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@No-Quarter That's a nice bit of perspective there.
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PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S AGENDA ITEMS AND THREAT MATRIX, RANKED
Here’s what Trump’s daily brief may or may not consist of as he moves into his seventh month in the Oval Office.BY BRUCE FEIRSTEIN
SEPTEMBER 2017
“When he took office, Trump signaled to his national security team that he favors concise points boiled down to a single page . . . [with] as many visual elements as possible.”— THE WASHINGTON POST
TOP SECRET: CONFIDENTIAL
To: President Donald J. Trump
From: Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence
Subject: President’s Daily Brief Good morning, President Trump! Hope you slept well and tweeted effectively overnight. Per your request, today’s Big Picture:NORTH KOREA: Lil’ Kim still shooting off ICBM’s & testing nukes. Bad guy. Very bad guy. Invite to W.H.? Y/N?
ISIS: Still trying to annihilate “Evil losers” with drone-strike/ridicule campaign. Pentagon wants $$$ for more effective bombs/barbs. Y/N?
SYRIA: Assad still won’t get out. Donnie Jr. suggests we deploy Trump building managers w/ “final” eviction notice. Swears 100% success rate. Y/N?
CHINA: Still militarizing islands in S. China Sea; refuses to help w/N. Korea. Eric Trump proposes “Winner take all” golf tourney at Trump Bali property. Y/N?
RUSSIA: C.I.A. reports Putin may be launching a full-scale Twitter war w/ U.S.A. Q: POTUS reply, or send Ivanka and Jared on charm offensive?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/donald-trump-agenda-items-and-threat-matrix
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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis
Interesting read here.
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@infidel said in US Politics:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis
Interesting read here.
Thanks for posting, you're right, very interesting. I don't know much about The Hive as a source so I cranked up my sceptic gauge a notch or two but I'm not sure that has coloured my view much.
First off it is a long read with what I felt at times was padding but also providing background to some of the people to give some context. Whilst I understand the reluctance of people still working at the DoE to come out and say what they feel, in these times, particularly in the US I do feel a little suspicious.
Nonetheless the story backs up what a lot of people are thinking about the leadership from Trump's administration and also a lot about the people that he surrounds himself with. More than anything though it shows the very real issues and problems that will be encountered on trying to drain the swamp.
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@infidel said in US Politics:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis
Interesting read here.
That's unsurprising given Trump's people had very little public administration experience.
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Pardon time. Sheriff Joe.
![alt text]()
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Critics: 'Tough' sheriff botched sex-crime cases
Both cases were among more than 400 sex-crimes reported to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office during a three-year period ending in 2007 -- including dozens of alleged child molestations -- that were inadequately investigated and in some instances were not worked at all, according to current and former police officers familiar with the cases.
In El Mirage alone, where Arpaio's office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations -- with victims as young as 2 years old -- where the sheriff's office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases.
Many of the victims, said a retired El Mirage police official who reviewed the files, were children of illegal immigrants.
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@Salacious-Crumb I don't know anything about him but if that is his quote I love the cut of his jib
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@Rembrandt said in US Politics:
@Salacious-Crumb I don't know anything about him but if that is his quote I love the cut of his jib
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@Rembrandt said in US Politics:
@Salacious-Crumb I don't know anything about him but if that is his quote I love the cut of his jib
The quote is fucking pathetic. Equating incarceration with such atrocities as gun control and universal healthcare. Nice one ideologues, liberal = bad, we get your dumb as dogshit point.
As for pardoning someone who seems demonstrably incompetent, corrupt, and violent - simply because he supports you and is racist as well - well, that's a real win for trump. -
@Rembrandt said in US Politics:
So reading between the lines many think he doesn't deserve a pardon. I wonder what Trump's reasoning is.
The mugshot of the day program did make me laugh a little.
Yes, that was the little buttercup in a field of cowshit.
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https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-does-donald-trump-like-sheriff-joe
Finnegan described a federal investigation that found that:
deputies had used stun guns on prisoners already strapped into a “restraint chair.” The family of one man who died after being forced into the restraint chair was awarded more than six million dollars as the result of a suit filed in federal court. The family of another man killed in the restraint chair got $8.25 million in a pre-trial settlement. (This deal was reached after the discovery of a surveillance video that showed fourteen guards beating, shocking, and suffocating the prisoner, and after the sheriff’s office was accused of discarding evidence, including the crushed larynx of the deceased.)
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@Tim said in US Politics:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-does-donald-trump-like-sheriff-joe
Finnegan described a federal investigation that found that:
deputies had used stun guns on prisoners already strapped into a “restraint chair.” The family of one man who died after being forced into the restraint chair was awarded more than six million dollars as the result of a suit filed in federal court. The family of another man killed in the restraint chair got $8.25 million in a pre-trial settlement. (This deal was reached after the discovery of a surveillance video that showed fourteen guards beating, shocking, and suffocating the prisoner, and after the sheriff’s office was accused of discarding evidence, including the crushed larynx of the deceased.)
Difficult to understand why you'd expend your limited political capital pardoning him. I'd have him well down my list.
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and just out of curiosity here is the other side of the argument:
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I think the real question is was this Sheriff guilty of the charge that Trump is now pardoning him for. Everything else is irrelevant if there were no charges.
As to the truth, who knows. It looks bad but Trump doesn't care what the media thinks which isn't necessarily always a bad thing.
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It seems that the contempt of court was rather clear:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/joe-arpaio-sheriff-guilty-phoenix-9548481
Arpaio’s counsel in the civil rights case, Timothy Casey, testified he told MCSO leaders, including the sheriff, that the order meant he had to “arrest or release” illegal immigrants without evidence of further crimes. Deputies could no longer turn them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because MCSO no longer had federal authority to enforce civil immigration laws.
But Arpaio, Bolton concluded, came up with what he described as his backup plan: turn illegal immigrants over to the U.S. Border Patrol instead. In total, prosecutors showed, the Human Smuggling Unit directed 171 people to the Border Patrol station in Casa Grande.
When plaintiffs in the original civil rights lawsuit complained, Casey confronted Arpaio, who told him it was a mistake and would stop. It didn’t, prosecutors showed in court.
She cited a string of Arpaio’s own statements in the days and weeks after Snow’s temporary injunction.
Seven days after Snow’s preliminary order, Arpaio said he “will continue to enforce illegal immigration laws.” In subsequent interviews, he told news crews: “I won’t back down and I will continue to do what I’ve been doing,” and, “Until the laws are changed, my deputies will continue to enforce state and federal immigration laws.”
Arpaio has very little credibility, as established by the settlements that have had to be paid to victims of his malfeasance:
Taxpayers spent $1,102,528.50 this year to settle another of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lawsuits, New Times has learned through a public records request. The suit was brought by a man whom Arpaio framed in 1999 in a staged murder plot against the sheriff.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors this afternoon voted unanimously to approve a $3.75 million settlement for New Times' co-founders, whose false arrests in 2007 were orchestrated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and jailed on misdemeanor charges alleging that they violated the secrecy of a grand jury -- which turned out never to have been convened.
The saga began in 2004, when then-New Times reporter John Dougherty dug into Arpaio's commercial real estate transactions, questioning how a county sheriff could amass so much cash to invest in property and why records of the transactions were hidden from public view.
US Politics