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The Deep State's Revolt
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Trump and allied Congressional right-wingnuts want to purge the "deep state" of all leftists. Iowa Rep. Steve King (who has proudly displayed the Confederate flag on his desk and has opposed Humane Society efforts to stop dog-fighting) conveyed the right-wing talk radio position flatly ... https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-representative-trump-should-purge-white-house-174638632.html
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/deep-state-democracy/518817/

Quote:
Still, the concept of a deep state is useful in thinking about how unelected, and at least partly unaccountable, leaders and institutions confront democratically elected ones, particularly when the latter are seen as a threat to the identity and ideology of the state. As the political theorist Faheem Hussain notes: “Latent in every democracy [is] the permanent bureaucracy[’s] capacity to subvert the elected administration, by virtue of permanence and knowledge.”

If I was a Trump voter, I can imagine being frustrated at this sort-of-deep state working to block or undermine Trump’s agenda. I’d say: Well, I voted for that agenda, and not necessarily some vapid, unthreatening version of it. Presumably, if Bernie Sanders, or someone like him, had won the presidency and decided to radically re-orient U.S. foreign policy, there would be elements within the military and intelligence services that would attempt to “block” him. For these state institutions, it wouldn’t only be a matter of democratic legitimacy but also of something as fundamental as national security. Does that mean that presidents, regardless of what a plurality of voters might want, simply cannot act radically when it comes to foreign affairs or national identity? To what extent are Americans comfortable with that—and are we willing to apply whatever standard we come up with consistently?
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The U.S. should be led by people who are truly elite (in the sense of superior ability and qualities) and deeply committed to upholding core American values. If an elected President speaks, acts and tweets ignorantly in relation to such values, I think it's the patriotic duty of real leaders working within government agencies to be vigilant and do the needful according to exigent circumstances...
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After Bannon's departure, KT McFarland also purged from the National Security Council

McMaster's control is secure. The President will bomb Assad's assets in Syria and pursue gradual regime change there.
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Any further damage to Bannon's position or stature must be attributed to the many factors beyond the Deep State.

http://theweek.com/articles/691799/bannon-irony

Quote:
The ex-Goldman Sachs man had moved quickly from making low-budget populist documentaries, to dominating the right-wing internet via Breitbart News, to becoming an adviser to the president of the United States. Not just any adviser. Bannon had rapidly acquired the reputation of being a political mastermind who had transplanted his own brain underneath President Trump's much more famous mane. He was America's Rasputin, acting with a kind of mythic power to turn the president or the right-wing noise machine in coordinated directions to achieve his desired results.

It was Bannon exercising final control over the infamous travel ban. It was Bannon, and his disciples, who were provoking the young left into the kind of unruly street theater and rioting that would solidify a crooked Republican's hold on power.

And then a funny thing happened. It evaporated in a joke. Popular culture and the media on their Twitter accounts latched onto the idea that they could get Bannon fired by portraying him as the real power behind the throne. Call him President Bannon and activate Trump's jealousy was the theory. And ... maybe they were right.


It seems as if Trump needs to retain the illusion of control.

Quote:
"I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late," Trump said in an interview with the New York Post. "I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary." Oof!


This is easily the kind of vanity and amour-propre that the Deep State can manipulate with their psy-ops analytics and programs.
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sirius black



Joined: 04 Jun 2010

PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The sheer hypocrisy of the Trumpsters is amazing. Trump was encouraging a foreign enemy to continue alter the democratic process.
This whole being more upset at the leaks than the person's actions is a misdirection. The 'state' or deep state or whatever you wish has always leaked things. Obama, Dubya, etc, had leaks. The NY Times and other media has gotten information from unknown sources or whatever and some of that were from the same folks.

Way too much going on with Trump's people that is way past coincidence. There were 'Obama should be impeached' rantings from the right over the most innocuous things.

Can't take these deep state is a threat rantings when the people saying it condone all the bullsh*t the party does at all levels of politics.

Quit acting like the snowflakes you label people and get your house in order so there is nothing to be leaked.
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J.Q.A.



Joined: 09 Feb 2017
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sirius black wrote:
The sheer hypocrisy of the Trumpsters is amazing. Trump was encouraging a foreign enemy to continue alter the democratic process.
This whole being more upset at the leaks than the person's actions is a misdirection. The 'state' or deep state or whatever you wish has always leaked things. Obama, Dubya, etc, had leaks. The NY Times and other media has gotten information from unknown sources or whatever and some of that were from the same folks.

Way too much going on with Trump's people that is way past coincidence. There were 'Obama should be impeached' rantings from the right over the most innocuous things.

Can't take these deep state is a threat rantings when the people saying it condone all the bullsh*t the party does at all levels of politics.

Quit acting like the snowflakes you label people and get your house in order so there is nothing to be leaked.



Yep...you guessed it...the world still turns, Serpico.
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Mon May 01, 2017 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Deep State indirectly arms Al Qaeda in Yemen

This will inevitably be simplified to "Trump inadvertently arms Al Qaeda," but it is no different than when the Deep State did it in Syria recently or in Afghanistan many years ago.

Quote:
Up until now, the US has remained largely on the sidelines of this civil war, concentrating instead on its confrontation with AQAP. The US has provided some support over the last two years to the Saudi-led coalition, including intelligence and aerial refueling for coalition aircraft.

But now, the Trump administration, with its aggressive rhetoric toward Iran, is poised to get further involved in the anti-Houthi fight. Senior administration officials told the AP last week that the White House is considering providing additional assistance to the Saudi-led coalition that could include “more intelligence support, but won’t include a commitment of U.S. ground troops.”

Further US involvement in the war “would reflect the administration’s effort to aggressively counter what it sees as Iran’s malign influence across the region,” they added.


Counter Iran, get in bed with Al Qaeda. This is the choice Trump made.

Quote:
A new report from the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies describes how AQAP has “embedded itself within the social fabric of the three Yemeni governorates that have been most frequently targeted by American counterterrorism efforts – Al Bayda, Abyan and Shabwa.”

The fight against the Houthis has helped AQAP deepen these ties and grow even stronger. The terrorist group has seized the civil war as a political opportunity and thrived.

As it fights the Houthis, the Hadi government is attempting “to absorb armed factions within the state military architecture without clear institutional criteria,” Waleed Alhariri, who heads the New York office of the Sana’a Center, told Just Security. But Hadi is “striking deals and making unfiltered appointments that are based on loyalties and command areas difficult for the state to control.”

The result of this is AQAP is “arguably more powerful, resource-rich, entrenched, and operating with more institutional flexibility and adaptive capacity than ever before,” the Sana’a Center report says.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), agrees.

“As the conflict has unfolded, AQAP has used the pretext of a ‘Sunni’ defence against the ‘Shiite’ Huthis to blend with local tribes and Salafi sympathisers,” ICG reported in February. Through this, AQAP has “acquired a wide range of new weaponry, including heavy weapons from Yemeni military camps or acquired indirectly from the Saudi-led coalition.”

ICG described the relationship between the Saudi-led coalition and AQAP fighters as either a “tacit alliance,” or that the coalition has at least “turned a blind eye to them, as long as they have assisted in attacking the common enemy.”

Nabeel Khoury, who served as deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Yemen from 2004 to 2007, told Just Security that there is no direct evidence that the Saudis, or the Hadi government, knowingly collaborate with AQAP, but there is “a lot of smoke there.”

“You can certainly accuse them of indirectly spreading al Qaeda in Yemen,” said Khoury, who’s now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. And stories like the one about al-Dhahab suggest “Hadi is an unreliable partner and not someone you can trust with targeting information.”


My guess is that Trumpsters will now view cooperation with Al Qaeda with nuance and complexity, but that many of the 'resistance' will now scream with 'Benghazi'-like intensity.
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young_clinton



Joined: 09 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We don't need to be helping any Arabs or Iranians period. Let the whole "rotten apple" region deteriorate and then wall them in,..... or ......something like that. Oil prices are going to collapse and their is going to be no more money for people who can't plan things and can't be persuaded to have reasonable feelings, reasonable beliefs, and reasonable behavior. "Your gonna kiss and say goodbye" like the lyrics in the Rolling Stones song '100 years ago'. Laughing "Goodbye" "Goodbye" "Jagger hissing sound" "Goodbye" "a little music then end of the song". Very Happy
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tophatcat



Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Location: under the hat

PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 6:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

young_clinton wrote:
We don't need to be helping any Arabs or Iranians period. Let the whole "rotten apple" region deteriorate and then wall them in,..... or ......something like that. Oil prices are going to collapse and their is going to be no more money for people who can't plan things and can't be persuaded to have reasonable feelings, reasonable beliefs, and reasonable behavior. "Your gonna kiss and say goodbye" like the lyrics in the Rolling Stones song '100 years ago'. Laughing "Goodbye" "Goodbye" "Jagger hissing sound" "Goodbye" "a little music then end of the song". Very Happy


^ my thoughts, too ^
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J.Q.A.



Joined: 09 Feb 2017
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 3:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tophatcat wrote:
young_clinton wrote:
We don't need to be helping any Arabs or Iranians period. Let the whole "rotten apple" region deteriorate and then wall them in,..... or ......something like that. Oil prices are going to collapse and their is going to be no more money for people who can't plan things and can't be persuaded to have reasonable feelings, reasonable beliefs, and reasonable behavior. "Your gonna kiss and say goodbye" like the lyrics in the Rolling Stones song '100 years ago'. Laughing "Goodbye" "Goodbye" "Jagger hissing sound" "Goodbye" "a little music then end of the song". Very Happy


^ my thoughts, too ^


I agree.
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sirius black



Joined: 04 Jun 2010

PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

young_clinton wrote:
We don't need to be helping any Arabs or Iranians period. Let the whole "rotten apple" region deteriorate and then wall them in,..... or ......something like that. Oil prices are going to collapse and their is going to be no more money for people who can't plan things and can't be persuaded to have reasonable feelings, reasonable beliefs, and reasonable behavior. "Your gonna kiss and say goodbye" like the lyrics in the Rolling Stones song '100 years ago'. Laughing "Goodbye" "Goodbye" "Jagger hissing sound" "Goodbye" "a little music then end of the song". Very Happy


We (America) brought on these problems on our by meddling. Mainly over oil. Iran was never a problem till we propped up and supporting the now deceased Shah who was oppressing the people.

Secondly, we have military bases that pretty much circle them and we have our military in the gulf policing it.

We never had a problem with terrorist groups out of the middle east targeting us UNTIL we got deeply involved.

Its a bit sanctimonious of us now that we are now being threatened within the confines our country to be. There is a reason why Iran and the arabs don't mess with Korea for example. They don't have any involvement there.

Very hypocritical to say let the whole 'rotten apple' region deteriorate now...lol.
smh
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 7:38 pm    Post subject: Nothing matters everything sucks Reply with quote

Trump has turned the FBI; FBI agents are facing confusion, grief, and anger

Quote:
“The real impact will be the distrust of the agency under the leadership of the new director,” the agent said. “No matter who gets the job, there will be a cloud of suspicion because the President is unpopular with much of the population. That bad faith will make it harder to do my job.”

. . .

A senior-level FBI source was more candid. If Trump has declared war on the bureau’s leadership, the source said, then the president should expect “nothing less in return.”

There’s no sign things will get easier anytime soon. Sources said they expect any Comey replacement will struggle to get through Senate confirmation, especially given the number of Republicans who have criticized the way Trump fired Comey.

. . .

One veteran agent in the FBI’s criminal division responded to a message from The Daily Beast this way:

“Who cares, nothing matters, no one knows anything, everything sucks.”
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2017 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CIA not lovin' Trump now either

Quote:
The spy provided intelligence involving an active ISIS plot to bring down a passenger jet en route to the United States, with a bomb hidden in a laptop that U.S. officials believe can get through airport screening machines undetected. The information was reliable enough that the U.S. is considering a ban on laptops on all flights from Europe to the United States.

The sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States, officials say, on the condition that the source remain confidential.

“The real risk is not just this source,” said Matt Olsen, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and an ABC News contributor, “but future sources of information about plots against us.”


Trump's war with U.S. intelligence agencies just got a lot worse

Quote:
Trump’s acrimony with America’s spy services has escalated sharply over concerns that he disclosed highly classified intelligence about Islamic State to senior Russian diplomats that had been obtained in Syria, reportedly by Israel, and had been given to Washington on the condition it go no further.

. . .

“The key to intelligence is discretion, but how do you operate with a boss who is congenitally indiscrete?” asked Derek Chollett, who was a senior Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council official during the Obama administration.

Trump’s disclosure of sensitive threat information to the Russians — which national security advisor H.R. McMaster defended Tuesday as “wholly appropriate” — raised fears that U.S. allies might scale back intelligence-sharing, cutting off a vital source of spying tips, if they cannot trust Trump to keep closely held secrets.

It wasn’t clear whether the intelligence was collected by an informant inside Islamic State or a surveillance device, but intelligence officials fear the source may be blown by now.
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sirius black



Joined: 04 Jun 2010

PostPosted: Sat May 20, 2017 8:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ironically, the Americans who wrap themselves around the flag and the bible the most supported Trump and are the Americans who are willing to ignore the possibility important officials may have been compromised by our enemy (Russia), steadfastly supporting an administration that is alienating our vital intelligence and law enforcement agencies rather than admit they were woefully and criminally wrong.
They have shown that America, the constitution and their beloved bible is subservient to them married to their visibly wrong choice.
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