The President Trump transition team has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to start the process of transferring control of the federal government.  The landing teams from each of the cabinets will now begin to engage with their exiting counterparts.

There were many articles written about the delays in signing the agreements.  However, President Trump waited until he has his cabinet fully assembled before signing the first part that permits the landing teams to engage.  The second part with government provided offices and technology is NOT being accepted.

President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, announced the Trump transition team has refused to sign an MOU with the Government Services Administration (GSA), and will not be using cell phones, computers, offices or “any technology” provided by the GSA.  This is a smart move to avoid the Deep State surveillance situation that was faced in the first term.

In the first Trump administration, the GSA had wiretaps, office bugs, and gave all the electronic communication information from the Trump transition to the FBI, IC and later Robert Mueller. In essence, the GSA spied on the Trump team, then gave all the data to the operatives who were in place to target them.  The Trump team is not making this mistake again.

The Trump transition team is also not going to use the office space provided by the GSA and will instead have their own offices and security systems in place to coordinate the transition to power.

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There are a lot of interesting discussions and interviews amid the political chatter today.  It’s often difficult to filter which ones actually matter in the big picture.  This is one of those interviews’ worth watching.

Incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, brother-in-law to nominated U.S. Surgeon General Janette Nesheiwat and husband to former DNI policy chief Julia Nesheiwat, appears on Fox News to discuss his priorities for the national security system under President Donald Trump.

Within the interview Waltz makes sure the collective NATO “west” get the unity message about U.S-Ukraine policy: “Jake Sullivan and I have had discussions, we’ve met,” Waltz says in the interview. “For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other — they are wrong. We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition.”  WATCH:

Mike Waltz is married to Julia Nesheiwat, the sister of Surgeon General nominee Janette Nesheiwat.

Julia, who -like all other people who work in DC silos- has never taken a married name.  Julia Nesheiwat was born in Carmel, New York, in 1975 to Jordanian Christian immigrants and raised in Umatilla, Florida. She has a BA from Stetson University, an MA from Georgetown, and a PhD from Tokyo Tech.

Julia Nesheiwat became a military intelligence officer. She received the Bronze Star Medal during Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq. She departed the military as captain.  Julia Nesheiwat served in several U.S. administrations. Under George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, she held senior national security and economic policy positions. Her most notable role was as Trump’s 10th Homeland Security Advisor from 2020 to 2021. Her Bush administration posts included State Department seniority and Office of the Director of National Intelligence Policy Chief.

Suffice to say their bedroom conversations are likely Intel Community shop talk.

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Sometimes the issues go deeper into the core of DC than just the pretense games of Republicans -vs- Democrats.  Every once in a while, you see a specifically nuanced topic arise that tracks to the core of DC.  Intelligence nominations are one such topic.

Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff, appears on NBC Meet the Press to discuss the nominations made by President Trump.  Adam Schiff is the newly elected incoming senator from California and likely also heading to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Intelligence Community, the “Six Ways from Sunday” group, run every aspect of Washington DC.  Almost every politician, representative, staffer and even lobbyist, are dependent on the approval of the Intelligence Community to exist.  The IC is the proverbial eye of Sauron with full access to every facet of life in DC, including communications, emails, phone calls, text messages, all of it.  The IC operate from Penthouse Suites in the fourth branch of government.

You will notice that former Gang of Eight member Adam Schiff has disparaging commentary for every one of President Trump’s nominees, except current Gang of Eight member, Senator Marco Rubio.  The alignment is not only about UniParty, in this example the alignment is the code of Omerta that exists within the IC “oversight” group.  WATCH:

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It’s not Joe Biden per se’, he is simply a useful pawn.  This action is coming from the people deep inside the IC and State Dept who are committed to fomenting a serious conflict with Russia and Vladimir Putin as the White House is about to change hands.  We previously said to watch out for this lame duck session.

In response to previous discussion about this, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ‘clear eyes’ on what long-range missile deployment inside Ukraine really meant. Ukraine does not have the targeting systems or satellites to use long-range missiles for strikes into Russia.

If long-range missiles were used by Ukraine, they originate from the U.S-NATO and they are deployed with the targeting of U.S-NATO.  Vladimir Putin clearly stated that if such weapons were used, Russia will not pretend or ignore that this is direct provocative engagement by NATO against Russia.  Knowing this, the people around Joe Biden have just deployed exactly what Putin warned about.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use a powerful American long-range weapon for limited strikes inside Russia in response to North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to aid Moscow’s war effort, according to two senior U.S. officials.

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In reaction to the pending arrival of President Trump, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now saying the conflict with Russia is possible to end with diplomacy:

(Via CBS) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through “diplomatic means” as both countries prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

In an interview with the Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne, Zelenskyy said he is certain that the war will end “sooner” than it otherwise would have once Mr. Trump becomes president. (read more)

It is important to remember that in this “new democracy” framed by the support of U.S-led NATO, Zelenskyy cancelled all elections within Ukraine in order to maintain his alignment with western influence.

Zelenskyy’s new position is a natural outcome of President Trump’s pending arrival.

President Trump really doesn’t have to do much; all he needs to do is withdraw U.S. support, wait a little while, demand Ukraine hold elections, and Zelenskyy will flee the nation because the political support he needs to retain the illusion of the fight is not present in the will of the Ukraine majority.

Calling for diplomacy is an outcome of Ukraine’s inherent weakness if even the slightest measure of U.S. support is withdrawn. Ukraine can only maintain the battle as long as the U.S. continues funneling money, weapons and direct targeting assistance into the battlefield.

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Almost every day an intelligence community overview assessment is compiled, it’s called the Presidential Daily Briefing or PDB.

The PDB contains content primarily produced by the CIA.  However, in the modern era, the PDB is assembled and enhanced by adding information from other intelligence agencies (silos).  The Director of National Intelligence assembles it; the position Tulsi Gabbard has recently been nominated for.

The DNI (now Tulsi) compiles the information, then delivers the PDB to the President, the National Security Advisor (now Mike Waltz) and the list of people assigned by the President to review it.

The PDB is the Intelligence Community (IC) telling the Office of the President, this is what’s going on.  The PDB frames the worldview of the CIA and other agencies.

However, if the CIA/IC wants to frame policy and action to their agenda – and not to the agenda of the president/administration per se’ – the CIA/IC can shape the PDB information toward their own individual objectives. In the past several decades the CIA manipulation of the PDB became obvious.

Because the PDB was no longer considered to be an “independent” finding of fact, and was/is, instead, more of a CIA tool to shape and control the president, it became increasingly useless.

President Obama saw the traps within the CIA/IC use of the PDB and started to ignore it. Obama gave the PDB to almost two-dozen administration officials daily, essentially saying, “here this is what the CIA say is going on – check it out.” Meanwhile Obama did what he wanted to do in shaping policy, often regardless of the PDB content.

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In this position Tulsi Gabbard will be able to find out why she was put on the DHS “watch list” within the TSA.  Additionally, I note that all of the nominations and appointments have come from within the group of campaign surrogates and campaign officials.  Perhaps that filter disqualifies anyone else.

President Trump Announces his nomination of former Democrat Representative, former DNC Co-Chair, and former Bernie Sanders campaign spox, Tulsi Gabbard, to be Director of National Intelligence.

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I’m sorry folks, we are going to have to wait to understand the thinking behind this one.  I have absolutely no idea.  Mrs Gabbard has never led any organization of scale, nor held any position of intelligence review that I am aware of.

Other than being a campaign surrogate (via RFK Jr) and very close friend of Tucker Carlson, who I’m told is one of a small group organizing the cabinet appointments; together with Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr. (currently living in Mar-a-Lago); I’m not sure what would be the plan for Tulsi Gabbard (maybe with guidance from Ric Grenell?).   Like everyone else, I’m puzzled.

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If you look at the structure of the announcements, there does appear to be a strategy at play; yes, including the likelihood of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

Using the announcement of Steven C. Witkoff to be Special Envoy to the Middle East, I’ll try to put it together.

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If President Trump pulls Marco Rubio out of the Senate, he opens up the position of Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  Rubio would love the opportunity to load his presidential aspiration resume with Secretary of State, for later use. However, this also opens the opportunity for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint an interim senator who would be more MAGA-minded, trustworthy and loyal (dare I say Gaetz).

With Rubio removed from the equation of the IC problem, the issue becomes mitigating (think neutering) the Secretary of State from undermining the Trump Doctrine; which, as you know, is the key Trump foreign policy approach using economic power combined with diplomacy.

President Trump has long expressed being sick and tired of U.S. mid-east policy, endless wars, endless spending etc.  President Trump in term-1 created the Abraham Accords to establish long-term peace and stability in the region, as a countermeasure to all the prior administrations stirring shit up there.  Essentially, the Abraham Accords create peace, get us out and allow policy to focus on more pressing foreign concerns, vis-a-vis China.

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President Trump announces via Truth Social, his intent to nominate former ODNI official John Ratcliffe to the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Former DNI Ratcliffe passed through the Senate Intel Committee nomination process in 2019 after being blocked by Mitch McConnell in 2018.  With a prior SSCI confirmation being successful, the path to confirming John Ratcliffe as CIA Director is essentially a foregone conclusion.

As CIA Director, John Ratcliffe will control the world’s second-most powerful intelligence agency. Ratcliffe has almost no attack vectors for the internal IC apparatus to use against him, that’s why I previously thought a role in the Trump-2 intel system would be good.

Ratcliffe was/is the lead transition team member on all things related to Intelligence.  Prior rumor put him in the NatSec Advisor role, but CIA Director is a good fit.  John Ratcliffe is very stable, vanilla, no drama and can be expected to deliver on the priorities of the Trump administration.  He will work very well with the White House.

The concern would be Ratcliffe’s ability to remove the corrupt players within the darkest part of the darkest IC system.

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President Trump has confirmed his intention to use Florida Rep (Daytona) Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor.

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Mike Waltz serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).

In the role of Nat Sec Advisor, Waltz would presumably represent the power of the president toward every element of the National Security apparatus and Intelligence Community.

The Nat Sec Advisor is a very powerful position, if used correctly.  The absolute power of the President toward the intelligence community in the executive branch is carried by the Nat Sec Advisor (NSA).  The NSA has the ability to reach into every silo and control every element of every decision therein.

The NSA organizes the finding memos which authorize all covert intelligence operations globally and domestically.  The NSA can shut down bad things in the IC, cancel black-op operations, and essentially hold omnipotent power within the executive branch over every aspect of the 17 intelligence agencies who operate therein.  The NSA can also determine what is, and what is not, a national security matter.

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