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Donald Trump contradicts some negative images of himself

Michael Averko
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 00:40 UTC
Donald Trump
The outgoing and at times smug US President Barack Obama, suggests a superior foreign policy knowledge to his successor Donald Trump. This impression matches much of the US mass media's take. That perception is an oversimplification of what has been evident.

Recently, Obama erroneously referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a former head of the KGB. Within a month's time, Obama repeated that fallacy. This error received little if any follow-up in US mass media, where heavy handed Putin and Russia bashing is the norm. Obama's gaffes get comparatively downplayed, as Trump is inaccurately portrayed as an ignorant oaf.

This past November 21, MSNBC's overly partisan Rachel Maddow, falsely claimed that Trump isn't a good sport, when it comes to taking satire, unlike other US presidents who've been targeted for such treatment. (BTW, the much maligned RT has a number of hosts, who're far more objective than Maddow and some of her other MSNBC counterparts, including the Democratic Party connected Lawrence O'Donnell.) In actuality, Trump has previously acknowledged good satire directed against him, inclusive of his having appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL).
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Blackbox

Will General Flynn roll back post-9/11 intelligence reforms, re-focus on actual intel?

Thierry Meyssan
Voltaire Network
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 00:35 UTC
flynn
Thierry Meyssan considers that General Flynn is getting ready to rock the world of US intelligence and override all post 9/11 reforms. This would put an end to the obsession with secret prisons and targeted assassinations and mark a return to the true nature of intelligence: making sense of and anticipating developments around the world.

General Michael T. Flynn, the next US National Security adviser is in the process of organizing a radical overhaul of the Intelligence Services.

According to our sources, he is getting ready to challenge the big reforms that took place during the Bush and Obama years:
  • placing all 16 Intelligence agencies under the exclusive authority of a Director of National Intelligence, supposed to supervise information sharing;
  • abolishing the line between agents on the ground and analysts in favour of functional centres such as the ones we see in the TV series 24.
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Crusader

Fidel Castro a dictator or revolutionary? A necessary differentiation by someone who knew him

Deena Stryker
The Duran
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 00:26 UTC
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro was a revolutionary not a dictator. Cubans understand this even if Westerners don't. His actions were always focused on improving the lives of Cubans - which is the opposite of what dictators do. If he had sometimes to act in an authoritarian way it was because the US left him no choice.

After watching CNN, MSNBC, France 24 and RT report on the death of Fidel Castro, their adjectives ranging from 'despot' and 'dictator' (US) to 'revolutionary' (France) to 'world revered leader' (RT) let me take a moment to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Fidel Castro did not pull off a one-man coup, as did Fulgencio Batista not once, but twice. Batista was a dictator whose goons tortured and killed those who protested his rule under a US tutelage that benefited only the 1%. Fidel, Raul and Che gathered 80 men who fought a two-year war in the mountains against Batista's better-armed military, beating it fair and square, forcing him to flee to the US.

Comment: More on the story of Fidel Castro:

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Dollar

Trump admin set to be richest in modern American history

Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson
Washington Post
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:19 UTC
trump
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
When George W. Bush assembled his first Cabinet in 2001, news reports dubbed them a team of millionaires, and government watchdogs questioned whether they were out of touch with most Americans' problems. Combined, that group had an inflation-adjusted net worth of about $250 million — which is roughly one-tenth the wealth of Donald Trump's nominee for commerce secretary alone.

Trump is putting together what will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history. His announced nominees for top positions include several multimillionaires, an heir to a family mega-fortune and two Forbes-certified billionaires, one of whose family is worth as much as industrial tycoon Andrew Mellon was when he served as treasury secretary nearly a century ago. Rumored candidates for other positions suggest Trump could add more ultra-rich appointees soon.

Comment: If Trump fails to live up to his promises, he's going to have a very angry country on his hands. On the slim chance he actually tries to do what he says he wants to do, with an administration of millionaires and billionaires, he'd probably go down in history as Trump the Great. Question is: is Trump a persuasive conman who will benefit the superrich while promising the opposite to his supporters, or is he an egotist who wants to go down in history as the man who saved America? Or maybe a third option?

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Blackbox

William Blum: The only thing that matters about Trump is whether he'll start a war with Russia

William Blum
williamblum.org
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 23:55 UTC
Preselectrump
© Business Insider
That he may not be "qualified" is unimportant.

That he's never held a government or elected position is unimportant.

That on a personal level he may be a shmuck is unimportant.

What counts to me mainly at this early stage is that he - as opposed to dear Hillary - is unlikely to start a war against Russia. His questioning of the absolute sacredness of NATO, calling it "obsolete", and his meeting with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an outspoken critic of US regime-change policy, specifically Syria, are encouraging signs.
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Snakes in Suits

Sleazeball Anthony Weiner fined $65k for misusing campaign funds on cell phone and dry cleaning


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 23:41 UTC
Anthony Weiner
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
America's sleazeball Anthony Weiner is in the news once again, but this time for reasons unrelated to his propensity for sexting: His failed 2013 mayoral campaign was found to have violated 10 different campaign finance laws and was fined $64,956.

Weiner's 2013 attempt to be elected mayor of New York City was disastrous for a number of reasons, but it continues to haunt him three years later. An audit completed by the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) discovered that Weiner's campaign spent $1,539 on cellphone bills along with dry cleaning.

While anyone paying Weiner's cell phone bill may incur some skepticism, the problem was that these were personal exchanges that were paid for with campaign donations. As a result, he received a $2,308 fine - the smallest fine his campaign received from the CFB.

Comment: More on this very strange individual:

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Ice Cream Bar

German attacker linked to ISIS planned to poison children with ice-cream & blow up nursery


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 17:34 UTC
ice cream cones
A letter from a teenage ISIS-sympathizer linked to the April bombing attack on a Sikh temple in the German city of Essen to another suspect unveils his plot to murder nursery school children with poisoned ice-cream and a car bomb, German media report.

Mohammed Ö., an 17-year old teenager, was arrested in August this year in connection with investigation of an attack on the Sikh wedding that left three people heavily injured.

He was subsequently sentenced by German district court in the city of Gelsenkirchen to two years behind bars in October for taking part in the improvised bomb trials ahead of the attack, German Focus daily reported on Wednesday, citing Bild tabloid.
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USA

Which is Trump's USA: Global empire or fortress America?

J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson
South Front
Tue, 29 Nov 2016 00:00 UTC
fortress America
© Austin SunFortress America, raising the drawbridge
While on the campaign trail, President-Elect Donald J. Trump made a range of statements suggesting a shift away from a policy of interventionism, combined with a focus on safeguarding US borders and jobs at the expense of the dominant ideology of globalism. Can and will he deliver on these promises? There are many reasons to believe he will genuinely push US foreign policy in this direction, but at the same time he will face obstacles on his path.

One of the factors clearly helping him is the increasingly indisputable fact that globalism as an ideology has been discredited, except, ironically, among the liberal "creative classes" and among the financial elites. The rest of the society and of the elite is increasingly skeptical of such policies if not downright opposed to them, which means they are willing to experiment with economic nationalism and even isolationism.

Trump also benefits from the fact that nearly all neo-conservatives have endorsed the Hillary candidacy, apparently convinced her victory was all but inevitable. Being on the losing side, they have eliminated themselves from consideration for positions within the Trump Administration, and the early personnel choices reflect it. The early pick of the former CIA Director James Woolsey is indicative of the gradual shift toward the Fortress America model. While Woolsey did support the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he notably refrained from calling for a "no-fly zone" over Syria and he is also in favor of expanding US energy production in order to reduce the dependence on Middle Eastern oil, which is a prerequisite for the US political and military disengagement from the region.

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USA

Shortsighted US Senate unanimously passes bill to extend Iran sanctions through 2026


Sputnik
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 22:28 UTC
US Congress building
© Flickr/ rj_schmidt
Members of the US Senate unanimously voted on Thursday in favor of extending 1996 sanctions against Iran for an additional 10 years.

"Senate passed H.R. 6297, the Iran Sanctions Extension Act by a vote of 99-0," Senate Periodical Press Gallery said in a Twitter message. US President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill, which has already been approved by the US House of Representatives.

Comment: The US sanctions are not stopping Iran from procuring weapons from Russia: Russia and Iran plan $10bn arms supply to Tehran

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Attention

WikiLeaks releases new leaked documents on US-German intel cooperation


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 22:09 UTC
WikiLeaks logo on cell phone
© Toru Hanai / Reuters
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has released nearly 2,500 sensitive documents over the cooperation between the German and the US spy agencies as well as data on Berlin's inquiry into the matter.

"Today, 1 December 2016, WikiLeaks releases 90 GB of information relating to the German parliamentary inquiry into the surveillance activities of Germany's foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and its cooperation with the US National Security Agency (NSA)," as statement on the website reads.

Among the 2,420 documents leaked by WikiLeaks are print-screens of the papers from the BND itself, the German military intelligence (MAD), the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and other key ministries.

Comment: More WikiLeaks revelations:

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