The Fields and Assad Fantasy

8 Comments

1. 

   Oui on August 13, 2017 at 4:40 pm

   Ivanka Trump Condemns White Supremacy After Father Blames ‘Many Sides’ | The Forward |

   First Daughter and presidential advisor Ivanka Trump tweeted her disapproval of “racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis” on Sunday morning, one day after three people died due to clashes between white nationalist protesters and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va. — which her father, President Trump, seemed to blame on “many sides.”

   1:2 There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.

   — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) 13 augustus 2017

    

   2:2 We must all come together as Americans — and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville

   — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) 13 augustus 2017

   Jews were subjected to extra abuse by the white supremacist marchers. Trump is Jewish.

   President Trump was heavily criticized, including by Jewish groups and members of his own party, for seemingly to equally blame white supremacists and counter-protesters for Saturday’s events.

   Rabbi Rick Jacobs, @URJPresident, issued this statement on the white supremacist hate march in #Charlottesville: https://t.co/QO6hF4mVrJ

   — The URJ (@URJorg) 12 augustus 2017

   What A Jewish Journalist Saw In Charlottesville | The Forward |

   I had come to Charlottesville, Virginia for the “Unite the Right” rally to gauge the level of Jew hatred, amid all the racism and bigotry. So when, after a night of hate-filled demonstrations and a morning of clashes, the mayor cancelled all permits and kicked the white supremacists out of Emancipation Park, I wasn’t sure what to do until I got wind of a rumor that one hard-core gang had decamped to another park in this idyllic college town.

   I headed to McIntire Park [cached] with a few other reporters and was glad — if that’s the right word — to find a crowd of about 100 flowing into the space. A few miles away in downtown, a driver had rammed his car into counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19. But in McIntyre Park, a riotous group of men — one bare-shirted, the better to show off his swastika tattoo, another being treated for a deep gash in his head — was shouting angrily, at reporters, communists, socialists, bitches… and Jews.

   …
   When another reporter asked Spencer why he is using offensive language when speaking about a mayor who was democratically elected by residents of the city, Spencer responded: “Who cares? Hitler was elected. That’s what you guys always say.”

   But then Spencer, a relatively young member of the American far right, was eclipsed by the arrival of an elder of the movement with even more name recognition and status.

   “Duke, Duke, Duke,” the crowd chanted, as David Duke, the former KKK leader and poster boy of modern American neo-Nazism, walked straight into the supportive audience and stepped up to the bench-turned-podium.

    « click for more info »

   “The courage you showed today in Charlottesville,” he told his supporters. “This is a first step toward making a realization of something that Trump alluded to early in the campaign — this is the first step toward taking America back.” And he explained: “European Americans face massive discrimination. Truth is that we’re being ethnically cleansed in our own nation.”

2. 

   Marie3 on August 14, 2017 at 2:40 am

   Thanks for running down links that help to explain why a US white supremicist would be holding up Assad for praise.

   While admittedly a cursory review, it all seems to hinge on a belief that a uber-Nazi war criminal was protected for decades by Hafez Assad and that the protection continued under Bashar.  Accepted as fact by current German Nazis, and therefore, they embrace Assad.  Apparently there’s a PR pipeline from German Nazis to their US counterparts.    

   Backing up to WWII, the British-Free French forces kicked the Vichy French Syria and Lebanon butts in June-July 1941.  Thus, Syria and Lebanon were allied territories months before the US entered the war.  Not as far removed from WWII as South American countries (post-war ratline destination points for many of the Nazi criminals), but not a member of the Axis powers.

   Why Brunner left the protection of Gehlen’s CIA supported operation and allegedly took up residence in Syria in 1954 isn’t included in the summaries.  Odd choice for a Nazi to hole up in a country that established diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1946.  OTOH, he may have been useful to the USSR in its efforts against Gehlen.  (“The Devil’s Chessboard” details Gehlen and his operation.)  The reporters chasing down Brunner in Syria 1983-90 would have known little to nothing about Gehlen.

   .. However, communist East Germany led by Erich Honecker, negotiated with Syria in the late 1980s to have Brunner extradited and arrested in Berlin.[15] The government of Syria under Hafez el-Assad was close to extraditing Brunner to East Germany, but the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 severed contacts between the two regimes and halted the extradition plan.

   Strange that Germany or France wasn’t able to take it from there.

   Anyway — as he was born in 1912, it was assumed in 2014 that he’s now dead.  (Other Nazi war criminals located in the past couple of decades have been a decade younger than Brunner.)  Perhaps in 2001 or 2010 or some time after 1992 if the credible witness was correct.  

   Another sticky wicket is that this Brunner entered Syria sixteen years before Hafez Assad came to power.  It’s reported that Mossad attempted to assassinate this person in 1961 and 1980.  (I thought Mossad was more competent than that.)  Whatever the reasons for the Assads not offing or extraditing Brunner (who the Assads claimed wasn’t in Syria), it’s unlikely that it was because he’d sent tens of thousands Jews to their death.      

3. 

   Marie3 on August 14, 2017 at 9:57 am

   The Intercept – Reporter and Press Freedom Advocate James Risen to Join The Intercept.

   Meanwhile New York Times Promises Truth and Diversity, Then Hires Climate Denying Anti-Arab White Guy

   • 

     Oui on August 14, 2017 at 1:24 pm

     On numerous occasions I have linked to his articles at the NY Times, an excellent investigative journalist.

     In BooMan’s archive of diaries – James Risen

     Recently I came across his writings about Hunter Biden in the Ukraine working for a corrupt oligarch …

     • Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch | NY Times – Dec. 8, 2015 |

     Earlier in a diary about Iraq where Risen was outstanding and earned him the Pulitzer Prize …

     • CIA Program of Illegal Targeted Killings Creates Uproar by Oui on July 14, 2009

     There were at least three distinct groups in the Ukraine wokring on U.S. election interference: corrupt government in Kyiv with Poroshenko on behalf of Clinton, a number of opposition oligarchs in support of Trump and a group of hackers around Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, located in Kharkov, Ukraine. I had come across his name earlier in the Kathy Sierra incident I highlighted a decade ago and recently his support for Chicago GOP millionair Smith backing Trump in an attempt to hack or obtain the DNC or Clinton papers.

     • Peter Smith Tapped Alt-Right to Access Dark Net

     The “weev” is anti-establishment, anti-Putin and clearly in the pro-Trump camp of the Alt-right. He is linked to the Ukrainian ultra-right of the Maidan victory.  

     “Trump’s political base wants to see the kind of spirited resistance to Jewish Communists that Muzychko displayed.”

     A lot of covert action in the Ukraine since the coup d’état of February 2014. We’ll know what happened in a few decades or so …

     • 

       Marie3 on August 14, 2017 at 2:22 pm

       One thing that can be counted on from rightwingers is that they spend an enormous amount of time and energy, and considerable amounts of money as well, digging in dry holes they’ve become obsessed about.  Benghazi.  Hillary’s emails that were either completely destroyed or put on a single device and placed in a secure safety deposit box (or somewhere else as secure) before the bozos even learned of her private server.

       With that said, not all of them are totally dumb bunnies.    May add more after I read the New Yorker Assange interview.

4. 

   Marie3 on August 15, 2017 at 2:44 pm

   The Atlantic has an article up about a Harvard Law graduate Trump campaign surrogate and advisor who was then hired for the transition team.  She didn’t get a WH appointment and was no longer welcomed as a Trump surrogate on TV.  Ms. Delgado doesn’t know, and nobody that does is talking, the actual reason or reasons why she wasn’t hired.  Could have been to squash media attention on what passes for and is billed as a sex scandal.  Or could be discrimination against a pregnant single woman — odd for a political party that championed a single pregnant teen in 2008.  Or perhaps, it was the clout of her also not hired by the WH married lover.  Regardless of the reason that door has been closed and locked to her.  

   Politically, it’s too minor to waste any time speculating about.  Right-to-lifers haven’t rallied in support of her.  And while this does relate to women’s rights and feminism, as a Trump surrogate, Delgado chose her side.

   The interesting bit in the article concerns Jason Miller, Trump’s chief campaign and transition spokesman in the fall of 2016 and Delgado’s former lover and father of her newborn son.  He’s been a professional GOP campaign operative for twenty years, House, Senate, and presidential campaigns.  Those he’s worked for include Darrel Issa, Mel Martinez, Tom Coburn, Mark Sanford, Guiliani (there’s a theme there) and has had consulting gigs for Club for Growth and Ted Cruz.  

   After returning home to and reconciling with his wife, Miller joined the consulting firm Teneo, signed a contract with CNN as an on-air contributor, and has reportedly continued to advise the White House in an informal capacity.

   Are those interim gigs on the way to a senior position in the Trump WH when the coast is clear?  That interpretation gets a boost from the fact that in January 2017, Miller sold his interest in Jamestown Associates.  The CNN contract is likely a bone thrown to Trump.  The oddity is Teneo.  While ClintonInc is publicly screaming about Putin-Russia electing Trump, one of the closest Clinton associates quickly and quietly hires a man that was publicly and actively engaged in electing Trump.

   Odd that this doesn’t compute for those still railing about Clinton’s loss.  

   • 

     Oui on August 16, 2017 at 2:21 am

     Ms Delgado made a series of poor choices in her life. Let this be a lesson and hopefully she won’t be lured by money, glamour and Republican morals in her new future.

     FWIW in her anger for being rejected by an a$$hole she chose to seek the publicity and Miller resigns from his WH job.

     ○ A.J. Delgado’s Tweets Make Trump’s New Comms Director Resign – Here’s Why

     ha ha. aj delgado tweets mysterious about jason miller needing to resign. he resigns. she deletes her account. pic.twitter.com/GqrNX84hKS

     — Brad Adkins (@realbradadkins) 24 december 2016

     ○ Trump pick backs out of White House job after affair allegations | Politico |

     And so the American public and press got Sean Spicer. A.J. Delgado became too hot to handle … Spanish pepper.

     You and I certainly are acquainted with single moms who are doing great!

     On Teneo Holdings and Jason Miller, America the land of opportunity for Trump veterans …

     Bryan Lanza becomes the latest Trump veteran to join the private sector rather than work in the administration, helping clients adapt to the changes in Washington. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and senior adviser Barry Bennett started a lobbying firm, Avenue Strategies, while senior communications adviser Jason Miller joined Teneo, a public-affairs firm.

     At Mercury, Lanza will be reunited with several Trump veterans. Tony Fabrizio, who served as one of the campaign’s pollsters, is a senior counselor at the firm, and Mike McSherry, who helped oversee Trump’s delegate whip operation at the 2016 Republican National Convention, is a managing director.

     • 

       Marie3 on August 16, 2017 at 7:15 pm

       I wouldn’t characterize Ms. Delgado as having made a series of poor choices.  Those that can be evaluated, appear to be consistent with who she is.  Her relationship with Miller may have been out of character or inconsistent for her, but as she has claimed that Miller told her that he was separated from his wife, it doesn’t sound as if it was a major deviation.

       I can’t work up any empathy for those that don’t understand the risk involved with having a sexual relationship with a co-worker, boss, or subordinate.  Less risk if it also includes being seen and acknowledged as a couple, but those too can end badly and leave one or both of the individuals in a bind.  What isn’t serving Ms. Delgado is taking her hurt and anger public, but I also don’t have empathy for women who have unilaterally chosen to bear a child and demand the non-consenting partner fulfill the obligations that is expected of a consenting partner.

       ———-

       Lanza, Bennett, and Lewandowski followed a DC standard path, not in the least bit remarkable.  And not at all like that of Jason Miller’s.