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| How will the DJT Presidency be regarded? |
| Greatened America |
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38% |
[ 14 ] |
| Bankrupted America |
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33% |
[ 12 ] |
| Entertained America |
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8% |
[ 3 ] |
| Enraged America |
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19% |
[ 7 ] |
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| Total Votes : 36 |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
Anyone with any affection for peace and stability should logically see a thawing of relations between America and Russia as desirable. They don't have to be our enemy, just like China doesn't have to be our enemy. It's a choice between geopolitical gamesmanship and human lives. |
Yeah, but the choice this year was between Russian antagonism or Yellow Peril. Sure, there was posole none of the above back in the kitchen, but it was an unserious choice because Aleppo. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:26 am Post subject: |
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The US media needs to demand proof that Russia hacked the DNC. I imagine it would not be hard for US SigInt to present, especially given Snowden's affirmation that SigInt is the only network program that has produced any actionable intelligence. We should not doubt the possibility, but we should demand that US intelligence produce evidence if Obama will use these allegations to take aggressive counter-measures against a sovereign state and a nuclear power.
Back to the establishment take-over of the White House Cabinet:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/jeb-bushs-consolation-prize-233097
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There may be a silver lining to the 2016 presidential election for Jeb Bush — the elevation of his longtime friend, patron and political ally, Betsy DeVos, as education secretary.
If DeVos is confirmed by the Senate as most expect, Bush could see his views on education — repeatedly ridiculed on the campaign trail by Donald Trump — given new life as she turns their shared vision into national policy. |
Its like the Republican version of the 2008-2009 transition all over again. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:27 am Post subject: |
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US intelligence has received new information following the election that gave agencies increased confidence that Russia carried out the hack and did so, in part, to help Trump win.
Included in that new information were intercepted conversations of Russian officials expressing happiness at Trump's win. Another official described some of the messages as congratulatory.
Officials said this was just one of multiple indicators to give them high confidence of both Russian involvement and Russian intentions. Officials reiterated that there is no single intercepted communication that qualifies as a "smoking gun" on Russia's intention to benefit Trump's candidacy or to claim credit for doing so. |
"Increased confidence" = tangential evidence = noise |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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Given the latest official report on this topic amounts to, "Even we're not totally sure, but come on guys, just trust us on this and be angry at Russia," the American Intelligence Community is probably engaging in geopolitics rather than honest assessment. Russia actually seems to have managed to push Syria onto a path towards eventual peace without regime change, and Americans just elected the "wrong" President, so this really comes off as a two-birds-with-one-stone maneuver, trying to breed antipathy towards Russia in the common citizen to justify further anti-Russian maneuvering while simultaneously delegitimizing the President elect in hopes of keeping him on the "straight and narrow path" of international meddling. But even if the Russian government did hand off factual information to Wikileaks -- not that I'm sure they did -- I would actually not be particularly upset about it, just like I'm not upset about it when "whistleblowers" have released factual information. And that seems to be the worst accusation being levied, the remainder being tantamount to whining over Russians actually having opinions about the world around them and daring to communicate them. If there is evidence that Russians actually directly tampered with a single vote, that would be salient, but barring that, then the only reasonable conclusion I can see is that there is no clear evidence of Russia having done anything especially damning, and that the American intelligence community is itself probably guilty of aggressive propaganda with political purposes in mind.
Again and again Americans are being asked, "Who do you trust more, Wikileaks or the American intelligence community?" Although the former is not worthy of blind trust, the latter has been doing an excellent job of portraying themselves as intrinsically untrustworthy on this matter, and probably even in general. They're still acting like leaking something to NBC or the Washington Post creates an image in the average citizen's mind of a neutral third party supporting the government's position, instead of creating an imagine of dishonest collaboration of the sort only employed when one is engaged in misdeeds. These actors don't seem to realize just how little credibility they have right now. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 3:56 am Post subject: |
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Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election.
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| We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion. |
"Not only are we not going to give you any meaningful evidence regarding our accusations, we're not even going to argue that the things of which we are accusing Russia were effective in real-world terms, meaning we can condemn them purely for our beliefs regarding their thoughts, opinions, and desires."
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| Putin publicly pointed to the Panama Papers disclosure and the Olympic doping scandal as US-directed efforts to defame Russia, suggesting he sought to use disclosures to discredit the image of the United States and cast it as hypocritical. |
"We're hypocrites, and Putin noticed."
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| Putin most likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as disparaging him. |
"Secretary Clinton incited mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012."
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| Beginning in June, Putin’s public comments about the US presidential race avoided directly praising President-elect Trump, probably because Kremlin officials thought that any praise from Putin personally would backfire in the United States. Nonetheless, Putin publicly indicated a preference for President-elect Trump’s stated policy to work with Russia, and pro-Kremlin figures spoke highly about what they saw as his Russia-friendly positions on Syria and Ukraine. Putin publicly contrasted the President-elect’s approach to Russia with Secretary Clinton’s “aggressive rhetoric.” |
"Clinton probably would have pursued aggressive policies towards Russia, and shockingly, they didn't like this."
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| Moscow also saw the election of President-elect Trump as a way to achieve an international counterterrorism coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). |
"Russia is serious about dealing with ISIL, while America under Obama was and America under Clinton would have been totally content to continue to use ISIL in their pursuit of regime change in Syria."
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| Putin, Russian officials, and other pro-Kremlin pundits stopped publicly criticizing the US election process as unfair almost immediately after the election because Moscow probably assessed it would be counterproductive to building positive relations. |
"After the election was finished, Russian officials mysteriously stopped talking about it so much."
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| Guccifer 2.0, who claimed to be an independent Romanian hacker, made multiple contradictory statements and false claims about his likely Russian identity throughout the election. Press reporting suggests more than one person claiming to be Guccifer 2.0 interacted with journalists. |
"An anonymous hacker does not speak with perfect internal consistency. Clearly, he must be either Russian or in their employ."
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| DHS assesses that the types of systems we observed Russian actors targeting or compromising are not involved in vote tallying. |
"The Russians explicitly did not 'hack' the election. Spoiler: we're not actually accusing the Russians of any particular misdeed in this entire report."
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Russia’s effort to influence the 2016 US presidential election represented a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations aimed at US elections. We assess the 2016 influence campaign reflected the Kremlin’s recognition of the worldwide effects that mass disclosures of US Government and other private data—such as those conducted by WikiLeaks and others—have achieved in recent years, and their understanding of the value of orchestrating such disclosures to maximize the impact of compromising information.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used intelligence officers, influence agents, forgeries, and press placements to disparage candidates perceived as hostile to the Kremlin, according to a former KGB archivist.
Since the Cold War, Russian intelligence efforts related to US elections have primarily focused on foreign intelligence collection. For decades, Russian and Soviet intelligence services have sought to collect insider information from US political parties that could help Russian leaders
understand a new US administration’s plans and
priorities.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Directorate S (Illegals) officers arrested in the United States in 2010 reported to Moscow about the 2008 election.
In the 1970s, the KGB recruited a Democratic Party activist who reported information about then-presidential hopeful Jimmy Carter’s campaign and foreign policy plans, according to a former KGB archivist. |
"Some degree of Russian covert activity has been going on for decades, but we're making a huge fuss about it at this exact moment because Hillary Clinton was supposed to win, and we're hoping to get our increased anti-Russian tensions despite her loss."
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| (eight-page rant about RT) |
"The report was too scanty, so we padded it out by whining about a news source few Americans take seriously anyway, invoking examples which, bizarrely enough, frequently represent legitimate criticism. I mean come on, guys, they even hosted a third party debate, implying that our political system unfairly favors the two major parties, which it totally doesn't."
They do a pretty good job of suggesting a motive for why the Russians might have wanted to avoid Hillary Clinton being President: that she would have been aggressively anti-Russian. Other than that, having gone through the report, it's not really clear of what specifically the Russians are being accused, at least beyond that in which other states also engage. It was made clear what they do not stand of accused, though: actually "hacking the election." Beyond that, everything is either vague, evidence-free implication of potential misdeeds, or implicit admissions that Russia might have had good reason to dislike the idea of a Clinton Presidency. Hell, having read the report, I'm reminded of why I disliked such an idea as well. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 11:27 am Post subject: |
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What makes Putin's direct involvement more insidious is the traitorous collusion of Republicans - led by Trump - in constantly pushing fake news stories about Hillary ...
Although the Intel report stated that "no assessment" was made about Russian interference's impact on the U.S. election, pathological liar Trump mischaracterized that statement as proof of "absolutely" no impact on his disgraceful win.
Anyone with a modicum of honesty and common sense would admit that such surreptitious involvement by a foreign power over the course of a long political campaign surely had some impact on the actual casting of votes (i.e. garbage in/garbage out...) |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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Treasury Nominee Steve Mnuchin’s Bank Accused of “Widespread Misconduct” in Leaked Memo
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| The memo obtained by The Intercept alleges that OneWest rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions. |
The January 2013 memo recommends immediate action since the limitations period was set to expire on March 19 of that year.
Mnuchin is a limitations lapse dog.
So corrupt |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Of course, most Democrats have been corrupted too, but I think the current Republican mix led by Trump presents a real challenge to American ideals and institutions ... |
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goat
Joined: 23 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 8:46 am Post subject: |
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| I voted Trump! |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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The Deep State launches a direct assault on Trump
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Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address after serving two terms as U.S. president; the five-star general chose to warn Americans of this specific threat to democracy: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” That warning was issued prior to the decadelong escalation of the Vietnam War, three more decades of Cold War mania, and the post-9/11 era, all of which radically expanded that unelected faction’s power even further.
This is the faction that is now engaged in open warfare against the duly elected and already widely disliked president-elect, Donald Trump. They are using classic Cold War dirty tactics and the defining ingredients of what has until recently been denounced as “Fake News.”
Their most valuable instrument is the U.S. media, much of which reflexively reveres, serves, believes, and sides with hidden intelligence officials. And Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss, as well as a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing — eager — to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupported, tawdry, and damaging those behaviors might be.
The serious dangers posed by a Trump presidency are numerous and manifest. There is a wide array of legitimate and effective tactics for combating those threats: from bipartisan congressional coalitions and constitutional legal challenges to citizen uprisings and sustained and aggressive civil disobedience. All of those strategies have periodically proven themselves effective in times of political crisis or authoritarian overreach.
But cheering for the CIA and its shadowy allies to unilaterally subvert the U.S. election and impose its own policy dictates on the elected president is both warped and self-destructive. Empowering the very entities that have produced the most shameful atrocities and systemic deceit over the last six decades is desperation of the worst kind. |
When declaring a resistance, its important to know who your real enemies are.
But Trump is no hero, either.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/17/notorious-mercenary-erik-prince-is-advising-trump-from-the-shadows/
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Prince has a close relationship with Breitbart News and Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior counselor and chief strategist. Prince has appeared frequently — and almost exclusively — on Breitbart Radio. In August, Prince offered praise for Trump’s candidacy, telling Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos: “I even like some of his projects that have gone bankrupt, because people that do things, and build things, and try things, sometimes fail at doing it, and that’s the strength of the American capitalist system.” Prince added: “We have kind of turned our back on the fact that hard work, sacrifice, risk-taking, innovation, is what made America great. Washington did not make America great.”
In September, Prince backed Trump’s proposal to commandeer Iraq’s 2 million barrels of daily oil output. “For Mr. Trump to say, ‘We’re going to take their oil — certainly we’re not going to lift it out of there and take it somewhere else, but putting it into production, and putting a tolling arrangement into place, to repay the American taxpayers for their efforts to remove Saddam and to stabilize the area, is doable, and very plausible,” Prince said on Breitbart Radio.
Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and she has all but vowed to embark on a crusade to push a privatization and religious agenda in education that mirrors her brother’s in military and CIA affairs. Prince has long been a contributor to the campaign of fellow Christian warrior Mike Pence, and he contributed $100,000 to the pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Number 1. Prince’s mother, Elsa, pitched in another $50,000. That organization, run by Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire hedge funder Robert Mercer, was one of the strongest bankrollers of Trump’s campaign.
According to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in December Prince attended the annual “Villains and Heroes” costume ball hosted by Mercer. Dowd wrote that Palantir founder Peter Thiel showed her “a picture on his phone of him posing with Erik Prince, who founded the private military company Blackwater, and Mr. Trump — who had no costume — but joke[d] that it was ‘N.S.F.I.’ (Not Safe for the Internet).”
Not even Trump is brazen enough to give Prince a public post in his administration. But Prince is operating in the shadows, where he has always been most at home. |
The uglier the better, ultimately. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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Would any other president give a crap about the official attendance of his inauguration? What a clown.  |
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