Trump Taps Billionaire West Point Grad for Army Secretary
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Trump Taps Billionaire West Point Grad for Army Secretary
Entry Excerpt:
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Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
I fully understand Russia’s information campaign against the West.Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
On the one hand, you have accused the Republicans and Trump of ignoring or dismissing evidence of Russian interference in the media reporting and social media discussion of the election campaign, an accusation that has merit. On the other hand, you yourself are ignoring or dismissing the Democrats’ attempts to blame Hillary Clinton’s defeat on Russia, when there is no evidence that Russian efforts were decisive.
The fact is that there is reasonable suspicion that the WH and DOJ colluded to help Hillary Clinton win the election and that the WH and CIA have colluded to insinuate that Trump’s victory is illegitimate.
For many months now, you have derided Trump as a charlatan and threat to the national security of the United States. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that others currently serving in the intelligence, justice and national security communities agreed with you, and attempted to either sabotage Trump or aid Hillary out of conviction.
Yet these people were not blank canvasses upon which the Russians could paint any picture they chose. Many already believed that:Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
- Planned Parenthood was conspiring to sell fetal body parts
- Obama was not born in the United States
- Obama was secretly Muslim
- Obama was racist towards whites
- Obama hated law enforcement and encouraged killing them
- Obama encouraged riots in Ferguson and elsewhere
- The Clinton Foundation was a slush fund and part of the Clintons’ net worth
- Obama and Hillary wanted to ban and confiscate guns
- The Democrats wanted to amnesty millions of illegals to gain their votes
- Hillary transported weapons and jihadis from Libya and deployed them in Syria against the government
- Hillary deliberately allowed the Americans in Benghazi to die
None of these people were interested in examining the veracity of these claims. They simply wanted to reinforce what they already believed.
The arguments over voter fraud were ridiculous as identification at the polling station and registration are two very different things.
I also saw Democratic supporters spreading fake news that Trump was going to deport Muslim Americans and non-whites, that Melania was an illegal herself, that Trump owed billions to Russians and Chinese banks.
Ultimately, Russia helped amplify existing sentiments, but the demographics of Trump's voters were normal Republican shares of conservatives, moderates, liberals, independents, whites, etc.
Both candidates had baggage and conflicts of interest. If Putin was truly determined that Trump should be president, he would have been covert about it. The most effective Russian operation was the WikiLeaks release of DNC e-mails (up to May 2016), which was done prior to the convention and clearly intended to increase Sanders’ odds of being nominated.Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Trump was already investigated by the FBI. Or are you claiming that Comey ignored Trump’s ties to Russia and sabotaged Hillary with his letter to Congress?
What also did Hillary in was the fact that the third party vote was 3X higher than in 2012 and 2008, and even double that of 2000...
I don’t see it getting much further than partisan politics…Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Trump's margin of electoral votes over Clinton has grown from 74 to 77.
As far as "faithless" Electors are concerned, 5 Democrats voted against Clinton, and only 2 Republicans voted against Trump. As many Democrat Electors were faithless in 2016 as the total number of faithless Electors from 1972 to 2012.
By the way, this is after the uproar over Russia's information warfare.
Clearly, Hillary Clinton is mistrusted and misliked by her own party, especially as 3 additional faithless Electors voted against Clinton, but had their votes invalidated. Hillary's defections were over 4X more than Trump's, as a proportion of the original electoral votes attributed on November 9. That says a lot.
Kyle W. Orton
Verified account
@KyleWOrton
John Kerry is now laying out principles that "do not to prejudge but to provide a possible basis" for a final settlement in Israel-Palestine
From what John Kerry has said he seems to fully embrace the 2002 Arab initiative.
Kerry now on a potted history of the Israel-Palestine conflict started at Basel, missed out everything until 1948. Not sure what's happening
It is pretty clear from Kerry's speech that, except for the political price inside the U.S., the Obama admin would have voted for UNSCR 2334
John Kerry speech on Israel-Palestine: "Friends need to tell each other the hard truths."
John Kerry says Obama administration has defended #Israel from attacks on her legitimacy, "fought for its inclusion across the UN system".
John Kerry says he has seen the troubles of the occupation, where checkpoints "can make even the most routine daily trips an ordeal."
John Kerry says facts on the ground are "combing to destroy hopes for peace on both sides ... cementing a one-state reality."
John Kerry says there is only a choice between one state or two states. There are those who argue for three states.
This section from Kerry on condemning the PA's and HAMAS's incitement to terrorism feels like a throat-clearing before criticizing Israel.
John Kerry says the Israeli governing coalition is the "most right-wing in history with the agenda driven by the most extreme elements."
Kerry: "Let's be clear: settlement expansion has nothing to do with Israeli security," some compound security trouble, driven by ideology.
Everything Kerry's said so far doesn't even approach an answer to the question he was asked to answer: Why did you change policy on 23 DEC?
Kerry says current trends would make Israeli occupation permanent, "separate but not equal". Such talk almost designed to antagonize Israel.
Oh wow. Now Kerry is about containing the #Iran|ian revolution, sees a chance for Israel and the Arab states to align against Tehran.
John Kerry: "We could not in good conscience protect the most extreme elements of the settler movement to destroy the two-state solution."
John Kerry says if US vetoed UNSCR 2334 it "would have been giving license to further ... settlement activity that we fundamentally oppose."
John Kerry says that "it is not this resolution that isolates Israel," but the policy of the Israeli government in establishing settlements.
Kerry says there was "absolutely nothing new" in UNSCR 2334 (this is in defending treatment of East Jerusalem in the resolution.)
John Kerry said that UNSCR 2334 was "balanced and fair"; "did not agree with every word" but it reflected "consensus" so didn't block it.
Interestingly........
1. this view by Kerry is an actual convergence between the EU and the US as virtually the entire EU and other global players are of this opinion when it concerns the current Israeli government.....
2. we will potentially see a divergence on 20 Jan 2017 between Trump/Israel and the rest of the world on this question.
IMPORTANT.....since Germany allows Israeli citizens immediate residency visas and they no longer need visitor visas the number of younger Israeli's bailing out of Israel into Germany is massive.....ALL because of the current Israeli government and they are tired of the constant conflict inside Israel....
Resolution of the Israeli Palestinian issue will greatly ease tensions across the entire ME....a simple fact....
The lid is off. John Kerry in furious frontal assault on Netanyahu policies. Can hardly hide his rage.
But Trump also the target.
Bill Kristol
✔
@BillKristol
John Kerry entered public life 45 years ago slandering his fellow American servicemen. He leaves it slandering America's finest ally.
As much as I disagree with Kerry he is a decorated VN who fought for his country and rescued a SF soldier caught in an ambush and floundering in the river after the ambush.....AND that earned him the right to critique the VN war
SOMETHING this so called US conservative never did...serve his country in time of war......nor has he seen US military killed defending US FP whether they supported that FP or not........
WHAT this US conservative seems to have forgotten is the simple fact....the entire ME has been largely intertwined in the Israeli/Palestinian issue since 1946 leading to decades of terrorist attacks and wars....and yet there is still no solution to it...
UNTIL it is resolved the turmoil in the ME will continue....
I once had the opportunity to see the original maps of the Palestinian area in 1945/46 and virtually even village was Arab with limited Jewish settlements...and now compare it to 2016.....
Just as the French and British created the Syrian/Iraqi borders so did the British create this mess as well.....
There can no honest debate - nor progress - on any solution without accepting the reality of both Palestinian terrorism & Israeli occupation
Times of Israel: Netanyahu to be investigated for corruption
http://www.timesofisrael.com/report-...ribery-fraud/#
Will Obama's "red line" on Russian cyber attacks have some teeth or again show weakness on US national security
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world....f2ff557de8a1#
It is a massive brain drain of their best and brightest...who in reality should be the future of Israel and actually want to be that future.......and who are sick and tired of the current violence inside a very conservative neo right led government also on the orthodox religious side....who controls virtually everything
Healthy dose of reality, as opposed to nationalist-cum-religious fantasy, from the JPost, which ain't no lefty rag.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Jerusal...-fight-476704#
BREAKING: President Abbas on #Kerry: If Israel halts settlements and implements signed agreements, we're ready to resume final status talks.
Kyle W. Orton
Verified account
@KyleWOrton
Bibi hints pretty strongly that his information on Obama administration pre-arranging UNSCR 2334 comes from a human source, i.e. a spy.
Netanyahu says he hopes the U.S. will pass no more resolutions in the remaining time of the Obama administration, wants to undo UNSCR 2334.
In view of a recent speech by Secretary Kerry I have moved seven posts from the Syria thread here, as they really sit better here.
Previous discussions on Israel have been sparse and sometimes heated. Forum members have their own reasons for not venturing into that area, so I will be watching in my own way. :wry:
Interesting development.....especially after the Yahoo News editorial critique of the Obama move in the UNSC.....causing surprise surprise problems for the incoming new President.
What amazes me is the uproar over the UNSC resolution.....IF one takes into account what young Israeli's say (25-40 year olds) who have massively and basically immigrated into of ALL places Germany...with all of the WW2 baggage...they feel basically safer in Germany than they do in Israel......
WE fully need to understand WHY they feel safer in a country that historically set out to destroy all Jews and now fully welcomes them in ever increasing numbers....
THIS particular development SOMEHOW is totally overlooked in the States....
Anyone who comments here fully understands the current miserable situation in the ME ALL goes back to 1948 and the driving of Palestinians out of their core own territory into a limited area ALL supported by the western democratic nation states....
Until there is a fair and equitable two state solution there will never be peace in the ME....
WHAT Obama actually did was to sustain the idea of a two state solution...WHY it was done if commenters here take the time to fully and completely understand was based again on Trump's own statements....
"move the US Embassy to Jerusalem" which then would have sealed for all times no solution and no two state solution.....
Regardless of what the Trumpists think ...this UNSC move in fact secured a two state solution WHICH even the current Israeli government has stated is also their end state goal....
While the moderator moved a number of the Kerry comments to here...it should have remained at the core of the Syrian thread....
WHY... with heavy Iranian combat forces inside Syria and with large numbers also of Hezbollah inside Syrian and getting closer to the Golan Heights....ALL SWC commenters need to fully and completely understand what Iran and Hezbollah has repeated stated about their desires to eliminate the nation state of Israel.....
It is all intertwined.....
"Good governance becomes more challenging when Americans live in parallel universes of facts"
http://wpo.st/a6uO2
This is exactly why fake news and internet trolling used as disinformation and propaganda must be countered hourly...daily and weekly.....
The US should look towards Germany and it's laws on hate speech...a recent releaser of a fake news article was sentenced to three years in prison as it was ruled "hate speech"..........
Poor #Russia is just the victim of the evil Obama administration, Russian FM spox claims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWG26o3zA-s#…
Just fresh out of a discussion with certain contact in the DC. The person in question is still argumenting in the way of...
That's the very core of the problem.Quote:
Obama made a defensible decision which is not domestically a real controversy (a bit of grandstanding in Congress aside). A region which spawns anti-Americanism, a region whose people are not our friends, our history of debacles, our government which manages to find every used car salesman with a story to sell; it's a decision in hindsight which is totally understandable. And seeing as we are still stuck in Afghanistan...
What happened because of that 'defensive decision' means that the decision was (and remains) anything else but defensible.
15 years of wars and how many trillions spent (?) - for absolutely nothing. No achievement, no progress at all. The USA didn't even learn anything from all of these wars and related affairs.
New York Times says it was ‘a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence’
By Benjamin Mullin • December 13, 2016
Quote:
Buried deep in The New York Times' mammoth investigation into Russia's attempt to sway the election through hacking is a noteworthy show of humility.
Near the story's conclusion, The Times acknowledges that, along with other American news organizations, it spread information extracted from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign by Russian intelligence:
Though Mr. Assange did not say so, WikiLeaks’ best defense may be the conduct of the mainstream American media. Every major publication, including The Times, published multiple stories citing the D.N.C. and Podesta emails posted by WikiLeaks, becoming a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence.
Mr. Putin, a student of martial arts, had turned two institutions at the core of American democracy — political campaigns and independent media — to his own ends.
The media’s appetite for the hacked material, and its focus on the gossipy content instead of the Russian source, disturbed some of those whose personal emails were being reposted across the web.
Later, The Times quotes Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, as saying she "could not believe that reporters were covering" the hacks.
During the election, many wondered whether journalists were justified in publishing information obtained by hackers. By publishing newsworthy information, were they complicit in a shadowy campaign to influence the election?
In analyzing her own newsroom's coverage of the emails, NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen recommended that her colleagues "tread very cautiously" while not ignoring the story altogether:
I believe most of NPR's disclaimers so far have been very clear and admirable. Memmott called the situation "awkward," which may not be satisfying to some listeners and readers, but it is an accurate reflection, in my opinion, of the dilemma that journalists are facing in this case.
And here's where New York Times Public Editor Liz Spayd came down on the issue:
And then there is the unease that comes with feeling used by a foreign superpower. How does the paper avoid becoming an amplifier for a plot that needs the media to work? How does it verify the accuracy of several thousand illegally obtained emails? And most critically, what has it done to try to establish whether Donald Trump was colluding with Russian intelligence, as Clinton suggests?
Considering the journalistic swamp, The Times acquitted itself well on some of these questions. Editors restrained themselves from publishing every email, avoiding the reckless decisions of that some news outlets made. And
The Times made reasonable attempts to determine the accuracy of the emails — though when solid verification couldn’t be had, it went with its gut.
To be clear, @realDonaldTrump is dismissing both that Russia ordered 2016 election hacking AND that US can know who hacked anything ever
AND he has a plan to destroy IS??????
AND this man has some idea about FP.....????
So Trump's team hears "hatred," "tribalism," "demonize those who are different," and they think, 'that's us!"
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...sition-233023#
US imposes new sanctions against #Russia for alleged #hacking in the US:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201612291...ia-sanctions/#
Quote:
Despite a glaring lack of evidence to support allegations that Russia interfered in the US presidential election, the White House has announced that they will be imposing sanctions on the nation.On Thursday, the US sanctioned six Russian individuals, including the head of Russia's main intelligence directorate, as well as five entitities.
The five entities sanctioned are the Autonomous Noncommercial Organization Professional Association of Designers of Data Processing Systems, the Federal Security Service, the Main Intelligence Directorate, the Special Technology Center, and Zorsecurity.
The Federal Security Service is comparable to the US FBI, meaning that this will effective block any counter intelligence operations between the two nations. The allegations about Russian interference and hacking to insure a Donald Trump victory have still not been confirmed by the White House, despite “anonymous sources” feeding claims to various media outlets. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the hacks on the Democratic National Committee or Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The claims have also been disputed by veterans of both the CIA and the NSA. “If hacking were involved, the NSA would know about it, and so they would also know the sender and the recipient,” former CIA analyst Ray McGovern previously told Loud & Clear on Radio Sputnik. “There’s no reason in God’s world why they wouldn’t reveal that if they had it.”
The Trump transition team has also contested the validity of the claims. "If the CIA Director [John] Brennan and others at the top are serious about turning over evidence … they should do that," Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said on CBS’ Face the Nation earlier in the month. "They should not be leaking to the media. If there's evidence, let's see it." Conway went on to call retaliation against Russia “a political response” at the behest of “Team Hillary.”
"It seems like the president is under pressure from Team Hillary, who can't accept the election results," she said. "It's very clear that President Obama could have 'retaliated' months ago if they were actually concerned about this and concerned about this affecting the election." In November, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee urged the White House to declassify “additional information concerning the Russian Government and the U.S. election,” but they have still not received any response.
President Obama had ordered the intelligence community to prepare a full report on the their findings regarding Russia and the election before he leaves office on January 20. The incoming president-elect has stated that the US needs to “get on with our lives,” in response to the allegations against Moscow.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy Andrey Krutskikh said that Moscow hopes any sanctions imposed by Obama will be lifted by the incoming administration.
THIS is the core problem for Trump....he and his staff and those he has nominated simply forget he lost the general election by approximately 3M votes which is one of the highest loses in the last 50 years on the general election side.
THIS does not give Trump and the Republican Party the right to act as if they have a mandate to speak for all Americans especially those that voted Democratic in the general election...
“I think you have a lot of folks on the left who continue to undermine the legitimacy of his win and the nature of how big that win was,” Spicer said. He called that behavior “unfortunate.”
STILL amazed that those who work for Trump and Trump himself declares those who voted against as "the Left".....EVIDENTLY forgetting those on the right that supported him and voted for Trump....KKK...the US Nazi Party and the "alt right" or "white supremacists"...