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He's such a fucking hack. Also wasn't coup coz no regime change, not a fan of his of Kamala but she's his veep, same shit elite policies & he's still prez.

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Jul 31·edited Jul 31Liked by Ken Silverstein

This one should generate some controversy. I've had a 'love hate love hate' relationship with Glenn for almost 2 decades now. I'm probably the only person banned "for 100 years" from his Substack when he was still writing here, and not for anything remotely personal or untrue. Rather, I asked him if some of the reporting he *didn't choose to do* on one of the Snowden files (or it could have been a cable leaked only to him) was on purpose. This particular story had to do with the beginnings of the US-ISIS war on Syria and Assad, and it's been about 10 years since I dug into it, but the gist is that had Greenwald reported a particular cable that was leaked using his spot at The Intercept, it could have pre-empted the US's entry into that war, or at least exposed the lies very early on and handcuffed Obama were it to have gained any traction in the wider media.

I honestly don't recall all the details though, and I have appreciated Greenwald's harsh critiques on Israel and the crackdowns on the campus protests, including and especially by the Democrats under Biden. There is some truth to your trial attorney closing arguments characterization/comparison, and I know he only goes on Fox and other right-leaning shows and podcasts because he's been shunned by the center-left and rarely if ever gets an opportunity to appear on MSNBC and the like. I also think his strong anti-war convictions are partly behind his extra-harsh criticisms of the Democrats, and as much as I dislike Trump and the GOP, I do think there is a lot of merit to GG's commentary on the Ukraine proxy war and who's really at the very bottom of it (Hint: The Clinton/Biden Democrats and their corrupt string pullers and hangers on in the media, MIC and Wall Street). Trump is as bad or worse on Israel as the power elite Dems, but I do think he'd have handled the situation differently in Ukraine and we probably wouldn't have seen the "Unprovoked" "Full Scale" Russian invasion with Trump in the White House. And to that point, the whole premise of Russiagate and then Ukrainegate was to either blackmail him into letting the Biden/Clinton/Nuland faction continue their plans or- at the very least not to expose the corruption that led us to the 2014 coup d'etat and ensuing Ukraine civil war and NATO ascension / western military presence / sabre rattling.

P.S. I dug it up. https://x.com/DefendAssange/status/922897908256706561

The Intercept (and Greenwald who had either sole or dual access to the Snowden files) allegedly hid this story for about 3-4 years. I should then clarify my comment about "preventing" or "handcuffing" with respect to Obama. More than anything it - along with the squelched OPCW whistle blower report on chemical weapons - would have turned public sentiment in the US and EU markedly against continuing participation in the Syrian war.

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author

I could tell you stories for years about this guy, having seen the way he makes the sausage & knowing the recipe it's impossible to trust him. Will read thru this more carefully tomorrow, fried, and very interested in that Syria item, thank you.

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Ken. Know you’re working on or finished part 3 probably. But one of the most glaring incidents of hypocrisy was attacking Bolsonaro for things he completely ignores in Trump. They’re practically the same guy. That always seemed really odd.

Just one or two other comments. His current narrative, as you noted, is that the Dems are totalitarian and corporate shills. That’s kind of new. Because he carefully in the past never mentioned the whys, and thereby left it to his GOP pals to fill in the blanks with “the Dems are all Communist.”

Also I have to think, he’s blackmailed and otherwise locked into his position somehow. Perhaps by taking on NSA he locked himself into a war he cannot quit with the US and so naturally Russia seems a good ally as a belligerent nation. Not sure. But as you’ve noted he’s smarter than his reporting. Like Taibbi, he knows he’s lying. And he knows why. We don’t.

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author

Thanks for that, I found the Bolsonaro issue bizarre as well. Agree with much of what you said, but -- and I'm going to get to answering this, am working on Part III -- because his scumbaggery (and Taibbi's too) is so bizarre it's quite possible to think he's being blackmailed, but I feel confident it's much more banal: money, fame and self-interest in general, and I will show that. But yes, he knows he’s lying & he knows why, but I think we will know why when I finish the series.

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Jul 31Liked by Ken Silverstein

Excellent article Ken. The loyalty to GG and seemingly also Tucker Carlson as clear truth tellers has caused me to abandon formerly strong sources for news and analysis. Naked Capitalism was the most disappointing. Yves and colleagues have had excellent coverage of financial malfeasance at major institutions like Calpers and hosted great writing on a wide array of political topics. But they have so long considered Dem elites as their nemesis that they fell in full freight with the MAGA world and are not really critical at all.

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author

TY. Haven't seen NC for some time but seen this too many times now & not just on MAGA, stopped paying attention to a lot of people I used to respect .

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Brave man to take on GG in earnest, because you're sure to get an earful now from his legion of freakish parasocial fanboys who go apeshit at the slightest criticism of his now endless string of blatant hypocrisy.

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Spot on. It was a fix, not a coup. Holding a snap primary or whatever they were calling it, wouldn't work at this late date. Too messy. The noise would have buried the Dems.

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Jul 31Liked by Ken Silverstein

Precisely correct. Nor have I heard what the Republicans would have done had the Don been assinated. Would they have run a primary, or just propped up some MAGA b celebrity?

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author

Depends on your perspective. Glenn would have proposed Laura Loomer be subbed in as his only rightful heir.

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Not totally convinced by the following, but might be true since Susi Tompkins Buell dropped her financial support weeks before Harris dropped out of 2019 Iowa primary: "I’m told by a lawmaker who witnessed it, though, that Waters and Pelosi also had a robust conversation on the House floor about how a Biden succession plan would be handled (the former speaker had indicated she wanted an open process, but it’s no secret Pelosi isn’t a KHive denizen, as Brown said with a long laugh: “I’m not sure she had any particular candidate in mind but I’m sure it would not have been Kamala!”)" https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/31/willie-brown-kamala-harris-campaign-column-00171885

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author

Haha. That's half the reason I write about the sorry dipshit.

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