Aa
Washington’s coup fever heats up
Washington’s coup fever heats up
By David Talbot, San Francisco Chronicle
February 19, 2017 Updated: February 19, 2017 6:00am
19
President Donald Trump calls on members of the press during a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Photo: Andrew Harnik, Associated Press
Photo: Andrew Harnik, Associated Press
President Donald Trump calls on members of the press during a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
In case you turned off your computer and TV and crawled under the blankets all last week — and, really, who can blame you? — here’s a quick recap of the news. Leaking like an old waterbed, the national security establishment claimed its first big casualty, national security adviser Michael Flynn. President Trump struck back by reaching new levels of weirdness at his Thursday news conference, telling the media pack that they were “hateful” and “dishonest”… but, hey, “it’s a great honor to be with you.”
The “least racist man you’ll ever meet” then went on to ask an African American reporter to set up a meeting for him with the Congressional Black Caucus, because, well, she’s black.
He then totally lost it with a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish publication, ordering him to “sit down” and “be quiet,” and saying that he was “repulsed” by his question about the recent rise of anti-Semitic incidents. Apparently Trump — who, if you haven’t noticed, can be just a tad thin-skinned — thought the yarmulke-wearing reporter was accusing him of vandalizing temples and Jewish community centers. “I’m the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” Trump berated the utterly bewildered reporter, who had just fawningly prefaced his question by praising the president’s credentials as a “zayde,” the grandfather of Jewish children.
Trump’s news conference antics only fed the growing public perception that we are being led, or misled, by a mad king. Meanwhile, the war in Washington grew so heated that Julian Assange tweeted about “the amazing battle for dominance between the elected US govt & the IC (intelligence community.)”
More by David Talbot
Sheriff Vicki Hennessy appears before a Board of Supervisors public safety committee considering changes to the city's due process for all and sanctuary policies during a hearing at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, April 7, 2016.
Sheriff Hennessy takes the heat as SF loses its black history
PAINT PARTY 1/C/19AUG96/CD/CS - SF Department of Public Works employee Lateaf Morton, 24, wipes away graffiti on a wall next to a mural on a building at Golden Gate and Leavenworth in the Tenderloin. Volunteers were invited to the DPW "paint party," but only DPW workers showed up. The DPW, SFPD Tenderloin Task Force and the Tenderloin Community on Patrol sponsored the clean-up effort. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE PHOTO BY CHRIS STEWART
Tenderloin celebrates 100 years of sexual freedom and resilience
Trump advisor Steve Bannon (L) watches as US President Donald Trump greets Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla CEO, before a policy and strategy forum with executives in the State Dining Room of the White House February 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan SmialowskiBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Wise advice from Berkeley scholar: Don’t have a cow, America
Iris Merriouns, right, checks on her 99-year-old aunt, Iris Canada, on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Canada faces eviction from her Western Addition apartment, where she has lived since the 1940s. Merriouns takes shifts being Canada's caretaker with family members and friends.
100-year-old woman could be latest victim of SF’s housing
Twitterdom is ringing with lunatic effusions, and not all of them are coming from the president himself.
The hubbub for a coup — on the left and right — grows louder by the day. William Kristol, a leader of the neoconservative anti-Trump pack, is among those who has tweeted his secret longing to be saved by Big Brother: “Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.”
If it comes to it. … At least one spook, a former NSA analyst named John Schindler, thinks we’re at that point now. Schindler let loose a disturbing war cry last week, tweeting, “Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels.”
Schindler’s crowd is convinced Trump’s fate is sealed. “He will die in jail,” Schindler was told by a “senior IC friend.” Weirdly, Schindler — who thinks Trump has sold out the country to the Russians — is the national security correspondent for the New York Observer, the newspaper owned by Trump son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner. Maybe Trump is not such a beloved zayde in the Kushner household.
Even the New York Times, which in the past has dismissed all discussion of deep state plotting against U.S. democracy as the paranoid ravings of the conspiracy set, ran a long, sober feature on Friday exploring whether the United States is following the tumultuous path of countries like Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan and “seeing the rise of its own deep state.”
The truth is that the deep state — powerful officials in the national security world and their Wall Street and corporate allies — have long had a contentious history with American democracy. The FBI, including high official Mark Felt (a.k.a. “Deep Throat”), and the CIA played key roles in the Watergate intrigue that finally brought down Richard Nixon. William Casey, President Ronald Reagan’s spymaster, helped engineer the October Surprise during the 1980 presidential campaign that sabotaged the Iran hostage release and ensured Jimmy Carter’s defeat. Some historians and investigators (including me) argue that CIA legend Allen Dulles played a central role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the crime’s cover-up.
"The “least racist man you’ll ever meet” then went on to ask an African American reporter to set up a meeting for him with the Congressional Black Caucus, because, well, she’s black."
I imagine that is the only way you can see that, if you're a race baiter.
I don't like Trump. I didn't vote for Trump and I won't make a habit out of defending the guy. I find him pompous and otherwise offensive and his level of narcissism is off the charts. But with that said, taking everything I have witnessed with this joker and the way he "handles business", I can see him asking this lady to "set up an appointment" a few other ways. The least offensive ways is by asking her to set that up is like saying "i have things to do so go ahead and set that up and I'll meet with them."
I imagine that is the only way you can see that, if you're a race baiter.
I don't like Trump. I didn't vote for Trump and I won't make a habit out of defending the guy. I find him pompous and otherwise offensive and his level of narcissism is off the charts. But with that said, taking everything I have witnessed with this joker and the way he "handles business", I can see him asking this lady to "set up an appointment" a few other ways. The least offensive ways is by asking her to set that up is like saying "i have things to do so go ahead and set that up and I'll meet with them."
2 Comments
I think we all need to face it. No matter what this guy does, he will be chastised for it. There is no way in the world that he could have answered that question properly in the eyes of his haters.
I maybe an oddball but I'll say I'm happy he axed the TPP
Democracy is an exquisitely fragile enterprise, “a delicate eggshell in the rough-and-tumble of history,” as I wrote in my book, “The Devil’s Chessboard.” Rule by the people must always contend with rule by elites who are much more organized, financed, ruthless and armed.
What’s odd about these increasingly odd times is that many engaged citizens, including progressives, are eagerly hoping for the overthrow of our elected government, if we can rid ourselves of the dangerously unhinged Trump. But a coup would mean the coup de grace for American democracy. Yes, the mad king would be gone. In the process, however, we’d be empowering the most militaristic, secretive and sinister elements of our society.
I agree that saving America means bringing down Trump. But it’s a revived democracy that must be his downfall — a newly invigorated media, judicial system and citizenry — not the dark maneuvers of spies and generals.
As a journalist, I have no problem receiving Trump-damaging leaks from the deep state, if these leaks are thoroughly vetted and substantiated. That’s often the only way to find glimpses of the truth in secretive democracies like ours. “There is a crack, a crack in everything — that’s how the light gets in,” as Leonard Cohen sang.
But there’s a big difference between taking advantage of the cracks in the national security establishment to shed light on the dark operations of power, and celebrating the deep state as our savior. That’s what some liberal commentators — like Tim Weiner, a former New York Times reporter and author of books about the CIA and FBI — were doing last week, going on the cable shows and getting all gooey about the strongmen in the shadows who will supposedly protect us. Weiner got so carried away at one point on “The Rachel Maddow Show” that he called the FBI’s Machiavellian director, James Comey, and Sen. John McCain — a man who has never seen a war he didn’t like — the only heroic watchmen standing in the way of the Trump abyss.
Wrong. My fellow Americans — we’re democracy’s last line of defense
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Washington-s-coup-fever-heats-up-10942988.php
What’s odd about these increasingly odd times is that many engaged citizens, including progressives, are eagerly hoping for the overthrow of our elected government, if we can rid ourselves of the dangerously unhinged Trump. But a coup would mean the coup de grace for American democracy. Yes, the mad king would be gone. In the process, however, we’d be empowering the most militaristic, secretive and sinister elements of our society.
I agree that saving America means bringing down Trump. But it’s a revived democracy that must be his downfall — a newly invigorated media, judicial system and citizenry — not the dark maneuvers of spies and generals.
As a journalist, I have no problem receiving Trump-damaging leaks from the deep state, if these leaks are thoroughly vetted and substantiated. That’s often the only way to find glimpses of the truth in secretive democracies like ours. “There is a crack, a crack in everything — that’s how the light gets in,” as Leonard Cohen sang.
But there’s a big difference between taking advantage of the cracks in the national security establishment to shed light on the dark operations of power, and celebrating the deep state as our savior. That’s what some liberal commentators — like Tim Weiner, a former New York Times reporter and author of books about the CIA and FBI — were doing last week, going on the cable shows and getting all gooey about the strongmen in the shadows who will supposedly protect us. Weiner got so carried away at one point on “The Rachel Maddow Show” that he called the FBI’s Machiavellian director, James Comey, and Sen. John McCain — a man who has never seen a war he didn’t like — the only heroic watchmen standing in the way of the Trump abyss.
Wrong. My fellow Americans — we’re democracy’s last line of defense
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Washington-s-coup-fever-heats-up-10942988.php
You must join this user group in order to participate in this discussion.
You are reading content posted in the Current Events . . . Group
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Condoms are the most effective way to prevent HIV and STDs.
PrEP is used by people with high risk to prevent HIV infection.
