Devil’s Chessboard author David Talbot via Facebook:
March 1, 2017
The plot thickens. The day after Trump’s “triumphant” kinder-gentler Caligula speech before Congress, the deep state moves aggressively against him. Lyin’ Jeff Sessions’ days as Attorney General are numbered after the security agencies leaked his meetings with Russian reps to the Washington Post — and I couldn’t be happier for the sawed-off little racist.
Meanwhile, MSNBC devoted its ENTIRE news block last night to the deep state case against Trump as a Putin mole. It really was a remarkable display of deep state power — with Brian Williams playing the security state’s pliable MC and the network’s phalanx of security commentators (like Malcolm Nance and Evelyn Farkas) all but calling Trump a traitor. Farkas was apparently one of those Obama security officials who went scurrying around the federal government in O’s final days in office, squirreling away damaging info about Trump and the Russkies, so Big Orange couldn’t deep-six the incriminating stuff. What a weird democracy we have, when the TV networks maintain their own national security departments — which are now at war with the Trump administration.
Look, I’m all for bringing down this heinous government — even if it takes working with the devil (i.e. the deep state). But let’s do it with our eyes open, aware of all the risks this entails. Is it really good for our democracy, in the long run, if the corporate media and national security state are merged into one Orwellian apparatus?
Btw, I’m not a big fan of The New Yorker’s David Remnick — his leadership of the magazine has been safe and banal. But he was a voice of reason last night with the Brian Williams anti-Russian strike force, explaining why Putin felt forced to align himself with Trump out of well-founded fears about US and NATO encroachment on Russia’s borders. This deep-state/media demonization of Russia can only end badly.