Breaking from The Post:
White House whistleblower says 25 security clearance denials were reversed during Trump administration
A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her “last hope” for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation’s secrets exposed.
Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she and her colleagues issued “dozens” of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence or other red flags, according to panel documents released Monday.
Newbold, an 18-year veteran of the security clearance process who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said she warned her superiors that clearances “were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security” — and was retaliated against for doing so.
Unsurprisingly, the committee is investigating security clearances issued for low-quality nepotism hires Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. John Bolton is also on the list. I’m not sure why — thought he was Bush the Lesser’s UN ambassador, who would presumably need clearance for that job, but maybe not?
Anyhoo, aside from green-lighting deeply indebted dilettantes who then went on to make moves that look suspiciously like shaping US foreign policy for personal gain, the Trump administration has also lowered standards all around, because that’s what they do, every day and in every scenario:
Newbold also raised concerns about new White House security clearance policies that she says put the nation at risk. For example, the White House security office no longer checks the credits of applicants, which she said keeps reviewers from knowing whether applicants could be susceptible to blackmail because of their debts.
The lady who makes you put your shoes in a plastic bucket at the airport? She had to have a credit check to get that job. Ditto the dude in the toll booth on the turnpike. It’s almost like these Trump assholes aren’t serious about national security.
Open thread.
rikyrah
I know we always say..
What if this was 44?
But, you can’t remotely imagine that Barack Obama would jeopardize the National Security of the United States by putting into place people WHO CAN’T PASS THE SECURITY CLEARANCE.
rikyrah
Tomorrow, we will make history in Chicago.
I was a child when Harold won.
Didn’t really think it would take this long to get another Black Mayor.
Major Major Major Major
Daily Kos (or the Great Orange Satan if you prefer) has sent out a nice detailed policy questionnaire for the 2020 candidates. I look forward to reading their responses. It’ll provide us with something worthwhile to murder each other over in the comments here, at the very least. https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/31/1846240/-The-2020-presidential-election-must-be-about-issues-Daily-Kos-asks-the-Democratic-field-to-go-there
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
I suspect the behavior that makes Bolton a security risk probably occurred after his UN stint – or, even more likely, during it.
matt
Since Kushner and Ivanka are selling us out by design, my guess is that the other shitbirds are there to provide a cloud of distractions to make investigation difficult.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: Black WOMAN Mayor, you mean….
rikyrah
Aunty Maxine says don’t come for her, she’s got the gavel and she’s not afraid to use it! Watch the #ImageAwards50 honoree bring the audience to their feet with her powerful speech. Catch the Encore on NOW or again this afternoon at 2/1c on #TVOne. #RepresentExcellence pic.twitter.com/qABUFTbXpq
— TV One (@tvonetv) March 31, 2019
sdhays
Last week, there was some quote from some Republican reacting to the ASSet’s proclamation that the Republicans were going to be the party of healthcare which was something like: “That’s as crazy as saying that the Democrats are going to be the party of national security.” The hubris of that statement really stuck in my craw which is why I remembered it, but while I am not concerned that President Dollhands is going to succeed in making the Republican Party the “party of healthcare” (beyond it’s basic “let them die!” branding), it sure seems that he’s hard at work making “Democrats the party of national security”.
Immanentize
@JGabriel: Agree. I think it was the years since during the Obama admin. — and his support of various foreign endeavors (and lobbying) that caused the conflicts/compromised problems.
germy
What a time to be alive.
schrodingers_cat
From the old thread:
Rs like Cotton and Turtle have far higher standards for immigrants (seeking asylum, permanent residency, DACA etc) than they do for the President or the people working in the WH.
JPL
Every republican needs to be on record whether or not they think this is okay. Apparently, Jim Jordan thinks that this is just another political stunt and pointed out that one on the list is a custodian. We all know that janitors can’t be spies. Am I right. lol
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: Checking in at the GOS, as I do from time to time, it seems that Mayor Pete is definitely (currently) the Sanders of this early primary season. I wonder if a squirrel will eat from his hand?
JPL
@sdhays: Romney is working on a healthcare plan. hahahahahhahahaha
schrodingers_cat
Did anyone see the Snooze Hour panel with Jowls of Concern and Humble Brooks? They both were gushing about what a stellar public servant Barr was. Much to husband kitteh’s consternation, I was waving my chef’s knife in the air angrily at the TV, while watching that segment.
Kay
It’s so exonerating they refuse to release it. They released tons of supporting info in the Starr report. The NYTimes has a whole page with linked documents. Trump and his low quality hires should be held to that transparency standard. Allowing them to do lower quality work just sets a new lower bar.
Where the heck are our “information wants to be free” warriors? Mighty quiet! This information wants to stay secret.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: The way T gets a pass with most of the denizens of the elite media in comparison with how nasty they were to Obama, goes to show the depth of bigotry (racism, xenophobia, misogyny) in our newsrooms.
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: True.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
I didn’t think it would take another 35 years before there was another Black person, man or woman, to occupy the 5th Floor.
VOR
@JPL: Along with Rick Scott. They put their Healthcare “experts” on the job.
rikyrah
Maybe she needs to do less Chris Hayes’ and master the basics called CONSTITUENT SERVICES
G (@GRYKING) Tweeted:
AOC constituents are calling Kirsten Gillibrand office and leaving voice messages for her. What’s the fuck is going on? https://t.co/tcYpTOQKjJ https://twitter.com/GRYKING/status/1112728967310659584?s=17
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize:
I don’t understand what this means.
schrodingers_cat
T’s victory lap after the submission of Mueller report consists of going full dictator on immigration.
1. People are being penned in and made to sleep on gravel
2. People are dying in immigration detention
3. He wants to close the southern border
And we are supposed to understand the people who voted and continue to make excuses for the monster in the WH.
Mandalay
So the grifter and self-appointed champion of women, Mika Brzezinski, engaged in victim blaming this morning when defending Biden on Morning Joe:
It’s a textbook defense of a man who has imposed unwanted physical attention on a woman:
– There was no assault!
– The woman misconstrued!
– Things were different then!
– He meant no harm!
– Is this really worth worrying about?
Everything Brzezinski said in support of Biden could have been said by Conway or Huckabee Sanders in support of Trump.
Brzezinski is an anvil around the neck of #metoo.
bemused
Lock them all up. If only that would actually happen, I’d be doing the happy dance for the rest of my life.
randy khan
Trump hires the best people. There’s no need for any security clearance process for them.
satby
@rikyrah: I have my fingers crossed for Lori Lightfoot.
LivinginExile
@JPL: When I was 18 I was living in Honolulu, working for a maintenance company. There was an FBI office in one of the buildings that I worked in. I had to have security clearance to set foot in their office. We can’t expect republicans to understand that.
GregB
@schrodingers_cat:
He tweeted today that he has been nice to immigrants thus far but that is about to change.
This might be why he was recently fantasizing about machine gunning immigrants.
We are on the precipice of some truly dark times.
It is one till midnight folks.
As Leonard Cohen said: You want it dark?
Peale
@JGabriel: It took Flynn all of two seconds after he retired as a General to sign up for lobbying gigs with foreign governments. My guess is that Bolton did the same. The global “Security Expert” consultancy scam.
Kattails
@schrodingers_cat: Oftentimes when I’m in the kitchen & thinking irritable and/or angry thoughts about someone, I suddenly find that all my knives are getting sharpened. Odd.
TerryC
Have you all see the image yet of (a) Flores with Sanders’ hands on her shoulders, from behind, and (b) the one with Flores standing behind Biden with her hand on his shoulder? ?
JPL
@LivinginExile: Jordan was talking to the fox crowd, although he could believe it also.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah:
I was in grad school and worked on his campaign. It was an exciting time. So glad there will be a black female mayor regardless of who wins.
rikyrah
@TerryC:
Nothing but a hit job…
But…’believe all women’…..
Phuck outta here.
Mike in NC
Jared sells classified data to the Saudis and Qataris, while Ivanka sells it to the Chinese. Some day that might get told in a book.
delk
@rikyrah: voting for Lori! I also have to vote for an alderman and I can’t believe there are attack ads on TV against Matt Martin. Don’t believe I’ve ever seen TV ads for aldermen.
Eric S.
@rikyrah: None of us really counted on a second Daley spending 26 years on the 5th floor.
O. Felix Culpa
@Eric S.: No kidding.
Eric K
IIRC Bolton was a recess appointment for Bush and never went through the full appointment process, but I may be wrong about that
germy
https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/1112739435408486400
J R in WV
@Kattails:
I NEED to sharpen my knives — thanks guys!!!
A dull knife is a dangerous Knife – see DJ Trump!
smedley the uncertain
@Eric K: You are correct. I would expect a security check though.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
I don’t know about during it, but it’s pretty common for people to cash in after they leave office, and the process of cashing in can certainly hurt their chances of getting their clearance renewed.
Kyle Lee Larson
@rikyrah: yet, he did. He’s the one that lowered the qualifications…
VOR
@Roger Moore: Isn’t Bolton associated with the MEK, a group formally listed by the US Government as a terrorist group? IIRC Rudy 9/11 gave a speech to a meeting of this group recently.
sukabi
Re John Bolton.
He had 8+ years of non-government time to “explore his options” during which he did a 180 on russia and who knows what else.
Citizen Alan
@germy:
Crap like this is why I no longer consider republicans to be functionally human.
JPL
@VOR: I forgot about that.
sukabi
@Mandalay: Mika’s going to pave the way for the status quo. She’s a classic enabler, it’s on display every day on that show.
Thing is we’ve seen footage of Biden for decades being too “friendly, handsy or affectionate”, or whatever you want to call it. We’ve also seen the discomfort on the women’s faces during those moments captured on tape. We’ve ignored their discomfort. Mika would like to continue to ignore their discomfort — and her own.
It doesn’t matter if Biden’s intentions were innocent or not. What the women he’s hugged, caressed, sniffed or kissed wanted or didn’t want in terms of physical contact with him DIDN’T EVEN REGISTER in his mind, he just hugged, caressed, sniffed and kissed them.
Ken
@JPL:
See, to me that raises the question of why the President or someone on his staff wanted that particular person to get that custodial job.
Ruckus
National security is a roadblock to the theft of riches.
Anonymous At Work
@JGabriel: Speaking circuit for Islamaphobes isn’t big enough to pay for the lifestyle he wanted, so scamming the security gigs, lobbying for odd-ball groups with unclear ties, and probably other things for strange bedfellows that wanted bombs dropped on many parts of the world for less-than-stellar reasons.
John Cole
And nothing will happen.