Trump called Mattis in summer 2018 and directed him to "screw Amazon" out of $10 billion cloud contr

[demmiblue]

Trump called Mattis in summer 2018 and directed him to "screw Amazon" out of $10 billion cloud contract.

"Relaying the story to us during Small Group, Mattis said, 'We're not going to do that. This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically."

Link to tweet

11 of the best bits from the book James Mattis doesn’t want you to read

There's a new book detailing the inside story of what it was like during Defense Secretary James Mattis' tenure, and it's safe to say that he'd prefer you not read it.

In Holding The Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis, author Guy Snodgrass presents a fly-on-the-wall view of how the retired general operated at the Pentagon amid myriad crises, from issues with North Korea and Iran to trying to get on the same page with a chaotic White House.

Snodgrass, a retired Navy fighter pilot who served as chief speechwriter and communications director for most of Mattis' time in office, paints a revealing picture of events during a rough and tumble 1 1/2 year period, from presidential tweets coming out of nowhere to reshape military policy to news that Mattis was planning his resignation long before he ultimately dropped his papers on Trump's desk in Dec. 2018.

Task & Purpose got an advance copy of the book, which comes out on Oct. 29. Its release was initially stalled by the Pentagon for pre-publication review, and Snodgrass received threatening letters from DoD lawyers, but he ultimately was able to go ahead after he filed a lawsuit.

https://taskandpurpose.com/snodgrass-mattis-book

[Ilsa]

1. I hope my local Library will have a few copies.

I'd like to reserve one.

[demmiblue]

3. It should be an interesting read!

Here is another article based on the book:

Inside Trump's First Pentagon Briefing

Long before real planning for it began, and long before the first news stories about it, those of us in the top levels of the Pentagon heard President Donald Trump demand the military parade he would eventually get. The bizarre request was one of the first signs I had of the enormous rift between my boss at the time, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and the president.

The clash came in the middle of Trump’s first Pentagon briefing on America’s military and diplomatic “laydown”—a term of art used to describe all of the locations around the world with U.S. forces and embassies—on July 20, 2017. Mattis, for whom I was working as chief speechwriter, had hoped the briefing would educate Trump on the United States’ longstanding commitment to the rest of the world. That is not at all what happened.

Instead, the president burst out in the middle of the meeting.

“I just returned from France,” he said. “Did you see President Macron’s handshake?” he asked no one in particular. “He wouldn’t let go. He just kept holding on. I spent two hours at Bastille Day. Very impressive.”

A pause.

“I want a ‘Victory Day.’ Just like Veterans Day. The Fourth of July is too hot,” he said, apparently out of nowhere. “I want vehicles and tanks on Main Street. On Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House. We need spirit! We should blow everybody away with this parade. The French had an amazing parade on Bastille Day with tanks and everything. Why can’t we do that?”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/21/inside-trumps-first-pentagon-briefing-229865

[BSdetect]

2. There is no end to his evil.

[Scarsdale]

8. Or his

stupidity. He is so very unintelligent, and crude. No class whatsoever.

[Buckeyeblue]

4. It's as if everyone's dumb know-it-all uncle got elected president

The one that has a strong, misinformed opinion on everything. The one who openly admits to his racism, defending it by saying that's just who I am. I had one of those. My mother's uncle. She adored him because he was kind to her during her less than good childhood. I always kept my distance because his vast ignorance seemed dirty, in the way that grease gets on you and is hard to wash away.

[FakeNoose]

5. Jeff Bezos - please take note

It's time to screw Chump out of his pResidency. You can do it, and your country needs you.

[demmiblue]

6. Microsoft Wins Pentagon's $10 Billion JEDI Contract, Thwarting Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO — The Department of Defense on Friday awarded a $10 billion technology contract to Microsoft over Amazon in a contest that was closely watched after President Trump ramped up his criticism of Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and said he might intervene.

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as JEDI, had set off a showdown among Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Google for the right to transform the military’s cloud computing systems. The acrimonious process involved intense lobbying efforts and legal challenges among the rivals.

The contract has an outsize importance because it is central to the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize its technology. Much of the military operates on 1980s and 1990s computer systems, and the Defense Department has spent billions of dollars trying to make them talk to one another.

The decision was a surprise because Amazon had been considered the front-runner, in part because it had built cloud services for the Central Intelligence Agency. But that was before Mr. Trump became publicly hostile to Mr. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. The president often refers to the newspaper as the “Amazon Washington Post” and has accused it of spreading “fake news.”

In public, Mr. Trump said there were other “great companies” that should have a chance at the contract. But a speechwriter for former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says in a book scheduled for publication next week that Mr. Trump had wanted to foil Amazon and give the contract to another company.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/technology/dod-jedi-contract.html

[SWBTATTReg]

7. More interference into the government bidding processes on government contracts, again, another...

serious corruption charge...

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. In any other universe, this would be the Scandal of the Century

in this universe with Trump, we call it Tuesday.

Every month more corruption than even his worst predecessors managed in a full term. And considering that includes two Bushs, Nixon and Reagan that is a remarkable accomplishment.

[keithbvadu2]

10. Trump does not want to salute the military.

Trump does not want to salute the military.
He wants the world to see the military salute him.