Taping Trump's papers back together

Roxxsmom · Nov 25, 2020

This is apparently a thing. This article came out last summer, but I just ran across it now.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/10/trump-papers-filing-system-635164

Under the Presidential Records Act, the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.

But White House aides realized early on that they were unable to stop Trump from ripping up paper after he was done with it and throwing it in the trash or on the floor, according to people familiar with the practice. Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn’t violating the law.

Emphasis mine. He really is a child.

So because of this habit of his, there are people who make more than 60k a year (who are records management analysts) who have to literally sift through the scraps of torn papers (rescued from the trash or the floor by staffers) and piece them back together like jigsaw puzzles with Scotch tape. In decades of public service, none of them have ever been asked to do such a thing as part of their job.

Historians will have an extra dimension of fun when they study this guy someday. And now I'm wondering what his Presidential library will be like and what it will have on display. At least this should be built sooner now rather than later...

Sadly, two of the guys mentioned in this article were abruptly fired some time ago.

Lartey, 54, and Young, 48, were career government officials who worked together in records management until this spring, when both were abruptly terminated from their jobs. Both are now unemployed and still full of questions about why they were stripped of their badges with no explanation and marched off of the White House grounds by Secret Service.

Tazlima · Nov 25, 2020

When I was in 6th grade, we borrowed a video camera from a neighbor and my brother and I gave my mother a bit of peace by filming a video tour of the rental house we occupied in at the time. He ran the camera. I was the performer.

The highlight of this one and only home video from my childhood is me carefully plucking a flower in the yard, holding it up for the camera, explaining that it's called a stephanotis, it's very pretty, blah, blah, blah, and then absentmindedly yeeting* it over my shoulder as I move on to the next item of interest. I didn't even realize I'd done it until later, when our parents watched the video and busted up laughing.

That's the closest I think I've ever come to this sort of behavior, and I was 1) a child, 2) outdoors, and 3) throwing something biodegradable that nobody was going to have to pick up later. How do you reach adulthood, let alone old age, with this kind of just... I dunno, lack of self-awareness? Disrespect? Trashiness? I find it difficult to put into words the combination of disgust and disdain I feel when watching our current president, and that inability troubles me.

*Thank you to the current crop of young people for inventing the marvelous word "yeet."

Roxxsmom · Nov 25, 2020

I suspect the habit of destroying his paper trail is also rooted in paranoia. It's probably something he learned at Daddy's knee.

The throwing stuff on the ground for others to clean up though? Could be an expression of power, or could be simple mindless childishness. Or both.

Brightdreamer · Nov 25, 2020

The "tearing things up and throwing things and not noticing or caring" thing, I expect, could be a sign of his upbringing in a family and at a class level where other people are expected to everything short of wiping their rear ends for them. They never have to learn to put the toys back or not to break the thing or other basic life lessons, because that's what other humans exist to do: clean up after them and fix their messes. Some do connect two and two at some point through general brain development or osmosis (or even simply not trusting anyone else to handle their stuff due to paranoia over who might read it or steal it or whatnot), but the truly spoiled rotten ones - and the ones who enjoy the feeling of power, of having other people reduced to cleaning their filth, not to mention the sense of entitlement, that they can waste and destroy without having to care about consequences - likely never do.

Plus, there is a history of mental decline in his family, IIRC... could also be a hint of that creeping in, especially if this is not behavior he exhibited before.

Roxxsmom · Nov 25, 2020

could be a sign of his upbringing in a family and at a class level where other people are expected to everything short of wiping their rear ends for them.

Knowing Trump, he probably has people do that too.

Seriously, he's the kind of guy who would have a "groom of the stool" like kings of old. Now I must amuse myself by imagining which of his aides might best aspire to this important* role.

*actually, these guys did become rather politically important in the olden days.

AW Admin · Nov 25, 2020

Some interesting links:

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/25/7723...and-deletes-the-historical-record-takes-shape

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/8082...tration-criticized-for-how-it-keeps-documents

https://www.archives.gov/foia/pra-trump-admin

https://djtrumplibrary.com

Roxxsmom · Nov 25, 2020

https://djtrumplibrary.com

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this one, because it's spot on regarding his legacy.

And OMG, the "Trump Suites," in the hotel, though.

I have to ask, though, how can someone who can't even read have a library? It used to be a joke, but from what folks who have worked in his administration have said, maybe Samantha Bee's satire was actually correct. Perhaps all the books and documents should be in picture form.

frimble3 · Nov 25, 2020

I could see the Trump Presidential library as a symbolic structure: gold plated, and full of nothing.

gingerwoman · Nov 25, 2020

I think archivists do learn in the tertiary courses they do how to restore damaged documents.

Roxxsmom · Nov 26, 2020

gingerwoman said:
I think archivists do learn in the tertiary courses they do how to restore damaged documents.

Yes, but techniques for piecing together something that has been torn into teeny pieces always seems to come down to scotch/cello tape.

AW Admin · Nov 26, 2020

Roxxsmom said:
Yes, but techniques for piecing together something that has been torn into teeny pieces always seems to come down to scotch/cello tape.

Not any more. Back in the 1990s a grad student with a Mac created a new way to do this, working with digital images of the dead sea scrolls and a database.

Basically, the way it's done now whether with modern paper or ancient papyrus:

Scan the material front and back.
Get it in a database with a unique identifier, a label for placement (front, back, corner, edge, etc.)
OCR the text and import it to the database
Have humans check the OCR of the text against the image (two people look at each item, with a third making corrections if necessary)
Use special software that attempts to use placement data and text to create possible clusters of matches
Have two humans check it cluster with possible matches; have a third approve matches
Repeat last 3 steps.

Roxxsmom · Nov 26, 2020

AW Admin said:
Not any more. Back in the 1990s a grad student with a Mac created a new way to do this, working with digital images of the dead sea scrolls and a database.

Basically, the way it's done now whether with modern paper or ancient papyrus:

Scan the material front and back.
Get it in a database with a unique identifier, a label for placement (front, back, corner, edge, etc.)
OCR the text and import it to the database
Have humans check the OCR of the text against the image (two people look at each item, with a third making corrections if necessary)
Use special software that attempts to use placement data and text to create possible clusters of matches
Have two humans check it cluster with possible matches; have a third approve matches
Repeat last 3 steps.

That's cool--a digital jigsaw puzzle technique of sorts?

I was thinking more about cases where they need the original document itself, not a copy, though. I gather it is important to the archives folks to have the original papers he wrote on or signed (or scribbled all over in crayon) in the file as well as copies of them.

I have a sense that people working in the White House, and those who work in various agencies in Washington who aren't political appointees, will be happy to see the back of this administration. It's got to be hell to work in such a toxic environment, even if someone's job is as simple as making coffee or emptying trash cans.

Taping Trump's papers back together

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

Tazlima

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

AW Admin

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

gingerwoman

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

AW Admin

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido