Trump Admin vs. John Bolton's Book

[lpetrich]

John Bolton: Trump administration sues Bolton over book dispute - CNNPolitics

he Trump administration asked a federal judge on Tuesday to order former national security adviser John Bolton to stop the publication of his upcoming book on his White House tenure, arguing in a lawsuit that Bolton had breached non-disclosure agreements and was risking national security by exposing classified information.

The suit, filed in Washington, DC, federal court, alleges that Bolton's 500-plus page manuscript was "rife with classified information," and prosecutors say that Bolton backed out of an ongoing White House vetting process for the book that he'd been obligated to do as a result of the agreements.

Trump Administration Sues to Try to Delay Publication of Bolton’s Book - The New York Times

Mr. Bolton made clear in a statement this week that his book contained explosive details about his time at the White House. He and Mr. Trump clashed on significant policy issues like Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan, and in his book, Mr. Bolton also confirmed accusations at the heart of the Democratic impeachment case over the president’s dealings with Ukraine, according to details from his manuscript previously reported by The New York Times.

He is not much more than a warmonger, but he seems to have a tiny bit of decency in the Ukraine affair.

 

[fromderinside]

Yes even practicing warmongers can have moral bones from the perspective of opponent viewpoints.

 

[funinspace]

But not enough morals to present himself to Congress, w/o court directive, during impeachment hearings...I guess those future dollar signs were sure ringing loud in those ears; must have been interfering with that tiny 'bone' of morel...

 

[Worldtraveller]

The shithead in the WH: Freedom of speech for me, but not for thee!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

When John Bolton is in a role as the Babyface, you know things have gone to hell in DC. The guy is a fucking asshole, but by all accounts, an asshole that doesn't lie.

 

[hyzer]

Washington Post has sourced a copy of the book and the Post wrote:

"President Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 U.S. election, telling Xi during a summit dinner last year that increased agricultural purchases by Beijing from American farmers would aid his electoral prospects, according to a damning new account of life inside the Trump administration by former national security adviser John Bolton."

and the Post quotes Bolton:

“He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,” Bolton writes. “He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ea601c-ad7a-11ea-868b-93d63cd833b2_story.html

 

[Rhea]

He’s a criminal and complicit for not appearing before the Senate. I will not give him a dime of my money.

 

[ideologyhunter]

You won't have to. Reporters are already sharing an advance copy. The juiciest stuff will come out -- Trump will lie about it -- Barr will lie about it -- Lindsay Graham will get purple in the face about how the President is being betrayed and disrespected -- perhaps Fat Bastard's approvals will go down a few points. It just might help get this atrocity of an administration out the door.

 

[barbos]

So, is Finland part of Russia or not?

 

[Ford]

This is how far down the rabbit hole we've gone.

Bolton is one of the original neocons. One of the solid gold assholes who came up with the idea that we just needed some excuse to go and "remake" the Middle East. To topple Saddam Hussein and turn the US from a Cold War winner into a champion of a new conflict in the cradle of civilization. He's got rivers of blood on his hands.


And yet with this book, he's basically saying "yeah, we were evil, but...this fucking guy..."

We've ticked off the counter of former relatively noble public servants who signed up for the Trump administration and were shown the door, to rank opportunists who signed up and then said "yeah, this is a bridge too far." to shit-stains like Bolton were so repulsed by what they saw that even they couldn't hold back.

Of course I'm not going to buy his book, but I hope he takes the legal challenges against it's release to the fucking wall.

 

[lpetrich]

John Bolton’s bombshell Trump book: eight of its most stunning claims | US news | The Guardian

1. Trump pleaded with China to help win the 2020 election
2. Trump suggested he was open to serving more than two terms
3. Trump offered favors to dictators
4. Trump praised Xi for China’s internment camps
5. Trump defended Saudi Arabia to distract from a story about Ivanka
6. Trump’s top staff mocked him behind his back
7. Trump thought Finland was part of Russia
8. Trump thought it would be ‘cool’ to invade Venezuela

 

[funinspace]

He’s a criminal and complicit for not appearing before the Senate. I will not give him a dime of my money.

I think you mean the House, as the Senate never called him to appear. Yeah, even though I'm curious I wouldn't give that POS a dime either.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Yup, Bolton is a dick. "See, he is an asshole! And I quit the moment I realized I couldn't make that asshole do the things I wanted."

So I think this book demonstrates Trump is an asshole and unfit for being a dogcatcher, forget President... and that Bolton is also an asshole.

And really, these two things were already known. It is just getting confirmed by a Neocon.

 

[lpetrich]

Five Takeaways From John Bolton’s Memoir - The New York Times

• An offer of firsthand evidence on the Ukraine matter.
• Explaining a lack of testimony, and placing blame on Democrats.
• Singling out episodes of “obstruction of justice as a way of life.”
• Describing a toxic environment inside the administration.
• Battling over what is deemed classified information.

...
Mr. Bolton otherwise confirms testimony offered by his former Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, that he objected to the “drug deal” being cooked up by Mr. Trump’s associates to force Ukraine to help ...

“I thought the whole affair was bad policy, questionable legally, and unacceptable as presidential behavior,” Mr. Bolton writes. “Was it a factor in my later resignation? Yes, but as one of many ‘straws’ that contributed to my departure.”

... Some of those Republican senators said that even if Mr. Bolton was correct, it would not be enough in their minds to make Mr. Trump the first president in American history convicted and removed from office.

Mr. Bolton blames House Democrats for being in a rush rather than waiting for the court system to rule on whether witnesses like him should testify, and he faults them for narrowing their inquiry to just the Ukraine matter rather than building a broader case with more examples of misconduct by the president.

... He considered Mr. Trump’s diplomacy to be folly.

To Mr. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s decision to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore was a “foolish mistake,” and the president’s desire to then invite Mr. Kim to the White House was “a potential disaster of enormous magnitude.” A series of presidential Twitter posts about China and North Korea were “mostly laughable.” Mr. Trump’s meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki was a “self-inflicted wound” and “Putin had to be laughing uproariously at what he had gotten away with in Helsinki.”

Mr. Bolton also describes an environment inside the administration marked by caustic infighting in which various players trash one another in a contest for the president’s ear — and the president trashes all of them.

I must say that I agree with JB about what Putin must think about Trump.

John Bolton's bad reviews don't stop him topping US book charts | Books | The Guardian

John Bolton’s damning indictment of the Trump presidency is soaring up online charts in the US a week before its release, despite withering reviews describing it as “bloated with self-importance”, as the Trump administration makes a last-ditch attempt to prevent its publication.

 

[crazyfingers]

It is amusing to watch two complete assholes going at each other. Though I have to hope Bolton win this as Trump is clearly the greatest danger.

 

[Keith&Co.]

... demonstrates Trump is an asshole and unfit for being a dogcatcher, forget President...

For some reason, i just thought of my grandfather. He was the county coroner for about five years, in the town i was born in. He got the job on the qualification of being the cemetary director for twenty years before that. Not much of a job. He performed no autopsies. If someone wanted one, they shipped the body to Pocatello.
He only ever agreed that someone was dead, signed and dated the 'He Dead' form. Doctors filled in Cause of He Dead.
Trying to imagine Boney as such a coroner. "Gassy George dead at 104, in Long Term Care (Old Folks Tomb). Passed in his sleep, more ways than one. Suspicious that nothing could kill him, until they built that off-ramp (which i cautioned against!)."

"Crib death of Tullson baby. Should have named me godfather."

"Four car pileup on State Road out of Tin Cup. Three dead. Never seen four cars on that part of the road, EVER. Probably a stunt to embarrass me."

"Just told Emmet Jones his wife died. Did such a good job. My delivery brought tears to his eyes."

 

[lpetrich]

Trump Really Is Terrified of John Bolton's Book - VICE

The Trump administration just slapped John Bolton with a lawsuit to try and stop his tell-all book from coming out.

The suit aims to block Bolton from publishing “The Room Where it Happened” next Tuesday, June 23, as scheduled, arguing that Bolton risks “compromising national security.”

...
Trump probably won’t be able to stop Bolton, thanks to the Constitution’s strong protections on free speech. But he still seems determined to try.

The 27-page complaint accuses Bolton of violating the contract Bolton signed when he became Trump’s National Security Advisor in 2018 and gained access to vast amounts of classified information.

...
The book portrays Trump’s White House as singularly obsessed with securing Trump’s reelection over all other priorities, and engaging in a wide variety of improper international deal-making with multiple foreign countries, according to the publisher’s description.

So they are running scared. Good.

Zoe Tillman on Twitter: "NOW: A federal judge will *not* block the release of John Bolton's book, noting the "horse is already out of the barn.
But: The judge makes clear Bolton is likely to lose the case (DOJ has argued the govt should get the profits b/c Bolton violated NDAs) (links)" / Twitter
then
Katie Hill on Twitter: "If Bolton loses the case and the govt gets the profits, now THAT would be justice. Especially if he has to pay back his advance, too.
Karma’s a real bitch sometimes. " / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

UNBELIEVABLE Stories of Trump Stupidity from New Book - YouTube -- John Bolton's book.

While Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian both consider JB a warmonger, they nevertheless think that he is correct about what he reports. It is consistent with what other top officials state about Trump. It's hard to explain anything to him, and he is devoid of intellectual curiosity. You try, then he forgets it, then you try again, then he forgets it again. Like JB explaining why the US still has troops in South Korea, after nearly 70 years. Or when they were meeting with some Japanese officials, Trump brought up Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Or about invading Venezuela, he originally supported to it, but he changed his mind when Vladimir Putin compared a Venezuelan opposition leader to Hillary Clinton.

 

[fromderinside]

 John Bolton

 

[lpetrich]

John Bolton just revealed Donald Trump's dirty little secret - CNNPolitics
From the ABC interview with Martha Raddatz:

"There really isn't any guiding principle -- that I was able to discern other than -- what's good for Donald Trump's reelection.
"Now, look, you can't take the politics out of politics. It plays a role in every aspect of decision making in the executive branch. But there's no coherent basis, no strategy, no philosophy. And decisions are made in a very scatter-shot fashion, especially in the potentially mortal field of national security policy. This is a danger for the republic."

Author Chris Cillizza:

What those lines confirm is something I've long believed: There is no secret plan that Trump is operating against. He isn't playing three-dimensional chess. He's playing zero-dimensional chess. He's just, well, doing stuff. And seeing what sticks. (There are myriad examples over his first three years in office that prove this out.)

He then quotes "The Art of the Deal":

Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don't carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can't be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you've got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops."

This who he is -- and always has been. He has no plan, not for the day, the week or the month. No broad strategy. He just acts or, more often, reacts. His belief system and what he cares about is deeply flexible. He can think one thing in the morning and another, opposite thing by lunch.