Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Now that Putin's puppet is in place America is busy jumping through Russia's hoops.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials. 

The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later. Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. 

The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington’s limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.

Officials said Trump made the decision to scrap the CIA program nearly a month ago, after an Oval Office meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of a July 7 meeting in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If that were not troubling enough, we also have this bit of troubling news, courtesy of Bloomberg: 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is shutting down an office that coordinates cyber issues with other countries, according to two people familiar with the plan, in a move that critics said will diminish the U.S. voice in confronting hackers. 

The Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, established under President Barack Obama in 2011, will be folded into the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, according to the people, who asked not to be identified in advance of an announcement. The coordinator will no longer report directly to the secretary of state, going instead through the bureau’s chain of command as Tillerson pushes ahead with a department-wide reorganization, they said. 

“It’s taking an issue that’s preeminent and putting it inside a backwater within the State Department,” said Robert Knake, a senior fellow for cybersecurity at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington who was director of cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council under Obama. “Position to power matters both within the U.S. government and within the international community.”

If somebody actually believe this move will help protect us from the next cyber attack, or that it is NOT playing right into the hands of the Kremlin, then they have not been paying attention at all.

As far as I am concerned Tillerson is likely just as compromised as Donald Trump and allowing him oversight of this crucial government department is like putting the fox in charge of guarding the door to the hen house.

These are of course only a few of the things that Putin clearly demanded of Trump, and the Russian government has now become so used to getting their way in Washington that when there is a hiccup they get pissed off.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Russia said Tuesday that it is losing patience over the return of properties that the United States seized as penalty for Moscow's election interference, as tense talks between the two countries have yielded no resolution. 

In Moscow, officials threatened to take "retaliatory measures" if the United States continued to "hinder" their government's diplomatic mission, and the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin's patience "is expiring." 

"We are still counting on the reasonableness of our American counterparts to at least bring the situation into the legal framework in accordance with the international law," said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

To be clear the Russian government has done NOTHING to deserve the return of these compounds, which were taken from them in response to their very aggressive interference in our last presidential election, for which they have not yet even admitted responsibility, and yet they feel empowered to make threats? 

Let's face it if America were one of Trump's casinos the roulette wheel would be rigged to land on whatever number Putin picked and the slot machine would pay off for every Russian's pull of handle.

34 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:04 PM

    McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:00 AM

      Shame on him for inflicting Sarah Palin on our country. And I've never seen such ugly babies as Sailor and Atlee. They're bound to be as dumb as they are homely.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:09 PM

    Now we know what Melania and Vlad were talking about. Don probably wanted to be thanked in person by Vlad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:18 PM

    John McCain has brain cancer

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4:19 PM

    gryph...a future blog posting for you. shame on this administration for further endangering alaskan villages:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-a-scientist-the-trump-administration-reassigned-me-for-speaking-up-about-climate-change/2017/07/19/389b8dce-6b12-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.5b4d2ad9a114

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4:19 PM

    OT...McCain has brain cancer!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous4:21 PM

    McCain has a brain tumor

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous4:28 PM

    The things Putin wants and Donald is giving him. Time for Americans to put a stop to this. Now. There will be no other good time to stop this than now.
    We are on the threshold of no return.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:46 AM

      Awe is their century racket coming to an end is it?
      Well now, tell them for me, if you expect me to feel sorry for you all,
      don't, because I won't.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:32 PM

      After being crucified, I would not be so kind either.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous4:28 PM

    OT. Never been a fan, but wouldn't wish this on anybody.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-mccain-diagnosed-with-brain-cancer/ar-AAot5Kr

    GeorgiaPeach

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous4:31 PM

    Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Sessions

    The New York Times - 5 mins ago


    If Trump knew Sessions would recuse himself from the Russian investigation then Trump said he would have hired someone else to be the Attorney General. MSNBC interviewee said this is Trump expecting loyalty from the Attorney General even though the Justice Department is supposed to be separate from the presidency.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous4:34 PM

    The Hill:
    July 19, 2017 - 08:08 PM EDT

    John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer

    Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix said Wednesday

    The tumor was discovered after the senior Arizona senator underwent a minor procedure last week to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. 

    "Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot," the hospital said in a statement....

    http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/342849-john-mccain-diagnosed-with-brain-cancer

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous4:48 PM

    Did Puppet Trump receive his marching orders from the Puppet Master?

    Leave Assad Alone!


    Washington Post:
    National Security

    Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow

    President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials.

    The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.

    Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington’s limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.

    Just three months ago, after the United States accused Assad of using chemical weapons, Trump launched retaliatory airstrikes against a Syrian air base. At the time, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, said that “in no way do we see peace in that area with Assad at the head of the Syrian government.”....

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-ends-covert-cia-program-to-arm-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria-a-move-sought-by-moscow/2017/07/19/b6821a62-6beb-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous4:53 PM

    I sure don't think that the two compounds should be returned to the Russians. Pay them fair market value if they owned the properties and refuse to let them take up their spying elsewhere in the US.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:03 PM

      Pay them? How 'bout we charge them for hijacking our election?

      GeorgiaPeach

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:05 PM

      People they highjacked your country quietly a century ago! Catch up already. Shrug.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous7:20 PM

      The Russians have been coming over the border up north in Alaska. They were welcomed immigrants. Whites did get sick of them and the newness wore off. But they got in the states with the open borders in Alaska.

      Some of them made money and fit into Alaskan society. Others were more trouble.

      They have their own way of getting Alaska back.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous8:37 PM

      Well good thing Alaska has an ACE residing in the Valley.
      You know, the one Sarah Inkkk
      played domestic terrorism with. Damn that DNA evidence.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous4:59 PM

    Hate to hear anybody has brain cancer, but imagine if McCain was elected president and his brain cancer developed months after his second term. That would have meant President Sarah Palin 2012-2016.

    Sarah Palin is probably crying she has all the bad luck.

    Missed out being the president
    Rotten kids
    Dysfunctional family
    Married Todd
    Dreamt of being a sportscaster, have her own reality show, wants to be loved, so on and so on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:06 PM

      Sarah Palin will be okay. She still has Facebook

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:15 PM

      Imagine if Glenn Rice impregnated and married her. Sarah would have been an NBA wife instead of having to be the Palin family bread winner and having to hire lawyers to clean up her children's mess.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous6:07 PM

      Sarah has a daughter with a job selling tea that makes her shit a lot and have energy to keep up with her meth head family.

      What more could she want? Her son has his own house and he can have all the guns and automatic weapons he desires to do as he pleases.

      Sarah takes great proud in the children she produced.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous6:08 PM

      God Will Bless those who Bless me.
      God Will Curse those who Curse me.

      Sarah's dirty deeds done dirt cheap bit her in the ass. Haha.

      Thank you God.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous5:21 PM

    Re. the two properties, which are clearly spy nests: we have enough crazed people that love to blow things to smithereens. Why not let them have a 'go' at these two properties, and level them? Afterwards, the Russians can take over those pieces of land again, if they so want...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:09 PM

      Illusions again?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:49 AM

      Yea they are good at blowing things up. Cheryranobal? Sp?

      Delete
  15. Anonymous5:40 PM

    BitRed
    Twitter › bitred

    We have reached critical mass with Trump. Threatening to fire Mueller if he looks at his finances, clearly his kryptonite. #Maddow

    11 minutes ago · Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous5:40 PM

    Granny Amy
    Twitter › gongfy

    We know. We also know why he is threatening Mueller - just as they are looking at his finances at Deutsche Bank. We know @realDonaldTrumptwitter.com/MaddowBl…

    7 minutes ago · Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous5:41 PM

    Avi B
    Twitter › JasperAvi

    So, Trump:
    1) Accuses Comey of blackmail
    2) Admits he wanted Sessions to obstruct
    3) Threatens Mueller
    4) Admits talking sanctions w/ Putintwitter.com/maggieNY…

    18 seconds ago · Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous5:41 PM

    David Hoffman
    Twitter › atDavidHoffman

    Why would trump threaten Mueller telling him not to look into his finances? What's he hiding? Mueller should subpoena his taxes now.

    54 minutes ago · Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  19. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-happens-if-trump-exercise-pardon-power_us_596f75dbe4b0000eb197ba66?section=us_politics

    "Over the weekend, one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, refused to rule out the possibility that the president would pardon his associates, or even himself, in the Russia investigation. Sekulow told ABC’s This Week: “He can pardon individuals, of course. That’s because the founders of our country put that in the United States Constitution: the power to pardon. But I have not had those conversations, so I couldn’t speculate on that.”

    The issue of whether Trump could use his pardon power returns us to the debate over whether a sitting president may be indicted or whether the Constitution requires impeachment and removal prior to indictment. As some have noted, that is almost a purely academic question because it is highly unlikely that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would indict Trump while still in office. In any event, there is the potential for post-presidency criminal exposure. In addition, Trump’s family members and close associates could also be under investigation. This means Trump could be tempted to insulate them by granting pardons before they’re convicted of anything."

    ReplyDelete
  20. "The U.S. Congress could act within weeks to kill a new rule that bars financial companies from blocking consumers who wish to file class-action lawsuits, according to a key Republican senator.

    Senator Tom Cotton, a member of the Senate Banking Committee writing legislation to tackle the rule, said Wednesday he was optimistic that Congress could pass a resolution revoking the new regulation authored by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) within weeks.

    “I’m going to do all I can to repeal this regulation in the next three weeks of this congressional session,” he said at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

    Cotton is drafting legislation that would repeal the CFPB’s new ban on mandatory arbitration clauses often found in financial contracts. Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can pass legislation repealing any new regulations with a simple majority."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-cotton-hopes-to-kill-pro-consumer-class-action-rule-within-weeks_us_596f8af7e4b01696c6a22681?section=us_politics

    Ah, the Death Party. Working hard to make your lives more miserable.

    ReplyDelete

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