SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
President Trump has accused former President Obama of... something:
In a string of tweets posted early Saturday morning, President Trump let loose a barrage of accusations at his predecessor. He alleged that former President Obama had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower before Election Day last year, accusing Obama of "McCarthyism" and being a "bad (or sick) guy."
Trump, who is under significant scrutiny for his administration's contacts with Russia before he took office, offered no evidence to support his claims Saturday morning. Neither the White House nor Obama's office has responded immediately to NPR's requests for comment.
[...] Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Also at WaPo, NYT, Reuters, Fox News, BBC, and Snopes, which hints that it may be related to this story.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday March 05 2017, @08:42AM (6 children)
I made the mistake of opening the FoxNews FA and begin to read the comments.
I hope I can get some sleep tonight, the abyss of irrationality in there are deep, dark and active.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @09:21AM (1 child)
the abyss of irrationality in there are deep, dark and active.
I'm confused, are you talking about Fox News comments section or Trump administration? Or maybe both, as I'm sure half of the administration posts FN comments :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday March 05 2017, @09:53AM
:)
Which makes the other half genuine. Even with only that and I'm still terrified :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @10:32AM
For more fun, check out Washington Post, or any of your local newspapers if they haven't removed comment sections.
I remember the New York Times having pretty good comments, whereas Washington Post has some ok comments amidst a partisan dumpster fire.
It's important to check up on these places to remind yourself of what many people really think. News sites seem to be more representative than YouTube, Twitter or other sites; there's less memes and more older folks.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @01:35PM
Here's an explanation of why Fox news is Trump's hostage [youtube.com] [6 minute video]
TLDW: Fox gets the majority of its viewers from trump lovers so they can't afford to report anything critical of trump for fear those viewers will abandon them. So they are stuck in a self-reinforcing cycle of only saying good things about trump because the viewers have never seriously been exposed to any other viewpoints. Trump fragility syndrome.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @01:39PM (1 child)
I hope I can get some sleep tonight, the abyss of irrationality in there are deep, dark and active.
It is 10x harder to convince someone they've been fooled than it is to fool them in the first place.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday March 05 2017, @11:15PM
Yup, I forgot the scientific term for "buyer bias".
I did vote for X, therefore X cannot be terrible, because that would mean I made a terrible decision, which I can't fathom.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday March 05 2017, @11:12AM (1 child)
If I had any suspicion that a candidate might be "manchurian", as the POTUS I would have him spied, with the spies instructed to go directly to the courts if any proof surfaces. In other words, spying is ok, asking for a report would be witch hunting indeed.
But this is a hollywood scenario. We all know that all candidates are already spied on by default, that is what secret service is for.
Does Trump have any proof? we'll see.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @04:19PM
No we won't see. In a few days, there'll be another shitstorm in a teacup with Donald at the center and front page coverage. Then another and another. And in the background, there will be slashing and burning of regulations and any remotely centrist policies.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @11:25AM (2 children)
Must admit my first reaction was: 'of course his phones were tapped!'
And if I'm correct, the evidence will probably never come out because it would tip the hand of the current seated president/gov't powers...
...But then I thought what a maverick Trump is about everything, especially affronts to his person... wouldn't it be swell if he did share his evidence of the wiretapping? Wouldn't that be informative to other 'persons of interest?' And the general public? Could be a good thing to have such a wild card in that place with both privileged knowledge and indignation, and in such need of distracting from his administration's current problems, too..!
Of course, my first assumption could be wrong, he is pretty much a compulsive fact-maker-upper... but for whatever reason this smacked of truth to me.
I was hoping this topic would be on SN so I could look at the comments ... and to see this play out more broadly...!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @03:09PM (1 child)
Wait, I'm confused - are you saying that secret government wiretapping is a good thing?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday March 05 2017, @11:21PM
Well, the goal of the Devil's Advocate is to find out the Bad Stuff before the election.
If there is suspicion that a candidate may be influenced by an outside power, having someone confirm or deny ahead of time would be better.
But that should be an official and expected process, like checking income and secret clearance.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday March 05 2017, @11:50AM (3 children)
who knew Trump's people were talking to the Russians?
What would it mean, for the campaign, and for the (potential, now actual) presidency?
If *anyone* was tracking and tracing communications between Russia and the US, and found evidence of a connection between Trump and Russia, would they have told the President? What could Obama have done?
Also, if this didn't turn up on some TLA analyst's desk, what good are the TLAs?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @02:27PM (2 children)
lots of stuff has shown up on TLA desks in the past 16ish years. A lot of it has gotten muzzled, regardless of the political leanins of the agent involved if it is considered 'against the government/leader's interests.'
So it is quite possible this information did make it into the system then was quietly shelved, destroyed, and the agents involved (if they wouldn't 'play ball') muzzled.
Besides the foolishness of believing 'the swamp' can be drained, the real requirements to clean up the US government would necessitate a ground up rebuilding of the country, starting with local, regional, state, and finally federal congresses each citing needs, concerns, legal ramifications and rights held dear. These would need to pass up the tree be written into a new document. Then, unlike in the past, it would need to be ratified individually by each citizen of the united states, or not at all. Proxies didn't work 250 years ago, and they still don't really work today. If we are going to claim we are a Democracy, then it is time to go all in on it, or start properly discussing ourselves as a Constitutional Republic with token Democratic votes to pretend the citizens have a say.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @02:30PM
lots of stuff has shown up on TLA desks in the past 16ish years. A lot of it has gotten muzzled, regardless of the political leanins of the agent involved if it is considered 'against the government/leader's interests.'
And you know this how?
(Score: 1) by Demena on Monday March 06 2017, @01:12AM
Mandatory voting would help. It has helped here to some extent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @12:55PM
Just remember kids, never get high on your own supply.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Sunday March 05 2017, @02:47PM (1 child)
I keep wondering whether he's going to double or triple his moronity level just to keep up with reality snowballing over his line of patter... And he goes *exponential* on us instead. McCarthy, Nixon, Watergate. Really?
So now it's an exponential progression away from the reality where the rest of us live and breathe and walk around... Where do you go from an exponential progression away from intelligence? Track prime numbers in your mad run from reality? Cover half the distance to infinity?
I am not making fun of the President here, although the jokes would write themselves at this point. I understand that he has an agenda of some sort, though I am not privy to the details, and he is putting up a smokescreen of nonsense to provide cover for implementing that agenda to the extent that he can.
But there is a fine line between just spouting idiocy and calling for the little men in the funny white coats. This is not the well-executed master plan of a genius, as some have asserted. It is a plan, and it is being executed, but not well or intelligently, and not by a genius who is in control of anything except by law and custom.
President Trump, if you are reading this, please sit down and shut up for a period of time, step back, and get some idea of what you are doing. God knows you are going to need it.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @03:50PM
Trump will try to deligitimze any institution that he perceives as challenging him (the press - "is the enemy of the american people", the judiciary - "so-called judge," the intelligence agencies - he's beating on them for months) including the office of the presidency itself (this accusation against Obama). He simply doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself. His official policy is "Anybody Who Hits Me, We're Gonna Hit 10 Times Harder." [foxnews.com]
And if he really does have something to hide, it means he won't stop wrecking american civic institutions until he's in prison or dies of a heart attack. The big question is how much will the republican party aid him in wrecking america because they still think he's useful to them.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 05 2017, @09:08PM
Glenn Greenwald recommends [twitter.com] this analysis by people who actually know their shit:
https://www.justsecurity.org/38347/tapping-trump/ [justsecurity.org]