O’er the Land of the Screed

One of my earliest blogs for The Times of Israel was written in January 2017 and concerned John Brennan and James Clapper, Obama’s outgoing Director of CIA and Director of National Intelligence, respectively.

I speculated in that opinion that they may not have had the best interests of the US at the top of their priority list but little did I know, as just a regular guy living in Flyover Country, that they were at the heart of a wicked, unlawful conspiracy to weaponize the most powerful, secretive, unchecked portions of the government to unwind the results of a democratic election.

The Post 

On a recent American Airlines flight to Chicago, I watched The Post, Steven Spielberg’s ode to Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham’s stupendous bravery for publishing The Pentagon Papers at The Washington Post in defiance of a court order which barred The New York Times (which had scooped The Post) from further publication. Ms. Graham’s public offering was put at risk, but altruism wasn’t the sole order of the day. Ben Bradlee wanted to run a paper of national consequence and at the time, The Post wasn’t in The Times’ league. The story was about Ben Bradlee’s ego as much as it was about “doing what was right.”

Of course, both came together with tectonic success with the break-in at The Watergate which immortalized Bradlee and his reporters, Woodward and Bernstein.

Fast forward, thirty-six years. Carl Bernstein is a professional conspiracy theorist on CNN, a network which once had no rival in the coverage of the 24-hour news cycle. Today, CNN cannot generate ratings to attract more viewers than the Food Network.

Reese Schonfeld Nails It

Reese Schonfeld, who founded the network with the legendary Ted Turner, said the following in 2010 and his words have even greater resonance today as he was addressing the network’s “dismal ratings”. The leading on-air figures at the time were Larry King, Campbell Brown, and Anderson Cooper. “One of them is long since his prime, and the others have no reason to be in prime at all, ” he said. “I think CNN is at risk of becoming a bad joke…Newspapers are asking ‘experts’ how to save them. It’s time for a change, before moving from ‘joke’ to ‘tired joke’.”

Carl Bernstein Blows It

Recently, Carl Bernstein, immortalized by his work on one story, said the following to anchor Don Lemon, who would surely fall into the Campbell Brown – Anderson Cooper category described by the network’s founder:

“We are becoming a different kind of country because of [Donald Trump’s] conduct of the presidency. And in the process, the American narrative about what we stand for in terms of civil rights, civil liberties, who we are as a people, immigration, no king in this country. The idea of a democratic process in which no one is above the law, the rule of law, the primacy of the rule of law.”

Nothing encapsulates the hypocrisy and sanctimony of Progressives more than this statement, coming as it does from Sir Carl who was instrumental in forcing President Voldemort from office.

But it begs the question: is no one really above the law? Where is the primacy of the rule of law?

Harry Reid Takes the Bait

On August 27, 2016, the Democratic Leader in the US Senate, Harry Reid, sent a letter to James Comey, Director of the FBI. Reid had received a secret briefing from John Brennan, and he makes allusions to “evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,”and most damning, “…questions have been raised about whether a Trump advisor who has been highly critical of U.S. and European sanctions on Russia, and who has conflicts of interest due to investments in Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom, met with high-ranking sanctioned individuals while in Moscow in July of 2016, well after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.”

My, oh my, that is some very specific information that Sen. Reid does not source. And, of course, he is talking about none other than Carter Page, the individual that was used by the “intelligence community”, the Clinton campaign through Fusion GPS, the “Steele Dossier”, to obtain secret surveillance warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.

Even President Voldemort did not command the loyalty of the leadership of the FBI or the CIA (and the all-powerful Director of National Intelligence did not exist and should be abandoned as quickly as possible) and turn them on his enemies.

The Spooks Uncork Their Hatred

Despite their CNN- and MSNBC-fueled hatred augmented by their Twitter tirades, every bit as unhinged as those which emanate from the target of their paranoia, James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Michael Hayden, and Susan Rice have retained their “security clearances”. They would continue to have legitimate access to confidential government documents while they publicize opinions like Trump’s meeting with Putin was “nothing short of treasonous” (Brennan); “I wonder if the Russians have something on Trump.” (Clapper); Trump “refused to back his own country” (Comey); “It could not have been a lot worse.” (Hayden). A “historic mistake” (Rice) was Amb. Susan Rice’s categorization which leads one to wonder how she would describe her own performance in the aftermath of the murder of four Americans in Benghazi.

I’m sorry. But I do not remember Cabinet members in the Bush administration, let alone the people that controlled the intelligence community, tweeting such repulsive vitriol against Barack Obama or appearing as employees of Fox News accusing him of betraying the US when he gave his Cairo speech or when he did nothing when Putin went into Crimea or when he threatened Assad with a “red line”.

And nothing happened.

Trump has made noise about revoking their security clearances. The Progressives Have Gone Wild!

Revoking their security clearances? Are you kidding me? The same level of “evidence” that Harry Reid cited in his letter of August 27, 2016, is the same quality of evidence that John Brennan used to start this “Russian Collusion” lunacy which forced the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions; the same quality of evidence that led James Comey to leak confidential memoranda to a “friend” who leaked to The New York Times which led to the appointment of his mentor, Robert Mueller, as Special Counsel, by Rob Rosenstein, Assistant Attorney General; the same quality of evidence that the FBI and Department of Justice brought before the secret FISA Court in the form of the Steele Dossier, commissioned by the Clinton campaign; the same quality of evidence that led to the FISA warrants being signed four times by Comey, Sally Yates (Sally was Loretta Lynch’s deputy who agreed to act as Acting Attorney General during Jeff Sessions’ contentious confirmation hearings – great idea), Andrew McCabe (Comey’s deputy) and, finally, by Rod Rosenstein himself. In Mr. Bernstein’s and Woodward’s prime, this would have been manna from heaven, like the gift bestowed by the shadowy Deep Throat.

How did the press – as depicted in “The Post” and “All The President’s Men” – become so corrupted? How could The Washington Post and The New York Times in effect become colluders with the Establishment to subvert the will of the people, no matter how odious their choice? It is not for them to determine.