SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Trump Presidency : Year II
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 308

Closed Topic Closed
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
The Trump Presidency : Year II Login/Join 
Muzzle flash
aficionado
Picture of flashguy
posted Hide Post
JALLEN, IIRC that "long form BC" was proved by forensic experts to be a phony. That is not to say that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, just that it hasn't yet been proved. Until all of Obama's records are unfrozen, I don't think we'll ever know the truth about his birth, citizenship, and education.

I am not a "Birther" but I am not yet convinced he was eligible to be President. (I hew to the original meaning of "natural born".)

flashguy




Texan by choice, not accident of birth
 
Posts: 27902 | Location: Dallas, TX | Registered: May 08, 2006Report This Post
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted Hide Post


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
 
Posts: 30282 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Report This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
YES Trump making America GREAT Again !!! God Bless Smile


"Always legally conceal carry. At the right place and time, one person can make a positive difference."
 
Posts: 3053 | Location: Sector 001 | Registered: October 30, 2009Report This Post
wishing we
were congress
posted Hide Post
When calling the White House, this message:

"Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate, due to this obstruction, the government is shut down."

https://www.aol.com/article/ne...-democrats/23339295/
 
Posts: 19493 | Registered: July 21, 2002Report This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sdy:
When calling the White House, this message:

"Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate, due to this obstruction, the government is shut down."


I wonder if the Donald was forced to schlep down the road to Mickey D’s for breakfast. No WH mess today! Not even his big black car!

Maybe Rex could pick him up and give him a lift to the Trump Hotel or something!




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Report This Post
Step by step walk the thousand mile road
Picture of Sig2340
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by justjoe:

As POTUS, Trump could declassify the document.



I do not believe this is correct.

The memo was generated by employees in the Legislative Branch, thus the classifying official (the person empowered to change the classification level) is not in the Executive Branch and President Trump cannot unilaterally direct them to release it.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31357 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Report This Post
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:
I do not believe this is correct.

The memo was generated by employees in the Legislative Branch, thus the classifying official (the person empowered to change the classification level) is not in the Executive Branch and President Trump cannot direct them to release it.


Interesting, and not something I’ve ever run across before. Not saying you’re wrong because it has been a very long time since I was involved with such things, but my thoughts:

“Classified” is shorthand for something that’s “‘classified’ as defense information.” In other words. someone with the proper authority has made the determination that the information relates to the security of the nation, and that revealing it to unauthorized people would damage national security.

National defense is a direct responsibility of the Executive Branch (i.e., the President), and that’s why the Department of Defense is under the Executive Branch. In the absence of information to the contrary, I would believe (and argue) that if something is classified as defense information, then it falls under the President’s authority to declassify it regardless who made the original determination that it should be classified.




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47356 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Report This Post
Bad dog!
Picture of justjoe
posted Hide Post
Read Greenwald's blog, linked above. Bottom line, Trump as president can declassify anything.


______________________________________________________

"You get much farther with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
 
Posts: 11106 | Location: pennsylvania | Registered: June 05, 2011Report This Post
Ammoholic
posted Hide Post
Too bad we can’t skip all this quibbling about the memo and start stringing the appropriate individuals up. We have gotten more civilized over the last 240 years. That doesn’t always seem like a good thing. Sigh...
 
Posts: 6864 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011Report This Post
Bad dog!
Picture of justjoe
posted Hide Post
Joe diGenova's excellent summary of Obama's plot to exonerate Hillary.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/01...t-exonerate-hillary/


______________________________________________________

"You get much farther with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
 
Posts: 11106 | Location: pennsylvania | Registered: June 05, 2011Report This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by slosig:
We have gotten more civilized over the last 240 years.
Why, yes, we have. For example, I insist we use new ropes and set a date and time, so as not to appear too hasty.

Decorum, decorum
 
Posts: 107222 | Registered: January 20, 2000Report This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by justjoe:
Read Greenwald's blog, linked above. Bottom line, Trump as president can declassify anything.


Nonsense. I’ve given you the situation a couple of times. Read it.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Report This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
Too long and complicated to cut and paste, but well worth a read.

Tree House.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Report This Post
wishing we
were congress
posted Hide Post
in the linked article above there is another link to partially redacted FISC ruling that was released by DNI Dan Coats.

Unredacted doc is highly classified:

TS/SI/ORCON/NOFORN

As usual, hard to comprehend w the redactions.

However at the very end in the conclusions, there is this interesting piece:



ponder that.

"whether there have been additional cases in which the FBI improperly afforded non-FBI personal access to raw FISA acquired information"


****************

adding: Most people probably don't have the time to dig thru all this mammoth pile of info. It might help to clarify one of the key "theories" being put forth by the Conservative Treehouse blog.

This is sourced in JALLEN's link above. Part of the theory:

Someone in the FBI gave Fusion access to the raw FISA data (no redactions).

"The unlawfully obtained FISA intelligence information appears to end up at a central collection unit, Fusion GPS."

"Fusion hired Russian expert and CIA network ally Nellie Ohr, the wife of DOJ deputy Bruce Ohr"

"All research indicates that Nellie Ohr then loosely contextualized the extracted data into a draft or written narrative/story-line that painted a false story of loose connections between candidate Donald Trump and Russian entities."

"Ms. Ohr’s transcripts then get passed along to another Fusion contractor, Christopher Steele; a retired MI6 agent who was also head of the intelligence gathering unit in the U.K. known as The ‘Russia House’. Presumably the Fusion intelligence hand-off to Steele was to give the Ohr transcript some independent Chris Steele intelligence bona fides."

"After an undetermined amount of back-and-forth transcript editing and memo assemblies, the joint collaboration between Fusion’s Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele appears to have become the “Trump-Russia Steele Dossier”. [There are several key indications within the finished Dossier that show Chris Steele did not author much of the content.]"

**************

which leads to an excellent question. Is the dossier a complete fabrication ?
 
Posts: 19493 | Registered: July 21, 2002Report This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
posted Hide Post
How is this being covered -if at all- on the DNC's propaganda outlets- ABC, NBC, CNN, the leftist rags, et al?
 
Posts: 107222 | Registered: January 20, 2000Report This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted Hide Post
These tax cuts are supposed to kick in next month and most people should start seeing a bump in their pay. I’m starting to wonder if my Trump Pay Raise would be enough I so could take out a loan and get this new HVAC system we need or a new kitchen? That would be pretty damn amazing and just think of the effect of millions of people suddenly having more money to spend would have on the economy!


 
Posts: 33567 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Report This Post
Essayons
Picture of SapperSteel
posted Hide Post
Here is a locally generated article pertinent to how Trump is viewed by some segments of our society. This article appeared in today's (21 Jan 2018) edition of the Idaho State Journal, a small newspaper headquartered in Pocatello, Idaho, serving southeastern Idaho: LINK

quote:
Mormons, Protestants give Trump highest approval ratings
By Kendra Evensen kevensen@journalnet.com

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings rank highest among Mormons and Protestants, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll — based on a random sample of more than 122,000 people interviewed between Jan. 2 and Dec. 30 last year — indicated that 61 percent of Mormons approved of the job that the president was doing, followed by 48 percent of Protestants.

Dan Cravens, Bingham County Republican Party chairman and a Mormon, believes there are several reasons why Mormons and Protestants may support the president’s efforts.

For instance, many were pleased with Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, he said. In addition, many appreciate the president’s efforts to keep his campaign promises regarding health care and tax cuts, and they like the fact that the economy is doing well right now.

But Cravens also pointed out that Mormons, Protestants and many Catholics tend to be more conservative in general, which may be another reason why the Republican president ranks highest among those groups.

That may actually be one of the biggest factors of all.

In recent years, those religious groups have tended to be more supportive of Republican presidents.

“In recent decades, Protestants and Mormons have typically been more likely to identify as Republicans and to approve of Republican presidents — and to disapprove of Democratic presidents,” according to a Gallup report about the poll. “Catholics have typically been similar to the overall national population in their political views, as they were for Trump in 2017.”

Thirty-eight percent of Catholics approved of the work that the president is doing, according to the recent poll. On the other end of the spectrum, only 26 percent of those of the Jewish faith and 18 percent of Muslims approved.

The current order of approval rankings is similar to what it was during George W. Bush’s presidency in 2008, according to the Gallup report. On the flip side, when Barack Obama was president, Muslims were the most positive about his efforts while Mormons were the least.

Roger Bray, a local Christian pastor, thinks the Gallup poll shows that many Mormons and Protestants are happy with the president’s conservative agenda, but he doesn’t think that necessarily means they approve of him personally.

“They may look the other way on who he is (because he) accomplishes a conservative agenda,” Bray said.

The Gallup report also suggests that the poll is a better reflection of the underlying structure of religion and politics in the U.S. than it is of Trump’s presidency.

“Trump may continue to make efforts to target and reach out to specific religious groups, but the evidence shows that it will be difficult to bring about a fundamental change in how those who identify with various religions view a Republican president,” according to the Gallup report.


Thanks,

Sap
 
Posts: 3452 | Location: Arimo, Idaho | Registered: February 03, 2006Report This Post
Bad dog!
Picture of justjoe
posted Hide Post
quote:
JALLEN
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process

posted January 21, 2018 05:26 PM Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by justjoe:
Read Greenwald's blog, linked above. Bottom line, Trump as president can declassify anything.


Nonsense. I’ve given you the situation a couple of times. Read it.


JALLEN, I think what you are saying is that the committee "classified" (ie passed a rule within committee that the document should not be made public), mainly on the bssis that it would compromise FBI sources. The document is not classified according to usual protocols relating to national security. But the president could decide that national security is indeed at stake, and by executive order have it made public, if he deemed that doing so actually was critical for national security. I'm not a lawyer, and maybe I'm misunderstanding what you -- and Greenwald-- have claimed. In any case, I think this issue has reached boiling point and the memo will either be released--one way or another-- or locked away this week. So, we'll see.


______________________________________________________

"You get much farther with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
 
Posts: 11106 | Location: pennsylvania | Registered: June 05, 2011Report This Post
wishing we
were congress
posted Hide Post
Some broader media starting to put out some reporting

http://thehill.com/opinion/cam...linton-investigation

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew well in advance of FBI Director James Comey's 2016 press conference that he would recommend against charging Hillary Clinton, according to information turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Friday.

The revelation was included in 384 pages of text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and it significantly diminishes the credibility of Lynch's earlier commitment to accept Comey's recommendation — a commitment she made under the pretense that the two were not coordinating with each other.

And it gets worse. Comey and Lynch reportedly knew that Clinton would never face charges even before the FBI conducted its three-hour interview with Clinton, which was supposedly meant to gather more information into her mishandling of classified information.

On July 1, 2016 , as the Lynch announcement became public, Page texted Strzok:

Page: And yeah, it’s a real profile in couragw [sic], since she knows no charges will be brought.

There are other revelations within the text messages. But in the cover letter accompanying them, the FBI notified Congress that many additional text messages are missing. According to the FBI, its “technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page from December 14, 2016 to approximately to [sic] May 17, 2017.”

******************

A reminder of Comey's 5 July 2016 statement to congress:

"Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say ."
 
Posts: 19493 | Registered: July 21, 2002Report This Post
Essayons
Picture of SapperSteel
posted Hide Post
Here is another Trump article in today's (21 Jan 2018) edition of the Idaho State Journal, a small regional newspaper headquartered in Pocatello, Idaho. This one offers up at least one reason why Mr. Trump's popularity is high in certain religious circles: he has converted from pro-choice to pro-life. LINK

quote:
President Trump steps to forefront of anti-abortion movement

WASHINGTON (AP) — He once called himself “pro-choice.” But a year into his presidency, Donald Trump is stepping to the forefront of his administration’s efforts to roll back abortion rights.

“Love saves lives,” the president said Friday from the White House Rose Garden, in an address broadcast to thousands of demonstrators in the annual March for Life. “We are with you all the way.”

Though his record is mixed and a midterm election looms, abortion opponents say they have not felt so optimistic in at least a decade.

“I don’t think anybody thinks that the White House is a perfectly regimented and orderly family ... but that doesn’t change their commitment to the issue,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion organization that is expanding its door-knocking operation across states with Senate incumbents who have voted for abortion rights.

With a Republican-controlled Congress at his back on this issue, Trump is cementing his turnaround on abortion with the address to the March for Life — the first president to do so by video in the event’s 45-year history, he said. That’s a symbolic change from last year, when Vice President Mike Pence — in practical terms, the leader of the anti-abortion movement in the United States — addressed the group in Trump’s absence.

“In one short year, President Donald Trump has made a difference for life,” Pence told march leaders Thursday night.

Trump has given anti-abortion activists a few key victories.

Chief among them: the confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Trump also has revived and expanded a ban on sending U.S. aid to groups overseas that provide abortion counseling. And he signed legislation allowing states to withhold federal family planning dollars from clinics that provide abortion services. The administration has made its priorities clear in other ways, too — including appointments to key government posts and a new mission statement for the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency announced it is dedicated to supporting Americans at “every stage of life, beginning at conception.”

On Thursday, the administration announced the creation of a new office to protect the religious rights of medical providers, including those who oppose abortion. Supporters of abortion rights say it adds up to a president doing administratively what he’s often failed to accomplish through Congress.

“Time and again, we have seen this administration radically redefine religious freedom to impose one set of ultraconservative beliefs on all Americans,” said Sarah Hutchinson Ratcliffe, vice president of Catholics for Choice.

Trump has failed to deliver on promises to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding or permanently ban taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions. The effort to defund Planned Parenthood, for example, failed with the Republican effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Behind the mixed record is Trump’s complicated personal history on abortion. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway says his transformation from supporting to opposing abortion rights dates back to at least 2011. And while she says he has shown his commitment to the anti-abortion movement “early and often,” he has at times seemed uncomfortable with the issue.

Dannenfelser recalls her struggle in 2016 after the SBA List told GOP primary voters in Iowa and elsewhere that Trump could not be trusted on the issue. But Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who supports abortion rights, made the choice easy, Dannenfelser recalled. One wobble came in October, when the “Access Hollywood” recording was released with Trump’s voice boasting of assaulting women. He denied having done so, and a conversation with an aide to Pence helped Dannenfelser stay aboard.

A year into Trump’s term, abortion opponents see the stall of anti-abortion legislation as a product of the slim Republican majority in the Senate. So, they’re focusing on the midterm elections. Conway says abortion is a key part of discussions with prospective GOP candidates. And groups like the SBA List are boosting their ground games in an effort to turn out people who want to roll back abortions, including Hispanics, but don’t tend to vote in nonpresidential election years.

The group’s band of door-knockers, who make about $10 an hour, are among about 220 canvassers on the ground targeting Democratic Senate incumbents in Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Missouri and North Dakota. A spokeswoman said the group is aiming to quadruple the number of paid canvassers in 2018 and expand its operations into Senate races in West Virginia, Wisconsin and likely Minnesota.

In Madeira, Ohio, on a recent chilly Sunday, Alison Pavlicek led a band of six women down Miami Hills Drive to homes suggested by an app that tracks voter information. They knocked and asked people who answered if they were aware of Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s voting history. Pavlicek said she sometimes looks for statues of the Virgin Mary in front of homes — signals in stone of residents “friendly” to the anti-abortion cause.

“People are really receptive now,” she said.

Polling shows Americans have complicated feelings on the divisive issue of abortion nearly 45 years after the Supreme Court legalized it in the Roe v. Wade decision. A recent poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just over a third of Americans think abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. That includes a majority of Republicans and about 20 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Hispanics.

More than 6 in 10 say abortion should usually be legal, though that includes just a quarter of Americans who think it should be legal under all circumstances.

Overall, 62 percent of Americans say they disapprove of how Trump is handling the abortion issue.

But the anti-abortion movement is facing challenges. Groups that favor abortion rights, such as Emily’s List, dwarf their anti-abortion counterparts when it comes to raising campaign cash or spending on lobbying, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website belonging to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics research group.

And traditionally, the president’s party loses seats in the midterm elections, especially when his approval rating is below 50 percent, according to Gallup. Trump’s overall rating has never risen that high.

Madeira, Ohio, resident Ginger Ittenbach isn’t so sure the Trump administration is to be trusted, and that makes her a key “persuadable” voter in the eyes of anti-abortion activists. She says she is “very much pro-life” — but voted for Clinton.

“There were enough other red flags with Donald Trump just in how he treated women,” Ittenbach, 52, said after talking with the canvassers.


Thanks,

Sap
 
Posts: 3452 | Location: Arimo, Idaho | Registered: February 03, 2006Report This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 308 

Closed Topic Closed

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Trump Presidency : Year II

© SIGforum 2024