Book Excerpt on Current White House

[homersapien 11,453]

4 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

Release date for the book has been bumped up to tomorrow because of interest.  Also currently #1 best seller on Amazon.

You have to admire his chutzpah - or initative, if you prefer.  He's going to make a bundle.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

Just now, homersapien said:

You have to admire his chutzpah - or initative, if you prefer.  He's going to make a bundle.

Oh this is the publisher striking on publicity to get it in market faster.  Very smart of them.

[homersapien 11,453]

33 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/04/white-house-tell-all-to-hit-bookshelves-early-as-publisher-defies-trump-demand.html

“The people who will buy into this book are the people who hate the president already,” 

Enjoy it

That sounds like a pretty lucrative market to me.  

[homersapien 11,453]

1 minute ago, Brad_ATX said:

Oh this is the publisher striking on publicity to get it in market faster.  Very smart of them.

Correct.  But I was actually referring to producing the book itself, not the (excellent) marketing of it.  

[homersapien 11,453]

37 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/04/white-house-tell-all-to-hit-bookshelves-early-as-publisher-defies-trump-demand.html

“We have become used to #FakeNews, now we have #FakeBooks!” Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin tweeted.

 

Are you trying to suggest the contents are false?

[homersapien 11,453]

35 minutes ago, Proud Tiger said:

The Trump haters will have orgasms reading this "book" but numerous false claims are already noted and proven. But they need a daily dose of crap to keep up their whining.

Sounds like we'll need to start a list of what's true and what's false to discuss in detail.  

[homersapien 11,453]

1 hour ago, Brad_ATX said:

So wait.  You're telling me the Secretary of the Treasury, who still works for POTUS, is defending him?   Well color me shocked!  Shocked I say!

Actually, when it comes to Mnuchin and Trump, it's debatable about who really works for whom.  

But your point still stands.

[homersapien 11,453]

Interesting take on Wolff:

Trump Got Wolffed

The president should have known better. Michael Wolff does not mess around.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/04/donald-trump-michael-wolff-book-216245

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump’s-effort-to-stop-publication-of-scathing-book-is-a-break-in-precedent/ar-BBHSWPa?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

[homersapien 11,453]

29 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump’s-effort-to-stop-publication-of-scathing-book-is-a-break-in-precedent/ar-BBHSWPa?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

excerpt:

".....For nearly half a century, Trump has used lawsuits — and often just the threat of them — as a primary weapon in his arsenal against critics and competitors, deploying libel and slander allegations to push back against those who might embarrass or contradict him. He has had his lawyers threaten book authors, business rivals, attorneys, and critics of his real estate developments and political views.

Competing hotel owners, casino managers and voices in the news media have all found themselves in receipt of sharply worded letters promising legal action that in most cases never happened. 

The pattern continued during his presidential campaign. Trump threatened to sue the Times over an article about his alleged unwanted advances on women — but he never did. He threatened to sue the women who said he made the advance — but he never did. And he said during the campaign that he might take action to make it easier to sue journalists — but so far he has not done so. 

In one case he did pursue, Trump sued Timothy O'Brien, author of the Trump biography "TrumpNation," on the grounds that the book underestimated Trump's wealth. Trump ultimately lost.

 "I think the media generally should stand strong and tall whenever President Trump rattles his saber about lawsuits and intimidation," O'Brien, now the executive editor of Bloomberg View, said Thursday. "He spent decades trying to bully the press, his political opponents, and his business competitors by weaponizing the court system. . . . I think what you're seeing now is the same old Donald Trump, but unfortunately he's able to muster the legal and media artillery of the White House to support his same old insecurities....."

 

 

Like I've said, none of this should be surprising to anyone. 

He thinks being POTUS is no different from marketing his "brand" or hosting a reality show.  His cognitive dissonance regarding the job of the presidency is pervasive.  

[AUDub 11,184]

 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

4 minutes ago, Bigbens42 said:

 

It's simultaneously funny and depressing.

[homersapien 11,453]

34 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

It's simultaneously funny and depressing.

Being an Auburn fan is good preparation.  

[homersapien 11,453]

 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Sarah Sanders, in her press conference said:

--The Pres. only spoke to Wolff one time for a few minutes and nothing about the book. She said Wolff begged to get an interview with Trump several times but was denied.

--Wolff said he said he sat outside the oval office every day. Sanders said that is absolutely not true. She said he did meet with Steve Bannon several times. Hmmmmm.

Believe what you want. I will take Sander's word any day over Wolff considering his background.

[McLoofus 35,182]

13 hours ago, Proud Tiger said:

The Trump haters will have orgasms reading this "book" but numerous false claims are already noted and proven. But they need a daily dose of crap to keep up their whining.

It's not a "book".

It's a book. 

This is the kind of behavior that tends to compromise credibility. 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

24 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

It's not a "book".

It's a book. 

This is the kind of behavior that tends to compromise credibility. 

Ok I will say it is a ridiculous book that Trump haters are salivating over. That better?

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, Proud Tiger said:

I will keep your silly comment in mind......for about 5 seconds

It's all about being our best selves and maximizing our potential. 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

It's all about being our best selves and maximizing our potential. 

I changed my post as you were quoting it

[McLoofus 35,182]

Just now, Proud Tiger said:

I changed my post before you quoted it

Attaboy.

[homersapien 11,453]

The Wolff lines on Trump that ring unambiguously true

https://www.axios.com/how-michael-wolff-did-it-2522360813.html

 

There are definitely parts of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" that are wrong, sloppy, or betray off-the-record confidence. But there are two things he gets absolutely right, even in the eyes of White House officials who think some of the book's scenes are fiction: his spot-on portrait of Trump as an emotionally erratic president, and the low opinion of him among some of those serving him......

....So Wolff's liberties with off-the-record comments — while ethically unacceptable to nearly all reporters — have the effect of exposing Washington's insider jokes and secret languages, which normal Americans find perplexing and detestable.

In the past year, we have had many of the same conversations with the same sources Wolff used. We won't betray them, or put on the record what was off. But, we can say that the following lines from the book ring unambiguously true:

How Trump processes (and resists) information:

• "It was during Trump's early intelligence briefings … that alarm signals first went off among his new campaign staff: he seemed to lack the ability to take in third-party information."
• "Or maybe he lacked the interest; whichever, he seemed almost phobic about having formal demands on his attention."
• "Trump didn't read. He didn't really even skim. ... [H]e could read headlines and articles about himself, or at least headlines on articles about himself, and the gossip squibs on the New York Post's Page Six."
• "Some ... concluded that he didn't read because he just didn't have to, and that in fact this was one of his key attributes as a populist. He was postliterate — total television."
• "[H]e trusted his own expertise — no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else's. What's more, he had an extremely short attention span, even when he thought you were worthy of attention."

Instinct over expertise:

• "The organization ... needed a set of internal rationalizations that would allow it to trust a man who, while he knew little, was entirely confident of his own gut instincts and reflexive opinions, however frequently they might change."
• "Here was a key Trump White House rationale: expertise, that liberal virtue, was overrated."

Ill-preparedness:

• "[T]he president's views of foreign policy and the world at large were among [his White House's] most random, uninformed, and seemingly capricious aspects. His advisers didn't know whether he was an isolationist or a militarist, or whether he could distinguish between the two."
• "He was enamored with generals and determined that people with military command experience take the lead in foreign policy, but he hated to be told what to do."
• "In the Trump White House, policy making ... flowed up. It was a process of suggesting, in throw-it-against-the-wall style, what the president might want, and hoping he might then think that he had thought of this himself."

Low regard by key aides:

• "He spoke obliviously and happily, believing himself to be a perfect pitch raconteur and public performer, while everyone with him held their breath.
• "If a wackadoo moment occurred on the occasions … when his remarks careened in no clear direction, his staff had to go into intense method-acting response. It took absolute discipline not to acknowledge what everyone could see."
• "At points on the day's spectrum of adverse political developments, he could have moments of, almost everyone would admit, irrationality. When that happened, he was alone in his anger and not approachable by anyone."
• "His senior staff largely dealt with these dark hours by agreeing with him, no matter what he said."

Be smart: More than half a dozen of the more skilled White House staff are contemplating imminent departures. Many leaving are quite fearful about the next chapter of the Trump presidency.

[SaltyTiger 7,864]

9 minutes ago, homersapien said:

The Wolff lines on Trump that ring unambiguously true

https://www.axios.com/how-michael-wolff-did-it-2522360813.html

 

There are definitely parts of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" that are wrong, sloppy, or betray off-the-record confidence. But there are two things he gets absolutely right, even in the eyes of White House officials who think some of the book's scenes are fiction: his spot-on portrait of Trump as an emotionally erratic president, and the low opinion of him among some of those serving him......

....So Wolff's liberties with off-the-record comments — while ethically unacceptable to nearly all reporters — have the effect of exposing Washington's insider jokes and secret languages, which normal Americans find perplexing and detestable.

In the past year, we have had many of the same conversations with the same sources Wolff used. We won't betray them, or put on the record what was off. But, we can say that the following lines from the book ring unambiguously true:

How Trump processes (and resists) information:

Instinct over expertise:

 

Ill-preparedness:

Low regard by key aides:

 

Be smart: More than half a dozen of the more skilled White House staff are contemplating imminent departures. Many leaving are quite fearful about the next chapter of the Trump presidency.

Why should we bother with the book Brother Homer? You have been telling us this stuff for 15 months. This guy wasted his time hanging around West Wing like a pervert. He could have talked with you.

Guess we take you for granted at times.

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

56 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Why should we bother with the book Brother Homer? You have been telling us this stuff for 15 months. This guy wasted his time hanging around West Wing with a pervert. He could have talked with you.

Guess we take you for granted at times.

One small correction. And that is indeed a fact, as the pervert has bragged about it quite publicly and often. 

[TitanTiger 20,511]

2 hours ago, Proud Tiger said:

Believe what you want. I will take Sander's word any day over Wolff considering his background.

Sanders and her dad are complete shills who've sold their soul over Trump.  I wouldn't take her word for anything.  If she told me it was sunny outside, I'm grabbing an umbrella.

[homersapien 11,453]

1 hour ago, SaltyTiger said:

Why should we bother with the book Brother Homer? You have been telling us this stuff for 15 months. This guy wasted his time hanging around West Wing like a pervert. He could have talked with you.

Guess we take you for granted at times.

 

This kind of does sound like me:

Wolff said “100 percent of the people around” Trump raised concerns about his mental fitness for office.

“I will tell you the one description that everyone gave,” he said. “They all say he is like a child, and what they mean by that is, he has a need for immediate gratification. It’s all about him.”