American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS

[KevanGuy]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

If Louise Mensch and Claude Taylor have solid sourcing, things are about to get really fun.

https://patribotics.blog/2017/05/16/...dept-official/

Sounds like a big IF:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...-louise-mensch

Louise Mensch is among a number of bloggers offering a mix of true and inaccurate stories, forcing readers to discern for truth for themselves

[octothorp]

I've got a theory (that I don't totally believe but will put out there) that Mensch and Taylor are being cultivated as misinformation sources; someone (possibly multiple people) who do have legitimate connections, fed them some true information that would eventually become public knowledge, so that it increases the profiles of each and causes them to trust their sources. Now, they're being fed increasingly outlandish information, which results in the left going down these conspiracy theory fantasy rabbit holes. I don't quite know what the end-game of such a plan would be, but it seems about as legit as the possibility that everything they're reporting on is true.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by TheFlamesVan

I was of this mindset up until last week. But now, doesn't he have a legitimate look at prison time if this is all real? It's like he just wants out as fast as possible, but doesn't realize not all options end up with him just going back to his dark tower.

One of the news shows was saying that the president is allowed to leak classified info to whoever he chooses because he has the authority to declassify anything. So if he is giving away US intelligence secrets to the Russians as president that is perfectly legal. It would be his campaign being funded by foreign interests that would get him into potential trouble.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I've got a theory (that I don't totally believe but will put out there) that Mensch and Taylor are being cultivated as misinformation sources; someone (possibly multiple people) who do have legitimate connections, fed them some true information that would eventually become public knowledge, so that it increases the profiles of each and causes them to trust their sources. Now, they're being fed increasingly outlandish information, which results in the left going down these conspiracy theory fantasy rabbit holes. I don't quite know what the end-game of such a plan would be, but it seems about as legit as the possibility that everything they're reporting on is true.

The end game could just be the lefts response to the rights fake news. So you have the people within the intelligence circles that lean left realize that the Public is too stupid to discern fact from fiction so you double down with fake reporting to attack the president and galvanize the left into action.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

If Louise Mensch and Claude Taylor have solid sourcing, things are about to get really fun.



https://patribotics.blog/2017/05/16/...dept-official/

Patriblogs is a left leaning Infowars. They've broken stories in the way eklund has. Throw a hundred stories out there and when one comes true "see! I called it!"

[Itse]

Originally Posted by GGG

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...party-loyalty/

A neat article looking at how the partisanship displayed by the Republican house at this point in time is quite typical of how the parties have behaved historically during crisis.

I dislike these kinds of analysis as not all crisis are alike.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by GGG

One of the news shows was saying that the president is allowed to leak classified info to whoever he chooses because he has the authority to declassify anything. So if he is giving away US intelligence secrets to the Russians as president that is perfectly legal. It would be his campaign being funded by foreign interests that would get him into potential trouble.

that sure sounds like reasonable actions for the best interests of the nation.

[ernie]

Yes the president can disclose what he likes to who he likes. It doesn't mean the judgement is sound or that people shouldn't be concerned. It can also put operatives at risk if too much information is disclosed. And of course as soon as he disclosed the information you know that information was making it's way to Syria and Iran etc in a matter of hours, not to mention China who Russia is extremely close to right now.

There is a reason you don't share information with Russia....you don't even remotely have the same allies. It erodes the trust your allies have in you if you willingly tell a government classified information that they are likely to pass on to those that you oppose. It's a serious lapse of judgement.

Let me rephrase that. It's complete incompetence...and that's the nicest way to say it. Because I think this goes beyond incompetence.

[photon]

It can also result in the source of the information deciding to not share any further information for a while.

Any use, at all, of information or reporting that came from a liaison partner that goes beyond use in our own government would be seen by the liaison partner as a serious breach of trust. And the cost for us, just on the intelligence level, is the likelihood that we won’t get similar information again — at least for a little while.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/16/...el-isis-pillar

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Not to mention that the information sharing from allies is going to dry up pretty quick due to Donald 'loose lips' Trump

[ernie]

The good news for a guy that seems to aspire to being a dictator he has no idea how to get the organizations he needs behind him. All he does is annoy them such that they become more and more likely to resist anything he does.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

If I were Spicey, I'd probably phone into work sick today, and get drunk.

If Spicer wants to potentially redeem himself and not be a pariah once he's eventually fired by Trump, he should quit during the White House briefing and divulge everything he knows.

[saillias]

new article today, from NYT, confirming intel came from Israel.

Enjoy the trip Donny. With any luck the Mossad won't let him leave

[Street Pharmacist]

Awesome quote from the New Yorker from a conservative columnist

We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.

“We badly want to understand Trump, to grasp him,” David Roberts#writes in Vox. “It might give us some sense of control, or at least an ability to predict what he will do next. But what if there’s nothing to understand? What if there is no#there#there?”

And out of that void comes a carelessness that quite possibly betrayed an intelligence source, and endangered a country.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Patriblogs is a left leaning Infowars. They've broken stories in the way eklund has. Throw a hundred stories out there and when one comes true "see! I called it!"

I hate defending bloggers as I think they are the lowest form of journalism, but WTF? How is this site even remotely close to Infowars.com? It's a site that's only been up since January and has a whopping 23 posts. Where's the hundreds of stories?

We're talking a site with limited traffic, and only real traffic since April 17th, versus Infowars with 983,557 page views per day, 364,748 unique visitors a day, and almost 6 million unique visitors a month. This little blog, that almost no one has heard about, is the answer to Infowars?

I don't recommend taking anything from this source seriously, and tell people to find information from sources with a few decades of work and a reputation for solid journalism, but come on. Your hyperbole is a massive swing and a miss.

[FlameOn]

For every Trump action, there is a Trump tweet. This one he calls for the execution of Snowden who leaked state secrets to Russia.




https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...n-to-russia%2F

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by saillias

new article today, from NYT, confirming intel came from Israel.

Enjoy the trip Donny. With any luck the Mossad won't let him leave

The Israelis will be just tickled pink the Americans coughed up their intel to the Russians. Last bit of intel heading that way from the Israelis.

[direwolf]

I kinda feel bad for McMaster. He seems like an intelligent, decent guy. Judging by his tone and body language during that extremely quick briefing, you can tell he clearly wanted no part in getting up in front of that podium to defend Trump's bulls--t.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by direwolf

I kinda feel bad for McMaster. He seems like an intelligent, decent guy. Judging by his tone and body language during that extremely quick briefing, you can tell he clearly wanted no part in getting up in front of that podium to defend Trump's bulls--t.

But he did get up and defend the BS....so I stop feeling bad. It isn't a secret that this administration is completely incompetent. It was known before he was even the nominee. They let the orangutan get control of the whitehouse, he's as even more incompetent than anyone suspected and still they keep their mouths shut. It's embarrassing.

And by let get control of the whitehouse I don't mean they should have subverted democracy but they could have done a much better job trying to make sure he doesn't get the chance with better candidates, more speaking out against him etc

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by New Era

I hate defending bloggers as I think they are the lowest form of journalism, but WTF? How is this site even remotely close to Infowars.com? It's a site that's only been up since January and has a whopping 23 posts. Where's the hundreds of stories?

We're talking a site with limited traffic, and only real traffic since April 17th, versus Infowars with 983,557 page views per day, 364,748 unique visitors a day, and almost 6 million unique visitors a month. This little blog, that almost no one has heard about, is the answer to Infowars?

I don't recommend taking anything from this source seriously, and tell people to find information from sources with a few decades of work and a reputation for solid journalism, but come on. Your hyperbole is a massive swing and a miss.

I agree with you, but I didn't really mean in scope but in purpose. It isn't as crazy, isn't as horrible. But it's meant to appeal to people who want to read certain things without regard to whether it's true. When the bloggers tweet literally 5 times as much about how right they are than substantive subjects, it reveals intent.