Political Roundtable Part XIII

[FAH1223]

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He's missing it to actually attend the Trump-Xi Jinping Summit at Mar-a-Lago.

I think NATO is going to re-schedule.

[FAH1223]

Donald Trump’s administration has banned airline passengers from eight Middle Eastern and North African countries from carrying large electronic devices.

No American carriers are impacted by the ban, which involves any device larger than a mobile phone.

The ban would stop passengers bringing laptops, iPads and cameras in carry-on luggage and is thought to affect at least 12 airlines.

It is thought to apply to nonstop flights to the US from 10 airports in eight countries which are believed to include Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The policy is expected to be announced on Tuesday where the full details of the ban will be disclosed.

The Independent has analysed the flight schedules from the Middle East and Africa and identified a dozen non-American airlines from the region that fly to the US: Arik Air from Lagos; Egyptair from Cairo; Emirates from Dubai and Athens; Ethiopian from Addis Ababa, Lome in Togo and Dublin; Etihad from Abu Dhabi; Kuwait Airways from Kuwait; Qatar Airways from Doha; Royal Air Maroc from Casablanca; Royal Jordanian from Amman; Saudia from Jeddah and Riyadh; South African Airways from Johannesburg and Dakar; and Turkish Airlines from Istanbul.

The reason for the ban was not immediately clear. David Lapan, a spokesman for Homeland Security Department, declined to comment. The Transportation Security Administration, part of Homeland Security, also declined to comment.

Royal Jordanian Airlines did however point out that medical devices were excluded from the ban. Everything else, the airline said, would need to be packed in checked luggage.

“Following instructions from the concerned US departments, we kindly inform our dearest passengers departing to and arriving from the United States that carrying any electronic or electrical device on board the flight cabins is strictly prohibited,” the airline tweeted.

“Prohibited devices, including for instance laptops, tablets, cameras, DVD players and electronic games … etc, can be carried in the checked baggage only.”

Brian Jenkins, an aviation-security expert at the Rand Corp., said the nature of the security measure suggested that it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack.

Another aviation-security expert, Jeffrey Price, said there could be downsides to the policy.

"There would be a huge disadvantage to having everyone put their electronics in checked baggage," said Price, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-us-bans-electronic-devices-on-flights-eight-muslim-countries-royal-jordanian-airlines-a7640591.html

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No US airline is going direct from Dulles to the Middle East, plus the customer service is pretty good on these Gulf airliners... and putting my laptop in checked bag on the way home is

[AFM]

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[AFM]

Guy has a nice hairline too. Thick head of hair.

[sfam]

Looks like Manafort was money laundering in Ukraine. No wonder he's become a "bit" player in Spicey's new historical narrative.

Leshchenko showed CNN a six-page document that appears to bear Manafort's signature on a contract and invoice for 501 units of assorted computer equipment, yielding a payment of $750,000...

...The document is dated October 14, 2009, during the years when Manafort worked for Yanukovych as a political consultant in Kiev.
The date of the invoice and the $750,000 listed on it match the details logged in an off-the-books ledger, first reported on by the New York Times, which purports to be from Yanukovych's party, listing the series of secret payments now under investigation.

An entry in a ledger of off-the-book payments allegedly from Yanukovych's party shows a payment of $750,000 made to Manafort on October 14, 2009.

Manafort's name appears in the handwritten ledger 22 times as the recipient of payments amounting to $12.7 million, according to anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine.

With this new document, Leshchenko believes he has evidence that Manafort personally invoiced at least one of these payments from Yanukovych's political party.

[sfam]

No US airline is going direct from Dulles to the Middle East, plus the customer service is pretty good on these Gulf airliners... and putting my laptop in checked bag on the way home is

Emerates or Turkish Air instead of United or Delta?

SIGN ME UP!!!! RIGHT F'ing NOW!!! Hell yea! Fresh Croissants and real food in economy? I can actually eat plane food again.

[sfam]

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He's missing it to actually attend the Trump-Xi Jinping Summit at Mar-a-Lago.

I think NATO is going to re-schedule.

That's apparently part of the Russia deal according to that British Dossier - reduce the influence of the State Department...Trump has flat out emaciated it. Frankly, it doesn't look like it matters if the Secretary of State is at the Nato meeting, as he doesn't seem to speak for the President.

[gtn130]

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Cool

[dckingsfan]

Tho it's not mentioned by name, Meals on Wheels funding is contained in one of the block grants sent to the states by the Feds.

Yeah, I really don't get this. Why not just start withdrawing from our overseas military installations, reduce the military and get out of the UN.

Instead they are going to defund stuff that isn't even a rounding error and won't help the deficit one iota.

[Wizardspride]

Click to read the rest
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article139695453.html

FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at Breitbart, InfoWars news sites



Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.

The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections.

Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives. Their participation, however, wasn’t necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.

The investigation of the bot-engineered traffic, which appears to be in its early stages, is being driven by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, whose inquiries rarely result in criminal charges and whose main task has been to reconstruct the nature of the Kremlin’s cyber attack and determine ways to prevent another.

[montestewart]

Tho it's not mentioned by name, Meals on Wheels funding is contained in one of the block grants sent to the states by the Feds.

Yeah, I really don't get this. Why not just start withdrawing from our overseas military installations, reduce the military and get out of the UN.

Instead they are going to defund stuff that isn't even a rounding error and won't help the deficit one iota.

Someone somewhere thought things like this would demonstrate budget cutting mettle.

"No one said this would be easy," he said during the announcement introducing the new Soylent Green program.

[Zonkerbl]

Click to read the rest
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article139695453.html

FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at Breitbart, InfoWars news sites



Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.

The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections.

Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives. Their participation, however, wasn’t necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.

The investigation of the bot-engineered traffic, which appears to be in its early stages, is being driven by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, whose inquiries rarely result in criminal charges and whose main task has been to reconstruct the nature of the Kremlin’s cyber attack and determine ways to prevent another.

Interesting, thanks.

[payitforward]

I'm curious why Nate hasn't been in this thread for... well at least 4 days & 6 full pages of posts -- or that's what it looks like to me. Anyone know with more precision how long he's been absent? It's usually one of his most active threads.

Any thoughts?

[sfam]

Tho it's not mentioned by name, Meals on Wheels funding is contained in one of the block grants sent to the states by the Feds.

Yeah, I really don't get this. Why not just start withdrawing from our overseas military installations, reduce the military and get out of the UN.

Instead they are going to defund stuff that isn't even a rounding error and won't help the deficit one iota.

Remind me how getting out of the UN a good thing?

[sfam]

I'm curious why Nate hasn't been in this thread for... well at least 4 days & 6 full pages of posts -- or that's what it looks like to me. Anyone know with more precision how long he's been absent? It's usually one of his most active threads.

Any thoughts?

It could be that life interrupted his posting habits.

[sfam]

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Cool

How is this not crony corruption? His family members now have clearances and access?

[dckingsfan]

Tho it's not mentioned by name, Meals on Wheels funding is contained in one of the block grants sent to the states by the Feds.

Yeah, I really don't get this. Why not just start withdrawing from our overseas military installations, reduce the military and get out of the UN.

Instead they are going to defund stuff that isn't even a rounding error and won't help the deficit one iota.

Remind me how getting out of the UN a good thing?

It isn't - but we can't really afford it now. I would rather see that cut than things like Meals on Wheels.

[montestewart]

I'm curious why Nate hasn't been in this thread for... well at least 4 days & 6 full pages of posts -- or that's what it looks like to me. Anyone know with more precision how long he's been absent? It's usually one of his most active threads.

Any thoughts?

It may be exactly what you appear to be thinking. On the other hand, sometimes you just gotta take a break for your mental health. I've taken longer periods than that away from posting here, though the performance section of my mod contract says I gotta try to read all these threads. Some days it pays to go read only.

[Wizardspride]

I'm curious why Nate hasn't been in this thread for... well at least 4 days & 6 full pages of posts -- or that's what it looks like to me. Anyone know with more precision how long he's been absent? It's usually one of his most active threads.

Any thoughts?

It may be exactly what you appear to be thinking. On the other hand, sometimes you just gotta take a break for your mental health. I've taken longer periods than that away from posting here, though the performance section of my mod contract says I gotta try to read all these threads. Some days it pays to go read only.

I'm sure we're all thinking along similiar lines.

[AFM]

In nate's defense, it's hard being the only Trump supporter on this board.