Trump didn’t like an actual-factual professional at acting DNI, because he told the truth:
A senior U.S. intelligence official told lawmakers last week that Russia wants to see President Trump reelected, viewing his administration as more favorable to the Kremlin’s interests, according to people who were briefed on the comments.
After learning of that analysis, which was provided to House lawmakers in a classified hearing, Trump grew angry at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office, seeing Maguire and his staff as disloyal for speaking to Congress about Russia’s perceived preference. The intelligence official’s analysis and Trump’s furious response ruined Maguire’s chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief, according to people familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
So instead we get another clown, Richard Grennell, Ambassador to Germany and FoxNews asslicker for Trump. This guy is so qualified that he’s going to be acting DNI and keep his current job. I’m not surprised by that because incompetent managers like Trump like having one or two “go to” guys for everything, because figuring out who’s in charge of what is too difficult for them.
Omnes Omnibus
“Shiver and say the words of every lie you’ve heard.”
MattF
NYT column on Grennell. Shorter version: He’s completely unqualified and openly sympathizes with European neo-fascists.
Baud
Maybe we should take up a collection to send Susan Collins a brow-unfurrowing machine.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Omnes Omnibus: He’s definitely going to break it until it falls apart.
Betty Cracker
Assuming we are able to salvage a functional democracy after this mess, let’s add “create more stringent rules around the appointment of officials in an acting capacity to roles that require confirmation” to the very, very, VERY long list of presidential powers that must be criminal-toddler-proofed.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I’d tune out because the whole thing [gestures vaguely at democratic republic rubble] is so goddamned crazy-making, but of course, that’s exactly what authoritarians want and expect beleaguered citizens to do…
Benw
He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!
SFAW
If only there were some way the Traitor-in-Chief could have been stopped from destroying what’s left of the country.
As I’ve said before: I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell, but if they exist, I hope Moscow Mitch spends an eternity — screw it, TEN eternities — in Hell. [NB: This is not an all-inclusive list, of course. Just wanted to start with the Number 1 destroyer. (Outside of Rupert Murdoch, that is.)]
Joe Falco
Trump Weasel, GA Representative Doug Collins (R – Hazzard County) turned down Trump’s offer for the DNI post, which, if he had accepted, would have ended Collins’ fight with acting Senator Kelly Loeffler for the Senate seat and possibly help keep the seat in Republican hands. Story is from AJC’s website.
No doubt Collins feels like it is his goddamned right as a white male who’s been loyally putting party over country in service to Trump that he was next in line for the Senate seat. No doubt he’s also seen what happens when you’re put in a position by Trump to do every horrid task and you fail to do that by moral or legal reasons. So he doesn’t want to be tossed a bone when it comes from a man who will bite the dog. If he manages to succeed in his coup, Collins can make his way out of his current position where he has little power to a Senate that may remain in Republican hands with more power for him to abuse in the name of Trump.
germy
I saw Matt Gaetz on a TV interview, and he implied we’re all against Grennell because liberals are being homophobic. He said a few decades ago there were people in government whose mission was to ferret out gay people from government.
But while I watched him I thought “Yes, those people were conservatives. Republicans.”
Ever notice how the RW nuts always co-opt justice movements, if those movements are decades old?
randy khan
Well, the good news is that, even if he technically is keeping his job as ambassador to Germany, he won’t be spending any time there, so the career people in the embassy will be able to do their jobs with much less interference.
kindness
The desensitized press & public to Trump’s norm breaking is really rearing it’s ugly head now. Trump fires the DNI (acting) chief because his people gave an intel report to a closed door House Intel committee that included Democrats. ???????? Uh, on it’s face that is kinda dictatorial. The fact that the press gives it a bottom of the fold or worse treatment means Trumps antics have worked and now he’s working it to the hilt. I’m really shocked at Republicans. Not the Base. They are trogladites at WWE event. I’m talking the silent (majority?) Republicans. They don’t like it but they’re holding their powder dry because they like the judges, deregulation and tax cuts. The Base? They really only want to make liberals cry.
delk
Song always reminds me of Ann Romney.
Omnes Omnibus
@delk: That’s unfair to the song.
Exregis
When Grennell gets to his office, he’ll see, carved into the woodwork, “Pompeo was here.”
Exregis
@Exregis: As a visitor. DNI, CIA, NSA, MIA — all getting cozy.
trnc
@Betty Cracker:
Just off the top of my head, maybe any job that requires senate approval also requires that it be the ONLY job one can have, even while in the acting capacity.
Yutsano
@Exregis: Actings don’t get redecoration budgets. He’ll have to live with whatever the office looks like when he gets there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: The horror….
James E Powell
@kindness:
It’s more than that. The central component of their worldview is that Democrats are evil and out to destroy or steal everything they hold dear.
scav
Commander in Chief, Head Law Officer in Chief, Movie-Academy-Reviwer in Chief, he’ll soon be taking over control of inappropriate thumbs-down and swipe-rights across the entire interwebs!
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker:
If voters don’t turn out in enough numbers to overcome Russian interference, that is exactly where I see the country after November: just another authoritarian regime where ordinary people keep their heads down and focus on their day to day lives. Most people already live like that, with no interest in politics, so it won’t be much of a reach…
And I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t have the energy, resources, or expertise to be a serious monkeywrencher. I frankly don’t feel like spending what’s left of my life in prison. Sooo…
Betty Cracker
I’ve long thought waiting for the intel people to dump the gigantic piles of dirt they allegedly have on these criminals was akin to waiting for Godot. Either they don’t have shit on these bumbling, corrupt morons because they’re incompetent, or they’re okay with the US evolving into a nuclear-armed fascist state. Neither is a particularly comforting thought.
A Ghost To Most
@Benw: He’s King Jeremy the Wicked.
SFAW
@Yutsano:
I’m sure you believe that, and I’m sure that’s how it used to be before Dear Leader came to town. But since laws seem to have no meaning to the Maladministration, nor to the Rethug majority in the Senate — well, except when the Demon-rats jaywalk (or equivalent) — I’m also sure they’ll find the money somewhere. I hear there’s a bunch of money left over from what was supposed to go to Ukraine.
joel hanes
another clown
Far too kind. Grennell is linked to Firtash and his fight against extradition.
Grennell is an unindicted co-conspirator.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: Unindicted co-conspirators are far less scary than clowns.
Redshift
One of the things that struck me reading party of the Mueller Report (I didn’t manage to slog through the entire thing) was how in their efforts to collude with the Russians, they kept trying to find out who really had Putin’s ear, who was really in charge. They’d get a meeting with the ambassador, or someone else who held the post that should have put them in charge, and one of their oligarch contacts would tell them no, you want to talk to this banker or whatever.
It struck me because already by the time I was reading, Trump had started doing the same thing here. Like how Stephen Miller is really in charge of immigration, even though he isn’t in charge of any of the relevant agencies. I’m guessing it’s an authoritarian/mafia thing, replacing institutions with “I know a guy.” But I don’t think Trump learned it from anywhere (he doesn’t learn), it apparently just naturally flows from “everything must be about me.”
Mike R
@Omnes Omnibus: Never trust a clown, clowns are evil, it is their nature .
SFAW
@Mike R:
Even the ones who do the balloon-animal thing?
Citizen Alan
@James E Powell:
Well, they’re not entirely wrong since all they hold dear is white supremacy.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Yes.
Mike R
@SFAW: It is only a trick to lower your defenses.
Evil_Paul
@germy: Yeah, I’m sure the ONLY objection Democrats have is that Grennell’s gay. It’s the ONLY possibility that makes sense… [eyeroll]
Someone should tell the new acting-DNI, the fact that he’s palling around with the fascists won’t save him if they win. He might think he’s earning himself a position of safety on their team, but the fascists know exactly what they’re about. It’s not even going to be a question of ‘last hired, first fired.’ The fact that he’s gay and he’s actively helping them will make them that much more resentful when it comes time to purge him from the ranks.
Wag
@SFAW:
especially those clowns ?
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Indeed. Whatever tacky decor the office has Grinnell has to live with. Unless…
@SFAW: Oh I’m sure President Toadface will get some misappropriated cash from somewhere. It can’t be too much, because Congress will get cranky, but some dosh could be found. It’s not like legality matters in this administration anymore.
Wag
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Mike R:
@Wag:
great minds think alike.
so do we.
Dorothy A. Winsor
It’s John Lewis’s 80th birthday. Happy birthday to an American hero.
dww44
@Joe Falco: The Club for Growth is currently running tv ads opposing Collins and presenting him as a huge big spender in Congress. Maybe he voted for the tax cuts. But I find that opposition to be interesting and ironically a bit funny. I guess it’s because they support Loeffler and the millions that she and her “sugar daddy” husband bring to the table. I actually kinda despise her and if I had to vote for one of them with no other choice, I don’t know who I’d vote for.
dww44
@joel hanes: Another fact that supports the evidence of Trump’s being a Russian/Putin asset. Lawrence O’Donnell pulled no punches in his show last evening when he asserted that Trump is indeed that, a Russian asset.
Can’t find the video on MSNBC. Sometimes I get the feeling that they are not comfortable with O’Donnell’s spade calling. I find it refreshing. Am totally tired of the MSM dancing around the eminent danger that is the President. He will do anything to remain in power. I’m honestly worried about the election. Obviously no Republican is gonna do the right thing and go 25th amendment remove him from office.
JGabriel
\Well, from Trump’s POV, the primary function of the German ambassador is to offend, piss off and alienate a NATO ally, and collect intel on the ally to pass off to Russia.
So, again from Trump’s POV, making Grenell the DNI isn’t really giving him a new job: it’s just broadening his current responsibilities from one ally to all of our allies.
Joe Falco
@dww44:
Yes, I do enjoy the Club for Growth ads attacking Collins just for the whole “eating their own” entertainment value. Collins knew or should have known that no quarter will be given in the fight between him and Loeffler. Either he wins or he is relegated to the waste bin of other failed congressmen that tried to punch above their weight class like Paul Broun.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus: @Mike R: @Wag:
Thanks to all of youse for the warning. Clearly, I would have been lulled into the proverbial false sense of security. [Although, truth be told, I don’t have the overarching fear of clowns that seems to be prevalent here. But maybe it’s a case of “ignorance is bliss.”]
ETA: To be clear: my ignorance is legion. The only “maybe” is whether it extends to clownophobia/clownophilia.
SFAW
@Yutsano:
So? It’s not as if they’d do anything about it, even if they were cranky. Yes, I’m serious.
Duane
@dww44: If Trumpov were to be elected to a second term, it will not be legitimate. No way should he be allowed to assume office. The Russian fix is in and everyone knows it.
gene108
@kindness:
Trump is a WWE Hall of Famer…
https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump
Soprano2
@kindness: Boy, every word of comment #11 is the truth. It’s making me crazier every day how most people are unaware that our democracy is slowly dying the death of a thousand cuts. As long as their own life is great, most people don’t care what kind of government we have as long as it keeps order and leaves them alone. White people definitely perceive that whatever kind of government we have will be generally benign to them and their interests, so they aren’t that interested in how Trump is slowly putting his loyalists in all the important positions.
Skepticat
@Baud:
And that machine is Sarah Gideon.
FelonyGovt
The personal attacks on judges and prosecutors must cease, says American Bar Assn. President
patrick II
@Betty Cracker:
Enforcing those new rules would be the problem, as it is today. The executive presidency scoffs at your rules. The river of American chaos runs deep.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@kindness: Speaking of WWE, Trumpov was here in Phoenix the other day for a rally and our local public station interviewed a supporter who had been waiting in line to get in. They asked him if it was worth the wait and his response made me want to drive headfirst into a tree. He said ‘of course it was worth it, to wait for such a show…it was like WWE…who wouldn’t want to wait for such entertainment.’
OFFS….The President is not supposed to be a WWE entertainer who exists to amuse us…he or she is supposed to be an intelligent, dignified, thoughtful person who represents and serves us. Just another reason to hate Arizona.
Downpuppy
Grennell is apparently just a very short term plug, while Trump pretends to consider 4 unnamed candidates. My guesses are Edward Gallagher, Bernie Kerik, Rudy, & Jack Bauer.
patrick II
@Redshift:
He doesn’t learn new things that would upset him, but he still “learns” things that he can jam into the framework of what he already knows that assure him, despite all of the screaming contradictory voices coming from deep inside, that he deserves all of the infinite love and admiration he craves. For instance, he has learned that Ukraine was the one that was subverting the 2016 election. That fits into his frame.
i think at one time, back when he was building his mental framework, he could learn more and what he decided to learn was how to be a dictator. He kept a book of Hitler speeches by his bedside. He has obviously copied the big speech mannerisms of Mussolini, he learned cutthroat tactics from Roy Cohn, and especially learned the tactic of the big lie from Hitler. We are not up against some bumbling fool who’s moral vacuousness has led him to his position by happenstance, but a man who has thought about and trained for this his whole life. Do not underestimate him even in his diminished capacity.
rp
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:
Early in 2016, a guy on a baseball board I read said that everything about Trump could be explained by WWE. I didn’t really get it at the time, but the last few years and reading Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson have shown me that he was 100% right. To them the spectacle, storylines, heroes, and villains are all that matters.
Soprano2
@Evil_Paul: Like Stephen Miller. He’s like the Gaius character in “Battlestar Galactica”, he thinks the fact that he’s helping them will save him from the purge, when the truth is they’ll throw him away when they’re done using him.
The Moar You Know
Even the ones who do the balloon-animal thing?
@SFAW: No joking here, I once left a restaurant in the middle of a date because a clown came in for a kid’s party. Sent my girlfriend back in with my credit card to pay. Clowns scare the living shit out of me.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Ernst Rohm
James E Powell
@FelonyGovt:
Trump has the Republican senate as a solid backstop and the Republican judges & justices as reliable allies. He isn’t going to cease doing whatever he wants.
Sam
Grenell won’t last, that “appointment” is too dumb.
Information about Russian information ops should be declassified if it doesn’t reveal sources and methods, published and tracked in real time by the government. Keeping this stuff secret makes their attacks much more effective.