WTF? an anonymous call for a palace coup from the Resistance© inside the trump administration

This is by way of Old News by now, but I’ve been trying to catch up.  You’ll know about this Deep Throat voice:  ‘I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration; I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations’, NY ‘all the news that’s fit to print’ Times.com, Sept. 5, 2018, (& handily included: Leer en español 阅读简体中文版閱 讀繁體中文版 한국어로  읽기日本語で読む)
You won’t be faulted in thinking, as I had in just hearing about, but not even caring enough to find it and read it.. that was likely another ‘administration in disarray’ tale, thinking it  might be that the generals were pushing back again on Boss Tweet’s plans to start bombing: China, Iran, North Korea, VZ,  Nicaragua, South Sudan…given the new global realignments happening apace.  But no, for the love of all that’s unholy: it’s NOT that!

Eric London at wsws.org has snagged what I assume are the most telling portions for us in his Sept. 6  ‘New York Times op-ed by anonymous Trump official gives implicit support for palace coup’, including but not limited to:

“In the op-ed, the unnamed official, who by definition is either a cabinet member or a leading aide to Trump, acknowledges a previously unknown level of palace intrigue aimed ultimately at removing Trump from office.

The author notes that “many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” He or she admits that cabinet members have discussed plotting to remove Trump without initiating the congressional impeachment process.

“Given the instability many witnessed,” the op-ed reads, “there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until—one way or another—it’s over.”

This last phrase—“one way or another”—is a green light for Trump’s ouster from within the White House itself.” [snip]

“The senior official references Trump’s corporate tax cuts, its policies of corporate deregulation, and its massive military expenditures as examples of the “bright spots” of the administration.” [snip]

““Take foreign policy,” the op-ed states. “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.”

The opinion piece concludes by calling for “all Americans” to heed the words of the late Senator John McCain, whom the author calls “a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.” The commentary adds, “Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.”

Small wonder, then, that Boss Tweet offered a one-word response to this op-ed: ‘TREASON?’

“The Times’ role in the campaign exposes the newspaper, which is closely allied with the Democratic Party, as nothing more than a megaphone for reactionary forces within the state that support Trump’s right-wing social policies but demand a less isolationist geopolitical strategy.

The Times’ former executive editor, Howell Raines, appeared on MSNBC last night to praise the paper for taking the “unprecedented step” of publishing an anonymous op-ed. The US is living through a “time of crisis,” Raines explained, which requires that the paper take “new approaches” to intervening in the political process.”

London notes as well that following a week or ten days of duopoly political class laments and hagiography over the demise of War Criminal McCain, portions of Bob Woodward’s new book had been highlighted, ‘detailing how leading Trump officials have been waging a civil war within the White House to control the conduct of the administration’.  Apparently John Brennan had recently been on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ lauding Woodward’s view of the palace intrigue as the best way to handle the crisis without ‘allowing the divisions to spill into the street’, whatever that means.

Is Anonymous Part of the Resistance© calling for a John Wilkes Booth, or is he/she calling for All Good Military to Come to the Aid of their party? But yes: a double-whammy in a week.

Jeffrey St. Clair has some of the juiciest name-calling featured in Woodward’s book if you give a fig, but I sincerely loved this quip:

“The big question now circulating amid the cubicles of the Gray Lady:  Who will Anonymous replace as a regular columnist at the New York Times?

1. Brett Stephens
   B. David Brooks
   C. Thomas Friedman
   + Will anyone notice the difference?”

For some guessing who the Insider is, Pence has pride of place, as he’s known to use ‘Lodestar’ now and again, and is said to have had precognitive dreams of his Presidency.  Another big Q should be: Is there an author? Or an editorial board behind it? Yeah, yeah, take it to the bank when the Times claims: ‘’we’ve spoken with the author, and only 12 (or.what.ev.er.) of us know who it is!”

Oopsie, I’d missed this link of St. Clairs to the Slimes Sept.6: ‘It Wasn’t Me: Pence, Pompeo and a Parade of Administration Officials Deny Writing Op-Ed’.  

There are any number of authors who call this just another Trump Distraction, given that he’s now calling for an investigation into The Alleged Source.  Personally, I find it all very dangerous; you’ll decide for yourselves, of course.

Now this third-leg of the Trump Whammy Stool fits in rather seamlessly.  I’d seen headlines concerning War Criminal Con Man Obomba’s Friday GOTV speech at U of IL, and was glad to get the Cliffs Notes from Barry Grey at wsws.org.  I did locate a transcript for you…just in case.  Oh, yes, following George Washington’s lead, he’d decided to exit the Oval and STFU, because ‘in a government of and by and for the people [a real eye-roller, no?], there should be no permanent ruling class’, so he was speaking to them as just another ordinary citizen.  Now most often I fault wsws for smackin’ Trump around, kinda forgetting Obomba had laid out most of the precedents afoot now (if arguably meaner & larger, especially on the indefinite caging of immigrants), so it pleased me to read this. ‘Obama speech escalates factional warfare against Trump’, Sept.8

After referencing the NYT…mmmm…call to arms, then Woodward’s book:

“Woodward recounts incidents of Trump administration officials countermanding orders from the president, a situation Woodward characterizes as an “administrative coup d’état.”…

“He cited as evidence of his own progressive record the extra-judicial murder of Osama bin-Laden and his engineering of the “recovery” from the 2008 financial crisis. He reiterated his theme of 2016 that “things were great” in America by the time he left office.

“And by the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate hit an all-time low, poverty rates were falling. I mention this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started.”

The reality, of course, is that Obama presided over the funneling of trillions of dollars to Wall Street to rescue the financial oligarchy, carrying out the greatest redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in history. This was paid for by wage cuts and the destruction of decent-paying jobs, replaced by poverty-wage, part-time and temporary employment, the gutting of health benefits for millions of workers under “Obamacare,” pension cuts, the closure of thousands of public schools and layoff of tens of thousands of teachers, and a general lowering of the living standards of the working class.” [snip]

“Trump’s attacks on democratic rights were prepared by Obama’s brutal policy of deportations, his continuation of indefinite detention and the Guantanamo torture camp, his support for mass domestic spying and his program of drone assassinations, including of US citizens. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were continued and new wars were launched in Libya and Syria.

According to Obama, however, Trump was a radical departure from this wave of “progress,” a “symptom” of the “politics of fear and resentment.” It was the “powerful and privileged” pushing back. Obama criticized Trump for “cutting taxes on the wealthy, unwinding regulations and shrinking the safety net,” focusing however on the swelling of the deficit.” [snip]

“Obama saved his most biting criticism for Trump’s supposed softness toward Russia, appealing in the process to the tradition of cold war anti-communism.

“They’re undermining our alliances,” he declared, “cozying up to Russia. What happened to the Republican Party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism, and now they’re cozying up to the former head of the KBG.”

(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)