WTF Community

Day 573

General Discussion
#1

Updated 8/15/2018 2:47 PM PDT

1/ Trump revoked former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance, citing what he called Brennan's "erratic conduct and behavior." Brennan has been one of Trump's most prominent critics. Last month, the White House threatened last month to revoke the clearances for Brennan, Susan Rice, and James Clapper. Trump is also reviewing James Comey's security clearance. Revoking their access to classified information could impact their ability to work as consultants, lobbyists and advisers in Washington. (Washington Post / New York Times / CNBC)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/08/15/day-573/
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#2

As this CNN article notes, Michael Flynn, who has plead guilty to lying to the FBI, still has his security clearance. Why wasn’t it revoked on December 2, 2017, the day after he plead guilty? There is not one Republican on the list of Trump’s threatened security clearance revocations.

[Sanders] declined to say why the list included no supporters of the President, such as Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

And here’s a clip of Sanders’ “non-answer answer” to why Flynn (a confessed criminal liar) still has his security clearance while Brennan’s clearancce has been revoked (at 2 min.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=158&v=enp0vE-_sbw

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#4

Philip Rucker (Washington Post)
‏ @PhilipRucker

Trump also is reviewing security clearances of James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

What do they have in common? They’re political critics of Trump. Looks like a Trump blacklist.
11:39 AM - 15 Aug 2018

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#5

Trump, Seeking to Relax Rules on U.S. Cyberattacks, Reverses Obama Directive

President Trump has reversed an Obama-era memorandum governing how and when the U.S. government can deploy cyberweapons against its adversaries, in an effort to loosen restrictions on such operations, according to people familiar with the action.

—

Top administration officials are also devising new penalties that would allow stronger responses to state-sponsored hacks of U.S. critical infrastructure, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, a mounting worry due to Russia’s efforts to penetrate American electric utilities.

Although the Obama-era policy was classified, its contents were made public when it was leaked in 2013 by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. It was signed by Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Obama, in 2012.

It wasn’t clear what rules the administration is adopting to replace the Obama directive. A number of current U.S. officials confirmed the directive had been replaced but declined to comment further, citing the classified nature of the process.

Here’s the Reuters story too, no pay wall.

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#6

The FCC shut down Alex Jones’s pirate radio station.
Kinda funny :grin:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission has shut down a pirate radio station that served as the flagship outlet for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The Austin American-Statesman reports the FCC also has fined the station’s operators $15,000 — a fine the FCC says in a lawsuit the operators are refusing to pay.

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#7

Russian Satellite acting strange. :woman_shrugging:t2:

The satellite, launched in October 2017, has displayed behavior “inconsistent with anything seen before from” the kind of satellite Russia has said it is, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Yleem D.S. Poblete.

Instead, without saying it outright, Poblete implied that the object could be a weapon, but said the U.S. cannot know for sure.

“We don’t know for certain what it is, and there is no way to verify it,” Poblete said yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Conference on Disarmament. Poblete was speaking before the international body for negotiating arms control to express the U.S.'s “serious concerns” about Russia’s push to launch weapons in space, especially anti-satellite weapons that can target satellites that the U.S. relies on for business, scientific and military purposes.

Space Force all the way?

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#8

Trump admits to the Wall Street Journal that he revoked Brennan’s security clearance because of the Russia Investigation!

We’ve been here before, I recognize that tree. :evergreen_tree:

WASHINGTON—President Trump drew a direct connection between the special counsel investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and his decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan and review the clearances of several other former officials.

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Trump cited Mr. Brennan as among those he held responsible for the investigation, which also is looking into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Mr. Trump has denied collusion, and Russia has denied interfering.

Mr. Brennan was director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Democratic administration of former President Obama and one of those who presented evidence to Mr. Trump shortly before his inauguration that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.

“I call it the rigged witch hunt, [it] is a sham,” Mr. Trump said in an interview. “And these people led it!”

He added: “So I think it’s something that had to be done.”

Earlier in the day, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was also reviewing the clearances of former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, and former National Security Agency and CIA chief Michael Hayden.

“I don’t trust many of those people on that list,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. “I think that they’re very duplicitous. I think they’re not good people.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Brennan have sparred publicly for months, with Mr. Trump frequently tweeting quotes by others critical of Mr. Brennan.

After Mr. Trump’s news conference last month with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Mr. Brennan wrote in a tweet that Mr. Trump’s conduct “rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors’ ” and called it “nothing short of treasonous.”

Holy shit :astonished:

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#9

And one more for the pile, Trump staffer admits to contacting lobbyists for a Russian Oligarch since the Election.

In the time since the election, a little-known Trump campaign staffer named Daniel Gelbinovich reached out to a number of Washington lobbyists with an eyebrow-raising ask: to shield a Putin ally from U.S. sanctions.

Two lobbyists—speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter—told The Daily Beast that Gelbinovich approached them and told them he was trying to help Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch worth more than $11 billion, find a lobbyist to help keep him from being added to the Treasury Department’s sanctions list.

Gelbinovich confirmed this reporting.

“I approached the lobbyists on behalf of a private equity firm that requested outreach for this type of work,” he said in an email to The Daily Beast. “The firm claimed that this outreach was on behalf of the individual you mentioned. I do not have a direct connection to Mr. Abramovich myself.”

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#10

Bannon on a come back mode - releasing a midterm anti-Dem objective, a film in Sept - “Trump@War,” and a way to put himself back in the game. It is a big counterpunch.

It should be noted that Bannon is a personna non grata for T…and they do not talk.

Bannon mounts last-ditch effort to save the House for Trump

A new pro-Trump operation will frame the midterms as an up-or-down vote on the president’s impeachment.

By ALEX ISENSTADT and ANNIE KARNI

08/15/2018 08:26 PM EDT

Steve Bannon is attempting a political resurrection, launching a 25-person pro-Trump rapid-response and polling operation that is framing the midterms as an up-or-down vote on the president’s impeachment.

The former White House chief strategist has started Citizens for the American Republic, an outside political group that intends to advise surrogates, generate talking points, and flood the TV and radio airwaves ahead of a perilous midterm election.

As part of the campaign, Bannon — a former Hollywood producer who’s made several conservative films — will soon release a new documentary, “Trump@War,” which he plans to release in September on the two-year anniversary of Hillary Clinton’s now-infamous speech in which she referred to Trump supporters as “deplorables.” The slickly produced movie depicts the president in deeply flattering terms, casting him as a populist hero who’s followed through on his campaign promises and defied a long line of liberal critics.

It notably does not focus on the culture wars that Trump advisers have said will be the key to his re-election strategy, but tells a positive story about the president’s 2016 campaign and time in office, while portraying liberal Trump haters as the ones who have targeted his supporters with physical violence in the streets.

#11

#FileUnderGrandiosity

Trump’s military parade is now estimated to cost $92 million – $80 million more than earlier

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#12

List of participating newspapers by state…in today’s editorial for a Free Press.

More than 300 newspapers and other media outlets joined The Boston Globe in publishing editorials Thursday promoting freedom of the press and refuting President Donald Trump’s labeling of the news media as the “enemy of the people.”

The Globe, in an effort started last week, gained support from other newspapers – small and large, across the U.S. – in an attempt to thwart Trump’s ongoing “assault on the free press,” the Globe wrote in its editorial Thursday.

Trump began denouncing mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and NBC as “fake news media” and “the enemy of the American people,” soon after his inauguration in 2017.

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#13

Symbolic gesture meant to support the Press and counter what T has been saying.

The Senate took a rhetorical shot on Thursday at President Trump’s attacks on the media, passing a resolution affirming that the press is "not the enemy of the people."

The nonbinding resolution, which cleared the chamber by unanimous consent, also touts the “indispensable role of the free press” and says an attack on the media meant to "systematically undermine the credibility of the press as a whole [is] an attack on our democratic institutions."

Spearheaded by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the resolution doesn’t directly mention Trump, who has called the press the “enemy of the people.”

The Senate’s action came hours after Trump launched his latest attack on the press, saying much of what is written is “fake news.”

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#14

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#3

Yes, retaliatory measures on the part of T. Here’s what Brennan has been saying (read- criticizing) about T

@benjaminwittes

Benjamin Wittes Retweeted John O. Brennan

.@JohnBrennan tweeted this a day ago. Today the President apparently read it and decided to validate it publicly.

@JohnBrennan

John O. Brennan Retweeted Donald J. Trump
@johnBrennan
It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.

Brennan retweets this

@realDonaldTrump

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!
4:31 AM - 14 Aug 2018

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