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NYT: White House Plans to Have Trump Ally Review Intelligence Agencies

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This shit is such spy novel story.


I am of the view that it doesn't matter what dirt the IC dig up or make public on Trump. The Republican party wont act on it. They are a party currently guided on extreme ideological and religious beliefs and could very well be the 21th centuries biggest threat if the extreme sided is left to prosper. They would rather watch the world burn (literally)

So many big moral questions.

If the American democratic system deems that America is going to fuck itself back to the stone age should it be allowed to?

How far should the CIA and other agencies and organisations go to protect America's best interests in a world where the checks and balances designed to keep a government inline are easily ignored? At some point do you just roll over because the system deems it so?
 

Acorn

Member
Although conspiracy theory-ish, I give credence to the idea going around that they are going to have people infiltrate the protesters at the rally this weekend to make sure things get very very violent. They are desperate to change the narrative.

I think if the Libs down there are smart they will have a counter rally at a different location. I would stay far far fucking away from the Trump rally when they are this desperate.
I saw some groups posting about known infiltrators and fake campaign groups during the womens march.

Problem is even if you know it's gonna happen violence is viral.
 

Glix

Member
I saw some groups posting about known infiltrators and fake campaign groups during the womens march.

Problem is even if you know it's gonna happen violence is viral.

Point taken but the administration was no where near as desperate then as they are now. They NEED something to distract everyone very very badly.

Just hold a counter rally and get more people to attend then attend his rally. That would upset him more than anything protesters could do anyway.
 

jstripes

Banned
Can someone check if the rest of Trump's party still has a pulse? What the hell are the Republicans doing?

Keeping quiet.

There's a theory that the Russians also hacked the GOP's email, and they're holding that as blackmail to keep party leadership in line.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Investigating the leaks!

Its almost at the point where they should be held criminally culpable when the shit hits the fan. Their willful ignorance over what is going on is astounding.

Actually... They are investigating the leakers, lol. Not even worried about the content.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Can we also talk about how Trump loved leaks during the campaign? He went on and on about Wiki Leaks and how much he liked them.
 

Glix

Member
Actually... They are investigating the leakers, lol. Not even worried about the content.

Yeah, thats what I mean.

Lunacy. This Nunes guy is a piece of work and Chaffets is a fucking slimeball that gives a bad name to punters everywhere.
 

EGM1966

Member
Sounds like yet more desire from Trump and co to skew what's supposed to be a balanced system to be biased to what they want.

The IC should be able to investigate and reveal issues that might go against the President and his staff. Obviously they need regulations and oversight that's controllable too but Trump's view seems to be that if doing their job produces a negative result for him then they need to be prevented from doing their job in that case.

And that's mighty shaky territory. Again at root it feels like he's seeing this as if he's the damn Owner/CEO of a company vs being just one branch of a balanced system that doesn't always have to agree with him or execute his will without question.

Also not sure being so public in his criticism of the IC is the way to go. Surely just backs them further into a position where there best option is to fight back with further Intel against him and his cabinet.
 
And that's mighty shaky territory. Again at root it feels like he's seeing this as if he's the damn Owner/CEO of a company vs being just one branch of a balanced system that doesn't always have to agree with him or execute his will without question.

Which lies the whole fallacy of the campaign argument that "Trump will bring his business experience into making the government more efficient".

That's what we DON'T want a democracy to be about. The organization of a corporation IS an autocratic regime in a smaller format. The idea that Trump can bring change the effectiveness of the government by running it like a business is the same as giving him the right to erode our checks and balances, and destroy the rule of law and very fabric of our government.

Democracies are designed to be slow-moving in general, because of the need to have the various checks in place. Once you convert it into something top-down driven like Trump has done, you lose all semblance of that.
 

E92 M3

Member
Trump wouldn't just do this if he knew the IC can easily bite back. Unfortunately, I think Cerberus has more leverage than we know.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
They're only allies for now and Russia is expanding this subversive campaign all throughout western Europe if you haven't noticed.

We've had several of these allies for more than half a century. If he all of a sudden turns on them, who do you think the American people are going to follow if they start releasing damning evidence?
 
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm trying to figure out what an investment banker can do to the whole of the US intelligence community by "reviewing" it. Using what tools? What criteria? What muscle?
 

Glix

Member
Trump wouldn't just do this if he knew the IC can easily bite back. Unfortunately, I think Cerberus has more leverage than we know.

Yes. You are correct. If there is one thing he has proven its that he is very capable of evaluating his decisions on factual data. He seems very aware of his flaws and very aware of reality and takes measure of those things before making big decisions.

He CERTAINLY does not do and say whatever he needs to for his own ego regardless of reality or consequences.

Its not even feasible he would do something like this as a last ditch attempt to save himself knowing there is a good chance Cerebus can't do shit.
 
Trump wouldn't just do this if he knew the IC can easily bite back. Unfortunately, I think Cerberus has more leverage than we know.

It hasn't been easy for them to bite back heretofore, either, though you may very well be correct in your thought that Cerberus has more leverage than we think.

That said, bringing the Bob's or whatever in to review the IC isn't something that I think will be effective.
 
He wants an attack to happen. Look at how it saved bush.

9/11 didn't save Bush. People seem to forget that pre-9/11 Bush wasn't the hated and mocked President he became, because of his actions post-9/11 (and his general poor speaking that made him easy to mock). He wasn't liked persay, either, but he really wasn't hated. 9/11 didn't really save his failing reputation even if it allowed him and his admin to segue into a war behind blind patriotism.

Trump has been divisive with the lowest approval rating of a President-Elect. Everything he's done in his short time as President has been met with division, protest, and had the stink of some scandal or another. A war isn't going to 'save' him, especially not after the failures of the last wars years that are still fresh. His support may become more vocal if something happens and he segues into a war, but no way is everyone just falling in line with him now. He's fucked himself in that regard, he's burned any and all goodwill he could have.
 

E92 M3

Member
Yes. You are correct. If there is one thing he has proven its that he is very capable of evaluating his decisions on factual data. He seems very aware of his flaws and very aware of reality and takes measure of those things before making big decisions.

He CERTAINLY does not do and say whatever he needs to for his own ego regardless of reality or consequences.

Its not even feasible he would do something like this as a last ditch attempt to save himself knowing there is a good chance Cerebus can't do shit.

Some of his people aren't that stupid - that's the issue.

Trump is a moron that regularly does stupid things that don't make sense or backfire on him.

He has surrounded himself with some smart and evil people.

It hasn't been easy for them to bite back heretofore, either, though you may very well be correct in your thought that Cerberus has more leverage than we think.

That said, bringing the Bob's or whatever in to review the IC isn't something that I think will be effective.

We'll see, but it's still an unprecedented move (at least I think).
 

Tovarisc

Member
X-post as has to do with IC.

3n476Qm.png

https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/832262326556438529
 

Glix

Member
Some of his people aren't that stupid - that's the issue.



He has surrounded himself with some smart and evil people.



We'll see, but it's still an unprecedented move (at least I think).

They could have very easily made an EO that did what he wanted to do and have it be airtight legally.

These people don't operate on the level you think they do.

They only know how to bully and coerce.

Plus, Its pretty obvious that he only listens to then when they are saying what he wants to hear. At the end of the day he only listens to Trump. If anyone really could control him he wouldn't be sending out these "ITS SO OBVIOUS IM GUILTY" tweets.
 

kinoki

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
There's nothing good that's going to come of this. This is just a few weeks into the administration. Imagine 4 more years of this. The US might never recover.
 
There's nothing good that's going to come of this. This is just a few weeks into the administration. Imagine 4 more years of this. The US might never recover.

Yeah, this has been my thought for quite some time now. A lot of people don't like pessimism right now, and I understand why, but I can't recall a time I've been so nervous for the future of the country. I really don't know if we'll survive all of this. People seem to be banking on the IC here, but I don't really know anymore.
 
Yeah, this has been my thought for quite some time now. A lot of people don't like pessimism right now, and I understand why, but I can't recall a time I've been so nervous for the future of the country. I really don't know if we'll survive all of this. People seem to be banking on the IC here, but I don't really know anymore.

We recovered from Americans shooting and killing one another in a civil war. We'll make it through this and hopefully excise this malaignant growth on our democracy.
 
Can we also talk about how Trump loved leaks during the campaign? He went on and on about Wiki Leaks and how much he liked them.

If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.
 
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.

Hmm, leaks to undermine an election versus leaks about the undermining of our government. Wherein lies the difference?
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.
This. Deep State leaks are fucking scary and it could easily happen to a Dem president or anyone they don't like. Obama was pretty tough on people leaking classified stuff too.
 

Glix

Member
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.

We weren't that upset about the leaks.

We were upset they were being framed by liars as criminal over and over and over when in reality it was "It's fucking nothing!"

I mean... that one that finally blew the lid off the pizzagate scandal we hated. There is nothing worse than kids being sexually abused and I'm glad that hero went in there and showed them whats what.

But yeah. Both sides.
 
We recovered from Americans shooting and killing one another in a civil war. We'll make it through this and hopefully excise this malaignant growth on our democracy.

We recovered then because the powers to be was on the 'right side of history,' so to speak (even though I think Lincoln messed up royally by not punishing the South). After all this, will the powers to be be the same? I don't know, I can really only hope.
 

mcfrank

Member
We recovered then because the powers to be was on the 'right side of history,' so to speak (even though I think Lincoln messed up royally by not punishing the South). After all this, will the powers to be be the same? I don't know, I can really only hope.

Johnson, right? Didn't Lincoln die very shortly after the surrender of the south?
 

LakeEarth

Member
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.

Because those leaks were "there are emails, oh my god emails! There's stuff in those emails, oh you betcha! Terrible stuff!" and then there was nothing of substance there.

This is treason. And the only reason the leaks are happening is because the "checks and balances" that's supposed to handle this kind of thing are sitting on their hands.
 

Glix

Member
He did, but I do believe Lincoln was the one who actually pardoned the South after the war was over. I can't recall what Johnson did from there in regards to the South.

In reality the South was punished terribly in the years after the war.

If you mean that something official should have been passed, some sort symbolic shaming, I can see where you are coming from, but it would have been a terrible mistake.

Don't want to derail but just my two cents.
 

Nafai1123

Banned
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.

GAF is not a liberal hivemind. There are plenty of people who understand the value of leaks to inform the populace regardless of whose "team" is in the WH.

I'm of the belief that leaks to protect our sovereignty and constitutional rights are necessary, while leaks that compromise assets are not.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
I also don't think the leaks are good but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy trump squirming after praising Wikileaks for a year and a half.

Also because he's been less than forthcoming with the Russia angle as well as his taxes.
 

Glix

Member
If we do that then we should also talk about how much GAF hated those leaks back then and is loving them now. There is plenty of heinous stuff Trump is guilty of but Hypocrisy isnt exclusive to him.

Thinking about this even more. Considering the libs are the ones that support Snowden and Manning, calling us hypocrites is quite a fucking reach.

Like I said in the other post. It was the constant references to the leaked emails as if they were nefarious. Thats what made us so mad.
 

BinaryPork2737

Unconfirmed Member
He did, but I do believe Lincoln was the one who actually pardoned the South after the war was over. I can't recall what Johnson did from there in regards to the South.
The south essentially sent the same political leaders they had before the war to congress to hold the same positions as before. Republicans refused to let them govern, but Johnson attempted to veto bills that would allow the southerners back in. The Republicans override his veto. This kept happening until Congress finally moved to impeach him after he kept trying to get rid of Stanton as secretary of war. Johnson hated the 14th amendment and wanted to go easy on the south, but the Republican-dominated congress wouldn't let him.

Reconstruction collapsed later on, of course, and we're still dealing with the repercussions today.
 

rjinaz

Member
GAF is not a liberal hivemind. There are plenty of people who understand the value of leaks to inform the populace regardless of whose "team" is in the WH.

I'm of the belief that leaks to protect our sovereignty and constitutional rights are necessary, while leaks that compromise assets are not.

Or the fact that the shit that was leaking from wikileaks almost consisted entirely of private and pointless conversations, which came to nothing. Leaking for the sake of leaking and against people that are not in a position like president because you hope something in there sticks is not the same thing as leaking against a man apparently hell bent on becoming King America.

And yes people can call me a hypocrite if they like because I don't mind these Trump leaks, but if Obama was trying to become King back then I'd want leakers stopping him too. Of course that didn't happen though because there was never a legit reason to leak against Obama.

These leaks are happening because people are legit scared, not because they want a Democrat in the house.
 
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