Donald Trump essentially confirms Washington Post story that he shared information about terrorists with the Russians. Update! s.

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

Courtesy of CNN: 

Trump's tweets Tuesday notably lack any mention of whether the information he shared was classified. 

And the remarks appear to contradict statements made by his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster -- who told reporters in the wake of the report that "the story as reported is false" -- and White House deputy national security adviser for strategy, Dina Powell, who said Monday "the story is false. The President only discussed the common threats that both countries faced."

Well in his tweet Trump is essentially admitting that he discussed terrorism with the Russians which is not what the White House talking points were after the story broke.

The WaPo story revealed that Trump had shared classified "code word" information which came from a US partner, and that, though he did not share the source, the Russians would likely be able to reverse engineer to reveal the source of the information on their own.

And while Trump is technically correct that he has "the absolute right" to reveal information, whether classified or not, doing so to the Russians reinforces the idea that the Russians are controlling Trump, and that he does not respect the importance of carefully handling confidential information or the allies who provided that information.

Here is more from CNN:

The potential consequences could hardly be more serious, former CIA case officer Bob Baer told CNN's Erin Burnett Monday night. 

"The President, by revealing this to the Russians, has lost control of this information. It's going to go to the Syrians, It's going to go to the Iranians -- Russian allies," Baer said. 

"The ability to protect that source whoever he is, wherever he is has been seriously undermined ... If a CIA officer had revealed this information to the Russians, he would be fired instantly." 

Essentially this is the crux of the problem. Simply put Trump has NO idea how to handle the responsibilities of his job.

And the message for our allies (Russia is NOT an ally.) moving forward is that this president is an amateur who cannot be trusted with the kinds of sensitive information that may need to be shared to keep the world safe from terrorism.

Update: Oh I did not see this tweet earlier.

I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

Well gee, all former Director Comey had to do was come to the White House and he would have found the leaker immediately. 

Donald Trump may treat the presidency as a part time job.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

It turns out that one of the Trump transition team’s many duties will be helping President-elect Trump decide just how many nights he’ll have to sleep at the White House each week. The New York Times reports that Trump has told his advisors that he would like to continue to spend as much time as he can at his beloved Trump Tower penthouse in New York, and may retreat there, or to one of his other estates in New Jersey or Florida, on the weekends. The sudden dilemma for Trump, who labored to sleep at his New York home as much as possible during his campaign, has emerged as he recovers from his apparent shock at actually winning and comes to terms with how being president is going to completely upend his preferred lifestyle. 

Trump advisors, however, are hoping that Trump will eventually warm up to White House living as “he grows less overwhelmed and more comfortable in the job.”

Jeezus Fucking Christ on a cracker!

You fight all the way though a contentious primary, you battle through the ugliest general election in American history, and when you win you just aren't sure you want to be on the clock full time?

Seriously?

And let's not forget that he cheated a woman out of the job who ready on day one and more qualified than any other president before her.

And now he only wants to do the job on HIS schedule?

Has he not seen the head of gray hair that now adorns our current President?

THAT is there because for the last eight years he has been our President for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty two weeks a year.

Even when he was on one of those golfing excursions the Right Wing gave him so much shit over he was on the job. He was on the job when he was eating, when he was sleeping, when he was shitting, and even when he was making sweet love to the First Lady.

There is no fucking time off when you are president!

But hey, if Trump does not feel he is up to the job I know a certain super qualified woman who would gladly take it off of his hands.

This is a thing that Meghan McCain actually said.

I hope history remembers those who gave up their conservative principles for the cult of personality and celebrity. And those who didn't.

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 3, 2016

Now most of you are undoubtedly already realizing how unbelievably ignorant this statement is, but for those among you who are a little slow off the mark let Salon point out the obvious:

The myopia here is staggering. Although she didn’t respond, I asked Meghan if she remembers an obscure, half-forgotten figure named Sarah Palin? I asked because, in so many ways, there is no Trump without Palin. Palin was Trump before Trump. The rambling incoherence, the vacuousness, the reality TV theatrics, the ghastly marriage of ignorance and confidence – Palin brought this to national politics long before Trump did. 

And it was Meghan’s father, John McCain, who foisted this catastrophe upon the country. 

It was the bottomless cynicism of McCain, the once serious Senator from Arizona, who helped pave the way for Trump. He sold his soul to the conservative media-industrial complex the day he choose that buffoonish celebrity as his running mate, a woman he knew was woefully unprepared for the job. And he choose her precisely because of her potential celebrity, because she polled well with evangelicals and because she was the darling of right-wing media. 

Like Trump, Palin had no governing philosophy, no vision, and lacked a basic understanding of political life. But she was greeted as a rock star by conservative pundits, who were convinced they could sell her to the base. Trump no doubt noticed this, and took from 2008 an obvious lesson: Win the headlines and Republican primary voters will follow.

Yep. "There is no Trump without Palin," that is the unavoidable truth.

And for the rest of his life John McCain will have to live with that simple fact.

Perhaps THAT is why Donald Trump gave a shout out to Palin during his Indiana victory speech. Because he was acknowledging that she blazed his pathway to the nomination.

And now I feel a little responsible.

Here I was so busy making sure that Palin herself would never be a viable candidate for the White House that I forgot to pay close enough attention to the Palin clones.

Oops?

Father arrested and charged with five counts of second-degree child endangerment after his 4 year old kills his six year old neighbor with a unsecured gun.

Courtesy of Slate:  

In April, a 4-year-old New Jersey boy accidentally shot and killed his 6-year-old neighbor with his father’s .22-caliber rifle. On Monday, the boy’s father, Anthony Senatore, was arrested and charged with five counts of second-degree child endangerment (for storing five unsecured firearms in places where they were accessible to his children), and one count of third-degree child endangerment (for storing one of those firearms in a place where it endangered the welfare of the 6-year-old who was killed). Each second-degree count could potentially bring 5 to 10 years in prison, which means that if Senatore is convicted, he could theoretically face up to 50 years in prison. (He won’t, of course, get 50 years in prison, but, if he is convicted, he will likely face some jail time—if you are convicted of a second-degree offense in New Jersey, it is presumed that you will face a prison term.)

This is the kind of gun laws that we need to enforce all over the country.

And in my opinion NOT just for parents who allow their guns to fall into the hands of children, but also gun owners who do not sufficiently lock their guns away in their homes to keep them out of the reach of burglars who may steal them and use them in crimes or sell them on the streets to other criminals.

In my opinion the purchasing of each and every gun by an American citizen should bring with it a whole slew of responsibilities, and potential problems, that would make the purchaser think long and hard about whether they needed that gun at all, and just how many guns they were willing to take responsibility for.

I can guarantee that if the laws surrounding gun ownership were tightened up we would RARELY see people with arsenals of weapons in their homes anymore.

Parents of slain teenagers sue family members of the shooter for not keeping the guns out of his hands. Now this is a trend I want to see MUCH more of.

Courtesy of Courthouse News Service:  

Three students were shot to death a year ago at an Ohio high school because the killer's parents, guardians and uncle failed to keep the gun away from him, the dead students' families claim in court. 

Daniel Parmertor, Russell King Jr. and Demetrius Hewlin were shot to death in the Chardon High School cafeteria on Feb. 27, 2012. Three other students were wounded. 

T.J. Lane III, then 17, shot them with his uncle's .22 caliber pistol, according to the complaint. One day short of a year after the killing, Lane pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault. 

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. 

The families of the three people he killed sued Lane, his natural parents, his grandparents - who are also his custodial guardians - and his uncle John Bruening, in Lake County Court of Common Pleas. 

Lane was charged as an adult and "a juvenile court judge ruled that Lane was mentally competent despite evidence that he suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies," according to CBS News. 

The grieving families claim that Lane's parents, grandparents and uncle failed to prevent the shooting, which is described in detail in the complaint. 

"On or about February 27, 2012, defendant Lane, entered the Chardon High School cafeteria with a firearm he had obtained from his uncle, defendant John Bruening," the complaint states. 

 "At that time, Lane shot Daniel Parmertor, Russell King Jr., and Demetrius Hewlin, all of whom were sitting in the cafeteria either eating breakfast or waiting for a bus to take them to a local vocational school. Defendant Lane shot three other students who survived the assault. 

"Defendant Lane fired a total of ten (10) rounds of ammunition from defendant John Bruening's firearm at close range at the plaintiffs. 

"Following the shooting, defendant Lane fled the building and was later apprehended by law enforcement authorities." 

 The families seek compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death, negligent supervision, parental statutory liability, and loss of consortium.

This is what I have been advocating for all along.

It is not enough that the person who fired the gun is held responsible, it is that those who did not keep that instrument of death out of his hands are punished as well. And I would extend that to gun shop owners, trade show dealers, and ANY individual who sold that weapon without having the purchaser go through an extensive background check beforehand.

On an earlier thread somebody asked if I would be willing to see the victim of a burglary punished twice by also being brought up on charges that resulted from the gun violence perpetrated using a weapon stolen from their house.

My answer to that is, "You bet your ass!"

If the weapon was not registered, locked up in a safe with a combination lock, and with its ammunition stored in a separate location, then yes THAT person should be charged as an accomplice to the crime.

That may seem harsh, but we are talking about lives here, often young lives, and I guarantee we would see a dramatic drop in those if the actual purchaser of these weapons recognized the incredible responsibility they were taking on for themselves with each new gun they added to their arsenal.

NBC correspondent Richard Engel escapes Syrian kidnappers!

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

NBC News correspondent Richard Engel and his four-person crew have been freed unharmed after being kidnapped inside Syria and subjected to five days of forced moves and death threats. 

The journalists were released Monday following a gun battle between their captors and Syrian rebels at a checkpoint manned by the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, NBC said. They crossed safely back into Turkey. 

Appearing on the “Today” show Tuesday morning, Engel, 39, said his captors were part of a government militia known as Shabiha, which is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Engel described the kidnappers as Shiite Muslims, trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Hezbollah. 

The kidnappers told the journalists they wanted to exchange them for four Iranian agents and two Lebanese Shabiha members who had been captured by the rebels, Engel said. That plan was thwarted when the kidnappers unwittingly drove into a rebel checkpoint while trying to move the captives to a new location. In the ensuing gunfight, two of the group’s captors were killed. 

“It is good to be here. I am very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning,” Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent, said on “Today.”

Yesterday I received a number of comments linking to Gawker and saying that Richard Engel was missing.

On Gawker I learned that NBC had asked for a media blackout and was actively asking people not to tweet or blog about the news. Here is how Gawker rationalized their refusal to comply with the NBC request:  

No one told me anything that indicated a specific, or even general, threat to Engel's safety. No one said, "If you report this, then we know, or suspect, that X, Y, or Z may happen." It was infinitely more vague and general than that.

That, to me, seemed a rather weak justification for doing something that might place another person's life in danger, so I refused to post the story.

You know it is great to be among the first to break a story, and it sometimes makes blogging an exhilarating experience, however there is also a responsibility to make sure you do no harm to others.

I really respect Richard Engel, and think he is one of the best, and most heroic, reporters that I have ever seen. Essentially he is a national treasure and I am beyond glad to see that he is now safely back among us.

I am also glad that those who could not wait to break a story, with little regard for this man's safety, did not seem to complicate his situation or result in harm coming his way. They got lucky this time.

A final thought for tonight.

And if I may add:

You have free will, use it.

You possess the most highly developed brain on the planet, take advantage of that.

You are the product of your ancestors greatest hopes and dreams, make them proud.

And do not forget that the next generation is looking to us for guidance, don't let them down.

Gabrielle Giffords releases message to her constituents.

Click here to hear Gabby's message.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in a message recorded to her Southern Arizona constituents, says that she is getting better and is anxious to get back to work representing them. 

“I’m getting stronger. I’m getting better,” the three-term congresswoman said in the message released today. The congresswoman also said, “I want to get back to work. Representing Arizona is my honor.” 

The message, which lasts about a minute, was recorded last week in Houston, where Giffords has been undergoing rigorous rehabilitation therapy for 10 months.

I thought you could use a little Gabby Giffords to cleanse your mental palate after being subjected to the Queen of Mean. You have to know that was quite a struggle to get all of those words out, even though I think she only did them a few at a time.

Happy 21st Birthday Bristol Palin! Now let's see if you handle being an adult better than your mother.

Today is Bristol's 21st birthday, so we can officially retire her as one of the "children" that Sarah is always complaining we are attacking. (Because as you well know, telling the truth about somebody is "attacking" in Palin-speak.)

In my opinion this is the perfect time for Bristol to officially step into adulthood as her mother's now defunct political career will no longer provide the kind of reflected fame that Bristol was leeching off of to sell books, gain lucrative endorsements like the Candy's abstinence campaign, and convince producers she could be of ANY interest to viewers of reality programs.

Now that the Grizzled Mama seems to have gone into hibernation, what is next for the junior grifter/worst ex-girlfriend ever/homophobic reality star personality?

Whatever she does I would predict that it will have to be something related to her very own personal talents, since Granny Grifter may have done her last politically flavored lap dance for cash. So what talent does Bristol have?

Well she could...no the plastic surgery ruined that.

Okay well she has....no every woman has that.

Oh I have an idea, she can...no NOBODY will buy that.

Well don't worry I am sure it will come to me...I think.

In the meantime you can get a giggle from this pro-Palin fan site fawning all over Bristol's many "accomplishments," and then view the Huffington Post's slide show of, I kid you not, Bristol Palin's "Style Evolution."

P.S. For those who are curious about Bristol's plans for her birthday, my understanding is that she is currently in Wasilla and that her gal pals have something "epic" planned. I believe the Wasilla police are on high alert.