On The Fast Track To Crazytown

OK, a senior official in the Trump Administration describes the resistance from within. This comes the day after the big Woodward firestorm and Washington (or at least Memeorandum) is reeling.

So what does it mean? I am sure I am not alone in having had the pleasure of working for an idiot-savant boss who offered on a daily basis a mix of great ideas, terrible ideas and illegal ideas with no ability to distinguish them. Humble yet earnest underlings would huddle, try to separate the wheat from the chaff and the handcuffs, and carry on with appropriate commitment.

If the Big Dog never barked again on a particular topic we figured we were in the clear. After all, we were all adults and in moments of sanity we thought there was a mutual understanding from both high and low that some of these ideas needed to be forgotten. Things did get tense when the boss repeatedly pushed for one his terrible ideas, but we had fallbacks and fall guys.

Anyway - some level of madness is normal, or at least not unusual, in an organization. Trump seems to be an extreme outlier but Woodward was pretty harsh on Clinton in The Agenda and Bush in State of Denial. Disgruntled staffers gonna disgrunt. This is from a review of The Agenda:

Some examples. George Stephanopoulos, perhaps Clinton's closest aide, is said to have told incoming budget director Leon Panetta that the president-elect's worst failing is that he can never make a decision (Page 86). Senior political assistant Paul Begala opines that the president is so lacking in backbone that without his wife he would have had a career as the most popular law professor at the University of Arkansas (Page 111). Deputy budget director Alice Rivlin is reported to have told Mr. Begala that the Clinton campaign's numbers on the federal deficit were dishonest (Page 114). Political adviser Stanley Greenberg is said to have thought at one key juncture in 1993 that Hillary Clinton's strategy on health care was insane and dishonest (Page 122).

Would that Woodward and Anonymous had so little to say about Trump.

MORE: Nick Gillespie is excellent.

Comments

[Captain Hate]

In fairness to Stephanopoulis, Slick being a big time ditherer was pretty well known. His butt boys wanted to fluff him by talking about he wanted to consider things from every viewpoint but I viewed it more as that simple oaf not knowing how to process data OR delegate things. He was notoriously disorganized as a law teacher, losing tests and term papers; doubtlessly distracted by being around so much young cooch.

[narciso]

So my two cents are those never trumpers that somehow got a state department posting, and Lerner who missed out on becoming pences national security director.

[Bunky is now Savotage!!!]

So what is Harris up to here?

[Beasts of England]

Kamala Harris is a disgrace.

[Bunky is now Savotage!!!]

They think they have something

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

How long does Woodward get to make shit up before people just ignore him?
Wasn't talking to William Casey via Ouija board enough?

[narciso]

Maybe this guy was the no 2 choice:

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/274754.htm

[Captain Hate]

Seeing Woodward on the panel of Fox News Sunday used to be brutal, like listening to Bill Bennett on the radio get to a point. They got the camera off him pretty quickly so people wouldn't notice him sitting there with his mouth gaping open with no sense of self awareness. Maybe Chris Wallace thought having the pathetic geezer on would lessen his father's torments in Hell.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

Josh Caplan
‏ @joshdcaplan
8m8 minutes ago

YONHAP: North Korea leader Kim Jong-un recommits to denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula

[Bunky is now Savotage!!!]

Kavy just put it right back in her face.

[Captain Hate]

MOAR WINNING!

[jim nj]

Henry,

I'm curious as to how you view section 8 leases. Good, bad or indifferent?

[Captain Hate]

Getting over on Kabbalah should be a minimum requirement for any professional job that may involve dealing with irritating retards.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Kim Jong-un recommits to denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula--

So did he recommit or un recommit?

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

Second source:

USA FOR TRUMP
🇺🇸
‏ @USATrump45
10m10 minutes ago

BREAKING: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirms commitment to total denuclearization of Korean peninsula

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

Mark Lutchman
🇺🇸
‏ @marklutchman
6m6 minutes ago

BREAKING: AG Rod Rosenstein under investigation, no longer has authority to sign FISA applications.

Who else is happy to hear this? 🙋🏽‍♂️

=================================

I will look for more on this. No source yet, so take with grain of salt.

[Janet 🚬]

((How long does Woodward get to make shit up before people just ignore him?))

Yes. That should be the attitude to ALL this anonymous source garbage.

How do we know you didn't just make that up?
YOU prove it.

Instead we've got a media standard where they just print ANYTHING...not even a name attached!
... & we have to disprove it?

It is ridiculous.

The jokers that print the crap should have to prove what they allege.

[Clarice Feldman]

🇺🇸 BuildingTrumpmore ⚒️
‏

@k_ovfefe
23m23 minutes ago
More
Joe Digenova just said on Hannity that Rosenstein is under investigation for FISA issues and he can't do FISA warrants anymore.
Sara Carter said that she has heard the same thing.
👀

[Clarice Feldman]

Maybe that'll teach him to read warrant applications before signing them

[Janet 🚬]

"...anonymous sources are the media’s way of saying, “Just trust us.”
The question is why would anyone trust the media?" - Daniel Greenfield

[lyle]

Greenfield is my current fave. That is all.

[narciso]

Max Holland dug through Alan Pakula (The director of all the presidents man,) and Woodward papers to discover what a weasel he was back in 73,

[Janet 🚬]

It's like the rotting media machine thinks they can behave like the FBI.
Put out any unverified, anonymous rumor & feed it to the public as fact. Then start bringing down whoever they're targeting to bring down.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

So if Strzok got reassigned from Mueller's Monty Python troupe for his bias, why is it Weissman, who was in receipt of that bias through Ohr even after the FBI had canned Steele, is still allowed to prosecute people for turning the innocent into newts?

[boatbuilder]

Pretty near beer for a brave anonymous "senior official" raising the spectre of the 25th Amendment. No mention of Crab Rangoon, even. As I recall GWB's first Treasury Secretary said a lot worse about him and put his name on it.

And this conservative found nothing specific mentioned that he disagrees with. Trump didn't want to publicly chastise Russia until it was definitively established that they poisoned Skripal--then he said it looks like it, IIRC, The rest is non-specific crap. Trump has repeatedly and loudly expressed his policy that playing hardball on tariffs is the way to get true free trade. And citing McCain as the "lodestar" is a dead giveaway of a preening phony.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Just what the heck does the Slimes think most Americans think of some weasel telling them he's a member of Trump's team and he's undermining him?
If false the Slimes reinforces their credentials as liars.
If true, nobody but a total prog would endorse a disloyal mole.
It's like progs have become an alien race and no longer know how to communicate with the rest of us.

[Clarice Feldman]

DiGenova apparently reporting the DOJ is in free fall with no one in charge. Is that a bad thing?

[derwill]

I’m leaning toward the conclusion that the anonymous source isn’t even real. If a real source wrote it there would have been some elements of verisimilitude sprinkled throughout the piece, even if they’d inadvertently been slipped in. The piece was too general and vague—as if written by someone who didn’t have much of an idea of what it’s really like to work in the West Wing.

[Captain Hate]

DiGenova apparently reporting the DOJ is in free fall with no one in charge. Is that a bad thing?

We might be about to shake some action.

[Another Bob]

Omarosa?

[Captain Hate]

It's like progs have become an alien race and no longer know how to communicate with the rest of us

Knowing how to not lie has been a problem.

[Janet 🚬]

Its absurd that we even have to speculate on who it is. It's in a fucking NEWSpaper.
What's the use of a NEWSpaper if they won't even tell readers who the writer is?

[Clarice Feldman]

3 planes land in the West from the Middle East with suspicions of cholera, :flu", and ebola--coincidence?http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6028625/ISIS-propaganda-calls-biological-terror-attacks-West.html

[Clarice Feldman]

I think so, CH--you and I seem to have the same sense of it.

[Captain Hate]

Tucker Carlson says he knows who the source was; then out with it, son. Don't play these I know something you don't know games.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Dude properly demolishes MMR; modern monetary theory as the science fiction it is, though there is precious little science in it.

[joan]

I don't think this senior administration official realizes his own amorality.

"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."

The definition of amoral is: unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something, unscrupulous, without morals, unethical.

What in holy heck is right or ethical about writing and publishing an anonymous essay, as well as working to subvert the president?

This person, if it's not the NYT editorial team, is one of the most hypocritical snakes to ever parade his deviousness in public. Good grief, I hope he or they or it soon fall on their own sword.

[daddy on iPhone]

At least when they printed the UniBonber's Manifesto in the Times they gave him a nickname.

I wonder with this new bit of news sidelining Rod Rosenstein how that declassification discussion will go down tomorrow between Trump and the House Repubs?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

You know the progs are total a-holes if they have Janet saying bombs away on the F word.

[boatbuilder]

If the writer had actually said something important and substantive and withheld his identity, there might be some nobility in that. But retailing vague, gossipy innuendo (that just happens to coincide with the sentiments of McCainapalooza, the flavor of the week) is simply bush league. (I am not sure that I think the pun is fair, either, since I share doubts that this person actually exists).

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ag-looking-social-media-companies-stiffle-free-speech-competition-2018-9

More stuff going on.

[Captain Hate]

Yes, Clarice; I thought the tweet about the two indictments had an edge of frustration lacking in earlier ones. Now with Rosenstein being investigated things are moving. The next two days will be very interesting.

[jim nj]

via Insty

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/education-system-isnt-designed-smart-kids

It's an article from 2016, but it was what I thought of grade school when I was in it.

[DebinGA]

The NYT should be barred from the WH Briefing Room until further notice. Maybe all the regulars will leave in solidarity and be replaced by local outlets like Sbw's.

[lurkersusie]

Interesting take

Carlos Lozada
@CarlosLozadaWP
·
5h
This NYT piece has every oped cliche possible. Makes me think the writer is an oped pro:
5h
This NYT piece has every oped cliche possible. Makes me think the writer is an oped pro:

"looms large"
"bitterly divided"
"Don't get me wrong."
"unsung heroes"
"astute observers"
"cold comfort"
"early whispers"
"put it best"
"reaching across the aisle"

[boatbuilder]

Also I would give Nick Gillespie a "good but squishy" rather than an "excellent." Those Reason goofs are always willing to spout about principal but can't abide action.

[Frau Aufzug]

I never saw any indication that John McCain was in any way a lodestar. I did see him as unpredictable and not a team player.

[Beasts of England]

The use of 'lodestar' is itself revealing. We have a propensity to the polysyllabic, e.g., verisimilitude, and I've never read that word here. Especially not in reference to McCain.

[boatbuilder]

Who is investigating Rosenstein? The Supreme Court?

[Catsmeat]

Boy, it's hard to catch up this week! Now off-topic, but last night y'all were talking about cymbals. There's a guy here in town who rents cymbals and gongs internationally--and he drives around in a replica of the Scooby Doo van.

[Rocco]

Sara Carter called it Rosensteins FISA at 18:30 mins but the discussion begins at 15:45.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtAJLPRfPe8

[Catsmeat]

Oh, and the Trash Pandas sound adorable. Who doesn't love raccoons, at least in the abstract? Solves the mascot problem too.

[Clarice Feldman]

jim, I didn't mind grade school as much as jr high where I cut a deal with my mother I could just stay home and read when I couldn't stand it any more. I was determined to keep my son from suffering thru such boredom and wasting his mind so I sent him to the toughest private school around, and he was happy.

[Frau Aufzug]

Clarice - Latest T shirt in the ME:

I went on the 2018 Hadjj and all I got was cholera, flu, and ebola.

[narciso]

The inspector general, Horowitz I guess,

The part about rare Turkish instruments reminded me of a segment from the Terry Hayes novel, which involves biological warfare, anyways to identify one of the links, he hears a snippet of music played with one of those instruments on a call from the lead suspect.

[Frau Aufzug]

Let Jack Cashill identify the writing style. The lodestar is a red herring most likely.

[Beasts of England]

I'd love Catsmeat's take on the composition of the NYT op-ed. :)

[Janet 🚬]

It's something for any of the lousy MFM journalists to be questioning President Trump's temperament/qualifications/morality/professionalism for his job as POTUS, while apparently those losers don't have the temperament/qualifications/morality/professionalism to do their job as journalists.

How 'bout they learn to do their own job.

[DebinGA]

The long list of overused cliches suggests the opposite of a "pro" imo.

[Beasts of England]

I'm leaning that way, too, Frau. It's unusual if not archaic.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

Heading to bed.

Nytol!

[narciso]

This is the one:

https://www.amazon.com/Turkish-Woodwind-Professional-Kaval-New/dp/B00RQBB1UE

[boatbuilder]

DiGenova says Horowitz is investigating Rosenstein. Hannity and Sara Carter say they can't confirm. Big grain of salt.

[boatbuilder]

Good night.

[narciso]

That would be the most logical circumstance,

[Pinandpuller]

Between Guttenberg and Alex Jones I'd like to know what's going on with the Capitol security?

[Rocco]

Would the president want to release those docs on a fri before the weekend or a thurs before a big rally? I'm buying a lottery ticket tomorrow, good nite all.

[Pinandpuller]

I want to know if that's Section 8, what the hell is Section 1-7?

[Pinandpuller]

The 10 Worst Cities In Idaho Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBYHy87CJm8

There are 10 cities in Idaho?

[narciso]

That plane at JFK reminded me of sufaat which in turn reminds me of what next week means.

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/what-questions-remain-about-9-11/

[joan]

I think the reader comments (those I read) are more disturbing than the NYT anonymous editorial. I've thought for months that the contempt the press has treated President Trump with has done great harm to our nation. People are viewing this 'two track presidency' as a coup d'etat, and they are believing that Trump is crazy or a moron or treasonous and this editorial from an "insider" is their confirmation.

I keep thinking that things can't get any worse (as far as the lies and resistance go), but they are barreling toward something I don't even want to contemplate. This editorial seems like 'they' think they have him in a corner he cannot escape from.

[narciso]

It's the times, the fake but accurate community, joan.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Who cares what this dope has to say anyway, real or not?
He and his crew are pretty damn pathetic if they exist because Trump has taken a wrecking ball to things despite them.
The only resistance trump has really faced is the bureaucracy outside the WH and the GOPe dopes in congress.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Relax, joan.
Those dumbasses have thought that for nearly three years and he just keeps trumping.

[jim nj]

Modern Monetary Theory. I had to go look at Wikipedia to find out what that was about. Seems like a modified Keynesian theory. In fact it looks like a somewhat pre-Keynesian theory.

I used to be a master of IS-LM curves, one college course the whole end term was IS-LM curves. I was the first done and my teacher graded me while I watched. He said you got only one wrong. I explained why it was correct and he relented and admitted I was correct.

I don't buy Keynesian theory, so Iggy, I gotta say you're right about MMT.

[Captain Hate]

First of all I slightly erred in what I reported earlier about Tucker Carlson: he contacted the White House with who the source was.

joan, reading those comments is never a good thing because you're dealing with people with no critical thinking skills who have been led by the nose with fake news.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

“The long list of overused cliches suggests the opposite of a "pro" imo.”

I agree. Professional writers know, or should know, to avoid cliches. On the other hand, the NYT seems to have been take over by millennials who don’t seem all that smart or trained in journalism.

[art in newport]

.. I'm buying a lottery ticket ..

I think ... I'm going to watch that rally.

[Tom R]

Captain Marvel is half human/half-Kree? Wonder why she doesn’t have a blue tint to her skin?

https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/05/captain-marvel-ew-cover-brie-larson/

[Frau Gute Nacht]

Sleep tasty...who knows what we'll learn tomorrow?

[joan]

Okay (I feel like I'm talking to myself) :) -- I'm not going to let the NTY get me down. I just came home from choir practice -- we're working on special Christmas music already (when I told my husband he raised his eyebrows, and I told him 'hey, it takes time to learn some of this music, plus work on Sunday anthems'); anyway, I was happy, and I'm sitting here watching Djokovic v. Millman, enjoying their match, and I'm just not going to let those horrid democrats upset me.

And, there have to be 60 million more just like me, so the left can just go even more crazy as Trump keeps on winning. And, the Republicans keep the senate and the house.

I want to cuss and say something awful, but won't. :) I always feel embarrassed when I say f'em, because most of the ladies don't throw that word around, but (for me), it works when I'm angry and can't punch someone in the nose. :)

[narciso]

They were throwing mid at Duncan. Months ago,

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/08/duncan-hunter-campaign-funds-fbi-397621

[narciso]

It wasn't an genetic blend, it was more of Marvells essence.

[joan]

Oh, thanks, guys! I really felt sober and solemn for about ten minutes. Sometimes the left amazes me, even after the past two years of their craziness. I don't think I will ever read their comments again. I usually don't.

So, after I came to my senses, I checked to see if any of you had anything to say about the editorial, or Rosenstein, or Sessions, or the declassification, and saw your comments.

I no longer feel alone. And, f' all of them. :)

[lurkersusie]

This makes sense, common sense.

JohnWickofPolitics
@Gingrich_of_PA
1) Not that you need my help
@realDonaldTrump
, but the NYT Op-Ed was almost definitely NOT written by any staffer. The style is one of a seasoned opinion writer, & no communication staffer would risk a Principal Component Analysis being done & identifying them by words/style etc;

My guess? This was written by a ‘for-hire’ writer who is largely unknown in DC, but has ties to someone who wrote for Erickson’s The Resurgent website and is related, incredibly, to one of your on-air surrogates;

Just a theory, but I assume some Never-Trump types contacted a trusted source in your admin & got them comfortable enough to do this anonymous Op-Ed if it was “distilled and filtered” by a (paid) writer who could disguise their words, & one who is no stranger to NYT Op-Ed
·
There’s enough here for someone in the White House to put this all together, if it’s true. A long shot, but it’s my “Pelican Brief” moment.
#NYTimesOpEd

[Pinandpuller]

What can you tell me about Polk County, mr narciso?

Sheriff Judd provides update on Uber driver who shot, killed man | News Conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXAv9BO2VQQ

FloridaGuy81
1 week ago
Gun Metal Guy USA The only people that don't like Grady are criminals. A few yrs ago an escaped convict got loose and shot at officers... the found him in the woods next to I4 and they put over 80 bullets in the convict. After the fact Grady was asked by a reporter "Why did the officers shot him over 80 times?" Claiming it was excessive.... his epic response was "because we ran out of bullets!" Liked him from that day on.

[narciso]

I recall the huntress for a very enthusiastic reception there back in 2008, so much so a puffington contributor wrote a,book length screed years later.

[Pinandpuller]

She was so drunk she didn't know 'sic 'em' from 'come here.'

[narciso]

In 2008 the gop won by 6, in 2012 by 11, in 2016, nearly 14 points.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--"because we ran out of bullets!"--

Classic.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Joan,
Just remember this, for every person the crazies convert they're alienating two or three.
Open insanity and marxism is not a long term strategy for success in US politics.

[joan]

I've been reading over on twitter and a lot of people (who might be idiots) think that the editorial writer is VP Pence's assistant, who has used the word lodestar in speeches for Pence.

Anyway, there's a #lodestar going on. :)

[joan]

Thanks, Ignatz, I felt awful for a little while. And, that's stupid because I just told my sister yesterday (when she told me she was getting scared about the left's craziness) that she had to remember that when a snake or rat or any wild beast was about to be crushed, that's when they were the most dangerous--because they knew they were losing. She said, 'that's right. yes' -- and we both just felt so much better. :) And, then I fall prey to their continued madness tonight.

Dang it.

[lurkersusie]

Real men/women don't hide

‘The sleeper cells have awoken’: Trump and aides shaken by ‘resistance’ op-ed - The Washington Post

The stark and anonymous warning was a breathtaking event without precedent in modern presidential history.

“For somebody within the belly of the White House to be saying there are a group of us running a resistance, making sure the president of the United States doesn’t do irrational and dangerous things, it is a mind-boggling moment,” historian Douglas Brinkley said.

The column added to the evolving narrative of Trump’s presidency, based on daily news reporting and books like Woodward’s that rely on candid accounts of anonymous admin­istration officials.

“This is what all of us have understood to be the situation from Day One,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters. He added, “That’s why I think all of us encourage the good people around the president to stay.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-sleeper-cells-have-awoken-trump-and-aides-shaken-by-resistance-op-ed/2018/09/05/ecdf423c-b14b-11e8-a20b-5f4f84429666_story.html?utm_term=.fabcaa50b6ca

[narciso]

Now they quoting dune, unironically

[Pinandpuller]

I don't know whether to move to Idaho or Polk County.

[daddy]

Just got to this from the Gateway Pundit link on the last thread:

“The idea that Bruce Ohr had 60 plus contacts with Chris Steele, and may have served as a backchannel between Steele and the FBI/DOJ, even after Steele was supposedly terminated, is deeply troubling and deserves further examination,” (Republican Rep Mark) Meadows said to Sara Carter.

Sixty plus contacts. Holy Moly---that concerns, bothers, troubles and Un-Comforts me. Even more so when we consider that neither Huber or IG Horowitz have got off their ass and interviewed him. If this was fiction in some novel nobody would believe it.

[jim nj]

via Insty

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/enter-the-labyrinth/

Brazil's National Museum. The loss of other Libraries and what the future might hold for information.

[lyle]

Keep it up, son. Srsly.

[lurkersusie]

Nice interview with Hannity

John Dowd on Woodward's book, Mueller probe | Fox News Video

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5831313132001/?#sp=show-clips