at least a kinder gentler response than what I have been used to
thanks
Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by seemslikeadream » Thu Dec 22, 2016 1:09 pm
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 02, 2017 10:23 am
Senators set to huddle on Russia hacking probe
By AUSTIN WRIGHT and MARTIN MATISHAK 02/02/17 05:17 AM EST
Key senators are planning to meet in the coming days to discuss the progress of their investigations into Russia’s meddling in November’s presidential election — inquiries that will delve into the explosive question of whether there were contacts between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting the highest-profile investigation, but at least two other Senate panels, Armed Services and Foreign Relations, are also looking into the issue.
The Republican chairmen of the three committees and their Democratic counterparts had been planning to huddle this week, but they might postpone doing so until next week because Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) had a scheduling conflict, according to multiple sources involved in planning the meeting.
The group has met before to discuss their investigations and ensure they avoid stepping on one another’s toes.
The planned meeting comes amid reports from Moscow that the Kremlin may be cracking down on Russian intelligence analysts believed to have cooperated with the CIA, including charges of treason filed against two top cybersecurity officials, as The Guardian reported Tuesday.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, said he is determined to get to the bottom of Russia’s involvement in the presidential race. The intelligence panel’s investigation is still in its initial stages, he said, including working through questions such as whether he and Burr will need additional staff.
Burr and Warner issued a joint statement last month announcing the parameters of their probe into Russia’s involvement in the election, saying that among other things they would investigate “links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns.” They pledged to interview Trump administration officials and issue subpoenas “if necessary.”
The House Intelligence Committee is also investigating the issue. Neither panel has put a timeline on its investigation.
In an interview Tuesday, Warner said five committee staffers are dedicated to the investigation and that more could be added if needed.
“I think the intelligence professional staff on both the majority and minority are quite good,” the Virginia senator said. “I think if we need more, we’ve worked through some ideas on how we might need to bring in designees or others to backfill, because some of the staff we are using will be people who have other areas to cover.”
The meeting, he said, is designed to keep the leaders of other relevant committees informed.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get — not just press, other members — but just folks on the street saying, ‘What’s going on here?’” Warner said. “We’ve got to get to the truth of what happened with the Russians, what if anything happened in terms of contacts between Russians and either one of the campaigns before the election and how we can prevent this in the future.”
Burr said he does not expect to add staffers or request a budget increase for the investigation, saying it could be done with existing committee resources.
One of the first issues they will face is ensuring that intelligence agencies are willing to hand over all documents deemed necessary to the investigation, according to Daniel Jones, lead investigator for the Intelligence Committee’s comprehensive 2014 report on CIA torture during the George W. Bush administration. Jones now runs a research and investigatory firm.
“It’s extremely important that they have access to all the materials, including source materials,” Jones said. “Clearly, this needs a serious and sober review, and I’m hoping the committees can conduct that.”
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) are also looking into Russia’s election meddling, though their examinations are not expected to be as comprehensive as the intelligence panel’s. In addition, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has said the Judiciary panel’s Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee, which he chairs, could look into aspects of the issue.
“What we’ll be looking at is [Russia’s] efforts in other democracies to affect elections,” Corker said, referring to his panel’s involvement. “The Intelligence Committee, to me, is the one that’s going to dive deep on the issue.”
U.S. intelligence officials last month released a 25-page assessment of Russia’s role in the presidential election. It concluded that Russia sought to sway the election — using propaganda and through the hacking of the Democratic National Committee — first with a goal of undermining faith in democratic institutions and later with a goal of helping elect Donald Trump.
Soon after the assessment was released, BuzzFeed News published a “dossier” containing unsubstantiated allegations of collusion between Trump campaign aides and Moscow.
There is also other, substantiated, evidence of ties between Russia and Trump's former and current aides. For instance, Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort previously lobbied for a pro-Russian politician in Ukraine, and national security adviser Michael Flynn was photographed in 2015 sitting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a celebration in Moscow for the Russian-funded television network RT.
Russia's deputy foreign minister also said shortly after the November election that his government had been in touch with members of the Trump campaign — though, as Graham pointed out, there are legitimate reasons why a presidential campaign might be in contact with a foreign government.
Burr initially did not want to include Russia-Trump ties as part of his committee’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling but relented after Democrats threatened to boycott the probe if it wasn’t expanded.
McCain, who has joined Democrats to call for a special select committee to investigate the issue, signaled Tuesday he wasn't sure whether separate investigations run by committees would be able to get to the bottom of the issue.
“I don’t know,” McCain said. “I honestly don’t know.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/r ... ion-234456
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 03, 2017 12:45 pm
Norway: Russian hackers hit spy agency, defense, Labour party
Doug Stanglin , USATODAY Published 11:05 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2017 | Updated 14 minutes ago
Norway’s security service says nine email accounts — including those belonging to the Labour party, the foreign ministry and defense ministry — have been targeted by hackers believed to be the same Russia-linked group blamed for breaking into Democratic National Committee computers.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg told TV 2 that the hacking is "a serious attack on our democratic institutions," although security officials say no classified material was taken.
Targets also included the Police Security Service (PST), Norway's Radiation Protection Authority and an unidentified college, Arne Christian Haugstøyl, section chief for the Police Security Service told Norway's TV2.
PST also told TV2 it believes the attack came from a hacking group known as "Cozy Bear" that is linked to the Russian Security Service, or FSB, which U.S. authorities blame for the break in of the Democratic National Committee computers last year. The hackers were accused of "spear phishing," which aims to get sensitive information like usernames, passwords or credit card information from individuals.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017 ... /97441782/
This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... estigation
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:57 am
Pelosi calls for probe of possible Russian blackmail of Trump
By ISAAC ARNSDORF 02/05/17 11:34 AM EST
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi urged the FBI to probe President Trump's finances and personal ties to find out if the Russian government is blackmailing him.
"I want to know what the Russians have on Donald Trump," the California Democrat told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think we have to have an investigation by the FBI into his financial, personal and political connections to Russia, and we want to see his tax returns, so we can have truth in the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump."
Intelligence officials briefed Trump and outgoing President Barack Obama on claims that Russia has attempted to compromise him, and the FBI is investigating those allegations, CNN reported in January. The investigation of included intercepted communications, according to the New York Times.
House and Senate panels are also investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, including possible contacts between the Kremlin and Trump's campaign.
Trump on Saturday diminished Russian President Vladimir Putin's human rights violations in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, saying, "You think our country’s so innocent?”
Earlier Sunday on "Meet the Press," Todd asked Vice President Mike Pence, "Why can't [Trump] say a negative thing about Vladimir Putin?"
"The president has said many times if we got along with Russia better, that would be a good thing for the world," Pence answered. "Maybe it's not going to work out. But I think he's absolutely determined. He had a productive conversation with President Putin."
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/p ... sia-234664
by Rory » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:32 am
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:01 pm
The Billionaires (and Mega-Millionaires) Trump Wants in His Cabinet
By Nick Tabor and James D. Walsh
Populism has seldom been so rich. Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
In his bid to build a staff of “the greatest people, the most incredible people,” Trump has nominated, in the main, plutocrats and those who hold their interests closest to heart.
For Secretary of the Treasury: Steven Mnuchin
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: At least $166 million and as much as $500 million (including $3.2 million in “profits” he collected from Bernie Madoff shortly before Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was exposed).
Business Experience: After 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where his father was a legendary “bulk trader” and Mnuchin fils rose to become an executive vice-president, he left in the early aughts to create a series of hedge funds. During the financial crisis, Mnuchin became the perfect image of a robber baron who benefited from people losing their homes, collecting $13 billion in government subsidies to stabilize troubled assets for his bank OneWest — the bank profited to the tune of $3 billion and racked up another $2.4 billion in government fees for its foreclosures. And OneWest was notoriously ruthless with its clients; it once locked a Minnesota woman out of her home during a blizzard.
Outlook: Mnuchin says he’ll urge Congress to eliminate parts of Dodd-Frank, i.e., the meager protections passed in 2010 to stop banks from repeating the reckless lending practices that brought on the 2008 market crash (and his windfall).
Bonus: Mnuchin’s grandfather founded a yacht club in the Hamptons, and his father retired from Goldman to become a major art dealer. Mnuchin himself owns a “stake” in a $14.7 million de Kooning painting, Untitled III. He has also financed many movies, including Avatar and Mad Max: Fury Road. He failed to disclose $100 million in assets before his confirmation hearing (too much paperwork).
For Secretary of Commerce: Wilbur Ross Jr.
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: Around $2.5 billion, which includes an art collection (featuring 25 paintings by René Magritte) that he values at $50 million (others say it’s closer to $150 million). He also owns a Palm Beach villa down the road from Mar-a-Lago.
Business Experience: Ross has been described as “the king of bankruptcy,” “a bottom-feeder,” “a vulture,” and one of the “profiteers of the great foreclosure machine.” According to Reuters, he’s also responsible for offshoring 2,700 jobs since 2004. An abridged list of potential conflicts of interest: He’s an investor in a shipping company with a Chinese sovereign-wealth fund and in a state-owned Chinese power generator run by the son of the former prime minister; sits alongside Russian oligarchs on the board of the Bank of Cyprus; and holds a stake in, and sits on the board of, ArcelorMittal, the biggest steel producer in the world (Commerce monitors the steel market).
Outlook: If confirmed, Ross would be in charge of implementing some of Trump’s more ambitious (i.e., preposterous) promises, like adding 25 million new jobs in the next decade and achieving annual 3.5 percent economic growth. But he might not be too stressed about it: “I think you have to listen to campaign pitches more as symbolic, more as metaphors.”
Bonus: He once volunteered to be camouflaged in paint for a piece by Chinese contemporary artist Liu Bolin, then was painted to blend in with a mural of $100 bills. With Carl Icahn in 1991, he helped structure a deal that allowed Donald Trump to maintain control of his Atlantic City casino through bankruptcy.
For Secretary of Labor: Andrew Puzder
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: $45 million (at least).
Business Experience: Puzder is CEO of a fast-food group that includes Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. — a company that has repeatedly been sued for worker mistreatment (according to Bloomberg, Department of Labor investigations into the group’s restaurants found wage violations 60 percent of the time). The restaurant group has also been sued for failing to provide breaks; forcing managers to be on call 24 hours a day without overtime pay; discriminating against an applicant with a disability; failing to provide sufficient safety gear; and tolerating sexual harassment in the workplace.
Outlook: His book, Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It, has been called a “deregulatory manifesto,” so it should come as no surprise that Puzder, appointed to lead the department charged with protecting workers’ rights, is a firm believer that government (and union) oversight of working conditions is a hindrance. He opposes raising the federal minimum wage and expanding overtime pay.
Bonus: Last March, Puzder said he’d like to try automating a few Carl’s Jr. restaurants — “You order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person.” He told Business Insider he’d favor machines because “[t]hey’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.” His ex-wife once appeared on Oprah in disguise as a victim of domestic violence (she has recently retracted those allegations).
For Secretary of Transportation: Elaine Chao
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: $24 million. Chao’s father founded a shipping company with branches in the Marshall Islands and whose ships fly the Liberian flag (one of which was once discovered with 40 kilograms of cocaine while docked in Colombia). In 2012, the family made a $40 million donation to Harvard Business School.
Business Experience: She spent eight years as the head of George W. Bush’s Labor Department. Under Chao’s leadership, Labor’s Wage and Hour Division essentially stopped fielding wage-theft complaints. Federal employees threw a “good riddance” party for her when she left.
Outlook: When the Obama administration announced the transportation stimulus in 2009, Chao bemoaned “the same old tax-and-spend crowd … that will turn our country into Europe.” Chao hasn’t said much about Trump’s promised $1 trillion infrastructure investment, but expect her to steer plenty of it to the private sector, probably via tax credits to builders.
Bonus: Oh, she’s married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and during her confirmation hearing, she sounded like a true swamp drainee when she quipped, “I will be working to lock in the majority leader’s support tonight over dinner.” (The man who introduced the couple once described Chao as a “tiger wife.”) Chao is also a commentator on Fox News and sat on the board of News Corp. Before entering public life, she worked at Bank of America and Citicorp; after leaving the Bush administration, she joined the board of Wells Fargo.
For Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: $325 million, including $240 million in Exxon stock and a multimillion-dollar Texas horse ranch.
Business Experience: As chief executive of ExxonMobil, Tillerson ran a company that essentially operated as a sovereign state serving the interests of its shareholders (in fact, to an autocratic country like Chad, a deal with Exxon could be more valuable than its relationship with the State Department). Under Tillerson, Exxon did business through a European subsidiary with countries like Iran, Sudan, and Syria, which were all under State Department sanctions for state-sponsored terrorism.
Outlook: As secretary of State, Tillerson will certainly have Trump’s ear when it comes to economic sanctions, which he’s said to oppose almost universally (perhaps in part because lifting Russian sanctions would deliver a windfall to ExxonMobil shareholders).
Bonus: Three years ago, Tillerson joined a suit to stop construction of a water tower that would help a nearby fracking project — the trucks and heavy traffic, the suit alleged, would disturb his ranch. He and his wife withdrew from the suit after the media got wind of the story: the most powerful oil executive in the world fighting a project similar to the ones ExxonMobil has throughout the globe. At his confirmation hearing, he claimed Exxon had not, to his knowledge, lobbied against Russian sanctions, then said the company had opposed the sanctions but only after they’d been imposed. He also did not rule out a national Muslim registry.
For Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos
Image
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Net Worth: $1.25 billion, with family wealth adding up to $3.85 billion more. She’s currently a member of three yacht clubs, three golf clubs, and one “premier private business and social club.”
Business Experience: None to speak of, actually. But it was DeVos, with no background in education, who orchestrated Michigan’s “school choice” movement 20 years ago. DeVos has vehemently fought regulations on charter-school operators that other states have implemented, like a ban on for-profit schools and conflicts of interest, choosing instead to unrepentantly push a free-market ideology that, as she once said, can “advance God’s kingdom.” “For 20 years, the lobby her family bankrolls has propped up the billion-dollar charter-school industry and insulated it from common-sense oversight, even as charter schools repeatedly failed to deliver on their promises to parents and children,” reported the Detroit Free Press.
Outlook: DeVos hasn’t ruled out an attempt to privatize the entire Department of Education.
Bonus: Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the private army made rich and infamous during the Iraq War. During her confirmation hearings … well, where do we begin? She did not seem to understand the difference between proficiency standards and growth standards for testing; claimed that student debt had ballooned 980 percent in the last eight years, a figure that is only 862 percentage points off; and suggested guns might be useful in schools to protect against grizzly-bear attacks.
Related
For Wall Streeters Who Bet Long on Trump, It’s Bonus Time
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... binet.html
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:56 pm
Rory » Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:32 am wrote:https://www.reddit.com/r/ChapoTrapHouse/comments/5rdnqk/nancy_pelosi_were_capitalists_and_thats_just_the/
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/826630451125174273
Former FBI Agent: We Must Get to the Truth on Russia and Trump
Nancy Pelosi's right — we can't let up on this as-of-yet rumor.
BY SUSAN SURFTONE
FEBRUARY 06 2017 5:08 AM EST
When I was a young FBI special agent assigned to the New York field office working on a foreign counterintelligence squad, another agent asked me if I wanted to meet Dr. Death. Of course I did, and I soon found myself shaking hands with Robert Hanssen, the notorious American spy.
Hanssen was called Dr. Death by fellow agents because of his affinity for black suits and his Frankensteinesque appearance. Little did we know. My duties included sitting on wiretaps, surveilling Soviets in New York on diplomatic assignments who were KGB or GRU agents, following the money, and, on one occasion, a little undercover work. In the world of espionage I was on the defensive team. Our job was to shut them down. It was often not glamorous. Whoever heard of the GRU (Soviet military intelligence)? You can imagine my surprise when, after all these years, the GRU made the headlines and there was talk in the news of Russian compounds outside of American cities. Nothing new to me. And when BuzzFeed made the now-infamous dossier on President Trump public, boy, did I jump on that. So what does this old Cold Warrior think? Well, plenty.
What struck me the most about the dossier was the description of methods used by the Russians in regard to potential recruitment of the target as an asset and to move money. My initial thought was that after all these years, nothing has changed. It was very familiar. I know nothing more than you do as to whether or not the allegations are true (House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants an investigation into whether Trump can be blackmailed over what's alleged in the dossier). It's my opinion that some details aren’t and there is a good chance some are. I base that on the reputation of the source of the dossier, the former MI6 agent now in hiding and the fact that our intelligence agencies made the call to add a two-page synopsis of the allegations to their classified report sent to President Obama and then President-elect Trump. Believe me, this was not a decision made lightly.
When making an assessment about the allegations, keep in mind that with regard to intelligence work the standards of proof and verification are not the same as in a court of law or in journalism. It is impossible to meet those standards due to the necessary protection of sources. It is literally life or death in many cases, and there is no witness protection program. You need your sources to be able to continue to function as conduits of information. The goal isn’t arrest and conviction in a court of law. It is to impartially weigh the information, assess the risks, and shut down activity harmful to the interests of the United States.
The recent disclosure of the arrests in Russia of FSB agent Sergei Mikhailov, working in the Center for Information Security (cyberintelligence branch), and Ruslan Stoyanov, a private sector security expert are cause for concern. The FSB is the successor to the KGB. Do these arrests point to the veracity of some of the information leaked in the dossier? I don’t get shivers often, but I did when I heard about these arrests.
It is imperative to confirm or refute President Trump’s ties to Putin. We have to make every effort to know if the Trump campaign was involved with Russia to tip the election away from Hillary Clinton and toward Trump. We know it made Putin a happy man when Trump won the Electoral College and therefore the presidency. We know Trump seems a bit too cozy for comfort with his Russian pal, as does his secretary of State. If, after a full investigation, what we fear is proved wrong, we will at least know Putin is not unduly influencing the man in the Oval Office. If confirmed, we have an obligation to ourselves, all Western democracies and future generations to act immediately upon confirmation.
With the constant daily stream of chaos emerging from the Trump White House, with outrageous executive orders attempting to change the very concept of what America means, we cannot lose sight of the investigations underway in the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. With all the balls Trump throws in the air to distract, keep your eye on these investigations. Support the bipartisan efforts to get to the bottom of this most crucial question. Contact your senators and representatives to let them know you want answers based on real facts. We cannot afford to settle for less.
http://www.advocate.com/politics/2017/2 ... -and-trump
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:19 pm
Democrat moves to force House debate on Trump’s alleged business conflicts and Russia ties
By Mike DeBonis February 9 at 3:19 PM
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), left, and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) stand as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D- N.Y.) speaks in front of the Supreme Court about President Trump’s executive orders. (Alex Brandon/AP)
BALTIMORE — In an escalation of Democratic efforts to highlight questions about President Trump’s potential conflicts of interest and alleged ties to Russia, a senior House Democrat is dusting off a little-used legislative tool to force a committee debate or floor vote on the issue.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) filed a “resolution of inquiry” Thursday, a relatively obscure parliamentary tactic used to force presidents and executive-branch agencies to share records with Congress. Under House practice, such a resolution must be debated and acted upon in committee or else it can be discharged to the House floor for consideration.
Nadler’s resolution asks Attorney General Jeff Sessions to provide “copies of any document, record, memo, correspondence, or other communication of the Department of Justice” that pertains to any “criminal or counterintelligence investigation” into Trump, his White House team or certain campaign associates; any investment made by a foreign power or agent thereof in Trump’s businesses; Trump’s plans to distance himself from his business empire; and any Trump-related examination of federal conflict of interest laws or the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
[What is the ‘Emoluments Clause’? Does it apply to President Trump?]
Nadler, the No. 2-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that his move came after Democrats sent two letters to Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and another letter to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) asking for investigations into Trump’s financial entanglements.
“All of this demands investigation, and of course they’ve refused,” Nadler said Thursday at the House Democrats’ annual policy retreat here. “This resolution will force them to confront the issue.”
Besides Trump, the resolution asks for records from any investigation targeting national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, oil industry consultant and former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, political operative Roger Stone, or “any employee of the Executive Office of the President.” All four men have come under scrutiny over alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has stepped down from the management of his business empire, but he has not divested his assets as recommended by the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics. He has also denied doing any business in Russia: “I have no deals, I have no loans, and I have no dealings,” he said on Jan. 11.
Resolutions of inquiry have been introduced by Congress hundreds of times since 1947, according to the Congressional Research Service, usually by members of the party not occupying the White House at the time. Most such resolutions deal with politically sensitive issues, but few have targeted the president as personally as Nadler’s does.
Under House rules, a resolution of inquiry is referred to a committee, which has 14 legislative days to debate and vote on whether how it should be reported to the floor. If the committee does not take action in that 14-day span, the measure can be called up on the House floor for a debate and vote.
A spokeswoman for Goodlatte declined to comment Thursday on whether he plans to take up Nadler’s resolution.
The last resolution of inquiry to see floor action was in 1995, when the House voted to order President Bill Clinton to release documents on the Mexican economy and International Monetary Fund activities.
Nadler said the maneuver will force Republicans to debate their role in holding Trump accountable for his potential business conflicts and possibly force every member of Congress to vote on the matter. Should the resolution come to the floor, Republicans would likely move to table it, Nadler said: “That means every Republican will have to vote, in effect, on whether or not to abdicate their responsibility to have oversight.”
He added that while his might be the first resolution of inquiry to be filed in the 115th Congress, it will probably not be the last: Democrats on other congressional committees, he said, are likely to file their own resolutions in the months and years to come.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... 4daba09a7d
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington
Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?
DAVID CORN
FEB. 9, 2017 6:00 AM
President Donald Trump speaks to Vladimir Putin by phone on January 28. Pete Marovich/DPA/ZUMA
The biggest election-related scandal since Watergate occurred last year, and it has largely disappeared from the political-media landscape of Washington.
According to the consensus assessment of US intelligence agencies, Russian intelligence, under the orders of Vladimir Putin, mounted an extensive operation to influence the 2016 campaign to benefit Donald Trump. This was a widespread covert campaign that included hacking Democratic targets and publishing swiped emails via WikiLeaks. And it achieved its objectives. But the nation's capital remains under-outraged by this subversion. The congressional intelligence committees announced last month that they will investigate the Russian hacking and also examine whether there were any improper contacts between the Trump camp and Russia during the campaign. (A series of memos attributed to a former British counterintelligence officer included allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.) Yet these behind-closed-doors inquiries have generated minimum media notice, and, overall, there has not been much outcry.
Certainly, every once in a while, a Democratic legislator or one of the few Republican officials who have bothered to express any disgust at the Moscow meddling (namely Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio) will pipe up. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi days ago called on the FBI to investigate Trump's "financial, personal and political connections to Russia" to determine "the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), responding to Trump's comparison of the United States to Putin's repressive regime, said on CNN, "What is this strange relationship between Putin and Trump? And is there something that the Russians have on him that is causing him to say these really bizarre things on an almost daily basis?" A few weeks ago, Graham told me he wanted an investigation of how the FBI has handled intelligence it supposedly has gathered on ties between Trump insiders and Russia. And last month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pushed FBI Director James Comey at a public hearing to release this information. Yet there has been no drumbeat of sound bites, tweets, or headlines. In recent days, the story has gone mostly dark.
Look at the White House daily press briefings. Since Trump entered office, there has been far more back-and-forth between reporters and Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the inauguration crowd size, Trump's bathrobe, and Melissa McCarthy than the Russia scandal. Trump associates are perhaps being questioned by House and Senate intelligence committee investigators, and the FBI, which according to news reports has looked at possible ties between Trump advisers and Russia, might also still be on the case. Yet this has not been a top priority for White House reporters.
Here are two questions that could have been posed to Spicer at his first briefing:
* Have any past or present Trump associates, inside or outside his administration, been contacted or questioned by the intelligence committees, the FBI, or any other government body investigating the Russian hacking or interactions between Trump's circle and Russia?
* During the presidential campaign, did Trump or any of his political or business associates have any interactions with Russian officials or Russian intermediaries?
That did not happen. At Spicer's first briefing, Anita Kumar of McClatchy did ask, "Has the president spoken to any of the intelligence agencies about the investigation into the Russian connections? And will he allow that to go on?" Spicer replied, "I don't believe he has spoken to anyone specifically about that and I don't know that. He has not made any indication that he would stop an investigation of any sort." This was an important question that warranted a response that was less equivocal—and reporters could have pointed that out.
This quietude is good news for Putin—and reason for him to think he could get away with such an operation again.
At the next day's briefing, on January 24, Margaret Talev of Bloomberg asked Spicer about reports that Comey was remaining in his post and whether Comey and Trump had discussed "the Russia investigation and the parameters of that." Spicer responded, "I don't have anything on that." Spicer's nonresponse didn't prompt any news.
In the fortnight since, the key twin questions—what is Trump doing regarding the Russian hacking, and are Trump associates being investigated for interactions with Russia?—have not been regular items on the agenda during the White House briefings. When Trump spoke to Putin by phone on January 28, subsequent media reports noted that the call focused on how relations could be improved. There was no public indication that Trump had said anything to Putin about the Russian intervention in the US election. And in the following days, White House reporters did not ask Spicer about this apparent omission.
There have been plenty of significant topics for journalists to press Spicer and the administration on—the travel ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Trump's plan to dump Obamacare, various nominations and a Supreme Court pick, Trump's fact-free charge of widespread voter fraud, Steve Bannon's participation on the National Security Council, Trump's contentious calls with foreign leaders, the president's erratic behavior, and much more. But the lack of media attention to the Russia story, at the White House briefings and beyond, is curious. It is true that the intelligence committee probes are being conducted secretly, and there are no public hearings or actions to cover. (Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, hoping to confine this scandal, succeeded in preventing the creation of a special committee or an independent commission to probe this affair—either of which would have probably sparked more coverage than the highly secretive intelligence committees.) Still, in the past, pundits, politicians, and reporters in Washington have not been reluctant to go all-out in covering and commenting upon a controversy subjected to private investigation.
In this instance, the president's own people may be under investigation, and Trump has demonstrated no interest in holding Putin accountable for messing with US elections in what may be considered an act of covert warfare. Still, there has been no loud demand from the DC media (or most of the GOP) for answers and explanations. This quietude is good news for Putin—and reason for him to think he could get away with such an operation again.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... ndal-media
by Rory » Fri Feb 10, 2017 12:20 pm
seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:19 pm wrote:The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington
Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 10, 2017 12:38 pm
Does Trump Have Ties To The Mob?
Alex Shnaider, Trump's partner for Trump Tower Toronto, has ties to Sergei Mikhailov, leader of the SoInsteva Gang, a ruthless "Russian crime syndicate."
http://www.dailywire.com/news/3936/does ... on-bandler
Who Poisoned Alexander Litvinenko? Radioactive thallium link
Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:49 am
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9355
seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 06, 2017 7:42 pm wrote:Putin Not a Friend, Poisoned Russian Activist's Wife Tells Trump
By BRIAN ROSS PATRICK REEVELLRHONDA SCHWARTZ
Feb 6, 2017, 6:27 PM ET
PHOTO: Poisoned Russian Activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, seen with his children in this undated family photo, is fighting for his life in a Moscow hospital Monday night, his wife told ABC News.Kara-Murza Family
The wife of a poisoned Russian opposition activist says President Donald Trump must not consider Vladimir Putin a friend.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News after visiting her comatose husband in a Moscow hospital, Evgenia Kara-Murza said, “[Trump] must know that such people as Vladimir Putin are not friends. And they cannot be dealt with on friendly terms.”
Her husband, 35-year-old Vladimir Kara-Murza, an outspoken critic of Putin, remains in critical condition, fighting for his life, she said.
His doctors say he was poisoned by an unknown substance, she added. The activist was hospitalized on Thursday shortly after feeling ill; within hours, most of his major organs were failing. It is the second time in two years that he was poisoned; the first time, in 2015, left the father of three with nerve damage that left him walking with cane.
Evgenia Kara-Murza said that she does not know who is behind the poisoning but that she believes it can only be related to his work. A veteran opposition campaigner, he has appeared repeatedly before the U.S. Congress, pressing for it to impose sanctions on Russian officials involved in human rights abuse.
On Sunday, Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly asked Trump if he respects his Russian counterpart, to which the U.S. president said he did but “that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him.”
When the host interjected that “Putin’s a killer,” Trump said, “Lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?”
Wiping away tears during an interview from Moscow, Evgenia Kara-Murza told ABC News’ Brian Ross that neither her husband nor other Putin opponents will be stopped by the ugly tactics.
“People like my husband will never stop, no matter what. They will fight, with all of their might.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza is hardly the first Putin critic to have come to serious harm in mysterious circumstances.
“There is a pattern of Putin’s critics being poisoned or dying of mysterious, unexplained medical problems,” said former White House national security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. “This is straight out of the old KBG playbook, and it’s death by poison.”
Two years ago this month, Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition leader in Russia and longtime critic of Putin, was shot to death on a Moscow bridge. Vladimir Kara-Murza worked closely with Nemtsov, who was the godfather of one of Kara-Murza’s daughters.
In 2006 a former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, died after being poisoned by a rare radioactive material in London — a murder blamed on Putin by a British government-ordered inquiry.
Trump’s defense of Putin has drawn the ire not just of foreigners living in fear of the Russian president.
On Monday night, leaders from both U.S. political parties were at a loss to explain why the U.S. president continued to defend one of the United States’ starkest adversaries.
In an interview with ABC News from Capitol Hill today, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was critical of the president’s comments, saying “The United States of America has made serious mistakes — we all know that — but not, nowhere near anything like the intentional murders committed by Vladimir Putin.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that she wanted “to know what the Russians have on Donald Trump.”
“I think we have to have an investigation by the FBI into his financial, personal and political connections to Russia,” she said.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/put ... d=45310449
by Rory » Fri Feb 10, 2017 1:37 pm
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 10, 2017 1:38 pm
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 10, 2017 2:18 pm
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 10, 2017 2:23 pm
THE RIGHT WING
Why Trump Wants to Disempower Institutions That Protect the Truth
President Trump is attacking the very institutions that are meant to expose lies: universities, the media and the judiciary. Democracy is impossible without them.
By Lawrence Douglas / The Guardian February 9, 2017
Donald Trump is hardly the first president to lie. But what distinguishes Trump from previous presidential fibsters are his meta-lies. These claim that the very institutions empowered in a democracy to expose lies are themselves corrupt, dishonest and lying. In spreading his meta-lies, Trump poisons the well of democratic discourse.
The great political thinker Hannah Arendt once dryly observed: “Lies have always been regarded as necessary and justifiable tools … of the statesman’s trade.” Arendt writes that what distinguishes democratic from authoritarian regimes is not the greater honesty of democratic politicians. The saving grace of democracies is the existence of neutral, politically-independent institutions capable of safeguarding truth from the politics of prevarication.
It is precisely these institutions that are the target of Trump’s most persistent lies and calumny.
These institutions – the university, the judiciary and the free press – subject the statements of politicians to truth-testing. In this way, citizens can make informed choices at the polls. Without these institutions – and, just as crucially, without belief in their integrity – democratic self-governance would be impossible.
That is why it is significant that after storefront windows in downtown Berkeley were smashed by non-student rioters, Trump threatened to withdraw federal funds from the University of California, Berkeley, for practicing “violence on innocent people with a different point of view”.
After US district court judge James Robart, a stalwart Republican jurist appointed by George W Bush, issued a nationwide stay on the president’s travel ban, Trump attacked Robart as a “so-called judge”, and encouraged his supporters to “blame him [Robart] and the court system” if “something bad happens”.
And in response to reports of a testy phone call with the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Trump insisted the conversation had been “very civil” and dismissed claims to the contrary as “FAKE NEWS” that the “media lied about”.
These are not ordinary lies. These are meta-lies, second-order lies, lies about the very institutions vouchsafed with testing and examining the truthfulness of political statements.
This reckless disregard of reality reveals an unusual quality to Trump’s lying. Other presidents lied to deceive their opponents. Not so Trump. Trump does not even make the pretense of trying to hoodwink his opponents. Instead, he deceives his supporters. By lying about the neutrality and integrity of our truth-defending institutions, he consolidates his power by depriving his supporters of tools that might authorize an informed, critical assessment of his performance.
It is for this reason that ordinary fact-checking provides a wholly inadequate response to Trump’s lying. Such fact-checking presupposes confidence in the fact-checker, the very trust that Trump labors to systematically undermine with his meta-lies.
For why would I accept your fact-checking if I do not trust the good faith and competence of your testing procedures? What is needed, then, would be a meta-fact checker, an institution that examines whether the fact-checking institutions can be trusted!
Trump’s radical strategy would not be possible in a less fractured media environment and without Trump’s minions of mendacity at Breitbart and Fox News. But the fact that Trump is aided and abetted in his meta-lies only makes them all the more efficacious – and dangerous.
It is these meta-lies that radically undermine confidence in the very institutions that, according to Arendt, distinguish a democracy from an authoritarian regime. And it is the signature of authoritarians that they rule by the truth they themselves manufacture.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trum ... iary-truth
by seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:31 pm
Rory » Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:20 am wrote:seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:19 pm wrote:The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington
Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?
It never existed in the first place. #fakenews central
US investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier
Jim Sciutto-Profile-Image
By Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez, CNN
Updated 5:25 PM ET, Fri February 10, 2017
US officials corroborate aspects of dossier
Source: CNN
US officials corroborate aspects of dossier 05:51
Washington (CNN)For the first time, US investigators say they have corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent, multiple current and former US law enforcement and intelligence officials tell CNN. As CNN first reported, then-President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of the dossier prior to Trump's inauguration.
None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs.
But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump.
The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say.
Reached for comment this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting."
Spicer later called back and said, "This is more fake news. It is about time CNN focused on the success the President has had bringing back jobs, protecting the nation, and strengthening relationships with Japan and other nations. The President won the election because of his vision and message for the nation."
Spokespeople for the FBI, Department of Justice, CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
US intelligence officials emphasize the conversations were solely between foreign nationals, including those in or tied to the Russian government, intercepted during routine intelligence gathering.
Some of the individuals involved in the intercepted communications were known to the US intelligence community as "heavily involved" in collecting information damaging to Hillary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump, two of the officials tell CNN.
Until now, US intelligence and law enforcement officials have said they could not verify any parts of the dossier.
Officials who spoke to CNN cautioned they still have not reached any judgment on whether the Russian government has any compromising information about the President.
Officials did not comment on or confirm any alleged conversations or meetings between Russian officials and US citizens, including associates of then-candidate Trump.
One of the officials stressed to CNN they have not corroborated "the more salacious things" alleged in the dossier.
CNN has not reported any of the salacious allegations.
Trump dismissed the entire dossier last month during his only news conference as President-elect, saying in January, "It's all fake news. It's phony stuff. It didn't happen."
The dossier was commissioned as opposition research by political opponents of then-candidate Trump and compiled by a former British intelligence agent. US intelligence agencies checked out the former MI6 operative and his vast network throughout Europe and found him and his sources to be credible.
CNN's Pamela Brown and Marshall Cohen contributed to this story.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/ ... er-update/
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