Trump is putting distance between himself and insiders entrenched in Washington within bureaucracies that include the CIA. This is wise. It’s the right thing for him to do if his purpose is to maintain his independence of thought and action. Once he starts listening to these insiders, he will be more inclined to give their proposals weight and more inclined to heed them. Repeated exposure to verbiage has that effect, even if it’s fake, false, biased or nonsensical. The more that the fake press criticizes Trump for ignoring the CIA and other agencies, the more comfortable he should feel that he’s doing a right thing. The more that the fake news media criticize him for selecting appointees at odds with existing agency philosophies, the better Trump should feel that he’s making headway. Separating himself makes it more likely that he might be exposed to and select better ideas. Look where the old and prevalent ideas have gotten us. Trump has to shake things up and jettison a lot of utter government crap from the past if he really wants change.

Look at how Obama’s peace-loving ideas worked out in practice once he assumed office and began listening to advisors and entrenched Washington insiders. The U.S. is still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at his assent to invading Libya once he listened to Hillary Clinton. Look at his decisions on Ukraine once he listened to Nuland and Power and Rice. He listened to the CIA on Syria and Yemen, and look at the results. Yes, the U.S. is in Syria too; and the U.S. is supporting Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

Or examine how much John Kerry’s hawkish position against Assad in Syria depends upon absorbing false and exaggerated reports about gas, atrocities, bombing and reckless firing upon civilians; while ignoring or being misled about the role of foreign armed terrorists stoking trouble. Kerry surely listened to the CIA, and look where that got him.

Obama and Kerry are two prime examples of powerful men whose thinking was exposed to propaganda coming from within the bowels of the U.S. government and who believed everything they heard, and/or were incapable of resisting the steady drumbeat of the advice and recommendations they were given. Obama has even spoken openly of these pressures. Neither man was disposed at the outset to hold alternative views than the conventional. Neither held firm and strong beliefs to the contrary, and that made them pliable and receptive to what advice they were presented with. They both had a foggy idea that bringing down murderous dictators and creating democracies was a noble and good thing to do; and that only made them more vulnerable to internal propaganda, the result being their inept and evil interventions.

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