We're told that Donald Trump is beating the bushes trying to find out who "Anonymous" is. Tom Friedman writes that he, she or them are hiding in plain sight. In fact, Friedman writes, it may be "them:"
More and more, I wonder if the disgruntled senior Trump administration official who wrote the anonymous Op-Ed in The Times was actually representing a group — like a “Murder on the Orient Express” plotline where every senior Trump adviser was in on it. Why? Because the article so perfectly captured the devil’s bargain they’ve all struck with this president: Donald Trump is amoral, dishonest and disturbed, a man totally unfit to be president, but, as the anonymous author self-servingly wrote, “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 ,whether it's he, she or them, they are not heroes. While striking an heroic pose, Anonymous pledges fealty to most of Trump's agenda. And it's Trump's agenda that is the real problem:
What if Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation, scrapping of Obamacare without any alternative and military spending surge were actually ill-thought-through, short-term-focused initiatives that all ignored expert opinion — because they mostly emerged from off-the-cuff remarks at Trump pep rallies — and collectively amount to a sugar high that not only will be unsustainable but will leave our economy far more vulnerable in the long term?
When Trump simultaneously cuts corporate taxes and withdraws America from the Paris climate accord, tries to revive the coal industry by lowering pollution standards and weakens fuel economy standards for U.S.-made cars and trucks, he is vastly adding to the financial debts and carbon debts that will burden our children.
And he is doing this despite many economists warning that increasing the deficit when your economy is already growing nicely is really, really reckless — because you may need that money to stimulate your way out of the next recession.
In June, The Associated Press reported on the latest International Monetary Fund survey of the U.S. economy, which concluded that as a result of Trump’s “tax cuts and expected increases in defense and domestic programs, the federal budget deficit as a percentage of the total economy will exceed 4.5 percent of G.D.P. by next year — nearly double what it was just three years ago.” Such a “big boost … has not been seen in the United States since President Lyndon Johnson in the late 1960s boosted spending on the Vietnam War at the same time it was adopting Johnson’s Great Society programs.”
Faced with so much debt, which the country will not be able to grow out of, The A.P. story continued, paraphrasing the I.M.F. report, the U.S. “may need to take politically painful steps,” such as cutting Social Security benefits and imposing higher taxes on consumers. (We’ll probably also have to limit spending on new roads, bridges and research.)
You might want to let your kids know that.
It's not about the kids. It's about ME. Trump has always been in it for himself -- always. Those who support him claim that selfishness is a virtue. It's obviously not.
The people who believe that are insane. And that's what Trump is -- insane.
Image: Issues Under Fire
8 comments:
The GOP is a coalition of three groups: oligarchs, white supremacists, and evangelicals. Trump plays them all like a virtuoso and retains huge support among party members. Anyone with an iota of morality has left.
Cap
.. our 1st and lasting impression is the anonymous essay is simply a variation on the 'stalking horse'.. which is at its heart a guerilla strategy. If Trump in his infinite wisdom insists on block formation military marching to fife and drum, pomp and faux ceremony, and red ball caps.. it might be wise to expect arrows from the dark forest edges.. delivered by invisible warriors.
There are many potential strategies in play.. one being, exactly what it accomplished.. ie stampeding Trump, and all his grandiose retinue, just as Bob Woodward releases the biggest selling tell-all lambasting Trump et al. A 2nd is to sow distrust among all and sundry of the Trump royal court. Again, mission accomplished. The 3rd is to appeal to and capture the imagination of Trump's opposition. Robin Hood redux ? Does anyone think some smashing news may sneak out just when Mueller drops bombshells ? I do.. of course I do ! And Comey is lying in the weeds, waiting. Trump Tower is the proverbial rats nest.. and there were selective wire taps ! Kushner, Trump Jr, Manafort, Flynn.. oh deary me.. what could go wrong ?
This all basic 'The Art Of War' by Sun Tzo.. and North America should expect to see more and more of this. Keep in mind as well, the GOP are determined to rule via electoral fraud.. gerrymandering, restrictive voter registration, stripping of legitimate voters from electoral rolls, massive propaganda, 9-5 voting only, sheer deceit and lies.. you name it.
So expect there will be expedient related backlash.. and offensive guerilla manouvering. Look at the attack on Ms Collins - if she votes to support Kavanaugh for Supreme Court, she triggers massive funds in reserve to defeat her personally. If she remains neutral or goes against him, good things happen in her political world.
Perhaps I just have dark views of certain things.. but I also know what I would cheerfully do when someone pissed on my leg and told me it was raining. I have an even darker view of certain practices and certain folks dangerous behavior.. and when I say 'don't snow the snowman' its to be expected I have already moved to past tense regarding a matter... its been decided.. its not a suggestion or a projection.. rather - we are at a conclusion
Trump, Ford, Harper.. nothing changes regarding corruption & power. Omnipotence is a dangerous mood disorder & is almost inevitably comorbid in conjunction with sociopathy or psychotic behaviour.
That's true, Cap. And it explains the collapse of the Republican Party.
We live in a time when the mood disorder has gone viral, sal. People should know better but apparently they don't. That's what is truly frigthening.
I found this online yesterday.
"I'm no HR professional but it's probably a bad sign when an employee writes an anonymous letter calling you a brain-dead asshole and you can't even narrow it down to 100 people.
That simple observation underscores the Trump operation's profound incompetence, Mound.
Mound, loved that!
it could be any one. he could have had some one do it, to see if the "base" got angry. who knows and at some level, who cares. This is of course a much better way to keep it in the news than standing up in public and saying it because then its over and done. This also will get under trump's skin. Can hardly wait for Manaford to make the deal with Mueller. that ought to be really, really good.
It looks like Manafort has the skeleton key, e.a.f. -- the one that opens all the doors.
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