SocraticGadfly: Glenn Greenwald is getting closer to drinking Bill Binney / Ray McGovern DeepState Kool-Aid

September 07, 2018

Glenn Greenwald is getting closer to drinking
Bill Binney / Ray McGovern DeepState Kool-Aid

And, this is an observation, and based on empirical Twitter evidence, that's only been growing.

The latest?

The "anonymous" NY Times op-ed that has everybody speculating about its authorship.

It's not Pence unless the NYT's deep backgrounding included encouraging him to throw in the "job fear" issue as a smokescreen for having Constitutional protection. Otherwise, my guesses are in kind of order: Elaine Chao, aka Ms. Mitch McConnell at Transportation; chief of staff John Kelly, whose military background might lead to "lodestar"; intelligence establishment hack Dan Coats at DNI; press spox Sarah Sanders, whose position would put herself in the best place of covering her own tracks; and Trump himself (with sufficient editorial help), throwing shade on the GOP establishment.

Speaking of, that's the cue to go to non-leftist Greenwald. (He supported, and still supports, Citizens United. No leftist does that, and with Kavanaugh a potential fifth vote to gut the last few shreds of campaign finance regulation, Glenn is a fitful ally of actual leftists at this time.)

So, off to Twitter, starting with:
Followed by:
I've Tweeted the material in the first tweet before. I am not sure if I shadowtweeted, quote-tweeted, or directly replied.

Anyway, Glenn knows this all himself. Given the amount of people Trump has already hired and fired, he should have little compunction about canning even more.

But, let's go beyond that. Let's note that Trump has not only hired some of these people but even promoted them. Like moving Mike Pompeo from CIA to State. Or moving Kelly from Homeland Security to be his Chief of Staff. Or hiring John Bolton, an America Firster neocon who told the world "fuck you" on this year's 9/11.

It's these facts, which Glenn also knows, that lead to the second Tweet.

And, related to that, let's look at stuff in his original thread:
Specifically, let's look at the last sentence. 

Among members of #TheResistance who are not its dimmer bulbs, and certainly among those with some degree of renown, I'm unaware of anybody claiming all three simultaneously. As a lawyer, Glenn should have edited that sentence; it's not only untrue, it's a poor legal argument.

I then want to look together at a second tweet plus the one I quoted.

So:
and:
Again, poor legal argumentation.

It's EITHER largely inside the White House (which is exactly what the column was about) OR it's "out there" in the broader government. 

Theoretically, it could be both. But, the amount of Trump loyalty pushing you hear in many agencies, if it's "out there," it's at lower levels. And, as the whole post-Steele FBI shows, there are factions that cut both ways before Trump was ever elected. I'm talking in large part about NYC FBI agents whom Comey worried were anti-Clinton leakers par excellence. And, if it's in the legislative branch, well, Glenn, that's the old division of powers.

If it's inside the WH, well, Glenn, we're back to the top half of this column. All Trump has to do is fire people, and stop hiring people who will try to "control" him.

Beyond that, such "cabals" aren't new anyway.

History shows Wilson's second wife, along with Joe Tumulty and select others, covering for his stroke. It shows Henry Kissenger and Al Haig covering for Nixon's late-Watergate nuttery. It shows Whig politicos who had planned to manipulate William Henry Harrison.

Confounding this all are Greenwald fanboys who conflate leftists and liberals, and many other things.

Glenn himself, again, per the top, is NOT a leftist. His youth Socialist speaking events have never been about anything other than First Amendment issues. To some degree, on constitutional jurisprudence, he's one of those First Amendment Weaponizers who, like Ken White (Popehat) claim their legal shit doesn't stink when in reality they back the same results-oriented jurisprudence others do.

Finally, Greenwald, while buying Edward Snowden at face value, and having a certain amount of condemnation for the "deep state" then, is a Johnny-come-lately for the privatization of the national security state to the Booz Allens of the world who get people like Snowden working for the government in the first place.

In reality, Glenn is getting closer to becoming a more psychologically complex version of Justin Raimundo.

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