US Politics the Biden's age a nothing burger edition

[Phylum of Alexandria]

2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I'm prepared to believe the right-wing bubble of hate and lies won't survive the reality check of global warming. Unfortunately many of the reality-based community won't survive it either.

What's especially unfortunate is that a lot of what animates our current culture war is a divide between highly threat sensitive people, and people with low threat-sensitivity. High threat sensitive people are less well suited for the frustrations and abstract concerns of liberal democracy in a pluralistic society in peace time (especially when those frustrations are strategically exacerbated). But...they are ironically better suited for times of real threat and emergency in the here and now.

The very people who bring on the apocalypse due to their fragile hysteria are the ones more likely to survive it...

 

[Zorral]

He's pleaded 'not guilty.' On what grounds is this guy who stole and leaked thousands of top secret documents not guilty?  One of the minor age boys with whom Teixeira shared these dox has talked, with permission from his parents.

THE DISCORD LEAKS
Jack Teixeira got security clearance despite history of violent threats

Long report on this kid, violent, racist, craycray conspiracy, hater of the US government and its officials, given top secret clearance access to all our top secret stuff. He did massive damage, particularly to the Ukraine war.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/11/jack-teixeira-discord-leaks/

Quote

 

.... It took the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies weeks to notice. By early April, the documents had popped up around the wider internet, including on social media channels frequented by pro-Russian propagandists. Federal law enforcement agents were hunting for the leaker and racing to mop up a flood of secrets.

Charles and his online friends knew the authorities were looking for Teixeira. He “seemed very confused and lost as to what to do,” said Charles, who is a minor and agreed to recount his experience on the condition that only his middle name be used and with the permission of one of his parents.

Charles estimated that Teixeira had posted about 350 documents, which he removed from work and photographed at home with his phone, along with many hundreds more that he had typed by hand into the server’s chat box. The documents revealed secrets obtained by nearly every element of the U.S. intelligence community, including the National Security Agency, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, law enforcement agencies and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), arguably the most secretive spy agency in the government, responsible for a multibillion-dollar constellation of satellites.

Other intelligence leaks in recent years had offered deep insights into particular operations of the military or the intelligence community, or exposed the inner workings of a single department. The huge cache of information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that Chelsea Manning gave to WikiLeaks in 2010 offered a fly-on-the wall view of military operations and diplomatic maneuverings. The NSA briefing documents revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 uncovered the nitty-gritty of electronic surveillance.

The disclosures allegedly from Teixeira were remarkable for their breadth and timeliness. The documents, hundreds of which The Washington Post obtained, touched on seemingly every hot-button issue and global trouble spot that America’s spies were watching. And they were of recent vintage, spanning a period from around February to March, offering deep insights on events that were developing by the day. They reflected Teixeira’s omnivorous appetite for information about global affairs. It was as if he had gone to the secrets buffet and sampled one of every dish.

Teixeira was arrested on April 13. He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of illegal retention and transmission of national defense information, crimes that could send him to prison for years if he is convicted. ....

.... Intelligence officials said the trove Teixeira is accused of revealing was extraordinarily damaging, full of details about the course of the Russia-Ukraine war, including troop casualty numbers that neither Moscow nor Kyiv had publicly shared. They discussed Ukrainian planning for sabotage operations and demonstrated that the United States was monitoring the communications of the Russian military, as well as Ukrainian generals and political leaders. And they revealed the remarkably bleak outlook for a coming Ukrainian counteroffensive, at a time when American and European officials were publicly bullish about it. ....

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Zorral

[maarsen]

Well it seems Trump will not take the stand in the New York fraud trial. There goes the chance for the finest bit of improv comedy the world could ever witness. I imagine his lawyers threatened to quit en masse if he went onto the witness stand.

[Zorral]

Follow-up, adjacent -- some Teixeira superiors punished, as they should be -- though how much, really, one wonders.

THE DISCORD LEAKS
Air Force disciplines 15 people in Discord leaks investigation
Jack Teixeira is alleged to have leaked secrets online alone, but superiors failed to stop ‘questionable activity’ they witnessed, investigators found

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/11/air-force-investigation-discord-leaks/

Quote

 

.... The Air Force completed its investigation in August, but notified Congress and disclosed the findings Monday after being informed that The Washington Post was publishing a multipart investigation into the Discord leaks. The first article in the series published Monday morning; a “Frontline”/Post documentary will premier Dec. 12. ....

.... “After interviewing higher levels of the supervisory chain, it appears knowledge of these security incidents was not fully disclosed above the squadron level,” said an eight-page summary of the investigation, carried out by the Air Force inspector general’s office. It added that “three individuals in the unit who understood their duty to report specific information regarding A1C Teixeira’s intelligence-seeking and insider threat indicators to security officials, intentionally failed to do so.” Some feared that security officials might “overreact,” the summary added.

The lack of action, investigators found, allowed Teixeira to share hundreds of classified pages that he posted on several online servers on the gaming chat platform Discord. It marked one of the Pentagon’s most embarrassing leaks in years, prompting outcry from allies and partners, frustration from senior defense officials, and felony charges for Teixeira, who was arrested in an FBI raid at his family’s home in Dighton, Mass., in April. ....

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Biden just continueing to supremely suck in poll results.

 

Surveys conducted by SSRS for CNN found Michigan registered voters break for Trump by double digits (50% to 40%) over Biden, while Georgia registered voters back the former president over his successor by five percentage points (49% to 44%).

[Phylum of Alexandria]

25 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Surveys conducted by SSRS for CNN found Michigan registered voters break for Trump by double digits (50% to 40%) over Biden, while Georgia registered voters back the former president over his successor by five percentage points (49% to 44%).

This stuff isn't really news until we get poll results during the actual campaign between Trump and Biden. These people likely aren't taking the question seriously, and a lot of them believe that someone else is going to jump into the race at any moment now.

[Kalbear]

6 hours ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

The very people who bring on the apocalypse due to their fragile hysteria are the ones more likely to survive it...

 

Somewhat off-topic, but this continues to be bullshit. The hysterical people who consider everything a threat and act paranoid are the ones that the organized people will come and kill to get their stuff while acting cooperatively. Virtually every example of disaster, calamity or major problem shows that the main thing that survives is the community, and the people that do the best are the ones who work with others the best. 

The ones who cannot trust well and cannot build relationships are the ones who fail regularly. 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

2 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Somewhat off-topic, but this continues to be bullshit. The hysterical people who consider everything a threat and act paranoid are the ones that the organized people will come and kill to get their stuff while acting cooperatively. Virtually every example of disaster, calamity or major problem shows that the main thing that survives is the community, and the people that do the best are the ones who work with others the best. 

The ones who cannot trust well and cannot build relationships are the ones who fail regularly. 

Maybe you're thinking of the unstable lone wolves, and in that case I'd agree. I'm thinking of people who might not be crazy enough to join a militia at this point, but are all-in on the MAGA worldview, and are prepped for panic scenarios far more than white collar cosmopolitan cityfolk are.

[Kalbear]

23 minutes ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

Maybe you're thinking of the unstable lone wolves, and in that case I'd agree. I'm thinking of people who might not be crazy enough to join a militia at this point, but are all-in on the MAGA worldview, and are prepped for panic scenarios far more than white collar cosmopolitan cityfolk are.

And most of those people are not going to do well either - especially since they're almost certainly going to have prepped for entirely the wrong set of problems. They'll be worried about bizarre conspiracies. They'll have guns but traditionally have massive dependencies on needing medicines and community support. 

Because you know who lives in defensible, well-maintained places with multiple power sources, solar power, and plentiful supplies, and who tend to be younger and in better shape? A whole lot of those white-class people who commute from the suburbs. I also think you greatly overestimate the basic incompetence of the younger generations. 

But it doesn't really matter; this is the kind of fantasizing that preppers do, hoping that the apocalypse happens so they can show how fit they are. I'll not indulge your fantasy in this forum - take it to onlyfans. 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

7 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Because you know who lives in defensible, well-maintained places with multiple power sources, solar power, and plentiful supplies, and who tend to be younger and in better shape? A whole lot of those white-class people who commute from the suburbs. I also think you greatly overestimate the basic incompetence of the younger generations. 

But it doesn't really matter; this is the kind of fantasizing that preppers do, hoping that the apocalypse happens so they can show how fit they are. I'll not indulge your fantasy in this forum - take it to onlyfans. 

If what I'm saying is true, it would only be as a trait generally having relative adaptive value in certain environments. I'm not in the game of predictions, and obviously any particular scenario would have a whole host of factors to consider. I agree that trust and community are paramount as well (and exist just fine with provincial collectivist mindsets), and can concede that wealth and other tech could potentially pose as countervailing factors in favor of us squishy cosmopolitans. Not really interested in that debate. My comment was more general, made in that moment mostly for dark humor.

[KingintheNorth4]

Kate Cox leaves the draconian shithole state of Texas for the sake of her family and health. 

https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1734290817680810490?s=20

 

[Zorral]

1 minute ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Kate Cox leaves the draconian shithole state of Texas for the sake of her family and health. 

https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1734290817680810490?s=20

 

To save her life ... and if she returns They'll put her in a penitentiary for life, yes?  And all the people who assisted her to leave the state to save her life.  Presumably They can even prosecute the pilot of the plane, if she flew, or the bus driver if she went that way, the person who drove the car and were, in the car, even, with her. They certainly threaten to do so.

[Kalbear]

She's likely to be killed now, or at least be hounded for the rest of her life by extremists. 

[Zorral]

They can also prosecute her relatives and neighbors and friends because they knew she was leaving the state to get an abortion. They certainly threaten to do this, it's in Their laws, and the goddamn evangelicals and others have been salivating to do this to some woman, any woman, and her friends, etc.

The only way a woman can prove sufficiently her life is in danger from pregnancy is to die.

Btw, dying of a toxic pregnancy is extremely agonizing, akin to physical torture plus being poisoned with as particularly agonizing toxin.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

44 minutes ago, Zorral said:

To save her life ... and if she returns They'll put her in a penitentiary for life, yes?  

Because they love you and care about life! 

Eventually we're going to see states treat women like runaway slaves. Gilead will rise! 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

5 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Biden just continueing to supremely suck in poll results.

 

Surveys conducted by SSRS for CNN found Michigan registered voters break for Trump by double digits (50% to 40%) over Biden, while Georgia registered voters back the former president over his successor by five percentage points (49% to 44%).

And polls are trustworthy… why?

[Kalbear]

20 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

And polls are trustworthy… why?

They tend to be reasonably accurate. Though this far out they're not particularly useful, they're certainly useful for capturing the mood of people right now. 

What's especially interesting to me is that also has RFK Jr getting a 15% vote share, mostly taking it from Biden. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

31 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

They tend to be reasonably accurate. Though this far out they're not particularly useful, they're certainly useful for capturing the mood of people right now. 

What's especially interesting to me is that also has RFK Jr getting a 15% vote share, mostly taking it from Biden. 

Anyone claiming they are going to vote for RFKjr is fucking with the pollsters.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Anyone claiming they are going to vote for RFKjr is fucking with the pollsters.

I wouldn't be so certain about that. 

[Kalbear]

14 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Anyone claiming they are going to vote for RFKjr is fucking with the pollsters.

Man, you have such a high opinion of US citizens. It's possible, but it's also possible that they don't want to vote for Biden or Trump and would normally vote for Biden, and that's what they're going for.