After going to great pains to assure his media allies that his unconventional Netflix deal was all about inspiring and telling uplifting stories, former president Obama got down to business with what he really had in mind: Getting Trump.

Apparently, that's what passes for "uplifting" for the embittered ex-president.  When he said "uplifting," he meant uplifting himself.

Here's what the New York Times is reporting:

Former President Barack Obama's production company has bought the rights to the Michael Lewis book "The Fifth Risk," its first known acquisition since it signed a deal with Netflix in May.

Lewis made the announcement on a Katie Couric podcast episode that aired on Thursday.  Deadline reported the acquisition earlier this week.

"The Fifth Risk" tracks the messy transition from the Obama administration to the one headed by President Trump, as inexperienced appointees take over important bureaucratic jobs.  In particular, the book examines what Lewis says was the bungling of day-to-day operations at the Agriculture, Commerce and Energy departments.

This is amazing, when you think about it.  Not only has Obama broken the established and sweetly first-world democratic custom of previous presidents not criticizing their successors, but he's out there making movies about it, with his first project a movie about how bad his successor is, all as a means of showing how great he was by contrast.  Is there a better way of drawing sympathy for President Trump than this sort of stunt?  Don't think so.

Don't say there wasn't a heaping helping of deception in getting to this sorry place.

Less than a year ago, when the trial balloons were being floated out there about the deal, Obama was promising this:

Mr. Obama does not intend to use his Netflix shows to directly respond to President Trump or conservative critics, according to people familiar with discussions about the programming.  They said the Obamas had talked about producing shows that highlight inspirational stories.

Then, after he pocked the big-bucks deal, we got this...

Netflix said in a statement that the Obamas would "produce a diverse mix of content – including docu-series, documentaries and features" under their imprint, Higher Ground Productions.

"Michelle and I are so excited to partner with Netflix – we hope to cultivate and curate the talented, inspiring, creative voices who are able to promote greater empathy and understanding between peoples, and help them share their stories with the entire world," the former president said in the Netflix statement.

...and this:

Obama explained that the Netflix deal was going to be focused on telling people's stories.  He said he hopes these stories will help people see and better understand one another and ultimately help us move past the divisive political discourse that has mired Washington for so long.

So much for that claptrap.  Promote greater empathy and understanding between people?  Moving past "divisive political discourse"?  To heck with that.  Getting Trump is more like it.  It's always all about politics with these people; it's all they know.  Why did they even try to fake it?  Do they lie just because they like to lie?  Or did some cronyism that affects shareholders in the big-bucks deal prompt the disposable kumbaya crap?

As I wrote here last March, very skeptical of the New York Times claim that Obama wanted to "inspire" with his film deal:

Apparently, it wasn't enough to take taxpayer funds (and some were taken) to build a monument to himself in his non-library presidential library to loom big over the south side of Chicago, expropriating a historic Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park for this purpose.  He needs to be on television all the time, the better to keep stirring the pot as President Trump sweeps out all of his bad executive orders, high taxes, massive regulations, vast expansions of the bureaucracy, bows to dictators, and nightmare of Obamacare.  And while undoubtedly making millions (at what point has he made enough?), he wants to build an electronic monument to himself, in the same pharaonic tradition.

And like a dictator, he seeks to control history.  You can bet there won't be any self-criticism in this Netflix series; it will be about how great he was.  As Obama's minions themselves tell it to the Times, it will be about "narratives."  And "inspirational stories," he says.  This is nonsense – think of all the astroturf "inspirational stories" he laid out during his administration.  What were they done for?  To sell horrors like Obamacare to the public and make them think something good was in store.  That was all, and we expect that these new inspirational stories will be to sell other socialist programs, as well as do their darnedest to attack President Trump.

We know that's going to happen.

He's amazingly predictable, isn't he?

Image credit: Global Panorama, via Flickr, after logo, CC BY-SA 2.0.