Let me say immediately what exactly there will be no more of. There will be no miracles. None. There is no need to expect friendship or a radical change in US-Russian relations from Trump. The fact that Trump won the elections, despite the strong resistance put up by a significant part of the American political and economic elite, was already a miracle. Demanding a bigger one is tempting fate. There's no need to do this.

The new president is a man who is very, very strongly disliked by those who have formulated the US' extremely aggressive foreign policy over recent years and dragged the country directly towards military confrontation with Russia and China. Now American politicians of a different nature with different interests and ideologies have the chance to work out a different foreign policy.

This is the first time in many years that this could really be in the US' interests. No, I haven't misspoken. Trump's victory is to a certain extent a victory of the American elites, specifically those elites who have preserved at least some kind of American identity and the feeling of being Americans, not globalists. This is their victory over the supranational oligarchy and bureaucracy about whom Vladimir Putin recently spoke as the main problem of the world.

Despite allegations from the Clinton camp that Donald Trump was Russia's preferred candidate in the US presidential election, Moscow is keeping an open mind about the Republican winner's future policies towards Russia, a top official said.

"We don't feel any euphoria. We have a record of having very different experiences working with administrations from both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. In some cases we started out really well and then slid towards a crisis," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax on Thursday.

He added that the Foreign Ministry would not want the Russian people to think that the diplomatic staff has "any high hopes" for the Trump administration.

The US presidential election is historic, because the American people were able to defeat the oligarchs. Hillary Clinton, an agent for the Oligarchy, was defeated despite the vicious media campaign against Donald Trump. This shows that the media and the political establishments of the political parties no longer have credibility with the American people.

It remains to be seen whether Trump can select and appoint a government that will serve him and his goals to restore American jobs and to establish friendly and respectful relations with Russia, China, Syria, and Iran.

It also remains to be seen how the Oligarchy will respond to Trump's victory. Wall Street and the Federal Reserve can cause an economic crisis in order to put Trump on the defensive, and they can use the crisis to force Trump to appoint one of their own as Secretary of the Treasury. Rogue agents in the CIA and Pentagon can cause a false flag attack that would disrupt friendly relations with Russia. Trump could make a mistake and retain neoconservatives in his government.

With Trump there is at least hope. Unless Trump is obstructed by bad judgment in his appointments and by obstacles put in his way, we should expect an end to Washington's orchestrated conflict with Russia, the removal of the US missiles on Russia's border with Poland and Romania, the end of the conflict in Ukraine, and the end of Washington's effort to overthrow the Syrian government. However, achievements such as these imply the defeat of the US Oligarchy. Although Trump defeated Hillary, the Oligarchy still exists and is still powerful.

So it has happened: Hillary did not win! I say that instead of saying that "Trump won" because I consider the former even more important than the latter. Why? Because I have no idea whatsoever what Trump will do next. I do, however, have an excellent idea of what Hillary would have done: war with Russia. Trump most likely won't do that. In fact, he specifically said in his acceptance speech:

I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America's interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict.

And Putin's reply was immediate:

We heard the statements he made as candidate for president expressing a desire to restore relations between our countries. We realise and understand that this will not be an easy road given the level to which our relations have degraded today, regrettably. But, as I have said before, it is not Russia's fault that our relations with the United States have reached this point.

Russia is ready to and seeks a return to full-format relations with the United States. Let me say again, we know that this will not be easy, but are ready to take this road, take steps on our side and do all we can to set Russian-US relations back on a stable development track.

This would benefit both the Russian and American peoples and would have a positive impact on the general climate in international affairs, given the particular responsibility that Russia and the US share for maintaining global stability and security.

This exchange, right there, is enough of a reason for the entire planet to rejoice at the defeat of Hillary and the victory of Trump.

President-elect Donald Trump is scrambling to line up senior officials to run the government's sprawling intelligence and homeland security bureaucracy.

Team Trump is struggling to fill numerous key slots or even attract many candidates because hundreds have either sworn they'd never work in a Trump administration or have directly turned down requests to join, multiple current and former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the transition efforts told The Daily Beast.

Team Trump didn't expect to win until the campaign's internal polling a month before the election signaled a possible victory. That's when senior Trump officials went into overdrive, trying to build a bench of experienced national security candidates with top secret clearances willing to work for a Trump presidency—and they met resistance across the landscape of experienced GOP national security professionals.

One person who met last month with Trump's national security and homeland security transition team leader said that she confessed that many candidates had flatly rejected attempts to recruit them, believing that Trump was unfit to hold the office of commander in chief.

Donald Trump should seize on his earlier idea to hold a summit with Russian President Putin before his inauguration. The dangerous state of international relations makes such a summit urgent and necessary.

Adam Garrie and I have discussed how the way is now open for Donald Trump to move forward with Russia to settle the two big crises affecting US - Russian relations: Ukraine and Syria.

The initial words spoken by Trump and Putin in the aftermath of Trump's victory do hold out a measure of promise. In his public comments after his victory Trump was careful to say

I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America's interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone. All people and all other nations. (bold italics added)

Whilst these words do not specifically refer to Russia, it is no secret to anyone at all familiar with international relations that the Russians - perhaps more than any other nation - strongly feel that the US has not been treating them fairly. They are bound to see in these words a first clue that Trump is genuinely interested in patching up relations with them.

The Russians have responded in kind. Taking the opportunity of a meeting with foreign ambassadors in the Kremlin, Putin had this to say about Trump's election victory

We heard the statements he made as candidate for president expressing a desire to restore relations between our countries. We realise and understand that this will not be an easy road given the level to which our relations have degraded today, regrettably. But, as I have said before, it is not Russia's fault that our relations with the United States have reached this point.

Russia is ready to and seeks a return to full-format relations with the United States. Let me say again, we know that this will not be easy, but are ready to take this road, take steps on our side and do all we can to set Russian-US relations back on a stable development track.

This would benefit both the Russian and American peoples and would have a positive impact on the general climate in international affairs, given the particular responsibility that Russia and the US share for maintaining global stability and security.

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the US certainly sent shockwaves around the world. But perhaps the uppermost sense is one of huge relief that Hillary Clinton was kept out of the White House.

For most ordinary citizens around the world, Clinton, her multi-billion-dollar election campaign and the fawning corporate media coverage represented everything that is perceived as fundamentally wrong in Western politics.

Her cronyism goes so far that she would not hesitate to start a world war with Russia, or whoever, in order to appease her corporate sponsors and indulge her deluded notion of "exceptional liberalism".

Trump's stunning victory is a victory for common people and common sense. Despite the Western media's systematic shielding of Clinton from criticism, a good number of ordinary Americans and other nationals around the world could clearly see her irredeemable flaws. She is a self-enriching puppet for Big Finance and the military-industrial complex. And, as her email scandal shows, a consummate liar on top.

Advocates of a New Cold War got a nasty surprise on Wednesday morning, when it became clear that Donald Trump would be America's next President. For the rest of us, it offers hope of US foreign policy changing for the better.

So, the unthinkable has happened. Donald Trump has won. And the so-called liberal world order, which has ruled almost unchallenged since the demise of the Soviet Union is probably toast.

There's been enough talk already about the repercussions for America itself. So, here we will stick to external affairs. But there's one important domestic proposal which greatly affects America's global position. In his victory speech, Trump made a major point of emphasizing his desire to invest heavily in America's decaying infrastructure. And there's only one feasible way to fund such a plan - sharply cut military spending and foreign aid.

Thus, instead of flinging billions of American tax dollars around the Middle East, Asia and Europe, in what always amounted to bribing nations - or at least their elites - into friendship, Trump intends to bring a good deal of the money home. By any measure, this will amount to a geopolitical earthquake.

China's Meng Hongwei has become the president of Interpol, while Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk has been elected the organization's vice president for Europe, the global police agency has announced.

"China's Meng Hongwei, Vice Minister of Public Security [has been] elected President of Interpol... Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk, head of the Interpol NCB [National Central Bureau] in Moscow [has been] elected Vice President of Interpol [for Europe]," the organization tweeted.

The officials were chosen for their posts during the agency's 85th General Assembly in Bali, Indonesia, which took place November 7-10. Meng Hongwei, the first Chinese official to hold the position, takes over from France's Mireille Ballestrazzi who was elected in 2012. China has been an Interpol member since 1923.

The president is usually elected by the General Assembly, Interpol's supreme governing body, which is composed of delegates appointed by each member country. Vice presidents such as Prokopchuk are elected in the same way. Each member has only one vote. The president heads the agency's Executive Committee for four years. There are four vice presidents at Interpol, representing four continents, according to Interpol rules.

What could be better than waking up in time to witness the last few minutes of the historic race between the Champion of Deplorables and the Best Friend of Banksters, and to see Trump emerging victorious! Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to see these scenes at all and especially in sunny Jerusalem where I am now, and thank you, our American friends, for achieving this victory. You were not scared when they called you "racist rednecks", you did not despair when the CNN said (yesterday) that Clinton had a 96% chance of winning. You did not sit down with a bottle of beer, you still went to the booths and voted, God bless you.

And thank you those who voted against Trump. Ex-Pres. Bush said he did not vote for Trump - why, this news made my day! I am so happy that we do not owe anything, not a single vote in the victory, to the warring Bushmen. It would be embarrassing to find oneself in the same camp as the Butcher of Iraq. John McCain tried to knife Trump, didn't endorse him - this is also good news. The FBI boss submitted to pressure and supported Clinton instead of adhering to the law: good riddance!

God bless you, my colleagues and editors of the truly great independent American media, Ron Unz of Unz.com, Jeffrey St Clair of Counterpunch, Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com! By attacking the corrupted mainstream media, you preserved the dignity and the meaning of our profession, you delivered analysis and opinions to the thinking working men of America.

God bless you, Julian Assange of Wikileaks, in the windowless room in the Ecuadorian embassy in London! You did so much by publishing the documents nobody dared to touch. Without you, the American people would not know of the evil stratagems in the DNC, of the Podesta plots. You unmasked their plans. These discoveries will provide much material to tomorrow's media. Let President Donald Trump pardon Julian, for all he did, he did for us, in the great battle against the evil globalizers. And while he's at it, let him pardon Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, let them go home in honour.