US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6954

William H. McRaven, a retired four-star admiral and former Navy SEAL, defended journalists this week, calling President Trump’s denunciation of the media as “the enemy of the American people” the “greatest threat to democracy” he’s seen in his lifetime.

That’s coming from a man who’s seen major threats to democracy.

McRaven, who was commander of the secretive Joint Special Operations, is the man who organized and oversaw the highly risky operation that killed Osama bin Laden almost six years ago. The admiral from Texas had tapped a special unit of Navy SEALs to carry out the May 2011 raid of the elusive terrorist’s hideout, a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan

On February 24 2017 05:30 ticklishmusic wrote:
trump's not making any friends among the military brass.

On February 24 2017 05:34 OuchyDathurts wrote:
Wait so the big CNN take down is an audio clip of Dog the Bounty Hunter spouting off the N word a million times and claiming it was Jake Tapper? ROFL kill me please, I can't even anymore.

On February 24 2017 05:37 Nevuk wrote:

No, that's from a twitter account that literally claims to bring you the best fake news fastest.

The big CNN takedown so far was a clip of a producer arguing about which poll to use. Really riveting stuff.

What's on these tapes? There's this from Richard Griffiths, CNN's senior editorial director:

If we are journalists, what is our role as a journalist? What is the fundamental role as a journalist, for us to do? Tell a story. Tell what’s going on. There’s a secondary corollary to that, right? Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. To a degree, right? Is that not part of the traditional role of a journalist? It’s actually one of the things I can be most proud of as a journalist. You know we try to show the ugly side of humanity so we can do something about it. It’s hard, very hard.

“Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” is a reference to a line from the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind" ("Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"). Griffiths's contention that the old saying is true “to a degree” is hardly scandalous.

On February 24 2017 04:48 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
WTF....

On February 24 2017 05:48 Danglars wrote:

That's pretty funny. Is the WTF directed at Trump appearing jovial and personable? If this circulates like it's anything close to making Trump look bad, Trump wins and I wonder if he'll get tired of winning.

On February 24 2017 05:49 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:


No the WTF is why someone has to have some else brag about them so he can brag that it is indeed the truth.

On February 24 2017 05:42 OuchyDathurts wrote:


Wow that somehow sounds even less damning than a very fake clip of Tapper dropping the N bomb, didn't think it possible.



Source

Real damning stuff honestly

On February 24 2017 06:01 xDaunt wrote:

You need to dial back the faux outrage from 11 down to a 7 at the most. Your shit posting of tweets is out of control.

On February 24 2017 06:08 Plansix wrote:

O’Keefe and his fans do seem to have a very limited understanding of journalism, especially if they think that is some smoking gun.

On February 24 2017 04:48 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
WTF....

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/834799339121815554

On February 24 2017 06:52 Amui wrote:

He has to get his ego stroked by everybody he meets. Just a way to lift spirits, nothing more.

He's a pretty obvious cunt.

Edward Price joined the CIA in 2006 and thought he would work there forever.

Instead, he drove out of CIA headquarters on Feb. 14 after signing his resignation letter.

"Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional," Price, who goes by "Ned," wrote this week in an op-ed for the Washington Post.

Price says he knew he wanted to join the CIA from his early college days in 2001. He was two weeks into freshman year at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., when the 9/11 terror attacks struck.

"I remember vividly watching the Pentagon burn," Price says. "Watching the black smoke rise, from atop one of the dorms. And knowing at that moment that public service was for me."

Fast forward to today.

Now Ned Price is 34. And it was another vivid image that led him to quit: that of President Trump on Jan. 21 — his first full day in office — delivering a speech at CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia. Trump chose to speak in front of the CIA's wall of stars — stars that honor CIA officers who've died in the line of duty.

"He stood there, and he bragged about the size of the crowds at his inauguration the previous day," Price recalls. "And all I could think about as I watched him in disbelief was a mentor of mine who lost her life. And whose star was obscured by our new commander in chief, as he bashed the media and spoke about the size of his crowd in a way that was either deceitful or delusional."

That mentor was Jessica Matthews. She was chief of the CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, in 2009, when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing Matthews and six other CIA officers.

Price says that what stood out about Matthews was her dedication and commitment to the mission.

"Comparing that to what I heard and saw from the commander in chief, in front of her star... it was a lot to take," he says.

Price's resignation comes after months in which the agency and Trump have seemed on the verge of all-out war. Recall the final presidential debate back in October, when Trump rejected the unanimous judgment of U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia's efforts to interfere in the election.

On February 24 2017 06:43 LegalLord wrote:

Only been 5 weeks, they need to win a while longer before it starts to be a problem.

Donald Trump issued a staunch defence of his expanded deportation policy on Thursday, claiming his administration was getting “bad dudes out of this country”, further souring an already tense visit to Mexico by his secretaries of state and homeland security.

The president made his remarks at a business forum in Washington while Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state, was meeting his Mexican counterpart, Luis Videgaray.

Tillerson emerged to concede that there were differences between the two countries. He said it was natural for “two strong, sovereign countries” to disagree at times, but added they would continue their dialogue.

“In a relationship filled with vibrant colors, two strong sovereign countries will have their differences,” Tillerson said, summarising the talks, which he said covered “the full range of bilateral issues”, including defending the border against “terrorism” and “drug cartels”.

The visit by Tillerson and the head of homeland security, John Kelly, was intended to be a bridge-building exercise, to soothe fears aroused by Trump’s racist rhetoric both on the campaign trail and during his continued demands that Mexico pay for a wall on the US border.

Senior US officials had said the talks in Mexico City would highlight mutual interests in fields such as counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism and securing Mexico’s southern border.

But new US immigration proposals unveiled on the eve of the trip, aimed at more deportations of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented immigrants, drew an angry response from the Mexican government and threatened to derail talks. After Trump’s remarks on Thursday, a minister cast doubt on whether a planned meeting between Tillerson, Kelly and the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, would even take place.

The foreign minister, who is a close aide to Peña Nieto, declared that Mexico would defend its people living in the United States and go to the United Nations if necessary. He also rejected any suggestions that non-Mexican deportees would be deported to Mexico, dismissing the US proposals as “unilateral”.

“It will be a long road to building an agreement with the United States,” Videgaray said, “but we have taken a step.”

Trump used his remarks to US business leaders to combine a vigorous defence of deportations with a fresh attack on the 1994 Nafta free trade agreement, which is strongly supported by the Peña Nieto government.

“We’re going to have a good relationship with Mexico,” the president said, before adding: “And if we don’t, we don’t.”

Noting that Tillerson was in Mexico City, Trump said: “That’s going to be a tough trip. Because we have to be treated fairly by Mexico … But he’s over there with General Kelly, who’s been unbelievable at the border.

“What’s happening at the border: for the first time we are getting gang lords out, drug lords out. These bad dudes out of this country and at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before and they’re the bad ones,” the president said. “It’s a military operation … Much of that is because people are here illegally. And they’re rough and they’re tough but they’re not tough like our people. So we had to get them out.

“We are getting bad dudes out of this country at a rate we’ve never seen before,” the president said.

But in Mexico City, Kelly appeared to contradict Trump, insisting there would be “no mass deportations” and “no use of military force in immigration”.

Mexico’s economy minister, Idelfonso Guajardo, said the planned meeting between the two US cabinet secretaries and Peña Nieto at the Los Pinos presidential residence would be dependent on the outcome of the ministerial talks.

“The meeting at [Los] Pinos will happen, if it happens, in the context of the agreements they reach,” and if there were clear messages to be sent through the envoys, Guajardo told Foro TV.

The remarks by Videgaray and Guajardo seemed to indicate a tougher stance by the Mexican government in response to the Trump administration.