The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is holding its hearing on worldwide threats this morning.
The witnesses are:
- Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats
- Director of Central Intelligence Mike Pompeo
- Director of the FBI Christopher Wray
- Director of the National Security Agency ADM Mike Rogers
- Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency LTG Robert Ashley
- Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Robert Cardillo
Here’s the live stream from Senator Warner’s Youtube page:
And here’s the livestream from The Washington Post in case something goes wrong with the other one.
Despite the topic, given who the witnesses are, I expect there will be questions pertaining to the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Which will likely elicit a lot of non responsive responses.
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
Someone overcaffeinated DNI Coates this morning. Which is good, because he usually looks and acts like his batteries are almost completely run down.
Villago Delenda Est
Pompeo is a threat. To reason, to logic, to everything.
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s the volcanic ash residue.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman: LOL
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe he understands the gravity of the situation with regards to three of the top Russian intelligence chiefs being allowed into the US without anyone in Congress knowing about it? Or he had a Monster and is operating at 150%.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: Every time I’ve seen him speak since he was nominated to be DCI, it was like watching a Droopy Dog cartoon on slow playback. This is the most animated he’s been in over a year.
WaterGirl
Thanks for this, Adam! My previous comment is in moderation, maybe this will be too. I think I typed water girl correctly on my phone but maybe I goofed it up.oops typo in my email.
JMG
Adam, what is the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency? I’m sure it serves a real purpose, but it sounds so Maxwell Smart to me.
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: I freed it.
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: But even Pompeo admits Russia interfered with the election, didn’t he?
Adam L Silverman
@JMG: Here you go:
https://www.nga.mil/About/Pages/Default.aspx
More at the link.
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: All Droopy Dog references are the exclusive property of former Senator Joe Lieberman. /s
Like I said, maybe he understands the optics on this and someone in his office slipped him a Red Bull.
JMG
@Adam L Silverman: So it’s in charge of GPS and secret super-GPS stuff. Got it.
Adam L Silverman
@JMG: Their bread and butter is GEOINT – geospatial intelligence – in support of the military.
Betty Cracker
Pompeo is such an obvious political hack. He’s not the first hack to head the CIA, of course, but it seems like in the past, there was at least a pro forma effort to portray the person nominated for that job as committed to carrying out his duties in a nonpartisan manner and for the person who was confirmed to pretend to be above partisanship. Not Pompeo. The GOP did make an effort to sell Wray as above partisanship when he was nominated to lead the FBI, but Pompeo is just a nakedly partisan hack, and that seems okay with the Beltway types. Weird.
Sab
Is there anyone in this crew who knows what they are doing?
Gin & Tonic
@Sab: Magic 8-ball says “don’t count on it.”
JPL
OT
She belongs on the food page, imo.
Leto
@Sab: Are they a Trump admin hire? If so…
Amir Khalid
@Sab:
I suspect that knowing what you’re doing is a sacking offence in Trumpland, just like having professional principles.
The Moar You Know
@JPL: How does she keep getting work? Inconceivable.
germy
A female judge. He must be extra pissed off about that.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
Starting March 1? The WaPo should have McArdle start on April 1.
Jeffro
Must be weird, with everyone there knowing full well that the greatest threats to our country are its president*, vice president, the president*s son-in-law, a balding young psycho, and oh yeah the president* again.
japa21
Like all his GOP friends, he lacks any courage. Doesn’t know the meaning of the word.
rikyrah
Trump pitched real estate project to Georgian prime minister during White House meeting
13 FEB 2018
President Donald Trump reportedly used a White House meeting with the prime minister of Georgia last year to talk about a long-stalled real estate project in the former Soviet satellite state.
Two former Trump business partners tell Forbes that Trump brought up plans to build a Trump Tower in Georgia during his meeting with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili last May.
StringOnAStick
OT to any fellow Coloradoans: there are petition people all over the place right now asking if you are an R voter. Anyone know what they are gathering signatures for?
rikyrah
Trump White House failing to secure proper security clearances
Chris Lu, who ran the 2008 Obama presidential transition, talks with Rachel Maddow about how a normal presidential transition handles necessary security clearances ahead of taking office.
germy
@Amir Khalid:
so the Kochs will have a mouthpiece at the WaPo. I’m sure they’re pleased.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: Emoluments? What are those?
rikyrah
Watch this space: The revenge of people of color and #MeToo
While Kellyanne Conway, our latter day Goebbels, was on the TV box this weekend flapping her gums about how much Trump loves women (I bet he does), a poll from The Washington Post and ABC painted a different picture. According to political maven Ron Brownstein (whom L.A. gave to the country):
………………………..
If the GOP loses even a few percentage points of support among white women, it is done as a political force. As the GOP has become more misogynistic, women who vote for it but are otherwise not in thrall to a male-dominated system are beginning to realize that they derive no benefit from their fealty to the party. The long-awaited joining of the various sisterhoods may be happening. The supreme irony will be that this all began with the accusations against Harvey Weinstein, mega-donor to the Democratic Party. Democrats immediately and vociferously condemned him. The response from Republicans to their own malefactors has been noticeably different, and women are noticing.
That’s one leg of the revenge against Trump. The other is, obviously, people of color, specifically African Americans, specifically African American women. Doug Jones would not be in the Senate without them. They have established themselves, in spite of what your average Bernie Bro would posit, as the very backbone of the Democratic Party. If it seems as if they are voting as if their lives depend on it, it’s because they are. This new dynamic bodes well for states like Texas, where millions of African Americans and Latinos who are eligible to vote aren’t registered to do so. The task of the Democratic Party is to get those people registered and committed to vote.
Jeffro
@Amir Khalid: @germy:
Oliver Wills is using Chris Cillizza’s endorsement of McCardle’s hire as proof that she’s monumentally unfit and you know what? He’s right!
She used to blog as “Jane Galt”, didn’t she? See, there’s even more proof of unfitness.
JPL
Porter’s background check was finished last July. I wonder when they finished Jared’s.
Leto
@The Moar You Know: You keep using that word… I do not think it means what you think it means.
germy
@Jeffro: Also proves that Cillizza is monumentally unfit.
rikyrah
The pure EVIL with this group NEVER STOPS.
Which is why those who voted for him, and the purity ponies who voted third party
MUST.NEVER.EVER.UNDER.ANY.CIRCUMSTANCES.BE.FORGIVEN.
Trump pitches plan to replace food stamps with food boxes
By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH
02/12/2018 09:32 PM EST
The Trump administration is proposing to save billions in the coming years by giving low-income families a box of government-picked, nonperishable foods every month instead of food stamps.
White House OMB Director Mick Mulvaney on Monday hailed the idea as one that kept up with the modern era, calling it a “Blue Apron-type program” — a nod to the high-end meal kit delivery company that had one of the worst stock debuts in 2017 and has struggled to hold onto customers. Mulvaney said the administration’s plan would not only save the government money, but also provide people with more nutritious food than they have now.
The proposal, buried in the White House’s fiscal 2019 budget, would replace about half of the money most families receive via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, with what the Department of Agriculture is calling “America’s Harvest Box.” That package would be made up of “100 percent U.S. grown and produced food” and would include items like shelf-stable milk, peanut butter, canned fruits and meats, and cereal.
But America’s Harvest Box, which USDA contends would save over $129 billion over 10 years, is not very comparable to startup meal-delivery companies like Blue Apron. For one, the Trump administration’s proposal doesn’t include fresh items, like produce or meat, which are the core of Blue Apron and its competitors. Such products perish quickly and are incredibly expensive to ship.
germy
@Jeffro: McCardle wrote (after Sandy Hook) that children should be trained to run at active shooters.
rikyrah
Tee hee hee
Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of snakes.
GOP congressman pulls Issa into ugly divorce
Rep. Mike Turner is seeking to depose his colleague in the messy situation.
By JOHN BRESNAHAN, JAKE SHERMAN and RACHAEL BADE
02/12/2018 07:00 PM EST
Rep. Darrell Issa was a groomsman in Rep. Mike Turner’s wedding to Majida Mourad in December 2015. Now, Turner is locked in a contentious divorce with Mourad — and he wants Issa deposed by his attorneys.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/12/issa-deposition-sought-in-turner-divorce-case-405990
Jeffro
Here’s a good take: Reagan’s ‘Party of Ideas’ is Down To Just One: Tax Cuts
(I’d argue it’s two ideas, but their other idea – unbridled bigotry – is mostly to help keep their base whipped up into a lather so they’ll vote against their own interest and thus continue getting more & more tax cuts)
In fact, that’s how the author puts it, too:
I take it this is yet another Wittes and Rauch-type conversion…these guys might want to beat the drum a little louder, though. And they need to hurry up and join the center-center party before it’s too late…
Jeffro
@germy: “…aaaaannnndddd moving 10 more notches up the tumbrel list, it’s MMMMMMEGAN MCCARRRRRDLE!” Did not know that. Sociopaths in the service of richer sociopaths, that’s all they are.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Trump takes aim at blue states in infrastructure plan
Some major transit projects are left fighting for scraps.
By DANA RUBINSTEIN and RYAN HUTCHINS 02/12/2018 06:46 PM EST
Leto
@JPL: Is he done revising his list of contacts with Russians? No? Is he done lying? No? And here we are… Hopefully people will follow up with that and point that out too. Too many people in the administration with no security clearance handling/being briefed on classified information. Thank FSM that “HER EMAILZ” wasn’t allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
rikyrah
Hmmph
Corker weighs his options as GOP frets about losing Tennessee
The two-term senator is being urged to reconsider his retirement amid concerns Republicans could lose his seat in November.
By BURGESS EVERETT 02/12/2018 06:30 PM EST
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@JPL: Failing upwards seems almost built in for Republican / Libertarian hacks.
Wish any kind of “upwards” was easier for the rest of us.
ETA : Maybe they can pawn her off on CNN before she does too much damage. She and Cillizza would make a fine pair, and CNN seems to be beyond hope anyway.
rikyrah
Americans again made to learn from Russia about Trump Putin call
Rachel Maddow reviews what now makes at least eight times that Americans have learned about Donald Trump interacting with Russian officials from Russian media instead of the White House.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Falling up, forever. Ugh.
Is it to make up for Jen Ruben’s lost faith?
rikyrah
Americans kept in dark about Russian intel chiefs’ visit to US
Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, talks with Rachel Maddow about the unusual visit of all three Russian intelligence chiefs to the United States and the fact that U.S. officials have said less about the visit than Russians.
different-church-lady
@JPL: The commenters are going to carve her like a large flightless bird on a Thursday in November.
Jeffro
FWIW the Susan Rice non-story seems to have completely dropped off of Faux Snooze’s radar (the online version anyway) ALREADY…you have to picture the frantic conversations taking place behind the scenes at HQ.
“Boss! We’ve been really ramping up telling people about how Obama was stressing that things stay non-political during the transition, but Susan Rice – SUSAN RICE! – said, ‘let’s be sure to keep an eye on what we share with Trump re: Russia – he and his team may be compromised.’ Isn’t that great?! We’re telling every older white person in America, over and over again, that Obama was being professional but Susan Rice had concerns about…”
“You’ve been telling the olds WHAT?”
PJ
@rikyrah: I would be very surprised if the white women who voted for Trump, knowing full well his behavior and attitude towards women, and the general Republican lack of respect for their person and intelligence, suddenly turned their back on the Republican Party and decided to vote Democratic in 2018.
SiubhanDuinne
I really like Angus King. Always have.
It’s funny to watch Dan Coats’ face whenever Pompeo is talking. He delivers some very fine and skeptical side-eye. With good reason, I might add.
rikyrah
Trump Takes Shackles Off of ICE Which Is Slapping Them on Immigrants Who Thought They Were Safe
……………………………
rikyrah
Uh huh
Starfish
@StringOnAStick: I haven’t seen them, but I am not in a place where I would see them. Tomorrow, there is a hearing on not needing a permit for concealed carry at the Capitol though. It will likely be overrun by the gun nutters.
germy
@rikyrah: Do those flashpoints involve starting a war somewhere?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@rikyrah: Better to move forward with allowing people to use food stamps at more farmer’s markets. I’d like to see more CSAs eligible, too. Support the local economies.
bemused
@rikyrah:
Save taxpayers billions? Ha, ha, not likely. That’s the republican claim but we know what their words are worth. Most likely is that they already have a scheme going with food company lobbyists to give very lucrative government contracts to food corps to create the boxes. It also defies belief that the box idea would cost less money than the current food stamp system. More middle men on the dole.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@bemused: Government cheese.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@germy: Something like this?
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@StringOnAStick: I haven’t seen any; I work in Downtown just off the 16th Street Mall (which I try to avoid at lunchtime when most of the petition carriers are out:)) I’ll watch for them.
germy
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I was thinking of 45 deciding to muss up NK’s hair, or teaching Iran “a lesson” or something. I hope he’s too busy watching Celebrity Big Brother and live tweeting a critique of Omarosa’s performance.
Leto
@rikyrah: What, they don’t want Marsha Blackburn in that seat? She’s a pretty strong Trump backer, so I say she should run. No reason for us to pass up any advantages.
JPL
Cotton asked if it was the FBI’s view that the dossier was salacious and unverified, and Wray said he would answer in closed session. I assume that the answer would be a no.
Karen Potter
@rikyrah: I remember in the 60’s that there was a program like that; since mother was on it, the only healthy thing was the dried beans and peas.
eric
@different-church-lady: as god is my witness, i thought megan could fly….
germy
This morning I watched a tiny bit of the CBS Morning Show (“our motto: No Charlie Rose”) and they did a segment on the flu. They interviewed a small business owner who said she’d gotten sick, and her employees got sick, which meant she lost money. The business owner said it was bad for her employees because when they took sick days they didn’t get paid. They ended the segment with a story about a young mother who just died from the flu. Her husband said the woman opted to buy an over-the-counter remedy when she got sick because the co-pay for prescription medicine was $200. Gayle King ended the segment by saying “Which is why we should all take the flu seriously when we get sick.”
Rather than saying, I don’t know, people should get paid sick leave from their jobs and shouldn’t be faced with $200 co-pays for life-saving medicine.
I really dislike these morning shows and I’m at a point where I’m skipping them altogether.
Cacti
And the White House gets caught in another whopper.
Christopher Wray testified that the FBI investigation of Rob Porter was completed way back in July.
Bet he was happy to slip that shiv into their ribs.
JPL
@Cacti: Wray is pretty good. He told Harris that he would not talk to the President about the investigation (Russian) much less provide information to him. I found that interesting after the Susan Rice brouhaha about whether or not they should share the info the incoming administration.
Ridnik Chrome
@Betty Cracker:
I seem to remember a guy named Bush who was CIA director for a minute back in the Seventies…
Ridnik Chrome
@Jeffro:
It’s a pity they can’t all be first.
StringOnAStick
@rikyrah: Unfortunately I can see this “Harvest Box” thing get some traction. How many of us have heard the wingers complain that how can those people be in need to food assistance, look how overweight they are! If they’d just eat right! Oh I know, lets control what they get to eat.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@StringOnAStick: How much of what would go into such a box is controlled by farm programs? School lunch programs are influenced by this. I’m thinking of milk, for instance, regardless of whether the person is lactose intolerant.
StringOnAStick
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: A bill to allow no-permit concealed carry seems like the likely culprit. I work close to you and there was someone working the train platform at Union Station last night at rush hour. She couldn’t find even one R though! I also saw one in front of the Golden King Soopers, I also never saw her snag an actual R though even though Golden has it’s share of wingers.
Leto
In some positive news: Remington Is Planning to File for Bankruptcy (warning: if you click the link, there’s an autoplay video)
Villago Delenda Est
@Ridnik Chrome: We are grounded in reality here. One hack at a time, because the case of John Byng. On learning of the execution, the French writer, philosopher and playwright Voltaire satirically wrote that the British needed to occasionally execute an admiral from time to time, “in order to encourage the others.”
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Let me guess. If they actually do get any fresh fruits and vegetables in their “food box”, they will get less healthy fruits and vegetables that can no longer be sold because they are too old. Here you go, poor person. Eat your limp celery and moldy melons, and you better be grateful for what you are given. Awesome.
Villago Delenda Est
@Leto: You can bet that Stephen Feinberg personally has profited off this deal. It’s a Donald specialty; the bust out. He sold a lot of his former debt to his publicly held corporation and let it go bankrupt. Donald profits personally, leaves his shareholders with the bill.
StringOnAStick
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Yep, it will be foods determined by the farm subsidy structure and Big Ag, and they won’t care if you can’t tolerate milk products or other allergies. How can boxes, distribution centers, packing it all up, shipping it, etc be cheaper than an EBT card? It can’t so you are right; middle men making bank off the poor (yet again). I can’t wait to see how it will be distributed. Probably the recipient will have to find a way to some remote distribution facility with no mass transit access, and once fewer people use it because of this then they can cut it because “see? no demand!”.
I remember my late Aunt getting ‘government cheese’; in the 1970’s it was far more than it would have been healthy for a single elderly woman to eat so she gave a lot of it to me, a poor college student at the time. She took off the label and repackaged it because of how harshly she was warned about what would happen if she gave away or sold any.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@StringOnAStick: I assume the person thinking this up is unaware that there are already restrictions on what you can use those cards to buy.
Libraryguy
@WaterGirl: It’s sadder than that. Limp celery and aged melons are _already_ available at most food pantries, as donations from stores. The “Trump Box” will just be canned goods, and there is literally no way I can imagine it would be cheaper to package these foods and get them to towns all over the country more cheaply than simply adding $$ to a SNAP card and having people go to the local store or farmer’s market. It’s insane and cruel.
StringOnAStick
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): What, no lobsters and T-bone steaks? How does that advance the narrative? //
The people thinking this stuff up read Dickens and decided it was all “how to” instructions.
Leto
@Villago Delenda Est: Definitely, it’s standard Trump/investor strategy. I feel for the workers, but at this point any help we can get in eliminating gun manufacturing is value added. Will the be totally eliminated? The article doesn’t think so, and in reality they probably won’t be. But if we can reduce the amount of output, again, net positive.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@StringOnAStick: No-permit concealed carry? Gosh, what could go wrong? /sarcasm/
Thanks for the heads-up.
GregB
Of course one of Trump’s big backers would hsve a company named after a many headed dig guarding Hell.
You will all remember that his introductory elevator ride was a downward descent.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@rikyrah: Just another way to punish people for daring to be poor and needing help. They.Are.Vile.
TenguPhule
@Libraryguy:
And the worst, lowest cost canned goods at that.
The movies used to poke fun at about “government stockpiles of beans”.
MomSense
@germy:
So brave of her to volunteer other people’s children for this gruesome responsibility. Tumbrels are too good for that monster.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Did anyone ask about this at the hearing today?
MomSense
@Libraryguy:
I’m so mad about this. I volunteer with the backpack program at my local food bank. The Republicans hate poor people. They aren’t even trying to obscure it with their bullshit values messages anymore.
Adria McDowell
@Adam L Silverman: A.k.a. one of my dream jobs.
For anyone who is interested, Mike Morell’s podcast Intelligence Matters had a former director of NGA on- it was fascinating to this geography/geospatial nerd.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Don’t wanna hear no more about Affirmative Action with regards to non-Whites, not when you have this obvious piece of mediocrity known as McArdle.
rikyrah
@germy:
tee hee hee
Step outside, Julian….
rikyrah
@Cacti:
Meaning that they knew…
in
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
annnnndddd
FEBRUARY
Meaning, of course, that Kelly LIED.
sherparick
@Jeffro: Again, ignores the fact that this has always been the Neo-Confederate Agenda for the last 65 years, to destroy the Federal Government except to the extent needed to protect property of the “deserving” from the people and foreigners, by any means necessary. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/the-architect-of-the-radical-right/528672/
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@PJ:
They don’t have to. They just have to stay home on election day and not vote.
sherparick
@TenguPhule: The real story here is the immense boodle the contractor who gets this service make on delivery. Right now, SNAP has one of the lowest rates of fraud in any Federal program (just over 1% of the cost of the program). This scam will mean 20% will be profits and overhead to the contractor, if the contract is well run.
sherparick
@rikyrah: That worked so well in Alabama, Virginia, and New Jersey. Please, pretty please M’ter Trump.
Steve in the ATL
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve worked for Cerberus portfolio companies. They get their cash out ASAP, then the later revenue and sale proceeds are pure profit. That said, Cerberus tries to turn its companies around, rather than suck out all the cash and other assets then sell off the pieces, a la Bain and others.
Gelfling 545
@different-church-lady: I was just thinking that while it is unfortunate, at least the comments will be interesting.
Elmo
Trump Boxes will contain peanut butter. PEANUT BUTTER. Your child has an allergy? Starve.
Dry beans. You don’t have a working stove, or a big pot? Eat em dry.
It isn’t even a lack of empathy at this point – it’s a fundamental lack of imagination, that anybody has individual lives that aren’t exactly the way they think poor people live.
WaterGirl
@Elmo: Years ago i went to a community dinner – I can’t recall what non-profit sponsored it. Everyone was seated and then you turned over the card under your placement which told you what you were going to be served for dinner. We did not know that was coming.
If you got the “poor card” you were served rice and beans and I don’t remember what else. You got what you were served and if you were still hungry, or you didn’t like what was served, too bad for you.
If you got the privileged card, you got all the tasty food, and you could eat as much as you liked.
No matter which card you got, it was a shocking experience and very enlightening.
Job well done, whichever group it was!
The Lodger
@Elmo: About 50 years ago I was a laborer helping renovate apartment kitchens in the projects and everyone had these enormous industrial-sized cans of USDA peanut butter. No one used it and no one threw it away. I’m waiting for conditions like that to come back if “America’s Harvest Box” becomes a thing.
Gravenstone
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I liked government cheese. My grandparents got it back in the day. It made great grilled cheese sandwiches. Not sure we ever used it anything else, though…
Gravenstone
@Ridnik Chrome: No one says we’re limited to a single guillotine.
WaterGirl
@Gravenstone: If it makes great grilled cheese, then I’m guessing that Government Cheese wasn’t cheese at all – I bet it was one of those Cheese Food products like Velveeta.
J R in WV
@hedgehog the occasional commenter:
They did away for the need for a permit to carry concealed here in WV some little time ago. But the permit system remains in place, at least partly because one can’t take advantage of “reciprocity” in other states without a permit to show in those states.
There are only a handful of states, the west coast, Illinois, Maryland, NY, DL, NJ, CN, MA, probably a couple more where a WV permit won’t allow you to carry legally. I have a permit mostly to make it easy and legal to transport pistols across state lines…..
J R in WV
@MomSense:
Good comment… But they hate way more than just poor people. They hate nearly everyone.
Turner Hedenkoff
@Libraryguy, tenguphule & momsense: You’re optimistic. It’ll probably include 10-percent-off coupons at Trump hotels, if they can find one that’s still open.