Speaking of subpoenas here are the others also being asked to testify in the Russia investigations.

JUST IN: Mueller interviewed cybersecurity expert who claimed he was recruited to collude with Russia: report https://t.co/2xaHUS0X6T pic.twitter.com/PuzcneKAYV

— The Hill (@thehill) October 17, 2017

 Courtesy of The Hill: 

Special counsel Robert Mueller has interviewed a cybersecurity expert who claims he was "recruited to collude with the Russians" in the 2016 election, Business Insider reported Tuesday. 

Matt Tait, a former information security specialist for Britain's Government Communications Headquarters was interviewed weeks ago by Mueller, according to a source familiar with the investigation. 

Tait claimed that he was recruited by a longtime GOP operative tied to the Trump campaign, Peter W. Smith, to obtain emails deleted from Hillary Clinton's private email server that they believed were hacked by the Russians. 

Smith reportedly told people during his investigation that he was affiliated with President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Actually Mueller and his team have been quite busy.

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Donald Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team on Monday for an interview that lasted much of the day, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. 

During his sitdown, Spicer was grilled about the firing of former FBI director James Comey and his statements regarding the firing, as well as about Trump’s meetings with Russians officials including one with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office, one person familiar with the meeting said.

Spicer was essentially that "fly on the wall" that we talk about who overhears everything, even things he should not be hearing.

And considering how he was treated there is no reason to think he is not perfectly willing to share all that he knows. 

And speaking of flies on the wall let's not forget that Mueller has already interviewed Reince Priebus.

Former adviser Carter Page has also been subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. He of course has already spilled his guts to the FBI.

Yep things are most definitely heating up.

Is it any wonder that Trump is trying to get the whole thing shut down?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller now has his eye on Reince Priebus and other current and former White House staff members.

What do they want to talk to me for? I don't know nothing.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

In a sign that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election will remain a continuing distraction for the White House, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is in talks with the West Wing about interviewing current and former senior administration officials, including the recently ousted White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, according to three people briefed on the discussions. 

Mr. Mueller has asked the White House about specific meetings, who attended them and whether there are any notes, transcripts or documents about them, two of the people said. Among the matters Mr. Mueller wants to ask the officials about is President Trump’s decision in May to fire the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, the two people said. 

That line of questioning will be important as Mr. Mueller continues to investigate whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice in the dismissal of Mr. Comey. 

No interviews have been scheduled, but in recent weeks Mr. Mueller’s investigation has appeared to intensify. Late last month, he took the aggressive step of executing a search warrant at the Alexandria, Va., home of Paul J. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman. Legal experts say Mr. Mueller may be trying to put pressure on Mr. Manafort to cooperate with the investigation.

Oh yeah, this whole thing is heating up big time. 

And of course this is not the only investigation that seems to be narrowing in on certain targets.

As I posted earlier the congressional investigators are now looking to question Trump's personal secretary, and I have to imagine that Mueller would like to have a talk with her as well.

However I think we all know that Reince is the weak link in this chain.

That guy looks ready to crack just during interviews with Chuck Todd.

I bet after five minutes with Mueller's investigators that Priebus will be sobbing uncontrollably and giving up secrets about every person he has ever met.

P.S. Boy Sarah Palin better hurry up and take down the New York Times quickly because they are really ramping up their reporting on this so-called "witch hunt" directed at her boyfriend.

Internet responds to news that Donald Trump called Reince Priebus into his office to kill a fly.

Just sayin, Obama didn't need anyone to catch his flies. pic.twitter.com/8zOBEK3A3C

— Sarah Burris (@SarahBurris) July 29, 2017

That right there is my favorite one by far, but there were others.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Gen. Kelly won't put up with that.

— Patrick (@SayNoToFascists) July 29, 2017

He's not even really qualified for that.

— Roll Out Strohl Out (@StevenMStrohl) July 29, 2017

Twist: he couldn't use his hands, he had to dehumanize the fly until it lost its will to go on

— Ian Fortey (@IanFortey) July 29, 2017

This story seems even more pathetic when you learn just HOW Priebus was fired.

Courtesy of the Independent Journal Review:  

The firing occurred upon the president's return from Long Island after giving a speech about gang violence. 

As Air Force One was taxiing on the runway at Joint Base Andrews, Trump sent the initial tweets announcing the shake-up. 

The situation was an awkward one because of the fact that Priebus had traveled with the president that day. 

According to the White House pool report, Priebus spent his final moments as White House chief of staff with other administration officials, in the pouring rain, sitting in a van. 

Once the tweet was public, those White House staffers still employed left van, and Reince was all alone.

Somebody then drove the van containing the former White House Chief of Staff away, and only then did Trump exit Air Force One and leave the tarmac in his motorcade, absent one.

Van with Priebus has departed Joint Base Andrews; Potus still on board pic.twitter.com/KbszPMUCGu

— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) July 28, 2017

Keep in mind that after this humiliation Priebus was then forced to go on TV and confirm his support for Trump, and make up an alternate story line concerning his dismissal.

How does one even stand up straight without a spine?

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. 

Donald Trump puts his top Nazi in his National Security Council and kicks out the actual national security experts.

Courtesy of The Atlantic:

President Trump signed a memorandum late Saturday afternoon that reorganizes the National Security Council (NSC), including Steve Bannon, the former chair of Breitbart Media and his chief strategist and senior counselor, as well as Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, on its principals committee. The decision is unusual because such positions are not normally given to political operatives. Bannon has been among the most controversial of Trump’s advisors, because of his association with the racist and anti-Semitic “Alt-Right.

More from the Washington Post:  

That memo also states that the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will sit on the principals committee only when the issues to be discussed pertain to their “responsibilities and expertise.” In the previous two administrations, both were included as regular attendees. 

The White House thinks the changes will make the NSC more adaptive to modern threats. Trump said the changes would bring “a lot of efficiency and, I think, a lot of additional safety.” 

The changes affirm the ascent of Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, a conservative website that is popular with white nationalists, who has emerged as Trump’s political consigliere and the keeper of the president’s populist flame. 

Bannon has already been playing a major role in directing Trump’s foreign policy, administration officials say, and joined the president in the Oval Office on Saturday for his calls with Putin and several other world leaders.

So the guy who wants journalists to shut their mouths, made a movie mythologizing Sarah Palin, and ran a hate group disguised as a news outlet, is now sitting on the National Security Council while the DNI is kicked to the curb?

Apparently there is quite literally no end to this nightmare. 

Donald Trump checks in with his boss from the new office he helped him get.

Yes Vlad things are going as planned, except everybody hates me and it's not as fun as you told me it would be.

Courtesy of New York Daily News:  

President Trump chatted with Vladimir Putin Saturday, his first known conversation since taking office with the Russian leader he frequently complimented on the campaign trail. 

A gaggle of White House staffers — Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon — were in the room when Trump made the call.

It is not clear what the two presidents talked about.

Oh I think I can guess the topic of conversation.

Putin put Trump in place to remove the sanctions, and that is what he expects him to do.

After speaking with Chancellor Merkel for 45 minutes @POTUS is now onto his 3rd of 5 head of government calls, speaking w Russian Pres Putin pic.twitter.com/RPAWIgcO2C

— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) January 28, 2017

Do you notice that both Bannon and Flynn are in the room for the phone call?

Bannon is essentially running the show by writing the executive orders that Trump signs, and Flynn is his go between with Putin.

As reported earlier I think Pence and Priebus were forced on Trump in order to keep up appearances for the photograph.

I would bet money that there is a more private conversation later, assuming of course that there have not already been several private conversations before this. 

Trump's White House Chief of Staff says he has "no plans" to get rid of FBI Director James Comey.

Courtesy of The Washington Times:  

The incoming White House chief of staff said Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump does not plan to replace FBI Director James B. Comey despite increasingly public calls from Democrats that Mr. Comey should resign. 

“There’s no plans in this moment of changing that,” Reince Priebus said Sunday in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “We’ve had a great relationship with him over the last several weeks and he’s extremely competent.”

I don't think any of us should be surprised by this. Of course Trump has a "great relationship" with Comey, he provided the final push that helped him to win. 

I still think that Comey had some assurances before sending that letter that if Trump won his job would be safe.

I can't prove that or anything, but Comey HAD to know that if Clinton won his career was over.

So if he was going to risk everything like that he had to know there was a safe place to land.

New Trump team strategy, hacks happen every election period and this one did not change the outcome.

Damn do I dislike this woman!

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Instead of focusing on the crux of the report — that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a multifaceted campaign aimed at helping Trump take the White House — members of the president-elect's team emphasized Russia's failure to actually disrupt the country's democracy and influence election results. 

Incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday he thinks Trump accepts the findings of the intelligence community. 

"He is not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular hacking campaign," Priebus told "Fox News Sunday." 

But, he alleged, that's not new. 

"It happens every election period," he said.

Okay that is simply not true.

But even if it were true it would not matter unless the people doing the hacking released that information out into the new media in order to benefit the candidate they wanted to win.

Here is more of Kellyanne's spin on this topic: 

She said foreign entities hacking the U.S. is not new and sought to pivot from discussing election meddling, alleging that under President Obama there have been hacks of the Department of Defense and Department of State. 

"Very concerning," she said of such cyber attacks on NBC's "Meet The Press," noting there was " very little punishment." Americans should know the country is "woefully unprepared for cybersecurity in the 21st century," she added. 

At the same time, she maintained that Russia's attempt to meddle in the presidential race had failed. 

"They did not succeed. They did not succeed to embarrassing this country on the world stage," she said. 

"They did not succeed in throwing the election to Donald Trump. That's very clear in this report."

As I have mentioned before that last part is not even mentioned in the report.

So to sum up the Trump team's talking points are, there is nothing new about this, it did not change the outcome of the election, and the news media is blowing this all out of proportion.

It may be a little challenging, but remember THESE are the REPUBLICANS, talking about RUSSIA.

Russia was the GOP's go to bogeyman for decades.

But now that they have actually undermined our democratic process we get, "Move on, nothing to see here."

And they are not alone, Trump voters seem to be in total agreement: 

“Sour grapes,” explained Bob Marino, 79, weighing in on the recent spycraft bombshell from the corner table of a local McDonald’s. 

“Sour grapes,” agreed Roger Noel, 65, sitting next to him. 

“Bunch of crybabies,” Reed Guidry, 64, offered from across the table. 

But Mr. Gubert came to a different conclusion. 

“If that’s what it took,” he said, “I’m glad they did it.”

And that is how America was taken over by a hostile foreign government boys and girls.

NOT after a long and destructive world war, but with a few simply hacks, a compliant media, and a complacent electorate. 

Did the RNC suggest that Donald Trump was the second coming of Christ? On Christmas? Maybe.

#MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/5GgDmJrGMS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 25, 2016

The above was Trump's season greetings to his deplorable followers.(Yes I know he has decreed that we all say "Merry Christmas," that's why I didn't!)

As you might imagine he was mocked mercilessly over that tweet, as well he should have been.

@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/kX0nzR2ktt

— Orli Matlow (@HireMeImFunny) December 25, 2016

However even more disturbing was this message from the RNC:

In a holiday message sent out by the GOP, Reince Priebus, the outgoing RNC Chairman and incoming chief of staff, wished a "Merry Christmas to all!" 

"Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of a new King," the message said. "We hope Americans celebrating Christmas today will enjoy a day of festivities and a renewed closeness with family and friends."

 "Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of a new King."

 Say what?

Now I don't know about you but that seemed to say that not only does Donald Trump want to take ownership of the phrase "Merry Christmas," but that he would like to co-opt the entire season and make it all about him.

"Who needs that Jesus Christ dude now that you have a new savior in town?"

Spokesguy Sean Spicer was quick to correct the record.

Christ is the King. He was born today so we could be saved. Its sad & disappointing you are politicizing such a holy day. https://t.co/NEOkLNd1Mz

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) December 25, 2016

Yeah, fuck us for simply using reading comprehension and NOT utilizing our Republican to English phrase book.

So according to this guy Donald Trump is NOT trying to replace Jesus in the hearts and minds of the American people.

At least no yet, but I think we all know that is on the agenda.

RNC Chairman Reince Preibus issues statement honoring women of the Republican party. However somebody gets left out. Three guesses as to who.

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling of impending doom?"

So RNC Chairman Prebus issued this statement two days ago.

Here is where he lists some of the admirable women that represent the party:

 “Republican women have a history of being trailblazers, breaking ground and glass ceilings — from Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to be elected to both the House and the Senate, to the nation’s first Latina governor, Susana Martinez of New Mexico and the country’s youngest sitting governor, Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

Let's see Margaret Chase Smith, Susana Martinez, Nikki Haley, yeah that seems to represent the female trailblazers...ooooh wait, do you see what I see?

Well they certainly did over at Breitbart:

 The RNC failed to recognize former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was the party's first female vice presidential nominee. What made the statement stranger, though, was it explicitly acknowledged two governors who would not be in their respective statehouses were it not for Palin. 

Martinez and Haley were both trailing their respective races before Palin, who galvanized what became the Tea Party movement when she was put on the presidential ticket in 2008, endorsed them in 2010, which ensured they would get their respective nominations. 

Ouch somebody's panties are certainly in a bunch.

Of course what Breitbart seems to forget, and Preibus clearly has not, is that while Palin was once the darling of the GOP four years ago, and could help get relatively unknown politicians elected in certain very red states, these days her endorsement has little value, and in fact can attract the kind of negative attention that will doom a campaign before it even gets out of the gate.

Sarah Palin making the RNC proud to have chosen her as their VP candidate.

Besides that he knows all to well that her ignorance and unintelligible responses to he questions of reporters made the 2008 McCain campaign a virtual laughingstock. 

So he might suffer a few poorly misspelled e-mails cramming his inbox from the few remaining Palin-bots out there, but ultimately I doubt that his omission will bother too many loyal Republican men, or women.