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Pol Lounge General News Thread of "This doesn't deserve it's own thread" (Page 37)
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OreoCookie
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Feb 22, 2018, 10:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by reader50 View Post
What's the holdup in the security clearances? By now they should be approved or denied. It's been a year.

Speculation: people are refusing to answer questions? That should result in a denial of clearance. Or budget cuts to the background-check department?
I think the much more likely answer is that certain people such as the President's son-in-law, his daughter and his son would be denied security clearances (e. g. on the basis of their financial dealings and the outstanding debt he and his family have accumulated). But if the FBI were to deny the President's son-in-law a security clearance now, the higher-ups in the FBI know that all hell would break lose for them as POTUS would rant about the Deep State and heads would roll. So instead, they keep him and others on a temporary security clearance and simply make no final determination on whether to issue a permanent one or not. In some sense, they exploit a gap in the regulations that AFAIK does not stipulate how long the FBI has until they have to make a determination on the permanent security clearance. And while the FBI could be more stringent with people who have a larger degree of separation from POTUS, the public would invariably ask why his children are treated differently.

To me that explanation seems much more likely. But of course, it exposes the hypocrisy of all people (especially Trump) who hyperventilated when speaking about Hillary Clinton's email server and the security implications.
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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 22, 2018, 11:02 PM
 
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...arance/553214/
It also demonstrates the weaknesses in the security-clearance process. Per Wray’s testimony, the White House knew in summer of 2017 that Porter would not be recommended for clearance, and yet it kept him on—in part, Washington Post reporting indicates, because the administration was so desperate for competent staffers that it was concluded Porter was indispensable. In fact, CNN reports he was under consideration for promotion to deputy chief of staff.

How could it be that Porter was still working with an interim clearance, and perhaps in line for a promotion, even after the FBI had delivered a report that recommended he not be granted clearance? In addition to showing how unseriously the White House treated the abuse allegations, this shows a fundamental truth of the clearance process: There’s no mechanism to enforce it.

“The security clearance process is entirely a creation of the Executive Branch by way of Executive Order,” Bradley Moss, an attorney who deals with national-security, wrote me in an email. “There are agency guidelines that set forth how long the process should take but they are just that—guidelines. They are not binding and there is no external authority that can compel an agency to comply with them.”
Well, there's your problem.

The FBI can recommend that an individual not be granted clearance, but it doesn’t actually do the granting. For White House staff, the White House itself makes that decision. Sometimes it will inform a staffer that he or she will not receive clearance, giving that person time to quietly and gracefully leave government. But there’s no statutory procedure that would prevent a president from deciding to let an employee work under interim clearance for eight years across two full terms.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, another Trump appointee, highlighted this problem during Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, where he sat alongside Wray. “The process is broken. It needs to be reformed,” Coates said. He called for restricted access to classified material when an interim clearance is required.
More broadly, the way that the White House appears to have gamed the security-clearance system, and exposed its weaknesses, is a microcosm of how the Trump administration has repeatedly encountered safeguards established under the assumption that presidents would respect them without statutory requirements. The Office of Government Ethics was designed to warn the White House when it was not complying with federal ethics rules, but as with the background checks, OGE had (and has) no authority to compel compliance, because in the pre-Trump era everyone assumed that a president would wish to be seen as concerned for his reputation. Nothing bans a president from firing an FBI director on a whim, because in the pre-Trump era everyone assumed that a president would respect existing norms and would not do so. Nothing explicitly bans a president from pushing the Justice Department to prosecute his vanquished political rival, because in the pre-Trump era no president had done so.
Much like in congress. It appears our entire political system hinges a lot more on everyone acting in good faith than hard and fast laws. I have to wonder if we won't see a legislative reformation of how our democracy works when the realignment ends.
     
Laminar
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Feb 23, 2018, 11:31 AM
 
Over the past two years, I was led to believe that many Republicans are VERY concerned about the handling of classified information. Weirdly, I don't see their outrage right now.
     
subego
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Feb 23, 2018, 04:54 PM
 
Hillary set the bar for what can be gotten away with under the auspices of the executive.

Assuming they catch you after you’ve left, there is no penalty for treating classified information in a manner wherein it ends up in the hands of every credible foreign intelligence service on the planet.
     
subego
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Feb 23, 2018, 05:00 PM
 
I probably should have expanded on that, but I’m in a rush. My point isn’t really what I put in that post, my point is more “it’s complicated”, and what I posted is a complicating factor.
     
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Feb 23, 2018, 09:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Over the past two years, I was led to believe that many Republicans are VERY concerned about the handling of classified information. Weirdly, I don't see their outrage right now.
Trump is proof that Republicans never really cared about anything they said they cared about. Family values, religion, human decency, rule of law, etc. Its all about the tax cuts and sticking it to the liberals.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
Thorzdad
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Feb 24, 2018, 12:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
Its all about the tax cuts and sticking it to the liberals.
Lucky for them, the threshold for being considered "liberal" seems to constantly be shifting further and further to the right with each passing election. Otherwise, they'd soon run out of targets to stick it to.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Feb 24, 2018, 02:56 PM
 
Not sure about that. There are more extreme lefties than ever before balancing things out. But otherwise 'liberal' means 'doesn't agree with us' to a lot of conservatives these days.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
Thorzdad
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Feb 25, 2018, 10:49 AM
 
Who are the extreme lefties? Other than, maybe, Sanders, I can't think of anyone who is "extreme" in any way other than when compared to how far to the right so many in the GOP have moved.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Feb 25, 2018, 06:15 PM
 
i was thinking about the safe spacers.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
OreoCookie
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Feb 25, 2018, 07:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
i was thinking about the safe spacers.
These aren't represented in the Democratic Party. And I wouldn't say they represent the majority of students on campus either. I don't think the move to some form of universal health care as a policy position can and should be described as a move to the “extreme left”, that's buying into the rhetoric of the GOP.
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Waragainstsleep
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Feb 26, 2018, 05:34 AM
 
I never said they were represented, I just said that conservatives like to piss off liberals and that includes some liberals who are way too far left.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
OreoCookie
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Feb 26, 2018, 06:56 AM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
I never said they were represented, I just said that conservatives like to piss off liberals and that includes some liberals who are way too far left.
Sure, but some of these things are just exercises “find a crazy person on the other side”. Just by the sheer numbers, that is quite easy and how antifa protests suddenly became lumped in with peaceful protestors against Trump's election. It's this what-about-ism that not only forgets that two wrongs don't make a right, but that it makes a difference whether the person doing or saying crazy things is some random crazy student on campus or a member of Congress.
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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 27, 2018, 11:52 PM
 
https://apnews.com/5bdc810e38c94b119e2e0c2d206c4486
The political strategist and online guru who was named President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Tuesday has a close financial relationship with a penny-stock firm with a questionable history that includes longstanding ties to a convicted fraudster, according to an Associated Press investigation.
CloudCommerce’s operations have not turned a profit in nearly a decade, the records indicate. The company’s most recent quarterly earnings showed it has spent more than $19 million in investor money since its creation nearly two decades ago and has only $107,000 in cash on hand.

And in 2006, a top executive at the company, which was operating under a different name at the time, was caught in an FBI bribery sting and later pleaded guilty to securities fraud. The company said the former executive no longer has any connection to the company, but documents reviewed by the AP indicate he has remained involved in CloudCommerce’s major corporate decisions in recent years.
On the day he was announced as campaign manager

This guy might not make it to 2020!
     
subego
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Feb 28, 2018, 05:48 PM
 
Down goes Hicks?
     
Thorzdad
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Feb 28, 2018, 06:06 PM
 
Yup. Her decision.

Ms. Hicks, 29, a former model who joined Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign without any experience in politics, became known as one of the few aides who understood his personality and style and could challenge the president to change his views.
     
subego
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Feb 28, 2018, 06:16 PM
 
I bet she looks great in orange.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 28, 2018, 06:39 PM
 
The timing is something else. Questions that come to mind:

• What's her security clearance status
• Has she flipped/is trying to distance herself from Trump
• Did the news covering here 'white lies' comment undermine her enough that she or Kelly decided she shouldn't go on
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Feb 28, 2018, 08:38 PM
 
Reports were she cried because she have a chance to tell people. Also, she just informed Trump this morning. Word is he also was angry she admitted she's lied.

Trump totally leaked this.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 1, 2018, 12:09 AM
 
https://twitter.com/_cingraham/statu...25193703124992
Major stories breaking today:
1. Dick's Sporting Goods
2. Sessions Feud
3. Trump says he'll take the guns
4. Hope Hicks resigns
5. Aliens blow up the White House
6. Mueller asking about emails
7. Wal-Mart raises gun buying age
8. Mueller asking about Hope Hicks
9. Kushner grift
I don't have time for this...
     
subego
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Mar 1, 2018, 12:36 AM
 
I missed number five.
     
subego
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Mar 1, 2018, 03:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
• Did the news covering here 'white lies' comment undermine her enough that she or Kelly decided she shouldn't go on
Im a little baffled everyone’s going all fourth wall over this. She’s the Comms Director. Of course she tells lies for the President, white and otherwise. It’s like, her job.
     
OreoCookie
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Mar 1, 2018, 04:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Im a little baffled everyone’s going all fourth wall over this. She’s the Comms Director. Of course she tells lies for the President, white and otherwise. It’s like, her job.
I don't think Trump is comparable with other politicians when it comes to lying, but your comment makes it sound as if he is.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 1, 2018, 09:27 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Im a little baffled everyone’s going all fourth wall over this. She’s the Comms Director. Of course she tells lies for the President, white and otherwise. It’s like, her job.
I think it's the context of the House interview. Though I agree its not earth shattering, I read it as amateur hour: telling a small truth in hopes of gaining credibility for the bigger lie.
     
Thorzdad
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Mar 1, 2018, 10:04 AM
 
NPR had a more fleshed-out story about Hicks' departure. According to their sources, Trump gave it to her with both barrels after her House testimony, calling her stupid among other things. She's seen, other than family, as the last of the loyalists, having been with Trump since the beginning of his campaign.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 1, 2018, 10:15 AM
 
I was going to talk about that in the Russia thread. Short version: Berating, firing, and publicly shamin her seems like a great strategy if you want to give Mueller an opening to flip her.
     
subego
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Mar 1, 2018, 11:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
I don't think Trump is comparable with other politicians when it comes to lying, but your comment makes it sound as if he is.
Wat?

I’m not the one who’s shocked and mortified by her statement. Congress is.
     
subego
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Mar 1, 2018, 01:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
I think it's the context of the House interview. Though I agree its not earth shattering, I read it as amateur hour: telling a small truth in hopes of gaining credibility for the bigger lie.
I think it’s just to maintain credibility, period.

If she claimed to always tell the truth then literally nothing which comes out of her mouth can be ever trusted again.
     
subego
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Mar 1, 2018, 01:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
She's seen, other than family, as the last of the loyalists, having been with Trump since the beginning of his campaign.
Corey is still in Trump’s orbit.
     
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Mar 1, 2018, 07:34 PM
 
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 1, 2018, 10:03 PM
 
I think I've heard enough rumors of people leaving that never did that I'm permanently skeptical of reporting on the matter. Kelly's supposedly had one foot out the door for weeks and Tillerson is still around.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 7, 2018, 09:03 PM
 
Profiles in courage
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 12, 2018, 05:28 PM
 
So hat's the deal with Corbyn being an anti-semite? Is this common among Labour?
     
Waragainstsleep
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Mar 12, 2018, 08:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
So hat's the deal with Corbyn being an anti-semite? Is this common among Labour?
Only if you ask the crazier conservative Jews. The same ones that say that disagreeing with anything the Israeli government says or does is anti-semitism.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 14, 2018, 10:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
So hat's the deal with Corbyn being an anti-semite? Is this common among Labour?
He's a Russia apologist too?
     
subego
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Mar 14, 2018, 01:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
and Tillerson is still around
So, I’ve got this funny story...
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 14, 2018, 01:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
So, I’ve got this funny story...
The fact that Pompeo replaced him as reported back in the fall of last year shows how well sourced these palace intrigue stories are.

So that means McMaster and Kelly to be gone in the coming months.
     
subego
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Mar 14, 2018, 02:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
The fact that Pompeo replaced him as reported back in the fall of last year shows how well sourced these palace intrigue stories are.

So that means McMaster and Kelly to be gone in the coming months.
It’s the obvious conclusion to draw.

It’s also one of those situations where I have no idea what’s objectively best.

If Trump goes off-leash, he’s more liable to bite someone, and thus strengthen the argument he needs to be metaphorically put down.

On-leash, he still terrorizes the dog park, and he won’t leave until the owner does, but at least he didn’t bite anyone.
     
andi*pandi
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Mar 14, 2018, 02:30 PM
 
he's on leash? he's off leash, or someone has him on a retractable that is long enough to clothesline everyone else at the park.
     
subego
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Mar 14, 2018, 02:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
he's on leash? he's off leash, or someone has him on a retractable that is long enough to clothesline everyone else at the park.
Compared to the Priebus/Brannon era? This is on-leash. There are marked, substantive differences between them.
     
Thorzdad
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Mar 14, 2018, 02:59 PM
 
Here's an interesting story which, if true, kind of shows you just how vindictive things can be over at the White House. I mean, fire a guy just days before his retirement and potentially eff-up his pension benefits? Cold.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 14, 2018, 03:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
Here's an interesting story which, if true, kind of shows you just how vindictive things can be over at the White House. I mean, fire a guy just days before his retirement and potentially eff-up his pension benefits? Cold.
Just posted about this in the Comey thread. It looks like he does deserve to be fired.
     
subego
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Mar 20, 2018, 05:12 PM
 


Gee, thanks.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 21, 2018, 08:02 PM
 
     
Thorzdad
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Mar 22, 2018, 09:49 AM
 
This little story would be hilarious if it weren't true. Congresswoman blames "Deep State" for Ben Carson's $31,000 dining table. This, just days after Carson himself threw his wife under the bus for the table. The Republicans have really hitched their horses to this paranoid Deep State BS, haven't they?
     
andi*pandi
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Mar 22, 2018, 11:00 AM
 
If the deep state were a) such a thing and b) trying to take down the Trump administration, I should hope they'd aim higher than a dining table. This level of paranoia, or attempt to induce paranoia, is just... gross.
     
Thorzdad
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Mar 22, 2018, 11:12 AM
 
It would be gross if so many supposedly-intelligent people didn't buy into it, or at least accept the concept as a legitimate and viable talking point. It's very frightening, frankly. The concept is being used as an to clear-out any government worker, no matter how low on the org chart, who isn't unquestioningly on Team Cheeto. Alex Jones really is writing policy for the GOP now.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Mar 22, 2018, 11:28 AM
 
It's a crazy local rep. Not worth the attention.
     
subego
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Mar 22, 2018, 03:14 PM
 
I think most conspiracy people take everything too far, but neither of the following things would surprise me in the least.

1) Powerful people at the heads of various three letter agencies known for their lack of accountability see Trump as a threat to the country, and are using the power at their disposal to make life difficult for him. FWIW, this makes me simultaneously happy and horrified.

2) There’s like, a real pedo ring out there, just like there was one in the U.K., and Pizzagate was the best thing which ever happened to it because it threw everyone off the trail.
     
subego
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Mar 23, 2018, 06:47 PM
 
I’m not sure if the lack of response to this is because people,

1) Think it’s reasonable
2) Think it’s batshit
3) DGAF
     
 
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