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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
.. Conspiracies can last quite a long time. There is a really long list of examples. Generally, to do so, they require either to have a common justification everyone in them buys into - For example, the people who cleaned up after the US crashed a loaded nuclear bomber in Greenland kept mum for 40 years because of patriotism and the cold war, or they need to have dirt on everyone involved.
Most of the conspiracy theories floating around? Do not meet either of those criteria.
edited 2nd Apr '18 10:20:03 AM by Izeinsummer
Always amazes me how people can come up with large scale conspiracies that succeed despite requiring perfection from thousands (or more!) of people.
Not one of them gets a guilty conscience and decides to come clean.
Not one of them gets greedy and decides to sell the story.
Not one of them throws back one too many drinks and starts blabbering..
Any organization that had staff so competent would already rule the world.
edited 2nd Apr '18 10:24:30 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Trump's been busy during his "Executive Time" Today.
This set of tweets is from between 7:00 to 7:30 this morning. I bet he was live tweeting Fox and Friends.
...Congress must immediately pass Border Legislation, use Nuclear Option if necessary, to stop the massive inflow of Drugs and People. Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!
DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon... No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!
And there was another block of tweets Starting about 9 this morning.
He first went after NAFTA:
Then he defended Sinclair Broadcasting Group
And insulted Amazon again (apparently this was on Fox News this morning as well)
And just to top it off, he called the FBI and DOJ "an embarrassment to our country". (notice the Scare Quotes around "Justice".)
edited 2nd Apr '18 11:16:32 AM by megaeliz
In case there was any doubt that a trade war led by the current president would be a mess, the Dow Jones has tumbled almost 700 points in response to China's 3 billion dollars tariff retaliation. May also have something to do with the commander in chief going personally after Amazon in a tweet.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/investing/dow-jones-nasdaq-stocks-amazon/index.html
Trump's to-do list today:
- Publicly attack an american company over twitter
- Tank the Stock Market by starting a trade war
- endorse a company that is trying to undermine a free and independent press
- Try to undermine faith in our institutions by calling the FBI and the DOJ a disgrace to our country
edited 2nd Apr '18 11:35:22 AM by megaeliz
I would assume that conspiracy theorists do not assume that it is being kept secret perfectly, if only because they themselves managed to learned about it. It's also common for them to say things like "it's all over the internet " or "all posts about it get deleted." From their point of view, the conspiracy is quite leaky, but the sheeple in the public are being willfully ignorant. Basically the same way we feel about Russia election meddling leaks.
Essentially they just get all their facts from biased sources.
It must be so bizarre to work under Trump's government. On the one hand, you can't take anything he says seriously because he's so blatantly misinformed and rarely carries through with his threats/promises. On the other hand, he makes policy, and you never know if he's going to arbitrarily fire you because you did something against his whims.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Speaking of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, here's a PBS News Hour segment about it. It's worth a watch.
A free and independent press is critically important in a democracy, and undermining that is usually the first thing an Authoritarian regime (say Russia or China) seeks to undermine.
edited 2nd Apr '18 11:52:05 AM by megaeliz
I'm not sure how to stop Sinclair, honestly...it's clearly something has to be done, but that responsibility might have to fall onto us and not the government because I feel like straight up trying to block via Sinclair would run into free press snags as well
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
As far as I can tell, this is a blatant grab to gain a monopoly over the broadcast of local news, which makes me wonder some of the old fashioned "Trust busting" tactics would work.
I'm pretty sure a company that tries to gain a monopoly over the broadcast news to undermine a free and independent press, is the definition of a "Bad Trust", as Teddy Roosevelt called it.
edited 2nd Apr '18 12:20:22 PM by megaeliz
Just to have everything recent in one spot, today's WTF Just Happened Today Roundup
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/04/02/day-438/
1/ Trump invited Putin to the White House, according to Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. "When our presidents spoke on the phone, Trump suggested having the meeting in Washington at the White House." Ushakov said. "This is quite an interesting, positive idea." During a March 20 phone call, Trump congratulated Putin for his reelection victory and discussed a possible meeting. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that "a number of potential venues, including the White House," were discussed during the phone call. (Washington Post / Bloomberg)
2/ Trump tweeted that "DACA is dead" and there would be no "NO MORE DACA DEAL" while pressing Congress to "immediately pass border legislation" because "our country is being stolen!" Trump claimed that "a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA," even though the program is only available to people who have lived in the U.S. since 2007. Trump ended DACA in September. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News)
3/ Local news stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting were forced to recite the same script warning of "biased and false news" and "the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories" that have been plaguing the country. Local news anchors have reportedly been uncomfortable with the "forced read." Sinclair is the country's largest broadcaster and owns or operates 193 TV stations. (New York Times / Deadspin)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/business/media/sinclair-news-anchors-script.html
https://twitter.com/Deadspin/status/980175772206993409
4/ Trump tweet-defended Sinclair's "fake news" promotional campaign, which alleges "irresponsible, one-sided news stories" by mainstream media. "So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased," Trump tweeted. "Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke." (Politico / Washington Post)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/02/trump-defends-sinclair-broadcasting-494422
5/ Trump patched in Lou Dobbs, the Fox Business host, via speakerphone to senior-level meetings on issues such as trade and tax policy during his first year in office. Trump would often interrupt officials so Dobbs could offer his opinion. (The Daily Beast)
6/ Trump demanded that The Washington Post register as a "lobbyist" for Amazon while accusing the online retailer of a "Post Office scam" in a series of weekend tweets. Trump continued his Twitter attack on Monday, saying that "only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon […] and this will be changed." The Post is owned by Bezos. However, the Post and Amazon are two separate entities. (CNBC / The Hill / Politico / Washington Post)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/31/trump-amazon-post-office-jeff-bezos-492853
Shares of Amazon.com fell 6% after Trump attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes. (Reuters)
The Dow dropped more than 600 points and the Nasdaq fell about 3% as Trump attacked Amazon on Twitter. Trump accused Amazon of taking advantage of the US Postal Service, and he suggested that Amazon does not pay its fair share of tax. (CNN Money)
http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/investing/dow-jones-nasdaq-stocks-amazon/index.html
7/ Trump's presidential campaign spent $158,498.41 on office supplies at Amazon in 2015 and 2016. The Trump for President committee continued to use Amazon after the election, spending more than $2,000 in 2017. (CBS News)
Notables.
China will impose tariffs on 128 U.S. goods in response to Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum. The new Chinese tariffs will affect more than $3 billion in U.S. exports to China, including a 15% tariff on American fruit and nuts and a 25% tariff on pork, recycled aluminum, and more. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/01/china-tariffs-trump-trade-924833
A third woman has sued to nullify a Trump-related non-disclosure agreement, which prohibits disparagement and disclosure of information about Trump, his company and family members. Jessica Denson claims she was harassed by a superior while working for the campaign. (Bloomberg)
Scott Pruitt's daughter also stayed in the Capitol Hill condo he rented from a lobbyist. Ethics officials at the EPA signed off on the arrangement, which allowed Pruitt to pay roughly $2150 less than other tenants would have paid during the same five-and-a-half-month stay. (CBS News)
Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said he didn't resign his position, as the White House previously claimed. Shulkin said he was never asked to submit a letter of resignation. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/01/shulkins-veterans-va-resign-trump-493063
A new book claims that Kellyanne Conway is the "number one leaker" in Trump's White House, and that she leaks more information to the press than any other individual. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/01/politics/ronald-kessler-jake-tapper-interview/index.html
It sure is a good thing trade wars are easy to win and we have a genius businessman for a president who knows better than to do things like publicly feud with one of the biggest retailers and market places in the country over a petty grudge, or else I might be worried.
It's going to be real interesting to see how, in a couple of years, conservative economists manage to blame the economic downturn we're going to experience because of Trump's policies to Obama, but also credit the 2017 rally to Trump. I mean, Larry Kudlow (Trump's newly appointed head of the National Economic Council) managed to give credit for the mid to late 90s boom to Reagan and then credited Bush II with saving the economy from Clinton in early 2001, (managing to contradict himself along the way, as he simultaneously said that there was a boom because of Reagan and that there was no boom and we needed a Republican to save the country from Democratic mismanagement) but that's a damn hard needle to thread, and I'd like to think even right wingers who lived through the era and remember it can see through the BS at play there.
Or, of course, there's always the "He wasn't a real conservative" line. That's always good for not having to address any holes in one's beliefs or mistakes in their choices.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |From The NY Times
Trump Suggested Putin Visit the White House, Officials Say
That was the account of the leaders’ March 20 conversation given on Monday by a Kremlin foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov. He told reporters in Moscow that Mr. Trump had suggested a meeting at the White House, saying, “This is a rather positive idea.”
The White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Monday that the White House was among “a number of potential venues” discussed during the March 20 phone call. She said the administration had no further comment.
Mr. Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office shortly after his call with the Russian leader that “probably we’ll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future,” but officials said at the time that there were no plans for the two men to meet before November, when they are both expected to attend a Group of 20 gathering in Argentina.
In the two weeks since the call, relations have spiraled downward, with the United States and numerous nations in Europe and elsewhere agreeing to the simultaneous expulsion of scores of Russian diplomats in retaliation for the March 4 nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury, England.
Mr. Ushakov said that the two countries had not started any preparatory talks for a White House meeting, because of the tailspin in relations. He nonetheless voiced hope that Mr. Trump would not drop the idea. “I hope the Americans won’t abandon their proposal to discuss the possibility of holding the summit,” he said.
Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, however, was quickly quoted as dismissing Mr. Ushakov’s account as incorrect.
Just as Mr. Trump has shown a curious reluctance to criticize Mr. Putin, even when the two countries are ejecting each other’s diplomats, the Kremlin and the Russian news outlets it controls have often avoided criticizing Mr. Trump directly.
Many Russian officials and commentators have embraced the idea that, no matter how much the two countries shout at each other over the former spy’s poisoning, election meddling, Ukraine, Syria and various other points of friction, Mr. Trump wants a rapprochement but is being held back by “Russophobic” forces in Congress and the “Deep State.”
Mr. Trump’s telephone call to Mr. Putin took place six days after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the Salisbury attack. It angered many in Washington, including some of Mr. Trump’s advisers, who wanted the president to address Moscow’s role in the nerve agent assault and to not congratulate the Russian leader for his victory in an election in which his best-known opponent was barred from competing. Mr. Trump followed neither recommendation, nor did he raise the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
edited 2nd Apr '18 1:19:58 PM by megaeliz
Technically this is British Politics, but since it's an important development in the Russia story, and will have international implications, I'm putting it here.
Poisoned Door Handle Hints at High-Level Plot to Kill Spy, U.K. Officials Say note
This theory suggests that an assassin, who Britain believes was working on behalf of the Russian government, walked up to the door of Mr. Skripal’s brick home on a quiet street in Salisbury on March 4, the day that he and his daughter, Yulia, were sickened.
Mr. Skripal, who was freed in a spy swap with the United States in 2010, is still in critical condition and unresponsive, but Yulia is conscious and talking, according to a BBC report.
Because the nerve agent is so potent, the officials said, the task could have been carried out only by trained professionals familiar with chemical weapons. British and American officials are skeptical that independent actors could have carried out such a risky operation or obtained the agent without approval at the highest levels of the Russian government — almost exactly the same phrase that American intelligence agencies used in October 2016, when they first attributed the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee to a team of Russian hackers.
Four weeks after the assassination attempt, British and American officials are turning to the question of whether President Vladimir V. Putin himself was aware of, or ordered, the attack.
Alastair Hay, an emeritus professor of toxicology at the University of Leeds, agreed that such an attack would require specialized knowledge, to ensure the poison adhered to the door handle but felt innocuous to the targets.
“Once they touched it, they would know that this handle was wet,” Professor Hay said. “But they would not have dreamed that someone was trying to poison them. If they had, they would try to wipe it off.”
Some experts have expressed caution about assuming that Mr. Putin approved the attack. Its timing was awkward, coming too late to help him much in last month’s election, and casting a diplomatic shadow over Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup.
And the Kremlin’s embrace of proxy forces in recent years has opened the door to freelancing from other power centers, like security agencies or the country’s military intelligence, which may not share their plans in detail.
In their consultation with the United States and other allies, British officials shared a three-part case against Russia, the officials said.
The first element was an analysis of the nerve agent provided by mass spectrometry, a technique that sorts ions based on their mass-to-charge ratio. If the sample is strong enough, this technique could provide scientists with a chemical signature identifying its national source or even the specific laboratory that produced it, said Paul F. Walker, a chemical weapons expert at Green Cross International, a disarmament advocacy group.
The second element was evidence that Russia had publicly stated its intent to assassinate defectors living abroad. British officials pointed to 2006 legislation passed by the Russian Parliament, which granted Russia’s president expanded powers to use force against opponents living in other countries.
Russia has never acknowledged using the authority under the law, and has denied any role in high-profile deaths, like that of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former Russian K.G.B. officer who was poisoned with a rare and highly radioactive isotope known as Polonium 210 a few months after it was passed.
A third element of the British case against Russia consisted of intelligence — either human intelligence, intercepted communications or other information — that the officials would not share.
edited 2nd Apr '18 1:37:24 PM by megaeliz
- Publicly attack an american company over twitter
- Tank the Stock Market by starting a trade war
- endorse a company that is trying to undermine a free and independent press
- Try to undermine faith in our institutions by calling the FBI and the DOJ a disgrace to our country
You forgot something:
- Release a video on his Twitter feed commemorating the start of the 2018 White House Easter Egg Roll which includes the following description of the White House:
Full speech from the video for those who don't want to visit his Twitter feed
Welcome to the 2018 White House Easter Egg Roll. So many people, you know, it's supposed to be pouring, the weather. It was supposed to be very rainy and nasty and cold and windy. And look what we have. Perfect weather. Perfect weather. Beautiful weather. Thank you all for being here, folks. Thank you all.
I want to really thank the First Lady, Melania. Who has done an incredible job. She worked so hard on this event and so I want to thank you (almost off mic to Melania: "That's beautiful"). Also, I want to thank the White House Historical Association and all the people that worked so hard with Melania, with everybody to keep this incredible house, or building, or whatever you want to call it, because there really is no name for it, it is special. And we keep it in. Tip. Top. Shape. We call it sometimes tippy-top shape, and it's a great, great place.
It's an honour to have everybody on behalf of the Trump family, many of whom are with us right here in the audience. Uh.. our country is doing great. You look at the economy, you look at what's happening. Nothing's ever easy, but we have never had an economy like we have right now, and we're going to make it bigger and better and stronger, our military is now at a level, will soon be at a level that it's never been before, it's... er... you see what's happening and you see what's happening with funding, the funding of our military was so important, and so many military people are with us today so just think of. Seven. Hundred. Billion. Dollars because that's all going into our military this year.
So I want to thank you all for being here, the band, unbelievable, I love you people, I hear them a lot, they're as talented as anybody and any players anywhere, so thank you very much, and now I'm going to come down and we're going to watch this roll. Thank you all, and have a great time. Thank you. Happy Easter. Thank you very much.
edited 2nd Apr '18 1:36:59 PM by Wyldchyld
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.

At this point I think there are people who want to quit but don't so they can find something to prove how deep in shit Trump is.
Inter arma enim silent leges