Not enough Whisky for this Tango Foxtrot

[RoseMorninStar]

Inanna, Ok.. gotcha. Some things do not transfer well to messageboard/text. My 'oh... OH... ' response wasn't so much in regards specifically to Ted Cruz or Lindsay Graham.. but more to a recent pattern of odd obsequiousness and overtly fawning behavior in general. The type of stuff one might expect from a High School Queen Bee & her minions, not grown adults supposedly running our country.

[Frelga]

Fox News (from New York Post)
Ronan Farrow claims National Enquirer attempted to blackmail him

AMI — which is run by David Pecker, a longtime pal of President Trump — has admitted to buying the rights to potentially embarrassing stories about the commander-in-chief in an effort to keep them from seeing the light of day.

In an April 2018 piece for The New Yorker, Farrow detailed the relationship between Pecker and Trump and said the magazine bought and buried stories to help his 2016 presidential campaign.

[River]

So I was just out grocery shopping and I peeked at the NE headline because that's a guilty pleasure of mine. Today's cover was Lisa Marie Presley's drug den (exclusive photos!) and the dark, dirty secrets of the filthy rich. Mark Cuban and Mark Zuckerberg were visible in the portion of the cover I could see. So either these guys didn't pay up or weren't given a choice.

[RoseMorninStar]

AMI's behavior goes beyond traditional straightforward tabloid 'journalism' gossip operations (printing scandal to profit directly from the sale of their trashy papers). It is especially insidious due to the attack on freedom of speech, in this case, free political speech, against those in power. Why would a supermarket tabloid want to suppress free political speech rather than say, extort for financial gain? To silence and censure. To what end? For whom? Why? It raises questions that they are being paid to operate as a go-between. A hired gun, leaning toward the definition of 'State-run media' and propaganda.


Trump has a special relationship with FOX news. He speaks to the likes of Sean Hannity on a regular basis. They appear at his rallies as special guests/co-hosts. People would have gone bonkers had Obama, or Clinton, etc.. had such influence and control over a major news source. And they would be right to be concerned. It's inappropriate. Trump has total disregard for norms and laws and we should recognize that this is NOT normal and acceptable behavior. The blurring of such lines should concern us all. It's not a precedent that should be ignored.

[Faramond]

So you walked into the WTF thread and expected what, exactly?

I'm still giggling over the NY Post headline: "Bezos Exposes Pecker". It's just multiple levels of perfect.

I expect posters on this board to not credit insane conspiracy theories, no matter the thread.

I hope to see thoughtful discussion, not this salacious garbage.

[Frelga]

It's only salacious garbage if you focus on Bezos' pecker and not Pecker's using blackmail to suppress stories important to the public.

This is too serious for the WTF thread, but since it dovetails with the Bezos story, I'm going to leave it here.

Reuters
Exclusive: UAE used cyber super-weapon to spy on iPhones of foes

A team of former U.S. government intelligence operatives working for the United Arab Emirates hacked into the iPhones of activists, diplomats and rival foreign leaders with the help of a sophisticated spying tool called Karma, in a campaign that shows how potent cyber-weapons are proliferating beyond the world’s superpowers and into the hands of smaller nations.
...

The ex-Raven operatives described Karma as a tool that could remotely grant access to iPhones simply by uploading phone numbers or email accounts into an automated targeting system. The tool has limits — it doesn’t work on Android devices and doesn’t intercept phone calls. But it was unusually potent because, unlike many exploits, Karma did not require a target to click on a link sent to an iPhone, they said.

In 2016 and 2017, Karma was used to obtain photos, emails, text messages and location information from targets’ iPhones. The technique also helped the hackers harvest saved passwords, which could be used for other intrusions.

[yovargas]

Wow, that's terrifying!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Every time I think things could not get more bizarre, they get more bizarre.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/politics ... index.html

President Donald Trump triggered rampant confusion among his own aides and administration officials when he said Friday he is withdrawing new sanctions aimed at North Korea that were just issued by his own administration.

"It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!" Trump tweeted on Friday.

Trump's announcement amounted to a startling rebuke of policy action announced by his own government, once again calling attention to the unconventional and undisciplined policy process that has often defined the Trump administration. The White House declined to give details on the sudden policy shift, but said Trump was pulling back newly-issued sanctions because he "likes" North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un.

[Dave_LF]

I keep saying this to general disagreement, but I seriously believe the man is suffering from some sort of dementia or other mental illness.

[RoseMorninStar]

Clinical diagnoses must fit clear-cut diagnostic criteria. He's just blanking nuts.
I'm no psychologist but I'd classify it as narcissism. His behavior is not a recent development, he's always been like this. Self-centered. Volatile.

He has deep-seated issues. . He craves veneration/validation (that is why he is so easily swayed by flattery). And, just like Jared & Ivanka, they are above the laws and conventions of the common person. He does not see the nation as something separate from himself -- that he is an administrator for or servant of. But there are those who just can't see it. I don't understand why. If Clinton or Obama had done the same things they would no longer be in office. I just don't get it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, in the "I could see this coming a million miles away" department:

Attorney Michael Avenatti arrested, charged with trying to extort Nike

Not that I knew that Avenatti was allegedly trying to extort Nike, but just that something like this was inevitable.

[elengil]

Ha, I was just browsing this forum looking for a good thread to post this very article in. Glad I checked this one

also:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yeah, we could have started a separate one, but honestly, is he worth it?

[River]

No. Let's just keep him in the WTF thread. He belongs in the WTF thread.

[RoseMorninStar]

I'm just (very) glad he will not be running for President.

[Frelga]

No. Let's just keep him in the WTF thread. He belongs in the WTF thread.

Yeah, but so do the entirety of the last two years.

[RoseMorninStar]

Help indeed.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

You can't make this stuff up.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... 22984/amp/

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[RoseMorninStar]

A Pharma exec runs the Department of Health & Human Services,
A Coal lobbyist runs the Environmental Protection Agency
An Oil Lobbyist runs the Department of the Interior
A Goldman Sachs exec runs the Treasury
A Billionaire Heiress of Amway runs the Education Department (something she has no expertise/experience in)
A private equity bigwig runs Commerce
I could go on.

Are we draining the swamp yet? None of these people likely have the best interests of the American people at the forefront.

[Frelga]

‘Bigfoot Erotica’ Becomes an Issue in Virginia Congressional Campaign

Leslie Cockburn, a Democratic congressional nominee in Virginia, accused her Republican opponent, Denver Riggleman, on Sunday of campaigning with white supremacists and being the author of Bigfoot-themed erotica.

Predictably, it's the Bigfoot part that Riggleman chose to focus on.