Neutral and Going Nowhere

"I'm now neutral on the President," says former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, adding he is no longer an active supporter of President Trump's reelection. "The guy's dissembling a little bit and sounding more and more nonsensical." https://t.co/KL3vOxZryu pic.twitter.com/XFWDqK7eXJ

— CNN (@CNN) August 12, 2019

The thing that Trump seems to be "dissembling a little bit" about now which happens to be the last straw? It isn't really the over 12 thousand lies we already might be thinking about. Nah. It looks like the real problem is Trump went "off the rails" and had negative things to Tweet about Anthony Scaramucci himself, who made the mistake of being less than completely adulatory about Trump oon Bill Maher's show, which we informed by Trump that he saw "by accident" (did I mention he lies?). He also thinks Trump is a racist now, because before wasn't good enough.

Profiles in courage, it isn't. As for neutrality, there exist many quotes to the effect that to be neutral is to remain on the side of the oppressor. Eh. But Scaramucci also gives great quotes, and so will remain a favorite of the TV chat shows.

This is Getting to be a Disturbing Pattern

How is it possible that the ScaramucciPost does not yet understand this is not cool, not a game, and leading down a really anti-Semitic path...by now?


I mean:

Please vote & retweet. Do not let Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites control this poll.

Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust. https://t.co/3ljJlK3G6M

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 20, 2017

It feels like it's being done for attention.

What Fresh Fuckery is This?

This poll was put up by @lancelaifer without consulting @Scaramucci who is traveling in London.
The poll has been taken down. pic.twitter.com/SKaaPZAPow

— ScaramucciPost (@ScaramucciPost) October 17, 2017

I can't even.

No Chaos in this TrumpWorld Grab-Bag!

Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017

Before I get down to the news of a busy news day, I just want to ruminate on the above Tweet--do you ever, in the midst of saying glowing things about your various blessings, really feel the need to say something like, "and by the way, my job is totally secure" or "and my marriage is stronger than ever" if there wasn't an inkling something was wrong? That's how I'm reading the above Tweet--"Things are going so great: Ignore the mess!" It's almost as if Trump is either certain enough of his own hoodwinking prowess to believe he can Jedi Mind-Trick the appearance of chaos away by merely saying so, or has finally begun to accept "Hey, maybe this does look kind of bad" into his outlook.

But as I said some time ago: It looks bad because it is bad. Trump's problems are revealed through bad news, not "fake news". That news might be coming out because of leaks, but those leaks attest to something about the nature of his administration, that his staff feels the need to try and shape the narrative by letting bad news out, even if it might be damaging to the president or other members of his circle. That is pretty extraordinary, but not a problem of "spin". It's a problem of actual deficiencies in leadership and competency in staffing. It's the girders, not the paint.

Take the departure of Anthony Scaramucci, bombastic almost-Communications Director, as a case in point. He was named to the position 10 or 11 days ago depending upon your take, but -15 days from when he was officially to take office. In that time, he prompted the resignation of Press Secretary Sean Spicer, forced (one could believe) the firing of COS Reince Priebus, and launched a tirade of unique and memorable scatological importance. (One of the things that fascinates me about the infamous call to Ryan Lizza is that, despite having said many things on the record that anyone else abiding by the idea that a communications professional might have prefaces with "off the record", actually did ask for something he said to be off the record during the exchange, from what I understand. How the hell bad was that part, given all the other parts!?) But my question is--how did he get there and why?

The answer might be Javanka and specifically to target Priebus. That's some manipulative stuff. This is the kind of thing one could hope will be managed by appointing a more discipline-oriented character in the form of John Kelly to Chief of Staff.  This is especially true if he actually is given freedom to manage. But I still suspect at least some members of Team Trump are going to rankle at stern step-dad Kelly coming in and trying to be the boss of them. (Just a theory. In other news, Priebus seems to have been undermined by micro-management at the top. Just sayin'.)

This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag Could Be Titanic

Was it really just last Friday that former WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced he'd be walking away from the job to spend more time with various shrubbery? It sort of feels like it's been longer than that, but if it was true that he was walking because the Administration was bringing Anthony Scaramucci on as communications director, this is, in retrospect, looking like a great call. Because Anthony Scaramucci, this week, made a not-so-great call which is ammaaaazzzzing.

First, he dinged Reince Priebus as being a possible leaker:

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)

And then he gave us this unfortunately brutal mental image:

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

Priebus and Bannon are to be commended for not responding, whilst probably having things they could think of saying, for sure. After all, they've already had this kind of story floated about being at odds with one another, so it's really great that someone got brought on who was at odds with both, and had to chat with the press on record about it, right? But at any rate, Scaramucci did make an accurate call about Priebus' job-status, and I'm pretty sure my mind's eye will recover from trying to literally interpret the Bannon comment which he assuredly meant in a metaphorical way. But I think he should be prepared to expect that his own personal motivations are liable to get dragged in public for what he was willing to give up to get close to Trump. Not venturing to auto-fellate, indeed.

In This Moment Anthony Scaramucci Became White House Chief of Staff

So, I think what he's saying here is that Reince Priebus is the guy who leaked things like how Tony the Mooch earned, which is a very precarious thing for a guy who is made of cheese curds and not from NY to do. That and how Mooch planned to fire anyone he could (because he reports to Trump, directly, because he would) until the leaks stop, suggest the rumors about a shake-up re: WH staff could be--to send a message--for real. Maybe he's moving in on Priebus' gig.


I'm just saying, if you didn't get how this mishegas was going down, maybe this is educational.

UPDATE: He deleted the Tweet, so it has been replaced in my post by this lovely screen cap.