What do the Presidents know that we don''t?

I was a personal assistant to a governor when I was just out of college about 20 years ago. I carried his bag and kept him on track. I had to get a state security clearance. I had to sit in on many meetings with him. Some of the stuff you hear is insane. It amazed me how much is hidden from the general public. This was on the state level, so I can't even begin to imagine what the President knows. If I'm not mistaken, even a president doesn't have the top top clearance. There is a reason why presidents turn gray.

They know who butters their bread - the rich. And everyone else can go fuck themselves.

I think we're all damned lucky we're not selling apples on the street corner and riding around the country in boxcars right now. I don't think we'll know for decades just how close we came to a complete meltdown of the financial system 2 years ago.

I also think the system is still more fragile than almost anyone realizes, and that explains the extension of the tax cuts.

I don't even want to guess about military threats and what the terrorists are trying at any given time. I think if we knew 20% we wouldn't sleep nights.

You just watched Conspiracy Theories, didn't you, OP?

[quote]If I'm not mistaken, even a president doesn't have the top top clearance

I'm pretty sure you are mistaken.

No, R4, even more frightening: I just watched Clinton step in for Obama so Obama could go to a party. They handled the Presidency like a couple of girls switching shifts at Dunkin Donuts. I hope Clinton gets time and a half.

So what happens when the inevitable unemployment extension runs out in 13 months? There still aren't going to be any jobs. %0D %0D

Just from doing some Googling, it appears that a President has "need to know" clearance. Meaning that he or she has access to everything that he or she asks for, but if he or she doesn't need to know it or doesn't ask for it, then no one volunteers the information.

I think they're going to start shipping people under contract over to China and India and you won't be allowed to return, they'll call it a great opportunity, a jobs program. And these people will never be seen again.

I'm convinced the President knows more about environmental threats than we do. The planet is dying. We'll be experiencing food and water shortages, etc. mich sooner than originally expected. We're running out of arable land to grow enough food to feed people. More and more stuff is going to be chemically laced and artificial. We're running out of fresh water. %0D %0D The ocean will no longer be a food source. certain species of fish are already dying off from being over harvested. The ocean itself is filthy. There are debris fields out there that are thousands of square miles. Stuff like the BP tragedy will accelerate the deterioration.%0D %0D The push to conserve, to develop technologies and to explore resources in outer space is really urgent. The President knows it.%0D %0D I also think he knows how close we've come to nuclear disaster, how often, and who we really can and cannot trust out here. He knows were are a debtor nation, a client of the Chinese. No longer a super power.%0D %0D If you wonder why he is supporting and sustaining the stuff Bush and Clinton supported, it's because he's hoping for the huge payday they both get from The Carlyle Group. Them that's got shall get, etc.

I love r6

R1, can you give any examples of crazy things you witnessed at the state level?

Clearly they are told something pretty serious right after they're sworn in. Look at how many Presidents go seriously gray within weeks or months of taking office.%0D %0D Notice how their demenor completely changes from election to being President. %0D %0D

something is afoot. i can't figure out what the end game is here, but things are too crazy politically and economically, and this undisguised rush to get as much of the wealth concentrated into fewer hands is disturbing, to say the least.

i really wonder what's the result TPTB hope to achieve?

r8 all clearances are "need to know". Just because you have a secret or top secret or ither clearance, it doesn't mean you have access to everything at that clearance level. You always have to have a need to know that information as well as the proper clearance level.

I agree. I think they get a freaky ass briefing immediately after being told they've been chosen.

If the world is coming to an end, what the hell use will money be? Unless death is avoidable and they're building underearth bunkers for their families.

It all goes back to three things. Kansas, Cream Corn and Tom Cruise. You will find the answers to everything there. Trust.

We're in a war.%0D %0D Remember the "cold war"? Well, that's over.%0D %0D The new war is the oligarchs against everyone else.%0D %0D They declared war on the middle class. They don't like the middle class... they want willing serfs, not people who think they have rights.%0D %0D They want desperate people who will do anything for them, and not complain.%0D %0D Republicans are their willing servants.%0D %0D It's a war we're all losing.%0D %0D The reality is that the American Century is over, a few decades too soon. The American Empire is dying. And the rich are taking their pound of flesh while the getting is good, picking at the carcass while it's still warm.%0D %0D It's going to get worse and worse, no matter who is in office.%0D %0D

Well, I didn't imagine they did a data dump into the President's brain through some USB port. Of course he doesn't know everything that's ever been classified. But I'm sure he knows (or at least is supposed to know) about any current operations and programs. All those people do report to him as the Executive or the Commander in Chief.

Are the VP and Sec of State and Sec Def told the whole story too? Are they briefed in totality as is the President?%0D %0D Hilly's hair is looking a bit silverish these days R13.

[quote]I don't even want to guess about military threats and what the terrorists are trying at any given time. I think if we knew 20% we wouldn't sleep nights.

Definitely agree with this. It's easy to talk about reducing the military budget (I do it all the time), but sometimes I think I might make the same decisions if I knew what the government knows.

VP probably yes, if the President wants him to know, but I'm sure there are military issues that the Secretary of State is not briefed on and diplomatic issues that the Secretary of Defense is not briefed on.

Of course, I'm sure Cheney knew much more than Bush.

I disagree with R22. I think the terrorist threat is overstated and that we do know most of what has been attempted. The government likes to publicize foiled plots to look they they're doing something.

Don't forget that the Military took Roosevelt out of the loop on the A Bomb Project because they thought he was a security risk, and they had to brief Truman about it when he became President because he didn't know a thing about it.

Fast forward 60 years and ask yourself if the Military is telling Obama (or Bush or whoever) everything. I seriously doubt it.

Cheney knew everything of course, but he's family.

I think Obama is an MK Ultra project and has been under their control for a very long time.

These threads bring out DL's best and brightest.

*blows kisses to R27!*%0D %0D Actually,it starts after the election's been certified, accelerating leading up to the Inauguration. It's the Daily Briefings. %0D %0D A President-elect has to shift from campaign mode,to governing mode. The weight and impact of what he's now responsible for, is pretty crushing. That's why there's a dramatic change in appearance so soon.%0D %0D What they tell us via the media is tip of the iceberg. Example: Officially,transitioning in Iraq is "on schedule" and we start phasing out our Afghanistan next year. The reality's way different. %0D %0D The truth is, foreign fighters are filtering into Iraq as we speak. civil war. Afghanistan will ultimately be a "failed state" with civil wars,actually drug wars,and the Taliban will to seize control,in fact controls almost half the country now. %0D %0D We're stuck. Either help the drug barons or the Taliban who attacked us. Taliban hates the druggies. Karzai's days are numbered. The President didn't go to meet with him because they could not guarantee the President's security. It was not "the weather."%0D %0D Finally, Pakistan is in a very fragile state. The place will blow like a poweder keg. We will have to take extreme action immediately and our operatives are poised and ready to move ASAP. With a lot of help from India.

1. The military is like a drug addict, addicted to tax payer money. They have gone in psychosis with "imagined threats" around the world. The world is not doing that badly, worse because of insane US military involvement.

2. The wealthy class actively but indirectly, threatens the President, let it be known that they are not beyond whacking him and his family if he does not cave in. (See the Washington based Family).

3. Knowledge of things like alien life and environmental disaster is not that secret. It was brought up at the Stockholm conference, in 2005, that even with extreme financial commitment (1000X), the environmental chaos that will happen in about 90 years, can only be slowed down 3-4 years. That it is a waste of money investing in the environment, we are beyond that point already.

4. The US President does not have the power of years past and is a token figure.

"Is something up? Is the government preparing for something we don't know about yet?"

Yes, a presidential election in November 2012. Loosen the foil, toots--the expiration date merely takes the issue off the plate for the 2012 race for the WH.

[quote]If I'm not mistaken, even a president doesn't have the top top clearance

The President doesn't have a security clearance the way other people do. He is automatically granted access to anything he wants or needs. There is no "need to know" with the President.

That said, someone up thread was correct: there are things that aren't "volunteered" to the President unless he specifically asks...and even then he can be given the run-around.

The Military has always been under the control of the Republicans, whether they are in office or not.

The US Military is a Republican based, Evangelical Christian Organization.

No, the question is what do presidents know that we pretend we don't.

We are on the brink of worldwide economic collapse. As Ireland goes, so will the rest of us.

Moreover, as is obvious, the Republicans are virtually in power after the last election and will stop anything at any price to get what they want. %C2%A0Obama is merely facing facts. Sanders, Weiner and other well-thinking people can think otherwise. But it's simply not the case. We are stuck with this bullshit. We are stuck with a stupid public who voted in this new crop of bastards and that is just the way it is.

The Republicans are teflon. We are stuck with a media who allows that to continue.

Obama is being a realist.

Rather than being sick of defending him, as that woman said at that town hall meeting, she should be sick of a state of stupidity in this country.

maybe the dingo ate your baby?

I love Joe Biden, but do we really want Joe wandering around with too many secrets in his head?

So true R28 -- the problem is that P has nukes and one push of the button and it'll be over before we know what happened

I think the president campaigns and then gets in office and finds out the way things really are and has to adjust accordingly. I mean, who knows what kind of president W would have been without 911? What kind of president Clinton would have been without the booming economy?

R6 why did you have to use "girls" in such a dismissive way? Couldn't you have just said "staff"?

[quote]...that even with extreme financial commitment (1000X), the environmental chaos that will happen in about 90 years, can only be slowed down 3-4 years. That it is a waste of money investing in the environment, we are beyond that point already.%0D %0D Which is why people should just stop having children NOW.

[quote]Rather than being sick of defending him, as that woman said at that town hall meeting, she should be sick of a state of stupidity in this country.%0D %0D %0D Why can't we be both? I'm certainly both.%0D %0D

[quote] the latest example being the fight to extend tax cuts for the wealthy until December, 2012? Why December, 2012?

Because December 2012 is after the election of November 2012.

[quote]why did you have to use "girls" in such a dismissive way? Couldn't you have just said "staff"?%0D %0D %0D Uh-oh, someone mis-placed their vagina cape.

The sky is falling!

It's 2010 and we're still doing threads about Clinton's "huge THING"?

OK, 31, I'll bite. Where have you been exactly, and what have you done?

R45 I doubt he's going to tell you (due to troll-dar)

You are all wrong. The president doesn't know the BASIC things about the running of the country. Foreign leaders get a report every morning of the funds flow into and out of the country. The US President gets nothing. Foreign leaders get daily summaries of tax collections, expenditures, and forecasts. The President gets a report once a month if that. Foreign leaders get daily summaries of exports, imports, key industries, and banking data (deposits, etc.). The president gets a weekly figure that means nothing since it is verified against nothing.%0D %0D Beginning in 1970 Richard Nixon got rid of the White House Communications staff. Since that time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been in charge of all White House communications. Clinton was supposed to change that, but I don't think it actually happened. So the president knows no more or less than the generals want him to know.%0D %0D I mean think about it, on 9/11 the president is taken to Louisiana and then Omaha, where he meets with a whole battery of generals and admirals who just "happen" to be there? As well as a bevy of private millionaires like Buffet and Kiewit?%0D %0D %0D %0D

"Shortly after we took off from Sarasota, Andy (Card) and Eddie Marinzel, the wiry athletic Secret Service agent from Pittsburgh who led my detail on 9/11, started to throw cold water on the idea (of returning to Washington)....%0D %0D "One of my greatest frustrations on September 11 was the woeful communications technology on Air Force One....%0D %0D "Landing at Barksdale felt like dropping onto a movie set. F-1s from my old unit at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston had escorted us in. The taxiway was lined with bombers....%0D %0D "I connected with Don Rumsfeld on a secure phone in General Keck's office at Barksdale. Don had been hard to track dowwn....approved his decision to raise the military readiness to DefCon Three...%0D %0D "I pressed Andy on when we could head back to the white House. The Secret Service agents felt it was still too uncertain. Dick and Condi agreed. They recommended that I go to the Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. It had secure housing space and reliable communications....%0D %0D "After we arrived at Offutt, I was taken to the command center, which was filled with military officers who had been taking part in a planned exercise. Suddenly, a voice crackled over the sound system, 'Mr. President, a nonresponsive plane is coming in from Madrid..."%0D %0D "Then I turned to George Tenet. 'Who did this?' I asked. George answered with two words: al Qaeda."%0D %0D Really? the Decider?%0D

The plan is to shrink the size of government. No more hand outs to the citizens and no more public service. It's time to pay for everything out of our own pockets and to be slaves to the MegaCorps.

The parties set their agendas and whoever they choose to be the face of the party has to sell their agenda to the public. Obama does not decide on policy. The senior members of the Dems decide that along with their MegaCorp masters. Obama just carries out what the party decides. Clinton did have tremendous input regarding strategy and policy. He is very clever and knows how to strategize like a pro.

Stop thinking like this is actually a democracy and things will make more sense to you.

Dick Cheney told the story of how on 9/11 he was busy working at his desk and the Secret Service walked in, picked him up still in the chair and took him to "safety."

When it comes to personal security, people under SS protection are just hunks of meat to be shielded, and with less talk, the better.

I forget where I read it but Clinton himself once said to someone "there are two governments. One I have some control over and one I have zero control over". And he wasn't talking about Congress either.

I believe it was President Ford who soon after taking office asked some hard questions about UFO's. He was told by the high ups who would know about such things, "sir, that is a 'need to know' situation, and your clearance doesn't go that high".

Who leads the secret government?

[quote]Who leads the secret government? Cher. Like, duh.

Ex-P.F.C. WIntergreen runs the real government. Has for 65 years now.

I once asked an FBI agent with the highest security clearance about UFOs - all he would say is there is no evidence. Remember UFO doesn't necessarily mean little green men.

I remember that Obama looked really sick after his first meetings that were suppose to inform him. I thought, Bush was so stupid and crazy...none of it made any difference to him...he wasn't running things anyway.

R55, I don't care if their not green. %0D %0D I'd be happy with Fuschia or Periwinkle. Actually, I really love a true Periwinkle.%0D %0D Not Clinton was referring to the corporate dons who control everything. Go see Oliver Stone's movie, Wall Street. When the meltdown hit and all those guys were sitting in that room. Those guys. %0D %0D It's either them or that Brazilian girl from "V."

Clinton believed that the Fed would sabotage him as required by shutting down credit if he didn't do what they wanted. He probably has Obama thinking this too.%0D

[quote]Who leads the secret government?

From what I've heard there are governmental agencies that the president knows little about and has zero control over. Hell, look at what goes on at Area 51. The president basically knows nothing about that site.

Also all presidents know that there are entities within the government that would not hesitate to take him out (if you get my meaning) should be start becoming too much of a problem or start getting involved in areas they consider none of his business.

The president of the United States does not have near the power that someone like Valdimir Putin has in Russia. I think Medvedev is more on the same level, vis a vis his true authority, as Obama.

oooh, the shadow government...%0D %0D to quote Jason Lee, "You're in OJ land, man!"

The aliens who loaned us the planet are P I S S E D.

[quote]Hell, look at what goes on at Area 51. The president basically knows nothing about that site.%0D %0D Area 51 is a base where experimental aircraft are designed and tested. When these aircraft are in the air, people point and say UFO!

R62, you are far too rational for Datalounge.

Someone here once said that when new presidents get their first full briefing with the generals they show him a film of the JFK assassination that is similar to the Zapruder film but shot from someone else's perspective. Then they sit around and talk for a while.

Apparently Bill C. came out of his meeting totally speechless.

r64, are we to believe that this doesn't actually happen until they take office? I mean, wouldn't it make sense to give them "the talk" before they're nominated? Otherwise, you run the risk they could "go rogue" like JFK. Then you gotta take him out, which can be done, but there's always the risk it could look fishy, especially if the last suspicious death was kind of recent.

[quote]this undisguised rush to get as much of the wealth concentrated into fewer hands is disturbing, to say the least%0D %0D %0D This could have been written one hundred years ago, for heaven's sake. Educate yourself and calm down.

[quote]sometimes I think I might make the same decisions if I knew what the government knows.%0D %0D There's hope for you younguns yet.%0D

STREISAND FOR PRESIDENT; BROLIN FOR V.P.

yes, it could have been written 100 years ago, r66. the past has a way of repeating itself, and if they had taken steps to stop the upwards redistribution of wealth at that time, our nation wouldn't have lived the 10 years of the economic misery of the great depression.

difference is, when we collapse this time, it will be much, much worse.

[quote]Dick Cheney told the story of how on 9/11 he was busy working at his desk and the Secret Service walked in, picked him up still in the chair and took him to "safety." When it comes to personal security, people under SS protection are just hunks of meat to be shielded, and with less talk, the better.

Why wasn't the same done to Bush? Secret Service couldn't wait for Cheney to even get out of his chair, but they let Bush just sit there.

R51 could never, ever find where she read that quote because it doesn't exist.

R70, the VP is a spare body; the president has to appear in public and do things.

Except, if you're Obama you can delegate your duties to an ex-president.

[quote]I forget where I read it but Clinton himself once said to someone "there are two governments. One I have some control over and one I have zero control over". %0D %0D Govt agencies and departments have programs and operations that run for decades. %0D %0D The Secy of Defense in one administration may be Secy of Transportation in the next.%0D %0D Cheney, Rumsfeld, McNamara, Perle, etc served in govt for many years, under many different Presidents, moving between programs and operations. %0D %0D Read "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler and you will understand the why and how of things.

I know the President has to appear in public, but if there is a threat to his life it's the secret service's job to protect him. Get him away from danger. Isn't that why they didn't go to Washington?

R66 seems unaware of all the blood and sacrifice that went into changing those conditions of 100 years ago.%0D

If history teaches us anything, it is that things don't get better because people want them to. Somebody has to make it happen. unfortunately, none of our elected leaders is making it happen.%0D

I think they sit them down and tell them, by the way, you're not actually in charge of anything, you're the public face of our policy and you will sell it to the best of your ability. And if you don't believe us, let's watch this little movie of Kennedy's head getting blown off.

[quote]Dick Cheney told the story of how on 9/11 he was busy working at his desk and the Secret Service walked in, picked him up still in the chair and took him to "safety."

Oh good God, if he really said that he was lying through his fucking teeth. The SS is not going to just walk in a pick someone up while sitting in their chair. The damn man has legs and can walk. The SS would simply go in, tell him what had happened and that it was required that he be taken to a safe location immediately, and he'd get up and walk out with them.

It's amazing at some of the cock & bull stories some people will believe.

^ It would actually take longer to physically pick him and move him than to just have him walk.

does cheney lie about what he eats for breakfast too?

anyone who has EVER moved knows that getting a chair through a door frame is an exercise in contortions and frustration. getting a chair held up by at least four SS agents holding up an obese man would be impossible.

All real revolutions were done by the middle class. It's only when the middle class takes to the streets that things change.

They don't have to put a bullet in anyone's head anymore all they need is a cum stain on a blue dress or some other sex scandal. All they would need is pictures of Obama being intimate with a White woman. Hell they wouldn't even need pictures and it wouldn't need to be true. History of lynching has taught us that.

I think Cheney just likes the idea that he'd be carried around this way.

In Washington DC, the only thing worse than being caught in bed with a dead girl is a live boy.

When will the Americans stop going on about JFK?

Okay there's a secret government, so who's the puppet master?

Bump Bump BUMP BUMP Bump Bump BUMP!

The Pentagon. Duh. They operate in secrecy, about a third of their total budget is secret, and they have NEVER had a comprehensive employment reform.

"The President doesn't have a security clearance the way other people do. He is automatically granted access to anything he wants or needs. There is no 'need to know' with the President."

That is correct. The president IS the Executive Branch and others who work in it are acting in his name. He is, to apply a British term, the fount of all powers. If he speaks of something, he declassifies it just by doing so. That was sorely proven in the Valerie Plame matter.

By the way, to add something here that is somewhat novel, the wisest decision Bush ever made was forging stronger relations with India. 100 years from now, if there is society then, he will be remembered for that as much as for 9/11. He will be remembered, as the record will show, and not Cheney or his advisers.

No that was yet another dumb decision by Bush. We have got nothing to show for it except more illwill from a) China and b) the Muslim world and c) Myanmar.

They know that the CIA & the Pentagon have controlled the Presidency ever since they assassinated JFK.

Th3ey know the truth about Jani Lane's sexuality.

They know that 9/11 was not done by 19 flight-school dropouts with box-cutters.

They know that I was killed for my insubordination.

US Military = Wall Street = Republican Party

If you get rid of the US military, you get rid of Wall Streets power and the Republican party.

Stop drinking the punch people. The US does not need to spend 50% of every tax dollar on a military, chasing threats, the US military is creating itself by having Armed US forces on the ground in over 70 countries today.

R35 yes we do, it's much better then Trump. We don't want him wondering around with the countries secret's in his head.

But then again, I guess it's to late now.

R96 you should burn in hell for resurrecting this thread. I hope your family suffers, too.

P.S., Russian troll - learn to spell.

Aliens

UFOS