Hatred of the Poor + Erdogan is Correct about the CIA

By month's end Obamacare should be finished. Never a fan of the Affordable Care Act -- because it makes a real problem, for-profit health care, even bigger -- at least it did significantly expand Medicaid. It is clear from reading Robert Pear's "Republicans’ 4-Step Plan to Repeal the Affordable Care Act" that the linchpin is "Eliminat[ing] tens of billions of dollars provided each year to states that have expanded eligibility for Medicaid."

Tens of millions of people are going to lose coverage. It is going to be hard to cloak the political reality of what is happening here -- crass class war. This is hatred for the poor with a heavy dose of negrophobia stirred in. The GOP, whose popular foundation is erected on white resentment and hatred, will now have to manage the consequences. To stay in power they're going to need a ready supply of "enemies" easy to grasp.

Tim Arango's "In Turkey, U.S. Hand Is Seen in Nearly Every Crisis" is an interesting story on how alienated Turks are from the United States. Each day top Turkish government officials blame the CIA for the many terrorist bombings convulsing the nation and those condemnations are dutifully reported in the Turkish media. As Arango writes,

Mr. Erdogan, who spoke this week with President Obama in a condolence call, also told his audience what he believed Turkey, in facing so many terrorist attacks, was really up against: a plot by the West.

Invoking the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the subsequent Turkish war against Western armies and their proxies, he said, “Today Turkey is in a new struggle for independence.”

Erdogan is right. One of the casualties of the U.S.-led jihadi war in Syria is Langley's alliance with Ankara. Turkey has always been a second home for the CIA. But contradictions spawned by the U.S. regime-change project, such as the de facto state of Rojava with its progressive constitution in the same vicinity of aWahhabite caliphate with its harsh interpretation of sharia, have poisoned the relationship. Who can deny that the CIA had a hand in the July coup attempt?

Erdogan waits for a new day to dawn with Trump. His patience might just be rewarded. According to this morning's Foreign Policy Situation Report:

CIA shakeup. The CIA might be in for a major overhaul if President-elect Donald Trump and his administration get their way. The Wall Street Journal has discovered that Team Trump is working on a plan “to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world,” Damian Paletta and Julian Barnes report.

The proposal sounds quite a bit like what Michael Flynn -- Trump’s national security advisor -- wanted to do while director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Flynn and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), whom Trump named as his nominee to be the next CIA director, are reportedly pushing the planning. Flynn and Pompeo, according to the WSJ “share Mr. Trump’s view that the intelligence community’s position—that Russia tried to help his campaign—is an attempt to undermine his victory or say he didn’t win, the official close to the transition said.”

Will the Deep State allow itself to be pruned?  It won't --

On the Hill. Speaking of Russian influence on the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials are heading to Capitol Hill Thursday to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on that very subject. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre are expected to appear before the panel at 9:30 a.m., which is chaired by Republican John McCain, a noted critic of Putin. Livestream here.