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

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#343901: Dec 17th 2020 at 1:21:14 PM

Trump has been in a downward spiral for a good while. At some point, he might forget that line. Not saying it's so likely, but never rule out the possibility.

Wake me up at your own risk.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343902: Dec 17th 2020 at 1:30:48 PM

I think odds are his natural cowardice will most likely stop him from refusing to leave, but there is a non-zero possibility that he'll do it.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Resileafs I actually wanted to be Resileaf Since: Jan, 2019
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
#343903: Dec 17th 2020 at 1:32:15 PM

I imagine that if New York really does prosecute him and prison becomes unavoidable, he might very well start being more direct in his calls for violence out of spite.

Edited by Resileafs on Dec 17th 2020 at 4:33:19 AM

Xopher001 Since: Jul, 2012
#343904: Dec 17th 2020 at 2:00:07 PM

Echoing the last page, I too would really like to see Biden cancel student debt, and am glad that both Senate and House Democrats are seriously pushing for him to do this. I honestly don't know why he hasn't come out and said one way or another whether or not he'll do it. Do Democrats really think announcing this could hurt them at the polls in Georgia?

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#343905: Dec 17th 2020 at 2:08:33 PM

Mitch McConnell has an 'election fraud' problem

On the same day that he — finally — acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden's victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell began to grapple with the first leadership test of the coming Congress: Convincing his Republican colleagues not to formally object to the Electoral College results on January 6.

Can't say I feel particularly bad for his predicament.

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#343906: Dec 17th 2020 at 2:11:20 PM

He waited until after Vladmir Putin congratulated Biden to do the same. This is a problem he was perfectly happy to help create.

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#343907: Dec 17th 2020 at 2:56:02 PM

How long did Trump's term last?

And how hard is it to count votes?

Edited by AngelusNox on Dec 17th 2020 at 7:58:40 AM

Inter arma enim silent leges
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#343908: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:04:46 PM

Trump's been trying to stop the Count for a while now.

fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#343909: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:10:46 PM

[up]Educational vampires: worse then illegal immigrants.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#343910: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:21:31 PM

I've said it before, Trump is not going to allow himself to be publicly humiliated like that. He will just get in his limo and heat for Maralago, and act like it's no big deal. He won't allow others to make a spectacle out of him.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#343911: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:22:33 PM

My cash is still on him going there for Christmas and just not coming back.

"You can reply to this Message!"
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#343912: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:47:00 PM

Speaking of Christmas, apparently he refused to attend the White House Christmas party.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#343913: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:59:41 PM

Which positions on the cabinet are left to fill as of today? Besides the Attorney General.

coruscatingInquisitor circumlocutory square Since: Dec, 2013
circumlocutory square
#343914: Dec 17th 2020 at 3:59:53 PM

Educational vampires: worse then illegal immigrants.
Ah yes, the fabled Democabra.

Edited by coruscatingInquisitor on Dec 17th 2020 at 11:00:02 PM

My first launched Trope!
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#343915: Dec 17th 2020 at 4:24:12 PM

The remaining cabinet or cabinet level posts are: Attorney General, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labour, Secretary of Education, Director of the CIA, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#343916: Dec 17th 2020 at 4:28:56 PM

Well, he still has a month, I'm sure Biden will find a position for them all.

I think the bigger question is how quickly he will fill all those other vacancies in the administration that Trump never filled int he first place.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343917: Dec 17th 2020 at 4:52:59 PM

I really really really want Biden to choose Doug Jones for AG.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#343918: Dec 17th 2020 at 4:57:40 PM

Why Jones in particular?

i'm tired, my friend
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343919: Dec 17th 2020 at 5:05:13 PM

Before he was a politician he was an attorney in Alabama, his most prominent case was bringing two members of the KKK who took part in the bombing of a black Baptist Church in Birmingham to justice.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Dec 17th 2020 at 5:06:14 AM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#343920: Dec 17th 2020 at 5:20:59 PM

Oooh, that's a good record.

i'm tired, my friend
clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#343921: Dec 17th 2020 at 5:29:05 PM

[up]Even with that good record the only reason Jones was able to become a senator was because of the pedophilia scandal involving his opponent Roy Moore, who President Pigface endorsed even after the news broke out. It shows how screwed up perceptions of political candidates can be, when Moore actually had a chance of winning.

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
Alycus Since: Apr, 2018
#343922: Dec 17th 2020 at 5:39:09 PM

Then Alabama voted Jones out in favor of a clueless football coach who doesn't know the three branches of the government.

Nonetheless, Jones did win nearly 50% more votes than in 2017 (920k compared to 673k), so that seems significant.

AngrokVa indighost from america, unfortunately Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: Saddled with unnecessary feelings
indighost
#343923: Dec 17th 2020 at 5:57:57 PM

Trump remains silent as massive cyber hack poses 'grave risk' to government

When President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet at the White House Wednesday as Washington absorbed news of a massive data breach, the heads of most agencies relevant to the intrusion - including the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Justice Department, the director of national intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency - were absent.

After the meeting, Trump said nothing about the attack, which went undetected by his administration's intelligence agencies for months. As those agencies now mobilize to assess the damage which the government said Thursday could be more widespread than initially thought, posing a "grave risk to the federal government" - the President himself remains silent on the matter, preoccupied instead with his election loss and his invented claims of widespread voter fraud.

The massive data breach, revealed in the final weeks of Trump's administration, amounts to a dramatic coda for a presidency clouded by questions of deference to Russia and unsuccessful attempts to warm relations with its President, Vladimir Putin. Just as he has largely ignored the latest surge in coronavirus cases, Trump appears to have all but abdicated responsibility in his final weeks in office.

The White House has not listed an intelligence briefing on the President's daily schedule since early October, though officials say he is regularly briefed on intelligence even when a formal briefing doesn't appear on his calendar and a senior White House official told CNN that Trump was briefed on the hack by his top intelligence officials on Thursday.

Members of President-elect Joe Biden's staff were also briefed by officials on the massive intrusion, an official from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. Biden himself has also been given details in his daily classified briefing, which has been listed on his public schedule each day this week.

"Our adversaries should know that, as President, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation," Biden said in a statement on Thursday, making no specific mention of Trump or his administration, but also not naming Russia as the culprit.

The wide-ranging and extraordinary intrusion by suspected Russian hackers of US government systems has launched a technical soul-searching mission among the government's leading cyber officials and outside experts over how this months-long, ongoing cyber campaign managed to go undetected for so long.

It wasn't until Wednesday night that the US government formally acknowledged that the ongoing cyber campaign was still active. The revelation comes at a particularly fraught time during a divisive presidential transition and after an election that had been, by all accounts, free of foreign interference.

It's unclear when, if at all, Trump may have been briefed on the latest hack. Nor is it clear how engaged Trump has been in responding. He has left all public responses to members of his Cabinet and administration. And despite a healthy pace of tweets about the election results and his false claims of voter fraud, he has not issued any message about the hack.

Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who has been a frequent Trump critic, said Thursday it was "stunning" Trump had not responded yet.

"I think the White House needs to say something aggressive about what happened," Romney said. "This is almost as if you had a Russian bomber flying undetected over the country, including over the nation."

Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien did cut short a trip to Europe to return to Washington for urgent meetings on the hack earlier this week, and the White House has convened daily discussions with national security agencies related to the intrusion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees were briefed on the issue Wednesday, but lawmakers have since made clear that there are still more questions than answers.

"(The) dirty fact is most entities don't know they've been hacked," Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN Thursday. Senate Republicans on Thursday said they didn't see an issue in Trump's silence while his administration works to get to the bottom of the matter.

"There's still information gathering occurring, so I'd caution anyone reaching conclusions or making pronouncements until all that is in," said Senate Intelligence Chairman Marco Rubio. "I think there's a lot that still needs to be learned about it. I would caution anyone from speaking out too much about something when there's still a lot of facts being gathered.

Sen. Josh Hawley, who sits on Senate Armed Services, says he hasn't been briefed on the hack. "I'm fine with what they said publicly," he said of the administration. "It's a very big deal. And we certainly need to learn more ... I'm really concerned about it."

Asked if Trump should address this publicly, Hawley said: "I think the most important thing is to get report out and let us know the extent of the breach is. They may be trying to figure that out."

While Trump has not said anything about the attack, his former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert urged the President in an op-ed to formally attribute responsibility and, if Russia is confirmed behind it, "make it clear to Vladimir Putin that these actions are unacceptable."

Trump is also threatening to veto the National Defense Authorization Act over a provision requiring renaming of military bases named for Confederate leaders and because he wants a provision added to reform liability laws for social media companies like Twitter. The defense policy bill includes provisions that would help the US government address cyber threats.

"We have provisions in the bill that he needs in case the hacking, the cyber threats that are out there," Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe said of Trump and the NDAA, which he has shepherded. But Inhofe, who has been briefed on the hack, said he wouldn't criticize Trump for failing to speak out.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat on the panel, also hasn't been briefed yet but said he is trying to set one up for himself for Friday.

"I think he should, but frankly I don't think he will," Kaine said when asked if Trump should address it forcefully. "I don't think we will probably get a straight answer about the depths of this and what we need to do counter it until the new administration is in place."

As the contours of the data breach are still coming into view, the incident underscores how little Trump's efforts to court Putin have done to improve relations with Moscow over the past four years. Even as he frustrated his own advisers by delaying punitive measures and attempting to befriend his Russian counterpart, Trump ends his term confronted with one Russia's most brazen attempts to date at infiltrating American systems.

That is much like how Trump began his presidency, when American intelligence agencies assessed Russia had worked to influence the 2016 presidential election on Trump's behalf. The President's unwillingness to confront Russia on that front, or issue any warnings to Putin to not do interfere again, have fueled the impression among his critics that he is soft on Putin.

A tweet Trump issued in 2017, following his first meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Hamburg, has now come to exemplify the naiveté with which many in Congress and even inside the administration say Trump approached Russia.

"Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded," he wrote then, an idea that was mocked at the time and never came to fruition.

While Putin was one of the last world leaders to recognize Biden as the victor of the US election, he did finally acknowledge the President-elect's win this week, saying in a message he was "ready for contacts and interactions with you."

"We need an honest reset in terms of relationships between the United States and Russia," Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said on Wednesday. "We can't be buddies with Vladimir Putin and have him at the same time making this kind of cyber attack on America. This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States, and we should take it that seriously."

It wasn't only election meddling that failed to draw condemnation from the President; he did not raise with Putin the issue of Russia placing bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan when he spoke to him over the summer - another issue that Trump claimed was never contained in his intelligence briefings, even though officials said it was included a written briefing from February.

After multiple US troops were injured in Syria after what the Pentagon described as "deliberately provocative and aggressive behavior" by Russian forces, Trump did not respond. And in October, even after the EU and United Kingdom sanctioned six top Russian officials close to Putin for the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Trump did not.

In his book published after leaving the White House on poor terms with Trump, former national security adviser John Bolton wrote the President privately complained about sanctions and other punitive measures imposed on Russia.

Bolton listed a bevy of administration actions against Russia, saying Trump "touted these as major achievements, but almost all of them occasioned opposition, or at least extended grumbling and complaining, from Trump himself."

Perpetually frustrated by what he called the "Russia hoax," Trump has accused his opponents of trying to stymie good relations with Moscow as they sought to investigate links between his campaign and Russian election interference.

So annoyed has Trump become at mention of Russian misdeeds that, in the past, he has resisted intelligence warnings about Russia, leading members of his national security ream - including those who delivered the President's Daily Brief - to brief him less often on Russia-related threats to the US, multiple former Trump administration officials have told CNN.

When his oral intelligence briefing included information related to Russia's malign activities against the United States, Trump often questioned the intelligence itself.

I don't want to sound alarmist or pessimistic, but this... this is horrible. They have dirt on everything, maybe even information on our nuclear stockpile, and this massive cyber-attack, a declaration of war, as they say, isn't bigger news! People would rather just bitch and moan about Biden's stutter, or Clinton's emails, or what-fucking-ever they want to fucking nitpick this week! I am fed up with everyone's utter indifference towards news like this!!

Edited by AngrokVa on Dec 17th 2020 at 9:11:59 AM

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#343924: Dec 17th 2020 at 6:21:56 PM

Did they really get that lax or there are enemies they need to find and eliminate asap?

Wake me up at your own risk.
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#343925: Dec 17th 2020 at 6:24:38 PM

We don't know how extensive or dangerous this "hack" went. SFAIK, I dont think anyone has claimed that they penetrated into classified files, or accessed computers that are not linked to the internet. This could simply have been an unusually extensive email fishing scheme. Which can be dangerous itself, but we need to know more.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.

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