Up until this week, those of us who discussed the fact that there is an unelected "cabal" of Washington insiders who set and enforce policies that are for their own interests rather than that of the people via their elected officials, were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. As of this week none other than mainstream persons and agencies have revealed that such dismissals to be the distractions that they were intended to be. Without a doubt, we can now say the Deep State exists and it is entirely against the will of the will of the electorate as expressed in the Nov 2016 election. First lets look at the
anonymous insider published by the NY Times:
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.
Firstly I'll say this directly to Mr. Trump:
That's what you get.
Many of your supporters have written that you have surrounded yourself with vipers who are either in it for their own gain (financial and otherwise) or who are, as this person said, hell bent on derailing your agenda. These persons
include Ivanka and Jared but are not limited to those persons. You have made poor decisions on who to trust (for reasons only you really know) and it is reflected in many ways. So this entire situation is an own goal.
That said, we, the electorate, the citizenry, regardless of party should be VERY bothered by the idea that an unelected employee of the executive branch, who
ultimately works for us has taken upon his or herself to determine what part(s) of the president's agenda (which was approved of by the citizenry via our electoral process) should and should not be enacted.
Fuck that person.
So long as said policies are not unconstitutional or illegal, that person has no rights whatsoever to obstruct the will of the electorate. I don't care if this was Trump or Obama or Bush. If this person felt that they could not in good conscience carry out the orders of the president, he or she should have resigned immediately and gone public. If the actions are so bad, we have a legal and political process by which the people, via their representatives can remove such a bad actor. How dare these persons who claim to be acting in the best interests of the country, bypass the very institutions we have to deal with these issues.
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 "do what we can" is a link to Woodward's book. I'll get to points of that later, but I question the entire "democratic institutions" argument when their actions in fact undermine the democratic institutions which they claim to uphold. Never mind that there is no specific example of "democratic institutions" given.
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.
It is entirely possible that Trump is amoral, defined as: unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something. I doubt that though. It think that Trump has a set of morals that differ from those who are in this "resistance". Since calling Trump "immoral" would probably lead to libel or defamation, I think the "amoral" charge was the safest charge to make. However; I still think that this "amorality" charge is one of actual "differences in philosophy" rather than I don't care about right or wrong. And if I am correct, then this underscores the charge that these people are substituting their wishes and "morality" on the rest of us in stark contradiction to the wishes of the people as expressed in the election. This is NOT "protecting democratic institutions".
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.
This statement here represents why this individual and others in his or her group should be removed from whatever positions of power they have. Anyone who has followed the public moods since the election of Obama, knows full well that the reason Trump won was
specifically because he was NOT a Republican. He ran
as a Republican because that was the path best suited to him just as Bloomberg did his fake Republican thing to get into office in NYC.
Furthermore, the large portion of Trump supporters do not care for Republicans. Not. One. Bit. If you live under the Democratic rock you may not know this. There is a reason why many Republicans and "Conservative" organizations are called "Conservative Inc.". They are seen as a wholly occupied party that are not actual conservatives because these conservatives have conserved nothing at all. They couldn't even keep marriage as defined as between a man and woman. That's some basic shit for a "conservative movement". These conservatives are merely Liberals of a few decades ago. Much of the Trump supporting electorate know this and they believe (rightly or wrongly) that Trump knows this and that is why he is in office and not Clinton or Jeb!
If this is the "amorality" then these people do not only have a problem with Trump, but they have a problem with half the country. They are, indeed undoing the duly elected wishes of the country. Isn't this treason? Seriously.
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.
If we needed any more proof that this is really about Democrats (and Republican "Conservative Inc. types) trying to undo an election, this is it. Trump may get the media attention for saying the press is the "enemy of the people" but it is not just Trump saying this. Again this is a feeling (and a fact) of many of his supporters. The media has set a new high water of antagonism against a president unseen in my lifetime (I am not young). The media has gone out of it's way to deem anyone who is not in agreement with Liberal policies as white supremacist (etc. To the extent to doxing people. It has covered up rank political violence against non-liberals by groups such as Antifa and has conspired with social media companies to deplatform and censor non-liberal voices in public social media spaces.
Secondly, To paint Trump, an international business man as "anti-trade" has to be the most ridiculous thing I've read. Trump made his money on trade. How do you think those hotels and condos were built? It takes a special kind of stupid to state that Trump the international business man, is against trade. He appears to believe that tariffs against countries he
believes to be ripping off the US would address the very real drop in manufacturing, etc. in America. He may be wrong on that, he may be right on that. That is a political decision and political risk. It is not the place of non-elected groups to decide this.
To the charge of "anti-democratic", the writer has leveled no specific charge. His lashing out at a press that has been proven to be generally hostile to him, is not "anti-democratic". He doesn't lose HIS first amendment rights just because he is in office. Name a single thing Trump has done thus far on the domestic front that is "anti-democratic" and/or outside the bounds of the constitution.
But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
I don't know how Trump behaves in office. But "petty" is a judgement call. And seeing what is being written this week, I have reason to believe that this pettiness is warranted. Perhaps Trump sees that he has snakes around and it bothers him. But that's his own fault. As for it's effectiveness, it is little wonder that it is "ineffective" when the people tasked with carrying out his decisions are busy doing whatever it is
they think should be done. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
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.
Without knowing what specific "policy decisions" are being discussed, I cannot make an informed commentary on how bad or good this is. I can say that I've seen some bad policy decisions made such as the bombing of Syria based on some picture of a dead kid and unproven charges of use of chemical weapons in Syria, a country allied with a nuclear power. But that decision was cheered all around. I could also cite the trespass (migrant) crisis which was wholly manufactured with aide from agencies in the US (who should be charged). The flip flop on detention in the face of a photo of a crying kid, which turned out to be literal fake news, is another example which I too, fault Trump. But I think many flip flops are due to the vipers in his circle. So I'll agree with anonymous here that Trump has many self owns, but we should be given examples so we can judge for ourselves.
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.
This is another clear example of Deep State.
This so called "Preference for autocrats" is really not their business. First of all, North Korea is not a threat oto the US. Period. The US has been provoking Russia for decades now with the expansion of NATO and the fomenting of Color Revolutions in former Soviet block countries, most recently Ukraine. Many of the electorate have had enough of this world wide mischief making. We want an end to the provocations with Russia and the money involved in doing so. We also believe that South Korea, a very rich country should defend itself against North Korea and wonder why we are still there. Secondly, we have seen that the way things have been done so far has not lead to an end of conflict with North Korea so why not do something very different? Why do we have to be antagonistic to Kim and Putin? Is this some law that we are not aware of? No, this is a case of Deep State operatives wanting to make sure that their preferred means of doing things remain unthreatened.
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.
Once again this shows a clear "we didn't like the election outcome" reasoning behind the letter. Trump has not done anything "to us". The media sat by silent as Trump supporters were literally assaulted for trying to attend rallies. It was Democrats, Hillary in particular who called Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables". Any desire of the citizens to have their borders secured has been labelled nazism and white nationalism by people who wouldn't allow people to trespass on their private property. The constant vilification, censorship and violence engaged in by the Left (and covered up by the media) is not what Trump has done to the country but what the Deep State has done to the country. And if they think that by removing Trump from office that some "civility" is going to re-appear, they are in for a rude awakening.
Now lets get to
Woodward.
WASHINGTON — President Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion last January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mr. Mattis told colleagues “the president acted like — and had the understanding of — a ‘fifth or sixth grader.’”
It's September. We're all here. Trump met Kim. Kim did some walking around in South Korea and Singapore. Hasn't happened before. I remember when everyone was saying that the end was near. They were shocked that Kim relented (or seemed to). I knew then as I know now that there are ways you deal with bullies (which Kim is). Trump knows that as well. I figured his way would work. A lot of people said it was childish. Thus far, it's worked. It may not in the long term, but then again, nothing else has either. Point being that what actually bothered Kelly was that someone not doing what
was normally done. This is why we say "Deep State". They expect every president, etc. to do what the Deep State says should be done (because they know best). Trump is the first president since.... to not only ask "why should I?" but to do what
he thinks should be done. Deep State is not used to that.
At another moment, Mr. Trump’s aides became so worried about his judgment that Gary D. Cohn, then the chief economic adviser, took a letter from the president’s Oval Office desk authorizing the withdrawal of the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Mr. Trump, who had planned to sign the letter, never realized it was missing.
First, I'm glad Cohn is gone. If he committed a crime by removing the papers from the executive he should be prosecuted. It was not his place to remove the paper from Trump's desk. During the campaign Trump made many comments about South Korea. The people who elected him knew his position on South Korea. By meddling with Trump's trade decision vis-a-vis South Korea, Cohn took it upon himself to undo the
democratic will of the people and substituted his own. Maybe Trump's policy would have lead to a better trade agreement. Maybe not. It was NOT Cohn's decision to make. We did no elect him.
Cohn's actions underscores the fact that Trump has vipers in his circle.
In the North Korea meeting, during a period of high tension with the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump questioned Mr. Mattis about why the United States keeps a military presence on the Korean Peninsula. “We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Mr. Mattis responded, according to Mr. Woodward.
That was total bullshit answer by Mattis. The US has been in a state of war with North Korea for 50 odd years. In that time we have developed this thing called "satellite" that allows us to look any and everywhere within the limits of technology. Those troops on the border to 'prevent NOKO from invading SOKO" is all show. South Koreans can do that themselves. We know they have the tech and manpower.
In April 2017, after President Bashar al-Assad of Syria launched a chemical attack on his own people, Mr. Trump called Mr. Mattis and told him that he wanted the United States to assassinate Mr. Assad. “Let’s go in,” the president said, adding a string of expletives.
Oh I believe this happened. This is why I brought up Ivanka and Jared. The vipers have had it in for Assad for a long time. That there were not real allies in office to underscore that Assad is fighting Al-Qaeda and therefore we should mind our business and not get sucked in by the propaganda of the "white helmets" is why Trump made that dumb as shit demand. Many of Trump's supporters disagreed and disagree with the US involvement in Syria and see it as highly influenced by Israel.
Mr. Cohn, Mr. Woodward said, concluded that Mr. Trump was a “professional liar.”
Trump is a saleman. His life is negotiations. In negotiations you make offers that you don't necessarily actually indent to abide by. For example, car salesman says that the bottom line is $1500. They actually mean $1000 but they want to induce you to accept the deal that is better for the car salesman. That $1500 is a lie. Flat out. negotiators lie for a living. This is why you must understand the "art of the deal" in order to deal with salespersons. Most importantly, such sales techniques are rarely personal in nature. The process is adversarial. Sound familiar? This goes back to the beginning of the piece where anonymous says that Trump is amoral and antagonistic. That is the world that he became a success in. The voters ALSO knew that when they picked him over all other Republican candidates and Clinton. We should consider whether Trump's position as "liar" is actually a plus in light of
how some cultures work:
For one example of where it has not fully taken root, social anthropologist Roberto DaMatta sums up his country, Brazil:
If I am buying from or selling to a relative, I neither seek profit nor concern myself with money. The same can happen in a transaction with a friend. But, if I am dealing with a stranger, then there are no rules, other than the one of exploiting him to the utmost. underlines original
Trump has repeatedly stated his view that the US has been taken advantage of in [recent] trade negotiations. Perhaps he is actually
right and we [being the general public] are too gullible to know or to "rule bound" to do anything about it. Or maybe Trump is wrong. He was elected to try
his way by the citizenry via our democratic process. It's not the place of Cohn to obstruct that.
In the end the only thing presented here that remotely bothers me about Trump is his alleged desire to assassinate Assad. The US has a non-assassination policy, particularly as it applies to heads of state. We'll just overlook Obama's weekly kill list for the time being. The rest of the op-ed and the examples from the book indicate a set of unelected persons who disagree with Trump's policies and feel that they have the right to obstruct and interfere with implementation of these policies. That is not "defending democratic institutions" at all. It is deep state and they admit it.
