This is totally screwed up.
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About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
51 Comments
What is the real motive of the op ed’s author?
Probably to incite a witchhunt within the administration to get some enemies fired. I expect it was written to implicate a person who did not actually write it.
The fact that the NYT published it is interesting too. Either the NYT is in on the game, or the person behind this had substantial influence at the NYT. Yet another indicator of corruption at the NYT.
While if true, it reaffirms what the Woodward book is saying, and countless other reports from staffers in the White House, but leaves me asking what good is it?
If all of these insiders, staffers, colleagues, and adminstrative members can see that Trump is a raving lunatic, then why not go testify before Congress? Yeah, we know why: Trump has gotten them everything they ever dreamed of, like tax cuts, wreckage of the ACA, regulation destruction…we know that. But why now?
I think Trump has finally pushed too many people too far. He’s got the power of war right as his fingertips and what happens when the “sane” one isn’t around to grab his hand?
We already knew Trump was an egomaniacal power monster. Stop telling us that the Republicans know it now and we have to stop him. You built this monster, you stop him.
But why now?
To try and stop GOPers or others from voting Democratic come November. It’s fairly obvious that the op-ed was written by someone close to Pence. Why not put this letter out now to hopefully forestall the Democrats from regaining the majority in either the House or Senate?
Then this was really dumb. This is not going to encourage Republicans to vote Republican. Trumpies will not want to support the establishment that’s doing this to their (false) idol. Anti-Trumpers will be even more discouraged with the whole situation. The writer is, after all, admitting their attempts to control the nutjob are not entirely successful. That’s terrifying to anybody who recognizes Trump is a nutjob. Oh, and it’s just another pile of evidence that Trump is indeed a nutjob.
If you think Trump’s paranoia and anger was bad before….
It is hopeless to read the tea leaves on motives and agendas here. You could speculate all day.
It’s like holding a mirror in front of a mirror. There is something very disquieting about this story.
.
Time for the lone gunman.
Melania with a pillow in the Lincoln Bedroom?
How much does she get paid to walk next to Him? Does she get extra for holding his hand? Ya going to need a lot more $ for the pillow.
There isn’t any argument that I can think of that would be in favor of publishing this op-ed from the standpoint of “does this serve the country well”. It’s entirely self-serving, propagandistic, it tells us nothing new, and yet it’s in your face about enacting a soft-coup and why it’s good — completely separate from stopping a nuclear strike, but mundane shit like trade policy.
At the same time, if the president is too stupid to know or care, is it really a coup? He can get rid of people who aren’t serving him well. He could have fired Mattis for disobeying his orders regarding assassinating Assad, but he didn’t. He could have kept requesting the orders be carried out, but he didn’t. The presidency is about being able to put people in place and directing the bureaucracy to carry out your political agenda. It was known to all involved Trump wasn’t capable of doing this, and he doesn’t give a fuck.
What I know for sure besides Trump being incapable of performing duties of president is the NYT continues to fail the country and the moment.
The NYT just told us that a bunch of unelected republicans are running the country. That is a constitutional crisis.
That’s where I disagree. Insubordination isn’t a crisis of the constitution, it’s a crisis because Donald Trump is president. A lot of the behavior described could easily be overruled if Trump gave half of a shit and put a stop to it. It is the job of the president to fire people who aren’t serving him well. If he’s too stupid to realize this, that’s on him and the US system for electing him. Obama fired McChrystal for his insubordination, and it wasn’t a constitional crisis before he got rid of him; it was an insubordinate person who was not serving the agenda of the president, and dealt with appropriately. If Trump doesn’t have the guts or the wherewithal to get rid of his insubordinates, he can’t do the job, but the crisis is because of Trump.
Constitutional crisis would be if the 25th amendment was invoked and Trump just stayed put.
Can we impeach him NOW?
No. Incompetence is not a crime. But he could have a “tragic accident” or “a lone crazed gunman” could coincidentally do what the Powers (aka deep state) want.
I have no patience for the nonsense being spouted by these people.
I don’t doubt that ‘Anonymous’ is actually a Trump official, but this is self-serving drivel. He considers himself part of the resistance against a dangerous despot, but want’s to take credit for helping enact all the “bright spots” of the president’s agenda. We’re conveniently left to pick and choose what he considers beyond the pale.
Is it the bigotry? The treason? The incivility? Who knows? Just rest assured that once Trump is gone, this person will be able to nobly emerge from the shadows and take credit for all the good he did in service of his country.
I’m guessing It’s Elaine Chao.
Based on nothing.
But I want props (and maybe free drinks) if I’m right.
Dick Nixon convinced me it’s Nick Ayers.
It is Pence…trying to get out front of something that is about to happen.
I doubt it’s Pence. I can’t imagine him writing without the 18th century bible prose.
But I do think it’s a Pence operative.
Read the comments to this post over at NMMNB – they make a Pence case good enough to convince me.
(or else someone cleverly Machiavellian enough to divert suspicion by leaving clues pointing at Pence.)
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2018/09/dear-anonymous-what-youre-describing.html#disqus_thread
Or, more likely, Pence staff or speechwriter(s), not Pence himself. Discussion at BJ also.
I’m going with Nicki Haley.
I get a female vibe. At first, I was certain it was Sarah Sanders trembling with admiration for McCain and needing to justify her attempts to defend the indefensible. On closer inspection, I decided it was too heavy on foreign policy and military for her.
The logic ticks me off. It says Trump is unfit; unsung heroes are protecting the nation; but the real problem is that “everyday citizens” are too partisan. Gimme a break. A lunatic at the helm is a big deal. Why should I “break free of tribalism” and “rise above politics” when by the writer’s own admission this administration is an outrageous charade.
That’s such a naive and flaky POV, I suspect Hope Hicks and her wife-beating boyfriend wrote the op-ed.
Trump is now insisting the NYT reveal the source. He’s never understood the ethics of journalism. He’s argued all along that the FBI should track down leakers and journalists should be jailed until they reveal their source. He won’t let this go. He’ll use it to get the base even more wound up about the biased FBI/DOJ that won’t do his bidding and “the enemy of the people.”
I will give you major props if it’s Elaine Chao. I have never suspected her seeking bipartisan unity.
NYT referred to the source as “he” on twitter.
Could be a red herring but I suspect the leaker is male.
Actually, on consideration, I’m getting on the Dan Coats train. All that talk about national security issues. And there’s no love lost between Coats and Trump, especially after Helsinki.
That was Lawrence O’Donnell’s guess last night.
John Bannon!
Kelly.
With lodestars thrown in to point at Pence.
suggesting Kelly.
I see it turns out the 25th Amendment discussion was just that, words.
To be expected from the chickenshit, treasonous, cowardly bastards Trump appoints.
Out of all the things that could be said about this piece, about the only contribution I can offer that strikes me as significant is to share my sense that the NYT isn’t “faking” the source, or otherwise guilty of having been duped as to their identity.
As awful and maddening as the Times has been since, I dunno, Judith Miller, I don’t see them printing a statement that “…the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us…” unless the basic facts aren’t what they appear to be on the surface.
As for stuff like
is being anonymously posted in some kind of attempt to assure the American public that things maybe aren’t really that bad…I just can’t. This is like being on bad acid for 2 months without sleep.
The NYT knows Donald. They know he’ll rant about that op-ed for all perpetuity and pursue some kind of legal/investigative action. There’s NO doubt a real, verified White House employee gave them the article.
What I wonder about is the meaning of of the words “senior” and “official.” I hope the NYT wasn’t dumb enough to publish a negative account by the Senior Gardener or Senior Liaison to Burkina Faso. The name will come out, I think.
There are no grown ups in the room. At best, this was written with good intentions by an idiot who was affected by McCain’s death. At worst, it’s an attempt to get Donald riled up at another employee. It’s only going to make him more paranoid and batshit — and harder on the press.
I wouldn’t have published it unless it was written by a real heavyweight in the admin.
I would LOVE to think people are turning on him and this is the beginning of the end. I did think that at first. Then I watched more of the Kavanaugh hearing. It scared me. The Repubs may have already taken over. They want a monarch… they’re doing their best to install one.
. . . non-scandal). Times’ journalistic malfeasance far pre-dates Judy Miller.
I just went with the first thing that came to mind.
This is the line that grates the most. What exactly has this person done, other than vent in an anonymous Op-Ed? Jeff Flake at least has the decency to sign his name to his public scoldings.
Sure they thought about invoking the 25th amendment. But they didn’t do it. Likewise, Gary Cohn thought about resigning after Trump’s Charlottesville comments, and Kelly commented that he would have ‘shoved it up Trump’s a.. six times’. Flake never even thought about threatening to withhold his vote on a piece of must-pass legislation.
Cohn decided coddling Nazi’s wasn’t so bad and as far as I can see Kelly never thought it was worth tendering a resignation at all. Like Paul Ryan, they can look past the bigotry, the sexual assaults, the attacks on the foundations of our democracy, just long enough to get their own agenda passed.
It’s just the opposite of Kaepernick’s “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything” motto.
Ass covering writ large
This article! I’m still seeing RED and smoke is billowing from my ears!
F__ the NYT.
F
_ this unelected a–hole.
F
__ the GOP.
IF, indeed, this creep was truly some sort of “patriot,” then s/he should come out of the shadows and boldly and transparently make his/her statement to the world and quit.
But, no. This greedy mendacious CROOK stays in the shadows basically effecting a palace coup and croons to the masses how HE, and HE alone is “saving” our once great nation from the crooked madman he serves.
WTF? I mean: WTF??
And WHAT, pray tell, are the “things” that Trump has done that make this guy/gal “upset.” It’s not really revealed, is it? In fact, this shithole waxes lyrical about how FAAABULOUS Trump’s and the GOP’s actions and laws are how. How WONDERFUL a job the GOP is doing, despite this pig-ignorant asshole who’s putatively in charge.
Go EFF yourself, you lousy lilly livered cowardly creep. And the NYT can take a long hike off of a short pier for indulging in this kind of fake false witness.
Oh what’s the sound I hear? Democrats doing bloody Eff all.
Onwards.
Trump is said to be freaked out. That’s ok by me.
Sure, fine – Trump’s freaked out. Whatever.
However, I am definitely not “ok” with unelected people apparently running the government. This is not a good thing, frankly. It’s called a coup.
He has himself to blame. Any leader should be communicating with his staff. He seems to just bark commands and tweets and generally ignores everyone around him, since he knows more than all,of them. Should never have happened. If you had a staff mutiny like this in a large company, you would likely be gone. He brought it on himself. He is an idiot. So what do you want to do about it other than enjoy the popcorn? Maybe send the coup scrubbers in. I hear they are good. It’s called impeachment.
Man up! Your model is John Dean.
If Trump was paying attention to what his staff was doing and saying I think it unlikely this would have happened, since he could have shut it down long ago. But he is such an egotist, he sleep walks through the consequences of his actions and ignores everyone else. He imagines his never ending lies and changes in direction are just fine. Guess not.
My other “conspiracy theory”. Mueller is a Republican, and so are many of the people in government supporting him in some fashion, of which we know only a few observable cast shadows. What’s up with them?
Mueller’s strategy seems to be, pull out all the supports around Mr Trump while he stews in his cloud of dementia and delusion. But there are some immovables who aren’t criminally exposed, and there is the Trump family.
Mueller can’t strike against the family, which looks like it is very vulnerable legally, without waking up the dragon.
This editorial was some of the rest of the conspiracy attacking from a new direction. Now Mr Trump can trust no one – maybe he’ll go on a firing rampage and get rid of a few more trusted lieutenants who can actually get things done. Leaving the incompetent family.
At that point of confusion, Mueller can make his strike against the king, and his family.
Of course, so can the North Koreans. Or President Xi.
Well that’s it – going to get to work on my screenplay! Stock up on water and food!
. . . On second thought, nah. Who could ever believe it?
Well …
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/9/7/52553/35679#10
Somebody has ripped off my idea! How am I going to sell this script now?
Sounds like a military type to me. Someone like Alexander “As of now, I am in control here in the White House.” Haig. Most likely Kelly who appears to be waiting to be fired and has the ego to assume he’s saving the country in the meantime.
Yup