When news broke that members of the U.S. intelligence community were in possession of recordings proving that, contrary to what he’d said to the FBI, Michael Flynn had been in direct communication with Russian operatives prior to Trump’s inauguration, he was forced out as White House national security adviser, and ultimately replaced by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who many welcomed as a voice of sanity. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed – namely the white nationalists who helped propel Donald Trump into the White House.
Flynn, it would seem, had endeared himself to the so-called “alt-right” when he took to the campaign trail alongside his racist, conspiracy theory espousing son to yell about how Sharia law was already spreading across the United States, and lead enthusiastic chants of “Lock Her Up.” McMaster, I think it’s safe to say, was seen as a poor substitute – a man who wouldn’t even say the phrase “radical Islam,” let alone rant about “Islamism (being a) vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people,” as Flynn had been known to. [McMaster has also cautioned that we not just tear up the nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration without first having a new strategy to take its place, which is apparently pissing off many on the far right. He also apparently had the audacity to once weigh in with the obvious and state that former national security adviser Susan Rice hadn’t done anything wrong by “unmasking” the names of individuals noted in intelligence reports.]
And, it would appear that this longstanding dissatisfaction with McMaster has finally come to a head, in large part thanks to Gen. John Kelly having recently been named White House chief of staff. [Kelly, as you’ll recall, replaced Reince Priebus, who was forced out by Anthony Scaramucci, who, coincidentally enough was in turn fired a few days later by Kelly.] As I understand it, Kelly only took the position of chief of staff when he was assured by Trump that he, and he alone, would decide who who would be hired to serve in the White House, and who would be fired. And, it would seem, Kelly apparently told McMaster that he could begin removing some of Flynn’s more questionable hires, without fear of reprisal from the White House.
So, with this, McMaster fired Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council’s (NSC) senior director for intelligence programs, who, among other things, was apparently responsible, along with Devin Nunes, for the now thoroughly debunked “unmasking” story involving the Obama administration; and Derek Harvey, the NSC’s senior director for the Middle East, who, among other things, had attempted to force “Obama holdovers” out of the NSC. And that’s not all. McMaster, a week or so before, had also fired Rich Higgins, the NSC’s director for strategic planning, who, right before his firing, had circulated a memo suggesting that Trump’s presidency was being undermined by a cabal of globalists, bankers, Islamists, and various members of the “deep state”… So, in a relatively short period of time, McMaster got rid of three of the craziest, most dangerous, most paranoid, most racist members of the Trump administration – individuals who, up until recently, had been able to stay in office due to the protection of men like Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.
So, with three of the more delusional members of the NSC having been forced out, members of the far right have started gunning for McMaster. It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that Trump just had to weight in. “General McMaster and I are working very well together,” he said in a statement sent to The New York Times. “He is a good man, and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.” [Trump, it would seem, said this in repose to speculation that he might reassign McMaster to Afghanistan, and replace him with current CIA Director Mike Pompeo.]
But the attacks have not only continued, but intensified in recent days. This, in large part, is due to the involvement of rape advocate Mike Cernovich, the blogger who, as you may recall, helped Trump during the campaign by pushing the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was involved in the operation of a subterranean child sex ring. Cernovich, who just launched a website called McMasterLeaks.com, has apparently made it his new mission to push the general from the NSA. [The image at the top of the page, which many see as being anti-Semitic, was taken from the first post at McMasterLeaks.com, a site promoting, among other things, the theory that McMaster works for Jewish financier George Soros.] The following clip comes from Think Progress.
…“MCMASTER PURGES NSC STAFFER FOR WARNING OF ISLAMIST-LEFTIST THREAT,” conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich tweeted on Wednesday, before proceeding on a tirade about the national security adviser.
Cernovich subsequently claimed that McMaster had “been leaking information to David Petraeus” and “had direct contact with George Soros.” Those claims, plus at least a dozen more, were all published on McMasterleaks.com, a website Cernovich created. The site features an anti-Semitic illustration of Soros and McMaster by right-wing cartoonist Ben Garrison, according to Newsweek.
On Twitter, Cernovich kept the party going. “McMaster’s butler’ [Army intelligence officer] Joel Rayburn is running off the books intelligence operation against Trump loyalists,” he claimed. “Joel Rayburn is spying on people including me, but McMaster will not investigate leaked transcripts. Says it all.” Rayburn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a YouTube video, Cernovich also accused McMaster of being a “Deep State plant” who was “intent on replacing Trump loyalists with Deep State operatives.”…
But it’s not just Cernovich out there, saying “(McMaster) needs to be removed immediately.” The hashtag #FireMcMaster has blown up these past several days. And, interestingly, according to the New York Times, it sounds as though Russian bots might be helping to make that happen… Here’s a clip.
…The #FireMcMaster hashtag was tweeted more than 50,000 times since Wednesday. Echoing the drumbeat were social media organs tied to the Russian government. According to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan group created to focus attention on Russian interference in the West, the top hashtag among 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations at one point on Thursday was #FireMcMaster…
While, at least in theory, I’m not terribly keen on the idea of members of our military stepping in take control over our civilian government, I think, given our options at this point, I’m glad to have McMaster in the White House… Anyone who Cernovich and the Russians want out, I think it’s pretty safe to say, is someone who’s probably doing pretty good work on behalf of our nation.
