monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

I would just observe that almost all of the lies of this administration are stupid. Transparently false, and ill-considered. A lot of them cause more problems for Plump and company than the annoyances they think to bury.

I said it was nice.

It's still a Lefty Chat Room

The Left . . . labeled conservatives bigots in the 1960s, even as the Democratic party provided the base of support for segregation.

The aircraft carriers USS Nimitz, USS Theodore Roosevelt, and USS Ronald Reagan—three of the most powerful warships in the world—have now converged on the western Pacific in a mighty show of force on the eve of President Trump’s 10-day trip to Asia. The three carriers, along with their accompanying cruisers, destroyers, and submarines—all armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles or other advanced munitions—are capable of raining immense destructive force on any nation targeted by the commander in chief. Not since 2007 has there been such a concentration of US firepower in the Asia-Pacific region. There can be only two plausible explanations for this extraordinary naval buildup: to provide Trump with the sort of military extravaganza he seems to enjoy; and/or to prepare for a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea.

Yeah it would fit his MO to use a big expensive gaudy show of US military force just to make himself look and feel important. A waste of time, machinery, personnel and resources. We can only hope that, like a teenager with a new car, he doesn't get the urge to show what his toy can do.

A high-level defector has told the US Congress that spreading outside information in North Korea is the best way to deal with the regime.
Thae Yong-ho said undermining Kim Jong-un's God-like status among his people could be key to weakening his rule.
North Koreans "don't care about state propaganda but increasingly watch illegally imported South Korean movies and dramas," he added.
Mr Thae was deputy ambassador to the UK before he defected last year.
He is one of the highest-ranking officials ever to defect from North Korea.
Mr Thae's speech before US lawmakers comes as President Trump is due to embark on a trip to Asia, including South Korea.
Tensions between North Korea and the West have risen over the past months as Pyongyang has conducted several missile tests and claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
In his first ever visit to Washington, Mr Thae told Congress: "We can educate (the) North Korean population to stand up by disseminating outside information."
He also urged officials to meet at least once with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, to understand his thinking and convince him that his nuclear programme is risking mass destruction.
"It is necessary to reconsider whether we have tried all non-military options before we decide that military action against North Korea is all that is left," he said.
Changes in North Korea meant that "contrary to the official policy and wish of the regime, the free markets are flourishing", he said.
People were getting more access to outside information, including through micro SD cards which were small enough to be easily smuggled into the country, he added.
Young North Koreans have begun calling said devices "nose cards" because they can be smuggled even inside one's nostrils, he cited as an example.
These developments "make it increasingly possible to think about civilian uprising in North Korea as more and more people gradually become informed about the reality of their living conditions," he argued.
"The US is spending billions of dollars to cope with the military threat and yet how much does the US spend each year on information activities involving North Korea in a year? Unfortunately, it may be a tiny fraction," he said.
The rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have seen US President refer to Kim as "little rocket man," while the North Korean leader called Trump a "mentally deranged dotard".
North Korean defectors are one of the few sources of information about life in North Korea - yet critics caution that defector's testimonies might not always be credible, and that some defectors have changed their stories in the past.

Russian operatives, likely working from St Petersburg, provoked angry Americans to take to the streets, a US Senate committee heard on Wednesday.
The May 2016 protest, arranged by a group named Heart of Texas, was one example of Kremlin-backed efforts to destabilise the American electoral process.
Lawyers for three technology companies - Facebook, Twitter and Google - were told they were grossly underestimating the scale of the problem.
"You just don't get it," said California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
"What we’re talking about is a cataclysmic change. What we’re talking about is the beginning of cyber-warfare."
She added: "We are not going to go away, gentlemen. This is a very big deal."
Facebook said earlier this week that as many as 126 million people might have been reached by Russian propaganda efforts, a combination of paid advertisements and so-called "organic" posts that spread naturally as other users share the content.
It added on Wednesday that an additional 16 million users could have been reached via photo-sharing app Instagram, which the company also owns.
It was organic posts that were under the most scrutiny from the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.
Senator Mark Warner, the committee's deputy chairman, discussed how the Russian-made Heart of Texas group amassed 250,000 followers.
The group then created an event to be held at an Islamic culture centre in Houston. The event was titled "Stop Islamization of Texas".
The protest duly took place, as did a counter-protest. Local media at the time reported that the organisers "could not be found" at the event.
Another example shared on Wednesday showed an account sharing "benign" posts on Christianity later shifting to anti-Hillary Clinton posts after the group had reached a critical mass of users.
Twitter, too, faced criticism for potentially under-reporting the extent of automated bots on its network.
The firm's lawyer Sean Edgett said Twitter's own research suggested that less than 5% of its 330 million users were bots. Senator Warner, however, said independent research suggested the number was perhaps as high as 12-15%.
The companies, speaking individually but agreeing on every issue, said they were "deeply concerned" that they had become the leading platforms for "fake news" on the internet.
"We cannot defeat this evolving shared threat alone," Facebook's top lawyer Colin Stretch said.
However, none of the firms would commit to backing the Honest Ads Act, which would regulate online advertising, focusing on greater transparency around political advertising.
Twitter's Mr Edgett said the companies wanted some "fine-tuning" to the proposals but supported its goals.
Several senators suggested that more hearings and consultation would be needed, expressing their frustration that the companies were not being represented by higher-ranking executives.
"I'm disappointed that you're here, and not your CEOs," said independent senator Angus King.
"If we go through this exercise again we should appreciate seeing the top people."
"I wish your CEOs were here," concurred Democrat senator Joe Manchin.
"They have to answer to this."

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton spent big on Facebook ads last year ahead of November’s presidential election.

The two candidates and their campaigns spent a combined $81 million on ads, according to Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, who unveiled the number during a congressional hearing Wednesday focused on Russia’s attempt to use social platforms to interfere in the election. Facebook made about $28 billion in revenue in 2016, most of it from advertising.

The $81 million number was brought up in comparison to how much money was spent by accounts with Kremlin ties. Facebook claims that Russian-backed accounts spent approximately $100,000 on about 3,000 Facebook ads intended to spread misinformation.

oralloy wrote:

When Democrats abuse the law to harm innocent people who merely disagree with their political views, that is both outrageous and a witch hunt (not to mention ample justification for outlawing the Democratic Party in America).

You say this, but: the Democratic party isn't running ANY investigation into Trump right now.

The Trump DoJ appointed a Republican special prosecutor to do so,

How can you pin this one on the Dem party when they aren't the ones, yaknow, running the investigations?

They're not 'abusing the law.'

I wonder what laws you even think are being abused, let alone how you think the Dem's are the ones doing it!

This has been a key argument from Facebook, Twitter and Google during this whole process: Content from Russian-controlled accounts was just a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other ads and posts people could have seen on their respective services.

oralloy wrote:

It was already common knowledge that Hillary had wrongfully deleted tens of thousands of emails.

But it wasn't common knowledge that Russia already had the stolen DNC and Podesta e-mails.

He doesn't have to charge Trump. If members of his inside team are proven to have engaged in illegal activities and if evidence suggests that Trump knew about or directed these activities I'm sure impeachment charges will ensue.