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A story about a pathetic man's downfall


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It was part free-for-all, part fire sale. Souvenirs were kept, records were indiscriminately thrown away. The Oval Office and its adjacent private dining room were only packed up the weekend before former President Donald Trump moved out, former aides said.

 

So-called “burn bags” were widely present, according to two former Trump White House officials, with red stripes marking ones that held sensitive classified material meant to be destroyed. Such bags, according to Mark Zaid, an attorney well-steeped in national security law, are common. But one former official said that staff would put seemingly non-classified items in there too, such as handwritten letters and notes passed to principals. Zaid said it wasn’t necessarily improper to dispose of non-classified information this way, provided it was done under the confines of the law. But those who observed the process later conceded that it was not entirely clear if documents should have been headed to the National Archives instead of the incinerator.

It was in those tumultuous moments that — investigators allege — boxes containing classified material were packed and sent to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Nineteen months later, Trump’s handling of presidential records and West Wing material has landed him in unprecedented legal peril. Last week, the FBI resorted to getting a warrant to retrieve those items, which, the bureau said, included four sets of top-secret documents and seven other sets of classified information.

...

There was also a belief that Trump simply didn’t care for the law around records preservation.

“The counsel’s office was often working at cross-purposes with the way President Trump treated records,” Blanton said. “To Trump, the White House was another casino he had bought. This one was just on Pennsylvania Avenue.”  ...

 

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18 hours ago, Chopper said:

It's crazy how much stuff is coming out now.

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I remember this in real time.  My job used to revolve around stuff like this and it was a huge shock to everyone in the community that the info we had on Iranian capabilities and even worse our ability to collect information (sources and methods) was so unceremoniously thrown away.  

 

 

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1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

‘There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”’

- Spicoli and Sen. Blutarski

 

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22 minutes ago, Chopper said:

 

I see 3 types of people in the Trump WH in Jan 2021:

  1. true believers who may have even been worse than Trump himself. See Stephen Miller as an example.
  2. people like Cipollone, who believed in Trump's policies, were disgusted with Jan 6th but decided they needed to stay until the end to keep the ship somewhat afloat.
  3. similar to 2 but they decided that Jan 6th went past their moral line which led to them walking out/resigning.

In the order of the worse people, bucket 3 folks are not much better than 1s. They were cool with every action of Trump but were more afraid of the Jan 6th stink sticking to them. 3s also think they did something heroic in quitting. They didn't.

2s at least hung around to the bitter end in some loyalty or patriotism to America but don't paint them as heroes either. They helped with policies like mass incarceration of immigrant children.

 

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1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I see 3 types of people in the Trump WH in Jan 2021:

  1. true believers who may have even been worse than Trump himself. See Stephen Miller as an example.
  2. people like Cipollone, who believed in Trump's policies, were disgusted with Jan 6th but decided they needed to stay until the end to keep the ship somewhat afloat.
  3. similar to 2 but they decided that Jan 6th went past their moral line which led to them walking out/resigning.

In the order of the worse people, bucket 3 folks are not much better than 1s. They were cool with every action of Trump but were more afraid of the Jan 6th stink sticking to them. 3s also think they did something heroic in quitting. They didn't.

2s at least hung around to the bitter end in some loyalty or patriotism to America but don't paint them as heroes either. They helped with policies like mass incarceration of immigrant children.

 

These bucket 3 people, they knew deep down what was going to happen before Jan 6. They only regret that it didn't work and that they might face consequences.

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28 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Did I miss something? Because I'm trying to understand why the fuck a poster who champions Ohio is giving a shit about a throwaway comment mentioning San Francisco as opposed to any other liberal city enough to ask follow up pedantry while willfully ignoring the whole point of the post in the first place. 

What, did it suddenly become unfashionable to contrast southeastern red states with blue ones now?

There’s one particular stereotype that people are usually thinking of when they bring up San Francisco. One that might be suggested by the “for her sake” qualifier. I mean, why not New York City where Trump is known and hated and which went for Hillary by about the same margin as San Francisco? Why not Burlington, VT, a state so liberal that the election was called for Hillary as soon as the polls closed? Why “for her sake” should she be in any one city in particular? I’d say that, for her sake, hopefully she’s in some city rather than in some rural backwater.

I’ll take you at your word but I think a reasonable person might assume you were thinking something other than ‘Hmmm, what’s a liberal city?’ when you included “for her sake.” That kind of doesn’t make much sense otherwise. And it’s not a red state vs. blue state thing. Both Travis County, TX and Franklin County, OH went for Hillary. In fact Hillary won Travis County by a few points more than she won Franklin County. For her sake I think that woman with the sign would be perfectly safe in either Austin or Columbus. 

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22 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

There’s one particular stereotype that people are usually thinking of when they bring up San Francisco. One that might be suggested by the “for her sake” qualifier. I mean, why not New York City where Trump is known and hated and which went for Hillary by about the same margin as San Francisco? Why not Burlington, VT, a state so liberal that the election was called for Hillary as soon as the polls closed? Why “for her sake” should she be in any one city in particular? I’d say that, for her sake, hopefully she’s in some city rather than in some rural backwater.

I’ll take you at your word but I think a reasonable person might assume you were thinking something other than ‘Hmmm, what’s a liberal city?’ when you included “for her sake.” That kind of doesn’t make much sense otherwise. And it’s not a red state vs. blue state thing. Both Travis County, TX and Franklin County, OH went for Hillary. In fact Hillary won Travis County by a few points more than she won Franklin County. For her sake I think that woman with the sign would be perfectly safe in either Austin or Columbus. 

You tit, he was just saying he hopes she is in a liberal area where a sign like that wouldn’t be likely to be met with violence, for her safety.  He chose the liberal area at random from a list of what he believes to be well known liberal areas. 
 

he may as well have said I hope she isn’t in a Republican area because that might be dangerous. 
 

eta: after a third and fourth reread, are you trying to hint that he was saying because of her looks, she should be in gay-friendly San Francisco?

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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24 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

There’s one particular stereotype that people are usually thinking of when they bring up San Francisco. One that might be suggested by the “for her sake” qualifier. I mean, why not New York City where Trump is known and hated and which went for Hillary by about the same margin as San Francisco? Why not Burlington, VT, a state so liberal that the election was called for Hillary as soon as the polls closed? Why “for her sake” should she be in any one city in particular? I’d say that, for her sake, hopefully she’s in some city rather than in some rural backwater.

I’ll take you at your word but I think a reasonable person might assume you were thinking something other than ‘Hmmm, what’s a liberal city?’ when you included “for her sake.” That kind of doesn’t make much sense otherwise. And it’s not a red state vs. blue state thing. Both Travis County, TX and Franklin County, OH went for Hillary. In fact Hillary won Travis County by a few points more than she won Franklin County. For her sake I think that woman with the sign would be perfectly safe in either Austin or Columbus. 

At the risk of this thread derailing any further...but I just can't help myself so I have to ask...What, exactly did you THINK I was trying to say in my post? Even though I clarified in a response to you directly already. Help me understand what you THOUGHT I was implying in my post. Specifically the whole "for her sake" park, as well as the "one stereotype people usually thinking when San Francisco is brought up" parts. What did you THINK I was trying to say, exactly? Because I'm fairly certain you're aware of my posting history and general opinions, specifically as a fairly regular Cloak Room poster. Because I Reasonably have no clue what the fuck you're talking about. 

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2 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

Did I miss something? Because I'm trying to understand why the fuck a poster who champions Ohio is giving a shit about a throwaway comment mentioning San Francisco as opposed to any other liberal city enough to ask follow up pedantry while willfully ignoring the whole point of the post in the first place. 

What, did it suddenly become unfashionable to contrast southeastern red states with blue ones now?

NewGrayAsianelephant-max-1mb.gif

 

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

There’s one particular stereotype that people are usually thinking of when they bring up San Francisco. One that might be suggested by the “for her sake” qualifier. I mean, why not New York City where Trump is known and hated and which went for Hillary by about the same margin as San Francisco? Why not Burlington, VT, a state so liberal that the election was called for Hillary as soon as the polls closed? Why “for her sake” should she be in any one city in particular? I’d say that, for her sake, hopefully she’s in some city rather than in some rural backwater.

I’ll take you at your word but I think a reasonable person might assume you were thinking something other than ‘Hmmm, what’s a liberal city?’ when you included “for her sake.” That kind of doesn’t make much sense otherwise. And it’s not a red state vs. blue state thing. Both Travis County, TX and Franklin County, OH went for Hillary. In fact Hillary won Travis County by a few points more than she won Franklin County. For her sake I think that woman with the sign would be perfectly safe in either Austin or Columbus. 

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1 minute ago, RomaVicta said:

I parodied this notion earlier with Trump scouring DC for moving boxes and his kids pitching in. I'll point to this absurdity again.

Trump, as President, could get all the knowledgeable manpower he needed by just notifying his secretary. A different specialist could have been assigned to each stack or drawer of papers. He's the fucking President of the United States. He has guys. Lots and lots of guys.

So why didn't he do that? Why didn't he have archivists and other specialists with no personal agendas to come sort and pack what could and could not go? 

The fantasy of unavoidable rushing around and mistake-making is fabulously absurd.

He was hiding what he was doing. He was limiting witnesses. He didn't want outsiders to ask questions.

Trump wasn't stuck with this chaotic move; he created it.

For. A. Reason.

C'mon.

He didn’t think he would be leaving

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3 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

He didn’t think he would be leaving

So? I know that's what the story is about this supposed chaos. My point is that it didn't have to be chaos. He had resources.

He also could have just left his work papers behind like a regular president. He had something else in mind.

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13 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I parodied this notion earlier with Trump scouring DC for moving boxes and his kids pitching in. I'll point to this absurdity again.

Trump, as President, could get all the knowledgeable manpower he needed by just notifying his secretary. A different specialist could have been assigned to each stack or drawer of papers. He's the fucking President of the United States. He has guys. Lots and lots of guys.

So why didn't he do that? Why didn't he have archivists and other specialists with no personal agendas to come sort and pack what could and could not go? 

The fantasy of unavoidable rushing around and mistake-making is fabulously absurd.

He was hiding what he was doing. He was limiting witnesses. He didn't want outsiders to ask questions.

Trump wasn't stuck with this chaotic move; he created it.

For. A. Reason.

C'mon.

He was short staffed, maybe. Probably because of Covid, even though Covid probably wasn't even real. 

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13 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

So? I know that's what the story is about this supposed chaos. My point is that it didn't have to be chaos. He had resources.

He also could have just left his work papers behind like a regular president. He had something else in mind.

Point being there was a plan to have him remain president, so he didn’t bother preparing to leave until it was clear he would be kicked out. 
 

it’s two separate issues.  1) not preparing in advance to leave and 2) having the last minute preparations be chaotic. 

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16 minutes ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

I was in West Marin last week.  It's near San Francisco.  I drank Pliny the Elder* on tap and ate It's-Its non-stop. 

The homeless folks seem to have their shit together and left us alone.

(*don't care that the youngsters are off of IPAs)

MIL was over the other day and wife mentioned we were wanting to go back to NYC sometime soon.  MIL immediately says "isn't is dangerous now?"  Us: "Not any more dangerous than it's been in the past decade or so."

Fox News brain.  Afraid of all cities.  Surprised she even comes to Austin.

Edited by Biff Tannen
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28 minutes ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

I was in West Marin last week.  It's near San Francisco.  I drank Pliny the Elder* on tap and ate It's-Its non-stop. 

The homeless folks seem to have their shit together and left us alone.

(*don't care that the youngsters are off of IPAs)

I call B.S. I used to work in San Rafael (not holding or spinning signs), and I can't think of any local who made reference to a West Marin. Maybe I wasn't part of the Marin 2% crowd.

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  • Bozo_Casanova changed the title to Poll: President Trump's Major Announcement


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