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And it gets worse… January 12, 2017

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National, has been seen drinking coffee in the basement of Trump Tower in New York after her party had refused to say whether or not she was meeting Donald Trump.

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1. EWI - January 12, 2017

The Austrian neo-nazis were special guests in Trump Tower on election night.

When do people finally call a spade a spade? (Irish Times editors apart, of course)

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WorldbyStorm - January 12, 2017

+1 Every such meeting merely lends credibility (of sorts) to those parties.

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CL - January 12, 2017

‘A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team denied Thursday that Trump’s incoming national security adviser ever met with the leader of a far-right Austrian political party at Trump Tower, as the politician had claimed….
Even if Strache lied about meeting with Flynn, it seems like a stretch for Miller to argue that the incoming national security adviser disavows the viewpoints of groups like the Austrian Freedom Party, which pushes many of the same policies as the European politicians that Trump himself counts as allies.’
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-spokesman-denies-michael-flynn-met-austrian-freedom-party-leader

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2. The Broken Elbow - January 12, 2017

actually, isn’t that good? in the sense that consorting with real fascists like le pen incriminates trump?

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WorldbyStorm - January 12, 2017

Fair point!

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yourcousin - January 13, 2017

Yes because consorting with La Pen is so much worse than admitting to sexual assault on tape, mocking the disabled, scare mongering against Mexicans, or condoning assaults against African Anericans. I mean seriously who in American politics is going to be turned off by this? I spend a fair bit of time in Trumpland and I can guarantee that no one there cares. I stand by my earlier statement, FUCK!

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WorldbyStorm - January 13, 2017

I don’t think TBE or I would argue it’s so much worse than all else, simply that it makes it clearer what he is – that there’s potentially a programmatic aspect to this which wasn’t entirely evident before. That kind of is worse in global terms. That’s a good point that it won’t ruffle the feathers of parts of his base, but in a way, and EWI made the point above, people outside the US could call a spade a spade.

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3. 6to5against - January 12, 2017

It does raise a question in my mind as to how he sees himself. I would have thought a few months ago that he saw himself as a ‘common-sense’ candidate, free of ideology and so on. If he’s really as lacking in self-awareness as he appears to be, I thought he could probably square his friendship with Putin with that narrative.

But increasingly, I wonder. The extreme, ideological right wingers I thought he might only have been using during the campaign are being appointed to positions of real power. Perhaps he actually is, by conviction as well as inclination, a facist.

One or two small things. he refered on twitter to the intelligence agencies having ‘one last shot’ at him. Most of the commentary was on the Nazi comparison, but, ‘One last shot?’ It seems to suggest that from next week, he believes he will have control over the CIA?FBI and they will be doing exactly what he tells them.

And about Buzzfeed. I think most people picked up on the ‘failing pile of garbage’ line. But didn’t he follow that up with some comment about how they would be ‘facing the consequences’ of that. (II’m saying this from memory). A comment possibly to be read as meaning that they would go bust due to an inadequate business model. Or not. When soneone like Trump, with the power he will have from next week, refers to ‘consequences,’ isnt that a threat, rather than a comment?

Perhaps I’m being paranoid.

I’m still hoping that he’ll be more of a bull rampaging through the china shop of democracy, than an out-and-out facist.

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WorldbyStorm - January 12, 2017

Very much agree with your analysis and the questions you raise. I’m more concerned now than I was when he was elected, the tenor of his appointments suggests he is very much on the conservative/nationalist/radical right part of the spectrum. I think I mentioned it before but if things have got to the point where we are hoping the US deep state can keep him in check (i.e. security and other agencies) we’re really screwed.

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Starkadder - January 12, 2017

Well, if Trump does decide to become an American Pinochet,
the blueprint was drawn up in the Reagan Administration:


, ‘Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, for example, helped draw up a controversial plan to suspend the Constitution in the event of national crisis such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent, or national opposition to a US military invasion abroad”

https://books.google.ie/books?id=IbFXs7_LutMC&pg=PA358&dq=%22national+opposition+to+a+US+military+invasion+abroad%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8qL_Pz73RAhUMNlAKHZZDCt0Q6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%22national%20opposition%20to%20a%20US%20military%20invasion%20abroad%22&f=false

All it would take is one bad Islamist attack (think 9/11,or the
November 2015 Paris attacks ) and Trump will have an excuse to place the US under Military Government,A war could be
started, because as WWI and Iraq II showed, wars are ideal for undermining US civil liberties and political dissent.

During this time Bannon, Sessions and their alt-right chums could have their chance to install discriminatory legislation
against US Muslims. A registry would not be the worst of it.
Anyone who objected would be arrested, (while Breitbart, Infowars and The Daily Stor.mer cheer Trump on).

Eventually, an excuse could be found to move against
other targets ,(blacks, Latinos, the LGBT community, and in a worst case scenario, the Jewish community as well).

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RosencrantzisDead - January 12, 2017

It seems to suggest that from next week, he believes he will have control over the CIA?FBI and they will be doing exactly what he tells them.

He appoints the directors of both agencies.

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sonofstan - January 13, 2017
4. Jim Monaghan - January 12, 2017

The Austrian Fascists mentioned above were effectively supported by RT.

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Starkadder - January 12, 2017

“The Austrian Fascists mentioned above were effectively supported by RT.”

And Putin is funding far-right movements all over the world. Even if the order to hack the Democrats didn’t come from Moscow, Putin gave Trump enough help to warrant an unambigious condemnation:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/04/how-vladimir-putin-feeds-europe-s-rabid-right.html

I hope the anti-Trump protests next week also picket the Russian embassies for supporting Trump.

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Starkadder - January 12, 2017
CL - January 13, 2017

‘the intelligence report…. risks perpetuating the fallacy that Trump is some sort of a foreign agent rather than a home-grown demagogue’
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/01/09/russia-trump-election-flawed-intelligence/

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WorldbyStorm - January 13, 2017

Well there’s no reason he cannot be both, indeed his demagoguery was evident long before his supposed jaunts in Russia, but it is possible that the latter saw certain things occur which would be advantageous to certain states. Frankly to me these are distinctions without meaning. His actual actions are the most important thing. Packing his administration with conservative/nationalist/reactionaries speaks volumes.

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CL - January 13, 2017

There is no doubt that Trump is a reactionary and a racist. That was evident before he entered politics. That he is making appointments that reflect his views is no surprise.
What is unclear is what an ethnic/nationalist foreign policy would look like, or even if this faction in the Republican coalition will prevail over the neocon faction.

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oconnorlysaght - January 13, 2017

I dont think there is much doubt as to how Trump would like his foreign to work. As ‘Big Throat’ put it, ‘follow the money’, and as Bill Clinton put it, ‘its the economy, stupid’. As I said before, Trump is putting against the neo-liberalism of his opponents an even more primitive form of capitalism, neo-mercantilism, or the amassing of wealth in the capitalists of ones own country regardless of the interests of other countries. It follows from this that, even without incriminating tapes, he will try and seek a diplomatic revolution to ally with Russia (now economically uncompetitive with USA) against China (the major competitor). How far he will go, I do not know but a/ it is significant that one of his earliest post-election visitors was dear old Henry Kissinger, that arch-exponent of realpolitics. I’d say that the Donald is capable of allowing Putin a free hand v. Ukraine and in the middle east north of Saudi as a quid pro quo for its help in encircling China. And Europe? While there is obvious empathy between him and the likes of Le Pen, Wilders and Farago, I suspect that his main concern is there common hostility to the EU and the possibility that they will weaken it and leave the subcontinent divided save when dictated by Washington.
Does all this look familiar? It should; its a replay on a global scale of the European picture in 1914.
It is tempting to shrug and say that at least Armageddon will pre-empt trench warfare.
Better us scientific thinkers get together and try and stop it. Can we?

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CL - January 13, 2017

Senator Warren got ” Mattis to confirm some remarks he made in May, 2015, when he said that Russia was trying to create a sphere of unstable states along its periphery. Warren asked Mattis if he would advocate forcefully to the President—here again she didn’t use Trump’s name—about the need to take seriously the threat that Russia poses. Mattis said that he would.”
“Thank you very much,” Warren said. “I hope that is right, because if you end up in this job, our national security may well depend, in part, on your willingness to voice your opinions even when others disagree, even when you are under pressure to remain silent. We are counting on you.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-senate-places-its-faith-in-mad-dog-mattis

Liberal Democrats are relying on Mad Dog to restrain the Flynn/Bannon fascist faction.

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5. CL - January 12, 2017

“Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, told delegates at the Republican National Convention on Monday that Europe was “imploding” because of immigration from Muslim countries….
Wilders was at the convention, which is in Cleveland, at the invitation of Tennessee State Senator Bill Ketron.”
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-anti-islam-geert-wilders-freedom-party-far-right-republican-482208

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6. CL - January 12, 2017

“Le Pen waved off reporters when approached while she sat drinking coffee with three other people outside the Trump Ice Parlor on Thursday.

Among them was Guido Lombardi, an adviser to Le Pen who lives three stories below Trump’s penthouse and is a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump once described Lombardi and his wife as “friends for a long time.” Lombardi said last year that he helped organize a Trump rally in Washington during the campaign.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-12/le-pen-in-new-york-for-unannounced-visit-during-french-race

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CL - January 12, 2017

‘Trump did meet Matteo Salvini, the chief of the Northern League to which Lombardi belongs, but Trump actually didn’t want to meet him, he said later. “I didn’t even know him,” he said, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, adding that there was no “common ground to be explored with Europe’s far-right parties” and that he did not want to “establish alliances beyond the Atlantic.”
http://www.politico.eu/article/trumps-ambassador-europe-far-right-news-lombardi/

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WorldbyStorm - January 13, 2017

I’d every cautious about what people say Trump did or didn’t do or say in these respects.

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