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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#265126: Dec 27th 2018 at 12:42:33 PM

To be fair, I am sure that government employees tend to trend towards left wing parties, in part because of the tendency of rightwing governments to mistreat them.

You'd be surprised.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Dec 27th 2018 at 8:44:05 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#265127: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:01:21 PM

With the Trump visit, it also compromised an operation-in-progress with one of the Navy SEAL teams. He's gotten flak for posting the video to his twitter, but it was prompted by the chaplain for SEAL Team Five requesting a selfie.

The pool report went on to say that Trump paused to take a selfie with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Kyu Lee, who said he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five, based out of Coronado, California. The chaplain said Trump told him: “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.”

After Air Force One left the Iraqi airspace, Trump posted a video to his Twitter account of his time spent with American forces during his visit to Iraq. Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” plays over the video and shows the president and the first lady posing for pictures with service members that appear to be from SEAL Team Five. The special warfare operators are dressed in full battle gear and wearing night vision goggles.

The video cuts to team members shaking the president’s hand before cutting to other special operations personnel and support troops.

Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist with experience in Iraq told Newsweek on Wednesday that posting the video was a break from traditional procedures that are usually strictly enforced and designed to safeguard the identities of U.S. special operation forces, especially when deployed to a combat zone.

“Operational security is the most important aspect of personnel deployments. The real names, faces, and identities, of personnel involved in special operations or activities, are usually a closely held secret in a combat zone,” Nance said. “Revealing them casually, through an unusual media exposure even if it’s the commander in chief, would prove a propaganda boom if any of this personnel are detained by a hostile government or captured by a terrorist group. There would be no denying who you are and what you do.”

...

Even during special operation demonstrations for congressional delegations or for the president or vice president, personnel either have their faces covered or their face is digitally blurred prior to a release to the general public,” the official said.

"I don't recall another time where special operation forces had to pose with their faces visible while serving in a war zone,” the Pentagon official added.

And again, from how it looks, the SEAL members were playing fast and loose with op-sec, but Trump was the one to upload it to Twitter with their faces uncensored.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#265128: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:08:17 PM

Umm...

A C-SPAN caller on Wednesday suggested that President Donald Trump’s partial government shutdown was tied to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

C-SPAN host John Mc Ardle spoke to a New York man named Scott who called in on Washington Journal‘s line for supporters of the government shutdown.

“I don’t really have a solution,” Scott began. “But I am in support of it because I’m waiting for the second coming. We just celebrated the first coming of Jesus. But Jesus is coming back.”

“And as crazy as the government is, it’s getting us closer,” Scott added. “Now the solution to having a bill pay for the wall, Trump can do this by going after every business in America that got a tax break if they have any ties to any sister/baby companies off of them that have hired any illegal aliens in the past.”

The caller argued that Trump could “take that tax break back” and “build us a golden wall across the Mexican and Canadian border.”

“I want it shutdown because I can’t wait for when Jesus comes back and gets the righteous real people and takes them to heaven,” Scott opined. “And then we have a real big mess on this Earth.”

It’s not that important, other than a update of where the Christian Right is right now.

Edited by megaeliz on Dec 27th 2018 at 4:08:34 AM

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#265129: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:17:57 PM

[up]

In fairness, my mom hates Trump, but also wonders if his being President is part of the book of Revelation (read: the anti-Christ). Of course, she's pondered the same thing with Obama (due to his popularity), so I take it with a grain of salt beyond the fact that I'm not exactly enamored with the idea of prophecy anymore.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#265130: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:26:15 PM

Three things: One, this isn't the first time the government has shut down, so it isn't an indicator of anything. Two, God doesn't operate on your time schedule of: "If we just build this wall faster, we get the rapture faster!" Three, I think C-SPAN should just stop taking callers. This isn't the first loonie call that they've taken lately- there was also the guy who claimed that not being 100% behind Trump was tantamount to treason.

Edited by speedyboris on Dec 28th 2018 at 8:56:33 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#265131: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:34:25 PM

Isn't the anti Christ supposed to be charismatic and first lead us into an era of peace?

The Last Podcast on the Left recently had an episode on "the most metal book of the Bible" and that stuck out.

[down] Could be. Either way I've corrected the error to "Isn't".

Edited by sgamer82 on Dec 27th 2018 at 2:39:48 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#265133: Dec 27th 2018 at 1:57:37 PM

Also wanting to build a wall across the Canadian border... [lol]

Someone go tell Alaska.

Kaiseror Since: Jul, 2016
#265134: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:01:07 PM

[up][up][up][up] Isn't it stated in the Book of Revelation that no human will know the true date of the apocalypse?

Edited by Kaiseror on Dec 27th 2018 at 5:11:14 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#265135: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:02:19 PM

[up]I know the show mentioned towards the end of the episode a guy who kept trying and getting it wrong eventually declared such using a verse from the book.

Edited by sgamer82 on Dec 27th 2018 at 3:02:55 AM

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#265136: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:04:55 PM

[up][up]

Hasn't stopped people from trying to read the signs, though.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#265137: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:06:14 PM

Why are we talking about Christian eschatology?

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#265138: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:06:58 PM

Christmas?

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#265139: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:10:45 PM

But Christmas is the beginning of the New Testament, the Apocalypse is the end.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#265140: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:11:57 PM

Christmas?

Huh.

I had completely forgotten the religious roots of the holiday, good point.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#265141: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:32:07 PM

Some Japanese-Americans Wrongfully Imprisoned During WWII Oppose Census Question:

Eileen Okada was 5 years old when the U.S. government forced her and her family to live in a stall made for horses.

"I remember the stench. They cleaned it out, of course, but didn't scrub it down. The smell was still there," says Okada, now 81 and a retired elementary school teacher and librarian.

Life for Okada's family was upended months after Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii during World War II. The U.S. government responded to the attack, in part, by using Census Bureau information to determine where Japanese-Americans lived on the West Coast in order to remove them from their homes and imprison them.

"The most important single source of information prior to the evacuation was the 1940 Census of Population," wrote U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John DeWitt, who advocated for and directed the mass removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, in a 1943 report for the War Department.

Under an executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in February 1942, the government rounded up about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, mainly U.S. citizens. They were wrongfully incarcerated at fairgrounds, racetracks and remote prison camps that have been euphemistically called "relocation centers" and "internment camps." In a formal apology passed by Congress in 1988, lawmakers said the "grave injustice" was motivated by "racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."

Okada says her family recently learned about the Census Bureau's role in locating her family. Along with her parents, two brothers and a 6-month-old baby sister, Okada ended up in a horse stall on what's now known as the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, just south of their home in Seattle. Later, they were uprooted again to a prison camp in Idaho that the government named the Minidoka War Relocation Center. Okada's mother gave birth to another daughter while living in Minidoka.

"I remember asking my mother why we were here," Okada recalls of her time growing up in Minidoka. "She simply said, 'Because we're Japanese.' I remember thinking it was not good to be Japanese, and I carried that for a long time."

Now, Okada and her two sisters, who share their maiden name Sakamoto, are speaking out against a citizenship question the Trump administration plans to add to the 2020 census. The Sakamoto sisters say they fear including a question about U.S. citizenship status could result in another misuse of the U.S. census.

"The consequences of adding this question are far too great to just sit by silently," says Sharon Sakamoto, 75, who was born in Minidoka.

Edited by rmctagg09 on Dec 27th 2018 at 5:33:51 AM

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#265142: Dec 27th 2018 at 2:52:51 PM

I wanna see someone try and build a wall across a border that includes multiple great lakes and the goddamn Rockies.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Ingonyama Since: Jan, 2001
#265144: Dec 27th 2018 at 3:47:51 PM

@sgamer: The thing is though, to a large portion of his base (i.e. the ones who aren't just cynically using him for their own goals/gain), he is charismatic. It's an essential aspect to being a "successful" Snake Oil Salesman.

Re: the Cohen reveal from the previous page—does that mean instead of having Rome-ing charges, he now has Prague-ing charges? [lol]

Seriously though, once again: Stupid Watergate.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#265145: Dec 27th 2018 at 4:32:59 PM

[up][up][up][up]I'm honestly surprised more people haven't brought up Japanese-American internment in the context of this administration's xenophobic bigotry.

Disgusted, but not surprised
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#265146: Dec 27th 2018 at 4:58:13 PM

As recently as 2 years ago I would have said that they were being overwrought.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#265147: Dec 27th 2018 at 5:13:12 PM

2 years ago today, Trump still wasn't president, at least, he wasn't sworn in yet. All of this happened in less than two years.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#265148: Dec 27th 2018 at 5:14:18 PM

You gotta feel for these people. They have already been the victims of the USA giving in to racist xenophobia. Now they are seeing it happening again in their lifetimes.

Edited by M84 on Dec 27th 2018 at 9:14:30 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#265149: Dec 27th 2018 at 5:33:58 PM

I think all of today's stories have been touched on already, but for the sake of summary:

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/12/27/day-707/

    Day 707: Whatever it takes 
1/ Trump's shutdown entered its sixth day with negotiations between Democrats, Republicans, and the White House at a standstill. The Senate is scheduled to be in session today, but there are no votes for a spending bill scheduled since an agreement between Democrats and Trump hasn't been reached over Trump's demand for $5 billion in border wall funding. The impasse has left about 420,000 federal workers working without pay and another 380,000 furloughed. Trump told reporters that he'll do "whatever it takes" to fund the wall he once claimed Mexico would pay for. (ABC News / New York Times)

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/negotiations-end-partial-government-shutdown-standstill/story?id=60018652

2/ Trump used alternative facts to claim "most of the people not getting paid" during the government shutdown are Democrats, contrasting his Christmas claimed that "many of those workers" had told him to continue to shut down the government "until you get the funding for the wall." (Washington Post / NBC News / CNBC / Bloomberg)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/27/trump-chides-democrats-over-border-wall-amid-government-shutdown.html

3/ Trump's lawyers asked to delay the emoluments case against him until the shutdown ends. Justice Department attorneys representing Trump asked a federal appeals court to indefinitely postpone all filings in the lawsuit alleging that Trump is illegally profiting from foreign officials' use of the Trump International Hotel in Washington. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/26/trump-lawyers-shutdown-delay-emoluments-case-1075676

4/ Trump tweeted a video revealing a covert U.S. Navy SEAL team deployed in Iraq, which violated combat operational security by posting the faces and location of the special operations unit. Trump's trip to Iraq, his first to a war zone as president, was supposed to be a secret for security reasons, but a Twitter user in Germany posted that he had tracked an aircraft that could be Air Force One, while a British-based Flickr user later posted a photo of the plane flying through clear skies over Yorkshire. The clandestine trip came a week after Trump ordered the Pentagon to withdraw roughly 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria and about 7,000 from Afghanistan over the next few month, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. (Newsweek / New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / CNN / NBC News)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/politics/donald-trump-secret-trip-iraq/index.html

5/ Trump lied to troops in Iraq that he had secured a "more than 10 percent" pay raise for them. Trump authorized a raise that amounts to 2.6% earlier this year. Military members have seen a pay raise in each of the last 10 years, ranging from 1% to 3.9%. (Washignton Post / CNN / Huff Post)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/26/politics/trump-misleads-military-pay-raise-again/index.html

6/ The acting attorney general claimed he was an Academic All-American while playing football at the University of Iowa. He wasn't. The College Sports Information Directors of America said the group has no record that Matthew Whitaker was ever an Academic All-American. To be considered an Academic All-American, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.3 cumulative GPA and be an integral part of the team. (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/acting-attorney-general-matthew-whitaker-incorrectly-claims-academic-all-american-honors-11545844613

7/ Michael Cohen's cell phone was briefly activated near Prague around time of the Russia meeting described in the Steele dossier, which purports that Cohen and one or more Kremlin officials met in or around the Czech capital to plot ways to limit discovery of the close "liaison" between the Trump campaign and Russia. Additionally, around the same period of late August or early September 2016, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up Russians remarking that Cohen was in Prague. The cell phone and eavesdropping evidence was shared with Robert Mueller. (Mc Clatchy DC)

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html

8/ Rudy Giuliani said negotiations with Mueller are "still open" on whether the special counsel will further question Trump, including the scope of the questions, if they take place. (Daily Beast)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-negotiations-for-a-muller-trump-interview-are-still-open

poll/ 47% of Americans hold Trump responsible for the shutdown, while 33% blame Democrats in Congress. 35% of those surveyed said they backed including money for the wall in a congressional spending bill. 25% said they supported Trump shutting down the government over the matter. (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-poll-idUSKCN1OQ1FA

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#265150: Dec 27th 2018 at 9:12:52 PM

... In a Memorandum filed by one of the Russian Company indicted by the Mueller investigation flat out asks "Could the manner in which [Mueller] collected a nude selfie really threaten the national security of the United States?"...

... Considering we also got information recently that proves Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016 (something that was in the Dossier that helped start the investigation), could this be evidence of the Golden Shower Tapes existence?

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Dec 27th 2018 at 12:13:11 PM


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