Red - interesting article. Although there is a difference in cheering that entity on, versus observing simply that wheels may be in motion, and it may be a reaction to what is transpiring from the Executive Branch. Trump and Bannon seem intent on ignoring or circumventing the standard tactics outlined by Greenwald, but the hope is that some of those are effective or successful. The last thing that Dems want to see is a move by shadowy forces inside the intelligence community. If it comes to that then either the standard gears of governance and bureaucracy have failed, or the threat is beyond what the public can see and appreciate.
And personally, if some powerful force within the federal government can prevent the US from entering a new war, based on lies and conspiracy and Trump's madness, in the Middle East where 10,000 US men and women die, and 10x that number of innocents, then consider me a cheerleader for the deep state.
In the interest of open discussion I provide the following extract from JimD's Reply # 578 in the "Empire - America and the future" thread, & I note that JimD claims to have previously worked in the IC (Intelligence Community):
"Democracy in America is hanging if not by a thread but a small rope and that rope is being sawed on right in front of your eyes. Since you don't seem to want to listen to me I will provide below a couple of excellent takes on what is going on. Think about how you are acting is playing into this and making it more likely.
From Lambert Strether - read the whole article starting at Politics
...Needless to say, once we give the IC veto power over a President before the vote is tallied, and before the electoral college votes, and after the electoral college votes but before the oath of office and the Inaugural, we’re never going to be able to take it back. This is a crossing the Rubicon moment. Now, you can say this is unique, not normal, an exceptional case, but “sovereign is he who decides on the exception” (Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmidt). And who then is the sovereign? The IC. Is that what liberals want?....
That my friends is the end of democracy in America.
Think for a second about how hard you struggle with the harsh things I say. I come from that world and compared to the folks who run it I am a soft hearted liberal (actually I am such a being) who actually cares about happens to helpless people. I assure you that those in charge do not feel that way.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/200pm-water-cooler-1112016-3.htmlFrom the end of the article which is worth a close read.
A Coup in the Making
This is not a game, even at the electoral level. It has nation-changing, anti-democratic consequences. Democratic voters fear a coup, or a kind of coup, led by the Trump administration, and for good reason. But there's another coup in the making as well, and Democrats are cheering it.
If a Republican elected official had publicly warned Obama not oppose a policy the Republicans and the CIA/NSA favored because "they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you," what would — what should — our response to that be? Mine would be horror and shock that a Republican had dared make that threat, followed by fear that he, and the agencies behind him, will make good on it. At which point, it's farewell democracy, likely for a long long time.
Yet the following actually did happen (Greenwald again, my emphasis): "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 yet there was no shock or fear, at least from Maddow or her viewers.
And Schumer really did use the phrase "they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you." The video is embedded here. Is that how Democrats plan to defeat Trump? Is it better, more comforting, if a Democrat makes that threat and appears to side with the security agencies' (the deep state's) strong-arm tactics?
A coup in the making — not the one we fear, which may also occur — but a coup nonetheless. This really is not a game, and both sides are playing for keeps.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2017/01/whos-blackmailing-president-why-arent.htmlThe end of democracy is what we are talking about. No joke. Do you really want to facilitate this. Just exactly who do you think is going to end up in charge?
You should note that the only thing Trump is doing which has generated this tidal wave of Deep State opposition is that he wants working relations, which are mutually economically beneficial to the US (as the top beneficiary), with Russia and China. Need I point out that this is a really good thing for regular people? And a serious threat to the flow of pork money to a large segment of the Deep State whose face is the IC community and the military/industrial/political machine?
We are seeing a full blown attempt to overthrow the government here with the IC, the military/industrial/political machine (represented by folks like McCain and Clinton supporters), the oligopoly controlled mass media (there is literally nothing on the news which is not in support of this coup) and the baying of the Democratic party hordes. But think for a minute what happens if Trump is deposed. Then Pense becomes President and he is far more conservative than Trump and fully in line with the general outlook of the neo-cons in their game of global strategy. So it is a large increase in struggles with Russia and vastly more resources dumped into the military complex and far less for everything else. It is an even deeper dive into the overwhelming surveillance state and a complete loss of privacy for regular citizens (thus far more control over them by the forces of the oligopoly). Not to mention that many of the liberal social programs will be gutted and hung in the garage to cure the meat.
So, hopefully you read all of the above and thought about it for a few hours or days. We are in decline which is certainly irreversible. But the pace of that decline can always be affected mostly in the direction of acceleration. This is what could happen here and if it does the decline will accelerate significantly as what little influence or control the regular populace has will be seriously eroded or disappear. Once the coup occurs there is no taking it back.
If we get manipulated into allowing a defacto coup things will get much worse quickly. All of your hopes for some miracle to happen; the come to Jesus moment where all the world starts to cooperate, the aliens come save us, the Singularity happens, women stop having babies for a generation; will be dashed. The waves of climate change and exceeding the global carrying capacity will wash right over us.
Have a cheerful New Year."
