The Establishments war on Donald Trump
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Title: Playing Four-Dimensional Chess With the Mooch
Source:
Weekly Standard
URL Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/playi ... with-the-mooch/article/2009110
Published: Aug 3, 2017
Author: Jonathan V. Last
Post Date: 2017-08-03 12:16:34 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 10477
Comments: 45
Whatever else you want to say about Anthony Scaramucci, he was a character. Maybe not a good character, but a character nonetheless. And while the White House will be a better, more stable place with him gone, in a certain way, I’ll miss him. But Mooch’s brief moment strutting and fretting upon the stage provided a nice illustration of one of the aspects of Trumpism that I find most alarming. After Mooch was appointed, I had conversations with a couple pro-Trump friends who objected to my characterization of Mooch as being unprepared and ill-suited for the job of White House communications director. Their arguments to me went something like this: You say that the Mooch doesn’t have any relevant experience and that his temperament is unsuited for his job. But “experienced” guys like Sean Spicer are worthless and Mooch is crazy like a fox. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s a genius. Just like Trump, he’s playing four-dimensional chess. But the problem with the “four-dimensional chess” argument is that it’s unfalsifiable. And we saw this on Monday when Mooch was fired. Suddenly my pro-Trump friends were arguing that Mooch’s dismissal was a sign that Trump was being serious and bringing discipline to his White House. In short: Hiring Mooch was a stroke of genius. And firing Mooch 10 days later was also a stroke of genius. In other words, once you start seeing “four-dimensional chess” in one setting, you’re likely to see it everywhere. Consider, for instance, the South Carolina primary debate where Donald Trump accused George W. Bush of treason. Was Trump correct? Did Bush literally—not figuratively—commit treason? And if it wasn’t true, then was making this charge a foolish mistake? Rush Limbaugh didn’t think so. He divined a deeper strategy on the part of Trump that was brilliant in its complexity. Okay. So what about when Trump spent a week in a public fight with the parents of a dead American soldier? Was that a brilliant strategic maneuver, too? Or how about Trump’s decision to start publicly criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions? In each of these cases, my pro-Trump friends have assured me that Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. But my concern is that once you go down this road, it becomes impossible to pass judgment on anything Trump does or says. Every policy choice, every utterance, is right and smart and strategically sound simply because it comes from Trump. It’s almost as though Trump’s partisans have lost the ability to analyze actions or statements independent of their source. If Hillary Clinton had hired Anthony Scaramucci (who was a big donor to her, and Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, and John Kerry, and Harry Reid, and you get the picture) would that have been a subversively brilliant choice? Or is the choice only subversively brilliant because it’s Trump making it? In theory, it ought to be easy to wish Trump well and hope he achieves his agenda while simultaneously acknowledging his mistakes and shortcomings. Republicans used to do this all the time with their politicians. But there’s something about Trumpism that makes people insist that all the president does is play perfect baseball. He never makes a misstep and anything that goes wrong is someone else’s fault—the media, the Deep State, John McCain, Bob Mueller, Jeff Sessions. Take your pick. Which is why the Trump Train has always seemed less like a political movement and more like a personality cult. Even so, I’ll miss Mooch. The cult was more fun with him in the mix. Poster Comment: I too miss Mooch terribly. General Kelly is a killjoy. 
Anthony Scaramucci blowing a kiss after answering questions during the press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing room.
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#1. To: Tooconservative (#0)
At last, another bit of news about the Mooch and his post-WH career. The Mooch now knows he wears women’s sunglasses. And he’s damn proud. Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci responded this weekend to a report from THE WEEKLY STANDARD, which revealed that his famous polarized aviators are, in fact, women’s active sunglasses. Scaramucci donned the shades Sunday during a wide-ranging 52-minute Periscope interview. “I wear women’s sunglasses because one, I didn’t realize they were women’s sunglasses,” he said, his eyes shielded from fluorescent light. “Two, I think they look pretty good with the shape of my face." "Those are the only two reasons," he said, before removing the glasses and getting a little defensive. “And by the way, I own it,” he added, gesturing with the shades. “And so I’m going to continue to wear women’s sunglasses.” Then, casting the sunnies out of frame, he looked into the camera with apparent satisfaction. We remember his 11-day tenure fondly. P.S. You can get your own pair of “Oakley Feedback” shades, crafted “for the active woman,” here. Of course, maybe Weekly Standard made up this story, just out of grief over how brief Mooch's tenure at the WH was.
#42. To: All (#41)
Turns out that this sunglasses recap is the real thing. He did a long video podcast with Periscope. Periscope: Scarmucci interview The sunglasses discussion is about 21 minutes in.
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#41. To: Willie Green, redleghunter, Deckard, sneakypete (#1)
Scaramucci Loves His Women's Sunglasses
In a Periscope interview, the former White House communications director says, "They look pretty good."
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