UPDATED: The Purge Continues

With Impeachment Theater in his rear view mirror and with Dems obsessing over their own incompetence and fractiousness--not to mention the public's basic lack of interest--Trump seems to feel free to purge key elements of his administration of Obama era holdovers. The Washington Examiner reports--Bigger than Vindman: Trump scrubs 70 Obama holdovers from NSC:

President Trump is making good on his promises to “drain the swamp” and cut Obama-era holdovers from his staffs, especially the critical and recently controversial National Security Council. 

Officials confirmed that Trump and national security adviser Robert O’Brien have cut 70 positions inherited from former President Barack Obama, who had fattened the staff to 200. 

Many were loaners from other agencies and have been sent back. Others left government work. 

... 

“This month, we will complete the right-sizing goal Ambassador O’Brien outlined in October, and in fact, may exceed that target by drawing down even more positions,” John Ullyot, the NSC’s senior director for strategic communications, told Secrets.

This is progress. OTOH, it's best to bear in mind that Obama era holdovers aren't the only problem. Consider: Ciaramella and Misko (and some other Obama holdovers) left the NSC before Impeachment Theater began. They kept in touch with what was going on in the White House through communications with ... Trump's own people! Yes, John Bolton, who brought the Vindman twins into the NSC. We also know that before that other Trump appointees--McMaster comes to mind--carried out purges against people Michael Flynn had brought in. So Draining the Swamp is a bit more complicated than just ousting Obama holdovers.

Mattis Speechwriter The "Anonymous" Author Of "A Warning"?

Via TGP, it seems that The New Republic has outed Guy Snodgrass, speechwriter for Jim "Moderate Dog" Mattis, as 'Anonymous'--the "senior official" who first wrote the early "resistance" Op-ed for the NYT and now has a supposed "tell all" book out called "A Warning." It seems Snodgrass isn't denying it, just not commenting. Read more at the link, but here's the quote from TNR:

“Reading Snodgrass’s Pentagon memoir, Holding the Line, the clues to Anonymous’s identity are apparent. As in A Warning, the sentences and paragraphs are pithy and punchy. Every chapter in both books begins with an inspiring but not cliched quotation from an historic figure. Many passages in both books are remarkably similar: the ordeal of conducting a Pentagon briefing for Trump; national security staffers exchanging appalled asides about Trump’s conduct of foreign policy via Twitter; and the arguments for why American alliances strengthen national security and immigration policy shouldn’t be based on building a border wall. In particular, both books stress that, when briefed about international alliances, Trump derails discussions by griping about how allies are stiffing the United States, from allegedly miserly NATO contributions to ostensibly one-sided trade policies.”

How terrible--derailing briefings by stuffed shirt bureaucrats! Impeach him, resist him! Elections be damned! Swamp rules!

DoJ is seeking the identity of the author because it claims he may have violated non-disclosure agreements.

"I Caught The Swamp"

Yes, I picked this up from Gateway Pundit, and you can read it all there. However, this is an illustration of why I'm skeptical of some of sundance's dire conspiracy theories about Barr being corrupt, or being blackmailed, or ... something or other.

President Trump is hinting at big developments--soon. Dan Scavino is White House Director of Social Media:

pic.twitter.com/pVBsthkvGE

— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) November 7, 2019

And Trump himself said, in a helicopter press conference: "I caught the Swamp."

“All of the things going on--and you know what I mean by that, the Fake News, the Comeys of the world, all of the bad things that went on--it's called The Swamp. And you know what happened, you know what I did? A big favor. I caught the swamp, I caught 'em all. Let's see what happens. Nobody else coulda done that but me. I caught all of this corruption that was going on, and nobody else coulda done it. On top of that, we have the best economy, the greatest economy we've ever had."

President Trump: “You know what I did? A big favor...I caught the swamp, I caught 'em all.”

“Nobody else could have done that but me. I caught all of this corruption that was going on." pic.twitter.com/1MIgh0sY22

— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) November 8, 2019

I can't accept that the White House, via Scavino, would be teasing developments with the Tick Tock, or that Trump would be stating so definitively--"I caught the swamp, I caught 'em all," and naming Comey specifically--if there weren't developments coming soon.