November 22, 2016

Low-tech Twitter: Carrying a document with the print showing as if you don't know and allowing a photograph you know the press will zoom in on.

I'm seeing "Maybe Next Time Use the Folder/What we can read is bad enough. What stuff is Kris Kobach obscuring?" Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, is standing next to Trump, who, we're told, is considering Kobach for the Secretary of Homeland Security post.

That's via my son John at Facebook, who says:
I have a feeling Democrats and Republicans are about to switch positions on how bad it is to be extremely careless with national-security information....
My response was:
Maybe I didn't read every word of that Esquire article, but I don't think there's any basis for thinking this is a classified document and you have to consider the possibility that they expected and wanted people to zoom in on the document. It's an interesting way to get people excited about whatever text you're trying to purvey. It's viral. Beyond tweeting.
If you're interested in the substance of the accidentally/accidentally-on-purpose revealed document, that's my point. We're not naturally hot to read documents. But here's what the little secret/not-secret theater dramatized:
•"Update and reintroduce the NSEERS screening and tracking system (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) that was in place from 2002-2005. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked."

•"Add extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens: question them regarding support for Sharia law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution."

•"Reduce the intake of Syrian refugees to zero."

32 comments:

I'm Full of Soup said...

Uh oh now that White House is occupied by a Repub, liberals are all "that is top secret man'.

sane_voter said...

All three items sound like great ideas. Looking forward to next year with Pres. Trump!

J. Farmer said...

Ugh. My proposal is so much simpler, would not require any vetting, extreme or otherwise, and would only require a single sentence: "Minimum 10 year moratorium on ALL immigration."

Birkel said...

None of the ideas on that paper are classified. They are broad policy proposals that Congress would consider or the president has authority to implement.

If Liberals were barred by law from projection, there would be a lot of mutes.

AllenS said...

Those 3 items do not constitute national-security information. Damn.

Steven Wilson said...

Since he's only the president elect I don't see how any of his policies could be classified as top secret. I do remember that in 2008 there was a movement to accelerate the inauguration of his Magnificence Obama so that he could have all of our problems solved by Xmas. Odd, I haven't heard any of that this election cycle.

Lyle Smith said...

Trump is something else. This is what leadership is.

Jim said...

As a Kansan, I wanted Kobach for our next Governor. But if he implements those policies, I'll make the sacrifice for the good of my country.

gspencer said...

"Your administration is being careless with classified information."

DJT: "What is the Bluebook citation format for, "See the Case of Hillary Clinton?"

tim in vermont said...

Well, since he was a public, and extremely vocal, proponent of all of these proposals, I can't see as to how it would be a classified as, for example, discussing an Iranian defector in terms that make his identity clear to the Iranians, "He is going to their interest section today" and "he helped us [The United States of America]" and you know, getting the guy dragged from his jail cell and hanged.

I don't see the equivalence. It's more like when Karl Rove left a memory stick around that wasn't encrypted, and the press got hold of it. To there amazement, it was standard stuff for political consultants, nothing like the subterfuges revealed in WikiLeaks. It would seem that the reason Bush won was not that Rove was a fricken evil genius with sharks with lasers in his lair, but that the country is center right.

Hagar said...

Possibly. Someone visiting No. 10 Downing St. once had this happen with some real stuff, I think.

tim in vermont said...

Oh yeah, and he won on those ideas. Cf. "I won" - Barack Hussein Obama.

tim in vermont said...

It will be good to know, though not surprising, if Democrats think that the intended policies of a presidential administration should always be state secrets.

madAsHell said...

Before Clinton, classified documents couldn't leave the classified room. You had to have authorization to enter the room, and there was a search effort when you left the room.

Anonymous said...

Althouse said...Maybe I didn't read every word of that Esquire article, but I don't think there's any basis for thinking this is a classified document and you have to consider the possibility that they expected and wanted people to zoom in on the document. It's an interesting way to get people excited about whatever text you're trying to purvey. It's viral. Beyond tweeting.

It can't be "Classified" in the normal sense. It is labeled as a proposal by a candidate for a job. The Candidate is not currently a Federal employee and therefore does not have access to DHS classified material and can't create same.

It clearly can be "sensitive, but unclassified"

It does however demonstrate if unintentional, a lack of common sense on several levels.

khesanh0802 said...

The WaPo continues it's madness; the entire internet paper is headlined by Trump. My favorite is he told the NYT to get f...ed when they wouldn't play their interview by his rules. Next to that is the meeting yesterday where he told the press that their coverage of the campaign was inaccurate and unfair. I am sure the MSM is unable to hear any of this, but the people can. I think it would be really entertaining if he revoked the NYT and WaPo pool privileges and made them get their info from somebody like the Des Moines Register.

Brando said...

The real news is that this guy looks like a young Tom Arnold. Why is no one reporting the real news?

Jupiter said...

"All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked."

Remember, when the people responsible for maintaining our borders refer to "high-risk" areas, they mean high risk of stabbing you in your driveway, shooting you at your place of work, bombing you wherever you go for entertainment. Kidnapping your kids at school, and then killing them one by one over many hours, while pretending to "negotiate", is a specialty of folks from "high-risk" areas. And they are reportedly looking into becoming "high-risk" of poisoning the water supply, or blowing up nuclear power stations. The reason they are at "high risk" of doing these things is that they believe in God, and the God they believe in wants them to do these things. So, thanks for the baby shower, but time for you to Eat Death, Infidel!

And what this guy is talking about, is asking people "Do you, by any chance, intend to kill us all?" before letting them into the country. And the Democrats scream "That's not who we are!". Yeah, and it won't be who we were, either.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

It's an interesting way to get people excited about whatever text you're trying to purvey. It's viral.

Given the context of the extreme state of MSM bias and the alleged off the record tongue lashing Trump just gave to the media celebrity parade and for telling NYT to stick it and Trump bypassing them all with his direct to home YouTube video and the fact Trump is the most qualified media celebrity ever to run for President (and win!), this seems entirely in their wheelhouse.

I'd expect to see many more of these end-arounds.

CJinPA said...

Esquire:

And if you look even closer, you can see that "PLAN FOR FIRST 365 DAYS" in all its grotesque glory

I don't think the fainting couch can take much more bodies flopping on it. But rest assured:

The Council on Islamic-American Relations has already "expressed alarm at Kobach's plan,"

CAIR is alarmed, everybody.

I agree, it's hard to believe a polished politician watched a series of job-seekers paraded before a wall of cameras and then did so himself, unaware that his Year-Long Plan to Upend the System would attract attention.

John henry said...

I fail to see anything that could or should be classified. At least from Ann's post, not gonna read the article. The 3 proposals are the same things that Trump has been saying all along.

A prospective president, not even president-elect until the electors vote and a state pol who may be a prospective nominee for a federal position can't create classified info. I don't think they can even create sensitive info, in the legal sense.

Seems like a lot of hoopla over nothing. But that is what the press is for.

And I like the use of the word "alien" here. It is the proper legal word to describe a person in a country of which they are not a citizen. They can be legal or illegally present but until they are a citizen the correct term for them is "alien".

Will we see a shift from the weasily "undocumented immigrant" back to "illegal alien" in the new Trump admin? I sure hope so.

OT but Kudos to Trump for going direct to YouTube yesterday about his plans. Why filter it through the press? Let them see it at the same time all the rest of us do. Let all of us see the whole thing, not some edited soundbites.

My only suggestion would be to add a chyron with the website where the video can be seen. Something simple like www.whitehouse.gov/video That way when the media does play a snippet, everyone can see where to get the whole thing.

Repeal 2 regs for every new one? I'm liking Trump more and more. And I've always liked him.

John Henry

wildswan said...

Interesting that Trump prospects have to have a prepared plan. I wonder whether this is new or whether in the old days they just said they were on board with whatever was being done or with the Party platform. Now they have to have engineer's specs on Plan to Drain Swamp.

And the Democrats are launching a Save the DC Wetlands campaign. "Swamps are good for you. What seems to be a slimy, bug filled area filled with dirty water and alligators is really a paradise filled with micro-organisms, the lower forms of plant life, the early and mean animals and gorgeous birds. Similarly in DC. Every cubic inch of DC swarms with government workers and every cubicle is filled with vegetating bureaucrats while political operatives lurk in corridors, like alligators in bayous, and well dressed women roam about looking for Bill Clinton or someone like him. "Sugar daddy, sugar daddy" their strange evocative cries fill the air. But Donald Trump wants to destroy all living creatures and the moon, sun and stars, first starting with DC corruption (as he calls it). STOP HIM BEFORE THE NAZIS %%#@##. [Yeah, Tiffany, I like this - send it to the NYT to be formed into a story. Robert the Creamer]

Rick said...

It's kind of sad to see what Dems will pretend is important if it supports criticizing their enemies.

Will said...

Blue horseshoe loves Anacott Steel…. Boom! Dow 19,000

Big Mike said...

One doesn't get very far outside the Washington metro area before the level of knowledge about classified information and handling thereof goes down to abysmal or below. If the document was classified it should have a cover sheet that indicates the level of classification. No cover sheet means law broken or unclassified.

MacMacConnell said...

Chris Kobach does nothing by mistake.

paminwi said...

I want to know will the Trump administration refund the fine the Denver County Police have to pay because they would not hire illegals for the sheriff's department?
AND rescind/remove/release the ruling against them? (Whatever the legal term is!)


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/doj-fines-denver-sheriff-dept.-for-excluding-noncitizens-when-hiring/article/2607940

MacMacConnell said...

Big Mike how can a document personally written by the Kansas Secretary of State be classified? Does anyone think there is a air gap secure computer room in the SOS's office at the Kansas State Capitol. It's obvious not a US governmental doc.

JAORE said...

The MSM continues to give reason for the President Elect to treat them with disdain.

As to excluding the NYT, WaPo, etc from press briefings, I have a different thought.

Instead, let them in. In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving season, seat them at the kiddie table. Place them at the back and never, ever call upon them.

That would be twice the humiliation.

Big Mike said...

@Mac, it couldn't.

eric said...

The media standard on classified documents.

Any information marked as classified isn't really classified.

Talking points held by a Republican are top secret classified documents.