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PoliGAF 2017 |OT1| From Russia with Love

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daedalius

Member
Here's my prediction:

This Flynn shit will lead to a snowball effect of search warrants against Trump and his "inner circle".

This is going to take down the inner circle: Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rudy Guillianni, Michael Flynn, and Donald Trump.

Don't get my hopes up too much.

Is the Flynn thing being covered anywhere?
 
Mario 64-3: This time it has more Sonic in it.
Zelda
Xenoblade 2: It makes more sense than Xbox One
Splatoon 2

All gonna be great games.

And then there's SMT5 and people liked SMT3 for some reason so they'll probably like this.

Well... That's a fairly nice distraction from #ABetterWay
 

NeoXChaos

Member
Here's my prediction:

This Flynn shit will lead to a snowball effect of search warrants against Trump and his "inner circle".

This is going to take down the inner circle: Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rudy Guillianni, Michael Flynn, and Donald Trump.

you must be new here. Never saw you pre-election but welcome aboard.
 

Zereta

Member
Don't assume that this is all over because of Schindler.

But take it as an indication of a bunch of pieces coming together since Paul Manafort's hire, further exploding with the dossier reveal.

Cross posting from the thread about the dossier but:

So, catching up on my news reading for today, came across this:

Politico: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire

This is a very long article. I'll be quoting parts of this story.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Merkel, who has served as an election observer in Ukrainian presidential elections dating back to 1993, noted there’s some irony in Ukraine and Russia taking opposite sides in the 2016 presidential race, given that past Ukrainian elections were widely viewed in Washington’s foreign policy community as proxy wars between the U.S. and Russia.

A daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who maintains strong ties to the Ukrainian-American diaspora and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Chalupa, a lawyer by training, in 2014 was doing pro bono work for another client interested in the Ukrainian crisis and began researching Manafort’s role in Yanukovych’s rise, as well as his ties to the pro-Russian oligarchs who funded Yanukovych’s political party.

In January 2016 — months before Manafort had taken any role in Trump’s campaign — Chalupa told a senior DNC official that, when it came to Trump’s campaign, “I felt there was a Russia connection,” Chalupa recalled. “And that, if there was, that we can expect Paul Manafort to be involved in this election,” said Chalupa, who at the time also was warning leaders in the Ukrainian-American community that Manafort was “Putin’s political brain for manipulating U.S. foreign policy and elections.”

That was not an uncommon view at the time, and, perhaps as a result, Trump’s ties to Russia — let alone Manafort’s — were not the subject of much attention.
That all started to change just four days after Chalupa’s meeting at the embassy, when it was reported that Trump had in fact hired Manafort, suggesting that Chalupa may have been on to something.

Telizhenko recalled that Chalupa told him and Shulyar that, “If we can get enough information on Paul [Manafort] or Trump’s involvement with Russia, she can get a hearing in Congress by September.”

Chalupa confirmed that, a week after Manafort’s hiring was announced, she discussed the possibility of a congressional investigation with a foreign policy legislative assistant in the office of Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who co-chairs the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. But, Chalupa said, “It didn’t go anywhere.”

Within a few weeks of her initial meeting at the embassy with Shulyar and Chaly, Chalupa on April 20 received the first of what became a series of messages from the administrators of her private Yahoo email account, warning her that “state-sponsored actors” were trying to hack into her emails.

Chalupa further indicated in her hacked May email to the DNC that she had additional sensitive information about Manafort that she intended to share “offline” with Miranda and DNC research director Lauren Dillon, including “a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in next few weeks and something I’m working on you should be aware of.” Explaining that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing the intel over email, Chalupa attached a screenshot of a warning from Yahoo administrators about “state-sponsored” hacking on her account, explaining, “Since I started digging into Manafort these messages have been a daily occurrence on my yahoo account despite changing my password often.”

About a month-and-a-half after Chalupa first started receiving hacking alerts, someone broke into her car outside the Northwest Washington home where she lives with her husband and three young daughters, she said. They “rampaged it, basically, but didn’t take anything valuable — left money, sunglasses, $1,200 worth of golf clubs,” she said, explaining she didn’t file a police report after that incident because she didn’t connect it to her research and the hacking.

But by the time a similar vehicle break-in occurred involving two family cars, she was convinced that it was a Russia-linked intimidation campaign. The police report on the latter break-in noted that “both vehicles were unlocked by an unknown person and the interior was ransacked, with papers and the garage openers scattered throughout the cars. Nothing was taken from the vehicles.”

Then, early in the morning on another day, a woman “wearing white flowers in her hair” tried to break into her family’s home at 1:30 a.m., Chalupa said. Shulyar told Chalupa that the mysterious incident bore some of the hallmarks of intimidation campaigns used against foreigners in Russia, according to Chalupa.

So all this eventually led to the eventual NYT article exposing Manafort's cash ties and the Pro-Russian connection and this led to Manafort's quick resignation, allegedly not working with the campaign anymore. Instead, Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway became the campaign heads.

Back to Politico's story:

Clinton’s campaign seized on the story to advance Democrats’ argument that Trump’s campaign was closely linked to Russia. The ledger represented “more troubling connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine,” Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

According to a series of memos reportedly compiled for Trump’s opponents by a former British intelligence agent, Yanukovych, in a secret meeting with Putin on the day after the Times published its report, admitted that he had authorized “substantial kickback payments to Manafort.” But according to the report, which was published Tuesday by BuzzFeed but remains unverified. Yanukovych assured Putin “that there was no documentary trail left behind which could provide clear evidence of this” — an alleged statement that seemed to implicitly question the authenticity of the ledger.

And in an interview this week, Manafort, who re-emerged as an informal advisor to Trump after Election Day, suggested that the ledgers were inauthentic and called their publication “a politically motivated false attack on me. My role as a paid consultant was public. There was nothing off the books, but the way that this was presented tried to make it look shady.”

True enough, Manafort and Corey Lewandowski were both seen in Trump Tower soon after Trump won the presidency.

Back to Politico:

Yet Russia seemed to come to the defense of Manafort and Trump last month, when a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry charged that the Ukrainian government used the ledgers as a political weapon.

“Ukraine seriously complicated the work of Trump’s election campaign headquarters by planting information according to which Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, allegedly accepted money from Ukrainian oligarchs,” Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing, according to a transcript of her remarks posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website. “All of you have heard this remarkable story,” she told assembled reporters.

And she pointed out that Chaly traveled to the GOP convention in Cleveland in late July and met with members of Trump’s foreign policy team “to highlight the importance of Ukraine and the support of it by the U.S.”

Despite the outreach, Trump’s campaign in Cleveland gutted a proposed amendment to the Republican Party platform that called for the U.S. to provide “lethal defensive weapons” for Ukraine to defend itself against Russian incursion, backers of the measure charged.

We all remember this happening. It was a big thing that was quickly forgotten.

And a final bit from the Politico article:

The Poroshenko regime’s standing with Trump is considered so dire that the president’s allies after the election actually reached out to make amends with — and even seek assistance from — Manafort, according to two operatives familiar with Ukraine’s efforts to make inroads with Trump.

Meanwhile, Poroshenko’s rivals are seeking to capitalize on his dicey relationship with Trump’s team. Some are pressuring him to replace Chaly, a close ally of Poroshenko’s who is being blamed by critics in Kiev and Washington for implementing — if not engineering — the country’s anti-Trump efforts, according to Ukrainian and U.S. politicians and operatives interviewed for this story. They say that several potential Poroshenko opponents have been through Washington since the election seeking audiences of their own with Trump allies, though most have failed to do do so.

“None of the Ukrainians have any access to Trump — they are all desperate to get it, and are willing to pay big for it,” said one American consultant whose company recently met in Washington with Yuriy Boyko, a former vice prime minister under Yanukovych. Boyko, who like Yanukovych has a pro-Russian worldview, is considering a presidential campaign of his own, and his representatives offered “to pay a shit-ton of money” to get access to Trump and his inaugural events, according to the consultant.

As we search for evidence to verify that Trump, his campaign and the Kremlin were in contact during the campaign, stuff like this, with content impacted by material in the dossier are out here sitting in the open, as clear , potentially serious evidence that Trump has been working with Russia all along. Manafort is one big part of this puzzle it seems, to re-quote Politico:

In January 2016 — months before Manafort had taken any role in Trump’s campaign — Chalupa told a senior DNC official that, when it came to Trump’s campaign, “I felt there was a Russia connection,” Chalupa recalled. “And that, if there was, that we can expect Paul Manafort to be involved in this election,” said Chalupa, who at the time also was warning leaders in the Ukrainian-American community that Manafort was “Putin’s political brain for manipulating U.S. foreign policy and elections.”

Dig harder, IC and press. We gotta nail these guys.

Schindler is reliable due to NSA contacts, prominent intelligence analyst. Wouldn't stake reputation on unverified information, and only went berserk now due to WaPo's article.
Obama's move to allow NSA to share intel and info with other intelligence agencies.

Stay tuned, I think is the right answer. This story is still young, push for this angle began literally came like what, 2 days ago?

I believe they're moving fast on this.
 
Here's my prediction:

This Flynn shit will lead to a snowball effect of search warrants against Trump and his "inner circle".

This is going to take down the inner circle: Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rudy Guillianni, Michael Flynn, and Donald Trump.

One can hope. They're running out of time though.

If Trump is inaugurated he will drop multiple nukes on....the USA.
 
Actually I forgot about two other important names in Trump's inner circle:

Carter Page

Corey Lewandowski

EDIT: sorry that was uncalled for that last part.
 
Did Giuliana really say this?

Giuliani: “It is refreshing and it is very good for our democracy that we have a president that is trying to get us back to a free press.”

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/819743068605784065

... .... ..... .... ...

It's part of their culture war. When they say "free press" they really mean "we can publish reprehensible articles calling black people uncivilized and no one can call us out for it."

The GOP base (whether they're elegant about it or not) is solely concerned with freedom....from all consequence. They want to act and never have anything bad happen as a result of their action. It's a fantasy.
 
Paul Ryan keeps trying to pretend that 2.5B per year of funding for high risk pools is enough when it needs to be like 10x or 40x higher and it's dumb as shit.
 

Makai

Member
Everything about it is hilarious. Paid online, but with complimentary NES demo each month.

bro did u even see zelda

game of the year launches in less than 2 months, fuck mass effect
I got a Wii U already. And no gimmick to trick me into buying a new console like Twilight Princess.
 

JP_

Banned
*insert joke about snapping fingers and switching discussion to politics*

So... c-span hijacked by RT, NBC glitches out so someone says "russia" over and over and over, lights went out during incoming CIA director confirmation hearing... on top of all the trump/russia findings.. I think the aliens running this simulated universe have reached the point where they got bored and have started triggering calamities to entertain themselves.
 
The only way you could do that would be to do two things:

1.) Eliminate many rural voting locations

2.) Cut postal service to rural areas, making it harder for them to receive their voting info on time.

Both are fairly awful ideas that shouldn't be entertained.
I wonder what the urban/rural breakdown is of conservatives who want to get rid of the Post Office (so ironic since it is enshrined in the Constitution). Rural locations will suffer the most without the USPS.
Tying insurance to employment was the most fucked up thing this country ever did.
Give yourself 30 seconds and you'll easily think of a dozen worse. First one starts with "S"!
 
Exactly, I honestly think single payer just won't happen, outside of a few states, for these reasons and more. It's just a destructive move for largely no good reason other than "some places have it."

I think every cause should start with the question "What's the end goal?" With healthcare, the goal should be affordable coverage for everyone. Methods to get there aren't as important, and so we should just pick the easiest method.
Isn't this the opposite of the case everyone makes when defending outsourcing manufacturing? "It's bad for the people who get laid off and the effects on their communities but it's a net good for everyone else so we need to go ahead with it!"

And it's not "because some countries do it", single payer is incredibly successful and popular, to the point where 49% of the UK say the NHS is what makes them most proud to be British. Meanwhile, the only compelling defense of the ACA is "things aren't as fucked as they were before" and it's probably about to get repealed because no one actually likes using it. The most popular and successful part was expansion of one of the single payer systems that is already loved and popular! There's critiques to be made for pushing single payer but it's not like people who want it are shortsighted morons.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Oh god, the city level in Super Mario Odyssey.

This is Mario in Trump's America, people.
 
Isn't this the opposite of the case everyone makes when defending outsourcing manufacturing? "It's bad for the people who get laid off and the effects on their communities but it's a net good for everyone else so we need to go ahead with it!"

And it's not "because some countries do it", single payer is incredibly successful and popular, to the point where 49% of the UK say the NHS is what makes them most proud to be British. Meanwhile, the only compelling defense of the ACA is "things aren't as fucked as they were before" and it's probably about to get repealed because no one actually likes using it. The most popular and successful part was expansion of one of the single payer systems that is already loved and popular! There's critiques to be made for pushing single payer but it's not like people who want it are shortsighted morons.
To be fair the individual components of ACA are all fine and dandy and poll very well. The problem is as soon as you attach Obama's name to it people turn against it.

Had Obama gotten single payer its favorability would not have been significantly better and would probably have been worse.
 
It's not like it's just people who hate Obama complaining about it, Bill Clinton called it crazy and Dayton said it sucked and didn't work.

There would probably be some unpopularity but you wouldn't have people intentionally keeping their income within Medicaid range because the exchanges suck and it wouldn't be terrible for rural areas and single payer would be able to effectively implement price controls.

For the record, I don't think we need to pass single payer immediately but I do think, especially if the ACA is repealed, we should just focus on expanding our existing single payer systems until we have universal coverage. No one (except rich assholes) is going to complain because Medicare covers you at 55 now instead.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Oh god, the city level in Super Mario Odyssey.

This is Mario in Trump's America, people.

I think I physically hurt my eyes on the jaggies.
So used to most games having a form of AA at this point.

I was sucked into Witcher 3 for the last week or so, just sorta keeping up with the news, but not commenting or talking about it much.
 

Polarbear

Banned
Here's my prediction:

This Flynn shit will lead to a snowball effect of search warrants against Trump and his "inner circle".

This is going to take down the inner circle: Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rudy Guillianni, Michael Flynn, and Donald Trump.

I still think Trump is getting out of this unscathed with an "I didn't know" excuse, also because the GOP controls everything and is terrified of his base. They can tear down everyone in his inner circle but he'll somehow be insulated from it all.
 

mo60

Member
I still think Trump is getting out of this unscathed with an "I didn't know" excuse, also because the GOP controls everything and is terrified of his base. They can tear down everyone in his inner circle but he'll somehow be insulated from it all.

Not if something connecting him directly to the russia story releases.
 

It's the Washington Post reporter who on Thursday implicated some of Flynn's transgressions(the article twitter was raving about)...like contacting Russian counterpart after Obama expelled Russian diplomats. Creepy.

Now, add this glitch to Rachel Maddow's 2 reported glitches...on the video titled "Democrats adjust to opposition party(21:55)" starting about 5 minutes in which covers the power going out in a hearing(when Russian hacking is mentioned) and then there is the CSPAN coverage of the House floor being over taken by Russian Television.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump

The "Unaffordable" Care Act will soon be history!
6:33 AM · Jan 13, 2017

What a vile thing to champion.
He also tweeted some other nonsense, but not worth my time
 

faisal233

Member
f9qncW.png
 

Wilsongt

Member
Seems to the new BernieBro thing to do is begin to attack Corey Booker...

Also the incoming tactic from the right. Looks like they are teaming up to sink him before 2020 even starts ramping up.
 

Maledict

Member
Seems to the new BernieBro thing to do is begin to attack Corey Booker...

It's not a berniebro thing, there are legitimate reasons to not be keen on Booker. This is the same guy who attacked Obama during the 2012 campaign and defended Romney, and who pissed away $100m to help his schools on nothing.

I know a lot of people had concerns over HIllarys ties to Wall Street, but (as an ardent HIllary supporter!) Booker really is owned and bought by them. Look at his behaviour during the Tillerson hearings for an example as to why he's unfit to be the nominee.
 
Did the countries that passed single payer have 70% of their working-age population already insured by employers?
They didn't.
Those nations probably didn't have massive entrenched systems already in place to deal with. Health care in the US is like advocating for a different method of construction for the Empire State Building; it doesn't matter how great the replacement building will be if you can't easily get rid of the one that's sitting on the spot right now.

I'm still of the opinion that we should just expand Medicaid/Medicare to take the role of a public option. If you're on it now, nothing changes at all. If you don't qualify for it outright, then you should be able to buy into it (at good prices). And you need a mandate. It's literally impossible to do this without massive participation.
That's how you start building a better option.
How about this.

-The only insurance offered on the exchanges is government health insurance.
-The rich pay a lot of taxes so this public option is reasonably affordable thanks to subsides.
-We call it single payer


Would everyone be happy with this?

I would if you also take measures to reduce cost in the health industry,

That is the other issue with going single payer here - you would blow up a pretty big industry that is responsible for a lot of the economic boom (and the decrease in wage inequality between men and women). As much as I like single payer - I don't think it would work here without decades and decades of incremental movement. (also, most industries would have to rethink salaries, as this would end up being a massive potential paycut to all workers, as companies could shift their health care expenditures back into giant bonuses)
Yeah, all that matters is money, the right to health protection isn't worth all the money that this industry makes and how much money they are able to extract from other business and families with their ever increasing prices.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Being soft on Tillerson, he deserves it.

It's not a berniebro thing, there are legitimate reasons to not be keen on Booker. This is the same guy who attacked Obama during the 2012 campaign and defended Romney, and who pissed away $100m to help his schools on nothing.

I know a lot of people had concerns over HIllarys ties to Wall Street, but (as an ardent HIllary supporter!) Booker really is owned and bought by them. Look at his behaviour during the Tillerson hearings for an example as to why he's unfit to be the nominee.


Aah. I didn't know all of this. Thanks for clarifying!
 

dramatis

Member
Yeah, all that matters is money, the right to health protection isn't worth all the money that this industry makes and how much money they are able to extract from other business and families with their ever increasing prices.
This is a curious thing to say when all this screaming about economic anxiety is also, at its heart, an instance in which all that matters is money.
 
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