Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

  On 3/18/2018 at 2:10 AM, very honest said:

In case anyone missed it, John Brennan, former director of the CIA, tweeted this to Donald Trump today.

 

McCabe's statement was pretty awesome as well. also he turned over to mueller his memos he wrote on trump conversations.

btw if you haven't read this article it's worth a read.. a big tangent to this thread but wrapped up in it somehow.. 

  On 3/17/2018 at 8:58 PM, very honest said:

https://twitter.com/curtfloodjr/status/975032558760050689

btw never search for "cheney shoots guy in the face" unless you want to see a bunch of people who've been shot in the face

That Mark Felt movie is pretty appropriate atm. Despite the fact that Liam Neeson plays the lead role. And I tend to have a hard time with any Liam Neeson movie. This one's hard as well, but it's doable.

Didn't even know it was released recently, btw. So thx whosebrian!

Also, Guardian doing good work with the Cambridge Analytical profile. Can't believe we have a 24 something to thank for this mess. Among other people.

Whatever the case, 2016 elections will be remembered as the perfect shitstorm. (That includes Brexit)

Also2: kill facebook!

the interesting thing about tillerson's surprise firing is the statements he made the day before.

from the nyt article published the day before:

  Quote

 

Tillerson, who spoke Monday by phone with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, said he's grown "extremely concerned" about Russia, noting that he spent most of the first year of the Trump administration trying to solve problems and narrow differences with the Kremlin. He said after a year of trying, "we didn't get very far."

 

"Instead what we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive," Tillerson said. "And this is very, very concerning to me and others that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is."

this was in the context of tillerson's corroboration of british intelligence's conclusion that the kremlin was involved in the poisoning of a former russian double agent and his daughter in a park on british soil

tillerson's statements were remarkable because of his long history of close ties with russia

in july 2017 the senate voted 98 to 2 to force the administration to maintain existing sanctions on russia and advised the administration to implement new ones. the trump administration declined to implement new ones, and trolled the legislation's requirement of providing a list of oligarchs by copying and pasting a list from an issue of forbes. link

also last week, a 4 star general tweeted

  On 3/18/2018 at 4:17 AM, ignatius said:

btw if you haven't read this article it's worth a read.. a big tangent to this thread but wrapped up in it somehow.. 

 

 

Very relevant as far as i'm concerned.

This video which accompanies the article is interesting in and of itself.

Interesting to see him argue "if we don't have a shared understanding, how can we be a functioning society?" (right past the 11 mins mark) and only a couple mins later, when asked who he trusts, he basically says no-one and rationalises it by calling it a "healthy dose of skepticism". Completely unaware, it seems, that without trust, there can't be a "shared understanding" and consequentially a functioning society. He confuses cynicism, or worse, nihilism, for "healthy skepticism".

You should be able to listen critically to someone who you trust. "trust no-one" is a strategy which belongs in books and movies. Not in the real world.

@veryhonest: as far as i'm concerned, people/mediaoulets are too quick to link the two (remarks tillerson about russia and his firing). bit of wishful thinking as far as i'm concerned.

  On 3/18/2018 at 7:12 PM, goDel said:

@veryhonest: as far as i'm concerned, people/mediaoulets are too quick to link the two (remarks tillerson about russia and his firing). bit of wishful thinking as far as i'm concerned.

tillerson was one of many administration appointees who had unusually close ties with russia. the statements by tillerson last week were remarkable for their departure from the friendly tone toward russia that is typical of the trump administration. the firing came the next day. when someone does something the day before they were fired that is a surprising departure from previous behavior and runs counter to the norm there, it's fair to speculate that they were linked.

to those aware of the hundreds of concerning data points on trump/russia, this is another fitting the pattern

i don't even find that to be the interesting part about it. the reason i brought it up here is because of what tillerson was saying. tillerson, secretary of state, longtime friend of the kremlin, said that despite the administration bending over backwards to appease russia, they have only seen escalating aggression from russia.

That buzzfeed article about Sater was super interesting, as was his interview w/ Ari on CNN. This is such an amazing scandal. Trump made the news great again.

  On 3/19/2018 at 2:09 AM, very honest said:

 

  On 3/18/2018 at 7:12 PM, goDel said:

@veryhonest: as far as i'm concerned, people/mediaoulets are too quick to link the two (remarks tillerson about russia and his firing). bit of wishful thinking as far as i'm concerned.

 

 

tillerson was one of many administration appointees who had unusually close ties with russia. the statements by tillerson last week were remarkable for their departure from the friendly tone toward russia that is typical of the trump administration. the firing came the next day. when someone does something the day before they were fired that is a surprising departure from previous behavior and runs counter to the norm there, it's fair to speculate that they were linked.

 

to those aware of the hundreds of concerning data points on trump/russia, this is another fitting the pattern

 

i don't even find that to be the interesting part about it. the reason i brought it up here is because of what tillerson was saying. tillerson, secretary of state, longtime friend of the kremlin, said that despite the administration bending over backwards to appease russia, they have only seen escalating aggression from russia.

Tillersons end had been written on the wall for months. It was even clear Pompeo would follow up. The relationship between Till and Trump had been problematic from the start.

I understand the optics. But if right (Tilly fired because of remarks on Russia), Nikki Haley should have been out by now as well. All in all, I find the logic linking Tillys remarks on Russia to his firing incredibly week. Not saying there is no link. But to argue he had to go because of his remarks, seems willfully ignorant to me.

Not directing that at you or anyone in particular. It just amazes me how that narrative got wind in the media. Seems really lazy to me.

yeah i will concede that i don't know what was going on in Trump's mind. if you want to argue that i cant prove that, that's fine, goDel.

i mainly brought it up because of how remarkable i found tillerson's comments to be.

  On 3/18/2018 at 7:08 PM, goDel said:

This video which accompanies the article is interesting in and of itself.

  Quote

If these reports are true, it’s a serious abuse of our rules. Both Aleksandr Kogan as well as the SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica certified to us that they destroyed the data in question.

Facebook's statement doesn't outright deny they had access to that much data, but basically says that they (Cambridge Analytica) shouldn't, but if they do, it was destroyed. That's an...odd...statement to say the least.

So they don't have that data, but if they did, it's currently destroyed...

Facebook are full of shit. This can not be overstated.

Cambridge Analytica sews socks that smell!

  On 3/20/2018 at 7:42 AM, goDel said:

Facebook are full of shit. This can not be overstated.

long post on reddit about FB in deep w/russian oligarch

Russia is deeply embedded into Facebook.

In 2009, Russian social-media mogul Yuri Milner invested $200 million into Facebook at a valuation of $10 billion dollars without voting rights or a seat on the board. To understand this investment, at the time the world was going through a global recession and Facebook's general valuation had dropped from the $15 billion from the year prior to $4-$6 billion in 2009.

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebooks-valuation-the-cheat-sheet/

One company did offer a valuation of $8 billion, but with a seat on the board, which Zuckerberg was strongly against. In other words, Yuri Milner invested in Facebook when they were strapped for cash and at an inflated price without voting rights or a seat on the board. That's an amazing deal for Zuckerberg!

Here's Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg hanging out for an interview: https://techcrunch.com/2009/05/26/mark-zuckerberg-and-yuri-milner-talk-about-facebooks-new-investment-video/

The deal was coordinated by Alisher B. Usmanov, a Russian oligarch that earned his fortune managing steel mill subsidiaries for Gazprom.

Usmanov spent six years in prison for fraud and embezzlement in the 80's.

In 2008, Usmanov fired a publisher and editor at one of Russia's most respected news paper after it published detailed accounts of Russian election fraud.

It is said, "His ties to the Kremlin and Facebook have stirred concerns that he might influence the company’s policies in subtle ways to appease governments in markets where Facebook is also an important tool of political dissent, such as Russia." This was in 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/technology/a-russian-facebook-bet-pays-off-big.html

Usmanov is close friends with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov

Ivanka Trump and Wendi Deng are good friends with Abramovich's then wife, Dasha Zhoukova. Here they are watching a tennis match.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3784716/Ivanka-Trump-Karlie-Kloss-Wendi-Deng-Murdoch-watch-Open.html

The leak of the Paradise Papers revealed the money Yuri Milner used to invest into Facebook came from Gazprom, a US sanctioned Russian oil and gas company, at one point owning 9% of the company.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-the-paradise-papers-leak-facebook-yuri-milner-facebook-twitter-russia

Soon after, Zuckerberg and Milner became friends, meeting monthly:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zuckerberg-got-early-business-advice-194957335.html

And even spoke together in November 2015 at the 2016 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-the-paradise-papers-leak-facebook-yuri-milner-facebook-twitter-russia

In May 2012, Milner attended Zuckerberg's wedding. In 2014, Milner moved to California home he paid 100% above value on.

http://time.com/5011000/paradise-papers-tax-havens-leak/

For those who aren't familiar with Gazprom, Gazprom financed the spy ring that in 2013 tried to recruit Trump Advisor Carter Page before being broken up by the FBI. One of the spies trying to recruit Page said of Page, "He got hooked on Gazprom."

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/04/russian-spy-met-trump-adviser-carter-page-and-thought-he-was-an-idiot/

Around the time Yuri Milner was investing in Facebook, they lost their CFO Gideon Yu. Reason given: Facebook wanted a CFO with public company experience, suggesting they were thinking of an IPO at the time of Milner's investment (the reason given was deemed nonsensical).

https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/31/confirmed-facebook-loses-cfo-gideon-yu/

Yuri Milner's DST was one of the big winners over Facebook's botched IPO.

https://www.ft.com/content/281a8420-a46e-11e1-a701-00144feabdc0

When Facebook was confronted about the fake news epidemic on Facebook and it's influence on the election, he said it was "crazy."

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-zuckerberg-russians-20170929-story.html

When Facebook put out a report in April 2017, it conspicuously left out any mention of Russia:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/report-facebook-cut-russia-references-from-report-on-disinformation/

US political ads were at times paid for by rubles:

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/358102-franken-blasts-facebook-for-accepting-rubles-for-us-election-ads

Facebook had "embeds" into the Trump campaign working with Brad Parscale, Trumps digital director.

https://mashable.com/2017/10/10/facebook-responds-embeds-trump-campaign-60-minutes/#BrZIcKnffGqw

Based on Kushner's quotes, these "embeds" may have worked closely with Cambridge Anayltica:

“We found that Facebook and digital targeting were the most effective ways to reach the audiences. After the primary, we started ramping up because we knew that doing a national campaign is different than doing a primary campaign. That was when we formalized the system because we had to ramp up for digital fundraising. We brought in Cambridge Analytica. I called some of my friends from Silicon Valley who were some of the best digital marketers in the world. And I asked them how to scale this stuff."

Here's a video explaining just that: @2:37

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40852227/the-digital-guru-who-helped-donald-trump-to-the-presidency

Theresa Wong from the Trump campaign says that people from Facebook, Google, and Youtube "...were helping us... They were basically our hands-on partners..."

In the video above, Theresa Wong from the Trump campaign says, "Without Facebook, we wouldn't have won." (@4:21)

For those who aren't familiar, Cambridge Analytica was communicating with Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton's and DNC's stolen emails. So was Don Jr. Michael Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI, also had an advisory role at Cambridge Analytica.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/04/michael-flynn-cambridge-analytica-disclosure

Zuckerberg admitted there was overlap between Russia ads and the Trump Campaign.

http://www.techheadlines.us/facebook-says-it-found-an-insignificant-overlap-between-russia-ads-and-president-trumps-campaign/

Facebook recommended Russian propaganda to users:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/25/facebook-tells-senate-its-software-recommended-russian-propaganda.html

Facebook helped Agata Burdonova, who was a manager at the IRA (Russian Troll Factory) that meddled in the US 2016 elections, and her husband, Dmitry Fyodorov, immigrate to Seattle Washington. Burdonova's husband has received a job offer from Facebook.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/a-former-manager-at-the-russian-troll-factory-is-now-living

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/967559297516425217/photo/1

Yuri Milner made these investments into Facebook with the help of Jared Kushner's friend and old classmate Ryan Williams. Yuri Milner also invested in Cadre, a company co-founded by Ryan Williams, Jared Kushner, and his brother Josh Kushner. However, Jared Kushner conveniently failed to disclose his ownership of the company. Milner's investment is likely through Gazprom as well.

http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-white-house-forms-omissions-cadre-millions-679231

https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/10/13594558/mark-zuckerberg-election-fake-news-trump

Guess who's friend's with both Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner? Suspected Chinese agent and Vladimir Putin love interest Wendi Deng Murdoch.

Wendi Deng introduced her then husband Rupert Murdoch to Mark Zuckerberg:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jun/13/rupert-murdoch-divorce-wendi-deng

Yuri Milner and Wendi Deng attended a Time 100 Gala together in New York, April 2016.

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Yuri+Milner/2016+Time+100+Gala+Time+Most+Influential+People/quud6cf3as-

Here's Wendy Deng with Yuri Milner's wife and Karlie Kloss, who's dating Josh Kushner, Jared Kushner's brother.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/events/time-100-gala-best-dressed-celebrities/model-karlie-kloss-with-wife-of-russian-entrepreneur-yuri-milner/

Wendi Deng also hosted a dinner that included Jared Kushner, Josh Kushner, and Ryan Williams, amongst others.

https://www.vogue.com/article/businesswoman-wendi-murdoch-career-profile

Wendi Deng is know as a match-maker to her friends and actually helped reunite Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner after a break up, eventually leading to marriage. Wendi Deng may be the link between Yuri Milner with Zuckerberg, as well as with the Kushners, and Ryan Williams.

Wendi Deng was spotted on Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's yacht several times.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3514484/Wendi-Deng-takes-break-St-Barts-billionaire-friend-Roman-Abramovich-s-yacht-three-weeks-ex-husband-Rupert-Murdoch-tied-knot-Jerry-Hall.html

Wendi Deng introduced Ivanka Trump to Dasha Zhoukova, then wife of Roman Abramovich.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner met at a business lucheon led by Abramovich associate Lev Leviev. At the time, Lev Leviev was hosting the bris for the grandson of Tamir Sapir, who's daughter Zina Sapir married Lev Leviev's Africa-Israel US CEO Roten Rosen. Trump, just months priors, hosted Zina Sapir and Roten Rosem's wedding at Mar-a-Lago.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2008/05/highprofile_bris_on_sunday_you.html

The Sapir Organization, in conjunction with Bayrock and the Trump Organization, put together the scandal-ridden Trump SoHo and were working together to replicate that with a Trump Tower Moscow.

https://therealdeal.com/2013/11/12/the-donald-sapir-execs-mull-bringing-trump-soho-to-moscow/

In 2000, Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska, along with others, made a deal that ended the "Aluminum wars" and turned the industry into a near monopoly.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/jul/06/russia.football

Oleg Deripaska and Alisher Usmanov have been business ties together.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/whats-a-nice-russian-oligarch-like-you-doing-in-a-steelworks-like-this-65258.html

Couldn't you have just posted a link to Reddit?

  On 3/20/2018 at 8:46 PM, tec said:

Couldn't you have just posted a link to Reddit?

yes.  but i didn't.

edit: here's the link

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/85p30j/deletefacebook_movement_gains_steam_after_50/dvz4y6o/

flol

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-defends-trumps-congratulations-putin-192241212.html

  Quote

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday defended President Trump’s decision to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on winning reelection, saying that Washington has no business criticizing the way other countries pick their leaders and wants a more constructive relationship with Moscow.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/former-playboy-model-karen-mcdougal-sues-break-silence-180236071.html

  Quote

Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald Trump, is taking a page straight out of the Stormy Daniels playbook.

According to a The New York Times report, McDougal filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to get out of her 2016 non-disclosure agreement, becoming the second woman in two weeks to filed a lawsuit accusing the president or his allies of trying to bury news about a Trump extramarital affair.

 

  On 3/20/2018 at 10:05 PM, ignatius said:

 

  On 3/20/2018 at 8:46 PM, tec said:

Couldn't you have just posted a link to Reddit?

 

yes. but i didn't.

 

edit: here's the link

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/85p30j/deletefacebook_movement_gains_steam_after_50/dvz4y6o/

 

this Cambridge Analytica thing is a big ol mess, we should have a separate thread about it. Zuckerberg to appear before British Parliament. I've never had a better reason to quit Facebook.

I deactivated my FB (again) about a week ago. Most people on my friends list forgot I exist anyway.

It's nothing but a promotional tool and event calendar for me.

I follow updates from pages and chat with friends. pondering how to do that shit otherwise.

I have some very useful groups on facebook that bring together people from all over the world on certain topics. I guess a return to newsgroups?