Fresh8686

Right, but it's all tied together. The corruption is what made this group of people amenable to working with a foreign adversary and giving them concessions via a shift in the GOP platform with Ukraine and the easing of Russian Sanctions. Further this history of corruption and incompetence are also what make them perfect candidates for Russian operatives to turn them out and own them with their Kompromat. Incompetence - the lack of quality in your efforts and execution corruption - the lack of quality in your intentions and behavior

Why one or the other? There is a definite mix of both extreme incompetence and extreme corruption.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/putin-rival-ties-kushner-meeting-kremlin-bankers-n811631 " A prominent exiled Russian oligarch said in an exclusive interview with NBC News that he is nearly certain Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to collaborate with the Trump campaign, and that he believes a top Russian banker was not "acting on his own behalf" when he held a controversial meeting with Jared Kushner last December. "

At what point does a symbol become more important than the values it is supposed to represent? And is that point a failure in the larger scheme of things? If so, how do we redeem that failure? The flag, the anthem, even the construct that is this idea of the united states of America, don't they exist and especially derive meaning based upon how well they represent certain values? It never fails to boggle my mind how people get so out of touch with actual values and their practice in the face of pedestalization of symbols and constructs. Blind allegiance and blind tribalism creating this behavior and response that is such a failure of the standards these values normally would be requiring us to uphold. I guess you have to actually live by those standards in order to be the type of person who also holds the symbols and constructs of our nation to the same values they claim to represent. When you got a group of people who rarely if ever practice self-reflection, nor challenge their flaws and limitations, and have no concept of self-redemption, they become perfectly incapable of critically thinking in this respect.

I'm just tired of limits and barriers being placed upon women, because guys suck too much at life to work on developing a handle and maturity with their own sexuality. How hard is it not too be a ****ing weirdo around women? To adapt to whatever sexual tension you might feel around them? To be able to differentiate the sexual stimulation from who they really are as people, so you can actually form some type of working or personal relationship, rather than act like a dog in heat or some twitchy nervous wreck? And this weird Mike Pence religious based isolation from women is coming from an extreme and unhealthy place as well, that is not the answer, although that is NOT to say that certain legal and business practices in place during unequal power dynamics are wrong, more so I'm saying that is different then the place where Mike Pence is coming from and I understand others reactions to it on here.

My Wife's cousin works as one of the top guys in the state dept. and handles weapons import/export. Right now silencers are in his jurisdiction but there has been serious push to legalize them for general consumption and take them away from his purview. Who is one of the main people pushing for this to happen? Donald Trump Jr Why? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gun-silencers-are-hard-to-buy-donald-trump-jr-and-silencer-makers-want-to-change-that/2017/01/07/0764ab4c-d2d2-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?utm_term=.beccf9f73736 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-jr-son-gun-silencer-control-laws-restrictions-campaign-remove-mass-shootings-fears-a7767586.html

That's actually tribalism, not racism. Racism, has to include an element of superiority/inferiority, that is based on skin color. If it doesn't have that element of superiority/inferiority then it is racial prejudice, rather than racism. People can be selfish and not give a **** about people, due to those people not being a part of their group and zone of awareness. Which means they lack the connection or attachment to those people and the necessary emotional impetus to consider them during their collection of context. That flaw, does not necessarily mean that they also believe and/or operate from a place of skin color based superiority in regards to those very same people. Of course people can be tribal AND racist, but not all of them necessarily are.

Freedom does not necessarily include complete protection from the consequences that arise from exercising it. That's why in real life, the more freedom you have, the more responsible you have to be. Taking care to make sure the consequences of one's choice don't create a situation that brings about a collapse one can't recover from (to be responsible is to put effort into keeping things from falling apart, whether it be a job, a trust, a goal, or another human being). It's a lesson this president would do well to learn, but of course he won't.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/08/what_the_alt_left_was_actually_doing_in_charlottesville.html "At that point, more of the anarchists and antifa milling nearby saw the huge mob of the Nazis approach and stepped in. They were about 200-300 feet away from us and stepped between us (the clergy and faith leaders) and the Nazis. This enraged the Nazis, who indeed quickly responded violently. At this point, Sekou made a call that it was unsafe—it had gotten very violent very fast—and told us to disperse quickly. While one obviously can’t objectively say what a kind of alternate reality or “sliding doors”–type situation would have been, one can hypothesize or theorize. Based on what was happening all around, the looks on their faces, the sheer number of them, and the weapons they were wielding, my hypothesis or theory is that had the antifa not stepped in, those of us standing on the steps would definitely have been injured, very likely gravely so. On Democracy Now, Cornel West, who was also in the line with us, said that he felt that the antifa saved his life. I didn’t roll my eyes at that statement or see it as an exaggeration—I saw it as a very reasonable hypothesis based on the facts we had."

Thought this was interesting... In 1945, the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper—writing from New Zealand, where he had fled from the OG Nazis—identified what he terms the Paradox of Tolerance: "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." Which basically means a balance of tolerance is needed, not extreme tolerance. In order to protect tolerance we must be intolerant to those things that are inherently intolerant. Like ****ing nazi man children who fail so bad at life, they create this hateful fantasy of false superiority, to distract them from how inferior they feel at being able to build the most basic foundations of a decent and fruitful life.

It seems the question people are dealing with here is how to fight them or resist them in such a way that we don't lose our moral authority and come across as no better than the people we're standing up against. Those who lie on the non-violent spectrum, but not to the extreme of ignore and do nothing, need to come to terms with the fact that the potential for violence must be acknowledged and prepared for while ALSO taking steps to ingrain and practice measures for self-restraint. This is a two-pronged situation, that involves setting the stage prior to confrontation via coordination with city/state and police, and then involves what to do when in the thick of it and you are faced with no support from prior coordination, like those students who were surrounded by torch wielding supremacists at UVA. We have to acknowledge and address both contexts. The video of the guy embarrassing them with a tuba is nice and all, but what preparations are in place when those nazis rip the tuba from your hands, surround you, and beat you with it? We can't let our aversion to brutality, cause us to neglect in preparing for a proper response. So how do we set the stage? We have freedom of speech and assembly, but does that include assembly while armed? Can we put limits and provisions on armament as criteria for giving out permits for assembly? Will the police be able to enforce and confiscate visible weapons if such provisions can be implemented? We saw in Charlottesville a judge refuse to relocate this demonstration to a more manageable location, how can that error be corrected and not repeated? If you are going to have a contingent of each side armed for protection of their people, shouldn't there be close coordination with the police as to their movements and protocols for aggression since those would theoretically be the high danger areas? If we now know from repeated incidents that weaponization of vehicles is a preferred terrorist method are there road blocks we can put in high congestion areas that allow for free movement of people, but protect against efforts toward vehicular manslaughter? Then the next facet is how do we prepare the people who will be acting and reacting in the thick of things? Protecting people from getting cut off and isolated like that aspiring rapper who got his head split in the parking garage by nazis. Restraining people from flag or trophy taking, which seemed to be the catalyst for a lot of conflict (people fighting over the large anti-fascist plywood sign and many other instances). Instilling in people WHEN to fight, for protection of others rather then aggression and agitation. Organized lines of communication that rely heavily on interface with the police and central figures within each movement who would, per my earlier criteria would have had extensive coordination with the police and government officials prior to the demonstration. These are just some things off the top of my head, that I'm sure others could better build upon, but these efforts have to be made if wish to both resist and do so in a responsible and just way. However, with all that said, you also have to know who you're dealing with and prepare for them breaking faith or having intentions that desire chaos and destruction. Which means having the authority of the government putting in full effort to support the more responsible and constructive side. If we don't then we again make the mistake of false equivalency and innocent people might die as a result...

You seem to be making the mistake that your own little bubble of a world applies to everyone else in this country. Just because you're not touched by this doesn't mean others aren't and haven't seen hard times. You might want to watch who you marginalize via your lack of effort in thinking about any other persons experience but your own. There are A LOT of people who were not shocked or surprised by this, because we were never lulled into thinking this didn't exist or never happened. People are impacted everyday by these kinds of people in their communities, by the legislation enacted by these kinds of people, and the treatment by authority figures who share these same views and beliefs.

I'd say it needs to be said from the lens of re-building trust and unifying the country again. Those two things have to happen and I'd rather not have it be another tragedy like 9/11 uniting the country, especially since that was an us against them dynamic with connotations of conflict attributed to radical Islam which unfortunately could and often did easily spill over into wholesale prejudice and xenophobia. Human decency and a repudiation of racism, facism, blind hate, and false superiority could be an even greater way to unify. That's part of the problem so many people had with Trump's initial statement regarding Charlotesville and what some don't understand when people weren't satisfied with his "clarification" yesterday. He not only missed out on the opportunity to re-build that trust and unite the nation around human decency, he destroyed that trust even more. And each person who carries water for him and tries to spin his intention, unknowingly degrades it as well and does so in a way that diminishes any hope that they can pull themselves from their defensiveness or agenda long enough to put the effort in to see and feel what the people hurt by this are actually going through. Earlier in this thread a couple guys wrote some meaningful accounts of how they changed from "heritage not hate" and I'd say each of those instances involved taking the above effort and creating that change within themselves. Renewing the trust and hope in their own small way that yes people can change and update their beliefs and narratives if presented with substantive information. That hope and trust is key to having any sort of meaningful dialog with a person rather than conflict. At it's most basic level that is what determines the direction of either dialog or conflict. How much trust do people have that the person their communicating with will change their views and behaviors if given substantive and authentic information to do so? And when you have a country that can't even agree on what's real or fake, and build trust from there, we have a real problem. And when you also have a portion of the country that rejects any effort towards that end of communication and re-unification we have another big problem. Both of which create a breeding ground for the escalation of violence and the further diminishment of trust and communal bonds. **** sucks man. This whole country really could use a crash course in trust-building. Not just how to build it, but how to protect and sustain it across all facets of life.

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/895284532760465408 Exclusive: FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manafort’s home (sorry for the twitter post fail)

http://www.alzheimers.net/6-15-15-effects-of-medical-marijuana-on-alzheimers/ "A preclinical study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that very small doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical found in marijuana, can slow the production of beta-amyloid proteins, thought to be a hallmark characteristic and key contributor to the progression of Alzheimer’s. The study, published in 2014, is among others to support the effectiveness of THC in prohibiting the growth of toxic amyloid plagues. Another study from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California has also found that tetrahydrocannabinol and other compounds found in marijuana may reduce the amount of beta amyloid in the brain. Beta amyloid is a hallmark characteristic of Alzheimer’s and is commonly thought to cause the neurodegenerative disease. While the findings are preliminary, researchers are optimistic about their findings. David Schubert, professor at the Salk Institute and senior author on the study says, “Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells.” In the study, researchers found that by exposing beta amyloid proteins to THC, it reduced the levels of beta amyloid, stopped the inflammatory response from the nerve cells caused by beta amyloid and allowed the nerve sells to survive. Antonio Currais, a postdoctoral researcher and first author on the paper noted: “Inflammation within the brain is a major component of the damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease, but it has always been assumed that this response was coming from immune-like cells in the brain, not the nerve cells themselves. When we were able to identify the molecular basis of the inflammatory response to amyloid beta, it became clear that THC-like compounds that the nerve cells make themselves may be involved in protecting the cells from dying.”

Browder testifies tomorrow. A must-read in my opinion. Especially if you want a better understanding of what Putin really is and why he's doing all this. It's for personal reasons, just as much as, if not more then political ones. Magnitsky is a hero for keeping his integrity and not folding to corruption even in death. I know what prison is like first-hand and have dealt with some really ****ty things, but this... he stayed who he was in the most brutal of times. Very few people show the spirit he did. "For a time, this naming and shaming campaign worked remarkably well and led to less corruption and increased share prices in the companies we invested in. Why? Because President Vladimir Putin and I shared the same set of enemies. When Putin was first elected in 2000, he found that the oligarchs had misappropriated much of the president’s power as well. They stole power from him while stealing money from my investors. In Russia, your enemy’s enemy is your friend, and even though I’ve never met Putin, he would often step into my battles with the oligarchs and crack down on them. That all changed in July 2003, when Putin arrested Russia’s biggest oligarch and richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin grabbed Khodorkovsky off his private jet, took him back to Moscow, put him on trial, and allowed television cameras to film Khodorkovsky sitting in a cage right in the middle of the courtroom. That image was extremely powerful, because none of the other oligarchs wanted to be in the same position. After Khodorkovsky’s conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky. From what followed, it appeared that Putin’s answer was, “Fifty percent.” He wasn’t saying 50 percent for the Russian government or the presidential administration of Russia, but 50 percent for Vladimir Putin personally. From that moment on, Putin became the biggest oligarch in Russia and the richest man in the world, and my anti-corruption activities would no longer be tolerated... ... After more than three months of untreated pancreatitis and gallstones, Sergei Magnitsky went into critical condition. The Butyrka authorities did not want to have responsibility for him, so they put him in an ambulance and sent him to another prison that had medical facilities. But when he arrived there, instead of putting him in the emergency room, they put him in an isolation cell, chained him to a bed, and eight riot guards came in and beat him with rubber batons. That night he was found dead on the cell floor. Sergei Magnitsky died on November 16, 2009, at the age of 37, leaving a wife and two children. I received the news of his death early the next morning. It was by far the most shocking, heart-breaking, and life-changing news I’ve ever received. Sergei Magnitsky was murdered as my proxy. If Sergei had not been my lawyer, he would still be alive today. That morning I made a vow to Sergei’s memory, to his family, and to myself that I would seek justice and create consequences for the people who murdered him. For the last seven and a half years, I’ve devoted my life to this cause... ...Putin was furious. Looking for ways to retaliate against American interests, he settled on the most sadistic and evil option of all: banning the adoption of Russian orphans by American families. This was particularly heinous because of the effect it had on the orphans. Russia did not allow the adoption of healthy children, just sick ones. In spite of this, American families came with big hearts and open arms, taking in children with HIV, Down syndrome, Spina Bifida and other serious ailments. They brought them to America, nursed them, cared for them and loved them. Since the Russian orphanage system did not have the resources to look after these children, many of those unlucky enough to remain in Russia would die before their 18th birthday. In practical terms, this meant that Vladimir Putin sentenced his own, most vulnerable and sick Russian orphans to death in order to protect corrupt officials in his regime. ...It’s commonly understood that Mr. Roldugin received this money as an agent of Vladimir Putin. Information from the Panama Papers also links some money from the crime that Sergei Magnitsky discovered and exposed to Sergei Roldugin. Based on the language of the Magnitsky Act, this would make Putin personally subject to Magnitsky sanctions. This is particularly worrying for Putin, because he is one of the richest men in the world. I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power. He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation. Therefore, he has a significant and very personal interest in finding a way to get rid of the Magnitsky sanctions."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/24/16019984/obamacare-repeal-republican-flow-chart

Why? It's competency (and lack of competency on their side) that is really bringing about change. Professionalism, character, accuracy, integrity. Mueller and his team seem to epitomize that, Yates did as well when Flynn got outed, and the investigative journalists out there showing these fools to be liars each and every day are characterizing that too. Why get caught up in the stupidity and pettiness? That's a high-end dead-end, whose loudness appears to be powerful but in reality and practice does very little. You can't build much of anything that will last with an energy like that, only react in simple, mostly destructive ways. Personally, I'm way less stressed by these people and trump then on Election Day. I'm more focused on how to build and mature past all this **** and what groups of people actually have the capacity to step up and do so. I'm not focused on trumps base, I'm focused on those with some intelligence who were either too comfortable, detached, or apathetic to participate in choosing who we are as a country. Those are the ones who need to be reached and talked to and galvanized in 2018.

Agreed. There is a middle ground between tin-foil hatting up and immediately dismissing something out of hand because it is deemed too outrageous to happen here. I mean... our own intelligence agency believes Russia has assassinated 14 people over in the UK and in other places. http://www.thedailybeast.com/report-us-intelligence-believes-russia-assassinated-14-in-uk-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-assassination-abroad-2017-6 I didn't post that article, feeling like foul play was a definitive conclusion. It's more like just another string of possibility amidst this spaghetti bowl of ****ing weirdness going on everywhere.

Thought this was a bit interesting... maybe nothing, maybe not. Peter W. Smith committed suicide the same day a reporter investigating Donald Trump died by falling down stairs http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/peter-w-smith-suicide-reporter-probing-donald-trump-died/3846/

Thinking of going to Denver in a couple months, soooo looking forward to trying some full spectrum live resin.

http://www.theroot.com/marilyn-mosby-treated-baltimore-cops-like-cops-treat-ev-1796440519?utm_source=recirculation&utm_medium=recirculation&utm_campaign=tuesdayPM

I could understand taking the CBO with a grain of salt but why zero credibility? What are you using in its place to contrast the projections of the OMB? Doesn't it at least give you pause that there is a $2 trillion error in their budget that mulvaney even admitted too (and then tried to brush off and downplay).

So Mueller met with Rosenstien the day after Comey was fired. It validates a little the suspicion I had that Ros was scapegoated a bit by trump and sessions with that letter of theirs. He's been making moves in the background with his closed door meetings with the senate. I think paving the way for him to get out of the firing line and away from the immediate pressure of trump trying to push him into things regarding this case by appointing a special counsel.