Ever the huckster, Glenn Greenwald in GQ
I like to think of it as a fireworks show: You want to save your best for last. There’s a story that from the beginning I thought would be our biggest, and I’m saving that. The last one is the one where the sky is all covered in spectacular multicolored hues. This will be the finale, a big missing piece. Snowden knows about it and is excited about it.
Take your time, fellas. The show’s the important thing. In fact, it’s the only thing.
Still shame on me for nine months ago suggesting that Glenn’s drip-drip-drippery had a market-driven showbiz quality. Glenn was right to puke all over me about that, however dishonest, crazy and infantile it made him look at the time. After all, I was talking over the show. That’s rude.
In other news, some anons have called for a protest of Greenwald’s book tour. The tour commences today in New York at Cooper Union, where Greenwald’s First Look co-worker Matt Taibbi will administer an extended blowjob moderate a no-holds-barred discussion.
UPDATE
https://twitter.com/walterglass/status/466209446096830464
https://twitter.com/walterglass/status/466211136799780865
https://twitter.com/walterglass/status/466213542321209345
Related
A Heat Vampire in Search of a Movie Deal
Greenwald Still Covering for Omidyar on PayPal
The Rancid Honeytrap 
“Saving your best for last” is a “show business” saying, gone universal. But aphorisms ring true, only in their proper context. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate General, remarked that victory usually goes to the commander, who arrives “first-est with the most-est.” And lawyers typically open with their strongest argument(s). On a trip to China in the 1920’s, Bertrand Russell relates asking his hosts what he should talk about. His hosts’ quick reply: “Whatever you say in your latest book.” Russell of course complied.
Wow.
Openly admitting he held back valuable information in the public for his own monetary gain.
tarzie, you were right. This is un-fucking believable.
Absolutely brilliant: Boasting about the marketing cleverness of the release schedule while simultaneously condemning anyone who suggests that the release schedule is being driven by marketing considerations. I might have to start following this Greenwald character.
While I share your skepticism and general critique of GG and his handling of the Snowden docs, I think it’s valuable that this open acknowledgement of the the Deep State is actually stated in this quasi-MSM article rather than living as a ghost in the American subconscious since JFK:
“Americans love to mock the idea of monarchy, and yet we have our own de facto monarchy. I think what these leaks did is, they demonstrated that there really is this government that just is the kind of permanent government that doesn’t get affected by election choices and that isn’t in any way accountable to any sort of democratic transparency and just creates its own world off on its own.”
That is quite a damning quote. I’m feeling slightly masochist today, so maybe I’ll read that GQ piece. I read the rest of that response you quoted from and already I’ve thrown up in my mouth:
“Somebody has risked their liberty to give me all these documents, with the intention of informing the world about what is being done. And every day that I don’t work on the archive, I feel a little bit guilty.” – Fucking gag me.
Evidence has been mounting for quite some time that Snowden is also an asshole. The quote in your post is also damning to him. “Snowden knows about it and is excited about it.” Snowden seems to also enjoy the spectacle and the role he gets to play in it.
Fuck everyone.
“Snowden seems to also enjoy the spectacle and the role he gets to play in it.”
Speaking as both a whistleblower, whistleblower-rights advocate, and a lawyer for whistleblowers (one who is trying to change the toxic and colonialist mentality that GG and other gatekeepers/handlers subscribe to), the whistleblower as a patron in the w.ber/journalist or w.ber/lawyer relationship very much has agency and moral responsibility in the equation, and is not above reproach or criticism, as much as GG and others might try to innoculate them (for self-serving reasons, mostly).
Always always always challenge whatever excuses/rationalizations/guilt trips/manipulations that are thrown at you to avoid answering questions about responsibility and judgment. Nobody is beyond reproach, and history will be the judge.
on board with the rest of your comment, but tired of this chestnut. the farther back in ‘history’ something is, the less evidence there is to provide a clear story. nor can we be certain the proliferation of record-keeping over recent centuries provides any guarantee (at least, without uninventing decay, fire, shredding devices, etc.). can we try to stay in the absolute-free zone between “history will be the judge” and “you weren’t there so shut up”?
I found that quote interesting also, except I don’t think monarchy is a very adequate analogy for the Deep State. Once again, he’s diminishing and concealing in the guise of disclosing, and considering that his new boss is in partnership with USAID, it’s particularly weird and shameless. Fuck him.
“Fuck him”
On further reflection that is a fair shorthand.
I read the GQ article. It’s kind of fascinating because he talks about being fearless, and yet his combative behavior screams nothing but fear. He talks about being concerned that Snowden was going to be another angry or crazy whistleblower with a chip on his shoulder (how magnanimous!) and then he talks about how he was marginalized as a gay teen. He obviously internalized the values of society – violence, exclusion, dominatiom. Is there any doubt this campaign and his recent book are but another chance for him to conquer his demons?
To say nothing of all the redacting and withholding and the month he took deciding whether or not he would install PGP. He’s very cautious, but hunger for wealth and celebrity have a way of releasing inhibitions.
You and others have covered the main, horrible issue – that he’s treating this entire affair as spectacle (and, I would argue, poorly-directed, soggy-bottomed, *boring* spectacle). But there’s another, more trivial detail that’s been rankling at me all day.
This will be the finale, a big missing piece. Snowden knows about it and is excited about it.
This “Snowden” character that GG constantly touts, then hides behind, then parades as The Ony Good Kind of [Sorta] Radical deserves full exegesis on his own. Here, he’s acting as a stamp of approval; on Twitter I called him the Peter Travers on a movie poster, but on reflection, he’s far more like Rex Reed, who never, ever met a piece of entertainment he didn’t slaver over.
The previous uses GG has put “Snowden” to are awful and annoying, but at least comprehensible. This new one is just weird and more depressing than anything, confirming finally and perfectly that this whole exercise is shitty spectacle, complete with prefab good reviews.
Well said, @tinyfist.
That it’s so cheesy and dull makes it particularly degrading.
Yeah, Snowden’s sign-off on the ‘fireworks finale’ is particularly bizarre. A new low. They’re trolls at this point.
Read the GQ article. First he says this:
“I’ve been able to forge my career, not only without depending on any of those processes and those people [the powerful ones, yo], but staying as far away from them as I can.”
And then he says this:
“I have lawyers who are extremely well-connected at the Justice Department who usually can, with one phone call, get Holder on the phone.”
Apart from being so angry at this whole Greenwald-monetizing-leaks business, I’m also additionally mad at whoever edited this goddamned article. Logic & consistency: FAIL
Thank you for your writing, though – it’s greatly appreciated.
Nice catch, Edita. That GQ article is a treasure trove.
Reminds me of that Paul Carr piece where he discusses Omidyar’s numerous visits to the White House. Jeremy Scahill had asked rhetorically “With us, because we want to be adversarial, [the White House] won’t know what bat phone to call. With us, who are they going to call? Pierre?” Turns out that, yes, they will call “Pierre,” they have, and they will continue to do so.
Despite all the bluster, dig just a little deeper and it’s clear that all the First Look folks are a phone call or two away from Washington, just like Bill Keller and Ezra Klein.
I just heard GG on NPR “Fresh Air” radio show – he not only offended, but openly BRAGGED about clearing stories with the WH, and implied it was irresponsible not to do so.
Despite his numerous assertions of total independence, he BRAGGED about editors reviewing his work prior to publication.
Suggest interested folks might want to get a copy of the transcript of that interview, there were several of these kind of revealing disclosures. I can’t recall right now but I do recall being pissed off, but had to navigate Jersey traffic so was distracted.
None of this is new. I’ve been saying all along that this Spectacle is characterized by subservience in the guise of revolt. The trashing of Manning set the tone. He’s been up front about consultation with govt and editors all along. Perhaps it’s a little more brazen as his place at the top of the mainstream is more settled, but in broad strokes there is nothing new to see. This idea that GG is backsliding is just simply incorrect. I’m sure not gonna read any more transcripts or listen to any more of that horrible self-pleased yapping to prove shit that was already obvious months ago.
@Lorenzo
maybe Taibbi will at least encourage them to include “[Bigwig] declined to comment” in every single article from now on.
In Greenwald’s favor, to have a lawyer is not automatically to have a friend. Were I in Greenwald’s shoes, I’d dang sure want the best mouth I could possibly hire. But in my whole life I only met one lawyer whom I liked enough to keep as a friend — and he wasn’t one of the best in the business, by any means.
An excerpt from Glenn’s book posted in the guardian closes with this gem:
This is a particularly clear example of something you’ve pointed out before, namely, that Greenwald’s work serves to make the implicit threat of state terror explicit. At a time when the possibilities for electronic resistance, cryptographic organizing, and so on are opening up, invocations of fear and passivity are particularly useful to the deep state.
Your writings have helped me to notice things like this more readily. Thank you, Tarzie, for all that you do.
Yep. It’s a command to obey in the guise of dissidence, and Greenwald has embodied that duality completely, beating his chest while redacting, withholding and consulting with state agencies and whining about living in virtual exile.
and note that GG refers to the “deep state” not the “corporate state”.
Big difference.
The Awl’s reaction: “What would Glenn Greenwald say if he knew that the New York Times sat on a similar story for a year, simply because it wanted the right timing for the sky to be ‘covered in spectacular multicolored hues’?”
Even the mainstreamiest of liberal hipsters are souring on him.
He really should lay off the meth before interviews. He looks kinda close to squandering a lot of goodwill shooting off his mouth.
And following right on their heels, there goes the AVClub: http://www.avclub.com/article/glenn-greenwald-loves-sony-now-theyve-bought-right-204717
Yeah, I think someone may have already linked to this. The problem with the AV Club is they’re still miffed about GG’s excoriation of critics who loved Zero Dark Thirty. He was right about that. Still, the quote about Sony’s track record is amusing.
This comparison is really revealing because the NYT’s decision to bury the Bush warrantless wiretapping news until 2005 is the example GG has used to demonstrate establishment media subservience for years. In the vaunted NYT debate between GG and Bill Keller (“A Conversation in Lieu of a Column,” 10/27/13), Greenwald kept returning to the Times‘ obeisance as proof that his model of journalism is more adversarial, more likely to get something done.
Well, now we know that the choice was never between “a media that serves the powerful” and “a new, better media that hobbles the powerful.” GG’s telling us that he’s been withholding this final sliver–of the 1% of the Snowden trove we’ll ever see– so that he can give us news ☆with stars by it!☆covered in spectacular multicolored hues!☆
The choice us common folk are actually being offered is between an old media that openly withholds for the sake of powerful and a new media that withholds for the aggrandizement of new media gatekeepers, and works with the powerful behind the scenes. The government shareholders are pleased either way, but at least the latter offers a good show! Stardust and tinsel and resistance.
Of all the gems in the GQ interview, this one seems very capable of generating criticism that can catch fire. As Lorenzo details, it’s pretty damning. Now I find myself hoping that Greenwald gets more of these interviews, because his ego appears to be on the verge of exposing what a slimy asshole he is.
I’m starting to wonder about substance abuse. I smell meth or coke in a lot of this crap. The quote about the ‘spectacular multicolored hues’ is so over the top. I love what @walterglass did with it, though.
Your optimism touches my heart. But assuming anyone is seriously going to denigrate Greenwald for letting the spectacle set the schedule, he and his crew will just embellish with nonsense about the whammy effect on the NSA, news cycle, the attention deficient public etc. There are two clubs here, really: the people who hate GG for all the wrong reasons and think he should withhold more, not less — regardless of the reason — and the social psychotics that make up his base and think everything he does attests to virtue and genius. Even that Awl article blew smoke up his ass about his deft timing so far, as if it has been any less about Greenwald’s convenience and self-aggrandizement than the intended finale. Bill Keller might have been called on the carpet for this, but GG won’t. As far as being exposed as a slimy asshole: that’s happened already. No one cares, obviously. Greenwald’s fans identify with his career as much or more than they do with his politics. So the shittiness that goes with his ambition is a feature for these people, not a bug.
Greenwald has blasted Bill Keller for sitting on the NSA spy story at the direct request of Bush until a year after the election – a story they only printed due to threat of book publication would scoop them
Another amazing quote from GG in GQ:
“I think that there’s this ridiculous effort to attribute every leak to Snowden in terms of what he decided to publish or when he decided to publish it. It gets framed as “Snowden’s latest leak” or “Why did Snowden decide to leak this?” But he actually plays very little role in making decisions about what gets published. I make all those decisions myself. I consult with him—because what I publish reflects on him or affects his legal situation. But he doesn’t play any decision-making role at all in that process. So that’s a huge misconception.”
So, just to reiterate the REAL lessons learned from the Snowden psyop that you have covered, Tarzie:
1) As a whistleblower, even after one has spent countless (read: an impossible number) of hours vetting one’s “secrets” to protect CIA etc operatives in the field who are probably engaged in any multitude of war crimes – e.g., Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, etc – you should hand said “secrets” over to a media celebrity journo whore AND at least two known war criminal propaganda outlets – i.e., the Guardian, WaPo – so that the “secrets” can be “vetted” once again. Even after all that, your celebrity whore “partner” will still have final say on your goods getting published. For your own protection, whistleblower! Duh.
2) One should never question the walking embodiments of capitalistic exploitation/inequality/malfeasance – i.e., billionaires – who may happen to have helped fund the overthrow of sovereign nations by the CIA etc because you never know that person might be a GOOD billionaire and they could make you and your celebrity whore “partners” richer and famouser. Billionaires are HUMAN BEINGS, too, asshole!!!
3) You should hold off on helping out your audience – i.e., the people who are supposedly grievously suffering from having their right to privacy violated – until you are able to put the finishing touches on your own financial endeavors – i.e. your tell-all book w/ accompanying tour. Double duh.
4) You should never address legitimate concerns that astute observers have raised such as 1) doesn’t this psyop – sorry, whistleblower ginormous bonerfest – have a “chilling effect” on the utilization of technology to undermine the power of a corrupt state through organization etc or 2) if the reach of the NSA is indeed as vast/omnipotent as Snowden etc claim shouldn’t you be advocating that regular people concerned with privacy, activists etc etc be taking steps to getting OFFLINE and OFF their devices when organizing instead of making it seem as if there are actual governmental means – har har – by which this problem of mass surveillance can be solved?
You learned all that from reading Tarzie?
You must have access to a Hidden Tarzie Site that nobody else can read. Don’t see how you could have learned those things here, or on twitter.
Not one of them has been discussed here. However, if you want to learn about how Glenn’s character is solid and dependable despite occasional less-then-perfect choices and sometime not-quite-believable public statements, you’ve come to the right place.
Yes, Glenn’s use of the word show says it all.
I’d love to witness him use that sort of wording face to face with one of the countless harmless victims who’ve had their lives threatened and mental sense of wellbeing utterly destroyed by Corporate/State surveillance.
Can’t imagine how many thousands (millions perhaps) have had their lives destroyed since June 2013 who will either be deceased via meta data ™ surveillance, or will not have the: resource$; $ecurity Blanket; or emotional wellbeing to gain entrance to that spectacular multicolored hue[d]…. … finale [show] …. (Not, of course, that the show will accomplish anything of worth outside of momentary, bleak entertainment.)
Our Thought Leaders ™ become more degenerate by the day in their ultimately empty futile and deadly game of ♫ musical chairs ♪.
Speaking of meta data ™ surveillance:
051314 (GMT) Driver handcuffed at gunpoint over license plate-reader error
Seems to me that the woman in the linked piece will never feel the same again …one sneeze effect, with the automatic rush of a hand to her mouth could have been lethal.
FUCK GREENWALD, et als’ proclaimed Finale.
There’re two problems there: one is the license reader, two is the right to point guns on suspicion of car theft. What a fucked up country.
The way I’m pondering, there are at least three problems.
The third problem, and probably the largest, being:
3) What could possibly be going on, via the constant Corporate/State Run backdrop of their existence, in the core of the humans with the $tate condoned and licensed weaponry, that would cause them to be so death cult trigger happy as to take the chance (and ultimately the entire blame … versus their Thought Leaders™ taking any blame) of literally murdering someone on the premise that they MAY HAVE committed an act far, far, far less harmful (if actually harmful at all) then the Corporate/State commits on a second by second basis.
That’s just explained with conformity. It’s the job. Plus, y’know, cops.
yes, it’s always explained with conformity of ‘dumb fucks’, as the horrid beings orchestrating and attempting to force the conformity – by threat of ability to ‘live’ without desiring to ‘die’ – go on doing what they do best: strive for ,$, …. and …. CRIPPLE anything worth living for.
(Not referring to you.)
I wouldn’t call all conformists ‘dumb fucks.’ People tend to do what their jobs require them to do. I think police work is likely to be especially attractive to people who find the idea of holding guns on helpless subjects appealing.
Oh I wasn’t calling conformists dumb fucks, I was attempting to note that many only ‘[pretend to] conform’ when the lives of their loved ones and themselves are clearly threatened.
As to way too many cops enjoying the jack booting, and gravitating to DEADLY and LICENSED ENFORCEMENT – …right, or a LETHAL and DEAD wrong … – I agree.
and then that’s it i guess. the proles get all they’re getting, now move along nothing more to see here.
Yeah, finale really does put a point on it, doesn’t it? Show’s over. Time to go home.
But cheer up. There’s gonna be a movie!!!
i wonder if it’ll get as much buzz as Religulous… might not contain as much half-assed mockery, though.
(as much as Religulous; not comparing the buzz with your/others’ full-assed mockery)
Greenwald is going to reveal what bunker he’s held Scahill and the other Intercepters for the last few months. Did First Look contracts come with a gag order? Yeah, I guess I don’t really care either. But it’s odd that most of them have disappeared lately.
By the way, they’re hiring again: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/05/13/intercept-hiring/ “A Chance to Serve Your Country!” Ha.
Oh I think I’ll apply. I’m perfect for them!!!
Ha ha. But for those who do, the blogger goatsing laboriously calculated the output of six writers before and after hiring and concluded that First Look has had an indisputably suppressing effect.
You should! Well, hopefully some “fearless, adversarial” prankster applies, gets a job and commences with sabotage.
If anonymous really wants to kick greenwald theyll just stick his book all over the torrent sites so he misses out on that sweet sweet lucre.
Shan’t read the GQ article: stomach is weak today, and besides, it wouldn’t be the same without the spot-on (and sometimes deliciously snarky) commentary one finds here. But I wonder… aren’t all of you, deep inside, really relieved that GG has finally come out of the capitalist closet? (He doesn’t seem aware that he’s done so himself, or perhaps thinks he has transcended to the level where he can exist as MassMediaMan and SuperWhistleBlow(jobb-)erMan simultaneously.) I remember the relief I felt when he enlisted as Omidyar’s lackey – the cognitive dissonance of seeing REAL journalism and a potentially real threat to the status quo in the Guardian, alongside the likes of Harding and Jenkins, was too much, and for a while I almost became hopeful.
I still wonder about Snowden… is he just too immature to handle the fame? Everything about his past, along with present comportment, screams “plant!” But why did the US/EU go to all the trouble of pissing off Morales… oh, wait. Sending a message. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Excuse my rambling.
Back to studying the French Revolution, that glorious period when people were honest about their insatiable desire for control. Thanks to all who’ve commented here, and (ça va de soi) to Tarzie, for the comforting, cleverly phrased reminders that hope is to be found, not in the Guardian’s columns, but on [sic] the margins.
I would offer an unequivocal yes were he not the object of the world’s dumbest and most self-regarding personality cult. I guess I had dimly hoped that the nitwits who went for Obama in ’08 had learned their lesson about liberation by savior proxy. But no, they have simply fallen hook, line and sinker for the old game played a new way — journalism having taken the place of elections — and swapped out old Dads for new. Never much in the way of a lefty to start with, GG’s lurch right seems to have taken a lot of people with it. There is far less in the way of genuine left principle here than came with Obama fever. Maybe these people were never worthy allies to begin with, but the schism has left a bad taste in my mouth, only slightly ameliorated by relief at having a clearer idea of who and what deserves my attention. I have to say, most of what the Greenwald left does strikes me as ridiculous, even repulsive, now, including the stuff that has nothing to with him and of which I once partook myself.
From the day he came out of the gate smearing Manning, Snowden has struck me as a first class creep — regardless of what his motives or affliliations are — and every time he opens his mouth my dislike only deepens. Everything about him does scream ‘plant’, but the problem with all intelligence community whistleblowers is that they are the kind of people who go into intelligence community work. This is why Greenwald’s mandate that we take all of Snowden — including his idiotic thoughts on warheads, foreheads and the good side of spying — is so particularly irritating and creepy. It barely matters who or what kicked this whole thing off, since the system turns everything into a Psy Op at this point, regardless of what any individual players in the spectacle might have intended or planned for it.
Well I did try to warn you of that from the very start, but iirc, you more or less told me to get lost, and that you had little time for such needless conspiracy theories, and you’ll probably do the same again, and probably again remind me that “no one likes an ‘I told ya so’” ****;-) –
The “running through the Airport with, not 1, not 2, not 3 BUT 4 (!!???) laptops” story was the real indicator that Snowden was a liar/plant)
Not even remotely plausible.
And he had “ex”-CIA McGoverncome out of the woodwork for that one, running interference for him, after some began to focus on the stupidity and complete implausibility of that 4-Laptops nonsense
Quelle suprise!
====
**** (which isn’t at all true, cos I love “I told ya so”‘s . . . . especially when I get the opportunity to say it, and, as the Empire gets more and more blatant with it’s obvious deceptions, it’s limited hangouts , it’s Fake-Left Ass-Clowns (eg: Hersh, Cole, Chompy, and of course the GG-Allen wannabe himself, Mr Greenwald) etc etc, I get the opportunity to say that A LOT, these days 😉
I think you’re exaggerating. My problem with conspiracists — as an intellectual/political type — is simply that they too frequently get caught up in origin stories that largely don’t matter and can’t be proven anyway. The gain in understanding — when they bring any — is rarely commensurate with the cost everyone around them pays in smears and boredom. I have been clear from day one: I believe conspiracies happen. But as I said in my comment, the system can improvise anything into a Psy Op — whether it started out that way or not — and this is generally more important.
pure gold. (whatever the fuck THAT means…)
also admiring your [usual] patience with timeline+image obsessives – it might be a rejoinder worth making when/if you emphasize gg’s mid-00’s turnaround in a non-analytical, non-consciously-ironic way, but otherwise it’s puffed-up chaff.
“But I wonder… aren’t all of you, deep inside, really relieved that GG has finally come out of the capitalist closet?”
Tarzie’s response is pretty similar to how I’d answer this. Considering my own self, I have certainly found relief from the whole charade. I would almost say I have benefited from it. It has challenged my consumption of information and shown me which people are worth paying attention to and which people I can comfortably ignore. It has challenged my measure of journalism’s value, and by reading Tarzie and other left-critics I have been exposed to alternative ideas that I would have never thought of on my own, which has been fascinating. Lastly, I no longer waste my time reading celebrity journalists, which is another bonus.
But outside of myself, looking at the meta-effects of the Snowden Spectacle, it’s quite depressing and very toxic. Tarzie has called Greenwald the most toxic person to capture the left since Obama. I agree, and I can’t find any relief in that. The only relief I hope to find here is if Greenwald soon implodes under his own mountain of bullshit. There are quotes from that GQ article that are quite damning, and capable of generating criticism that can potentially catch on in a more mainstream way, in my opinion (see thread by commenter Edita above). There is still a chance that after Greenwald’s big fireworks finale, criticism of his suppression, profiteering, and lying will grow and he’ll eventually be laughed off his stage, taking The Intercept and it’s collection of celebrity journalists with him.
Unlikely, I know, but a man can dream…
I have the same nasty taste in my mouth (it has lasted too long to be that past-its-expiration-date pesto), but for me it has been ameliorated by the (admittedly intermittent) dropping of the holier-than-thou facade. Because the groupies were there all along, and I suppose I was effectively one even though I despised the bastards for denigrating Manning. I had previously read things by Douglas Valentine, however, and was suspicious when Daniel Ellsberg came on strong in support of GG/ES (anagram of “eggs”, as in rotten or bad. Which I like, because writing it EGGS makes it look like GG is taking a ride up ES’s ass, which I find poetically just.)
I hadn’t read about ES’s views on missiles, etc. Thankfully, I am out of the US now and don’t have to worry about running across a NYT or WaPo (the local papers wouldn’t even be covering this issue, because of the urgency of reporting on pork futures or little league rivalries). Sadly, the media here is not any better – but no one leaves newspapers lying around!
Congrats on being out of the country. Where are you? Or can’t you say?
Doug Valentine is a find.
@Plussed.
A perfect summary of where we are now in the Snowden/GG/Omidyar spectacle.
As obedient servants of the spectacle, it’s not surprising that so many fake left underlings have fallen for the GG/Omidyar scam. Misled about everything, these bewildered ignoramuses are only capable of spouting absurdities based on lies.
And so….. they are told they must accept the ludicrous and absurd spectacle of “fierce, adversarial journalists” working for a billionaire, and not only do they accept this without questioning, but like retarded children, they jabber on and on about how wonderful it is.
That’s the fake left for you, working overtime in the service of emptiness, pretending to be connoisseurs of everything, while it in fact they do nothing but justify (and passively accept) everything they’ve been forced to undergo, which is why they never cease being taken in by every sort of fraud that appeals to their self-interested credulity.
Sad, but true (awkward comma added so that I can avoid having to pay royalties for that line to Metallica). But when one considers that the political center nowadays is far to the right of where Richard bloody Nixon was in his heyday, well… Well! To steal another line (from Ralph Nader, who would not, I am confident, sue for copyright violation), the dictionary does not suffice to express the shock and horror of the situation. But I find it comforting to know that there are people out there (here, for instance) who challenge the dominant paradigm, and not for the sake of profitting from some bullshit “innovation”.
Let’s face it: we’re fucked. At least we are virtually in good company (a little tech humor there, heh, heh).
Christine:
They are tireless. Actually worse than Obamabots in some ways because of all the beyond-duopoly knowingness.
Nimbus:
I hear ya on good company. My expectations don’t get beyond fewer credulous dipshits in my midst and a smattering of pals to jeer at them along with me.
Nimbus / Tarzie,
Yes, it’s discouraging….
Glennbots hook up like with like, and, in doing so, emphasize their banality and deeper meaninglessness. If they had been born in Melanesia (in the Southwestern Pacific) then instead of becoming Glennbots, they would have become Cargo Cultists, and would spend their time building airstrips, airports and radios out of coconuts and straw, or staging “drills” and “marches” with twigs for rifles, in the belief that these actions would attract transport aircraft full of cargo.
But Glennbots are too sophisticated to build airports out of coconuts and straw….yes, in their search for transcendence, they might stage little “drills” and “marches”, but not because they expect cargo to drop from the sky in return…oh no, the Glennbot is a higher mammal…. Instead of waiting for cargo, they wait for transcendent information to be delivered by Team Greenbacks and the Good Billionaire.
“Totally, it was way more… tantric this way!”
Ha ha.
A couple people have mentioned Cargo Cults in this context, but none so amusingly. I love the analogy to information.
Thanks, Tarzie. And I agree with you that in some ways they seem even worse than Obamabots….
Damp fireworks.
Fzzzz puff.
The internet makes Brechtian satire of us all.
To take it in an even sleazier direction, it would have been just slightly more tolerable if the show had been any good.
Yeah. It’s really depressing to see people getting caught up in something this cheesy and dull.
“And what a finale it was!”
“I am so glad he saved that leak until last!”
“Yeah, I was on the edge of my seat right up until the end!”
“Imagine how premature it would all have felt if he had put it out in the first month!”
“Totally, it was way more… tantric this way!”
“What showmanship!”
This is my favorite.
It fits the Glennbots.
Actually, I haven’t heard anyone say such things.
I’m hoping Adam Sandler snags the role of Glenn. Just for the lulz.
I heard Ed Norton rumors.
That’s too bad. I think Sandler’s acting chops align with GG’s personality perfectly.
Pee Wee Herman would be good.
Rumor has it that GG *was* detained at JFK but he did The Shoe Dance and they let him go.
From the NPR interview:
What a disgusting apologist for imperialism this guy is.
Wow.
It’s offensive that he believes the USG can be trusted to define who is “genuinely threatening.” He’s coming right out and saying that government policies in this arena are legitimate.
How much more blatant can you get in vocalizing support for U.S. imperialism.
This is why it’s so fucking offensive that he’s trying to pass himself off as some kind of leftist radical. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, there it is. He’s a pro-imperialist capitalist. What more is there to say.
Sorry I should have posted the entire interview, here. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/14/312454746/greenwald-on-nsa-leaks-weve-erred-on-the-side-of-excess-caution
There are other comments in there that give away his imperialism and USG support.
Whenever he brings up “protecting innocent people,” nobody ever questions him about it. Which innocent people? Who the hell is he talking about? Now it’s pretty obvious he’s talking about those who approve and carry out imperialist policies including the people who decide the “genuine threats.”
Yeah, the issue for Snowden and GG is bulk surveillance — not intelligence gathering itself — and I think some of the traction they’re getting owes simply to a turf war between HumInt and SigInt in the intelligence community. I don’t recall GG ever being an outright anti-imperialist, so I don’t find any of the rhetoric you’re quoting particularly shocking. It does seem he is becoming a more explicit advocate of national security interests than he used to be, but that’s been going on since last June. To be honest, I don’t fault him for redacting personnel in the documents since doing otherwise would be suicide. My point really isn’t that he should be doing this shit better. It’s that he shouldn’t be doing it at all. This is not a job for a journalist. That he prosecutes it with so much reactionary ideology and chest-beating makes it exceptionally troublesome.
As far as passing “himself off as some kind of leftist radical”, he’s been very clear that, for him, a radical is anyone who takes any sort of brave action against the state, even if its for reformist ends. It’s a stupid definition, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t claimed to be radical on any other grounds. It’s his fans ladling on the rest, just as many of them did with Obama. He’s a liberal/libertarian hybrid who has, as you’ve pointed out, always identified with/defended capital. His political objections are almost entirely predicated on Constitutional infringements. The only thing that’s changed is where he sits in the food chain. I loathe the guy, but I see very little inconsistency between his shitty, muddled politics and his shitty behavior.
On a bit of a whim, I decided to condense some of my feelings into a hastily-written Amazon review of Greenwald’s new hit book:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2SV0ZPWX0K1K7/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2SV0ZPWX0K1K7
Unfortunately Amazon clipped out my h/t to Arthur Silber for my opening quote.
Nice work. Just tweeted it out. It’s getting some sorely needed upvotes.
Thank you, I appreciate the solidarity.
I just gave you a positive vote as well – I enjoyed the review. I also enjoyed that it only took until the third comment for someone to break out the all-too-familiar, “What have you done to challenge the security state?”, um, “critique”.
The only idea I had was to attempt to return to Amazon the Greenwald books I’d purchased a few years ago, with the reason, “Author is a charlatan,” but apparently Amazon doesn’t allow returns three years after purchase. I may purchase the new book with the sole intent of returning it immediately, but I’d hate to contribute to book sale numbers.
Mark:
That last paragraph is priceless.
I love the idea of buying the book and returning it. I may read it on those terms. I am tempted to review it.
I would read that review.
Thanks. Yeah I knew it wouldn’t take long for the comments to turn into a complete disaster. That third commenter actually impressed me with the amount of shit he was able to squeeze into such a small space.
Don’t go back, it’s only gotten worse overnight.
If any of you all end up with a copy, It’d be fun to see some more Rancid Reviews ™.
i’m glad i didn’t stumble over him when i still had a job, or i wouldn’t have read him via the library. (by the time ‘liberty and justice for some’ was out i had quit – tim wise says that shit better, imo, and greg palast has far more intriguing dirt.)
oops, obligatory mention of james baldwin and bell hooks, which everybody should get around to if they don’t uncomfortably-whitely require t.w. as an intermediary.
Great review! Spot on. A typo somewhere along the way inspired this new puerile slur: GreenWad. Because life is no fun if we can’t be brats now and then! (Apologies to the hundreds or thousands of folks who have proposed this misspelling before me.)
I’m still exercisng my conspiracy options.
The eclipsing of Manning by SnowGreen, complete darkening of Manning’s shining valor, and total co-opting of heroic focus.
The category-shift from specific revelations of Iraq atrocities and inevitable de-legitimization of that endeavor by those revelations, to a Wizard of Oz fantasy/reality dissonance, cameras! everwhere! nothing you do will go unseen! everything WE do is invisible!
That whoever did the Iraq thing was powerful enough to do pull that off, and scared shitless their somnambulist enablers in the unconscious US public were being woke up by Chelsea Manning’s reveal.
So SnowGreen swoops down from the wings and takes the plot and the spotlight into the hall of mirrors of surveillance-as-God’s-eye wizardry.
And it’s no longer about what was Iraq about.
It has done been moved on from that.
Omidyar’s just Greenwald in a big-money suit.
A proxy his own self, standing in for the near-supernatural thugs that destroyed Iraq, intentionally destroyed it, not accidentally. And are now attempting some similar chicanery in Ukraine, Syria etc.
Manning’s kick-down got too close to that, what it was really about.
Like most of the reality-creating moves these motherfuckers come up with, it has multiple outcomes, multiple benefits. But the core, the main purpose, is to keep that exposure, of duplicity and grotesque intrigue, from reaching the great collective unconscious.
Because their energy comes from that.
The parasites don’t want the host to realize they’re inside.
Until they’ve got control of the immune system.
Tanglebum, you’re scary, and I mean that in the best possible way.
…and the icing on the conspirators’ cake: Manning now used as a poster child for the humanitarian gulag – er, prison system in the US. Didn’t read the article, but it appears she is to be “helped” by her compassionate incarcerators, in dealing with her transformation.
She’s no longer a brave defender of truth who has been wrongfully deprived of her freedom, she’s the lucky recipient of a free maximum-security makeover.
She didn’t want to go to the civilian prison. Publicizing the granting of her request was a veiled threat/taunt.
I must say when I found out about she was trans, it really put a new and unpleasant spin on the “Manning made to stand at attention naked” thing.
In the last 48 hours, having been spared up until now, I have come across not only this:
But also this:
and this:
Call me shallow, but what I can’t get over here is the style. I am trying to comprehend what kind of mental economy facilitates this kind of schlock. Some of these quotes are from ages ago, but what is it about the last 48 hours that have so given license to this awful ham-literary register as to throw it in my face thrice in as many hours?
I feel as if I have already wandered into the closing act of a terrible movie.
Why is the Snowden Confederacy breaking out in verse?
Haptic —
That second link went to the same Greenwald article as the first. Was that what you intended. I searched on the phrase and found an Atlantic article and linked to that. Let me know if I got it wrong.
You’re right. That was the one. Sorry!
I love Snowden’s pseudonyms. Verax. Cincinnatus.
TinTinnitus
Incidentally, the Cincinnatus thing seems to have produced this.
I wonder if anyone ever went along to his Cryptoparty, and if they ever suspected that the guy teaching them how to use Truecrypt was contracted with Booz Allen Hamilton to work for the National Security Agency.
I wonder how many people went to cryptoparties and were tutored in crypto technologies by intelligence sector workers.
@haptic; TinTinnitus! And his trusty dog RinTinTinnitus
I was following events in Ukraine (thinking gloomy thoughts about WW1) and trying to find someone useful to read on that central Africa business, while keeping an eye on a couple of climate-science sites and such, when the latest batch of GG book & movie stories popped up and I thought, “Oh yeah. The guy who showed all those powerpoint slides without the talking points.”
Thanks for the link to the goatsing blog. I hadn’t noticed it before. And I guess the NSA and PRISM all that spy-code stuff is still a problem. But still…. Given his reluctance to undermine any actual military operations or business deals or haphazard drone strikes on mid-eastern wedding convoys, what’s left for Greenwald to say? Is there, like, a really special set of powerpoint slides he’s been holding back?
“Why is the Snowden Confederacy breaking out in verse?” asks Haptic. Maybe because literary retrospectives is all they’ve got left?
They are using bible-speak. They know their audience.
The releases so far of the Snowden documents have left out a HUGE part of the scandal, which I blew the whistle on 4 years ago, Topix and Google’s sharing their user’s data with the NSA:
http://open.salon.com/blog/virginia888/2011/11/15/is_topix_giving_out_users_personal_data_to_the_nsa
Many people don’t even know what Topix is, that is how well they have been sheltered from exposure despite the massive size of this International company which has forums in almost every single city in the entire World, think about that for a minute, what access that is… The Topix CEO was in charge of encryption at Sun Microsystems where he worked with the NSA. Eric Schmidt also was working there at the time, put two and two together and you have the roots of NSA’s open door to the Internet.
Google has made every, single, effort possible, to shelter this from exposure, they have super-alarming control of the media.
There were more ridiculous circumstances. Right after the Snowden revelations came out, my enemies put a shadow-ban hack onto my Twitter accounts, that kept my comment replies from appearing on almost every single GG thread I replied to. They would show up on my profile, not on his threads. The goons were terrified that: A. GG would release the docs pertaining to them and B. that others would see my comments on his threads.
I had been embroiled in the issue for 3 years, of course I was at first glad to see what I thought was the truth coming to light, I was defending GG because I had been very heavily trolled myself for years as an NSA whistleblower, I thought surely once he became aware of my blog and the long experience with the issue I had as a whistleblower, he would report on it. I was wrong. The man has an agenda, a very political one.
What a mess, the biggest story, of the NSA scandal, is being kept hidden.
Tarzie asked …[on being out of the country:] Where are you? Or can’t you say?
I could say, but there was no “reply” link. Sorry! I’m either in Norway, or some wierd hybrid of Dollhouse and Mr. Roger’s neighborhood. Or rather, of pre-WW2 Germany and post-WW2 US. The younger generation, in particular, are apathetic about politics, ultra-nationalistic (seem to believe in their bones that they are the Chosen Ones), and spoiled to the extent that a college kid talks about buying her own condo. And worried that their oil fund might shrink a few percent before the last cup is raised. Why do people who could afford Fair Trade everything live on Coke and hot dogs? And here in the world’s most fertile fishing grounds they buy fish that was caught here, shipped to China for processing, and shipped back. In an eye-catching, colorful package, I grant you.
But I seem to have gotten a bit off topic…. Anyway, this was a gateway to Europe for me, but I’m hoping to move to the Basque or Catalan region someday, where I can be of some use to someone (other than as a pariah).
Just to clarify, when I say “be of use” I mean as a teacher or gardener. It just occurred to me that everything one types can and will be used against them.
Sony Pictures acquires the film rights:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/uk-film-edwardsnowden-idUKKBN0DU1W020140514
I’m guessing that the fireworks/finale/pretty sunset story isn’t all that far off, maybe six months or so. And then … all we will ever know of what Snowden took will be what Greenwald thought we should know. The curtain falls, a year or two later Eddie comes home with a deal, GG and ES bask in the adulation of editorialists for their “responsible restraint,” and the world absorbs the lesson of learned helplessness. Perhaps they’ll even mount a ceremonial burning of the remaining documents, a sacrificial scape-laptop smashed in the square while deluded peasants cheer. Some malcontents will still feel an ache where they were inoculated, but the swelling will subside because there’s just so much great stuff to watch on TV.
And we’ll never know what else was in there.
Ever the huckster indeed.
http://www.avclub.com/article/glenn-greenwald-loves-sony-now-theyve-bought-right-204717
I’m not sure that the big money is in book deals and movie rights. Those are one-time opportunities. I think that the purpose of developing a brand as a celebrity journalist is to generate a steady stream of income on the lecture circuit.
http://observer.com/2011/02/talk-to-me-malcolm-gladwell/#axzz31iQFKH49
The insiders in that article point out that you don’t even have to write a best-seller to cash in. The book is just a marketing hook for the lecture. The lecture itself is essentially like getting paid over and over for the same article. The economic model for the future of journalism.
Taibbi. Scahill. They all belong to the same speaker bureaus as the old-media hacks that they claim to be creatively replacing. A bigger buzz produces a bigger payday. Well, in theory. Since most of the lectures are corporate conferences, I imagine the payday is determined by keeping the talk within certain boundaries. I doubt the suits want to listen to some radical.
It’s not either/or. These people become businesses, of which lecturing is a highly lucrative part. Surely GG got huge bucks for the movie deal.
Sure, GG made some coin from the movie deal, and there’s no doubt he gets a decent advance on his books these days. But how much more blood can he squeeze from the Snowden rock? The value of that franchise is rapidly deteriorating. He’s been very adept at leveraging the NSA files, but how many more of those stories are going to fall into his lap in the future? He just got lucky, and is something of an outlier in that regard.
I think my point is more clear in the case of Taibbi and Scahill. They’re journalists in the traditional sense, as opposed to GG who is just a pundit. They have to leverage their stories into a brand, in their case, investigative journalism. It could just as easily be foreign policy, finance, etc. Once you’ve achieved a reputation, you can collect rent off of that reputation.
All I’m saying is that while GG can collect rent on his reputation, which is what a speaking fee is, his ability to generate one-time payments on movie deals in the future is limited. This story fell in his lap, and his ability to sniff out a story on his own hasn’t been shown yet. Of course, I could be wrong and he could become the go-to person for future whistle blowers and once again monetize the info. The rest of the First Look crew might dream of hitting this kind of jackpot, but I suspect that they will have to be satisfied with aspirations of Tom Friedman levels of compensation.
Somehow, I think they’d be happy with Friedman-like compensation.
http://wonkette.com/413811/this-is-literally-thomas-friedmans-house
I’m sure Friedman makes a lot of money, but he also married into a billionaire family. He shills for power for the pure love of it, not because he has to.
belen fernandez’s ‘the imperial messenger’, just for fun (if not a spike in blood pressure). typing of which, was that the ‘counterpunch’ series? are there more out yet?
even if, to some, tommy’s first pulitzer wasn’t a nail in the coffin of respecting the pulitzer board, his fucking third was well beyond even bothering with a coffin. chuck that corpse in the bog.
anyone else in the “I never get edited!” embarrassing-horn-tooting club with glenn & tom?
“I’m very happy to be working with Amy Pascal, Doug Belgrad and the team at Sony Pictures Entertainment, who have a successful track record of making thoughtful and nuanced true-life stories that audiences want to see,” said Greenwald of the same executives he had previously accused of producing “the ultimate hagiography of the most secretive arm of America’s National Security State” when they made Zero Dark Thirty, but now heartily endorses, because they’re giving him lots of money.”
Jesus.
He really has no shame. Is he really that fucking cynical? Or is he completely devoid of self-awareness? It’s crazy.
Hey hey ho ho… well I’ve pretty much kept a low profile on this GG one-trick pony book, although I got in a bit o trouble on another blog where I dared to question GG’s motivations for producing this book, esp given that the alleged treasure-trove of Deep State documents may never see the light of day. And GG’s being bought off by Omidyar (which I got a bunch of bogus “explanations” for) given who Omidyar is.
I made a snarky comment about GG’s movie being yet another “Zero Dark Thirty” piece o crap propaganda not knowing who had the rights, etc. Imagine my non-surprise to see that GG is actually *comparing* his vanity piece favorably, no less, to that lying movie, which was poorly made & acted, even if you ignored the torture porn, the lies, the hype, spin blah blah blah.
Well, home & hosed, and that tells me pretty much all I need to know re GG at this point. He’s in it for the money and to push the brainwashing propaganda of the PTB, allegedly from the so-called “left.” Some friends of mine begged (literally) me to go see “Zero Dark Thirty.” They ended up hating it as much I did bc they refused to believe me when I told them it was crap & propaganda. I will remain steadfast in my refusal to lay down my Benjamins to see GG’s stupid movie. Not interested in the book either but may read excerpts just to see what he says.
Hoo boy.
It’s been pirated all over the place, apparently. YourAnonymousNews tweeted a link.
He really has no shame. Is he really that fucking cynical? Or is he completely devoid of self-awareness? It’s crazy.
I’m coming around to seeing him as the 21st century version of Bob Woodward. Everything is starting to parallel Woodward’s career. You have the big investigative story, parlaying that into book and movie deals, the descent into excusing the powerful. If he’s looked at in that way, Omidyar’s moves start to make sense.
When Watergate broke, an entire generation of journalists wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein. (Hey Laura! Whatever happened to Bernstein?) Woodward, the former naval intelligence officer, leaned on his ability to develop sources to become the official stenographer of the ruling class. Fame and wealth has followed since. The journos in DC took notice, larding their stories with anonymous sources to allow the government to control the narrative. This system held for a few decades, however, the wheels have started to fall off the last decade with Iraq and the Crash.
The country no longer has faith in its elites, and a new generation of reporters are starting to gain an audience. Along comes GG and the NSA files. Omidyar isn’t an idiot when it comes to business. Setting up First Look to become Whistleblowers Inc isn’t a viable business plan to make money. An Ellsberg or Snowden are few and far in between. It is ,however, a viable plan to protect his other businesses. Even if FL loses money, ebay and Paypal are protected from prying eyes.
Omidyar has no problem letting GG cash in on the story. That lets GG act as the chum for the younger generation of investigative journos. There’s a whole cohort who will follow Taibbi and Scahill. Is there any expectation that those two will write about the paypal14? Will future whistleblowers contact Wikileaks, or are they now encouraged to go through First Look? If Wikileaks disappears, where will the Paypal or Silicon Valley whistleblowers turn?
As the saying goes, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. GG and PO don’t lack awareness.
Oh definitely. I’ve been saying that’s his only risk to trolls who go on about his great courage. Greenwald even seems to recognize the parallels himself, pointing often to Woodward when he gets attacked for squeezing every last dime out of this.
It goes beyond just protection. Greenwald and co have been really beating the drum on how improved encryption software and pushback from the likes of Facebook and Google are the way out. If Greenwald’s latest comments are any example, First Look is gonna be all about coupling cynicism about the state with starry-eyed faith in technology and its moguls, which follows the year-long sales pitch for journalist-mediated dissent. Isn’t the commercial side of the First Look business intended to be security technology for journalists or something like that?
Isn’t the commercial side of the First Look business intended to be security technology for journalists or something like that?
Yeah, I’ve read that the plan is to license some kind of tech. Omidyar is a rentier, and he needs to collect rent. That’s where the money is, plus he can refuse to renew the license if another outlet gets too nosy about his own holdings. I suspect the ad campaign would be to play up the insecurity of dealing with Wikileaks and others. Hey whistleblowers, look for the Good Housekeeping label if you don’t want to end up like Chelsea manning!
NB: As someone who worked at a Wall St. M&A law firm for ~ 20 yrs, I’d like to point out that corporate attorneys are not known for their attachment to principles, esp. ones that impinge on their personal earnings. Greenwald reminds me of a thousand 2nd-year associates I’ve seen who would do literally anything to make partner.
Greenwald is every inch a lawyer.
Celebrate! June 5 –> Put Stars By It Day!
April 5:
I am putting a star by June 5! I would not miss the multicolored hues for the world!
Meh … your columns are usually entertaining. This seems just “Yah boo sucks!” 😦
What can I say, troll, except not sorry? You’ve yet to entertain me, though your only other comment here was at least stupid in a novel way.
I think Greenwald’s admission that, yeah, the timings are all about the spectacle is worth noting, and the tweaked-up talk of fireworks and “multicolored hues” is unintentionally funny. But you can’t please everyone!
Ah, yeah, my first comment was a bit of a loss, I agree. I’ve come to far better appreciate your words since then. However, I’m a bit disappointed that instead of addressing my complaint about the lack of any substance to these latest ones, you simply label me a troll. Personally I can’t see a problem with maximizing the entertainment value of these leaks, as that seems to serve a greater good. Your own style seems deliberately chosen to ruffle feathers, and I think that’s great, as it creates attention for the substance of what you have to say, which in the case of Noam Chomsky vs. Aaron Swartz (as an example) I thought was said very very well.
Troll is my word for people who aren’t really adding anything except hostility, which is what you’re doing.
The kind of posts you like takes quite a lot of work and time and I’m not always up for it. I don’t agree, though, with your assessment of this post. Greenwald proves me right every fucking day, which, in light of what a big deal he is right now, and all the shit I’ve taken for criticizing him, merits pointing out. It just doesn’t always merit a lot of work. The choice for my readers at the moment isn’t between short posts and long; it’s between short posts or nothing at all. I guess you are one of those half-empty glass people.
As I said, I thought this quote was particularly revealing and I even bundled it with a link to DeBord and some related hilarity from Walter Glass, which I found brilliant. I think mocking people like Greenwald is good on its own and I’m quite happy with this little package. To me that you dig in your heels on how unsatisfied you are attests to both shallowness and a distastefully managerial kind of egotism. That you insist I must ‘address your complaint’, like you’re some fucking paid subscriber, and as if your complaint had a single compelling idea attached, takes it into the realm of surreal, especially since I did, in fact, point out why I’d posted.
I generally dislike people who complain of boredom, because, almost invariably, they’re bored because they’re boring. These posts have all elicited good discussion threads, something you have neither noticed nor contributed to. Three comments now and you’ve demonstrated nothing in the way of wit or ideas or an interesting way of putting things, which makes you unique among all the people who’ve dropped by lately. Now I see you’re trashing me on Reddit. And here I called you a troll. That flatters you.
i personally prefer to irregularly flip-flop on that one.
trufax which can’t be repeated enough these days.
Abandons ship!
From emptywheel:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/05/16/announcement/
Would love to know the back story, but we never will.
I think it would only be fitting if Wheeler broke it off because Greenwald refused to share all the Snowden documents with her. It’s one thing to keep secrets from us peons, but withholding them from a fellow Adversarial Journalist? Gatekeeping is only fun when you’re doing it from inside the gate.
She was the only one who seemed honest, and more importantly the only one who kept publishing on her own site after being hired.
I don’t think she seemed honest at all. She covered for PO on Ukraine as vigorously as GG. She trolled Pando harder than anyone and ridiculously.
As for still publishing, her agreement was always as a part-timer who would continue to maintain her blog. It appears the others have made an agreement to not publish elsewhere. That, or they’re content to just take the money and relax.
It’s premature to assume anything, including that Wheeler resigned.
Of course, Security [Meister] Thought Leader™, Bruce Shneier – whom, by his own admission [1], was given access to some, if not all, of the Snowden files – rubber stamps the intended finale.
05/14/14 Let the spies spy, let the cops chase terrorists [!]
[1] 09/06/13: For the past two weeks, I have been working with the Guardian on NSA stories, and have read hundreds of top-secret NSA documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Breaking News!
This just in from Omidyar Network!
The Snowden Spectacle is coming to Vegas… tickets starting at $524! This package will offer a one day tour of Las Vegas, followed by an action-packed live arena show.
Start off your day at McDonald’s with the Snowden Breakfast (not included in the package, but only $5.19). Give your taste buds a wake up call with a fresh-baked buttermilk biscuit, fluffy scrambled eggs, savory sausage hot off the griddle and crispy golden hash browns.
Next it’s off to MGM Hotel & Casino to watch Snowden/GG impersonators feed NSA villains to animatronic crocodiles (included) …… Then we’ll visit the Eiffel Tower, and the Venetian canals (free) finishing just in time for lunch at…you guessed it… Wendy’s.
For lunch try the Snowden Ranch Chicken Club Sandwich (not included but only $7.19) These are not some boring ol’ chicken sandwiches – they have tender, all-white meat chicken filets topped with thick-cut Applewood Smoked Bacon, natural-aged Agiago cheese, creamy ranch sauce, hand-leafed lettuce, and hand-sliced tomatoes.
Or double up with the Glennburger ($6.39) a half pound of 100% real beef and the freshest premium toppings on warm, toasted buns — a double that would make Glenn proud!
Next spend the afternoon touring the Egyptian pyramids, Las Vegas style (free)….
Finally…..saving the best part of the show for last…it’s on to the Main Arena ..and a performance of…drumroll here please:
SNOWDEN LIVE!! (included)
A visually stunning state-of-the-art production, featuring impressive stunts, pyrotecnics, illusions and video screen sequences.
SNOWDEN LIVE has a new, original story line featuring Snowden and his trusty counterpart GG…
Follow Snowden and GG in their quest for justice…watch choreographed fight sequences as Snowden and GG duke it out with NSA henchman… hang on to your seat as they rake in millions following in the footsteps of the billionaire Omidyar…
This is not a musical but a live show with a thrilling Snowden story, filled with action that appeals to adults, teenagers, kids and families…
And while you enjoy the show, be sure to stop by our concession stand for dinner. (Not included but the Snowden Pizza Combo is only $25): Choose any pizza with any large fountain drink or ICEE, and get one coupon for $3.75 off “No Place to Hide,” the hip, exciting new book by Glenn Greenwald that everyone is talking about…
Greenwald’s most famous tweets illuminated on the ceiling for that Sistine Chapel effect: “Put stars by it,” “You’re not a radical unless you’ve tunneled under the NSA or funded a fascist coup,” and “I owe it all to Digby.”
And Snowden and Greenwald at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum-Las Vegas are not to be missed.
Please don’t ever stop commenting here.
@ GTI +100!
Successive phases of the Snowden Spectacle:
1) it is the reflection of a profound reality (denouncing the scandal of NSA spying)
2) it masks and denatures a profound reality (here the NSA scandal effect hides that there is no difference between the “facts” and their “denunciation” (identical methods on the part of the NSA and Snowden/GG/Omidyar)
For instance, first GG denounces Sony Pictures for: “the ultimate hagiography of the most secretive arm of America’s National Security State” (Zero Dark Thirty), but after receiving lots of money for his Snowden book, he endorses not only Sony Pictures, but (implicitly) the NSA as well, and, in GG’s own words: is “very happy to be working with Amy Pascal, Doug Belgrad and the team at Sony Pictures Entertainment”, who have a successful track record of making thoughtful and nuanced true-life stories (such as Zero Dark Thirty)
3) it has no relation to any reality whatsoever (“Put stars by it”, etc….)
4) it is its own pure simulacrum (Snowden and Greenwald at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum – Las Vegas)
So what began as the denunciation of a scandal (NSA spying) ends up as the exact opposite: Snowden/GG/Omidyar’s homage to the NSA….while enriching themselves in the process…
Just adding:
Or phase one of the Snowden Spectacle could have been a Psy Op, of course, but there’s no way to be certain of this, so generally speaking, the fewer assumptions made, the better.
And besides anyone paying attention doesn’t need conspiracy theories to destroy Snowden or Greenwald’s credibility, they’re doing a perfect job of this every time they open their mouth, and as Tarzie mentioned above: “the system can improvise anything into a Psy Op — whether it started out that way or not…”
Has anybody ever seen Hamsher, Digby, and Wheeler in a room together? I’m beginning to think they’re all the same person.
It rained finally, and then it rained and rained, it rained all summer and into the fall.
The river was fat and swollen, everything damp, dripping, muck and mud and slick pavement the reservoir up the valley building to the lip of the dam.
And it kept on raining.
Clips on the national news of locals, regular folks, in spectra of raingear, from brand-new Patagonia gore-tex to K-Mart yellow slickers, bagging sand, lifting, carrying, pickups and flatbeds grinding through the mud of the river-front park to the ad-hoc wall, under the trees off to the side middle-school kids and seniors passing out tray after tray of cheese sandwiches, dixie-cups of cafeteria coffee, donated cases of bottles of water and juice, triage tents for exhaustion and analgesia,
And people, regular local people, into the rhythm of the work, the rhythm of the day into the night and on around to the next morning, red-shot eyes, too tired for small talk, even the fittest getting weary eventually but that wall needs built and the dam’s straining 5 miles upstream, and the news clips, international now, the images…
that’s how these fucks see themselves – heroic, valiant, can-do, willing, at the front, on the line, doing the selfless things that need done, because oh shit here it comes.
Zero Dark Thirty my ass.
Zero Dark Thirty my royal Irish ass.
You stole that phrase, you stole the images behind it, you stole everything but your own grasping desperate need not to be the cause of the disaster after disaster you’re now trying to position yourself as saviors in the middle of.
Zero Dark Nothing At All.
I got here just now after reading the Chris Floyd post.
When I saw the headline somewhere: “Greenwald: Best yet to come” it immediately confirmed all the prior suspicions and criticisms that you have made, many of with which I agree.
So, as I read Floyd, I was in total agreement – but, as I hadn’t read the GQ piece, I just assumed Chris was taking liberties and making shit up about the rockets red glare (as it in quotes?)- really, I thought it was just a big joke. How is it possible for someone to admit to a vision like that? Kind of like admitting to pissing your pants.
What a fucking asshole – GG can never walk that back. Never.
Unfortunately he doesn’t have to. The rules are all for everyone else. He’s special. I like how Floyd drew attention to how GG’s fireworks finish is the complete opposite of journalism.
I’ve been reading Guy Debord’s book. Paragraphs 4 and 12 ring true so far:
“4. The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.”
“12. The spectacle presents itself as something enormously positive, indisputable and inaccessible. It says nothing more than “that which appears is good, that which is good appears. The attitude which it demands in principle is passive acceptance which in fact it already obtained by its manner of appearing without reply, by its monopoly of appearance.”
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm
With this in mind, recall that Debord wrote his book in 1967, before Watergate, before the reforms that recognized the concept of whistleblowing. And here we have an entire industry that creates this spectacle – the antithesis of reality and truth. Really pernicious stuff.
I leave you with this:
It’s funny, I was never very big on DeBord, no doubt owing in part to pretentious lightweights citing him all over the place. But a lot of it really does ring true in this context. That tweet from Drake is a great finish to your comment, since not only does it point directly to the spectacle industry, but also because Drake’s public supplication before the almighty Omidyar and its analogs are as critical to the spectacle as anything else. It’s remarkable how social media facilitate spectacle in a way that DeBord may have never dreamed. For one thing, it affords niche spectacles, which I think this is, in a way. I don’t think too many people are watching it very closely at this point.
Yup, the opposite of journalism – the essence of marketing.
But we know GG was really thinking about saving the best for last – orgasm.
Omidyar! It’s A$$ $OULED-OUT!! What Spectral HUBRIS!!!
Breaking News! Here is is, folks, this just in from Omidyar Network….
As promised by GG, it looks like they saved the best part of the fireworks show for last….so here’s the big missing piece…. The finale you’ve all been waiting for….drumroll please….
Snowden’s Shit is about to go on sale!
Yes, beginning June 5…..100,000 thousand cans of Snowden Shit will go on sale to the public. Each can will weigh 30 grams and measure 4.8 X 6.5 cm, with labels in Italian, English, French and German stating:
Snowden’s Shit
Contents 30 gr net
Freshly preserved
Produced and tinned
July 2013 – May 2014
Note: A Government Stakeholder claims to have detected a fecal odor emanating from the cans, and this started a rumor that the cans are not full of Snowden Shit but of pigshit, however this assertion is disputed by none other than Glenn Greenwald himself.
The cans are steel, and thus cannot be x-rayed or scanned to determine the actual contents, and opening a can would cause it to lose its value; thus, the contents of the cans are unknown, but you have none other than Snowden and Greenwald’s word that these cans are filled NOT with pigshit but 100 percent government inspected Snowden Shit…..
Whooosh. Reading the comments took me four sessions on breaks from a boatload of chores today. I’m outta time for today, but given that I may be the least clever commenter online, may I come back tomorrow or the next day (Rocket Day?) to ask a few questions on a few occurrences and journalists alluded to?
Thanks to all of you who clipped out some of the most disturbing quotes from the GQ piece; my stars. If one cares, I just checked, and WikiLeaks hasn’t named the redacted nation yet. And I checked if the link on my four-month-old ‘Pennies for the PayPal 14’ post WePay contribution link was still good: nopers. Thought y’all might toss some in the jar. Alexa may have a new link, but I’m too pressed for time to go hunt it down.
wendy, what brings you here from firedoglake?
hmmm; long answer would be required. i wasn’t convinced at all that snowden was a limited hangout, if i even get the term’s full meaning. while kevin was covering the manning trials, i posted on lots of diaries on the ‘revelations’, and folks worked hard to teach me any of the terms involved, like ‘info packets’, backbones’, and all that jazz. i was not an apt pupil. (smile) (wish tarzie would turn off the ‘turn punctuation into emoticons shit; i loathe those things).
when the “transformational journalism” allied with “pierre” came about, i wrote about the advisability of partnering with a multi-billionaire. when i discovered that folks on a great jp sottile there mainly thought NED and USAID were ‘good things’, I got in trouble with most of the commentariat. (smile, again). when i saw that the ‘drip drip’ warn’t perzackly causing any big ol kerfuffles and abolition of the nsa, aumf, whatever, and discovered that GG supported the Citizen United decision, and grokked what kind of ‘good billionaire’ pierre was (and a whole lot more), i began listening a bit more acutely to dissenters. fook, i even did a thang on ‘the day we fight back’ to be a good little citizen. wow, did the world yawn!
i had meant to say earlier that i’d been joshin’ with mr. wendydavis that i reckoned that the new post on the bahamas cell phone recordings WAS the great game-changer promised. as in: fuckin’ A: once Opah© and the mega-capitalist Bill Gates learned *their phone calls* were bein’ recorded, they’d take are of it all for us.
TMI, i’m sure, but then, you did ask, mspbWatch. (grin)
Hmm. I was wondering if you were sent here by Jane Hamsher, who has financial/personal ties to GG, Radack, and GAP, as a means of softening the edges of the above critiques and, you know, possibly engaging in the same “veal pen” tactics that she so eloquently identified in the beginning of Obama’s administration. It would certainly be in her/their interest to do so. I guess it’s a sign that FDL is part of a power structure now – staring into the abyss and whatnot. I would hope, however, that with such institutional maturation a corresponding commitment to journalistic ethics would follow–declaring one’s interests and refraining from transparent power/propaganda moves. But depending on where Hamsher gets her guidance these days, that may not be the case.
Ah. I see. You asked by way of a troll/spy alert, not just seeking info as to why I was here at all. The level of irony in your surmise is hilarious, but I won’t bore you with why that is But you should have more precisely asked ‘from *My.fdl*, as you know I only write at the ghetto (readers diaries). What you mean by the rest of your paragraph is beyond me, but I’d think if Miz Hamsher were interested in reading here, she would.
But I’ll skip my intended questions, let my fingers do the Googling instead, except to note that both Sy Hersh and Jeremy Scahill have my sincere admiration for their dedicated on-the-ground journalism. The PTB sadly just put Sy in a virtual media straight-jacket to discredit him after he’d said that US soldiers had told him about the battlefield executions of Afghanis being committed there. Not surprisingly, WikiLeaks just named that nation as redacted X.
I did have a fairly good back and forth recently on one of posts this week, though. It was on the Redaction Kerfuffle. 🙂
Just for the record, mspbwatch doesn’t speak for me and has nothing to do with this blog other than commenting. I found nothing particularly suspect about your visit here, but your disproportionately hostile response to his inquiry coupled with your withdrawal from the conversation — “I’ll skip my intended questions” — is now starting to make me wonder.
Just for the record, we’re not pushing a limited hangout theory, and the implication that we are suggests at the very least that you haven’t read much here or you’re not reading very closely. The theory here is that whatever the Snowden Leaks started out as, they have been shaped into something more useful to power — including certain factions of the security apparatus — than to anyone else.
I don’t share your admiration for Scahill as in the rare occasions anymore when he says or writes anything he shills for Omidyar and imperialism and punches hippies who fail to applaud, just like his buddy Glenn.
Finally, don’t take this the wrong way, but it will be a cold day in hell before I go trawling through the WordPress docs to sort out a feature request about emoticons made by exactly one user who shows no inclination to hang around and engage in a not-weird way.
Perhaps I would if I knew what you were talking about. I guess WordPress turns emoticons into graphics. I don’t really find that happening around here too much though since hardly anyone uses emoticons.
Oopsie; I just made a smilie by mistake. The default for WordPress seems to be the conversion of punctuation to those. Dunno if it might take changing Discussion settings as well, but in general this comes from the help menu in the upper right-hand corner. (I have a small wordpress site myself.) But it was rude of me to give you instructions.
The help page; I forgot to leave it. http://en.support.wordpress.com/smilies/
You’re hilarious, whoever you are and for whatever reason you’re here.
Ah, you had just said that you might if you knew what I’d been talking about, so I tried to show you the applicable tweaks to WordPress, that was all. I didn’t think I was overly hostile to a very suspicious surmise. ‘…whatever reason you’re here’ rings much the same to me. I guess initially I came because Chris Floyd said a lot of things he might have said were addressed on this thread, and indeed they were. Movie rights to Sony, bits of the GQ piece, etc.
Like Red Skelton, I do tend to laugh hardest at my own wit, but that doesn’t seem to be the sort of hilarious you mean. But I will go a-Googling about Snowden quotes on NSA ‘should monitor bad guys’ and such; I hadn’t heard all that.
Fair enough.
All kinds of shady drops by here, so we’re sometimes a little defensive. Despite our shaky start, you’re more than welcome to come back and share insights. I would have enjoyed hearing why mspbwatch’s surmise was particularly ironic.
Yes, why is it ironic? What transgression have I committed that I am now accusing you or Hamsher of?
I dunno if you two posted at the same time. As her latest comment suggests, she meant ironic in that she has no loyalties to FDL that would induce her to be shady around here, which is how I took it before she explained.
I don’t see any bad faith here, myself, nor any reason for additional conflict.
wendy, I guess there is no way for me to know at this time if you’re an agent of influence, though your arrival here coincides with Hamsher’s latest propaganda campaign on behalf of GG, Radack, and other victims of our collective misunderstanding and ingratitude. So if you are one, this will become clear over time as the b.s. meter goes off. If not, you have my apologies.
You are relentless. I kinda like it. Liberals around here need to show some id.
Hell, I never said I wuzn’t shady, I just said I ain’t no SPY!
Srsly. The irony is that over the years I’ve written at My.fdl, it is safe to say that my relationship with management has been tempestuous and even adversarial at times. Lots of my blogging comrades have been banned, and yet there I still am, who know why? I take breaks when I’m vexed at some treatment I consider unfair, go back when I feel like it (I’m on a break over some eBay crap right now). Pierre can kiss mah grits.
I did find one piece that has GG saying ‘go for al Qaeda’, but not Snowden. Oh, well, that sucks enough. Well, shoot; I’ve mislaid the link. I’ve been workin’ on Endless War and okay-dokey to drone assassinate USians and all that newest loveliness. And David Barron approved by Democrats for Drones©.
But thanks for inviting me back, anyhoo.
to mspbwatch: this is all getting a bit convoluted for me, but ‘agent of influence’ did make me laugh. i’m still not getting what you imagined about ‘softening the edges of the above critiques’ and all that. and oops; i’d meant to type that miz hamsher (i left out the pronoun) and i did have a rather good conversation on that same ‘redaction’ spat thread. and yes, i did try to be diplomatic as i pasted in the Tweets, trying to zero in on the shaded and overly bold meanings they conveyed to me. and offered that i believed that the nation’s people had the right to know their calls were being recorded, and that TI could have said that they would unredact the name in the same three days that Wikileaks did, and used to do sometimes back in the day.
the conversation turned to chelsea manning’s torture, dissident torture in general (another subject i had researched), then i went to fetch a link to prove a point, and found michael hastings’ name at the chosen article. having written about, and strongly believing, that he was murdered by onboard car computer hacking, i admit i was overtaken with sick emotions. not long after i’d spotted miz hamsher’s ‘ebay says change your password’ post, and flipped my zoris about folks there not knowing anything about that company’s crap business practices, the paypal wikileaks blockade, all of that, and using both of them, and what that meant as far as ‘not jamming The Machine, arrgh. not terribly well done, but there it is.
wish i could remember my questions by now, but it’s okay. and yes, tarzie, my reading skills are quite poor any more, and my memory is deteriorating rapidly. my typing skills also suck, as is evident.
i will hope that jeremy scahill redeems himself, although i do now remember some of those sentences he wrote. anyway, i need to go close up the greenhouse; a lollapalooza of a high wind thunderstorm just blew up the canyon.
I’m not a part of that scene anymore so I’m afraid I can’t speak to the ins-and-outs of various threads, but the suspicion exists/existed because of PR campaigns FDL wages in on behalf of its new benefactor GAP-Radack-GG. I have issues with the editorial decisions partaken on behalf of those entities, who exploit and do violence to whistleblowers and their interests, in the guise of acting on their behalf. This is a bubbling issue but eventually the truth will catch up with them.
I confess I went to your fdl dashboard to remind myself what GAP is. And I’d always figured that Radak was one of the good guys (and haven’t given that for now), but seeing her intimate involvement with the group, still I’m left wondering about “…who exploit and do violence to whistleblowers and their interests, in the guise of acting on their behalf”.
I will admit enjoying seeing that you were on my thread laughing at all the Omidyar puff pieces about his funding ‘the new venture’, though. o, yass; let’s hear from his paid flacks!
But then again, my.fdl let me publish the piece, as they have my posts on ‘Tipping points to revolution’ series, and many other edgy pieces, so…I do credit the site for that, and not having banned me long before now.
Whoever said that ‘the arc of history bends toward the truth and justice’ may be right, but they didn’t mention how broad the arc might be, nor how wriggly a notion is ‘Truth’. Peace to you, but there are so many directions for our heads to swivel in life under the Imperium, I just can’t begin to know it all.
One of my writing interests has long been the many Indigenous predictions that we are on the verge of burgeoning higher consciousness, anchored by the notion that we are all related, and how important loving brotherhood and sisterhood are to make the next leap forward to creating a better world. Yeppers, hippie stuff, and I do carry the card. (smile)
Call our The Dark, and Bring the Light. I got kids and grandchirren, as so many do.
I hadn’t realized that the video would embed itself, and it may be acting as a thread-killer. Not that you need my permission, but please edit it out if you’d like.
Drip…The…drip…state…drip…knows…drip…what…drip…you…drip…did…drip…last…drip…summer.
Ever vigilant and all knowing and Glenn won’t let us forget it.
Oh that I had your gift for insight and concision.
Y’know, this feature of drip drip that you’re cleverly alluding to here never really occurred to me. I got that it was about normalization, but as I think you’re suggesting here, there is a downside to normalization. People forget. They stop being afraid. For the panopticon to work, everyone requires constant reminding, which also keeps the normalization fresh too.
Yep, normalization and the chill effect, Tarzie. Making an example of some is easier than taking out the whole colony. The illusion is more important than the reality. All I really need to know I learned in A Bug’s Life. 😉
I don’t think I ever saw that. Was it dystopian satire? I had no idea.
Even better, a Disney children’s movie…
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Bug's_Life
No, I knew that. I just wondered if some political satire for the grownups was ladled in too.
In heaping amounts (in my not-so-humble opinion).
The fact that Greenwad maintains a variation of foreplay in exposing material having to do, generally, with the advance of the electronic landscape, it is preventing the very real relationship society has to come to grips with about it, the “occupying” aspects of its inclusion in some Darwinian motif (about limits) related to a commonwealth recently being granted the tools. When so subverted the possibility for integrating this understanding becomes for all the ruse, maybe not even the highest of priorities in the end but one of them, all of the propaganda of this winning over learning does is maintain the status quo, which is the biggest issue.
There is a commonwealth attributable to man’s relationship to nature over the course of progress in learning in western civilization now being subjected to technology with its power in the hands of bandits. Greenwad is not Indira Singh, for example, who has been missing-in-action since 2008. What, for example, does one know about the difference that makes a difference related to artificial intelligence parallel processing has in relation to serial processing? The answer is that parallel can be pure intelligence, 100%, where serial is, generally, close to zero in reality. I believe the word al-Qaeda comes from this confusion where names change to protect the guilty. Originally, al-Qaeda meant “software base,” that was used to launder the money. Thus parallel does “occupy” and, it turns out, a smart second grader can program the software needed to follow the money across the planet, among an infinite number of other occupier niches, like developing oil fields or preventing train crashes. The software learns, then functions better.
It may be a problem with the overall landscape of learning. The general ecological mentality of mankind may be on a linearly downward spiral for the 6,000 years William Blake put into context, but, that is not to say that real advances have not taken place that are designed for higher learning leading to cognition that is different with regard to the subjective components that education, or learning, in the past has provided, more inclusive to what we deem civilization is, but get wrong for our participation in it. What is left out, or is integrated like forced busing instead, is the premise for advancement of our species, progress instead of modernization, not this evaporate thing Greenwad claims property rights for, as if he can. What is lost for the advent of such Manichean manipulation of the mechanical, is context among our own requiring our participation (Francisco J. Varela details it as “embodied”) stretching farther than what politics has become, introducing it, even, for life is political. Is crime? This is why I like Tarzie’s blog for that openness required to come up with the participatory impulse mandatory for such a cusp in time this is, the subjective cohesion that is missing, still, based on the notion of closure.
Nothing has ever been learned that was not there to begin with. What is NOT known is far greater than what is, although understanding that, everyone will agree, does make “it” easier, not the reverse. It boils down to wisdom. Just turning things right-side-up is about the most fantastic of miracles in these times. But, it isn’t. There is more.
Since all degrees in engineering are degrees in physics, what proves my point more than the reality of the ignorance about GUTCP, all the Nobel prizes in that niche going to people who cite about 1/10,000 of the fuller story already available in the text?
Remember, this is water being detonated…
And, being 100% pollution-free, the only byproduct is 200 times more stable than the most stable element in the universe, heretofore, thought to exist. Presently, the universe may be made up of more than 95% of dark matter, hydrogen in a different chemical state with the electron closer to the nucleus by 2×13.6 eV, or 27.2 eV, the state it occupied before this present series of quasars formed producing the galaxies present today, almost all with black holes in the middle. Which black hole is your favorite?
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