Thursday, February 16, 2017

Heiner Flassbeck — Trump bashing: neoliberalism hits back

Pro-Americanism in Europe changed since Trump won the election. Those who believed that Europe would always faithfully follow America’s course have been proven wrong. The anti-Trump movement is active in many countries and in all media. Its political direction is clear. The problem with the Trump bashing is that the “liberals” criticise absolutely everything that Trump does. In proceeding like this, they lose the ability to reflect upon certain positions and policies.…
flassbeck economics international
Trump bashing: neoliberalism hits back
Heiner Flassbeck

38 comments:

lastgreek said...
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lastgreek said...
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lastgreek said...

Tom, I said yesterday that it was strange that Flynn went to great lengths to lie about such an innocuous event. You replied that Flynn's undoing was that because he was less than forthcoming with Pence that is why Trump asked for his resignation.

Well, after today's news conference, I think Flynn, like a good soldier, took a bullet for Trump. That's why Flynn lied. When we add up Trump's tweet praising Putin after Obama had announced new sanctions against Russia, Flynn lying to everyone including the VP even though he knew his conversations had been monitored, Trump calling Flynn "a wonderful man" after firing him (who calls a liar "a wonderful man"?)... and the hastily-called news conference, especially that -- it adds up! No serious person who watched today's news conference could come away with it without thinking how ill-prepared and nutty Trump was. To call a news conference just like that on a whim? That doesn't happen. No, Trump had the jitters. Why? Because it was HE who had instructed Flynn to call and tell Putin not to worry about Obama's new sanctions.

Peter Pan said...

Trump said during the conference that if Flynn hadn't been in contact with Russian officials, that he would've directed him to. He said that was part of Flynn's job.

lastgreek said...
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lastgreek said...

QUESTION: Did you direct Mike Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador —

TRUMP: No, I didn’t.

QUESTION: — prior to your — TRUMP: No, I didn’t.

QUESTION: — inauguration.

TRUMP: No, I didn’t.

Bob, and to your point:

TRUMP: No, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been OK with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it.

lastgreek said...

Trump isn't specific -- he's talking about Flynn calling countries, and he would have directed him to do so if he didn't. There is nothing wrong there and no need for anyone to lie about it ... except if you were directly told by the president to keep a certain communication secret.

Matt Franko said...

"Flynn went to great lengths to lie about such an innocuous event. "

Intelligence trained people lie all the time its hardly "great lengths!"...

Not the correct training for a Chairman of the NSC.... supposed to be a better communicator/coordinator.... sounds like Trump traded in a 3 star spook for a 4 star operator...

lastgreek said...

The only one who can contradict Trump is Flynn. I doubt their private, in-person, conversation was picked up.

Matt Franko said...

greek,

MSNBC is calling!!!!

Noah Way said...

It's all disinformation. Media, administration - all of it.

Reading between the lines however, it is clear what is going on.

lastgreek said...

MSNBC is calling!!!!

What? I watch CNN ... like Trump.

Btw,

You now what uranium is, right? It’s this thing called nuclear weapons. And other things. Like lots of things are done with uranium. Including some bad things.

;)

lastgreek said...

It's all disinformation. Media, administration - all of it.

You know who'd be a good reporter?

TRUMP:“I'd be a pretty good reporter." ;)

Penguin pop said...

"You know who'd be a good reporter?

TRUMP:“I'd be a pretty good reporter." ;)"

TRUMP: "Nobody reports better than me. Believe me!"

Matt Franko said...

All you guys are doing is riffing on a typical Queens guy schtick... I know a million people who act like this....

There is no substance to any of your criticisms...

lastgreek said...

"We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban; we had a bad court."

18 WTF Moments From Trump's Unhinged Press Conference

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/18-wtf-moments-from-trumps-unhinged-press-conference-w467518

What's worse -- a president who is "big league" stupid or one who is "bigly" unhinged?

Your thoughts, Matt? ;)

lastgreek said...

All you guys are doing is riffing on a typical Queens guy schtick... I know a million people who act like this....

These people, Matt, are they friends of yours? ;)

>April Ryan: "Will you meet with the Congressional Black Caucus?"

Trump: "I would. You want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours?"

Matt Franko said...

greek I can understand what Trump is saying in these two instances...

I understand Queens English....

Matt Franko said...

greek you are form over substance...

Matt Franko said...

greek you are an anti-Queensite...

Tom Hickey said...

Anybody notice that Trump is now the new Putin?

What the chattering class is missing is that Trump is a non-politician, an outsider to Washington, and a populist candidate that beat the establishment.

Mounting a coup against such a person is highly dangerous in a democracy.

If they succeed in getting rid of Trump, the next choice of the people who will be greatly pissed off could be a real authoritarian elected to clean house.

I don't think that the chattering class and the establishment realize just how pissed off a big swath of the US is.

They are taking a big chance here after they were already swatted down.

lastgreek said...

Matt, I know you mean well so I'll leave it at that ... except for this:

http://www.oldpicsarchive.com/vintage-hollywood-party-photos/19/?utm_content=bufferdbcf3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

;)

Matt Franko said...

I would consider Mansfield substance rather than form too.... ;)

lastgreek said...
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lastgreek said...

Tom, the pathological liar is the establishment. He just duped enough of the ordinary folks into thinking otherwise.

Here's Trump the "anti-establishment" guy:

Jeffrey Loria Is Your New Ambassador To France... Seriously

Man, do you know who Jeffrey Loria is? This snake could turn Pope Francis into an assassin. Amazing!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeffrey-loria-is-your-new-ambassador-to-france-seriously_us_58a4e4e4e4b0b0e1e0e2065f

Peter Pan said...

Trump isn't specific -- he's talking about Flynn calling countries, and he would have directed him to do so if he didn't. There is nothing wrong there and no need for anyone to lie about it ... except if you were directly told by the president to keep a certain communication secret.

Pence made the public statement, so that is who he took the bullet for. Then again, if Pence had said that Flynn had talked about sanctions with the ambassador, it would've been no big deal. Flynn was doing his job!

Tom Hickey said...

@ lastgreek

Selling ambassadorships is a longstanding American tradition.

lastgreek said...

Tom, I get that, but you really don't know who Loria is, do you? :)

Peter Pan said...

Tiffany Trump might make a good ambassador to Canada :)

Tom Hickey said...

Tom, I get that, but you really don't know who Loria is, do you? :)

Makes no difference. Never has with Ambassadors.

Ambassadors don't actually do anything. The actual diplomats are the their staff, which is also heavily laced with CIA operatives.

The professional diplomats that are appointed ambassadors are generally political operatives rather than diplomats.

lastgreek said...

Tiffany Trump might make a good ambassador to Canada :)

I think we're getting Sarah Palin,, Bob

Tom Hickey said...

I will surprised if Palin doesn't get some payoff for her support of Trump. Ambassadorships are one form of political payoff but there are plenty of others. Ambassadorships are a big deal through because they carry a title that remains for life. It's a real trophy.

lastgreek said...

Makes no difference. Never has with Ambassadors.

Ambassadors don't actually do anything. The actual diplomats are the their staff, which is also heavily laced with CIA operatives.


Surely you're not including the honourable John Beyrle as a do-nothing, Tom? ;)

Tom Hickey said...

Ambassador Beyrle was nominated by President George W. Bush

GWH Bush was formerly the head of the CIA. Was Ambassador Beyrle not a political operative well aware of CIA ops in the embassy?

lastgreek said...

Regardless of GWB's CIA background, the honourable Beyrle was nominated because he was well qualified for the post:

Beyrle received his bachelor's degree with honors from Grand Valley State University, and a Master of Science degree as a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College. Beyrle completed additional language study in Russian at Middlebury College.[2] He spent the spring semester of 1976 on an exchange program at Leningrad State University. From 1977-79, he served as a Russian-speaking guide on several of the cultural exhibitions that traveled across the Soviet Union under a program of exchanges organized by the United States Information Agency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Beyrle

A native of Muskegon, Michigan, Ambassador Beyrle received a B.A. degree with honors from Grand Valley State University, and an M.S. degree as a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, where he later taught as a Visiting Professor of National Security Studies. His foreign languages are Bulgarian, Czech, French, German and Russian. He is married and has two daughters.

https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/107119.htm

I knew he spoke Russian (obvious one, right?), but I did not know that he also spoke Bulgarian, Czech, French, and German.

Would you like me to post the snake's -- I mean, Loria's qualifications? ;)

lastgreek said...

sorry, meant to say "GWH"

Btw, why did you mention GWH when he was nominated by GWB?

Tom Hickey said...

My mistake. W rather than Poppy.

Regardless, he was posted in Russia and Eastern Europe beginning in the 80's. I find it difficult to believe that he was not involved with political operations in addition to diplomatic. Anything is possible but it is not likely. He was ambassador at the time of the political unrest in 2011, which Putin attributed in part to US interference in Russia's internal affairs.

He was succeeded by McFaul, a regime change guy.

The fact that people are political operatives doesn't mean that they are highly qualified people and socially upstanding. It just means that they are part of the CIA-State Department operational group aimed at achieving US objectives abroad. These are operations people, not espionage types.

I'm relatively certain that Loria is not a US mole. He'll just look the other way.

BTW, did you see that Wikileaks just released a classified memo about the CIA penetrating French political parties in 2012? The US Embassy there is pretty clearly a CIA outpost.

lastgreek said...

Yes, I did.