Dump Shithole

[Judge Smails]

and from last night...

this is a major problem as many people in this country only watch or read Fox News and think this is a news program and not an entertainment program.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/outraged-sea ... 21944.html

Fox News host Sean Hannity urged the White House on Monday night to “restructure” its daily briefings to limit the media’s ability to ask questions.

On the same day The Washington Post reported that Trump leaked “highly classified information” to Russian officials in the Oval Office, Hannity said:

“First, the White House press team should regularly develop a list of the top and most important 15, 20, 25 issues of the day. Next, the media, well, they should be able to submit questions about these issues in writing, give the White House time to respond with clarity and specificity, and if Sean Spicer then wants to take a couple of questions from the briefing room podium, that’s fine. But only on those specific topics.”

He said Spicer could follow up on other questions ... in writing.

“You, the American people, would be better served,” Hannity claimed.

Hannity, a vocal Trump supporter, said last week that the White House could do away with media briefings and the president could just “tweet out his accomplishments instead.”

[exitflagger]

White House representatives: "The president absolutely did NOT divulge any sensitive classified information in the meeting."

Trump: "Yes and the sensitive classified information that I shared was important to everybody's interests and I was within my authority to talk about that."

White House representatives: "Ummm..."

[TawnyVonJagger]

and from last night...

this is a major problem as many people in this country only watch or read Fox News and think this is a news program and not an entertainment program.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/outraged-sea ... 21944.html

Fox News host Sean Hannity urged the White House on Monday night to “restructure” its daily briefings to limit the media’s ability to ask questions.

On the same day The Washington Post reported that Trump leaked “highly classified information” to Russian officials in the Oval Office, Hannity said:

“First, the White House press team should regularly develop a list of the top and most important 15, 20, 25 issues of the day. Next, the media, well, they should be able to submit questions about these issues in writing, give the White House time to respond with clarity and specificity, and if Sean Spicer then wants to take a couple of questions from the briefing room podium, that’s fine. But only on those specific topics.”

He said Spicer could follow up on other questions ... in writing.

“You, the American people, would be better served,” Hannity claimed.

Hannity, a vocal Trump supporter, said last week that the White House could do away with media briefings and the president could just “tweet out his accomplishments instead.”

Oh yeah, that sounds perfectly reasonable!

[SebastianLeeDanzig]

So, who do you think Trump threw under the bus there? Jordan? Israel? Both amazing choices to piss off these days with the involvement in the middle East.

I was also reading great things about Trump's upcoming meeting with Recep Erdogan. Since they're supposed to be buddies and Turkey is mortally offended that Trump would go with the YPG in the planned attack on Raqqa, there's some kind of deal in the air, where in return Trump might help Turkey in attacks against PKK in Northern Iraq. Which neither has any fucking business to do, in case you're not following these kind of things. Otherwise, Trump could seriously piss off Erdogan (who's cut from the same crazy despot cloth) and make Turkey a serious enemy. So that might escalate the Syrian war even more, in lots of new ways.

Either way, that's phenomenally sensitive and dangerous ground, so let's be happy it's in the tiny hands of a brilliant mind.

[TenBenny]

Now Trump is defending sharing classified information with the Russians. I'm shaking my fucking head here in disbelief.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ith-russia

[Turner Coates]

I saw a clip in which Trump said he had a "very successful" meeting with the Russian reps, and that they would accomplish much in the next "seven years."
Sounds like they've got a long range plan, don't it? Seven years of this shit would be a LOT of work/unpleasantness for Trump.
Maybe the golden shower story is true.

Edited to add:
I just saw the clip again. He said "coming" years.
I still think the Russians have Trump by the balls.

[DEATH ROW JOE]

This is being/was projected onto Trump hotel in DC tonight.

[Machado]

i sure am enjoying his downward spiral. at least 1 year from now he will
not be president, but he sure will blame everybody else for his demise.
which is the act of a true coward.

[Machado]

And here we have TODAY'S scandal that would've gotten a Democrat in the deepest of shits.

Right?!

As a former Conservative who has been firmly shaken and awakened by this administration, I can only marvel at how weak these people are. Obama could have worn white past Labor Day and Republicans would have been calling for his head. The fact that they're not desperately trying to save face and save the party just does not compute.

it is called "hypocrisy 101". look it up. "their man" is in office so they will exhaust all options/all avenues in order
to give the man a second chance. but if this was Obama or Hillary, the same people would be shouting on
the rooftops that Hillary is the devil and the new hitler.
but not Trump, he's not Hitler quite yet because he's white and he's their man, etc...
HORSE-SHIT!

[Turner Coates]

i sure am enjoying his downward spiral. at least 1 year from now he will
not be president, but he sure will blame everybody else for his demise.
which is the act of a true coward.

What if he and Russia already have everything mapped out, and you end up decimating toilets in Tijuana?

[Machado]

i sure am enjoying his downward spiral. at least 1 year from now he will
not be president, but he sure will blame everybody else for his demise.
which is the act of a true coward.

What if he and Russia already have everything mapped out, and you end up decimating toilets in Tijuana?

[Turner Coates]

i sure am enjoying his downward spiral. at least 1 year from now he will
not be president, but he sure will blame everybody else for his demise.
which is the act of a true coward.

What if he and Russia already have everything mapped out, and you end up decimating toilets in Tijuana?

Yeah. Think about THAT.

[Rageman]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/w ... .html?_r=3

There is a fear among some of Trump's senior advisers about leaving him alone in meetings with foreign leaders out of concern he might speak out of turn.
General McMaster, in particular, has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations when he believes the president is straying off topic or onto boggy diplomatic ground.

This has, at times, chafed the president, according with two officials with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Trump, who still openly laments having to dismiss his first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has groused that General McMaster talks too much in meetings, and the president referred to him as "a pain", according to one of the officials.

In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling - and honest - defense of the president:
that Mr. Trump, a hasty and indifferent reader of printed briefing materials, simply did not possess the interest or knowledge of the granular details of intelligence gathering to leak specific sources and methods of intelligence gathering that would do harm to United States allies.

[DEATH ROW JOE]

LMFAO @ "hasty and indifferent reader of printed briefing materials"

They defend him by arguing that he's too fucking stupid to do any damage.

[Judge Smails]

and now this - but of course - tonight on "HANNITY" - "Which kinds of pants do men prefer, cuffed or the other kind"

Comey says Trump asked him to end Flynn investigation

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/p ... .html?_r=1

WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The existence of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.

The historic moments, head-spinning developments and inside-the-White House intrigue.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.”

In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.

“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

In testimony to the Senate last week, the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, said, “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”

Mr. McCabe was referring to the broad investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The investigation into Mr. Flynn is separate.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified — about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department about the conversation or his memos.

Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey last week. Trump administration officials have provided multiple, conflicting accounts of the reasoning behind Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Mr. Trump said in a television interview that one of the reasons was because he believed “this Russia thing” was a “made-up story.”

The Feb. 14 meeting took place just a day after Mr. Flynn was forced out of his job after it was revealed he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of phone conversations he had had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Despite the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey, the investigation of Mr. Flynn has proceeded. In Virginia, a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas in recent weeks for records related to Mr. Flynn. Part of the Flynn investigation is centered on his financial ties to Russia and Turkey.

Mr. Comey had been in the Oval Office that day with other senior national security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. When the meeting ended, Mr. Trump told those present — including Mr. Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to leave the room except for Mr. Comey.

Alone in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began the discussion by condemning leaks to the news media, saying that Mr. Comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.

Mr. Trump then turned the discussion to Mr. Flynn.

After writing up a memo that outlined the meeting, Mr. Comey shared it with senior F.B.I. officials. Mr. Comey and his aides perceived Mr. Trump’s comments as an effort to influence the investigation, but they decided that they would try to keep the conversation secret — even from the F.B.I. agents working on the Russia investigation — so the details of the conversation would not affect the investigation.

Mr. Comey was known among his closest advisers to document conversations that he believed would later be called into question, according to two former confidants, who said Mr. Comey was uncomfortable at times with his relationship with Mr. Trump.
Five Contradictions in the White House’s Story About Comey’s Firing

The Trump administration has offered conflicting answers about how and why the F.B.I. director, James Comey, was fired.

Mr. Comey’s recollection has been bolstered in the past by F.B.I. notes. In 2007, he told Congress about a now-famous showdown with senior White House officials over the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The White House disputed Mr. Comey’s account, but the F.B.I. director at the time, Robert S. Mueller III, kept notes that backed up Mr. Comey’s story.

The White House has repeatedly crossed lines that other administrations have been reluctant to cross when discussing politically charged criminal investigations. Mr. Trump has disparaged the continuing F.B.I. investigation as a hoax and called for an inquiry into his political rivals. His representatives have taken the unusual step of declaring no need for a special prosecutor to investigate the president’s associates.

The Oval Office meeting occurred a little more than two weeks after Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Comey to the White House for a lengthy, one-on-one dinner at the residence. At that dinner, on Jan. 27, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey at least two times for a pledge of loyalty — which Mr. Comey declined, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.

In a Twitter post on Friday, Mr. Trump said that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

After the meeting, Mr. Comey’s associates did not believe there was any way to corroborate Mr. Trump’s statements. But Mr. Trump’s suggestion last week that he was keeping tapes has made them wonder whether there are tapes that back up Mr. Comey’s account.

The Jan. 27 dinner came a day after White House officials learned that Mr. Flynn had been interviewed by F.B.I. agents about his phone calls with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak. On Jan. 26, Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates told the White House counsel about the interview, and said Mr. Flynn could be subject to blackmail by the Russians because they knew he had lied about the content of the calls.

Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

[Machado]

there are no tapes. just more "hot air" from Trump. he was taught to threaten anybody
and watch them wilt. sorry, not this guy. he can make as many threats as he wants but
Comey is going to stand his ground and call that bluff.

[Rageman]

Saw this link left in another forum . . . no idea who he is or who he knows but you've got to give Obama major props if true.
https://twitter.com/PuestoLoco/status/8 ... 2Fpage-390

From a very knowledgeable source: Crumbs Obama left to see if Trump was leaking to Russians have surfaced in Moscow.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse walk and talk on his way to some elevators
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/ ... 6879637505

[SebastianLeeDanzig]

So, who do you think Trump threw under the bus there? Jordan? Israel? Both amazing choices to piss off these days with the involvement in the middle East.

I was also reading great things about Trump's upcoming meeting with Recep Erdogan. Since they're supposed to be buddies and Turkey is mortally offended that Trump would go with the YPG in the planned attack on Raqqa, there's some kind of deal in the air, where in return Trump might help Turkey in attacks against PKK in Northern Iraq. Which neither has any fucking business to do, in case you're not following these kind of things. Otherwise, Trump could seriously piss off Erdogan (who's cut from the same crazy despot cloth) and make Turkey a serious enemy. So that might escalate the Syrian war even more, in lots of new ways.

Either way, that's phenomenally sensitive and dangerous ground, so let's be happy it's in the tiny hands of a brilliant mind.

Now it appears the intelligence came from Israel. I'm sure they will love to give away future information for terror defense to the US now, that doesn't share it with its closest allies, but with Russia, an ally of Iran, the biggest enemy of Israel. Well done, Mr. President!

Anybody catch this article?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opin ... .html?_r=0

When the World Is Led by a Child

At certain times Donald Trump has seemed like a budding authoritarian, a corrupt Nixon, a rabble-rousing populist or a big business corporatist. But as Trump has settled into his White House role, he has given a series of long interviews, and when you study the transcripts it becomes clear that fundamentally he is none of these things. At base, Trump is an infantalist. There are three tasks that most mature adults have sort of figured out by the time they hit 25. Trump has mastered none of them. Immaturity is becoming the dominant note of his presidency, lack of self-control his leitmotif.

First, most adults have learned to sit still. But mentally, Trump is still a 7-year-old boy who is bouncing around the classroom. Trump’s answers in these interviews are not very long — 200 words at the high end — but he will typically flit through four or five topics before ending up with how unfair the press is to him. His inability to focus his attention makes it hard for him to learn and master facts. He is ill informed about his own policies and tramples his own talking points. It makes it hard to control his mouth. On an impulse, he will promise a tax reform when his staff has done little of the actual work.

Second, most people of drinking age have achieved some accurate sense of themselves, some internal criteria to measure their own merits and demerits. But Trump seems to need perpetual outside approval to stabilize his sense of self, so he is perpetually desperate for approval, telling heroic fabulist tales about himself. [...] Trump is not only trying to deceive others. His falsehoods are attempts to build a world in which he can feel good for an instant and comfortably deceive himself.

He is thus the all-time record-holder of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon in which the incompetent person is too incompetent to understand his own incompetence. Trump thought he’d be celebrated for firing James Comey. He thought his press coverage would grow wildly positive once he won the nomination. He is perpetually surprised because reality does not comport with his fantasies.

Third, by adulthood most people can perceive how others are thinking. For example, they learn subtle arts such as false modesty so they won’t be perceived as obnoxious. But Trump seems to have not yet developed a theory of mind. Other people are black boxes that supply either affirmation or disapproval. As a result, he is weirdly transparent. He wants people to love him, so he is constantly telling interviewers that he is widely loved. In Trump’s telling, every meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes but his guests stayed two hours because they liked him so much.

Which brings us to the reports that Trump betrayed an intelligence source and leaked secrets to his Russian visitors. From all we know so far, Trump didn’t do it because he is a Russian agent, or for any malevolent intent. He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires.

The Russian leak story reveals one other thing, the dangerousness of a hollow man. Our institutions depend on people who have enough engraved character traits to fulfill their assigned duties. But there is perpetually less to Trump than it appears. When we analyze a president’s utterances we tend to assume that there is some substantive process behind the words, that it’s part of some strategic intent. But Trump’s statements don’t necessarily come from anywhere, lead anywhere or have a permanent reality beyond his wish to be liked at any given instant.

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

[Rageman]

I'm pretty sure that it's universally known that Mossad is the best intelligence organization on the planet. This is not a group that you want to cross, yet Agent Orange has already done that within 4 months.

I'm exhausted with this fool. Someone take his ass out on this upcoming trip to countries with little to no extradition to the USA. Probably setting up a possible exile situation.

[Danzig in the Dark]

I'm pretty sure that it's universally known that Mossad is the best intelligence organization on the planet. This is not a group that you want to cross, yet Agent Orange has already done that within 4 months.

The most hyped, for sure.

[exitflagger]

Who called "under 120 days" for their prediction? First official House call for Trump to be impeached: 118 days in.

Trump = massive "unpresidented" failure.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

[TawnyVonJagger]

Speaking at the Coast Guard Commencement, Trump has to make it about him. "No politician has been treated worse or more unfairly..."

Jesus fucking Christ. Kinda inappropriate, dontcha think?

[vlad]

Speaking at the Coast Guard Commencement, Trump has to make it about him. "No politician has been treated worse or more unfairly..."

Jesus fucking Christ. Kinda inappropriate, dontcha think?

His admin wanted to cut the USCG by 12% or something, too. I do think this was a wisely cynical ploy by them. Trump needs his massive ego stroked, and maybe the Academy thought is they let him spew on their stage he'd not continue with that idea.

[killeverything]

"No politician has been treated worse or more unfairly..."

I guess the Game Show host has forgotten the last 8 years.

[Mojo]

I've got a buddy who voted for Clinton, and previously hated Trump. He's a smart dude, albeit religious. He went and read all the conspiracies surrounding Seth Rich and now he's siding with Trump. This is a sickness. I can't even talk to him, I get so mad.

[Judge Smails]

I've got a buddy who voted for Clinton, and previously hated Trump. He's a smart dude, albeit religious. He went and read all the conspiracies surrounding Seth Rich and now he's siding with Trump. This is a sickness. I can't even talk to him, I get so mad.

your buddy is, like everyone else who's not an ultra-wealthy elite and supports the GOP, a rube. I'm sure he watches Sean "Party before country" Hannity

https://thinkprogress.org/hannity-touts ... b316bd1550


Hours after NBC debunked Fox News’ much-hyped report that DNC staffer Seth Rich had been in communication with WikiLeaks at the time of his murder last July, Sean Hannity promoted the story to millions of Fox News viewers and suggested there’s evidence that prominent Democrats were involved in a murder conspiracy.

There isn’t. Hours before Hannity’s show aired, NBC reported that “a current FBI official and a former one completely discount the Fox News claim that an FBI analysis of a computer belonging to Rich contained thousands of e-mails to and from WikiLeaks.”

Rich’s family also denounced Fox News’ reporting, saying earlier Tuesday through a spokesman that “we’ve seen through the past year of unsubstantiated claims, we see no facts, we have seen no evidence, we have been approached with no emails and only learned about this when contacted by the press.”

But Hannity completed ignored NBC’s reporting and the Rich family statement during his presentation of the Rich story on Tuesday night.

“Explosive developments in the mysterious murder of former DNC staffer Seth Rich that could completely shatter the narrative that in fact Wikileaks was working with the Russians, or there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” Hannity said, introducing the Rich story during his opening segment. “Now, if true, this could become one of the biggest scandals in American history, and could mean that Rich could have been murdered under very suspicious circumstances. Now, according to former homicide detective Rod Wheeler, who had been hired by the Rich family to investigate the killing, newly discovered evidence shows that the 27 year-old former DNC employee was, in fact, communicating with Wikileaks before he was gunned down in Washington, D.C.”

Later, Hannity interviewed Wheeler — a former DC homicide investigator turned Fox News contributor who once apologized for his claim that a “national underground network” of gun-toting lesbians was terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area.

Wheeler admitted that his conjecture about Rich being in touch with WikiLeaks wasn’t actually based on evidence.

“I have never seen the emails myself directly, I haven’t seen the computer that Seth Rich used,” he said. “With the totality of everything else I’ve found in this case, it’s very consistent for a person with my experience to begin to think, well, perhaps there were some email communications between Seth and WikiLeaks.”

[Machado]

Speaking at the Coast Guard Commencement, Trump has to make it about him. "No politician has been treated worse or more unfairly..."

Jesus fucking Christ. Kinda inappropriate, dontcha think?

all i want to hear from this event is "trump overboard".

[Rageman]

[Cyd]

Dow closed down 370 points amidst Trump Whitehouse KAOS.

[Rageman]

http://www.poynter.org/2017/in-a-privat ... ew/460029/

Mr. Comey had been in the Oval Office that day with other senior national security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. When the meeting ended, Mr. Trump told those present — including Mr. Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to leave the room except for Mr. Comey.

Alone in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began the discussion by condemning leaks to the news media, saying that Mr. Comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.