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locodos

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  1. 'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S. officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath. The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements. Worried that the image becoming public could hurt national security efforts, intelligence officials urged Trump to hold off until more knowledgeable experts were able to weigh in, the sources said. But less than an hour later, while at least one of those intelligence officials was in another building scrambling to get more information, Trump posted the image to Twitter. The public pushback to Trump's post was immediate: Intelligence experts and even international media questioned whether U.S. interests had just been endangered by what Trump did. When pressed about it at the White House, Trump insisted he hadn't released classified information because he had an "absolute right to do" it. While much of Smith's sprawling classified documents investigation has focused on how Trump handled classified materials after leaving the White House, a wide array of former aides and advisers -- including personal valets, press assistants, senior national security officials, and even Trump's briefers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- have provided Smith with firsthand accounts about how Trump allegedly handled and used intelligence while still in office. Those firsthand accounts, as relayed to ABC News by sources, underscore what could be at stake as Trump seeks a return to the White House, and they are coming to light as he is likely on the verge of receiving formal government briefings again as the Republican Party's official nominee in the 2024 presidential election. In interviews with investigators last year, former aides and national security officials who were close to Trump in the White House described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn't want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as "a cavalier attitude" toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure, according to sources. A book published on the CIA's website, describing the intelligence community's experience with Trump during his transition to the presidency and then his time in the White House, said that while Trump was "suspicious and insecure about the intelligence process," he still "engaged with it," even as he publicly attacked it. The book also noted that Trump was "unique" among presidents in that, before taking over the White House, "he had no experience handling classified information or working with military, diplomatic, or intelligence programs and operations." 'Hand in the woodchipper' As former officials described meetings with Trump to Smith's team, Trump only wanted to listen to new information about certain parts of the world, according to sources. In particular, the sources said, Smith's team was told that Trump was uninterested in hearing about Latin America or countries that he similarly thought were not essential. The sources said witnesses confirmed previous public reporting that Trump referred to such places as "s---hole countries" and suggested the United States should stop welcoming migrants from them. Today, on the presidential campaign trail, Trump continues to rail against migrants from Latin American countries and others who reached the southern border through parts of Latin America. Sources said former officials also told Smith's team that Trump refused to listen to certain briefings related to Russia, saying Trump "absolutely" didn't want to hear about Russian influence operations, and he couldn't be convinced that Russian troops were already operating inside Ukraine -- even as his own administration was publicly calling out their routine incursions into the country's eastern region to support Russian-backed separatists. On the campaign trail, Trump recently insisted that he would have prevented Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 if he were still commander-in-chief. According to the sources, one of Trump's former advisers joked with Smith's team last year that bringing up Russia during a meeting with Trump was like "stick[ing] my hand in the woodchipper again." In its most recent worldwide assessment, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Russia continues to pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and, more broadly, to "rules-based international order." MORE: Special counsel questioned witnesses about 2 rooms FBI didn't search inside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence: Sources As he has done in public, Trump often privately disagreed with conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community, especially related to Russia and Ukraine, choosing instead to rely on unverified claims from other people, sources said that Smith's investigators were told. And sources said former aides confirmed to Smith's investigators previous media reports that Trump almost never read the President's Daily Brief, a report summarizing classified intelligence and analysis on the day's most pressing issues. Trump preferred to receive such summaries verbally, according to sources. Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Trump referred ABC News to a statement by the former president in which he called the classified documents case a "two-tiered system of justice and unconstitutional selective prosecution." A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment to ABC News. 'Like a junk drawer' Throughout Trump's presidency, many of those who interacted with Trump every day saw him bring classified documents to unsecured locations, raising concerns among some of them, several witnesses told Smith's team, the sources said. As early as 2018, the Office of the Staff Secretary, which manages the documents flowing to the Oval Office, began asking personnel in the White House about documents that had gone missing, including some classified ones, one of Trump's personal valets told investigators, sources said. And at one point, sources said the valet recalled, he even warned the staff secretary's office that classified documents were being taken out of secure locations in white boxes and ending up in all sorts of potentially concerning places. According to the sources, several witnesses told Smith's team that they routinely saw classified documents or classified folders in Trump's White House residence, and that Trump would sometimes store as many as 30 boxes in his bedroom, which one valet said Trump treated "like a junk drawer." "I did not think that he respected what classified information was," sources quoted one former official as telling investigators. In Trump's first year in office, several media reports described how Trump had allegedly exposed sensitive information: In February 2017, he and Japan's then-prime minister reportedly discussed a response to North Korea's latest ballistic missile test over dinner in a crowded dining room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and then two months later Trump told the Philippines president on a phone call that the U.S. military had positioned two nuclear submarines near North Korea. The following month, Trump reportedly shared highly-sensitive intelligence about ISIS with Russian officials visiting the White House. Some witnesses who spoke with Smith's team, however, said they were not concerned by what they saw while Trump was president. Robert O'Brien, who served as Trump's national security adviser at the end of his presidency, told Smith's team that Trump "consistently" handled classified information appropriately, sources said. 'The Hunger Games' As some former officials described it to Smith's investigators, discussing the latest intelligence with Trump could be an unpredictable task, sources said. At times he would become so upset over what senior national security or intelligence officials were telling him that it would derail entire meetings, according to sources familiar with what witnesses told investigators. In one series of meetings, ahead of an international summit in Europe, Trump met with then-CIA director Gina Haspel, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and others to help plan for the summit. But when Trump was told positive things about one of the people he would likely meet at the summit, Trump "lost it," insisting that he didn't care, then he "lost it" again when he was being updated on a tax-related negotiation involving Mnuchin, sources said. The sources said Trump then pitted one of his top aides against Mnuchin in front of everyone else, escalating the tension so much that it reminded one of those present of the movie "The Hunger Games," with its dystopian death match broadcast live on national TV. The book published on the CIA's website quoted former President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, as saying that Trump was prone to "fly off on tangents; there might be eight or nine minutes of real intelligence in an hour's discussion." And while the intelligence community worked with evidence, Trump "was 'fact-free' -- evidence doesn't cut it with him," according to Clapper. Still, Clapper said Trump could be "courteous, affable, and complimentary" when he engaged with or referred to members of the U.S. intelligence community. 'People were really angry' Sources said that, as one former official described it to Smith's team, Trump's posting of the image from Iran's failed rocket launch revealed how the then-president "just didn't care" about protecting classified information. In 2021, Yahoo! News described how, during his briefing with intelligence officials, Trump thought the image "was very neat, and asked if he could keep it," which made some of the intelligence officials nervous, according to an administration official. But that news report didn't offer the same detailed account provided to Smith by witnesses last year. Sources told ABC News that while speaking with Smith's team, former aides and officials said Trump was specifically warned at the time that while he had the authority to declassify the image of Iran's botched launch, there were also potential risks associated with doing that. Trump initially agreed to wait while intelligence officials were then consulted, sources said, but the intelligence officials apparently took too long; about an hour later, Trump posted the image online. "I was so appalled," one former national security official told Smith's team, according to the sources. The former official noted that Trump may have believed it wasn't a big deal -- but only an expert would know if releasing such classified information could reveal "how we got it" it and whether it could "compromise our ability to get [it] in the future," the former official explained to Smith's team, according to the sources.
  2. Cybertruck is growing on me a little bit
  3. Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by US to hit Russian-held areas, officials say WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday. Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) — that it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the U.S. last October. One of the officials said the U.S. is providing more of these missiles in a new military aid package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Biden approved delivery of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, in early March, and the U.S. included a “significant” number of them in a $300 million aid package announced at the time, one official said. The two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delivery before it became public, would not provide the exact number of missiles given last month or in the latest aid package, which totals about $1 billion. Ukraine has been forced to ration its weapons and is facing increasing Russian attacks. Ukraine had been begging for the long-range system because the missiles provide a critical ability to strike Russian targets that are farther away, allowing Ukrainian forces to stay safely out of range. Information about the delivery was kept so quiet that lawmakers and others in recent days have been demanding that the U.S. send the weapons — not knowing they were already in Ukraine. For months, the U.S. resisted sending Ukraine the long-range missiles out of concern that Kyiv could use them to hit deep into Russian territory, enraging Moscow and escalating the conflict. That was a key reason the administration sent the mid-range version, with a range of about 160 kilometers (roughly 100 miles), in October instead. A senior U.S. military official said Wednesday that the White House and military planners looked carefully at the risks of providing long-range fires to Ukraine and determined that the time was right to provide them now. Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Associated Press in an interview that long-range weapons will help Ukraine take out Russian logistics nodes and troop concentrations that are not on the front lines. He declined to identify what specific weapons were being provided but said they will be “very disruptive if used properly, and I’m confident they will be.” Like many of the other sophisticated weapons systems provided to Ukraine, the administration weighed whether their use would risk further escalating the conflict. “I think the time is right, and the boss (Biden) made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now,” Grady said Wednesday. “I think it was a very well considered decision, and we really wrung it out — but again, any time you introduce a new system, any change — into a battlefield, you have to think through the escalatory nature of it.” Ukrainian officials haven’t publicly acknowledged the receipt or use of long-range ATACMS. But in thanking Congress for passing the new aid bill Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted on the social platform X that “Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, artillery and air defense are extremely important tools for the quick restoration of a just peace.” One of the U.S. officials said the Biden administration warned Russia last year that if Moscow acquired and used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to Kyiv. Russia got some of those weapons from North Korea and has used them on the battlefield in Ukraine, said the official, prompting the Biden administration to greenlight the new long-range missiles. The U.S. had refused to confirm that the long-range missiles were given to Ukraine until they were actually used on the battlefield and Kyiv leaders approved the public release. One official said the weapons were used early last week to strike the airfield in Dzhankoi, a city in Crimea, a peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. They were used again overnight east of the occupied city of Berdyansk. Videos on social media last week showed the explosions at the military airfield, but officials at the time would not confirm it was the ATACMS. Ukraine’s first use of the weapon came as political gridlock in Congress had delayed approval of a $95 billion foreign aid package for months, including funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies. Facing acute shortages of artillery and air defense systems, Ukraine has been rationing its munitions as U.S. funding was delayed. With the war now in its third year, Russia used the delay in U.S. weapons deliveries and its own edge in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs — dropped from planes from a safe distance — to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition. The mid-range missiles provided last year, and some of the long-range ones sent more recently, carry cluster munitions that open in the air when fired, releasing hundreds of bomblets rather than a single warhead. Others sent recently have a single warhead. One critical factor in the March decision to send the weapons was the U.S. Army’s ability to begin replacing the older ATACMS. The Army is now buying the Precision Strike Missile, so is more comfortable taking ATACMS off the shelves to provide to Ukraine, the official said.
  4. Wondered about that... Really? It's been a long long time since I read the book.
  5. It shows the audience that he in fact does leave Japan and Toranaga's velvet cage.
  6. That was his best work yet!
  7. My blood should be pretty hostile. Spent Sat/Sun doing landscape work in the AM and then chilling in the pool with Vodka/Topo Chico & Pineapple... that stuff is dangerous. Last night I thought I was just a little sun burnt and slept like shit. Felt worse and worse all day, had the test sitting around, so figured what the hell... Positive right off the bat. Ricola & Tylenol are all I'm using. I wonder if there are cheap flights to NY? Just kidding I'm hunkering down at home
  8. Got my daughter's done at the post office, got my son's done at the courthouse. Court house all day every day... Faster, easier, cheaper. No brainer
  9. 3rd Cybertruck sighting... this one was being towed. Lulz
  10. Trump Privately Rages About His Sketch Artist, Courtroom Nap Reports Donald Trump, if you take it from him, is cherishing the opportunity to stand trial on criminal charges related to a hush-money payment to a porn star. “I’m very proud to be here,” he told reporters before heading into court on Monday, calling the proceedings an “assault on America” that his presence, presumably, would serve to expose. “I’m very honored to be here,” the former president added. Trump hasn’t been taking to martyrdom very well behind the scenes, though, three sources with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone. He has privately raged over everything from reports that he can’t stop dozing off, to how the court sketch artist is rendering him, to late-night talk show hosts joking about his legal troubles. The former president is reaching levels of fury over the judicial process and all it entails that are “maxed out, even for him,” says one source who has had to personally endure Trump’s recent rantings about his trial. The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has a lengthy track record of getting volcanically angry, and often allowing his rage to dictate political, legal, and policy decisions. But with the historic first criminal trial of an American president now underway, his public and private wrath has become particularly multi-faceted, and sustained to the point that longtime confidants have taken notice. Among the heavily recurring topics in Trump’s private sniping this past week — according to the source, another person familiar with the situation, and a different Trumpworld figure briefed on the matter — is the former president’s bitterness towards New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who reported in print, online, and on CNN that Trump was visibly nodding off while in court. “He appeared to be asleep,” she told the network. “He didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest, and his mouth kept going slack.” The observation immediately went viral, provoking an irate denial from Trump’s campaign and reigniting the former president’s antipathy towards Haberman, who has been reporting on him for years. The resentment lasted the entire week, the sources add. It did not help Trump’s denial that he continued to doze off while seated in the Manhattan courtroom throughout the rest of the week. “Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again,” Haberman wrote on Friday. “His eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice.” In recent conversations with Republican associates, Trump has repeatedly torn into Haberman and her CNN appearances, attacked her journalistic credentials, and bizarrely insisted that she was wrong about him falling asleep. Despite his dozing being widely reported, the former president has laid much of the blame for the detail going viral at Haberman’s feet. He was even observed glaring at her on Monday as he exited the courtroom following her CNN appearance. It’s not just Haberman who’s been inflaming Trump during the first days of his criminal trial. Trump has also privately asked people close to him if they agree that the courtroom sketch-artist must be out to get him, two of the sources say. Trump has critiqued the sketches of him that have circulated in the media this week, and insisted some of the images were likely drawn to make fun of him. One such sketch captured Trump snoozing, with his eyes closed and head tilted. When court broke for lunch on Tuesday, Trump was observed licking his lips as he walked down the middle aisle before flashing a small smile at the courtroom sketch artist as he exited. “None of these sources know what the hell they’re talking about and clearly have no access to any type of factual information,” says Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung. “These are the types of losers who will try to peddle fantasy as fact because they live miserable existences.” The former (and perhaps future) president has also voraciously monitored the media and entertainment coverage of the trial. He appeared especially upset with Jimmy Kimmel, the comedian and ABC late-night host who has been commenting on the trial with relish, and whom Trump has long despised — to the point that, as Rolling Stone reported, he tried to get his White House staff to pressure Disney, which owns ABC, to force Kimmel to stop making fun of him. “Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his horrendous performance and big ratings drop as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night,” Trump wrote on Wednesday, referring to Kimmel reading one of Trump’s posts criticizing him during the Oscars last month. Trump added that Kimmel pulled off a “CLASSIC CHOKE” job by fumbling the Best Picture announcement, confusing the host with Al Pacino. Trump, sources recount, has also been savagely annoyed about some of the rejected jurors — and the memes and social-media mockery that they posted that he was forced to engage with in court. Jury selection wrapped up on Friday, but dozens were dismissed over posts they had made roasting Trump or after admitting they could not be impartial. The court dismissed one potential juror after Trump’s legal team had flagged their social media post last month of an AI-generated video featuring Trump saying “I’m dumb as fuck.” Trump’s lawyers sought to strike another potential juror over social media posts made or shared by her husband in 2016. In one, Trump’s head is in the hands of a character from The Simpsons. In another, Trump is pictured next to former President Barack Obama with a comment about how this is not what was meant by “Orange Is the New Black.” A third post was set in the theme of “The Avengers Unite Against Trump.” While the challenge failed, the woman was ultimately dismissed. Judge Juan Merchan reprimanded Trump for being “audible” and “gesturing” within 12 feet of a juror who was asked to explain a social media post showing people celebrating Biden’s 2020 win. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom,” Merchan said before directing the defense team to counsel their client on his behavior. Trump has also, of course, been publicly wailing about several aspects of the trial, including the “freezing” temperature in the courtroom; the jury selection process, which he seemed to think allowed his team the ability to blackball an “unlimited” number of prospective jurors; and the expansive gag order Merchan imposed on Trump in the wake of Trump repeatedly attacking his daughter on social media. Trump was especially incensed about the order Friday morning. “People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order, just to show you how much more unfair it is,” he ranted to reporters outside the courtroom, before calling the people who continue to talk about him “real scum.” To those who’ve known Trump for a long time, or who used to work for him, it’s no surprise that the gravity and process of this criminal trial would uniquely, severely grate on him. “I was actually just thinking this morning about how cold [Trump] kept complaining to be yesterday. In his normal world, someone would have jumped up and run, not walked, to get the temperature perfect for him,” says Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former White House press secretary who fell out with him years ago. “This entire experience must be beyond uncomfortable for him, not just the fact that it dives into such personal details, but he has absolutely no control for probably the first time since he was a young child.” Grisham adds that Trump being on trial this week “reminded me that not only in the White House, but every facet of his life — be it at Mar-a-Lago or Trump Tower or Bedminster — he has a group of people that cater to his every whim. At Mar-a-Lago, people literally stand and applaud him just for walking into the room, and in court, he has to sit there quietly while some people talk about how much they don’t like him. I can’t imagine how hard it has been for him not to get up and storm out of the place like a five-year-old.” He’ll have plenty more chances to do just that, as opening arguments don’t even begin until Monday. Judge Merchan warned Trump this week, however, that if he misbehaves or skips out on the proceedings, he’ll be subject to arrest. Trump said he understands.
  11. The house I bought in 2003 had an old simple washer and dryer pair from the 90's. I thought to myself that I would replace them once they broke. Well the joke was on me because they both ran for another 18yrs. (washer still worked fine) I was temped to repair again, but stuff was starting to rust underneath. Looked at the Speed Queen stuff... simple and durable, but we rolled the dice on modern stuff. I am not optimistic at all.
  12. Fuck this... UPDATE | Petty Officer First Class David Elizalde gets 30 days home detention — and chance to save his career in the Navy. "Not because it's my job to ensure he doesn't lose his job," Judge Nichols said, "but because he has served our nation honorably."
  13. This is not the French Navy!
  14. This is so much bullshit. The Red team (which is led by Trump) made it political. Canada had 135.23 deaths per 100k Case fatality rate: 1.1% Mexico had 260.73 deaths per 100k Case fatality rate: 4.5% US had 341.11 deaths per 100k Case fatality rate: 1.1% The president's response was like a monkey fucking a football. That's on Trump and the GOP. I was amazed they threw their older base under the bus to own the Libs Source: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
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