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Earlier this week, Tucker Carlson interviewed the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple and brought up the fact that the paper regularly receives money from the Russian government to publish propaganda known as “native advertising” within the contents of the newspaper. This was news to me.
Here’s the clip.
That isn’t what this resistance is now doing. What they’re doing instead is trying to take maybe the only faction worse than Donald Trump, which is the deep state, like the CIA with its history of atrocities, and say they ought to almost engage in like a soft coup where they take the elected President and prevent him from enacting his policy. And I think it is extremely dangerous to do that.
– From Glenn Greenwald’s recent interview with Democracy Now
Earlier today, I posted the following tweet:
Still waiting for “the resistance” to arrive.
So far it looks like an alliance between Romper Room and Allen Dulles.— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) February 16, 2017
This observation was merely my latest twist on a theme I’ve been hammering home ever since Trump won the election. Namely, given there are so many obvious things to be concerned about when it comes to Trump (his love affair with Goldman Sachs, support of civil asset forfeiture and a statist mentality overall), why are we being manipulated into focusing all our outrage on a largely invented conspiracy theory that he is some sort of Putin stooge?
The reason is both extremely simple and extraordinarily clever. The main reason Russia is such an obsession within the fake “resistance,” is because it’s a way to demonize Trump while defending the police state apparatus. In other words, it prevents well-meaning people from taking Trump to task on issues that really matter. This way, they can simply distract with Russia noise and continue to loot and pillage society at large. It’s genius really. You create a fake yet salacious narrative and rally the gullible public around it in order to distract from real domestic problems. This way you can be “anti-Trump,” while at the same time being pro-Wall Street fraud, corporatism, war, unconstitutional spying, and the national security state. This is your “resistance” as it stands today.
For example, nobody should cheer the following, which was reported yesterday by The Daily Caller:
It matters little who sits in the Oval Office, the blood continues to flow in the Middle East, and America’s “exceptional” hands remain soaked in it. In the latest report from Yemen, news has emerged of the deaths of 9 women and 1 child in the latest act of U.S.-approved Saudi barbarism.
Reuters reports:
Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition struck a house north of Yemen’s capital where a crowd of mourners was gathered, residents said on Thursday, killing nine women and a child and injuring dozens.
The Saudi-led coalition said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in the area.
Every single American needs to watch the following interview and take it to heart.
As I tweeted earlier today.
The United States is much better off without Michael Flynn serving as national security adviser. But no one should be cheering the way he was brought down.
The whole episode is evidence of the precipitous and ongoing collapse of America’s democratic institutions — not a sign of their resiliency. Flynn’s ouster was a soft coup (or political assassination) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but this isn’t the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function.
President Trump was roundly mocked among liberals for that tweet. But he is, in many ways, correct. These leaks are an enormous problem. And in a less polarized context, they would be recognized immediately for what they clearly are: an effort to manipulate public opinion for the sake of achieving a desired political outcome. It’s weaponized spin.
In a liberal democracy, how things happen is often as important as what happens. Procedures matter. So do rules and public accountability. The chaotic, dysfunctional Trump White House is placing the entire system under enormous strain. That’s bad. But the answer isn’t to counter it with equally irregular acts of sabotage — or with a disinformation campaign waged by nameless civil servants toiling away in the surveillance state.
– From The Week article: America’s Spies Anonymously Took Down Michael Flynn. That is Deeply Worrying.
I never intended to write about the Michael Flynn affair. I figured it had been covered to death and I probably wouldn’t have anything to add to the conversation. That said, I hadn’t been following the story closely so I decided to get caught up by reading a diverse selection of articles on the topic. One of my favorite sources on such subjects is Glenn Greenwald, and I eagerly read his latest piece on the matter: The Leakers Who Exposed Gen. Flynn’s Lie Committed Serious — and Wholly Justified — Felonies.
There are several key points he outlines in the piece, most of which I agree with. First, he proves that the leakers committed serious felonies under the law. Second, he states that if illegal leaks lead to the disclosure of information that is clearly very much in the public interest, then such action is not only justified, but ethically necessary. I agree with this as well. Where he doesn’t really convince me, is the argument that this particular leak represented some sort of great public service. He writes:
Adam Andrzejewski
Here are a few excerpts from his piece, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown And AG Ellen Rosenblum Blaze The Oregon Trail Of Political Patronage:
As the state contemplates an income tax hike, Oregon’s elites line their pockets with taxpayer money.
In 2016, as politicians across America were fleeing voter wrath, Oregon’s governor and attorney general were blazing an unlikely trail – accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from businesses with state contracts.
Since 1940, at the federal level, individuals and entities negotiating or working under federal contracts are prohibited from giving political cash to candidates, parties or committees. In Oregon, however, this political patronage is perfectly legal, at least for now.
Last week was one of the most rewarding periods I’ve experienced since I started writing publicly nearly five years ago. For the first time ever, I become so enthralled with a topic (Spiral Dynamics and the evolution of human consciousness), that I spent the entire week writing entirely about this one topic. In case you missed the series, I’ve provided links to all five posts below.
Lost in the Political Wilderness
What is Spiral Dynamics and Why Have I Become So Interested in It?
How a Breakdown in Liberal Ideology Created Trump – Part 1
How a Breakdown in Liberal Ideology Created Trump – Part 2
Why Increased Consciousness is the Only Path Forward
The revelations I came to as a result of my exploration into consciousness will stay with me forever, and hopefully color my future work with a deeper understanding and a more thoughtful, integral perspective. Today’s post will provide an unusual example of how one can apply the framework of human consciousness to one of our more pressing contemporary challenges.
To start, let’s examine some recent comments made by Elon Musk at the World Government Summit in the UAE.
ArsTechnica reports:
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Today’s post will be the fifth and final article this week exploring how a human consciousness development model known as Spiral Dynamics can help us understand the increasingly insane world around us, as well as chart a path forward. To fully grasp the concepts in today’s piece, you should read the prior four articles. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I wouldn’t have dedicated my entire first week back from a break to this stuff if I didn’t think it was of the utmost importance.
Lost in the Political Wilderness
What is Spiral Dynamics and Why Have I Become So Interested in It?
How a Breakdown in Liberal Ideology Created Trump – Part 1
How a Breakdown in Liberal Ideology Created Trump – Part 2
We’ve all heard variations of the famous quote by Joseph de Maistre that: “Every nation gets the government it deserves.” I’ve spent the last decade or so rejecting this. After all, it’s hard for someone who has dedicated his life to flushing out the severe societal problems we face to accept that this is our destiny.
Fortunately, the framework of Spiral Dynamics has helped me see the truth in this observation, at least when it comes to America, where we have far more avenues for liberty than more autocratic nations. According to Ken Wilber in his recent e-book, Trump and a Post-Truth World: An Evolutionary Self-Correction, America’s descent into a parasitic, unhealthy, increasingly authoritarian society is a function of traffic jam in the evolution of consciousness that occurred due to the total failure of green level thinking to develop many of the initially positive realizations that sprung up in the 1960’s. As Wilber explains: