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[Reelya]

I don't know if I should really read into these numbers, because as current polls indicate, Trump has almost 90% support among Republicans (higher than Reagan had right after his inauguration).

Oh wait, that's an article from September 2015. Yeah, it's already outdated at this point. Nearly all Republicans are now Trump supporters.

Yeah its from 2015, but the above is the type of people that pushed him towards the nomination. Less educated and older Republicans.

Once it was in the general election, you can't glean so much information from it. A lot of people will just vote on "party lines" regardless of candidates.

[Sergarr]

It's a bit irrelevant at this point to care about what type of Republicans was pro-Trump from the beginning, and what only joined after he won. They're all Trump's mind-slaves at this point.

[wierd]

This latter feature is the consequence of there not being a "valid" middle ground for there to be dissent from.

Instead of a vastly unpopular despot, we have an "US vs THEM!" supported demagogue.

That is kinda the main thrust behind my prior scathing screed about why we deserve him.

[Reelya]

http://www.traveller.com.au/trump-slump-us-tourism-industry-down-us185-million-since-trump-took-office-gued8k

Knew this had to be coming, here are the figures.

President Trump has cost the US travel industry around $US185 million in lost revenue, according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
...
Although there has been a recovery since the ban was lifted, Hopper claims searches for flights to the US at the time of writing remain 10 per cent lower than they were in the final fortnight of the Obama administration. During the same period last year, demand dipped by just 1.8 per cent, suggesting the change is not simply a seasonal effect.
...
While most of the world seems less interested in travelling to Trump's America, according to Hopper there is one notable exception. In Russia, searches for US-bound flights have increased by a whopping 88 per cent.

[Max™]

At various points in the past I've somewhat seriously, mostly jokingly suggested that twitter would be the downfall of modern society.

I did not foresee a situation where I am become the worst Cassandra, as not even I believed in my prophetic abilities, yet this is the world I wake to find?

WOE AND LAMENTATION AND GENERAL GNASHING OF TEETH _{OR PERHAPS KEYBOARDS CANST THOU EVEN GNASH A TOUCHSCREEN KEYBOARD}

[Frumple]

You can, but it's rather painful and the touchpad tends not to work all that well by the time you're done.

[PTTG??]

...(And NO, it really *IS* both sides on that.) One side shouts about how 15 genders is too few-- while the other regales us it how horrible it is that a penis can go into an anus, and how it makes baby jesus cry...

We've been over this already. The VP has actively used electrical torture on gay people. A few annoying teenagers with no political power does not compare. SJWs don't perpetuate abortion clinic attacks, but conservatives do. This false equivalence is why we're in this mess to begin with.

[palsch]

An extensive profile in Flynn in the New Yorker, charting his career rise and fall. Some juicy stuff about the current administration mixed in. Well worth a read if you have the time.

The NYT has a story about Mar-a-Lago and the access it offers for members to Trump at the same time as a tape from November has leaked, seeming to include inviting members to interviews for cabinet positions.

Another NYT article on Trump's staffing problems with a focus on the loyalty tests they are applying and the dysfunction within those who have started working there. They do mention a specific example of a failed background check as well.

A rumour that the nominee for Secretary of the Navy was going to withdraw has been denied by Sean Spicer. For what any of that is worth. There is also a counter-rumour that Petraeus hasn't actually withdrawn his candidacy for APNSA, but instead just stated his terms for taking the job, including control over his staff. Elsewhere there are reports that Trump's team consider these unacceptable and have removed him from consideration themselves.

[redwallzyl]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/us/politics/trump-program-eliminations-white-house-budget-office.html?_r=0

i fucking hate this shit. they have absolutely no conception of what being proactive, making investments and promoting public good is. they are just entrenched in their idiotic kill the government platform no matter the cost.

[palsch]

Report on the FBI investigations into Russian interference. The big part;

Beyond the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts, two of the people said.

This counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.

Reuters could not confirm which entities and individuals were under scrutiny.
...
The people who spoke to Reuters also corroborated a Tuesday New York Times report that Americans with ties to Trump or his campaign had repeated contacts with current and former Russian intelligence officers before the November election. Those alleged contacts are among the topics of the FBI counterintelligence investigation.

The rest is ongoing investigations into who carried out the hacks.

Late edit: For some context, the Senate Intelligence Committee had a briefing from the FBI director yesterday and were said to be in a very quiet but bipartisan mood when they came out.

[misko27]

Politico leak: Donald Trump talking to Mar-a-lago club members about staff appointments.

Trump often appears to want to include his friends in the decision-making process.

Turning to a longtime club member that night, he said: “We were just talking about who we [are] going to pick for the FCC, who [are] we going to pick for this, who we gonna accept -- boy, can you give me some recommendations?”

"Pay-to-play" indeed.

...(And NO, it really *IS* both sides on that.) One side shouts about how 15 genders is too few-- while the other regales us it how horrible it is that a penis can go into an anus, and how it makes baby jesus cry...

We've been over this already. The VP has actively used electrical torture on gay people. A few annoying teenagers with no political power does not compare. SJWs don't perpetuate abortion clinic attacks, but conservatives do. This false equivalence is why we're in this mess to begin with.

PTTG's right. This isn't a slapfight on the internet where the only stakes in play are feelings. One side is in the White House, with direct and unfiltered access to the President.

I mean for fuck's sake Infowars and Breitbart now are the establishment. They set the tone, and the rest of the world listens. I strongly suggest actually going over to read some of the common conspiracy spots like infowars, alex jones, and /r/conspiracy and such; you'd think they'd have been taken over by the government, they are so pro-establishment! You must not read these people ranting and allow your common sense to assure you that these people are the brethren of the other crazies and deserve to be treated as marginal. Trump appeared on Alex Jones. Said he loved the show. Alex Jones now has the ear of the most powerful man in the free world. Seriously comparing these people to SJWs is not the mark of serious analysis at this point. Maybe, intellectually, tumblr folks are the natural opposites of the alt-right, but from the perspective of power and influence it's not even worth making a comparison anymore.

[palsch]

Not to mention Milo is now going to give the keynote at CPAC, higher on the billing than the Vice President. That's mean to be defining American conservatism. Milo just stands for pissing liberals off. Which does seem to be the direction many 'conservatives' are going...

Check the NYT article I posted with that leak above and there is even more on how he is using his club to sell access.


An NSC aide has been fired for publicly criticising Trump.
EDIT: The fired staffer sounds like a real winner...

“I was shocked to learn that Craig Deare is being considered for a key position on the National Security Council,” said Dennis Caffrey, a former dean at CHDS. “He has serious ethical and moral flaws.”

Among those, Caffrey said, was Deare’s loss of his security clearance after it was discovered that he’d falsified a U.S. Army performance report while assigned to the staff of then-Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who at the time was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Deare even used the office robo-pen to forge the senator’s signature.

[Huge list of seriously disturbing ties to Latin American human rights abuses...]

Deare’s personal problems also became an issue at CHDS, when his second wife showed up unannounced to complain that her husband was having a sexual relationship with a CHDS contractor directly in his chain of command. Caffrey recalled the affair as “a major embarrassment and public scandal.”

The National Security Council can do better.

Except probably not under Trump. Somehow all that stuff got him hired, but when he (unsurprisingly) shot off at the mouth he gets the sack.

[Starver]

Obama previews in 12^th place...  But only time will tell, naturally.

[palsch]

Obama previews in 12^th place...  But only time will tell, naturally.

A nice interactive way to explore the data. Some... interesting scores there.

[Starver]

A nice interactive way to explore the data. Some... interesting scores there.

Sucks to be Buchanan...