An interesting article on "How The Pro-Trump Media Responds To A Crisis In Just 4 Steps" using the recent Russian intel situation as the example.

"Stay quiet, blame and discredit, change the news cycle, and then close the loop. Seventeen hours in the fever swamp."

Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarz...GwL#.lrrlj3KAB

Indeed, "Mein Kampf" got re-printed last year.

Although I seem to remember there may be a difference between Germany and elsewhere, could be that new prints of the book are forbidden in the country or something.

Interesting trap that Trump has set for himself.

He hinted in a tweet he had tapes of his conversations with Comey.

So the easy way to deny he asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation is to release the tape.

If Trump does not release the tape then one can either conclude he has the tape but it does not support his version of his story or the tape story was another Trump lie?
Which leaves the story open for discussion and conjecture

To quote Phos on Trump "It's a lot of fun, really." post here.

Interesting that his visit with Erdogan became a byline in it all, and only days before Trump goes to Israel. Rep.Elijah Cummings was very measured in his commentary last night, when some of his side are reeling in shock. But is he right on this... Would the Republicans have impeached Hillary by now if she'd behaved the same way?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/16/po...mings-clinton/

Ouch. A very scathing but (by the evidence presented so far) rather accurate summary of Trump's unfitness for the Presidency, in an argument in yesterday's NYT to remove Trump via the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution:

Did you see the images of Erdogan supporters/security personnel attacking Kurdish demonstrators in DC?



I can't rule out that the Kurdish demonstrators didn't provoke the Erdogan people beforehand, but the images are pretty brutal.

Those are his 'suits' putting the boot in? If so, I'd throw the lot of them out of the country and never let them back in.

Standing outside a building waving flags and shouting slogans does not justify Erdogan's bodyguards running out of the building and beating demonstrators so badly they need hospital treatment.
Erdogan could have just closed the curtains and turned on the TV?

Either way, I doubt that he will be president for long.

Trump is the product of a very wealthy childhood and life. He always had more than enough money to hire top lawyers and fixers to make any problems go away. He could invent cover stories to disguise any problems and such stories were rarely questioned because of the aforementioned lawyers and fixers.

Consequently he feels entitled to ignore rules and conventions which has now turned out to be a very poor approach for a new president!

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is ready to provide US Congress with a transcript of the talks between President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Source



Oh so many possibilities here!!!

Will the transcript be accurate?
Will it support or destroy Trump?

I would understand Putin tried to save his own man, but trying to save Trump. No, wait...

You can almost hear Trump crapping himself. He probably doesn't even remember what exactly he said to Lavrov.

Great opportunity for Russia!
If they send a false transcript that rescues Trump then they not only have leverage over Trump but also over all the senior US people at the meeting

Even if the transcript does confirm no sensitive information was leaked, what does that say about Trump, that the leader of a foreign superpower (and former enemy) has to bail him out of a pretty sticky situation?

Is there even any evidence that Trump colluded with Russia or is still the same old hysteria?

Wasn't that what Comey was investigating when he got the boot?

Anyway, that's not the issue here, is it?

You're putting the cart before the horse, the investigation hasn't been concluded yet.
Either the journalist or the translator isn't up to his task.

The headline says "transcript", as does the first paragraph. However the Putin quote speaks about the record itself.

Of course a transcript is useless without proof the record it's based on isn't forged, so the Putin quote makes much more sense than the headline.

Btw this shows that one needs to assume every talk is recorded. Without exception. Comey is a fool to not have recorded his conversations with Trump (or did he? Muahahaaa).

Only in America!

Source

I suppose people get the President they deserve?

Yes he can, but the questions for me are:

1 - Should he have given the info that became declassified the moment it left his lips? The whole purpose of POTUS declassifying info is supposed to be done with forethought, which Trump appears to lack. This leads to

2. Did he even realize he was blabbing classified info or that he shouldn't be sharing it with non-allies? McMaster says Trump didn't know where the intel came from, which implies the POTUS can't distinguish between classified and unclassified info.

If I put myself in the shoes of allies around the world, maybe I back off sharing anything with the Americans because I don't know when the president will run his mouth.

First, she wouldn't have behaved the same way because she knows what the job entails and when to keep her mouth shut. There's a reason she hasn't been indicted for anything (yet). However, I'm sure she'd have found some other way to piss off the Rs.

Unfortunately it's unlikely anything will come of this. Odds are his entire team travels on diplomatic passports, so there won't be any criminal charges even with clear video. Free speech in America, so long as you don't get kicked by a diplomat.

That. If he has his own set of tapes, he should go back and review them to see whether anything damaging can come out. Putin must be having a field day.