The White House wages war on transparency: Iran edition

In the days since the US military killed Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s fêted top security official, Iran’s leaders have repeatedly threatened retaliation. Yesterday, they volleyed ballistic missiles at two bases that house US troops in Iraq. No casualties were reported. On Twitter, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country had “concluded proportionate measures in self-defense,” and insisted Iran does not want further escalation. President Trump, for his part, tweeted that “all is well!” Sources close to the president told Maggie Haberman, of the New York Times, that he’s looking for an “off-ramp” from the escalating tensions. But who knows what to believe anymore? In recent days, even senior US officials have seemed unsure as to what their plan actually is. On Monday, things came to a head after an American general informed Iraq’s military of a planned US withdrawal from the country in a letter that leaked to the press. Mark Esper, the US defense secretary, and Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hurriedly assembled reporters, denied knowledge of the letter, and denounced its contents. They walked off, but Milley quickly returned with an update: the letter was “a draft,” he said, and should never have been sent. (“Here’s the bottom line,” he told reporters. “This was a mistake.”) Members of the press were scathing of the confusion. The military news site Task & Purpose called it a “monumental screw-up”; on MSNBC Monday night,... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-01-08 13:07:07 UTC ]
News tagged with: #physical distance #online propaganda #prime minister #vanessa springora #elizabeth wurtzel #clinical depression #memoir

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Apparently, the White House turned the routine review process for Bolton’s book into a huge mess.

When John Bolton was preparing to publish The Room Where It Happened, his memoir of serving in the Trump White House, he and his legal team took the routine step of submitting it for review at the National Security Council. It was Ellen Knight’s job to oversee that process, as she had done... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-23 20:07:06 UTC ]
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Trump is hardly the first serial liar in the White House. But his deceptions are different.

Review of ‘Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie -- and Why Trump Is Worse’ by Eric Alterman Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-16 06:05:25 UTC ]
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White House insiders’ failure to rein in Trump’s tilt toward chaos and lawlessness

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[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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J.K. Rowling is waging war on kids’ boredom with a new digital hub for Harry Potter fans.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-01 15:30:29 UTC ]
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In ‘House of Glass,’ Hadley Freeman unearth’s the World War II-era secrets of her family’s past

The four siblings central to Freeman’s book, a history of a 20th-century Jewish family as much as a memoir, were outsized characters. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-30 21:52:58 UTC ]
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Actual cancel culture: White House threatens John Bolton about impending book.

Because they have nothing to hide about anything, the White House has issued some kind of threat—according to CNN’s Jake Tapper—in a formal letter to former National Security Adviser John Bolton, whose forthcoming memoir from Simon & Schuster contains first-hand accounts of Donald Trump... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 17:43:05 UTC ]
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Little, Brown scoops book by 'Trump resistance' White House insider

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-23 07:27:05 UTC ]
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Can an uncompromising activist keep her integrity while working in the White House?

Samantha Power’s new memoir, “The Education of an Idealist,” describes a bracing moral test. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-05 22:27:05 UTC ]
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“Dear House, Don’t Burn”: On Svetlana Alexievich’s “Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II”

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[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-09-02 12:30:01 UTC ]
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Democracy is under attack. But how to protect it while Trump is in the White House?

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-01 17:46:08 UTC ]
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The Mueller report isn’t just a legal document. It’s also the best book on the Trump White House so far.

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-04-19 20:30:51 UTC ]
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Other presidents had a brain trust. But the intellectuals backing this White House are a bust.

Trump’s intellectuals want to graft coherence and ideology onto an incoherent leader. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-03-15 10:00:19 UTC ]
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2018 is the year people wanted to read about politics. Barnes & Noble reported a 57% surge in sales of political books compared with last year. The sales spike was driven by books that have been selling like wildfire all year long, from Michael Wolff’s "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books News: Stormy Daniels’s ‘Full Disclosure’ Book Will Likely Rattle White House

In her memoir, Stephanie Clifford gives a vivid, detailed account of her encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 and its aftermath. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2018-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Stuff | 2018-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jeff Sessions ducks questions about White House influence on AT&T-Time Warner merger

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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