Illuminati Bloodlines

Trump versus the deep state: a war with no heroes 

By David Talbot March 12, 2017

Which side are you on — President Trump's
oligarchy or the deep state? If you answered,
"None of the above," score one for democracy.
Neither side has the interest of the American
people at heart — only its own power. They are
behemoths bloated on their own ego and
entitlement, and like the mighty showdown between
Godzilla and Mothra, it's impossible to cheer for
either one, because democracy could be crushed
beneath their monstrous, scaly feet in the
process.
The battle between these titanic forces reached a
new fever pitch last week, starting with Trump's
explosive Twitter charges that President Barack
Obama wiretapped his phones and spiraling into
another round of counter-allegations about a
Trump-Vladimir Putin plot to steal democracy.
I happen to think there is some truth to both
sides' charges. Despite the outraged denials from
the Obama camp, Trump might indeed have been
tapped during the presidential campaign. On the
eve of the November election, an intriguing
national security blogger named Louise Mensch — a
former Conservative Party member of British
Parliament with strong intelligence ties —
reported that the U.S. Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, which authorizes government
spying, had granted a warrant for the FBI to
conduct surveillance of certain Americans as part
of the bureau's investigation into possible links
between Russian banks and Trump's corporate
empire.
That story was later picked up by the BBC and the
Guardian in London, and more recently by the
McClatchy news agency. So it's unclear why most
media outlets keep insisting there is no evidence
to back up Trump's allegations, which as usual
were cartoonishly worded but still might contain a
kernel of validity.
Likewise, despite the Trump camp's sound and fury,
it's clear there were numerous contacts between
his campaign and Russian officials — and at least
in Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's case, they were dodgy
enough to cause his hurried exit from the
administration.
So there's some truth on both sides in this
Washington smackdown. And there's plenty of
distortion, disinformation and outright lies.
After all, that's how both sides roll. Trump's
entire presidency is built on fakery — from Obama
birther conspiracy-mongering to bogeymen
immigrants to magical health care solutions.
And the national security agencies at war with
Trump? Well, let's just say their own credibility
— from Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass
destruction to the latest WikiLeaks revelations
about CIA hacking of consumer technology — is not
exactly solid. There were waves of laughter across
the land when the agency responded to last week's
embarrassing document dump by claiming it never
spies on Americans.
Most of us here in deep-blue California believe
just about any accusation, no matter how sleazy or
criminal, that is made against Trump. We are awash
in leaks and tweets these days, a tsunami of
headlines that the American people have no way of
independently verifying. Which stories are fake
news? Who knows? The media are providing little
insight or guidance.
Nearly the entire media circus — from the New York
Times to BuzzFeed — has been caught up in the
shadow war between Trump and the national security
establishment. And much of the media reporting on
this beat is closely aligned with the security
agencies. "If the Deep State can rid us of the
blighted presidency of Donald Trump, all I can say
is 'Go, State, go,'" merrily wrote Vanity Fair
columnist James Wolcott.
MSNBC has turned its nightly news lineup into a
propaganda arm of the national security state,
with a constant parade of former spooks and
armchair generals foaming about the "Russian
connection" and how Trump has handed our nation to
the Kremlin. In today's strange looking-glass
world, the liberals have become the new
red-hunters, sniffing for traitors everywhere from
Trump Tower to "alt-left media" (as Wolcott calls
it) such as Glenn Greenwald's online publication,
the Intercept.
It's understandable why the Hillary Clinton wing
of the Democratic Party wants to blame its
humiliation on scheming Russians, instead of
faulting its own clueless campaigning and
corporatist politics. Clinton's campaign manager,
Robby Mook, was quick to jump on the anti-Putin
bandwagon, warning in a recent Guardian opinion
essay that the Mad Genius of Moscow was out to
destroy every democracy in the world. Cue mad
cackle.
Democrats' obsessive focus on the Russian menace
wildly exaggerates Moscow's impact on the
presidential election. Even if the Putin regime
did hack the Democratic National Committee, the
relatively unsurprising email revelations about
Clinton and her associates should not have been
enough to sink her campaign, particularly in
comparison with the grotesque stories that were
made public about Trump.
When it comes to sabotaging democracies, Russia is
a rank amateur compared with the U.S. Just ask the
people of Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil,
Chile, Nicaragua, Honduras — and even France,
where the CIA backed a right-wing military coup
attempt in 1961 to overthrow President Charles de
Gaulle, a national hero.
The Democrats' Russian fixation has also hijacked
our democracy. It's become a massive distraction
as Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan go about
dismantling the health care system, civil rights,
environmental protections and just about
everything else in Washington that maintains some
decency in American life. During the 2016
campaign, the media were all about Trump's latest
outburst, real or not — now they're all about
Putin's latest chess move, real or not. Lost in
all of this are the urgent issues of American
decline and planetary crisis raised by leaders
like Bernie Sanders. Remember him?
The American people need to maintain a healthy
skepticism as we are bombarded with allegations
from both sides of the Trump-deep state divide. We
need to remind ourselves that the first casualty
of war is truth. And make no mistake about it —
America is at war with itself.