NYT: Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says. (Update: resulted in deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, intelligence assessments found)

[Momma There Goes That Man]

21 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

They actually going to admit it ain't fake news?

 

They'll admit it's true but 5-6 people will fall on the sword to say Trump didn't know. That's the fake news of it, that Trump knew and did nothing. 

 

So this is how it went:

 

1) The report is not true at all. 

2) It's true but the intel wasn't in the PDB

3) Intel may have been in the PDB but Trump and Pence weren't "briefed" on it

4) Intel was definitely in the PDB but Trump didn't see it

5) Intelligence Community said it wasn't valid intel so Trump wasn't told. it's a hoax.

 

I think that's it but honestly I've lost track. The reporting is accurate and has been corroborated enough that i think we can believe it is true. The question is if they or someone can prove Trump knew. It's damning enough that he wouldn't be told. Will another whistle-blower step up and drop the bombshell?

 

If so, I'd move to impeach immediately. 

[No Excuses]

There is zero chance he wasn't told. Whether he listened or remembered or cared enough is really the story here.

[Simmsy]

The problem is that Trump has lied or cried wolf on sooo many insignificant things, that it doesn't matter if he knew or not. He has no credibility, not even with his own base. They don't believe him, they cover for him and look past his faults and failures. I heard one woman call him a good family man, when it was pointed out that he cheated on his wife, the woman replied with "Yeah, but he wasn't president then".

No one believes him, at this point its whether or not you care.

[Dan T.]

7 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

...  He has no credibility, not even with his own base. They don't believe him,

No one believes him, at this point its whether or not you care.

 

Sadly, I don't think this is correct.  There is a MAGA segment of people who do believe him, who think the "fake news" is out to get him, and who will defend him in the face of overwhelming evidence.  Call it a cult, call it ignorance, call it a sickness, but it exists.  It's the 35 percent you see in every poll who say that everything is hunky-dory and plan on voting for him again.

[The Sisko]

We support the troops! --Tя☭mp/Grand Oligarch's Party

[techboy]

This one's ugly... So ugly it actually broke through the "earth shattering scandal for any other President, just a Tuesday for Trump" field he's sort of benefiting from, at least for me. We'll see if it sticks.

 

What I am wondering, though, is if this is going to impact any other world leaders. They were targeting Coalition forces, so will Johnson's government see fallout from this, for example? 

[Llevron]

Our government really relies too much on individuals to do whats right and follow the rules. Without that integrity its practically useless. Thats a problem that I will be worried about for the rest of my life at this point. Im not sure how you fix that. People are flawed. Maybe the Matrix had it right. Let the machines fix it. 

[Bang]

Of course Trump knew, to believe he did not is the height of naive..  and if it somehow is true he did NOT know ,it is not because he wasn't told, it's because he's demented and probably forgot instantly or didn't understand what he was being told.
Either way, the silence from the perpetually concerned about Benghazi and emails and are so beholden to worshiping each and every hero in the military is ****ing deafening.

 

even with my usual level of utter contempt and disgust for the rank and file of the members of the American right, it has hit a new depth.

All of you who may read this and are still sitting in that camp deserve nothing less than to be spit on , thrown on a ****ing ice floe, and shoved out to sea to die.

Traitors. Each and every single one. 

 

~Bang

[TheGoodBits]

So uh, Trump’s real busy claiming he didn’t know. 
 

Now he knows. What the **** ya gonna do about it, Donnie? 

[Renegade7]

38 minutes ago, Llevron said:

Our government really relies too much on individuals to do whats right and follow the rules. Without that integrity its practically useless. Thats a problem that I will be worried about for the rest of my life at this point. Im not sure how you fix that. People are flawed. Maybe the Matrix had it right. Let the machines fix it. 

 

This idea of co-equal branches of government was and is still a good idea.

 

The problem, like you mentioned, is when one person with too much power can put breaks on certain issues.

 

The President is the head executive of the country, the leader of the Executive branch.  There are supposed to be checks in balances inside his own branch before the other branches come with their own checks and balances.

 

Government as a whole has ceeded too much to Executive Branch, but that's not the biggest problem.  To me, it's the Legislative Branch ceeding too much power to the Senate majority leader.

 

We have have three branches of government and two people running the whole thing covering for each other and stacking the third branch in their favor.

 

There is nothing in the constitution saying there has to be a senate majority leader or they can be the final say on anything in the Senate.  They aren't, technically the closest thing to that is the VP as President of the Senate.  Do I want the VP deciding if bills should be voted on? No, they should be making sure bills aren't blocked from getting to the Presidents desk after the House votes on it, the Executive Branch acting as a check in the Senate.

 

Anyone open to checking my notes on this one, im convinced the constitutional framework for neutering McConnel already exists, hes the ultimate enabler here for what Trump is doing.  The power the senate maybe agreed to before he got there but the Constitution itself might be able to challenge and stop.

 

If I'm reading this right (and I might not be) technically the Speaker of the House is supposed to be more powerful then this imaginary Senate Majority title, thats why Pelosi is third in line of succession after POTUS and the VP (President of the Senate). SoTH is in the constitution, SML is not.

 

Bringing this back home, without McConnell, Trump is already gone and this thread probabaly doesnt exist in the context that it does. Thats my takeaway from this more then anything else, this is McConnells fault for enabling this shmuck from letting it get to this point and still f'n crickets.

 

Throwing Trump in jail isn't good enough, he needs to be in a cell right next to him. If this was a drive-by shooting, McConnell would be in the passenger seat giving directions to the target, he's not in the backseat confused on where they going like some of these other bootlickers.

[PleaseBlitz]

Trump not knowing is as big a scandal as him not doing anything about it.  

 

Anecdotal, but since I live near the Pentagon, most of my neighbors that we hang out with are active-duty military.  Discussing this with them yesterday, they are PISSED.  

[88Comrade2000]

1 hour ago, skinsfan_1215 said:

So uh, Trump’s real busy claiming he didn’t know. 
 

Now he knows. What the **** ya gonna do about it, Donnie? 

Not a damn thing. It's all lies. It was Ukraine, Soros, Obama,Biden and Hillary doing this to make Trump look bad.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[88Comrade2000]

Trump doesn’t give a ****. Think it’s fake news to make him look bad.

 

He doesn’t even care to investigate this. If our troops are dumb enough to vote for him in 2020; they will end up paying with their lives in a 2nd term.

[Llevron]

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

 

This idea of co-equal branches of government was and is still a good idea.

 

The problem, like you mentioned, is when one person with too much power can put breaks on certain issues.

 

The President is the head executive of the country, the leader of the Executive branch.  There are supposed to be checks in balances inside his own branch before the other branches come with their own checks and balances.

 

Yea I think we both see the same problem but just another resolution to it. Ultimately I would like for the clearance process that our cleared workforce goes through to be even more extensive and people actually help to it. The Jared Kushner cant get a clearance but he can still advise the President and get into NatSec meetings thing should die and never be resurrected again. We should be catching Mosco Mitch at the door. His intentions are obvious. Same with Bannon. Or Trump himself. If it was so obvious to my employers that I was so motivated by money and easily bribed I would never have a clearance. And like you said, that remedy is already in place. But it falls apart because we have no way to enforce it other than to rely on the individual pieces of the puzzle to do their job. Its obvious now that the possibility exists and always will that those individuals can be exploited. Ill never be able to get past that fear personally because I know people are fallible and no matter what we do, this government will be run by people. 

 

Unless....

[drowland]

 

 

   The 2nd paragraph. That's how they will address it... "Oh this stuff happens all the time."

 

 

 

[Llevron]

3 minutes ago, drowland said:

 

   The 2nd paragraph. That's how they will address it... "Oh this stuff happens all the time."

I like how he’s like “I won’t comment on this” but then comments on everything but the Presidents involvement. 

[visionary]

 

 

 

[tshile]

2 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Trump not knowing is as big a scandal as him not doing anything about it.  

 

Anecdotal, but since I live near the Pentagon, most of my neighbors that we hang out with are active-duty military.  Discussing this with them yesterday, they are PISSED.  

If it doesn’t change their vote then it doesn’t matter

Maybe they weren’t trump supporters before idk. 
 

but I’m sick of the pissed off republican that votes republican anyways. If they still come up with a reason to vote for him then they weren’t that pissed to begin with. 

[PleaseBlitz]

3 minutes ago, tshile said:

If it doesn’t change their vote then it doesn’t matter

Maybe they weren’t trump supporters before idk. 
 

but I’m sick of the pissed off republican that votes republican anyways. If they still come up with a reason to vote for him then they weren’t that pissed to begin with. 

 

They are, with one exception, all officers and all people with advanced degrees.  The one exception is Puerto Rican.  None of them were Trump people to begin with, I'm just saying this story REALLY makes them mad in a way that few other instances of Trump's malfeasance has.  The point being, probably a lot of enlisted are Trump supporters, and this probably pisses them off too.  

[tshile]

2 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

The point being, probably a lot of enlisted are Trump supporters, and this probably pisses them off too.  

I don’t share that feeling. i agree it seems like a lot of enlisted (even though that are now out) tend to be trump supporters...

 

im struggling, based on past experience, to think of a single one I know that this would even register as something that might change their mind

 

Just how I see it though 

[Renegade7]

1 hour ago, Llevron said:

 

Yea I think we both see the same problem but just another resolution to it. Ultimately I would like for the clearance process that our cleared workforce goes through to be even more extensive and people actually help to it. The Jared Kushner cant get a clearance but he can still advise the President and get into NatSec meetings thing should die and never be resurrected again. We should be catching Mosco Mitch at the door. His intentions are obvious. Same with Bannon. Or Trump himself. If it was so obvious to my employers that I was so motivated by money and easily bribed I would never have a clearance. And like you said, that remedy is already in place. But it falls apart because we have no way to enforce it other than to rely on the individual pieces of the puzzle to do their job. Its obvious now that the possibility exists and always will that those individuals can be exploited. Ill never be able to get past that fear personally because I know people are fallible and no matter what we do, this government will be run by people. 

 

Unless....

 

I agree that folks that want to run for certain positions in government should get the clearance BEFORE they can even get on the ballot.

 

That is the opposite if how clearance process works now, you need to get sponsored first if you don't already have an active clearance.

 

But we have to do this now, folks shouldnt be given clearences bececuse they were elected or given a job by someone who is alone.  It's not a hall pass to use the bathroom, a lot of these folks would fail polygraph Top Secert clearance process. 

 

Ive known good people that fail for less then what some of these folks do in a week.

[Simmsy]

Would it be uncouth for Biden to tell everyone to vote for him so he can properly investigate this matter as president?

[ClaytoAli]

6 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

Would it be uncouth for Biden to tell everyone to vote for him so he can properly investigate this matter as president?

Nope

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

Also I'm confused about the timeline.....

Did Banks serve in Afghanistan recently?

 

Quote

 

Banks serves in the Navy Reserve as a Supply Corps officer. From 2014 to 2015, he took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate to serve in Afghanistan.^[6]

 

On May 12, 2015, Banks announced his intention to run for Indiana's Third Congressional District.

 

Rep. Banks was sworn in on January 3, 2017. He is a member of the Republican Study Committee.