White House Bans Use of Personal Devices From West Wing (cbsnews.com) 205
In the wake of damaging reports of a chaotic Trump administration detailed in a new book from Michael Wolff, the White House is instituting new policies on the use of personal cellphones in the West Wing. CBS News reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released the following statement on the policy change: "The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration and therefore starting next week the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing. Staff will be able to conduct business on their government-issued devices and continue working hard on behalf of the American people."
Wolff reportedly gained access to the White House where he conducted numerous interviews with staffers on the inner-workings of the Trump campaign and West Wing operations. Sanders told reporters Wednesday that there were about "a dozen" interactions between Wolff and White House officials, which she said took place at Bannon's request. The White House swiftly slammed the book and those who cooperated with Wolff.
Wolff reportedly gained access to the White House where he conducted numerous interviews with staffers on the inner-workings of the Trump campaign and West Wing operations. Sanders told reporters Wednesday that there were about "a dozen" interactions between Wolff and White House officials, which she said took place at Bannon's request. The White House swiftly slammed the book and those who cooperated with Wolff.
They're just doing this now??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sheesh!
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Government for the Idiots, by the Idiots, and of the Idiots.
Whether 9/10s of what Wolff writes in his book is invention and exaggeration, the fact a guy with his long-established reputation was walking around the White House just baffles me. What the fuck is wrong with Trump's people? Are they all fucking idiots? At every turn, this is an Administration seemingly hell bent on fucking itself over.
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you expect when you appoint someone to a job for which they have zero relevant experience? It's like making the trash collector your new company CEO.
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I don't know, Dilbert as observational commentary about the real world is scary accurate. The smartest character in the strip is the garbage man.
Re: They're just doing this now??? (Score:2, Insightful)
Not only was dilvert scary accurate. Dilbert's artist is hell bent on promoting and pushing pointy and orange hair incompentant bosses onto the rest of us.
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:5, Insightful)
the garbage man actually does something, is probably more honest, definitely more empathetic. A company could do worse...
elop, fiorina for example..
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you expect when you appoint someone to a job for which they have zero relevant experience? It's like making the trash collector your new company CEO.
Or "elect" ...
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I'd say it's even worse. It's like walking out the door, going to the hobo with the sign that says the aliens are coming because they probed him and making him the CEO. I'm not american but I've been following the shitstorm that is Trump pretty closely and I thought I'd have gotten used to the stupidity by now, but the guy's a walking embodiment of the phrase: 'if you make something idiot proof, God makes a better idiot.' I mean honestly, the guy lit
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"a major chunk of the voters is by and large uneducated about basic civics" ... close, it isn't just civics about which they are uneducated. Just look at American TV and see what Americans watch. It isn't far from the truth that a sizable minority decided to vote for someone just like what they see in their reality TV shows, and one who echoes back their own stupid prejudices. And it is obscene when a major political party decides it knows more about science than scientists. This will not end well for Ameri
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes.
Face the facts. (Score:2, Interesting)
Every government on Earth is composed entirely of humans. There is no God or Aliens or any kind of higher power that is in any way involved at all.
That means that human nature is the dominating force. All our concepts of justice and what-not are only as good as our implementation of them, because there is no magical force ensuring their strength.
And...human nature is still primarily composed of inclinations towards selfishness, domination, and exploitation. We evolved this nature because we needed it to
Re:Face the facts. (Score:5, Insightful)
Every government on Earth is composed entirely of humans.
Most state leaders have pets, usually at least a dog, which presumably helps calm the humans and reduces the risk of rash decisions.
(Trump is the first US president in over a century that doesn't have a pooch. He hates them, like he hates anyone smarter than he is.)
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Every government on Earth is composed entirely of humans.
Most state leaders have pets, usually at least a dog, which presumably helps calm the humans and reduces the risk of rash decisions.
For example, the UK's current leader Arlene Foster has a white haired terrier called Theresa May.
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Trump has both a young child (son Baron) and a smart feminine wife (Melania). He also has his pet of a private business empire, and support of half the American people.
What do you have? Impotent anger and bitter delusions of Trump Nazi Russia?
Half of the American people? Not even close, junior. He's polling in the low 30's. http://www.newsweek.com/trumps... [newsweek.com]
Much less than half the people. (Score:2)
Current favorability polls have him at the lowest of any tracked modern president.
https://projects.fivethirtyeig... [fivethirtyeight.com]
This is from a right leaning website
https://www.realclearpolitics.... [realclearpolitics.com]
His behaviour is a clear aberration compared to any other president. Certainly the chaotic, unprepared, unprofessional behaviour should not belong in the White House.
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Smart enough to keep her mouth shut and enjoy the luxurious living despite the obvious downsides.
She is enjoying nothing. That woman is obviously miserable. I'd feel bad for her, but she made her bed.
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Shhhh! The lizard people will hear you!
Re:They're just doing this now??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because in reality the white house doesn't have a lot of power independent of Congress. Deep state or not, the president needs to get Congress as an ally to get things done. Which surprises a lot of people who assume the executive can just dictate orders and have it done. And it's dismaying when every four years the general public is highly interested in who is going to be president but doesn't bother voting for congress, state elections, the mayor, or even dogcatcher.
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"Which surprises a lot of people who assume the executive can just dictate orders and have it done."
It might surprise you that this is just the case.
They are called Executive Orders logically enough, a scalpel best used when Congressional action is unlikely to dull it. Trump railed against Obama for signing so many... during the same period he has issued nearly twice as many. (49 vs. 26 by October.) Only such a divided Congress could allow such an Executive Power Grab. Democrats don't have the votes to over
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If this was a one-person one-vote Country, Democrats would overwhelmingly hold the House, and Clinton would be President. But it isn't; as Republicans like to smugly remind us when it suits them, the US is a Republic, and some votes have more value than others
I don't think you understand the point. It's so 2 or 3 populous states don't decide the president. If your system was in place, the south and fly over country would have no say in the presidential election.
In the EU, items pass by the majority of countries voting on an item. I believe that is how it works in the UN (outside of the separate veto power)
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The points of the Electoral College when it was made appear to have been to give slave states more influence on the Presidential election and to keep people like Trump out of the White House. Any other reason is ex post facto.
The Electoral College allows a coalition of large states to elect a President with absolutely no input from the small ones. In a popular vote contest, the candidates would pick up votes where they could, but with the EC there's absolutely no point in doing that.
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Telling part of a story is not telling the story correctly. There was more than one state's rights issue back in the day my friend.
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Deep state
Is that the new catch phrase for people who can't spell Illuminati?
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I think it is yes, it's the modern conspiracy theory that explains why nothing seems to change even though someone's favorite person gets elected.
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What you are referring to is called "The government." The government really is by and of the people.
The government is directed to do things by the laws that are created. "Tough on Crime" is just one example of the people demanding the laws be executed to the fullest extent. What many see as the "shadow government," is the mix of laws, and pressure to enforce them, in action. Its called "Weak on Crime" when one mentions re-thinking law's and their unintended consequences.
Congress enacts our laws. T
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Government for the Idiots, by the Idiots, and of the Idiots.
Whether 9/10s of what Wolff writes in his book is invention and exaggeration, the fact a guy with his long-established reputation was walking around the White House just baffles me. What the fuck is wrong with Trump's people? Are they all fucking idiots? At every turn, this is an Administration seemingly hell bent on fucking itself over.
Um, you've been watching this administration for the past year or so, right? I'd say the answer is obvious. These people didn't even know they had to hire their own White House staff. https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com] They are completely and profoundly unprepared to do this job.
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These people didn't even know they had to hire their own White House staff.
Well to be fair, they weren't expecting to have to do that for the practical reason that they had planned to lose the election. It was Trump's plan to actually lose the election, he was running for the fame and the followers and so he could use them to launch his own right wing news network. I don't know if they were going to try and call it the Trump News Network (TNN) but I'd bet they would have tried.
It is darkly amusing that Trump managed to screw up losing the presidential election...
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It will be the number one show of all time.
I can only watch so much of Punch and Judy beating each other with sticks before I get bored.
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Yeah, so that's why this new innovative version gives Punch the most technically advanced military in the world, so he can threaten weird Asian tyrants with his "bigger button".
Michael "Deathwish" Wolf (Score:2)
Out-Of-Towners may not know that NYC gossip columnist Michael Wolff has a bit of a deathwish when it comes to choosing his battles. He took on (in a weirdly, clearly fixated way) Rupert Murdoch with a previous "biographical" tell-all, seeming to have forgotten that Rupie owns the town's biggest tabloid The NY Post. THEN he began diddling one of his interns at Newser, escorting her about to all the city's hottest and most popular spots, because: Michael Wolff. (Those were the days when diddling an intern di
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It's often the case that there's no problem until there's a problem.
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This administration criticized the previous administration on these things. Granted, they didn't leak SAP level classified material like Clinton, but if you have an unsecured area, you can guarantee that information is being accessed through at least several of the devices in there have been penetrated by foreign operations of various levels. Some allies, some enemies, and probably just a bunch of random hackers as well.
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The most "hackable personal devices" are people's brains, and there is no way of spam filtering or securing them.
The staff will just have to be morons somewhere else.
According to the book in question, the main leak is the guy in charge who keeps telling things to his corporate buddies but blaming his staff.
A well tuned machine! (Score:2)
Sheeze, couldn't with start 2018 without 17 breaking news from the WH a day?
A few of the many stories about Trump (Score:5, Informative)
Links about Trump
Trump's lies:
In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims [washingtonpost.com] (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)
In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. [washingtonpost.com] (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)
President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List [nytimes.com] (Dec. 14, 2017, The New York Times)
10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times [nytimes.com] (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)
Trump takes credit for zero aviation deaths worldwide. [twitter.com] (Jan. 2, 2018, Trump's Twitter account)
Replies [twitter.com]:
"I'm gonna take credit for puppies being cute..."
"Guess who's responsible for designing the cute kangaroo pouches that keep little Joeys safe? That right, it was Me. ME. ME!"
"That's a job well done, thank you, but don't forget I gave dolphins their blowholes! Without me, they would've drowned!"
Sexual abuse:
The 19 Women Who Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct [theatlantic.com] (Dec. 7, 2017, The Atlantic.com)
Mental instability:
Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. [cnbc.com] (Dec. 30, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a string of falsehoods in his recent New York Times interview that make it difficult to tell whether he is lying or delusional."
"Trump appears to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that the least competent people often believe they are the most competent."
"Trump's comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed."
Lawyers 'Telling Trump What He Wants To Hear' So He Won't Fire Mueller [huffingtonpost.com] (Dec. 31, 2017, Huffingtonpost.com) Quote:
"The president of the United States, in their view, is out of control a good deal of the time..." People who work for Trump have to adjust to his instability.
8 of the Sleaziest Things Donald Trump Has Said [rollingstone.com] (June 16, 2015, 2 1/2 years ago, RollingStone.com)
Choosing weak people to be leaders:
Trump's FCC Chairman pick Ajit Pai heralds a weaker, meeker Commission [techcrunch.com] (Jan. 23, 2017, TechCrunch.com, almost one year ago)
Ajit Pai's FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order [arstechnica.com] (Jan 2, 2018, ArsTechnica.com)
Trump picks ghost hunter to be federal judge [bbc.com] (Nov. 15 2017, BBC News) Quote:
"The appointment of Brett Talley, 36, for a lifetime post as an Alabama federal judge is raising eyebrows because he has never tried a case."
Profiting personally:
Trump has now spe [businessinsider.com]
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and the puppetmasters behind the scenes
"Puppetmasters?"
Are these 'puppetmasters' drunk idiots, Anonymous Coward? If these guys dreamed up by conspiracy theorists actually exists, they must be dumb as a bag of hammers.
My son could run a better 'deep-state,' and he's a Lego-obsessed seven-year-old.
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Sanders and Paul were not much better than el Presidente Tweetie. The political parties have degenerated to the point where the only people who rise far enough to be considered candidates have the least ability. Case in point: Biden.
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The American People chose Clinton over Trump. The Electoral College made some votes worth less, and so we got Trump.
Re:A well tuned machine! (Score:5, Interesting)
I just wish they'd go ahead and say "live it's saturday night" and end the skit. The joke has gone on long enough. It's old.
Seriously. The thing today where Trump videoconferenced into a WH press briefing when he literally sits 100 feet away from the room was surreal. I was expecting Alec Baldwin to show up at any moment.
Only phones?! (Score:2)
The policy talks about personal phones, but what about things like smart watches?
Granted, my Pebble Time would be pretty safe, but an iWatch with cellular access can record and broadcast conversations.
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the policy talks about "All personal devices" not just phones.
So... Nope, ditch the watch too.
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What about small pads of paper and pens?
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What about people with good memories?
Okay, that was a dumb question.
Guests?? (Score:2)
Does this include the press?
Until you block Trump from Twitter... (Score:3, Insightful)
...this is as much security theatre as the TSA.
And you fucking know it is.
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https://blog.twitter.com/offic... [twitter.com]
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Quoting from the Twitter policy - it applies only to "Elected world leaders". Not to monarchs or dictators who have been forcibly empowered?
It's way too late (Score:2)
That's the way... (Score:3, Funny)
They've been monitoring us for a long time, Mandrake. All cell phones must be crushed. All must learn to play the piano.
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So General Jack D. Ripper is now Chief of Staff?
Haven't the leaks happened already? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what would be very interesting? Given Trump's paranoid tendencies, and his previous experience as a businessman in the very shady real estate industry, he might be recording all his conversations, Nixon-style. _Those_ would make for some very interesting listening. Business executives record their conversations all the time...they're used to being double-crossed.
Banning personal devices might limit recording, but every staffer he fires is going to get a book deal just based on their experience. One of the biggest leaks is the personal use of Twitter. Conversations like, "Mr. President, can you please refrain from telegraphing our foreign policy positions and your disposition to adversaries?" must be hard to have, especially when ignored.
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Didn't Trump himself suggest he recorded his conversations with Comey, like, 75 years ago?
Re:Haven't the leaks happened already? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes he sure did. However when Comey called for Trump to release these recordings, he said, oh wait nevermind. There aren't any recordings after all. So either he was blowing smoke (read: lying) with his boast, or the recordings bear out Comey's side of the story. Either possibility is equally probable.
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YAY!!! (Score:2)
No More Tweets! No More Tweets!
Surprised they were not banned earlier (Score:2)
This had nothing to do with Wolff, why mention? (Score:3)
Meanwhile (Score:2)
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They should ban them from the par 4 hole 8 so we don't get all those Tweets.
Dang, Tweeting wile golfing at 3AM? What does this guy not do except sleep?
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Security? How about that personal iPhone Trump runs around tweeting with. Take that away too.
How do you know it's not an Android?
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Re:Does this include Trump's iphone? of course not (Score:4, Insightful)
Security? How about that personal iPhone Trump runs around tweeting with. Take that away too.
It is correct to ban the devices. Of course it would also be correct to get his impeachment underway, but republicans care less about the good of the country, than they do about the good of their donors. The obstruction continues as they look for ways not to get to the truth, but to suppress it.
As far as Trump ignoring the rules, well is anyone surprised? I'd laugh my arse off if someone managed to own his iPhone and publish a few weeks of audio on the internet, provided it didn't hurt the country too much.
Simply put, Trump keeping an iPhone like this is worse than at the time Hillary having her own server. The reason it is worse is the threat environment is worse now and Trump is a far more appealing target.
Hillary should have known better. Trump _does_ know better. He spent the entire election bitching about it. Security is a real thing. The curious thing is Hillary's server didn't get owned as near as we can tell, while the department server did. It is probably the case of a simple installation run by a non idiot with nothing special being sometimes more secure than an installation used by so many. The private server probably just had a smaller attack surface. That doesn't make it a good idea, since part of it not getting owned is likely luck.
Still Trump has no excuse. He values his ability to tweet instantly more than he values the security of the country. Every tweet he makes should be verified by a couple of lawyers and probably some major staff member just to make sure it doesn't make matters worse, such as his latest tweets saying his "button" was bigger than the other guys and Hillary's aid should be jailed...
Re:Does this include Trump's iphone? of course not (Score:5, Interesting)
Cheeto himself carries a Samsung phone. He mostly tweets in the relatively early morning and late in the evening. During the day, a staffer with an iphone does his tweeting, which is why those tweets tend to be better composed but also sometimes get contradicted by later statements. Most of the media seems to only consider his late night/early morning tweets as significant.
When Obama took office, he was described as a Blackberry addict but was ultimately given a specially secured Android phone that had been vetted by appropriate agencies. As far as I'm aware, his Orangeness has never given up his personal phone.
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His head would explode.
Re: Does this include Trump's iphone? of course no (Score:2)
Actually, I wonder if this move is really about security. Or is it about the praetorian guard trying to isolate Trump from his base of support among the plebs?
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How can you sit back and enjoy your popcorn when TRUMP IS KILLING EVERYONE EVERY SINGLE DAY [cnn.com]???
Just remember... Corn is what they feed animals to fatten them up for slaughter. Let him eat that popcorn so he's ready when Trump gets to him!
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SO you are figuring that the President is in the west wing Tweeting at 3:00 AM then?
Does this guy ever stop working and sleep? Seriously...
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"Fan fiction"? No, "fiction" implies that he made it up. True, he has form for that [newrepublic.com], but in this case it's probably more like an extended gossip column than outright fabrication.
Mind you, that in itself is valuable. It may not portray Trump accurately, but it probably portrays what people close to Trump think about Trump accurately.
Re: Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:2)
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I take you have read an unpublished book then?
No, but I'm sure his handlers have.
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Re:Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:4, Insightful)
Bannon was on the national security council and had TOP-SECRET clearance. Now Trump says he has lost his mind. Bad judgement.
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Because if I made up stuff about you that was blatantly false, you wouldn't ask me to quit it ? Really ?
I mean, I guess Slander and libel are fine with you.
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Judging by the amount of "fake news" Trump denounces every chance he gets it is kinda suspicious this book triggered him enough to file lawsuits...
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So with all the fake news he denounces, you're surprised he would denounce more fake news ?
*puzzled*.
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No. I'm surprised he decided to release an official POTUS statement and cease-and-desist letter over this very particular piece of "fake" news though.
Makes you wonder.
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Well considering that virtually none of the "Fake News" that Trump denounces is actually, in any way, fake, no I'm not surprised any more when Trump declares something fake news. However, I am surprised that Trump would file suite against Steve Bannon for violating an NDA by talking about what happened during the Trump campaign over what was written in a supposedly "fake news" book.
It should make you wonder why, if the book is fake, Trump is threatening the people who supposedly didn't talk to the author?
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Can we ask Trump to quit for all the blatantly false things he has said?
You can ask Trump to quit for any reason you desire, or for no reason at all. You can ask him to quit because you don't like the color of his hair, even. Just don't expect him to do it.
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If it was all fiction Trump would not be so desperate to get it discredited and blocked from sale.
If someone wrote a book of fiction about you, you wouldn't try to discredit it and block it from sale, because doing that would mean it is true? I think your logic is flawed.
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If someone wrote a book of fiction about you, you wouldn't try to discredit it and block it from sale, because doing that would mean it is true? I think your logic is flawed.
ummm no, I would be thrilled, give it a half hearted discredit and then later sue their arses off for a large payday. Now if it was embaressing and true, then hell yeah I would do my best to block it.
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ummm no, I would be thrilled,
You're odd, to say the least. Most people would want lies stopped before they are sold, since it is impossible to retract a book once it is in the hands of the public. Unless it's a Kindle edition, but that's a different issue.
and then later sue their arses off for a large payday.
You can still sue their asses off after trying to stop the sale. What you will never be able to stop, if you don't stop the sale, is that book showing up in a used bookstore and another group of people reading lies about you that they don't know you got paid for.
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Right, if the Wolfe book is pure fiction, it makes no sense to disparage Bannon based on its contents.
Re:Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it mustn't be that far off if its mere announcement managed to detonate all ties between Trump and Bannon and have the WH sending cease-and-desist letters over the span of a single day.
And the thing is not even out yet. We'll see in a week.
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A book by Bannon would have been largely ignored if it wasn't for Trump's tweets and the lawsuit. The way you deal with these kinds of exposés is to ignore them, not give then credibility.
Re:Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:4, Informative)
I sort of agree. The POTUS released an official statement about Bannon shortly after the book was announced, for Pete's sake.
Guess there's more truth to it than the WH cares to admit: https://twitter.com/janicemin/... [twitter.com]
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My senior policy advisor? I had nothing to do with him.
My campaign chairman? Only with me for a short time.
My national security advisor? A liar.
My foreign policy advisor? He was just a coffee boy.
Don Jr? Fake news!
Re:Wolff's book is a solid work... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's even worse; Bannon was officially part of the National Security Council.
Which means he had a security clearance.
Which means he very likely lied to the FBI during vetoing about the Don Jr. / Russia meeting he now acknowledges.
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Why is he only banning one class of recording devices? There are whole companies dedicated to producing (for an example) audio recording devices buried inside a (working) pen or fag lighter. Nothing suspicious about carrying one, and with the density of flash storage these days, you'd switch it on as you leave your office and use it as a pen (fag lighter) while recording the President's self-incrimination.
Or maybe the senior White House staff (what do the Am
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This is ridiculous conclusion here. I don't see anybody actually involved in the decision saying this was to stop leaking, but for security... Besides, the leaking was largely from now fired Bannon. Things have calmed down a LOT on the leak front since he got the boot. Bannon was and is about getting attention for himself, as the last few days clearly show.
It's also OLD news.... I heard this weeks ago and I'm almost positive we discussed the banning of privately owned devices from the West Wing on Slas
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Both were triggered by the announcement of Wolff's book.
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