monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

What He Could Do

...It is against this reality that we must see the likelihood of a crisis as the vital springboard of a Trump presidency, especially an increasingly shaky, unpopular, and unstable one. The lower his poll numbers, the more outlandish his lies, the greater the resistance from opponents within the bureaucracies, the thicker his scandals and chaos, the likelier he will be to seek to use a crisis and all the opportunities it offers to lever himself from a position of defensiveness to that of dominating power...

Also, it's worth noting a fundamental and very old propaganda device being used here - "multiple sources say". This device isn't just used by propagandists, of course. Any political message (or marketing message) is far more effective at influencing minds if it comes from multiple sources because coverage and credibility is increased. It only becomes propaganda where a falsehood is knowingly forwarded in such a manner. Right wing media entities, Fox is a prime example, depend upon this device using it to first place a falsehood then encouraging the spread of it into other more credible media.

Whats really interesting is how Faux News is trying to cover the Trump tweets as potentially truthful. They are busy MAKING UP scenarios that "If they are true, they are illegal actions by the former president"

Isn't this what you do every day? Cite "multiple sources" for your daily anti-Trump minutiae?

The former director of the CIA said Monday that President Trump could simply demand proof that his phones had been tapped from the intelligence community, and that perhaps Trump “just for a moment forgot that he was President,” in making the claim without proof.

Michael Hayden told “Fox and Friends” that “my instinct is no,” President Obama did not order that Trump be wiretapped. The White House has demanded that Congress investigate Trump's claim.

“It looks as if the President just for a moment forgot that he was President,” Hayden continued. “Why didn’t he simply use the powers of the presidency to ask the acting director of national intelligence, the head of the FBI, to confirm or deny the story he apparently read from Breitbart the evening
before?”

Ex-Leninist David Horowitz

Quote:

In his article, Horowitz wrote that there had been “a silent coup within the intelligence agencies” against Trump, and he argued for a wholesale firing of political appointees who don’t “share the views of the president.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-king-purge-leftists

Clearly some affinity for Stalin as well.

...Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is Mike Huckabee's daughter...

I wonder if "potentially truthful" will enter the language the same as "alternate facts".

I hope the historians include his racial and religious bigotry using his own words.

Breitbart is real,

Richard Pryor at least has the virtue of being funny....

So far, there's no publicly available info proving collusion btwn Team Trump & Russia during the campaign. But some things are strange…1/

Kislyak is only meeting w/Trump folks, not HRC’s. Why? Odd to asymmetrically invest in Trump relationships since HRC seemed likely to win 2/

Becomes less odd given IC conclusion that Russia sought to (a) weaken HRC coming out of win; (b) help Trump; & (c) sow chaos in election. 3/

Seeking to help (& potentially collude with) Trump campaign make sense in this context, since Trump shared (a) & (b) & was fine with (c) 4/

But as Trump camp rightfully says, calls & mtgs w/foreign officials, incl Russians, proves nothing/is “normal” for campaigns/transitions…5/

True, it's normal. But why so many? And, crucially, why hide these meetings & lie about these "normal" meetings, repeatedly? 6/

People are looking for a vast, elaborate conspiracy. There may not be one. Collusion could be at a single point with big effects. 7/

It could be colluding to “hack” HRC camp (as Trump encouraged) or coordination on dissemination & release of hacked info via Wikileaks. 8/

It could be financial connections & money flowing into the campaign. 9/

Could be collaboration to disseminate anti-HRC fake news via social media & pro-Trump outlets targeting key audiences like Bernie voters 10/

Remember, Clapper/IC testified that Russian influence campaign included heavy use of troll farms & fake news. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/01/05/russia_used_fake_news_to_influence_the_election_james_clapper_says.html … 11/

Campaigns know that stuff, Russian spy agencies typically don’t’. 13/

No firm ev of collusion has surfaced. Case to date is partial, circumstantial & none of us is privy to full extent of collected info. 14/

So none of us should use our partisan disdain (or preference) for one side or the other to conclude something that hasn’t been proved. 15/

But these are BIG questions for our democracy. Until an impartial investigation gets answers to them...16/

...And also looks into questions regarding possible financial or personal leverage the Kremlin may have over Trump, we won’t know. 17/17

Ex-CIA director Hayden echoes the point Josh Marshall made earlier (see post above).

Quote:

The former director of the CIA said Monday that President Trump could simply demand proof that his phones had been tapped from the intelligence community, and that perhaps Trump “just for a moment forgot that he was President,” in making the claim without proof.

Michael Hayden told “Fox and Friends” that “my instinct is no,” President Obama did not order that Trump be wiretapped. The White House has demanded that Congress investigate Trump's claim.

“It looks as if the President just for a moment forgot that he was President,” Hayden continued. “Why didn’t he simply use the powers of the presidency to ask the acting director of national intelligence, the head of the FBI, to confirm or deny the story he apparently read from Breitbart the evening
before?”

TPM
Hayden is being diplomatic here with that Trump "forgot" he was president. Trump of course wouldn't have the foggiest notion about his options here. But Trump will not be exercising this option because he knows what he said is poorly grounded and almost certainly false.

CIA, DOJ sued over leaks of classified info about former NSA Flynn

The CIA and Departments of Justice and Treasury are being sued by a prominent legal organization for their role in leaking highly classified material as part of an effort to undermine the credibility of former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to an announcement.

Judicial Watch, known for its role in exposing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, announced on Monday that it has sued several federal agencies for information related to Flynn's discussions with Russian officials before he officially entered the White House.

The lawsuit moved to unearth "any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to the investigation of retired Gen. Michael Flynn's communications with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak between October 1, 2016 and the present," according to a statement by Judicial Watch.

"In its complaint Judicial Watch asks the court to order the agencies to search for all records responsive to its FOIA requests and demonstrate that they employed reasonable search methods; order the agencies to produce by a specific date all non-exempt records and a Vaughn index of all withheld records; and instruct the agencies to cease withholding all non-exempt records," the organization explained in its statement.

Quote:

@gungasnake,
Quote:

Breitbart is real,

SO ARE PENTHOUSE LETTERS