Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I can't say I'm surprised, specifically about lifting sanctions if Russia fights terrorism.
If anyone around him has half a brain cell, they've been drilling Trump with the importance of a military accomplishment, and specifically one of peace. If Trump could say he ended the War on Terror, in the same vein as Nixon "ending" the Vietnam War, and Reagan being associated with ending the Cold War, it would create the kind of currency that would last for the rest of our lifetimes, if not forever.
However, actually ending the War on Terror would be really fucking hard. And even just eliminating ISIS is profoundly complicated, especially since a good chunk of his own voter base supposedly don't want to get embroiled in more overseas conflicts (but when it eventually happens, they'll cheer it on more than anyone else).
Which is why Russia is going to do all of the "hard" work, though I would assume they're not going to let petty things like "humanitarian concerns" get in their way. And Trump will take the credit. Just like he's done for his entire fucking life.
edited 13th Jan '17 7:12:58 PM by Eschaton
GOP Rep.: Russian Hacking Is Just Like Mexican Singers Performing For Clinton
"Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth,” he told The Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday. “Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don’t hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that.”
These people are straight up morons.
New Survey coming this weekend!I know the Chinese paper doesn't speak for the Chinese government, but they're not the ones I'm worried about. From what little I know about foreign policy, China's been belligerent, but they're not crazy or stupid. They're reacting to what they see as us stepping on their turf.
Trump's the problem. I'd trust any other president- Obama, Clinton, Nixon, Reagan, even Bush- to handle this like a rational adult. Trump is not a rational adult. He's a bully, an idiot, and a coward, and he overcompensates like hell. He's too dumb to know he's being played and he never forgets a grudge. He's still angry about China not letting him build one of his tacky buildings, for god's sake.
Not only that, but don't forget that just as we have rabid Trumplings pressuring their leaders to take pointlessly destructive courses of action out of some senseless commitment to 'Murrica, China have their own version of that. Admittedly it's not the same situation since they're not a democracy, but if their media stirs up the populace enough and incites enough anti-American sentiment, things could get real ugly, real fast.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries.
However, say security sources, Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him. He came to believe there was a cover-up, that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
It is believed that a colleague of Mr Steele in Washington, Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who runs the firm Fusion GPS, felt the same way and, at the end also continued with the Trump case without being paid.
ARE
YOU
FUCKING
KIDDING
ME?!
My hatred for James Comey is reaching critical mass.
New Survey coming this weekend!![]()
![]()
You're not the only one, Remember, the House Democrats came out of their classified briefing with him furious and seeming to express grave concerns over his integrity and ability to lead the FBI. The plot thickens when one of them mentioned that they were willing to keep an open mind...up until the last fifteen minutes or so of the briefing.
That information needs to be made public. We're in a time of utter crisis, and the people deserve to know what the hell is going on.
edited 13th Jan '17 7:45:34 PM by RBluefish
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."![]()
Sounds pretty plausible to me. We can add Comey to the long list of officials who may be compromised by a hostile foreign power. So far, that list seems to comprise practically the entire leading Republican party, sans maybe McCain and Graham.
Holy shit.
If Putin DOES have something on Comey...he could've ordered him to possibly make sure he didn't go TOO hard on Hillary's emails, wanting her to get to the GE. Had he done something back in the summer, she would've had time to recover, if only *barely*.
Then he does the email shit a WEEK before the election for literally no reason at all...so it seems.
Think the scenario above is crazy?
Did you not live through 2016?
The Red Flags, that the FBI was compromised, should've been obvious all the way back to when Comey pulled his little stunt: There were certain Conservative Talk Shows that had insiders that said "Half of the FBI wanted this information to be made known, even though the leadership didn't". All these months of simply thinking it was petty Republicans brainwashed by Conservative Media... Now it's highly possible they were Russian Spies and Saboteurs! And the head of the CIA might be one of them!
Joe Mc Carthy's Ghost is freakin' laughing at us all. This is so terrifying, terrible, and pathetic that our Government might be held hostage by a Former KGB Agent turned Russian Despot.
Red Scare III, here we come!
Or it might simply be, you know, they just like Trump better. So far, I've seen no evidence of any direct connection between US officials or Trump campaign staff and the Russian gov't. Don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, or partisanship.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.You know, I was worried about an authoritarian movement springing up in the democrats, but I didn't think it would start so soon; people here need to take a step back and listen to themselves.
Perhaps there's a backroom deal between Trump and the Russian government in regards to the sanctions, even then I'm still skeptical (this was opposition research by a former agent, not MI6), but the chain of "logic" being thrown around here is awfully similar to r/the_donald "investigating" #pizzagate.
edited 13th Jan '17 8:19:32 PM by CaptainCapsase
I mean, even though Trump would be able to choose the replacement, letting Comey go unpunished sets an awful precedent. A Trump-appointed FBI head, meanwhile, would be living with the knowledge that his predecessor was fired for being too openly partisan, which is a limiter.
On the other hand, it would also mean we'd effectively lose one of the organizations able to call out Trump's bullshit, but it's looking like the FBI may be a lost cause on that front anyway.
I wonder what they thought they had on Hillary/whoever on that fiasco? It seemed like a dead end given the pizzeria has no basement, but I'm sure that wouldn't get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
edited 13th Jan '17 8:30:01 PM by Draghinazzo
This is a case where the dangers of letting Comey go unpunished are potentially a lot less dangerous than whoever Trump would assign to replace him. And I don't think we have much of a guarantee that Trump won't replace the guy anyway. Trump's big on other people's loyalty to him, not the other way around.
Back to the Russia stuff: What, exactly, is it going to take to get him impeached over this? Because so far the Republicans just seem interested in ignoring and deflecting it. I can't imagine they'd be any different after he takes office.
I think he made a gamble because it was relatively cheap and then won way bigger than he expected he would. So not a chessmaster so much as a lucky bastard.
edited 13th Jan '17 8:31:14 PM by AceofSpades
I've mentioned it before, but the 2016 presidential election can now essentially be considered the greatest feat ever accomplished by Russian intelligence after the Cambridge Five. If the Soviets were able to instill a handful of double agents to the very top of British Intelligence, then it's entirely feasible that Trump's entire cabinet may be compromised as well.
What's with Russians and natural talents at spying, seriously? Why can't we have a tradition of maskirovka as well?

Well, if someone can trace a money connection between Trump and the Russians, calls for his impeachment will become overwhelming.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.