U.S. Politics: From Russia, With Love

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 Trump Shows Early Signs of Dementia/Alzheimer's

  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/330219-trump-i-gave-face-the-nation-its-highest-ratings-since-the-world?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

  "I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. 

[Mexal]

15 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 Trump Shows Early Signs of Dementia/Alzheimer's

  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/330219-trump-i-gave-face-the-nation-its-highest-ratings-since-the-world?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

  "I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. 

I buy it. A lot of doctors have been talking about it. The issue is none of them have had a chance to examine him. 

In other news, State Department is now promoting Mar-a-Lago on government websites.

ETA: The Mar-a-Lago article has been removed. From the website: "The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the President has been hosting world leaders. We regret any misperception and have removed the post."

 

[Swordfish]

14 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I buy it. A lot of doctors have been talking about it. The issue is none of them have had a chance to examine him. 

 

 

It's generally unhelpful and most often inaccurate to engage in armchair medical diagnosis's(Sp?). 

Unless and until he's examined and diagnosed, I think these kinds of speculations are pretty distasteful.

 

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

2 minutes ago, Swordfish said:

It's generally unhelpful and most often inaccurate to engage in armchair medical diagnosis's(Sp?). 

Unless and until he's examined and diagnosed, I think these kinds of speculations are pretty distasteful.

Fuck him. In order to get respect, you have to give it. The word salad he regularly engages in is pretty suspect. I'm no doctor, but this is one of the common signs. 

[Swordfish]

2 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Fuck him. In order to get respect, you have to give it. The word salad he regularly engages in is pretty suspect. I'm no doctor, but this is one of the common signs. 

I have no respect for Trump.  I just find armchair medical diagnosis to be a sort of  lowest common denominator type of criticism often coming mostly from a  wishful thinking place.  And I think that sort of wishful thinking, even implicit and against Trump, is to me, distasteful.

YMMV, naturally.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

11 minutes ago, Swordfish said:

I have no respect for Trump.  I just find armchair medical diagnosis to be a sort of  lowest common denominator type of criticism often coming mostly from a  wishful thinking place.  And I think that sort of wishful thinking, even implicit and against Trump, is to me, distasteful.

YMMV, naturally.

Eh, not going to lose any sleep over it. The Lowest Common Denominator could easily have been his campaign slogan. He personifies it. 

[all swedes are racist]

i too take great solace in the fact that hundreds of thousands of people or more are suffering and dying because an old man has a terrible disease and is not just a giant piece of shit

[Swordfish]

2 minutes ago, r'hllor's reformed lobster said:

i too take great solace in the fact that hundreds of thousands of people or more are suffering and dying because an old man has a terrible disease and is not just a giant piece of shit

Who are you referring to here?

[all swedes are racist]

1 minute ago, Swordfish said:

Who are you referring to here?

"to whom"

[Swordfish]

1 minute ago, r'hllor's reformed lobster said:

"to whom"

To whom are you referring there?

[all swedes are racist]

6 minutes ago, Swordfish said:

To whom are you referring there?

actually, i'm sorry, i fucked that up. "of whom" is what i meant

eta: but, ya know, the people that are being ripped from their families and deported, the thousands of civilian deaths caused by us bombins in syria and yemen, the gay and trans people poised to have many basic rights stripped from them, etc etc

[Altherion]

2 hours ago, Kalbear said:

On the Russia thing - this article points out something I wasn't entirely aware of before, which is that the Russian groups routinely are going after Microsoft and Google to get security data and leverage.

The idea that  these hacking groups are some random organizations is so obviously wrong it's laughable. Microsoft et al tracks them like the government tracks them - as a singular group, with specific motivations (such as security, government orgs, foreign governments) and specific tools and practices. These are teams that work for months to get access, patiently and slowly attacking weak points because they have the time and organization to do so.

And if this is in the news, there are 10 times worse things that haven't been reported on. 

It's not just Russia (it's also China, various allies of ours -- not to mention our own government) and it's not just after Microsoft and Google (those are the biggest two, but it's also Oracle, Apple and many others). A large fraction of all of the data in the world goes through the products and servers of the major tech companies. Any serious spy agency must have plans for getting at it somehow or other.

[drawkcabi]

Ok, so I'm playing Family Feud on my NES Classic, I've never played it before. This game was made in the 80's. I'm playing against the computer, the computer provides names for the families I'm playing against. So I start to notice a pattern, Jackson, Kennedy, Reagan... and then...Trump.

Creepy.

[Kalbear]

5 minutes ago, Altherion said:

It's not just Russia (it's also China, various allies of ours -- not to mention our own government) and it's not just after Microsoft and Google (those are the biggest two, but it's also Oracle, Apple and many others). A large fraction of all of the data in the world goes through the products and servers of the major tech companies. Any serious spy agency must have plans for getting at it somehow or other.

Let me be really clear - China is not remotely in the same league as Russia here. Nor is any other group or company. Russian groups are significantly more active, more organized towards the goal of government interference, and have been more successful. 

[Sivin]

2 hours ago, Swordfish said:

It's generally unhelpful and most often inaccurate to engage in armchair medical diagnosis's(Sp?). 

Unless and until he's examined and diagnosed, I think these kinds of speculations are pretty distasteful.

 

 

Ha! That carrot of a man would walk out of the doctors office and tell his followers that now the medicine men are out to get him too.

If the orange leader's brain is really rotting that could be good news for a lot of people. There's a reason these are called degenerative diseases, so in four years it would probably be obvious as all hell. And once the incomprehensible gibbering can be pinned to disease the authoritarian types will probably cool down their worship.

AND! If the sitting POTUS succumbs to a degenerative brain disease one party will surely make a pr move to increase cure research in his name. Something that would be next to  impossible to challenge for the opposition.

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, Swordfish said:

I have no respect for Trump.  I just find armchair medical diagnosis to be a sort of  lowest common denominator type of criticism often coming mostly from a  wishful thinking place.  And I think that sort of wishful thinking, even implicit and against Trump, is to me, distasteful.

YMMV, naturally.

We've met his doctor, remember?  He writes what Trump tells him to write, so psychiatry at a distance might be a bit more insightful. 

[Fragile Bird]

Oh man, in the last thread I said Trump had declared war on Canada's dairy trade, and today he went after softwood lumber. Tariffs of up to 24% on Canadian lumber, starting tomorrow. Just a coincidence, I guess, that the Canadian dollar has fallen by 25% since the price of oil collapsed. I assume Trump will soon start calling Canada a currency manipulator. I expect the fact that it's the first 100 days at the end of the week has nothing to do with any of this, eh?

I see US lumber prices are up by about 20%, ever since the previous agreement with Canada expired last summer. Be prepared to pay a lot more for wood, guys.

And...Statistics Canada had an interesting comment about Trump's move:

 

[LongRider]

25 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Oh man, in the last thread I said Trump had declared war on Canada's dairy trade, and today he went after softwood lumber. Tariffs of up to 24% on Canadian lumber, starting tomorrow. Just a coincidence, I guess, that the Canadian dollar has fallen by 25% since the price of oil collapsed. I assume Trump will soon start calling Canada a currency manipulator. I expect the fact that it's the first 100 days at the end of the week has nothing to do with any of this, eh?

I see US lumber prices are up by about 20%, ever since the previous agreement with Canada expired last summer. Be prepared to pay a lot more for wood, guys.

And...Statistics Canada had an interesting comment about Trump's move:

 

Ouch!   

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 minute ago, Triskan said:

Pretty sick burn.

That guy moved on Trump like a bitch.

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

Let me be really clear - China is not remotely in the same league as Russia here. Nor is any other group or company. Russian groups are significantly more active, more organized towards the goal of government interference, and have been more successful. 

Given that Russian intelligence (including its predecessor agencies from the USSR) has a long and storied rivalry with Western intelligence, this is certainly possible. However, it is difficult to be confident in such an assertion for three reasons.

First, the truly successful hacker is one that acquires information without its owners ever noticed that he was there. It's entirely possible that since our intelligence is specifically focused on Russia (including even the conversion of moles if the stories about the above rivalry is to be believed), we've noticed more of their activity than that from other places.

Second, competent hackers impersonate others to avoid detection. We know that, for example, the CIA had an operation impersonating Russian hackers. It is entirely possible than others do it too as Russian tools are widespread and Russians always make a plausible scapegoat when going after Western targets.

Third, disclosures regarding Russia currently make better propaganda than those regarding any other country. There are groups which stand to gain from revelations of Russian hacking and other groups which stand to gain from casting doubt on those revelations (e.g. the data dump in the article I linked above). Disclosures regarding other nations are not in the interest of either those nations (who don't want a spotlight on their activities) or of our intelligence agencies (who don't need to start another public fight right now).