(07-20-2017, 09:22 AM)michaelsean Wrote: I've never had real insomnia, but one sleepless night gives me an idea of how miserable that would be.
Don't know if mine is "real", don't want to recieve more pity than deserved. My internal clock just doesn't fir the 24 hour scheme, and I can afford right now to live by it. But when forcd to sleep, it can take two hours or more to finally fall asleep, and that isn't the most entertaining of times.
Why do I talk about this? Here's something more relevant: My country faces elections at the end of the year - one would hope that by then, the US government would find methods to break Putin's habit and ambition to meddle in those. Right now, it's very disappointing that he seems to get ovations as a reward for meddling with yours - and a course to have an easier opportunity next time. Leaves me puzzled.
I maintain that this is the goal of Putin and the Russian government, to just stir shit up over here. They disliked Clinton but she was a threat, they see Trump as a fool who can be manipulated. Now they have what they wanted and are milking it for all it is worth. Whether or not there was collusion (and I don't know if it was someone tied to Trump, but someone in this country helped them based on what I heard from Russia expert this week) they wanted this result and worked to make it happen for this very reason.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
Quote:Trump retreats, issues stand down order against Russian cyberattacks
Acting on orders from Donald Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is downgrading America's ability to respond to cyber intrusions, demoting a key office in America's cyber arsenal while ignoring security concerns. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Donald Trump
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The Trump administration is retreating from defending the United States from hackers at the same time that Russia and other international actors continue to target our country.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to shut down the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, an office set up by President Barack Obama in 2011 to coordinate cyber-related issues between the United States and other countries.
Under Obama, the coordinator responded directly to the secretary of state. Under Tillerson’s reorganization, the position will be buried under State Department bureaucracy, and will have to go through the chain of command to elevate urgent cyber issues to the top diplomat.
This troubling move is part of a pattern: Tillerson has been executing Donald Trump’s dangerous vision at the department, in part by failing to fill many positions that previously have been crucial to America’s role as the sole global superpower.
Robert Knake, former director of cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council under Obama, told Bloomberg that Tillerson is “taking an issue that’s preeminent and putting it inside a backwater within the State Department.”
The decision also comes after U.S. intelligence agencies pointed to Russia-backed hackers for their role in a cyber campaign to disrupt the presidential election in favor of Trump. The report noted that Russia had “developed a clear preference” for Trump and sought to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The hackers broke into computers used by members of the Democratic Party, stole their emails, then delivered them to WikiLeaks, who released them to the world to be weaponized politically by the Trump campaign.
Of course, Trump has repeatedly dismissed the findings of the intelligence reports, insisting without evidence that some other countries could have done the hacking.
He has instead been working to roll back sanctions imposed on Russia for their election hacking, and recently floated the idea of working with Russia on election hacking, a notion that was slammed by a bipartisan group of elected officials as essentially handing a bank robber the key to the vault.
And as Trump retreats, Russia has continued to advance. Recent testimony from the Department of Homeland Security indicated that people connected to the Russian government tried to hack election-related computer systems in 21 states, attempting to find vulnerabilities so they could break into the systems.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised that America could face a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” in which critical systems are targeted, leading to mass chaos and disorder, as well as the loss of life as a result.
Despite the looming danger, Trump and Tillerson are doing exactly what Russia would want if they are hoping for an impotent response.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
Another hit piece on Trump. Not hard to spot just read how it is written.
Russia and our elections? Nothing there.
Nothing. Give it up you lost fair and square.
Cyber security set up by Obama? or the Clintons for that matter?
Our security was breached by Clinton and then covered up and evidence destroyed with hammers and bleach bit (very expensive). Why bleach bit wedding plans and yoga class schedules? Have you seen the distribution of Haiti's money?
Nothing was done about it.
If Obama, Lynch and Comey wanted to do something about our security they could of but they didn't. We live under a 2 tier justice system. You and me would be in prison.
Wikileaks got their info from Seth Rich not Russia.
Quote:Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, will not testify publicly next week under a deal worked out Friday with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The two will meet with committee members and staff privately, the committee chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced. Grassley said they were still expected to give public testimony later.
@ChuckGrassley
Trump Jr and Manafort are cooperating w my committee and will give documents and answer Qs for staff and members But also will appear openly 6:47 PM - 21 Jul 2017
Grassley said that another witness, Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, an investigative firm based in Washington, would be subpoenaed after declining to testify.
Simpson's firm hired a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to look into reports that Russian intelligence held compromising information about Trump. Steele produced a lengthy dossier of reported kompromat, which became public shortly before Trump's inauguration.
Trump has denied the accusations in the dossier.
Simpson's attorney has said he would resist the subpoena, arguing that the committee's questions would violate his client's 1st Amendment rights as well as his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
I assume they will be under oath?
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
Quote:Congress Reaches Deal on Russia Sanctions, Setting Up Tough Choice for Trump
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, praised a House bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on sweeping sanctions legislation to punish Russia for its election meddling and aggression toward its neighbors, they said Saturday, defying the White House’s argument that President Trump needs flexibility to adjust the sanctions to fit his diplomatic initiatives with Moscow.
The new legislation would sharply limit the president’s ability to suspend or terminate the sanctions — a remarkable handcuffing by a Republican-led Congress six months into Mr. Trump’s tenure. It is also the latest Russia-tinged turn for a presidency consumed by investigations into the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian officials, including conversationsbetween Trump advisers and Russian officials about prospective sanctions relief.
Now, Mr. Trump could soon face a decision he hoped to avoid: veto the bill — a move that would fuel accusations that he is doing the bidding of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — or sign legislation imposing sanctions his administration has opposed.
“A nearly united Congress is poised to send President Putin a clear message on behalf of the American people and our allies,” said Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “and we need President Trump to help us deliver that message.”
The bill aims to punish Russia not only for interference in the election but also for its annexation of Crimea, continuing military activity in eastern Ukraine and human rights abuses. Proponents of the measure seek to impose sanctions on people involved in human rights abuses, suppliers of weapons to the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and those undermining cybersecurity, among others.
The agreement highlighted the gap between what Mr. Trump sees as the proper approach to a resurgent Russia and how lawmakers — even Republicans who broadly support Mr. Trump — want to proceed. While Mr. Trump has dangled the possibility of negotiating a deal to lift sanctions, Mr. Putin’s top objective, the congressional response is to expand them.
In Moscow, Dmitri S. Peskov, a Putin spokesman, was asked by the government-run news agency RIA to characterize the Kremlin’s view of the sanctions proposal. “Highly negative,” he said, without elaborating.
The White House did not respond publicly to the legislation. But two senior administration officials said they could not imagine Mr. Trump vetoing the measure in the current political atmosphere, even if he regards it as interfering with his executive authority to conduct foreign policy. Still, as ever, Mr. Trump retains the capacity to surprise, and this would be his first decision about whether to veto a significant bill.
Congress has complicated his choice because the legislation also encompasses new sanctions against Iran and North Korea, two countries the administration has been eager to punish for their activities.
There are still hurdles to clear in a Capitol where the Republican majorities have been reluctant to confront Mr. Trump. Some party leaders were silent about the agreement on Saturday, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Others took care to note the misdeeds of all three countries being targeted for sanctions.
In a statement from two California Republicans — Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, and Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — the lawmakers said, “North Korea, Iran and Russia have in different ways all threatened their neighbors and actively sought to undermine American interests.”
They added, “The bill the House will vote on next week will now exclusively focus on these nations and hold them accountable for their dangerous actions.”
A spokeswoman for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, AshLee Strong, said the bill “would hold three bad actors to account.”
A sanctions package had stalled in the Republican-led House for weeks after winning near-unanimous support in the Senate last month. Democrats accused Republicans of delaying quick action on the bill at the behest of the Trump administration, which had asked for more flexibility in its relationship with Russia and took up the cause of oil and gas companies, defense contractors and other financial players who suggested that certain provisions could undercut profits.
The House version of the bill includes a small number of changes, technical and substantive, from the Senate legislation, including some made in response to concerns raised by American energy companies.
Those tweaks — and the addition of North Korea sanctions to a Senate package that included only Russia and Iran, months after the House approved sanctions against North Korea by a vote of 419 to 1 — helped end the impasse.
The House version of the bill was set for a vote on Tuesday, according to Mr. McCarthy’s office.
The agreement comes at a particularly uncomfortable moment for the White House. Sanctions are central to the mystery over Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer and others on June 9, 2016, where he said the topic of adoption came up. That was a reference to Mr. Putin’s decision to ban American adoptions of Russian children in response to sanctions Congress passed over human rights issues.
The discussions that the president’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, held with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the transition were also said to be about sanctions, including President Barack Obama’s decision, in his last weeks in office, to evict Russia from two of its diplomatic compounds in the United States. Mr. Trump must soon decide whether to return them.
For months, lawmakers have agreed on the need to punish Russia, separating the issue from others, such as immigration and health care, that have been mired in partisan wheel-spinning. The unity has placed Republicans in the unusual position of undercutting their own president on a particularly awkward subject.
Yet politically, the collaboration delivers benefits to members of both parties. Democrats have sought to make Russia pay for its 2016 election interference, which many of them believe contributed to Mr. Trump’s triumph over Hillary Clinton. And Republicans, who have long placed an aggressive stance toward Russia at the center of their foreign policy, can quiet critics who have suggested they are shielding the president from scrutiny by failing to embrace the sanctions.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said he expected this “strong” bill to reach the president’s desk promptly “on a broad bipartisan basis.”
In the House, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the minority whip, praised the agreement’s stipulation that “the majority and minority are able to exercise our oversight role over the administration’s implementation of sanctions.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, registered concerns about adding sanctions against North Korea to the package, questioning whether it would prompt delays in the Senate. Mr. Schumer and Mr. Cardin expressed no such anxieties on Saturday.
As House Republican leaders like Mr. Ryan chafed at the suggestion that they were doing the White House’s bidding by not taking up the measure immediately, the administration sought to pressure members by insisting that the legislation would unduly hamstring the president.
Mr. Trump’s aversion to sanctions targeting Russia is not new. During the campaign, he questioned whether the United States should retain existing sanctions on Russia, imposed after Mr. Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine.
Under the wording in the legislative deal, it would be difficult, but not impossible, for the president to undercut sanctions without congressional approval.
The administration could stall in identifying individuals and companies subject to new sanctions. To lift existing sanctions related to Ukraine, Mr. Trump would have to certify that the conditions that prompted them had been reversed. 1178COMMENTS And to end sanctions over Russian cyberattacks, he would have to provide similar evidence that Russia had tried to reduce the number and intensity of such intrusions, an unlikely prospect.
Mr. Trump still regularly questions the intelligence showing that Russia sought to interfere in the election. He has suggested that because evidence was processed by people he deems hostile to his White House — including Obama administration officials and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director he fired — the conclusion is inherently tainted.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
The administration could stall in identifying individuals and companies subject to new sanctions. To lift existing sanctions related to Ukraine, Mr. Trump would have to certify that the conditions that prompted them had been reversed. 1178COMMENTS And to end sanctions over Russian cyberattacks, he would have to provide similar evidence that Russia had tried to reduce the number and intensity of such intrusions, an unlikely prospect.
LOL he would need the CIA to do that--the "leakers" who supply "fake news."
Quote:CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday called out newly-appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci for continuing to deny Russia's interference in the U.S. election.
On Sunday's State of the Union program, Tapper asked Scaramucci if President Donald Trump was prepared to sign a sanctions bill against Russia.
"There's a lot of misinformation," Scaramucci said, dismissing the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies. "Somebody said to me the other day -- I don't want to say who -- if the Russian actually hacked the this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them. Meaning that they're super confident in their deception skills and hacking."
"Wait, wait, wait," Tapper interrupted. "I don't know who this anonymous person is."
"How about it's the president, Jake," Scaramucci revealed. "He called me from Air Force One and basically said to me, 'This is -- maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it.'"
"This is exactly the issue!" Tapper noted. "We have experts, the U.S. intelligence agencies [are] unanimous, both Obama appointees and Trump appointees -- the director of national intelligence, the head of the National Security Agency, the head of the FBI. I mean, all of these intelligence experts, saying, Russia hacked the election, they tried to interfere in the election."
"President Trump is contradicting it and you're siding with President Trump!" the CNN host exclaimed.
"I didn't say I was siding with President Trump," Scaramucci insisted. "I'm his communications director and I'm his advocate on a show like this."
Tapper once again pointed out that Republicans in the Senate and Trump's own intelligence experts agreed that Russia had meddled in the election.
"You're saying, you're going to side with the president," Tapper continued. "Don't you owe a duty to the truth?"
"What about this conversation are you missing, Jake?" Scaramucci quipped. "There are checks and balances in the system for a reason. The president will make that decisions [on the sanction bill] when he makes that decision. You're telling me something is true that could, in fact, be true. I don't have the information in front of me."
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
(07-24-2017, 11:09 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: So who'd you vote for in the election, then?
Clinton.
Despite all her warts she was prepared to handle the office. Trump despite all his shiny gold objects was ill prepared to do anything than be the clown he has been.
Four years of constant GOP investigations and stonewalling her every move would have been better than four years of midnight tweets and a vocabulary smaller than the average 6th grader.
You?
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
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ChuckGrassley ![[Image: 23sanctions-master768-v2.jpg]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/07/23/us/23sanctions/23sanctions-master768-v2.jpg)
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