What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[CountDeMoney]

Would've been hilarious to see an ICE tactical team execute a felony apprehension when Max was in the middle of lecturing a smoker on campus.

[jimmy olsen]

Are you fucking kidding me?

EDIT: I think the incompetence of it all offends me even more than the whiff of treason. Christ, these folks make Aaron Burr look like James Bond.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-says-flynn-met-kislyak-at-trump-tower-in-december

WH Now Says Flynn Had Meeting With Russian Ambassador At Trump Tower

By Catherine ThompsonPublishedMarch 2, 2017, 4:52 PM EDT

The phone calls with the Russian ambassador that led to Michael Flynn's ouster as national security adviser were an afterthought Thursday as Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped in front of TV cameras and addressed revelations that he had met twice with that envoy during the campaign.

So it was a good moment for the White House to confirm to the New York Times that, in addition to those calls, Flynn met with ambassador Sergey Kislyak for about 20 minutes at Trump Tower in December.

Spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the Times that Flynn, in addition to President Trump's advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with Kislyak to build a relationship and "establish a line of communication."

Flynn resigned last month and apologized for not informing the President and Vice President Mike Pence about the substance of the calls he had with Kislyak before inauguration. Reports that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with the envoy contradicted statements from Flynn and the White House denying he had done so.

[jimmy olsen]

At what point are we going to realize that there's a trend here?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/02/exclusive-two-other-trump-advisers-also-spoke-russian-envoy-during-gop-convention/98648190/

Exclusive: Two other Trump advisers also spoke with Russian envoy during GOP convention

Steve Reilly  , USA TODAY

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not the only member of President Trump's campaign who spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a diplomacy conference connected to the Republican National Convention in July. At least two more members of the Trump campaign's national security officials also spoke with Kislyak at the event, and several more Trump national security advisers were in attendance.

It's unknown what the Trump campaign officials who spoke with the ambassador – J.D. Gordon and Carter Page – discussed with him. Those who took part in the events in Cleveland said it is not unusual for presidential campaign teams to interact with diplomats.

However, the newly-revealed communications further contradict months of repeated denials by Trump officials that his campaign had contact with officials representing the Russian government.

The Justice Department's acknowledgement Wednesday that Sessions spoke with Kislyak twice in 2016 has led to calls for him to recuse himself from investigations into the Trump team's contact with Russia. By Thursday afternoon, Sessions said he would recuse himself.

Multiple attendees at the Global Partners in Diplomacy event in Cleveland said the contacts between diplomats and political officials are not unusual. The program schedule and social media photographs shows ambassadors from dozens of countries attended, alongside many of the original national security advisors to Trump's campaign.

Gordon, who managed the advisory committee as the Trump campaign's director of national security, said that while he also spoke with Kislyak in Cleveland, it is not unusual for a presidential campaign to interact with diplomats.

"I'd consider it an informal conversation just like my interactions with dozens of other ambassadors and senior diplomats in Cleveland," Gordon said.

Page, another member of the Trump campaign's national security advisory committee who also spoke with Kislyak in Cleveland, cited "confidentiality rules" in declining to say what he discussed with the ambassador.

"I had no substantive discussions with him," said Page, who left the campaign later in the summer amid controversy over a speech he gave in Moscow in early July criticizing American foreign policy and sanctions against Russia.

Hossein Khorram, an RNC delegate from Washington State who wasn't part of Trump's campaign, attended the diplomacy event and said it provided a forum for diplomats to share their concerns with GOP officials. After formal panel discussions, the attendees broke off into informal conversations.

"Basically the ambassadors — including the Russian ambassador — they were expressing their, mainly, fears about the war on terror and collaborating with the United States," he said. "There was no promises made on behalf of the Trump administration."

Sessions, Gordon, and Trump campaign national security advisory committee member Walid Phares all spoke on stage at the Global Partners in Diplomacy program on July 20 in an auditorium at Case Western Reserve University, according to the program schedule and pictures posted on social media. Current Deputy National Security Advisor KT McFarland was also present at the day's sessions.

Phares did not respond to email and phone requests for comment. Another member of the national security advisory committee who was at the Cleveland event, Joseph Schmitz, referred questions about his interactions with Russian officials to Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks.

Hicks has categorically denied any communication between the campaign and the Russian government. "The campaign had no contact with Russian officials," she said in November.

The contacts came at a time when the U.S. intelligence community has concluded the Russia government was trying to influence the presidential election. The Democratic National Committee's computers had been hacked weeks before – in an intrusion U.S. investigators have said was orchestrated by the Russian intelligence services – and the first batch of emails from that hack were published by Wikileaks on July 22.

Since then, Russia's alleged interference in the election and contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials have been at the center of ongoing investigations by multiple federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies and by the House and Senate intelligence committees.

In February, Michael Flynn resigned as Trump's national security advisor following revelations of his failure to provide complete information to administration officials about his contacts with Kislyak in December 2016. Flynn had originally said he didn't talk with the ambassador about sanctions, but later revealed that he had.

The White House on Thursday did not answer questions from USA TODAY regarding the nature of the conversations between campaign officials and Kislyak, whether there were other contacts between the campaign and Russian government, and why statements have been made denying contacts.

"This was a widely attended 4-day event with dozens of ambassadors and hundreds of attendees," the White House said in a written statement from its communications office. "No interaction was substantive, and to insinuate otherwise is deeply dishonest."

Although an event similar to Global Partners in Diplomacy was held at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, it is not clear Kislyak attended that program or spoke with Clinton campaign officials. The Russian Embassy did not respond to questions on Thursday about his attendance at the RNC and DNC events.

Jerry Hartz, spokesman for the National Democratic Institute, which organized the DNC event, said the group could not release the list of attendees due to security concerns, but could find no indication Kislyak attended. "No one remembers seeing him there," Hartz said.

[viper37]

it's true. she knew it was going to expire, and she could have saved. hell, she could have couch surfed and worked three jobs starting in november and saved that much. eat rice and beans, etc. this wasn't saving for retirement, this was saving for her staying in the country she apparently wanted to continue residing in.

she didn't do that, and if she stops blaming other people, she may very well regret her fuckup for the rest of her life.

I'll have to agree with Lacroix and Derspiess here.  She knew it was coming, she had time to raise the cash.

That the fee is too high is another matter entirely.

That the policy to immediatly and forcefully deport such people as if they were the reincarnation of Pablo Escobar living in the US though, is a policy I strongly disagree with for any civilized country.

[grumbler]

The unnecessary lies by the Trump campaign and administration over contacts with the Russians are starting to get unnerving.  They know the truth will come out, so why not be up-front about the contacts?  There isn't anything nefarious about seeing and listening to foreign diplomats.  If there isn't anything to hide, why are they acting as though there is?  Just lay out all the contacts openly, and be done with it.

Never turn a one-day story into a multi-day story.  Fuck!  This is like Clinton with her emails.

[viper37]

At what point are we going to realize that there's a trend here?

Depends.  If it's Democrats, one is a trend.  For Republicans, nothing short of 100 000 000 is a trend.

[viper37]

The unnecessary lies by the Trump campaign and administration over contacts with the Russians are starting to get unnerving.

Only for Republican supporters.  Others are long past "starting".

[jimmy olsen]

I'm sure Fox News will clamor to lock him up! 

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/02/pence-used-personal-email-state-business----and-hacked/98604904/

Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked

Tony Cook  , [email protected] 

Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues.

Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor's residence to the state's response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence's top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges.

Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given that personal accounts like Pence's are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence's personal account was hacked last summer.

Furthermore, advocates for open government expressed concerns about transparency because personal emails aren't immediately captured on state servers that are searched in response to public records requests.

Pence's office in Washington said in a written statement Thursday: "Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account. As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana's Access to Public Records Act."

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's office released 29 pages of emails from Pence's AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of others because the state considers them confidential and too sensitive to release to the public.

RELATED: Mike Pence asks Indiana Supreme Court to stay out of his redacted emails

That's of particular concern to Justin Cappos, a computer security professor at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. "It's one thing to have an AOL account and use it to send birthday cards to grandkids," he said. "But it's another thing to use it to send and receive messages that are sensitive and could negatively impact people if that information is public."

Indiana law does not prohibit public officials from using personal email accounts, although the law is generally interpreted to mean that official business conducted on private email must be retained for public record purposes.

Pence's office said his campaign hired outside counsel as he was departing as governor to review his AOL emails and transfer any involving public business to the state.

Concerns also surrounded Hillary Clinton's use of a private server and email account during her tenure as secretary of state. Pence as governor would not have dealt with national security issues as sensitive or as broad as those handled by Clinton in her position or with classified matters.

Pence fiercely criticized Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, accusing her of trying to keep her emails out of public reach and exposing classified information to potential hackers.

Pence spokesman Marc Lotter called any comparisons between Pence and Clinton "absurd," noting that Pence didn't deal with federally classified information as governor. While Pence used a well-known consumer email provider, Clinton had a private server installed in her home, he said.

Cybersecurity experts say Pence's emails were likely just as insecure as Clinton's. While there has been speculation about whether Clinton's emails were hacked, Pence's account was actually compromised last summer by a scammer who sent an email to his contacts claiming Pence and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and in urgent need of money.

Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at computer security company WatchGuard Technologies, said the email accounts of Pence and Clinton were probably about equally vulnerable to attacks.

"In this case, you know the email address has been hacked," he said. "It would be hypocritical to consider this issue any different than a private email server."

He and other experts say personal accounts such as the one Pence used are typically less secure than government email accounts, which often receive additional layers of monitoring and security, and are linked to servers under government control.

Indiana law requires all records dealing with state business to be retained and available for public information requests. Emails exchanged on state accounts are captured on state servers, which can be searched in response to such requests. But any emails Pence sent from his AOL account to another private account likely would have been hidden from public record searches unless he took steps to make them available.

Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt, who was appointed by Pence in 2013, said he advises state officials to copy or forward their emails involving state business to their government accounts to ensure the record is preserved on state servers.

But there is no indication that Pence took any such steps to preserve his AOL emails until he was leaving the governor's office.


When public officials fail to retain their private-account emails pertaining to public business, "they're running the risk of violating the law," Britt said. "A good steward of those messages and best practice is going to dictate they preserve those."

All of the emails provided to IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, were ones captured on state servers.

The emails were obtained after a series of public records requests that the Pence administration did not fulfill for nearly four months before Pence left office.

The administration of Pence's successor, Gov. Eric Holcomb, released 29 pages of emails late this past week. But it withheld others, saying they are deliberative or advisory, confidential under rules adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court or the work product of an attorney.

Holcomb's office declined to disclose how many emails were withheld.

Cyber-security experts and government transparency advocates said Pence's use of a personal email account for matters of state business — including confidential ones — is surprising given his attacks on Clinton's exclusive use of a private email server.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" in September, for example, Pence called Clinton "the most dishonest candidate for president of the United States since Richard Nixon."

"What's evident from all of the revelations over the last several weeks is that Hillary Clinton operated in such a way to keep her emails, and particularly her interactions while Secretary of State with the Clinton Foundation, out of the public reach, out of public accountability," Pence said. "And with regard to classified information she either knew or should have known that she was placing classified information in a way that exposed it to being hacked and being made available in the public domain even to enemies of this country."

The experts told IndyStar that similar arguments about a lack of transparency could be made about Pence's use of a personal email account.

"There is an issue of double standard here," said Gerry Lanosga, a professor at Indiana University and past president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. "He has been far from forthcoming about his own private email account on which it's clear he has conducted state business. So there is a disconnect there that cannot be avoided."

Security concerns

As governor, Pence oversaw Indiana's state police, national guard and department of homeland security, all of which collaborate with federal authorities and handle sensitive information.

The emails provided to IndyStar show that Pence corresponded with his then-chief of staff, Jim Atterholt, and his top public safety and homeland security adviser John Hill, on subjects including Pence's efforts to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees and the state's response to a shooting at Canada's national parliament building.

"I just received an update from the FBI regarding the individuals arrested for support of ISIS," Hill wrote to Pence in a Jan. 8, 2016 email with the subject, "Arrests of Refugees."

At that time, the Pence administration was embroiled in a lawsuit over the governor's effort to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana.

Hill went on to explain how many people were arrested, on what charges and in which cities before adding in underlined type: "Both of the earlier referenced refugees are reported now as 'Iraqi' — not Syrian."

Much if not all of that information appears to have been reported in the media at the time. But questions remain about the more sensitive information contained in Pence's AOL account that the Holcomb administration declined to release.

Experts say there have been high-profile security lapses involving AOL email accounts in the past. The company reported a major breach of its email in 2014 affecting hundreds of thousands of users. The following year, messages hackers obtained from then-CIA Director John Brennan's personal AOL account were posted on WikiLeaks.

Pence's own account was compromised in June when a hacker sent a counterfeit email to his contacts claiming Pence he and his wife had been attacked on their way back to their hotel in the Philippines, losing their money, bank cards and mobile phone.

In response, Pence sent an email to those who had received the fake communication apologizing for any inconvenience. He also set up a new AOL account.

Because the hacker appears to have gained access to Pence's contacts, experts say it is likely that the account was actually penetrated, giving the hacker access to Pence's inbox and sent messages.

The nature of that hack suggests it was part of a broad, impersonal attack — not one carefully crafted to target Pence in particular, Cappos said.

"It's particularly concerning that someone who didn't do a very particular, very specific attack was able to hack this account," he said.

That's especially true given that at least some of the emails Pence sent or received have been deemed confidential or exempt from public disclosure.

"The fact that these emails are stored in a private AOL account is crazy to me," Cappos said. "This account was used to handle these messages that are so sensitive they can't be turned over in a records request."

As governor, Pence was less likely than the U.S. secretary of state to encounter national security secrets, said Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But much of the rationale behind the criticism of Clinton's emails would apply to Pence, too, he said.

"A large part of the criticism of (Hillary Clinton's) personal server by the GOP — that it was unsafe or that it was to circumvent oversight — would be misplaced if Pence was using an AOL account," he said. "The Secretary of State would be in possession of secrets that had more of a national impact, but at a lower level, a private email account has the same implications."

Transparency issues

In addition to security issues, Pence's personal email account also raises new concerns about transparency, according to ethics experts and government accountability advocates.

Pence is already fighting in state court to conceal the contents of emails involving his decision to join a 2014 lawsuit challenging then-President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration. The emails are being sought by William Groth, a Democrat and labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration.


Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, said it's bothersome that Pence is only now transferring his AOL emails to the state. It raises questions about whether those emails were included in previous responses to public records requests. "That's a problem that should have been dealt with back then," he said. "The existence of the private email account should have been dealt with at the time the record requests were made."

The use of personal email accounts by public officials — including governors — is nothing new. But the increased risk that hackers, including foreign actors, could break into the account of someone as high-ranking as the vice president of the United States is disconcerting, Painter said.

"Clinton did it. The Bush White House was doing it. It's nothing new. But it's a bad idea," he said, noting that Pence's account was vulnerable to a low-level hacker.  "If they can get in there, ex-KGB agents can get in there. It's a bad idea because of the hacking thing and the potential destruction of records."

Lanosga of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government said it's a problem that seems to cross party lines.

"Officials are eager to point the finger at a lack of transparency when it happens on the other side," he said, "but they dodge those issues when it comes to their own side."

Reporter Maureen Groppe contributed to this story.

[Neil]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

[Ed Anger]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

He's turned into a fruit.

[Neil]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

He's turned into a fruit.

Like all the way gay?

[Ed Anger]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

He's turned into a fruit.

Like all the way gay?

As he said in the steak thread, he likes the cock.

[merithyn]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

He's turned into a fruit.

Like all the way gay?

Neil!!!!!

And no, apparently he's getting married to a very pretty young lady.

[merithyn]

I'll have to agree with Lacroix and Derspiess here.  She knew it was coming, she had time to raise the cash.

That the fee is too high is another matter entirely.

That fee isn't including her lawyers fees on top of it. Those usually run around $1000-$1500 per paper filing.

That the policy to immediatly and forcefully deport such people as if they were the reincarnation of Pablo Escobar living in the US though, is a policy I strongly disagree with for any civilized country.

[jimmy olsen]

What's going on with Tim?  Isn't he traditionally the sort of hardcore jingo that would fall for Trump hook, line and sinker?

I have always been strongly for civil liberties. Economically I have moved quite leftward over the years. Foreign policy has stayed the same.