Trump era: Fascist dawn, or road to liberation?

m said:
If we can believe this NY Times story, Spicer reconvened reporters to tell them "that the tax was just one option under consideration to pay for the wall. Reince Priebus, the president’s chief of staff, told NBC News that the proposal was just one in a “buffet” of options."

__https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/us/politics/mexico-wall-tax-trump.html?_r=0

The peso took a dive after the initial announcement, I'd bet the Trump team knew that would happen. Maybe they were just issuing a warning of sorts? Dunno, but I agree, if he's bent on having tax payers fund the wall indirectly then he's not as smart as he might think he is, and the torture aspect, if that's his real intent, wow - loose canon would be an understatement I think.

Yes indeed. I must admit my concept of being a Trump Hopeful is under quite a bit of stress over the last few days. The one possibility I do keep looking at is that he is doing what a negotiator does and generating clouds of dust so his opposing negotiators don't know what he has in his hand and what he is prepared to move on. I surely hope so, but it does look like he might be that arrogant buffoon we all thought he was in the early days
 
Couple of thoughts the DAPL pipeline:

luc said:
Thank you Seamas for this information about the pipeline. Even though it is a PR effort, it is useful to know what their arguments are, and they may even be reasonable. I can't say because I don't know enough about this issue. But we don't need to discard these arguments out of hand just because they come from an 'evil corporation', and we don't need to automatically side with the demonstrators just because they are demonstrators. It might be more complex than that, and unreasonable protests DO happen. Again, I can't say in this case.

Trump's general idea of environmental policy sounds about right to me: do away with the billion dollar climate change industry and generally calling this fraud what it is. And then:

_https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy said:
Lastly, our need for energy must go hand-in-hand with responsible stewardship of the environment. Protecting clean air and clean water, conserving our natural habitats, and preserving our natural reserves and resources will remain a high priority. President Trump will refocus the EPA on its essential mission of protecting our air and water.

In other words, forget climate change, focus on real environmental issues. Can't argue with that.

However, he also has a clear focus on business and self-sufficiency (not unlike Putin BTW, as far as I know), which means that he embraces 'clean coal', shale gas etc. and strengthening US energy production. So there's a bit of a contradiction to his environmental goals.

You can read his stance on the energy issue here: _https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy

Of course, what he will actually do or can do remains to be seen.

There seems to be a very large impetus for this line (and other lines) to move ahead - now signed. At the oil and gas confluence of the line, CTV had this to say; and one can speculate that the line has future tap line feeds: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/dakota-access-pipeline-explained-what-you-need-to-know-1.3143020 that may have future designs, not sure.

The pipeline starts, at the top, in Northwest North Dakota, at the Bakken Formation – a deposit of oil and natural gas underneath the meeting points of North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and a sliver of Manitoba. It travels southeast into Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota.

It seems to me that we have certain realities in being massive consumers of oil - with much land to criss-cross and houses to heat etc. We also have windmills and solar panels that are not going to meet our nations with their insatiable need for energy. The EU needs the same, they can get it from Russian lines (resisted up till now by Obama and company) or from the Saudi lines (hence Syria being taken apart by Obama and company). Russian lines would come with cooperation and the latter, well that can and was seen with their faithful Western/NATO participants.

The DAPL line has some bad obstacles too, and one is the lands of the Standing Rock. Obviously the Indians are not happy, and I don't blame them. The other obstacles are water courses to cross (go under) and one might feel more comfortable if their pipeline engineering was rock solid, yet it's not, and that does not mean they should not strive for the best possible engineering solutions for the environment - people should expect that, getting it is another matter.

What the Sioux originally said (Obama era) was:

The Sioux tribe wants the pipeline rerouted, and is also putting pressure on the Obama administration to deny ETP an easement to build near the reservation.

The tribe says the pipeline threatens the Missouri River – the region’s water supply – and that the company failed to do necessary environmental reviews before construction.

Members of the Sioux tribe also say the project goes over sacred land that was never ceded.

They seem to have asked and stated a few reasonable conditions, and there are solutions if there is a will to find them.

The link above has some Canadian ties to this project, so thought to add them here:

HOW DOES THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE IMPACT CANADA?

While the Dakota Access Pipeline does not directly impact Canada, on August 2, 2016, Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. (EEP), a unit of Calgary-based energy delivery company Enbridge, announced that they will acquire a 27.6 per cent interest in the Bakken Pipeline System. The price tag: US$1.5 billion.

In addition, three Canadian banks, RBC, Scotiabank and TD Securities, are among 17 financial institutions that have either have financial dealings with the pipeline or with companies that have a stake in the pipeline project. According to an investigation, TD Securities has given $360 million in project-level loans to the Dakota Access pipeline.

Scotiabank has been identified as a lender to Sunoco Logistics, a pipeline operator that will take over operation of DAPL once the project is completed. RBC, meanwhile, has been identified as a lender to Energy Transfer Equity, an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners. Neither RBC nor Scotiabank, however, have been identified as providing direct, project-level loans to Dakota Access LLC.

Indeed, projects need banks and the above are a few of them from outside the U.S., and as said before, tap lines later may come into play, even from Canada; have not looked at this really.

Then we get from ZeroHedge via OilPrice.com http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Trump-Angers-Buffett-To-Sign-Executive-Orders-On-Keystone-Dakota-Pipelines.html with mention of perhaps one of the prime instigators and leash owners of Obama/Clinton, osit.

t is just day two of his presidency, and already Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the Obama legacy: in his latest move reported moments ago by Bloomberg, president Trump intends to sign two executive actions today that would advance construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, putting a spoke, so to say, in the train wheels of Warren Buffett's train-based oil transportation quasi-monopoly.
[...]
{of Keystone} If fully built by developer TransCanada Corp., Keystone would run from Alberta, Canada’s oil sands to the Gulf Coast in Texas, bringing heavy oil sands petroleum to refineries {these are some of the Koch Brothers gulf refineries}. Last month, the Obama administration ordered a comprehensive environmental impact statement to be conducted on the Dakota Access Pipeline before any decision could be made on building its final section below Lake Oahe in North Dakota.
[...]
The two projects require different approvals. Keystone needs a presidential permit to build across the Canadian border, while Dakota Access, developed by Energy Transfer Partners, needs an Army Corps of Engineers easement to build under Lake Oahe.

Expect an angry reaction from Buffett, which will promptly flow through to funded environmental protest groups, who will double down in their defense of the two pipelines, of which the Dakota Access was the prominent center of media attention in the waning days of Obama's presidency.

i.e. Buffet takes a hit on his oil shipping rail car business and the Koch Brothers get a direct funnel to their refineries - kind of a war of dominance between them.

Joe said:
kalibex said:
Joe said:
I think this pipeline protest business is part of either a deliberate campaign to get a revolution going, just one part of the campaign to whip up a certain section of the population, to create a particular climate. The anti-Trump business seems to be part of that. The more I think about it the more I think that the defining aspect of a Trump presidency is going to be some kind of revolution or social chaos in the USA, with Trump simply being used as the fall guy.

Does this statement imply that you believe that the native protestors are also being used and manipulated into taking a stand that they can't win? This no-DAPL protest is not exactly inconsistent with their general beliefs and philosophy. This protest also did not just start with the Trump presidency.

Yeah, and neither did the Black Lives Matter protests. My point is that over the past few years there seems to have been a concerted effort to whip American "do-gooders" and liberal types up by using the media and private funding to give 'legs' to various causes. The DAPL protest got a LOT of attention that it normally would not have had, but for the funding that went into organizing the protestors. You could say this is part of an 'awakening' of the people to corruption, but there have been a LOT of other pipelines and environmentally-damaging projects over the last 10 years that no one apparently cared about. So why the DAPL?

Anti-Buffet might be a factor, at least as one aspect.

ShamanSam said:
Since 1990 there an huge increase in resistance to more Native lands being stolen.

Very true.

:D You can see my cute face throughout the documentary, my speaking role is near the end. :cool:

It is better to choose your battles wisely.
It would be an unwise waste of energy, for Native resistance to try and stop a pipeline on non " Native owned land"

Yeah, they would not normally try and do that.

A popular Native saying is, 7 generations.
Which is to remind us, that any major decision must include consideration; for at least, the next seven generations of children.
I have never heard of any pipe that would last 4 generations. With all the sinkholes and cracks recently DAPL is pure folly; guaranteed to fail.
Everything breaks sooner or later.

Indeed, things will deteriorate, as you say, sooner or later. This will not stop the momentum of pipelines, so hope they build good ones and give Standing Rock a big berth and go around another way.

The main reason for DAPL is, what native elders called the white man's disease; greed.
It would be wiser to follow the paradigm shift that is happening and switch to electric vehicles.

They will try for the switch, yet not very particle for many in the North anyway, osit.

A twitter president is a very interesting development.
If I had a way to pull Trump's ear. I would suggest he consider using, the tactics my Indian Reserve has used; to completely turn around our economy.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1207760-membertou-receives-business-award

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/133991-membertou-feted-with-community-spirit-award

http://www.mmnn.ca/2014/04/membertou-receives-award-for-economic-stewardship/

Using this technique on U.S.A. Indian Reservations, may help; in the karma department.

Concerning the video posted above, ShamanSam, had caught this a long time ago and will review (thanks for that). It is interesting too as I was at Kanehsatake/Oka last fall – really nice people and beautiful place. One difference back then, or so I was told, was that what happened there was in the terms of reference of law (and damned wrong regardless). In Kanehsatake, the "Crown" had to back down from their stance of flexing their authority as the lands were titled by treaty, not as a reserve; a failed imperial experiment, but as sovereign territory - and that is another legal story.

I hope this whole thing words out, yet beware the brokers and manipulators by proxy of all sides.
 
While getting caught up on this thread over the past several hours, there were only a couple of thoughts which occurred to me which I felt might be worth adding to the discussion...

I've always been fascinated by the direct, in-yer-face metaphors which come with word associations, especially in politics. These were the big ones rattling around my brain...

"Keystone XL" ~ "Extra Large Keystone"?

"Standing Rock" ~ A solid thing which can fall. Why? Well.., you dislodge the keystone.

If we're looking at flashpoint events which might determine how realities unfold, then you couldn't ask for a more explosive one than this particular pipeline issue.

I agree with Joe that this particular cause celebre is curious in terms of how Big and how Now is has been, given just how common pipeline construction is and how long it has been going on. The image below has been floating around FaceBook appended with one of those snarky B&W thinking meme-messages, "Which pipeline is the one which is going to kill us all if it breaks?"

pipeline_line_map-630x420.gif


-That's a fair question, IMO. I find it intriguing by association that it was a platoon of veterans who arrived en mass in support of the native protesters and succeeded in really flipping the spin at Standing Rock, forcing Obama to finally do something more than waffle and actually make a decision on the issue before escaping into retirement. Veterans are some of the most vocal supporters of Trump, so there's a weird contradiction set up in the fact that Trump might reverse the outcome of their hard won input. Whatever the case, the tensions invested in the public's mind have been sown for months now and are wound up tightly for a really powerful (and really confusing) explosion should somebody decide they want one.


"TransCanada" (A big Canadian oil corporation, which apparently with Justin Trudeau's blessing, has been sending Canuck liberals into rage fits over the last 48 hours regarding its embracing of Trump's stance on the pipeline issue). ~ Now, I don't know, but if I were a sci-fi author trying to come up with a term to best describe a country sliding between states of reality, I don't think I could come up with a better one than that!

I also find it curious that Trump and Trudeau -and Truman all share such similar spellings and similar powerful metaphorical essences. (The meaning of Trudeau is "thor's god (thorvald)", according to a 20 second internet etymology search.)

(I wrote a short opinion piece a couple of weeks back on parallels between events today and how things progressed through the late 1940's to 1950's under President Truman which I think remains relevant: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,43060.msg696930.html#msg696930 )
 
Something else occurred to me - as we know, one technique of hypnosis is to generate a couple of 'yes' statements (asking the subject questions that are immediately affirmed) to 'open' up the subject. Now, I guess it's safe to say that Trump generated quite a bit of 'yes' statements - things that deeply resonate with folks, including us. In a sense, he hypnotized his followers, who will then be open or 'en rapport' with him and thus believe almost anything the guy says. I must admit, when listening to Trump, I feel he really does have something hypnotic about him. Interesting as well that the first thread about him here was called "Donald Trump - a lesson in spellbinding".

Seen in this light, just with his statements about torture, he might have made millions of people accept torture with just a few words :O And here lies a great danger - the neoliberals were all 'nice talk', while they blew up the planet behind the scenes. But Killary and the like wouldn't just say they support torture I guess, they would weasel out of such a question, maybe saying "we will investigate any wrongdoing" or "we trust our security services"... While believing such 'liberal' lies and looking the other way is certainly harmful to the soul, consciously embracing torture might be a whole new level. From there, you are not far away from accepting concentration camps for Muslims...

So, I think we need to be super careful not to be hypnotized, especially if we agree with many things Tump says and does.

Knowledge protects. Ignorance endangers.
 
Re: Trump the lesser evil?

Ok let's talk about Trump, the one that is suppose to be lesser evil,
It really comes to my mind, that Trump was a card,in case something wrong happened,because the pedophilia and ,sexual abuse,sacrifice rituals..Unmask a very depraved society in USA and it,wasnt going to stop,
And now you can see everywhere is looking at Trump and his regulations,is an unleash of many protesters...He looks almost crazy,I think that he is something like a showman entertainer.....to make people forget about the thing about pedophilia and human sacrifice,and he is doing it,with the knowing,that american people can be very nasty and horrible,giving away comments about mexican inmigrants puting these situarion like the bad the rapist drug dealers and american people are the victims ..and,,that is not correct...As always the american media is making and helping Trump to dsitract people of the horrendous case of politicians and military people In the Pizza gate Scandal.....
 
It was kind of ridiculous to think that Mexico would ever pay for that Wall. I guess Trump knows this. Maybe it was just a ploy to give Trump an excuse he could sell to raise an high enough import tax so US business would stop leaving the US to produce their goods inside Mexico. Who knows, it could also bring US businesses back from Mexico ???

But I am not an economist.
 
bjorn said:
The Fake Media is upset because Trump didn't wave them good-bye on his first Air Force One trip.

Trump doesn't wave good-bye on his first Air Force One trip

It's kind of funny that they get all hysterical about this, but wouldn't it help to at least act a bit diplomatic?

'Snowflakery' seems to have infected the media also. Sure he could have been 'diplomatic', but what does it matter if he doesn't bother waving to the media. The media making an issue of this kind of thing is, to me, clear evidence of their conscious agenda to stir up the US population against Trump.
 
Yes, and it's all becoming rather silly. A president that doesn't wave all the time, has the World gone mad... :rolleyes:

I remember the MSM even attacked Trump a while back when he went out for dinner with his family but didn't notified the press about it.

Their ammunition for a color revolution is rather weak. OSIT.
 
I don't know how legit this is, but someone posted the following on FB that was shown by someone on Reddit:

Earlier, from Vicky:

"For those who might be interested, I just found out a little news on the #DAPL situation. Although our new Prez just signed for the Pipeline to continue, he WILL be moving it 70 miles further away from tribal land, and that the pipes must be replaced by quality American steel."

Knowing steel well by working with it for several decades, China steel pipes are notorious for breaking. By changing to American steel, this will greatly reduce this concern. Steel made in the USA is the best of the best, in my opinion. I would welcome an American made pipe right along side my own house.

Charles

I checked whether the post was still up, but he deleted it, because he received many comments from people attacking him or others on his page. Then he posted a link to this article, which says:

Just how is oil and natural gas transported in this country? Natural gas, of course, moves exclusively by pipeline unless it is liquefied and shipped overseas by tanker. Oil, meantime, uses pipelines 70 percent of the time, river barges 23 percent, trucks 4 percent and railway 3 percent. Of note, analysts say that it can cost as much as five times more to transport oil by rail than it does pipe, for moderate to long distances.

As for Dakota, Energy Partners says that the line would eliminate as many as 740 rail cars and 250 trucks. It also says that the line is 70 miles from the Standing Rock Sioux's water resources in North Dakota.

I don't know much about the whole pipeline situation so I could definitely be wrong here, but I think the above sounds more or less reasonable. :huh:
 
Joe said:
'Snowflakery' seems to have infected the media also. "

Joe..."seems"??..your being way too nice....you don't even get hired without an "indoctrination certificate" from a from a flake making journalism school....and even if you do "know the score" you will lose your job if you go against the false narrative...

( Note; I'm talking about MSM reporters, not guys like you....and while I'm at it, thank you for your work Joe, keep it up! )

Mod note: fixed quotes
 
Laura said:
Joe said:
A perspective that I haven't seen shared here is that Trump is no savior, he's going to play the game the same way as the 'elite': power politics, keeping in with the big corps and bankers and all the cronyism and vested interests that go along with that. So there will, of course, still be lots of corruption and inequality in the USA under Trump, he'll probably do some pretty despicable things (like all his predecessors). The only good thing that I think MIGHT come out of his presidency is that he'll rein in the foreign warmongering and global chaos created by the 'deep state'. That's a big "might", by the way, but if he achieves it even to a small extent, it could make a big difference.

Well, he's already really pissed off a lot of peeps - but most of them were dependent on USA handouts. Still, ought not to make enemies.

His comments on torture just were over the top IMO.

Like I said, he could end up being a new Hitler who was, we must remember, very popular and did a lot of good things for Germany. But still, he was Hitler and things ended as they did because he had some serious blind spots and ego problems. If you read Percy Schramm's book about Hitler, (and he had access to stuff others didn't), you can see that Hitler suffered from a sort of Dunning Kruger thing.

Obviously, there are differences and things would certainly be worse with Hillary (and I don't doubt that for an instant), but I see some real issues about Trump and we need to stay on top of this and not soft soap anything.

A friend on FB has been posting about how much Trump is like Mussolini instead of like Hitler. I am not very familiar with Mussolini, but from the little I read on him, Trump might be indeed a bit more Mussolinish in character (although there are still notable differences, especially in background, and how they came to be in politics). I am reminded too of the resistance songs sung by the Greeks against the Italian occupation during WWII, where Mussolini is described as the ultimate narcissist and pompous inadequate.

Personally, despite the feelings of relief and hope following the election results, after Trump's inauguration what I feel is apprehension and a sense of doom. And it might not be so much related to who Trump is or what he does/will do, but on the division that was manifactured in the US because of his election. I sometimes feel like I am standing in the middle of a battlefield and I have to look at both directions to point out the truth, because is often missed by both camps, and it feels like a land full of hidden mines. "Yes to Trump on this, but that one? not cool. Yes to the freedom of expression, but this has gone beyond just that". And so on.

And some of the people who are against or the reasons that are brought up to villify Trump are so insane that I think it is our duty to call them out, but so is also our duty to call Trump out when he is crossing the line into inhumane and unust conduct .

I remember a session from November 2015 where the C's opened with:

We see that your realm is rapidly changing. This is the time you have been preparing for. It will be difficult to navigate the turmoil coming. But it is possible and you should not lose sight of the fact that massive changes are coming. Remember what we said about cosmic biorhythms. It will be a bad time for the elite soon. And it will intensify for them according to their FRV.

I think it describes this time we are in now.
 
bjorn said:
The original Wall builder Bill Clinton, just imagine if Trump would have given the same speech...

Exactly. Everyone freaking out that the end of the world is near because Trump is president needs to watch videos like this one, as a reassurance that the new US government will remain as racist, sexist and horrible as its preceeding ones.

But then again, the end of the world as we know it is near from so many perspectives, that a Trump as portrayed is needed to divert everyone's attentions and energies towards hating him, and keep them from noticing the extreme climate changes and/or the fireballs upon us all.
 
Will be very interesting to see what comes out of tomorrow's phone conversation between Putin and Trump, considering the new president's recent statements:

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russian and US leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump plan to hold a phone conversation on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.

"Yes, I confirm this," Peskov said.


US media reports earlier said that Trump, who was sworn in as the 45th US president on January 20, will hold a phone conversation with Putin on Saturday.

Trump said in a Fox News interview on Thursday he planned to have a phone conversation with Putin in the coming days. "He [Putin] called me after I won, but I haven’t had a discussion, but I understand we will be having a discussion soon," he said.

The US leader also said that it would be mutually beneficial for Washington and Moscow to have improved ties. "I don’t know Putin, but if we can get along with Russia that’s a great thing, it’s good for Russia, it’s good for us," Trump said. "We go out together and knock the hell out of ISIS [the Islamic State terrorist group outlawed in Russia]."

Not that I expect any miracle to happen - at the moment, should Trump genuinely wish to restore Russia-U.S. relations and defeat ISIS, he is not in the position allowing him to boldly challenge the interests of the U.S. military and intelligence elite (for this to happen, he will first need to carefully 'clear the minefields' to some reasonable extent so that he could stand the imminent blowback) - but I think that we can at least see some 'melting' as compared to the era of Barack the Cold Warrior.

Unlike Obama, Trump is not hated in Russia. His hands are not bound by the history of confrontation between the ex-administration and Russia, and he is not an ideological successor of the former office. The current attitude towards him can be generally described as 'careful optimism' and he is aware of it. Using Trump's own vocabulary, he will likely try to capitalize on this 'asset' (as he earlier described Russia's stance on him).

So we can probably expect some middle ground here, where Trump will try to demonstrate that, unlike Obama, he is capable of constructive negotiations. At the same time, to gain some domestic respect and support, he will also have to show that the U.S. have their own vision of the situation and solutions to offer.

Just some speculations, we'll see how it goes.

ADDED: These two tweets regarding the possible Russia sanctions lift are interesting, too:

https://twitter.com/FabricePothier/status/824712841932533763
https://twitter.com/sbg1/status/824734913790349313

That would be a real ice-breaker, if true.
 
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