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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/world/europe/trump-intelligence-russian-election-meddling-.html

     

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    Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election.

    The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation.

    Mr. Trump sounded grudgingly convinced, according to several people who attended the intelligence briefing. But ever since, Mr. Trump has tried to cloud the very clear findings that he received on Jan. 6, 2017, which his own intelligence leaders have unanimously endorsed.

    The shifting narrative underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump regularly picks and chooses intelligence to suit his political purposes. That has never been more clear than this week.

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    The Jan. 6, 2017, meeting, held at Trump Tower, was a prime example. He was briefed that day by John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence; and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency and the commander of United States Cyber Command.

    The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was also there; after the formal briefing, he privately told Mr. Trump about the “Steele dossier.” That report, by a former British intelligence officer, included uncorroborated salacious stories of Mr. Trump’s activities during a visit to Moscow, which he denied.

    According to nearly a dozen people who either attended the meeting with the president-elect or were later briefed on it, the four primary intelligence officials described the streams of intelligence that convinced them of Mr. Putin’s role in the election interference.

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    They included stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee that had been seen in Russian military intelligence networks by the British, Dutch and American intelligence services. Officers of the Russian intelligence agency formerly known as the G.R.U. had plotted with groups like WikiLeaks on how to release the email stash.

    And ultimately, several human sources had confirmed Mr. Putin’s own role.

    That included one particularly valuable source, who was considered so sensitive that Mr. Brennan had declined to refer to it in any way in the Presidential Daily Brief during the final months of the Obama administration, as the Russia investigation intensified.

    Instead, to keep the information from being shared widely, Mr. Brennan sent reports from the source to Mr. Obama and a small group of top national security aides in a separate, white envelope to assure its security.

     

     

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  2. 1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

     

    Who was the bleeding cunt on the old board that used to complain about the Obama deficits every single day?  I haven't seen him in a while. 

    Pick one.  There were several to choose from.

  3. Story from Feb 2017:

     

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns

     

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    On Nov. 12, 2016, shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, Butina held a birthday party at Cafe Deluxe near American University, where she attends graduate school classes.

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    The event was a costume party attended by Trump campaign aides and Erickson, who told guests that he was on the Trump presidential transition team. She dressed as Russian Empress Alexandra while Erickson was dressed as Rasputin.

    As chilled vodka flowed through an ice sculpture—a bottle imprinted with the Soviet hammer and sickle—she took some time to brag. She brazenly claimed that she had been part of the Trump campaign’s communications with Russia, two individuals who were present said. On other occasions, in one of her graduate classes, she repeated this claim.

    “She said so in my class. And she said so several times in the last semester,” Svetlana Savranskaya, Butina’s former American University professor and a staffer at the National Security Archive, told The Daily Beast. “She is a former journalist, so she keeps up her connections in Russia. And she also works and [claims to] keep connections with a member of the Russian Duma.”

     

     

    • Like 1
  4. 1 hour ago, Foosters said:

    Shit, I'm a criminal defense attorney in East Los Angeles, and I rarely come across MS-13.

    It's kind of amazing how in less than 20 years Team R has convinced the public at large that A) Al-Qaeda or the Taliban is coming to personally attack them and their families, and B) MS-13 is now going to do the same, and were able to use these threats as a means to stay in power, even if the threats were far-fetched (think MS-13 is gonna end up in Rapid City?)

     

    Wonder what the next ethnic and/or religious based organization is going to be used in this purpose?

  5. 2 hours ago, Bevo VIII said:

    I heard MS13 is making college more expensive.

    Speaking of MS13:

    https://www.axios.com/trump-voters-ms-13-fears-targeting-families-poll-d08a8ba8-823e-4158-8e24-fa2b7cbc9616.html

     

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    A majority of Trump voters said that they were at least somewhat worried about MS-13 targeting them or their families and 85% believe that the violent gang is a serious threat to the United States, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey.

    Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly used the gang to validate his administration's "zero-tolerance" policy at the southern border and the need for a wall. While the gang's actions are indeed vicious, its members prey almost exclusively on immigrant communities in small, specific areas of the U.S.

     

  6. Source:

    https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/18/politics/trump-putin-g20/index.html

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    President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, spoke for a second time on July 7 in a previously undisclosed discussion, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

    A senior White House official told CNN the discussion was "nearly an hour."

    The White House, in a statement acknowledging the meeting, contended it was "brief" and said Trump spoke with Putin through Russia's translator. The US translator at the dinner -- each country was only allowed only one -- spoke Japanese, the White House said.

     

  7. 12 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

    Also, why aren't these things proofread?  What is going on in the White House?  "Anyone involved in that meddling to justice"?   I've clicked around the internet for other pictures of the page and that is definitely the whole sentence.  Everyone obviously knew this was a very important statement, maybe the only time he's so far out there that even the WH acknowledged he needs to admit a mistake, and they can't take the time to review anything?

    The WH is running out of warm, competent bodies do this kind of shit.  

    He probably had Eric or Don Jr. type this up.  

  8. Yeah, totally normal. Obama did this sort of thing all the time.
    https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/donald-trump-s-turnberry-firm-paid-50-000-by-us-government-for-weekend-visit-1-4770069

     

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    Donald Trump’s Turnberry firm was paid more than £50,000 by his own government to cover the accommodation bill for his weekend stay at his loss-making resort, The Scotsman can reveal.

    US federal government spending records seen by this newspaper show a series of payments worth a total of £52,477 were made by the State Department to SLC Turnberry Limited, the company behind the South Ayrshire hotel and golf course. 

    The five-figure windfall, which represents the first example of how Mr Trump’s firm was paid for his contentious working visit to the UK, has been condemned by ethics watchdogs, with one group accusing the 72-year-old of “using the power and authority of his office to profit personally”. 

    The US taxpayers’ money went towards hotel rooms used by Mr Trump and his staff during his two-night stay at Turnberry, which the president said would be dominated by meetings and calls. He ended up playing two rounds of golf at the historic course.

    Along with his son, Eric, Mr Trump was joined at Turnberry by several high-ranking officials, including John Kelly, his White House chief of staff, Sarah Sanders, his press secretary, and Dan Scavino, his director of social media.

     

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    Documentation of the transactions show that the payments were made in two tranches. 

    The first, for $30,074 (£22,653), was made on 11 July. A purchase order, part of US federal government spending logs, shows the money was for “hotel rooms” for a “VIP visit” and was paid to a “foreign-owned business not incorporated in the US.” 

    The paperwork goes on to the identify the direct recipient as SLC Turnberry, which is registered in the UK with Companies House. Its directors include Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. 

    The second tranche, worth up to $39,602 (£29,824), was approved on 10 July. It too was for hotel accommodation at Turnberry. 

    There is no breakdown of the costs, but room rates at Turnberry range from £132 a night for a basic suite through to around £7,000 for the luxury two-bedroom lighthouse suite. Two sources at Turnberry told The Scotsman Eric Trump stayed at the lighthouse suite over the weekend.

     

    Quote

    It is not the first time that Turnberry – which ran up £17.6m in losses in 2016 – has received money from Mr Trump’s government. 

    In May, The Scotsman revealed how the State Department paid SLC Turnberry more than £5,600 for hotel rooms for another “VIP visit.” Purchase orders showed that an initial payment of $10,113 (£7,447) was transferred to SLC Turnberry on 5 April. Some $2,444 (£1,799) was returned by the State Department on 26 April.

    It is unclear whether the latest £52,477 payments cover the entirety of the US government’s bill for Mr Trump’s Turnberry stay, which saw a sizeable Secret Service contingent accompany the president’s party.

     

  9. This is reassuring.

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/17/1781351/-Russia-defense-ministry-gung-ho-to-start-doing-whatever-Trump-told-Putin-they-could

     

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    The Russian Defense Ministry says that it is ready to begin cooperating with the U.S. in fulfilling the agreement that Russian asset Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently came up with in their meeting on Monday. Since no one was in that room but Trump and Putin (and their interpreters) we don't know what was agreed to exactly, but here's what the defense ministry says.

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    "The Russian Defense Ministry is ready for practical implementation of the agreements in the sphere of international security reached by Russian and U.S. Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at their Monday’s summit in Helsinki," Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry said, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS. […]

    "The Russian Defense Ministry is ready to enliven contact with the U.S. colleagues, between our General Staffs and via other communication channels, to discuss extension of the START Treaty, cooperation in Syria, and other topical issues of military security," he stressed.

    Quote

    Does it also include Putin's offer to "help" the U.S. investigate Russian election interference, thereby giving Russian investigators access to those in the United States and Europe who exposed the massive Putin-linked campaign" that led to sanctions against Russia? Exposing the identities of the whistle-blowers and endangering their lives? Giving them the keys to the nation's elections systems?

    Who knows? Trump was in that room with Putin for more than two hours. He could have ceded the whole military to Putin and we wouldn't know.

     

     

  10. https://www.axios.com/report-gop-rep-dana-rohrabacher-referenced-in-indictment-of-russian-spy-3b29a9be-d6d9-4d3d-9bf8-0eac4919a25c.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

     

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    Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) is the U.S. Congressman named in Monday's FBI affidavit against Russian national Maria Butina, which alleges Rohrabacher was part of a 2015 delegation that traveled to Moscow and planned to meet with a Russian official widely believed to be Alexander Torshin, reports The Daily Beast.

    Why it matters: Torshin, who has been described as a "godfather" in a Russian organized crime syndicate, has been under FBI investigation for potentially funneling money through the NRA to help President Trump win the 2016 election. The notoriously pro-Russia Rohrabacher did not deny being the congressman referenced in the indictment, but said that the charge against Maria Butina is "bogus," according to Politico.

     

  11. 3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    That Bridges, LLC shell company that Erickson and Butina set up in South Dakota.  People/organizations are saying it was to fund her graduate studies. 

    Why am I having a hard time believing that a guy heavily connected to NRA leadership would help setup a shell company to fund some  Russian girl’s graduate studies?

    Chad answered it, but nifty way of funding a sugar daddy relationship.  Much cleaner than handing her a debit card.  

  12. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/17/mueller-asks-for-immunity-for-five-witnesses-in-manafort-case.html

     

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    The five individuals would either refuse to take the witness stand, or refuse to answer questions because of their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if they are not granted immunity and compelled to testify with that protection from prosecution, according to Mueller's filing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.

    Mueller has also asked Judge T.S. Ellis to seal from public view the court motions detailing the witnesses' identities.

    "The five individuals identified in the motions at issue are third parties who have not been charged in this matter, and who have not been identified publicly with the case," Mueller's team argued in a filing asking for that sealing order. "Disclosing the motions would reveal those individuals’ involvement in the investigation and the trial, thereby creating the risk of their undue harassment.'

    Prosecutors also said that the witnesses could suffer "reputational harm" if their claim of Fifth Amendment protection and grant of immunity were to be revealed publicly.

    "Sealing is also appropriate because the information contained in the motions could lead to reputational harm," prosecutors wrote.

    Mueller's team noted that if the individuals do testify at Manafort's trial, their identities would become public.

     

    • Like 1
  13. 2 minutes ago, 6th Street said:

    Wonder which of his aides convinced him to do the 180? Kelly? Huckabeef?

    Probably neither.  When Fox and Friends openly questioned it this morning, he decided he had better try to smooth this over as best he could.  Then he ad-libbed onto his prepared statements.

    • Like 2
  14. 22 minutes ago, kevwun said:

    He will be ok with Nebraska republicans once the tariffs start fucking midwest farmers in earnest.  It is the one thing Trump can't blame Obama for that is also going to directly hurt a large chunk of his base.

    Oh, you know he will get the blame when tariffs fail.

    "If only Obama would have taken care of this when he was here---we wouldn't have had this issue today"  and "Obama should have tariffed the shit out of the Chinese---things would be different now!"

  15. Imagine how gaudy this is going to be.  Possibly the most iconic paint job on any aircraft ever, and like everything in his sad life he's touched, he wants to fuck it up:

    https://www.axios.com/trump-confirms-plan-repaint-air-force-one-4ef00a51-b4bf-46ff-b27d-61e914fad8d6.html

     

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    " said, 'I wonder if we should use the same baby blue colors?' And we're not. Air Force One is going to be incredible. It's gonna be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it's gonna be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate."
    — Trump to CBS' Jeff Glor

     

     

  16. 4 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    Ha.  Love the sugar they are trying to feed the President by telling him he screwed up.  "It's not his fault.  Days and days of intense meetings in Europe didn't give him time to prepare."

    Lulz, what a crock of shit.

    https://www.politico.com/playbook

    Quote

    Ahead of the meeting, staffers provided Trump with some 100 pages of briefing materials aimed at laying out a tough posture toward Putin, but the president ignored most of it, according to one person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations. Trump’s remarks were ‘very much counter to the plan,’ the person said.

    “‘Everyone around Trump’ was urging him to take a firm stance with Putin, according to a second person familiar with the preparations. Before Monday’s meeting, the second person said, advisers covered matters from Russia’s annexation of Crimea to its interference in the U.S. elections, but Trump ‘made a game-time decision; to handle the summit his way.

     

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