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

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

lol @ Morbz continuing to link to splinter news articles that are just the news from other sites but w overheated partisan rhetoric inserted in every paragraph

if an ex-president were found guilty of a felony it would be a little more than schadenfreude.

i mean i know it's exhausting and everything is a big deal which means nothing is, but come on.

bipartisan carbon dividend bill similar to the House bill is introduced in the Senate: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr7173

Tell your Senators to support it: https://www2.citizensclimatelobby.org/acton/ct/17897/s-094f-1812/Bct/q-006c/l-sf-contact-0052:2b15b/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3ALI8HbJz2F

oh it would totally be a huge deal, no doubt

at the same time the immediate goal is removing Trump from power
xp

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-seeks-roger-stones-testimony-to-house-intelligence-panel-suggesting-special-counsel-is-near-end-of-probe-of-trump-adviser/2018/12/19/ac5c3ee6-0226-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.aae437072dad

For weeks, the special counsel’s office has had access to an unofficial copy of Stone’s closed-door September 2017 interview, according to people with knowledge of the process. Mueller’s request of the official copy signals the special counsel could now be pursuing an indictment, several legal experts said.

“That suggests prosecutors are getting ready to bring a charge,” said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. “Prosecutors can’t bring a charge without an original certified copy of the transcript that shows the witness lied.”

Nunes looking at the calendar in despair.

Why he's a sensitive fellow, he is.

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1075533375065202689

Weird that didn't work. From NBC News reporter Frank Thorp:

Pres Trump says the soldiers who died fighting against ISIS would want the US to pull our troops out of Syria. Pres Trump: "We won, and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they (*points to the sky*) want it."

Was he pointing at a UFO?

clouds

a russian satellite

otm

Bipartisan statement from Senators Burr and Warner, chair and ranking member of Senate Intel, on lifting of Deripaska company sanctions: “This deal will require constant monitoring to ensure that neither Mr. Deripaska nor the Russian government violate the terms of the agreement” pic.twitter.com/HIvsMZsEqf

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 19, 2018

Erick Erickson is having a breakdown. Good.

The President is regularly his own worst enemy. He cuts a deal -- the best deals we are told -- to give Central America 0 billion without a wall. Then he flees Syria against the advice of everyone. Then he ends sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 20, 2018

Pobrecito.

wasn't he a nevertrumper

he's an imbecile

Well yeah

The enemy of my enemy is my president (and still my enemy) (and not actually my goddamn president if I goddamn say he isn't).

calling him "his own worst enemy" is a way to suggest he actually has the right ideas, he just fumbles them sometimes, vs him having actively terrible ideas almost 100% of the time.

depending on how the winds shift he can pretend he meant it one way or the other

calling him "his own worst enemy" is a way to suggest he is actively and significantly screwing up, too. that seems like a conclusion I can cautiously agree to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html

The project’s operators created a Facebook page on which they posed as conservative Alabamians, using it to try to divide Republicans and even to endorse a write-in candidate to draw votes from Mr. Moore. It involved a scheme to link the Moore campaign to thousands of Russian accounts that suddenly began following the Republican candidate on Twitter, a development that drew national media attention.

“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report says.