.
“It
has become a virtual consensus among the elites that their members are
so indispensable to the running of American society that vesting them
with immunity from prosecution—even for the most egregious crimes—is not only in their interest but in our interest, too.”…From Greenwald’s 2011 book, first chapter, “With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful.” Added: “I don’t regard the F.B.I. as an upholder of the rule of law. I regard it as a subverter of it.”
9/3/18, “Glenn Greenwald, the Bane of Their Resistance,“ The New Yorker, Ian Parker
“A leftist journalist’s bruising crusade against establishment Democrats—and their Russia obsession.”
“In 2011, Greenwald published a book whose title—“With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful”—could
serve as a headline for much of what he had written in the previous six
years. He had given up a career as a litigator in New York, moved to
Brazil, and started to write, first as a blogger and then as a columnist
for Salon. In the book’s first chapter, he wrote,
“It
has become a virtual consensus among the elites that their members are
so indispensable to the running of American society that vesting them
with immunity from prosecution—even for the most egregious crimes—is not
only in their interest but in our interest, too.”…
On
Twitter, Greenwald recently described the self-identified “resistance”
to Trump as “the first #Resistance in history that venerates security
state agencies.” He has denounced the congressman Adam
Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who has
sought to investigate Trump-Russia in the face of Republican
obstruction, as “one of the most hawkish, pro-militarism, pro-spying
members of the Democratic Party.” He has tweeted, “I
don’t regard the F.B.I. as an upholder of the rule of law. I regard it
as a subverter of it.” Greenwald told me, “Robert Mueller was the
fucking F.B.I. chief who rounded up Muslims for George Bush after 9/11,
and now, if you go to hacker conferences, there are people who wear his image, like he’s Che Guevara, on their shirt.” Maddow and other liberals may show respect to the former C.I.A. director John Brennan when he accuses Trump of colluding with Russia, but Greenwald’s view is that Brennan, who sanctioned extraordinary rendition, should be shunned.
These critiques have changed Greenwald’s place in American political life.
“My reach has actually expanded,” he told me. “A lot of Democrats have
unfollowed me and a lot of conservatives or independent people have
replaced them, which has made my readership more diverse, and more
trans-ideological, in a way that’s actually increased my influence.” His
audience now ranges from leftist opponents of Hillary Clinton, such as Susan Sarandon and Max Blumenthal, to right-wing figures such as Sebastian Gorka and Donald Trump Jr.
U.S. institutions have long been broken, he [Greenwald] maintains, and can offer only illusory comfort. To protest the flouting of American norms is to disregard America’s perdition—from drone strikes and unwarranted surveillance to the Democratic Party’s indebtedness to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Shortly before Trump’s Inauguration, Greenwald wrote an article for the Intercept titled “The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer.” The Drudge Report promoted the article, and it went viral. This had the effect of offering the phrase “deep state”—which, until then, had been a murmur among political scientists and fringe bloggers—as a gift to Trump defenders. Roger Stone referred to the article in an interview with Alex Jones, on Infowars; Greenwald spoke of “deep-state overlords” on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” According to data from the GDELT
Project, the phrase “deep state” then took off—first on Fox, then on
other networks, and then in the tweets of the President and his
family.”…
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