US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Phoenix Dark]

Dare I point out that Hitchens was another pro Iraq War imperialist that America First bros have no problem embracing 

I like some of Hitchens' stuff of course, he was an entertaining troll. But overall I can't bang with anyone who not only got Iraq wrong but doubled down on it.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hitchens was right about female comedians

[close]

[kingv]

Quick article about a lawyer interested in adoptions:

LONDON—The Moscow operation behind the now-infamous Russian-Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 included a direct attempt to enlist a foreign country’s law-enforcement official as a virtual double-agent, according to a court case in Switzerland.

FYI, they are talking about Veselnitskaya.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tower-russian-lawyer-natalia-veselnitskaya-exposed-in-swiss-corruption-case

So she’s trying to recruit double agents to undermine The Magnitsky Act, but in trump tower, that is not what she was doing, just talking a bit about adoptions.

[agrajag]

It's plain as day what the republicans are trying to do with the memo shennanigans. Get Rosenstein fired or force him to resign to set the path for firing Mueller. Rosenstein is the only piece of the puzzle that stands in their way (I know, that was a very labored metaphor). 

[etiolate]

Hitchens was wrong on the war, but right on many other things. I wouldn't bury him just over the war.

[Great Rumbler]

Andrew McCabe is out at the FBI effective today.

[agrajag]

Andrew McCabe is out at the FBI effective today.

I think he is still at the FBI until his retirement date. It's just official that he won't be staying on, as I understand it.

They basically bullied him into early retirement.

[Great Rumbler]

Originally, he was going to stay as the number 2 at the FBI until March, when he was eligible for a full retirement. What's changed is that he's now officially gone from the number 2 spot, but will stay on the FBI payroll until March when he gets his retirement.

[agrajag]

Oh, ok got it. Well, at least he still gets his retirement benefits. Would have sucked to lose those too 

[Great Rumbler]

Well, at least he still gets his retirement benefits. Would have sucked to lose those too 

[Nola]

It's plain as day what the republicans are trying to do with the memo shennanigans. Get Rosenstein fired or force him to resign to set the path for firing Mueller. Rosenstein is the only piece of the puzzle that stands in their way (I know, that was a very labored metaphor). 

The only comfort I have is that so far, most of Trump’s most egregious nonsense has been checked by his own incompetence.

If this was Dick Cheney and Bush, I would fully expect them to have a list of pre-vetted nominees and current members of the Justice department they could nominate/temporarily appoint to achieve their bidding very quickly. Not that the Bush administration wasn’t incompetent, but they were at least good at getting the institutional gears moving in the direction they wanted.

[kingv]

Apparently he was told to step down effective immediately and did not decide on his own to step down early.

Nothing stops this obstruction train!

[Great Rumbler]

Apparently he was told to step down effective immediately and did not decide on his own to step down early.

This should be a surprise to no one.

[agrajag]

Lol how dumb can they be, voluntarily strengthening the obstruction case out of spite. I mean McCabe isn't even the linchpin of this investigation. Removing him accomplishes nothing, what practical purpose is there for firing McCabe?

[Tasty]

Apparently he was told to step down effective immediately and did not decide on his own to step down early.

Nothing stops this obstruction train!

But muh deep state!

[nudemacusers]

It’s not clear to me, maybe I’m behind the curve, that he was forced to vacate vs just running the numbers and realizing he could gtfo and still chill on terminal leave.

Also Cheeto complaining about terminal leave is hilarious, dude is shitting on basically everyone who retired from the military... I don’t know anyone who didn’t cut early and retire on terminal leave, in fact an O-8 I know is doing that shortly.

[kingv]

Did 10 years in the service and you are right. It’s an earned benefit that many many servicemen don’t get to use completely during their time in.

It’s like getting mad st someone for cashing int their PTO at a company... something people also do all the time.

[agrajag]

What did trump say about terminal leave?

[Joe Molotov]

I dunno about Trump Sr., but one of his large adult sons had a thought.

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/958036458891350016

Also:

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/958037153639993344

[nudemacusers]

Lol oops I thought that was him... but any second until trump says the same.

[Joe Molotov]

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/958063395265241089

oof

[etiolate]

Trump fell silent before lashing out at McCabe and telling him to ask his wife what it felt like to be a loser, according to NBC.
The FBI head replied, “OK, sir,” before Trump ended the call.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/371271-trump-told-mccabe-to-ask-his-wife-how-it-felt-to-be-a-loser-report

[Assimilate]

Trump fell silent before lashing out at McCabe and telling him to ask his wife what it felt like to be a loser, according to NBC.
The FBI head replied, “OK, sir,” before Trump ended the call.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/371271-trump-told-mccabe-to-ask-his-wife-how-it-felt-to-be-a-loser-report

how can he afford to make so many enemies, it's insane.

he really is playing 4d chess.

[Tasty]

Scott Pruitt is slowly strangling the EPA

Why are all Republicans such tossers about basic common sense.

Like I can understand (but heartily disagree) that deregulating shit is good for competition, etc. But the fucking EPA? I want the strongest regulations fucking possible.

Pruitt’s posters are a list of the regulatory rollbacks he’s delivered to his allies in coal, oil, gas, and chemicals industries. These gifts include the reversal of a ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to developmental problems in children.

This just makes me angry.

Keep those kickbacks kicking back for your lobbyist friends, fucking scum.

[Mandark]

But overall I can't bang with anyone who not only got Iraq wrong but doubled down on it.

Bingo. This "well imagine you were in 2003" shit doesn't fly. Even if we ignore all the people who knew this was a bad idea in 2003.

Hitch was still as deeply pro-war in 2005 or 2007 or 2009, defending the invasion of Iraq and making the case for attacking Iran as well. He also made it repeatedly clear that this was the issue that mattered to him and the world more than any other (Bush/Kerry was a "single issue election"), so I don't feel the need to soften my judgment cause of his reviews of Updike or whatever.

[Nintex]

The God Emperor of KEK is a Twitch streamer. 

“We’re called conspiracy theorists because we see this cabal right in front of us,” said Gaetz. “We’re able to aggregate these data points and show what was really going on.”

GDI has the memo Alex, we have to find their base

https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/958118270976057344
 


TFW Republicans trust InfoWars more than the Justice Department and FBI


If I was Clinton I would start to arrange asylum in Germany of France right about now.

[shosta]

Plus do we really have to dance around Hitchens being straight up racist to arabs or any middle eastern? Dude was eloquent but he's reasoning for war boiled down to "arabs are evil", basically. All under the "evil islamic ideology" pretext.

Holy shit, you have to be hopelessly misinformed to really believe this.

[Assimilate]

Plus do we really have to dance around Hitchens being straight up racist to arabs or any middle eastern? Dude was eloquent but he's reasoning for war boiled down to "arabs are evil", basically. All under the "evil islamic ideology" pretext.

you're a fucking distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.

what is it with the gays being fucking distinguished mentally-challenged lately? or is this just a ex gaf/ reset member thing?

[Nintex]

.

[Nintex]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tower-russian-lawyer-natalia-veselnitskaya-exposed-in-swiss-corruption-case?ref=home

There is now a connection with a Swiss corruption case and the Russian lawyer that met with Don Jr.

We're watching a James Bond flick play out in real life.

[agrajag]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tower-russian-lawyer-natalia-veselnitskaya-exposed-in-swiss-corruption-case?ref=home

There is now a connection with a Swiss corruption case and the Russian lawyer that met with Don Jr.

We're watching a James Bond flick play out in real life.

Can't wait for the HBO series based on all of this.

[shosta]

oh shit. am I in the same bore category as assimilate, etiolate, and jaydubya

[etiolate]

btw kingy, this is why I said get a double check on that twitter blurb you ran

Also as detailed below, through our supplemental analysis, we have identified an
additional 13,512 accounts, for a total of 50,258 automated accounts that we identified as
Russian-linked and Tweeting election-related content. This represents approximately two onehundredths
of a percent (0.016%) of the total accounts on Twitter at the time. The 2.12 million
election-related Tweets that we identified through our retrospective review as generated by
Russian-linked, automated accounts constituted approximately one percent (1.00%) of the
overall election-related Tweets on Twitter at the time.  Those 2.12 million Tweets received only
one-half of a percent (0.49%) of impressions on election-related Tweets, based on impressions
generated within the first seven days of posting by users logged into the system. In the
aggregate, automated, Russian-linked, election-related Tweets generated significantly fewer
impressions relative to their volume on the platform.

We first reviewed the accounts’ engagement with Tweets from @HillaryClinton and
@realDonaldTrump. Our data showed that, during the relevant time period, @HillaryClinton
Tweets were Retweeted approximately 8.6 million times. Of those Retweets, 47,846—or
0.55%—were from Russian-linked automated accounts. Tweets from @HillaryClinton received
approximately 19.2 million likes during this period; 119,730—or 0.62%—were from Russianlinked
automated accounts. The volume of engagements with @realDonaldTrump Tweets from
Russian-linked automated accounts was higher, but still relatively small. The Tweets from the
@realDonaldTrump account during this period were Retweeted more than 11 million times;
469,537—or 4.25%—of those Retweets were from Russian-linked, automated accounts. Those
Tweets received approximately 28.8 million likes across our platform; 517,408—or 1.8%—of
those likes came from Russian-linked automated accounts.

The volume of automated engagements from
Russian-linked accounts was lower overall. Our data show that, during the relevant time period,
@Wikileaks Tweets were Retweeted approximately 5.65 million times. Of these Retweets,
196,836—or 3.48%—were from Russian-linked automated accounts. The Tweets from
@DCLeaks_ during this time period were Retweeted 6,774 times, of which 2.47% were from
Russian-linked automated accounts. The Tweets from @GUCCIFER_2 during this time period
were Retweeted approximately 24,000 times, of which 2.32% were from Russian-linked
automated accounts.

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Edgett%20Appendix%20to%20Responses.pdf

Always check the source material.

[agrajag]

oh shit. am I in the same bore category as assimilate, etiolate, and jaydubya

 

[etiolate]

Welcome to the winning side.

[kingv]

Etiolate. I don’t even know what you’re referring to or what you are getting at.

Also, if anyone ever wanted to see the pro quo to the quod. Just look at the news today. Jesus Trump, try not to be so transparent.

[etiolate]

Etiolate. I don’t even know what you’re referring to or what you are getting at.

Also, if anyone ever wanted to see the pro quo to the quod. Just look at the news today. Jesus Trump, try not to be so transparent.

A post you made only two days ago.

No collusion?

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/957374850980597761

Exit: etiolate conveniently ignoring that the Dutch dropped an L on his head.

[Nola]

Wags his finger at people for supposedly not applying enough skepticism about Russian interference evidence(not sure what that particular snippet really is meant to show, but whatevs); tells Malia Zimmerman, Julian Assange, and Kimdotcom he doesn't need their receipts.


Etiolate's 2018 politics distilled.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

FYI:
Point by point from the article:

1.) "The Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account during this period were Retweeted more than 11 million times; 469,537—or 4.25%—of those Retweets were from Russian-linked, automated accounts."

2.)"We also reviewed engagement between automated or Russia-linked accounts and the @Wikileaks, @DCLeaks_, and @GUCCIFER_2 accounts. The amount of automated engagement with these accounts ranged from 47.5% to 72.7% of Retweets and 37% to 64% of likes during this time—substantially higher than the average level of automated engagement, including with other high-profile accounts."

3.)"During the relevant period, those accounts generated approximately 2.12 million automated, election-related Tweets, which collectively received approximately 454.7 million impressions generated within the first seven days of posting."

I dont know who this dude is, but everything he said is in that page you just linked.

[close]

[Tasty]

Plus do we really have to dance around Hitchens being straight up racist to arabs or any middle eastern? Dude was eloquent but he's reasoning for war boiled down to "arabs are evil", basically. All under the "evil islamic ideology" pretext.

you're a fucking distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.

what is it with the gays being fucking distinguished mentally-challenged lately? or is this just a ex gaf/ reset member thing?

1. Calling somenoe gay in an argument is some 4th-grade level babby shit. Cut it out.

2. Wrath isn't even gay.

Then again I shouldn't expect much from a guy that looks up poster's pics and switches to physicality-based insults at the drop of a hat.

[shosta]

What did trump say about terminal leave?

he said fuk u, pay me

[kingv]

Etiolate. I don’t even know what you’re referring to or what you are getting at.

Also, if anyone ever wanted to see the pro quo to the quod. Just look at the news today. Jesus Trump, try not to be so transparent.

A post you made only two days ago.

No collusion?

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/957374850980597761

Exit: etiolate conveniently ignoring that the Dutch dropped an L on his head.

so what's your point?

How many pro trump tweets does Russia have to make before it matters? I'm not saying that Russian tweets turned the election, and never have.

NOLA: I think the dude is just some dude.

[etiolate]

 

Then what are you on about? Russian bots retweet Trump. Russian bots retweet Hilary. Russian bots retweet pro BLM. Russian bots retweet anti BLM. Russian bots key in on topics, words, and hot buttons to create traffic.

"How many pro Trump Russian bot tweets must there be?" Well enough to actually matter, which is not %1 of all election traffic. 

I hope this is the point where you start to see how the news cycle/circus is set up to make you fling traffic towards blips of information that aren't really meaningful or representative of anything at hand. Better put, this is where you should start to be smarter and more selective than a Russian twitter bot.

[kingv]

Let me rephrase, how much free outside help from a foreign government does a presidential campaign have to receive before they break the law?

Also, you can't say things like that and also pretend Kimdotcom is a serious person.

Note: 455 million is a lot of impressions. That's like a couple of hundred thousands of dollars worth of advertising.

[Nola]

You can’t overload etiolate with questions, handing out L’s takes time and preparation....He’s still working up that killer blow to Mandark’s question. You might need to get in line.

[etiolate]

You really aren't smarter than an AI script. 

[Nola]

In other news, Trump has decided he will not impose the new sanctions on Russia.

Something about we don’t need to clamp down on more bank accounts of rich Putin-tied oligarchs, Russian banking institutions with questionable governmental ties, and Putin’s regime itself because the threat is enough:

The Trump administration, under fire from lawmakers for not punishing Moscow over election meddling, said Monday it will not implement Russia-related sanctions mandated by Congress last year because the threat itself is acting as a "deterrent."

The decision was made public after nightfall on deadline day for implementing sanctions against those who do business with Russian defense and intelligence firms, as required under a 2017 law.

Since the law took effect six months ago, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, "We estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rich-russians-still-waiting-to-exhale/2018/01/29/7df459ca-052a-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html

[thehunter116]

https://twitter.com/eschor/status/958110759489294336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Feschor%2Fstatus%2F958110759489294336


Yeah nothing to see here.

Trump is totally not working with Russia nope. 

[kingv]

I don't know, I kind of look forward to the responses of people to the Nunes memo.

Especially because it is all but guaranteed to fall completely apart within like 3 days.

[Nola]

So to sum up today:

- Trump has forced McCabe to step down early, someone perceived by Trump to be a major figure in the Russia investigation... After trolling his wife on the phone.

- Trump presses to release a memo authored by patriotic American and late-night White House bootycall Devin Nunes, a second hand account of primary source information that certainly may be partisan, but possibly undermine American security. Which has been sold by Hannity and the Fox News circus as some sort of smoking gun that will totally discredit the Russia investigation.

- It is revealed part of the internal memo will serve to poison the well about Rosenstein. Who Trump has disclosed to people close to him he has and is considering firing him. A memo retty likely serving as a means to undermine the public trust in the investigation and possibly prime the pump for that Saturday Night Massacre style showdown.

- Trump has informed congress and the public at the 11th hour that they will not be implementing the congressionally authorized sanctions passed last year to, amongst other things, address Russian meddling in the election to help the Trump campaign and sow discord within the country.

[Nola]

I don't know, I kind of look forward to the responses of people to the Nunes memo.

Especially because it is all but guaranteed to fall completely apart within like 3 days.

etiolate is proof that these sort of things find a life as long as there are people that want to believe the narratives underlying them. And as long as there is a new shiny object to replace the old one as it begins to deteriorate.

In Trump world, Obama still spied on Trump for Hillary and Strzok is not a Kasich voter that also hated Hillary, but a smoking gun that proves deep state is out to remove Trump, cover up Hillary's Russian melding for Uranium One, and keep America from being great again...for reasons.

[recursivelyenumerable]

You really aren't smarter than an AI script. 

Have they tried training alphazero on 4D chess yet?

[Assimilate]

Plus do we really have to dance around Hitchens being straight up racist to arabs or any middle eastern? Dude was eloquent but he's reasoning for war boiled down to "arabs are evil", basically. All under the "evil islamic ideology" pretext.

you're a fucking distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.

what is it with the gays being fucking distinguished mentally-challenged lately? or is this just a ex gaf/ reset member thing?

1. Calling somenoe gay in an argument is some 4th-grade level babby shit. Cut it out.

2. Wrath isn't even gay.

Then again I shouldn't expect much from a guy that looks up poster's pics and switches to physicality-based insults at the drop of a hat.

Are you kidding me?

if you look at seagrams' pic and don't immediately think 'i gotta paint that guy' you have no taste, sir.

[thehunter116]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/get-country-navajo-lawmaker-harassed-arizona-trump-supporters-accusing-illegally/


 

Yes tell the Navajo to go back where he came from.

[thisismyusername]

Plus do we really have to dance around Hitchens being straight up racist to arabs or any middle eastern? Dude was eloquent but he's reasoning for war boiled down to "arabs are evil", basically. All under the "evil islamic ideology" pretext.

you're a fucking distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.

what is it with the gays being fucking distinguished mentally-challenged lately? or is this just a ex gaf/ reset member thing?

1. Calling somenoe gay in an argument is some 4th-grade level babby shit. Cut it out.

2. Wrath isn't even gay.

Then again I shouldn't expect much from a guy that looks up poster's pics and switches to physicality-based insults at the drop of a hat.

Are you kidding me?

if you look at seagrams' pic and don't immediately think 'i gotta paint that guy' you have no taste, sir.

He's pulling your leg. Exodus is gay as the day is plain.

[Tasty]

Wrath is as straight as PD is!

[bluemax]

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/958182800699592705

Who cares about laws amirite.

[seagrams hotsauce]

eh nevermind

[shosta]

I’ll try and respond more formally this evening when I get a moment.

There's no rush seeing as I took fourteen days to respond.

[benjipwns]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/julian-assange-thought-he-was-messaging-sean-hannity-when-he-offered-news-on-democrat-investigating-trump-russia

At about 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, a couple hours after she started pretending to be Sean Hannity, Dell Gilliam says she got a direct message back from the head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. That’s when she said she “kind of panicked.”

“I felt bad. He really thought he was talking to Sean Hannity,” said Gilliam.

Gilliam, a technical writer from Texas, was bored with the flu when she created @SeanHannity__ early Saturday morning.

well at least somebody finally tired to contact Sean Hannity

[Nintex]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/julian-assange-thought-he-was-messaging-sean-hannity-when-he-offered-news-on-democrat-investigating-trump-russia

At about 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, a couple hours after she started pretending to be Sean Hannity, Dell Gilliam says she got a direct message back from the head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. That’s when she said she “kind of panicked.”

“I felt bad. He really thought he was talking to Sean Hannity,” said Gilliam.

Gilliam, a technical writer from Texas, was bored with the flu when she created @SeanHannity__ early Saturday morning.

well at least somebody finally tired to contact Sean Hannity

Assange the douche nozzle defeated the Clinton dynasty. 

Ryan is also Team #InfoWars said today they're going to 'Cleanse' the FBI

'
 

[Joe Molotov]

"Okay, I'm just spitballing here, but what if we had Mueller murdered and his body buried in an unknown location, then we said that we had to shut the investigation down because no one could find Mueller, eh?"