More fake news. The left are a bunch of liars.
times news not trump
Sup ducks? You ready to watch your man get long ed by the media?
America's spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.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 ins utions — 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.
Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way around. Far too many Trump critics appear not to care that these intelligence agents leaked highly sensitive information to the press — mostly because Trump critics are pleased with the result. "Finally," they say, "someone took a stand to expose collusion between the Russians and a senior aide to the president!" It is indeed important that someone took such a stand. But it matters greatly who that someone is and how they take their stand. Members of the unelected, unaccountable intelligence community are not the right someone, especially when they target a senior aide to the president by leaking anonymously to newspapers the content of classified phone intercepts, where the unverified, unsubstantiated information can inflict politically fatal damage almost instantaneously.
But no matter what Flynn did, it is simply not the role of the deep state to target a man working in one of the political branches of the government by dishing to reporters about information it has gathered clandestinely. It is the role of elected members of Congress to conduct public investigations of alleged wrongdoing by public officials.
What if Congress won't act? What if both the Senate and the House of Representatives are held by the same party as the president and members of both chambers are reluctant to cross a newly elected head of the executive branch who enjoys overwhelming approval of his party's voters? In such a situation — our situation — shouldn't we hope the deep state will rise up to act responsibly to take down a member of the administration who may have broken the law?
The answer is an unequivocal no.
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.
As Eli Lake of Bloomberg News put it in an important article following Flynn's resignation,Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do. [Bloomberg]
Those cheering the deep state torpedoing of Flynn are saying, in effect, that a police state is perfectly fine so long as it helps to bring down Trump.
It is the role of Congress to investigate the president and those who work for him. If Congress resists doing its duty, out of a mixture of self-interest and cowardice, the American people have no choice but to try and hold the government's feet to the fire, demanding action with phone calls, protests, and, ultimately, votes. That is a democratic response to the failure of democracy.
Sitting back and letting shadowy, unaccountable agents of espionage do the job for us simply isn't an acceptable alternative.
Down that path lies the end of democracy in America.
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.
This doesn't mean the outcome was wrong. I have no interest in defending Flynn, who appears to be an atrocious manager prone to favoring absurd conspiracy theories over more traditional forms of intelligence. He is just about the last person who should be giving the president advice about foreign policy. And for all I know, Flynn did exactly what the anonymous intelligence community leakers allege — promised the Russian ambassador during the transition that the incoming Trump administration would back off on sanctions proposed by the outgoing Obama administration.
http://theweek.com/articles/680068/a...eeply-worrying
Deuce....I see you viewing...tell them to fix the that damn warning on this site. That is annoying.
It's a bloodless coup attempt.
And they ain't in' around.
Did they lie when they uncovered the Clinton Foundation problems?
Flynn is an idiot and so is anyone else if they don't know the Russian ambassador to the US gets bugged. The Russians don't give a . They put cameras in the hotel room of almost any US citizen. They got sex tapes of foreign reporters their having sex with their wives. I am probably taped sleeping by myself and snoring.
Compromat. Or whatever.
The leaks came from own gov't, garden. That information is classified. It's against the law to leak that stuff.
It's a coup attempt, just like in third word countries & holes.
Dont buy this weak sauce.
Did you know that all russian officials and agents within the US are subject to have their phone calls intercepted?
"The calls were picked up as part of routine electronic surveillance of Russian officials and agents in the United States, which is one of the FBI’s responsibilities, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss counterintelligence operations."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.15975516abad
There is nothing odd or new about this.
Also, I find this article laughable. Flynn was much of a theat than Bannon? An actual nutcase who has the ear of the president of the united states?
You would think those spies would be trying to get rid of bigger fishes.
Obamas White House leaked like a fckn collander.
Dont start changing the tune.
What is most disturbing is how many people knew about Flynn and were going to LET IT GO until it got leaked.
Do you find it troubling that US intelligence agents committed multiple felonies by leaking sensitive information to the press?
tsa thinks leaks are problematic now
lmfao
The article isn't about the intercepted phone calls but the agents who leaked them to the press. Unsurprisingly that point went right over your head.
Wouldn't be happening if Trump had control of his own staff.
Holy , this guy.
Spent a whole year pedalling Wikileak stuff but has a problem with a few leaks that actually shined a light to the corruption that goes on in politics that directly affects the American people.
Because the tune has changed. An attempt to overthrow the U.S. Presidency is underway, garden. It's as plain as that.
got Lambert thinks leaks from Podesta's emails and leaks from the NSA to the press are comparable.
lmfao
We don't know exactly who leaked them as it's turning out that lots of people knew about the DOJ warning to Trump staff.
I'm not defending Flynn's actions at all, even though it's not much different than Obama telling Medvedev he'd have more flexibility to negotiate with Putin after the election.Wouldn't be happening if Trump had control of his own staff.
Holy , this guy.
Spent a whole year pedalling Wikileak stuff but has a problem with a few leaks that actually shined a light to the corruption that goes on in politics that directly affects the American people.
And since you wanted to jump in I'll ask you the same
Do you find it troubling that US intelligence agents committed multiple felonies by leaking sensitive information to the press?
Someone from the intelligence community leaked the information to the press, illegally. Is that a problem yes or no?
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