Strange Days Indeed!

The Covert Scheme To Remove Donald Trump Is Underway

By Charlie Franklin

It appears Donald Trump is being set up for removal from office. Trump has been at war with the CIA and other intelligence agencies since before the election. Recall that there were two other Presidents in our history who have had bad relations with the CIA and both ended up out of office prior to the end of their terms.

The last time a President had a direct confrontation with the CIA was in the fall of 1961 when President Kennedy fired CIA Director Allen Dulles along with Deputy Director for Plans Richard M. Bissell, Jr. and Deputy Director Charles Cabell as a result of the Bay Of Pigs fiasco. After the firing of Dulles and company, Kennedy intended and was in the process of attempting to strip covert action power away from the CIA. Some researchers, mostly recently David Talbot in his 2016 book ‘The Devils Chessboard’ suggests that pushback from the CIA, where Dulles loyalists remained in control, resulted in the assassination of Kennedy in 1963. But that’s a story for another day.

Who dictates policy…the President or the military and intelligence services?

The so-called national security apparatus of the United States expects Presidents to play ball, and when they don’t…stuff happens. A recent case in point is the Syrian cease-fire deal worked out and agreed to between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in 2016 involving a proposed joint U.S.-Russian air campaign against the Islamic State militant group and Al Qaeda via a “Joint Implementation Center.” After the deal was announced U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter strongly, and publicly, objected to the deal. President Obama had initially overrode Secretary Carter’s objections but as a September 13 2016 New York Times story reported, Pentagon officials were still refusing to agree that the U.S. should proceed with the deal. Fast forward to September 17, 2016  when U.S. and allied planes attacked a Syrian government base in the desert near one of its airbases in Deir Ezzor and killed at least 62 Syrian troops and wounded more than 100. The Pentagon claimed the strike to be a ‘mistake’ in targeting. The bottom line is the ceasefire deal was immediately dead. Syria accused the U.S. of a deliberate attack on its forces and the Russians similarly did not buy US claims that the attack was an error. On Monday, Sept. 19 2016 the Syrian regime declared that the seven-day ceasefire had ended.

So, regarding the current Trump scenario from the left’s point of view…The good news is that Trump may likely be headed for removal from office…probably by impeachment or by forced resignation.

But if those on the left give that notion the thinking-through it deserves…The bad news is that Trump will have been removed by a covert propaganda smear campaign probably run by the CIA in the manner that they have done in foreign countries since the 1950’s starting with their complicity in the Iran coup in 1953.

The further bad news…assuming Trump is sincere about his stated desire for better relations with Russia… is that the United States will return to a confrontational relationship with Russia, which is where we were heading during the latter part of the Obama administration and where we most certainly would have gone under Hillary Clinton if she became president.

Clinton received a number of endorsements from prominent neocons such as Robert Kagan, the creator of The Project For A New American Century, and other neocons who helped give us the Iraq War in 2003 based on false premises, as well receiving the endorsement of the very hawkish Mike Morrell, former acting CIA director who publicly and repeatedly endorsed Hillary Clinton and played the Russia card throughout the 2016 campaign on behalf of Clinton.

WATCH VIDEO: Interview And Comments From Glenn Greenwald

So, while many of those on the left view Trump as an amateur who is unqualified and unfit person to occupy the oval office…a position not without merit…what the country would be left with after Trump’s removal is Mike Pence… who would likely be fully compliant with the wishes of the Russia hawks.

Those who favor a confrontational approach to Russia do not just reside on the right, but also on the left. On the right they are called neocons whereas on the left they are called ‘liberal interventionists.’ Recall liberal interventionist Hillary Clinton’s advocacy of the overthrow of Qaddafi in Libya as well as her advocacy of a no-fly zone in Syria…a move that would surely have caused a confrontation with Russia. Neocons and liberal interventionists are equally comfortable with regime change and the notion of ‘American Exceptionalism’ and world hegemony. Both groups are comfortable using ‘regime change’ as a tool of US foreign policy.

The point is that the removal of Trump may mean it goes from bad to worse.

The flow of new anti-Trump ‘Russia disclosures’ is not coming from investigative journalists but instead from leaks from the US intelligence community, according to media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others.

Factions inside US Intelligence clearly want Trump out. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Among them is the notion that they can’t control Trump or get him to play ball with their neocon regime change agendas, as well as Trump’s indication throughout the campaign that he wants better relations with Putin and Russia. That’s not acceptable to the new cold-warriors.

History shows that most all Presidents play ball with what some call the Deep State or The Military Industrial Complex or The Secret Government, as Bill Moyers called it. Most presidents essentially hand over the bulk of control of foreign policy to the entrenched national security professionals. A case in point is ex-President Barack Obama who after his election in 2008 re-appointed former CIA Chief Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, kept David Petraeus on and picked Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State…and mostly followed their lead, especially in his early years.

We know that the disclosures about the alleged Trump campaign officials contacts with Russia, specifically concerning Michael Flynn, are from leaks ‘inside’ the government, according to CNN and other media. The frequency of the contacts throughout the 2016 campaign have been described repeatedly by CNN as “constant contact” between the Trump campaign and Russia. The leaks are repeadedly attributed to being from anonymous sources inside the intelligence community. It should be noted that none of the information contained in the leaks has been verified. And CNN has yet to define what they mean by “constant” contact, a term no other major media is using.

 

While the allegations of an unusual amount of contact between Trump campaign officials and Russia seems possible, we don’t know the reason for the alleged contacts. Was it because of business dealings between Trump people (or Trump himself) and Russia? Or worse, was their any collusion regarding attempts to sabotage the Clinton campaign. So far we have a lot of leaks and innuendo, but no real evidence for the any of these allegations or for the intelligence community’s earlier “assessments” that Russia allegedly “hacked the election”…. or that Russia hacked the DNC in order to help Trump beat Clinton in the 2016 election. Assessments, of course, are just guesses. And, although there are claims that actual recorded phone calls exist they have not been made public thus far. So, no actual evidence has yet to be released…none at all! All we have are unsubstantiated claims from anonymous sources. Journalism 101 dictates this is not proper reporting. Our major media outlets have shamefully become mere propaganda outlets for the government’s intelligence services. We’ll see where this goes in due time.

But in the meantime, the propaganda efforts are significant. It certainly appears that the CIA is doing what they have done for decades in other countries around the world as they destabilized governments, influenced elections, engineered coups and assassinations. On the one hand Trump looks like an unqualified, unfit individual who should not be allowed anywhere near the oval office…a point of view not without merit. But, on the other and, the American public should not be comfortable with US intelligence services running a covert operation against a US President. The CIA, of course, is prohibited by law from operating inside the United States and are supposed to conduct ONLY ‘foreign’ intelligence operations.

The current scenario is wholly consistent with a banana republic, not a democratic republic.

If the intelligence services have “the goods” on crimes or treason by Trump or his team, the actual evidence should be presented to the FBI and to Congress for the appropriate action…without delay. But the way that this is being done, specifically by a constant drip on unsubstantiated allegations with no supporting evidence whatsoever…and from anonymous sources… should give any critically-thing person pause.

Anonymous tips without actual evidence from secret sources is nothing more than a propaganda smear. If the facts exist they should be presented and the appropriate parties held completely accountable.

Unfortunately, whether or not Trump is removed from office by impeachment is a lose/lose scenario for America. If he manages to stay in office, America is left with an amateur in power who is arguably unqualified and unfit for the job. If Trump is impeached, Mike Pence becomes President and the neocons are fully back in power.

The biggest leak of the 2016 campaign was the Billy Bush tape, which was supposed to take Trump out of the race. The tape came from NBC, which is owned by GE, which is the largest defense contractor in the U.S. That leak did not do what it was intended to do which was to get Trump out of the race. The next step was the increased barrage of evidence-free charges that ‘Russia hacked the election” and tilted the election to Trump thus making him an illegitimate winner. That campaign reached a crescendo as the Electoral College voting approached in December. That didn’t work and here we all are with the current scenario.

To this observer (a Sanders supporter who didn’t vote for Clinton or Trump) it looks like Trump’s refusal to play ball with the hawks is the primary driver of the various Trump/Russia conspiracy theories, including the Russia election hack conspiracy theory.

Stay tuned…

UPDATE March 08 2017

Putting aside the immature behavior of President Trump whose childish Tweets lend a lot of credence to the idea that he is temperamentally unfit for the nation’s highest office, the following seems logical. There is a continued drip of innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations emanating from the intelligence community about alleged Trump dealings with Russia and possible collusion with Russia regarding the 2016 election. Logic would dictate that if there was any actual evidence, such evidence would have already been presented to the appropriate government authorities and overseers such as the FBI, the Attorney General, and the various Congressional leaders so that they could quickly move to present to the President the option of resigning or be removed from office by impeachment. But that has not happened. And, this suggests that no such evidence exists. So, the steady stream of innuendo appears to be laying the groundwork to make impeachment politically palatable for the Russia hawks in the Republican Party who could pull the trigger on impeachment once Trump’s approval ratings drop sufficiently to mute significant backlash from Trump supporters. As the drip of innuendo and evidence-free allegations continue, the current level of support for President Trump will drop further and Trump’s removal from office will be able to take place without too much resistance. The Democrats will cheer and most of the others will continue to believe their democracy is intact. The takeaway is that the National Security State will not permit warm relations with Russia, and will not allow any President to dictate U.S. foreign policy.

In Media News…

Video Streaming May Replace Cable Sooner Than We Think

The way we view television may see a major overhaul in the coming years. Previously, either cable TV or broadcast TV were the only means of accessing high quality television programming. But, with the rapid emergence of online streaming and video services the cable TV industry might take a back seat to streaming sooner rather than later.

Streaming services have now become such a powerful emerging potent threat to cable, that television viewership statistics are already feeling the effect. Industry statistical data have shown that loyalists of cable television are increasingly turning to video streaming services to watch their favorite shows. In fact, many of these new favorite shows are offered exclusively on streaming services, think ‘House Of Cards’ and ‘Orange Is The New Black’ or ‘Bloodline’ on Netflix or the new ‘Sneaky Pete’ on Amazon Video.

Despite the expansive growth potential of streaming services, there are significant advantages to cable TV at this point in time. Cable and satellite TV services offer much more TV programming than streaming services. Additionally, one issue that has yet to be resolved is how to deliver traditional broadcast TV programming, such as local news, through a streaming service. This will be resolved at some point as various licensing issues are resolved.

However, the reasons why video streaming services are gaining popularity are clear. Internet growth coupled with the development of faster and faster internet speeds from all forms of internet content delivery, including satellite internet from companies like Exede satellite internet and HughesNet has made video streaming a breeze.

So, there are a number of factors suggesting video streaming services may deal another massive blow to cable television. The popularity of services such as Netflix and Amazon Video certainly is one indicator. Another is an evolving concept by video streaming powerhouse YouTube as the company works on a new project that is an online television subscription service called Unplugged that will reportedly offer consumers television channels to stream.

Rumors suggest Unplugged could launch sometime in 2017.