Well, well, well:
Almost two weeks after President Donald Trump’s tweets accusing his predecessor of wiretapping Trump Tower, the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee tried to offer some support by saying that the president’s team was caught up in a U.S. surveillance net.
Representative Devin Nunes said Wednesday that the intelligence community collected multiple conversations involving members of Trump’s transition team during legal surveillance of foreign targets after he won election last year. After Nunes went to the White House to brief Trump, the president told reporters “I somewhat do” feel vindicated by the latest development.
The committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff of California, said Nunes’s decision to go to Trump before informing other members of the panel “casts quite a profound cloud” over whether the committee can conduct a proper investigation.
Nunes said he was “alarmed” to discover that the identities of Trump aides were revealed in intelligence community documents. “Details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in an intelligence community report,” he said, adding that he didn’t know if Trump’s “own communications were intercepted.”
First off, let’s dispense with the nonsense that Trump should feel vindicated. He claimed he was wiretapped, he wasn’t. This was routine surveillance on known bad actors and his team got caught up in it because… they were consorting with known bad actors. It’s the difference between me having my microwave take pictures of me in my underwear screaming “FASTER” while I nuke a hotpocket and me being accidentally picked up on a recording of drug dealers when I went to buy crack. Instead of being validated that he was in fact being wiretapped, a more clever man would wonder if maybe he should spend so much time hanging out with crack dealers. Donald Trump is not a clever man.
Second, Rep. Adam Schiff is about to fucking explode:
Today, Chairman Nunes shared information with WH still withheld from our committee. He cannot conduct a credible investigation this way. pic.twitter.com/wwrp7H7JWC
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 22, 2017
I’d like to know what kind of shit Bannon has on Devin Nunes, because at this point it has to be in the “live boy” territory.
Meanwhile, addled old warmonger Walnuts almost killed a man rushing to the cameras to throw in his two fucking cents, and while it contains a bit of the pox on both houses bullshit, what he is calling for would be HIGHLY entertaining:
Congress no longer has the credibility to independently tackle a probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Trump and his associates’ ties to Moscow, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday.
“It’s a bizarre situation, and what I think, the reason why I’m calling for this select committee or a special committee, is I think that this back-and-forth and what the American people have found out so far that no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone,” McCain told MSNBC’s Greta Van Susteren. “And I don’t say that lightly.”
McCain’s comments come amid an increasingly bitter feud that erupted between members of the House Intelligence Committee earlier Wednesday, after the panel’s chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) claimed that he had seen evidence that the U.S. intelligence community incidentally surveilled members of Trump’s transition team.
The inadvertent surveillance, Nunes said, was not tied to ongoing Russia investigation.
The committee’s top Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) fired back, blasting Nunes for routing the committee before briefing Trump himself on the apparent findings and saying that the move “casts quite a profound cloud” over the panel’s investigation.
And why the fuck not? We spent ten days investigating Bill Clinton’s Christmas Card list, who knows how many hundreds of millions on other sham investigations into Bill and Hillary, why not spend a couple million to lift up Putin’s kilt and see if we find Trump down there on his knees?
NotMax
Meanwhile, karma is a beeyotch. Judge Gorsuch had a decision overturned, unanimously, by the Supreme Court while he was appearing before the Senate committee.
Major Major Major Major
Reposting from below, CNN alert says “US officials have information that indicates Trump associates possibly coordinated with Russians to release information damaging to Clinton campaign”
zhena gogolia
I’m sorry, the correct expression is “let’s dispel with the nonsense.”
zhena gogolia
I think a kilt is about the only costume Putin hasn’t tried.
Thru the Looking Glass...
What’s that old joke?
We were discussing this situation a couple of threads lower earlier in the day…
Like I said before… boy that didn’t take long…
Lalophobia
Also according to Schiff, the evidence against Trump is no longer confined to the realm of circumstantial.
https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/844669163717246976
Postscript: I don’t know how to post tweets.
bystander
The good news is Adam Schiff Let’s dispel with the nonsense that he doesn’t know how to skewer his opponents effectively.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@NotMax: @Major Major Major Major: Well dang… after a few too many not-so-good days in a row… this is turning into a very good one…
pk
I don’t even have words any more to describe how much I hate this man. UGH! Some new words have to be invented which will describe my feelings.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@zhena gogolia:
No, ‘”dispense with” is correct. Or “dispel the nonsense” is also acceptable.
Gravenstone
Always remember, Nunes was on the Trump transition team. He’s as dirty as any of the rest of them and knows his own dick is in the pickle slicer with the rest of the clowns.
Iowa Old Lady
@Major Major Major Major: I want them all in jail.
bystander
All evidence is circumstantial, or so I learned in law school. The question is whether it is conclusory.
Mary G
@zhena gogolia: That phrase must DIAF.
Attapooch
Given the number of dead Russians that were tangentially connected to all this that are now turning up dead, if I were Manafort or Stone I’d be messing my pants right around now.
Putin’s got as much as he’s going to get from Team Trump and he’s undoubtedly going to burn them soon which will cause even more chaos for us to Russia’s benefit.
bystander
@Gravenstone: Has TengUPhule heard of this pickle slicer whence you speak?
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack (tablet): it’s a Rubioism.
Jeffro
@Gravenstone: that phrase sure made me cringe.
Not that it’s not accurate… I’m just saying…
JPL
@Attapooch: I thought that until Tillerson said he wasn’t going to the NATO meeting, but would be visiting Russia in April. I have no idea what’s going to happen, although I know this is not normal.
bystander
Liberty Valance is on. I saw this at a drive in movie in 1962. It was as irritating then as it is now.
Jeffro
Page and Stone must be absolutely shitting bricks right now and making plans to head out tonight with a suitcase of cash and a couple good disguises
Timurid
All those people who refused to leak damaging info on Trump because it would compromise the investigation have no reason to hold onto it now that the investigation has been compromised. And the leaks are starting right on cue…
Kay
This seems amazing to me:
I didn’t believe they’d find a connection. I know they’re all mobbed up and some were paid by Putin associates and owning and owing all sorts of complex shit but I didn’t think they were dumb enough to make direct contact.
Wow. They are that dumb and reckless.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Iowa Old Lady:
I second that…
I’m not interested in a slaps on the wrist, admissions of wrong doing, contrite teary apologies, or moving on for the good of the country…
If it’s appropriate, I wanna see perp walks for the cameras, trials, and responsible parties getting handed some serious stretches of time…
But only done properly and legally… none of that “Lock her up” BS…
After all… we ARE a country of laws…
Yarrow
Trump is going down. They are all going down.
dm
This business with Nunes almost seems like history repeating the pre-election Comey tragedy, this time as farce.
ETA: I started to say that I’d accept a few of them rooming in Kim Philby’s old apartment in Moscow — jail would make them martyrs for the true “Lock her up!” believers while Moscow would make the traitors. Then I thought about Snowden in Moscow and decided exile in Moscow was no longer as ignominious as it used to be, so … insufficient.
Maybe beach chairs in Guantanamo.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Major Major Major Major:
My bad. I haven’t been following the rhetorical stylings of second-tier Republicans. I have enough trouble keeping up with the A-team.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Kay:
I trust this is one of those rare moments when you don’t mind finding out you were wrong about something…
Gravenstone
@Attapooch: Adam keeps saying that Putin is looking at a 1.2 Trillion dollar windfall if certain things come to pass. So I don’t see Putin looking to burn Trump and company until that payday is arranged. After that … all bets are off.
Gin & Tonic
@Attapooch: Russians kill mostly other Russians, others not so much. Ask Bill Browder.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Yarrow: Yeeeeeeeaaaaah….
burnspbesq
Nunes is going to exhaust the self-esteem of the idjits from Fresno who keep re-electing him.
Sam
I think at least part of the picture is becoming very clear. The common thread in all the accusations is that the Trump coterie has been taking money, dirty money, from Russians for years. I think the ic and law enforcement is struggling because they have too much information. They know Ukrainian money and Russian money has been channeled to the Trump organization for at least a decade. They know all the associates of black, manafort have been paid to be illegal lobbyists for Russia and other countries run by dictators for years. They know people like Flynn were trying to get in on that very lucrative act. They know you don’t lie down with dogs without getting up with fleas.
The quid is clear, they are wondering about the quo. At a minimum, these sleazy connections could be terminal political embarrassment. On the other end of things we have treasonous conduct. I predict the Republicans will be running away before the end of the calendar year.
This cannot get better for Trump. There is no upside, only drip drip drip.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (tablet): I pity the fool!
Oatler.
@Yarrow: As long as it’s “they” and not us, and “they” have a pretty sweet system for pensioning off and escaping. At our expense.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack (tablet): during one of the debates he said it over and over and over and over, lucky you you weren’t watching.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I gotta amend that… the shit in London is ugly, sad, and scary…
So sad for those people…
Kay
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
So specifically! “To harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign” I’m weird because I just loathe Guilaini. I always hope it somehow leads to him. The profiteering on “security” he did turns my stomach.
TenguPhule
Nunes is a serial child molester.
Its the only reasonable explanation.
Major Major Major Major
CNN: “Koch Brothers make last minute attempt to sink GOP health bill by creating 2018 reelection fund closed to members who vote yes”
TenguPhule
@Kay:
I called this weeks ago.
They are.
JPL
@Kay: That’s why Nunes went to Trump today in tears.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Kay:
It would he awesome if Assange goes down in a heap with these creeps.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: Chickens, eggs, counting.
When the Secret Service turns on Trump, then break out the beverages.
Everything else is wishful thinking.
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major: Today in Republican cannibalism …
Nora
@Major Major Major Major: Isn’t this bribery pure and simple, or isn’t that illegal if you’re a Republican?
MomSense
45 is going down and I’m just hoping as many of the deatheater GOP are going down with him.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I will NEVER unsee this, and I didn’t even see it.
Also, dumb-and-dumbers gonna dumb. It’s what they do. I wish we weren’t collectively paying them to do it.
TenguPhule
@NotMax: And yet it did nothing. Mccuckold is still going to ram him though even if he has to blow up the Senate to do it.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@burnspbesq: And Schiff looks better and better…
TenguPhule
@bystander: I cut pickles the old fashioned way. A big knife. You must be thinking of a sausage grinder.
JPL
@MomSense: As I explained to my son earlier, when a President leaves in disgrace it weakens the party. That was the olden days though. Who knows what will happen now.
Attapooch
@Gravenstone:
Prior to today, Putin might have thought he would be getting a windfall from a Trump Presidency, but after today he’s gotta realize that going forward there’s nothing Trump is going to be able to do for him.
Now that Trump’s usefulness is at an end I’m wondering if all bets are off.
lollipopguild
@Nora: NOTHING is illegal if you are a repthug.
JPL
@TenguPhule: tmi
just sayin
Booger
@Gravenstone: “…and who fired you from MdDonalds?” “Oh, the pickle slicer’s husband.”
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Kay: There’s nothing ‘weird’ about loathing Giuliani… it would abnormal to NOT loathe him… just sayin’…
Major Major Major Major
@Nora: Citizens United legalized bribery.
@TenguPhule: I’ll take that bet.
JPL
@Attapooch: Did Tillerson cancel his trip to Russia?
TenguPhule
And screw you john for that image.
I can’t unsee that.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: I was just wondering if Giuliani could be caught up in this too. He knew an awful lot about when information would be released. Sadly I think he got it from the NYC FBI office rather than the Russians, so I don’t know how that counts.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (tablet):
How quickly they forget.
Thru the Looking Glass...
I recall something about the WH planning on not doing press conferences daily… w/ this kind of shit going on non-stop, poor Sean Spicer has to go out and face some pretty surly reporters very, single farkin’ day…
Poor Sean…
lollipopguild
@Iowa Old Lady: The NYC FBI office might be working for the russians.
TenguPhule
@JPL: Sorry, but he did get the reference completely wrong. Its stick their dicks in a sausage grinder, the pickle slicer is a tawdry punchline as #56 pointed out.
HeleninEire
I don’t get it. I get why Nunes went to Trump. I don’t get why he announced it as opposed to going in the back door secretly. Like Thompson did with Nixon. Does he not understand what oversight is? What was the upside of actually being honest about breaking the protocols?
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Which part? The ramming or that Mccuckold will make Calvinball the new Senate rules?
bystander
The sad part will be when we hear that it was all ok to work with Putin because, after all, they were saving the world from the HillaryBeast.
Spanky
I want enough perp walks to make it look like a Macy’s parade, but how to thread the needle with a compromised DoJ? Hell, where IS the fucking needle, even?
ETA: Just to be clear, the question is that once the FBI & IC have the evidence, how do they move to prosecution with Sessions at DoJ? This is not state AG-level stuff.
Mike J
@lollipopguild:
Cousin! Let’s go bowling!
Quinerly
Just saw an old blurb with Newt bragging on what a great job Manafort had done with the campaign..he was making the rounds after Manafort was fired. Has Newt even been around since the inauguration? Seems that he has dropped out of sight.
japa21
@bystander: That has been floated out there.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: well, any sort of ramming would necessitate a violation of normal rules, wouldn’t you say?
BlueDWarrior
@lollipopguild: is there anyone near the Trump orbit that isn’t Ruskie’d up at this point?
Gin & Tonic
@lollipopguild: It’s been said before, but the NYC Field Office is more compromised with Brighton Beach than the Boston one was with Whitey.
Blueskies
@Attapooch: Trump actually winning was never Putin’s goal. Nobody, including Putin, thought that the US voters could possibly be fucking stupid enough to elect this asshole. Nah, Putin’s goal here, as in western Yurp, is simply generalized disruption of societal norms and sewing seeds of distrust of government. He can’t lose here. If Trump stays in power, he has a mole, one who will blithely continue to totally fuck up everything. If Trump gets dragged through the mud on the way to the pen, that’s a win, too, because at the end of the day, it’s POTUS being jailed.
It’s evil genius, and it working in every western democracy.
different-church-lady
@Attapooch: Intriguing thought: the excrement hits the blades when one of them turns evidence in exchange for protection from the assassins?
TenguPhule
@Spanky:
My kingdom for an honest judge and jury.
Mike J
@bystander:
Plenty of people said Watergate was OK because it was designed to keep Democrats out of the White House.
lollipopguild
@BlueDWarrior: It looks more and more like “All of them Katie”.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
Oh, good point. I forgot that. I get confused sometimes between the Russians in the Trump campaign and the NY FBI field office in the Trump campaign. Maybe they too are connected! :)
We live in an officially bizarre country now. I’m trying, and failing, to adjust. Obama The Mysterious Muslim was a piece of cake compared to this collection of misfits and weirdos. Boring. Normal. Easter egg rolls and earnest speeches.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Well, there technically is still the Senate nuclear self-destruction option. Not Calvinball, but Procedural kill-em-all.
Adam L Silverman
To answer John’s question, it’s not that Bannon has anything on Nunes. It is that Nunes’s business partner is tied to Putin:
This morning Congressman Nunes disclosed, without authorization, classified information pertaining to US SIGINT collection. Congressman Nunes does not have declassification authority. He then went and briefed the President on what he had just leaked because he thought the President needed to know it. This is curious for two reasons. 1) This is not the job of a Congressman who is chairing a committee that oversees executive branch agencies and activities. 2) The President, as the President, has the ability to know anything he wants to know that is being done, or has been done, by the US Intelligence Community. That he did not know this, that he was not briefed on it, means that he and his subordinates either couldn’t be bothered knowing or, because of the counterintelligence investigation – its scope and who may be its targets – this information had been compartmented from the President. If it is the former, it shows how inept the President’s advisors and staff are. If it is the latter then Congressman Nunes has dug his hole even deeper. Interfering with and obstructing a Federal counterintelligence investigation is not something that the FBI looks kindly upon.
Before anyone asks me what happens now? The answer is I do not know. I know what should happen both overtly and covertly. But the truthful answer is we have to wait and see. Congressman Schiff is trying to prevent his committee from being blown up by the committee chair. A man who is not particularly smart and who has a Russian partner tied to Putin. Here too, like so many times that I’ve remarked on this stuff, I can once again place a key player in all of this within no more than two links to Putin. Director Comey will now become very, very circumspect with what he does and does not brief the Congressional Gang of Eight because key members, Congressman Nunes specifically, cannot be trusted with any sensitive information. Congress’s oversight of the Intelligence Community is now compromised. As I wrote last June in my post on cyberwar, Russia has declared that they are in a state of war with the US. They are acting like it. The US has key leaders from one of its two political parties (the GOP), as well as from one of its fringe, gadfly, spoiler parties (the Greens) who are continually demonstrating that they are providing aid and comfort to the enemy. As I’ve written before, we are fully in a Constitutional crisis and have been for months. We are at war and have been for over a year. The Republic is in peril.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@HeleninEire:
How about he’s too stupid to understand the consequences? Probably thought he’d create sympathy and credibility for Trump’s claims of surveillance.
Spanky
@TenguPhule: My kingdom for an un-fired federal prosecutor.
TenguPhule
@BlueDWarrior: No. This has been another horrifying edition of SATSQ.
Mnemosyne
@BlueDWarrior:
Nope.
SATSQ.
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: Dude, it’s a line from a bad sci fi novel I read in high school. “There was no way he was gonna stick his prick in that particular pickle slice.” The imagery just struck with me.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: overriding/firing the parliamentarian would qualify as ramming.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
There is a reason “May you live in interesting times” is considered a really nasty Chinese curse.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Gin & Tonic: And rumor has it the Brighton Beach dudes don’t play bean bag. You have my good thoughts for an uneventful and extremely successful surgery tomorrow, with a speedy recovery.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Then you’re gonna win that bet.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
“But I”m from Fresno!” would comprise an effective defense. Trust me.
Jeffro
@HeleninEire: what scares me with this idiot Nunes and with Trump himself is that as the end draws near, they are going to think they can try to take the case to their mouth-breathing supporters… and some minority of those voters are going to do some very crazy things
Just one last opportunity for Trump to damage the country in service of his pitiful little ego
hovercraft
@JPL:
As you say, that was the olden days, now it would be a result of the Kenyan and the Bitch conspiring together to steal America back from the righteous people trying to MAGA it.
I’d say it would send them round the bend, but since they’re already batshit, perhaps they’ll spontaneously combust. A girl can dream.
Mike in DC
Для предателей есть только смерть
Dlya predateley yest’ tol’ko smert’
http://www.cnn.com/2…ians/index.html
“For traitors, there is only death”
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman:
BUT… HER…. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!
lollipopguild
@Jeffro: Trump orders a nuke strike on North Korea in order to change the subject.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Nice. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Adam L Silverman:
Damn, Adam… I was hoping for just a little Trump’s in fer a whoopin‘ from you, not a dire declaration of existing intelligence warfare. Now I’m kind of freaked out. Better go put on my big boy britches.
Gin & Tonic
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Thanks. It’s the waiting and not knowing that’s hard.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
No true Scotsman…
Yarrow
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yes. He’s involved in it. Russian mob, along with bad NYC FBI people. This thing could take them all down.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (tablet):
You are obviously not aware of all internet (Rubio) traditions.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: Well there’s a fucking comforting assessment. But then reality is rarely comfortable, is it?
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Well Obama and the democrats did ram a whole bunch of shit down their throats for eight years, now their so used to it, they’ve um, developed a taste for it.
different-church-lady
Wanna know how serious this is? It’s this serious:
p.a.
How many ball bearings can tRump fit in his tiny hands?
zhena gogolia
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
It’s the only thing that can begin to restore our national honor and credibility.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (tablet):
But he said it five times in 30 seconds during one of the debates! How could you forget that?
different-church-lady
@p.a.: None of them, Katie.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady: Uh oh.
Is our military still going to take orders from El Douche? A first strike on Iran or Korea? (No, I don’t expect him to give a damn which end he attacks at this point,)
schrodingers_cat
In other more mundane news, I made steak tacos and they were awesome!
Iowa Old Lady
@different-church-lady: You think that might count at being extremely careless with classified info? /sarcasm
How can these people sleep at night?
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Adam L Silverman: I was terribly confused to read that Nunes appeared to announce that he’d provided the WH with TS/SCI while some may be investigatory targets. And publicly announced information that is normally extremely compartmentalized.
I checked and there was no alcohol missing so I read Schindler’s twitter feed to learn he was, shall we say, somewhat disturbed by the turn of events. (@20 committee for those who aren’t regular followers).
I share your belief that the constitutional crisis began months ago, but it’s not at all clear what the next phase will be. It seems even some of the pros are confused. Comey must be steaming – unless it was his deza to trap a mole
(or whatever the actual technical term is in that specific situation)…
Speaking of actual:
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: But then Trump would be the one in a kilt……goddamnit!
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: rare or burnt to a cinder with ketchup?
zhena gogolia
@bystander:
Lots of people think that.
BlueDWarrior
@Adam L Silverman: for the love of… is literally the entire Trump apparatus a subsidiary of PutinCorp? This has gotten into “Are there aliens hacking my brain?” level of disbelief for me.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@SiubhanDuinne, @zhena gogolia:
Jesus, I get it. Leave me alone, you harridans!
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule:
Beautiful crust and rare in the middle. Did you mistake me for the President? Plus I topped it with a nice home-made roasted tomato and onion salsa.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
With the Fifth Column Republicans ready to open the gates to the enemy.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I’m just horrified you thought I was serious in correcting John.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: With how crazy things have become, had to be sure you were a person of good taste.
Baud
Obviously, this is all a distraction.
p.a.
@schrodingers_cat: Is ketchup good on anything? Except maybe homefries/hashbrowns?
TenguPhule
@Iowa Old Lady:
Money, drugs and hookers.
Or so I’ve heard.
NeenerNeener
Now would be a good time for Twitler to have a “health crisis” and retire from the Presidency. Saves face for the GOP and he’s managed to steal enough to cover all his debts and then some so it’s time to get out before he’s dragged out.
Jeffro
@lollipopguild: at which point the 25th amendment is invoked or…well… other measures are taken
TenguPhule
@p.a.: Cornbeef hash, Oyster rolls and hamburgers. The Glutamic acid synergizes with the meat to make it taste better.
Chet Murthy
@JPL: For Smallgloves, a paring knife should suffice. Maybe even the kind of knife they use on cuticles?
rikyrah
Federal staffers panicked by conservative media attacks
A spate of stories in Breitbart and other outlets have singled out individual career employees, questioning their loyalty to Trump.
03/22/17 02:23 PM EDT
Conservative news outlets, including one with links to a top White House official, are singling out individual career government employees for criticism, suggesting in articles that certain staffers will not be sufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump by virtue of their work under former President Barack Obama.
The articles — which have appeared in Breitbart News, the Conservative Review and other outlets — have alarmed veteran officials in both parties as well as current executive branch staffers. They say the stories are adding to tensions between career staffers and political appointees as they begin to implement Trump’s agenda, and they worry that the stories could inspire Trump to try purging federal agencies of perceived enemies.
The claims posted on the conservative sites include allegations of anti-Israel and pro-Iran bias against staffers at institutions such as the State Department and the National Security Council. Breitbart News, whose former executive chairman Steve Bannon is now Trump’s chief strategist, has even published lists of workers that the president should fire.
Washington veterans say they can’t recall similar targeting of government employees, who are required to stay apolitical and generally shun the spotlight.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: and, having noted that, it has to follow that a ticket elected, or a government sworn in by, the machinations and acts of war by a hostile foreign power in collusion with treason by certain American citizens cannot stand.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Unpossible. You obviously have a functioning brain.
Jeffro
@p.a.: it’s great on everything are you kidding ?
XTPD
Two things:
1) The “flat” in the title should be “full.” Yes, the lyric sites all think it’s the former, but that’s not what he actually says.
2) I’m a fan of Cypress Hill and especially DJ Muggs’ productions, but I personally prefer Diamond D’s Billy Cobham-sampling remix.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I’ve just tweaked that comment it is going up as a stand alone post with additional info shortly.
rikyrah
Koch network pledges to defend Republicans who vote against GOP health bill
Two Koch groups are starting a ‘seven-figure’ reserve fund to protect bill opponents from political harm.
03/22/17 08:00 PM EDT
The Koch brothers’ network of well-funded outside groups says it will spend millions to protect Republicans who oppose the party’s health care bill from political fallout.
Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, the Koch network’s big-budget grassroots activism and advertising groups, are teaming up to create a “seven-figure” reserve fund to support lawmakers who buck President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan on the health care vote, as the threat of primaries looms over some opponents of the bill. The Koch groups will spend the money on paid media, direct mail and grassroots canvassing.
Betty Cracker
Now Trump is retweeting talk radio crackpots who say the info Nunes released totally means President Obama wire tapped Trump. What a fucking idiot. I hope the fact that he couldn’t let his bitterness and jealousy toward PBO go is what brings Trump down.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Have to go overseas and a little father back in history to a little man with a mustache.
p.a.
@TenguPhule: hash: tobasco. ersters: remoulade (ketchup possible component). burgers: on a basic or w/cheese ok, but on the ‘food network type’ 6 toppings burger, nah. Oh! Freedom fries, sure, although I’m from vinegar territory.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
How Shitgibbon-like — ketchup on hash? What’s next, put it on brownies?
ETA: No, not hash brownies.
Davis X. Machina
@BlueDWarrior: McCarthyite! What could you possibly have against fraternal cooperation and harmony between the Russian and American peoples? Мир и дружба!
Jeffro
@BlueDWarrior: as unreal as it has seemed for nine months now,
and no matter how unreal it gets, we have to keep asking ourselves where the facts are leading us and go with the conclusions that come from those facts .
As many many people have noted if this was a Hollywood plot it would be thrown out for it’s unbelievability … but it also is the most likely, most logical, simplest explanation for what we have seen unfolding during the presidential campaign and afterwards
Omnes Omnibus
@XTPD:
That makes more sense.
Hungry Joe
I can’t help thinking that all kinds of outrageous things will continue to come out … but with a compromised Department of Justice and a troglodytic Congress, nothing will come of it. They’ll simply refuse to act. The sun will rise and set, political life will go on, and people like us will be looking around, aghast, saying, “No, wait, you have to — ” and they’ll say, “No, we don’t.” And that’ll be that.
My great consolation is that for at least the last year and a half every prediction I’ve made has been wrong.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I’m sick to my stomach about how this whole mess is getting worse each day.
jacy
@p.a.:
I only like ketchup on meatloaf or cabbage rolls. Nothing else. Certainly not a hamburger or hot dog.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: I dunno if I owe you an apology for my outburst on that other thread because I haven’t gone back to it out of embarassment. Here’s an apology anyway.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: I do like the phrase “fifth column Republicans”
TenguPhule
@SFAW: It does actually improve the taste when used in moderation with real corned beef. Umami is enhanced five fold.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: it’s not getting worse – it’s just getting made public, which is what it will take to get it make it get better
Worse would be if the stuff wasn’t coming to light and Trump and Ryan and McConnell we’re proceeding with business as usual
Sab
@p.a.: Roast beef hash
Davis X. Machina
@TenguPhule: Tomato is an umami enhancer. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious eats has a bit of browned tomato paste in all kinds of unexpected recipes for that reason. Also fish sauce in small amounts in places where no respectable Thai or Cambodian would put it.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
Are you sure it’s not from your injudicious use of ketchup?
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Its coming to light and they’re still proceeding with business as usual.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: wow… this is intriguing … does this pit the Kochs against the Mercers ?!?
TenguPhule
@Sab: Heretic!
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Good luck tomorrow, we’re keeping good thoughts.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
Un-hashed corned beef, I’m OK with ketchup.
Hash is a different story, however.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: they are trying … trying to proceed as fast as they can before it all collapses
Wag
Either Trump is completely fucked or the country is completely fucked.
One or the other
I’m rooting for trump to go down, not America.
schrodingers_cat
@p.a.: I like my french fries with ketchup. Hunt’s with real sugar, not corn syrup. There is a breakfast place near me that makes their own ketchup, its pretty good and has a zing to it.
TenguPhule
@SFAW: Try it before you speak ill of it. It combines wonderfully with the beef, potato and onions.
different-church-lady
@Wag: not mutually exclusive
Aleta
Can we refuse secret service protection to these no good imposters? Their security travel expenses are not in the 2017 budget so why can’t we tell them the money for Aspen just isn’t available now, sorry.
(By the way DJT is lying by writing this.)
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: This is why Mattis is SecDef. To be that buffer. I would be very, very surprised if he has not issued standing instructions that all orders from the National Command Authority be verified through and with him.
p.a.
Wonder how tRumpov’s meetings with JCS and DoD civilian interactions with the military are going to go tomorrow and going forward.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: Black Pepper. Really good fries don’t need ketchup, only fat wedge fries really need it.
Jeffro
By the way I know how many folks have commented ( here there and everywhere) that we should be patient, and that Watergate took two years from break into Nixon’s resignation.
This is much bigger, with much more at stake, and yet with unified GOP control of the government, with only a couple months in, almost nobody has the sense that this presidency will even make it to the end of the first term. Their prospects diminish by the day on all fronts … it’s encouraging!
rikyrah
Father Guido SarDShK @ZeddRebel
NYPD already pointing out stabbing suspect is a member of a known white supremacist group. NOT a lone wolf.
TenguPhule
@Wag: You forget, Trump can still take a third option and do both before going Hitler in his bunker.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
Onions in hash? Whatever for?
I’m partial to poached eggs. But that’s me.
Adam L Silverman
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: The Jester knows his business. New, fresh, fleshed out post on this now up.
XTPD
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, John violates the precedent set by Doug! J. that posts with song lyrics as titles should be capitalized like regular sentences.
Adam L Silverman
@BlueDWarrior: Complete penetration at all levels.
p.a.
@schrodingers_cat: Does Hunt’s use sugar exclusively? Or is it like (here in the US Federated Republic) seeking out Mexican Coke?
Major Major Major Major
@Davis X. Machina:
Like where? I know Vietnamese people who would put it on just about everything.
@SFAW: yeah, my hash is usually made out of resin.
Mike in NC
Trump and his malevolent henchmen make Nixon and Company look benign by comparison.
Aleta
(By the way, DJT is lying when he writes this.)
Why can’t we refuse secret service protection to these imposters? It’s not in the 2017 budget, so why can’t we tell them the money is not there; and they must adjust by not travelling to Aspen and Fla?
schrodingers_cat
@p.a.: I am not sure, check their label. Maggie’s makes good ketchup too. You can find it in Asian or Indian grocery stores.
SFAW
@Mike in NC:
Good reason for that.
Aleta
p.a.
I fucking love Balloon Juice: concurrent conversations on the fate of the republic and the proper use of ketchup.
to continue: anyone use ‘catsup’ any more?
TenguPhule
@SFAW: texture, flavor and nutrition.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: CI investigations take time. They are not quick. I know that’s cold comfort, but this stuff is known. Our allies and partners are forewarned. Americans that are paying attention and not deluding themselves know what is happening, if not all the details. All of these are good signs. Has the US seen better times? Yes. Are we done? Not as long as people of good conscience are willing to stand up and be counted. It is easy to be a patriot when things are easy. The true test is now.
Aleta
(This comment has been stillborn 3 times now so I’m dividing it in 2: )
1/2
Omnes Omnibus
@p.a.: And this is why threaded comments are anathema.
Aleta
part 2/2
(from NYT)
Oh also, the mayor’s remarks were made last September.
MomSense
@JPL:
Given the extent of the Russian hacking, it makes one wonder just how many GOP elected officials were caught up in this. It does seem like some of them are desperate to prevent the investigations from expanding.
Это курам на смех
@bystander: Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Mnemosyne
@Davis X. Machina:
I read somewhere that ketchup is actually a Chinese-American invention that was originally used as a substitute for the fish sauce they couldn’t get here, but I’m too lazy to Google for verification right now.
Aleta
Why can’t we say no to secret service support for these imp os ters? It’s not in the 2017 budget, so inform them the money is not there for trips to Aspen and Florida and South America. Let them adjust.
rikyrah
Matt Fuller
✔
@MEPFuller
No one understands what Republicans are considering changing. No one has seen a CBO score about its effects. No one cares.
Vote tomorrow.
6:33 PM – 22 Mar 2017
Miss Bianca
Dear god, JC – that hotpocket image has me cracking up so bad right now…
And Adam…just a repeat of my scream – ‘Is there anyone in the Trump administration – hell, anyone in the GOP – who ISN’T sleeping with the Russians?!’
Steeplejack (tablet)
@zhena gogolia:
These trying times have taken their toll.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: tree or synthetic?
Suffragete City elftx
Coming out of nowhere to become a national security advisor and member of the transition team, Nunes is highly complicit in all this and I wonder if he and the WH conspired for today’s little shitshow.
Recall that Trump mentioned information would be coming out when he spoke with Tucker Carlson.
Considering how the House only wanted to focus on the unmasking of poor Flynn, it sure looks like they think it’s a winning strategy.
I have thought from the day Trump called them all Nazi’s his minions would work on a way to purge intel. They are crazy enough to think they can do it.
mai naem mobile
I want the whole lot of them to do some long sentences in maximum security prisons where they get to go into the general population. Also, I hope it’s in a deep south prison where there is no a/c. Also a huge minority population. The ones they all like talking shit about.
Omnes Omnibus
@Aleta: Go back and read it in context.
Major Major Major Major
@Это курам на смех: there was a fish… IN… the percolator!
Smiling Mortician
@Adam L Silverman: That was literally sobering to read. I mean, I just finished dinner and was building up a decent little wine-glow and then BAM! a truth-bomb literally sobered me.
Do I pour another glass? I’m thinking yes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: What is it with you and fish?
ETA: I don’t think I want to know.
BlueDWarrior
@Adam L Silverman: This is getting ridiculous, at this point we should not only consider Trump’s White House to be a Russian front operation, but at the very least the Republican leadership as well.
Sab
@TenguPhule: Why is that heretical? Not arguing, just wondering. My whole family has always put ketchup on hash for as long as I can remember (60+ years) and we don’t put ithe on much of anything else. What is the heresy?
mainmata
@Gravenstone: That’s the thing. He shouldn’t be Chair of Intelligence Committee because he is hopelessly compromised. Also Adam Schiff, also from CA is pretty impressive. There are so many compromising Russian situations, e.g. Wilbur Ross taking over the Bank of Cyprus, which is one of the main money laundering entities for the Russian corporate mafia. He’s the Sec. Commerce. It’s just absurd.
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: Will be sending good thoughts tomorrow morning.
(Those hot sheets they put on you at the finish are close to sublime.)
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
I made seared tuna with asparagus spears sauted with butter, lemon and white wine. We also had roasted potato bread and 2011 champagne. Did a dipping sauce of sesame paste and ponzu sauce for the fish.
Was going to do black raspberry jam on the bread for dessert, but couldn’t generate any interest in dessert.
May have been as good as your dinner. Should probably eat well as the world disintegrates around us~!! Seeing the Dr tomorrow… regular check, blood work, etc. Will think of Gin & Tonic while I wait interminably in the waiting room.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV:
I had Subway. ::kicks rocks::
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
I think ketchup was originally used as a preservative, like pickling meat in a barrel with an acid tomato vinegar sauce.
I like ketchup with good crisp fries, but I add a squirt of malt vinegar, which the lunch joint we frequent most has on hand. They double fry the fries, a la Belgium style. With steak subs!
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry! Not trying to brag, just a higher point than many nights, mac&cheese happens every so often after all. Or noodles and bottled sauce. or…
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: No, it sounded awesome. I just had a long day and bought food as fuel from a place near my office.
Ella in New Mexico
My husband, who studied Roman history says that John Cole’s caption of the portrait above should more accurately be “Scipio Fullofshitticus Maximus.”
Vhh
@Attapooch: I can’twsit for the FSB to validate the Steele dossier to take down Donnie.
Windpond
I have to comment in this thread because if I do in another one, the autoplay goes without end of Trump saying something unintelligible. Please, no autoplay videos.
wenchacha
@Spanky: Eric Schneiderman could handle it, long with Bharhara.
TenguPhule
@Sab: Roast beef as hash. The Devil’s work!