American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Itse

Despite persistent claims in the media, that's not actually real thing.

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.o...ator-collapse/

Well, my source it pretty damn good too:

https://bringbackthebees.ca/

[REDVAN]

^^ fake news

[the_only_turek_fan]

Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of names of Trump officials during the transition.

Don't know the whole story yet but it might explain Nunes' strange behaviour last week.

Doesn't look good for Rice.

[Thor]

At least he didn't link naturalnews.com

[troutman]

Senate Dems reach filibuster threshold on Gorsuch setting up 'nuclear option' change

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/03/politi...ate/index.html

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of names of Trump officials during the transition.

Don't know the whole story yet but it might explain Nunes' strange behaviour last week.

Doesn't look good for Rice.

It looks fine if you actually look into it.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[FlameOn]

Washington Post is reporting that Blackwater PMC (Private Military Corp) helped establish a back channel between Trump and Russia through the UAE. Very interesting connection is Blackwater is founded by the Erik Price, who is Betsy DeVos brother. Their family has collectively donated $200 million to the GOP. These donations are likely what got Betsy DeVos her position as secretary of education when she has never attended public school in the first place.

The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.

The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would likely require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.

Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.

Prince was an avid supporter of Trump. After the Republican convention, he contributed $250,000 to Trump’s campaign, the national party and a pro-Trump super PAC led by GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, records show. He has ties to people in Trump’s circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince’s sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.

U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.

Confirmed the meetings took place from other government officials

Flynn and Kushner were joined by Bannon for a separate meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made an undisclosed visit to New York later in December, according to the U.S., European and Arab officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Officials said Zayed and his brother, the UAE’s national security adviser, coordinated the Seychelles meeting with Russian government officials with the goal of establishing an unofficial back channel between Trump and Putin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...a_breakingnews
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalex.../#56df61f0ac91

[Drak]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of names of Trump officials during the transition.

Don't know the whole story yet but it might explain Nunes' strange behaviour last week.

Doesn't look good for Rice.

This is the damage control spin. They certainly are desperate.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of names of Trump officials during the transition.

Don't know the whole story yet but it might explain Nunes' strange behaviour last week.

Doesn't look good for Rice.

Nothing reported by a real news source on this. Got a source?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by New Era

Nothing reported by a real news source on this. Got a source?

https://thinkprogress.org/amp/p/1a72785b100e

The names of unidentified Americans are masked in intelligence reports to protect the identity of third-parties. When someone with credentials to request the classified information asks that they become public, the process is known as unmasking.

The unmasking of unidentified Americans in intelligence reports is within the scope of the job of a national security advisor like Rice. According to Kate Martin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Rice’s actions are likely legal and probably do not even raise privacy concerns if the individuals were part of the Trump transition team. (ThinkProgress is an editorially independent news website housed at the Center for American Progress).

When an American’s identity in a classified intelligence report is unmasked, only those who have a security clearance and the authority to view the classified information may see the unmasked report, Martin said. The information may not be shared with individual members of Congress, let alone outside the government.

Conversations by foreign government officials are routinely surveilled, and those speaking with ambassadors should expect that their conversations may be wiretapped.

Given Russia’s involvement in the U.S. election, it’s not surprising that Rice would look at intelligence reports on Russia, including conversations by Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. If those conversations were with Americans, it follows that Rice would ask for the names to understand more about the conversation.

“There is no legal issue, and if the conversations were by official members of the presidential transition team conducting government business, it is hard to even see what privacy interest those individuals had in such conversations,” Martin said.

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[Drak]

Originally Posted by New Era

Nothing reported by a real news source on this. Got a source?

Rand Paul is one of the sources via twitter. Pretty interesting since he was just golfing with the Orange cheeto chip.

[photon]

One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned it also, that requesting names to be unmasked in order to understand the context and meaning of intel is common and there has to be a justifiable reason beyond curiosity given when requesting that.

The whole thing is just more gaslighting.

But just like 74% of Republicans now believe that it's likely Obama surveilled Trump during the campaign, they'll latch onto this as part of the 'facts' around the story.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

This still completely misses the central point for me, which is that the administration is actually complaining about being investigated by various law enforcement agencies for being Russian stooges. Only in this crazy bizarro-universe is it somehow politically expedient to trumpet to all who'll listen that you were recently under investigation for collusion with a foreign enemy power.

[HotHotHeat]

I'm really starting to think half of Americans are fine with authoritarianism. All this news should send shockwaves through the US.

Here's another that has hardly even registered.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...ation-any-time

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I'm really starting to think half of Americans are fine with authoritarianism. All this news should send shockwaves through the US.

Here's another that has hardly even registered.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...ation-any-time

the irony is that if Obama or the Democrats had done anything remotely similar to this, the GOP would be livid....

i think its a case where they don't care and just want to stick to half the country or, more frighteningly, they cannot process the information critically on their own and rely of FoxNews and Brietbart for the "coles notes" version...

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

This still completely misses the central point for me, which is that the administration is actually complaining about being investigated by various law enforcement agencies for being Russian stooges. Only in this crazy bizarro-universe is it somehow politically expedient to trumpet to all who'll listen that you were recently under investigation for collusion with a foreign enemy power.

Part of the chaos environment they prefer to operate in.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

the irony is that if Obama or the Democrats had done anything remotely similar to this, the GOP would be livid....

i think its a case where they don't care and just want to stick to half the country or, more frighteningly, they cannot process the information critically on their own and rely of FoxNews and Brietbart for the "coles notes" version...

they're just not that bright.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

This still completely misses the central point for me, which is that the administration is actually complaining about being investigated by various law enforcement agencies for being Russian stooges. Only in this crazy bizarro-universe is it somehow politically expedient to trumpet to all who'll listen that you were recently under investigation for collusion with a foreign enemy power.

To be fair, they've been pretty vocal in the last week that this whole unmasking thing is in regards to another investigation separate from the Russian interference investigation. Which could be equally crazy in itself, that either they are communicating with some other super-shady organization, or super-shady organization is talking about acquiring influence over the Trump administration.

My gut feeling is that whatever this investigation is ends up being a non-story (unlike the Russian influence thing which I think is massive); the plan was to set it up as a straw-man to easily knock down, but thanks to Nunes, the story about creating this strawman ends up outweighing the strawman itself in a lot of media outlets.

[photon]

I don't see the story that Trump can withdraw from his assets as shocking; once it was clear he wasn't divesting I just assumed that would be the case. It doesn't make much difference really.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Washington Post is reporting that Blackwater PMC (Private Military Corp) helped establish a back channel between Trump and Russia through the UAE. Very interesting connection is Blackwater is founded by the Erik Price, who is Betsy DeVos brother. Their family has collectively donated $200 million to the GOP. These donations are likely what got Betsy DeVos her position as secretary of education when she has never attended public school in the first place.



Confirmed the meetings took place from other government officials



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...a_breakingnews
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalex.../#56df61f0ac91

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