US politics general thread

[Techne]

The Cohn and Mnuchin banker criminals should be locked up anyway. No way to trust them and there isn't any evidence that they are actually pro-American. Just your average globalist banker criminals. Two swamp donkeys that won't be missed.

 

[Xarog]

Navarro and Ross were also organising meetings when they knew other cabinet members who think it's a dumb idea (Mattis, Tillerson and Mnuchin) couldn't attend.

Good article on what a dummy Navarro is.

What Trump’s Trade Guru Doesn’t Get About Economics

:crylaugh:

First of all, Navarro has made at least one very basic mistake when talking about how trade affects the economy. He -- like many other people -- appears to believe that if trade deficits go down, economic output must rise. That’s false.

In accounting terms, exports add to gross domestic product, while imports leave it unchanged. U.S. GDP represents all the stuff that gets produced in the country -- exports are produced here and shipped overseas in exchange for foreign IOUs, while imports are consumed here in exchange for American IOUs. If you close the trade deficit purely by reducing imports, while leaving exports, consumption, investment and government spending the same, the economy doesn’t grow by even one dollar. But if you close the deficit by exporting more, while leaving everything else unchanged, the economy grows a lot.

These dummies think that trade tariffs don't stimulate domestic production!

 

[Xarog]

Shortly after WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on July 26, 2016, former UK spy Christopher Steele filed a memo with his employer, Fusion GPS, claiming that the DNC "hack" during the 2016 election involved Russian agents "within the Democratic Party structure itself," The New Yorker reports.

On July 26, 2016, after WikiLeaks disseminated the D.N.C. e-mails, Steele filed yet another memo, this time claiming that the Kremlin was “behind” the hacking, which was part of a Russian cyber war against Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Many of the details seemed far-fetched: Steele’s sources claimed that the digital attack involved agents “within the Democratic Party structure itself,” as well as Russian émigrés in the U.S. and “associated offensive cyber operators.”

The unverified claim was contained within a multitude of memos compiled by Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS, which was conducting opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump for Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

Of note, the 35-page "Trump-Russia" dossier used in part by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant on one-time Trump campaign advisor Carter Page was comprised of seventeen of Steele's memos - including one which alleged that Trump had paid "a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him," which would defile a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama had slept in during a state visit - an allegation attributed to four individuals' second-hand reporting.

The shocking claim comes amid recent reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing criminal charges against Russian hackers allegedly behind the breaches of both the DNC and John Podesta's email.

NBC News reports:

Much like the indictment Mueller filed last month charging a different group of Russians in a social media trolling and illegal-ad-buying scheme, the possible new charges are expected to rely heavily on secret intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), several of the officials say. […] Mueller’s consideration of charges accusing Russians in the hacking case has not been reported previously. Sources say he has long had sufficient evidence to make a case, but strategic issues could dictate the timing. Potential charges include violations of statutes on conspiracy, election law as well as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The sources say the possible new indictment — or more than one, if that’s how Mueller’s office decides to proceed — would delve into the details of, and the people behind, the Russian intelligence operation that used hackers to penetrate computer networks and steal emails of both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Meanwhile, as we have been reporting, Mueller has yet to even reach out to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, or New Zealand entrepreneur Kim Dotcom - who clearly knew of the upcoming email leaks before they were dropped. While Assange has heavily insinuated it was DNC staffer Seth Rich, Dotcom has gone "all in" over the last few months - tweeting that he knows Seth Rich was Wikileaks' source, Rich used a memory stick, and that Dotcom himself was involved.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...ithin-democratic-party-unreleased-steele-memo

Calling it now: When Seth Rich is finally revealed to be the DNC leaker, he will promptly be accused of being a Russian agent who was silenced by the Russians after he became a liability.

 

[Xarog]

Christopher Steele learned he was being paid by Democrats soon after beginning work on his unverified anti-Trump dossier, a timeline element that may contradict the FBI’s warrant application to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

The FBI’s Oct. 21, 2016, application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge said Mr. Steele didn’t know who was paying him, thus giving him the aura of objectivity, but a House Republican intelligence memo shows that he was an acknowledged partisan.

A New Yorker magazine article by Jane Mayer this week says Mr. Steele learned he was paid by the Democrats several months after he was hired by the investigative firm Fusion GPS.

The Mayer article offers a flattering portrayal of Mr. Steele. It casts him as a man trying to expose a Trump-Russia conspiracy in the face of unfair attacks from Republicans. Ms. Mayer does not quote him directly. In Washington, liberals generally praise Mr. Steele, a former British intelligence officer, while Republicans accuse him of writing fabrications.

Various reports have noted that Mr. Steele was retained by Fusion in the spring of 2016. His first memo to Fusion is dated June 20.

This means there is a likelihood that Mr. Steele knew the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign were paying him before the FBI decided to wiretap Trump volunteer Carter Page months later based largely on the Steele dossier.

In its warrant application, the FBI said Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson, identified as a U.S. person, “never advised Source No. 1 [Mr. Steele] as to the motivation behind the research into candidate’s #1 [Mr. Trump‘s] ties to Russia.”

This chronology could mark another instance in which Republicans say the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge was misled.

The FBI submitted to the judge information from a Yahoo News article as corroboration for the Steele dossier that said Mr. Page met with two Kremlin figures in Moscow and discussed bribes for U.S. sanctions relief.

The FBI cited the story, Republicans say, because Mr. Steele assured the bureau that he had not spoken with journalists. In fact, he had. He met with a number of reporters in September 2016 in Washington, including Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff.

Rather than being corroboration, the dossier and news story came from the same source: Mr. Steele.

In another application flaw, an FBI footnote said it speculated that Mr. Steele’s work could be partisan. But the bureau knew at that time that the Democrats had financed it, said Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Nunes’ investigation has turned up what he considers FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Some Republicans are calling for a special counsel to investigate.

A parallel investigation into the FISA warrant also is being conducted by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He and Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, sent a referral to the Justice Department asking it to investigate Mr. Steele for lying to the FBI about having no press contacts when the bureau was writing its warrant presentation.

Mr. Nunes’ memo on the FISA warrant said, “Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.”

The FBI fired Mr. Steele as a source days before the Nov. 8 election when a Mother Jones magazine article quoted Mr. Steele, but not by name, about his dossier and the FBI investigation.

The Nunes probe showed that the FBI had approved payments to Mr. Steele but had not yet paid him to continue investigating Mr. Trump, perhaps into his presidency. During the election season, Mr. Steele told a Justice Department contact that he was “desperate” to sink the Trump campaign.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/6/christopher-steele-knew-democrats-funding-trump-do

 

[OrbitalDawn]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/business/trump-federal-jobs.html?smid=tw-share

One appointee went from “battleground states” director for the Trump presidential campaign to a role at the State Department that sent him to South Africa to meet with health officials.

Another traded in her campaign experience as a field director in Virginia for a federal job promoting nuclear energy sales abroad.

And another, who spent four months on the campaign in New York after graduating from college, landed a job as an aide to the commerce secretary with a résumé that included work as a receptionist at an animal hospital and a summer job at a country club’s golf shop.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

This is impressive work.

Trump Town

Tracking White House Staffers, Cabinet Members and Political Appointees Across the Government

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Mueller gathers evidence that 2017 Seychelles meeting was effort to establish back channel to Kremlin

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.

In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladi*mir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations.

A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

lol, self own.

White House seems to confirm Trump contract with porn star

 

[cerebus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/us/politics/trump-witnesses-special-counsel-priebus-mcgahn.html

WASHINGTON — The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people familiar with the encounters.

In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked Mr. McGahn to see that Mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said.




It all looks a bit obstruction-y to my untrained eyes

 

[Xarog]

Yep, and...

Phone call Trump said he had with North Korean regime was actually with South Korea's president

:crylaugh:

MYSTERY: Kim Jong Un To Have ‘Very Unconventional & Unusual’ Message Delivered To POTUS Trump
by Joshua Caplan

A day after North Korea signaled it is willing to discuss giving up its nuclear weapons, the South China Morning Post reports that South Korea officials will deliver a “very unconventional” message from Kim Jong Un to the Trump administration.

SCMP reports:

That may be one of a number of possible messages South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong will deliver to US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in Washington this week, the source told the South China Morning Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“Kim Jong-un has a certain message, which is not publicised to be delivered directly to the Trump administration. It’s something very unconventional and something very unusual. I don’t know if the US will disclose this message to the public.”

Chung will deliver “conditions from the North Korean side to start some bilateral dialogue with the United States,” the source said.

“Maybe as Kim Jong-un sent his sister to South Korea, perhaps he has the intention to send his sister to Washington DC. She is the most powerful weapon of North Korea now.”

http://thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03...tional-unusual-message-delivered-potus-trump/

Looks like Trump knows who he's talking to after all.

 

[rietrot]

http://thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03...tional-unusual-message-delivered-potus-trump/

Looks like Trump knows who he's talking to after all.

It's amazing to what lengths these guys are willing to go in order to misrepresent information.

 

[greg0205]

Oh dear!

Hope “white lies” Hicks says her campaign and personal email was hacked.
I presume she knows a guy who can restore them, ‘tho he probably can’t guarantee he’ll be able to restore *all* of them.

PS. But her emails!

 

[Xarog]

Oh dear!

Hope “white lies” Hicks says her campaign and personal email was hacked.
I presume she knows a guy who can restore them, ‘tho he probably can’t guarantee he’ll be able to restore *all* of them.

PS. But her emails!

Hint: How do you get Hillary Clinton's emails back into the MSM news cycle?

 

[greg0205]

Hint: How do you get Hillary Clinton's emails back into the MSM news cycle?

I thought you were on a strict diet of Fox?? Hillary's mails are Hannity's A-Block Monday through Friday, every week...

 

[Xarog]

I thought you were on a strict diet of Fox?? Hillary's mails are Hannity's A-Block Monday through Friday, every week...

Yes, I hear lots of liberals like watching Fox News. But I didn't know that Fox News is all of the MSM now.

 

[greg0205]

Yes, I hear lots of liberals like watching Fox News. But I didn't know that Fox News is all of the MSM now.

MSM is covering Trump’s tariffs and Stormy’s litigation, but I’ll let you know when Chris, Rachel, Lawrence, Brian, Anderson and Don go all in on this.

 

[Xarog]

MSM is covering Trump’s tariffs and Stormy’s litigation, but I’ll let you know when Chris, Rachel, Lawrence, Brian, Anderson and Don go all in on this.

Good show.

 

[C4Cat]

Hint: How do you get Hillary Clinton's emails back into the MSM news cycle in an attempt to divert attention away from the investigation into Drumpf and his Russian friends?

FTFY

 

[Techne]

Debt is a problem for USA.
Increase taxes and/or decrease expenses.
Trade deficits for a sustained period of time are essentially going into debt.
It acts an expense essentially as it increases debt.
Tariffs acts as a tax on the people (they pay more for goods, more tax from sales tax) and has the effect of decreasing trade deficits and eventually debt. Plus it has a stimulatory effect on local production which will bring more people into the workforce.

But then again, solving the debt problem in this ponzy scheme monetary system is futile. The ruling banking class will screw you over either way.

 

[Xarog]

Charles Koch, one of America's most well-known industrialists (even if he's more widely recognized for his political activism) has published a scathing editorial in the Washington Post warning that President Trump's planned steel and aluminum tariffs would kill far more American jobs than they would create.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...iffs-free-trade-essential-american-prosperity

Later, sucka.