Actually #Guccifer2.0 (the #Russian ops to hack #DNC/#Podesta etc.) is a division of the #SVR residing in building 4 of the SVR compound.
Donald Trump Becomes 45th President!!!!!!
Actually #Guccifer2.0 (the #Russian ops to hack #DNC/#Podesta etc.) is a division of the #SVR residing in building 4 of the SVR compound.
Russian so called "soft power" is really their non linear warfare use of information warfare and cyber warfare COUPLED with/to the heavy use of "black money".........AGAIN......eastern Ukraine.....Syria...and the US elections are part and parcel of Russian non linear warare directed straight at the US.....Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Some in US CI community have wanted FISA warrants to go after Trump for many years. He has a lot to hide here. Finally, the game is on.
Prediction: several important members of Team Trump will be lucky to dodge prosecution under the Espionage Act in 2017
http://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fb...ies-to-russia/
WHAT is interesting is that the story concerning the two servers .....one in the Trump Tower and one in the Russian Alpha Bank which five of the top US computer geeks certified as being in "conversations with each other" WERE SUDDENLY turned off when a NYTs reporter started asking questions for their story HAD their report shredded by a number of different internet trolls which basically deflected interest by the larger US MSM media outlets in the NYTs story taking it out of the standard news cycle.......WHAT many did not pay attention to in that story was the ability of those FIVE Geeks to track every server connected to the internet both in the US and globally.....Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the#Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank.#While the#Times#story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.
The FBI agents who talked to the New York Times, and rubbished the ground-breaking stories of Slate#( Franklin Foer) and Mother Jones (David Corn) may not have known about the FISA warrant, sources say, because the counter-intelligence and criminal sides of the FBI often work independently of each other employing the principle of ‘compartmentalization’.
Continued.....
SECONDLY....concerning Russian cyber warfare....after the rather public warning issued first to Putin via Obama back channels...Russian media accused the US of cyber terrorism....YESTERDAY Putin publicly stated Russia will not interfere in the US elections.....BASICALLY a public Russian admission of their previous interference which indicates the seriousness of the US cyber threat to attack virtually ALL critical Russian infrastructure was fully understood by Putin....
Ah......the games superpowers publicly play that get somehow totally/completely missed by US MSM......
Worth reading....
Trolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy
http://warontherocks.com/2016/11/tro...ur-democracy/#
LAST TIME I checked the US never requested to send US "neutral observers" to the recent DUMA elections that even social media carried tons of ballot stuffing fraud stories on ...even using Russian CCTV video footage from a number of Russian polling stations to prove it....
It begins. Russian MFA's Zakharova pours scorn on FBI, Texas authorities for blocking poll-watching by diplomats RUS https://www.facebook.com/maria.zakharova.167#
SO while the threat cyber warfare from the side of the Russians might have been stopped....Russian info warfare directed at discrediting the US elections is STILL continuing....
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-19-2016 at 04:34 PM.
From a cold, grey, overcast.. rainy/snowy/slush weather day in Berlin/Brandenburg.....TO ALL US readers....GET OUT AND VOTE.......THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ELECTION not only for the US...... BUT for Europe as well....WHO BTW are better informed about the importance of this election than some Americans......I see being quoted in MSM these days.....
I did even from Berlin/Brandenburg...AND I do not even have a House Representive or Senator to represent me.....
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 11-08-2016 at 07:47 AM.
Nothing special, just a headline on RUMoD TV channel Zvezda: "Clinton may start nuclear war on Russia if becomes president - The Daily Mail"
As an American who has for the greater part of 50 years defended the US from enemies near and far under Presidents good and bad from both parties I now after watching a potential Trump presidency give up on my own country…..
I had hoped that a change in US leadership would lead to resolutions of the Russian non linear warfare in eastern Ukraine and that war is as well being directed against the Baltics and Poland…..would have some new solutions for Syria and reigning in Iran in the ME and on how to confront an ever increasingly hostile Russia…..NOT to mention a very serious Russian cyber war we find ourselves currently in…..
BUT a potential US President that alienates a religion of 3B individuals WHICH in turn actually supports the messaging narratives of both AQ and IS…….a President that thinks a “Wall” can resolve immigration……a President that does not even listen to his DNI intel briefings and assumes that the Russians did not hack the US……….a President that publicly belittled US Generals……a President that openly condones and will use torture…..a President that thinks he can be friends with Putin who has unleashed his non linear war directed against US global leadership….which is Putin’s stated goal……a President who had advisors tied directly to Russian black money and whatever the SVR has on Trump’s own weaknesses while he was often in Moscow…..a President that wants and states he will tear up existing trade agreements and does not believe in climate change…a President that does not believe in clean energy……...a President that states that he will not use Article 5 of NATO unless the attacked country has “paid up their dues” ………….AND a President that claimed he was against Iraq all the while publicly stating he was for it and a President that while I fought in VN for 18 very long months used a “bone spur” in his foot which he could never recall which foot four times to evade the draft…..AND a President who has never shown me his tax returns while I have been audited due to residing and working overseas…..
ALL of this leads me to the simple question…..can I continue to defend the US as an American from enemies near and far??……the answer I am really sorry to say is no……
I have for a number of reasons over the years had the ability to file for German citizenship and passport and never wanted to cut my ties to the US…..but if Trump is in fact the new President of the US I will drop off the citizenship request the second he is confirmed as the new US President…
It is time to let the US be what it wants to be which I think it does not even know itself…..and enjoy the rest of my remaining life in a country that does socially care about it’s society and it’s positon inside Europe…..
I will slowly disengage from the postings due to the simple fact that the new US President and his “best friend Putin” will resolve Syria an eastern Ukraine as well as the Baltics and Poland and all the commenting in the coming months will not change that…and this new President will not lead the West as has the US for the last 70 years.....
I have enjoyed the posting simply because I have learned a lot about Ukraine and Syria that was never in the text books nor in MSM….and have learned an extremely valuable lesson in Russian non linear warfare that I use daily in my internet security company on the cyber warfare front that Trumps claims is being carried out by a 400lb person sitting on his bed....when even briefed the opposite by the DNI....
I have previously stated in a SWJ article comment……”people love populists until they take power”…
To continue....this saga....as per 09:24 today I formally applied for the German citizenship and passport and will be giving up the US passport due to the fact that a populist pied piper convinced millions of Americans that globalization and immigration can be simply overcome by building a WALL, roadbuilding and creating millions of good paying jobs......AND doubling the annual economic growth %.
So on or about 4 Jan 2017 I will formally be "German and a European" who no longer has to pay taxes to IRS.....and who can visit the US for 90 days per year without a visa....which is far more than I have done in the last years....
A little of my history....and it reflects why the pied piper was and will be totally wrong....in 1964 through 1966 before I volunteered for the Army and went onto to join Special Forces....I was working during my last year of HS and the first two years of the University of Texas as an unskilled oil field worker doing pipeline xray work.....as a "common laborer" EARNING 10 USDs per hour 12 hours per day seven days a week for a monthly take home before taxes of 3,300 USDs in 1966 dollars.....I was making more than my father who had a GI Bill BA and worked for an oil company.
Oil pipeline union welders were earning 75 USDs per hour....AND today what are the equivalent wages?.....no way close to 1966...AND that is not due to "globalization"...
Second example...from 1996 thru to the internet bust in 2000 the average bidding war salaries for internet IT personnel and coders was say 100K to 130K USDs plus options....AND today...lucky to break 65-70K...WHY...IT companies took the bust opportunities to drive down salaries and increase bottom line profits to drive their 90 day earnings cycle for their stock...salaries were not driven down by globalization......BUT by the 90 day stock reporting cycle for their shareholders......in order to increase "shareholder value"......
So when a pied piper sells you that the evil of your problem lies with trade deals....or outsourcing....or the other party.....why do we not see people openly questioning those statements.....is it possibly a total lack of information and understanding just how the world's global marketplace works these days...but how could they know as most only have a HS degree???
I now have started an internet security company on the non profit side....for the last three years.. which is part German/part Swedish using available EU startup development funding streams for 17M Euros for the first two years and a follow on funding of 12.3M....in addition to what we earn in our various ongoing/running projects.
THIS is where the pied piper gets it wrong....I could in fact have taken my business directly back to the US and setup shop anywhere in the so called "Rust Belt" that followed the piped piper....and produced WITH Americans in America and then competed for overseas business.....
BUT HERE is exactly why there is a serious problem in the US and also as well in the UK with globalization...WHEN good to lower paying jobs disappear to even the lower paying BRIC countries .....THEY are simply never going to come back....
WHY not....the pied piper says they will come back....BUT it is all about competing for business and inherently good paying jobs means health insurance and other benefits driving up the overall hourly wage that needs to compete for business....in a global market where price determines everything. I recently lost a large deal because I was 4.50 Euros higher per hour than a competitor in Asia as the project was driven by a large number of man hours...and that Asian competitor was using outsourced US/UK geeks via the internet....
IF I had moved into this Rust Belt....I would have never been able to hire the 55 individuals I have now from five countries speaking four core languages....and yes the salaries of my employees effects my business decisions daily.....
Why BECAUSE all my employees have at least a BA/MA in computer sciences and or in five cases PhDs...in computer science.....WHERE could I have found that combination in say in Ohio...or Iowa....or Georgia....Iowa.....Wisconsin.....etc????
So when a pied piper claims to create millions of good paying jobs...I laugh and ask exactly how is that to happen....building roads...schools...bridges etc takes planning lead times....and money....if from the government then via taxes and if from private sources then via tolls and user fees.....
So again people love the heck out of populists and their speeches...BUT wait to see what they do when they are in power and can do something..BUT do nothing as they are in it for the "power"........
The so called Tea Party has basically controlled the US House for over 8 years AND what did they do to help those struggling in the Rust Belt....nothing at all...SO WHY will it be any better under a new "pied piper"?????
Anyway.....decision made......AND in a growing number of parts of this earth a US passport is not an advantage nor protection anymore....besides these days the only thing a passport is good for is crossing borders......time to finally not having to defend some screwed up FP by some US President who does not "get it"....
BTW....I am not the only one in Europe that is foreseeing major issues between the US and Europe....especially in the area of trade as Trump wants to place tariffs on all non Us produced products which actually then violates WTO regulations AND the US farm industry is then not going to be happy if the EU reciprocates with equal and or more tariffs on US products...Trup might one day wake up and realize just how many American good paying jobs are tied to trade with the EU and Asia..
France and Europe must defend their interests after Donald Trump's win, Alain Juppe says http://bloom.bg/2eL6aCQ
Remember, #Trump snubbed President Poroshenko during UN summit in NYC. #Ukraine could be left out in the bitter coldhttp://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/20/tru
mp-gives-ukraine-cold-shoulder-in-new-york-clinton-poroshenko/#
…
BTW....the German response below was far far different than the UK response....which is interesting as the German view of Brexit with UK is hardening....to the point of making UK pay dearly for leaving the EU...
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-19-2016 at 04:41 PM.
Someone summed up my thoughts in far fewer words....
The Manhattan billionaire scoffed at ideologies and told his supporters what they wanted to hear: that society could be forced back to a nostalgia-drenched sense of community and purpose, that long-lost jobs could be retrieved, that a pre-globalized economy could be restored.
"People love populists until they gain power....then"???
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-19-2016 at 04:42 PM.
Natalia Poklonskaya (former Crimean "Attorney") calls Trump to fulfill the promise to recognize "the Crimean referendum"
Here we go....
AND YES even the Iranians are panicking.....right about now as Trump did not have "nice things to say about them"...
IRAN PRESIDENT ROUHANI: Donald Trump's government cannot reverse the nuclear deal
http://read.bi/2ekrJeZ
AND YES he could reverse the Iran Deal as he and a lot of Republicans critiqued that deal....
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 11-09-2016 at 11:36 AM.
Charles Lister
✔
@Charles_Lister
"Trump’s term may be the beginning of America’s fragmentation & its breakup”
- Al-Qaeda celebrates #Trump victory:
http://mme.cm/GSBW00
Notwithstanding internal U.S divisions, if a Trump foreign policy prioritizes ‘strongmen’ allies, Al-Qaeda will get an unimaginable boost.
I am back into posting here as I was right where the Trump Syrian policy was going....he has as well as his surrogates stated they want to do joint operations with BOTH Assad a proven genocidal dictator who is currently using CWs and Putin against IS.......
THIS will be one of the biggest blunders from Trump if done for years going forth..he will have been responsible for driving 100,000 armed and experienced urban warfare moderate Syrian FSA fighters into the welcoming arms of JFS (AQ) AND IS as they will have seen that the US has no interest in kicking out Assad and is in a bromance with Putin....
THIS move will certainly ensure fighting in the ME for the next 20 odd years and not to say provoke a response from KSA...Qatar..GCC. and Turkey....NOT LEAST Israel who informed Russian via their PM visit this week Israel will not tolerate Iran inside Syria....as they have Hezbollah on one border already and they do not want Iran on the Golan Heights border...
Dr Shajul Islam @DrShajulIslam
4 #RUSSIAN BUNKER BUSTERS on our hospital just now! Lost underground operating room, £60k equipment, 3 ambulances, medication warehouse!
One-Hundred Years of Fear: America Has Abdicated Its Leadership of the West
http://spon.de/aeRLF via @SPIEGELONLINE
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
My brief comments on jihadist perceptions of #Trump’s victory in the U.S., plus implications for the region:
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/m...gn-policy-team … #Syria
Middle East
Donald Trump Likely to End Aid for Rebels Fighting Syrian Government
By DAVID E. SANGERNOV. 11, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/wo...ump-syria.html
Military aid to rebels financed & delivered by regional sunni powers, what happens next is a test for GCC-Turk ties.
This could also force all factions including JFS and FSA to unite and fully merge when the moderate-radical limitations becomes irrelevant
THIS means 100,000 rebel fighters merging into JFS.....
I will be backing out of posting to the Syrian as well as the Ukrainian threads because in both the killing just keeps on going on as the core problem with the Russian non linear warfare is...it has never been fully countered by either NATO and the US and under Trump it will continue to be potentially a supportive proRussian positon taken by Trump thus making the current global problems even worse.....
SWJ had a recent article on the success or failure of the Russian non linear warfare with the two key cornerstones of 1) cyber warfare and 2) informational warfare....
HATE to admit it and many might not like this... we the US and the entire West have lost and lost badly.....
Russian cyber warfare is still going strong and not a single pushback by the US has occurred and NOW we have a "cyber arms race" and we are even losing that....and that informational warfare using fake news sites....social media trolling companies aided by the Russian government and a Russian state sponsored global disinformation/propaganda media network...being funded for 1B USDs per year and going strong with no pushback by any Western country....WELL they have actually won there with the massive upsurge in "populist" parties culminating in the election of a US "populist" that is proRussian leaning...and who firmly believes as do Russian oligarchs in the concept called "kleptocracy".....and potentially a number of NATO countries also swinging towards "populist leaders/parties" and proRussian leaning leaders being recently elected in Estonia, Bulgaria and Moldavia...
Nothing has changed in eastern Ukraine and in Syria where we the US are now fully complicit in supporting a genocidal dictator and Trump's bromance partner Putin and Trump states a number of times he would support both against IS driving 100,000 well trained and experienced FSA fighters straight in to the arms of JFS ....
We now hear about US Muslim Registries and banning of immigrants from "supposedly terrorist nations" and those that voted for Trump..."see" radical Muslims on every street corner and behind every bush/tree..AND Sharia law literally taking over the entire US State/Federal Court system..and the racist and anti Muslim rhetoric just keeps climbing in the US driving sadly towards an eventual "clash of civilizations" that both IS and AQ have predicted and wanted....
We are sadly now in the "Post Truth Era" and no amount of trying to keep people informed about areas of the world that have sadly become part of this "Post Truth Era" that MSM is failing to fully and completely inform the reading public about is another reason to slowly back away....
One can lead a horse to the pool of "truth" but you cannot make that horse understand that it is the "truth" in this "Post Truth Era"....
The killing still goes on in eastern Ukraine and Syria and just posting that which everyone knows never will change appears to me to be just a exercise in futility and a waste of time...
Interestingly the sheer number of Reads (over 570,000 since 2015 on Syria AND the over more than 400,000 on Ukraine in the same timeframe) over the last year or two indicate to me that some do want to be kept informed even if of another political opinion, but in the end just being informed does not change FP and with this new coming Trump FP....I am thoroughly happy to be getting my German Passport on 4 Jan which is another reason to back away...as I personally feel then that a former US citizen now future German does not have the right to critique the US...
I had thought after Rwanda and Srebrenica genocide had been beaten back into the ground .....it has not...I thought after the Wall fell the issue of changing international borders using force had stopped...it has not and after roughly 15 years of war against AQ and IS we still have not learned a single lesson on how to deal with them other than more killing....and until we learn those lessons that are literally in our faces.... that we must honestly address AQ and IS directly....the killing will continue for the next several decades.
Trump or no Trump....
So it is time to move on....the photo that haunts me from my time in VN was the little nude girl running from napalm and two ... 8 and 10 year old Vietnamese boys killed in my ambush who even though while 8 and 10 both carried VC ID cards and two old rusty US ,45 pistols AND the picture of the little Syrian girl injured from an air strike with an oxygen mask who died later not even achieving the age of 1...sad that the world has never seemed to learn...
If the US FP cannot stand up...lead and provide answers any more...that is a simple declaration of bankruptcy...a bankruptcy of morale values...civil and humans rights....end of story...
Time to move on..... if someone would have told me that I would be ending my life time in a country that will be pushing back on European populism ie fascism with a smile in the coming years I would have called them crazy....
Amazing to watch US citizens using Nazi salutes during Trump rallies and yesterday in DC......this is not the America that I defended from enemies near and far.....
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-21-2016 at 11:44 AM. Reason: Copied from the Syria thread as it explains a lot.
From those SWJ commenters/readers who maybe have not liked my comments on "white supremacy and or ethno racist nationalism" called now "white nationalism"..this might help to explain why I am so adamant of being against it and why I see the threat of so called "populism" that Trump is deliberately using far more dangerous than anything IS can do to the US........this "white nationalism" is being pushed by the KKK...the 270 armed militias in the US....the 300 or so right wing media outlets and now the Brietbart.com which uses "alt Right" arguments..and which the new Trump advisor pushed...used and developed.....
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%E2...cid=spartandhp
White Nationalism Explained...
A question has been posed in a puzzled whisper in many of the nation’s living rooms and newsrooms ever since Donald J. Trump’s triumph in this month’s presidential election: What, exactly, is white nationalism?
Self-proclaimed white nationalists have happily embraced Mr. Trump’s victory and, particularly, his choice of Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist, as a win for their agenda. A barrage of groups that fight discrimination and hate speech have, in turn, criticized Mr. Bannon’s appointment, warning that his embrace of the “alt-right” movement was little more than an attempt to rebrand racism and white nationalism into something palatable enough for mass consumption.
And much of the rest of the country has been left to wonder what this unfamiliar term actually means.
While white nationalism certainly overlaps with white supremacy and racism, many political scientists say it is a distinct phenomenon — one that was a powerful but often-unseen force during the presidential election and will most likely remain a potent factor in American and European politics in coming years.
Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck University in London, has spent years studying the ways that ethnicity intersects with politics. While most researchers in that field focus on ethnic minorities, Professor Kaufmann does the opposite: He studies the behavior of ethnic majorities, particularly whites in the United States and Britain.
White nationalism, he said, is the belief that national identity should be built around white ethnicity, and that white people should therefore maintain both a demographic majority and dominance of the nation’s culture and public life.
So, like white supremacy, white nationalism places the interests of white people over those of other racial groups. White supremacists and white nationalists both believe that racial discrimination should be incorporated into law and policy.
Some will see the distinction between white nationalism and white supremacy as a semantic sleight of hand. But although many white supremacists are also white nationalists, and vice versa, Professor Kaufmann says the terms are not synonyms: White supremacy is based on a racist belief that white people are innately superior to people of other races; white nationalism is about maintaining political and economic dominance, not just a numerical majority or cultural hegemony.
For a long time, he said, white nationalism was less an ideology than the default presumption of American life. Until quite recently, white Americans could easily see the nation as essentially an extension of their own ethnic group.
But the country’s changing demographics, the civil rights movement and a push for multiculturalism in many quarters mean that white Americans are now confronting the prospect of a nation that is no longer built solely around their own identity.
For many white people, of course, the growing diversity is something to celebrate. But for others it is a source of stress. The white nationalist movement has drawn support from that latter group. Its supporters argue that the United States should protect its white majority by sharply limiting immigration, and perhaps even by compelling nonwhite citizens to leave.
Mr. Trump’s appointment of Mr. Bannon as his senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist has, more than anything, brought white nationalism to the forefront of conversation. He is the former editor of Breitbart News, a site he described in August to Mother Jones as “the platform of the alt-right.”
Although the alt-right is ideologically broader than white nationalism — it also includes neoreactionaries, monarchists, and meme-loving internet trolls — white nationalism makes up a significant part of its appeal.
For instance, Richard Spencer, who runs the website AlternativeRight.com, is also the director of the National Policy Institute, an organization that says it is devoted to protecting the “heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”
Mr. Spencer argues that immigration and multiculturalism are threats to America’s white population, and has said his ideal is a white “ethno-state.”
He has avoided discussing the details of how this might be achieved, saying it is still just a “dream,” but has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” to remove nonwhite people from American soil.
Mr. Bannon, the Trump adviser, told The Times upon his appointment that he does not share those ethno-nationalist views. But under his leadership, Breitbart News has gone to considerable lengths to cater to an audience that does. And in a 2015 radio interview that was resurfaced this week by The Washington Post, Mr. Bannon opposed even highly skilled immigration, implying he believed it was a threat to American culture.
“When two-thirds or three-quarters of the C.E.O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think...” he said, trailing off midsentence before continuing a moment later, “a country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.”
White nationalists, including Mr. Spencer, have rejoiced at Mr. Bannon’s appointment to such a senior position in the Trump White House. But focusing on high-profile figures like Mr. Bannon may obscure the more significant way that white nationalist ideas are affecting politics — and fueling the rise of politicians like Mr. Trump in the United States as well as anti-immigrant populist movements in Britain and continental Europe.
Several studies of other countries have found that a desire to protect traditional values and culture is the strongest predictor of support for the sort of populism that propelled Mr. Trump to power in the United States.
Many of those voters would not think of themselves as white nationalists, and the cultural values and traditions they seek to protect are not necessarily explicitly racial. However, those traditions formed when national identity and culture were essentially synonymous with whiteness. So the impulse to protect them from social and demographic change is essentially an attempt to turn back the clock to a less-diverse time.
A recent working paper by Pippa Norris, a political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, concluded, based on an analysis of wide-ranging survey data, that populists have succeeded by appealing to the cultural anxiety of groups like older white men, who once formed the cultural majority in Western societies, “but have recently seen their predominance and privilege eroded.”
Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, a professor of politics at the University of Bergen in Norway, came to a similar conclusion after studying anti-immigrant policies in Europe. Their supporters, she found, were motivated by a desire to protect their national culture — suggesting they believed that immigrants posed a threat to it.
Mr. Trump’s criticism of immigrants and promise to “make America great again” may have tapped into those same cultural anxieties, fueling his success with older and less-educated white voters. (Over all, he won white voters by 21 percentage points.
Professor Kaufmann argues that anxiety over white identity and anti-immigrant populist politicians can have a symbiotic relationship, each strengthening the other. When populist politicians gain mainstream success, that can make white nationalist ideas more socially acceptable.
“It’s not just a question of ethnic change and people being alarmed over it,” he said. “It’s also a question of what people see as the boundaries of acceptable opposition. It’s about what counts as racism, and whether it’s racist to vote for a far-right party.”
“This is all about the anti-racist norm,” Professor Kaufmann continued. “If it’s weakening or eroding because people think the boundaries have shifted.”
Painful choices ahead
A considered Lawfare article by Professor Daniel Byman 'Should We Work with the Devil We Know against the Islamic State?'. He ends with:Link:https://www.lawfareblog.com/should-w...islamic-state?None of this is ideal, and even in the best of circumstances the Islamic State is likely to survive in some form, but all of it is better than a deal with the Syrian devil.
davidbfpo
To Outlaw 09 RE: Various (Part 1)
1. Personally, I believe that political ideology is three-dimensional rather than two.
2. I agree with you that rural voters have increasingly turned toward the GOP since the Great Recession began in 2007. I disagree that the 1920s is relevant, given that the surge in white supremacy was accompanied by religious fervor and occurred during a period of official and institutionalized racism. The support of the “Alt-Right” is immaterial compared to that of the mainstream media for Clinton. However, let’s look at the economic record for Obama’s tenure:
- The same real GDP growth as Bush (half that of Reagan and Clinton)
- The smallest US manufacturing sector as a share of GDP
- A Labor Participation Rate not seen since Carter
- Real median household income lower than Clinton on average
- Real median household net worth set back a decade for whites and a generation for blacks
Yet Hillary expected to campaign on the status quo?
3. Trump is a politician who will take credit where credit isn’t due.
4. I read The Art of War to be philosophically against war in a way that many martial arts are philosophically opposed to violence.
The Russians have not altered the beliefs of American or European society. They have attempted to amplify popular doubts about the status quo, but the fact is that the establishment has been unable to put forth a compelling vision that Western nations can understand and support. The European Union was provoking ire among many Western Europeans in the early 2000s for its ideological bias and overreach, years before the Great Recession and rivalry with Moscow over Ukraine. On the whole, no new vision has been put forth since 1992’s The End of History. Yet Western faith that liberal democracy will triumph everywhere has been eroded over time and replaced with cynicism if not pessimism.
As for Russia’s curious blend of Czarist and Soviet ideology as well as the Byzantine Caesaro-Papism of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is unsustainable in the long-term.
Russia’s true contest is with China, and if history is any guide, Russia will have to ally with the West or find itself the Austria-Hungary or Italy to China’s Germany…
5. First, Russia was accused of hacking the polling machines. Now, it is accused of hacking the DNC and leaking the correspondence to WikiLeaks, which I believe it did. But did it swing the election in Trump’s favor? No. The biggest blow to Hillary was her “basket of deplorables” remark (32 estimated electoral votes lost) and Comey’s letters to Congress (24 estimated electoral votes lost); in fact, the Podesta release was more than overwhelmed by the Access Hollywood one.
The “vast right-wing conspiracy” of the late 1990s has transformed into a sprawling conspiracy that would baffle even Jim Marrs. Do you want to know the candidate that imitated Russian non-linear warfare? Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Her response to the Server Scandal was reminiscent of Russia’s propaganda regarding MH17:
- Hillary suffered a concussion and remembers nothing (did the security briefing occur after she had been Secretary for over 3 years?)
- It was Colin Powell’s fault (he was in no position to approve or authorize it)
- It was her aids’ fault
- There was no classified material on the server
- There may have been classified material but Hillary didn’t know what the “C” meant
- The security protocols are too onerous
- Stop asking questions
- This is yet another right-wing conspiracy
- All of the above
Again, look at how her minions have responded to her loss:
- It was a “whitelash” (despite Trump’s share of the white vote being within recent GOP norms)
- It was white men
- It was white women (betrayal!)
- It was Comey (he is a secret GOP agent provocateur)
- It was Obama (asking her to concede early)
- It was the Electoral College (set-up to ensure GOP victory!)
- It was Russia
- All of the above
To Outlaw 09 RE: Various (Part 2)
1. You reside in Germany and are clearly not facing the adverse economic and financial conditions that prevail in the Rust Belt and for roughly half of Americans. This is not a criticism, but context...
2. You wanted Hillary Clinton to be elected President because you expected her pursue a more confrontational foreign policy with respect to Russia and Iran, and toward the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. You also were aware that she would largely ignore domestic policy, knowing that any initiatives would be obstructed by Republicans in Congress. Clinton’s policy focus and ability to effect change were both in the area of foreign affairs, and Clinton had established herself as a hawk.
3. You have accused Obama of ignoring Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria, and Iran’s aggression in Syria and Yemen. In fact, you have argued that Obama has been complicit in Putin’s attempts to coerce Kiev into recognizing Putin’s puppets, and in Assad’s attempt to annihilate the moderate rebels. You have posted sources and articles suggesting that Obama is cooperating with Putin and Khamenei and is seen as their accomplice by many Sunni Arabs.
Therefore, I have two questions for you:
Question 1: If Obama has caved to Putin and Khamenei as you suggest, what could Trump do to make things even worse?
Lift sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine? The Europeans are the least enthusiastic about maintaining the sanctions, Kerry has already tied them to Donbas rather than Crimea, and they show no signs of causing Russia to withdraw from either territory.
Allow Russia to bomb the Free Syrian Army? That is already happening.
Suspend aid to the rebels? That would only cause the Turks, Saudis and Qataris to increase aid without the CIA’s restrictions and would probably be a net benefit to the FSA.
Cooperate more with the Iranians and their mercenaries? Actually, Trump would prove more confrontational as he cares little for the JCPOA. This would mean more arms sales and transfers to the GCC.
Question 2: What could Hillary actually accomplish more than Obama?
Create a NFZ in Syria? Doubtful unless you want war with Russia.
More aid to the FSA? And suffer accusations of supporting Daesh and Al Qaeda…
More sanctions on Russia? Not if the Europeans can help it.
Lethal aid to Ukraine? In return for advanced weapons to Syria, Iran, the Houthis and others?
Azor,
This is no longer about Clinton or Obama. This is all about Trump. Trump won the election so the question is not about what ifs and more about what is to come. Based on his personality and exceptionally thin skin, his total lack of foreign policy experience, and his refusal to take advise from anyone (like the intelligence community), I think trepidation is in order.
Last edited by TheCurmudgeon; 12-13-2016 at 06:15 PM.
"I can change almost anything ... but I can't change human nature."
Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan
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Firstly, you are dismissing my reasonable questions about how Trump would be "worse" for those voters wanted a tougher line on aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
Secondly, Obama had a very thick skin, and it only encouraged the Russians and Iranians to provoke him and put US servicemen and women at risk. Erdogan shot down a Su-24 that was in Turkish airspace for less than a minute, and nothing happened. Yet the Russian Air Force violates NATO airspace regularly and skirts it with nuclear-capable bombers.
Thirdly, the Director of the CIA and his two Deputy Directors are all political appointees, and only the Director has relevant experience with the CIA, albeit from 2005. Therefore, we cannot regard information from the CIA released officially or by unnamed sources as merely the apolitical expert opinion of intelligence analysts.
The CIA gave absurdly low numbers for Daesh's strength from 2014 on, which were up to ten times lower than the Peshmerga's estimates. To date, Operation Inherent Resolve has killed more Daesh fighters than were estimated in 2014 and 2015.
Now we are seeing a regurgitation of the allegation that the Russians hacked the DNC, which I believe that they did. Yet the WikiLeaks release of July was only a temporary setback to Clinton's chances and Comey's letters as well as Hillary's "deplorables" remark had far more of an impact on her electoral chances, with the latter having by far the greatest (est. 32 seats lost).
Trump understands that the CIA's claims and Obama's investigation are yet another attempt to question the legitimacy of Trump's victory, after the suggestions that Russia hacked paper-based booths and after Stein's failed recount bid.
Lastly, many Republican officials associated with the CIA also denounced Trump's nomination by the GOP and publicly supported Clinton.
So is it Trump's fault for tensions between the president-elect and the CIA, or the CIA's role in the scorched earth tactics by anti-Trump Republicans and the DNC?
It was said that during Bill Clinton's presidency, that the DCI had to crash his helicopter into the White House to get a minute of Bill's time, and the lack of action on Al Qaeda is indicative of that. Now that the ODNI has publicly disagreed with the CIA's conclusions based on evidence from the Summer, it is incumbent upon the Agency to make music with the president-elect.
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