He reprimanded the housekeeping staff for picking up his shirt from the floor: “If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor.” Then he imposed a set of new rules: nobody touch anything, especially not his toothbrush. (He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s—nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade.) Also, he would let housekeeping know when he wanted his sheets done, and he would strip his own bed.Also:
Trump found the White House, an old building with only sporadic upkeep and piecemeal renovations—as well as a famous roach and rodent problem—to be vexing and even a little scary. Friends who admired his skills as a hotelier wondered why he just didn’t remake the place, but he seemed cowed by the weight of the watchful eyes on him.So... he could "remake" the whole building, presumably. Just: ta da! What would it take to turn it into the equivalent of a Trump hotel? "Friends" don't know, because they're the kind of people who just "wonder[] why."
He doesn't "remake" the White House," but he does, if not make his own bed, strip his own bed. Who knows why he doesn't rely on servants as much as (I guess) the Obamas or Bushes or Clintons? He doesn't want these people in his room, putting things in order?
The author (parenthetically) imagines that his fears of poisoning have something to do with it, but what would that have to do with somebody else picking up the shirt from the floor or stripping the bed? Maybe he — the hotel man — likes his room not treated like a hotel room. Maybe, like a man who eats cheeseburgers at McDonald's, he doesn't like the ministrations of servants.
I don't know him, and I don't think Michael Wolff knows him. I don't know if the details Wolff provides are true, but if I take Wolff's details as true, I find myself speculating about Trump's psyche in ways that don't seem to be the point of view of this book. So I will credit the book for giving me some concrete details and not being too heavy handed in slathering anti-Trump interpretations all over everything.
As for the "famous roach and rodent problem"... it's hard to get famous as a roach...
Easier as a rodent, but it can be done.
Posts
231 comments:
1 – 200 of 231 Newer› Newest»Glad somebody is reading this book with a critical eye and no axe to grind.
Ann, I pity you for submitting yourself to this garbage.
Is it odd to want that people, serving help or otherwise, not touch one's toothbrush? If so then I am odd.
If this is the quality and level of stuff that Wolff explores in this blockbuster book of his, then I would say the book is a tad over-hyped.
-sw
Excellent point. Trump is a lot more complicated than either side credits him with. I believe he is a bit autistic, and likes things to be in a certain order / way. He does have Dylexia, so his brain processes things in a bit different way. But, his organization preference seems to be very fluid, a bit chaotic, and he liked this before becoming President. He went to a military academy that taught him a lot of discipline. And he used Kelly to give order to the chaos of the Whitehouse. He has a talent for hiring A+ people, and any that don't work out, he has no problem on replacing. He likes to attract attention, as a moth to a flame, but he comes out stronger. He gets along with staff, and fired a supervisor at the Whitehouse that was not liked.
Trump is full of contradictions - and he is surprising me on what he has managed to get done.
The Wall Street Journal opinion of the book.
The book also makes clear that Mr. Bannon was a leading cause of the pre-Kelly White House chaos. He and the press corps have a relationship of mutual loathing but co-dependency. They use each other, and the media love to promote Mr. Bannon because he is a talkative source and a destructive political force inside the Republican Party.
Maybe that's it. but it will not do Bannon any good.
Perhaps he was worried that the staff would report the condition of the sheets. Reportedly he eats in bed, maybe he spilled his Diet Coke and it looked like some bodily fluid.
He does have Dylexia, so his brain processes things in a bit different way
I didn't know that. Is that based on a reference ?
Nelson Rockefeller was very dyslexic and NEVER read a book, as his biographer recounts.
The press loved him.
WTFCares. Like Hillary’s ridiculous book. Ugh
Is there anything substantive in the book? I mean I like reading about Presidential bedsheets and McDonalds hamburgers just like the next fellow, but, ahem, at some point it'd be nice to learn something, anything, useful.
God Bless Althouse for undertaking this tedious task.....
I saw this morning that the author admitted some parts of the book are just made up, therefore opening himself to libel charges.
If the author admits this, does this make the book a work of fiction, as James Torantos asks after this revelation?
What would it take to turn [the White House] into the equivalent of a Trump hotel?
More hard work than you can possibly imagine.
I don't care about Trump's bed sheets, shirts and culinary preferences. Nor do I care about his reading habits. I do care about his affecting the economy and the stock market. I'm very pleased so far with him.
This is from business insider, but apparently it's in the book.
Several of his sources, he says, were definitely lying to him, while some offered accounts that flatly contradicted those of others.
But some were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing's workings, in a process Wolff describes as "allowing the reader to judge" whether the sources' claims are true.
"nobody touch anything, especially not his toothbrush."
So that's the entire basis of, and take-away from the bombshell book? Essentially, "Trump is Seinfeld"?
He should just have a new toothbrush every time he brushes his crazy little teeth.
If only Hillary were soiling the First Sheets instead of this buffoon!
"But some were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing's workings, in a process Wolff describes as "allowing the reader to judge" whether the sources' claims are true."
Which is not "fake news" according to the Allcott/Gentzkow definition.
Drudge says:
WOLFF ADMITS: NOT SURE ALL TRUE
BOOK SENSATION ROCKS NATION
'SAID WHATEVER NECESSARY TO GET STORY'
You should get your money back unless it was listed under "fiction".
Monica asked Bill if she could use his toothbrush and he said no.
If the book isn't really true, I hope it includes some great celebrity fakes of Melania's tits.
Or is this a part of the Dem's broader claims that Trump is a Psycho - i.e. now Trump is Francis Soyer.
"He should just have a new toothbrush every time he brushes his crazy little teeth."
Wolff is kicking himself he didn't think of that.
"Who knows why he doesn't rely on servants as much as (I guess) the Obamas or Bushes or Clintons?"
Trump went to a military academy. So did my father. Habits formed from that experience can last a lifetime.
I know someone who can't stand to have hotel housekeeping come while still staying at the hotel. I suppose these claims might be similar.
My wife, Bay Area Gal, is a very tolerant, fun-loving person. However, one thing that drives her batshit crazy is if I or the kids use her toothbrush. She freaks out, and goes full Linda Blair.
Some people are very close to their toothbrush.
The Lewandowski book describes some of Trump's idiosyncrasies about health.
He would never eat from an open package, like chips.
No drinking or smoking. Mitt should approve of that.
Did you get to the part where Obama had a couple of ho's from the 'hood pee on the pillows in the Lincoln bedroom?
All kidding aside, why would you spend time reading the fabulist?
This book will keep CNN occupied for weeks. Good. Trump can continue to MAGA.
He's channeling Jackie Kennedy.
"He should just have a new toothbrush every time he brushes his crazy little teeth."
For that matter he could just burn the bedsheets every morning.
"Who knows why he doesn't rely on servants as much as (I guess) the Obamas or Bushes or Clintons?"
An amusing anecdote from "Riding with Reagan," on Inauguration Day, Nancy called the SS agent who had been protecting them since the election. by his first name.
Rosslyn Carter, after four years in the White House, said "You know their names ?"
Hillary Clinton could not have said it better.
As for the veracity of the book, Wolff has said he has tapes, lots of tapes. I suppose in discovery those tapes would prove or disprove his assertions.
Ohio has laundry chutes so it's actually easier to pick up the shirt and drop it in the chute on your way out into the hall.
A provocateur and media polemicist, Wolff has a penchant for stirring up an argument and pushing the facts as far as they’ll go, and sometimes further than they can tolerate, according to his critics. He has been accused of not just re-creating scenes in his books and columns, but of creating them wholesale.
From Breibart? Nope, that's from the Washington Post.
I'm not enamored with hotel maid service and if I'm staying for a week, I'll let them in only once. Otherwise, it's the "Don't Disturb This Groove" sign.
What has already been alluded to, as recounted in Business Insider -- Wolff acknowledging that he isn't certain all of book's content is true -- is pretty close to an admission of actual malice, a knowing disregard for the truth.
Calumny and Clutter: Between The Sheets in the Trump White House
The Left is funny:
On the one hand, Trump is pushing us to nuclear war with the North Koreans!!!
On the other hand, the sonovabitch leaves potato chip wrappers on the floor!!!!
At some point, you just learn to ignore the Left -- at least the ones who have no power or authority over you.
This story made me remember a couple of old commenters on this blog. I had forgotten them. Wasn't there an Archy typing cockroach commentator. I wonder what happened the them. And I have a barely memory of another commentator who was a ghost and wrote in Victorian prose.
Anyone else remember these old commentators or any other oddballs Althouse attracks (and make this the best comment section on the internet).
This reminds me ever so much of the Clifford Irving "Autobiography of Howard Hughes."
Several of his sources, he says, were definitely lying to him, while some offered accounts that flatly contradicted those of others -- Wolfie
As for the veracity of the book, Wolff has said he has tapes, lots of tapes. I suppose in discovery those tapes would prove or disprove his assertions. -- Inga
Doesn't look like we have to wait for discovery. Evidently, he chose to publish accusations anyway. Sounds to me like he's fucked right now.
I'm not a Trump fan but I relate to his wanting minimal housekeeping. I stay about 80 days a year at hotels and, unless I'm staying for more than 4-5 days, I always insist on no housekeeping. Partially because I don't like them reorganizing they way I've left things as it it can be disorientating, in part because it feels like an invasion of my privacy and in part because it's not necessary - I can go a couple of days using the same towels and I always toss the throw pillows to a corner.
No reference. I read it somewhere about how the Military Academy he went to provided the discipline he needed to succeed due his dyslexia. After just looking into it, I am not sure if he is or not. My guess is he is slightly dyslexic and autistic, but I don't see it as a negative if he is. It's amazing what he has managed to get done, in business and as President. I am looking forward to his 2018 achievements.
One of my best electronics Professors, later Department Chair at Cal Poly EE, was Dyslexic. His explanation was he had to memorize words in order to understand them.
>He does have Dylexia, so his brain processes things in a bit different way
>
>I didn't know that. Is that based on a reference ?
The WH building really is a dump. It's old. The surprise is not that Trump complained, but that no other president did.
I've had a cleaning lady for almost 20 years. (Actually a couple of cleaning ladies but anyway.) They have never, not once, made my bed or changed my sheets. I think maybe Trump lives so much of his life around people who are doing things for him that he has staked this out as for him (and Melania, I guess) and no one else. I totally get that.
Here is Don Surber's take. I respect his opinion.
"Reporters know Wolff's book is baloney
Fabulist Michael Wolff's book on President Trump is a bunch of baloney. The press knows this, just as a year ago they knew the Russian dossier was baloney. Urinating hookers? Come on.
But Jack Shafer of Politico blamed the victim -- President Trump -- for Wolff's book of lies.
From Shafer:
President Donald Trump could have saved himself a lot of grief if he — or one of his people — had read Michael Wolff’s 2008 book, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch, before permitting the writer seemingly unfettered access to the White House and his underling Steve Bannon.
But President Trump denied giving Wolff access to anything."
http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/01/reporters-know-wolffs-book-is-baloney.html?spref=tw
“The WH building really is a dump. It's old. The surprise is not that Trump complained, but that no other president did.”
Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there.
Potato chip bags on the floor! McDonalds' Happy Meal wrappers in the bed!
It's chaos at the White House! Absolute chaos!!!
(Haven't we heard this meme before?)
I once worked in an old office building where we were advised not to leave food in our desks; it would attract mice. One person reasonably asked: can't you eliminate mice? The answer: yes, but the mice help us keep the roaches down, and there's no way to eliminate the roaches. I would think DDT would work on the roaches, but that's a different story.
I love the story that on their initial tour of the White House, the Trumps said or at least thought: this place is really kind of a dump. Not everyone would say or think that. Critics might say their own style is not classy enough--too much tacky gold leaf or something; but the Trumps may have a point.
"As for the veracity of the book, Wolff has said he has tapes, lots of tapes. I suppose in discovery those tapes would prove or disprove his assertions."
The "tapes," if authenticated, could prove the statements were made, but if offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, they would be hearsay.
The speaker could be lying, distorting, or just wrong.
I'm not sure what Wolff is saying that's a big deal. What is there that isn't like what NYT reporters have been saying about what it's like inside the White House?
Inga: "Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
By sticking cigars up interns and assaulting women just off the oval office.
History began anew for Inga 5 minutes ago.
My guess is he is slightly dyslexic and autistic, but I don't see it as a negative if he is
Winston Churchill was supposed to be dyslexic but it's hard to believe that he wrote all those books without doing a lot of reading.
My partner was dyslexic but did fine in medicals school. It was a lot of work for him to read medical literature and it made him a bit obsessive compulsive.
[Wolff’s] reliability has been challenged before — over quotes, descriptions and general accounts he’s provided in his many newspaper and magazine columns and in several books...
Wolff followed up “Burn Rate” by taking over the media column at New York magazine, where he almost immediately ran into trouble. Judith Regan, then a hotshot book editor who had been a classmate of Wolff’s at Vassar, vigorously disputed almost every paragraph of Wolff’s column about her. She said she hadn’t had a personal conversation with Wolff in 30 years...
New Republic columnist Andrew Sullivan accused Wolff of putting words in his mouth when Wolff wrote in 2001 that Sullivan “believes that he is the most significant gay public intellectual in America today.” Sullivan said he never made any such claim...
“Much to the annoyance of Wolff’s critics, the scenes in his columns aren’t recreated so much as created — springing from Wolff’s imagination rather than from actual knowledge of events. Even Wolff acknowledges that conventional reporting isn’t his bag.” An editor who worked with Wolff told Cottle, “He is adroit at making the reader think that he has spent hours and days with his subject, when in fact he may have spent no time at all.”
Wash. Post via http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/01/michael-wolff-fabulist.php
Wolff's statement that he has tapes is itself, of course, only an assertion. Is it true? Is it true in ways that matter? He might have many tapes but be missing tapes for some of the important things. He may have tapes relevant to some things in the book, but the taped material doesn't match up exactly right with the statements in the book.
Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there.
Yeah. It was the first time in their lives that they were proud to be an American for some of them.
I have tapes, too. Music, mostly.
These are novelistic details in search of a novelist. They don't add up to any kind of theme. Is Trump a Bond super villain or an old man on the verge of senile dementia?......It's not so much that there is chaos in Trump's life but rather that the observers of his life are unable to see the patterns in his life.......Short sheeting is very common at military academies, and the trauma of the experience casts a long shadow over the lives of many victims.
I had a young guy working for me one time who was living in a rented house with a buddy. Then his buddy's girlfriend moved in with them and immediately started an underhanded campaign to get my guy out of the house. Big surprise, right? My guy was often complaining about this girl, her manipulations and how his friend was being fooled by her. I told him it was a battle he couldn't win and if he was smart he'd just accept the natural order of things and start looking for another place.
He listened, found a place and moved, but on the way out the door he took that girl's toothbrush, rubbed it all over his anal sphincter, put it back in the holder and walked out the door with a smile on his face.
Maybe Trump didn't want Steve Bannon (or any of the other dearly departed) to do the same to him.
"allowing the reader to judge"
In other words, Believe it, or Not...
It's right up there with WaPo giving itself permission to stop being journalists: Trump is a special case, and the normal rules do not apply.
Well, as Inga noted yesterday, this book is the beginning of the end for Trump. Or the end of the beginning. The deal with the sheets is another little nail in Trump's coffin given what he did to the sheets in Russia and now in the WH!! It is possible to weave into sheets tiny tiny chips that can communicate with Russia via shaking or pissing. It is all coming clear (or light yellow) now.
“Wolff's statement that he has tapes is itself, of course, only an assertion. Is it true? Is it true in ways that matter? He might have many tapes but be missing tapes for some of the important things. He may have tapes relevant to some things in the book, but the taped material doesn't match up exactly right with the statements in the book.”
True, but if it gets to court isn’t that what the respective attorneys would focus on, as well as testimony from the people he quoted?
I gave: "Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
By sticking cigars up interns and assaulting women just off the oval office.
History began anew for Inga 5 minutes ago.
Or giving The Queen a gift of an IPod filled with your speeches because you’re so wonderful.
Oh, I’m sorry, it was an honor for her.
Oh no no no.... now the author of "Fire and Fury" says parts of it may not be true!!!!
So is this a fake book?
Inga
"True, but if it gets to court isn’t that is what the respective attorneys would focus on, as well as testimony from the people he quoted?"
All would become clear in what is called "discovery" in which exercise Wolff would rue the fucking day he ever heard of Trump. His many hours in depositions with the camera rolling and the reporter type type typing away would cause him to consider that there are tapes and then there are tapes. And the people "quoted" would find their depositions equally interesting being under oath and all.
It would never get to court since Wolff would settle a big portion of his royalties to charities focusing on reversing poor nutrition.
"....but he seemed cowed by the weight of the watchful eyes on him."
Yeah, that sounds like Trump! Cowed? He's a fucking bull. His enemies, (like LLR&TT's) are the cows.
The WH is a 200 year old building with bullet holes from the War of 1812 IIRC.
There’s a reason in my lifetime Jackie and Nancy tried to improve it.
The maintenance alone must be horrendous.
In which "discovery" the cellular phones of Wolff and his "sources" would be drained of their content for review as would the hard drives of his computers. And his notes. Wonder if Wolff and his publisher have the resources to respond in the way one must respond to the demands of "discovery" as made by vicious NY attorneys.
Hey FBI - are you reading this. Good stuff! Obstruction of Justice!
BFD hahaha
So, he's self-moderating and self-sufficient. A good role model for Posterity.
Bill, Republic of Texas said...
This story made me remember a couple of old commenters on this blog. I had forgotten them. Wasn't there an Archy typing cockroach commentator. I wonder what happened the them. And I have a barely memory of another commentator who was a ghost and wrote in Victorian prose.
Yes. Blogging cockroach and Sir Archy. Hadn't thought about them in years. Was thinking of Palladian and Pogo the other day...
“The WH building really is a dump. It's old. The surprise is not that Trump complained, but that no other president did.”
does it match the condition of the republic - maybe Trump is the more perceptive President to date
Trump looks like the kind of narcissistic bastard who consistently leaves the toilet seat up. And yet a majority of white women voted for him. There's a special place in hell for them.
maybe he will bid on contract to renovate after his 2 terms - no fuss about emoluments them.
and finish up on time and under budget
While the Left is careening at warp speed from one phony, hysterical crisis to another, here's a story from CNBC:
Black employment at historical high
Money graf:
"Unemployment among black workers is at its lowest since at least the early 1970s, when the government began tracking the data."
Not trying to give all credit to our dear leader Trump. Not even going there.
But is this not good news that should be highlighted over salacious, second-hand hearsay books?
At least he saved David Brock the effort of making things up.
at least Wolff is not directing foreign policy a la Ben Rhodes
Trump looks like the kind of narcissistic bastard who consistently leaves the toilet seat up.
Nah. Germs, aerosolized when you flush.
The boy or girl who cried Wolff.
There is order in chaos that is not perceived because the process is incompletely or insufficiently characterized and unwieldy. Thus the need for a near-space, near-time philosophy called science and its corresponding logical domain.
"But some were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing's workings, in a process Wolff describes as "allowing the reader to judge" whether the sources' claims are true."
-- You can all say it with me, together: Fake News!
Back in 1948 the White House was deemed unfit for occupancy and totally gutted. In case you’re a Democrat and can’t do math, that was 70 years ago. Wouldn’t surprise me if the building didn’t need more attention.
There’s an interesting footnote to the Truman Reconstruction. In the 20th century a number of people claimed to have seen Lincoln’s ghost in the living quarters, most famously Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (she fainted) and Winston Churchill (he and the ghost just looked at each other until the ghost faded away). After the reconstruction only Maureen Reagan claimed to have seen “a red or orange aura.” Perhaps Lincoln cannot find his way around the reconstructed building?
If Trump does have the White House renovated a bit, I hope he thinks to have it swept for bugs — the electronic type, not roaches.
Althouse, I actually look forward to your careful reading of, and commentary on, this book.
No doubt, you'll be looking for ways in which "the point of view of this book" is revealed by way of inaccuracies or misstatements or unwarranted presumptions. I gather that you presume that Wolff needs to give you "some concrete details" and that he will need to avoid "being too heavy handed in slathering anti-Trump interpretations all over everything."
So I will enjoy the ride with you.
In the meantime, speaking of presumptions, just look at the presumptions (and the deflections) of your Pro-Trump commentariat.
Inga, was it the type of cigar that Billy boy shoved up Monica and the way Billy boy got a bit "handsy" with Kathleen willey in the White House that you feel made those actions respectful and worthy of the White House?
I'll bet you really hated that Kathleen Willey for daring to go public against our former rapist in chief.
Trump has been renovating the White House, quickly, during some of his planned trips. You could see the results in the Christmas pictures. He gets things done. Others form committees to study the issues.
If you thought LLR and "Accidental Leftist" Chuck was going to allow anyone to impugn Wolfe without a fight, you've got another thing coming!
LOL
I'll bet our "Bowe Bergdahl Republican" is busily shooting off salvos of missives to Althouse decrying her unwillingness to uncritically accept every utterance of LLR Chuck's beloved lefty MSM.
It's fun when Chuckie's mask completely drops.
In Oregon are you allowed to make your own bed?
I was referring to Obama, who said this about living in the White House.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand.”
Chuck, any update on the Crisis of the White Truck Near a Golf Course?
I would think you would be demanding the driver of the truck be arrested and questioned under oath by now to get to the bottom of that massive story run by your pals at CNN...for days.
Can you imagine the emotional outburst from LLR Chuck if it were discovered that the driver of the white truck was also responsible for delivering Ice Cream and Diet Cokes to Mar-a-Lago?!!
@ Inga:
Perhaps he was worried that the staff would report the condition of the sheets. Reportedly he eats in bed, maybe he spilled his Diet Coke and it looked like some bodily fluid.
So what did he do, put them in the middle of the room and set them on fire?
Blogger Inga said...
I was referring to Obama, who said this about living in the White House.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand.”
To sneak a cigarette? Or get some love from Reggie?
Maybe he doesn't want them to get in the way of his watching the gorilla channel.
If the gorilla channel is the best thing to come out of this book, it is worth it.
Later Inga: "I was referring to Obama, who said this about living in the White House"
Actually, no you weren't.
Here, I'll help you:
Earlier Inga: "Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
I guess history does not begin anew for you every morning. It actually begins anew for you after each post!
BTW, when, precisely did "other presidents" become equivalent to "obama"?
Congrats! A new record for self-refutation!
"just look at the presumptions (and the deflections) of your Pro-Trump commentariat."
Why I normally don't read chuck's comments.
Blogger Kate said...
The WH building really is a dump. It's old. The surprise is not that Trump complained, but that no other president did.
Yeah, it's almost as old as I am.
When a bathtub fell through the floor into the room where the Truman's were dining, he said "enough". There was some talk about bulldozing it and starting from scratch but Truman thought the symbolism was important. in About 1950 the WH was completely gutted down to bare interior brick and, essentially, a brand new building built inside. Along with a couple of floors of cellar.
OTOH, it is a govt building and relatively short term (4-8 years) public housing so it does not get the maintenance it deserves. Any poorly maintained building will show its age after 65 years.
The Brits have it even worse with their Parliament building. It is gonna take billions of pounds and 5 years or more to bring it up to code. ANd that is just British code, not American code!
John Henry
How many of you leave the "Do not disturb" sign on a door at a hotel even when you are not in it? I do it routinely, and I never thought I was an odd ball for doing so. I don't like family going through my personal stuff, much less essential strangers.
Michael K: "Why I normally don't read chuck's comments."
As an operational ally of the left, LLR and Professional Dem Deflector Chuck, just like his allies, is hard-wired for projecting onto the republicans what the dems do.
“Actually, no you weren't.”
Actually I was. Who do you think you are, the Great Kreskin?
He may have tapes relevant to some things in the book, but the taped material doesn't match up exactly right with the statements in the book.
What's interesting to me is the statement he apparently made (I am not interested in any of the book) that some of it may not be true.
Isn't that a legal definition of "malice" for a public figure to sue for libel ?
Curious.
Trump could very well order a complete remodel of the White House- he is the one president that most like to stay elsewhere.
Yancey Ward: "How many of you leave the "Do not disturb" sign on a door at a hotel even when you are not in it?"
Always.
For every extended stay (3 days +), on the first day I will leave a $20 bill on the bed with a note explaining what I would like, basically just replace the towels.
I tend to keep the rooms and bathroom neat.
Inga the Forgetful: "Actually I was. Who do you think you are, the Great Kreskin?"
So now you are denying your own words.
Not that I blame you, of course.
So, just to summarize, you are now claiming that "other presidents" means only obama.
Got it.
LOL
Chuck to Ann: So I will enjoy the ride with you.
Ann thought balloon: 7 degree temp in Madison be damned, I am walking.
"Isn't that a legal definition of "malice" for a public figure to sue for libel ?"
-- Eh, frankly, it probably isn't worth suing the guy. Besides, the gorilla channel's on.
Chuck who?
Apologies to Big Mike, I see you got there first about the renovation.
OTOH, the always amusing Inga had this to say:
Blogger Inga said...
I was referring to Obama, who said this about living in the White House.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand.”
Another Obama lie repeated by Inga as gospel. The room Lincoln used as his office has not existed for more than 60 years.
A replica of the room may exist. Or may not, there were some changes to the floor plans in the rebuilding. But not the room.
John Henry
As with all things Trump, people are going to believe what they want to believe about all this. Speaking for myself, I believe it's some combination of actual truth and some (probably large) portion of fanciful imaginings concocted by various people with axes to grind (including Steve Bannon and the author himself), and a good mix of wishcasting, inference, and imputation. All palace intrigue at its finest. After everything's said and done, it probably won't matter too much too Trump and his agenda. Sure, it will make this author a fair amount of money and equal parts fame and infamy. And it will fill up lots of air time on CNN, MSNBC, and the networks for a week or so. But I'm guessing it will ultimately be a footnote, lost among all the other noise of 2018.
“The author of the explosive new book about Donald Trump's presidency admitted that he isn't certain that it's all true.
Michael Wolff, the author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," included a note at the start which casts significant doubt on the reliability of the specifics contained in the rest of its pages.
A number of his sources, he says, were definitely lying to him, while some offered accounts that flatly contradict those of others.
But they were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing's workings, in a process Wolff describes as "allowing the reader to judge" whether they are true.”
Business Insider
Honestly, when I heard about this care with the servants, I imagined that he was worried that the 'Deep State' had gone so far as going to the servants at the White House.
A servant is a spy. He certainly hasn't had the chance to install his own people there so why shouldn't he imagine that they aren't spying on him?
The Brits have it even worse with their Parliament building.
On my first trip to the UK, you could still get a tour of Parliament. We waited in line and got a guide who turned out to be retired policeman who had spent years on duty in that building. He pointed out all sorts of stuff that was hundreds of years old.
For example, he pointed out spots in the ceiling where Queen Ann, who was apparently a skinflint, had fired the Italians doing the plaster patterns and hired English workmen to replace them. When he pointed it out you could see the change in quality of work.
Commons was rebuilt after bombing in WWII but most of the rest is very old.
Somebody wrote a hilarious parody "excerpt" from the book which claimed that Trump was spending 17 hours a day watching a makeshift "Gorilla Channel" which showed gorillas fighting. Media people, who consider themselves smarter than the rest of us, actually believed this:
https://twitter.com/shadihamid/status/949318097315467264/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Face.mu.nu%2F
Actually, I believe there is a 24 hour Gorilla channel on the air. It's called CNN.
Shorter Wolff: "You can't believe anything in my own book"????
Yancey, Drago and others,
No, you are not weird. I routinely leave the do not disturb sign up and for much the same reasons.
Unlike Drago, though, I am not especially neat. As someone else said, I do not like people going around straightening stuff up.
I used collect receipts for expenses (now I take a picture when I get them) and throw them on the dresser. I once had a hundred dollars or so of receipts thrown out. They sometimes look like trash.
Now, one chain has eliminated all DND signs. I won't be staying there. Or maybe I'll just bring my own.
John Henry
The room Lincoln used as his office has not existed for more than 60 years.
O'Reilly's book, "Killing Lincoln" is worse since he has Lincoln doing business in "The Oval Office" which was not built until 1905. I pointed this out in my review of the book on Amazon and was attacked by O'Reilly fans for months.
"Now, one chain has eliminated all DND signs."
After the Vegas shooter.
Michael,
Apparently the areas that visitors see is well maintained. It is the rest of the building, offices, utilty areas, kitchens, sewers, electric and so on that is falling apart.
One of the things I realized from a recent article on this was how small it it. There are somthing like 600 MPs in commons but only something like 400 seats. Not enough seats in Lords either if everyone shows up at once.
John Henry
Well, now I have seen two excerpts of this book, and neither one has the ring of truth.
The first one, the “wife was on the speakerphone” story, sounded like a lame urban legend. And this new one, the “eats at McD’s from paranoia about poisoning” story, is just impossible to credit. The food at McDonald’s is not premade! Hasn’t been for years. They make every item to order. And even if it were premade, a paranoiac couldn’t trust it because the server handles the food before the customs gets it.
A real poison-phobic diner would go to, say, a grocery store, or a gas station, and choose some food from a shelf (they have premade sandwiches in the cooler) and heat it up himself.
These people who are saying all these bad things about Trump are people that think they're smarter than he is and it seems to me that maybe one reason they're doing that is because he didn't agree with what they were pushing. I can believe these people who had their own agendas or I can believe my own eyes and Trump's record of accomplishments. Deeds are more important than words, talk is cheap.
Darkisland: "Yancey, Drago and others,
No, you are not weird. I routinely leave the do not disturb sign up and for much the same reasons"
I can't begin to convey how a simple $20 left on the bed with a nice note on the first day can really grease the skids for consideration by a hotel staff.
Another benefit to DND signs is that it keeps people out when you might be tending to your prostate health.
John Henry
Inga: "Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
"In 1993, Terry McAuliffe authored a memo that would essentially turn the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House into a hotel for top campaign donors."
Linda Bloodworth Thompson and Markie Post jumped up and down on the bed.
That's because Democrats have such respect for the White House.
exiledonmainstreet: "Somebody wrote a hilarious parody "excerpt" from the book which claimed that Trump was spending 17 hours a day watching a makeshift "Gorilla Channel" which showed gorillas fighting. Media people, who consider themselves smarter than the rest of us, actually believed this:"
Uh oh. LLR Chuck is going to be "all up in your grill" for insulting the lefty media lapdog idiots.
This has been a pretty good thread. When does the next McDonald's shift change happen? Isn't that when things go downhill here?
“Another Obama lie repeated by Inga as gospel. The room Lincoln used as his office has not existed for more than 60 years.
A replica of the room may exist. Or may not, there were some changes to the floor plans in the rebuilding. But not the room.”
Says the guy who believed Heather Heyer died of a heart attack instead of the blunt force trauma to the chest as the coroner stated. I’m quite sure this is the room Obama’s was referring to in his very eloquent comments.
“The Lincoln Bedroom is a bedroom on the second floor of the White House, part of a suite of rooms that includes the Lincoln Sitting Room and Lincoln Bath. Named for Abraham Lincoln and used by him as an office, this room is known for alleged ghost sightings. The room is best known as a guest room used by presidents to reward friends and political supporters.
The room has been furnished in Victorian style since the Truman renovation. Some of the furniture was used by the Lincoln administration (but pre-date it), including the sofa and three matching chairs, two slipper chairs, and four of Lincoln's Cabinet chairs. The central feature of the room is the Lincoln bed, a nearly 8-foot by 6-foot rosewood bed with an enormous headboard. The bed was probably never used by President Lincoln, although several later presidents have used it.
A holograph copy of the Gettysburg Address is displayed on the desk. This copy is the only one of five that is signed, dated, and titled by Lincoln.
Before the construction of the West Wing in 1902, this room was used as either an office or a meeting room for the president's Cabinet. Andrew Jackson installed a Russia stove in small sandbox, which he retrofitted to the closed fireplace, but the fireplace was later reopened. When the president's staff was moved to the new West Wing, this room became the "Blue Suite" bedroom where, for example, Margaret Wilson lived. Lou Hoover turned it into a parlor and filled it with Lincoln furnishings. When the White House was gutted and rebuilt during the Truman administration, this room was rebuilt and rededicated to Abraham Lincoln.”
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/floor2/lincoln-bedroom.htm
Inga is busy copy and pasting the internet because its often, and by "often" I mean "always", easier to cut and paste a bunch of "stuff" rather than try to develop and offer up a cogent point.
You see, by posting the history of the Lincoln Bedroom and its furnishing that somehow "proves" some unwritten "point" that Inga might or might not be making.
LOL
My earlier comment to Inga Slow on the Uptake:
@ Inga:
"Perhaps he was worried that the staff would report the condition of the sheets. Reportedly he eats in bed, maybe he spilled his Diet Coke and it looked like some bodily fluid."
So what did he do, put them in the middle of the room and set them on fire?
Still having trouble figuring that one out, eh?
Has anyone been to McDonald's lately? It's been taken over by marketing metrosexuals. You can get tofu burgers, with gruyere cheese, arugala salad, sweet potato fries, and a pineapple frappe.
It's weird, man.
“careful read” ... of a 300+ page book?
I might do a careful read, displayed in a blog post of a 1,000 word column, but that can’t happen with a book. I would have to write at least 100 pages. Can’t happen.
I would do it for $5,000 if I were a writer taking assignments. But I’m not... and no one is paying me to do that.
I think a short book review, a fair and serious essay, would pay $1,000 at best, and I don’t do that anymore.
I will write only what damned well pleases me and any effort to push me to do something or portray me as obligated is going to make whatever it is feel a lot less pleasing.
Shorter Inga: The Lincoln bedroom is furnished in a victorian fashion and therefore, obama (a.k.a. "other presidents") respected the White House more than Trump.
#LeftyLogic
People forget the extensive structural and cosmetic work done on the White House just this last August. Almost all work is done in August during the congressional recess. The Trumps moved out of the WH for over two weeks.
"Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
The Clintons were honored to live in a house that didn't have wheels under it.
Professor we appreciate your effort, do what you feel like. It's all fun.
I would guess that one of the issues here is that for most occupiers of the White House it is an update in their status. They did not have servants before. As shown in "Yes, Minister", there is a tendency for the servants to be able to enforce what they think is proper behavior because the residents have no way to disagree. Trump is taking a step down. He may well have had servants in the past and will not be cowed by their shock at his behavior and expectation.
I can't begin to convey how a simple $20 left on the bed with a nice note on the first day can really grease the skids for consideration by a hotel staff.
1/5/18, 1:03 PM
Last spring when I was in Denver for a week, I left $5. a day for the maid. One day when I was still in the room, she showed up and we had a little talk. I assumed she was Hispanic but it turned out that she was an Iraqi Christian and she proudly announced that she had just become a citizen a few months earlier. She said one son was in college and wanted to be a dentist, but the other one was lazy. She also said it was her last week as a maid; she was transferring to work in the hotel kitchen. I said, "Won't you miss the tips?" She replied, "Very few people leave them."
That surprised me. People leave tips for the bartender who pours a beer for them, but not for the person who makes their bed and scrubs the bathroom? Imagine what some of those rooms look like. I'd prefer working in the kitchen too.
I leave hotel rooms pretty tidy, but I confess, I am a stickler for making my bed in the morning when I am at home and it feels like a luxury to let someone do it when I'm in a hotel.
Obama being a Democrat one wonders if there was a potted plant in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Drago, I’m sorry that you’re having problems understanding why I posted info about the existence of a room that was used as an office during the Lincoln years. John Henry said the room no longer exists and that Obama was lying. I posted the excerpt to explain to him what room Obama was speaking of in his quote I posted. Now carry on with your rapid fire manic style commentary.
Blogger Inga said...
Says the guy who believed Heather Heyer died of a heart attack
Nope. That's some other guy. I am the guy who said that Heather's mother claimed she died of a heart attack.
So now you are calling Heather's mother a liar?
Have you no shame, Inga? At long last, have you no shame? Hasn't the mother suffered enough?
John Henry
I have waded through the first several chapters of Hillary's "What happened" (speaking of books filled with dreck). I am unimpressed by her ability to reflect soberly on what happened. It seems all complaints and not-my-fault-ism.
It's due back in the library on Monday, so I doubt I'll finish it.
I've seen 10,000 mentions of McDonalds by MSM blue check mark mafia types on Twitter, read 1000 blog posts by journ-o-listers, and scanned more than 100 columns that casually mention Trump's affection for McD; and it takes just ONE post by a retired lawprof to finally tell me WHY president Trump likes to eat there.
And it makes sense.
And the "media" professionals avoided elucidating for me for over two years just so they could continue their Big Mac jokes and talk about the time he left a campaign worker at the Golden Arches because he ordered "special" and delayed Donald's exit. And they wonder why we hate them so much for their bias and unprofessionalism. No they DON'T wonder, but they really should. This is why.
Mac McConnell: "Obama being a Democrat one wonders if there was a potted plant in the Lincoln Bedroom."
Real "respect" for the White House comes from having a first lady say she was never proud of the US until her husband was elected.
Of course, that is not as bad as being first lady and taking the lead in attacking the victims of your husbands sexual assaults.
Complaints about the White House began with the Adamses, who moved in before it was even finished, and have never ceased.
Ann: did you really mean to link twice to the Archy the cockroach illustrations? I figured the second one you meant to link to some famous rodent.
Inga: "Drago, I’m sorry that you’re having problems understanding..."
LOL
Just understand that saying "other presidents" does NOT equal Obama only.
You're welcome.
Having tapes and having it all down on tapes are two different things. Maybe he could play us the juicy parts?
Stream of Consciousness Thoughts:
1) Why'd they let a reporter wonder around the West Wing?
2) He doesn't share a bedroom with his wife?
3) Shirt/Toothbruth/Sheets: Likes privacy or maybe he's got some OCD?
4) Author is gonna make bank on this book.
I will write only what damned well pleases me and any effort to push me to do something or portray me as obligated is going to make whatever it is feel a lot less pleasing.
You can’t understand the modern world if you can’t imagine selling your blog-writing.
It's a good think Wolfe's book hit the shelves this week in perfect narrative alignment with the lefties exiting the 'dossier' strategem, exiting the 'cohen/manafort/page' strategem and having the 'pappadappawappalopolus' strategem getting deconstructed within the first 24 hours.
Unexpectedly.
As predicted, in the end, the lefties/dems/LLR's will be backed into the only remaining strategem: Trump must be removed via the 25th amendment because We Hate Him.
Wolfe's book and the talking point sharing amongst LLR Chuck's MSM heroes is simply another step in that direction.
Bob Boyd said...
Monica asked Bill if she could use his toothbrush and he said no.
To be fair, a toothbrush isn't the best way to get semen out of a blue dress.
Inga posits: "... maybe he spilled his Diet Coke and it looked like some bodily fluid."
"Bodily" sounds like an adverb form. Is there a difference between a "bodily fluid" and a "body fluid?" Does the strange phrase predate Gen. Ripper?
So, we still have no idea of Obama's college grades, yet we know about Trump's shirt.
Pathetic.
Ignorance is Bliss said...
You can’t understand the modern world if you can’t imagine selling your blog-writing.
( And yes, I realize that you can imagine it, and that you understand that you wouldn't like it. )
When did Trump stop liking McDonalds?
You know, I think it's very clear that Wolfe's book is the REAL "beginning of the end" of the Trump presidency.
I know, I know. The first 3,746 "beginning of the end's" of the Trump presidency didn't work out too well.
But I'm telling you, this one, the 3,747th, is THE ONE!!
The review in the Telegraph says that the book is 'true to its subject'. That is to say, that it's an accurate portrayal of the Trump who lives in the reviewer's head.
“Nope. That's some other guy. I am the guy who said that Heather's mother claimed she died of a heart attack.
The poor mother didn’t understand the fact that her daughter’s heart failed to beat because of the blunt force trauma of the car that ran her down and mistakenly called it a heart attack. You knew this of course, or maybe you just want people to think that she wasn’t murdered but died of a heart attack. I’d say you are the liar, not Heather Heyer’s mother.
Gotta admire a man who can pick up his own shirt, strip his own bed, and care for his own toothbrush. Is there nothing that man can not do?
Donald J. Trump, He's the best of all the Presidents.
He can do things that 'll give the Press the shits.
Pick up his shirt and put away his toothbrush,
Make a bed for airing, and Tweet while he sits.
Jim at: "So, we still have no idea of Obama's college grades, yet we know about Trump's shirt.
Pathetic"
Dude! We know MORE about Joe the Plumber, some 15 year old who made a funny GIF, Sarah Palin's children, Robert Bork's VHS video selections, the clothing choices for Chief Justice Roberts children, etc., than we do about obama.
For obvious reasons.
Inga; "The poor mother didn’t understand the fact that her daughter’s heart failed to beat because of the blunt force trauma of the car that ran her down and mistakenly called it a heart attack"
Apparently, there are many many many car-induced blunt force trauma "heart attack" cases when islamists are around.
And Inga can't wait to import millions more.
But for the best of reasons: increased auto sales.
Isn't Trump known to be a germaphobe? Of course he wouldn't want anyone touching his toothbrush and personal effects.
I change our bed and do the laundry, not the cleaning lady, as I am particular as to how they are done.
I agree with FIDO, I wouldn't trust WH staff with my toothbrush either...knowledge is power, so why give others insight into one's foibles.
Every article in National Enquirer has a kernel of truth. It's the headlines that promise more than they can deliver, so they add a more scandalous rumor version.
The kernel of truth is that DJT is a control freak about the perfect details. Lazy people who want to be loved for their personality don't like that...why he's insane, or eccentric, take your pick.
Thank you, Althouse, for finally revealing the reason Trump favors McDonalds.
"I change our bed and do the laundry, not the cleaning lady, as I am particular as to how they are done."
I don't even let the grocery clerks bag my groceries. I don't trust them to handle fruit & produce correctly. And they can't seem to properly group items to save their lives!
Anybody who debates Inga is responsible for the pollution of the comments thread.
This is a person that thinks the "whitehouse.gov" site is real history,
"I don't even let the grocery clerks bag my groceries."
I was lax last time I went and didn't pay attention that someone was bagging things for me. Each frozen pizza and can of soup doesn't need its own bag! I condensed everything from six bags to two. What a waste.
Ann Althouse said...
“careful read” ... of a 300+ page book?
I might do a careful read, displayed in a blog post of a 1,000 word column, but that can’t happen with a book. I would have to write at least 100 pages. Can’t happen.
I would do it for $5,000 if I were a writer taking assignments. But I’m not... and no one is paying me to do that.
I think a short book review, a fair and serious essay, would pay $1,000 at best, and I don’t do that anymore.
I will write only what damned well pleases me and any effort to push me to do something or portray me as obligated is going to make whatever it is feel a lot less pleasing.
lol! Awright, forget that "careful" stuff. We can both wait for the Special Counsel to complete his investigation, which was what I planned to do all along.
@Inga, here is a picture of the interior of the White House taken in 1950 during the Truman Renovation. Please point out to us where you see the Lincoln office, bedroom, or any other room.
Sorry, Michael K.
Notice that bad or scandalous news about Trump always seems to come out at the same time as good economic news?
Unexpectedly.
Ann Althouse said...
“careful read” ... of a 300+ page book?
I might do a careful read, displayed in a blog post of a 1,000 word column, but that can’t happen with a book. I would have to write at least 100 pages. Can’t happen.
I would do it for $5,000 if I were a writer taking assignments. But I’m not... and no one is paying me to do that.
I think a short book review, a fair and serious essay, would pay $1,000 at best, and I don’t do that anymore.
I will write only what damned well pleases me and any effort to push me to do something or portray me as obligated is going to make whatever it is feel a lot less pleasing.
1/5/18, 1:12 PM
It occurs to me that life must be unpleasant for people around you, if they don't give you what you want when you want it. Probably unpleasant for you too, if you feel this strongly about it. Most people have to do without/endure things they do/not like every day.
It's a real blessing for you to have been able to live such a lifestyle. By all means I wish you joy of it. I do hope you are grateful and humble about it, but you probably think there is no one and nothing to be grateful for, and if there were, it would be a lot less pleasing.
Michael K said...
Anybody who debates Inga is responsible for the pollution of the comments thread.
I'm not sure what to make of your comment, Michael K. Are you blaming persons "who debate Inga"? Or are you blaming Inga?
I look at this page, and I see something like every fifth or sixth post is by "Drago," and almost all of those are personal attacks on some other commenter, looking for a fight.
If your comment was intended to blame "Drago," I agree with you and I'd urge Althouse to take note.
Per Business Insider: Several of his sources, he says, were definitely lying to him, while some offered accounts that flatly contradicted those of others.
But some were nonetheless included in the vivid account of the West Wing's workings, in a process Wolff describes as "allowing the reader to judge" whether the sources' claims are true. "
[bold emphasis mine]
Well, isn't that special? It's a nonfiction book but its credibility is up to the reader to discern. How very generous of him.
Have you actually read the autopsy report, Dr Inga? Feel free to post excerpts. From the report, not from some journalist who probably did not read it either.
Did the blunt force trauma cause the heart attack, Dr Inga?
If so, didn't she die of the resulting heart attack rather than the blunt force trauma itself?
If so, her mother was not mistaken. Nor was I for repeating what she said.
You are trying to obfuscate the cause of death by obfuscatng the cause of the heart attack. (Hint: The blunt force happened first, THEN the heart attack occurred.
Back to you, Dr Inga.
John Henry
Addendum: And I suppose the reader is to rely upon his or her close relationship with the President to make that distinction.
I prefer to think of it as "tickling" Inga.
Conversations with her are certainly not debates. Debate requires some rationality on the part of the other person.
As for truthiness, bear in mind it is Inga. I always allow myself a bit more latitude with her.
John Henry
If your comment was intended to blame "Drago," I agree with you and I'd urge Althouse to take note.
It was irony, chuck, but I know you don't do irony
The near-silence thus far from Bannon is odd. This could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing. The non-reader of Bannon's non-comments is free to form his own opinions of the truth of those non-comments.
When it comes to housekeepers at at home, there are people who want to be busy or out while the housekeeper is there and there are people who are perfectly happy to turn on Netflix and kick their feet up on the couch while the housekeeper cleans around them.
Hammond X. Gritzkofe: "Bodily" sounds like an adverb form. Is there a difference between a "bodily fluid" and a "body fluid?" Does the strange phrase predate Gen. Ripper?
Here's a Google books link to the term "bodily fluids" in a book published in 1764. The word "bodily" itself dates back at least to the 1300s.
Asking the lawyers here about the cease and desist letter sent to Wolff. If Wolff was informed by Trump's lawyers that some of the statements in the book have been shown to be untrue, and that they are defamatory, then Wolff was on notice before the book was released. Does this make it a lot easier to sue for defamation, because Wolff knew certain things were false and published them anyway?
TRUMP STRIPS...his own bed.
"If Wolff was informed by Trump's lawyers that some of the statements in the book have been shown to be untrue, and that they are defamatory, then Wolff was on notice before the book was released."
It could have a positive effect on Trump's chances of winning a lawsuit, but if Trump wins such a lawsuit it will most definitely have an effect on the financial cost to Wolff and his publisher.
Matt Drudge says that he got his start sharing tips from servants and waiters that people ignored. I think Jefferson invented the waiter that couldn't talk, the dumbwaiter.
SeanF:
Interesting and enlightening, but unexpectedly, information. I shall keep that reference handily. Thanks.
Since Ann is too busy working on the new book I will point out that the DOJ has opened an investigation into the Clinton Foundation ("The probe is focused on whether donors to the foundation, a charity tied to Bill and Hillary Clinton, got preferential treatment from Mrs. Clinton when she served as secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term, the official said." -WSJ ) and Senators Grassley and Graham are asking the DOJ to "open a criminal probe into whether the author of a controversial research document on President Trump lied to investigators." (WSJ) The walls appear to be closing in. We'll see.
LLR Chuck: "I look at this page, and I see something like every fifth or sixth post is by "Drago," and almost all of those are personal attacks on some other commenter, looking for a fight."
I disagree.
But thats to be expected as I have never called maddow brilliant or obama magnificent.
Vive la difference!
0802,
Hillary has conveniently destroyed a lot of the evidence for such a probe, emails, burning of daily schedules that included records of meetings with foreign donors. After the stuff was under subpoena. She is a legal sitting duck for any prosecutor with the will.
“Heather Heyer, the anti-racism activist killed at the Charlottesville white nationalist protests, died as a result of blunt-force injury to the chest, according to a medical report.”
http://www.newsweek.com/charlottesville-heather-heyers-cause-death-revealed-medical-report-686471
Here is a pretty good analysis of the Bannon-Trump thing.
The position of the billionaire actually reminds me of Edward Gibbon’s account of Roman Emperor Diocletian in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In his conversations with friends, [Diocletian] frequently acknowledged, that of all arts the most difficult was the art of reigning; and he expressed himself on that favorite topic with a degree of warmth which could be the result only of experience.
‘How often,’ was he accustomed to say, ‘is it the interest of four or five ministers to combine together to deceive their sovereign! Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge; he can see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. By such infamous arts,’ added Diocletian, ‘the best and wisest princes are sold to the venal corruption of their courtiers.’
What does that mean for our President Trump and the spat with Bannon? Quite a bit actually. And, here, it’s important to set aside your personal beliefs about the man. Detach yourself as best as you can and then try to see the world from his viewpoint.
We know the man has an ego, but we also know that he has a résumé to back it up. It also appears that he relies quite heavily on his family to run his empire. They seem to have undying loyalty to him; they are who he trusts.
Worth reading the rest. I think Bannon's attack on his kids set him off.
@Inga 12:51 Thank you for that little piece of information. Haven't you and I always been told that books where we, the reader, get to decide what's true are generally categorized as fiction? Talk about undermining your own work! Apparently the general take on Wolff is that he has a habit of making stuff up and passing it off as real.
“You are trying to obfuscate the cause of death by obfuscatng the cause of the heart attack. (Hint: The blunt force happened first, THEN the heart attack occurred.”
Cite your source.
“Talk about undermining your own work! Apparently the general take on Wolff is that he has a habit of making stuff up and passing it off as real.”
My “own work”? I didn’t write the book and I haven’t asserted it was entirely 100% accurate.
Seeing Red,
The iPod loaded with his own speeches isn't even the worst of Obama's Presidential gifts. Remember Tony Blair's visit? Tony brought a piece of wood salvaged from a famous slave ship. Obama responded with 50 random DVDs, all in US format so that they'd be useless in the UK, except possibly as Frisbees.
Inga: "My “own work”? I didn’t write the book and I haven’t asserted it was entirely 100% accurate."
I am willing to stipulate Wolfes book is every bit as accurate as the fake democrat hoax dossier and the reports of Tillersons demise.
Every bit as accurate as those.
Inga said...
I was referring to Obama, who said this about living in the White House.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand.”
Here is what you said. "Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there."
You said presidents...plural. But realizing you really couldn't back it up you changed it to "Obama" and found a quote. Of course that quote doesn't say Obama "realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there." at all. At best it's inferred. The fucker put his feet up on the oval office desk.
Maybe because other presidents realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there.
and reports of Tillersons [sic] demise.
Yeah, whatever happened to that guy Tillerson? I understand that he's still working in some obscure office down in the "Foggy Bottom" area of Washington, DC.
But bear in mind that according to the standards set up by Allcott and Gentzkow, the report back in December that Tillerson was going to be fired in the "next few weeks" is not fake news. Fake news is the parody report that Trump demanded to be shown "the gorilla channel" on TV and his aides couldn't figure out which cable channel he meant so they made something up using old DVDs of gorilla documentaries. That one's fake only because a bunch of lefties fell for it and retweeted the "news." (One went so far as to claim that the it constituted grounds for impeachment.) Seems to me that the one is as fake as the other, though what do I know? I'm not a professor at Dartmouth.
"Yeah, whatever happened to that guy Tillerson?"
Poor Tillerson.
He wss only readon 2,908 that Trump was at the beginning of the end.
Of course Inga swallowed it whole.
“You said presidents...plural. But realizing you really couldn't back it up you changed it to "Obama" and found a quote. Of course that quote doesn't say Obama "realized what a tremendous honor it was for them to be there." at all. At best it's inferred. The fucker put his feet up on the oval office desk.”
Bush with feet up on Oval Office desk.
Ford with feet up on Oval Office desk.
Inga rapidly retreating from her "other presidents" nonsense.
Wisely I would say.
Otherwise we will have to start calling obama "Former President 'Other Presidents'", which just might become confusing.
Autopsy report, Inga
Not Newsweek
Kitchy koo
John Henry
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