So Kellyanne Conway kinda broke some laws.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The US Office of Special Counsel announced Tuesday that White House aide Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions by "advocating for and against candidates" in last year's Alabama Senate special election. 

In a new report, the OSC special counsel, Henry Kerner, pointed to Conway's TV interviews conducted in her "official capacity" in November and December of last year. The agency said Conway "impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election." 

One of the two interviews was on CNN's "New Day," and the second was on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kerner said he is referring her violations for the President's "consideration of appropriate disciplinary action." 

Look at that, the Special Counsel is giving Donald Trump the opportunity to do the right thing.

How do you think that went over?

Yep, you are correct:  

In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Conway was expressing the President's position for lawmakers who support the administration's agenda. 

"Kellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate," Gidley said. "She simply expressed the President's obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda. In fact, Kellyanne's statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act -- as she twice declined to respond to the host's specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican."

Of course the problem here is that there is video evidence of Conway breaking that law.

Kellyanne Conway was breaking the law live on television pic.twitter.com/BC79NBGRpf

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 7, 2018

See?

Stay tuned. 

Donald Trump ordered the firing of Robert Mueller back in June of last year only to be thwarted when White House counsel threatened to quit.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. 

The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. 

Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.

First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May. 

After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

"Dispute over fees at Trump National Golf Club?" Really?

According to sources McGahn quite rightly said at the time that firing Mueller would have a "catastrophic effect on the Trump presidency."

Gee, ya think?

As it turns out Kellyanne Con-job was asked about this very thing back in August and she had this to say.

FLASHBACK: AUGUST 6

Q: Does the president commit to not firing Mueller?
KC: The president has not even discussed that. The president is not discussing firing Bob Mueller—
Q: But will he commit not to fire him?
KC: He has not even discussed— he’s not discussed firing Bob Mueller pic.twitter.com/sbrMZ3Nmor

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 26, 2018

Of course she had to know that she was lying, but when did that make any difference to anybody associated with this presidency?

Trump himself was asked about this just today while he was attending that conference in Davos, and he responded with this:

"Fake news, folks. Fake news," Trump said when questioned about the revelation as he entered the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

"Typical New York Times," he added.

Unfortunately for Trump this Times story has now been confirmed by a number of other news outlets, including Fox News.

So much for the claim of "fake news."

As journalist Natasha Bertrand points out there is a clear pattern of behavior here:

To recap: Trump asked Comey for loyalty; asked him to drop the Flynn probe; fired Comey; pressured Sessions not to recuse; pressured Sessions to fire McCabe; pressured Coats, Rogers, Pompeo &multiple congressmen to say he wasn’t under FBI investigation; and tried to fire Mueller.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 26, 2018

I don't think it comes as a surprise to anybody that this petulant child tried to get Mueller fired.

Of course he did.

The only real surprise is that anybody had the guts to try and stop him. 

Kellyanne Conway provides Donald Trump with alibi after he inadvertently tweets that he knew Mike Flynn lied to the FBI.

Kellyanne Conjob.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has confirmed the president’s alibi for a potentially incriminating tweet posted on his Twitter account Saturday. 

The tweet indicates President Donald Trump knew that his national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI when Trump reportedly pressured the then–FBI Director James Comey to abandon an investigation into Flynn. 

On Monday, Conway told CNN that she was with the president “all day” Saturday and that his lawyer John Dowd crafted the tweet and sent it to White House director of social media Daniel Scavino Jr. to publish.

This is the tweet in question.

I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

First off we KNOW that nobody tells Trump what to tweet, and secondly legal experts are simply not buying the excuse that his lawyer ate his homework.

Legal experts were incredulous when Dowd—an experienced defense lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department—claimed Sunday that he wrote the tweet. They were surprised by the incorrect use of legal language—using the phrase "pled" instead of "pleaded," and seeming admission the president had advanced knowledge Flynn lied to the FBI. 

So not only has Trump somehow convinced his lawyer to lie in order to cover up for his stupidity, but now he has Kellyanne Conway lying to cover for that lie.

But how can anybody seriously think this will help?

Do they not realize that Mueller will now question both Dowd and Conway under oath and then charge them for perjury if they try to stick to this story?

The lesson of Watergate was, "It's not the crime, it's the coverup." But of Richard Nixon had been even remotely this sloppy he would not have simply had to resign, he would have been sent to the chair.

Robert Mueller version of "From Russia with Love."

Thought in light of todays news this would be very fitting.
This is amazing. #MuellerTime #Comeyday pic.twitter.com/67x9M76bUG

— AgentHades (@AgentHades) October 28, 2017

Yes, it's a little wishful thinking perhaps.

But you have to admit that it is well done.

Kellyanne Conway returns to Saturday Night Live.

I am posting this simply because I love it so much.

I am in fact a huge fan of Stephen King, and just recently watched the movie "It," so this made me laugh out loud.

Kellyanne Conway as Pennywise seems almost too perfect.

Oh, I almost forgot, Alec Baldwin was back as well.

This impersonation is becoming so accurate it's almost scary.

Donald Trump Jr. dismisses his Secret Service detail, wants more privacy.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, has elected to forgo protection by the Secret Service, according to a senior administration official, and another top White House official is losing hers. 

The agency ceased protecting Mr. Trump, who lives in New York City and is an executive at the Trump Organization, last week. Mr. Trump, an avid camper and hunter, was said to be seeking more privacy than he can expect with a contingent of agents accompanying him everywhere. 

It was not immediately clear whether the decision applied to his family; he and his wife, Vanessa, have five children. Mr. Trump could not be reached, and the White House did not return a message seeking comment. 

Now we know that Junior is not going to walk around with no security because he is a high value target for kidnappers, and there are a whole lot of people who hate his daddy.

Which means that he is switching to his father's private security team. 

Folks directly paid by his father to help keep the family secrets.

It is almost like the Trump family has decided to no longer even pretend that they are not guilty anymore.

Also contained in this article, but apparently unrelated (Or is it?), is this tidbit.

Additionally, Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to President Trump, will no longer be covered by agents, according to an administration official briefed on the matter.

Well I am not going to go all Alex Jones with a conspiracy theory here, and I am pleased that our tax dollars will no longer go to protect his harpy, but isn't this all just a little TOO coincidental?

I'm just saying.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on the real problem with the Trump Administration. The journalists who keep reporting on its incompetence.

Courtesy of The Independent:  

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that the Department of Justice (DoJ) is reviewing policies for subpoenaing reporters during investigations of federal intelligence leaks, an indicator that the US government may consider more aggressive tactics to try and force journalists to identify their sources. 

"One of the things we are doing is reviewing the policies affecting media subpoenas," Mr Sessions said, announcing his administration's crackdown on leaks during a press conference. "We respect the important role that the press plays, and we will give our support. But, it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity." 

Mr Sessions said that he had instructed his Justice Department to review its leak prosecution policies earlier this year, and that the results "concerned" him. There were too few referrals for prosecution over classified leaks, too few investigations, and an insufficient amount of resources dedicated to those investigations, he said. 

"We will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country," Mr Sessions said. "These cases, to investigate and prosecute, are never easy. But cases will be made and leakers will be held accountable."

Yeah well the thing is that the leakers are not so much trying to "sell out our country," as they are trying to "rescue our country from the clutches of a mad man."

Of course the truly pathetic part of this, besides you know the whole attack on our first amendment, is that Sessions is totally doing this just to save his job.

He knew he was next on the chopping block so he pulled out some bullshit like this to hold on for a little bit longer.

Kellyanne "Oh god I woke in a pool of my own vomit again" Conway has also suggested that the White House staff might be forced into taking lie detector tests.

Because nothing says we are one big happy family, like strapping somebody to a machine and then drilling them under hot lights for an hour.

Chuck Todd has already essentially declared what the media's response will be to any subpoenas from the Justice Department concerning their sources.

If DoJ media source threat is real (I assume it's not; just a show presser to please WH) then I look forward to ignoring that subpoena

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) August 4, 2017

Well played.

The war within the White House intensifies as top advisers assemble their own teams to push their own agendas.

Courtesy of Politico:

President Donald Trump won office on promises to shake up how Washington works, and so far that’s been most apparent in his own West Wing, where his top advisers have built up personal staffs to support their own agendas instead of using a traditional White House policy and messaging operation. 

Chief strategist Steve Bannon has two special assistants, a deputy assistant, an executive assistant and a body man working in his “war room” — plus his external press hand, something his predecessors under President Barack Obama, David Axelrod and David Plouffe, never had while working in the White House. 

Senior adviser Jared Kushner has two staffers working directly below him, as well as another five in the newly created Office of American Innovation who are focused on his portfolio of White House issues. Included in that mix is a communications adviser, Josh Raffel, a former Hollywood PR exec who previously repped Kushner’s real estate work. 

“It is a new development for a White House staffer to have their own individual PR people,” said Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary during George W. Bush’s first term.

Guess who else has their own personal staff people.   

Senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, whose portfolio spans opioids, veterans issues and communications, has a chief of staff, Renee Hudson, who manages one person below her. Hudson, who has the title of deputy assistant to the president, was a chief of staff to Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) and is considered a strong policy aide to Conway, taking the lead on many of her issues, including opioid abuse and military spouse employment. Even more critically, she fills in for Conway at senior meetings when she’s traveling around the country advocating for Trump’s agenda at rallies. 

Ivanka Trump also has a chief of staff, Julie Radford, who holds the title of special assistant to the president and manages only a single person below her.

As Obama’s chief strategist, Axelrod had two special assistants and an executive assistant underneath him. Plouffe had a deputy senior adviser and two special assistants when he took over the role — half as many dedicated staffers as Bannon or Kushner have. 

The extensive personal offices also illustrate the distrust among top West Wing officials in the White House communications shop, which is stocked with loyalists to chief of staff Reince Priebus who used to work with him at the Republican National Committee. 

“There is no trust in the current structure to defend everyone equally,” said one White House official. 

Nothing says unified message like each member of a team hiring their own staff members to push through THEIR agendas.

Trump is running his White House like they used to structure those episodes of The Apprentice, which pitted contestants against each other.

But that was a stupid reality show, these are the people who are supposed to be solving problems and keeping the country safe.

There has been infighting in the White House before, but I think that this time there might actually be a body count. 

More evidence of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

As you probably read yesterday the Wall Street Journal has now unearthed the first evidence of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian hackers.

That story had to do with a GOP operative names Peter W. Smith and his attempts to get his hands on some Hillary e-mails that he was convinced had to have been hacked by the Russians, or at least somebody.

So late last night one of the folks who served as a source for that story has now written an account of how he found himself being recruited to help collude with the Russians.

His name is Matt Tait and he is the CEO and founder of Capital Alpha Security, a UK based security consultancy.

His story appears on the very well known law blog,  LawFare.

I urge you to read the piece yourself as it is quite interesting, but the part that really jumped out at me was toward the bottom: 

Then, a few weeks into my interactions with Smith, he sent me a document, ostensibly a cover page for a dossier of opposition research to be compiled by Smith’s group, and which purported to clear up who was involved. The document was entitled “A Demonstrative Pedagogical Summary to be Developed and Released Prior to November 8, 2016,” and dated September 7. It detailed a company Smith and his colleagues had set up as a vehicle to conduct the research: “KLS Research”, set up as a Delaware LLC “to avoid campaign reporting,” and listing four groups who were involved in one way or another. 

The first group, entitled “Trump Campaign (in coordination to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure)” listed a number of senior campaign officials: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn and Lisa Nelson.

My perception then was that the inclusion of Trump campaign officials on this document was not merely a name-dropping exercise. This document was about establishing a company to conduct opposition research on behalf of the campaign, but operating at a distance so as to avoid campaign reporting. Indeed, the document says as much in black and white. 

The combination of Smith’s deep knowledge of the inner workings of the campaign, this document naming him in the “Trump campaign” group, and the multiple references to needing to avoid campaign reporting suggested to me that the group was formed with the blessing of the Trump campaign.

I know, right?

Tait's assertion that the names of Trump campaign operatives were included as part of a group involved in trying to get their hands on information that was hacked from American servers by Russian operatives, is fucking huge!

And what's more this is right after Donald Trump said this. So to be clear, right after Donald Trump is on stage openly asking the Russians to provide information about e-mails stolen from Hillary Clinton's private server, Mr. Tait saw a document listing Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and Michael Flynn as interested parties working to get their hands on that same information.

Does this prove that there was collusion? 

Not quite, but it is DEFINITELY a big step in that direction.

Kellyanne Conway gives a master class in obfuscation when asked what Donald Trump is doing to protect the integrity our election system from Russian interference.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

On Friday, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Conway about the Post report. 

“What about this new reporting that there are three dozen high-level officials that say they can connect President Putin with giving instructions to hack the DNC computers and to plant fake stories — what is the current White House doing about this?” Camerota asked. 

Conway responded by asserting that Russian hackers weren’t the only people “interfering in our democracy” last year. 

“Well Alisyn, the president has said previously, and he stands by that — particularly as president-elect — that he would be concerned about anybody interfering in our democracy,” Conway said. “We saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy by saying he couldn’t win here at home.”

Yes, because suggesting that Donald Trump could not win the election, is exactly the same as hacking the election in order to ensure his victory.

Conway also attempted to lay the blame on the DNC in a rather transparent attempt to pivot away from answering the question.

However Camerota persisted: 

“What is the White House, what is President Trump now doing to prevent Russia from doing this again?” she asked.

“This report is new and we’ll discuss it with him later, but he has been very clear on the record that he believes in any type of numbers and measures to make sure that democracy flourishes and that our voter integrity is intact, and in fact he has an entire commission on that,” she said, before Camerota interjected: “Against Russia — what is he doing specifically to try to stop this?” 

Conway replied by smearing CNN and accusing Camerota of having a bad case of Russia hysteria. 

“Alisyn, I realize that we just like to say the word ‘Russia Russia’ to mislead the voters and I know that CNN is aiding and abetting this nonsense as well, but you’ve asked me the same question three times now and I’ve answered it,” she said, still unable to point to anything Trump is doing to prevent future Russian interference.

"This nonsense" by the way is referring to reports from our intelligence agencies and media outlets that Vladimir Putin personally directed the assault on our democracy, and worked to shift the election away from the candidate that he feared to hand victory to the candidate that he knew he could outmaneuver.

As for this report being new, that is only the latest Washington Post report which exposes the fact that Putin personally directed this attack, but we have had many months of reporting on what the Russians did and how they did it, and yet Trump has developed no plan for punishing the Russians for their actions or for preventing them from happening again.

And please keep in mind that the White House is currently working to undermine the new sanctions passed in the Senate to punish Russia for their interference.

That more or less proves, despite Conway's assertions, that Trump has no plan in the works, and no intention to create a plan, to deal with this issue.

And why would he?

After all he was the prime beneficiary of their interference. To him it was a net positive.

That took less than a month.

It's like all of the remaining Trump supporters have suddenly developed split personalities and are in vehement disagreement with their past selves.

Another example.

I am not sure if this is comical or just extremely sad.

The White house leaker discovered. It's Kellyanne Conway.

Kellyanne was at an embassy party last night, leaking sensitive Priebus and Trump White House conversations to @washingtonpost reporters. 1/ pic.twitter.com/XZz48UAG6G

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

She held court for an hour or so as folks cycled in/out of her circle. She said Trump gave her a line to talk about "the tapes" to press 2/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

She said Trump told her to say "Jim Comey will have to wait and see about the tapes"; she added "I chose to convert that to 'no comment'" 3/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

...and laughed. Here's where she put those "no comments" and "I can't comment on that" in action: https://t.co/HBzRiIkvtV

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

She had a good/cruel riff mocking @Reince45 in WH staff meetings.
"No leaks guuuys" she said, mimicking him in a dopey voice. "Seriously" 5/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

"He should just be honest: 'I'm upset because there's someone working on a story who pronounces it RAYNSE instead of REINCE.'" 6/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

Before some WaPo folks joined her, she was talking about recent weeks in the WH to some other party guests. This expression was telling. 7/ pic.twitter.com/pR8KIuZSsF

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

She and @danbalz (who left a bit earlier than others) were joking about the scrutiny they got for a recent, long convo in a public place 8/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

So @KellyannePolls held court for awhile. Along with knocking @Reince45, she also made jokes about the ineffectiveness of his RNC world. 9/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

At one point @KellyannePolls said "Honestly, what the fuck does Marc Short do all day?" 10/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

So @costareports and @PhilipRucker were there for some, but not all of these convos. Costa joined her in a more light-hearted impression 11/

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

... (than the meaner @Reince45 one) of an acquaintance who says "Dude!" a lot. It sounded like another WH senior staff member. 12/ pic.twitter.com/V8pNqMp9wL

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

Also @nick_ayers was there. He loudly complained about @EricGreitens, and said Greitens was an "Obama lover" and "pro-amnesty." pic.twitter.com/Holz2qQg6P

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

I should mention that @KellyannePolls was probably talking OTR to @costareports @danbalz and @PhilipRucker -- but loudly, at a DC party.

— Kellyanne Leaks (@KellyanneLeaks) June 9, 2017

Trump has been accusing just about EVERYBODY else of leaking, including most recently James Comey, but in fact he and his White House staff seem to be the main source of leaks.

After all it was not James Comey or any other intelligence agency employee who told the Russians that Israel had classified information about ISIS.

Now was it?

Donald Trump exempts entire senior staff from ethics rules.

We laugh in the fact of your ethic rules.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:

President Donald Trump has exempted his entire senior staff from provisions of his own ethics rules to allow them to work with political and advocacy groups that support the administration. 

Staffers given a pass on those rules include White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who has the green light to communicate and meet with “political, advocacy, trade, or non-profit organizations” that formerly employed her consulting firm, despite ethics rules that would otherwise bar work with former clients. 

Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon also received a waiver to the rules as part of a blanket exemption for all White House appointees allowing them to communicate with the press. His reported discussions with former colleagues at the pro-Trump site Breitbart News, which Bannon chaired until last year, had raised red flags among ethics watchdogs. 

Bannon and Conway will both be free to work with a network of political groups backed by the wealthy Mercer family, which was integral to Trump’s victory last year and continues to support his agenda as president.

And that folks is how you advertise your contempt for the rules so that all the world can see that you are above such petty restrictions on your power. 

What is it that they say?

"Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely?"

Well what happens when the already absolutely corrupted get absolute power?

I think we are about to find out.

Last night SNL's cold open was not to be missed. Update!

I swear this SNL cast may be one of the most talented in the history of the show.

My favorite by far is Kate McKinnon who seems to have no limit to her abilities.

Speaking of McKinnon, I think I kind of preferred her version of Hallelujah.

SNL is now going on their summer hiatus so we will not have their help in mocking the president and his cabinet, but I am sure that there are many others up to the challenge.

Update: Most watched season finally since 2011.

Kellyanne Conway used to say she needed a shower after defending Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

The co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, claimed on Monday that senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway used to say she needed a shower after defending Donald Trump on air. 

“This is a woman, by the way, who came on our show during the campaign and would shill for Trump in extensive fashion,” Brzezinski said. “And then she would get off the air, the camera would be turned off, the microphone would be taken off and she would say, ‘Blech, I need to take a shower,’ because she disliked her candidate so much.” 

“And also said, it was very interesting, also said that, ‘This is just like my summer in Europe,'” Scarborough said. 

“I’m just doing this for the money,” Brzezinski interjected. 

“‘I’ll be off this soon.’ I don’t know that she ever said ‘I’m doing this for the money,'” Scarborough said. “But she said, ‘This is just my summer vacation, my summer in Europe and basically I’m just going to get through this.'” 

“‘But first I have to take a shower because it feels so dirty to be saying what I’m saying.’ I guess she’s just used to it now,” Brzezinski said.

I have no respect for people like this.

Kellyanne knew who Donald Trump was before she agreed to work for him, and she had several reasons to walk since, and yet she remains a good little soldier.

I am completely unable to defend people or policies that I do not believe in, and when people prostitute themselves like this I find it simply disgusting.

Donald Trump is a pig, and every man, and especially woman, who defends him has lowered themselves to an almost subhuman level.

I have NO idea how they live with themselves.

Secret Service on verge of collapse under strain of protecting the First Family.

Courtesy of The Independent:  

Protecting Donald Trump's family is putting a major strain on Secret Service agents, a senator from the US leader's Republican Party has claimed. 

"They are flat worn out," Jason Chaffetz told The New York Times, adding that more staff were needed to keep up with the demands. 

The agency has seen staff levels drop to approximately 250 agents and 350 administrative and technical staff, but it currently has around 40 per cent more people under its protection than in previous non-campaign years. 

Mr Trump's wife Melania and son Barron are currently living in New York's Trump Tower and agents have also been required to guard his four adult children and their families. 

The US leader has also requested protection detail for aides like Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway. 

As a result, dozens of agents have been temporarily pulled off criminal investigations to serve two-week stints protecting members of the first family.

So the Secret Service cannot conduct in depth criminal investigations because they have to split their forces between Washington, Florida, and New York and also protect the likes of Kellyanne Conway? 

Is this what the deplorables voted for?

You know perhaps the first thing that Donald Trump could do to attack the deficit is to insist that his wife and son join him in the White House, like EVERY OTHER PRESIDENT BEFORE HIM!

But instead he guts the EPA and takes 9.2 billions from education.

This is how Trump makes America great again. 

Kellyanne Conway has a theory as to how Obama surveilled Donald Trump.

"Microwaves that turn into cameras?"

Nice to know that Trump surrounds himself with such intellectual powerhouses.

SNL is killing it. Killing it I say!

I swear that Melissa McCarthy is a shoo-in for an Emmy nomination.

Her Sean Spicer is one of the funnest things I have ever seen.

Don't get me wrong the rest of the show was damn good as well.

There was a segment with Alec Baldwin appearing as Trump in People's Court.

And a great Weekend Update segment with Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren.

But then there was this bit with Kate once again reprising her role as Kellyanne Conway stalking CNN's Jake Tapper after he refused to allow her on his show because....well because she lies.

Okay that was both creepy as hell and amazing.

We already reported that SNL is getting the highest ratings in 22 years, and it is pretty clear they deserve it.

Like I said, they are KILLING it!

New poll is very bad news for Trump administration.

Courtesy of PPP:

PPP's new national poll finds that Donald Trump's popularity as President has declined precipitously just over the last two weeks. On our first poll of his Presidency voters were evenly divided on Trump, with 44% approving of him and 44% also disapproving. Now his approval rating is 43%, while his disapproval has gone all the way up to 53%. If voters could choose they'd rather have both Barack Obama (52/44) or Hillary Clinton (49/45) instead of Trump.

Ouch!

That is not the only place where Trump is having a hard time.

For instance the Muslim ban:

66% of Americans consider the United States to be a safe country, to only 23% who consider it unsafe. Perhaps as an outgrowth of that sentiment only 45% of voters support Trump's Executive Order on immigration, to 49% who are opposed to it. 

Of course those numbers are higher among Trump voters, who also identify another factor as convincing them of its necessity:

By a 51/23 margin Trump voters say that the Bowling Green Massacre shows why Trump's immigration policy is needed.

Well that certainly explains some things.

Americans are also not terribly thrilled with the people that Trump surrounds himself with:

Betsy DeVos may have been confirmed this week, but she made a horrible impression on the public. Only 27% of voters see her positively to 49% with a negative opinion of her. Clinton voters are almost unanimous in their distaste for her (5/83 favorability), while she doesn't generate nearly an equivalent amount of enthusiasm from Trump voters (53/12 favorability.) Other people close to Trump have come off poorly as well- Steve Bannon has a 22/45 favorability rating, Kellyanne Conway's is 34/47, and Sean Spicer's is 32/41.

They also want to see his taxes:  

58% want him to release his tax returns, to just 31% who don't think he needs to. In fact by a 53/32 spread, voters would support a law requiring that candidates for President release 5 years of their tax returns in order to appear on the ballot.

That of course is exactly the opposite of what Trump believes to be true, which of course is in no way unusual.

However with all of this negative news Americans are still a little ambiguous on whether it is time to start talking impeachment yet:

Just three weeks into his administration, voters are already evenly divided on the issue of impeaching Trump with 46% in favor and 46% opposed. Support for impeaching Trump has crept up from 35% 2 weeks ago, to 40% last week, to its 46% standing this week. 

Unsurprisingly Clinton voters are far less ambiguous:

While Clinton voters initially only supported Trump's impeachment 65/14, after seeing him in office over the last few weeks that's gone up already to 83/6.

I think I would be more on board with these last respondents if it did not mean facing the reality of four years of a Mike Pence presidency.

All in all this is a very bad poll for Donald Trump.

Which of course means that it has now earned the title of "fake news" within the Trump bubble.

Did Kellyanne Conway just break the law by publicly urging people to buy Ivanka Trump merchandise? Yeah, probably.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

Ethics lawyers are alleging that a top White House aide may have broken the law Thursday when she urged Fox News viewers to "go buy Ivanka's stuff." Kellyanne Conway, who serves as a counselor to President Donald Trump, made the remarks while defending a tweet that Trump published Wednesday attacking Nordstrom for dropping his daughter's fashion line. (The president and members of his administration claim the department store's move was politically motivated.) 

"Go buy Ivanka's stuff is what I would tell you," Conway said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. "I hate shopping, but I'm going to get some myself today." She later added: "It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I'm going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online." 

The comments sparked immediate criticism from prominent ethics experts, including Campaign Legal Center general counsel Lawrence Noble and Norm Eisen, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under Barack Obama. They suggested Conway's statements may have violated a law prohibiting federal employees from using their government positions "to endorse any product, service or enterprise."

So now the Trump administration has turned into a version of the Home Shopping Network.

Great.

But seriously will anything happen to Conway over this?

For their part the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington responded quickly and filed a complaint:

“The law is clear that public officials should not use their offices for their own private gain or the private gain of others,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement announcing the complaint. “It’s hard to find a clearer case of that kind of misuse of office than we saw today.”

Still it's hard to imagine in Donald Trump's America that it will actually go anywhere, but it is nice that some people still think that rules and ethics still matter.

How 2016 of them. 

Besides White House Spokes-liar Sean Spicer already said that Conway had been "Counseled."

Which in Trump-speak I believe means given a pat on the back and a cash prize for being so awesome.

Remember this is a guy who only won this office through the interference of a foreign government.

Why would he care about any of OUR laws?

All he cares about is gaining power and getting rich.

Kellyanne is just doing her part to help make that happen.