A Bolton from the blue… Trump’s scary war-hawk advisor is so yesterday’s man

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…from Russia Today, Moscow

Editor’s note:  Our information on the Trump and Bolton relationship goes back some time to Plato’s Retreat, an infamous transgender/swapping club where both Bolton and Trump would bring their wives to watch them have sex with men, women and animals.

Trump started visiting there with his mentor, Roy Cohn, in the late 1970s. Perhaps America is now enlightened enough to be led by the uninhibited and clinically insane.  We have been told that “W,” our 43rd president was a regular there with Roy Cohn as well, a second president from the same mobbed up family tree, Trump and “Junior” Bush children of the drugs and sex lifestyle of 70’s  Manhattan and the real “boss of bosses,” Roy Cohn.

Later, Trump and Epstein would take it to a  new level, but right wing Christians do so love sinners it seems.



From Wikipedia:

The club was opened in 1977 by Larry Levinson, a high school friend of Al Goldstein,[1] and was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was first located in the basement of the somewhat rundown Kenmore Hotel on East 23rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues before moving to the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, an ornate 19th-century building on the corner of Broadway and West 73rd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Prior to Plato’s Retreat, the building housed the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse where Bette Midler provided musical entertainment early in her career.[2] Plato’s relocated to 509 West 34th Street in 1980.[3]

Plato’s Retreat was a members-only establishment that required everyone to follow the club’s numerous rules. Levinson was determined not to permit his nightspot to become infiltrated by male homosexuals, and he insisted that only straight couples – and women, escorted or otherwise – be allowed to enter the premises. Once a woman left a room after a sexual encounter, her male companion had to accompany her. This rule was intended to ensure that women nearly always outnumbered men – Levinson strictly prohibited sexual activity between males but welcomed lesbians. Drugs, including alcohol, were not allowed, though they were frequently used despite the rule. The club had a disco dance floor, an in-house DJ, sauna rooms, and a swimming pool with waterfalls.[3]

During its heyday, Plato’s Retreat was considered the world’s most infamous sex club, popular with many celebrities, porn stars, and well-to-do couples. The clientele was described as “an assortment of kinky types from the suburbs: dry cleaners and their wives or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends.”[4] Many men attended accompanied by a prostitute.[citation needed]

According to an advertisement published in SCREW, June 18, 1979, the club offered, besides a heated swimming pool, a sauna steam, rooms, whirlpool baths, disco dancing, free bar and buffet, “cozy living rooms and lounging areas”, a “variety of swing areas”, and a backgammon lounge.[5]

In 1985, New York City Mayor Ed Koch backed the New York City Health Department‘s decision to shut down the city’s gay bathhouses, in response to concerns over the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, in closing the gay bathhouses while allowing the heterosexual swingers’ clubs – most notably Plato’s Retreat – to remain open, the city found itself in a dilemma when it realized such action would be a violation of the newly adopted anti-discrimination law. The Health Department, with Koch’s approval, reacted by ordering the heterosexual clubs, including Plato’s Retreat, to close as well. The club’s Manhattan location was shut down on New Year’s Eve 1985, ostensibly for violating public-health ordinances.[6]

Plato’s Retreat relocated to Fort LauderdaleFlorida, where it reopened under the name Plato’s Retreat 2. Located at 321 West Sunrise, the new location was in operation until 2006 as an on-premises heterosexual swing club, open Monday through Sunday from eight p.m. until the last person left. Saturday night was for couples only. Plato’s Retreat in Fort Lauderdale was a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) Club, and no liquor was sold on the premises; however, it provided complimentary mixers, soft drinks, juices and ice.

In 2006, Plato’s Retreat closed, and then reopened, keeping the same location and BYOB Club format, but as a sex club for men only. The club currently operates under the business name 321 Slammer.[7]

The 2008 documentary American Swing tells the story of Plato’s Retreat with archival footage and interviews.[8]

In July 2012, Jud Kirschner, the former manager of Plato’s Retreat, opened Plato’s Spa, a swingers’ club with full spa facilities, in New York City.

*
Since US President Donald Trump announced John Bolton as his new top national security advisor last week, the world has been reeling from multiple predictions of wars breaking out.

The following is not meant to sound complacent, but the inclusion of arch war-hawk Bolton in Trump’s inner circle may actually turn out to be a good thing. For it will hasten America’s reckless foreign policies and its decline as a world power.

Admittedly, such an outlook is proffered against a very grim background.

John Bolton has been described not so much as “America First” as “Military First”. He is credited as being the chief architect of the Iraq War under the GW Bush administration. He remains bumptiously unapologetic about promoting that war, which was based on lies and resulted in as many as one million deaths.

Bolton relishes in open contempt for the United Nations and international law, viewing both as hampering the United States from using military force whenever and wherever it wants, in pursuit of its geopolitical objectives.

He has stridently called for US military attacks on North Korea and Iran, to instigate regime change.

So, for “mad hatter” Bolton to have the ear of the president in matters of international security is indeed a cause for a foreboding apprehension. Especially given also that President Trump already seems riven with a confused foreign policy and a worrying impetuousness in dealing with the rest of the world.

It says a lot whenever US media are rattled by the bellicose prospect of John Bolton guiding Trump on precarious issues.

The return of John Bolton paves the way for more war,” warned the Washington Post.

The New York Times cautioned: “The whole world should be concerned”.

Both news outlets had previously acted as cheerleaders for the overseas wars which Bolton promulgated when he was serving in the Bush State Department some 15 years ago. Evidently, the return of war-hawk Bolton to White House policy-making is just too much to bear.

As already noted, Bolton is gung-ho for regime-change wars against North Korea and Iran. He is also hawkish towards China and what he views as the latter’s military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Bolton has accused Russia of “an act of war” by allegedly meddling in US politics.

He also berated Trump last year for not being tougher towards President Vladimir Putin when the two leaders met at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Bolton claimed Putin blatantly lied to Trump when he assured him that Russia had not interfered in US elections.

On any number of international tensions, the Trump administration is liable to take an even more aggressive turn with John Bolton in the wheelhouse of foreign policy. With more aggression, the odds are significantly shortened on the danger of an armed confrontation erupting.

Nevertheless, there are also sound reasons why war will not break out. Far from portending a more dominant United States, the Trump administration is leading the presumptuous “uni-power” into greater international isolation.

One reassurance: Russia and China’s formidable military strength would give pause to even a warmonger like Bolton. This is especially true after President Putin earlier this month unveiled a new arsenal of hypersonic missiles that are invulnerable to American ballistic defense systems.

Secondly, the world has changed dramatically from 15 years ago, when people like Bolton and other Neoconservatives in Washington and Europe pushed their agenda for wars and regime change. The Western public is in no mood for such warmongering, given the experience of lies and immense suffering.

A case in point is Syria. In Bolton’s heyday, it might have been possible for Washington and its NATO allies to pull off a regime-change intervention by stealth. That is not likely today. Simply because the Western public has become much more informed and disdainful about their governments’ propaganda and murderous mendacity.

Trump’s foreign policy chaos, augmented by the unilateralism of Bolton (and the hawkish former CIA chief Mike Pompeo, nominated to become Secretary of State), will hasten the degeneration of American world power.

Let’s look at two imminent collision points. On Iran, the Trump administration is calling for a drastic renegotiation of the 2015 international nuclear accord – or it will walk away from the deal. Bolton and Pompeo are zealous for ripping up the Iran accord. Therefore, they can be expected to hold sway over Trump following through on his threats to axe the deal in the next two months.

In such a case, the Trump administration will set itself on a collision course with European allies who have invested much economic development in Iran. The Europeans are not going to sacrifice multi-billion-euro commitments in Iran just because of Trump’s recklessness. Out of necessity, the main EU states like Germany and France will adopt a more challenging attitude towards Washington’s bullying.

Walking away from the Iran deal may embolden Israel and Saudi Arabia to ramp up hostilities towards Tehran. Of course, such hostility will be fomented by Bolton and Pompeo. But Iran is no pushover. It also has the backing of Russia and China as military allies, which may serve as a guarantor against Washington and its clients pushing their war agenda towards Iran.

North Korea is the other immediate collision point. The prospect of meaningful dialogue between Trump and Kim Jong-un – tentatively set for May after Trump’s surprise acceptance of an invitation to talk – is not promising.

With the appointment of Bolton as national security advisor and the nomination of Pompeo at the State Department (Congress still has to confirm the latter), it seems clear that any engagement with North Korea will be all about imposing an ultimatum for denuclearization. Bolton is openly disparaging towards North Korea. He rejects any proposal for a mutual settlement involving, for example, economic aid to Pyongyang.

But, again, this precipitous unilateral American approach impelled by John Bolton as Trump’s right-hand man will serve to alienate US power still further.

China and Russia have both ruled out any American military option on North Korea.

Trump’s slapping of China’s with severe export tariffs, and his administration’s provocative undermining of the One China policy towards Taiwan, will ensure Beijing taking a tough line on any American aggression towards North Korea.

The European Union and United Nations have also warned Washington that diplomacy is the only acceptable option to resolving the Korean conflict. So, too, has South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has consistently said that no war will be permitted on the Korean Peninsula.

Trump and his war cabinet are certainly an ominous danger for conflict in several world regions. But the one abiding cause for sobriety is the military power of Russia and China, to act as the bucket of ice-cold water to reality-check any American delusions.

That, however, will not stop Washington heading into its own oblivion from the combined chaos and hubris of Trump and his deluded aides.

Washington is alienating and isolating itself from the world. John Bolton is a powerful catalyst to this process.

Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism.

For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. US National Security Advisor John Bolton Backs Terrorists

    Bolton’s appointment carries with it greater implications both to those apparently criticizing him as well as those attempting to promote him. Bolton has – for years – lobbied for a terrorist organization guilty of kidnapping and killing both US service members as well as US civilian contractors, along with an untold number of Iranian civilians and politicians in a campaign of terror that has stretched over several decades and continues today.
    Worst of all, the terrorist organization Bolton lobbied for was literally listed on the US State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list during his lobbying activities – in direct violation of US counter-terrorism laws.
    That organization – Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and its political front, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – has since been delisted as of 2012. However, the organization was delisted not because it has fully given up armed terrorism, but because the US has planned since at least as early as 2009 – according to Washington’s own policy papers – to use MEK as armed proxies against the nation of Iran. 31.03.2018 Author: Tony Cartalucci

  2. For argument sake, let’s just assume that Bolton is right and ‘Russia’ did interfere in US elections to put Drumph in the WH (which I know they didn’t). Wouldn’t that make Trump’s presidency illegitimate and isn’t that one of the main purposes for all the hysteria surrounding the Russia-gate conspiracy theory? If so, wouldn’t that make Drumph’s appointments to his administration illegitimate as well? So even if Bolton was right about Russia interfering in US elections, (which he is not) should he not lose his job in Trump’s administration if he was proven correct? If Bolton is correct, than Trump’s whole administration is illegitimate, including Bolton.

  3. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and the underground NYC sex scene guys like Trump would heavily favor, for their attention to discretion, is also depicted briefly in “Night Shift” from 1982 when Keaton has to take a job wearing a loin cloth and serving drinks. When primates get wealthy, everything is wanted.
    The obedience trained work force waiting for Evangelical investors, is prepped and ready to respond to them.
    It is the clone army from Star Wars. The movement away from Cults is in stages, and defectors prefer the evangelicals. It has been noted already, that NK could provide a cyber security work force that is answerable to strict hierarchy. Every group wants their own intelligence network, and that is why we get new ones with each wave of criminals selected to office.
    The mystique of NK craziness, could be to cyber security, what Ebola is to mining in Sierra Leone. Just put out a release and all unwanted non insiders scatter and leave. Kim is rightly suspicious of christian spies. That is how the entire Korean peninsula has been taken so far, so I see Bolton as a threat, .. to be used to muscle into the market by evangelicals. Trump wants his commission. Better to not kill all the workers.

    • btw,, in this week of sex, lies, and video tape,.. Strampel (non-Catholic) is arrested , I’m dubious, we’ll see, but the Bishop in Saginaw is not (this would be the second time Cistone has destroyed documents),… and the Catholic prosecution team seems to have found at least one fall guy for MSU who is non-Catholic. Strampel does not fit the profile they are putting out, he is,..” a former director of quality management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.”
      “From 1996 through 1997 Strampel was commander of the Brooke Army Medical Center and Great Plains Regional Medical Command, where he was responsible for eight community hospitals and a medical center. From 1994 through 1996 he was director of medical education at Brooke.”
      “From 1991 through 1994 he was chief of the Quality Assurance Division, Department of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General. Prior to 1991 he served in a number of capacities at hospitals in Colorado, Kansas and Korea.” “Strampel earned a bachelor’s degree from Hope College in 1970 and a D.O. from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1976.”

  4. The U.S. has not been in a major war since WWII. The world is drastically different today. Frankly the mere size of its force, spread all over creation, makes it vulnerable.
    Suppose, for example, all the out of work mercenaries creating havoc in
    Syria were rounded up and dropped of in say NY and LA for example. At the same time nukes are sent to Miami and San Francisco. Is the U.S. stupid enough to nuke its own country? All H could break loose. War and suffering could quickly come to our shores. How did the four star generals do on 9/11? Do you think they have learned anything in the past 16+ years? What if America not only lost such a war but lost badly? This is a very risky thing to do. Trump has zero experience in war or the many unpredictable risks involved. If anything can go wrong, it usually will go wrong too. There is no fool like an old fool either. The bigger they are the harder they fall. Whatever may happen if fool Trump starts WWIII, the U.S. is going to feel some pain in the homeland this time. Imagine the number of powerful people on this earth who hate the U.S. even from WWII and would love to take a shot it the U.S.

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