from Pete Williams just now on @MSNBC: "all indications are that Rod Rosenstein is still deputy Attorney General"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 24, 2018
and John subtweets the entire country:
Me: I need to cancel this appt. today
Receptionist: Would you like to reschedule
Me: my entire life is a garbage fire right now, I’m going to need to call back
— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) September 24, 2018
Elizabelle
Was this a fire drill? Think Adam suggested it was a test run?
The NY Times and WaPost need to name their sources. Now. They got played. Shame on them.
Cheryl Rofer
Walker
The real question is whether the media will learn from this about being played.
dmsilev
We’ve had enough news this Monday morning that I’m going to go ahead and declare this week well and truly broken.
Cheryl Rofer
In other news, I removed a juniper that was crowding a pinon and a bunch of dead branches from other pinons. Theraputic.
dmsilev
@Walker: No.
LAO
Cheryl Rofer
LAO
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: My total lack of confidence in the child snatcher has been vindicated. Again.
Betty Cracker
This seems definitive:
So, the shitgibbon is meeting with Rosenstein the same day Dr. Blasey is scheduled to testify against Kavanaugh.
Mary G
The minute I heard that Rosenstein had offered to resign I knew there was some bullshit coming from the WH. He seems to take his responsibilities to the country and the rule of law very seriously. FTFNYT reporters and Swan the Stenographer should blow their sources in retribution, but they never will.
MattF
I suggest that everyone involved in this disaster engage in a group auto-de-fé. For heresy and ‘insufficient enthusiasm.’
Timurid
So this is the standard Trump gaslighting playbook:
1. Threaten to do something awful.
2. Decide at the last moment not to do the awful thing.
3. Be praised as a hero for not doing the awful thing.
4. Repeat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: Maybe that’s when Fredo, or both Fredos, or all three Fredos, are scheduled to meet with Mueller
From Both Sides of the Pond
I guess the question now is: who in the White House other than Trump is crapping their pants so badly over Rosenstein that they are trying to push him out in such a stark fashion? This feels less like Trump than someone at a lower level who suddenly feels massively vulnerable. Mueller hit someone’s sore spot.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: The Rs could not have completed their soft coup without the active participation and enabling of our so-called news media. Especially But-Her-Emailz Times.
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
So, basically, Rosenstein called Kelly’s bluff and dared Kelly to fire him. And Kelly backed down. Intriguing.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: Thursday’s going to be quite the shitshow,
Keith P.
Translation: Trump wants to break the news himself via Twitter
Elizabelle
WaPost breaking headline:
Notice that the WaPost article is ALL anonymous sources in the first paragraphs. They need to stop this shit, especially when it’s coming from the Trump White House, which is full of liars and incompetents.
Get them on the record or don’t print this shit. I’m serious.
Mary G
Happy to see this:
Elizabelle
@Elizabelle: Who is the WaPost source — Trump adviser privy to private discussions all weekend? That you, complicit Ivanka? Or felon for a dad Jared?
Ohio Mom
@Cheryl Rofer: I’m going to follow your lead. Enough bouncing around the blogosphere.
I’m going down to the basement to take care of laundry. See you all later (probably late afternoon when Ohio Son is at his swim lesson).
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: Isn’t that every day that ends with a day since Nov 2016.
MattF
@Elizabelle: I guess one can assume that everyone at these meetings was wired and was recording everything.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mnemosyne: That is one possible interpretation of this morning’s events.
TenguPhule
@Walker:
No. SATSQ.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: It’s all about access and getting the scoop.
I follow women’s volleyball, and your hitting stats are based on attempts and kill and errors.
Formula: (total kills – hitting errors) / attempts
I would love to see a formula like that for “journalists” and “news outlets”.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Some days the shitshow stinks worse then others.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Five bucks says all of those unnamed sources are alias of Trump.
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@From Both Sides of the Pond:
The Jarvankas?
Emma
@Walker: Bless your heart, you’re sweet. The NYT is one of them.
Elizabelle
The only attributed quotes in the WaPost reporting are from earlier stories about Rosenstein. All the stuff about today’s possible firing/resigning — no attribution whatsoever.
You are in the last paragraphs before you get a statement attributed to someone other than Rosenstein — reporting on his previous remarks in the middle of the story.
But no named sources within the Administration. Shame on you, WaPost.
TenguPhule
@Timurid:
5. Eventually do awful thing in worst way possible once media stops paying attention to the boy crying wolf.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
What about the evening?
MattF
@dmsilev: So… it’s only Monday?
AThornton
Exciting opening to Infrastructure Week:
How to Play Journalists Like a $3 Banjo
Emma
@Mnemosyne: “Let me put it to you this way, John. If I go and Mueller goes, all the files get handed to state attorney generals, and the president won’t be able to pardon ANYONE. Capisce?”
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Actually I’m sure they did. And then swallowed.
Ruviana
@Mary G: People have been sitting in in front of Susan Collins’s office as well.
Miss Bianca
@Cheryl Rofer:
Don’t tell me they were growing too close to the willow!
Elizabelle
The Fuck the Fucking New York Times is getting raked over the coals by its reader commenters. I’d say 90+% are scoop-shaming the addled Grey Lady.
Their online community editor (Bassim, a really nice guy) has put up these links:
I wonder if the Times is astounded by the blowback they are getting. It is vicious, and deservedly so.
TenguPhule
Once again we learn why “May you live in interesting times” was regarded as a curse.
Rand Careaga
@Ruviana:
Extortion!
TenguPhule
Well, some of you don’t get those.
pamelabrown53
@Mnemosyne: #18.
Funny, as in weird: your comment matched my thoughts just as I was reading it! Wonder if we’ll ever know the truth? I think it’s high time that journalistic practices demand that sources are outed if the press is used for nefarious purposes.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: We should really buy more Polynesian islands.
sukabi
Catching up on the morning dumpster fire…hopped over to Michael Avenatti’s Twitter feed because I wanted some context for one of his tweets….OMG things are going to get even crazier. His letters to the Sen. Jud. Com. He’s not playing.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Not unless you treat them better then the Caribbean islands you already own.
bemused
So all this ruckus was “Oh look, squirrel!” bullshit?
Elizabelle
Now the Fuck the Fucking New York Times has another (their own) ass-covering breaking news alert:
Do we know for sure about the “considering quitting”?
RedDirtGirl
@Walker: Ha, ha. You’re funny!
Adam L Silverman
@Walker: Narrator: No, the media will not.
Fair Economist
@Major Major Major Major: Some of the low-lying islands may be very cheap in the near future.
CaseyL
I need to get some (art)work done today, but here I am glued to the computer tracking the latest shitstorm(s).
I’m trying to remember any day since November 2016 when I wasn’t in a state of anticipatory dread all fucking day long. Can’t think of one.
Thank FSM I have low BP, or I’d’ve burst like an overheated thermometer a long time ago.
The Dangerman
@Elizabelle:
Twofer. Trial balloon and knocks Kavanaugh below the fold (to what end though, a quick vote to confirm or is Kavanaughty going to tap out and say enough).
Mary G
Mandalay
@Mary G:
Sources may be sincere and honest but ill informed, or may provide information that they specifically state is not necessarily true. In those circumstances there is no reason to expose them. But if a source maliciously and deliberately feeds a reporter lies then by all means expose them. WaPo did that recently when someone tried to feed them BS about Roy Moore.
That said, I think think the NYT really needs to explain and clarify (i.e. back pedal) their recent reporting on Rosenstein.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle:
I really, really wish I thought that someone is a position of some authority at the WaPo of the FTFNYT was saying this right now. How I’d hate to be sitting on a red-hot stove, however, till this actually occurred.
Barbara
This is the kind of story that makes me want to go on an online shopping binge.
geg6
@Mary G:
Nope, they never will.
@LAO:
And fuck that little shit, Rothman. I caught him on Morning Joe this morning and the sniveling creep was doing everything he could to cast doubt on the women who are named accusers of Kavenaugh and giving him every benefit of the doubt. Jane Mayer got kind of snippy with him when he claimed that the article she and Farrow wrote did not provide anyone who could remember Kavenaugh acting badly in college other than Ms. Ramirez. She shut him down pretty quick. But as soon as she was gone, he went right back to casting doubt on the women. It’s a bad day when Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle are more sensitive to women’s experiences than someone who masquerades as a journalist (and an editor, no less).
sukabi
@The Dangerman: they aren’t going to be able to hide Kavanaugh and push him through…
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: We can’t get the news media to do anything.
it’s reminding me of my -ex. His -ex would pull shit all the time, and it would make him mad but he still let himself get sucked into her orbit and might agree that something had to stop but then he would wimp out with her.
Being stuck in ugly stuff but being one step away from having any control over it is maddening.
Barbara
@geg6: Mayer has told people that the first emails that went around about Ramirez were from Yale alumni who apparently remembered the incident.
TenguPhule
@bemused:
More like “Look, dirt!” and suddenly the media realized the speaker was being literal instead of figurative.
geg6
@Barbara:
She said it on the show in response to Rothman. He was disgusting. Kept talking about how this was injuring poor Kavenaugh and never mentioning the women except in the context of how no one says they ever saw Kavenaugh doing anything bad ever.
Someone needs to look into Noah Rothman’s past, I think.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Actually they do kind of “blow” their sources, or at least majorly suck up to them.
Mary G
Democrats actually getting shit together. Yale law students dressed in all black are having a sit-in in the school’s corridors. Senator Blumenthal there speaking out for FBI investigation being reopened – he is an alum there.
rikyrah
@LAO:
HOLLERING!!
BWA HA HA HA HA HAH A
Elizabelle
@Ruviana:
Good to hear. The little precious.
WaterGirl
oh my god. From Avenattis’s twitter:
The Dangerman
@sukabi:
My guess (two late nights in a row and caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet; shit, I miss the Seattle Jet Fuel blends)…
…if they had the votes, they’d vote Kavanaugh out of committee right now. They don’t have the votes.
As for hiding, voting BK or firing RR would be an interesting test of what makes the top of the paper.
Amir Khalid
So if I understand this right, Rod Rosenstein did not offer to resign and no one is currently threatening to sack him; but CoS John Kelly lied (or had someone lie) to the media that Rosenstein did make such an offer, based on a wilful misinterpretation of things Rosenstein had said, in an attempt to manoeuvre Rosenstein into resigning?
This is not an Administration, it’s the evil twin of a Marx brothers comedy.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Definitely supreme court material. In the age of Trump.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
Exactly.
lollipopguild
So it’s U.N. Week and Infrastucture Week and Pull My Finger Week all at the same time?
WaterGirl
I do admire his “take no prisoners approach”.
SFAW
@MattF:
Infrastructure Week scoffs at your quaint idea of “weekends.”
Mandalay
@WaterGirl:
What does “French them” mean? I can’t get google to tell me.
Miss Bianca
@lollipopguild:
LOL!
rp
@Mandalay: Stick your tongue down the girl’s throat.
banditqueen
The prez has decided that he just has to speak with Rosenstein on Thursday–the same day as the Dr Ford hearing. This Monday morning fiasco was designed to bump the news about yet more allegations against Special K. The WH crew keep the distractions going and going. The NYT played into this most recent distraction on Friday, then fanned the flames as the new Special K allegations came out, with the new “Rosenstein is possibly out–really” stenography story today. Tune in for more on this WH unsourced story on Thursday!
L85NJGT
I’m interested in how the fucked company dynamics at the NYT are driving the editorial slant. They have burned off the rest of the media empire holdings, and Carlos Slim has been gobbling up the Class A shares in return for operating loans. The Sulzberger’s seem to be stuck riding her on in, and probably should have cashed out when the getting was good.
Cheryl Rofer
AnderJ
@Mandalay: Really? I thought it just referred to a French kiss.
sukabi
@Mandalay: I think it’s a reference to “French kiss” but probably more like jam their tongues down unwilling girls throats.
D Gardner
@dmsilev: I was told there would be infrastructure this week. I haz a sad.
Tom Levenson
@Mandalay: Tongue kiss, I’d guess (when I was a high school tyke, “French” kissing meant mouths had opened and tongues had touched.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Surely even Trump couldn’t be this stupid?
Anotherlurker
@Mandalay: I believe the reference is to “French Kissing”.
rikyrah
NEW – Trump Lawyers Demand Mueller Probe ‘Time Out’ if Rosenstein is Oustedhttps://t.co/oiOEQUT2Ph
Via @lachlan and @swin24
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 24, 2018
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
Oh, Mike, you’re such a tool.
She was hired by Hitlary, and helped Hitlary set up her private server, from which the terrists stole 487,921,459 e-mailz. All of which said the equivalent of “Hey Terrists! Here’s a step-by-step on how to destroy ‘Murica!” And she helped Hitlary drag Vince Foster’s corpse from Hitlary’s secret apartment (where they had their trysts) to Fort Marcy Park. And where she tried to hide the bodies of the Lindbergh baby and Judge Crater.
WaterGirl
@Mandalay: I’m assuming french kiss. But what do I know?
sukabi
@WaterGirl: embiggen and read the letters he sent to Jud com, He’s not playing.
TenguPhule
@D Gardner:
Manufacturing excuses for Kav seems to be the order of the day for the GOP.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
Yup. The guys trying to claim that this is all normal behavior are either enablers or offenders themselves.
I know that no one wants to suddenly realize that their college buddies were rapists, but if the shoe fits …
lol chikinburd
Sorry if this has been discuused in another thread but: Vacancies Act kicks in on resignation, incapacity, or death
Wonder if “resignation” might be offered, implicitly (?), as least undesirable of those three options
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
What is this, legal kindergarten?
Chris Johnson
So I think what happened was this:
They need Kavanaugh because Kavanaugh on the SC will refuse to have pretty much most of the top Republicans shot for treason.
Most of the top Republicans have passively been working with Russia to secure their position and they’re in Mueller’s crosshairs. Some of them might be actively working with Russia but I think a bunch are clearing the way for it, to their own benefit.
The NYT is _actively_ working with Russia and this is a continuing attempt to shut down or produce confusion about what’s going on in the Mueller investigation. It’s targeted at MAGA chuds, because when shit totally blows a gasket it’s necessary to have right-wingers primed to go ‘all this is bullshit, this guy was ready to quit just the other day, the TImes said so repeatedly’. Some of the chaos is there to inoculate right-wingers against reality breaking through, and make them refuse to acknowledge what’s happening.
100% chance Rosenstein said to whoever, ‘Go ahead and fire me, this is what will happen’ and outlined a pile of procedural stuff _including_ listing exactly which Republican Russian assets were about to be blown, and that would be including some big names in Congress and the Executive branch.
This is what happens when shit gets real. They all KNOW what they did. It’s just about how all this unravels, and we know Kavanaugh is part of their firewall and the only one guaranteed to hold the line when the treason stuff starts bursting out. And Mueller’s people including Rosenstein also know everything, they’re just not telling us because they consider that there’s a procedure. That gives them a certain leverage, because if Trump’s people blow up procedure then Mueller’s people have no particular reason to respect procedure either.
I really don’t think anybody expected things to go this far, which is worrying. I would be watching for literal massacres: we are lucky if we don’t end up in martial law looking at a bunch of dead proceduralists. But if we did see that, we would soon make a lot of dead bodies in… Iran? :P
bemused
@lollipopguild:
Hilarious!
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: No offense to Avenatti, but my dogs could get Public Trust and Secret clearances. Call me when she gets an SCI with special access to compartmented programs. I’m not trying to argue she isn’t credible. Nor that she shouldn’t be listened to, but the two levels of clearances he’s stated are pretty much the lowest level ones you can hold.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
“French kiss” is a colloquial term for using the tongue while kissing — really transgressive if done without the other party’s willingness/consent..
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: French kiss.
Unless he’s planning on deep frying them and serving them with his preferred choice of dipping condiment.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: There’s a space missing, so your url is borked.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lawyers-demand-mueller-probe-time-out-if-rosenstein-quits?ref=wrap
Wow, Trump’s attorneys are idiots.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Have we checked whether he enjoys fava beans?
Emma
@TenguPhule: Who are you and what have you done with our cynical, take-no-prisoners TP?
divF
@Cheryl Rofer: Re: distractions – when I flew back from Albuquerque last week, I filled my carry-on with Hatch chiles. Yesterday I spent a pleasant afternoon roasting / peeling / seeding.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s because dogs are trusted and can keep secrets.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: And now we know that one of the anonymous sources for these stories names rhymes with Gudy Riuliani.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: was that the level of investigation that Kavanaugh was “afforded” or was he given a straight pass?
Barbara
@Amir Khalid:
I think that wins an award for creative and descriptive imagery. I would only say that a similar maneuver is how Theresa Sullivan was persuaded to resign from being the President of UVA without a majority of the Board of Visitors actually asking for her resignation.
TenguPhule
@Emma: I’m feeling a little under the weather, food poisoning.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Agreed. French them implies something done TO someone, not with someone, with their consent.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Poor thing. Best to you.
oldgold
The clock is about to strike midnight. Time for Mueller to play his card. Time and Timing!
TruthOfAngels
@Mandalay: French kissing, one presumes.
Barbara
@Amir Khalid: Indeed. IIRC it was one of the allegations against Al Franken.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Mine can. They were involved in the investigation for my last periodic personal review (PPR) to maintain my clearance.
Chyron HR
@Cheryl Rofer:
He started jerking off on the resolute desk to distract us from the first lady’s black eye! The stable genius puts one over on the fake news media yet again!
Calouste
@geg6: The conclusion to draw from that is Rothman has stuff in his past or present as well. Occam’s Razor.
If someone defends this kind of behavior to me, my first question is going to be “So what have you done?”
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid:
Dick Soup!
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Yup, all these GOP enablers need more scrutiny. I wouldn’t be surprised if many who will excuse any scuzzy behavior to get their way also have some skeletons in their closets they don’t want to be revealed.
The Dangerman
Things must be getting close; we should hear the following soon:
Trump Lawyers Demand Mueller Probe ‘Time Out’ if It Rains
Trump Lawyers Demand Mueller Probe ‘Time Out’ if Steelers Lose Again
Trump Lawyers Demand Mueller Probe ‘Time Out’ if Trump Gets Constipated
i.e., acts of pure desperation.
If I may hijack the line, Fuck ’em.
A Ghost To Most
@divF:
We can get them already roasted, read to clean and freeze. Watch out for the hot Hatches; they are wicked hot,even cleaned.
Mary G
@Miss Bianca: You are on a roll today. My second guffaw of the day from you.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost To Most: Where do you get them? Are they local or somewhere i can order from Illinois?
Miss Bianca
@Mary G: I am inspired by my company here. : )
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Different types of things. Kavanaugh would have had a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) for his job as Staff Secretary to President GW Bush. However, that clearance has lapsed as the TS was only good for five years back then (now it’s seven before a renewal) and SCIs are only active as long as you’re read on or for two years once you’ve been read off (basically the computer system is set up to sunset and drop SCIs from the system after 24 months). The background investigations for his judicial nominations are similar, but not the same thing.
Now all of that said, it is important to understand that these investigations – for clearances or nominations – are dependent on several things. 1) The subject of the investigation truthfully and accurately filling out the paperwork. 2) The subject of the investigation truthfully and accurately answering the investigators questions. 3) The references, former and current co-workers, and other people interviewed by the investigators truthfully and accurately answering the investigators questions. 4) There actually being records/documents of criminal activity, accusations of criminal activity, malfeasance, etc for the investigators to review.
And one final caveat: in either clearances or nominations, the principal – as in whoever is the original classification authority for the job requiring the clearance (commanding officer, commanding general officer/flag officer, cabinet secretary, agency director, bureau director, etc) or the President in the case of White House appointments and nominations that require senatorial approval – can override the adjudicator’s ruling. So if the boss, which in this case of Kavanaugh is the President, wants someone approved, they can get them approved.
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca:
Too many nuts spoils the broth!
MisterForkbeard
@rikyrah: “If we fire the guy running the investigation on a made-up charge, we demand that the investigation ‘temporarily’ stop immediately.”
Wow. The cojones on these guys.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: @Cheryl Rofer: Trump’s Razor strikes again!
satby
@Adam L Silverman: a lot of people couldn’t get any clearances, you know. Just cause you have all of them doesn’t mean a clearance is handed out like cookies.
zhena gogolia
@LAO:
Thank God I was in class when all this happened.
Adam L Silverman
@satby: I’m not suggesting they are. But what is done in order to award a Public Trust or Secret clearance is very perfunctory. Basically some background checks – criminal, credit – and that’s about it. As I wrote in the comment, I’ve no reason to believe that his client is anything other than what she claims, but there wasn’t any need to reference these clearances.
satby
@satby: and I see you’ve filled in the details of “getting a clearance”.
Not to be snarky, but that’s a lot of hoops and invasive. I turned down jobs that required clearances in IT because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
Mandalay
@satby:
Exactly so. For example, if you were convicted of sexually assaulting a 15 year old girl would you still be able to get one of those low level clearances that don’t mean anything?
geg6
@Miss Bianca:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [catches breath]
Thanks! First really good laugh I’ve had in a week at least.
ruemara
@Mandalay: ??? Seriously? French kiss them.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: Yes. I know of people who have been found to have child porn on their computers, who beat their kids, who do all sorts of behavior that should be disqualifying have them. Rememebr that both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanson passed multiple clearance renewals, including both lifestyle and counterintelligence polygraphs, while spying for Russia. Either because there was no paper trail so to speak, or because they weren’t forthcoming when asked, or because the criminal behavior started after the clearance was rewarded or between renewals.
Mandalay
@Adam L Silverman:
Wow! Is that happening because the security clearances are correctly granted regardless of such offences, or because snafus result in clearance not being denied? If it’s the former then you are right – those clearances mean very little.
Mandalay
@ruemara: Thanks. I’ve lead a very sheltered life.
divF
@A Ghost To Most: For that reason, I keep a box of nitrile gloves in the kitchen.
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
Disagree. The press/media and the general public will regard them as significant.
John Revolta
@Adam L Silverman: I just assumed it meant “make them surrender after only token resistance”
Miss Bianca
@geg6: Happy to have been of service – hope you’re well!
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: I don’t know the particulars of each specific person, just know that this has happened. In some cases it is because there’s no paper trail, so to speak, that would disqualify the candidate for the clearance. So no criminal record, no problematic financial issues, things like that. In other cases it is because the information isn’t something that would normally be found out during an investigation. In other cases it is because the behavior started after the clearance was awarded or renewed and was subsequently discovered through other means. In still others it is because the candidate for clearance is a very good liar and very good at hiding what they’re doing (Ames and Hanson come to mind).
For instance, in the case of the colonel with the kiddie porn, his wife found it on his laptop (apparently they had his and hers computers) after they had just relocated for his new assignment and she was using his computer as her desktop system hadn’t been unpacked and set up yet. She turned him into the local police, hired a divorce attorney, kicked him out, and the cops and the divorce attorney notified his command. In the case of beating the kid, the colonel in question was arrested after smacking one of his children around in a Walmart parking lot. Once the local cops got involved, they notified the Provost Marshall at his command, which then got the ball rolling on the military and clearance side of things. In this latter case, there is also contract fraud as it appears he gave a consulting contract to the woman he was having an affair with. And, of course, you’ve got CIA officer Aldrich Ames and FBI special agent Robert Hanson who passed multiple clearance renewals and lifestyle and counterintel polygraphs while working as moles/spies for the Soviet Union.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: One final point, everyone needs to understand just how many clearances there are. Between uniformed and civilian personnel across the US government, as well as personnel from state and local governments who need access and contractors working for the military and on the civilian side of the US government, there are probably several million clearances. And there are far too few clearance investigators and adjudicators and the entire system for awarding and renewing them is woefully underfunded and under resourced.
The Dangerman
@MisterForkbeard:
Dicks SOP.
Mandalay
@Adam L Silverman: OK. Slightly O/T, once you get a security clearance is there is no automatic ongoing checking for criminal convictions?
Suppose someone has a government security clearance, and then gets convicted for (say) fraud or assault or DUI, with no jail time. They are not necessarily going to report that to their employer, but will they definitely get found out anyway, or could they potentially maintain their clearance until they retire?
Mandalay
@Adam L Silverman:
I think that answers the question I just asked (before seeing you second post).
Uncle Cosmo
@dmsilev:
I keep telli’ yinz jackals, it’s (yet another) InstaFracture Week!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Elizabelle:
Rosenstien and Trump playing chicken and Trump blinked.
J R in WV
Driving through Hatch is kind of amazing. The whole community is based upon agriculture as it pertains to Hatch peppers. In the desert. We always stopped for lunch at one of the tiny restaurants, always served with chilies.
Some years the local Kroger’s gets a load of Hatch chilies in the fall, we haven’t seen it yet this year, but they’re in the middle of a big remodel lately, so may not do the Mexican cuisine thing this year.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: @Mandalay: Sort of. There is a limited amount of ongoing monitoring. One of the proposals in place to reform the system is that it should be transitioned to ongoing, persistent monitoring, rather than 7 years for TS, 10 years for secret, and as nominated/requested for access for SCI.
sm*t cl*de
@Elizabelle:
When the only ‘reports’ were lies pukefunneled through the WP, and the only ‘matter of considerable confusion’ was the clash between those lies and reality, this account reaches the level of second-order bullsh1t.
Mnemosyne
@sm*t cl*de:
I wonder when one of the sources is going to claim that this was another sarcasm gone wrong moment.
Frankensteinbeck
@Elizabelle:
I think it was just assholes running their mouth about what they wish was true, same as every time Rudy goes on television. The press is incapable of grasping just how incompetent and childish the White House staff are.
Aleta
A new report in the Montgomery County Sentinal (in MD), by Brian Karem. https://mont.thesentinel.com/2018/09/24/supreme-court-nominee-kavanaugh-faces-more-allegations/
Aleta
Correction: That quote above is from Vox not the Wa Post. Also:
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: it seems like the clearance process needs an update to remove the favorable biases that come with having worked with or being a part of an “elite” group. Independent organization, investigators chosen to work the background investigations that have NO connection to the organization requesting or the person being investigated. Seems like there a bunch of passes given to folks that couldn’t pass a basic background investigation if they weren’t part of an “exclusive club of entitlement”.