Well, I see this from a couple of perspectives. First, Trump’s biggest flaw is that he seems to say whatever pops into his mind. When discussing matters with details relating to opsec, it is very important to chose your words very carefully. Every time Trump speaks, there is potential for disaster.
But I also understand military language and syntax. Gen. McMaster said that no sources or methods were discussed. That would also include the locations of intelligence assets, or even hints about their identity or location. I take Gen. McMaster on his word. He started his remarks with the statement that “The story that came out tonight as reported is false”. That is pretty all encompassing.
Trump’s stream of consciousness speaking style is a problem, and will likely become a worse problem as time passes. Another big problem is that there are apparently people in the White House with high level access who are willing to pass classified information to the press in order to discredit the current administration. Bear in mind that there are set procedures for reporting opsec handling violations. Those procedures do not involve calling the WaPo. Just doing that is a very serious violation in itself. I worry that a person willing to risk prosecution under the Espionage Act in their attempts to bring down the administration would also be willing to perjure themselves to achieve the same goal.
Libtards get excited, trumptards get upset, nothing happens, and we the people continue to fall down the hole. Between the firing, the “botched” photo op, the spies, Turkey coming over for dinner, and now the classified information… Tell me this whole thing isn’t just a reality TV show designed to fuck us all over.
Learn how fake news and false flag murders keeps a mobster in power in Russia:
Guys, this IS fake news. The Washington Post is just dumping on Trump, blowing hard about something that is clearly inconsequential because they are eager to “get” him over his meeting with some Russians.
Can someone who is so upset about this explain exactly what the big fucking deal is?
First, the President cannot “leak” classified info. He can declassify information by speaking about it, but a “leak” implies unauthorized disclosure. By definition, this is impossible for Trump to do.
Second, the information spoken about seems relatively innocuous (a threat of a laptop bomb by some ISIS people). This is already a well-known story - we all were told you couldn’t fly out with a laptop from specific cities a few months back. No one is alleging Trump gave up whatever intelligence sources produced this info - I doubt he even has any idea what the source is. This is not Scooter Libby outing Valerie Plame. The idea that the Qataris etc. will fall out with the US over this is absurd.
Finally, who gives a shit if he tells the Russians that ISIS is threatening to use some laptop bombs? Are the Russians going to use this damaging information to screw over the US somehow? If so, how?
There is heat but no light here. if you are taken in by this, if you really view the Washington Post’s nothing story as a “bombshell”, in my opinion you really ought to reconsider your reasoning process; are you reacting because of genuine concern, or simply because you were told to react in this way?
“Libtards” and “trumptards” are We The People, too. But nice attempt at distraction, there.
If you don’t understand what the big deal is about the President deciding spontaneously to declassify information in a private meeting with a known Russian spy, then there’s something quite wrong with you.
This all underscores the need to have an independent investigation. The media can only carry society so far where it comes to accountability and justice - their sources can’t testify under oath about what has and hasn’t been said without fear of penalty.
Another thing - does anyone else find it weird that the media cover how other media are covering a story? Both sides do this, but I’m not sure how to feel about it. On the one hand it says something about how different parts of society view a news story, which is newsworthy in itself. On the other it also reeks of a proxy war between political parties - Republicans and Democrats alike getting news agencies to do their dirty work. Maybe the demand for content makes these media vs. media sort of stories inevitable.
That’s exactly the point. Both sides are very convicted and feel they are righteous, but what we fail to realize is that this division is very much intended so collectively we fail.
These politicians are not stupid, ignorant, or careless, they are manipulative and firmly in control.
It strikes me that it shouldn’t matter whether you’re far-left-wing to think that this is an inappropriate action for a President to take. Any American should question this sort of activity. But if you want to keep dividing people into categories that end with -tard, that’s your choice.
That the White House was careful to deny only the bits that no one was asserting to be true was a pretty big giveaway. That they didn’t even try to deny the calls to the CIA/NSA and redaction of memos seems like good confirmation.
I don’t think anyone is setting up the press - the White House is leaking like a sieve because of the contempt and horror so many people there - and in the intelligence community - feel for Trump.
I think the analogy covers the meeting itself (and that the person accused of being one of the people in the metaphorical affair was there and no one mentioned it). The accusation is that what happened during the meeting, was (metaphorically) a list of certain sex acts that (non-metaphorically) violated the trust of partners. The White House denial was to strenuously deny that a completely different and specific list of sex acts took place. The White House also admits that the parties involved all took showers afterwards and came home wearing a different set of clothes, but will provide no explanation. Metaphorically. (But possibly actually as well.)
That the White House, moreover, completely failed to mention was going to be there. We only know because of the Russian photographs of the event…
Except that what he specifically refuted wasn’t even in the articles. Which, best case scenario, indicates he didn’t actually know what was in the news reports - he may have been misinformed by White House aides (which is something they do). Worst case scenario, he allowed himself to be compromised by Trump. It seems impossible to avoid one of those scenarios because all the actual hard evidence here indicates that everything went down exactly as the press reports indicate.
That’s a big deal but it’s not the big fucking deal. Leaving aside that the president accidentally let slip (he didn’t actually declassify it, even though he could) highly sensitive classified information as part of a brag, the big issue is that it ultimately wasn’t his information to do that with. This information was provided by an allied government under the understanding that it would not be shared even with close allies and would be compartmentalized within the US government itself. That is, people with security clearance within the US government couldn’t see it, but the president gave it to a spy of a hostile country. Media reports are not giving away the information because they, unlike the president, have a sense of the sensitivity of the information. Trump disclosed details of an intelligence operation that could provide enough information to unmask the source(s) and imperil their lives. No one will ever share information with the US again as a result of this.
His boss (as he did with Rosenstein Spicer, Pence, and really everyone) completely negated General McMaster’s statement.
WaPo said: Trump gave classified info from another country to Russians.
McMaster said that’s false
Trump said he did give information but that it was his absolute right, thus providing tacit confirmation that the post story was correct and quibbling over the “detail” of whether he _should_have.
Are you comfortable with your Commander in Chief turning the honorable General into a liar? I am not.
Additional blowback may come from our allies: Why should they bother to share secrets with the US when Trump can’t keep his mouth shut, and – if they decide not to share secrets with us – how would that affect our ability to counter US threats?
My point is that sharing a cup of coffee with another adult regardless of gender is perfectly fine. Sharing a cup with someone who there is a lot of suspicion regarding the two of you being up to some hanky panky just fuels that fire.
Not that 45 cares what we think. He’s gonna do what he do regardless.
Well, right, I got that. I was just saying that the analogy perfectly covers the meeting itself, where one party even lied about the presence of the specific person with whom there was suspicion of an affair. But there’s another analogy to be made - that, once in this compromising position (that fuels the fire), they’re accused of - metaphorically - having sex and then, when confronted, are denying they performed specific sex acts (when the accusations involved a different set of acts). Although I recognize that the two analogies don’t really work together because although Trump’s willingness to inappropriately share information indicates a certain level of coziness, it doesn’t confirm the previously suspected affair (merely that Trump is a fucking moron who likes to brag), this is a whole different kind of fucked (up) situation. Where, ultimately the American people are the ones getting fucked. No, wait, that’s a third analogy…
