As shocking as Donald Trump’s victory was – and as uncertain as the future is – his victory marked a massive “intelligence failure” of the Establishment, a blow to its arrogance and self-dealing, says ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller.
By Graham E. Fuller
President Trump. The very words hit the ear as a shock; the mind is not ready for it.
And that is exactly the problem. We could not see it coming. Among other things this tawdry and interminable election represents a massive American intelligence failure. Not failure of IQ, but failure to grasp reality — now a deeply engrained American characteristic. We not only fail to perceive and grasp reality abroad, but now even at home.
President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Nov. 10, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The Establishment was cocksure down to the last hours that such a thing could not, would not happen. It had drunk its own Kool-Aid.
A huge portion of this intelligence failure rests with the Democratic Party. Its complacent certitude of its right to win, expressed right down to the end of Election Day, was vivid.
Such smugness also fed the anger of Trump supporters, many of whom were apparently shamed into hiding it, but who voted Donald Trump in the anonymity of the polling place.
It did not fully grasp the racism that still runs so deeply in American society, the poisonous and corrosive legacy of slavery that has not truly been internalized by most white people. The prejudice against Latino, and especially Mexican people, betrays ignorance of the historical reality that vast areas of rising Latino power in the U.S. today are precisely those regions that once constituted an integral part of a large state of Mexico, its society, culture and politics — Texas, Arizona, California.
The U.S. power Establishment — the two national parties, the bureaucracy, the “deep state,” the military, the security establishment, Wall Street and the corporations — all have believed in their own exceptionalism and right to dominate and determine the course of American society — and indeed even much of the rest of the world.
We had no reason to expect that the Republican Party could serve as the natural voice of those who feel disenfranchised and economically marginalized — dissed in the fullest sense. In this sense, Trump was a revolution from within the ranks of the Republican Party. Or perhaps more accurately, he seized the mechanism of the Republican Party to broadcast a message that the Republican establishment could not see or believe until too late.
And there was widespread and shocking misogyny towards Hillary Clinton and women. And there was shocking racism in the subliminal hostility to the legitimacy of President Obama. That cannot be blamed on the Democratic establishment.
The Democratic Party’s Failure
But for all the ugliness of the Trump campaign, the failure and the blame for this situation rests more deeply with the Democratic Party. This is the party that nominally is supposed to represent the liberal conscience of the country, of those who feel excluded or disadvantaged or just plain hurting within American society.
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking to one of his large crowds of supporters. (Photo credit: Sanders campaign)
Yet the party’s establishment not only remained insensitive to the deep source of discontent across American society, it actively sought to crush expressions of it. It was openly allied with corporate America, reveling in the contest of who could collect greater bribe money.
Bernie Sanders, however, did represent a true, clear, open voice articulating a great deal — but not all — of what was profoundly wrong in American society and politics. The Democratic establishment mocked, diminished, or ignored that message as best it could, including President Obama himself. Yet ironically Sanders would likely have defeated Trump.
The performance of the New York Times is especially egregious in this regard. I pick on the Times because it is supposed to represent America’s greatest newspaper, the “newspaper of record,” in theory a voice of centrist liberalism in the country.
Yet the Times, fully representing establishment and corporate interests, would not/could not acknowledge the Sanders campaign for what it was. It treated it as an amusing human-interest story at most, a sideshow while the big boys got on with serious politics. It constantly opposed Sanders to the end. And once Hillary Clinton was the anointed candidate, the Times turned its powerful establishment guns against Trump as the sole remaining threat to the Establishment.
There are lots of things to dislike or even condemn about Trump and many of his followers. But the Times abandoned any pretense of deeper examination of the Establishment that Trump was posing. It became all anti-Trump all day 24/7 with every single writer and voice assigned a niche role in denigrating Trump. News coverage was indistinguishable from editorial.
The paper became analytically a bore, predictable, a kind of Pravda-on-Hudson. Same-ole same-ole every day. They began to believe it. One had to turn to the foreign press to sometimes get a little broader and deeper analysis.
More hearteningly, we got to see the significant power of the left-of-center voices, primarily relegated to the internet, which made major contributions in understanding the phenomena at hand if anybody bothered to look. The Nation has to rank high in this regard, a publication largely dismissed by the Establishment as marginal, ideological and crank. So did other sites like Truth-Out, Common Sense, Real News, Real World News, Consortium News, Tom Englehardt, and Reader Supported News.
It was not that these sites were right about everything, and god knows each had their own clear perspective and preferences as well, but they were willing to examine the alternative realities around us in the world. The Establishment and the mainstream media never got beyond their own smug stance in support of what they believed was the dominant, anointed perspective.
Trump’s Unknowns
What do we now face with the election of Trump? The scariest thing is that we don’t really know. There is a welter of conflicting signals and we each have had our favorite reasons to hate him. Yet manifestly Trump has had his fingers on the pulse of a huge portion of the country that feels angry, oppressed and isolated. (Sanders grasped this as well.)
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump is also an opportunist. He will say anything to get elected. Most politicians will, but he did it better. (Sanders, to his credit, did not say anything to get elected — that is why the Establishment was so shocked, dismissive and incredulous about him.)
How else to explain the rush of the entire spectrum of the Establishment, Democrat and Republican, including leading neoconservatives, to publicly repudiate Trump and declare Hillary as their candidate?
At this point, Trump’s checkered and inconsistent platform record makes it hard to know who the real Trump is. President Obama is probably right that Trump would seem to be temperamentally unfit to be president. But Trump is not the first to be so.
Let’s remember that for much of his earlier campaign Trump was often to the left of Hillary — he said the rich should pay more taxes, he attacked and discredited Bush Jr.’s military adventures, he said he could get along with Putin, he said that the U.S. should adopt a neutral stance on the Palestinian issue, he opposed the corporatization of foreign policy in the form of “globalization,” and he opposed compulsive U.S. intervention abroad.
He tacitly acknowledged that America was no longer “great”—fairly evident by so many measures, but denied shrilly by Hillary. Trump has subsequently backed off from many of these positions. Were those his instinctive “default” positions? They served him well at the outset, along with lots of other bad ideas and attitudes.
The Republican and Democratic establishments and the American “deep state” are indeed aware that they may be losing their sinecure on political, financial, military and security policy. How successful might they be in enfolding Trump within their embrace and “rightly guiding” him. And do we want that?
The co-optive power of the American “deep state” is great. The Republican and Democrat establishments may be deeply competitive on domestic issues, especially social ones. But they seem to close ranks on foreign policy. There has been no debate, no discussion about American “exceptionalism,” its right to intervene anywhere and everywhere in the world, and the need to maintain American supremacy in all things, especially military.
The knee-jerk hatred of Russia as its former Cold War opponent, now no longer prostrate. America’s deep fear of China as a rising and successful rival. The reluctance to embrace multilateralism except on U.S. terms. The routine preference for military solutions (“if we have it, why not use it?”) involving issues that above all require diplomatic and political solutions. US reluctance to acknowledge the importance of other rising nations, among them the BRICS. The tendency to believe that every issue in the world may represent a “vital American interest.”
Who Is Trump?
In the absence of information so far on who President Trump’s actual appointees will be, it is hard to speculate about future foreign policy. Initial rumors of potential nominees are disquieting. But I tend to think that Trump, by himself, may not be any more likely to stumble into war than Hillary Clinton would have been. Worryingly, the foreign policy “deep state” may override him.
A sign supporting Donald Trump at a rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016 (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Domestically, non-white Americans, and all women, have much reason to fear his language — even more, to fear the views and voices of many of Trump’s supporters. But Trump may have enough ego to now try to be president of “all of America.”
His FDR, New Deal instincts — occasionally uttered — could be significant. A bold, dramatic new domestic agenda could have great impact and be entirely affordable, but only if corporations pay their taxes and if half the U.S. military budget — bigger than the next ten nations in the world combined — was dedicated to fixing America’s crying infrastructural and economic needs for the bottom 90 percent of the population.
Shockingly, we have a military budget six times greater than the monies allocated to American education — and this in a techno-competitive world.
In the end, this election represents the total collapse of the Republican Party (which is not a true conservative party but a corporate and socially reactionary party). And the election has now gutted the Democratic establishment as well. It had it coming.
But the forces that have kept this country on the wrong path for so long are so intractable, so institutionalized, so resistant to change that it may just require just such a massive shake-up of the system to allow new and creative forces to arise.
Strikingly, America is the only democracy in the world that has no Left. The U.S. political spectrum begins just right of center with Obama (except on social issues) and marches on across to a Crazy Right. Indeed, it is slanderous to be called a liberal today, much less a “leftist.” (Being a “rightist” is fine.)
Above all, we should hope that a true genuine Left will now arise in the country, of which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are important components. Youth will be its vital second base. Its ranks will grow rapidly if Trump fails to deliver.
The need for big-time change has never been more apparent. Will this cataclysm within the Establishment now give birth to new creative forces, bigger than Trump himself?
Graham E. Fuller is a former senior CIA official, author of numerous books on geopolitics and the Muslim World; his latest book is Breaking Faith: A novel of espionage and an American’s crisis of conscience in Pakistan. (Amazon, Kindle) grahamefuller.com
There may be greatness in Mister T. Lincoln was mocked as a backwoods baboon, “the original gorilla”, and worse, but he grew to the challenges of the office and crushed the enemies of American freedom. Frankly I was horrified that Trump won, but now that I have bothered to actually listen to his campaign speeches I am almost excited. His message to the American people is straightforward and has been consistent through his career, as far as I can see: we take care of our own. And the road to “greatness” is when we all pull together.
The American people heard this message despite the most mendacious propaganda campaign thrown against a Presidential candidate since Andrew Jackson. It has been the most amazing spectacle to see the most evil elements of our society in a panic by the rebellion of one of their own. It would be entirely consistent with the bizarre ironies that are the story of the United States that an arch-capitalist might became a leader in the class struggle
Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of the next great stage of western social transformation. Liberalism provided the means to break the power of Absolutism, and celebrated for the first time the value of the individual. The United States was founded as the first liberal government in human history, “on the natural authority of the people alone”, freed from the traditional oppression of the church-state alliance. But over time liberalism, tainted by the new economic plan called capitalism, became corrupted. In the place of respect of the individual for his or her ability to contribute to the common welfare, we have a nation of alienated me-first narcissists. While our system rots at its core, privileged children whine about their hurt feelings because life is not fair, and imagine they are expressing a political position.
In the nineteenth century liberalism evolved into a reactionary movement to defuse the revolutionary radicalism of the time. Modern liberalism is at heart about the preservation of property rights and the status quo. Elements of progressivism are incorporated into the published dogma of liberalism, but liberals fight just as vigorously as conservatives to see that these goals are never achieved in a way that infringes on their privileged social and economic status. The elephant in the liberal living room is the embarrassing reality that capitalist society is organized on the exploitation of one class by another.
The vote for Trump just may be a resounding “No!” by an awakening people. Liberals will continue to mock their fellow countrymen as racist misogynist morons. The truly dark underside of this campaign is the exposure of their utter contempt for those they pretend to fight for. Americans must and will stand together to hold Trump to his promises, and to expand that vision into what we will eventually agree will be the correct replacement for a dead political creed.
The election of Trump comes as a great surprise to most of us – perhaps even to Trump and quite likely the many people who voted for Trump for the limited purpose of sending a message to the establishment.
A great lesson of this election is that our electoral system does not provide a good channel of communication. The message is likely to become garbled by the noise in the system that it will become unintelligible. The electoral system is designed for choosing people to take political office. It is not much better for doing that than for sending a message, but it is marginally more suited for that job.
If we want to have a better politics we need to consider changing our electoral system to one that works better. It can be done – Maine just changed the way its electoral system works and it did it through a citizen initiative to put that up as a ballot issue. Other states can do the same, but I would hope they could choose a yet better voting system.
The fairest voting system is “rank voting,” which lets the voter rank the candidates by choice, first, second, third choice. If the first choice is beaten out of the race, the voter’s second choice is counted, etc. That way a voter’s vote actually counts. We must allow all party contenders on the ballot, the hell with this eliminating by poll percents (which can be rigged, and are, of course), and all candidates should be in the debates. Enough of the dem/repub control over debates. The League of Women Voters should be recalled to handle debates, not have them in the hands of six super-rich entities, as it’s been since they took control. All private money should be disallowed in elections; and all funding public and equal for candidates. THEN we might actually have elections we could have confidence in. Notice how the MSM REFUSED to print and televise Bernie Sanders’ speeches??? …when he had the biggest turnouts of supporters, into many thousands more than the other candidates. Our country, you may have noticed, is not a democracy, and, in fact, has never been. There is no “making America great again;” there’s only making America great for all, for the first time.
The fairest voting system is “rank voting,” which lets the voter rank the candidates by choice, first, second, third choice. If the first choice is beaten out of the race, the voter’s second choice is counted, etc. That way a voter’s vote actually counts. We must allow all party contenders on the ballot, the hell with this eliminating by poll percents (which can be rigged, and are, of course), and all candidates should be in the debates. Enough of the dem/repub control over debates. The League of Women Voters should be recalled to handle debates, not have them in the hands of six super-rich entities, as it’s been since they took control. All private money should be disallowed in elections; and all funding public and equal for candidates. THEN we might actually have elections we could have confidence in. Notice how the MSM REFUSED to print and televise Bernie Sanders’ speeches??? …when he had the biggest turnouts of supporters, into many thousands more than the other candidates. Our country, you may have noticed, is not a democracy, and, in fact, has never been. There is no “making America great again;” there’s only making America great for all, for the first time.
Perhaps it wasn’ an intelligence failure, but a failure of intelligence in recognizing what Trump meant when he claimed the polls were rigged. .
Apparently the exit polls match the pre-election polls. The do not match the recorded results. It’s not proof of anything. But it sure is interesting.
http://tdmsresearch.com/2016/11/10/2016-presidential-election-table/
Just read Graham E. Fuller’s article and was astounded to find that I agree with 99% of it! Forgive me my paranoia, but “he took the words right out of my mouth.” I’ve been saying for years, “There is No Left left!” It has been co-opted into a kind of Huff-Post Bardo where the banal and trivial corral the herd as effectively as Fox News… or for you faux sophisticates – the NY Times. “The Great Dumbing Down” goes hand in hand with that dubious phrase, “National Security.” Left is Right – and vice versa. Right?
So, we may have just witnessed a “black swan event” that took everyone by surprise – or it could just be a ‘wilderness of mirrors psy-op’ that moves ‘the puzzle palace’ on to main street. (I’m deliberately using clichés to demonstrate how propaganda operates.) When all our common meanings and references are made irrelevant, then the shrewder operatives, social engineers, and mad little conquistadors are free to have their way with us. One is reminded Hillary’s mentor:
“Today Americans would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.”
Henry Kissinger speaking at the annual Bilderberger meeting, May 21, 1992
To conclude, is Mr. Fuller a man of conscience? What are we to make of a life-long deep state operative talking about the deep state? Is this a genuine conversion on his part or a demonstration of how to co-opt and neutralize the logic of an argument? President Trump seems a perfect reflection of our dilemma: Nobody knows what to believe!
Please, Steve, do you not know Edward Snowden? Robert Parry? and others of that ilk? No one knows the dregs of the inside of the CIA than the people who have left to tell about it. Graham Fuller is another one.
I have no clue about what his presidency is going to accomplish!
However, Donald J. TRUMP fought like hell against the control freaks in the GOP and Democratic party establishments, the MSM, the Wall Street and even foreign entities, some of whom are funding ISIS joined in against him! They descended on him like a pack of wolves upon a lone lost sheep!
They intended to silence those who supported him and permanently bury Trump himself! He is a fighter with a big mouth and HE PREVAILED! Congratulations DUDE!
Akech – yes, Trump went up against a formidable wall and he won. That is a feat that few could have pulled off. He maintained his confidence and put one foot in front of the other. He is to be commended for that.
What do we now face with the election of Trump? The scariest thing is that we don’t really know.
Ponder this: “Privacy activists, human rights campaigners and former US security officials have expressed fears over the prospect of Donald Trump controlling the vast global US and UK surveillance network.” – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/11/trump-surveillance-network-nsa-privacy
The U.S. power Establishment — the two national parties, the bureaucracy, the “deep state,” the military, the security establishment, Wall Street and the corporations — all have believed in their own exceptionalism and right to dominate and determine the course of American society — and indeed even much of the rest of the world.
Let’s not forget the role of the Israel Lobby in running Congress. And, probably, the Trump White House: Biden speaks for Trump, assuring ‘anxious’ Jews of ‘no diminution’ in US support for Israel by Philip Weiss – http://mondoweiss.net/2016/11/assuring-anxious-diminution/
The terror that America has inflicted around the globe has now come home to roost–and every American; liberal and conservative; deserves it for not standing up to the evils that have been committed in our names especially since 9/11. The rest of the world was shocked by Trump’s election but they shouldn’t be. This is who we are.
This is the party that nominally is supposed to represent the liberal conscience of the country, of those who feel excluded or disadvantaged or just plain hurting within American society.
Except for rare occasions the Democratic Party has only represented the people when forced to.
“Above all, we should hope that a true genuine Left will now arise in the country, of which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are important components. Youth will be its vital second base. Its ranks will grow rapidly if Trump fails to deliver.”
I would prefer a left led by people who do not capitulate to every policy and principal they claimed (probably falsely) to believe in. Once I see capitulation I just think of Alexis Tsipras they’re all the same it is emblematic of those who can not be trusted.
The problem with many people on the Left is that they are rigid in their particular positions and refuse to compromise in the slightest, even with others they might have much more in common. Shortly after I moved to my present area I was invited to join a new group consisting of a variety of people in the left of the political spectrum with the aim of achieving some degree of solidarity. This seemed to be a really great idea. It didn’t take long for the first group to announce it wasn’t going to compromise on some point after which they abandoned the concept of solidarity. Then another group made its exit for a similar reason on a different point. Within a couple of months there were only about half a dozen people left of an initial 40 to 50. Despite all the talk since the announcement of Trump’s election we are more likely to get the preceding scenario on a national scale.
You know Bill I often agree with everything you comment on, and this time is no different, but do you think that with the results of this election, that America has send our politicians a loud enough message? I mean people are hurting out here in America, and although they maybe slow, they are definitely not stupid. The prospects for a good job, and making something of a life, is not what it use to be. People see a government who thinks nothing of investing in bombs, and creating terrorist galore, but they also see the same warmongering politicians who can’t even craft a good healthcare bill when it’s badly needed. The people see politicians taking on celebrity status, while bullets go whistling pass their head, and then there are the cop bullets that have them worried the most. Prices go up, while wages stay stagnant, or dip even lower, but let’s cut Social Security anyway. So, I’m asking you Bill, could the election results make a difference? Have the people spoke?
So right, Mahatma. First you find someone you like and think will hang in there for principle, then they fall into line (Tsipras, what a disappointment, Warren, Sanders, these last two are probably kicking themselves now!). Now I’m worrying about Corbyn. What do you think will happen with him?
What the DNC, the RNC , the establishment, The 1/10th of 1%ers, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, New York Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post in thier group think tanks et all, did not understand is that for once the American People saw just who was running the show since Reagan and just who had made such a mess of the USA, it´s foreign policy , and no less it´s national policies and finances. Every shrill voice raised against Trump just made the voters more determined to vote for him. The more they denigraded him the more attractive he looked. if they had truly wanted to beat the guy they should have just shut the f**k up and let him trip over his own di*k. But oh no. They had to trip all over themselves showing just how much they were outraged by and did not like Trump. Jeez it put me a mind of North Korea when their great leader died. Everyone trying to out do the other in greif shown. You could not open a paper, listen to CNN, BBC, MSNBC, the NYT, WAPO because the first headline was something tearing Trump apart. Even the Guardian got in on the act.
What the people saw was the very people who have made such a mess of the country and it´s finances warning them about Trump. Then they knew that it was Trump they wanted if these people did not want him. And Clinton what can you say. She picked a Wall Street banker to be vice president for God´s sake. How politically tone deaf was that? She refused to releace her paid speeches to the power brokers on Wall Street. Her stint as Sec. of State was one of interfering with other countries, coups, and lots and lots of blood all from poor third world countries. She was hated. She is hated by every person , American or not that knows anything at all about her. And this was who the DNC crowned as their hero. Sanders would have beaten Trump by double if not tripple didgits. But between the DNC and the Clinton Crime family they ran the guy into the ground. So today they are paying the price. it is going to take a long, long time for the working class to ever trust another Democratic Candidate for President.
Dan Kuhn you nailed it with your analogy of this past presidential campaign. The limousine liberals really screwed up bad, but it’s no wonder considering the bubble they have encased themselves in didn’t allow them to see the real world as it really is. They make sour jokes about the average pumpkin, and deride the Joe six packs to make their point, and feel redeemed for doing it. Hillary called these people deplorable. Bill Maher has based his whole career on doing this…I jest, I’m only kidding, but Jethro couldn’t find the screwdriver to start his pickup truck, you know the one with the rebel flag, which one you ask they all have a rebel flag on them. It’s stuff like this that make us all laugh, but sometimes laughing is inappropriate. My Italian grandma use to say when an Italian joke slipped out, it’s funny if your laughing with me, but it’s dangerous when your laughing at me. Anyway Dan you said it best, and I just had to tell you that, plus throw in my two cents. Thanks for the comment JT
“It did not fully grasp the racism that still runs so deeply in American society, the poisonous and corrosive legacy of slavery that has not truly been internalized by most white people.”
Has Mr. Fuller noticed that Mr. Obama was not a white man when he was elected by the US electorate to become the President of the USA? “Obama’s 39 percent showing among white voters matched the percentage that Bill Clinton received in 1992 and exceeded the percentage of the white vote earned by Walter Mondale in 1984, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George McGovern in 1972.”
“…shocking misogyny towards Hillary Clinton…”
No, that were the DNC machinations against Bernie Sanders that led Mrs. Clinton to her failure – and not the imagined misogyny. How about “we came, we saw, he died” and the dealings with Saudis? Or you believe that the US electorate, out of political correctness, should have closed its eyes on the bloody profiteering of Mrs. Clinton? (The DNC machinators, Shultz-Wasserman and Dona Brazil, are also females, btw).
“President Obama is probably right that Trump would seem to be temperamentally unfit to be president.”
Well, lets observe the main achievements of Mr. Obama as a person of a proper temperament:
1. The US is currently involved in seven (7) wars.
2. The dysfunctional healthcare system in the US is a scandal; the next year the ACA will crush because of the exorbitant deductibles, along with the meager of nonexistent “care.”
3. None of the war criminals and torturers of the illegal Iraq war have been prosecuted. (But Manning is in prison and Snowden is hiding in Russia, for all countries)
4. None of the criminal banksters have been prosecuted.
5. There have been no large-scale public works (New-Deal-like) to improve the country’s morale and economy.
6. But fracking is going fine and BP scoundrels did not suffer – so much for the protector of the environment. And do not forget the Democrats special relationships with Monsanto.
Please take a note that Obama has began his presidency with a majority of Democrats in the US government. And then he made happy the plutocracy: the war mongering/profiteering class, the ziocons, insurance CEOs, corporate CEOs…
Obama is a Failure. Even worse, he turned to be a fraud, a depressing fraud for all US citizens who voted for him 8 years ago with a hope for real change. The Democrats have betrayed the US electorate on all fronts. The squeaking about racism and misogyny (and should not we include the trans-sex people) is just a deflection from the real problems of the US: the irresponsible, unaccountable rule of plutocracy.
Very good comment.
Anna, great comprehensive comments, all very true. If I were to run for office I would hire you to write campaign bullet points, without a doubt.
See the attached article from moonofalabama. If this report is correct, it appears as though Obama is doing an about face, and changing our Syrian strategy to match Trump’s campaign promises regarding Russia and Syria. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but between Trump’s comments on saving the good parts of the ACA/Obamacare and now this where Obama goes against the ambitions of Ashton Carter is worth taking note of. I sure hope better days are ahead…we will see.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/11/nusra-on-the-run-trump-induces-first-major-policy-change-on-syria.html#more
One of the commenters also said the first thing that popped into my mind:
“A clean up operation maybe? Who knows what kind of dirt those moder…oops terrorist leaders may have and who they could probably implicate. With Hillary in the white house, any info that may come from them, could easily go under the carpet as propaganda. Who knows what Trump could do?”
The U.S. is going to now go in and get rid of the evidence, the very people who could point fingers right back at the U.S.? Bang, bang, they’re gone.
Anna – great comments, thanks. Joe, good news, nonetheless. The war profiteers won’t be happy, though, but Putin and Assad must be sleeping easier with the prospect of Trump coming in.
Don’t get too over joyous, Ashton Carter is a creep, and the CIA hasn’t signed on to it yet…so be calm, stay patient, and let’s see where this good hearted transition is taking everyone.
I like that, clean up the crime scene. Hmmm!
Yes, Joe, I won’t rest easy until the fighting stops. I’d just as soon not see the U.S. in there at all; they haven’t been asked. They should just get the heck out (Turks too) and leave the Russians and Syrians to take out the rebels. With the U.S. in there (helping/hindering?), it makes it too easy for something to go wrong, intentionally or not. I smell a rat, and I don’t think its name is “legacy”.
What I would like to see happen probably never will, but Trumpers and Bernies are closer to one another than they realize. Both realize America is going downhill and that jobs are disappearing. Our main export has been the factory jobs that gave high school graduates a good living. The shrinking of jobs for college grads. Trumpers blame minorities and illegal aliens in addition to the establishment, even though they did not have the power to export those jobs. NAFTA and drug violence increased the wave of illegal border crossings; that is not their fault. If there is a strain of racism in the Trumpers, there is a strain of self-righteousness in the Bernies. The racism could be reduced among many of the Trumpers with a rise in their economic status. Both feel a bit superior to the other group, but these two should lay aside their animosities and reach out to each other. They have common interests.
The Establishment and many others rant about the mote in a conservative eye and ignores the beams in their own. Citizens are scolded repeatedly for being deplorable, irredeemable, misogynist, racist, anti-Semitic, patriarchist and numerous other Bad Things.
This citizen knew better and saw through the rhetoric. Use of seemingly nuclear option insults like the ones listed above says that there shall be no dialog, no input, no discussion because I and my type are just wrong. One simple approach to such demonizing is to look at the opposite to find out the true meaning. That helps crack the code, even if oversimplified to start the process.
For example, when someone calls me misogynist, I start from the assumption that what they are really saying is that they are misandrists. Likewise, anti-Semitic yields anti-Gentile and patriarchist yields matriarchist.
The first comment on this article (since deleted) noted that misogyny is really almost non-existent, and that “misogyny” like “anti-semitism” is a fake criticism designed to cover up demands for special privileges. Does anyone think that misoandry would be less likely, yet has anyone ever heard the accusation? Has anyone ever heard the accusation of anti-Gentilism, or heard them demanding special privileges? The youngest liberals are afraid that they cannot defend themselves against an accusation that cannot be proven false, so they capitulate and grant the special demands. Both claims are propaganda warfare gambits, and both are common in the Hillary camp. Note that both rely upon defining a special word for opponents and pretending that it is a clinically abnormal state of mind.
It’s all well and good to battle back against Trumpie’s regressive policies, but just as much avid and constructive engagement should go into either: 1.) building a Dem Party that’s totally and completely based on a strong and robust economic populism, OR 2.) scrapping the Dem Party and building a different party — perhaps the Greens — that’s totally and completely based on a strong and robust economic populism.
Despite Trumpie’s faults, he does appear to have two things going for him, he never fell for the group think of incessantly demonizing Putin and Russia and he also professes to be against all the NAFTA/TPP baloney. Of course how wedded he is to these two fine attributes of his will be tested now that Paul Ryan, Pence, McConnell, the military industrial complex and the pro-Israel lobby will have his daily constant attention in Washington.
Steven, you deny the racism that is in this country?
I do not disagree about the racism in my country. And that ‘is’ an issue.
However, both ‘out of touch with the American people people’ political parties’ refused to accept the disgust the American people of both parties ‘politics over the needs of the nation’. And if we look at the the past three days behavior of the Republican party leadership, that ‘leadership’ still doesn’t get the message from those who voted, not for Donald Trump, but against Hillary Clinton.
Such is the depth, or lack thereof, of the Republican leadership.
The Democratic leadership got what it deserved, a defeat.
The biggest losers are the American people, who, alas, have pitifully sat by for years and paid little heed to what is happening to our country – some of whom chose what they thought was the lesser of evils in the presidential race (Trump vs Clinton) and will now pay an even higher price in loss of health care and retirements, although they have not, nor do they see that coming.
American jobs loss to other countries are not coming back in two years, not even in four.
If at all….
And we are going to see even more homeless and hungry people on the streets.
If this election has done anything, it has awakened the American people – I hope.
“Shockingly, we have a military budget six times greater than the monies allocated to American education — and this in a techno-competitive world.”
Good article, the flaw in it is that Mr. Fuller may have forgotten that Trump repeatedly talked about “rebuilding our military.” Just what that, or anything else he says means, is anybody’s guess. As Noam Chomsky commented about Trump, and I paraphrase, “It’s hard to know what his position is when it’s negated in the next sentence.”
Michael Moore saw the Trump win coming.He said as much, he predicted Trump would win Michigan.
And as recently as Monday, the 7th, I knew a Trump win was a real possibility. Moore is part of the establishment–he was ignored.
I am no one.
Without a dictionary and based on observed Clinton reality, I would have interpreted the word mysogony to mean the “abhorrence of crime”. Perhaps I, like Trump, suffer from abhorrence of liberal phraseology.
I believe people are tired of the corrupt “Establishment.”
“Hopefully, Donald Trump will make an attempt to clean up the crimes of these political, [2] financial [3] and war criminals [4][4a] that are laughing at the rule of law. This epidemic of elitist corruption and war crimes needs to be put on trial. Which begs this big question: Why, “Are the Corporate Media Propaganda Pushers for the War Criminals”? [5] Are they complicit in their crimes? Still, if Donald Trump makes the effort to clean up all this accumulated filth and garbage and succeeds, then we can truly say with confidence: “He has made America great again.””
[Read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/11/the-media-trash-gets-trumped.html
Stephen, I know you share this view with many people and I just always have to ask…and I am really asking….Do you all actually believe that Trump cares about cleaning up the corruption in DC?! I mean, I get voting him in to send a message…but is it not painfully obvious that this man suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, and exploited the anger and prejudice in this country to satisfy his own lust for power and adoration. Tell me you all recognize that about him. When considering the insider names he is already considering for his cabinet is there any doubt that it was all a con? He may name Chris Christy as his Chief of Staff…remember Bridgegate?! Not to mention how corrupt/morally bankrupt Trump himself is…the man is a sex offender. Raped a minor who was going to come out with her story days before the election but because of death threats was scared into hiding. This guy is going to clean up DC? I mean, c’mon, I can see voting for him to reject everything Clinton stands for, but I want someone to explain to me how reseanable people ignore what to me has clearly been months of bs, and actually think this man has a public servent frame of mind. And I ask because I truly believe that the original post comes from a reasonable person…and truly want to understand….
I am sure we are all shocked that Trump will be our next president (if he lives until Jan 2017). I think there are a lot of lessons for the democrats in this result.
First, if we look back to 2008, Obama ran as the candidate for hope and change. Then after he was elected, he caved to all the power brokers. We know from wikileaks that Citibank named his cabinet. There were no meaningful prosecutions of those at the banks and wall street who caused the meltdown. The war criminals of the Bush/Cheney administration were not only not prosecuted for lying us into the Iraq war, Obama largely continued our illegal wars and even droned a US citizen and his son outside of a war zone, making him just another war criminal. Obviously, instead of hope and change, we got more of the same. Globalization run amok, and the forever war on steroids.
Fast forward to 2016, and the democratic primary race. Bernie Sanders was drawing huge enthusiastic crowds of energized young people, but Hillary was the establishment candidate. Again, thanks to wikileaks, we know that the DNC, and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, did everything in their power to deny the nomination to Sanders. He was the democratic candidate for change, just as Obama was in 2008. Hillary had a very negative image among the vast majority of Americans, but the DNC ignored it. Again, thanks to wikileaks, we know that all her campaign rhetoric was one big lie, and she was really just another shill for corporate power. The DNC “Super Delegates” are all pro-establishment, and tipped the balance to Hillary. Bernie made a huge mistake caving in to the party instead of fighting at the convention, or switching over to the Green party and taking his followers with him. When he threw in behind Hillary, he lost the majority of his followers (myself included). Trump became the only candidate for change from the status quo.
What a Trump presidency may bring is anybody’s guess. I think he will be informed by the real powers that be in short order that he better toe the line, or wind up like JFK. I expect globalization and the forever war to continue, or we will have a president Pence.
God help us.
Skip Scott, I agree with your comment. I might add how Trump may serve himself well by hiring a trusted security detail to keep an eye on his back.
Trump being Trump may serve as a barometer to how much influence the deep state really has over our elected government. If Trump continues with the same old same old, well then you will know how deep the deep state really is. I’m hoping he can clean house. I also hope he keeps Mike Pence in his place. In my mind Pence may just be the weak link in the Trump chain.
And once again it’s good to see the Clintons get they’re asses kicked. I hope they both retire, or live happily ever after in jail. This is one time I will accept the Electoral College results, and then let’s honor the popular vote, but for now Hillary is gone and Trump is President. Oh, and get to work fellow liberals, and do your part to make America great again.
Then after he was elected, he caved to all the power brokers.
Correction: Obama was already in the power brokers’ pocket from the day he took his first campaign donation.
Bill, I stand corrected. His appearance of caving was just that. Candidates are already bought and vetted by the Deep State by the time they get that far along. My hope that he would be a real change candidate was extremely naive. I also wonder at Bernie’s appearance of caving around the time of the convention. Perhaps he was informed of the limits of his revolution if he valued his life and the lives of his grandchildren.
You are correct, Skip, in that the inevitable “Trip to the woodshed,” courtesy of The Deep State, is coming sooner rather than later for Mr. Trump.
I have read this usually takes place the first weekend, after the formal inauguration, but given the unpredictability of Mr. Trump, they may want to put him on notice right away as to what his “role,” in their agenda is going to be.
It is not a bright future we seem to have no matter who is placed into office. Until The Deep State is done away with on all levels, as you say, forever war, most likely still WWIII and vaporization of all life as we know it, and in the short term until vaporization, globalization.
That is our future.
Which is very sad.
I believe his “trip to the woodshed” happened at his first classified intelligence briefing as president-elect.
I imagine he was informed that the Ruskies are still the bad guys and he better get onboard.