Trump Inauguration Special

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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:20 pm

For those who really like to sink their teeth into things.

Rhadi Rhodes is back and taking no prisoners!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6kRXa5f4bI



Cheers.

Here is more on Bane.

Trump: Today’s ceremony, however has very special meaning. Because today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another. But we are transferring power from Washington D.C. and giving it back to you... the people. For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you.”

Bane: “We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Blackgate, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For an army will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, as they learn to serve true justice. This great city... it will endure. Gotham will survive!”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tru ... d8cad23821

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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:27 pm

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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:36 pm

6 different agencies have come together to investigate Trump's possible Russia ties

Donald Trump has dismissed allegations that he’s in some way connected to Russian attempts to influence the presidential election as nothing but a “political witch hunt.”

But a number of reports in the past couple of weeks have revealed that according to unnamed sources, investigators from six different US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been looking into possible links between Russian officials and Trump’s presidential campaign as far back as last spring.

Reports from BBC, McClatchy, the New York Times, and others make distinct but overlapping claims about the collaborative investigation into a host of questions about the Trump team’s possibly connections with the Kremlin.

BBC’s report claims that an interagency group was created when the CIA director last April allegedly received “a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.” The McClatchy report says the interagency group is looking into whether the Kremlin itself funneled money to hackers as part of Russia’s attempt to covertly help Trump win his campaign. And the Times report says that key former Trump advisers are being scrutinized closely for potential links with Moscow.

Crucially, all the reports indicate that this investigation began before the FBI was fed the now-infamous dossier alleging that Russian operatives had sensitive information that would embarrass and undermine Trump, and that there was “a continuing exchange of information during the [presidential] campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.”

The new reports offer no insight into the claims made in the dossier, but they do show that many in the US intelligence community are taking claims about Trump’s links to Russia very seriously. And if they were to find concrete evidence of links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, it would have the potential to unravel Trump’s entire presidency.

For that reason, it’s quite likely that they could be stonewalled as Trump’s appointees to head these agencies take their posts — in fact, the New York Times said that its sources spoke to reporters precisely because they feared that Trump would do just that.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we know so far, what we don’t, and how Trump could shut down the whole investigation.

The intelligence community is concerned about Trump-Russia links
It’s worth stepping back and noting that at this point there’s a consensus in the intelligence community that the Kremlin was behind the email hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

Earlier in January, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified a report that concluded with “high confidence” — based on intelligence gathered by the FBI, CIA, and NSA — that Russia’s Vladimir Putin oversaw an “influence campaign” designed to interfere in the 2016 election. The report explicitly stated that the intention was to denigrate the US electoral process, hurt Clinton’s chances, and raise Trump’s.

What these emerging reports suggest, though, is that officials in several US intelligence agencies have evidently decided that it’s worth investigating the possibility of links between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The BBC report, published on January 12, claims that after the CIA was allegedly shown a tape with a compromising conversation about money being funneled from the Kremlin to Trump’s campaign, a joint task force was formed. Personnel from the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and representatives of the director of national intelligence formed an interagency working group to look into the matter.

According to the BBC, the interagency group obtained a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the highly secretive US court that overseas warrants related to national security investigations, to intercept electronic records from two Russian banks. A lawyer familiar with the case told the BBC that three of Trump’s associates were the primary targets of the inquiry, but that ultimately “it's clear this is about Trump.”

The McClatchy report, published on Tuesday, claims that the joint task force’s investigation looked into, among other things, “how money may have moved from the Kremlin to covertly help Trump win.” This includes looking into whether the Kremlin may have sent money to the hackers of the DNC servers and Podesta’s email address to help get Trump elected.

According to the report, “One of the allegations involves whether a system for routinely paying thousands of Russian-American pensioners may have been used to pay some email hackers in the United States or to supply money to intermediaries who would then pay the hackers.”

The Times report says the working group is analyzing “intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of a larger inquiry into links between Russian officials and Trump’s associates.

The Times piece also specifically names three former Trump advisers in particular who its sources say are under the magnifying glass: Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair; Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser for Trump; and Roger Stone, a former key adviser for Trump. Trump’s camp and the former advisers denied the possible links discussed in the New York Times report.

So far the reports all indicate that these links are possibilities that are being investigated. We don’t know that any of these connections this interagency group is reportedly investigating will actually materialize — or how well-grounded the concerns are. It does appear, though, that they’re substantial enough to merit the sustained attention of a six-agency task force.

The crucial question now is whether they’ll continue their investigations, or if the new Trump administration will take measures to disband the group, as some of its members seem to think they will.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/ ... igence-fbi
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:37 pm

Kellyanne Conway finally admits the audit was just an excuse

http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14351062/k ... ax-returns
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:41 pm

Some will now pay $50 to $500 more a month for their mortgage.

As a vet I almost took a government load but did not simply due to it taking longer to process otherwise my mortgage would have gone up thanks to Trump.

Newly inaugurated Trump administration puts mortgage premium cuts on hold

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday suspended a controversial plan that would have slashed the premium rates for certain federally backed mortgages.

The reversal by the Federal Housing Administration came less than two hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president.

The announcement came in a letter signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Genger Charles, which said the reduction in FHA mortgage insurance premiums that was slated to take effect on Jan. 27 would be "suspended indefinitely."

When asked for more information about HUD's decision, a spokesman referred back to the letter, which states that "more analysis and research are deemed necessary to assess future adjustments..."

The FHA, which is part of HUD, offers mortgage insurance, often to first-time homebuyers and those with low incomes or less than top-notch credit, which protects lenders in case of default.

HUD's decision to lower FHA premiums by a quarter-percentage point earlier this month sparked a partisan divide on Capitol Hill, with Republicans accusing the outgoing Obama administration of putting taxpayers at risk of a potential bailout of the FHA.

"Just three years ago the taxpayers had to spend $1.7 billion to bail out the FHA," House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling said on Jan. 9 when the premium cut was announced.

"Playing politics with the FHA through cynical, surprise 11th hour rule changes is irresponsible," he added.

HUD had projected that the reduced premiums would have saved FHA-insured homeowners an average of $500 in 2017.

Ben Carson, Trump's nominee to head HUD, told Congress last week during a hearing on his nomination that the incoming administration planned to closely examine the decision.

Shares of mortgage insurer MGIC rose 2 percent after the reversal was announced to trade flat in mid-afternoon, while Radian gained 1.7 percent.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/us-housi ... miums.html
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby windwalker on Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:14 pm

Most of the estimated 230 protesters who were arrested on Inauguration Day will face felony rioting charges, according to federal prosecutors.
Most of those arrested will be released without having to post bail on the condition that they return to court in February, CBS News reports.

If charged, the protesters could face a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Interim D.C. police chief Peter Newsham said Friday that 217 people were being charged with rioting.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... y-rioting/

If charged?

“Yes, I am angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House :o , but I know that this won't change anything.”

According to The Gateway Pundit, Secret Service is aware of the comments and will launch an investigation; although, the decision to prosecute rests in the U.S. Attorney's Office.

http://ijr.com/2017/01/783207-madonnas- ... rrid-idea/

Wonder how much she thought about it, maybe now she will be thinking more about it?
Last edited by windwalker on Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby grzegorz on Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:00 am

I think it is awesome that instead of jobs, security, Israel, cabinet members, campaign promises and the future we are still discussing how many people were at the mall on Friday.

Image
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby vadaga on Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:48 am

From the CapitolImage

The Gilded One really does have a tendency to waffle on, but he does it with great confidence and knows how to work a crowd. That speech at the CIA was great in the sense that you could see him probing lines of talk until he got bit of applause, and then constructing the followup without looking too contrived. Yeah he said pretty much nothing but managed to do so in a fairly innocuous way. Can't go wrong with things like 'nobody appreciates you more than me ' and 'I'm behind you 1000%' and 'this is probably one of the most important speeches I have to give'
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby windwalker on Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:40 am

vadaga wrote:
The Gilded One really does have a tendency to waffle on, but he does it with great confidence and knows how to work a crowd. That speech at the CIA was great in the sense that you could see him probing lines of talk until he got bit of applause, and then constructing the followup without looking too contrived. Yeah he said pretty much nothing but managed to do so in a fairly innocuous way. Can't go wrong with things like 'nobody appreciates you more than me ' and 'I'm behind you 1000%' and 'this is probably one of the most important speeches I have to give'


Wow, you've analyzed his speech better then the ones there who received it.
Watched it, it seemed like they liked it and got the message...

Whats your take on the repeal & and replace the ACA,
do you have or use it?
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby windwalker on Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:09 am

City law says that if, in the course of a riot, a person is seriously injured or there is property damage of more than $5,000 "every person who willfully incited or urged others to engage in the riot" can be charged with felony rioting.


Seems reasonable

But on Sunday, Mark Goldstone, a lawyer representing about 50 of those arrested, said police "basically identified a location that had problems and arrested everyone in that location." He said there were not 230 people engaged in conduct that merited a felony rioting charge and called the charges an overreach."They arrested everyone in a single location including reporters, lawyers, law students, and non-riotous protesters," Goldstone said.


If they did nothing to stop it, seems like a case of wrong time, wrong location. Wonder how much the lawyer is making off of this.

"Again, I am media and I am not a protester," Rubinstein said in the video, later tweeting that he had been blinded by a flash grenade and police encircled the crowd when he couldn't see. Like many of the demonstrators, he appeared to be wearing black.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawyers-poli ... 01959.html

Plausible, dressing like one to blend in. Maybe blending in a little too well...lesson learned, make sure that its very obvious what and who one is.
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby vadaga on Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:10 am

@Windwalker I liked it as well as speechcraft; however I thought that the blandness of the speech was telling. Also the long digression about the news coverage of the inauguration was a red herring.

Happily, I am not affected by the ACA either way. The two most worrisome things for me about his presidency are the promise of inaction on climate change and Dr. StrangeTrump with nuclear warheads, other than that the people have spoken.
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby Steve James on Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:37 am

Fwiw, Obamacare is something that all Americans have (it's a law) or they pay a tax penalty. The fact that people were being forced to have health care was the point of the (50+) attempted repeals.

The law meant, for ex., that a person couldn't be denied health insurance because he had a pre-existing condition; and that there was no lifetime cap on the amount rendered for treatment. As in, your child gets cancer, and it takes $500,000 to treat him. Without Obamacare, the insurance company (if you had one) could cap the total that would be paid for the rest of his life. Well, naturally, unless you had the cash, you'd look for another company. Unfortunately, before Obamacare, the insurance company would just say sorry, you're too much of a risk.

Of course, the insurance companies didn't just take the loss; some raised rates. That's why people who were healthy or well-insured already resented being forced to pay more for something they didn't need. It is totally understandable. However, it's also totally selfish. Whatever, though. I think now that the language has changed to "repeal and replace," hopefully there'll simply be a hypocrital renaming. Call it Trumpcare. I really dgas.

It's just those people who think Obamacare and the ACA are different thing make me sick. Like it or not, Obama got millions of Americans the health care that none of the previous presidents could. If they take it away, fine. But, they'll probably call it the ACA and say that they're improved Obamacare.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeafI0fMVLI
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby windwalker on Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:44 am

@ steve, do you have or use the ACA?

I too am not affected by the ACA, my daughters are.
They are now faced with paying premiums they can not afford or paying the penalty, if the law remains in effect the penalty would also soon become something that they could not afford. Prior to the the ACA both had health ins. that they could afford.

@ vedaga

Yes, the people have spoken….
Its time to reassess the US’s role in the world...I like the idea of US first, and not intervening in other countries affairs. The US can, will and should always protect its interest just as all other countries protect theirs.

I would be more worried about drone tech...soon and maybe now other countries will have parity with our own drones.
What if its in their interest to pursue their “bad” guys wherever, and whoever they may be as we do….Many ountries already consider the US to
be a bad actor...what if they want a "regime change"
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby windwalker on Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:53 am

Obama got millions of Americans the health care that none of the previous presidents could. If they take it away, fine.


Not really true. In the US all can be seen by a hospital for emergency conditions. Ins or not.

The question is really about controlling the cost of the industry, and allowing more
people to have access. in a sustainable way. The ACA as is currently configured is not sustainable nor
does it help to bring down cost...

I would imagine they will make some type of hybrid plan, containing elements of the old plan
with the focus of "competition" allowing market forces to drive down cost..
No matter what plan is put forth there will be those that want "free"
and will reject it.
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Re: Trump Inauguration Special

Postby Steve James on Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:27 am

The ACA is the Affordable Care Act. It's a law that makes it mandatory for everyone to have health insurance. If you had health insurance previously, you just kept it. If you didn't, you had to get it. So, one can count the number of people who had health insurance before and after.

In the US all can be seen by a hospital for emergency conditions. Ins or not.


Sure, and they all can stay in the hospital for as long as they want. Everybody has the right to go to the hospital. However, the hospital will still send a bill. Ask anyone who's ever used an emergency room; and, the emergency room attendant will always ask "Are you insured." I'm insured, and I can see the difference between having health insurance and not whenever I visit a doctor.

For chronic illnesses, the situation is the same. The hospital will take you and send you a bill. If you can't pay in cash, they'll use your credit. When that's gone, there's your house. In fact, the leading cause of bankruptcy is unpaid health care.

And, in the end, it is the tax payer who has to support the public hospitals and emergency health services. That is the point of health insurance and making it affordable for private individuals.
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