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Trump’s Administration – the swamp deepens

by Tony Cartalucci at Land Destroyer

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With Breitbart exec in the White House, Neo-Conservative John Bolton and his establishment agenda already has a foot in the door.

The so-called “alternative right” is at least posing as holding its breath over the prospects of Bush-era Neo-Conservative John Bolton being appointed as US Secretary of State. However, with the appointment of Breitbart’s Steven Bannon as Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor of the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, Bolton and his Neo-Conservative agenda already has a solid foot in the door.
Breitbart News exists today as a living success story of Cass Sunstein’s cognitive infiltration doctrine. It infiltrated the increasingly independent and influential alternative media, and reasserted establishment talking points under right cover. The actual alternative media focuses on issues with a perspective outside of the Western “left-right” paradigm. Organizations like Breitbart News, World Net Daily (WND), and others, have ceaselessly worked to repolarize audiences increasingly seeing through politics and identifying the bipartisan control corporate-financial special interests hold over Western society.

Bolton’s Breitbart Affair

A search on Breitbart News for John Bolton’s name, reveals not only an extensive archive of articles focused on the otherwise obscure, Bush-era politician, but summaries of numerous interviews Bolton gave with Breitbart News itself.
john-bolton_2234739b
In essence, Bolton, and many other characters brought into Breitbart News’ “alternative” media coverage, aim to reassert a right-leaning tinge to what is supposed to be an alternative media devoid and outside of “left-right” bias. This successful cognitive infiltration has in fact given rise to the label “alt-right,” which is essentially the establishment right retrenched within the alternative media.
Breitbart articles including:
“John Bolton: U.N. Set to Elect Another ‘Secular Pope’: Hilary Clinton Will ‘Play Right into his Hands,”
John Bolton: I Wouldn’t Recommend Donald Trump’s GOP Critics for a Republican Adminstration ‘If My Life Depended on it‘,” and
John Bolton: ‘It Would Be an Honor to be Considered For ANy Position to Serve the Country’ in Trump Administration,
are not only examples of this allegedly “alternative media” platform introducing and promoting an establishment figure, but includes radio interviews with John Bolton hosted by Breitbart News’ and Trump’s most recent appointee to his cabinet, Steven Bannon himself.
Articles like “Trump: We are Seriously Thinking about Picking John Bolton as Secretary of State,” may appear to simply indicate a possibility of Bolton joining Trump’s administration, but in reality, the love affair between Bolton and Breitbart News, directly involving Steven Bannon himself, signifies the ideology and interests Bolton represents are already deeply entrenched in Trump’s administration and agenda.

Whether Bolton is Secretary of State or Not, Continuity of Agenda Continues…

The agenda Bolton represents is not merely based on speculation, it can be discerned from Bolton’s own words in an op-ed he published this month in the New York Post under a section titled, “The Trump Doctrine.”
Bolton’s op-ed, titled, “Trump needs to reverse the Iran deal and assert our interests,” states:

Barack Obama’s foreign-policy legacy includes reduced American global influence, dramatically underfunded military and intelligence capabilities, and rising concern among longtime allies about Washington’s understanding of international threats. A world of nuclear-weapons proliferation and growing radical Islamic terrorism are the consequences.

For the “alt-right,” who temporarily flirted with the reality of “radical Islamic terrorism” being a creation of the West and its Arab allies, namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar – with Breitbart, WND, and other infiltrators’ efforts – this reasserted polarizing narrative peddled by Bolton is now music to their ears.
saudbush2
In reality, the Obama administration simply carried on the wars started under the Bush administration, expanding some, and starting others that Bush simply ran out of time to initiate.
US Army General Wesley Clark, in a 2007 Flora TV talk titled, “A Time to Lead,” would reveal this singular agenda by relating a conversation he had as far back as 1991 with then US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Paul Wolfowitz, by stating (our emphasis):

I said Mr. Secretary you must be pretty happy with the performance of the troops in Desert Storm. And he said, well yeah, he said but but not really, he said because the truth is we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and we didn’t. And this was just after the Shia uprising in March of 91′ which we had provoked and then we kept our troops on the side lines and didn’t intervene. And he said, but one thing we did learn, he said, we learned that we can use our military in the region in the Middle East and the Soviets wont stop us. He said, and we have got about five or ten years to clean up those all Soviet client regimes; Syria, Iran, Iraq, – before the next great super power comes on to challenge us.

From 1991 onward, the goal of US intervention across the planet has been to establish deeply-entrenched global hegemony before another rising world power could balance American geopolitical domination.
Bolton himself, in his op-ed reaffirms his own commitment to confronting other rising powers, stating:

…it is critical the incoming Trump administration also fashion strategies to deal with longer-term issues like protecting America’s constitutional system from the advocates of global governance and the realities of international competition from the likes of China and Russia.

What is perhaps most ironic and telling of all of just how manipulative and disingenuous both Bolton and outlets like Breitbart News are, they have repeatedly and desperately deferred to the use of Islamophobia to polarize and reassert pro-war establishment narratives among the “alt-right.”
breitbartadmitsneocontrashandksatogether
It is ironic because even in Bolton’s public op-ed in the New York Post, he is unable to identify, let alone condemn the actual state sponsors of terrorism, particularly Al Qaeda and the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS). He states:

In the midst of this wasteland that has developed over the past eight years, Israel and America’s Arab friends are desperately waiting for a strong American president who understands who his friends are. President-elect Trump can change the regional political dynamic quickly, signaling that US elections do truly have consequences.

These “Arab friends” of Bolton’s are in fact Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two nations that have been revealed during the Wikileaks John Podesta-Hilary Clinton e-mail deluge as direct sponsors of ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
One particular e-mail titled, “Congrats!,” would reveal this, with John Podesta stating to Hilary Clinton that:

We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.

And while people like Bolton attempt to pin the rise of ISIS on the Obama administration, support for terrorist organizations by the US for the specific purpose of overthrowing the governments of Iran and Syria began in earnest by the Bush administration as early as 2007.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in a 2007 article titled, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?,” would state unequivocally that (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

This is a process that began under Bush, expanded under Obama, and is being advocated – simply from a different perspective as a means of manipulating public perception – by Bolton and the interests he represents. It is a conspiracy that the alternative media has attempted to expose, under Bush, Obama, and now under the incoming administration of Trump, and a conspiracy various sections of the establishment media, including retrenched “right cover” like Breitbart have attempted to defend through a smokescreen of partisan politics.

Bolton’s Clique Also Sponsors Terrorism Directly

Bolton, along with other prospective Trump appointees including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, have been lobbying for US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group that has killed US military personal, US civilian contractors, as well as Iranian politicians and civilians through decades of terrorist attacks both within and beyond Iran’s borders.
They have done this side-by-side the Saudi government, with Breitbart itself reporting in an article, “Iranian Regime Says Saudis Back Terrorism After Prince Faisal Attends MEK Rally,” that:

During Sunday’s rally, Prince Faisal, a member of the Saudi royal family and a former intel chief for the kingdom, said, “We support you, we are with you” to the sea of more than 100,000 people who had gathered at the Le Bourget convention center. “We stand by your side to help you reach your goals,” he added, indicating his hope to see the fall of the Shiite-backed Iranian regime, his Sunni nation’s archenemy. Saudi Arabia is itself an absolute monarchy.

Breitbart strategically omits that at the rally in Paris, John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich were also present, pledging support to the terrorist organization – side-by-side a government admittedly arming Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

A 2016 rally in Paris attended by the Saudi regime and prospective members of Trump’s administration, promote “regime change” in Iran.


CNS News in an article titled, “Senior US, Saudi Figures Call for Tehran Regime to be Overthrown,” would however reveal the Neo-Conservative figures attending the same rally. The article would report:

Bolton, who has attended the annual NCRI event for a decade, cited Iran’s military intervention in Syria, in maneuvering in Iraq, and its support for Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists and for Houthi militia in Yemen.

CNS News’ admission that Bolton has attended NCRI events in support of MEK terrorists “for a decade,” reveals that Bolton lobbied for the group even before it was removed from the US State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, in direct violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2339A – providing material support to terrorists.
The hypocrisy is that while Bolton and his clique of “alt-right” infiltrators attempt to pin the rise of terrorism as an exclusive feature of the Obama administration, he himself and those amongst him have worked ceaselessly side-by-side the Obama administration, and literally shoulder-to-shoulder with the Saudi regime to sponsor terrorism and promote endless war across the North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
Those who think “Trump” is going to “change” anything find themselves precisely where liberals were in the wake of Obama’s victory in 2008. Despite evidence suggesting otherwise, the temptation to believe in “hope and change” led to an increasing indulgence in denial and excuses until liberals found themselves passionately defending policies they had once marched in the streets in opposition to during the Bush administration.
The alternative media was meant to eliminate the smokescreen of left-right partisan politics. Those infiltrating the alternative media, particularly outfits like Breitbart, are simply attempting to reassert establishment agendas under cover of now an “alt-right” perspective.
Will those lured into this “alt-right” bear trap pull their leg out in time? Or will they allow it to sink its inescapable steel jaws into their legs, trapping them for 4-8 years in a cycle of denial and excuse-making for why the wars, abuses, and decline of America both Bush and Obama cultivated, continue under Trump?
Real solutions, beyond partisan politics exist, but in order to see them, the smokescreen of left-right distractions must be cleared. The smokescreen exists precisely to prevent us from seeing them.


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Anonymous
Anonymous
May 11, 2018 2:46 AM

Hello, you used to write magnificent, but the last few posts have been kinda boring?I miss your super writings. Past few posts are just a little bit out of track! come on!

Tom Cahill
Tom Cahill
Nov 25, 2016 5:47 PM

Conflict in the MidEast today is like a dozen football teams playing at the same time on the same field and all wearing the same color jerseys and helmets. And the objective of the game doesn’t seem to be winning but “spending” more arms to be replaced by the unwitting US taxpayer.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Nov 22, 2016 9:52 AM

‘Bibi’ will now have a direct line into the daily presidential security briefings. Which he would of got thru Hillary anyway, but this one is more reliable. Blood is thicker than loyalty…
<
blockquote> Keeping Up With the…Kushners, Bannon Hit Squad, Trump Transition Team
At 6:37 a.m. on Wednesday, three NBC reporters announced that Donald Trump had “taken the unprecedented step of requesting his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, receive top-secret clearance to join him for his Presidential Daily Briefings.” By mid-morning Wednesday, the New York Times was denying the rumor. But by evening, ABC News was reporting that the “intelligence community” had confirmed the story to its reporters.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/11/keeping-up-with-thekushners-bannon-hit-squad-trump-transition-team/</&gt;
Right now reminds me of 2008, when Mr. Hope and Change had been elected. Americans breathed a sigh of relief after getting mangled by the Bush-Cheney Junta for eight years…then the reality started setting in, with Mr. Peace Prize droning some innocents in SW Asia just days after taking his oath of office. And the situation only got worse over the years, but many refused to believe what they were seeing, hoping for a miracle that never came or was even in the works.

Daniel Rich
Daniel Rich
Nov 22, 2016 2:33 AM

W’s caption; “Now, gimme a minute, and I’ll bring you the heads of Assange, Snowden and Manning.”

George Tirebiter
George Tirebiter
Nov 21, 2016 5:27 PM

At the behest of their puppet-maters, these tools just cobbled together a list of hot button concerns of those on the right, added some snake oil, and then had Cardinal Trump deliver promises of impending salvation to the awareness-challenged ….sheep……who lapped it up.
This is controlled opposition at its finest……played again and again and again…….
This time the destruction of populism is in their sights……again…..

notlurking
notlurking
Nov 21, 2016 4:53 PM

Speculations on top of speculations…….just like the polls…..lol…..calm down lets wait and see…..folks are so preoccupied with predictions…..want to be the first to say “see I was right”….gees get a grip…..some popcorn may help….

Jen
Jen
Nov 19, 2016 9:26 PM

Since Tony Cartalucci’s article was mostly about John Bolton, his picture should have headlined the article, not Steve Bannon’s.
There is a possibility that Steve Bannon was selected as NSA chief on the basis of a speech he gave at the Vatican in 2014 in which he stated that Wall Street should not have been bailed out by the Obama government. Buzzfeed published a transcript of Bannon’s speech at this link:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.scEDMr0Kd#.ylO3kAedo
The wackiest. scariest part of Bannon’s speech is that his perceptions of the current state of the world, accurate though some of them might be, are rooted in a belief that only by returning to an imaginary “Judeo-Christian” belief set away from secularism and Islam – as if Islam is not part of that same mixed cultural tradition in the eastern Mediterranean / Near East region that gave rise to Judaism and Christianity! – might the US recover its former economic glory. This in spite of the fact that during the late 1800s / early 1900s when the US was entering the period of growth and prosperity, the country was led by politicians and business leaders who at most paid lip service to their (mostly Protestant) Christian beliefs.
Whether Bannon really believes in what he says or is pandering to a conservative Christian audience remains to be seen.
Curiously some Russian political analysts have discerned in Donald Trump’s selections for cabinet secretarial posts an outline of how he will run his administration, as a business corporation in which he will play off his highest-ranking employees against one another. I say “curiously” because why so far have foreigners – and Russians at that! – seen what should have been obvious to us here in the West: that Trump was going to run the US government (or at least its executive arm) as a business?
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201611191047623363-trump-administration-analysis/
Note that the Sputnik article states that Mitt Romney could be a possible Secretary of State. So where would this leave John Bolton?

Jen
Jen
Nov 20, 2016 3:05 AM
Reply to  Jen

Sorry my mistake: Steven Bannon will not be NSA Director, he’ll be Special Counselor to Trump, replacing John Podesta in the role. Michael Flynn will be

Arrby
Arrby
Nov 19, 2016 6:56 PM

“reduced American global influence” : Bolton. There’s a number of issues here, of course. Bolton’s real and wrong concern is with the loss of US ‘domination’ of the world. That’s hasn’t happened, in my view. But that doesn’t mean that uncle Sam always gets his bloody way.
Also, Influence can be good or bad. I’m not a fan of pro free trade Paul Krugman, but he made some good observations in his NYT article titled “Let Them Hate As Long As They Fear.” (http://nyti.ms/2g5lYy4) He reminds us of a principled diplomat in the George W Bush admin who quit in disgust over the aggressive, violent behavior of his government, writing in his resignation letter: “Has ‘oderint dum metuant’ really become our motto?”” Notes Krugman: “”Oderint dum metuant” translates, roughly, as ”let them hate as long as they fear.” It was a favorite saying of the emperor Caligula, and may seem over the top as a description of current U.S. policy. But this week’s crisis in U.S.-Mexican relations — a crisis that has been almost ignored north of the border — suggests that it is a perfect description of George Bush’s attitude toward the world.”
As we know (and I know, from reading the widely maligned Noam Chomsky), Washington pursues ‘credibility’, which means ‘fear in others’. “When Clinton, Blair and others speak of the ‘credibility of NATO’ they are not expressing their concern about the credibility of Italy or Norway: rather of the reigning superpower and its attack dog. The meaning of credibility can be explained by any Mafia don. When a storekeeper does not pay protection money, the goons who are dispatched do not simply take the money; they leave him a broken neck so that others will get the message. Global Mafia dons reason the same way. It is not, of course, that the don needs the storekeeper’s money.” (See “Humanitarian Intentions On The Road To Hell” – http://bit.ly/2gv6Te6)
The US could have enormous influence following a foreign policy direction that is the opposite of what quite a few of the admins have followed and are following today. I’ve always said that there are two ways to get attention, which we all need. We can be helpful, friendly and useful and ‘attract’ others to us. Or we can force others to notice us, not caring how we do it. Robbing others (neoliberalism and austerity) will certainly get others attention.

Arrby
Arrby
Nov 19, 2016 3:49 PM

“The so-called “alternative right” is at least posing as holding its breath over the prospects of Bush-era Neo-Conservative John Bolton being appointed as US Secretary of State.” I know that once we regular readers hit ‘send’ and post a comment, typos are set in stone (for now). But I thought that contributors might have a bit more control. If they don’t, then they really need to quadruple proof read their articles. I have to guess at what that sentence means because it’s just not English that’s used in any way that I’m familiar with.

louisproyect
louisproyect
Nov 19, 2016 12:47 PM

Better late than never that the Off-Guardian crew wakes up to Trump realities.

Admin
Admin
Nov 19, 2016 1:17 PM
Reply to  louisproyect

OffG has always been awake to the possibility/probability the Trump phenomenon was just part of the ongoing game, and we’ve been offering contrasting takes on this from the beginning. But since Clinton was promising war with Russia and Trump at least affected to be more sane, he was still the better of two bad options – even if his sanity was only feigned. It’s about weighing a doubt (Trump may be sane) against a certainty (Clinton definitely isn’t).

ultra909
ultra909
Nov 19, 2016 11:37 AM

Interesting Bloomberg profile of Steve Bannon from last year: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2015-steve-bannon/

ultra909
ultra909
Nov 19, 2016 11:33 AM

Yeah, maybe this is where «the right» gets a good ole «hope & change» rinsing.
The difference is that the average Trump voter is a lot more cynical of the Federal government to start with – and a lot more heavily armed to boot.
This might not end well.

deschutesmaple
deschutesmaple
Nov 19, 2016 8:29 AM

You know that when names like mega-asswipe Breitbart ‘news’ exec Steven Bannon, bellowing hot-head John Bolton nominated for Trump’s Sec of State, not to mention the Heritage Foundation managing who gets what top position on Trump’s team, we are seriously fucked. I mean, these people and the Heritage Foundation are the worst of the worst. I think Trump will be worse than GW Bush/Cheney. I have a feeling all the Trump bombast about cozying up to Putin and collaborating with Russia to wipe out ISIS just flew out the window.

Daniel Rich
Daniel Rich
Nov 22, 2016 3:06 AM
Reply to  deschutesmaple

@ deschutesmaple,
Back in the day, the Apartheid State’s UN delegation referred to John Bolton as “The 6th member on their team.”

archie1954
archie1954
Nov 19, 2016 3:26 AM

Only fools can’t see it. It is abundantly clear to all who haven’t chosen to wear blinkers.