All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.

Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.

Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.

[Jack Dracula]

Remember to register to vote!
And if you already are, get everyone you know to register to vote!

https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

Quoted for relevance.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

How the hell did Trump’s people get ahold of those documents? And what was he planning to do with that stuff?

[CSTowle]

On Covid lockdowns, it was a once-in-a-century crisis (we hope) that we were unprepared for and which the Commander in Chief abdicated responsibility for and let States decide how to handle. Did some overreact or keep separation longer than needed? Hard to say, and we may need to study it in the coming years/decades to know the true impact. Did others not react enough for dips##t reasons like "freedom" and for far-right street cred? Absolutely, and many admitted as much.

When you have 50 policies and interstate travel and trade there's only so much responsible state governments can do to keep the spread down without Federal help. The real question is, what's your alternative? Hindsight being 20/20, what would you have done differently (and gotten all 50 states on board with) that would have simultaneously kept the spread down and kept kids from isolation and businesses from being shut down for large gathering reasons? If you don't have one, it severely limits the validity of your criticism.

Do you think those who implemented these plans wanted small restaurants and bars to die off? Or kids to miss proms, sports, and general social interaction? That there was some malicious intent, even in small measure, behind their plans? Or do you think they did the best they could with what they had not knowing how bad things could have gotten and watching over a million people die here in the US alone?

[seismic-2]

How the hell did Trump’s people get ahold of those documents? And what was he planning to do with that stuff?

The CIA would bring highly classified documents for Trump's daily briefings in the White House, and sometimes he would just keep them (which he wasn't supposed to do, but no one was willing to tell him "no"). It's doubtful that he ever read them, since he read almost nothing in the briefing documents, no matter how stripped-down and streamlined it was made for him. (Some aides wondered whether he is in fact dyslexic.) It is typical of the chaos of his presidency that he just took these ultra-sensitive documents and kept them in his private quarters. Then when he left the White House (a move for which he refused to make preparations, since he continued to insist that he would stay in office), he just grabbed everything that wasn't nailed down and had it shipped to Florida. After all, he was still the "real" president, so why shouldn't he still have all that stuff?

[Tami]

Liz Truss culls cabinet on first day as loyalists and allies get top jobs

Liz Truss insisted the UK will “ride out the storm” of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation as she launched her premiership with a brutal cabinet clear-out.

In her first address as prime minister in Downing Street, she pledged to be “hands on” in urgently tackling the energy crisis with plans to freeze bills expected within days, as her survival in No 10 depends on them.

Truss is expected to announce plans to freeze energy bills at about £2,500 a year until 2024 in the first major act of her premiership – but is unlikely to claw back the cost through customers’ future bills, leaving the taxpayer to pick it up instead.

[Tendrin]

Gathara on twitter writes headlines that parody the way western press has described the rest of the world forever. Here's his take on the elevation of Liz Truss to the Prime Ministership of the UK.

lawllawl.jpg

https://twitter.com/gathara/status/1567353394376937472

[Malvolio]

Just out of curiosity, when you say you were an Independent and you're now a registered Democrat, what does that entail - do you pay a monthly fee to the party (that's what happens here) or what else changes for you? Because I imagine you were already voting Democrat before 2008?

No fees. You just check a box on your registration card, mail it out and you're officially registered for the Party of your choice. The reason I registered as a Democrat is because in New York State, you have to be a registered Democrat in order to vote in Democratic primaries, which are often more important than the general election. In other states, the primaries are open, but in New York, you have to be a member of the party whose primary you're voting in.

[Malvolio]

When this is the person heading the DNC?

Actual reality tends to take issue with that...

(Never mind what got left out of what recently passed and why...)

https://news.littlesis.org/2016/03/1...gulatory-zeal/

Debbie Wasserman Schultz hasn't been in charge of the DNC for over five years. That article is from 2016. Try to keep up, #30.

[CaptainEurope]

More trouble for one of the architects of Trumpism:

Steve Bannon expected to surrender to New York prosecutors Thursday

the charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office stem from the federal prosecution of Bannon over "We Build the Wall," an online fundraising campaign for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the federal case, Bannon was accused of defrauding donors and using the money for personal expenses.

Trump pardoned Bannon on his final day in office but two codefendants who did not receive pardons pleaded guilty.

The pardon only applies to the federal case and does not preclude the state charges, the specifics of which were not immediately clear.

[CaptainEurope]

Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Wondering if it's information on one of the 9 known countries who have nukes, or one that secretly holds them?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The CIA would bring highly classified documents for Trump's daily briefings in the White House, and sometimes he would just keep them (which he wasn't supposed to do, but no one was willing to tell him "no"). It's doubtful that he ever read them, since he read almost nothing in the briefing documents, no matter how stripped-down and streamlined it was made for him. (Some aides wondered whether he is in fact dyslexic.) It is typical of the chaos of his presidency that he just took these ultra-sensitive documents and kept them in his private quarters. Then when he left the White House (a move for which he refused to make preparations, since he continued to insist that he would stay in office), he just grabbed everything that wasn't nailed down and had it shipped to Florida. After all, he was still the "real" president, so why shouldn't he still have all that stuff?

Yet another aspect of the presidency that hadn't anticipated a lunatic like Trump in the Oval Office. The mind boggles.

[hyped78]

I love how you just gloss over that one side did it for public health and the other did it for instant gratification/political points.

I'm not glossing over it, I don't live there so I am not entirely aware of where there were - and weren't - school closures and lockdowns and who (Democrats or GOP) enacted what/ where. If you're saying that the Democrats did it for public health and the GOP did it for political points, I'll believe you.

Gathara on twitter writes headlines that parody the way western press has described the rest of the world forever. Here's his take on the elevation of Liz Truss to the Prime Ministership of the UK.

It's funny. Regarding "whitewing" it's hard to make an argument considering that the top 4 jobs in Truss's cabinet don't include any white men (two black men, an asian woman, a white woman). She just appointed the most diverse cabinet ever in the UK:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...does-that-mean

If Labour were to win the election "tomorrow", their cabinet wouldn't be as diverse, as it currently stands. Labour has never been led by a woman and has never had a person of color in any of the four great offices of state.

No fees. You just check a box on your registration card, mail it out and you're officially registered for the Party of your choice. The reason I registered as a Democrat is because in New York State, you have to be a registered Democrat in order to vote in Democratic primaries, which are often more important than the general election. In other states, the primaries are open, but in New York, you have to be a member of the party whose primary you're voting in.

Ah, Primaries, got it! It's different from here then - here, in most cases, you can register for a party but you pay a monthly/ annual fee to cover the party's expenses (political funding here isn't the same as there). In the case of some/ many parties, you get to use the local party facilities for meetings and networking with other party members etc.

[hyped78]

Arab countries threaten Netflix with legal action unless they remove 'offensive content' that 'violates Islamic values'

Saudi state television also aired video of an interview it conducted with a woman identified as a "behavioural consultant" who described Netflix as being an "official sponsor of homosexuality".

https://news.sky.com/story/gulf-arab...alues-12691833

[Gray Lensman]

The CIA would bring highly classified documents for Trump's daily briefings in the White House, and sometimes he would just keep them (which he wasn't supposed to do, but no one was willing to tell him "no"). It's doubtful that he ever read them, since he read almost nothing in the briefing documents, no matter how stripped-down and streamlined it was made for him. (Some aides wondered whether he is in fact dyslexic.) It is typical of the chaos of his presidency that he just took these ultra-sensitive documents and kept them in his private quarters. Then when he left the White House (a move for which he refused to make preparations, since he continued to insist that he would stay in office), he just grabbed everything that wasn't nailed down and had it shipped to Florida. After all, he was still the "real" president, so why shouldn't he still have all that stuff?

Actually, if it had dirt on anyone Trump disliked, he was VERY interested in it.