Steve M. makes a good point about Glenn Greenwald’s logic.
The intelligence agencies? Greenwald writes,
FOR MONTHS, the CIA, with unprecedented clarity, overtly threw its weight behind Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and sought to defeat Donald Trump.
And that’s a sign that the Deep State is an unbridled force of pure evil? If we accept Greenwald’s premise, it means that the Deep State wasn’t even powerful enough to throw the election to the favorite.
Personally, I don’t agree that there was a lot of clarity about who the CIA preferred in the presidential race, although I readily admit that DCI Brennan is close to the president and probably had a strong preference for Clinton. But the disposition of the CIA as a whole isn’t really my concern here.
I think Steve makes an obvious observation when he notes that Trump’s victory showed that the “Deep State” isn’t as all-powerful as Greenwald would like us all to believe. I mean, assuming the Deep State had a preference for Clinton and tried to do anything at all, they obviously failed.
It’s worth considering the idea that they they really didn’t do anything to help Clinton, which is a statement all by itself. Neutrality is what we expect, and James Comey’s actions at the FBI that appeared to stall Clinton’s momentum at a critical time have outraged Democrats for exactly the reason that it lacked neutrality or balance. But electoral indifference and inaction by the intelligence arm of a state (whether an ostensibly representative state or not) isn’t something that’s common or that should be taken for granted.
If the CIA has some kind of cultural preference, that’s one thing. If they ran operations to help one candidate and hurt another, that’s supposed to be out of bounds. It seems to me that there’s more evidence of pro-Trump sentiment at the FBI (with it’s pro-law enforcement anti-Black Lives Matter culture) than there is of any kind of monolithic pro-Clinton support at the CIA. And the FBI actually, visibly, crippled Clinton’s campaign.
However these things may be, I don’t think the CIA would be wrong to have a preference for Clinton over Trump given Trump’s character and erratic personality and his potential to upend relationships with close allies. If they felt that way, I think it would be evidence of sanity and possibly even patriotism. That doesn’t mean they should put their fingers on the scale, and I’m not convinced they did.
Of course, Greenwald thinks the CIA is behind the most recent leaks related to golden showers but he has no evidence of that.
This is the faction that is now engaged in open warfare against the duly elected and already widely disliked president-elect, Donald Trump. They are using classic Cold War dirty tactics and the defining ingredients of what has until recently been denounced as “Fake News.”
John McCain gave these files to the FBI months ago (who, of course, already had them). Every news agency in the world seems to have seen them. David Corn could have released them at any time. It doesn’t make sense to assume the CIA had control over whether these files would remain private.
It makes just as much sense to me that McCain would leak them to BuzzFeed (assuming BuzzFeed hadn’t been sitting on them for months, too) to try to stop the nomination of Tillerson at State. I hope you noticed Marco Rubio taking the lead on that yesterday, as the neocons try to rally to preserve sanctions on Russia.
Of course, the neocon angle here is perplexing to many on the left who long ago concluded that the safe course is to figure out what Bill Kristol or John McCain want and to then do the opposite.
That’s not a bad survival strategy, but it’s not foolproof.
In any case, the CIA wasn’t the enemy in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and they’re not the enemy now. You’d be a fool to trust paid-liars without skepticism, but the other half of their job is to get the truth to our policymakers. We need them to focus on that second part of their job, because their new boss is ill-informed and crazy.
If you can’t understand the threat and identify the real villain here, you’ve lost the thread before the First Chapter is over.
I need a cigarette after this passage:
After Snowden and the tracking/harassing from British intelligence of GG and his partner … one can imagine paranoia may cloud the mind. Can’t follow his reasoning on this at all … incompetent reporting. What else is new in 2017?
Era so different from the quiet sixties, speedboat named Barbara, CIA attack on Cuba to overthrow a revolutionary Communist leader. The era of JFK. Even the politics was about hope … so I’m still an idealist. Confront your adversaries when needed, not by pre-emption or choice as the British intelligence joined forces with the German BND, the Italian secret service and the US intelligence community to get us into the Iraq War and ME mess as a result. Can’t find sympathy for spooks from any nationality and more often for not being aligned with the political leadership of a nation.
Far from the principle “We The People” from an era of the steam engine and early industrial revolution.
Intelligence community is always involved in getting us (deeper) into a war … Bay of Pigs … Gulf of Tonkin
Oh I have no sympathy for the intelligence community, but I wouldnt mind them leading the way. That way when theyve done their jobs I can shoot them in the back. Ideally the deep state and Trump would destroy each other. We’re going to find out how powerful they really are.
Of course I’ve loathed Greenwald for about a decade now since I realized he only ever has pretended to be a journalist.
The thing I worry about is that all this destruction will continue to inflict collateral damage on the rest of us. Worse before better and all that.
IMO worse is coming no matter what. I want to make sure better actually comes.
At this point I’m putting all my faith in the law of unintended consequences because we are about to take a fateful turn which is seemingly inevitable.
I am reminded of the startling videos of militarised police canvassing communities after the Boston Marathon bombing; our LEOs may yet become a very important and dangerous playing piece.
this.
And this. Just for example.
I recall that staying inside was officially voluntary but are you going to take your life in your hands by standing on your porch?
h/t driftglass:
Just sayin’.
Yes, a little at a time.
Another way is ‘it’s explained away a little at a time’. Trump’s ‘press conference’ was a good example. It was a huge win for him. He had a cheering section and then the media in essence eat each other afterwards.
Also, the only assigned seat was Breitbart.com
The media explains it away, a little at a time….and then suddenlyTrump will have goons shouting them down and will only speak to Fox News.
It’s incrementalism, and those who explain it away are Trump’s allies.
Always remember that, even when reading posts here.
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The media explains it away, a little at a time….and then suddenlyTrump will have goons shouting them down and will only speak to Fox News.
Serious truth there.
Being a ‘deciever’ for pay is understandable, everyone needs to make a living.
Being deceptive, and muddling the waters for free is worse. Those people make a hobby of pain giving.
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Timothy Burke showing RT feed interrupted CSPAN feed for about 10 minutes via the online stream about an hour ago.
You do know it’s probably a control room screw-up, right?
Most likely controlled by the Perma-gov in exile, as led by one Killery Clinton, amirite?!
What!!!???
There can’t be more than one bad guy?
Oh.
I forgot.
This site is now the media.
Yore friend
Emily Litella
P.S. In a one-dimensional world, stick figures are kings.
More on the Brit.
Sometimes wish I could afford a decent forensic timeline software.
I’m old enough to remember inviting Glenn to appear at Philly Drinking Liberally due to “How Would a Patriot Act?”
I stopped reading him years ago. Descended into paranoia and bitterness.
I stopped reading him years ago. Descended into paranoia and bitterness.
You could be describing Peter Daou and Tom Watson(not the golfer .. or the British politician!!) as well.
Love it.
From the grassy knoll to Watergate the Right-wing Batista Cuban exiles have been a source of willing muscle for wet-work and covert illegal operations on behalf of Birchers and crypto-fascist Republican r*tfuckers for a large fraction of our history.
Not to mention the Mob.
That’s not a new position. He’s stated that a few times in the past 6 months. IIRC, I think he first mentioned it after Manning’s first suicide attempt became public. I’ve said all along that Assange is pissed about the treatment of Manning re: the release of the DNC emails.
Any clue as to Assange’s calculus on this?
Yeah, Assange wouldn’t have had such a grudge against Democrats if Manning was set free. He didn’t want to do it, just like he doesn’t like backing far right parties elsewhere in Australia rather than Greens and Socialists, but gosh darn it, that Obama forced his hand.
Unless of course one believes that the Wikileaks Party in Australia simply made an “administrative error” — as it alleges — which caused it to back the white nationalist Australia First Party instead of the “intended” Greens and Socialists.
Damn, how does Assange keep getting affiliated with all these white nationalists? And why do these emails and messages from Mark Foley keep getting sent to teenage boys?
You’re obviously misreading what I’m saying. I’m not opining on what Assange has done re: Australia or elsewhere. I’m only talking about his actions re: the US.
I am misreading nothing. You are insinuating that if Obama hadn’t caged and tortured Manning that Assange would not have had a vendetta against the Democrats, and Trump’s white nationalism is inconsequentional to Assange’s decision to support Trump in the election. Yet somehow Assange and his associates keep ending up associating and ingratiating themselves with the far right around the world, including Australia. And the Wikileaks twitter account continually makes antisemitic remarks, and Wikileaks giving documents to antisemite Israel Shamir.
Greenwald gets this wrong IMO on the facts, many of which have become clearer with the latest 45-page report on Trump.
4, The blog and social media posting around the follow-up to the election has been equally devoid of nuance and facts and mostly partisan driven.
I’m seeing less an less impact that any hacks had on the election and more effects from traditional voter suppression and campaign failure. I find the “it’s the KGB; it’s the CIA” back-and-forth arguments really miss the point on both the deep state and how elections get rigged.
Framing this as melodrama is likely leading to yet another farce of an opposition party.
Trump is tough opposition for an opposition party in the minority because of what he does and the fact that in doing it he still retains not only followers but the Republican establishment as well. The McConnell lockstep lemmings continue their mad dash.
The fact of who Trump is becomes a distraction even though there is sufficient evidence of severe narcissism and a core self that is an empty fortress on high alert.
What is more disturbing is the extent to which over the past 40 years, Americans have lost any sense of the necessity of checks and balances and both parties have stripped the necessity of those checks and balances from our institutions, with the aid of a flood of money from vested interests. Trump’s villiany is merely the ability to get away with discarding all norms because of the corruption of those checks and balances.
That includes the use of the First Customer of the deep state’s resources. That includes the ability to start wars without declaration and debate,the ability to assassinate any person without due process and public accountability, and the ability to detain anyone arbitrarily without public notice and due process.
It is what we have allowed to happen to our system of government that freaks us out.
Emphasis added:
Phone calls?
The CIA was silently pretty powerful around the sixties, and they managed the media, best-selling writers very well. As an example, MK ULTRA was promoted by projected Soviet mind control horrors.
So whatever happens, the assumption that the (Deep) Deep State is getting exactly what it wants is never ridiculous. With so much public discussion based on intangible evidence that only Colin Powell (and the like) really possess, the society could just as well be run by shamans.
How Putin Played the Far Left