US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

Looking for future mistresses/wives, iirc.

"do they still have -- whattayacallit -- harems there?"

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMOOOOOAH

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWI3ODY4YmYtNDlkZi00MDk0LWJmNzgtYjg3M2RjMWMzMjQyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjA3NDg2Mzg@._V1_.jpg

Lindsey Graham on Trump’s Syria move: “If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump Administration. While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists’ passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2018

A relief that Huckleberry still places a premium on killing brown lives over loyalty to Trump.

I had wondered how Rania Khalek would react to this

1/ Even when the US withdraws from areas it is occupying it finds a stupid way to do it.

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) December 19, 2018

xp he never really changed and never really will

love to spend a trillion+ dollars 'protecting' americans from terrorists because they killed a fraction of those killed by guns domestically

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018 10:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lisa needs braces

IS claimed an attack in Raqqa 30 minutes ago, but okay pic.twitter.com/wzYWJ4t8to

— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) December 19, 2018

Hillary did it

Trump probably just killed Aaron Turner

if ISIS is on the wane (and it seems to be but what do I know, I onlyu know what the news reports and they've shifted focus elsewhere) it's likely due to other forces, not the US. Syria though is almost certainly still a motherfucking shitshow and Assad is still in power and I assume Trump loves him.

There was a phone call between Trump and Ergodan on Friday, possibly to encourage Ergodan to go easy on the Saudi prince MBS. Trump got a sale of $3.5 B in Patriot air-defense missles, Ergodan got a noncommital willingness to extradite opposition cleric Gulen, and a go-ahead for Turks to move against the Kurd held parts of Eastern Syria (which were under US military protection).

Bloomberg: US Backs Patriot Missile Sale to Turkey in Breakthrough
Reuters: Trump willing to look at extraditing Turkish cleric, but noncommittal
Reuters: Erdogan says Trump positive on Turkish military plan to push east in Syria
Daily Sabah: Erdoğan - Trump agreement results in US withdrawal from Syria

Poor Kurds. The YPG is the only Mid-east faction who deserves our admiration.

If Trump signs off on extradition, I hope that he shares in whatever fate he will have pointlessly condemned Gulen to suffer.

I bet the US military, esp SOCOM, is pissed about this deal. There was genuine mutual admiration with our Kurd allies, and I bet there are going to be some tearful, apologetic departures.

Meanwhile, Blind amphibian that buries its head in the sand named after US President Donald Trump

Dermophis donaldtrumpi, 10 centimetres in length and belonging to group of snakelike animals called caecilians, was recently found in Panama by a group of scientists.

What did caecilians do to deserve that

Bad enough that they can't eat gluten.

these caecilians are breaking my heart

all of this assumes that somehow trump’s tweet will translate to actual movement or policy change. Sometimes he just likes to tweet stuff without checking into how it’s done.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/19/trump-policy-domestic-violence-victims-asylum-1069107

These little victories haven't felt quite as victorious since the beer connoisseur's confirmation.

well bear in mind that they have immediate and clear impacts on actual people currently at the border, so there's that. same goes for the court rulings that delayed his muslim ban. while it was on appeal and before it was overturned, people got in and out of the country.

</debbiedowner>Right. Worth emphasizing that it is still a victory.

<debbiedowner>

xp Karl:

He's CinC. If Turks want to occupy the 20 km nearest their border, he just orders an immediate withdrawal. The 2000 green berets, forward air controllers etc. stationed with the Kurds don't have much of a logistical footprint, they can loadup and move to forward operating bases deeper in Syria within days. The heavy stuff can be left behind.

It's not like Trump has ever said a kind word about Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians etc.

that's cuz they're all losers iirc

"He's Assyrian you say? Assad's a Syrian too, so what's the problem?"

Manafort's patron Deripaska still has friends in high places:

The U.S. Treasury Department is removing Russian aluminum giant Rusal from the sanctions list https://t.co/vFRx6tk5na

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 19, 2018

Smooth move, great timing.

i'm surprised there hasn't been more chatter about the recent reveal that hackers downloaded a bunch of EU diplomatic cables over a period of 3 years, and also:

The cyberintruders also infiltrated the networks of the United Nations, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide.

...Some of the more than 100 organizations and institutions were targeted years ago. But many were not aware of the breach until a few days ago, when some were alerted by Area 1, a firm founded by three former officials of the National Security Agency.

the hackers released the cables to the nyt, and of course there's lots of juicy stuff in there. but also seems like an issue that an insanely large number of politically-oriented organizations are dealing with this week? holy shit 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/european-diplomats-cables-hacked.html

it wasn't the hackers that released the cables to the nyt:

The cables were copied from the secure network and posted to an open internet site that the hackers set up in the course of their attack, according to Area 1, the firm that discovered the breach.

Area 1 made more than 1,100 of the hacked European Union cables available to The New York Times

love this detail:

In this case, the cables were exposed after a run-of-the-mill phishing campaign aimed at diplomats in Cyprus pierced the island nation’s systems, said Oren Falkowitz, the chief executive of Area 1.

“People talk about sophisticated hackers, but there was nothing really sophisticated about this,” Mr. Falkowitz said. After getting into the Cyprus system, the hackers had access to passwords that were needed to connect to the European Union’s entire database of exchanges.

don't let boomers check their own emails if they have access to sensitive information imo

very dumb that any of these systems are even connected to the internet

like the clinton emails hack happening because podesta is a fucking boomer idiot and their IT guy emailed back "it's ok to open" instead of "it's not ok to open" when he got an email like "PleAse mr podestt to enter password thank yous. i am bank" is a maddeningly stupid thing for history to hinge on

If not this one, what series of tubes would you recommend they use?

News! Surely!

https://www.clickhole.com/legal-bombshell-mueller-flipped-trump-s-confidant-s-la-1830939751

Aw I was going to post that to trump-Russia collusion thread

That Clickhole post seems to have been pulled for some reason.

It was...TOO real.

"PleAse mr podestt to enter password thank yous. i am bank"

loolllllllll

If a bank asks for your password you have to give it to them. It's the law.

Yeah what was the clickhole all about, and why was it likely pulled?

Basically best Seth Abramson parody yet.

Anyway, clarity!

A White House official who just briefed reporters on the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria could not say how many have come home, what the timeline is or when others will be leaving. The official referred several questions to DOD, who is referring questions to the WH.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 19, 2018

Oh my etc

DOJ has asked a court to keep a gag order in place in the case of accused Russian agent Mariia Butina, partly in case her "cooperation may lead to any other arrests." https://t.co/ioi8Iyy6rS

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 19, 2018

plz plz Oliver North plz plz

Ha, tempting.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), under pressure from groups on the left, will not agree to a customary year-end package of judicial nominees, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

Schumer and his Democratic colleagues are in no mood to agree to a year-end deal after a federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act last week, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

https://splinternews.com/looks-like-yelling-at-chuck-schumer-actually-worked-1831213554

More of a little detail but anyway

NEW: Trump indicated in a 1988 sworn affidavit that he has a deep understanding of campaign-finance laws.

To bring a campaign-finance case, prosecutors have to show someone knew the rules and violated them willfully.

via @rebeccaballhaus @joe_palazzolo https://t.co/Ecc5xUPv7e

— Nicole Hong (@nicole_hong) December 19, 2018

it doesn't matter, the DOJ will never allow indictment of him while he's in office

seems like best case scenario is he loses re-election in 2020 and is promptly indicted for felony campaign finance violations but at that point it will be little more than schaudenfreude