Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

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Gaybutton
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Gaybutton »

A "whodunit" for Trump. This is just TOO good.

Personally I hope it turns out to be either Kellyanne Conway or Sarah Sanders. I hope whoever it is will eventually have the courage to identify him/herself. It would come as no surprise to me if Trump fires them all to make sure he gets rid of "the traitor."

I hope even more of these people who work closely with Trump start admitting the way things really are, although unless the entire news media is just making it all up, none of it is telling us much that we don't know already. Basically, they are confirming it.

I like how Trump is demanding that the New York Times reveals who wrote it as a matter of national security. What's the part that places national security in jeopardy? The only thing placing the USA in national security jeopardy is Trump himself, along with his most staunch and truly loyal staff.

Once again, the idea of being careful what you wish for enters into the scenario. If Trump is impeached or removed from office on the grounds of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, then we'll all be blessed with Mr. Pence . . .










New York Times - Opinion

September 5, 2018

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

The result is a two-track presidency.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.

Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.

We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.

There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opin ... tance.html
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Smiles »

. . . and Pence waiting in the wings. And Shakespeare from the grave would love to be part of this.
If The Donald resigns (most improbable), or is heaved into history's trash bin by Amendment 25 and his cabinet (somewhat possible), or is impeached, then tried, then tossed (50/50), then Pence could be President for ten years (if the electorate gives him a chance, but which looks debatable).
Pence is a ghoul who Holy Rolls and waits ... he backstabs his boss (deservable) by saying pretty well nothing, just like any good waiter.
Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

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Smiles wrote:. . . and Pence waiting in the wings.
"What a nauseating prospect."
Charles Laughton (Sir Wilfrid Robarts), 'Witness for the Prosecution'
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Dodger »

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Pence who wrote the letter to the New York Times...thumping his bible all the way down the aisle.
Up2u

Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Up2u »

Dodger wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if it was Pence who wrote the letter to the New York Times...thumping his bible all the way down the aisle.
Could be, but a better guess might be Kelly. The Trump reaction to McCain's death was the last straw.
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

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Up2u wrote:Could be, but a better guess might be Kelly.
No matter who it was, unless it comes out who wrote it and who else might be involved in trying to thwart Trump's lunacy, the part I like best is not who wrote it, but that it places Trump in a position where now he can't trust anybody, with the possible exception of Sean Hannity.

Even if the author jumps up and says, "It was me," based on the piece others are also involved in trying to curtail Trump. Who and how many, we don't know.


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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Dodger »

Gaybutton wrote: ...but that it places Trump in a position where now he can't trust anybody
I think he's lived a life where he's never trusted anyone anyway.

My father told me once that a person you should trust the least is the person who trusts no one.

Wait until Bob Wooodward's book is released. Apparently its jam packed with quotes from people on staff in the White House including his own council calling him a fucking idiot. I love the quote apparently coming from his Chief of Staff saying he (Trump) has the intelligence of a sixth grader...hahahahaha. I laughed my ass off when I read that one.

This just keeps getting better.

Up2u wrote:Could be, but a better guess might be Kelly. The Trump reaction to McCain's death was the last straw.
Actually, here is my pick...as absurd as it may sound...

Lindsey Graham
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

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Dodger wrote:Actually, here is my pick...as absurd as it may sound...

Lindsey Graham
To me, the significant thing is not who wrote it, but the number of people close to Trump who could have written it and would say exactly the same things about Trump.

It could easily have been a collaborative effort, with more than just one person writing it, or at least knowing about it, before it was submitted to the New York Times.

When thinking about it, is there really anything in the piece that we didn't already know?

America, when you elected Trump you made the BIGGEST mistake in the entire history of the country.

Now, correcting that mistake and undoing and repairing the damage caused by it is an extremely, if not impossible, task. I can only hope the midterm elections will at least be a start.
Up2u

Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

Post by Up2u »

Dodger wrote:
Up2u wrote:Could be, but a better guess might be Kelly. The Trump reaction to McCain's death was the last straw.
Actually, here is my pick...as absurd as it may sound...

Lindsey Graham
But​ Graham is not a senior administration official. The NYT probably kept the description vague to protect the identity. This must be driving Trump mad to figure out the identity.
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Re: Consequences of Trump's Win - 5

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Up2u wrote:This must be driving Trump mad to figure out the identity.
My question is - if something is driving Trump mad, how can you tell?
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