So this is the completely unsecured cellphone he tweets from I assume?
Who cares?
Personally I like this "Move fast and break things" approach to government. Shit might actually get done.
I see you really thought hard about what the President of the United States speaking to foreign leaders on a completely unsecured line of communication means here.
The rest of your post doesn't even make sense. This is neither moving fast no breaking things, nor does either of those accomplish anything. It's just bad information security by a moron.
His options are:
1) Be honest, which is that we don't give a shit about human rights or democracy in Saudi Arabia. This is bad for relations with the Muslim world. At least with the citizens.
2) Be honest, alternate version, which is that the President is a clueless moron who doesn't give a shit about democracy anywhere, much less in Saudi Arabia. This gets him fired.
3) Dodge the question.
4) Bullshit.
To me, the thought process looks like 15 seconds of trying to think of plausible bullshit, failing, and then moving on to dodging the question.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I dunno, I don't particularly feel that not having a State Department at all would be a net plus for us. It's not like he's signed up for this like Sean fucking Spicer
can you imagine the chaos if, everytime presidency changed parties, almost everyone in government quit?
Yeah, i'm not going to fault career officials sticking to their jobs if/when a moron gets elected.
So this is the completely unsecured cellphone he tweets from I assume?
Who cares?
Personally I like this "Move fast and break things" approach to government. Shit might actually get done.
As far as the intelligence agencies are concerned an off the shelf cell phone might as well be a speaker phone. At least for a target as juicy as POTUS.
I dunno, I don't particularly feel that not having a State Department at all would be a nut plus for us. It's not like he's signed up for this like Sean fucking Spicer
Ah, so he's not there voluntarily. Okay now I feel sorry for him.
Voluntarily is probably the wrong way to phrase it. Really what I mean is I don't feel sorry for anyone struggling with their job right now who was appointed to that job by Trump. It was impossible not to know what sort of an idiot they were going to be working for.
the bizarre thing about it isn't that didn't provide a satisfactory answer, because no satisfactory answer is possible (other than 'we think our strategic relationship is more important than human rights')
the bizarre thing is that he's so unready to answer; like how is this not at the top of your list of anticipated questions?
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Dude is mostly a Middle East FSO. Former Ambassador to Iraq and Jordan, Deputy Chief of Mission in Cairo, worked at the Turkish Embassy before that. Now Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East.
The lack of prepared bullshit is weird though, I'll agree with that.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I assumed that the answer to that question is part of the State department's induction pack.
"This is your desk, the bathrooms are down the hall, and here is a canned response relating to the seemingly arbitrary nature of our Middle East alliances."
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
+3
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
To be fair, he probably doesn't know what our Middle East policy will be tomorrow
So this is the completely unsecured cellphone he tweets from I assume?
Who cares?
Personally I like this "Move fast and break things" approach to government. Shit might actually get done.
When you break your car it doesn't suddenly start moving faster
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
+14
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
It's possible that breaking all the rules and bypassing all the safety measures could actually result in real work getting done--and indeed this is somewhat similar to actual backchannel diplomacy, where you get the Pope to talk to the Cubans and suddenly there's a window there.
But obviously that's a risky strategy only maybe worth pursuing if you have somebody incredibly competent at the wheel, somebody who can ignore the safety railings and still Tokyo drift his way through the corners without breaking a sweat. If you'll allow me to switch metaphors here, Trump can't help but throw gutterballs even when the bumpers are on somehow, you wouldn't think it possible but he finds a way. For the love of the God don't take them off so he can strike out faster and in everybody else's lane too. And then maybe reflect on the dangers of precedent when it comes to letting even competent people toss the rules. Even for them, there's little so desperately necessary to be done that it's worth maybe doing it wrong.
I really wish you'd had stuck with the Tokyo drift analogy for a little bit longer, I was feeling it.
Also, aren't conversations that happen on proper back channels still officially required to be logged somewhere? The primary advantage being that you don't have to go through a whole series of middle rank politicians to get your message across, not necessarily that you can say stuff without being held accountable?
Posts
... and by "things," you mean, "the United States of America"? Cuz....???
I see you really thought hard about what the President of the United States speaking to foreign leaders on a completely unsecured line of communication means here.
The rest of your post doesn't even make sense. This is neither moving fast no breaking things, nor does either of those accomplish anything. It's just bad information security by a moron.
It was Dave Clark of Agence France. Quick glance at his Twitter bio indicates Newcastle, not Ireland.
https://twitter.com/DaveClark_AFP
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
His options are:
1) Be honest, which is that we don't give a shit about human rights or democracy in Saudi Arabia. This is bad for relations with the Muslim world. At least with the citizens.
2) Be honest, alternate version, which is that the President is a clueless moron who doesn't give a shit about democracy anywhere, much less in Saudi Arabia. This gets him fired.
3) Dodge the question.
4) Bullshit.
To me, the thought process looks like 15 seconds of trying to think of plausible bullshit, failing, and then moving on to dodging the question.
I dunno, I don't particularly feel that not having a State Department at all would be a net plus for us. It's not like he's signed up for this like Sean fucking Spicer
Yeah, i'm not going to fault career officials sticking to their jobs if/when a moron gets elected.
As far as the intelligence agencies are concerned an off the shelf cell phone might as well be a speaker phone. At least for a target as juicy as POTUS.
Ah, so he's not there voluntarily. Okay now I feel sorry for him.
Voluntarily is probably the wrong way to phrase it. Really what I mean is I don't feel sorry for anyone struggling with their job right now who was appointed to that job by Trump. It was impossible not to know what sort of an idiot they were going to be working for.
the bizarre thing is that he's so unready to answer; like how is this not at the top of your list of anticipated questions?
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
The lack of prepared bullshit is weird though, I'll agree with that.
"This is your desk, the bathrooms are down the hall, and here is a canned response relating to the seemingly arbitrary nature of our Middle East alliances."
When you break your car it doesn't suddenly start moving faster
But obviously that's a risky strategy only maybe worth pursuing if you have somebody incredibly competent at the wheel, somebody who can ignore the safety railings and still Tokyo drift his way through the corners without breaking a sweat. If you'll allow me to switch metaphors here, Trump can't help but throw gutterballs even when the bumpers are on somehow, you wouldn't think it possible but he finds a way. For the love of the God don't take them off so he can strike out faster and in everybody else's lane too. And then maybe reflect on the dangers of precedent when it comes to letting even competent people toss the rules. Even for them, there's little so desperately necessary to be done that it's worth maybe doing it wrong.
Also, aren't conversations that happen on proper back channels still officially required to be logged somewhere? The primary advantage being that you don't have to go through a whole series of middle rank politicians to get your message across, not necessarily that you can say stuff without being held accountable?