David Guyatt Wrote:Cliff Varnell Wrote:::::cuckoo::
The neo-cons have hungered for a war with Iran since the fall of the Shah.
Please explain why they would they hunger for a war with the man they put in power after Pahlavi was designedly removed by them?
That's how the game of perpetual war is played.
Play all ends against the middle.
There has to be a Boogyman to provide the rationale for militarization.
For decades it was The Commies, then it became The Muslims.
It was Morgan/Harriman money which financed Lenin.
Brown-Bothers Harriman financed almost half of the Nazi War machine.
W. Averell Harriman was the number one war hawk in FDR's administration.
Who spurred the 8-year Iran-Iraq War?
Carter and Reagan, arming both sides.
Why did the American neo-cons oppose the Iran nuke deal Obama pushed thru?
Because it removed the main rationale for war with Iran.
Why did Obama take so much heat from the neo-cons for not bombing Syria when Assad was reported to have gassed 1100 civilians in 2013?
Because he negotiated with the Russians to remove vast quantities of chemical weapons, thus removing the main rationale for an attack on Assad.
Don't be surprised if Trump picks major neo-con John Bolton for National Security Advisor.
Washington's coup fever heats up
By David Talbot, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2017
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/...fb-premium
Quote: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.)"
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.
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.
MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!
The Deep State Conducts a Purple Revolution Against the Trump Administration
State of the Nation
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=66483
Quote:There is now a full-scale clandestine revolutionary war being waged against the Trump Administration. The C.I.A. usually attempts a soft coup first at the direction of its masters in Deep State. When that's not successful in effectuating a regime change, they know the territory has been sufficiently softened up for the hot phase of the revolution.
In these United States of America, that would be the ongoing but rapidly intensifying Purple Revolution. This revolution began the very day that President Trump won the election on November 8, 2016, if not before.
KEY POINTS:
Deep State will not permit President Trump to govern as POTUS.
Deep State uses the C.I.A. and the Mainstream Media (MSM) to run interference at every turn against the Trump Administration
Deep State will continue to prosecute the revolution until Trump is removed from power
Deep State will eventually attempt to oust the entire Trump Administration
These preceding bullet points constitute the current NWO globalist agenda being carried throughout the USA in direct opposition to the Trump Administration. In other words, when Assistant to the President and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon said that the Mainstream Media (MSM) had morphed into the opposition party, he was speaking literally.
"Steve Bannon: I Could Care Less' About Repairing Relationship with Opposition Party' Media" BREITBART
A Counter Declaration of War on the Mainstream Media
There you have it (see preceding link), the whole world is now witnessing an all-out war between the MSM and a sitting POTUS. This unparalleled conflict is not only being fought between the Mainstream Media and the Trump Administration, it's occurring throughout the entire body politic of the USA and beyond.
The U.S. citizenry saw as never before the complete lack of integrity exhibited by the MSM during the entire 2016 election cycle. Candidate Trump exposed the lying media and avalanche of fake news with his every news conference and campaign stop. In so doing, the whole world is now aware that the MSM can never EVER be trusted again.
Because the MSM is the primary mouthpiece of Deep State, a highly consequential decision was made by its concealed leadership to remove Trump from power with great haste and recklessness lest their Global Control Matrix experience an unprecedented collapse. Deep State knows full well that it's now in its death throes. And that such grave existential threats must be faced before its entire superstructure (and infrastructure) falls into it own footprint.
This 21st century "War of the Titans" has gotten so hot, in fact, that there is now no turning back for either side. IT WILL BE A DEATH TO THE FINISH.
Because the Mainstream Media has been outed like never, the most likely outcome is that it will simply be shut down. The public domain is now replete with hard evidence proving treason and sedition perpetrated over many decades by the MSM. Once the American people have reviewed the relevant proof of high treason and crimes against humanity, it will only be a matter of MSM industrywide criminal prosecution.
Bear in mind that Deep State cannot function to any reasonable degree without total ownership and efficient functioning of the media. The C.I.A., as well as the other 16 US intelligence agencies, all require the media cover staunchly provided by the MSM. So does the Military-Industrial Complex, as does the much larger Government-Corporate Complex. Therefore, when the MSM finally crashes and burns, so will all of the other major entities which comprise the Deep State.
"MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!"
With this critical understanding it ought to be quite obvious that the next 120 days are pivotal for Deep State. Every single day that the Trump Administration is able to consolidate and increase its power, Deep State loses its influence throughout the US government and the world-at-large. Such a crucial attenuation of power will serve as the death knell of the Deep State within the American Republic.
Hence, there is now a great race against time … for both sides of this epic war. The agents of Deep State clearly hope that a soft coup will be successful through a presidential impeachment or by other means. The C.I.A. recently executed such a strategy to peacefully' remove Dilma Rousseff, the 36th President of Brazil.
Make no mistake about it, if a soft coup is not successful, the agents of Deep State will commence the hot phase of their Purple Revolution. Everything points to a massive May Day stealth event. An unrivaled National Mall rally in D.C. attended by the many misguided groups which make up the Democratic Party is already in the works.
An enormous May Day protest could be used to manufacture a context in which a Maidan type event takes place (remember the violent uprising in Kiev, Ukraine). The Illuminati are notorious for using dates and numerology by which to stage their revolutions and civil wars over centuries (e.g. May Day parades and terror events). Just as the engineered uprising in Kiev was surreptitiously utilized to force Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych into exile, a similar trigger point could be fabricated by which the Bolshevik Left goes really crazy and tries to chase Trump from the White House.
With their de facto leader Barack Obama leading the Purple Revolution quietly from behind, many Democratic factions have been adequately brainwashed by his unmatched cult of personality. The ultra-liberals, extreme left-wingers, fake progressives and DINOs* have all demonstrated that they will resort to violence both verbal and physical whenever necessary. Hence, a real May Day event, no matter when it is scheduled must be met with an overwhelming display of support for President Trump.
*DINO = Democrat in name only, and not the real Democrats of old
Much more importantly, perhaps the single most effective way of responding to a subversive May Day plot is to pre-empt it. The Trump Movement might need to mobilize like never before and converge on Washington, D.C. with a show of support and unity and numbers as never seen before in U.S. history. Such an impressive and incomparable show of public support might be all that's needed to quell the brewing Democrat insurgency. It will also serve to put the cowardly liberals in their proper place, especially those hidden manipulators who are stoking the flames of insurrection.
A Civil War, a Second American Revolution or Both
Some are calling this ongoing soft coup a prelude to a full-blown civil war; others refer to it as the Second American Revolution against the tyrannical U.S. Federal Government that was purposefully created by the Obama and Bush administrations since September 11th, 2001.
There is no question that the present phase of hostilities was initiated by the Soros-Obama-Clinton faction which essentially represents the seditious face Deep State. Deep State is the monolithic and all-pervasive rubric under which the globalist New World Agenda is being executed worldwide24/7.
Key Point: Deep State is no respecter of national sovereignty; nor does it have any loyalty to any principle or people except globalization and the homogenization of populations across the planet. It's primary goal is a New World Order overseen by an One World Government (OWG) which the agents of Deep State (DS) will foist on the world community of nations.
Given their fatally flawed agenda, it's obvious that the United States of America is an essential cog in their machine. As the military arm of the New World Order, the USA is absolutely necessary to the black operations and running of Deep State; otherwise, DS is but a paper tiger. Hence, such an OWG harebrained scheme can only be accomplished with the total commitment of the U.S. Armed Forces. Which is why there is now both a revolution and civil war evolving on parallel tracks at the same time in real time.
As a matter of fact, the Soros-funded, Obama-led, Clinton-inaugurated civil war (also known as the Purple Revolution) is being instigated to short-circuit the authentic rebellion of We the People against Deep State and its horrific creation known as the Obamanation. This is an extremely important point [in brackets] which must be understood by every American patriots. [There is a HUGE difference between the seditious Purple Revolution against the nation and the We the People revolution against Deep State.] <Again, This is a VERY IMPORTANT POINT
______________________________________________________________
Special Note:
For anyone who is uninitiated in this realm of revolutions and civil wars, the following post should be read and understood. Former CIA Officer Robert David Steele Lays Out The Purple Revolution Plan For those who prefer an audio-visual format, the YouTube that follows can be viewed and/or listened to. Former CIA officer: Flynn fired over high-level DC pedophile list The bottom line here folks is that we are entering an extraordinary period of tumult and volatility. The previously mentioned 120-day window of insurrection opportunity for Deep State is perhaps the most dangerous since the American Revolutionary War. Yes, it's that precarious a quagmire which both sides are acutely of. And Pizzagate is the Trump card that can used to avert a violent takeover by the POTUS.[1]
Paul Rigby Wrote:Washington's coup fever heats up
By David Talbot, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2017
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/...fb-premium
Quote: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.)"
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.
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.
Talbot is unaware of the Dominionist Proto-Autocracy conducting a massive voter suppression campaign spear-headed by Republican Party operatives Kris Kobach and James Comey.
Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million in spite of the GOP disenfranchisement of millions of minority voters.
Trump wasn't elected by We The People -- he was selected by the Bible Thumpers in the bi-polar Deep State.
Any discussion of the 2016 election that doesn't acknowledge this Dominionist Coup D'Etat is wrong-headed.
Cliff Varnell Wrote:David Guyatt Wrote:Cliff Varnell Wrote:::::cuckoo::
The neo-cons have hungered for a war with Iran since the fall of the Shah.
Please explain why they would they hunger for a war with the man they put in power after Pahlavi was designedly removed by them?
That's how the game of perpetual war is played.
Play all ends against the middle.
There has to be a Boogyman to provide the rationale for militarization.
For decades it was The Commies, then it became The Muslims.
It was Morgan/Harriman money which financed Lenin.
Brown-Bothers Harriman financed almost half of the Nazi War machine.
W. Averell Harriman was the number one war hawk in FDR's administration.
Who spurred the 8-year Iran-Iraq War?
Carter and Reagan, arming both sides.
Why did the American neo-cons oppose the Iran nuke deal Obama pushed thru?
Because it removed the main rationale for war with Iran.
Why did Obama take so much heat from the neo-cons for not bombing Syria when Assad was reported to have gassed 1100 civilians in 2013?
Because he negotiated with the Russians to remove vast quantities of chemical weapons, thus removing the main rationale for an attack on Assad.
Don't be surprised if Trump picks major neo-con John Bolton for National Security Advisor.
Blimey Cliff, we agree on something.
Cliff Varnell Wrote:[quote=Paul Rigby]
Talbot is unaware of the Dominionist Proto-Autocracy conducting a massive voter suppression campaign spear-headed by Republican Party operatives Kris Kobach and James Comey.
Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million in spite of the GOP disenfranchisement of millions of minority voters.
Trump wasn't elected by We The People -- he was selected by the Bible Thumpers in the bi-polar Deep State.
Any discussion of the 2016 election that doesn't acknowledge this Dominionist Coup D'Etat is wrong-headed.
All very well and good, but a popular vote has not been the basis for winning presidential elections in the US since 1804 when the Twelfth Amendment was ratified by Congress to establish the electoral college system.
I actually think the popular vote is the proper way to go as it actually is democratic. But charging this last election was unfair on that basis is a nonsense - unless you have a record of challenging the voting system in the past.
And to be honest it is this that does my nut in about this last election and the public rupture in the elite -- the righteous hypocrisy of the howling mob who can't stomach the result. Yes Trump is awful and foul, yes Clinton would've been just as awful and foul. No choice.
So the question is how many among the howling dissenters are arguing that it is the entire political process in the US that is broken? That the political process was designed broken in order to keep power in the hands of the elite. Because that is the truth of it.
As usual you're all being manipulated and refuse to see it as you hungrily swallow the fodder artfully laid out for you to feast on.
::throwbomb::
Peter Dale Scott posted this article with the comment: "Like the New York Times, Doyle McManus is telling us not to worry".
And then I read McManus' article and eventually his final paragraph. Eventually I picked myself off the floor and mopped up the tears flooding down my face.
Artifice meets accomplished naiveté.
Do people still willingly swallow swill like this? No wonder the US is so fucked up.
Quote:Is the 'deep state' out to get Trump? We're not there yet
Doyle McManus Doyle McManusContact Reporter
The scariest new catchphrase of the Trump era and we're only one month in is the "deep state," a term borrowed from countries like Turkey and Egypt, where networks of military officers and intelligence operatives control much of the government.
Last week, President Trump complained that "illegal leaks" from the FBI and other intelligence agencies forced him to fire his national security advisor, Michael Flynn.
The leaks revealed that Flynn had secretly discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador, then falsely claimed he hadn't. The talks didn't bother Trump; the leaks did.
"The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by intelligence' like candy," he tweeted. "The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!"
In a country controlled by the deep state, members of the armed forces and intelligence agencies can overthrow presidents they don't like.
Others worried, too. Republican members of Congress condemned the leaks as a misuse of classified information. Critics of the intelligence community, both conservative and liberal, warned that unelected bureaucrats were exerting too much political power.
Was the American deep state, panicked by Trump, revealing itself?
"The intelligence agencies are pretty hard to roll," a former top CIA official told me last week. "These guys are trained to manipulate people and overthrow governments, and they're rather good at it."
But no, this wasn't the deep state seizing power. We're not there yet.
In a country controlled by the deep state, members of the armed forces and intelligence agencies can overthrow presidents they don't like; that's what happened in Egypt in 2013. They hold veto power over major decisions. They often run large parts of the economy, or at least enough government contracts to make their families rich. And they're rarely held accountable for their actions. They act with impunity.
U.S. intelligence agencies, on the other hand, are restrained by law. Sometimes they overstep, but eventually they are reined in. The officials who leaked the details of Flynn's conversations knew that Trump would order the FBI to track them down. They put themselves at risk.
Trump's problem isn't the deep state; it's the broad state. He's facing pushback not only from intelligence agencies, but from civilian bureaucracies, too.
When his White House staff drafted an executive order to reopen CIA "black sites" and reintroduce torture, it leaked and the decision was promptly put on ice.
When they drafted another order to repeal protections for LGBT federal employees, that leaked too and the president's daughter and son-in-law blocked the idea.
When Trump banned travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, the attorneys general of several states sued, and federal courts blocked the order's enforcement.
There have been less-dramatic forms of defiance, too. Bureaucrats in the State Department and Environmental Protection Agency have signed petitions protesting the new administration's policies.
In a different category, Trump's own Cabinet appears to harbor a modest dose of dissent: Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sound distinctly less enthusiastic than their boss about cooperating with Vladimir Putin.
Just about every segment of the federal government has struggled against White House actions it didn't like, and when you add up all those varieties of resistance, it begins to look almost like a Resistance. But and this is crucial there's no central power organizing or directing the fight.
It's not unusual for a new Republican administration to encounter recalcitrant bureaucrats in domestic agencies like the EPA, or for a Democratic president to clash with hawks in national security agencies. In 2009, for example, President Obama believed the Pentagon tried to force him to send more troops to Afghanistan than he wanted.
But Trump and his chief theoretician, Stephen K. Bannon, have taken aim at both sides: not only Democratic bureaucrats, but also much of the Republican establishment. The bureaucratic resistance they've met has been unusually bipartisan.
The result, especially in the wake of Flynn's ouster, has been chaos. The National Security Council is leaderless and understaffed. Domestic agencies are gripped by uncertainty, too, a state that induces self-protective bureaucrats to move even more slowly than usual.
"The main danger in a Trump presidency is not that it will be too strong, but that it will be too weak," Jack Goldsmith, an assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, argued last week. "The U.S. government cannot work well … without a minimally staffed, well-organized, energetic, competent executive branch. Right now we don't have such an executive branch."
We may still be heading for several kinds of trouble: an international crisis with an unready NSC, a constitutional crisis if Trump ignores a court order he dislikes. But a shadow government? It's a peril to guard against, to be sure but it's far from the biggest danger we face.
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