"The question we have to ask is, would Donald Trump sell America's secrets to protect his own secrets? I think it's likely this guy's always looking to protect himself."Indeed. Let's talk Turkey.
That country -- run by the authoritarian Tayyip Erdogan -- has purchased the S-400 missile system from Russia. They also bought some stealth jets from us. That's a problem, because those missiles were designed to shoot down those jets.
US officials were concerned that Ankara's purchase of the missile system would put advanced stealth F-35 fighter jets, which Turkey has also ordered, at risk because Moscow could steal sensitive information through the system's radar."Moscow could steal sensitive information through the system's radar"...? I'm not quite sure what that means, and I'm not sure that I want to know the specifics. But the basic point is clear enough. This situation is dangerous. According to the Russian news site Sputnik,
Confident of their assessment on the dangers posed by the missile system, US defence officials had refused to participate in the study group multiple times over the course of the past two months.
Ever since Ankara inked an agreement with Russia to buy S-400 defence systems in December 2017, Washington has been pressuring it into abandoning the deal. The US has threatened to halt the delivery of F-35 jets ordered by Turkey and even to boot it out of NATO, if it doesn't follow the demands.To resolve this problem, Russia and Turkey wanted to create a study group. In all likelihood, this study group would have allowed the Russians to plumb the secrets of our F-35. That's why the DOD has resisted pressures to participate in this study group.
At least, that's the story told by most sources, including the Middle East Eye, quoted above. Sputnik gives a slightly different account:
Acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on 31 May that he is unaware of plans to create a joint working group with Turkey on the S-400 issue, which were reported on earlier in the day.With one phone call, Trump overcame all resistance. The study group will proceed. In all likelihood, Turkey will acquire both the Russian weapon and the F-35.
"I haven't heard of the joint study group", he said during the Asia Security Summit in Singapore.
Shanahan reiterated his stance on the problem with Turkey's acquisition of Russian air defence systems, arguing that the S-400 is incompatible with the F-35 and that therefore the US shouldn't sell the latter to Ankara.
"The S-400 is designed to shoot down the F-35. They are natural enemies, that's the fundamental reason", he said.
Turkey and Russia are not partners -- there are serious points of contention, particularly in Syria -- but that doesn't mean that Turkey should be considered a reliable ally of the US.
This isn't the first time Trump has acted abruptly and impulsively in his relations with Turkey. You may recall that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit when Trump, against the advice of his military advisers, told Erdogan that the US would pull out of Syria.
You may also recall reports that Michael Flynn, while working for the Trump campaign, had hoped to arrange the kidnapping (and likely execution) of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, who lives in Pennsylvania and whom Erdogan considers a threat. The BBC says that the Turkey offered Flynn $15 million. Flynn was an unregistered Turkish lobbyist during this period.
Are similar "behind the scenes" arrangements at work today?
Most Americans don't know that Trump does a substantial amount of business in that country. One (or is it two?) of the largest skyscrapers in Istanbul are the Trump Towers, which are two conjoined structures bearing his name. The property is actually owned by Turkish billionaire Aydın Doğan, who has a licensing deal with Trump. During a low spot in Turkish/American relations, Erdogan asked for the removal of Trump's name from the building, but the sign remains.
The exact nature of the deal between Doğan and Trump remains maddeningly opaque, as is ever the case with all things Trump. However, Trump himself admits that a conflict of interest exists. From a November, 2016 L.A. Times article:
Trump admitted in a radio interview last December that he had a conflict of interest in dealing with Turkey because he has property there.Does this admitted conflict of interest have any connection to Trump's willingness to go along with a deal which, according to our military experts, will expose important secrets of our stealth technology?
"I have a little conflict of interest, because I have a major, major building in Istanbul," Trump said. "It's called Trump Towers. Two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one, it's two. And I've gotten to know Turkey very well."
How would the rightwingers react if Obama did such a thing?
When will people in the DOD recognize the danger posed by a president whose loyalty to the United States is, to put it mildly, questionable?
A final note on gerrymandering. I am increasingly convinced that the Trump administration is founded on a Big Damn Secret. This Secret has little to do with Russia. It's something else.
This Big Damn Secret explains why all Republicans have bent the knee, and why Bush and Trump (who hate each other) worked together to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
The Big Damn Secret is the GOP's history of election manipulation. I believe that the problem goes beyond the caging tactics that Greg Palast talks about, although those tactics are definitely important. I also believe that the problem goes beyond gerrymandering, though gerrymandering is also very important.
I believe that actual rigging of voting equipment has occurred. Key Republicans understand that, if Trump is ousted, he will blab about The Secret, and history will label more than one president as illegitimate. That's why so many Republicans who otherwise dislike the Great Vulgarian are willing to do as he demands.
I state this as my personal theory, not as established fact. Some will consider me a left-wing analog to Alex Jones. Still, the recently-uncovered gerrymandering files go a long ways toward demonstrating that my theory is not so far-fetched as it may seem.
In February, attorneys challenging North Carolina’s legislative gerrymander notified the defendants, a group of Republican leaders in the legislature, that they’d issued a subpoena. The lawyers had asked Stephanie Hofeller Lizon to provide “any storage device” containing redistricting-related documents left by her estranged father, Thomas Hofeller, a Republican consultant who specialized in gerrymandering. Republican legislators did not object, and Lizon turned over the requested materials: 18 thumb drives and four hard drives containing more than 75,000 files—many related to her father’s consulting work. The voting rights attorneys had uncovered a vast trove of information exposing the inner workings of GOP gerrymandering across the country.This race-based gerrymandering plan may not be the only bombshell on those thumb drives. Will we learn about other forms of election tampering? Perhaps not; gerrymandering was Hofeller's specialty. Nevertheless, I remain convinced -- for a host of reasons -- that election tampering is real.
10 comments:
The S400 is a set of missiles designed to attack aerial targets at various ranges. It has a radar system to detect targets,as well as the missiles having radar systems built in. American stealth planes work by being made of materials which absorb radar signals and reduce the strength of the returning signal, hence making the plane visible only at shorter ranges.Radar absorbent materials only work against certain wavelengths and the Russians already include long range radar on their fighters to detect stealth planes. I'm sure the Russians would like to be able to test their radars against an actual American plane, but they'll do that in the wild soon enough.
Remember the howls of republican outrage when Bill Clinton OKed placing US made satellites atop Chinese rockets?
Remember how when one exploded republicans accused Chinese of a deliberate act for the purpose of salvaging the destroyed satellite for electronics technology?
Remember when republicans were moral and decent?
A long time ago.
Trump, who will be in Britain next Monday to Wednesday, recently gave an interview to the Sun newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
The first observation is that Trump is clearly mentally ill in a way that deprives him of all but a very low level of intellect. Ronald Reagan had a small intellect and George W Bush an even smaller one, to the point of being called borderline subnormal, but as far as I know neither of these dimwitted Republican predecessors of the current US president was mentally deranged. Trump is. I doubt he can hold a conversation with any sane person without that fact becoming clear within 30 seconds.
Repeatedly saying he is "great", and that any man whom he wants to flatter is also "great", as if his approval were what they seek most in the world, and implying that his endorsement would be worth a large number of "points" to any candidate for the Tory leadership who might receive it, suggests...well it suggests Trump doesn't know his arsehole from his elbow but gobs off regardless - a man without any self-consciousness. For all I might say about the US regime I do not believe that such a nutcase will be allowed to be in control of its nuclear arsenal, its government treasury, or anything that he might break or use at a time that those who would otherwise pocket loads of money out of such an action would find inconvenient.
The second observation is that he praises Britain's military spending. That is important. Britain's defence strategy is kind of in suspense at the moment. There was a defence review, it got binned, it wasn't called a defence review, and then you had Salisbury. The idea of a "small" war between Britain and Russia was certainly put in the air for a while, including through the Royal United Services Institute and the media. At one point the defence secretary called Brexit a good opportunity for fighting wars against Russia and China. Some time later the same defence secretary was hoiked out of office - not as an immediate result of making such an amazing statement that would have shamed Joseph Goebbels, but for allegedly leaking information concerning a decision regarding Huawei that had been taken by Britain's National Security Council. Increasing British military spending, perhaps by as much as 50% (and that is if a war against Russia doesn't break out), in combination with leaving the European Union (a combination that amounts to the British elite opening its bowels and giving the British population the "free bath" of its lifetime) is, it seems to me from Salisbury and from Trump's recent goboff, a goal that the gang behind Trump may well be rather interested in. War money may be a large part of the reason why British "politics" has been brought to the stage it's at now, when most serious observers would nod to the proposition that "anything might happen". I find it quite interesting that Trump visits Britain during the short period of time between the Brexit Party's success in the EU election and what will surely be the same new party's success in the Peterborough by-election, in which residents of that constituency will vote the day after Trump flies out. Any idea which contracts and weapon types might fit with this hypothesis, @Stephen?
"Asked if he would like all the candidates (for the Tory leadership) to make the same pledge on military spending, he added: 'I think it’s a good thing. I think it's great for the UK, and it would be part of trade. We make the greatest military equipment in the world. The UK should be able to defend themselves. It’s a great and very special place.' The President made reference to golf courses he owns on this side of the Atlantic. He said: 'As you know, OK, so, I own Turnberry, it’s a great place, one of the most beautiful.]"
He's gaga!
If memory serves me well, a number of seemingly well-qualified statisticians who have followed the "red shift" phenomenon, in which almost all the variances when a candidate wins a vote by a margin well outside the margin of error of reliable exit polls have broken for Republicans, consider it a virtual certainty that something is rotten. The most likely theory is that Republicans have been able to successfully manipulate the results of central tabulators (evidently much easier that trying to corrupt a huge number of voting machines) in key districts.
As careful readers of this excellent blog might recall, one theory I put forward some time ago
was that what the Russians actually accomplished with their successful voting equipment hacks was not to change the results themselves...but to uncover evidence that the Republicans have been doing exactly that. If kompromat like that has, indeed, been passed on to team Trump, it would explain an awful lot.
All of which is to say that - although I have zero evidence - I'm definitely with Joseph on this one!
Democrats waste too much time calling Trump a Racist and rallying everyone to believe the same. If a country has a Trump Hotel or two, that country is on his good country list.
If a country does not have a Trump hotel or two, that country is on Trump's shithole list. It's a bit frightening that is how his mind seems to work at ALL times. I am guessing because he has always been barely ahead of his creditors and had so much debt forgiven in the past, he is literally a broke billionaire and continues to fixate on Profits for his own Personal Empire.
Good stuff on the conflicted Mafia Don. Gerrymandering, on the other hand, was began by Democrat Elbridge Gerry who started the redistricting scam way back in 1812 when he was Governor of Massachusetts. So neither Trump nor Bush are original thinkers here and pointing fingers is totally inappropriate. I also believe that the decennial census count has far outlived its usefulness in the new world of electronic data compilation.
And when the deliberate combination of Crook A and Crook B happens to be Donald Trump and Wilbur Ross, you get headcount manipulation and tariffs, tariffs, tariffs designed to extract rents from unsuspecting followers of the insane adolescent septuagenarian - and in the process, all the rest of us taxpayers.
Repubs say, "but look at the economy" and I say, look at the economy in 18 months when we vote, provided the Democrat candidate is not screaming "healthcare, climate disaster and socialism." A walk on the wild side with Warren, Bernie, Booker and Beto is too far off-the-wall, so I am betting on Kamala or "Hands." I can understand Boot Edge Edge (as Trumpy calls him) hanging on but eventually he won't get the money he needs and Meany Amy got off on the wrong foot but those other baker's dozen or so need to drop out now.
BAe are now one of the US military's leading contractors. Mainly components and support services. It would be standard for a Trump trade drive to increase the US trade deficit.
@Alessandro - Re. Trump hotels, there's one in Baku in Azerbaijan. That's my go-to country for testing hypotheses about the geopolitics of Shia versus Sunni, followed by Bahrain. Arabs versus Persians is more like it IMO.
Is there a Trump Map that shows all of his holdings throughout the world? I would be curious to see if he simply ignores or scorns the countries he has no business ties to and focuses primarily on countries he has business dealings with.
Now that would be an impeachable offense in my opinion.
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