Firing a Catholic priest, having teenagers arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, Paul Ryan just doesn't give a f*ck anymore.

I am blowing this Popsicle stand, so fuck all of you!

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for. 

The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In an interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary. 

“I was asked to resign, that is clear,” Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, “that is unclear.” 

“I certainly wasn’t given anything in writing,” he said. “Catholic members on both sides are furious.” 

Father Conroy said he received the news from Mr. Ryan’s chief of staff. “The speaker would like your resignation,” Father Conroy recalled being told. He complied.

Father Conroy does have a theory about why he was fired:  

Though Father Conroy said he did not know whether politics were behind his departure, he pointed to a prayer he had given on the House floor in November, when Congress was debating tax overhaul legislation. 

“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” he prayed. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”

Conroy says that he was chastised after that prayer for getting "too political," and not long after that he was out.

However Paul Ryan says "Nuh uh. that's not why I did it."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to quell the controversy Friday morning by addressing his decision to fire Father Patrick Conroy during a private GOP conference meeting. Ryan said Conroy's ouster wasn’t politically motivated, as some have speculated. He said it came after complaints from multiple members about how the Jesuit priest wasn’t meeting their “pastoral needs,” as several Republican lawmakers exiting the meeting put it.

Oh yeah, how many priests do we know that were fired for not providing enough Jesus juice to the flock?

(Actually this is the first time in history that a priest has EVER been given the old heave ho by the Congress.)

But Ryan's scorched earth policy did not end there.

Naomi is in high school, she just got arrested while peacefully protesting outside of Paul Ryan's office. Naomi has a message for @SpeakerRyan. Please retweet this and tweet out the link to make sure he gets it.@_naomi_abigail_ #DworkinReport #NeverAgainhttps://t.co/gWXJmCndr4

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 27, 2018

Apparently since Ryan has no plans to run for reelection he is not even going to pretend that he is not a festering pustule on the face of humanity.

I am one of those who has known that Paul Ryan is a hateful little prick since he first came on the scene.

Now with one foot out the door he no longer seems interested in hiding that fact.

Trump asked if he plans to fire either Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein, answers with "There was no collusion."

Courtesy of Raw Story:

"Have you concluded that it’s not worth the political fallout to remove either special counsel Mueller or Deputy Attorney General [Rod] Rosenstein?” Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs asked the president during his joint press conference with Japanese President Shinzo Abe. 

“I can say there was no collusion and that’s been so found, as you know, by the House Intelligence Committee,” Trump responded, citing the recent closure of the Republican-led committee’s Russia investigation. “There is no collusion. There is no collusion with Russia other than by the Democrats, or, as I call them, the obstructionists. They truly are obstructionist.” 

The president then switched gears to reiterate his belief that the Russia investigation is a “hoax,” claiming that it was “created largely by the Democrats as a way of softening the blow of a loss which is a loss that frankly they shouldn’t have had from the standpoint that it’s very easy for them to have a tremendous advantage in the electoral college.” 

“You look at the kind of money that was paid, probably some went to Russia,” he continued. “You look at [Obama White House adviser] John Podesta having a company in Russia where nothing happened and people don’t talk about it. You look at the fact that their server, the DNC server, was never gotten by the FBI.”

You will notice that at no time did Trump proclaim that he was NOT planning to get rid of either Rod Rosenstein or Robert Mueller.

And as for collusion, we are seeing it happen right before our eyes with Trump refusing to implement the Russian sanctions that were voted on by Congress, and that his own Ambassador to the UN announced were coming.

That is the pro quo for Putin's quid.

In the meantime Mitch McConell is refusing to allow a vote to protect Robert Mueller reach the House floor.

And the police in Pittsburgh are preparing for the riots that will surely erupt once Trump does fire Mueller.

Can you say "constitutional crisis?" I knew that you could. 

While Republicans pretend it is not going to happen Trump's lawyers prepare the groundwork to fire Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

The Supreme Court is set to hear a seemingly minor case later this month on the status of administrative judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an issue that normally might only draw the interest of those accused of stock fraud. 

But the dispute turns on the president's power to hire and fire officials throughout the government. And it comes just as the White House is saying President Trump believes he has the power to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. 

Trump's Solicitor Gen. Noel Francisco intervened in the SEC case to urge the high court to clarify the president's constitutional power to fire all "officers of the United States" who "exercise significant authority" under the law. "The Constitution gives the president what the framers saw as the traditional means of ensuring accountability: the power to oversee executive officers through removal," he wrote in Lucia vs. SEC. 

"The president is accordingly authorized under our constitutional system to remove all principal officers, as well as all 'inferior officers' he has appointed." 

In addition to representing the administration before the Supreme Court, Francisco, a former law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, could be in line to oversee the Mueller inquiry if Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein is fired. Atty. Gen Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the investigation. 

Peter Shane, a law professor at the Ohio State University, called Francisco's argument a "radical proposition," and one that goes beyond what is at issue in the case. The justices said they would focus only on how the SEC in-house judges are appointed. But Francisco is asking them to go further and rule on the "removal" issue. 

"The solicitor general is obviously trying to goad the court into a broad statement about the removability of all officers of the United States," Shane said. "Were the court to make any such statement, it would surely be cited by Trump as backing any move by him to fire Mueller directly."

To be clear there really is no other logic reason to do this other than to gain the ability to fire Robert Mueller.

This would allow Trump to do that directly, and not have to jump through the hoops of firing Rod Rosenstein and then attempting to hire a replacement that would do the firing for him.

And while all of this is happening, we see this response to protecting Mueller from Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan refuses to allow a vote on a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, even if it passes the Senate. https://t.co/mxGf16vSZf #MTP #MeetThePress pic.twitter.com/S0h6IZQMqw

— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 15, 2018

I actually think that Ryan KNOWS that Trump is preparing to fire Mueller and that is most of the reason that he is not running for reelection.

He knows that once it happens he will get the blame for not protecting the Special Counsel and he will be so vilified that he could not get elected dog catcher in this country. 

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.

Recently fired deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, writes op-ed for the Washington Post.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

I have been accused of “lack of candor.” That is not true. I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators. When asked about contacts with a reporter that were fully within my power to authorize as deputy director, and amid the chaos that surrounded me, I answered questions as completely and accurately as I could. And when I realized that some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood, I took the initiative to correct them. At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that I take full responsibility. But that is not a lack of candor. And under no circumstances could it ever serve as the basis for the very public and extended humiliation of my family and me that the administration, and the president personally, have engaged in over the past year. 

Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way. 

The next day I woke to find the president of the United States celebrating my punishment: “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI — A great day for Democracy.” I was sad, but not surprised, to see that such unhinged public attacks on me would continue into my life after my service to the FBI. President Trump’s cruelty reminded me of the days immediately following the firing of James B. Comey, as the White House desperately tried to push the falsehood that people in the FBI were celebrating the loss of our director. The president’s comments about me were equally hurtful and false, which shows that he has no idea how FBI people feel about their leaders.

Towards the end of the 2016 election cycle The Guardian reported that the FBI was essentially "Trumpland," and that Hillary was seen as "the antichrist personified" to a large swath of FBI agents.

That was seen as part of the reason why the FBI's investigation into Trump's ties with Russia were kept on the down low while Clinton's email kerfuffle was featured on the front pages virtually every single day.

One has to wonder now if the FBI is happy with their performance, and in some cases lack of performance, during the 2016 elections?

I am not at all sure what they thought they would gain having Donald Trump as president, but if it was to be attacked on an almost weekly basis, have their top people humiliated and fired, and to have their entire agency undermined, well I guess they certainly got that, didn't they? 

Even after he got him fired Donald Trump cannot stop attacking former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

By the way according to McCabe Trump was obsessed with his wife: 

McCabe also opened up about how the President appeared fixated on his wife's failed campaign, recalling at least four occasions in which Trump taunted him with it as a "mistake" or "problem" and calling her a "loser." 

Trump raised the issue with Comey "out of the blue," according to McCabe, saying things "like, 'What's wrong with that deputy director of yours?' " insinuating that he was somehow politically motivated against the President, which, McCabe says is "absolutely not true." 

"In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the President, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him," McCabe told CNN, emphasizing that he pushed back. "Of course, I disagreed with him. I don't see my wife's decision to try to enter public life to help her community (have) greater access to healthcare as a mistake or a problem."

Trump also asked McCabe who he voted for in 2016, apparently to gauge his loyalty.

These are the rantings of a VERY insecure and frightened man.

And perhaps he should be because McCabe has something else in common with his former boss James Comey. Copious note taking.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Andrew McCabe — the former FBI deputy director just fired by the attorney general — kept personal memos regarding President Donald Trump. 

That’s according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to discuss the memos publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 

This person says the memos are similar to the ones maintained by former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired last May. 

Comey’s series of notes detailed interactions with Trump that Comey said unnerved him. 

The person with knowledge of McCabe’s situation says McCabe’s memos include details of interactions with the president, among other topics. 

It’s not immediately clear whether any of the McCabe memos have been turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller or requested by Mueller.

Well Mueller certainly has them now.

It's a damn good thing that Donald Trump does not accompany his children when they go hunting. Because he would definitely shoot himself in the foot every single time.

Andrew McCabe's statement after being fired by Jeff Sessions.

Courtesy of CNN: 

I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time. 

For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President's tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us. 

No more. 

The investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI's involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed. 

The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them. 

But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people. 

Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey's accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG's focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday's comments from the White House are just the latest example of this. 

This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration's ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel's work. 

I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see. 

I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.

Even if McCabe deserved to be let go, which from this statement does not seem at all clear, the fact that they did it just two days before he was eligible for his pension, is simply indefensible.

There are many who are suggesting that Trump had Sessions do this in order to damage his reputation and make it easier to fire him, thus allowing him to appoint an Attorney General who could oversee or fire Robert Mueller.

If that turns out to be the case it will identify Jeff Sessions as the biggest schmuck in Justice Department history.

As it is Trump has really crossed a red line of his own, and influential people are now coming forward to say the things we all have been saying for over a year now.

Such as this from former CIA chief John Brennan.

When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. https://t.co/uKppoDbduj

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018

And this from a retired four star general.

Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) March 16, 2018

Donald Trump might believe he is keeping the true motivations for his actions secret, but obviously that is not the case.

Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe fired just days before he was to retire with his pension intact. Update!

Courtesy of thew New York Times:

Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director and a frequent target of President Trump’s scorn, was fired Friday after the Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected an appeal that would have let him retire this weekend. 

Mr. McCabe promptly declared that his firing, and Mr. Trump’s persistent needling, were intended to undermine the special counsel’s investigation in which he is a potential witness. 

Mr. McCabe is accused in a yet-to-be-released internal report of failing to be forthcoming about a conversation he authorized between F.B.I. officials and a journalist. 

In a statement released late Friday, Mr. Sessions said that Mr. McCabe had shown a lack of candor under oath on multiple occasions. 

“The F.B.I. expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” he said. “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”

McCabe however disputes that explanation:

McCabe in a statement: "Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) March 17, 2018

McCabe was even more blunt in another interview: 

“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” he said, adding, “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.”

It should be pointed out that a Fox News draft of their article on this firing was leaked on Twitter hours before anybody else knew it was happening.

Someone at Fox News accidentally published the draft of a "McCabe fired" story, even though the firing hasn't happened. Twitterers are starting to share the link, thinking it's real. pic.twitter.com/QZPkLcyFLN

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 16, 2018

So clearly Trump's favorite "news" outlet was given a heads up well before the rest of the media was informed about this unprecedented decision.

By the way we should also remember that Trump has been trolling McCabe about this possibility for months now.

This is how the president of the United States treats a man who gave over 20 years in service to his country.

Update: Check this shit out.

Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

God he's a prick!

Donald Trump fires Rex Tillerson, replaces him with Mike Pompeo. Update!

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

Courtesy of CNBC: 

Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of State, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat that was marked by a series of public disagreements with his boss — President Donald Trump. 

Trump plans to appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace the former Exxon Mobil chief executive. The president picked deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to run the spy agency.

That tweet up above was how the world learned that Trump was kicking Tillerson off the island, no press conference, no official statement, just a tweet. Because apparently that is how these things are done now.

There has of course been talk that Trump was displeased with Tillerson going way back to when he called Trump a "moron" back in October.

Though of course Trump responded to talk that Tillerson may be on his way out with this tweet:

The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS! He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!https://t.co/FrqiPLFJ1E

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017

I cannot say that I was ever a fan of Tillerson, but at least he comported himself like a grown up most of the time.

Mike Pompeo is just a Trump ass kisser and a rubber stamp on anything and everything that Trump will want to do going forward.

Clearly this administration is in free fall right now, and when it finally makes impact it is going to leave a hell of a crater.

Update: Apparently Tillerson learned he was fired in the same tweet where everybody else learned about it. 

It looks like Donald Trump just forced FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe out of his job. That is two, count them two, FBI agents kicked to the curb. Update!

Courtesy of NBC News:  

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who has been attacked by President Donald Trump, stepped down Monday, multiple sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. 

McCabe will remain on the FBI payroll until he is eligible to retire with full benefits in mid-March, the sources said. 

One source said McCabe was exercising his retirement eligibility and characterized his decision as "stepping aside."

McCabe has been at the center of ongoing tensions between the White House and the FBI and has reportedly been under pressure to quit from Trump, whose presidential campaign is being investigated for possible collusion with Russia. 

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he had voted for in the 2016 election. 

Trump, the officials told The Post, also vented his anger at McCabe over hundreds of thousand dollars in donations that his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton.

When reached for comment Trump had nothing to say on the matter, but this has his fingerprints all over it.

Trump has been attacking McCabe for months on Twitter, and of course also pressured Jeff Sessions to fire him as reported recently.

Oddly enough while NBC News was careful not to characterize this as a firing, Fox News just laid it on the line: 

Top FBI official Andrew McCabe has been "removed" from his post as deputy director, Fox News is told, leaving the bureau after months of conflict-of-interest complaints from Republicans including President Trump. 

A source confirmed to Fox News that McCabe is taking “terminal leave” – effectively taking vacation until he reaches his planned retirement in a matter of weeks. As such, he will not be reporting to work at the FBI anymore.

Other sources are also reporting that this was not McCabe's decision alone. 

#BREAKING: Andrew McCabe - one of three FBI officials who could corroborate Comey's account of Trump pressuring him to drop the Russia probe before firing him - was just "forced" to step down as FBI deputy director https://t.co/1cdKBwet7m

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) January 29, 2018

Yes, as that tweet suggests Andrew McCabe was indeed one of Comey's backups in his story about Trump pressuring him to drop the Michael Flynn investigation.

And perhaps that, more than anything else, put a target on his back. 

Of course this "forcing out" changes absolutely nothing about that, as Mueller can still, and probably already has, interviewed Andrew McCabe.

However it does certainly add more fuel to that obstructionism fire, now doesn't it?

Update: FBI field agents were taken by surprise.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Appearing on CNN Monday, reporter Shimon Prokupecz said that he’s heard from leaders in FBI field offices across the country who say they and their teams are frustrated that they are first hearing about these resignations through news reports and not through official channels. 

“This comes as a surprise to many people,” Prokupecz said of McCabe’s departure. “Certainly the initial reaction from folks in the field — and these are the field agents and the field leaders at the field offices — is that people are pretty angry right now. They are hearing about FBI leadership moves from the news.” 

Prokupecz said that because news of McCabe’s departure broke in the news before it was announced internally, it has added to a sense of chaos engulfing the agency. 

“There is some concern among field leaders, among field agents among the FBI staff about what the hell is going on and who is running the FBI,” he explained, before noting that McCabe’s abrupt departure was very similar to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

I think "What the hell is going?" on is a very reasonable question to be asking right about now. 

Donald Trump just fired the entire HIV/AIDS advisory panel without explanation.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

The remaining 16 members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were told they were being fired Wednesday, via a FedExed letter from the White House. Six members resigned in June in protest of what they called the Trump administration’s inaction on the issue. Gabriel Maldonado, a PACHA adviser, confirmed the firings, but said the “explanation is still unclear.” “Like any administration, they want their own people there,” Maldonado told the Washington Blade. “Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.” Scott Schoettes, a council member who quit in June (and a senior lawyer for Lambda Legal), called the Trump move a “purge,” tweeting that the White House was “eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed.” In September, Trump had renewed PACHA’s brief for another year.

You know one would think that if you wanted to change the personnel in any given agency that you might do it over a period of time so as not to interrupt their work.

To do it like this seems impulsive and a little infantile.

Almost as if Trump simply cannot bear to have any Obama appointees in the government at all.  

The CEO and founder of Papa John's Pizza has been fired months after publicly criticizing NFL players for kneeling during national anthem.

Courtesy of WDRB: 

Papa John's says its founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players. 

The company said Thursday that Schnatter remains chairman but will be replaced as chief executive by Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie on Jan. 1. 

Schnatter had blamed slowing sales growth on the outcry surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Papa John's International Inc. is an NFL sponsor and advertiser. Schnatter also said at the time that customers had a negative view of the chain's association with the NFL. 

The comments drew praise from white supremacists and the company apologized two weeks later.

So I guess we can assume that Papa John's was not terribly pleased with their new designation as the white supremacist's pizza of choice? 

Gee, what a shame.

I have to say that I NEVER liked this Schnatter dude, even before he let his racist flag fly.

I'm also going to say that I am never eating that shitty pizza.

Even if they aren't racist POS, they still make crappy pizza.

In the early days of the presidency the White House counsel warned Donald Trump that Michael Flynn had probably lied to the FBI and yet Trump did not fire him until after a Washington Post article.

Don McGhan, White House legal counsel.

Courtesy of Foreign Policy: 

The White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, according to three people with direct knowledge of the confidential government documents. 

The records reflected concerns that McGahn, the White House counsel, had that Michael Flynn, then the president’s national security advisor, had possibly violated either one or both laws at the time, according to two of the sources. 

The disclosure that these records exist and that they are in the possession of the special counsel could bolster any potential obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump. The records that McGahn turned over to the special counsel, portions of which were read to this reporter, indicate he researched both statutes and warned Trump about Flynn’s possible violations. 

McGahn conducted the analysis shortly after learning that Flynn, on Dec. 29, 2016 — while Barack Obama was still president — had counseled the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey Kislyak, not to retaliate against U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Russia by the outgoing administration. 

McGahn believed that Flynn, and possibly anyone who authorized or approved of such contacts, would be in potential violation of the Logan Act, according to two of the sources, both of whom work in the administration.

I would contend that the "anyone who authorized or approved of such contacts" means Donald Trump.  Either directly or indirectly.

It is very clear that Trump, at least in the beginning of this presidency, was very hands on and was involved in essentially all of the decision making.

And that would explain this next part: 

Despite McGahn’s concerns that Flynn violated one or both of these laws, Trump allowed Flynn to continue in his job and only fired him after the Washington Post reported that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other senior administration officials about his contacts with Kislyak. That was 18 days after then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed McGahn of her own concerns about Flynn’s covert diplomacy with Russia prior to Trump taking office.

Why would Trump suddenly fire Flynn if Flynn was simply following his own orders?

I never believed that Trump fired Flynn for lying to Mike Pence, and have always seen that as a convenient excuse.

Flynn was let go because Flynn got caught, and now that he has made a plea deal with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller know EVERYTHING.

No wonder the White House and the Republicans are trying to undermine this investigation.

Garrison Keillor fired for "improper behavior." Aww, come on!

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” says he’s been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior. 

Keillor told The Associated Press of his firing in an email. In a follow-up statement, he says he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard.” 

He didn’t give details of the allegation. Minnesota Public Radio didn’t immediately respond to messages.

For his part Keillor had this to say: 

“I put my hand on a woman’s bare back. I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.””

When all is said and done there will not be a male hero left standing.

I want justice for women, I truly do, but I just want to make sure that people are losing their jobs for truly egregious actions, and not simply for staring too long at a bosom, or accidentally brushing a buttocks.

Longtime "Today Show" anchor Matt Lauer fired from NBC over allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct.

Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News. On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. pic.twitter.com/1A3UAZpvPb

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 29, 2017

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Matt Lauer, the anchor of "Today" for two decades, was fired by NBC News after a detailed complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. 

"Today" co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb announced Lauer's firing Wednesday, telling viewers at the top of the show that they were processing his departure but didn't yet know all of the details. 

In a memo to employees sent Wednesday morning, NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said the complaint, which was made by a colleague of Lauer's, prompted a serious review and represented a "clear violation of our company's standards."

Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer, 59, for his behavior since he took over as anchor of the show in 1997, but there was "reason to believe" it may not have been an isolated incident. 

"Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender," Lack said.

Guthrie, who joined Lauer at the anchor desk in 2012, said she was "heartbroken" for both him and the "brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their stories to tell." 

"I'm sure we will be learning more details in the hours and days to come. And we promise we will share that with you," she said.

I predicted weeks ago that we would see people who we would never have suspected accused of sexual misconduct, and I have to say that this is certainly one of them.

One thing is for certain, NBC News is absolutely not going to waste any time once allegations are made.

And another thing that is for certain is that Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb are the very definition of grace under pressure.

It is quite clear that their heart is broken and yet they soldier on and do their job even through their tears.

Which only underlines the hypocrisy in this tweet from Trump this morning.

So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017

The fact that this POS continues to live in the White House while so many people are losing their jobs for far less egregious acts of sexual misconduct is a terrible injustice that I hope will someday be rectified. 

Bicyclist who flipped Donald Trump's motorcade the bird has been fired.

Remember this woman?

Remember how much we all admired her?

Yeah, well she lost her damn job:

The woman’s name is Juli Briskman. Her employer, government contractor Akima LLC, wasn’t so happy about the photo. They fired her over it. 

In a Saturday interview with HuffPost, Briskman, a 50-year-old mother of two, said she was stunned that someone had taken a picture of her giving Trump the middle finger. 

As the photo circulated online, Briskman decided to tell Akima’s HR department what was happening when she went to work on Monday. By Tuesday, her bosses called her into a meeting and said she had violated the company’s social media policy by using the photo as her profile picture on Twitter and Facebook. 

“They said, ‘We’re separating from you,‘” said Briskman. “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’” 

Briskman, who worked in marketing and communications at Akima for just over six months, said she emphasized to the executives that she wasn’t on the job when the incident happened and that her social media pages don’t mention her employer. They told her that because Akima was a government contractor, the photo could hurt their business, she said.

Well that is just fucked up.

Here this woman expressed the emotions felt by the vast majority of the American people in this country, and she gets canned?

Don't you feel that Donald Trump is behind this, cause I certainly do. 

Well here's my prediction.

I bet money that there are company executives who are reading about this woman's situation right now, and I bet in the next several days she will have a different job, with better pay, and a more secure future.

After all this is still America isn't it?

If our rights to freely express ourselves and to protest authoritarianism are no longer valid, then Donald Trump and his deplorables truly have won haven't they?

Conservative website drops firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos after just one column.

Courtesy of The Hill:

Right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos has been dropped from his op-ed deal with the Daily Caller after just one column, according to a post on his Facebook page. 

Yiannopoulos wrote on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon that the Daily Caller had "caved to pressure and canceled my weekly column." 

"Sad news: The Daily Caller has caved to pressure and cancelled my weekly column after a day, claiming, falsely, they never planned to run weekly contributions from me," Yiannopoulos wrote Saturday. 

"Where will it end? So: no new MILO column for now. This sort of cowardice is why the Right in America loses and will keep losing the culture wars," he added.

Apparently Yiannopoulos wrote a single column on Saturday that essentially attacked Kevin Spacey and made a number of explosive allegations not backed up by any evidence.

Gee I wonder why he had to go?

Actually the only thing I really wonder is why would anybody hire him expecting a different outcome?

Steve Bannon breaks with Trump. Calls firing of James Comey "the biggest mistake in modern political history."

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Asked during an interview on "60 Minutes" Sunday if it was true that he called the Comey firing the "biggest mistake in political history," Bannon said, "That probably would be too bombastic, even for me, but maybe modern political history." 

Bannon told interviewer Charlie Rose that had Trump not fired Comey, the president would not be faced with an investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

"I don't think there's any doubt that if James Comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel," Bannon said, referring to Robert Mueller. 

“We would not have the Mueller investigation, we would not have a Mueller investigation in the breadth that clearly Mr. Mueller is going in.”

I agree with Bannon that there would likely be no Special Counsel assigned to this instigation, however I do not think the FBI's version would be really any less aggressive.

What the Russians did was an attack on our very democracy, so the law enforcement agencies were simply not going to sit back and do nothing about it.  

And even before the firing of the FBI Director Trump was showing signs of guilt and making attempts to obfuscate, so that would only have drawn more intense scrutiny even without this blatant attempt to sabotage the investigations.

Eric Bolling, who swore to clear his name, is the latest sexual predator out at Fox News.

Courtesy of Variety: 

Fox News Channel will part ways with host Eric Bolling, a host and contributor whose on-air presence at the 21st Century Fox-owned network had been growing in recent months, after allegations surfaced that he had harassed colleagues there, the network confirmed Friday. 

“Fox News Channel is canceling ‘The Specialists,’ and Eric Bolling and Fox have agreed to part ways amicably,” the network said in a statement.” We thank Eric for his ten years of service to our loyal viewers and wish him the best of luck.” A Huffington Post report had disclosed allegations that Bolling had sent lewd messages to colleagues via smartphone. 

Bolling, a former commodities trader and best-selling author, had been a longtime co-host of “The Five,” and more recently helped launch a new late-afternoon show, “The Fox News Specialists.” He also anchors the Fox News program “Cashin’ In.” Fox News intends to keep Bolling’s co-hosts, Eboni Williams and Kat Timpf, as contributors. The show will be replaced at 5 p.m. eastern with an hour of news coverage for the foreseeable future, with rotating anchors holding down the slot. 

Bolling had vowed to clear his name.

It appears that Bolling had the same success at clearing his name as OJ. 

You may remember that Bolling was suspended early last month for texting pictures of his junk to female colleagues, who I'm sure were just thrilled to receive photographic evidence of his shortcomings.

And don't buy that crap about agreeing to part ways, Fox News is doing damage control right now so once those accusations against Bolling were made public his days were numbered. 

So should we start taking bets on who gets the big heave ho next?

My money is on either Sean Hannity or that scuzzy Jesse Watters fellow.

Cheerleading coach fired for forcing students into splits. Also fired from previous job for exact same activity.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Colorado cheerleading coach seen in a viral video forcing a girl into an extended split as she screamed in agony was fired from a previous job for the same thing. 

The 13-year-old cheerleader was shown crying and begging her coach, Ozell Williams, to stop as he pushed her to the ground during an exercise at a camp in June, reported KUSA-TV. 

The teen, Ally Wakefield, told the TV station she tore a ligament in the exercise, known as “breaking,” and her parents sent video of the incident to school administrators shortly after the cheerleading camp began. 

Williams, who oversaw the camp, was suspended Wednesday by East High School in Denver, Colorado. 

KUSA also reported that Williams had been fired from his paid consulting job last year after parents at Boulder High School complained about the forced splits.

There is a video of this but I refuse to post it here because it is too disturbing.  (If you want to see it just click the Raw Story link.)

I spent twenty years training in martial arts, and was also a gymnast as well as a coach, but only once did I ever see this barbaric training method.

It was in a dojo in Anchorage, and the sensei literally stood on my legs, which were in the split position, while giving instruction to the other students.

Fortunately for me I could already do the splits to there was no injury, just some mild foot shaped bruising on my thighs.  (That guy really hated me.)

As a coach myself I NEVER engaged in this type of forced stretching because I knew it to be harmful, which is something that is actually touched upon during your training to be a coach.

Sports are fun, and they should be taught with the idea of keeping them fun.

(Yes I know I have diverged from the usual topics covered here on IM, but damn this thing really bothered me. Don't worry back to politics after this. )