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When You Get Matt Taibbi, Well, That’s a New Thing
I have read numerous articles by Matt Taibbi over the last few years, rarely agreed with his major conclusions although there were frequently points he made with which I did agree. Now, a sea change, where I find his major points in agreement with my own view, and that’s a new thing.
Published in PoliticsI’ve lived through a few coups. They’re insane, random, and terrifying, like watching sports, except your political future depends on the score.
…We have long been spared this madness in America. Our head-counting ceremony was Election Day. We did it once every four years.
That’s all over, in the Trump era.
Interesting column by Taibbi.
I’ve noted before that while I rarely agree with Matt’s conclusions and analysis, he is an honest journalist. He has actual sources for facts he cites, and tells the reader when he’s reporting versus when he’s editorializing. Though he is far-left, he’s worth reading.
Interesting read and informative. Thanks!
Agreed, and a fine catch, Bob T. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Tim Pool picked up on the same article, his analysis is here:
From the article.
I completely agree.
Such activity destroys the bonds that keep the US together. It is the same sort of structural damage that is occurring in the UK when their courts begin to legislate.
This damage is one that endures for a lifetime.
Exactly as intended, unfortunately.
The real dangers of the 2016 election cycle wasnt what the Russians or Ukrainians where up to – KGB and FSB have been running operations of mischief during the elections of most if not all western nations for decades – possibly for as long as their was a soviet, but rather from the FBI and the Obama administration.
The constitution’s most dangerous enemies arent foreign, they’re domestic.
Sometimes I give out before finishing precisely what I really want to convey. But you got it here exactly. Taibbi’s piece is filled with specifics of his own views that might give me pause But his key conclusion, that America’s most dangerous enemies are those who have fomented this unfounded plot to unseat a duly elected POTUS, is the message that must get to the American electorate. I hope I live long enough to see this scourge eradicated.
I still think he’s as wacky as ever, but he’s very anti-CIA, so I can see how Trumpers could suddenly really like him. Basically, so long as the whistleblowing helps America’s enemies or is anti-CIA….Taibbi loves it. When whistleblowers reveal CIA interrogation methods….Taibbi loves it. When whistleblowers reveal terrorist survelience systems….Taibbi loves it. But now when a CIA whisteblower reveals a Trump shakedown phone call…..Taibbi suddenly hates whistleblowers. Trumpers can have him.
Hello in there, Cliff:
“Read the whole thing?” Heck, read the whole site: https://taibbi.substack.com/
There aren’t many particulars in Taibbi’s latest post that I can disagree with.
I’m a little abashed that I wasn’t aware of this commentary – there are lots of pundits to read, some with better analysis than others, and I threw Taibbi onto the discard pile because of his association with Rolling Stone. Here’s the link list from that site’s home page:
Russiagate was journalist QAnon (Part 1)
Russiagate was journalist QAnon (Part 2)
The roots of “passive collusion”
Military vs. military
The intelligence community needs a house-cleaning
Exposé in The Hill challenges Mueller, media
The rise and fall of superhero Robert Mueller
The New York Times is no longer the paper of record
Latest Russian spy story looks like another elaborate media deception
[I removed the links because there were so many, and you can find them all at the site I linked above.]
The honest ( but misguided) left are a frequent source I use to maintain my perspective and sanity.
Where I agree with them is the excesses of corporatism and multi nationals. They’re been against them forever; I’ve tolerated them and felt they were ( and are ) necessary. However with the rise of globalism and various economic imbalances ( not the same imbalances leftists cite but there’s some overlap) these corporate behemoths are selling out America and freedom for profit, disregarding local communities and otherwise loyal workers. and they are seeking to de-couple any any every value that ordinary people hold to enhance their power to make profits. It’s never been worse or more obvious.
Tabbibi, Tim Pool, Jimmy Dore, Aron Mate’ , and Glenn Greenwald are all on the far left, but they see the same thing I do regarding neo-liberal establishment Democrats, the Russia hoax and this impeachment nonsense, all the while talking down Trump because he’s not a socialist.
I don’t know if Trumpers really want Taibbi, but he and a few others on the Left who have credibility with the Left might change a few minds over there with regard to this issue of what is worse than Trump. I still maintain my position of not paying a lot of attention to what Trump might say, but I really like his attitude and he has acted conservatively along the way.
Same here, but I hope now the honest types on the Left can help. I will never agree with their basic political philosophy but it does appear as if they have been spot on regarding many of the problems that have existed within the intelligence community. Ray McGovern and William Binney, both from inside the intelligence group, have come to the same conclusion that we are facing something much worse than having Trump as POTUS.
One thing I know, tangentially, is that the small fraction of sociopaths does outsize harm to the whole society, sometimes even historical-grade structural harm.
I can’t help but observe that the fringe of the right, Q believers and the like, have for years pointed to the intelligence community as the source of national and global mischief.
Could you elaborate on this so we can all be confident of understanding you? Are you just contrasting the effects of two different small groups who have outsized effects?
Yes, this has been a strong undercurrent since William Binney’s tenure ended as the top technical guy at NSA. And now federal law enforcement must be added to the list, FBI and IRS, and some of DoJ.
Look at what we have seen since 2016. It appears the official counter-intelligence capability was employed in an attempt to derail Trump’s campaign. Then there were questionable actions by Comey and Clapper between the election and the inauguration. I suspect Brennan but he stayed out of the spotlight. For the first two years, while Republicans had the House and tried to look into these things, security classification and ongoing investigation were used to shield almost all information from any disclosure. And now that the Democrats have the House, everything related to the so-called ‘impeachment inquiry’ is conducted by the House Intelligence Committee in secret. The Democrat side, which I say includes the existing bureaucratic intelligence agencies, federal law enforcement, and the State Department, plus most media, has managed to keep a lid on rampant corruption and criminal acts. Trump, Giuliani, Barr, and Durham and some of the Fox network have not given up. I turned into a believer where I was before just standing by thinking we were doing fine. I hope we Keep America Great!
Do you have anything to offer the conversation other than obsequiousness to the state? A list of what he has been wrong about, perhaps?
Are you referring to his Rolling Stone article from October 6? He seemed to be making a fair distinction between ”real” whistleblowers and the Ukainegate protagonist.
First thought after reading this was . . . Howard Cosell
Fair? Sounds pathetic to me. Like I said….”real” whistelblowers to Taibbi a) don’t work for CIA and b) help a foreign enemy. But hey, Trumpers will cling to even crackpot leftists like Taibbi if it’ll save their hero.
Taibbi’s kind of in the Glenn Greenwald vein with about a half decade or so lag time, in that Greenwald’s politics are left, but he was seen last decade as simply a reliable voice spouting conventional American progressive talking points, before going rouge with his continued support of Wikileaks after they began revealing Obama Administration secrets.
Greenwald’s dislike was due to hostility towards the U.S. intelligence apparatus, no matter who was controlling it at the time, and that seems to be where Taibbi is coming down here, when it comes to the CIA/ex-intelligence officials using their power within the system to try and take down Trump. (Tabbi also seems to like Trump’s actions in actively pulling away from U.S. involvement overseas, which has caused a split between him and others on the left, who simply reflexively oppose whatever Trump is for. This doesn’t mean Trump and Taibbi are right or the others on the left are wrong about things like the current situation with the Kurds and Turkey, just that his dislike of U.S. actions is more nuanced).
The contrast between the two seems to be that Greenwald is more tied into to Russia than Taibbi is, even as both share a dislike for any American intelligence gathering apparatus.
Not sure I understand myself, just thinking. By the sociopath thing I mean that a tiny fraction of people can have substantial effects, and that when that happens the effects are almost always negative. I meant to take that tangentially, as context.
So I’m a little less inclined to dismiss or be suspicious of (note the double negative) the fringe claims that the intelligence agencies are behind more of the crap going on than the public narrative would have us believe.
It’s too bad your assessment is flat wrong, I guess caused by your anti-Trump bias that shows clearly. Matt Taibbi strikes me as a progressive, which tells us a lot about the leftest-leaning type of governing he champions. But we don’t know what you think except about these little snippets you enter in this discussion. Maybe you should give us enough to establish some coherence about how you think.
Is this a legitimate activity for former executives at the highest levels of US intelligence who took oaths and held the highest level security clearances to be pursuing, i.e. working to bring down a duly elected POTUS? Most of us can see the role of the House of Representatives as legitimate even if ill conceived.
Intelligence and military coups were the stuff of liberal fears/fantasies in the post-JFK assassination world, and running through the Church Committee hearings in the late 70s. Hard to imagine Hollywood remaking “Seven Days in May” right now, though, if the plot line was unelected government operatives trying to overthrow the president. Any remake will have to wait until the next time a Democrat is in the White House (as a lite version of it was during the Obama years)
It is best to assume the Left does not care about “rule of law” or tyranny or corruption. All they care about these days is destroying Trump or anything traditionally American. If the believed it was a coup, that would be a feature.
Taibbi’s own words seem to say he is not in that category. I know other staunch Democrats who would not go that route. Some are politically active and I have linked to them here on occasion.
Back in August I suggested a flipped script on that story: Denzel Washington is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, holding stadium rallies at the very edge of sedition, denouncing the president’s efforts to get a peace treaty with Russia. His assistant, Chadwick Boseman, discovers that the JCS intends to take over the government through a secret media control agency called Econcon (Emergency Control of Conservatives). He has seven days to convince people he’s not crazy, and stop the coup.
Same plot as 1964. Same premise. But you can be sure it wouldn’t be received the same way.
Add the complication that the plot begins as a user’s post on a tiny conservative blog but then gets amplified into real life by some new liberal technology (quantum narrative laser, maybe) and you’ve got something.