Wednesday, January 11, 2017

GREENWALD: THE EXTREMELY EVIL DEEP STATE IS ALL-POWERFUL AND, SIMULTANEOUSLY, INCOMPETENT

Glenn Greenwald warns us that the greatest force for evil on the planet has been unleashed, thanks to the folly of the mainstream media and liberals:
IN JANUARY, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address after serving two terms as U.S. president; the five-star general chose to warn Americans of this specific threat to democracy: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” That warning was issued prior to the decadelong escalation of the Vietnam War, three more decades of Cold War mania, and the post-9/11 era, all of which radically expanded that unelected faction’s power even further.

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.”

Their most valuable instrument is the U.S. media, much of which reflexively reveres, serves, believes, and sides with hidden intelligence officials. And Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss as well as a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing -- eager -- to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry and damaging those behaviors might be.
Wow! I thought we were just having fun last night snickering over allegations that Donald Trump paid prostitutes to urinate in a hotel bed in Russia once occupied by Barack and Michelle Obama. But what we thought was an innocent laugh at Trump's expense was the unleashing of a force of all-powerful malevolence, according to Greenwald:
... the threat posed by submitting ourselves to the CIA and empowering it to reign supreme outside of the democratic process is -- as Eisenhower warned -- [a] severe danger. The threat of being ruled by unaccountable and unelected entities is self-evident and grave. That’s especially true when the entity behind which so many are rallying is one with a long and deliberate history of lying, propaganda, war crimes, torture, and the worst atrocities imaginable.
Except that Greenwald also says that this all-powerful force will harm the foolish, naive liberals who cheer it on:
... 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?
So which is it? Is what Greenwald calls "the Deep State" an all-powerful totalitarian force that will crush us all under its jackboot? Or is its work so clumsy that relying on it to combat Donald Trump will only empower him more?

Well, this is Greenwald, so, of course, he's going to bash his enemies from both directions, intellectual consistency be damned.

Greenwald writes,
Empowering the very entities that have produced the most shameful atrocities and systemic deceit over the last six decades is desperation of the worst kind.
But here's the thing: In recent decades, the American entity that's produced "the most shameful atrocities and systemic deceit" hasn't been an intelligence agency -- it's been the Republican Party. The Iraq War? The return to torture? The construction of Gitmo? That wasn't driven by spooks, it was demanded by the Executive Branch in the previous decade. And Donald Trump represents a party that's more morally bankrupt and more greedy for absolute power than even the Bush GOP.

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.

I could go on about what Greenwald writes, but I'll direct your attention to a passage I quoted at the top of this post. I'll add some emphasis this time:
Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss as well as a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing -- eager -- to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry and damaging those behaviors might be.
Projection much, Glenn? You're bashing Democrats and the media on behalf of Donald Trump. And you accuse other people of being willing to "align with any villain"?

11 comments:

Grung_e_Gene said...

Greenwald is a right-wing ratfvcker.

fry1laurie said...

To Libertarians, any government is evil. A recipe for pure anarchy.

Anonymous said...

He wants to be important. A movie with him as a character was not enough.

If you have followed him from the beginning of his "mission" it's pretty clear that he has never been a progressive or liberal. He is only for himself.

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

Yes, he is--and Ascended Madoka forgive me, I fell for his BS for some time, until I realized he wanted Cheetolini over Hillary.

CF2K said...

Greenwald has achieved peak Useful Contrarian Idiot. What new worlds are left for him conquer?

paulocanning said...

Given that the Snowden stuff has all dried up I suspect a stay relevant motive here.

What pisses me off is people like the BBC giving him a platform - again - last night.

mathguy said...

What CF2K said. I occasionally enjoyed reading GG years ago, but he's gone so far off the deep end, he's just another pathetic internet denizen clamoring for attention like a child scream for his mother. Sad!

Never Ben Better said...

Greenwald clearly considers himself head and shoulders above all others in smarts and perceptiveness and being able to see past what They want us to know to the TRUTH, man, the TRUTH.

Such people are remarkably easy to fool if you play upon that.

Unknown said...

The most damning thing about the "hookers urinating on the bed" story is that it could be true. This is who The Donald is. Such a story told about any other President or opponent would be immediately rejected as not possible. With Trump it is possible.

Thornton Hall said...

It's frustrating that every time some smart guy thinks they understand the secret of the universe, it's in the predictable fashion of turning the observable world into a narrative, naming a bad/good actor, and then saying Satan/God did it on purpose.

Anonymous said...

Christ, what an asshole.