The House Intelligence Committee led by Devin Nunes released the report on their Russia "investigation" yesterday, and guess what? No collusion!

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a redacted version of the Republican report on the committee's year-long Russia investigation, in which GOP members say they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and disputed the intelligence community's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Donald Trump. 

The committee released the report with redactions from the intelligence community, along with a redacted Democratic dissent. saying collusion exists and that there were key aspects of the probe Republicans failed to investigate. 

The report's release marks the conclusion of a yearlong committee investigation that devolved into a partisan brawl between Democrats and Republicans, fighting over the decision by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to step aside from the probe, the subpoenas that were and were not issued and dueling memos over a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign adviser.

The committee ended its investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling last month, concluding they found no evidence that Trump's team had colluded with Russians. 

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," (Rep. Mike) Conaway said when they submitted their report for declassification.

Of course Trump was also quick to jump on this. 

Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

However anybody who actually thought this Devin Nunes led investigation was interested in getting to the truth must have their head shoved so far up their ass that they can watch their food digest.

And as the Democrats on that committee point out, the investigation was nowhere near complete.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

The GOP report does address that Trump Tower meeting, allowing that it showed “poor judgment” on the part of the Trump campaign. As we learned from Trump Jr.’s emails, those top Trump campaign officials went to the meeting in the full expectation of receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton, supplied by the Russian government. But the GOP report brushes this off, concluding there was “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”

But the Democratic response fills in some extremely important context — and it may involve the president himself, though we cannot know one way or the other right now. 

According to the Democratic response, right after Trump Jr. set up the specifics of the meeting, he had two calls with a number in Russia belonging to Emin Agalarov. Between those two calls, the Democratic response recounts, Trump Jr. received a third call from a blocked number. Who might it have been? 

Democrats wanted to find out, but Republicans blocked it from happening, according to the Democrats’ response. 

“We sought to determine whether that number belonged to the president, because we also ascertained that then-candidate Trump used a blocked number,” Schiff said during our interview. “That would tell us whether Don Jr. sought his father’s permission to take the meeting, and [whether] that was the purpose of that call.” 

Schiff added that Democrats asked Republicans to subpoena phone records to determine whose number it was, but Republicans “refused,” Schiff said. “They didn’t want to know whether he had informed his father and sought his permission to take that meeting with the Russians.”

Okay exactly WHY would the Republicans stop the Democrats from accessing those phone records unless they already knew to whom the blocked number belonged?

But do you know who probably already has that information?

Robert Mueller that's who.

This whole House Intelligence Committee "investigation" was nothing but a distraction to keep the public from focusing on the real investigation which is ACTUALLY looking for the truth.

And that truth is coming, whether Donald Trump and Devin Nunes want it to or not.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson proposes tripling the rent for the poorest Americans.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday will propose tripling the amount the poorest households are expected to pay for rent as well as encourage those receiving housing subsidies to work, according to the administration’s legislative proposal obtained by The Washington Post. 

The move to overhaul how low-income rental subsidies are calculated would affect more than 4.5 million families relying on federal housing assistance. The proposal legislation would require congressional approval. 

Currently, tenants generally pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent or a public housing agency minimum rent -- which is capped at $50 a month for the poorest families. The administration’s legislative proposal sets the family monthly rent contribution at 35 percent of gross income or 35 percent of their earnings working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage. Under the proposal, the cap for the poorest families would rise to approximately $150 a month, three times higher than the current minimum. 

The Trump administration has long signaled through its budget proposals and leaked draft legislation that it seeks to increase the rents low-income tenants pay to live in federally subsidized housing.

Okay well I would essentially expect this kind of thing from Donald Trump, after all he made his bones by evicting poor black folk from their homes.

But Ben Carson is a self described Christian who also happens to be black.

Carson's mother also took a job as a domestic worker for a time and he was forced to share a home with his extended family when things got tough.

It boggles my mind that people like this do not seem to have the capacity to empathize with others once they become Republicans.

It is as if the price for joining the GOP is to surrender your compassion.

Rudy Giuliani gets that sit down meeting with Robert Mueller. Is told that interview with Donald Trump is "essential."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s new personal lawyer dealing with the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, met with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday to reopen negotiations for a presidential interview, ­according to three people familiar with the talks. 

Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team last week, conveyed the ongoing resistance of Trump and his advisers to an interview with federal investigators, but did not rule out the possibility, the people said, adding that Giuliani pressed Mueller for clarity on when the probe is expected to end. 

In response, Mueller reiterated that he would like a chance to ask Trump questions about steps he took during the transition and early months of his administration, the people said. The special counsel emphasized, as he did in conversations in March with Trump’s team, that an interview is essential for investigators to understand Trump’s intent in making key decisions as they seek to wrap up the portion of the probe focused on potential obstruction of justice.

I actually think that Mueller WILL ultimately get his interview with Donald Trump, assuming that he is not fired of course, it is still to be seen whether the interview is voluntary or the result of a subpoena.

Kind of interesting that though these types of negotiations have been going on for some time, that we are just now hearing about them since Giuliani joined the team

It is almost like he is an attention whore or something.

The Washington Post finds that since the Columbine shooting in 1999 there have been 208,000 children exposed to gun violence in 212 schools.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Washington Post has spent the past year determining how many children have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. 

Beyond the dead and wounded, children who witness the violence or cower behind locked doors to hide from it can be profoundly traumatized. 

The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Post pieced together its numbers from news articles, open-source databases, law enforcement reports and calls to schools and police departments.

Since March, The Post has taken a closer look at states with fewer local news sources and searched more deeply for less visible public suicides and accidents that led to injury. 

The count now stands at more than 208,000 children at 212 schools. 

The Post has found that at least 131 children, educators and other people have been killed in assaults, and another 272 have been injured.

In 2018 alone, there have already been 13 shootings — the highest number at this point during any year since 1999.

The Post goes on to make the point that school shootings remain rare, and only a small percentage of school students are affected by them.

But I would counter with the fact that in most developed countries the number of school shootings are close to zero.

Which does not seem to make ours all that rare. At least not in America.

Instead I would argue that they are becoming less rare every year.

The lawyer who represented both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in their hush money deals with Donald Trump, is now cooperating with Robert Mueller.

Keith Davidson

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Keith Davidson, the former attorney for two women who were paid to keep quiet about their alleged affairs with Donald Trump, has been contacted by federal authorities investigating Trump attorney Michael Cohen and is cooperating with them, a spokesman for Davidson confirmed. 

Davidson was asked to provide “certain limited electronic information” for the probe led by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, spokesman Dave Wedge said. “He has done so and will continue to cooperate to the fullest extent possible under the law,” Wedge said in a statement Friday. 

Shortly before the 2016 election, Davidson negotiated a confidentiality agreement with Cohen under which porn star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000. 

Davidson also represented Karen McDougal, a Playboy centerfold, in the $150,000 agreement she struck in August 2016 with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., for the rights to her story. AMI never published the story.

The impetus for this cooperation is likely due to the fact that the records seized from Cohen by the FBI included tapes that he recorded of conversations with Davidson.

I am guessing that Davidson would do almost ANYTHING to keep those records out of the newspapers. 

And the noose gets just a little bit tighter.

Jeff Sessions warns the White House that if Trump fires Rod Rosenstein he might have to quit as well.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange. 

Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump’s fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI’s raid April 9 on the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Sessions’s message to the White House, which has not previously been reported, underscores the political firestorm that Trump would invite should he attempt to remove the deputy attorney general. While Trump also has railed against Sessions at times, the protest resignation of an attorney general — which would be likely to incite other departures within the administration — would create a moment of profound crisis for the White House. 

In the phone call with McGahn, Sessions wanted details of a meeting Trump and Rosenstein held at the White House on April 12, according to a person with knowledge of the call. Sessions expressed relief to learn that their meeting was largely cordial. Sessions said he would have had to consider leaving as the attorney general had Trump ousted Rosenstein, this person said. 

Another person familiar with the exchange said Sessions did not intend to threaten the White House but rather wanted to convey the untenable position that Rosenstein’s firing would put him in.

Now this may seem as if Sessions is finally sticking his chest out to defy his president, but he might be doing exactly what Trump wants him to do. 

Trump has already been warned about firing Sessions by his Republican supporters, who like and support the former Senator.

But if he fires Rosenstein, who his cohorts are already vilifying, and then Sessions quits of his own accord, that leaves Trump free and clear to appoint a new Attorney General who will not have to recuse himself from the Russia investigation and can hobble Robert Mueller with new guidelines and restrictions. 

This would allow Trump to gain back a little control, enough that he might even successfully neuter Mueller and make it almost impossible for him to do his job effectively.

As much as it pains me to say, the best thing for this investigation is that Jeff Sessions stays right where he is.

Of course it would also be very helpful if he did not fire Rod Rosenstein but I feel the writing is already on the wall.

DNC files lawsuit against Russia, the Trump Campaign, and Wikileaks.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump. 

The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found there. 

“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement. 

“This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency,” he said. 

The case asserts that the Russian hacking campaign — combined with Trump associates’ contacts with Russia and the campaign’s public cheerleading of the hacks — amounted to an illegal conspiracy to interfere in the election that caused serious damage to the Democratic Party.

Well damn!

Now the gloves are off.

I am not sure what kind of a chance a lawsuit like this has, but they're not wrong.

I think there is ample evidence to prove that this is EXACTLY what happened, and at the very least this lawsuit might help to reveal even more evidence which makes that fact undeniable.

Personally I am just gratified to see the Democrats grow a pair and start taking the fight to the bad guys.

Rudy Giuliani is joining Donald Trump's legal team, because hell, why not. Update!

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a combative former prosecutor and longtime ally of President Trump, told The Washington Post on Thursday that he has joined the president’s legal team dealing with the ongoing special counsel probe. 

“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview. 

Trump counsel Jay Sekulow said Thursday in a statement that Giuliani is joining the team along with two former federal prosecutors, Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin, a couple who jointly run a Florida-based law firm. 

“Rudy is great,” Trump said in the statement issued by Sekulow. “He has been my friend for a long time and wants to get this matter quickly resolved for the good of the country.”

Jesus, is that what you get when you scrape the bottom of the barrel, freaking Rudy Giuliani?

I think the last time that Giuliani practiced law he was chasing horse drawn ambulances.

It does not appear however that Giuliani is coming on board to do much legal work, but rather as a go between for Trump to reach out to the Mueller team.

just talked to Giuliani who said his role on Trump team is limited. He worked with Mueller at DOJ & as NYC Mayor (Mueller at FBI) He hopes knowing Mueller can help bring the investigation to conclusion, saying it "needs a little push." How soon? "maybe a couple of weeks"

— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) April 19, 2018

Yes, because that's how these things work.

You just need to find a friend that you and the investigator have in common, and they will convince them that you are a good guy and they should back off.

Besides isn't that kind of how Trump got into this mess in the first place?

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, "He is a good guy and has been through a lot." He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." I replied only that "he is a good guy." (Source.)

It is VERY unlikely that Giuliani is going to be able to persuade Mueller to wrap things up quickly or see his way clear to "let it this go."

In fact there are currently rumors that Giuliani is ALREADY under investigation by the Mueller team.

That seems a little awkward.

By the way also keep in mind that Giuliani is waist deep in this Russia collusion thing as well.

July 28, 2016: https://t.co/MI4BqmvBxE

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 19, 2018

Yeah, that was a lie.

And certainly not the first or last one that Giuliani has told on Donald Trump's behalf.

Just another clown added to the clown car.

Update: This Twitter thread makes an important point. 

Giuliani isn’t there to negotiate anything; he’s there as a conduit to rogue FBI agents looking to undermine probe. https://t.co/TWO2pLkfRa

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018

Giuliani’s 2016 scheming with rogue FBI agents is an essential part of this story and any reporter who doesn’t include it should be ashamed.

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018

Excellent point.

Sean Hannity and Donald Trump don't simply share lawyers, they are late night snuggle bunnies.

Courtesy of WaPo:

The phone calls between President Trump and Sean Hannity come early in the morning or late at night, after the Fox News host goes off the air. They discuss ideas for Hannity’s show, Trump’s frustration with the ongoing special counsel probe and even, at times, what the president should tweet, according to people familiar with the conversations. When he’s off the phone, Trump is known to cite Hannity when he talks with White House advisers. 

The revelation this week that the two men share an attorney is just the latest sign of how Hannity is intertwined with Trump’s world — an increasingly powerful confidant who offers the ­media-driven president a sympathetic ear and shared grievances. The conservative commentator is so close to Trump that some White House aides have dubbed him the unofficial chief of staff. 

This portrait of the interactions between the president and the talk-show host is based on interviews with more than a dozen friends, advisers and associates of the two men, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. 

For a president who feels, intensely, that he is under siege, Hannity offers what he prizes: loyalty and a mass audience. And Trump, in turn, has directed his supporters to Hannity’s show — urging people on Twitter last week to watch the commentator attack special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who heads the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. 

Their bond intensified during the 2016 campaign and has grown stronger during Trump’s time in office. 

“The bottom line is, during the heat of the campaign when relationships are forged, he was always there, offering good advice, in person and on television,” former deputy Trump campaign manager David Bossie said of Hannity. “The president sees him as an incredibly smart and articulate spokesman for the agenda.”

"Incredibly smart?"  Sure, okay.

The article goes on to say that Trump and Hannity talk several times a week, and that Hannity  even helps him with his tweets. (Well that explains a lot.)

In fact it is almost as if Hannity has a desk in the White House.

Shit, more like he has his toothbrush in the master bathroom.

Essentially Trump and Hannity are engaging in the Right Wing cable television version of phone sex.

"Oh Donald you are so masterful, and your hands seem gigantic over the phone."

"Oh Sean you are so creepily flattering, and I love how you carefully manipulate me into saying and tweeting crazy things that are damaging our country. I can't quit you."

I really think that this was Roger Ailes' fantasy all along.

To have Fox News take over the running of this country, and lead it to the glorious conservative dystopia that dominated his masturbatory fever dreams.

Too bad he did not live long enough to see it.

And hopefully WE will live long enough to see it all come crashing down around Donald Trump's ears.

Donald Trump hits the brakes on implementing those new Russia sanctions.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.” 

Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley had said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. 

But Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.

Aw, is Trumpy wumpy a worried that the sanctions will anger his buddy Pooty Wooty, and they can't be best buddies anymore?

It was also reported that Trump threw a giant tantrum after learning that we had kicked out more Russians than the Europeans kicked out.

Also courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies. 

The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil. 

“We’ll match their numbers,” Trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.” 

The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials — far fewer than the 60 his administration had decided on. 

The president, who seemed to believe that other individual countries would largely equal the United States, was furious that his administration was being portrayed in the media as taking by far the toughest stance on Russia.

Remember how those folks were saying that Trump's aggressive tweets at Vladimir Putin over Syria, and his administrations new tougher stance, all proved that Trump was not actually Pootie's butt boy?

Yeah, they might have wanted to wait a beat or two before saying that. 

Looks to me as if Putin still has a pretty tight grip on Trump's ball sack.

Does Donald Trump have a secret love child?

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The owner of the National Enquirer paid $30,000 in late 2015 to a onetime Trump Tower doorman who was offering an embarrassing story about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, but the tabloid never published it, according to a person familiar with the payment. 

A spokesman for the Trump Organization on Thursday denied the story that doorman Dino Sajudin told the tabloid: that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock in the late 1980s and that top executives of the Trump Organization, including longtime security chief Matt Calamari, knew about it. 

“Mr. Sajudin’s claims are completely false,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. A spokesman added that Calamari never made such a statement and accused Sajudin of having a history of peddling false stories. 

In an interview Thursday with The Washington Post, Sajudin dismissed claims that he had made anything up. 

“You know I took a polygraph test,” he said, adding that he believes his story was buried as part of a larger strategy by the tabloid to quash negative articles about Trump. 

“It seems like the writing is on the wall about that, it’s pretty clear,” Sajudin said. He said the story “had to come out,” and he referred further questions to his attorney.

Okay for the record this Sajudin guy is a little sketchy, and has a history of making things up for attention.

However the possibility that Trump has a love child out there seems like something that almost HAS to be true.

The guy has shoved his shriveled orange dick into anything that moves for decades now, without benefit of a condom according to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, so just by the law of averages alone it stands to reason that there are at least a few little orange Trump-a-Loompas running around out there someplace.

By the way the maid who has been identified by a few erstwhile internet sleuths, Carmen Ortiz Santiago Delouise. is indeed Trump's longtime housekeeper, but there is no evidence that she is the Fertile Myrtle who gave birth to this possible heir to the Trump misfortune.

However let me just say that if this story is true, and the mother turns out to be Hispanic, this might finally see Trump's approval rating with his racist base go down to single digits.

Yeah, THAT actually might do it.

So apparently Donald Trump's lawyer likes to tape conversations. Things that make you go, "Hmmm."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump’s personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week. 

Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant of Trump, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues, according to people who have interacted with him. 

“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” said one Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? . . . Did they find his recordings?” 

Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman referred a request for comment to Cohen and his attorney.

HOLY.....SHIT!!!

Now this may turn out to be nothing, many things do.

But HOLY SHIT!!!!

If in fact Cohen taped conversations he had with Trump, with Stormy Daniels' former attorney, with other women that he has paid off in the past, and those recordings are now in the possession of Robert Mueller, that raid of Cohen's office and home may prove to be the most devastating thing that has happened to Donald Trump yet.

Have I said HOLY SHIT yet?

Which may be why Trump is no longer interested in voluntarily sitting down to talk with Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and President Donald Trump’s legal team are now proceeding with strategies that presume a presidential interview will likely not take place as part of the Russia investigation, after months of talks between the two sides collapsed earlier this week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. 

On Monday Trump’s lawyers were discussing a possible interview with Mueller's team and had begun to hash out the final sticking points, including the timing, scope and length, according to people familiar with the discussions. One person familiar with the strategy said the president’s lawyers had sought over the weekend to expand his legal team to include individuals who would prepare him for an interview. Another person familiar with the matter, however, said preparations had not yet gone that far. 

But the prospects for a presidential interview drastically dimmed once the FBI raided the home, office and hotel room of Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen on Monday, these people said. The president criticized the raid as out of bounds in Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump aides.

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

Yeah I think the only thing that Donald Trump wants to do right now, is to flee the country.

Sadly he is now the most famous man in the world, so there ain't nowhere for him to go. 

"Why did you wait?" Donald Trump seemed confused by CIA's desire not to kill family members of terrorists.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump’s pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. 

Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy and tough-guy identity. But Trump and the military hold frequently opposing ideas about exactly what winning means. 

Those differences have played out in heated Situation Room ­debates over virtually every spot on the globe where U.S. troops are engaged in combat, said senior administration officials. And they contributed to the dismissal last month of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster who as national security adviser had pressed the president against his instincts to support an ­open-ended commitment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan. 

Trump’s words, both in public and private, describe a view that wars should be brutal and swift, waged with overwhelming firepower and, in some cases, with little regard for civilian casualties. Victory over America’s enemies for the president is often a matter of bombing “the s--- out of them,” as he said on the campaign trail.

Of course under President Obama the policy was to spare innocent civilians, and family members, and instead use precise targeting to take out the terrorist objective.

As we know that did not always work, and many innocent civilians were also killed.

However Trump does not seem at all bothered by that sort of collateral damage.

Trump came to office promising to give the Pentagon a free hand to unleash the full force of U.S. firepower. His impatience was evident on his first full day in office when he visited the CIA and was ushered up to the agency’s drone operations floor. 

There agency officials showed him a feed from Syria, where Obama-era rules limited the agency to surveillance flights — part of a broader push by the previous administration to return the CIA to its core espionage mission and shift the job of killing terrorists to the military. 

Trump urged the CIA to start arming its drones in Syria. “If you can do it in 10 days, get it done,” he said, according to two former officials familiar with the meeting. 

Later, when the agency’s head of drone operations explained that the CIA had developed special munitions to limit civilian casualties, the president seemed unimpressed. Watching a previously recorded strike in which the agency held off on firing until the target had wandered away from a house with his family inside, Trump asked, “Why did you wait?” one participant in the meeting recalled.

To be clear killing innocent people overseas is how you create more terrorists, not defeat terrorism.

Trump's inability to understand that, or to respect human life, will only ensure that not only does terrorism outlast his term, but that it increases exponentially.

Having said that I am going to tack on the report about those Russian sanctions right here, because I do not think they deserve a post of their own.

Some in the media are trying to give Trump credit for finally cracking down with some aggressive sanctions that will actually hurt the Russian oligarchs who support Putin, but they are fools.

Trump is NOT behind these sanctions. In fact he was clearly dragged kicking and screaming into supporting them, because he had NO choice.

If this were really something that Trump was behind, he would have tweeted the shit out of it, but there is not a peep about this on his account.

To sum up Donald Trump does not value human life, but he absolutely values his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to prosecute whistle blowers, while EPA chief Scott Pruitt is punishing high ranking officials who question his decision making.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asked her department’s Office of Inspector General whether grounds existed to prosecute employees who leaked budget data to The Washington Post and unclassified information to Politico, according to an internal department report. 

The response: It would be challenging, because the department has “little” written policy or guidance on how employees are supposed to handle information. 

“While evaluating the . . . incidents of alleged unauthorized releases of non-public information, we identified challenges to criminal prosecution or taking significant administrative actions against individuals responsible for the release of this type of information,” the report said.

Actually whistle blowers are supposed to be protected, and have provided a valuable service throughout the history of this country. (Remember Watergate?)

You would think that a person in charge of education might have known that.

However as it turns out this punish the dissidents idea is rampant throughout the Trump Administration.

Courtesy of TPM: 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reassigned or demoted at least five high-ranking officials who questioned his spending and other leadership decisions — including the purchase of pricey office furniture and Pruitt’s desire to use sirens to cut through D.C. traffic — according to a New York Times report Thursday afternoon. Four of the officials were career staff and one was a political appointee. 

The Times reports that the political appointee, Kevin Chmielewski, was put on administrative leave without pay after Chmielewski raised concerns about Pruitt’s behavior with the White House’s presidential personnel office. 

Additionally, Chmielewski and three of the career staffers are reported to have confronted Pruitt directly about his use of taxpayer dollars — particularly, a proposal to buy a $100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership that was eventually scuttled, and an effort to shell out $70,000 to replace two desks in Pruitt’s office. 

The sidelined officials also incurred Pruitt’s ire by pushing back on his desire to use sirens in his motorcade in non-emergency situations, including en route to dinner at the chic restaurant Le Diplomate, and were hesitant to approve his frequent first-class and charter flights, his unprecedented 20-member security team, and his request for a bulletproof sport utility vehicle.

So the real sin in the Trump Administration is not the wasting of taxpayer money, but reporting the wasting of taxpayer money.

Drain the swamp my ass!

So yesterday Donald Trump tried to write the Washington Post's headline for them.

The Fake News Washington Post, Amazon’s “chief lobbyist,” has another (of many) phony headlines, “Trump Defiant As China Adds Trade Penalties.” WRONG! Should read, “Trump Defiant as U.S. Adds Trade Penalties, Will End Barriers And Massive I.P. Theft.” Typically bad reporting!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2018

Well, SOMEBODY is a little thin skinned about this upcoming trade war with China.

Unfortunately for Trump the Washington Post focuses on the facts.

Besides they likely remember what happened the LAST time that Trump wrote a headline.

Talk about fake news.

Donald Trump instructs military leaders to prepare to bring troops home from Syria.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump has instructed military leaders to prepare to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, but has not set a date for them to do so, according to a senior administration official. 

In a meeting with top national security officials Tuesday, Trump stressed that U.S. troops can be involved in current training tasks for local forces to ensure security in areas liberated from the Islamic State, the official said. 

But the president said that the U.S. mission would not extend beyond the destruction of the Islamic State, and that he expects other countries, particularly wealthy Arab states in the region, to pick up the task of paying for reconstruction of stabilized areas, including sending their own troops, if necessary.

Don't get me wrong, I want American troops to be brought home as soon as possible.

However we sent troops there to fight ISIS and to keep Assad from murdering his own people with poison gas.

When Russia entered the fray they started bombing opponents of Assad, as well as civilian targets such as hospitals. (Source.)

The Russians are not there to help the Syrian people, they are there to protect Putin's buddy Assad and help him to oppress the Syrian people.

Once American troops are out of the way, that will be significantly easier.

As I said before, this is Donald Trump openly doing Vladimir Putin's bidding right out in the open, for all the world to see.

Robert Mueller reveals to Donald Trump's attorneys that he is the subject of an investigation, but not yet the target.

So I'm the subject, but not the target? So then I win right?

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three people familiar with the discussions. 

In private negotiations in early March about a possible presidential interview, Mueller described Trump as a subject of his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Prosecutors view someone as a subject when that person has engaged in conduct that is under investigation but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges. 

The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations. 

Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe, the people said.

Apparently Trump himself took this as good news, because he is a fucking moron, while his attorneys are freaking out as seems appropriate.

I heard Steve Schmidt this morning suggest that the difference between being the subject of the investigation, rather than the target, is relatively the same difference that exists between being engaged to be married, and being married.

Former CIA counter intelligence agent Phil Mudd summed it up thusly: 

"If someone walked in my room—in particular, FBI investigators—I‘ve been questioned as a witness, not a subject. If someone walked in my office and said I was a subject of a multi-year criminal investigation led by a former FBI director, Robert Mueller, I’d wet my pants.”

Yeah, what he said. 

Others are also suggesting the Mueller team is choosing its words carefully in order to convince Trump to sit down for an interview, knowing full well that if Trump realizes he is the target he will flip his shit. 

As it is this report that Mueller is putting together will be out sometime around June or July. 

By the way, this is only one part of the Mueller investigation, he is still pursuing the Russia collusion part as well.  Not to mention all the other parts that he is keeping on the down low.

New talking points from the EPA minimize human impact on climate change.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't understand all of those sciencey words you keep using.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Environmental Protection Agency staffers received a list of “talking points” this week instructing them to underscore the uncertainties about how human activity contributes to climate change. 

A career employee in the department’s Office of Public Affairs distributed the eight talking points to regional staffers. The list offered suggestions on ways to talk with local communities and Native American tribes about how to adapt to extreme weather, rising seas and other environmental challenges. 

Employees crafted the email, first disclosed Wednesday by HuffPost, on the basis of controversial — and scientifically unsound — statements that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has made about the current state of climate research.

“Human activity impacts our changing climate in some manner,” reads one of the talking points. “The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue.”

Another states that while there has been “extensive” research and numerous reports on climate change, “clear gaps remain including our understanding of the role of human activity and what we can do about it.”

In other words the Trump Administration is saying that since they do not understand, or really trust, science they are simply going to do nothing, and hope that the world does not burn to a cinder before Trump can run for reelection.

Personally I think that the EPA folks who start spewing this bullshit in front of the ALASKAN native community better have one hand on the doorknob of the conference room, because those folks know exactly who to blame for the changing weather patterns, and it ain't them.

Stormy Daniels is now suing Donald Trump's lawyer for defamation of character.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Stormy Daniels ramped up her legal battle against President Trump on Monday, alleging in court that his personal attorney Michael Cohen defamed her by insinuating that she lied about an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. 

Daniels amended her existing lawsuit against Trump, adding Cohen as a defendant in the pending case. The expansion of the lawsuit in a California federal court comes one day after the adult-film actress’s widely watched interview on “60 Minutes.”

Now this is very problematic because Trump is also being sued by alleged sexual harassment victim Summer Zervos for defamation of character as well.

That would be two different women, with two entirely different experiences, suing Trump, or a Trump lawyer, for defaming them.

And at this point I should add, so far.

Now interestingly enough Michael Cohen's lawyer sent off a cease and desist order last night essentially accusing Daniels of defaming HIM by suggesting that he sent the thug that threatened her back in 2011.

Cohen’s lawyer fired back almost immediately after the Daniels interview with this letter saying allegation of goon threatening her was false >> pic.twitter.com/TWH2djrFPq

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 26, 2018

The problem is that she never made any such allegation.

As proven by a transcript written by Think Progress:  

Stormy Daniels: I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T– taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin’ all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” And then he was gone. 

Anderson Cooper: You took it as a direct threat? 

Stormy Daniels: Absolutely. 

Stormy Daniels: I was rattled. I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna– drop her. 

Anderson Cooper: Did you ever see that person again? 

Stormy Daniels: No. But I– if I did, I would know it right away. 

Anderson Cooper: You’d be able to– you’d be able to recognize that person? 

Stormy Daniels: 100%. Even now, all these years later. If he walked in this door right now, I would instantly know.

At no point in her answers to Anderson Cooper does Stormy Daniels suggest that the thug was sent by Cohen.

The attorney for Stormy Daniels also responded with this to questions about whether threats are still being directed at his client: 

"Absolutely. She receives threats on a near-hourly basis. Now, we don't have anything tying those to Mr. Cohen or Mr. Trump, to be clear, but she's certainly scared for her safety and the safety of her family."

You know it seems more and more like this attorney for Stormy Daniels just casually sets up a tripwire for Donald Trump and his attorneys, and they clumsily stumble into it every time.

There are a lot of trolls out there working overtime to convince us that this is a nothing burger, and that it will have no impact on Donald Trump whatsoever, but I disagree.

In fact this story seems to be metastasizing. and public interest remains high.

In fact the Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes interview brought in the show's highest ratings in nearly a decade.

And things may continue to ramp up from here. According to one of Daniels' best friends, there is a dress:

During a much longer interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto, Stormy's friend Alana Evans told him she was unaware of any texts, pictures or video but there was one thing. One little thing. 

"All I know is that Stormy still has the dress that she wore from that night," Evans told Sciutto

They may come to this story for the sex, but they leave recognizing that the guy in the White House is vulnerable to blackmail, and is almost certainly compromised by foreign agents.

Trump confidante says that White House changes are not over yet. Oh goody.

Christopher Ruddy in a super relaxed pose with Donald Trump.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

A friend of President Trump said Sunday that the president has told him he expects to make one or two more major personnel changes in his administration soon, amid mounting signs that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is on the way out. 

Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax, said others in the White House, but not Trump, have told him that Shulkin is “likely to depart the Cabinet very soon.” 

Ruddy, who speaks frequently to Trump, said on ABC News’s “This Week” that Trump believes that, on the whole, the White House is operating “like a smooth machine” and has been “perplexed” by news reports of chaos. 

“He did say that he’s expecting to make one or two major changes to his government very soon,” Ruddy said.

If this White House is running like a "smooth machine" than I would hate to see what it would look life if it were falling apart at the seams.

Hang on, we are actually witnessing EXACTLY what that would look like.

There are already so many people jumping ship or being thrown overboard that if there are any more Rachel Maddow will have to stand outside on the street so that all of the names can be beamed onto the side of 30 Rock in order to fit in one graphic.

That is NOT what a "smooth machine" of a presidency looks like.

That is what train wreck of a presidency looks like.

Or to put a finer point on it, that is what a Donald Trump presidency looks like.