By Robert A. Vella
Reports drafted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cite White supremacy as the nation’s greatest domestic terrorism threat, and name Russia as the primary foreign threat to undermine U.S. elections and social stability through disinformation campaigns. Both President Trump and the highest officials in his administration are trying to obscure and/or counter these reports and are working in concert with the Russian effort against America’s democratic republic.
Former senior FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was a key counterintelligence figure during the 2016 election and in the early stages of the Mueller investigation, is declaring in soon to be published memoirs that Donald Trump represents a grave national security threat to the U.S. because of his fundamental corruption and close association with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
Here’s the news:
DHS report: White Supremacy is greatest terror threat
From: DHS draft document: White supremacists are greatest terror threat
White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security.
Two later draft versions of the same document — all of which were reviewed by POLITICO — describe the threat from white supremacists in slightly different language. But all three drafts describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups.
“Foreign terrorist organizations will continue to call for Homeland attacks but probably will remain constrained in their ability to direct such plots over the next year,” all three documents say.
Russia “probably will be the primary covert foreign influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation in the Homeland,” the documents also say.
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President Trump is moving to revamp federal agencies’ racial sensitivity trainings, casting some of them “divisive” and “un-American,” according to a memo by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
In the two-page memo, OMB Director Russell Vought says that Trump has asked him to prevent federal agencies from spending millions in taxpayer dollars on these training sessions. Vought says OMB will instruct federal agencies to come up with a list of all contracts related to training sessions involving “white privilege“ or “critical race theory,” and do everything possible within the law to cancel those contracts, the memo states.
The memo, released on Friday, also tells all federal agencies to identify and if possible cancel contracts that involve teaching that America is an “inherently racist or evil country.”
[…]
It could not immediately be learned what training sessions Vought was referring to in the memo. Recent Fox News segments have heavily criticized “diversity and inclusion” efforts in the federal government started under the Obama administration.
Ex-FBI agent: Trump is a National Security threat
From: Ex-F.B.I. Agent in Russia Inquiry Says Trump Is a National Security Threat
WASHINGTON — A former senior F.B.I. agent at the center of the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia defends the handling of the inquiries and declares President Trump a national security threat in a new memoir, while admitting that the bureau made mistakes that upended the 2016 presidential election.
The former agent, Peter Strzok, who was removed from the special counsel’s team and later fired over disparaging texts he sent about Mr. Trump, has mostly kept silent as the president and his supporters have vilified him.
But Mr. Strzok’s new book, “Compromised,” a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times ahead of its publication on Tuesday, provides a detailed account of navigating the two politically toxic investigations and a forceful apologia of the bureau’s acts. Mr. Strzok also reveals details about the F.B.I.’s internal debate over investigating the president himself, writing that the question arose early in the Trump presidency and suggesting that agents were eyeing others around Mr. Trump. Mr. Strzok was himself at first opposed to investigating the president.
But in a scathing appraisal, Mr. Strzok concludes that Mr. Trump is hopelessly corrupt and a national security threat. The investigations that Mr. Strzok oversaw showed the president’s “willingness to accept political assistance from an opponent like Russia — and, it follows, his willingness to subvert everything America stands for.”
“That’s not patriotic,” Mr. Strzok writes. “It’s the opposite.”
From: Trump plays defense with the military weeks before election
… it’s a difficult situation for Trump, who from the beginning of his presidency has surrounded himself with military trappings and boasted about “rebuilding” the armed services. Experts and former top military officials say the quotes from the article are dangerous not just for losing actual voters tied to the military — but potentially turning off a narrow slice of undecided voters who may not love either 2020 candidate but still revere troops and veterans.
“There is a widespread appreciation for young women and men that are in the military, even if people don’t necessarily agree with the policy,” said retired Gen. Ben Hodges, who served as the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe until the end of 2017. “The fact is that there are so many things that the president has done or said that makes him vulnerable to accusations like this.”
And they point to other instances that occurred before the article dropped on Thursday that led to an “erosion of support” among service members and veterans, said retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former commander of U.S. European Command and friend of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff.
[…]
And it’s those voters — military, dependents, veterans and civilians who revere the military — who are key to his reelection. States that are up for grabs this cycle, including Texas, Florida and North Carolina, are also home to large numbers of military families and veterans.
The decline in support for Trump among that cohort also reflects opposition to the president’s initiatives to pull out of international alliances and withdraw troops from the Middle East, Stavridis noted.
See also:
Trump calls for Fox News journalist to be fired for report on war dead scandal
From: Trump’s military controversy might save Stars and Stripes (opinion)
Before a bombshell story in The Atlantic revealed eye-popping allegations that President Donald Trump had referred to America’s fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers,” another story was making its way into the ether without much notice.
In February of 2020, the Pentagon ordered Stars and Stripes, the longtime publication serving United States’ service members, to shutter, demanding that the last newspaper publication be September 30, 2020.
That’s according to a little publicized memo from Col. Paul Haverstick, Jr., recently obtained by USA Today, in which he claims the administration has the authority to red-line the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes in the President’s fiscal year 2021 Defense Department budget, indicating the order comes from the top.
It’s no surprise, given President Trump’s seething disdain for the media and its coverage of him. After a wave of outrage at the news, Trump seemed to realize the move would not endear him to a key constituency.
[…]
Stars and Stripes is not just any publication. It’s been a vital resource for US troops and veterans for more than 150 years, making this decision an infuriating one for those who believe the military deserves better than to be a casualty of Trump’s petty politics of revenge.
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The Secular Jurist 
Robert, it boggles my mind how far the current American administration has come in its relationship with Russia. Important geopolitical changes are underway with this new USA-Russia realignment. I suppose the endgame will be revealed in time.
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This geopolitical “realignment” looks like it will be very short-lived. It is fundamentally a Putin-Trump relationship, and not a US-Russia alliance. As to their agenda, that’s quite obvious now.
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The Kremlin’s main objective in its dealing with the USA is to destabilize the country from within. The more chaos domestically, the Russian government hopes, the lesser American influence abroad will be.
Putin’s support of Trump should be seen as a means to undermine the US political system.
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Precisely, there’s also a de facto ideological component too which I’m detailing in today’s upcoming post.
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