President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[BlueK]

Trump's numbers are even worse today.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...oval-6179.html

[Uncle Ted]

Nice... I wonder if he also has a recording of the meeting between Comey and Drumpf and would be willing to share that as well.

Political schizophrenia...

Putin is going to "reprimand" Lavrov...

"I'll be forced to issue him (Lavrov) with a reprimand because he did not share these secrets with us. Not with me, nor with representatives of Russia's intelligence services. It was very bad of him."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...KCN18D1EA?il=0

Yeah, when Putin says "It was very bad of him" people usually end up dead.

[Uncle Ted]

Why President Trump Can Share Classified Information If He Wants

When the Washington Post reported on Monday that President Donald Trump had shared classified information with Russian officials during a meeting at the White House, the White House response was to deny that any military details had been shared that weren't already known — even as the President attested on Twitter that he had the "absolute right" to share facts with foreign officials.


Whether or not the President did share information that others would want kept secret — a possibility that Russian media downplayed even as outlets like the New York Times continued to add details to the story, such as information about the Israeli sources of the intelligence — he's basically correct that he could share such information if he wanted to.
[...]

http://time.com/4780593/president-tr...-declassified/

WTF! Drumpf is right?!?

The reason, says Timothy Naftali, Clinical Associate Professor of History and Public Service at New York University and former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, goes all the way back to the Constitution and the basic structure of power in the United States.


“The president is the ultimate authorizing authority," as he puts it.


The power to classify and declassify information — like the duty to protect intelligence sources and methods — has been reshaped several times over the course of American history, but the two powers are linked. The person or agency that has the right to keep something secret (or the successor agency, if original agency no longer exists) is the same one that has the right to decide when it should be made public. The hierarchical structure of government means that, in general, if a person has that power, so do her direct superiors, all the way up the chain. The President, at the top of the ladder, is everyone's superior.

Who the hell gave the president the power to do this?!?

Though Naftali traces the idea behind that structure all the way back to the Constitution, a more granular codification of that power can be found in Executive Order 11,652, which President Richard Nixon signed in 1972, clarifying the system of classification and how information would be both protected and shared going forward.
[...]
Although that particular order would be replaced by further refinements of the classification system, the newer version (Executive Order 13,526 from 2009) retains the power for supervising officials to declassify information.

Who signed Executive Order 13,526?

Oh, thanks Obama!

[falafel]

Doesn't it make absolute sense that the president can share top secret info if he wants?

[Uncle Ted]

Doesn't it make absolute sense that the president can share top secret info if he wants?

Only if he is a democrat!

[ERCougar]

http://time.com/4780593/president-tr...-declassified/

WTF! Drumpf is right?!?



Who the hell gave the president the power to do this?!?



Who signed Executive Order 13,526?

Oh, thanks Obama!

Good Lord. Are you drunk?

EO 13526 restated the authorized list of designees who can originate classification, in effect rescinding any previous designations made by officials or agency heads to subordinates.

A significant provision of EO 13526 is the creation of the National Declassification Center. The major focus is the idea that information should become declassified systematically as soon as practicable. Specific time limits are mentioned for different kinds of information, but there is also the provision that information that still needs to be classified can stay classified. Mechanisms are outlined for periodic reevaluation of the need to classify information, even if the result of the evaluation is to keep the information classified.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Good Lord. Are you drunk?

Oh, you have no idea...

[BlueK]

Doesn't it make absolute sense that the president can share top secret info if he wants?

He can legally -- as in he can't be thrown in jail over it like you or I would. But that's a completely different question than whether he should or not. He should still be held accountable by the people and Congress for how he handles such secrets and who he discloses them to, right? Are the Russians now trustworthy just because Trump seems to like them more than makes sense to most Americans?

[falafel]

He can legally. That's a different question than whether he should or not. He should still be held accountable by the people and Congress for how he handles such secrets and who he discloses them to, right? Are the Russians now trustworthy just because Trump seems to like them more than makes sense to most Americans?

He's held accountable by the election process. Same as if you don't like his handling of the EPA or foreign affairs.

[Uncle Ted]

Good Lord. Are you drunk?

Keep reading, my friend... Here is the part where it gets good:

(2) Classified information originating in one agency may be disseminated by any other agency to which it has been made available to a foreign government in accordance with statute, this order, directives implementing this order, direction of the President, or with the consent of the originating agency. For the purposes of this section, ‘‘foreign government’’ includes any element of a foreign government, or an international organization of governments, or any element thereof.

Trolled by Drumpf again.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Keep reading, my friend... Here is the part where it gets good:

Trolled by Drumpf again.

"We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified."
----Donald Trump, September 6, 2016

[BlueK]

He's held accountable by the election process. Same as if you don't like his handling of the EPA or foreign affairs.

Sure. So what's the problem? It got reported and people have expressed their concerns, as they should. It's separate from the Russia investigation and the Comey stuff.

[Uncle Ted]

He's held accountable by the election process. Same as if you don't like his handling of the EPA or foreign affairs.

Yeah, I won't vote for him until he shuts down a bunch of government agencies including commerce, education, and what's the 3rd one?

[ERCougar]

Keep reading, my friend... Here is the part where it gets good:

Trolled by Drumpf again.

So, Obama introduced this as a new power?

This whole "is it legal?" thing is of course an intentional distraction from the more "WTF is he thinking?"/"This is what we get when we elect an overgrown adolescent as president" point. What made me question your sobriety was not whether he *could* do it, but the stretch to tie Obama to it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this anymore, but seriously--what happened to you?

[Uncle Ted]

"We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified."
----Donald Trump, September 6, 2016

So can we still impeach Drumpf?!?

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