"I Am Part of the Resistance ..."

hank

Scary stuff. You may choose to believe the letter authentic or to not believe. For me, it appears authentic and has shades of former FBI agent Mark Felt, a mole deep inside Nixon's administration who fed top secret information to Woodward and Bernstein and helped bring about Nixon's eventual removal from office. Can't see how this entire situation is going to end well.

I don't think one needs a degree in psychiatry to recognize bizarre and irrational behavior in an individual when he witnesses it. And I'd wonder if by this letter we're being conditioned for a possible invocation of the 25th Ammendment (or worse eventuality). Suppose the markets will set new highs by week's end - based on the theory that they always climb a wall of worry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html

MikeM

What a scary situation. I don't begrudge those who voted for Trump, but I don't understand the blind loyalty given all that is out there. Is everything fake except the deception Trump lives by? Terrible blindness. Or will republican congress and house majorities find a spine. What a terrible situation for this country.

BenWP

My take is that the Times vetted this person carefully before publishing the piece. The existence of a resistance movement squares with repeated previous reports of massive leaking from the WH. You can keep calling the Times "failing," but it's obvious it's doing well. Digital subscriptions are way up

Old_Joe

It sounds like Jim Mattis to me. I hate to say that, because if it's true, he'll be gone by next week, and he's one of the few adults in this administration. He may be gone by next week anyway, whether he's the guy or not, the way this "president" operates.

Another possibility could be Robert McGahn, the White House Council, who is leaving (voluntarily) in a few months, and would have little to lose at this point.

Scary? You'd better believe it.

BTW, I fully expect to hear from you-know-who telling us yet again that we will be the ruination of MFO.

hank

BenWP said:

My take is that the Times vetted this person carefully before publishing the piece. The existence of a resistance movement squares with repeated previous reports of massive leaking from the WH. You can keep calling the Times "failing," but it's obvious it's doing well. Digital subscriptions are way up

Yep. And if the WSJ should publish a similar letter or vouch for the authenticity of the NYT one, that would be very convincing corroboration. Two good newspapers which tend to be on opposite side of many issues.

Thanks to OJ and the others who are guessing. I'll say it wasn't Huckabee. Not bright enough to compose it. Don't rule out John Bolton. I know he's hard right (a bit of a nut case himself). But he's in a position to have to handle the fallout from the many foreign policy blunders (and he did attend the John McCain funeral - along with many other top tier WH officials,)

Mattis or Kelly spring to mind. But that (poker face) White House attorney, McGhan (leaving after the election) is a most curious case. Seems somehow to straddle both sides of the fence. Sessions and Rubinstein certainly have the motive - but doubt they would do anything that could potentially backfire on them and torpedo the investigation. (Excuse the mixed metaphor)

Apologies to Old Joe - Just noticed he picked up on McGhan earlier.

larryB

@MikeM. Scary indeed. If you don't begrudge those who voted for trump,,,your words,,,,, how do you feel about those how support the party that keep him in power? Or put another way,,,the repuglicans and their voters are all that are keeping him out of jail. How do you feel about them today?

Old_Joe

@larryB- Having observed MikeM a fair amount over the years your question isn't really necessary.

larryB

It was merely rhetorical, no offense to Mike intended. Sorry to be so inarticulate.

Crash

Anyhow, regardless of one's own Party affiliation ( or no affiliation,) I am dumbstruck at any intelligent, thinking adult not being able to see through his vapid bluster and teenage braggadocio through the campaign, and giving the Trumpster a vote. It was a vote for a child in an old man's body. I blanch to be told by a colleague in Ministry that he voted for The Trumpster. It is just shocking to me that a commitment to Ministry does not, for my old friend, register as contradictory to what The Trumpster stands for... if anything. And we have seen that The Trumpster operates with no guiding moral principles. (But somehow, so many could not see it BEFORE the election???)

BenWP

Interesting speculation on MSNBC late EDT; two participants picked Dan Coats, another a combination of 2 or 3 people, and a third said a "deputy something" at one level lower than the senior WH personnel.

Ted

@MFO Members: When To Trust A Story That Uses Unnamed Sources;
Regards,
Ted
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/when-to-trust-a-story-that-uses-unnamed-sources/

rforno

@Crash: Depending on the Ministry involved, they probably didn't care as long as they got 'their' judges into office and onto the SCOTUS bench. These folks turned a very big and hypocritical blind eye to this guy's antics for that one single reason. That's all they cared about, full stop. Because they want American turned into Gilead.

I think the author has to be a political appointee and not a career civil servant, otherwise the NYT probably wouldn't have granted them anonymity.

My money is on Dan Coates, Propaganda Barbie (KellyAnn), possibly Pence (seeing the writing on the wall), Sessions, or maybe (but doubtful) Mattis.

msf

I can't see it being Pence. On the Op-Ed page, the Times wrote that the paper published this column by "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure."

You can argue that Pence's job responsibilities could be altered, but the job itself of being VP (and president of the Senate) cannot be put in jeopardy. Unless you think that Trump could persuade Congress to impeach Pence.

Not that I'm a great reader of tea leaves.

rforno

Pence and Pompeo's offices have both just come out denying it was them, so there's that....

msf said:

I can't see it being Pence. On the Op-Ed page, the Times wrote that the paper published this column by "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure."

You can argue that Pence's job responsibilities could be altered, but the job itself of being VP (and president of the Senate) cannot be put in jeopardy. Unless you think that Trump could persuade Congress to impeach Pence.

Not that I'm a great reader of tea leaves.

PRESSmUP

This is not the first reporting of the President being in varying stages of mental distress, to the point of being erratic and a danger. As such, the op-ed is a cowardly substitute for currently available Constitutional provisions available for remedy via the 25th Amendment.

In lieu of positioning yourself as the guardians of the American way, stand up and do your duty.

And where is Congress?

Mark

Agree PRESSmUP. Are you really part of the resistance if you continue to accept this abominable and abnormal behavior? See John McCain if you need a clue about what to do.

MikeM2

Mnuchin.

Crash

"See John McCain if you need a clue about what to do." yup.

rforno

The GOP-controlled Congress doesn't care about Tweety's antics or mental state as long as he signs whatever they send him and puts conservative judges on the bench. Meaning, they're complicit in creating, tolerating, and sustaining this national semergency and global fiasco.

PRESSmUP said:

This is not the first reporting of the President being in varying stages of mental distress, to the point of being erratic and a danger. As such, the op-ed is a cowardly substitute for currently available Constitutional provisions available for remedy via the 25th Amendment.

In lieu of positioning yourself as the guardians of the American way, stand up and do your duty.

And where is Congress?

Old_Joe

@rforno: Yep. You nailed it.

rforno

My revised authorship guess is Nikki Haley.

Old_Joe

Interesting possibility. But I'd think that her ability to moderate or limit Trump's desires/instructions would be minimal. Although possibly in concert with others...

hank

The odds-makers are already at work posting odds as to who the most likely authors are (if someone else cares to link that).

Pence is getting a lot of attention because the letter included one of his oft-used words: "lodestar". However - How dumb would you have to be not to catch something like that in drafting and editing your letter (and replacing it with another term)?

Some of the intelligence-savvy pundits on MSNBC last evening were saying that whoever wrote it probably tossed in a red herring or two in the form of specific words or phrases known to be used by another official (their "decoy") in order to draw attention away from themself. Apparently, folks in the national security / law enforcement areas are well aware of that common diversionary tactic.

Mark

@hank - You asked "However - How dumb would you have to be...?" Oh gosh I don't even know where to start with that group.

Old_Joe

Reminds me of one of those Russian doll things... an image of someone, inside someone, inside someone... Mirrors everywhere. Well, Trump likes things Russian after all- how fitting!

larryB

I am an old guy and I have been known to repeat things but it is worth repeating. When historians write about this grotesque time in American history this big question will be who to blame for risking our democracy? Will it be the repuglican voters who willing voted for a very known bad actor at best, a brazen criminal at worst? Or will it be the professional repuglicans who failed to stand up for the rule of law and our democracy? About now the only ones still proudly supporting him our Fox news,,neo Nazis and 79 % of repuglicans. They must be very proud of of themselves. They deserve each other

davidrmoran

kudlow

larryB

That's a good a guess as any.

hank

davidrmoran said:

kudlow

The point was made on MSNBC last evening (I don't remember by whom) that Kudlow has a good command of the language and plenty of experience writing this type of position paper or editorial (for lack of a better word).

I'll add that not only is he highly capable, he's also not a professional bureaucrat or politician and therefore has little to lose should his cover be blown. Though I disagree vehemently with most of his political views, I respect that he's both a good thinker and first rate broadcaster.

Very good guess @davidmoran

davidrmoran

Meh. He has always fancied himself as being a good writer, since prep school, even with the usual self-depreciation of all self-styled 'good writers'; and yes about having the experience of same, although he has no solid or even real experience in his field otherwise, and is chiefly (intellectually, in other words) either a fraud or simply wrong.

For sure he is not any kind of thinker in serious or learned or studied senses.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/new-trump-economist-kudlow-has-been-wrong-about-everything.html

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/larry-kudlow-and-the-failure-of-the-chicago-school/

'flamboyant wrongness' is about it.

I don't concur in the capability take, but I am biased from (v v faintly) knowing him and his career arc.

He also is labile and switchable / contrary; was in SDS for a while 50y ago, if you can believe it.

hank

@davidmoran,

I'll defer to you on Kudlow.

However, I'm certain you have friends at the NYT. Please ask one of them who wrote that and let us know here. We won't breath a word of it to anyone else. Promise.

EDIT - Reports are that John Kelly has compiled a list of 12 suspects within the White House and is now in the process of interrogating everyone. (This should make a great movie some day.)