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Anonymous goes public … so what?

<p>We first must distinguish which anonymous has gone public&period;  I am not referring to what Wikipedia describes as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;an internet-based collective of hacktivists whose goals&comma; like its organization&comma; are decentralized&period; Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the organization perceives as corrupt entities&period;&&num;8221&semi;  Not them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This commentary deals with that one-time bureaucrat who came to prominence when the once respectable <em>New York Times<&sol;em> published a long opinion article blasting President Trump by a person only identified as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Anonymous&period;”  He or she was described as a senior level official in the Trump administration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While American reporters now routinely use anonymous sources in news reports -– a practice that was once considered journalistic malpractice except in the most extraordinary cases – the <em>Times<&sol;em> op ed was the first time a major publication used essentially an anonymous letter-to-the-editor&period; The &&num;8220&semi;grey old lady of journalism” received a lot of well-deserved criticism for this flagrant example of sniper journalism&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Not naming the author had two effects&period;  There was the obvious question of credibility&period;  Knowing who is saying something is as important as what is said – or in this case written&period;  It also leads to inaccurate finger-pointing&period; It was suggested that Anonymous was the then White House advisor John Bolton&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some speculation centered around a relative obscure career bureaucrat named Miles Taylor an assistant Chief-of-Staff over at Homeland Security&period;  He entered the gossip mill because of his privately express disdain for Trump and his efforts to promulgate a Gilbert and Sullivan-style insurrection against the President&period;  In one case – and by his own admission &&num;8212&semi; he attempted to organize a mass resignation as a show of protest&period;  Apparently&comma; he could not recruit the masses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the meantime&comma; Anonymous wrote a book entitled &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A Warning&period;” Even the publisher of the book appears to be anonymous&period;  It is unusual to find book listings on the Internet without any reference to the publisher&period;  In a search&comma; it found one site that listed the publisher as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;twelve” – whatever that is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When suspicion centered on him&comma; Taylor vehemently and repeatedly denied being Anonymous&period;  He denied it to his bosses&period;  He denied it to the media – and by extension to we the people&period;  He lied … lied &&num;8230&semi; lied&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After leaving Homeland Security by voluntary resignation &lpar;his version&rpar; or by requested resignation &lpar;the other version&rpar; matters not&period;  More importantly&comma; once free of his governmental obligations&comma; Taylor became a bit of a Trump critic in his own name – still denying he was Anonymous&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Weeell … apparently the anonymity was too much for the poor boy&period;  Maybe book sales had dropped off&period;  For whatever reason&comma; Taylor decided to appear on CNN’s Chris Cuomo show to come out of the political closet and admit that he is Anonymous&period; Putting on his lawyer robe&comma; Cuomo asked why anyone should believe him in view of the fact that he is an admitted liar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Taylor responded that he wanted people to focus only on what he said&comma; not who he was&period;  In other words&comma; he must have known that connecting his name to the writing would have instantly diminished its credibility&period;  Or&comma; as he said&comma; he had to lie &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;to make it work&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>First of all&comma; being described as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;senior official” by the <em>Times<&sol;em> and on the cover of his book was a stretch&period;  Junior official&comma; maybe&comma; but senior&quest;  Hardly&period; He tried to show his importance with a photo of him and Trump in the Oval Office &lpar;shown above&rpar;&period; Seeing his broad smile and thumbs-up gesture made me see him more as a smarmy hypocritical scum ball – to be precise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the interview&comma; he seemed to be many with visions of grandeur – comparing himself to those guys who wrote the Federalist Papers with pseudonyms&period; He must never have read The Federalist Paper&period;  Comparing his trash writing to the Federalist Papers is like comparing meeting note doodles to the Mona Lisa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Taylor sees himself as courageous&period;  Not sure how anonymous attacks can be seen as courageous&period;  That is the method of guttersnipes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Taylor assured Cuomo that there are many who agree with him still in their government positions – to cowardly to come forward&period;  His perception of support seemed to be from watercooler gossip – you know&comma; like when everyone agrees with a guy just to end to rant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The problem with Taylor’s entire interview is that all the nasty things he said Trump said in various meetings have no supporting evidence&period;  He said that Trump said terrible things about the handling of illegal immigrants – but no corroboration&period;  He came across more like an adolescent who wants all his friends to hate the gal who just dumped him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Taylor did&comma; inadvertently&comma; raise questions as to who is running the Executive Branch of the federal government – or more correctly&comma; who should be&period; He seemed to be saying that Trump was not following the policies and procedures established by the bureaucrats – those some refer to as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the deep state&period;”  The elected President of the United States is not to be making policy&comma; but simply implementing the policy of the Washington establishment&period;  That&comma; however&comma; is what Trump was sent to the White House change – to be a real President&period; &lpar;Things might have been better if Trump had acted a LITTLE more like a traditional President&comma; but that is water over the damn – or is it under the bridge&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For a few more moments&comma; Taylor will bask in the studio lights of the left-leaning Trump-hating programs&period;  He could log more interview time than … ah &&num;8230&semi; what&&num;8217&semi;s his name&quest;  … oh yeah&comma; Michael Avenatti – another sleazebag propped out by the press merely because of his attacks on Trump&&num;8230&semi; Perhaps the prevaricating Miles Taylor will also become too toxic even for the biased media&period;  The sooner the better&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So&comma; there &OpenCurlyQuote;tis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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