I'll do this one, you can do the next one.
Edit: Let me preface by observing that although we're allied with Turkey, they have become increasingly politically unstable in recent history, and such a state serves as a fine buffer through which to siphon resources. Perhaps too conspiratorial for some. I think there are a startlingly large number of people filtering one or both of these two tags. Although I understand, I don't agree. My loafers are fucking soapboxes, and I'm sorry about it, but my gut is turning over several times a day, lately. Please tell me that I'm wrong for feeling like the national stage is set for a train wreck of monumental proportions. Our footprint in the geopolitical minefield is growing by the day.
Chillax, young'un. Gather round while I tell the tell. - The archetypal presidential scandal is Watergate. This was a reaction to Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. It took from July '71 - "let's be illegal assholes" - to September '71- "Let's break into the DNC" to do illegal shit and a whole 'nuther year before they got caught (june '72). Bob Woodward had the trail 3 days later, thanks to a leak, and another 18 months (November '73) before "I am not a crook." Indictments were 5 months after that, subpoenas another month after that, and three more months before impeachment hearings. Soup to nuts, three years. - The next notable mess would be Iran Contra. March '85, Ollie North finds creative ways to fund the Contras. November '86, the Iranians leak it (pesky Persians). March '87, Reagan basically fesses up. Soup to nuts, two years. - I hate to say it, but Lewinsky. November '95, cigars and blue dresses. Fall '97, Linda Tripp starts recording her girl bestie. October '97, Tripp runs to Newsweek and Jonah Diaperbaby Goldberg. Jan '98, Monica gets deposed and Tripp goes to Ken Starr, because failed real estate dealings 20 years previously and presidential infidelity have everything to do with each other. Sting operation, Drudge report, then daily bullshit through the end of September. Soup to nuts, just this side of three years. Nixon was clever. Watergate was a dumb idea but the administration dragged shit out for years. Reagan was senile but he had clever folx working for him. Still, years. Lewinsky and her blue dress? Years. Mike Flynn was national security adviser for 24 DAYS. have you seen this? We keep thinking maybe Trump is somehow playing the long game or some shit but, as Gene Lyons pointed out, this is a man who went bankrupt running a casino. So you have to ask yourself: Are we seeing mind-blowing amounts of corruption because it's just the tip of the iceberg and these guys are literally Voldemort? Or are we seeing mind-blowing amounts of corruption because these Mayberry Machiavellis have no fucking idea how to hide the grift when every journalist on the planet suspects you of being shady? I mean - Put another way, you wanna watch Trump & Co play Warcraft?
I'd like to remind everyone also that "The American people deserve to know if their president is a crook, and I am not a crook" was spoken not about Watergate, but about the president's tax returns, which he declined to make public, tax returns which basically impugned Nixon as a crook. It was exactly that that led to the tradition in all major candidates releasing their returns. Romney prevaricated a bit, but not because he was a crook ,but because he was unsure how people would react to finding out that his "income" was a "pittance", and his real money was barely taxed. Truth is a hard thing to hide when everyone is looking. Someone is going to leak Trump's taxes. I'll admit I'm surprised it hasn't already happened, but it will. That's the only prediction I'm willing to make about this administrator anymore (because I've been wrong a lot).
FWIW, NYT disagrees with me about the likelihood of an IRS leak: https://nyti.ms/2m6S3sL
Yeah he was like "Do it! Do it. C'mon". And so they did*, and now he's all "Oh nooo!" :0 Edit: Jenkins has always been the most iconic early gamer meme vid. But any True Scottsman™ memerboi that 360knowscopes runs faster with a knife. Halo CE, for me, btw. When you live through the first console LAN parties and spoofing WANS by splicing ethernet direct to patch and use free third party software DL's from Limewire (Xbconnect)... whatup. I'm very done with gaming, except location-based. I like to consider new directions in that domain. It's the only time I have for games anyway, in between stints of frogger with real cars, trains, and the worst: people. Just kidding. Fuck that train though, seriously. *Maybe they got framed, but probably not. I bet Putin probably couldn't sleep for several weeks on account of laughing. Edit2: ['X0Oo_am_Unitoinz'_e-hubski_bAdtimes_dairy_oO0X'] post 2/?
Some thoughts: 1. People are most def working 24/7 to find whoever leaked the CIA shit. It could have been meant as a temporary diversion of focus from the Trump guys (by the Trump guys.?) in a bid to buy time. It could have been totally unrelated: anonymous, a foreign state, or just fucking Greenpeace. It could be that someone on the inside got bored one day. 2. So if we're just finding out about Flynn's shit, and Trump fired him a while back, maybe we should try to gauge how far ahead that puts him of the feds. It's probably safe to say that Trump has bought himself the best in data analysis and contracted the best companies (for God-knows-what, though? Still, even Malanya says so, oh boy, really best, really) and has amassed a rather nice trove of data and skill sets in his underlings. Well, he's up against the best in the business, so good luck, duderz. yellowoftops has had some fine predictions, one of which came true literally overnight (a big ol' wikileak), so get in here, we're picking ponies again or something. 3. This could all have no coherency, so shut up. Thanks for playing on "FUCKING CHAOS", the game. I think that's probably not a bad choice, but I'm a sucker for pattern recognition. And yeah, Donny's record exhibits patterns. PSA (AGAIN, I KNOW): Get a password manager. Get a VPN. Change your passwords. Make your own credit cards from scratch with Alex Jones's Nu Imagination toolkit. Get good. I don't know how many days we have before the code is released, but it's just getting more relevant in general to develop basic cyber-security skills. I'm not sure about Tor anymore. ['X0Oo_am_Unitoinz'_e-hubski_bAdtimes_diary_oO0X'] post 1/?
I thought I caught a bugski, but it was a false alarm. ['X0Oo_am_Unitoinz'_e-hubski_bAdtimes_diary_oO0X'] post 3/?