Very interesting. Now, if there were actually signs of China having bad intel about impending attacks from the US(contrary to Trump's actual articulated policies), is that necessarily improper for Esper to send backchannel communications to the Chinese to dispel that incorrect information? I guess what I'm wondering is, is this new information an attempt to shift blame away from Milley to Esper, or just the seeds of an "innocent explanation"?
Watching liberal media stars spend 5 years trying to thread the needle between "we are so grateful to the unelected but noble Generals thwarting Trump" and "only insane conspiracy nuts believe the US has a Deep State" has been quite dizzying.
Not surprisingly, our news media have spent the day celebrating it. It turns out the self-described defenders of democracy don’t really believe in the system they claim to revere. The idea of giving voters power over the government repulses them. They’re relieved to discover that, in fact, our democracy is fake. Here’s a selection from some of today’s programming:
RICK STENGEL, MSNBC: I would call Gen. Milley a hero, he behaved in a heroic manner.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN: But what he (Milley) did was ensure the guardrails were in place so I give him high marks for this based on what’s described in the book.
GEORGE WILL, CNN: I think Milley felt ill-used by the episode on Lafayette Square when he was used as a prop. // So one can understand Milley’s anxieties.
FMR. GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, MSNBC: We were in a period of extraordinary danger. I think Milley will be treated favorably by history.
The first comments were from Rick Stengel, who is a moron, obviously. No surprise there. The second guy was some retired military official. But the last two, George Will? Barry McCaffrey? These are people, whatever you think of them, who they vote for, you’d imagined might defend American democracy when it came down to it. But they didn’t. They cheered its ending. They’re happy to see Mark Milley secretly conspiring with the Chinese military to end civilian control of our Pentagon. This is the government they want. You should not forget that.
ITEM 2: Jack Posobiec tweeted, "Several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath, per White House official."
To quell the Fuck Joe Biden movement, the White House will throw Milley overboard.
My gut also tells me that won't work.
But Woodward may retract the quote because he does what the Deep State tells him to do.
There was a remarkable video from a couple of weeks ago where China demolished 15 highrises that had been started and left uncompleted 7 years ago. These sorts of things are surely not isolated in that country, and probably are a good indication that the country's financial condition is dire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6b0_ffyFQ
Where it says "China’s robust economic recovery from last year’s coronavirus trough is losing *momentum*", I don't see that as nearly as bad as a Lehmann-scale problem.
Regarding first in history, didn't we have a fully unelected regime in 1974 after Nixon resigned? And arguably the event that triggered those circumstances (Watergate) was at least partially instigated by the IC. That said, I don't think Ford and Rockefeller initiated or continued radical policies in governance. They seemed to understand that they were in caretaker roles.
Good point--I'd forgotten about Agnew/Ford. The difference, of course, would be that in this case the removal (by bribery or however) of the VP would be directly tied to the succession, whereas back then it wasn't.
Red state has the theory it was Miley himself that leaked it.
The fingering of Pelosi’s involvement makes this more likely for me. Members of the uniparty won’t diss Pelosi, because of fear of her retribution.
The logic being Milley saw the positive acclaim Vindernam got as a hero, as well as Milley got after stabbing Trump in the back over the picture with Trump at John’s Episcopal Church after the clearing of Lafayette Park park.
My take, fwiw, is that this is inside baseball between the White House and DOD. The WH had this leaked ahead of the 9/28 hearing where Milley was going to lay out his defense of what happened in Afghan and throw the WH under the bus. Now that hearing will be all about what Milley did during the last days of Trump, not Biden's poor decisions leading up to August.
That might work, except that both parties in the Senate have been savaging Blinken and Austin. That would tend to indicate that there's no getting from the Afghan debacle in the end, and that means Zhou. It's not about Senate hearings at this point but about stadiums full of people and teachers in the streets focusing their dissatisfaction by chanting: F*ck Zhou Baidan!
Jen Dyer, today in "General Milley’s excellent adventure":
"If someone had to call China about issues with POTUS, that call should not have come from *anyone less* senior, than the National Security Adviser – and SECSTATE or VPOTUS would have been better."
"Another reason to be skeptical about the Milley narrative is, that Trump says it isn’t true. Specifically, Trump says Milley didn’t do what the Post article, citing Peril, alleges.
It would be hard to hide it from the White House if Milley did do it, and Trump has no stake in letting a false narrative stand on that head.
Can't make this stuff up--or can you?
New Twist to the Milley Story Raises Even More Questions
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/09/15/new-twist-to-the-milley-story-raises-even-more-questions-n443396
Very interesting. Now, if there were actually signs of China having bad intel about impending attacks from the US(contrary to Trump's actual articulated policies), is that necessarily improper for Esper to send backchannel communications to the Chinese to dispel that incorrect information? I guess what I'm wondering is, is this new information an attempt to shift blame away from Milley to Esper, or just the seeds of an "innocent explanation"?
Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Watching liberal media stars spend 5 years trying to thread the needle between "we are so grateful to the unelected but noble Generals thwarting Trump" and "only insane conspiracy nuts believe the US has a Deep State" has been quite dizzying.
Excellent Tucker monologue:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-mark-milley-committed-treason
Conclusion:
Not surprisingly, our news media have spent the day celebrating it. It turns out the self-described defenders of democracy don’t really believe in the system they claim to revere. The idea of giving voters power over the government repulses them. They’re relieved to discover that, in fact, our democracy is fake. Here’s a selection from some of today’s programming:
RICK STENGEL, MSNBC: I would call Gen. Milley a hero, he behaved in a heroic manner.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN: But what he (Milley) did was ensure the guardrails were in place so I give him high marks for this based on what’s described in the book.
GEORGE WILL, CNN: I think Milley felt ill-used by the episode on Lafayette Square when he was used as a prop. // So one can understand Milley’s anxieties.
FMR. GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, MSNBC: We were in a period of extraordinary danger. I think Milley will be treated favorably by history.
The first comments were from Rick Stengel, who is a moron, obviously. No surprise there. The second guy was some retired military official. But the last two, George Will? Barry McCaffrey? These are people, whatever you think of them, who they vote for, you’d imagined might defend American democracy when it came down to it. But they didn’t. They cheered its ending. They’re happy to see Mark Milley secretly conspiring with the Chinese military to end civilian control of our Pentagon. This is the government they want. You should not forget that.
From Don Surber:
ITEM 2: Jack Posobiec tweeted, "Several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath, per White House official."
To quell the Fuck Joe Biden movement, the White House will throw Milley overboard.
My gut also tells me that won't work.
But Woodward may retract the quote because he does what the Deep State tells him to do.
Biden today said he has full confidence in Gen. Milley.
And meanwhile their are stories about Chinese economic unraveling. Is that the right word? Comparisons to Lehman Bros collapse.
There was a remarkable video from a couple of weeks ago where China demolished 15 highrises that had been started and left uncompleted 7 years ago. These sorts of things are surely not isolated in that country, and probably are a good indication that the country's financial condition is dire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6b0_ffyFQ
Right. And btw can you imagine trying to breathe in that area?
Can you steer us to the best of such stories?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-economy-suddenly-disintegrates-land-sales-crater-90
Thanx.
Where it says "China’s robust economic recovery from last year’s coronavirus trough is losing *momentum*", I don't see that as nearly as bad as a Lehmann-scale problem.
Regarding first in history, didn't we have a fully unelected regime in 1974 after Nixon resigned? And arguably the event that triggered those circumstances (Watergate) was at least partially instigated by the IC. That said, I don't think Ford and Rockefeller initiated or continued radical policies in governance. They seemed to understand that they were in caretaker roles.
Good point--I'd forgotten about Agnew/Ford. The difference, of course, would be that in this case the removal (by bribery or however) of the VP would be directly tied to the succession, whereas back then it wasn't.
And, back then, it wasn't widely suspected of having anything to do with palace shenanigans.
(It had been c. a decade since JFK was removed.)
Now, everything is so *much more* suspect.
Red state has the theory it was Miley himself that leaked it.
The fingering of Pelosi’s involvement makes this more likely for me. Members of the uniparty won’t diss Pelosi, because of fear of her retribution.
The logic being Milley saw the positive acclaim Vindernam got as a hero, as well as Milley got after stabbing Trump in the back over the picture with Trump at John’s Episcopal Church after the clearing of Lafayette Park park.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2021/09/15/general-mark-milley-seems-to-have-been-the-source-for-bob-woodwards-story-about-mark-milley-undermining-the-constitution-n443229
My take, fwiw, is that this is inside baseball between the White House and DOD. The WH had this leaked ahead of the 9/28 hearing where Milley was going to lay out his defense of what happened in Afghan and throw the WH under the bus. Now that hearing will be all about what Milley did during the last days of Trump, not Biden's poor decisions leading up to August.
That might work, except that both parties in the Senate have been savaging Blinken and Austin. That would tend to indicate that there's no getting from the Afghan debacle in the end, and that means Zhou. It's not about Senate hearings at this point but about stadiums full of people and teachers in the streets focusing their dissatisfaction by chanting: F*ck Zhou Baidan!
I'd have thought, that Esper would've (had "authority" to have) urged Sec State to talk to ChiComs.
I'd not be shocked, if this sort of BS was going on for years.
Jen Dyer, today in "General Milley’s excellent adventure":
"If someone had to call China about issues with POTUS, that call should not have come from *anyone less* senior, than the National Security Adviser – and SECSTATE or VPOTUS would have been better."
And, she writes
"Another reason to be skeptical about the Milley narrative is, that Trump says it isn’t true. Specifically, Trump says Milley didn’t do what the Post article, citing Peril, alleges.
It would be hard to hide it from the White House if Milley did do it, and Trump has no stake in letting a false narrative stand on that head.
No words? Here are two: Mindnumbingly stupid. Two pretty charitable words, in the circs.
The sad truth is that most of the population is quite deluded regarding the true nature of the American regime generally--not just the Zhou version.
Thanx much to Higher Ed, the MSM, Barr, Mitch, .....