Former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor dared to criticize the Mighty Glenn Greenwald on Twitter a couple of days ago, and you know what that means — thousands of vitriolic words at The Intercept: US Takes a Break From Condemning Tyranny to Celebrate Obama’s Visit to Saudi Arabia.

Greenwald’s schtick is getting pretty threadbare by this time, so in our new tradition of only quoting the good parts in his rants, let’s pull out the insults, ad hominem attacks and ridiculous categorical pronouncements, shall we? (The beginning of his article is a defense of British weirdo George Galloway, by the way.)

Selecting the year’s single most brazen example of political self-delusion is never easy…

As is typical for Western discourse, criticizing western government militarism was immediately equated with support for whatever tyrants those governments happened to be opposing…

…the trite tactic of depicting opposition to western intervention as tantamount to support for dictators…

…easily one of the world’s most loyal, constant, and generous supporters of the most brutal Arab despots…

…as stunning a display of western self-delusion as I could have imagined…

…he still literally adorns the walls of his home with multiple large posters of President Obama…

Vietor’s function, which he performs quite faithfully, is simple: to express and embody the most conventional, defining views of official imperial Washington about itself…

…nothing more than the long-standing favored tactic of official Washington…

…cynically feigning concern for human rights as a means to undermine the governments that do not comply with US dictates…

…the Maduro government isn’t bad because it “illegally jails opposition leaders”; it’s bad because it opposes US policy, refuses to obey US dictates, and defeats neo-liberal, US-subservient candidates in popular elections…

That’s all obvious…

…what never ceases to amaze me is the ability of the Tommy Vietors - like David Cameron before him - to convince first themselves, and then others, that they are able to issue these denunciations without instantly being driven from the public square in shame…

…the unparalleled political, financial, diplomatic and military support with which the US lavishes Israel…

…If you want to justify all of this by cynically arguing…

…don’t run around acting as though the US is some sort of stalwart opponent of political repression and human rights violations when the exact opposite is so plainly true…

…don’t hold yourself out as the leader of the mob condemning others for expressing support for far more benign governments…

Yes, he really did write “official imperial Washington.”