The Match Cut 2017 Political Thread (or: The Lord of the Leaks: The Trump Towers)

[Ezee E]

Give them one, bump stocks.

Keep on livin...

[Wryan]

Yiannopoulos is such a little worm. I have to wonder if he truly believes there will be a place for, uh, people like him in the new world they wish to create. For These People, there will never be a point at which they are pure enough. There will always be further imperfections to be carved away once their use has reached its limit.

[Irish]

Somehow media wonks turned clowns like Spencer and Milo into a boogie men and all the hacks need to do is whisper "crypto Nazi" in the body of an article and everybody freaks out. Retweet retweet, click click.

There's a lot of stuff that doesn't smell right in that Buzzfeed piece, from its strangely breathless tone ("Gamergate--- the opening salvo of the new culture wars"), to its representation of Bannon (apparently he writes emails like a teenage 4channer? Uh, sure), to its failure to demonstrate its own premise (Milo and Bannon didn't, actually, succeed in mainstreaming white nationalism).

But mostly: Those laughably stupid org charts. I know everyone they mentioned as a "tech leader" (not personally, but ya know). They've all been around for ~20 years and they all represent fringe views. Nobody takes them seriously. Nobody respects them. Only one is genuinely dangerous (Weev, but for reasons that have nothing to do with this article.) And only one is really a leader (Thiel, but only because he's wealthy). Mostly, they're fucking dumb. Like, real dumb. Like soft-skulled-needs-to-wear-a-padded-helmet and drooling-into-a-cup dumb.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say at least part of Buzzfeed's source is a plant. I know that sounds nuts. I'm not shouting "FAKE NEWS!" but given the reputations of some of these people, I wouldn't be surprised. (And Buzzfeed never mentions how they received the "documents," how many they have, or how they vetted them.)

Half of this piece reads very pro-Milo and pro-Bannon --- it makes both of them sound like evil masterminds and ace media manipulators. They're not. Bannon is a middle aged boob who can't hold a job and Milo is much more of an opportunist than he is neo-Nazi.

[number8]

I've been more invested in this recent article:

We Snuck into Seattle's Super Secret White Nationalist Convention

I really love this part:

The surprising number of racists in liberal cities first occurred to Johnson years ago. He was working for a “highbrow” white nationalist magazine and noticed that many of their readers lived close to one another without knowing they had neighbors who shared their racist interests. Johnson set out to bring these people together in private. Seattleites, even the ones who love Hitler, hate confrontation.

[D_Davis]

It was a great article.

[Irish]

It's good writing but a bad article. I liked the author's voice and got a kick out of it, but there's no story there, no substantive information, and no takeaway.

I mean, this guy "infiltrated" a "super secret" white nationalist group and found (surprise?) that it was packed with fringe weirdos who rant about the moon landings with little to no prompting. So what?

The guy has one insight---"gee, a lack of diversity sure is boring"---but he doesn't realize bougie values are about money and security more than race. They can and do travel across color lines.

This bit:

Of the 70 to 80 people in the lodge, only about four were female

and this:

Taylor told me that the meeting was actually bigger than similar events he has attended around the country

are why I dislike articles like this. They always sensationalize dullards to freak out normies. "70 to 80" people is a mid-sized suburban wedding or a really good house party. It's only noteworthy for the participants.

[number8]

That is precisely why I got a kick out of it. I'm very into anticlimactic exposes.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Trump Stabs Nation's Poor, Says They Should Get That Bleeding Looked At

[number8]

The President of the United States is trying his best to get as many Americans as possible killed.

[D_Davis]

A notorious Russian internet “troll factory” spent about $2.3 million during the 2016 election cycle to meddle in US politics, paying the salaries of 90 “US desk” employees who helped wage disinformation campaigns via social media that reached millions of Americans. The operation also contacted US activists directly and offered them thousands of dollars to organize protests on divisive issues, including race relations.


These revelations and many more came out in an investigation published on Tuesday by the Russian newspaper RBC about the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a tech firm based in St. Petersburg, Russia, that has developed a specialty in spreading pro-Kremlin messages in the West.


The IRA has been written about before by a number of news outlets, and by RBC itself. But this latest piece from RBC—a respected business newspaper in Russia known for angering the Kremlin with its reporting on Putin’s associates—is the first to home in on the IRA’s operations during the 2016 US election.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...troll-factory/

I always thought the cyberwars would be more flashy, or at least have more trench coats.

[D_Davis]

The President of the United States is trying his best to get as many Americans as possible killed.

That's because he's not working with our interests in mind.

[Dead & Messed Up]

The new big thing we're talking about: Trump told the mother of a fallen soldier that "he knew what he was getting into."

This stupid administration is such a neverending shitshow that we never had time to properly digest the worst active shooter in American history or the top two executives joking about hanging all homosexuals.

[number8]

This was the most bizarre thing I read this week: https://amp.cnn.com/money/2017/10/12...-go/index.html

One Russian-linked campaign posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Pokémon Go and even contacted some reporters in an effort to exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans, CNN has learned.

In July 2016, this Tumblr account announced a contest encouraging readers to play Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game in which users go out into the real world and use their phones to find and "train" Pokémon characters.

Specifically, the Don't Shoot Us contest directed readers to go to find and train Pokémon near locations where alleged incidents of police brutality had taken place. Users were instructed to give their Pokémon names corresponding with those of the victims. A post promoting the contest showed a Pokémon named "Eric Garner," for the African-American man who died after being put in a chokehold by a New York Police Department officer.

[Wryan]

[Police Officer] applies [CHOKEHOLD].

It's super effective.

[Dead & Messed Up]

[Police Officer] applies [CHOKEHOLD].

It's super effective.

Nice, always loved Pokemon Blue Version.

[D_Davis]

http://amp.thedailybeast.com/trump-c...e-the-election

Some of the Trump campaign’s most prominent names and supporters, including Trump’s campaign manager, digital director and son, pushed tweets from troll accounts paid for by the Russian government in the heat of the 2016 election campaign.


The Twitter account @Ten_GOP, which called itself the “Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans,” was operated from the Kremlin-backed “Russian troll farm,” or Internet Research Agency, a source familiar with the account confirmed with The Daily Beast.



The account’s origins in the Internet Research Agency were originally reported by the independent Russian news outlet RBC. @Ten_GOP was created on November 19, 2015, and accumulated over 100 thousand followers before Twitter shut it down. The Daily Beast independently confirmed the reasons for @Ten_GOP's account termination.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'm not worried.

I'm just worried.

Q The President signed the executive order today, and what it appears to do is it allows the Pentagon to recall retired officers into duty under the 9/11 authority that he has. What's the reason for this executive order?

MS. SANDERS: I don't have anything further on that and I'll have to get back to you, David.

A newly-minted executive order that grants the Secretary of Defense the right to call upon the services of retired military servicemen and servicewomen.

People are rabbling over whether or not this is a means to discourage retired generals from criticizing President Trump or a means to prime us all up for a war.

And this weird statement just came from the Press Secretary:

Military justice is essential to good order and discipline, which is indispensable to maintaining our armed forces as the best in the world. Each military justice case must be resolved on its own facts. The President expects all military personnel who are involved in any way in the military justice process to exercise their independent professional judgment, consistent with applicable laws and regulations. There are no expected or required dispositions, outcomes, or sentences in any military justice case, other than those resulting from the individual facts and merits of a case and the application to the case of the fundamentals of due process of law by officials exercising their independent judgment.

[D_Davis]

That coupled with Kelly's propaganda speech yesterday and Suckabee Sanders telling journalists today they they have no right to question a general, leads me to believe we are in the beginning stages of a military/religious coup that has sided with the Trump administration.

[D_Davis]

US State Department revokes Bill Browder's Visa. Browder was the creator of the Magnitsky Act, strict sanctions on Russian money and officials, and is currently considered the number one enemy of the Russian oligarchs. In retaliation to the MA, Russia has banned adoptions of Russian children to US citizens - this is why the topic of adoption was used during the Trump Tower meeting between Russian officials and the Trump team. Putin has been trying to capture Browder, and just recently used an Interpol loophole to prevent Browder from traveling. The US obliged Putin's wish and revoked his US Visa.

Remember who the Secretary of State is: Rex "Friend of Russian" Tillerson.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...act-campaigner


Browder's twitter:

https://twitter.com/Billbrowder/stat...act-campaigner

[Dead & Messed Up]

US State Department revokes Bill Browder's Visa. Browder was the creator of the Magnitsky Act, strict sanctions on Russian money and officials, and is currently considered the number one enemy of the Russian oligarchs. In retaliation to the MA, Russia has banned adoptions of Russian children to US citizens - this is why the topic of adoption was used during the Trump Tower meeting between Russian officials and the Trump team. Putin has been trying to capture Browder, and just recently used an Interpol loophole to prevent Browder from traveling. The US obliged Putin's wish and revoked his US Visa.

Remember who the Secretary of State is: Rex "Friend of Russian" Tillerson.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...act-campaigner

Browder's twitter:

https://twitter.com/Billbrowder/stat...act-campaigner

"Actually, it was very interesting, we talked about adoption." - Donald Trump, June 19th 2017

Have to agree with John Oliver, "Stupid Watergate." The problem is that the media is eager to mock and deride Trump but terrified of actually looking at all the evidence and making the most logical conclusions.

I've often wondered if this is what a fake moon landing person feels like, but I have to keep reminding myself that the data is right there, that I'm not working off negative evidence. Trump straight-up said he fired Comey because of the "Russia thing." Trump Jr. straight-up had an email exchange with Russians where he was eager to receive information on Clinton ("I love it"). Papadopoulos sent out emails asking if literally anyone on the Trump team wanted to get in contact with the Kremlin. Wikileaks dumped the Podesta emails less than an hour after the Access Hollywood tape. This all happened.

[D_Davis]

Adoption is stupid-code-word for Magnitsky-Act / Russian sanctions.

"Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia," Eric Trump, in regards to how the Trump family funds its golf courses.

[D_Davis]

I've often wondered if this is what a fake moon landing person feels like, but I have to keep reminding myself that the data is right there, that I'm not working off negative evidence. Trump straight-up said he fired Comey because of the "Russia thing." Trump Jr. straight-up had an email exchange with Russians where he was eager to receive information on Clinton ("I love it"). Papadopoulos sent out emails asking if literally anyone on the Trump team wanted to get in contact with the Kremlin. Wikileaks dumped the Podesta emails less than an hour after the Access Hollywood tape. This all happened.

We're not coming at this Russia stuff as some kind of conspiracy. We are working with direct quotes and actions from the people involved. We're not having to jump through a million hoops to make connections. It's all there, already connected. But no one who can do anything about it gives a damn. They're all totally OK with the US losing its sovereignty because they are currently in power, and want to push through tax cuts for their super wealthy backers.

[D_Davis]

Look at Trump's body language of when he met the Russians in the White House, as compared to how he looks when he meets other world leaders. Here he looks like a kid in a candy store, or like a younger classman trying so desperately to hang with with cool older kids.





He let these fuckers into the Oval Office, after one of the fuckers made fun of US journalists and sarcastically dismissed Comey's firing.

Also, Trump will be meeting privately with another one of his strongman lovers, Rodrigo Duterte, in the Philippines soon. There are three countries and leaders that Trump has not disparaged: Russia, Turkey and the Philippines. He longs to be a dictator.

And let's also not forget the taped conversation between Ryan and McCarthy:

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.792bdfd2f884

[Dead & Messed Up]

Say what you will about Maher (I like his forum but rarely him), he did one of his best segments ever last month:

[D_Davis]

I like Maher and his show. That connection of events was very good.

Oh, and by the way. Those photos of the Russians with Trump in the oval office weren't taken by US Journalists. US journalists were barred from entry. They were taken by a Russian photographer, and the only reason we found out about the meeting was because the Russian photographer posted them on social media.