[Glenn.]

Did you see Trump showing off a framed constitution the other day

They told him it was the real one. Thick ****

[Beso]

Uncle Elon saving billions.

First five minutes are eye opening.

https://www.youtube.com/live/wHCne-M...8aFgzrgXIA3Dj4

[Maru]

Former US Attorney Jessica Aber had 'medical issue' prior to unexpected death: source
https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-us...004632610.html

The former United States attorney who was found dead over the weekend had suffered from a "longstanding medical issue," Fox News has learned.

The body of Jessica D. Aber, 43, was discovered at an Alexandria, Virginia, residence on Saturday. Authorities did not release details about her death, but a family friend told Fox News on Sunday that the decedent suffered from a chronic medical condition.

"Police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue," the source said.

I would love to know how many people who work in Washington have some kind of chronic issue. I'm willing to bet the numbers are very high...

[Ammi]

White House inadvertently texted top-secret Yemen war plans to journalist

Senior members of Donald Trump’s cabinet have been involved in a serious security breach while discussing secret military plans for recent US attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.

In an extraordinary blunder, key figures in the Trump administration – including the vice-president, JD Vance, the defence secretary Pete Hegseth, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard – used the commercial chat app Signal to convene and discuss plans – while also including a prominent journalist in the group.

The news was met with outrage and calls for an investigation in the US, with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling it “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time”

Signal is not approved by the US government for sharing sensitive information.

Related: Outrage after White House accidentally texts journalist war plans: ‘Huge screw-up’

Others in the chat included the Trump adviser Stephen Miller; Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles; and the key Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.

The breach was revealed in an article published on Monday by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, who discovered that he had been included in a Signal chat called “Houthi PC Small Group” and realising that 18 other members of the group included Trump cabinet members.

In his account, Goldberg said that he removed sensitive material from his account, including the identity of a senior CIA officer and current operational details.

The report was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the national security council, who told the magazine: “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

Hughes added: “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”

…full article…
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/journalist...190213647.html

[bots]

i actually think the security leak was a setup. In the messages Vance and the defense secretary were busy saying how europe should have been made to pay for the attack. They wanted that message to get out

[user104658]

Originally Posted by bots

i actually think the security leak was a setup. In the messages Vance and the defense secretary were busy saying how europe should have been made to pay for the attack. They wanted that message to get out

My literal first thought before I even read anything about it - my wife said, did you hear about someone from the press being accidentally included in a message chain in US... I said "nah, can only have been on purpose".

They want us to believe that they're incompetent but it's engneered incompetence with very specific purposes. It's the entire Trump playbook. Play dumb. You can see it filtering down though his leuitenants and all the way to his followers too (with mixed effect, some people are better at it than others).

[bots]

Originally Posted by Quantum Boy

My literal first thought before I even read anything about it - my wife said, did you hear about someone from the press being accidentally included in a message chain in US... I said "nah, can only have been on purpose".

They want us to believe that they're incompetent but it's engneered incompetence with very specific purposes. It's the entire Trump playbook. Play dumb. You can see it filtering down though his leuitenants and all the way to his followers too (with mixed effect, some people are better at it than others).

if the Houthi had been pre-warned, the reporter would have been executed for treason, there was no way that was going to leak. Unfortunately, the dems are being led by the nose and foaming at the mouth

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Quantum Boy

My literal first thought before I even read anything about it - my wife said, did you hear about someone from the press being accidentally included in a message chain in US... I said "nah, can only have been on purpose".

They want us to believe that they're incompetent but it's engneered incompetence with very specific purposes. It's the entire Trump playbook. Play dumb. You can see it filtering down though his leuitenants and all the way to his followers too (with mixed effect, some people are better at it than others).

..so is it a purposeful distraction from Jessica Aber’s ‘unexpected death’…?….in your opinion, of course…

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..so is it a purposeful distraction from Jessica Aber’s ‘unexpected death’…?….in your opinion, of course…

Maybe in part, I think the clues on motivation lie more in the content of the leak than the simple fact that a leak occurred; there was built-in plausible deniability for the main players ("Trump knew nothing about any of this" for example) and "interestingly" plenty of rhetoric in "leaked" material dogwhistling about the strength of the US and apparent-weakness of Europe.

What I think is "worrying" (though not really in the sense that it's entirely unsurprising at this point) is that because I don't believe for a second that the use of unsecured channels was due to incompetence or negligence, and the risk/likelihood of foreign powers (China/Russia) also being able to intercept these communications regardless of "press leaking"... one has to assume that said foreign powers were already (knowingly) aware of any information or plans contained in those messages.

Basically I see an awful low of smoke and mirrors/play acting for public consumption, and that seems more and more obvious across politics these days. Perhaps it was always the way, of course. It's just becoming blatant to the extent that I think the public/support bases themselves actively play along. Really bizarre times.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Quantum Boy

Maybe in part, I think the clues on motivation lie more in the content of the leak than the simple fact that a leak occurred; there was built-in plausible deniability for the main players ("Trump knew nothing about any of this" for example) and "interestingly" plenty of rhetoric in "leaked" material dogwhistling about the strength of the US and apparent-weakness of Europe.

What I think is "worrying" (though not really in the sense that it's entirely unsurprising at this point) is that because I don't believe for a second that the use of unsecured channels was due to incompetence or negligence, and the risk/likelihood of foreign powers (China/Russia) also being able to intercept these communications regardless of "press leaking"... one has to assume that said foreign powers were already (knowingly) aware of any information or plans contained in those messages.

Basically I see an awful low of smoke and mirrors/play acting for public consumption, and that seems more and more obvious across politics these days. Perhaps it was always the way, of course. It's just becoming blatant to the extent that I think the public/support bases themselves actively play along. Really bizarre times.

…(…thank you for the response, I appreciate it…)…strangely I was just thinking a lot recently myself about whether politics has always been this way….because it does as you say, feel like bizarre times but then in catching up with some of the Black Mirror stories atm…they feel uncomfortably close to real life or what could be, you know…real life is getting uncomfortably lose to them, I don’t know which way around it is…(…I’m thinking…)…that it probably has always been that way but it’s just that media and information has changed so much, it’s like on instant dial up …I mean, things like the expenses scandal for instance and how long until the public had any knowledge of most of it in comparison to now and public knowledge is made instant through a combination of SM and mainstream media…but they’re not working with each other, they’re completely different species and they’re competing against each other…and fact over the years has become more rare but less important because it’s more just what they can put out there and create mass belief in…

[Maru]

Originally Posted by bots

i actually think the security leak was a setup. In the messages Vance and the defense secretary were busy saying how europe should have been made to pay for the attack. They wanted that message to get out

Professional culture has really declined in the US, so it's easier for me to believe it is incompetence... like people don't care that they're being lazy or "not abiding by the rules"... we take so much of the structure and ideals we've been gifted for granted now.

Edit: There's also an increasing attitude of dragging the top of one's field down to the lower levels of the "masses". I see it in my own field. The "incompetent" folk are the ones able to adjust quicker to changing norms and so they're forcing the market to play to their rules now... the "true" professional is squeezed out and replaced by AI and templates.

I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. (Exempt from this thought are security breaches ) It's good old systems are being broken down, because there were too many arbitrary standards that have no place in modern work. And now, there's also the increasing piece of the pie who are seeing the value in "professional" standards, especially on those working the field. They realize time is money and why certain standards have appeared and remain so resistant... some things need weeding out... but yeah, Americans hate elitism atm and are currently directly at war with that class of thought.

[Ammi]

…we knew this is what he would aim for, didn’t we…

Trump says he is not joking about third presidential term…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not joking about seeking a third presidential term, which is barred by the U.S. Constitution, but that it was too early to think about doing so.

Trump, who took office on January 20 for his second, non-consecutive White House term, has made allusions to seeking a third one but addressed it directly in a telephone interview with NBC News.

"No, I'm not joking. I’m not joking," Trump said, but "it is far too early to think about it."

"There are methods which you could do it, as you know," he said, declining to elaborate on specific methods.

U.S. presidents are limited to two four-year terms, consecutive or not, according to the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A proposal to overturn a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress and ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states.

Some Trump allies have floated the idea of keeping Trump in the White House beyond 2028, and the president has also brought up the idea on a number of occasions in a manner that seemed to poke at his political opponents.

Trump, who at 78 was the oldest U.S. president at the time of his inauguration, would be 82 if he took on another four-year term following the November 2028 election.

George Washington in 1796 set the precedent for a two-term presidency, a self-imposed limit that was observed by most U.S. presidents for more than 140 years until Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

Roosevelt, a Democrat who was president during the Great Depression and World War 2, broke tradition and served a third term, then died months into his fourth term in 1945. This paved the way for the amendment on term limits in 1951.

Longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon said in a March 19 interview with NewsNation that he believes Trump will run again in 2028. Bannon said he and others are looking into ways to make that happen, including examining the definition of a term limit.

"We're working on it," Bannon said.

[Maru]

Originally Posted by Ammi

A proposal to overturn a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress and ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states.

I don't think that has been suggested but it'd be really funny if they tried. We are not politically setup to be anyway near an Constitutional Amendment era.

They should try actually, if they are that insistent. For one, people should see why we have guardrails in the first place. When they don't their way, maybe tearing down the system isn't always the first solution that should be provided.

As arista said, I can see him considering himself as a running mate lol. But seriously, can his ego handle his successor taking his credit? Vance genuinely has charisma and doesn't necessarily need anyone as a running mate, imo.

[Beso]

Not sure what this has to do with Donald Trump?

[bots]

Originally Posted by Beso

Not sure what this has to do with Donald Trump?

it's his hand picked administration

[bots]

the other thing is that the Trump administration doesn't care if people think the lady was murdered. It's straight out of the oops fell out of a window Putin playbook. Trump was given a free hand by the supreme court to do anything he wants, legal or not

[user104658]

Originally Posted by bots

the other thing is that the Trump administration doesn't care if people think the lady was murdered. It's straight out of the oops fell out of a window Putin playbook. Trump was given a free hand by the supreme court to do anything he wants, legal or not

Agreed, the Trump support base will either believe the denial, or believe that it was justified and pretend to believe the denial. There's no realistic possibility of any accountability so it doesn't really matter what happened, they'll write their own story and that will be the official story by default.

[Crimson Dynamo]

A former US attorney found dead at home at the age of 43 had reportedly been suffering
from a longstanding medical issue.

Jessica Aber, once the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, was found
unresponsive in her Washington DC home on Saturday. She likely died from natural
causes, police believe.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...inia-home.html

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Crimson Dynamo

A former US attorney found dead at home at the age of 43 had reportedly been suffering
from a longstanding medical issue.

Jessica Aber, once the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, was found
unresponsive in her Washington DC home on Saturday. She likely died from natural
causes, police believe.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...inia-home.html

Nobody can see or hear you for tin foil.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Beso

Nobody can see or hear you for tin foil.

[Glenn.]

Blanket silence from TiBB MAGA

[bots]

In our relatively recent history, we had 2 world wars where the radio was used to spread disinformation. After the war we had Russia and China making up all sorts of disinformation and the west responded (to a degree) in kind. One of the famous ones was Regans star wars program which was 100% fiction

So what I am basically saying, disinformation has always been with us, and the side that usually wins that argument, is the side that won the war/battle etc etc

[user104658]

Originally Posted by bots

In our relatively recent history, we had 2 world wars where the radio was used to spread disinformation. After the war we had Russia and China making up all sorts of disinformation and the west responded (to a degree) in kind. One of the famous ones was Regans star wars program which was 100% fiction

So what I am basically saying, disinformation has always been with us, and the side that usually wins that argument, is the side that won the war/battle etc etc

I agree it's always been with us, as above though I just think what's clearer than ever, to put it much more simply, is that for the mostpart people will believe what they want to believe, and brand what they don't want to believe to be false. It has very little to do with objective reality and everything to do with sociology and "feelings".

It gets more complicated when you factor in global communications of course - the "spread" is no longer local, not to the same extent anyway, hence why we have so many in the UK so firmly immersed in US-centric propaganda (and why it spreads so easily to other nations).


As an aside thought; it seems clear to me that if the 1930's Nazi's had been broadcasting freely on British radiowaves in English we'd have been in big fkn trouble.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by bots

In our relatively recent history, we had 2 world wars where the radio was used to spread disinformation. After the war we had Russia and China making up all sorts of disinformation and the west responded (to a degree) in kind. One of the famous ones was Regans star wars program which was 100% fiction

So what I am basically saying, disinformation has always been with us, and the side that usually wins that argument, is the side that won the war/battle etc etc

…disinformation has always been there, I agree…but the world has changed and it’s much more divisive and ‘tribal’…I think that disinformation may have always been there but it’s never been so ‘weaponised’ as it is in current times…and also not so much on fast speed, either…click, click, click etc…which is so much quicker than your carrier pigeon days, bots……

[bots]

i think the difference between now and 70 years ago is that while communication was pretty quick over the radio, the feedback loop was slow and therefore inertia took a while to build. Now feedback is near instant and that creates inertia that feeds echo chambers which puts the whole thing on an entirely new level. All Trump had to do recently was speak a couple of sentences and the world went in to hyperdrive. That just wouldn't have happened previously, even 20 years ago.