Thursday, September 06, 2018

Is Donald Trump Now Too Dangerous To Be President?



I can only imagine what Donald Trump's mental state must be like, but I'm sure it's not a pretty sight.

Not after Bob Woodward in his new book Fear, claimed that Defence Secretary James Mad Dog Mattis had once lamented that Trump had the mind of a "fifth or sixth grader."

Which must have hit Trump's fragile ego, like a cruise missile in the nuts.

And not after the New York Times brought his paranoia to a boiling point by revealing that The Resistance is EVERYWHERE. 



Even in the White House.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

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.


I would know. I am one of them.


So now it's a witch hunt right out of Captain Queeg and the Caine Mutiny.



President Trump and his aides reacted with indignation Wednesday to an unsigned opinion column from a senior official blasting the president’s “amorality” and launched a frantic hunt for the author, who claims to be part of a secret “resistance” inside the government protecting the nation from its commander in chief.

With Trump's tweets becoming more deranged with every passing hour:




And those who have studied the presidency saying they have never seen anything like it.

“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. 

“You’d have to go back to Hans Christian Andersen, ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes,’ to see this syndrome where the president’s reality happens to be so different from his own senior advisers,” Brinkley said.




And the big question of course is what comes next?

Will Trump and his henchmen be able to identify the anonymous writer of that devastating column?

Both inside the White House and in Trump’s broader orbit, aides and confidants scrambled to identify the anonymous official, windmilling in all directions; within just hours of publication, they privately offered up roughly a dozen different theories and suggested traitors.

And did he or she do the right thing, or just make things worse? 

As David Frum maintains. 



The author of the anonymous op-ed is hoping to vindicate the reputation of like-minded senior Trump staffers. See, we only look complicit! Actually, we’re the real heroes of the story. 

But what the author has just done is throw the government of the United States into even more dangerous turmoil. He or she has enflamed the paranoia of the president and empowered the president’s willfulness.


He’ll grow more defiant, more reckless, more anti-constitutional, and more dangerous.


Will all this turmoil serve to restrain Trump, or will he start some war to try to distract Americans from the war in the White House?



I have no idea, I leave it up to you to decide.

But what I do know is that Trump has now been shown, beyond the shadow of a doubt, to be unfit to remain in office.

And that he must be removed from that office, by being forced to resign or impeached.

Before he kills us all...



23 comments:

Steve said...

After LBJ, Nixon, Reagan and GWB we have Trump. One could argue all of the former were not fit for office. They look like Lee Quan Yew compared to Trump. Off with his head (figuratively)It is still interesting how the "resistance" and the MSM seem to be in lockstep. A prime example of this danger is the McCain Mythology.

One thing for sure President Pence will not be re elected so dems, pick someone useful.

Jackie Blue said...

Rumor has it Pence wrote the memo to force Congress' hand, because he seriously believes that he was chosen by God to become president. Or, that someone else who doesn't like Pence may have written it and used Pencian language ("lodestar" being the key word here for some reason) to set him up. If Pence gets ousted and Trump doesn't appoint a new VP, the possibility that Democrats retake the House would mean we get President Nancy Pelosi! Now that would be sweet justice. A long shot to be sure, but a nice idea to think about.

One way or another, I hope this backfires on both Derp Throat and Trump, and takes down the whole GOP like the traitors they are. Oh, and speaking of right-wing nutjob propagandists, Trump can't be happy that Trudeau came right out and said regarding NAFTA, "we have a president who doesn't follow the rules" and that he is holding firm against a ridiculous proposal that would allow garbage Yankee media cabals like Fox and Sinclair to take over the failing fake-news Sun and Postmedia. Which means that when the Der Sturmer tabloids die, good riddance to one of the most damaging cores of Herr Harper's legacy. Good on Trudeau and Freeland for not taking the Rethugs' bait, and allowing Trump and the Conadian quislings who support them to tie themselves in knots and hang themselves with their own rope. Lock them up, lock them up, lock them up!

Anonymous said...

Bah, another two-day story soon to be forgotten after the next outrage. Anyone remember the 3,000 children torn from their parents' arms and abused in cages? A court ordered them reunited with their parents. One in six is still being held, but the media and public have lost interest.

Trump's job is to keep the outrages coming while the heroic GOP "resistance" loots the government.

Anonymous said...

The NY Times stepped in it. The anonymous op-ed was a bad idea. It would have been better to just let Woodward's book do it's work.

UU

e.a.f. said...

NOW//// He always was to dangerous. This is what happens when a country believes "anyone" can grow up to be President of the U.S.A. They may want to forget that line.

Some one suggested we as a society, which includes the media, simply stop covering Trump and talking about him. It simply feeds his ego. It was suggested the media start to cover instead the impact of what Trump is doing. That of course would cost the media money, but it might be better news.

Trump is simply being Trump, he has always been like this, its just that now he is the president of the U.S.A. and that act doesn't play that well, beyond the base.

Writing the op ed. and printing it as it was, is a good idea. Not only do we have the book, we have the thoughts of some one inside the W.H., not that it is unexpected. the person who wrote it is simply verifying what Bernstein wrote.

Some are arguing they ought to have stood up and revealed who they were, but I don't agree. This way, it causes a lot more discussion and media coverage. Much better strategy.

Now the talking heads have their opinion, including Pence, but its more likely someone on Pence's team or is very familiar with Pence's writing style and is trying to throw the blame on him. my vote goes to Sarah Huckebee Saunders.

e.a.f. said...

You can't put them in jail for that Jackie Blue, but I understand how you feel. We don't jail people that much in Canada. Its not cost effective amongst other things. House arrest will do fine.

e.a.f. said...

Rachel Maddox hasn't forgotten. She mentioned the children a few nights ago. They still haven't been re united because there was nothing in place to do that. She discussed that Sessions and the W.H. didn't think anyone in the U.S.A. would care if the children were incarcerated and separated from their parents. The people who made that decision didn't talk to Moms of America.

Steve said...

Its a hole house of cards thing, and thank the giant flying spaghetti monster for printing the bible Game of Thrones. The NYT who is a deep state institution, remember the second Iraq war kids, did not walk the plank on this one. The lodestar ref was clearly a signal it was Pence, now maybe it was him and he can claim I would never put my signature on this. Second suspect is Jeff Sessions the Deliverance dueling banjos clown. I really do not see a third gunman on the grassy hill. The identiy of this guy will not remain secret like deep throat. That is if you believe he was actually the guy. Seriously look into Bob Woodwards military career. Look into the plumbers who pulled of the job at watergate, it stinks.

Anonymous said...

If the Woodward book and the anonymous op-ed don’t lead to some kind of move to remove Trump from office the U.S. is truly doomed. It’s insane that a man who is clearly suffering from a serious mental condition be allowed anywhere near the nuclear codes. David Frum may be right that the op-ed will only make things worse. But that’s only because the situation is so screwed up.

Jackie Blue said...

@anon 5:28 -- reminds me of the movie Network... and if you've ever seen it, you know how that ended for Howard Beale, the casualty of "weak, sad ratings"...

Anonymous said...

What was the purpose of the op-ed... The president lives in CrazyTown but don't worry the resistance will protect America. If anything it reassures no one and opens the divide between believers in the Deep State Swamp and the rest of us a little wider. Possibly its targeted psychological war fare aimed at setting CrazyTown on fire as the enemy is invisible so Trump cannot destroy them by unleashing his Fox news hounds followed by 1000 Twitter lashes. Then again perhaps the person just reached their limits of frustration and just had to vent. Whatever the missile landed in Crazytown, if Trump takes the bait self damage could be significant! A game of political Jiu Jitsu perhaps?.
RT

Anonymous said...

I don’t care who wrote the op ed. We didn’t learn anything we didn’t know before. And that is Trump is out of of his frigging mind and should not be President. Period.

Anonymous said...

Don't be silly. Why would they talk to women? The Lawd said governing is man's work.

Simon said...

Hi Steve... If I was an American I would not have voted for Nixon, Reagan, and George W Bush. But despite the Vietnam War that eventually brought him down, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society helped advance the cause of poor and discriminated against Americans. And all of the above were better than the hog Donald Trump...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie...I'm really enjoying the sight of the White House convulsing with paranoia, and not even God's man Pence free from suspicion. As I said in my post I'm not sure what to think of that anonymous op-ed. Coming from a Republican it strikes me as a little too self serving. But we're a war, and if it helps drive Trump completely bonkers I think the anonymous author should receive the Medal of Honour...

Simon said...

Hi anon@12:44 PM... I can understand why what's happening in the U.S. might make you cynical. The 24-hour news cycle is indeed an abomination. And the attention span of many in the U.S. and Canada is truly pathetic. But the effect is cumulative. And slowly but surely it's making more and more Americans decide that Trump has to go...

Simon said...

Hi UU...As I said in my post I can't decide. I agree that the Woodward book was better, but the anonymous op-ed may have given that book even more impact. In my opinion those who disagree with the idea of an anonymous op-ed are forgetting that we don't live in normal times. And also forget that if the author is exposed, the gift will keep on giving. And all of it will help undermine Trump and eventually bring him crashing to the ground...

Simon said...

Hi e.a.f...you make a number of good points. But what I meant to say by wondering whether Trump is now too dangerous, is that his raging paranoia might well push him over the edge, or make him do something rash to try to distract Americans from the state of his White House. And let's face it, anything that torments Trump has got to be good...

Simon said...

Hi anon@5:28 PM...The Woodward book and the anonymous op-ed won't by themselves lead to a move to remove Trump from office. But if they encourage more Americans to vote against Republican candidates in the mid term elections, they will help set Trump on the road to impeachment. And I'm pretty sure those elections will mark the beginning of the end...

Simon said...

Hi RT...We won't be able to determine the purpose of the op-ed until we find out who wrote it, if we ever do. As I mentioned above I found the op-ed a little too self serving, or to put it crudely, too much like a plea to have a sentence reduced. But if it destabilizes the clown president and his fascist regime, and makes it even more obvious that he is unfit to remain in office, it will be mission accomplished as far as I am concerned....

Simon said...

hi anon@8:29 PM...While it's true that we didn't learn a whole lot more than we already knew. The idea that staffers considered whether the should invoke the 25th amendment helped drive home the urgency of the situation. And just when the crown works with a police office to prepare a case, even little bit of evidence helps....

e.a.f. said...

Hi Simon, just finished watching Obama's speech at the University of Illinois. His message was VOTE. Not just in federal elections but at all levels. He pointed out the work the Parkland students are doing and some aren't even old enough to vote. His speech about the power of the vote was excellent.

e.a.f. said...

as an old lawyer I once knew used to say: "a preponderance of allegations at some point will make a fact."