Wednesday, January 11, 2017

A head-on confrontation explodes . . .


. . . and explosions look set fair to continue for a long time to come, with no end in sight.

The release of scurrilous, made-up-out-of-whole-cloth allegations about President-elect Trump by Buzzfeed (and, to a certain extent, CNN) is so over-the-top, even for those organizations, that it was clearly nothing more or less than an organized, deliberate attempt to discredit Mr. Trump before his inauguration next week.  It was callous, unfeeling, cold and calculated.  I'm absolutely certain those in charge at both organizations knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the allegations were not true.  Their own fact-checking (such as it was) must have revealed that to them, as it would to any objective observer.  However, they didn't care about the facts;  they cared only about doing as much damage as they could to a man they despise, even if that damage also hurt the country he will shortly lead.  Their conduct was despicable.  I think Mr. Trump's promise of 'consequences' for Buzzfeed is entirely appropriate and legitimate, and I hope and trust he has similar 'consequences' in mind for CNN as well.  Both organizations deserve it.

I found Glenn Greenwald's comments very interesting.  (Remember that Greenwald is the primary conduit through which we've learned much about the Snowden affair.)  He's no fan of Mr. Trump, but he nevertheless openly claims that the allegations are the latest manifestations of a 'war' against President-elect Trump by what he calls the 'deep state'.  Here's an excerpt.

All of these toxic ingredients were on full display yesterday as the Deep State unleashed its tawdriest and most aggressive assault yet on Trump: vesting credibility in and then causing the public disclosure of a completely unvetted and unverified document, compiled by a paid, anonymous operative while he was working for both GOP and Democratic opponents of Trump, accusing Trump of a wide range of crimes, corrupt acts and salacious private conduct. The reaction to all of this illustrates that while the Trump presidency poses grave dangers, so, too, do those who are increasingly unhinged in their flailing, slapdash, and destructive attempts to undermine it.

. . .

It is not hard to understand why the CIA preferred Clinton over Trump. Clinton was critical of Obama for restraining the CIA’s proxy war in Syria and was eager to expand that war, while Trump denounced it. Clinton clearly wanted a harder line than Obama took against the CIA’s long-standing foes in Moscow, while Trump wanted improved relations and greater cooperation. In general, Clinton defended and intended to extend the decadeslong international military order on which the CIA and Pentagon’s preeminence depends, while Trump — through a still-uncertain mix of instability and extremist conviction — posed a threat to it.

Whatever one’s views are on those debates, it is the democratic framework — the presidential election, the confirmation process, congressional leaders, judicial proceedings, citizen activism and protest, civil disobedience — that should determine how they are resolved. All of those policy disputes were debated out in the open; the public heard them; and Trump won. Nobody should crave the rule of Deep State overlords.

Yet craving Deep State rule is exactly what prominent Democratic operatives and media figures are doing. Any doubt about that is now dispelled. Just last week, Chuck Schumer issued a warning to Trump, telling Rachel Maddow that Trump was being “really dumb” by challenging the unelected intelligence community because of all the ways they possess to destroy those who dare to stand up to them ... And last night, many Democrats openly embraced and celebrated what was, so plainly, an attempt by the Deep State to sabotage an elected official who had defied it: ironically, its own form of blackmail.

There's more at the link.  Highly recommended reading, from someone who knows whereof he speaks.

Confirmation of Mr. Greenwald's suspicions appears to come from Mr. Trump himself, who claims that intelligence agencies themselves were leaking information about him and his briefings with them.  If his claims are correct (and one assumes that immediately upon taking office, he'll be doing everything within his power - which will be considerable - to verify them), those responsible must know that there will be consequences.  I hope and trust that will be the case, because dishonorable men and women of that ilk deserve nothing less.

Those on the far Left who celebrated and supported and trumpeted these 'revelations' have, as far as I know, not yet retracted their affirmation of them or apologized for their statements.  Two examples, out of probably hundreds, if not thousands, out there:






Again, such commentators dishonor themselves and everything for which they stand by such ill-considered, gleefully nihilistic outbursts.  They should be ashamed . . . but they won't be, of course.  I doubt very much whether they know the meaning of the word.

If Mr. Trump should suffer another assassination attempt - whether upon his character, as in this matter, or even upon his person - I'll automatically suspect the 'Deep State' of at least approving of it enough to step back out of the way and allow it to occur, if not actually condoning and encouraging and even - God forbid - aiding and abetting it.  That's a horrifying thought, but this latest imbroglio is so outrageous that one can't help thinking the unthinkable.

Please God, I'm wrong.

Peter

16 comments:

MikeinAppalachia said...

Wondered why Trump wanted his own security team.

Jesse in DC said...

My question is, what do WE do if ,God forbid, they succeed?

Tewshooz said...

The only traitors are Obama and Clinton. The CIA killed Kennedy and this is why Trump has his own security force. Intelligence community is part of the swamp and it will take dynamite to blast them out, if at all. Did you see where McCain said he was the one who gave the report to the CIA in the first place? He is part of the deep state, and we can only hope that his time is up soon.

Anonymous said...

Of course, anytime Greenwald gets mentioned, it's worth bringing up this....

http://patterico.com/2006/07/27/annotated-wuzzadem-the-facts-behind-the-greenwald-sock-puppetry/


Good Day, Sir!

Anonymous said...

I'm betting Trump put this story out there just to see what the Deep State would do with it. One of the more disturbing aspects of this and lots of our recent foreign policy debacles and this insane desire to go to war with countries from Russia to Iran to whothehellknows who else seem to always involve one man in front doing the cheerleading and that is one Senator McCain. I've thought there were two possible conclusions.
1. He's certifiably insane and wants war war war with anyone and anybody. If this is just the way he is wired or he had his brains so thoroughly and irreparably scrambled in the Hanoi Hilton that he has serious untreated rage and mental issues and it's left him fucking cuckoo bananas and we're damn lucky he never became president. Conclusion 2 is that the rumors about his less than honorable conduct while a POW that were later overshadowed by the more generally accepted hero narrative were in fact true. The Deep State knows this, has the evidence of it and has held it over his head for years. Play along Johnny or everyone will learn the truth, your father's name sullied and the political aspirations of your kids die with that truth. Do as you're told and you and your family will be compensated lavishly and be a multi-generational political dynasty, no one will learn the truth and you're forever revered as a political maverick and national hero. It's that or the truth. Which will it be Johnny? Johnny chose fealty to the Deep State.

Old NFO said...

It's an epic troll by 4Chan... This is one of many links- http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2017/01/10/did-4chan-troll-the-cia-n2269811

Karen Joyce said...

An attempt to oust our only presidential hope at restoring our freedom. Trump needs our prayers!!!

B said...

And,sadly, Rebecca doesnt understand what "smoking gun" really means.

Jon said...

Whatever else, the intelligence community has become like the praetorian guard. Originally to guard the emperors and the senate, the became the ones who chose the emperor.

Our intelligence community needs to be eviscerated. Perhaps Trump should take a page out of another old Roman idea. Decimation.

Timbo said...

Decimation was taking every tenth man and killing him. I'm afraid that (substituting firing for more radical forms) that Mr Trump is going to have do a lot more pruning.

Anonymous said...

Trump is playing a very dangerous game. Intelligence hates being ignored, but to be so openly ridiculed by Trump is causing some extremely tense credibility. Intelligence may feel to get rid of Trump before he causes them more damage. I don't know if assassination is allowable but it is certainly the case that the media is fanning the flames for someone to make the attempt on Trump's life and then claim Trump brought it on himself. A 'mentally deranged' person, no doubt.

Anonymous said...

I'd point out another paragraph related to credibility, which is quite important:

Beyond all that, there is no bigger favor that Trump opponents can do for him than attacking him with such lowly, shabby, obvious shams, recruiting large media outlets to lead the way. When it comes time to expose actual Trump corruption and criminality, who is going to believe the people and institutions who have demonstrated they are willing to endorse any assertions no matter how factually baseless, who deploy any journalistic tactic no matter how unreliable and removed from basic means of ensuring accuracy?

As a result of the MSM behaviour, I assume that I'm being lied to whenever I see a MSM story, and if, by accident, a truth is told, I still believe that it is in service of the Narrative. Or stated another way, telling the truth & whole truth is totally foreign to them.

These attacks on Trump are merely the latest manifestation of the Democrat/MSM Narrative, where MSM reporters (Democrat operatives with by-lines) are trying to somehow reverse the election to give it to Hillary. Or failing that, to so invalidate Trump that he doesn't have the ability to lead. I'll note that they have successfully done that with other Republican Presidents.

-- Steve

Anonymous said...

One is reminded of the late Michael Crichton's Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect in which one reads a news report or article about which one has detailed knowledge, and notices that the author got things not just completely wrong but backwards; Crichton termed this the "wet streets cause rain" theorem.

Having read the totally erroneous report the reader turns the page and reads on, assuming everything else in the newspaper is accurate.

What we're faced with today is that nothing presented by so called "journalists" "reporters," or "correspondents" can be trusted to be accurate, or even moderately truthful; the industry has been so thoroughly corrupted by ideology that it's not just less than worthless, it's an identifiable danger to a properly functioning society.

It was either Samuel Clemens who said "if you don't read a newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read a newspaper you are mis-informed;" very much of an understatement today.

Mark Matis said...

My preference, Jon and Timbo, would be instead for him to findo this country's "intelligence" agencies. Mere "decimate" is not nearly enough.

Fredrick said...

Anonymous - the 5 am poster: "I don't know if assassination..." You're making threats however thinly veiled are still threats. What part of murder being illegal do you not understand?

Anonymous said...

Query:
If by some chance (Oh my God, we don't need this) Trump was assassinated before taking the Oath of Office, what happens? Does whatzhisname stay in office? Does Pence get sworn in? Have things been anywhere near this >weird< since the 1860 election?