{"id":62955,"date":"2017-01-11T15:55:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=62955"},"modified":"2017-01-11T15:55:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:55:30","slug":"glenn-greenwald-slams-the-unverified-claims-of-the-democrat-cheered-deep-states-war-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=62955","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Greenwald Slams The ‘Unverified Claims’ Of The Democrat-Cheered Deep State’s War With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted by Glenn Greenwald via The Intercept,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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In January, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address<\/a> after serving two terms as U.S. president; the five-star general chose to warn Americans of\u00a0this specific threat to democracy<\/strong>: \u201cIn 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.\u201d <\/em>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\u00a0that unelected faction\u2019s power even further.<\/p>\n

This is the faction that is now engaged in open warfare\u00a0against the duly elected and already widely disliked<\/a> president-elect, Donald Trump. They are using classic Cold War dirty tactics and the defining ingredients of what has until recently been denounced as\u00a0\u201cFake News.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their most valuable instrument is the U.S. media, much of which reflexively reveres, serves, believes, and sides with hidden intelligence officials.<\/strong> And Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss as well as a systemic collapse of their party<\/a>, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing \u2014\u00a0eager<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 to embrace\u00a0any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry and damaging those behaviors might be.<\/p>\n

The serious dangers posed by a Trump presidency are numerous and manifest. There are a wide array of legitimate and effective tactics for combatting those threats: from bipartisan congressional coalitions and constitutional legal challenges to citizen uprisings and sustained and aggressive civil disobedience. All of those strategies have periodically proven themselves effective\u00a0in times of political crisis or authoritarian overreach.<\/p>\n

But cheering for the CIA<\/em> and its shadowy allies to unilaterally subvert the U.S. election and impose its own policy dictates on the elected president is both warped and self-destructive. 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. Demanding that\u00a0evidence-free, anonymous assertions be instantly venerated as Truth \u2014 despite emanating from\u00a0the very precincts designed to propagandize and lie \u2014 is an assault on journalism, democracy, and basic human rationality. And casually branding domestic adversaries who refuse to go along as traitors and disloyal foreign operatives is morally bankrupt and certain to backfire on those doing it.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0any assertions\u00a0no matter how factually baseless, who deploy\u00a0any journalistic tactic no matter how unreliable and removed from basic means of ensuring accuracy?<\/p>\n

All of these toxic ingredients were on full display yesterday as the Deep State unleashed its tawdriest and most aggressive assault yet on Trump<\/strong>: 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\u00a0GOP and Democratic opponents of\u00a0Trump, 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\u00a0attempts to undermine it.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

For months, the CIA, with unprecedented clarity, overtly threw its weight behind Hillary Clinton\u2019s candidacy and sought to defeat Donald Trump. <\/strong>In August, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell\u00a0announced his endorsement of Clinton in\u00a0the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0and claimed that \u201cMr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.\u201d The\u00a0CIA and NSA director under George W. Bush, Gen. Michael Hayden, also endorsed Clinton, and\u00a0went to the Washington Post to warn<\/a>, in the week before the election, that \u201cDonald Trump really does sound a lot like Vladimir Putin,\u201d adding that\u00a0Trump is \u201cthe useful fool, some naif, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not hard to understand why the CIA preferred Clinton over Trump. Clinton was critical of Obama for restraining the CIA\u2019s proxy war in Syria\u00a0and was eager to expand that war<\/a>, while Trump denounced it. Clinton clearly wanted a harder line than Obama took<\/a> against the CIA\u2019s 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\u00a0on which the CIA and Pentagon\u2019s preeminence depends, while Trump \u2014 through a still-uncertain mix of\u00a0instability and extremist conviction \u2014 posed a threat to it.<\/p>\n

Whatever one\u2019s views are on those debates, it is the democratic framework \u2014 the presidential election, the confirmation process, congressional leaders, judicial proceedings, citizen activism and protest, civil disobedience \u2014 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\u00a0crave the rule of Deep State overlords.<\/p>\n

Yet craving Deep State rule\u00a0is exactly what prominent Democratic operatives and media figures are doing.\u00a0Any doubt about that is now\u00a0dispelled. Just last week, Chuck Schumer issued a warning to Trump, telling\u00a0Rachel Maddow that Trump was being \u201creally dumb\u201d by challenging the unelected intelligence community because of all the ways they possess to destroy those who dare to stand up to them:<\/p>\n

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Chuck Schumer on Trump's tweet hitting intel community: "He's being really dumb to do this." https:\/\/t.co\/MOcU8ruOPK<\/a><\/p>\n

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n