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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Fri June 01, 2018 8:16 pm 
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Former CIA Director John Brennan Doesn't Mince Words About Trump

"It never dawned on me that we could face such a development in the United States"
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By Ryan Bort
Rolling Stone


Former CIA Director John Brennan has penned a scathing criticism of Donald Trump’s presidency, calling out Trump's divisiveness, his tendency to lie and his disrespect for the institutions that serve the American people. In the piece, published by the Washington Post, Brennan notes that he expressed a deep admiration for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama when he served under them while working for the CIA, but writes that his esteem for the presidency "was dealt a serious blow" when Trump took office.

Brennan, who served as CIA Director under President Obama from March 2013 to January 2017, has been an outspoken critic of President Trump since he took office. Following Trump's visit to the CIA the day after he was inaugurated, Brennan called the president's speech to the agency "a despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of CIA's Memorial Wall of Agency heroes."

He would go on to call Trump's travel ban "simplistic and misguided," express concern about his campaign's possible connections to Russia and worry that Trump's aides might at some point have to talk the president out of going to war. Most recently, Brennan criticized Trump’s demand for the Department of Justice to investigate whether the FBI spied on his campaign for political purposes, the final tweet of a weekend spent peddling conspiracy theories.





Trump responded the following day by tweeting a lengthy quote from Fox News talking head Dan Bongino about how Brennan is "panicking" and "worried about staying out of jail."



Brennan’s op-ed in the Post is his harshest invective yet against the president. "Mr. Trump, however, has shown highly abnormal behavior by lying routinely to the American people without compunction, intentionally fueling divisions in our country and actively working to degrade the imperfect but critical institutions that serve us," Brennan wrote after expressing his respect for the four presidents under which he served.

"Mr. Trump charts his every move according to a calculus of how it will personally help or hurt him," he added. "His strategy is to undercut real, potential and perceived opponents; his focus is to win at all costs, irrespective of truth, ethics, decency and – many would argue – the law."

Brennan then explained how in three decades of working for the CIA he was able to study the ways in which corrupt dictators and authoritarian leaders preyed on their people in order to enrich themselves. "It never dawned on me that we could face such a development in the United States," wrote Brennan.

Though Trump tweeted Tuesday that he would be focusing on pertinent issues like North Korea, he's spent most of his time since complaining about the Russia investigation, bragging about the size of the crowd at his latest rally, demanding an apology from ABC CEO Bob Iger and calling for talk show host Samantha Bee to be fired. If the op-ed happens to make it onto Fox News, it wouldn't be a surprise if Trump dedicated a tweet or two to Brennan as well.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Fri June 01, 2018 8:29 pm 
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Gee, I wonder why that's increased lately.



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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Fri June 01, 2018 11:32 pm 
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Too literal guys

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 12:19 am 
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Stickman’s post was very informative. Beautiful. Really.

Next question.

No, I haven’t read Stickman’s post.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 12:21 am 
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No, I won’t say if I spoke to Stickman today.

Next question.

Well I told Stickman today that we do have tariffs ready to go.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 12:23 am 
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He loves me this much

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 12:58 am 
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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 11:10 am 
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cutuphalfdead wrote:
negotiator in chief is getting played


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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 6:42 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 8:15 pm 
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NYT:

Quote:
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.

In a brash assertion of presidential power, the 20-page letter — sent to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and obtained by The New York Times — contends that the president cannot illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia’s election meddling because the Constitution empowers him to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”

Mr. Trump’s lawyers fear that if he answers questions, either voluntarily or in front of a grand jury, he risks exposing himself to accusations of lying to investigators, a potential crime or impeachable offense.

Mr. Trump’s broad interpretation of executive authority is novel and is likely to be tested if a court battle ensues over whether he could be ordered to answer questions. It is unclear how that fight, should the case reach that point, would play out. A spokesman for Mr. Mueller declined to comment.

The letter also lays out a series of claims that foreshadow a potential subpoena fight that could unfold in the months leading into November’s midterm elections.

Samuel W. Buell, a Duke Law School professor and white-collar criminal law specialist who was a lead prosecutor for the Justice Department’s Enron task force, said the real issue was whether Mr. Trump obstructed a potential grand jury investigation or trial — which do count as proceedings — even if the F.B.I. investigation had not yet developed into one of those. He called it inexplicable why the president’s legal team was making arguments that were focused on the wrong obstruction-of-justice statute.

They went beyond asserting Mr. Trump’s innocence, casting him as the hero of the Flynn episode and contending that he deserved credit for ordering his aides to investigate Mr. Flynn and ultimately firing him.

“Far, far, from obstructing justice, the only individual in the entire Flynn story that ensured swift justice was the president,” they wrote. “His actions speak louder than any words.”

The lawyers acknowledged that Mr. Trump dictated a statement to The Times about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between some of his top advisers and Russians who were said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Though the statement is misleading — in it, the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said he met with Russians “primarily” to discuss adoption issues — the lawyers call it “short but accurate.”

Mr. Mueller is investigating whether Mr. Trump, by dictating the comment, revealed that he was trying to cover up proof of the campaign’s ties to Russia — evidence that could go to whether he had the same intention when he took other actions.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 8:21 pm 
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I don't understand what benefit exists at this point to even having Trump answer questions. The only way I see it helping the investigation is to create the illusion of diligence, that is, the investigators can say "Well we checked all the boxes, and our case looks airtight."


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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 8:30 pm 
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McParadigm wrote:
This should be getting far more attention and discussion than either Trump’s bullshit tweets or Roseanne’s....I guess bullshit tweets.


Apparently this number was pulled directly out of someone's ass.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fac ... 6749bc66d2

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 8:36 pm 
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tragabigzanda wrote:
I don't understand what benefit exists at this point to even having Trump answer questions. The only way I see it helping the investigation is to create the illusion of diligence, that is, the investigators can say "Well we checked all the boxes, and our case looks airtight."

I’m fascinated by the amount of internal bullshit it takes to continue thinking the president’s arguments make sense.

“The real scandal here is the Obama administration directing FBI investigations, which my lawyers will now argue would be perfectly fine and totally above board.”

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 9:39 pm 
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Trump’s lawyers seem to think him being president is like a souped-up get out jail free card. He’s above all law and can, literally, do anything he wants.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 9:54 pm 
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wease wrote:
Trump’s lawyers seem to think him being president is like a souped-up get out jail free card. He’s above all law and can, literally, do anything he wants.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 10:02 pm 
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BurtReynolds wrote:
McParadigm wrote:
This should be getting far more attention and discussion than either Trump’s bullshit tweets or Roseanne’s....I guess bullshit tweets.


Apparently this number was pulled directly out of someone's ass.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fac ... 6749bc66d2


The day I believe someone who actually read the study over someone who skimmed the abstract but has a verified Twitter account is never.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 11:00 pm 
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Bi_3 wrote:
BurtReynolds wrote:
McParadigm wrote:
This should be getting far more attention and discussion than either Trump’s bullshit tweets or Roseanne’s....I guess bullshit tweets.


Apparently this number was pulled directly out of someone's ass.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fac ... 6749bc66d2


The day I believe someone who actually read the study over someone who skimmed the abstract but has a verified Twitter account is never.

Yes, the original study surveyed over 3,000 households to determine a mortality rate for that population of 14.3 per thousand people. They then compared that mortality rate to historical mortality data on the island, and applied the increase to the total population. This yielded an increase of 4645 deaths.

Because of their sample size, the 95% CI they provide is a broad range, from roughly 800 to 8,000 additional deaths...all within the range of scandalous and tragic. This does represent a notable increase over previous estimates, but all of those studies fall within the confidence interval provided here. This alone is remarkable, because previous studies examined mortality figures over shorter time frames. The New York Times study which indicated over 1000 additional deaths covered a timeline barely half as long as this study...thus excluding an extended period when the island’s infrastructure and medical care capacity was in tatters...and depended on government-provided data.

So the study does determine that if the observed mortality rates in their data are representative of the island entire, it would mean in excess of 4,000 deaths. The authors do provide a 95% confidence interval based on that data and sampling size, which is between roughly 800 and 8,000 deaths. And it isthe largest population sampled study to be conducted on the issue to date. And the fact check article has already had to be updated because the author doesn’t understand confidence intervals. Maybe smarm over having read an article instead of a tweet should be replaced by reading the study instead of the article.

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Last edited by McParadigm on Sat June 02, 2018 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 11:03 pm 
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So... Like I said. They pulled the number out of their ass.

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 11:24 pm 
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Researchers: here’s an observed data set from a significant subportion of a population, here’s what that data will mean if it’s indicative of the full population, and here’s the 95% confidence interval determined by our sampling size.

Burt: you pulled that out of your ass

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Burt: It feels true to me so it is!

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 Post subject: Re: The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump
PostPosted: Sat June 02, 2018 11:37 pm 
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I am 99% sure that I have between eight and eight million dollars based on a survey of the girl at the McDonald's drive thru and the barista at Starbucks, but fuck it: Let's just call it four million and run it in national newspapers as if it's a fact.

To call this fuzzy math is an insult to fuzzy math. This bullshit is not newsworthy.

But hey, if it's anti trump, it's fit to print, right?

Let's not go with the far more likely estimates. Let's go with this fucking survey.

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Last edited by BurtReynolds on Sat June 02, 2018 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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