An apparent glowie masquerading as a journalist writes a typical hit piece in a New York mag on the closing days of the Trump Administration. He spends a few days shadowing acting defense secretary, Chris Miller. “Kash” Patel and Ezra Cohen-Watnick make cameos.

Reading 'tween the lines, there's some interdasting info.


To hear the “journalist” tell it, his desire to “ride shotgun” with Miller was over fears the outgoing administration might use “the only institution with the reach and the tools—2.1 million troops and weapons of every shape and size—to counter any moves to forestall or reverse the democratic process.”


The writer of the piece “worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense“ and later as an attorney for the CIA.

I understood the national security wiring diagram. 

(“Cough, cough, glowie cough cough”)

This so-called journalist appears to constantly be on the lookout for projects that “move the needle.” Many of his original reports have been optioned and adapted for film and television through his production company P3 Media.

Huh. Do tell about this idea for a movie to "enjoy."

The article chooses to use the events of Jan. 6, 2021 as its focal point. The writer repeatedly characterizes it as an “insurrection.” Its gist is summarized here. The piece in its entirety in the first link above is typical inside baseball with Game of Thrones-like machinations and interactions typical of The DC Swamp. The writing style is full of the typical first person “I thought this” and “look at me that” type lingo that seeks to give readers the mistaken impression they are really on the inside.

But you have to read all the way through to the end to get to the good stuff. Lousy “journalist.” Glowie buries the lead.

Makes one wonder if "journalism" was his true purpose.

“This fucking place is rotten. It’s rotten.” Miller says of the Defense Department itself. “When the system is weighted towards the Joint Staff and the geographic combatant commanders against civilian control, you know, we’ve got to rethink this.”

Miller appears to blame Congress for “idolizing and fetishizing” top brass.

Cohen related earlier that he others “had discovered that the Joint Chiefs were creating their own ‘security compartments’ containing operational planning details ‘for the express purpose of hiding key information from career civilian and political leaders in the Pentagon’—up to and including the secretary of Defense. Talk about a deep state.”

Miller: “That means that policymakers were basing their decisions on partial information. It’s very dangerous and irresponsible.”

To the writer, this assertion “had all the elements of a Trump fever dream: The military and intelligence establishment was somehow scheming against the renegades. That is, until two other senior national security officials—with Miller and company—confirmed Cohen’s assertion.”

Miller: “The entire system, the intelligence community [included], is complicit in setting up all these compartments—so that only very select people actually have perspective and access to the entire picture. And then your question is, ‘Well, who are these people that have the complete picture?’ I felt like I finally did as acting SECDEF—to a point. I’m sure there’s still some stuff that was being compartmented. But I don’t know that for a fact.”

My recollection is this is what led to the move to set up Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn early in the Trump Administration and neutralize him (credit Mike Pence for the assist there).

Flynn wanted to audit all those secret pet projects and find out what taxpayers were really getting for their money.