Something is Rotten

[Lutherf]

So how do you vet him for conflict of interest?

Conflict of interest with what? Taxes? Unless he tries to pass a law that says nobody elected to the office of president has to pay taxes I'm not really interested in that. If you're looking for ties to a foreign country then a tax return probably isn't the best place to look...or even a particularly good place to look. Heck, a tax return doesn't even disclose how much someone has in accumulated wealth. It's Income tax so about the only thing that shows up on a return is income. You really don't even need to indicate the specifics of the income. You can, for example, just list "Bank 1", "Bank 2", etc. on your Sch B. Your employer's information doesn't show up under wages. Your pension provider doesn't show up under pensions. There might be a little more information on a Schedule E or a Schedule C but that can also be generalized to the point that it's useless to anyone looking at the return.

Seriously, what do people think they're going to find in a tax return and why is it so important to them?

 

[jnug]

"In all fairness the person that shared a story with the piece's author, may have shared it with multiple persons. So there many not be the ability to 100% reliably deduce the author by the story sharer.

However, I do think it's possible this person is part of a larger faction, some of whom may be jointly responsible for this piece. I surely hope not."

I think that there is a decent chance that the author of the Op-ed is falling on his sword for the GOP in general. He is taking the hit by putting himself on the line. That is why I immediately ruled out anybody that had a future political career past his WH job. Sessions became a likely candidate at that point and Larry O'Donnell is right about Coats for the same reason. Coats is a more likely candidate even that Sessions. It just becomes harder and harder for me to imagine that given the numbers of people discussed in the Woodward book all working at the same basic purpose that there is not some faction of that group involved in producing this piece as well again all with the same goal.

 

[Slingshot Bob]

Conflict of interest with what? Taxes? Unless he tries to pass a law that says nobody elected to the office of president has to pay taxes I'm not really interested in that. If you're looking for ties to a foreign country then a tax return probably isn't the best place to look...or even a particularly good place to look. Heck, a tax return doesn't even disclose how much someone has in accumulated wealth. It's Income tax so about the only thing that shows up on a return is income. You really don't even need to indicate the specifics of the income. You can, for example, just list "Bank 1", "Bank 2", etc. on your Sch B. Your employer's information doesn't show up under wages. Your pension provider doesn't show up under pensions. There might be a little more information on a Schedule E or a Schedule C but that can also be generalized to the point that it's useless to anyone looking at the return.

Seriously, what do people think they're going to find in a tax return and why is it so important to them?

They swear that is where the clincher on "collusion" will be.

 

[Chomsky]

Conflict of interest with what? Taxes? Unless he tries to pass a law that says nobody elected to the office of president has to pay taxes I'm not really interested in that. If you're looking for ties to a foreign country then a tax return probably isn't the best place to look...or even a particularly good place to look. Heck, a tax return doesn't even disclose how much someone has in accumulated wealth. It's Income tax so about the only thing that shows up on a return is income. You really don't even need to indicate the specifics of the income. You can, for example, just list "Bank 1", "Bank 2", etc. on your Sch B. Your employer's information doesn't show up under wages. Your pension provider doesn't show up under pensions. There might be a little more information on a Schedule E or a Schedule C but that can also be generalized to the point that it's useless to anyone looking at the return.

Seriously, what do people think they're going to find in a tax return and why is it so important to them?

You need the taxes to find out where a candidate's financial interests lay. In this case, from Trump's business schedules.

Quite honestly I never would put a billionaire with Trump's global financial interests into the White House. He has too many possible conflicts of interest.

 

[Logician Man]

"In all fairness the person that shared a story with the piece's author, may have shared it with multiple persons. So there many not be the ability to 100% reliably deduce the author by the story sharer.

However, I do think it's possible this person is part of a larger faction, some of whom may be jointly responsible for this piece. I surely hope not."

I think that there is a decent chance that the author of the Op-ed is falling on his sword for the GOP in general. He is taking the hit by putting himself on the line. That is why I immediately ruled out anybody that had a future political career past his WH job. Sessions became a likely candidate at that point and Larry O'Donnell is right about Coats for the same reason. Coats is a more likely candidate even that Sessions. It just becomes harder and harder for me to imagine that given the numbers of people discussed in the Woodward book all working at the same basic purpose that there is not some faction of that group involved in producing this piece as well again all with the same goal.

I echoed your 'multiple persons' sentiments earlier today in another thread addressing this story.Seems to me to make the most sense.The word 'we' was used which would indicate there are multiple people who collectively drew up the op-ed. Here's to hoping we find out the name (s) of he/she/they sooner than later.

 

[trixare4kids]

I didn't want to derail the thread in the Polls forum to respond to this:




Terribly rotten. Whoever these people are, "thwarting" this "amoral" president, they are not putting the country first. They are putting their own political interests first in making Trump a "useful idiot" so they can accomplish their own agenda. Trump is president, not these nameless, faceless conspirators to keep him in power.


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


There is no such thing under the Constitution as a two-track presidency and these people are not heroes. They are covering up for an executive who may be mentally incompetent and exploiting that incompetence for their own ends. They should be reaching out to senators and representatives to voice their "concern" and explain why they feel they need to thwart and deceive him. Or they should stop covering up for him if they don't think it rises to 25th Amendment bad. They should not continue to operate a "two-track presidency".

Gina, yours is a thought provoking post. You've managed to explain why I'm so uncomfortable over this anonymous NY Time opinion piece.
Despite how one feels about the Trump presidency, it's unsettling to learn that our Democratically elected president is being undermined by some deep state elite, elites, who think they are better suited to do his job. Time to come together as Americans, ... and stand up and say, 'this ain't right.'

 

[jnug]

Gina, yours is a thought provoking post. You've managed to explain why I'm so uncomfortable over this anonymous NY Time opinion piece.
Despite how one feels about the Trump presidency, it's unsettling to learn that our Democratically elected president is being undermined by some deep state elite, elites, who think they are better suited to do his job. Time to come together as Americans, ... and stand up and say, 'this ain't right.'

We will know in large part by what the Hill Republicans do. If they immediately rise up in righteous indignation and haul the entire administration full of Secretaries and under-secretaries before Congress under subpoena then there is a chance that they believe in their President as the leader of their party and capable of actually fulfilling the duties of the office. If they don't then it has been their understanding that Trump has been the incompetent corrupt oaf he has appeared to be and while Vlad may have been using him for his own purposes, the GOP fully understanding what and who Trump was has been doing the same thing for their purposes.

We no longer have to look forward to a Constitutional Crisis by virtue of the issues revolving around Russian Election Interference, we have one that we don't have to look farther than the West Wing and the Executive Office building to find.

Whether the Republicans on the Hill immediately suspend everything and haul the Trump WH before congress or not, we are into a Constitutional Crisis right now. If they don't rise up then the People of the Country will have to rise up and clean the GOP's clock for it in the Mid-terms, House and Senate.

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

The problem is not the motives of the people who voted for Trump. There are as many reasons people voted for Trump as there are people who voted for Trump. Lumping all those voters into one basket [of deplorables] is a HUGE part of the reason Trump is in office. It's been said over and over and over; dismissing the actual motivations of those with whom you hold an ideological difference of opinion and impugning their intellect is a sure fire way of pissing them off. Hillary failed to absorb that lesson and, apparently, so did a bunch of other people.

So we piss them off, if thats what needs to be done to save the republic. It isn't like voting for Trump right now is even possible.

 

[Kobie]

Agreed. If they simply reprinted an article by one of the most infamous White House trolls and that later came out, the damage that would do to the reputation of the Times would be pretty extraordinary.

Which I think rules out the likes of Stephen Miller, who I saw floated on Twitter as a possibility. Zero point zero chance.

 

[Kobie]

Gina, yours is a thought provoking post. You've managed to explain why I'm so uncomfortable over this anonymous NY Time opinion piece.
Despite how one feels about the Trump presidency, it's unsettling to learn that our Democratically elected president is being undermined by some deep state elite, elites, who think they are better suited to do his job. Time to come together as Americans, ... and stand up and say, 'this ain't right.'

This doesn't really meet the definition of "deep state." These are HIS people, not the establishment and Obama holdovers.

 

[Cardinal]

Which I think rules out the likes of Stephen Miller, who I saw floated on Twitter as a possibility. Zero point zero chance.

Miller was precisely one of the trolls I had in mind who would shatter the nyt reputation.

 

[Slingshot Bob]

Agreed. If they simply reprinted an article by one of the most infamous White House trolls and that later came out, the damage that would do to the reputation of the Times would be pretty extraordinary.

Like they would suddenly give a damn? See my sig.

 

[Kobie]

Miller was precisely one of the trolls I had in mind who would shatter the nyt reputation.

The Times knows better than to trust him.

As someone who worked in a newsroom for a long time, I'm curious as to what sort of rift this might create at the NYT. You have a news desk staff that cannot simply ignore the "whodunit" aspect of the story, working in the same building as an editorial staff that knows exactly whodunit and can't tell them. I'm 100% certain there was a meeting of the news staff before this was published, where they were told "this is what's happening, this is who knows the identity of the writer, and they can't say anything." But at some point, if this starts turning into a legal issue for the Times staff, I could see things getting a little testy.

 

[Kobie]

Like they would suddenly give a damn? See my sig.

Your sig is stupid. Anyone who thinks the Times would just print something willy nilly from Alt-Right Gollum (or, as Mycroft said was "more than likely" in another thread, just make it up themselves) needs their head examined.

You really have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, and your "location" on your profile is stupid too. We love what America is supposed to be. You love Trump.

 

[Slingshot Bob]

Your sig is stupid. Anyone who thinks the Times would just print something willy nilly from Alt-Right Gollum (or, as Mycroft said was "more than likely" in another thread, just make it up themselves) needs their head examined.

You really have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, and your "location" on your profile is stupid too. We love what America is supposed to be. You love Trump.

Glad you feel triggered and remain in denial.

 

[Kobie]

Glad you feel triggered and remain in denial.

Man, you are going to be a hard one to deprogram when all this is over. But I'm glad to see you bringing your A-game tonight.

Seriously. UR TRIGGERED is your A-game. You are not doing well at covering for this.

 

[Slingshot Bob]

Man, you are going to be a hard one to deprogram when all this is over. But I'm glad to see you bringing your A-game tonight.

Seriously. UR TRIGGERED is your A-game. You are not doing well at covering for this.

Yet here you are.

 

[Kobie]

Yet here you are.

Tell ya what. I'll let you sit on this for a night. Get up early tomorrow, make sure you have your radio tuned to Rush and Hannity, and then come back with your marching orders and we'll see how this plays out then.

 

[Slingshot Bob]

Tell ya what. I'll let you sit on this for a night. Get up early tomorrow, make sure you have your radio tuned to Rush and Hannity, and then come back with your marching orders and we'll see how this plays out then.

Have not listened in years. I don't get up until noon.

Be sure to catch CNN!

 

[JustHanging]

Treason, coup plotters.

You deep state deniers still feel so confident?

So the deep state is composed of Trump's hand picked employees?

Never saw that coming!

So are you holding Trump responsible for picking these people, or does he get a pass? And if he does get a pass, why?

 

[JustHanging]

Blue wave? Ever heard about counting eggs as chickens?

There is no substantial and real objection to this nominee.

Yep. Putin hasn't had his say yet, and he's not going to let his man be weakened without a fight, you can count on that.

 

[HowardBThiname]

I didn't want to derail the thread in the Polls forum to respond to this:




Terribly rotten. Whoever these people are, "thwarting" this "amoral" president, they are not putting the country first. They are putting their own political interests first in making Trump a "useful idiot" so they can accomplish their own agenda. Trump is president, not these nameless, faceless conspirators to keep him in power.

.

I disagree. They're simply "advising" him and Presidents have had advisors since the dawn of the nation. There's nothing wrong with it, and Trump is fully capable of firing anyone who he feels is not advising him to his/her best ability.

No President (even one who's been in politics all his life) is knowledgeable on every topic that arises, which is why advisors are vital and ever present.

While there are many things to be concerned about in this presidency -- this is not one of them.

 

[JustHanging]

His tax returns are his business. I would never require ANYONE to disclose their tax returns to the general public.

How can you drain the swamp without exposing the swamp creatures?

 

[Fletch]

I disagree. They're simply "advising" him and Presidents have had advisors since the dawn of the nation. There's nothing wrong with it, and Trump is fully capable of firing anyone who he feels is not advising him to his/her best ability.

No President (even one who's been in politics all his life) is knowledgeable on every topic that arises, which is why advisors are vital and ever present.

While there are many things to be concerned about in this presidency -- this is not one of them.

If it is so normal, why did this guy feel compelled to write an OPEd about it? Sounds like we have a couple of Bill Crystal, establishment types running loose in the White House

 

[HowardBThiname]

If it is so normal, why did this guy feel compelled to write an OPEd about it? Sounds like we have a couple of Bill Crystal, establishment types running loose in the White House

My guess is because he/she wants to reassure the public in light of all the negative media attention over Trump.

Kind of provides a semblance of stability.