It occurs to me that…
…if Trump manages to drain any portion of the swamp, it will be because he represents an irresistible target to the swamp denizens, and in the extremity of their zeal to get him they reveal themselves in ways that are especially noticeable and outrageous.
And then, because Trump himself isn’t afraid to say things that other more polite politicians would never be caught uttering, he sets a tone that is more combative toward his critics, spurring them on to greater heights of frenzy.
Remember, for example, the furious eruptions of the Trump opposition—the ridicule, the outrage—when Trump declared that the Obama administration had wiretapped Trump Tower? The media focused on the word “wiretapped,” which Trump later said wasn’t meant literally but as a shorthand for spied on or used surveillance on. But at this point, his statement seems rather pedestrian, doesn’t it? That’s true for so many of the things Trump said that originally seemed way off-base even to some of his supporters.
I was curious to see what I wrote at the time about that original wiretapping tweet of Trump’s, so I went back and found this post from March of 2017. It was very early in his presidency. Looking back on it now, I see that I had a bit of a beef with him saying what he said through a tweet, but otherwise thought it not unlikely that he would end up being vindicated in some way. It’s interesting to look at the comments there, too, for example this comment of mine
I think I indicated in my post that I wish he hadn’t tweeted this this way, but had instead presented a case.
However, that doesn’t mean that a case won’t be presented. Trump likes to get his opponents all riled up and then surprise them by being more sober and grounded than they expected.
But implying [any spying that was done on him] was okay because it was legal misses the point almost entirely. The point is that it might have represented a case of using the justice system to get a political opponent. That’s a no-no, even if legal. A president [in this case I was talking about Obama and the departments under him] is given enormous powers. He or she should not abuse them, even in ways that are legal.
Interesting. If you read the post, it seems there was a lot of information out there already about the FISA warrants on Trump associates. It’s astounding that so far it’s taken two years and change for a lot of related information to come out more fully.
And apparently, we’re not finished yet.
When we drive on long trips, like from Tucson to Orange County CA, we listen to audio books. A year ago, it was Caro’s biography of Johnson, all four volumes. I had been listening to it when I commuted to Phoenix, two hours each way, and one day my wife was with me in the car and heard part of it. She insisted that I start it from the beginning and we then listened twice more on trips.
This time we listened to Papadopoulos’ book, “Deep State Target” The first thing you learn is that he is a more accomplished guy than the media portrays. The second thing is that this was a Kafka-like experience and the people who did this to him should be in prison.
I look forward to the Barr revelations.
Yep, nowhere near finished.
Adm. Mike Rogers (NSA dir.) visited Trump Tower Nov. 17, 2016. He spelled it out for Pres.-Elect Trump then.
We didn’t know this back when Trump began sounding off, nor what all else Trump had seen in the way of documentation, etc., by March of 2017.
Hell, we still don’t know what all Trump has had access to, though we can assume it’s quite a bit of detailed knowledge he’s gathered up by now. We can see however, that all the bad actors in this freakshow are behaving mighty goddamned squirrelly these days. They show us what they fear.
It’s my strong personal belief that Adm. Mike Rogers deserves the highest commendation for talking to Pres.-Elect Trump. He did so after being told not to by Brennan and Clapper, those two Usual Suspects.
The behavior of the Trump haters is truly amazing. It’s like watching people have a psychotic breakdown in public. I really have no idea what Trump does that causes people to react with such virulent hatred.
“The media focused on the word “wiretapped,” which Trump later said wasn’t meant literally but as a shorthand for spied on or used surveillance on.” ]Neo]
This, and incidents like it too numerous to list, just give additional credence to Salena Zito’s profound observation that Trump’s supporters take him seriously, not literally, while his opponents take him literally but not seriously.
Keeping this in mind makes it even easier to dismiss the constant media hand-wringing.
Neo’s Mar. 2017 post includes this nice tableau (y’know, what the heck, it rhymes with Favreau):
Here (and I thinks it’s far easier in this now distant retrospect) we can see a bit more particularly than merely to “doubt he left his fingerprints on it” to catch that Favreau is actually bragging to us, telling us that **yeah, of course Obama ordered the code-red but you slouches will never pin it on him**.
Trump likes to get his opponents all riled up and then surprise them by being more sober and grounded than they expected.
neo: That’s me, though I’m not an opponent anymore. The real Donald is a tricksy fellow.
“It’s astounding that so far it’s taken two years and change for a lot of related information to come out more fully.” — Neo
Well, we had a lot of people, including the Special Counsel, with a huge interest in not having that information come out.
I’m amazed we have as much as we do.
I cannot avoid impression that Trump is somehow divinely inspired if even his apparently outrageous and risky gambles often turned out eventually to be the winning strategies.
My impression is that Trump and his few trusted associates are like a small commando unit which has parachuted into enemy territory, many are likely in unfamiliar territory, they don’t know who they can trust, and they are surrounded by enemies—by a huge Swamp full of a lot of sly and vicious beasts.
Trump and his associates have to try to rely on the Civil Service they supposedly command, but are surrounded by people who will nod their heads and say, “yes, boss,” but who will then immediately try to derail whatever Trump has ordered them to do; they can’t trust anyone outside of their small band—and perhaps not even all of them.
Case in point, Trump’s widely reported order to strip Brennan of his security clearance.
Someone was on FOX the other night, and said that he was in the room when Trump gave the order for this to be done, but pointed out it that—a year later—it still hasn’t happened.
Problem is, even if Trump pinpoints the person or persons who has been slow rolling this order, and fires them on the spot—if he even can, given Civil Service protections, Trump then needs to find a more trustworthy replacement, and such loyal and trustworthy people seem to be pretty thin on the ground.
Just how precarious and dangerous their positions are for Trump appointees was emphasized yesterday, when AG Barr gave a commencement speech to the graduating class at the FBI National Academy, in which he likened himself to one of the parachutists who made the perilous jump into France on D-Day, and who was trying to find a landing place where he wouldn’t get shot.
A very significant thing to note about this speech was that, it was reported that there was no reaction from the audience, when Barr equated himself to a parachutist in danger of being shot when he landed in the midst of his enemies.
Julie Kelly reports: “Mark Meadows tells @MariaBartiromo that DOJ IG report on FISA abuse will be delayed because ‘additional information’ on the scandal recently given to Horowitz — Also said ‘crimes were committed’.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1137732211556388864
It’s astounding that so many people are willing to destroy their own reputations, and for what? To protect the existing bureaucracy, or else just a number of politicians, like the Clintons and Obama? Do they really think the status quo is going to last forever, what with millions of aliens coming into the country, an ascendant China, the potential break-up of the EU, and so on?
Robert Mueller has to know that more stuff on the phony FISA warrants and all the campaign spying will come out, and then he will look very foolish. Yet he did all that he did anyway. And all the major news outlets are sitting on this great story, with only the most minimal of reporting, and yet they could be doing so much more.
It seems that no one is capable of being able to look beyond Trump, and to think of the long-run, of what will come next. The exception is the current AG William Barr, who has shown imagination and clarity of thinking.
I was chasing down stories at Conservative Tree House last night, including a post about the True the Vote win against the IRS, and scrolled through the comments on a post from 2014 which Sundance linked to — that story exemplified exactly the situation with the protect-the-institution Bureaucrats-R-Us outlined above by Snow (not a new story, and it’s not going away apparently).
These commenters fall into the deplorables’ bucket of “how we got Trump” – amplified by the recent events into “this is how you get more Trump.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/12/04/a-transparent-conflict-of-interest-treasury-secretary-jack-lew-blocks-white-houseirs-email-release/#comment-1135207
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/12/04/a-transparent-conflict-of-interest-treasury-secretary-jack-lew-blocks-white-houseirs-email-release/#comment-1135482
Yankee–It seems to me that what appears to be the majority explanation for the coup plotter’s behavior makes the most sense.
The coup plotters got into all this trouble, stepped out of the shadows, perverted the major law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the government and turned them into political weapons, and committed so many apparent crimes because they all believed their own bullshit, and they arrogantly believed themselves not only supremely smart and skilled, but also righteous and invincible, above the Law; to coin a phrase, “on the right side of History.”
They thought that Hillary was a shoo in, that Trump was not, in any way, a serious candidate, and that there was just no way in hell that Trump could win.
In their version of reality, when Hillary inevitably won the Presidency, every irregular step they took, every rule they broke, every crime they committed would be covered up and, moreover, they would be rewarded for their efforts towards helping her get elected by a grateful Hillary.
So, they went all out, they ignored every protocol and rule, and pretended that everything they did was “by the book,” and clothed in official righteousness. They cleared a guilty Hillary so that she would remain a viable candidate, able to win, and they tried to portray an innocent Trump as guilty, so that he would be disqualified/lose.
Then, the impossible happened, Hillary lost and Trump won.
So, now these coup plotters were reduced to mounting harassing attacks against Trump and his incoming Administration in order to keep him bogged down, busy, and too preoccupied fending off their attacks to mount effective investigations, trying first one, then another approach to remove President Trump from office.
And—on a parallel track—trying to cover their tracks, to create every roadblock to the information about what they had done becoming known.
Hoping that the Left-leaning Federal Departments and Agencies they led would see in best–in the interests of their institutional survival–to help them set up and maintain these roadblocks to “transparency.”
Hoping that they can run out the clock, until Trump is either neutered or driven from office and/or a new Democrat President and Administration takes power, investigations of their actions will be dropped, the pressure will be off, and all of this nastiness will simply go away, and be forgotten.
Barr’s remarks about his second arrival at DOJ being more eventful than his first, parachuting quip at 6:25 on the lower video.
https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/live-ag-barr-fbi-director-wray-speak-at-fbi-national-academy-graduation-ceremony
Coincidentally related to my last comment.
https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2019/06/09/why-trump-is-winning-n2547710
Wayne Root, radio host.
I think the Dem supporting Deep State criminals truly thought that Mueller would find some crime that Trump was guilty of, so his impeachment on that crime would be the real cover up for their pro-Hillary crimes.
Soon they’ll be saying “what difference does it make?” — but their guilt needs to be established in courts, after indictments. Which I keep waiting for, and hoping for.