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Thread: The Trump impact on US policy

  1. #1001
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    REMEMBER those chants about "lock her up" about Clinton emails.....

    Failure to keep track of emails, messages & other records could expose Trump aides to criminal charges down the line
    http://politi.co/2qq2Dxa

  2. #1002
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    HUGH...direct result of Trumps actions....or said better...lack of anything on the part of Trump as a FP that anyone can in fact see...


    Breaking: German Chancellor Merkel say the United States is no longer a reliable partner.

    http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/...d_7185916.html

    In German

    Merkel on Trump: "The era when we could fully rely on others has passed. I have experienced this in the last few days."

    Although she did not use the name USA...she definitely is referring to Trump and his advisors...SO it appears that Mattis and Tillerson will not be so welcome over the coming months.

    Marcon now has three German speakers in his cabinet so you can see where the French German relationship is going....they were the basis of the EU to begin with....

    She is calling for Europe to go their way and to build their own security concepts which they have the capacity to do...

    Putins geo political goals for his political war against the US.....

    1. discredit and damage NATO
    2. discredit and damage EU
    3. disconnect the US completely from Europe and ME

    For 70 years driving a wedge between US and Germany was a Soviet/Russian goal. They've finally succeeded.

    Trump has now supported Putin in obtaining these goals....


    Success...really.....

    Donald J. Trump‏
    Verifizierter Account
    @realDonaldTrump
    Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!

    Those of us who urged the Trump administration to build new international institutions did not have in mind a G-6.
    https://nyti.ms/2r8YYXN

    Merkel: Brexit & Trump mean Europe has to take affairs into its own hands, G7 summit 'unsatisfactory'
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/merkel-wa...sh&soc_trk=tw#
    A post-America defence order in Europe would also force Spain and Italy to work with France to sustain naval dominance in the Mediterranean

    This is huge - German Chancellor signalling the end of the post-WW2 Western consensus because a businessman thinks he can lead and is a genius .....
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-28-2017 at 04:48 PM.

  3. #1003
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    Was this Senators comment before or after the Merkel comments????

    MAYBE Corker should seriously rethink his para two....does not seem to fit current European affairs...

    Senator Bob Corker‏
    @SenBobCorker

    I spoke with @realDonaldTrump at length this morning and told him that I could not be more pleased with his first international trip. More:

    Trumps destruction of US leadership in Europe definitely was not mentioned here was it....

    Joe Scarborough

    @JoeNBC
    Donald Trump's trip was the most damaging for American interests abroad since JFK's disastrous 1961 Vienna summit with Khrushchev.

    Michael McFaul

    @McFaul
    Putin could not be happier with Trump's trip: embrace of autocrats, sowing division within NATO & G7, threat to pull out of Paris accordd

    Michael McFaul

    @McFaul
    Trump must have said some outrageous things behind closed doors for the cautious Markel to make this statement. Putin plan is succeeding.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-28-2017 at 05:47 PM.

  4. #1004
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    WHY is it that former Generals and one active General have abandoned their reputations?????

    Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly: Intelligence leaks are "darn close to treason"
    http://nbcnews.to/2qoEWJP

    BUT WAIT....a close advisor to the President and his NSA having close very close connections to Russians and wanting to use Russian secure comms to Moscow to go around US IC and FBI and DoD IS what again????
    Why is the White House deeply worried about intelligence leaks when Trump constantly says it's all FAKE NEWS anyway?

    SO did he actually confirm that the leaked intelligence is actually correct....

  5. #1005
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    MIT Tech Review

    @techreview
    Russia gets “the true nature of the battlefield” in a way the West does not. The power lies in information.
    http://trib.al/3THjZnt

  6. #1006
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    Donald J. Trump‏
    @realDonaldTrump
    British Prime Minister May was very angry that the info the U.K. gave to U.S. about Manchester was leaked. Gave me full details!

    IC source says it's probable leak came from White House. Deflect and distract.

  7. #1007
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    It's getting harder to say Russian meddling didn't actually help lead to Trump's victory and Clinton's loss
    http://cnn.it/2s7QMo2

  8. #1008
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    WHY is it that former Generals and one active General have abandoned their reputations?????

    Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly: Intelligence leaks are "darn close to treason"
    http://nbcnews.to/2qoEWJP

    BUT WAIT....a close advisor to the President and his NSA having close very close connections to Russians and wanting to use Russian secure comms to Moscow to go around US IC and FBI and DoD IS what again????
    This is the Trump administration trying to usurp the word "treason" as it begins to stick to Trump & now Jared. It means they're worried.


  9. #1009
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    Trump tweets today:

    -Montana election: 2
    -Fake news: 4
    -His foreign trip: 2
    -Murder of two Americans who stood up to anti-Muslim abuse: 0

  10. #1010
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    Default Trump and the Russians: Why the ‘leak of the leak’ is so damaging

    A sombre assessment by David Wells, a SME with experience in Anglo-Australian intelligence. He writes:
    But even if Trump did deliberately share sensitive information, it’s feasible that without the exposure of Trump’s behaviour in the media, Russia might have struggled to join the dots to identify the intelligence asset.
    Which is why the third element, ‘the leak of the leak’, is so serious.
    Link:https://counterterrorismmatters.word...ing/#more-1182
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-28-2017 at 07:01 PM. Reason: 54,435v
    davidbfpo

  11. #1011
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    A sombre assessment by David Wells, a SME with experience in Anglo-Australian intelligence. He writes:Link:https://counterterrorismmatters.word...ing/#more-1182
    If the Russians are seriously paying attention and I believe they really are...they will not be astounded by the simple fact that US SIGINT is that thorough...the Russian GRU has been aware of this ever since they started duelling the Equation Group of the NSA....

    What they did not see coming was the intensity of European intel services watching Trump and Russian oligarchs especially on the black money flows through European banks.

    I think that is the true surprise .....they were surprised by the readiness of the Europeans to share with US IC.......

    On the whole they also were surprised by the apparent depth of spy penetration of Russian services....by the Baltics..

  12. #1012
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    This reminder about #Flynn & #Russia just one of the nuggets in this @GlennThrush @maggieNYT piece on #Kushner, WH https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/u...nav=top-news#…
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  13. #1013
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    Leaving this here without comment. A senior administration official to reporters on Air Force One:
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  14. #1014
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    Default Deterrence or Dtente: How Can NATO Best Address the Russian Threat?

    By Konstantin von Hammerstein at Der Spiegel (selected excerpts with emphasis added): http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1148796.html

    The alliance has prepared several deployment plans. There is one for the Baltic region, in the event that Russia attempts to replicate its operation in Ukraine there. There is also one for Romania and Bulgaria, in case the onslaught comes across the Black Sea. Plans are still being developed for Turkey and northern Norway.

    Norway? Really? Yes, the NATO official confirms. The Norwegian government is keeping a close eye on the Russian military, the official says -- the exercises, troop movements, the submarines, the ships, the aircraft. In Germany, few are paying attention.

    The new U.S. president has been more vocal and insistent than any of his predecessors when it comes to NATO states taking on a bigger burden and finally making good on their 2-percent pledge.

    At the moment, Germany is catching the most flak. Last year, Europe's strongest economy had a multi-billion euro budget surplus following a significant increase in tax revenues. But defense spending has nevertheless remained at 1.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

    German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has spoken of a "rearmament spiral," and Germany's top diplomat, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), has likewise warned of the threat of a "military behemoth" in the heart of Europe. The dispute over higher defense spending, it seems certain, will be one of the issues in the campaign ahead of German elections in September.

    The Rand simulation isn't as absurd as it might first appear. The researchers in California weren't trying to determine whether Russia would invade the Baltic states -- they simply wanted to see what would actually happen if it did. That's the decisive difference. When all participants know that an invasion would be successful, it changes the political calculations. If a country can credibly demonstrate that it is capable of successfully invading another country, then it is already in a position of strength. It gives it leverage to demand concessions.

    And even if some of the fundamental assumptions used in the Rand wargames are controversial, most Western defense experts now believe that Putin is militarily capable of invading.

    Russia appears to have succeeded in recent years in reducing the quality gap with the West, even if Moscow is now numerically inferior to NATO in most areas.

    The West is clearly ahead when it comes to the number of soldiers, tanks, combat helicopters, warships and submarines it has at its disposal. But the numbers are deceptive. The lion's share of the alliance's weapons systems come from the Americans, whose military operates primarily outside of Europe.

    The Europeans, for their part, maintain a hodgepodge collection of different systems, some of which, in eastern member states, are leftovers from the Soviet era.

    Seventeen different combat tank models are currently in use by European armies, 13 varieties of air-to-air missiles and 29 frigate models. More importantly, however, NATO is comprised of 28 armies whose structures and equipment are not always compatible. When it comes to the military, diversity can often be a curse.

    The budget figures are also misleading. NATO's European member states spend $241 billion on defense annually compared to Russia's $66 billion. Even if you factor in Russia's numerous shadow budgets, the gap is enormous.

    Yet Moscow gets disproportionately more "bang for the buck," as the Americans say. A Russian tank battalion costs only a fraction of what a German one does because the equipment and, particularly, the personnel is so much cheaper. A Russian lieutenant colonel earns only a small fraction of what his German counterpart makes.

    Furthermore, Russia is a militarized society and Moscow oversees a military-industrial complex that is run according to Putin's orders rather than economic criteria.

    The Kremlin has invested huge amounts of money modernizing its army since its near debacle during the war in Georgia in 2008. Should a crisis develop, Russia's highly sophisticated air defense systems and cruise missiles on warships could severely limit NATO's freedom of movement in its own territory and in the Baltic Sea. Most importantly, however, Russian army leadership regularly conducts extensive military exercises involving as many as 70,000 soldiers to test the readiness and integration of its diverse weapons systems. In one of those exercises, an invasion of the Baltics was simulated.

    There is, of course, plenty to suggest that the Russian government and military leadership are exaggerating their own success to play to the domestic audience.

    Nevertheless, a recent study released by Carnegie Foundation Russia holds that Russia still has the upper hand. Although Moscow may not be capable of carrying out large-scale military operations outside the immediate post-Soviet region, in a "Baltic-Eastern European scenario," the Kremlin could deploy troops that are among the most sophisticated and best trained in the country, equipped with state-of-the-art weapons. NATO would have little to counter such an onslaught. Many of NATO's reinforcement troops come from smaller member states and are inferior to the better organized, better trained and better equipped Russians.

    At the Clausewitz Barracks in the town of Burg, located in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the consequences of the so-called peace dividend, which Germany and other NATO member states afforded themselves after the end of the Cold War, can plainly be seen. In two-and-a-half decades, Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, shrank from more than a half-million soldiers down to 177,000 and from 2,000 Leopard 2 combat tanks down to 225, as of 2011.

    One critical juncture came during a conference of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet in 2010, after which then-Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg excitedly claimed that the government's requirement to cut 8.3 billion euros from the military budget was a "unique opportunity." The German military still hasn't recovered from his "restructuring."

    The lieutenant has diligently listed all his battalion's hardships on a colorful piece of paper. Targeted inventory of five-ton trucks: 22. Actual number available: 5. Number that are operational: 4. Targeted inventory of 15-ton trucks: 50. Actual number available: 20. Number that are operational: 14. And the list goes on.

    Of the 117 night-vision goggles the unit is supposed to have, only 17 exist. The battalion doesn't even have its own command post and has to make do with borrowed desks, chairs and tents. It has no mobile accommodations. When it conducts exercises, the unit is forced to scrounge from five similar battalions spread out across the country.

    Germany will play a decisive role in NATO's realignment. As a large country at the center of the Continent, Germany is to become a logistical hub, upon which the credibility of the deterrence ultimately hinges.

    At the same time, Germany will also be one of the primary providers of troops. Berlin has promised NATO that Germany will establish three deployable army divisions, each with eight brigades, in three stages by 2032 -- a significant strengthening of the country's armed forces. Some of the associated structures are already in place today, but they are largely hollow.

    It would make sense to continue developing a more effective division of labor between Europe's armies. Why, for example, does Slovenia maintain its own air force, made up of nine aircraft, when the country is forced to mothball its expensive armored howitzers because it lacks the personnel to operate them?

    Why does the Czech Republic spend such a large share of its military budget on leasing payments for Swedish Gripen fighter jets when NATO would be just fine without them? Why don't Slovenia and the Czech Republic instead concentrate on military capabilities that might actually be useful to the alliance? Germany could assume responsibility for monitoring the airspace of both countries -- it wouldn't be a problem. But it is unlikely that such a thing will happen anytime soon.

    Relinquishing elements of one's own military is also an issue of national prestige and sovereignty which is, of course, a struggle for all European countries, including Germany. It would make sense for Germany, for example, to eliminate its mountain infantry and instead rely on Austria or Slovenia, which are equally capable in this area.

    The spirit of community, however, doesn't extend that far, not even in Berlin. In the case of mountain infantry, Horst Seehofer, the powerful governor of Bavaria, which is home to the largest stretch of the German Alps, stands in the way. And although it does make sense to have deeper political and military integration, that doesn't mean savings. For Germany, things would most likely get more expensive because, as the leading nation, it would have to provide a large share of the infrastructure that would then be shared with its NATO partners.

    German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen wants to invest 130 billion euros over the next 13 years just to provide the Bundeswehr with the material and equipment it currently needs. The pledge to NATO to set up three deployable divisions by 2032 will cost even more...It is possible, however, that Germany will indeed ultimately spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for these troops.

  15. #1015
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    Quote Originally Posted by Azor View Post
    By Konstantin von Hammerstein at Der Spiegel (selected excerpts with emphasis added): http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1148796.html
    The problem with the article is that when the Russian military is compared to the Europeans and or US "the bang for a buck" gets way to much credit...

    The current Russian military is a mixture of draftees still the way larger number and a core of contract time military members and the wages of both cannot be compared to say a Germany, a US or even a Spain.....

    Secondly, weapon design and purchases are still being done via a State demanded and supported set price...unheard of in the West....as the sole customer of these defense industries is still the Russian state supported by defense exports which the State uses as an piece of their FP strategies...which the West also does but still there is a profit margin there that does not exist in Russian industrial business deals...

    What is interesting is that both the CDU and the SPD will not increase the German military budget beyond what they economically feel the correct level is as they must then sell it to the general public....

    Interesting as well is the concept of three new divisions each having 8 Bdes...an unusual configuration as the US runs a different model making these divisions "heavy divisions".....
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-29-2017 at 04:46 AM.

  16. #1016
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    APPEARS that the bagman for the Russian Intelligence Services hacking operations and Snowdon forgot the NSA in this tweet.....

    Julian Assange‏#
    @JulianAssange
    Kushner correct to create channels with everyone. CIA has no authority over leadership and is financially motivated to increase conflict.

  17. #1017
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    Trump expresses 'total confidence' in Kushner

    Well it appears the father-in-law has now thrown the son-in-law under the bus....

    This was the same exact sentence that Trump uttered in his support for Flynn before firing him....

    NOTICE he did not use the words "fake news" around this article on his son-in-law.....

  18. #1018
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    Donald J. Trump‏
    @realDonaldTrump
    The Fake News Media works hard at disparaging & demeaning my use of social media because they don't want America to hear the real story!

    What does one say about this tweet ....

    1. Trump has been caught numerous times basically lying on his tweets
    2. Trump has been attacking both the free press, journalists and the judiciary with his tweets
    3. Trump has attacked the USG IC with his tweets
    4. Trump lied in his tweet on the great things achieved on his overseas trip especially with his failures at NATO and G7
    5. Trump tweeted that countless jobs were saved by his "intervention" and then those "saved" got laid off anyway
    6. Trump tweeted that his overseas trip made billions for America and that millions of jobs will come as well
    7. Trump tweeted there is no Russian connections BUT yet there is a massive FBI ongoing investigation
    8. Trump tweeted often about the massive size of the inaugural
    9. Trump tweeted demeaning comments about the Federal Judge handling his racketeering fraud case about his failed university...
    10. Trump demeaned the Federal Court decisions on his Muslim Ban

    And the list goes on and yet he tweets this...."because Fake News does not want American to hear the real story"..

    When one lives in an echo chamber one only hears ones own voice.....

    The real story is a man child incapable of leading the US and the West....and that is exactly what many in Europe have learned from his very own tweets...

    BUT WAIT.....
    Trump Had At Least 15 Chances To Address Portland Killings On Twitter. He Didn't.
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-29-2017 at 09:13 AM.

  19. #1019
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    Foot Soldiers in a Shadowy Battle Between Russia and the West
    https://nyti.ms/2sbTqsz

    Czech Stalinist paid by Russia to agitate against NATO. Then his accounts get hacked by Ukrainians & msgs published
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-29-2017 at 09:44 AM.

  20. #1020
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    U.S. Senator calls for probe into promotion of Kushner Cos deal
    http://reut.rs/2rNcyAN

    500,000 USDs invested into the Kushner Real Estate Company by rich Chinese would get them fast tracked for an EB-1B Green Card and it was being pushed as a great investment because President Trump was behind it....

    Sales events across China were then cancelled when social media broke the oblivious "conflict of interest" story and the Kushner family profiting from his position in the WH.......

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