Trump Administration Meltdown Thread...

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:44 am

How did Ben Carson's comments that he could zap people's brains and make them recite books they read decades ago not make that list?

https://www.theguardian.com/science/bra ... -your-head

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:13 am

Joe K wrote:How did Ben Carson's comments that he could zap people's brains and make them recite books they read decades ago not make that list?

https://www.theguardian.com/science/bra ... -your-head

From the Washington Post:

Dan Simons, a University of Illinois psychologist who studies attention and memory, told Wired that Carson’s claim was “utter nonsense.” Simons said it failed on nearly all counts: Humans cannot recall large swaths of text unless memorized for that purpose. Doctors cannot force patients to remember anything in crystal detail, even with deep brain stimulation. No human brain holds within it “a perfect and permanent record of our experiences,” the psychologist said.

And just a reminder in that article of the good Doctor's insanity from last year -

And Carson once proposed that the Old Testament prophet Joseph built the Great Pyramids of Giza to store grain, as The Post reported in 2015, based on the doctor’s interpretation of the Book of Genesis when, in fact, the ancient Egyptians constructed the pyramids, which are not hollow, for pharaohs to use as royal tombs.

From Ben Carson's favourite book (apparently, he needs better electrodes). Emphasis added by me, not by God himself -

56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth; and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine was sore in the land of Egypt.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:31 am

20 minute piece from Rachel Maddow explaining Trump's potential Azerbaijan scandal. I haven't had a chance to read about it, so I let Rachel break it down. Holy fuck, does she lay out a strong case for an investigation into a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation, which is a serious federal crime. I highly recommend, as her explanations and maps showing why this project makes no sense is damned compelling.

[very short summary: Highly corrupt Transportation Minister awards construction projects to Iranian Revolutionary Guard to launder money signs a deal with Trump to build Trump Tower Baku (half hotel, half residential) in the middle of nowhere, completely inaccessible by roads, when there is a high end district on the Caspian Sea. The building was completed in 2012, and sits empty.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaoNsdWfVEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqMS4eJCjcY

EnochRoot · Post by **EnochRoot** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:23 pm

So Wikileaks attempts again to neuter SIGINT/COMINT of western societies.

Yeah, nothing to see here at all.

Jesus.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:31 pm

Seems pretty clear there was collusion btwn Trump's folks and wikileaks here.

Trump says he was wiretapped, wiki comes out with huge batch of various ways this could potentially have happened.

Not saying the wiki stuff was bullshit.. Saying wiki tipped off someone and got the ball rolling on how to spin it their way.

EnochRoot · Post by **EnochRoot** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:40 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote:Seems pretty clear there was collusion btwn Trump's folks and wikileaks here.

Trump says he was wiretapped, wiki comes out with huge batch of various ways this could potentially have happened.

Not saying the wiki stuff was bullshit.. Saying wiki tipped off someone and got the ball rolling on how to spin it their way.

Putin is likely smart enough to not even have to need Trump's collusion. I mean, the machinations are underway. You have a far-right wing media that is goading Trump's paranoia into tweeting some incredulous rantings about Obama wiretapping him. Putin simply played a card that he had at the ready.

Wikileaks efforts to expose the truth has long since been exposed to be nothing but a play for power.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:52 pm

New Yorker Article About The Trump Azerbaijan Deal

What is as clear as day (and is no surprise) is that Trump runs a sleazy organization and will rent out his name to anyone who pays.

Baloney · Post by **Baloney** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:07 pm

Trump can't even get his shamrocks right

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending- ... e=facebook

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:13 pm

Baloney wrote:Trump can't even get his shamrocks right

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending- ... e=facebook

You'd think for $50 (plus shipping and handling) they'd get it right.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:24 pm

it's ... interesting? that WikiLeaks is leaking intelligence stuff again

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:12 pm

This is an excellent article by Masha Gessen on the Trump-Russia stuff:
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/06 ... racy-trap/

For those unfamiliar with her, Gessen is one of the most knowledgeable and credible Putin critics alive. The concluding paragraphs of her piece sum up my thoughts on the issue better than I have been able to articulate them.

More likely, the Russia allegations will not bring down Trump. He may sacrifice more of his people, as he sacrificed Flynn, as further leaks discredit them. Various investigations may drag on for months, drowning out other, far more urgent issues. In the end, Congressional Republicans will likely conclude that their constituents don’t care enough about Trump’s Russian ties to warrant trying to impeach the Republican president. Meanwhile, while Russia continues to dominate the front pages, Trump will continue waging war on immigrants, cutting funding for everything that’s not the military, assembling his cabinet of deplorables—with six Democrats voting to confirm Ben Carson for Housing, for example, and ten to confirm Rick Perry for Energy. According to the Trump plan, each of these seems intent on destroying the agency he or she is chosen to run—to carry out what Steve Bannon calls the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” As for Sessions, in his first speech as attorney general he promised to cut back civil rights enforcement and he has already abandoned a Justice Department case against a discriminatory Texas voter ID law. But it was his Russia lie that grabbed the big headlines.

The unrelenting focus on Russia has yielded an unexpected positive result, however. Following Flynn’s resignation, Trump designated Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, a thoughtful and highly respected military strategist, as his national security adviser. And Fiona Hill, probably the most knowledgeable American scholar of Putin’s Russia, is expected to take charge of Russia policy at the National Security Council. Hill has been a consistent and perceptive critic of Putin, and a proponent of maintaining sanctions imposed by the United States following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both of these appointments—and the fact that sanctions remain in place six weeks into Trump’s fast-moving presidency—contradict the “Putin’s puppet” narrative (as does the fact that Russian domestic propaganda has already turned against Trump). But such is the nature of conspiracy thinking that facts can do nothing to change it.

Imagine if the same kind of attention could be trained and sustained on other issues—like it has been on the Muslim travel ban. It would not get rid of Trump, but it might mitigate the damage he is causing. Trump is doing nothing less than destroying American democratic institutions and principles by turning the presidency into a profit-making machine for his family, by poisoning political culture with hateful, mendacious, and subliterate rhetoric, by undermining the public sphere with attacks on the press and protesters, and by beginning the real work of dismantling every part of the federal government that exists for any purpose other than waging war. Russiagate is helping him—both by distracting from real, documentable, and documented issues, and by promoting a xenophobic conspiracy theory in the cause of removing a xenophobic conspiracy theorist from office.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:32 pm

And my problem with that argument is the notion that people opposed to Trump are only capable of focusing one thing. It's insulting and doesn't bear out with what is going on.

My Facebook feed is full of people railing about ALL of this stuff, not just Russia. And with TrumpCare now out for all to assail, THAT is going to be huge news.

This all still points to a very angry, motivated opposition that does not bode well for the GOP in 2018, will likely be a tidal wave in 2020.

So, like I've said multiple times... Keep tweeting, Trump. Keep fanning the flames. No one is realistically talking about impeaching him right now. It's all about how deep a hole he can dig over the next 19-20 months.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:35 pm

And, Joe... I'm not having a run at you. I think you are being pragmatic and reasonable. I just happen to think that enough people are appalled by what he has been doing from Day 1 that Russia is not some Hail Mary that must be born out to be damning to take this guy down.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:38 pm

CIA stuff is so interesting. What hackers can do (purportedly) is just incredible. Dim the LEDs on my tv so it looks off and then use it to conduct surveillance? Criminy.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 8:02 am

From "Private Eye" magazine's lookalikes section.

EnochRoot · Post by **EnochRoot** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:27 am

Pruitt wrote:From "Private Eye" magazine's lookalikes section.

I mean, no doubt she's tough to look at, but I prefer to mock the ugliness of her inside.

L-Jam3 · Post by **L-Jam3** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:07 pm

EnochRoot wrote:
Pruitt wrote:From "Private Eye" magazine's lookalikes section.

I mean, no doubt she's tough to look at, but I prefer to mock the ugliness of her inside.

See, this is something that only detracts the argument against someone. I get it, it's a funny laugh, but it doesn't add much to the conversation. I think a good example for me is Samantha Bee. I said before that the next time I laugh it'll be my first. And it's not her politics; I agree with probably at least half of what she said. It's when she would go on the offensive about looks. She did it with Ted Cruz, and look, I get it. He probably deserves it. But going after him and attacking his looks as creepy as the cherry on the top of the sundae seems a little amateurish. Stick to his policies and his words, and you'll have plenty of material. It's not fair to attack a woman politician on her looks; it wasn't right to attack Hillary on her looks as a 69-year-old woman, so it's really not right to do it with men either. That's one thing that always sticks in my craw about Samantha Bee.

Well, that, and Samantha Bee is a wide-hipped broad.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:09 pm

It's Private Eye, ffs.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:14 pm

I'm not the sort of person to make fun of what I consider to be real people based on looks, ethnicity etc. etc.

But Kellyanne Conway is not a real human being. She is a vile creature who is paid to lie and who is working as a very public mouthpiece for a sickening threat to American values.

So in my mind she is fair game.

As for adding to the conversation, this was merely meant as a cheap laugh among acquaintances.

And Samantha Bee is shrill and unfunny.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:22 pm

L-Jam3 wrote:
EnochRoot wrote:
Pruitt wrote:From "Private Eye" magazine's lookalikes section.

I mean, no doubt she's tough to look at, but I prefer to mock the ugliness of her inside.
See, this is something that only detracts the argument against someone. I get it, it's a funny laugh, but it doesn't add much to the conversation. I think a good example for me is Samantha Bee. I said before that the next time I laugh it'll be my first. And it's not her politics; I agree with probably at least half of what she said. It's when she would go on the offensive about looks. She did it with Ted Cruz, and look, I get it. He probably deserves it. But going after him and attacking his looks as creepy as the cherry on the top of the sundae seems a little amateurish. Stick to his policies and his words, and you'll have plenty of material. It's not fair to attack a woman politician on her looks; it wasn't right to attack Hillary on her looks as a 69-year-old woman, so it's really not right to do it with men either. That's one thing that always sticks in my craw about Samantha Bee.

Well, that, and Samantha Bee is a wide-hipped broad.

GOP has been going low for years and they've controlled Congress for nearly the majority of the past 23 years and control nearly a supermajority of state legislatures. Maybe we should start playing by their rules.

L-Jam3 · Post by **L-Jam3** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:24 pm

Pruitt wrote:I'm not the sort of person to make fun of what I consider to be real people based on looks, ethnicity etc. etc.

But Kellyanne Conway is not a real human being. She is a vile creature who is paid to lie and who is working as a very public mouthpiece for a sickening threat to American values.

So in my mind she is fair game.

As for adding to the conversation, this was merely meant as a cheap laugh among acquaintances.

And Samantha Bee is shrill and unfunny.

Well... I had to set the punchline up. Especially with today as Women's Day being today. I don't give two shits about Kellyanne Conway. Fuck her with a rusty awl.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:34 pm

L-Jam3 wrote:
Pruitt wrote:I'm not the sort of person to make fun of what I consider to be real people based on looks, ethnicity etc. etc.

But Kellyanne Conway is not a real human being. She is a vile creature who is paid to lie and who is working as a very public mouthpiece for a sickening threat to American values.

So in my mind she is fair game.

As for adding to the conversation, this was merely meant as a cheap laugh among acquaintances.

And Samantha Bee is shrill and unfunny.
Well... I had to set the punchline up. Especially with today as Women's Day being today. I don't give two shits about Kellyanne Conway. Fuck her with a rusty awl.

I'm so slow today that I missed the set up!

Post by **brian** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:49 pm

So this is scary as hell.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:54 pm

Mike Flynn was lobbying for Turkey during the campaign

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 10:14 pm

Is lobbying for turkey wrong?

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 10:36 pm

Rex wrote:Is lobbying for turkey wrong?

I guess during the presidential pardon at Thanksgiving, no.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:05 pm

I hope they give this guy a real dressing down.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:19 am

brian wrote:So this is scary as hell.

Sigh. Yeah.

EnochRoot · Post by **EnochRoot** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:11 am

Brontoburglar wrote:Mike Flynn was lobbying for Turkey during the campaign

From a helicopter?

Oh...lobb-y-ing.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:21 am

EnochRoot wrote:
Brontoburglar wrote:Mike Flynn was lobbying for Turkey during the campaign
From a helicopter?

Oh...lobb-y-ing.

Fantastic.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:37 pm

Echo the Samantha Bee disliking:

To think I kinda liked most of what she did initially. But it's a tired charade she lives up to.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:01 pm

Johnnie wrote:Echo the Samantha Bee disliking.

To think I kinda liked most of what she did initially. But it's a tired charade she lives up to.

It's just yelling and going for the obvious jokes.

But she is from Toronto, so there's that.

Post by **Shirley** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:03 am

I don't see her show that often, but when I do, I think it's funny.

BTW, I don't get why that haircut is related to his cancer. If he's losing his hair from chemo, that's not the pattern, I don't believe. If the argument is simply that you shouldn't pick on folks who have cancer, OK, but she was specifically making fun of his hairdo, right?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:15 am

Shirley wrote:I don't see her show that often, but when I do, I think it's funny.

BTW, I don't get why that haircut is related to his cancer. If he's losing his hair from chemo, that's not the pattern, I don't believe. If the argument is simply that you shouldn't pick on folks who have cancer, OK, but she was specifically making fun of his hairdo, right?

If he had to shave certain areas for surgery, though?

Post by **brian** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:18 am

Ryan wrote:
Shirley wrote:I don't see her show that often, but when I do, I think it's funny.

BTW, I don't get why that haircut is related to his cancer. If he's losing his hair from chemo, that's not the pattern, I don't believe. If the argument is simply that you shouldn't pick on folks who have cancer, OK, but she was specifically making fun of his hairdo, right?
If he had to shave certain areas for surgery, though?

Yeah, though speaking from experience you look like more of an idiot just having a part of your head shaved for brain surgery. Best to just take it all off. Unless you're psyched about having an excuse to look like a Nazi I guess.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:20 am

Aside from that, and I like Samantha Bee, doesn't half of Brooklyn have that haircut (if you add the sides back) now?

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:41 am

I like Samantha. Don't care if it's obvious. By that criteria, fuck Jon Stewart and John Oliver.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:51 am

Nonlinear FC wrote:I like Samantha. Don't care if it's obvious. By that criteria, fuck Jon Stewart and John Oliver.

And Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah ...

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:03 pm

She's way closer to Stewart than any of the others. It's "Oh fuck this shit" vs. "Wow, can you believe this shit?". A subtle difference that leads to a huge stylistic difference. We watch every week and I find her filling that gap that Angry Jon left.

And "Shrill" makes me roll my eyes.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:03 pm

when are we going to have a serious discussion about the hair swoop Trump has over his ears?