US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6962

On February 25 2017 03:17 Gorsameth wrote:

A minority does. The fact that the ACA has not yet been repealed gives the hope that logic will prevail

On February 25 2017 03:30 Plansix wrote:
I love that they didn’t notice it was the Russian flag or think it was weird.

A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of Russia’s effort to influence last year’s U.S. election is shaping up as an unexpectedly bipartisan effort that could take months to complete as it explores the most significant controversy shadowing the new Trump administration.

The investigation, which will involve scouring highly classified material, is still in its early stages, but Republicans are so far joining Democrats on the panel in pledging to conduct it in a serious manner.

The committee will examine the extent of contacts that President Donald Trump’s associates had with Russian officials before and after the Nov. 8 vote. In particular, it plans to look into conversations that Michael Flynn, who was ousted last week as Trump’s national security adviser, had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

Negotiations are under way with spy agencies including the CIA over how much access committee aides will get to highly classified material, according to U.S. intelligence officials. It’s not unusual for the agencies and committees to work out approval for aides to review material that’s classified beyond their normal security clearance levels, as well as what material they can have access to.

Senate Republicans don’t want to be seen engaging in a cover-up -- especially if leaks about additional contacts between Russians and people in Trump’s orbit continue to trickle out. But they also don’t want investigations to mushroom the way GOP efforts to probe the Benghazi attacks did during the Obama administration.

On February 25 2017 04:14 Doodsmack wrote:


How unfortunate that the Benghazi probes mushroomed, that must have been so unintentional LOL.

Pro-Kremlin politicians warn Trump could unleash new arms race

U.S. President Donald Trump pauses at the Dr. Ben Carson exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Russian politicians close to the Kremlin said on Friday U.S. President Donald Trump's declared aim of putting the U.S. nuclear arsenal "at the top of the pack" risked triggering a new Cold War-style arms race between Washington and Moscow.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump said the United States had fallen behind in its nuclear weapons capacity, a situation he said he would reverse, and he said a treaty limiting Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals was a bad deal for Washington.

Russian officials issued no reaction, with Friday a public holiday, but pro-Kremlin politicians expressed consternation about the comments from Trump, who Moscow had hoped would usher in new, friendlier relations between the two countries.

"Trump's campaign slogan 'Make America great again', if that means nuclear supremacy, will return the world to the worst times of the arms race in the '50s and '60s," said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament.

The president's remarks in the interview with Reuters were, Kosachev said in a post on his Facebook page, "arguably Trump's most alarming statement on the subject of relations with Russia".

Over the course of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States realized that achieving supremacy was dangerous, and accepted the doctrine of parity as the best way to ensure peace, Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page.

"Are we entering a new era? In my view we need an answer to that question as soon as possible."

During the U.S. presidential race, Trump said he would try to end the enmity that broke out between the Kremlin and Washington during Barack Obama's presidency. Russian officials looked forward to re-setting relations.

But just over a month into the Trump presidency, that prospect has receded, especially with the sacking of Michael Flynn, a leading proponent of warmer ties with Moscow, from his job as national security adviser.

Another pro-Kremlin lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, wrote on Twitter that Trump's comments on increasing U.S. nuclear capacity "put in doubt the agreement on limiting strategic arms, returning the world to the 20th century".

He said a Cold War arms treaty laid the foundation for nuclear stability between Moscow and Washington. "That needs to be preserved. And the United States cannot achieve decisive superiority."

"Instead of trying to achieve an illusory nuclear supremacy over Russia, the U.S. administration should find a solution to the exceptionally complicated nuclear problem of North Korea," wrote Pushkov, a member of the defense and security committee in Russia's upper house of parliament.

Pushkov and Kosachev are not directly involved in decision-making on Russian defense and foreign policy, but they generally reflect the Kremlin position.

It’s not just a political battle anymore. It’s spiritual warfare now.

Exorcists, witches and occultists “in a number of magical groups” are announcing plans for a ritual designed to “bind Donald Trump and all who abet him.”

It’s to happen Friday at midnight at a variety of locations across the nation, and again every month until Donald Trump is no longer in office.

The rite, requiring a stub of a candle, a pin, salt, matches, a tarot card, a feather and other odds and ends, calls on spirits to ensure President Trump will “fail utterly.” It also includes burning a picture of the commander in chief, visualizing him “blowing apart into dust or ash.”

Participants apparently have the option of using a baby carrot instead of an orange candle.

Among the various spirits invoked are the “demons of the infernal realms.”

There is even a Facebook page networking those who want to participate in the ritual. Some media outlets are also looking to film whatever happens.

It’s not the first time anti-Trump occultists have tried to use black magic against the president.

The far-left feminist blog Jezebel, named after the biblical queen who mandated the worship of Baal and Asherah instead of God, published a gushing story in September 2015 about “Brooklyn Witches” of immigrant descent cursing Trump because they “wholeheartedly believe that Trump and the rest of the GOP are garbage.”

Trump evidently overcame the curse, along with everything else in his way, to win the presidency a year later.

Still, Christian leaders believe these kinds of spiritual threats should be taken seriously, condemned and countered.

Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries said the left’s open embrace of demonic imagery is revealing.

“It shows that the level of hatred against Donald Trump is generated by Satan himself,” she said. “Donald Trump is not a perfect man. But he is trying to stop the runaway freight train of evil that has existed for eight years emanating out of Washington and the Democratic Party.