Anonymous sources — what does that mean, Big Red Car?
Big Red Car here in the gray before dawn waiting for its brain (electronic ignition) to wake up. Might need some hot 10W40?
So, today, dear reader, we talk of a dinosaur which no longer roams the earth — journalism.
Journalism was that respected profession through which we earthlings were informed of goings on near and far. Journalists wrote reliable utterances and you could count on their accuracy because they held the imprimatur of such venerable institutions as The New York Times or The Washington Post. [Note the reverence which the Big Red Car visits upon these publications by using the word “The” to precede their names. Very impressive, Big Red Car.]
Alas, these “institutions” are now crack dens extensions of the People’s Democrat Party. Unfair, some may say as they have long since ceased to be followers and are now leaders. They are not reporters of news; they are manufacturers of news. They do not follow the direction of their masters; they lead the way.
Ask yourself if you can find a single conservative or Republican amongst the staffs of those once great papers. Unicorns? How can there be balance when there is no balance?
President Trump and the Russians
As we all know, the Trump candidacy was supported by the Russians. In fact, President Trump’s opponent lays the blame for her defeat at the feet of the Russians who, apparently, advised her to blow off the Rust Belt. They devised her losing strategy. I get that.
President Trump and the Russians discussed weighty matters of international significance. In the discussion were the American President, the Russian Foreign Minister, the Russian Ambassador to the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and a functionary from the State Department.
The discussion took place in the White House.
Hey, Foreign Minister Lavrov, tell the Ambassador to lay off the borscht. Son of a bitch hasn’t missed a meal in a long time. No RESET BUTTON for you. Haha. OK, let me tell you some classified secrets: “Hillary says you cost her the election. What do you have to say about that?”
They drank Russian tea and American coffee. <<< I have this from a reliable source who works in the White House kitchen and whose uncle used to date Madonna.
They discussed matters of such gravity that some of them were CLASSIFIED. [Cue the ominous background music, please.]
This doesn’t trouble you, dear reader, because you harken back to when President Truman met at Yalta with Stalin and President Truman said, “Hey, Stalin, I have a new fangled weapon called an atomic bomb. I’m going to drop a couple of these on those Japs. Look for them. It’s going to be huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Hey, pal, this shit is CLASSIFIED. Do not tell anyone.”
[For the record, the Big Red Car obtained a transcript of the discussion between Truman and Stalin and Truman DID say “huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.”]
So, you get it that when nations discuss world matters, they are going to be discussing CLASSIFIED information. You get that right?
Anonymous sources said what?
The Washington Post and The New York Times both wrote articles “reporting” that President Trump discussed CLASSIFIED material with the Russians. They are troubled by that notion though Captain Obvious tried to tell them, “When countries meet at the highest levels, they always discussed classified info. Think about it.”
Therein lies the problem.
There were only a handful of folks at the meeting. Note the list above. None of those folks talked to the papers. All of them said the reports in the Post and Times are false. ALL OF THEM DENY THE ACCURACY OF THE POST AND TIMES REPORTS.
The Post and the Times identify their sources as “anonymous sources close to the President.” Huh? Could it be the busboy whose uncle used to date Madonna? Or who went to a Cher concert in 1972?
So, on one side you have the President, the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador, a retired four-star Marine General, and a retired three-star Army General.
On the other side, you have “anonymous sources close to the President” even though there was nobody else in the freakin’ room.
Putin plays trump
Get it? Putin plays Trump or Putin plays trump? Haha. Funny stuff, Big Red Car.
So, Vladimir Putin, today, offered to provide a transcript of the meeting. This should raise a couple of observations:
Were the Russians recording the convo?
[Tell me you don’t think the President of the United States of America does NOT record every word in the Oval Office. Tell me you’ve read history and know this started after World War II. Tell me you know you can go to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library at the University of Texas in Austin By God Texas and LISTEN to his recordings. Tell me you know this. Please. It’s important to me. Sorry.]
Was there an interpreter in the room? [Both the Foreign Minister and the Ambassador speak excellent English.]
So, Putin knows and he says there was no exchange remotely like that “reported” by the Post and Times.
So, who are you going to believe, Big Red Car?
The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, has a spiffy new motto: Democracy Dies in Darkness. You have to love it.
Democracy may die in darkness, indeed, but there is little doubt that The Washington Post is in the “news” manufacturing business with anonymous sources. They just make shit up.
And, you, dear reader, you thought manufacturing was dying in the United States?
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car, but I can smell bullshit from a mile away. Be good to yourself cause you’re such a fine person when you allow all that fineness bubble to the surface. 
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Let’s get real here, shall we?
When Donald J Trump filed for the Presidency, he had to make a financial filing with the FEC. It is available on line.
He had to list every asset he owned together with the name of the legal entity and any loans on the asset.
I have gone through these disclosures.
THERE IS NOT A SINGLE RUSSIAN BANK AMONGST THOSE LENDERS. Not one.
Let’s make a bet, shall we?
I’ll pay you $10 for every Russian bank you can find which has a loan outstanding to any entity controlled by Donald J Trump.
Asset name, ownership entity, Trump ownership, Russian lender name, amount of the credit.
If after a couple of days you cannot come up with any, you make a $100 donation to the charity of my choice.
You do know there are a huge number of databases which list all real estate lenders. There are very few Russian banks within those databases. I did a quick search and found none.
Why?
Because there are strict rules to obtain an American bank charter which precludes the Russian banks from getting into the game. The Japanese struggled with this for years as did the handful of Chinese banks who have American ops.
There are some high net worth Russians who have personal investments in US real estate. Trump sold a property to one in Florida.
Game on?
You made the assertion that this stuff — Russian banks who fave Trump lines of credit — is obvious. Show me, please.
JLM
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Just nevermind I asked. I actually don’t care why you called me an invertebrate. And your sense of humor is your own to develop however you’d like.
How u feeling after 24 hours? Digging those transcripts/recordings of Speaker Ryan? Are those fake/manufactured?
How about Pence BLOWING the transition team vetting and having known about Flynn being investigated before signing him on?
Your blog lost all credibility here – hope you really think about what total horse shit your slinging on here. It’s the Republican Party that decided to go Unamerican and is now Singing like a Bird against ITSELF.
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Feeling good, Mike. Thank you for asking? Et tu?
Of course, you know the “investigation” of Gen Flynn ended up clearing him, right?
“The FBI has reviewed intercepted phone calls between national security adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the US and has found no evidence of wrongdoing, it was revealed Monday.
The calls were made in late December and picked up as part of routine electronic surveillance of Russian officials. They did not reveal any illicit ties between Flynn and Russia, according to the Washington Post.”
What Gen Flynn did to get himself fired was lie to the Vice President as to the content of Flynn’s conversation with the Russian Ambassador. Said he didn’t discuss sanctions and maybe he did.
The Big Red Car thinks that if you lie to your colleagues, then you are not a colleague and you have to go. Firing Gen Flynn was the right move.
I applaud Pres Trump for taking action. He has a penchant for action and in this case, I applaud it. Who wants to be advised by folks who lie?
As to the Ryan revelations. They are from the summer of 2016 during the midst of the campaign. McCarthy made a joke saying Trump was on Putin’s payroll. Not a very funny joke.
So, the Big Red Car is fine with bad jokes.
The Big Red Car is on a constant search for the truth. If the truth indicates a crime was committed, the BRC is a law & order guy regardless of whose ox gets gored.
Hope that helps. Thanks for writing.
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
You’re accepting these Republican talking points for truth is why I can’t trust this blog anymore. A lot of the information you presented is severely mis represented and actually already outdated. I’m not a political person I’m a Patriot person and a Truth person. I don’t joke about my country’s sovereignty. I have a SPINE.
Good luck to you!
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Come on, Mike, the quote is from the NYT referring to an article in the WashPo. The Republicans didn’t craft that.
I don’t think Pres Trump is even a Republican.
Clearly, the Republicans, writ large, are not sufficiently organized to actually craft and distribute talking points.
Nobody disputes that McCarthy said what he said. It’s just a dumb joke. You really think Putin is sending checks to Donald J Trump and was in 2016? No, you don’t.
I served the country in uniform. I am not just a patriot; I put my ass on the line. Didn’t talk it, lived it.
I am pleased to learn you are an invertebrate.
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
BRC, you are correct.
How this could happen, how it could continue this long, I don’t understand.
My older brother’s Ph.D. was in political science, but since his fuel pump problem I can’t ask him for an explanation.
Finally I just concluded that there is a list of mainstream media (MSM), with some smaller associates, who are determined to be a propaganda arm of the wack-o left wing of the Democrat party. They treated Obama like Goebbels treated Hitler, and then they treated Hillary like they treated Obama.
For that MSM propaganda cabal, my list has, sure, NYT, WaPo, and LAT but also ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC. Can also include AP, Reuters, and Politico and too often WSJ.
From each of these media outlets, I’ve seen over too long too many examples of their work that is just made-up, cooked-up, stirred-up, total nonsense propaganda — Goebbels, Pravda, etc. didn’t do such propaganda any better. As a result of such examples, I’ve just quit paying attention to those propaganda houses. I sent e-mail to the publisher of the NYT mentioning some of his worst examples and stating that his publication is “dead to me”. It was then and still is.
I’m still willing to read from the NYT, WaPo, etc. if what they are publishing is just an article from someone with real credibility, e.g., Kissinger, however no longer Laurence Tribe. And if they publish a transcript of an interview with someone really powerful, e.g., Trump, McMaster, Mattis, Tillerson, then I’m willing to read that. Otherwise no.
I like to start my daily news briefing from news aggregators, mostly Drudge Report and Hacker News.
Then if there is a link I’m tempted to follow, as soon as I see that the story is from one of the propaganda outlets as above, I look for a signed piece by someone with credibility and otherwise just refuse to keep reading.
I wouldn’t take seriously what the NYT published on a weather report — actually, especially not on a weather report.
NYT — you are totally dead to me. You have no more credibility as a news source, really much less, than some deposit I discover in some tall grass in my yard and left by some deer, foxes, possums, ground hogs, my kitty cat, or a neighbor’s dog.
Then after the made-up, cooked-up, etc., nonsense, there is the gang-up and pile-on: E.g., the many months story that the Russians worked with Trump to do dirty stuff that helped Trump win the election — after all these months with no smoking gun, no smoking match, just nonsense — apparently the Hillary campaign and the NYT or some such started the story and the rest of the MSM just piled-on. So, the propaganda media just cook-up, gang-up, and pile-on.
The situation is scary.
That I refuse to pay attention to the propaganda does next to nothing to correct the situation.
Moreover I don’t understand the situation.
My first guess is, sure, “follow the money”. Maybe that’s part of an explanation: Due to the Internet, the MSM were losing money or not making much so tried this cooked-up, gang-up, pile-on propaganda approach. Maybe.
Maybe the DNC-Hillary crowd believes that if the voters hear the Trump-Russia story several times a day between November, 2016 and November, 2018, then enough voters will conclude that “there MUST be SOMETHING real, significant, and dirty to that story” to let the Democrats win a lot of seats in November, 2018. Maybe.
Another explanation is that the media has long been rotten, e.g., as in Jefferson’s
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_speechs29.html
Another explanation is that the media wants eyeballs for ad revenue and has long since learned that shocking headlines can help. So, they now have lots of shocking headlines.
For such headlines, they want to scream versions of “The sky is falling”, in particular that Trump is evil and about to ruin the country and should be impeached.
The MSM remembers that Nixon was driven from office; maybe the MSM concluded that the facts about Nixon had relatively little to do with the result, that lots of emotion from shocking headlines were the real cause, that it’s easy enough to come up with shocking headlines now, e.g., just make them up, spread them far and wide with gang-up and pile-on (everyone in the MSM has the same problem and is motivated to be part of the propaganda team of gang-up and pile-on), and hope that soon all Trump will have to do is get a date wrong and get driven from office. Maybe.
I’m not happy with any of those explanations. E.g., the propaganda media didn’t scream that Obama was evil and about to be impeached.
Of course, on immigration, Obama failed to perform his duties as President as in
Article. II.
Section. 3.
with
So, sure, the MSM treats Trump very differently from how they treated Obama. So, a good explanation needs to account for that.
Next, sure, the MSM is attacking Trump, but so are many of the Democrats, especially as led by Chucky, crying, needs to dry his tears and wash and raise his glasses to see much better, Schumer. Those Democrats so want Trump out of the White House, and Hillary in the White House, that they’d seriously hurt the US if they could blame the damage on Trump and win the White House. Those Democrats are screaming, hysterically desperate.
A lot of those Democrats would like an actual revolution. Well, a revolution is kicking in the rotten door, and it’s easy enough to see that before kicking in, make rotten.
How the heck did the US come to this situation?
Here’s my best guess:
(1) The dream of socialism and Communism is not dead but is alive and well in the hearts of, call them, the Flak-os.
The dream is that the State will be a father figure for everyone, and everyone will have security for life — food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, transportation, recreation, retirement, etc. The Flak-os call it social justice.
The Flak-os so want their dream situation that they are willing to give up a lot — freedom, privacy, constitutional rights, rule of law, national security, ability to be really successful in business, etc. They are willing to have a dictator if sufficiently benevolent and even if not. They are not all against a Lenin or Stalin.
(2) Part of this Flak-o dream has become political correctness where everyone’s most delicate, personal feelings are honored. The people most concerned are the highly delicate, insecure snowflakes.
Indeed, maybe the DNC-Hillary crowd want everyone who feels any insecurity at all to be attracted by their “Stronger Together” and join in.
So no one is supposed to feel emotional stress or conflict of any kind. E.g., so college, instead of being a good place for open discussion and debate, has to have safe spaces where the snowflakes can have their feelings safe.
Competition is not welcome; instead, everyone should get a prize, even just for participation.
(3) Race and gender — really any difference is perceived as a threat of tyranny (E. Fromm said that this came from the French Revolution) — have become big issues: The dream goes, to the greatest extent possible, race and gender should play no significant role in anything in life. If race and gender seem to play a role, then we should have programs and pass and enforce laws to make sure race and gender play no role. E.g., since men can’t get pregnant, women shouldn’t have to worry about getting pregnant, either, and should have ready access to free abortion. Men and women should use the same rest rooms and high school and college athletic shower facilities. To help eradicate gender, have a big news propaganda theme of sympathy for the trans-gender people. In dream-land California, have three options, male, female, and other — the other just denies that gender even exists.
It does look like there is some central organization of the big effort to create sympathy for the trans-gender people as a way to eradicate all of gender; who the heck is part of this organization? Is this a Russian sabotage situation? Is the whole PC, social justice thing, a Russian sabotage situation to weaken the US? We need an answer, and that is one guess.
(4) The election of Obama thrilled these delicate snowflake socialist, Communist Flak-os, and Obama did a lot for them.
Then the dreams of (1)-(3) took over the Democrats, and the Democrat leaders welcomed the snowflake Flak-os.
(5) NYC is a huge business center for the world, e.g., for finance, media, advertising, legal, and more. Still, somehow, NYC is also a big center for the socialist and Communist dreams, sure, brought from eastern Europe and the USSR. E.g., in Hitler’s Germany, much of the opposition was from Communists. Basically both sides agreed — Germany should have a dictator.
Well, in NYC, the Democrats want those socialist, Communist, politically correct snowflakes, the people who want to make race and gender meaningless Flak-os, etc. Then the NYT is their newspaper; and the NYT staff is full of such Flak-os.
(6) The socialist, Communist Flak-os call for a big government in DC, and now the area around the Washington Monument has the highest per capita income in the US — beats Silicon Valley, Manhattan, Greenwich, Stamford, etc. So, then, no wonder the DC votes Democrat. Then the WaPo is their newspaper, and its staff is full of such people.
Chucky Schumer thinks that his role is to lead all the associated Flak-os — socialist, Communist, snowflake, race-gender eradicators, propaganda hysterical screamers, etc. As a result, Schumer’s credibility has long since flowed out the Hudson River, past the Stature of Liberty, and out to sea where it sank somewhere near the Mid-Atlantic ridge.
(7) During the 8 years of Obama, the Flak-os concluded that they had won, that from Obama they would go to Hillary, “Stronger Together”, hold hands, sing Kumbayah, etc.
Then when Hillary lost, the Flak-os, newsies, the Democrat party leaders, especially in NYC, DC, and LA, and their favorite NYC, DC, and LA Democrat propaganda media outlets all had one heck of reality check. They are not over the shock yet.
so, the Flak-os still dream that if their propaganda media just keeps repeating made-up, cooked-up, stirred-up, gang-up, pile-on distortions, omissions, lies, fake news, outrageous assertions and charges against Trump, e.g., that Trump won the election because of his collusion with the Russians, is mentally ill, that he fired Comey because of Comey’s investigation of the Trump-Russia collusion and, thus, is obstruction of justice, etc., and should be impeached, just keeps repeating these 24 x 7, then by 2018 they can win the House and Senate again and 2020 they can have Hillary and their dreams again.
But, I believe that this Dreamer sweet cake batter still would not rise on its own. More is needed. My guess, there’s money, big money, involved, as in “follow the money”.
E.g., what does Bezos want with the WaPo branch of Amazon? Sure, pro-Amazon propaganda — might be worth another $20 billion to Bezos and another $200 billion to Amazon.
Part of the money flow is: (A) Cook up the threat of global warming.
(B) Do this heavily by old techniques of religion — humans are sinful. In this case, their sin is against Mother Nature. The sin is from human greed for cheap energy that results in CO2 that will overheat the planet.
(C) So, shutdown coal and other fossil fuels and/or tax them — the Flak-os love more taxes.
(D) Have DC give big subsidies to wind and solar power — the people getting these subsidies love them and are willing to help the propaganda media that gets DC to give the subsidies.
Net. it’s simple: DC gets tax revenue and gives some of that revenue to friends who give some of that money to the propaganda media and political campaigns to keep their buddies in office and keep the money flowing.
Due heavily to the Internet, the old print media is in deep financial trouble: Their content on paper can’t compete with Charmin, and on the Internet can’t be used to wrap dead fish heads. Google, etc. is grabbing a lot of their ad revenue. So, really, except for their big propaganda role in the big scam of the Flak-os, the Internet might just run the old media out of business.
My guess: Mika, Schumer, Waters, Franken, NYT, WaPo, etc. are fooling no one, are widely regarded as just entertainment hardly more serious than the late night talk show comedians. So, the MSM propaganda media is on the way out of business — good riddance.
In particular, with the Internet, rallies, etc., Trump can go directly to the voters and is doing that.
If I’m right, good for Trump. If I’m wrong, we will have to descend to the disaster of the USSR, Venezuela, etc. before the Flak-os learn their lesson, the hard way, by paying “full tuition,” in which case we are in deep trouble.
It was close, darned close — Hillary came way too close to winning. Then she’d put social justice warriors on the SCOTUS and destroy the Constitution and our three branches of government. ` She’d take us to Venezuela, with some of the largest oil reserves in the world yet a total economic and political mad house, and get richer everyday personally.
We were lucky, this time.
Sigma, you are very passionate about this topic. Long comment even for you : )
When Trump became president, all of the MSM nonsense and the riots freaked me out a bit. It seemed impossible.
Now? Like, ok, he should be impeached for talking to a couple of Russians in the WH?
Whatever.
Trump has quickly become the addiction of choice for these whack-a-moles.
Bashing white cops and white males to start a race war was fun and all, but now?
A rich white male conservative Christian president who outwardly hates them, wants to help the unborn, stands up for the American worker and is not afraid to kick out illegals of color.
He’s the ultimate crack pipe and they will risk ruin and reputation to bring him down. Much like the on-tilt, half-drunk gambler, needing to up his bets since “he’s going to win”.
But they forget that Trump is smart and that he hardly sleeps at night while envisioning new strategies and tactics to explode their heads.
I’m wondering if even the MSM base of loyalists are going to get tired of it all?
Did not want Trump to win the primary. He was better than Hillary in the general.
And I can’t remember wanting a president to win more than I want him to win the battle with the media. The odds are long I understand. We are witnessing a new form of idealistic lobbying against a leader via public “Media” organs owned directly and indirectly by individuals with an axe to grind. Unfortunately we have a populous that never reads beyond the first paragraph nor changes what they believe after that regardless of new information.
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Clearly the communication strategy of speaking directly to the people and circumventing the media has worked for Trump.
I doubt Trump has lost a single supporter thus far. They came out of the dark, voted for him, went back to work. They are not involved in this craziness.
On the big stuff, he’s crushing it.
On the PR front, he’s losing it on the scorecards of the establishment, media, punditry, and liberals. Was he ever going to win on those scorecards?
The media just sounds hysterical. The other day David Gergen was pontificating, “We’re in impeachment territory now.”
Total nonsense.
Trump just needs to settle down a bit, make some progress on some big things — like he did getting a conservative Justice on the SCOTUS — and govern. Clearly he and the Chinese are working together on NK and the Russians are ready to deal on Syria.
Tax reform and he’s headed to Mt Rushmore.
He will never, ever, ever get the support from the CNN and MSNBC crowd. Not going to happen.
It will all be fine. His enemies have become so progressively desperate that they do things like this Russia nonsense. Can it possibly be true they’ve been looking since June and they’ve found nothing?
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
For “impeachment” to even be in the headline news is hysterical.
But yeah, the Russians did tell HRC to not waste her time visiting Wisconsin — so the Russia investigation has some teeth.
The MSM is really going to blow some gaskets in the coming years.
Oh, and yes, they will still be writing Russia investigation hit pieces in 2020.
I’ve even noticed lately that FOX is starting to lean left. Just like we anticipated. 6 months from now it will be CNN #2.
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Fox is in the midst of regressing to the mean.
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
IIRC the Atlanta Fed is predicting Q2 2017 growth rate (likely annual rate) of 4%. Well, that’s (ALREADY) the number Trump mentioned as high enough to justify, i.e., pay for, his tax cuts.
And so far about all he’s done is jawbone the economy. When he does what he’s planned and that takes effect, maybe we should start to believe the higher numbers, IIRC, 8% he mentioned.
Besides, it may be that since the 2008 crash so long ago, the economy is more ready to grow fast.
And IIRC, the Fed has said that they will try to give Trump some rope, freedom, room, or whatever.
If Q2 and Q3 growth rates are >= 4%, then the tax cuts should pass, and it’s on to Mount Rushmore?
Moreover, the audience for the MSM-DNC propaganda nonsense should shrink and be replaced by people who care about the growth?
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I will be surprised if the GDP growth accelerates to 4% in the short term. Growing GDP is a lead-lag phenomenon. We are just now pulling out of the slip. It will take time to get the engine hot.
4% growth in US GDP — a big number — is huge.
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
For your
> I will be surprised if the GDP growth accelerates to 4% in the short term.
I agree. That’s on average all of us getting up from prostrate on our backs and starting a brisk walk in just three months.
But I just tried to look up the reference and found it right away; at
http://www.breitbart.com/economics/2017/05/16/boom-atlanta-fed-sees-gdp-growing-4-second-quarter/
is headline
“BOOM! Atlanta Fed Sees GDP Growing At More Than 4% In Second Quarter”
That’s what they said. They said that. I didn’t say that, but they said that. I don’t believe it will happen, either.
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The Big Red Car discusses the anonymous source who outed President Trump and the Russians.
It was a sous chef in the WH kitchen whose uncle used to date Cher and has a degree in poly sci from NYU.
https://themusingsofthebigredcar.com/anonymous-sources-washington-post/
BRC
https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Gee, I heard that the leak was from a really high official of the White House — the guy who sweeps the snow off the equipment on the roof of the West Wing. He’s about as “high” as can get in the White House!