Obama’s Soviet Connections
Amid the flurry of reports about the Trump administration and Russia – largely innuendo that has yielded no documented connections between the two sides – it may be instrumental to review the largely unknown history of how President Obama’s administration adopted defense budget recommendations co-authored by the Institute for Policy Studies, a radical organization known for its close associations with the Soviets during the Cold War.
In fact, throughout the Cold War, the Institute for Policy Studies, or IPS, was repeatedly accused of holding pro-Soviet positions that undermined U.S. national security and serving as a de facto Soviet propaganda institution. Some reports suggest the IPS headquarters in Washington was used as a meeting place for Soviet spies.
Yet that same group co-authored and contributed to an annual report titled “Unified Security Budget for the United States,” an extensive yearly list of U.S. military defense spending recommendations compiled by progressive think tanks. The report sought to re-balance the Defense Department to “strengthen our capacity to prevent and resolve conflict by non-military means,” according to one IPS description of the report.
A 2011 report on the IPS’s taskforce for the “Unified Security Budget” reveals how previous Unified reports influenced Obama administration defense proposals. The IPS’s influence over Obama administration military proposals remains largely unreported except for previous investigations by this reporter.
Democrats Should Look In The Mirror
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have been quite vocal in recent weeks in their accusations against President Trump and administration officials regarding alleged associations with Russia despite a lack of any tangible evidence.
Those same Caucus members might do well to recall the forgotten history of their own organization. Specifically, how the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, openly helped to found the Congressional Progressive Caucus, or CPC.
The links were so extensive that until November 2002, the CPC’s website was actually hosted by the DSA’s own website. In 1998, that same DSA website hosting the CPC reportedly brandished the song and lyrics for “The Internationale,” which is the worldwide anthem of communism and socialism.
The DSA’s website at the time also reportedly featured a song title “Red Revolution,” which was meant to be sung to the tune of “Red Robin.”
Here are some of those lyrics:
“When the Red Revolution brings its solution along, along, there’ll be no more lootin’ when we start shootin’ that Wall Street throng. …”
“Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie. And when the revolution comes, We’ll kill you all with knives and guns, Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie.”
Members of the same CPC partially founded by the communist-supporting DSA are now accusing Trump and administration officials of having ties to Russia.
In one of numerous recent examples, CPC member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) last week appeared at a protest outside the Justice Department headquarters to demand that Attorney General Jeff Sessions resign after reports surfaced that Sessions held two conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. while he was Alabama’s senator and served on the Armed Services Committee. The protest was organized by the George Soros-financed MoveOn.org.
Sessions maintains that the conversations did not concern the 2016 presidential campaign. He served as an informal advisor to Trump during the presidential race.
CPC member Rep. John Lewis boycotted Trump’s inauguration in January citing unproven claims of Russian interference in the election to allege that Trump was not a “legitimate” president. Lewis was among over a dozen CPC members who refused to attend the inauguration
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif), a CPC founder, went so far as to claim the supposed Russia issue “will lead to impeachment of the president.”
DNC Vice Chair Rep. Keith Ellison, a CPC co-chair, has also repeatedly lashed out at Trump over the Russia allegations.
Trump Will Move Embassy To Jerusalem, Says Congressman
Speaking from Jerusalem with this reporter, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said he believes President Trump will announce the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before the end of May.
DeSantis further stated that he identified a facility in Jerusalem – the current site of a U.S. Annex in the city’s Arnona neighborhood – that could potentially serve as a “plug-and-play” location for the embassy “where you are literally just changing the sign to the U.S. Embassy.”
DeSantis, chairman of the subcommittee for National Security for the House Oversight Committee, was in Israel as part of a small delegation on a fact-finding tour to study the possibility of relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
U.S. law requires the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem. However, President Obama signed successive waivers delaying the move. The current waiver expires on June 1.
Regarding Trump’s campaign pledge to move the embassy, DeSantis stated:
“A lot of people thought that he was going to do it on day one. And then when he didn’t, they said, ‘Oh well; he’s not going to do it. He’s not going to keep his word.’ Actually, the waver that President Obama signed at the beginning of December 2016 expires at the end of May this year. And that happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem Day.”
“And I think president Trump has proven that he is a man of his word. I do not think he is going to sign a waiver for the embassy. And by that point, we will already have our Ambassador, David Friedman, in place. So, I think this is going to happen.”
DeSantis said he came to Israel to send a message that Congress is “engaged and we are looking at the various sites and we are developing knowledge on the Committee about any of those sites should the president go ahead and choose one of them.”