President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

doctorquant · Jun 14, 2017

UPChip said: ↑

The fact that his foster daughter self-immolated rather than put up with him is something of a red flag.
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Let's don't go out on a limb here ...

dixiehack · Jun 15, 2017

Neutral Corner said: ↑

This is an excellent article on Mueller, how he ran the 9/11 investigation, and the highly skilled people who make up his team. No wonder Newt is squealing.

https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-special-counsel-investigation-team/
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Buried in there is a long story about one of the new hires that isn't related to the case at hand but is just a great G-Man adventure yarn.

When Gaudin and Zebley got to South Africa in the summer of 1999, they almost immediately realized the news wasn’t good. The suspect they assumed to be Ali Mandela in fact wasn’t him. Nevertheless, Gaudin and Zebley found themselves in a small conference room in Cape Town with the FBI’s South African liaison and officers from the country’s immigration and refugee asylum service, who insisted that the visiting FBI guests at least review some immigration records while they were there.

The South Africans pulled out boxes stuffed with immigration cards and dumped them on the table. Gaudin and Zebley groaned and agreed to peruse the cards before their evening flight back to the States. Miraculously, the second card Gaudin picked up to examine bore fruit.

“Zeb, where do I know this name from? Who is Zahran Nasser Maulid?” Gaudin asked, holding up the picture with the name written across the top.

“That’s KKM!” Zebley almost shouted.

“Who the fuck is KKM?” a South African official asked. “That’s not your guy.”

“What’s going on here?” the FBI’s liaison asked, also confused.

Gaudin and Zebley pulled the South African aside—they realized they were onto something big, and couldn’t risk a leak. “Who do you trust? This is important.”

Just months earlier, the agents had discovered that Khalfan Khamis Mohamed—the man the FBI suspected of assembling the bomb used in Tanzania—had used the name Maulid as an alias to get a Tanzanian passport. The South African police officer shooed a few people from the room and assembled five officers, four men and one woman. “These people, these are the best. What’s going on? Who’s KKM? I thought we were looking for Ali Mandela.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Gaudin said, holding up the picture. “This guy is Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. There’s already an indictment for him—he’s one of the bombers. If we can get him, there’s a $5 million reward on his head.”

Gaudin called back to the New York Field Office and told his bosses that the two agents had stumbled upon one of the country’s most wanted terrorists. And they even had a plan to arrest him.

The South African immigration services explained that every 42 days, like clockwork, Mohamed had to come back to the refugee office to get his visa renewed. As long as he wasn’t scared off, there was no reason to think he wouldn’t walk right into the FBI’s arms if they were patient. A small team of backup FBI agents was dispatched to South Africa, and they settled in to wait.

Working undercover, Zebley and Gaudin waited at the immigration facility, with Gaudin posing as a South African colonel. Refugees seeking asylum queued each morning, and in typical bureaucratic fashion, not everyone got his or her visa stamped. Latecomers were turned away, forced to return some other day or risk arrest if the authorities found that they’d overstayed their visas. Tensions ran high in the queue, with the crowd becoming more frantic as the day wore on and hopes of getting visas successfully renewed dwindled. One afternoon, Zebley and Gaudin watched in horror as the authorities wheeled out a fire hose and blasted the crowd to keep it under control.

The two agents realized that, given the line’s chaos, the only practical thing to do was somehow to get to the applicants early: They had to streamline the refugee office’s visa renewal process if they hoped to capture KKM. The team hatched a plan. Gaudin, dressed in his full colonel’s uniform, complete with epaulets and medals, and looking vaguely like a character from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, went out each morning with a basket to collect the refugees’ immigration cards. Then all the cards were brought inside and stamped. The refugees waited peacefully outside for their documents, which were returned in the afternoon. This meant not only that the FBI had a first, calm look at the documents but also that the South Africans suddenly had a much more efficient mechanism for processing immigration claims.

Their system worked smoothly—a little too smoothly, actually. The crowds got larger as word spread in the refugee community that a new policy meant everyone was getting a stamp. No more wasted days! The head of refugee services, who had no idea that an American FBI team was operating undercover in his agency, asked to meet this innovative new colonel who had so streamlined and revolutionized his agency’s process. Gaudin, nervous that he’d blow the whole operation, was summoned and thanked for his contribution. “We haven’t had to use the fire hose all week,” the head of refugee services announced, without any idea of Gaudin’s real identity.

The weeks ticked by as KKM’s 42-day deadline approached. Finally, the last day arrived: October 5, 1999. The small team of FBI agents and South African immigration officers stationed themselves strategically around the building. Zebley and other agents positioned themselves in cars around the corner.

Gaudin went out with his basket. After weeks of the dulling routine, he searched each refugee’s face with renewed enthusiasm, his energy mounting as he worked his way down the line. KKM was here somewhere. Yet Gaudin made it to the end of the morning line without any luck.

Then came a shout from his South African partner at the front door of the office: “Steve, the boss wants to see you.”

“Not now. I’m busy.”

“No, Steve, the boss reallyneeds you. You need to come right now.”

Walking inside, dejected, Gaudin boarded the elevator and found himself standing just inches away from Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. Sully, the South African officer, had seen the terrorist suspect walk up to the end of the line and, unaware of the new policy that ensured everyone a stamp, turn away after mentally calculating that he was unlikely to reach the front of the line that day. The officer had approached him and, thinking quickly, quietly told Mohamed that for some money he would take him to the head of the line and get him a stamp. The Tanzanian bomb maker happily forked over a few hundred rand—after all, getting the stamp that day meant he wouldn’t have to miss another day at the Burger World franchise where he had worked since the attack. The South African officer then led him up to the front and sent his partner to grab the FBI agent.

As the elevator ascended, Gaudin cracked a joke about how he was probably in trouble and was being summoned to the boss’s office. The group disembarked on the top floor, still laughing. The two South African police officers went first, KKM second, and Gaudin brought up the rear, the police acting as casually as they could. Ten feet passed. Twenty feet passed. Gaudin, last in the line, was getting nervous. The building was cavernous; if KKM got spooked and escaped down a hallway or made it to a stairwell, it was possible that they would never see him again. Finally Gaudin’s anxiety overcame him. He broke into a full sprint and slammed into the bomber from behind, his arms encircling KKM and pinning his arms. The two men dropped hard, like a linebacker sacking a quarterback in a high school football game.
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BitterYoungMatador2 · Jun 15, 2017

FBI investigating report of dirty bomb at South Carolina port

Matt1735 · Jun 15, 2017

So Rep. Mo Brooks said he felt helpless out there with no gun....

Was he advocating that he and others should have been packing heat on the baseball field in a city park? And of course, that would apply to everyone, not just congresspeople.

Or was he advocating that maybe access to the guns is a problem?

dixiehack · Jun 15, 2017

BitterYoungMatador2 said: ↑

FBI investigating report of dirty bomb at South Carolina port
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Vacation ought to be fun next week.

dixiehack · Jun 15, 2017

Matt1735 said: ↑

So Rep. Mo Brooks said he felt helpless out there with no gun....

Was he advocating that he and others should have been packing heat on the baseball field in a city park? And of course, that would apply to everyone, not just congresspeople.

Or was he advocating that maybe access to the guns is a problem?
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Mo Brooks is running for Senate in Alabama. He'd sooner sacrifice a virgin to Ba'al on the 50 yard line of Bryant Denny Stadium than come close to suggesting gun control.

Matt1735 · Jun 15, 2017

dixiehack said: ↑

Mo Brooks is running for Senate in Alabama. He'd soon sacrifice a virgin to Ba'al on the 50 yard line of Bryant Denny Stadium than come close to suggesting gun control.
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So choice A?

RickStain · Jun 15, 2017

doctorquant said: ↑

Mmmmm, hmmmm ... go on.
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No? Stop being weird

SnarkShark · Jun 15, 2017

UPChip said: ↑

The fact that his foster daughter self-immolated rather than put up with him is something of a red flag.
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That's some horror movie-level shit. Fucking awful.

HanSenSE · Jun 15, 2017

tapintoamerica said: ↑

And I think they'd be justified.
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I know of more than a few that would use it as a reason to duck seeing the folks in their district, an act we've seen a lot already this Congressional term.

HanSenSE · Jun 15, 2017

Dyno said: ↑

And on his birthday, too! I wonder if he's having the most beautiful chocolate cake or two scoops of ice cream. Or both.
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Don't forget the ketchup.

outofplace · Jun 15, 2017

Remember when some Republicans defended the choice of Betsy DeVos by saying the Secretary of Education can't do much damage?

Betsy DeVos freezes Obama-era rules meant to protect student borrowers

It looks like DeVos is getting one of her wishes by putting a hold on rules that would protect student borrowers. The rules were put in place during the Obama administration, so of course they are a target. But hey, who needs rules that hold colleges accountable, right?

Oh, by the way, DeVos is the former director and still has significant financial stake in a company that collects on student debts.

Dems raise concern about possible links between DeVos and student debt collection agency

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