US Politics Thread

[teddytennisfan]

1WASN'T THE LYING EMPEROR -- ISOLATED REALLY -- JUST GREAT IN HIS FAREWELL SPEECH?

that upturned chin looks as GOOD as ever!!! JUST LIKE when the ''community orgnizer" -- junior senator from illinois with NO significant accomplishments whatsoever -- CHARMED the gullible into believing he was anything BUT a paper mache cut-out.......

roflmao..

but what a LEGACY -- at least 7 countries bombed, burned and ruined -- WOW!!!

BUT A TRULY GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT OF OBAMA AND COMPANY IS THIS:

THE AMERICAN DEEP-STATE -- ITS 1 PERCENT -- AND THEIR 16 or more ''SECURITY" operans --

from CIA, FBI, DNI, HOMELAND SECURITY , etc...are FRONT AND CENTER in the world's attention

as the CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS they ALWAYS have been as the world long suspected and knew..and who have ZERO credibility or EVEN INTIMIDATION powers to countries from nowon -- you can BE SURE of that -- all of their 800,000 employees are shown to be nothing but UNINTELLIGENCE

''intelligence experts" who are in the business of CRIMINAL LYING . any highschool senior cold have done BETTER!!

roflmao

 

[Federberg]

Wonder what the Kremlin has on Trump. If rumours about prostitutes are true could be the tip of the iceberg

 

[Federberg]

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html

 

[britbox]

I laughed out loud reading some of that The stuff about golden showers was hilarious.

It'll be interesting to see if there is any substance behind it.

It's either:

a) True
b) A CIA smear.

I was thinking recently that if some of the US establishment can't bring Trump down before his inauguration then it wouldn't even surprise me if he gets assassinated. Might seem far fetched... but there are heavily vested interests and billions of dollars at stake.

 

[teddytennisfan]

I laughed out loud reading some of that The stuff about golden showers was hilarious.

It'll be interesting to see if there is any substance behind it.

It's either:

a) True
b) A CIA smear.

I was thinking recently that if some of the US establishment can't bring Trump down before his inauguration then it wouldn't even surprise me if he gets assassinated. Might seem far fetched... but there are heavily vested interests and billions of dollars at stake.

and if that were true -- what of it?

people don't do stuff ? what about the CLINTON OBVIOUS PEDOPHILIA trips to his friends caribbean hide-away -- some say EVEN OBAMA himself might have beeninvolved in such trips?

lol.

theY ARE DESPERATE -- these GEORGE SOROS ''takeover of the democrats" people.

i hear he JUST BOUGHT THE GUARDIAN -- fromwhich perhaps to launch his ''comeback">

as some report -- TRUMP is going to target HIM -- probably up to to making trouble for him and his US ''Citizenship"

oh -- some folks are feeling the heat...got TO ALEX JONES about it.

"ONE MORE bad move from YOU (obama) AND your cohorts -- (you bg expletive) -

and thats it -- we DUMP IT ALL OUT -- more than everyone thought -- VOICE RECORDS OF YOUR MEETINGS WITH HILLARY, KERRY EXACTLY ON HOW TO NAME ISIS to cover YOUR tracks? we've got it and more".

 

[britbox]

Alex Jones is a dick. He makes a living out of conspiracy theories. That doesn't mean they are all false by the way... even a faulty clock is right twice a day... but he's still a dick.

 

[teddytennisfan]

Alex Jones is a dick. He makes a living out of conspiracy theories. That doesn't mean they are all false by the way... even a faulty clock is right twice a day... but he's still a dick.

i know. lol.


the dagner in this is -- the triumphailist position now - comes from the RIGHT wing.

just as the ''liberal-left" wing did for 8 years -- and on it goes..

 

[mrzz]

I laughed out loud reading some of that The stuff about golden showers was hilarious.

It'll be interesting to see if there is any substance behind it.

It's either:

a) True
b) A CIA smear.

I was thinking recently that if some of the US establishment can't bring Trump down before his inauguration then it wouldn't even surprise me if he gets assassinated. Might seem far fetched... but there are heavily vested interests and billions of dollars at stake.

They will assassinate him with a poisoned lollypop.

Considering that Trump mental age seems to be something between 9 and 11 years old, and that the has loads of money, it is indeed extremely plausible that he got his hotel room full of prostitutes. From Russian hackers to Russian prostitutes, always with Russian spies in the mix, I wonder which will be the next clichè...

 

[britbox]

They will assassinate him with a poisoned lollypop.

Considering that Trump mental age seem to be something between 9 and 11 years old, and that the has loads of money, it is indeed extremely plausible that he got his hotel room full of prostitutes. From Russian hackers to Russian prostitutes, always with Russian spies in the mix, I wonder which will be the next clichè...

Atomic golden showers?

 

[teddytennisfan]

They will assassinate him with a poisoned lollypop.

Considering that Trump mental age seems to be something between 9 and 11 years old, and that the has loads of money, it is indeed extremely plausible that he got his hotel room full of prostitutes. From Russian hackers to Russian prostitutes, always with Russian spies in the mix, I wonder which will be the next clichè...

now, now -- both of you =-- wash your filthy minds -- it is the new year and turn a page - CLEANSE the thoughts.. lol!!


but SOME articles -- or speculation? -- have said TRUMP - as soon as he got the election already HIRED RUSSIAN security - and that they are the ones that made checks after certain ''security lapses" came up in TRUMP TOWER In NYC - when some shopping bag was found left unattended in the lobby..and that these people had been checking all the area around the towers - the entire underground of new york - whole shebang .

lets ;put it this way -- at least IN russia -- CIA have attempted ''things" - and are butt-kicked each and every time ..lol. you just don't hear it in MSM. An obvious CIA tried to ''run through" security guarding the entrance to the US embassy somewhere - jumping out of the taxi with something in his coat tightly held - that he probably didn't want checked ''outside the gate" before entering the USA embassy - NOW obvious as nothing at all about diplomacy but PURE spying and destabilizing nests by the empire -- -- tried to rush his way past the guard to get to the embassy door and insde be '''diplomatically immune"..

and in 2 seconds the Russian guard was on top of him -- pinning him on the floor like nobody's business -- before letting him go through the door -- CRAWLING ..lol.

 

[Asmodeus]

It now seems that not only did some journalists and leftist intellectuals get punked by a fake news story but so did the CIA. No wonder their report on Russian hacking seemed more like a press release than a legitimate investigation.

This fake news story really raises serious questions about the validity and necessity of even having a CIA. If they are willing to embarrass their own president (a position enumerated in the Constitution, unlike the CIA) for whatever reason then this only goes to show that public institutions are quite dangerous and likely provide little value compared to options in the free market.

 

[Federberg]

How are we certain this news is fake?

 

[mrzz]

It now seems that not only did some journalists and leftist intellectuals get punked by a fake news story but so did the CIA. No wonder their report on Russian hacking seemed more like a press release than a legitimate investigation.

This fake news story really raises serious questions about the validity and necessity of even having a CIA. If they are willing to embarrass their own president (a position enumerated in the Constitution, unlike the CIA) for whatever reason then this only goes to show that public institutions are quite dangerous and likely provide little value compared to options in the free market.

I wonder if all this is really new. One could argue that we are seeing in USA things were are quite used to elsewhere: a deep political rigging of the public institutions. The tricky part of it is that partisans of the political party (whatever it is) that is using the institutions for his own interests will always find it justifiable, because, after all, the ends justify the means. In other words, Trump is a scumbag (which I agree), so everything is valid to get rid of him.

What I find hilarious is that an adjective I often see in political articles trying to demonize the other side (whichever it is) is "Machiavellian". Incidentally, Machiavelli was a guy who served his "country" (which was Florence) whichever side was ruling, exactly what people now seem to be completely incapable of doing.

 

[britbox]

How are we certain this news is fake?

Quite a few holes being exposed in the documents already. Cohen was in the US when he was claimed to have been in Prague meeting Russian officials... and now they've said it was a different guy with the same name...

Trump's conference was a riot. Wouldn't take a question from a CNN reporter and blasted the network as being fake news. I'll be honest and I said it during the campaign, CNN damaged their reputation with the coverage they provided then, and they've done nothing to repair the damage since.

 

[teddytennisfan]

rt.com
Farewell, Obama: You talked a better game than you played
Bryan MacDonald is an Irish journalist, who is based in Russia

I was there. In the Tiergarten in Berlin, in July 2008. And the more I think back on it, the more bizarre it was.

The US Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential candidate, Barack Obama, arrived in town to give a speech where he promised to achieve “a world that stands as one.”

He didn’t come to Berlin because he had some attachment to the city. Nor did he arrive to outline a masterplan to unite the planet. And, as it happened, he didn’t speak a lick of German on the day. Not so much as an “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Sadly, it probably wasn’t to avoid being accused of comparisons to jelly doughnuts either.

You see, there was no substance to the charade. Obama only wanted to speak in Berlin because it was where John Fitzgerald Kennedy made his most famous address, back in 1963. And he was trying to position himself as a modern JFK – with an endorsement from the late Ted Kennedy to boot.

But the difference was that Jack Kennedy was a great statesman, who had not only vision, but had implemented his dreams – and Obama was a fraud. And, eight years hence, I can’t believe Angela Merkel granted him permission to stage the event. Because if his opponent, John McCain, had won the election, the Chancellor would have spent years grovelling like a puppy who had devoured his favorite slippers.

Master Showman
We long ago learned how Obama was a great campaigner. Perhaps one of the most adroit who ever breathed. We’ve also discovered that once in office, however, he gets bored of making tough decisions and finds it difficult to apply himself.

There’s also the fact that he managed to play over 300 rounds of golf during his eight years in the White House, which showed a level of commitment Rory McIlroy would struggle to match.

Half a world away from Berlin, in Chicago, Obama gave his final speech as president last night. And we were treated to more of his trademark waffle. For instance, he has presided over an administration which saw economic inequality in America increase greatly. But rather than acknowledge this fact, he spoke of “the freedom to chase our individual dreams through our sweat, and toil, and imagination.”

Taking hypocrisy to a new level, the President remarked how “our nation’s call to citizenship has… (been) what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande.” However, he has admitted under 15,000 Syrian asylum-seekers to the United States in the past two years, while Germany has taken in over one million. This, despite the fact Obama’s government dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016, while Berlin has sent less than half a dozen Tornados with strict orders to only blast ISIS.

In the same passage, Obama doubled down, insisting “that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional.” By this logic, Germany must be phenomenal times a hundred or so – for taking in so many victims largely displaced by US meddling in the Middle East and North Africa. But Germany wasn’t mentioned at all in the address.

Duplicitous Destiny
Next, he moved onto democracy. And here the outgoing president made a mockery of the notion of sincerity. “I committed to President-elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me,” he exclaimed. And at this point, you could almost smell the bullsh*t. Because over the past few weeks, Obama has done everything possible to undermine Trump.

He has placed fresh sanctions on Russia, in a bid to stymie his successor’s room for maneuver on resetting Moscow-Washington relations. Furthermore, he has questioned the basic legitimacy of Trump’s victory by, despite supplying no hard facts at all, alleging that Russians interfered with the outcome. And all of this has been done in the name of partisan politics, because he’s clearly upset about Hillary Clinton losing the election, and the consequences for his political legacy.

Moving on to the state of the US economy, Obama boasted that “the wealthy are paying a fair share of taxes.” So, let’s look at this supposition for a moment. Yes, it’s true that America’s top one percent are paying nearly 50 percent of federal income taxes. But the problem is that the top 0.1 percent (yes, 10 percent of the one percent) own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans. Thus, the only obvious way to tilt the pendulum back the other way is for the fortunate few to pay far more in penalties. Something Obama never even attempted to broach over his eight years. Yet, he has the gall to stand up in Chicago and brag about the current status quo.

And then matters reached high farce. Proving once and for all that he was a far superior campaigner than legislator, Obama reverted back to electioneering mode. “We're going to have to forge a new social compact to guarantee all our kids the education they need,” he exulted. “To give workers the power to unionize for better wages. To update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now. And make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and the individuals who reap the most from this new economy don't avoid their obligations to the country that's made their very success possible.”

Read more


All of these exhortations were punctuated by applause, as if the assembled crowd had just seen the future as the great orator reached for the stars. The clapping transformed into loud cheers when he testified how “(we need to) make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and the individuals who reap the most from this new economy don't avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their very success possible.”

Well guess what, Barack? You just served eight years in the Oval Office and you didn’t do any of these things. Because you are a huckster, a charlatan, a bluffer, a sham artist, and a fraud. A conman masquerading as a diviner, a prophet, and a soothsayer. One of the greatest sermonizers since the soap box was first imagined, reveling in the dictum – “do as I say, not as I do.”

You will leave the White House next week. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, you old phony.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

 

[teddytennisfan]

journal-neo.org
Should We Recoin the Term Orwellian into Obamian? | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Martin Berger


After US Presdient Barack Obama’s two terms in office it gets increasingly clear for everyone that freedom of speech in the United States can be described as rigid control that the state exercises over the media and journalists, while those who refuse to cooperate with the system find themselves deprived of a chance to publish or promote their articles anywhere.

As it’s been noted in a report drafted by the former editor-in-chief of the Washington Post, Leonard Downie, since the era of Richard Nixon, no American president was as hostile to the media as Barack Obama. The report also notes that the Obama administration has been routinely spying on journalists, while punishing harshly any and all whistleblowers.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) argues that a state can hardly be regarded as a democracy if it has a DoD manual that reads as follows:

Persons authorized to accompany the armed forces are often referred to, and treated as, “civilians,” since they are not members of the armed forces. However, as discussed below, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces are also treated like “combatants” in some respects.

States may need to censor journalists’ work or take other security measures so that journalists do not reveal sensitive information to the enemy. Under the law of war, there is no special right for journalists to enter a State’s territory without its consent or to access areas of military operations without the consent of the State conducting those operations.

It should be noted that Operation Mockingbird, launched by the CIA in the 1950s, has never ceased to exist. The main objective of this operation was and still is to influence both the US and foreign media through agents that have been planted among genuine journalists. When the operation was made official, US authorities already had thousands permanent and contracted agents of the CIA embedded within hundreds of Western media outlets. and it seems that nothing has changed since those days, with the Western media spreading disinformation, producing propaganda and whitewashing anything that might harm the well-being of Western special interests.

It’s curious that in late 2016, Washington allocated 1.5 million dollars for sponsoring those people that are tasked with the mission of “inspiring the masses” in the Middle East and to “supervise media sources in the region.” Without a doubt, this money will be spent on the training of representatives of opposition media sources, which are trying to make Middle Eastern audience as pro-Washington as possible.

In this context, institutions such as the Bureau of Near East Affairs, The Office of Press and Public Diplomacy (NEA / PPD) and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs are now in search of NGOs that will present their own projects on training and cooperation with Middle Eastern media sources. The organization(s) to be employed by the above mentioned entities will operate under the direct control of US “experts”, tasked with the goal of controlling local media sources and organizing seminars and workshops for Middle Eastern journalists.

That is why the Nation notes that any détente initiatives by President-elect Trump must break with spurious US notions of a new Cold War. The escalation of neo-McCarthyism is exemplified by the recent Washington Post front-page article alleging that an array of American Internet sites have been propagating Russian-inspired “fake news.” The article even implies that these “peddlers of Russian propaganda” should be prosecuted. These kinds of assaults on democratic discourse, which became torrential in the summer of 2016, have been coming from self-professed “liberals,” including many supporters of the failed Clinton campaign and other mainstream publications and outlets aligned with the Democratic Party, such as The Washington Post, the The New York Times, and MSNBC.

We shouldn’t forget that when policymakers act according to false narratives, the result is grave danger, as we are now experiencing with this emerging, new Cold War. And the Obama administration must recognize its own role in destroying independent journalism, which often finds itself being the last bastion of human dignity.

Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

9

 

[britbox]

Trump's press conference in full.



Riveting stuff. I'm liking his approach to retaining US jobs.

 

[Moxie]

Quite a few holes being exposed in the documents already. Cohen was in the US when he was claimed to have been in Prague meeting Russian officials... and now they've said it was a different guy with the same name...

Trump's conference was a riot. Wouldn't take a question from a CNN reporter and blasted the network as being fake news. I'll be honest and I said it during the campaign, CNN damaged their reputation with the coverage they provided then, and they've done nothing to repair the damage since.

Before everyone goes mad, fake news is not the same thing as reporting developing stories. It is true that President Obama and President-Elect Trump were briefed by the CIA that there was intelligence circulating out there as to potentially detrimental intel that Russia had over Trump. That is the news.

Trump is trying as hard as he can to discredit various serious news sources. I'm not sure why you don't like CNN, but even if you feel one news source or another has an editorial bias, there is a difference between sources with actual journalists who do their jobs, and sources that purely digest news through the filter of editorial bias. There really IS such a thing as a more credible news source than others.

The news conference was a "riot," as you say, but not in a good way, IMO. A circus. He had his people their applauding for him, which isn't usual in presidential press conferences. He spoke as little as they'd allow him. He out-sourced his position on how he was going to avoid conflicts of interest to a woman who was clearly more intelligent than he was, and he over-used the only words he seems to know, when he did speak. Yeah, it's all going to be "great," (without clarification,) "the best," (same,) and then he just slagged the journalists he was there to begin working with. Very Presidential.

 

[britbox]

Before everyone goes mad, fake news is not the same thing as reporting developing stories. It is true that President Obama and President-Elect Trump were briefed by the CIA that there was intelligence circulating out there as to potentially detrimental intel that Russia had over Trump. That is the news.

Trump is trying as hard as he can to discredit various serious news sources. I'm not sure why you don't like CNN, but even if you feel one news source or another has an editorial bias, there is a difference between sources with actual journalists who do their jobs, and sources that purely digest news through the filter of editorial bias. There really IS such a thing as a more credible news source than others.

The news conference was a "riot," as you say, but not in a good way, IMO. A circus. He had his people their applauding for him, which isn't usual in presidential press conferences. He spoke as little as they'd allow him. He out-sourced his position on how he was going to avoid conflicts of interest to a woman who was clearly more intelligent than he was, and he over-used the only words he seems to know, when he did speak. Yeah, it's all going to be "great," (without clarification,) "the best," (same,) and then he just slagged the journalists he was there to begin working with. Very Presidential.

The story is falling apart with rapid abandon. Apparently it's been circulating around Washington for over a year but nobody took it because it couldn't be corroborated. Yet, Buzzfeed decide to run it the day before Trump's press conference and CNN start writing stories about it. Coincidence? I don't think so.

I said several times during the election that CNN was embarrassing itself as a supposed "serious" news organization. The last couple of days threw more fuel onto that fire. CNN need to step back and review where they are going... Even the president branding them as "fake news"...

CNN's business model is supposed to be based on being the centre news organisation between CNBC and Fox. I think this will ultimately hurt their sales badly.

Trump is actually proposing a lot of groundbreaking things that could have a major impact on the United States that you seem to be missing altogether. Much like CNN.

 

[Moxie]

The story is falling apart with rapid abandon. Apparently it's been circulating around Washington for over a year but nobody took it because it couldn't be corroborated. Yet, Buzzfeed decide to run it the day before Trump's press conference and CNN start writing stories about it. Coincidence? I don't think so.

I said several times during the election that CNN was embarrassing itself as a supposed "serious" news organization. The last couple of days threw more fuel onto that fire. CNN need to step back and review where they are going... Even the president branding them as "fake news"...

CNN's business model is supposed to be based on being the centre news organisation between CNBC and Fox. I think this will ultimately hurt their sales badly.

Trump is actually proposing a lot of groundbreaking things that could have a major impact on the United States that you seem to be missing altogether. Much like CNN.

I'll see you an outrage and raise you another. At least this one was held until after the election. No mention from you of Comey putting his finger on the scale 11 days before the election. Whether this holds water or not, there's something to be said for this one being held until after the election, and then some.

Just to make it clear, you mean "MSNBC". I don't think CNN being between those is a bad business model.

And I do appreciate that Trump is trying to shake things up in new ways. I'll be fair, if they come through. But the people he is proposing for his cabinet don't really sing to a "new approach." They mostly tell a story of keeping the money for the wealthy, and flatly reject all progressive initiatives from the last 8 years. If he brings all the jobs he promises, and benefits to the middle class, I'll give him the credit. I will keep up the good fight to protect progressive causes. Note that he has already walked back some thing that he promised. Mexico won't pay for that wall. (Oh, right...they'll reimburse us.) And he's not going to overturn Obamacare immediately...why? Because NOBODY wants it to go away without another plan in place. And they have yet to offer another plan.

I'm not shocked that they can't manufacture a revolution. That really takes time. We'll see how much they can do for the good of those who voted for them, and how much is really just the good for the 1%. And how much they don't walk back the good of those who didn't vote for them. He is a vengeful SOB.