Place your bets: Who's the snitch?

All the more reason to do some damage before leaving.

Yeah but first, Ryan is a truer believer than Trump; he's got no compunction harming people. Second, wasn't the writer a sr. administration official? Doesn't match up with Ryan -- he's not a member of the administration at all.

Michael Moore believes it was Trump himself, or his team, attempting to enrage his base (and independents) against the supposed deep-state idea. DT has been known to use fake personas before. As for why the NYT would print the piece, the administration could have used a straw man to deliver it.

Oh, sure, it was Trump. Except for how it's written in English and all -- and the Times wouldn't do that.

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

The only one that makes any sense to me is someone who is Pence's aide and speechwriter.

But then, common sense...………….

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

It's so surreal that this is no longer even talked about.

DT and his presidency is a freaking whirlwind. It's smoke and mirrors and confusion. I miss the days of 'slow' news cycles.

gem1122 said:

It's so surreal that this is no longer even talked about.

DT and his presidency is a freaking whirlwind. It's smoke and mirrors and confusion. I miss the days of 'slow' news cycles.

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Yeah, the Kavanaugh circus has buried everything else.

And if (I hope it's not when, though I fear it is) he is confirmed, that will be mostly forgotten by the media too.

I could see it issued by, if not Trump, Trump loyalists to do two things at once - give the base evidence of a "deep state" they can blame when Trump screws them over personally, and also to reassure the nervous middle that they won't wake up in the middle of a shooting war one day, because the "grown ups" are in charge still.

Not very convincing, and the base is solidly Trump no matter what they do. I think they're playing more and more to the base, because they get good feedback from it, but they've GOT the base already. It's like spending money to paint the good parts of the boat rather than fixing the holes in the bottom.

The anonymous op ed writer is coming out with a book and staying anonymous.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/10/22/politics/anonymous-trump-official-book/index.html

darkprincealain said:

The anonymous op ed writer is coming out with a book and staying anonymous.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/10/22/politics/anonymous-trump-official-book/index.html

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I think Anonymous wants to be found out now. It only took a few months for folks to figure out Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors. It won't take but a few days to figure it out this time, I think. Whether this is the case or not, hopefully the timing might be more in this author's favor than for others who've written tell-alls on Trump. The trickle of issues is building into a flood.

Don't White House officials have to disclose book deals? Unless Anonymous quit before they had the deal, they're not going to be anonymous long. Or they've broken the law. Not taking bets on which is most likely.

Trump is the leak. Just making a smokescreen like he always does.

Kaiser-Kun said:

Perhaps they're trying to make him do something really stupid.

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Does he really need help with this?

Introversion said:

Does he really need help with this?

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Something stupid that shakes the "faith" of his cultists and enablers?

RedRajah said:

Something stupid that shakes the "faith" of his cultists and enablers?

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Is this one of those impossible zen things, like the sound of one hand clapping? The cultists are cultists by definition: if he said it was high noon at midnight they'd swear they saw the sun in the sky. The enablers have shown they're willing to stay strapped into the seats even if this plane flies down the gullet of the volcano, because they want this and/or are more afraid of kompromat than they are brave enough to grab the stick away from the deranged pilot they chose to install.

Kaiser-Kun said:

Perhaps it's a strategy. Trump can't stand disloyalty, it drives him crazy. He's already having a meltdown about the impeachment. Perhaps they're trying to make him do something really stupid.

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I've been flashing back to A Few Good Men where Tom Cruise pushes Jack Nicholson's ego to get him to admit THE TRUTH. This has been happening and will continue to.

Chris P said:

I've been flashing back to A Few Good Men where Tom Cruise pushes Jack Nicholson's ego to get him to admit THE TRUTH. This has been happening and will continue to.

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There was a time when this strategy worked--push a politician, ask them leading questions, until they finally snapped and said what they REALLY think instead of repeating the dogwhistles and euphemisms.

We seem to have moved into an era where people can openly voice and publicly own increasingly crazy and inflammatory positions, though, without shocking anyone or turning people away.

ULTRAGOTHA said:

Don't White House officials have to disclose book deals? Unless Anonymous quit before they had the deal, they're not going to be anonymous long. Or they've broken the law. Not taking bets on which is most likely.

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Do they have to disclose book deals because they're a source of income? What if they just wanted the book out there? The publisher will make a ton of money, just out of loyalists wanting copies to burn, and disloyalists wanting dirt. If the author were to forego any payment, would they have to disclose their identity? Sure, someone would find out, but then: fame and publicity! It's hard to shoot someone who spends all their time on talk shows and being interviewed.

RedRajah said:

Something stupid that shakes the "faith" of his cultists and enablers?

Click to expand...

something that shakes EVERYONE else. When you hit 28% support, it doesn't matter if those folks are never actually throwing in the towel...

trump's gotta either lose the 2020 election because he's lost democratic "novelty" and "but I fucking hate Hillary" voters and independents who preferred an untested outsider to another dynasty, which is relatively likely I'm thinking (and hoping) or he's gotta hit a core so exclusionary that even the current crop of republicans who can't see beyond a single election cycle realize he's chasing an evolutionary dead-end

Roxxsmom said:

There was a time when this strategy worked--push a politician, ask them leading questions, until they finally snapped and said what they REALLY think instead of repeating the dogwhistles and euphemisms.

We seem to have moved into an era where people can openly voice and publicly own increasingly crazy and inflammatory positions, though, without shocking anyone or turning people away.

Click to expand...

The thing with Trump is that he openly admits the crimes and all of the horrible things that he thinks and does, then he dares anyone to do anything about it.

So far, the GOP has supported him 100% and the Democrats have been unwilling to go through the effort of actually enforcing oversight.

We'll see if it changes.

This is so dangerous.

I keep thinking about the costs--both financial and personal--to all of the people who keep trying to warn of the reality of the Trump era. From Reality Winner, still sitting in jail, to Dr. Blasey Ford, the Whistleblower, the Ambassadors, Lt. Col. Vindman, and many, many others. All because their loyalties are to the country, not the person in the Oval Office. They'll never be made whole.

Orklad said:

The thing with Trump is that he openly admits the crimes and all of the horrible things that he thinks and does, then he dares anyone to do anything about it.

So far, the GOP has supported him 100% and the Democrats have been unwilling to go through the effort of actually enforcing oversight.

We'll see if it changes.

Click to expand...

Yes, and even though public opinion seems to be swinging against him, the American Public has a very short political attention span and memory these days. Who knows what people will be concerned about in fall of 2020? I still worry greatly that a major terrorist attack here by an Islamist group could sway public opinion in his favor again. And of course there's also the fact that if the economy is doing okay, sitting Presidents have historically had an advantage.

A lot of truisms and long-standing rules have been broken in recent years, though. For one thing, given the strength of the economy for much of his term, it's amazing Trump's numbers have not even approached 50% approval, except for a very brief period right after he took office (and even then, he didn't go over 50% in average poll numbers).

There is no other POTUS in recent history who has never topped 50% approval during their first term in office, nor have any had such consistent approval ratings. Even Ford managed to poke his head above the 50% mark a couple of times during his brief tenure.

It turns out it was former Homeland Security Deputy Chief of Staff Miles Taylor. I will come back with a link later, but ABC News has confirmed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...5a59ec-1948-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.html