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Tuesday 29 March 2016

Donald Trump
Israel and The Arabs
It's not as easy to hide the fact that you are sympathetic to either Israel or The Arab States these days as it was when the general media concealed (successfully) for almost half a century the fact that Jackie Kennedy (JFK's wife) was Jewish.
Does it matter? It matters, in my view, if your finger is on the world's nuclear trigger and you may have to take a decision based on faith or ethnic affinity. [Israel would argue that it doesn't really care, it has it's own nuclear stockpile - as contingency.]
But this is not the case with regard to Donald Trump.
He is not Jewish but the son of German-Scottish immigrants.
One of his children (his daughter Ivanka who is the daughter of Ivana) is married to Jared Kushner, a successful Jewish (Orthodox) real estate developer.  Orthodox Rabbi Lookstein performed the ceremony.

The Kushner Company Group owns and manages commercial real estate.
This was (in my opinion) as much a commercial marriage (similar to Paul McCartney's marriage to Linda Eastman [Kodak-Eastman Company myth] as it was anything else. Such marriages (and divorces!) are not unheard of – either between royalty or the wealthy, worldwide, and, again, in my rather cynical opinion, should be seen for what they really are – either tax (IRS) or inheritance-wealth (IRS) related – rather than the type of marriages most of us (including myself) are more familiar with.

The group (Kushner Company) is highly reputable and well-thought of as an efficient and sound business - the sort of exemplary business model Donald Trump would certainly approve of.
Jared Kushner is also publisher of The New York Observer.

'Nuke The Arabs Daddy!'
The issue here is that it is highly unlikely that Donald Trump would be taking instructions (!) from any of his children with regard to world affairs (!) should he become President.
If you read my previous blog you will gather that this is highly likely - if he can bury his (ethnic?racial?) differences with Ted Cruz as his Vice-Presidential running mate. It's not entirely implausible – but with each trading insult the chasm widens.

The New York Post:
Bury It – Until After the Election (?)
If there is anything interesting here it is the fact that The New York Post initially covered the marriage in 2008 (at Trump National Golf Club, N.J.) but have deleted all references to the matter from their current public search archive.
Again, I am of the view that to avoid conspiracy theories after the Election, they should not have gone down this road but let the public make their own minds up on the basis of policy and what Donald Trump would bring to the Presidency in his own right.
In an information conscious era it's neither practical nor rational in 'open' societies to conceal (or apparently attempt to conceal) public interest details about national figures nor their family – especially related to the Presidency of The United States – which is what The New York Post has attempted to do.
Such actions only fuel conspiracy theories and, in the aftermath, are highly detrimental and damaging to the parties for whom the concealment was (initially) meant to 'protect'.

(If The Republican Convention does not choose 'The Donald' or Ted, my money's still on Hillary and Bernie to win comfortably.)'

(Don't expect to see or hear the above on or in the 'politically correct' U.S. media election coverage staged 'shows')



©Patrick Emek, March 2016

erratum:Linda McCartney

http://www.experts123.com/q/is-linda-eastman-mccartney-related-to-eastman-kodak.html

If you want to read about the real Linda McCartney, you will get a better insight from here
http://www.wingspan.ru/bookseng/linda/03.html
than from 'official' politically correct biographies and autobiographies.  Like Linda McCartney, she ruthlessly protected her own (and her husband's)  'image' and the 'aura' of the Kennedy Clan from public scrutiny while alive. Only after her death was the myth of Kennedys shattered - warts and all.
I irritated her somewhat where I once referred to LBJ in one of my books (read and reviewed by very few I might add!) as the real force for social change and racial justice in the United States - and not her deceased husband (!)






Sunday 20 March 2016

President Donald Trump?

I May Be Wrong But...........


On a head count alone, it unlikely that 'The Donald' will reach the magic figure of 1237 delegates required for automatic endorsement as Republican Presidential Candidate.
This is on the basis of my analysis of how the votes are likely to be divided in the remaining States yet to vote. I may be wrong. I hope that I am. But the figures don't add up to 1237 delegates.
Unless nobody comes out to vote for alternative candidates (which is unlikely!) then Donald Trump is likley to be somewhere between 45 and 100 candidates short of automatic endorsement. Under such conditions, he will have to either gracefully bow out or, as he has remarked, exhort his followers to take to the streets in protest.
The Republican 'establishment' is both hoping (and praying) the number falls short of 1237 delegates for 'The (enigmatic) Donald.'

[My guess is that at the Republican Convention he will, after a futile battle, accept defeat and, within a period of a few years retire to, perhaps, Hawaii - maybe even get together for a few games of golf with (then) retired former President Obama (?)]


If Donald Trump Falls Short Of The Magic Figure
Nominating a candidate will then go back to 'the party establishment'.
The problem with Donald is that he does not genuflect to any interest group or lobby. Here there is no love lost between himself and, for example, transnational policy elites – yet, like all astute politicians – he aggressively courts all of their votes on the campaign trail.
Nonetheless his supporters accept him at his word when he says that he remains fundamentally committed to the extension of American influence rather than it being 'held hostage' to foreign lobby groups.
(Trump Cruz Ryan and Clinton are all  due to address AIPAC's Policy Conference Convention over the next few days.)

Team America
Unfortunately he is not rich enough to replace them all (!) but certainly intelligent enough to offer alternative options or, even more alarming for the corrupt Washington elites, bring in or create his own 'task force' teams to 'sort out' America. In other words, Donald Trump is just as dangerous as was John Kennedy – with regard to his 'vision' for America not because he has a vision, but more because it has not been manufactured for him in China, Saudi Arabia nor elsewhere nor do such countries have any more leverage to influence the same in ways more favorable than they would  if he were an 'insider'.  In fact the opposite might very well be the case.

Like all politicians, however, should Donald Trump ever assume Office as President, in the coduct of pragmatic foreign policy, all bets would, more likely than not, be off.

Skull & Bones - But No Thules In The Box!
Skeletons In The Attic
Interestingly Kennedy himself was not very partial towards Israel despite the fact that his wife was one third Jewish (a fact concealed from the general public very well by the media for nearly half a century.)
You could liken Kennedy (politically) with today's charismatic Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders – who has recently declined an invitation to speak at AIPAC because of a very busy schedule – and who is infusing the same momentum and hope into the Democratic Party which JFK offered to the electorate in 1960 general election.

Capricorn One
Getting rid of Trump will not be an easy one for the insider establishment elite - who will now have to wait until the Convention if the delegate votes go to the wire with no obvious winner of the magic number.
So Donald Trump, the first 'wildcard' since John Kennedy (but, unlike Kennedy, an outsider from the political, military-industrial - but not from the business establishment elite) will be stopped at the Republican Party Convention because he will (more likely than not) lack the number of delegates to guarantee automatic nomination – leaving the issue to be decided by the Republican Party's 'traditional' 'backroom horse-traders'.
He has been a headache, a real headache to vested political Republican Party establishment interests. (They have probably learnt some bitter lessons from this Trump Presidential bid – one of which is that allowing an intelligent, articulate television business celebrity to be in the homes of tens of millions of Americans for almost a decade - should never be encouraged nor promoted, ever again.)

With 'The Donald' History....Where Does This Leave The Party?
So where does this leave insider establishment politics?
The next obvious figure is Ted Cruz.   He is likewise intelligent, opinionated and charismatic.
But he too is disliked by Washington's insider establishment – for other reasons. A friend of corporate financial America, the gun lobby, bible-belt middle-America, but luke warm to foreign lobby groups as his interests are U.S. financial interests and the projection of U.S. influence and power abroad - as opposed to the corruption of American politics by foreign lobby groups – anxious as they all are to extend their own country's influence within the United States. He is partial to Israeli lobby interests in Washington and has the support of significant sectors of Orthodox Jewish voters in New York, Florida and California where such group vote would, in a Presidential candidate election, be split between Hillary Clinton and himself.
For example, the votes which Bernie Sanders will loose in extremist Jewish communities and in Dixie because of his background (he is Jewish) and his commitment to 'Peace with the Palestinian Arabs', Ted Cruz and Donald Trump could well scoop up a significant number of these voters.
To say however that Ted Cruz is 'disliked' in Washington by the (Christian) 'insider elites' would be an understatement.
He has not spent a lot of time 'cultivating' potential patrons and friends within such groups and traditional societies, where it is a prerequisite ritual, to be seen - as 'a safe pair of hands'.  It is often remarked that he has a lot of disdain for 'Washington insiders' preferring to spend more of his time outside and yonder beyond - in the heartland of his constituency (Texas) - than living inside the Washington matrix bubble (or sty!)

A Cuban-American, born in Canada (a country traditionally mistrusted as 'too socialist' by many Republican 'insider' groups) Ted Cruz is often portrayed as a gun-toting slightly scary figure (something in the same manner Donald Trump portrays poor Hispanic economic migrants – except this time the 'feed' for such stories sometimes come (covertly) from his own Republican Party, and, I am likewise convinced, from overt Democratic sources.)
It is a great pity that pride, ethnicity, style, background, individuality and charisma prevents a Trump-Cruz presidential ticket.
It would certainly give Hillary a run for her money – and just might even succeed.
But that's what history is about: missed opportunities, chance encounters, location, birth and status or just sheer brute force to be ruthless enough take power – and to hold it.


Doctor Ben Carson
I would be doing a disservice if I did not mention Dr. Ben Carson.
His polling amongst Southern Whites and Blacks in Dixie was not insignificant as a Black Republican Candidate. My understanding is that he is well-liked and respected by all who have met him and personally know him.
There will be many senior cabinet posts in a future Republican administration which will require talented leadership and vision – so don't entirely rule retired neurosurgeon Dr. Carson out in this regard.


So Who Will The Republican Convention Backroom Insiders Choose?
The safest pair of hands is Paul Ryan. Lacking charisma but a well-trusted insider, a technocrat who knows how to 'work' the wheels of power in Washington whilst maintaining the confidence of all the 'traditional' groups – and lobbyists - at home and abroad.
So what would a Ryan Presidency look like?  It would look more like Ronald Reagan's presidency than that of George Bush Junior. One consolation, if it can be called that, is at least you would not find a President Ryan (or his enforcers) storming into CIA nor NSA Headquarters to demand that data be 'doctored' in order to justify military campaigns abroad. Ryan is far more intelligent than to ruin his place in the annals of U.S. presidential history with such folly.
Paul Ryan is a gifted individual and with the right media 'makeover' will be imprinted onto the minds of the electorate, as charismatic and the only great hope for a ' change' Americans can really believe in.

Sadly, neither he nor anybody on the ticket with him, are the team to defeat Hillary Clinton - Bernie Sanders (possible) ticket.

Furthermore, it would not at all surprise me if many middle American voters (who are no fools) disappointed and angry with the ignominious dumping by the 'establishment' of their choices (and the best candidates for the job) - Donald Trump and Ted Cruz - will 'cross the floor' and, in protest, vote for Hillary Clinton and her running mate (possibly, but not a mandatory choice, Bernie Sanders) at the next U.S. Presidential election, enabling the Democrats to sweep into power with a historical majority unseen in recent decades

One thing that is for sure, the next 'Candidate' election is one soap opera epilog not to be missed!; wherever you live in the world!

















https://twitter.com/RealBenCarson?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author










Wednesday 9 March 2016

Turkey
Domestic Intervention By the Turkish Armed Forces Into Political Affairs

As a follow-on to my recent blog a question which arose was ''when will the Turkish Armed forces intervene (if at all) into domestic affairs?''
My answer to this is that the Turkish Armed Forces will only intervene after humiliating military defeats in Syria (and possibly Iraq) all of which can be attributed to the incompetent decisions of President Erdogan.
(He will, of course, attempt to place the blame at the door of his own armed forces commanders and dismiss those considered 'unreliable' and 'disloyal'.)

It never ceases to fascinate me how all our politicians lack the courage to call Erdogan out for what he is: a dictator, a tyrant and a demagogue who is leading Turkey over the precipice and into chaos, tyranny anarchy and civil war.
CNN Turk, like its parent in Atlanta, is, as I have said previously, a national (now an international) disgrace as it conveniently ignores democracy and media freedom in that country in the hope of saving its own commercial neck from the wrath of Erdogan. [Much better, in my view, that CNN declare itself for what it really is:an infomercial station for global corporate conglomerates interspersed with news of relevance and favorable to the same bodies it serves. In this regard it would,at least, in my opinion, avoid the criticism that it ignores relevant political issues as such would not be expected of a business infomercial global network.]
But back to this question of military intervention into domestic affairs.
Despite Erdogan's purges, the Turkish armed forces remain relatively unpoliticized and free of Wahhabist-Salafist control, at the present time.
The armed forces will only move if and when they see that popular sentiment has universally turned against Erdogan because of military reverses – hence the recent crackdowns on the opposition media – to prevent such information reaching the general populace.

Will Europe be Compliant As Turkey Descends Into Tyranny?

My own opinion is that Europe does not really care – for so long as whoever is in power halts the haemorrhaging of economic and political migrants and refugees from war-torn and devastated areas into Europe.

I have already expressed my own view that 'throwing Euros' at Erdogan is the equivalent of the Roman Empire, in the era of its decline, 'throwing' Denarius at the mercenaries (or 'contractors') tasked with 'guarding' the Empire's frontiers. As soon as the money 'ran out', the mercenaries - Vandals and other barbarians - commenced their looting and pillage of the Empire's territories they had (hitherto) been tasked with 'protecting'.

It's a fools path the European Union has now embarked upon.



Back to Turkey.
I have no doubt that Erdogan, being of the same ilke as every tyrant before him, will attempt to block access to all information to the general populace, other than that which he wants them to see and hear.
Pulling the plug on social media networks and effectively 'closing down' the internet (especially in areas and regions where such are most active) will go some way to staving off the inevitable.
As The Fuhrer and his High Command were all too aware during World War II, you cannot conceal massive military defeats forever from the general public.

What About the Saudi Armed Forces?
Saudi Arabia has money (lots of it!) but its armed forces, as standalone,
unlike the IDF, Hezbollah, and the Syrian Armed Forces, has no backbone.
Its 'backbone' is provided by Britain and the United States, as underwriters and guarantors of Saudi sovereignty - but both countries will 'limit' their client's 'military interventions' (or, in my opinion, military adventures) where such could result in a wider conflagration - or even a war between the superpowers – which nobody (with any sanity) wants to see happen.

The Turkish Armed Forces however are a very different kettle of fish.
They are competent, organized, highly disciplined, resolute, determined and have got 'what it takes'.
As soon as the Turkish position changes, the Saudis (and their Gulf State 'allies') will quickly disappear from the scene.

I hope this clarifies the earlier blog when I say that the Turkish Armed Forces will only intervene in domestic politics where its own reputation has been greviously undermined by political decisions which place the future territorial integrity and economic stability of the Turkish state in jeopardy, should such be allowed to continue.



© Patrick Emek, March 2016

Friday 4 March 2016

Newsletters
Organizing for Action

Yesterday, OFA supporters were on the ground making their voices heard in cities all over the country for a fair Supreme Court nomination process. At organizing rallies, media events, and phone banks, they called on Senate leaders to do their jobs and give President Obama's nominee fair consideration.

It's up to all of us to make sure they know that obstructing this process is unprecedented -- and unacceptable.

Here's a quick, simple way you can get involved: Send a tweet to Senator Robert Portman demanding a fair process.

The Senate must do its job and give the President's nominee a fair hearing.

Tweet Now

Senate leaders need to hear it directly from you. They can break with their obstructionist colleagues at any time and call for a fair nomination process, but they need to feel the pressure from the people who matter to them.

Senators and their aides pay attention to the tweets they get from their constituents. This is a moment to make your voice heard.

Join OFA supporters in calling for a fair hearing and a timely up or down vote for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee -- tweet now:

https://my.barackobama.com/Do-Your-Job-Senator

Thanks,

Caleb

Caleb Gardner
Digital Director
Organizing for Action 


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