diaries shows their rush to embrace any forgery if it is big and astonishing enough. For the Guardian to lead with such an obvious forgery as the Trump "commercial intelligence reports" is the final evidence of the demise of that newspaper's journalistic values.

We are now told that the reports were written by Mr Christopher Steele, an ex-MI6 man, for Orbis Business Intelligence. Here are a short list of six impossible things we are asked to believe before breakfast:

1) Vladimir Putin had a five year (later stated as eight year) plan to run Donald Trump as a "Manchurian candidate" for President and Trump was an active and knowing partner in Putin's scheme.

2) Hillary Clinton is so stupid and unaware that she held compromising conversations over telephone lines whilst in Russia itself.

Comment: See also: A Tale of Two Dodgy Dossiers: Putin, Trump MI6 and the CIA

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Blue Planet

Donald Trump and Russia and China: The Art of the Deal

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sat, 14 Jan 2017 16:39 UTC
US Russia China
Donald Trump has given an interview to the Wall Street Journal, which provides an insight to his outlook on foreign policy.

Donald Trump is first and foremost a businessman. Strikingly the man he has picked for Secretary of State - Rex Tillerson - is also a businessman. Moreover Trump's business background is the wheeler dealer business environment of the US property market, in which he has thrived. His outlook on foreign policy follows this pattern. It is ruthlessly pragmatic, America-centric, completely non-ideological, and goal centred. Its centre piece is the deal, about which Trump has written a book.

As Trump's interview shows, his approach is to use whatever leverage he has over Russia and China to extract the best possible deal for the US.
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Propaganda

Propaganda alert: Assad linked to Syrian chemical attacks for first time

Anthony Deutsch
Reuters
Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:23 UTC
Russian military inspect suspected chemical weapons workshop in Aleppo, November 14, 2016
© / RuptlyRussian military inspect suspected chemical weapons workshop in Aleppo, November 14, 2016
International investigators have said for the first time that they suspect President Bashar al-Assad and his brother are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, according to a document seen by Reuters.

A joint inquiry for the United Nations and global watchdog the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had previously identified only military units and did not name any commanders or officials.

Now a list has been produced of individuals whom the investigators have linked to a series of chlorine bomb attacks in 2014-15 - including Assad, his younger brother Maher and other high-ranking figures - indicating the decision to use toxic weapons came from the very top, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.

Comment: For more on the actual evidence of the Ghouta chemical attack: Vanessa Beeley on chemical weapons: 'I saw no evidence of bodies on the ground in Syria as reported by White Helmets and MSM sources'

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Jet2

Lockheed CEO promises cheaper F-35 & thousands of jobs after meeting with Trump


RT
Sat, 14 Jan 2017 01:13 UTC
Trump
© Shannon Stapleton / ReutersU.S. President-elect Donald Trump
A deal for a lower-priced F-35 program could be near, as Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson projected "thousands and thousands of jobs" and cheaper costs after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

"I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform, and we have to get it at the lowest possible price," Hewson told reporters in Trump Tower after the Friday meeting.

Lockheed wouldn't be the first major corporation to fold under the barrage of Trump's blistering tweets, but none of the others were sitting on a weapons program estimated to cost $1.5 trillion over its lifetime, either.
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