The ruthless political assassination of Michael Flynn was just one battle of a major civil war that has erupted for control of the U.S. government.<\/em><\/strong> Donald Trump and his new administration are now under relentless assault by \u201cthe deep state\u201d,<\/em><\/strong> and at this point it is not clear who will emerge as the victor. <\/em><\/strong>There are many that use the term \u201cdeep state\u201d as a synonym for the intelligence community, but the truth is that it is much broader than that.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n DO NOT MISS:\u00a0What Exactly is the \u201cDeep State\u201d People Are Talking About?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In reality, the deep state encompasses thousands upon thousands of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats that never seem to change no matter which party wins an election.<\/em><\/strong> Certainly the intelligence community is at the heart of this system, but there are countless others that are embedded within key government agencies and the Pentagon that deeply resent Donald Trump and the kind of change that he is attempting to bring to Washington.<\/p>\n There is a vast and exceedingly complex tapestry of laws, rules and regulations that govern the behavior of government officials. In past administrations, those laws, rules and regulations have been very selectively enforced, but now the \u201cdeep state\u201d intends to use them as weapons against the Trump administration.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In essence, Donald Trump and his team are walking through a minefield, and his enemies are watching like a hawk for even the smallest slip up.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Theoretically, everyone working for the federal government is now working for Donald Trump. But in reality that is not the case.<\/strong><\/em> I wrote about the sabotage that is being done by Obama loyalists\u00a0a few days ago<\/a>, and it isn\u2019t going to stop until Donald Trump does a complete housecleaning.<\/p>\n Michael Flynn was taken out because he was an easy target.<\/em><\/strong> But now that he is gone, the saboteurs are immediately going to proceed to their next targets.<\/p>\n For example, just today we learned that Trump\u2019s choice for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder,\u00a0was forced to withdraw<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s political enemies are going go after whoever they can. Trump\u2019s family, friends and business associates are all fair game.<\/em><\/strong> Politics in America has become an exceedingly dirty game, and many believe that this is an indication that our republic is in the process of failing. I really like how Damon Linker described this\u00a0in an article for\u00a0The Week<\/em><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n The whole episode is evidence of the precipitous and ongoing collapse of America\u2019s democratic institutions \u2014 not a sign of their resiliency.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Flynn\u2019s ouster was\u00a0a soft coup<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>(or\u00a0political assassination<\/a>) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but\u00a0this isn\u2019t the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way around.<\/em><\/strong> Far too many Trump critics appear not to care that these intelligence agents leaked highly sensitive information to the press \u2014 mostly because Trump critics are pleased with the result.<\/em><\/strong> \u201cFinally,\u201d they say, \u201csomeone took a stand to expose collusion between the Russians and a senior aide to the president!\u201d It is indeed important that someone took such a stand. But it matters greatly who that someone is and how they take their stand. Members of the unelected, unaccountable intelligence community are not the right someone, especially when they target a senior aide to the president by leaking\u00a0anonymously to newspapers<\/a>\u00a0the content of classified phone intercepts, where the unverified, unsubstantiated information can inflict politically fatal damage almost instantaneously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n For many years, I have written about how the U.S. government has been transformed into a police state. And ultimately it is not the politicians that have been spying on all of us \u2013 it is the deep state that has been doing it.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n According to\u00a0USA Today<\/a>, the deep state has been intercepting communications from Trump and his team for \u201cmonths\u201d, and so this \u201cinvestigation\u201d was actually going on all the way back during the election.<\/em><\/strong> And now the deep state is disclosing the \u201cdirt\u201d that they have collected in order to destroy political reputations. As\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>\u00a0has pointed out, this \u201cis what police states do\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity.\u00a0This is what police states do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This entire episode makes me deeply ashamed of my country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In the end, it doesn\u2019t even matter that much if Michael Flynn would have done a good job<\/em><\/strong> in his position or not.\u00a0What matters is that we have an intelligence community that has gone rogue and that is completely out of control.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And now that this \u201ccivil war\u201d has begun, it is\u00a0being reported<\/a>\u00a0that there are some within the intelligence community that are absolutely determined to destroy Donald Trump. In fact, one former NSA analyst says that he got a message from a friend still inside the intelligence community that stated that Trump\u00a0\u201cwill die in jail\u201d<\/a>once this civil war is over\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n According to former NSA analyst John Schindler, elements of the intelligence community have gone \u201cnuclear\u201d against President Donald Trump and are now vowing \u201che will die in jail\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Schindler, a former professor at the Naval War College, is known to be provocative with his tweets, but what he revealed earlier today is still raising eyebrows.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Schindler was asked by another Twitter user, \u201cWhat do you think is going on inside NatSec right now after Trump\u2019s \u201cintelligence\u201d tweet this morning?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n That was a reference to Trump\u00a0tweeting<\/a>\u00a0that information was being illegally leaked by members of the CIA and NSA to the Washington Post and the New York Times.<\/p>\n Schindler responded, \u201cNow we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels.<\/em> Just got an EM fm senior IC friend, it began: \u201cHe will die in jail.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Can you see why I am describing this conflict as a \u201ccivil war\u201d? To me, this is definitely treason\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n For now, this civil war is a \u201ccold war\u201d, but we aren\u2019t too far away from it potentially becoming a \u201chot war\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I have\u00a0previously written<\/a>\u00a0about how the U.S. is on the verge of major civil unrest, and it is also a major theme\u00a0in my novel<\/a>. The anger and frustration that have been building up in this country for a very long time could explode at any moment. All it is going to take is some sort of trigger event.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelastgreatstand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/T1-2.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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