Donald Trump 2020

[4th&Five 41457]

See...billionaires are good for something.  

[wildcat09 29187]

12 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

When I see things like this, I wish that I actually believed that hell existed so I could hope he'd burn there.

From that article:

Quote

Miller took reporters’ calls late into the night, making himself indispensable to anyone covering the policy fight in Washington. “As a staffer, serving his boss, he was excellent,” Julia Preston, a former correspondent for the Times, told me. She spoke to Miller regularly. “This stuff is emotional for him.” In a conversation about H1-B visas, “he was talking so passionately that he actually wept.”

This man is deranged.

[JimmyJames 12271]

2 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

 

It truly is remarkable how the man just never, ever stops lying his ass off. 

[Junior Miller 1502]

Oh yeah this regime isn't racist at all. 

Many truly stupid people walk among us. 

[Degenerate Gardner 4081]

4 minutes ago, Junior Miller said:

Oh yeah this regime isn't racist at all. 

Many truly stupid people walk among us. 

Only if they've mastered bipedal locomotion.

[JimmyJames 12271]

10 minutes ago, Junior Miller said:

Oh yeah this regime isn't racist at all. 

Many truly stupid people walk among us. 

Careful. There are some posters on this board who if they hear you are calling them racist or stupid are going to vote for trump in direct retaliation for your mean post. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

3 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

A good time to remember that there’s a handful of people in this country that, when deciding whether to vote for Trump the first time around thought “I don’t think this guy should be president, I just can’t vote for him.” THEN, they spent a few years watching this fucking moron shit himself on a daily basis as POTUS and said to themselves “I was wrong. Man, this guy is exactly the kind of President we need!”

That probably describes 6 or 7 hopelessly retarded people in this country, and none other than our own @Johnny Sack is on that short list.

Congrats buddy!

The sack wasn’t sure trump would give him the massive tax cut he so desperately needed and deserved. Hell at one point in the 90s trump was advocating for a wealth tax as the nominee for the reform party. Once trump delivered on that and did a bunch of racist crap to boot as the icing on the cake, the sack was sold on the guy. 

[Doc Sam Beckett 5781]

30 minutes ago, Junior Miller said:

Oh yeah this regime isn't racist at all. 

Many truly stupid people walk among us. 

But what about socialism? 

[Brandywine 1311]

1 hour ago, Satchel said:

He  found somebody to marry him last week

I wonder how much he paid her?

[Nivek 16807]

2 minutes ago, Brandywine said:

I wonder how much he paid her?

She probably gets to still have her family live.

[texas08 1599]

3 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

A good time to remember that there’s a handful of people in this country that, when deciding whether to vote for Trump the first time around thought “I don’t think this guy should be president, I just can’t vote for him.” THEN, they spent a few years watching this fucking moron shit himself on a daily basis as POTUS and said to themselves “I was wrong. Man, this guy is exactly the kind of President we need!”

That probably describes 6 or 7 hopelessly retarded people in this country, and none other than our own @Johnny Sack is on that short list.

Congrats buddy!

I know one of those 6 or 7 people...so maybe there's more?!?.

It's stunning and very dotardesque.

[ChiTownDoc 21091]

1 hour ago, heso said:

Bloomberg bought a bunch of billboard ads in advance of Trump’s rally near his hotel and along the motorcade route:

 

 

 

Other billboards:

 

Donald Trump cheats at golf.

 

Donald Trump lost the popular vote.

 

Mike Bloomberg running these ads is the hero we need. Mike Bloomberg running for the Dem nomination is the hero we deserve.  

Edited February 21, 2020 by ChiTownDoc

[yoladu 4065]

3 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

You. Aren't. Kidding.

I was having shower thoughts this morning (where the water is nice and warm and you forget you've been standing there letting money go down the drain?) Anyway, I had the sudden scared realization about how so very very much institutional culture and memory is being swept out the door in DC and across America. I get it, some folks believe that is a good thing, but it isn't really. The expertise, the knowledge, the protocol of democratic institutions such as how does one take the Constitution and put it into practice are being tossed out like yesterday's fish wrapper. The best leaders know how to keep what is best practices while listening to a variety of sources with respect to what new strategies must be implemented.

Instead we have people out at the Departments such as NOAA, USDA, EPA, and most urgently of late: the CDC. When sh*t hits the fan, and it always does, the upper most strata have resources and will avoid any consequences per usual.

But my Lord in high heaven, we are one (select from the following options)___________________ from complete collapse of services from which we do not easily rebuild.

a) Natural disaster such as earthquake in California; Hurricane in Gulf Coast or Eastern Seaboard; Tornado in Atlanta (used to be rare, but no longer) or Dallas or other large metropolis; epic flooding in the South or Upper Midwest; fires.

b) Pandemic

c) Infrastructure collapse caused by decaying bridges, dams, and roads

d) Power grid failure due to foreign agents

e) All of the Above plus anything I forgot before I finished shampooing.

Edit to add- you read my mind @triplehorn

Edit to add #2 I left off terrorist attacks. I can't believe I did that.

Sounds like a hell of a shower.

[mchookem 16094]

1 hour ago, heso said:

Bloomberg bought a bunch of billboard ads in advance of Trump’s rally near his hotel and along the motorcade route:

 

 

 

Other billboards:

 

Donald Trump cheats at golf.

 

Donald Trump lost the popular vote.

 

now see... THIS is what Bloomberg needs to do and keep doing. THIS would earn him warm thoughts and wishes. rattle Trump's cage at every possible opportunity. 

[Gil Bang 25865]

1 hour ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Mike Bloomberg running these ads is the hero we need. Mike Bloomberg running for the Dem nomination is the hero we deserve.  

The one I saw read "Donald Trump went broke running a casino"

[Chooky 13292]

5 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

The one I saw read "Donald Trump went broke running a casino"

Replace the "cheats at golf" and "eats burnt steak" with "Donald Trump paid hush money to a porn star and his lawyer is in prison for it" and "The former Director of Soviet Russia's KGB wants Donald Trump to win."

[tantric superman 4667]

DONALD TRUMP GRABS EM BY THE PUSSY

Mike Bloomberg tells good jokes if you can take a joke.

[Francisco 2.0 32290]

Coming soon, and you know it will:  loyalty tests for government employees.  Or even "rewards" for narcs.

 

https://www.axios.com/scoop-white-house-personnel-chief-targets-never-trumpers-2ee51bfd-03f9-4971-8308-863c81ace5f0.html

Quote

Johnny McEntee called in White House liaisons from cabinet agencies for an introductory meeting Thursday, in which he asked them to identify political appointees across the U.S. government who are believed to be anti-Trump, three sources familiar with the meeting tell Axios.

Behind the scenes: McEntee, a 29-year-old former body man to Trump who was fired in 2018 by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly but recently rehired — and promoted to head the presidential personnel office — foreshadowed sweeping personnel changes across government.

 

Quote

But McEntee suggested the most dramatic changes may have to wait until after the November election.

Trump has empowered McEntee — whom he considers an absolute loyalist — to purge the “bad people” and “Deep State.”

McEntee told staff that those identified as anti-Trump will no longer get promotions by shifting them around agencies.

 

Quote

Several administration officials have already been targeted in a post-impeachment blitz.

Barely 48 hours after Trump was acquitted in the Senate, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — a key national security official who testified during the impeachment inquiry that Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "improper" — was "escorted" out of his White House post.

U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who also testified in the impeachment investigations, was fired the same afternoon.

Trump has also promoted or brought back several people he considers core loyalists — including McEntee, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell.

McEntee's job already is being tested with Trump's decision to tap Grenell, a staunch loyalist who has never worked for an intelligence agency, as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Trump has said it's only a temporary move until he names a new permanent director.

But his efforts to put a Republican congressman in that job, thereby plucking him out of a Senate race with a complicated GOP primary, aren't going smoothly.

 

[Biff Tannen 45477]

Because this isn't how authoritarians run things.  No sir.

[Chad Fuck 17503]

15 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Coming soon, and you know it will:  loyalty tests for government employees.  Or even "rewards" for narcs.

 

https://www.axios.com/scoop-white-house-personnel-chief-targets-never-trumpers-2ee51bfd-03f9-4971-8308-863c81ace5f0.html

 

 

 

Denounce disloyalty to the Great Leader, comrade!

[Brisketexan 104462]

But remember, according to our resident Bernie fans, Trump's just a passing fad, and the REAL threat to democracy is [checks notes] Michael Bloomberg.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33824]

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

But remember, according to our resident Bernie fans, Trump's just a passing fad, and the REAL threat to democracy is [checks notes] Michael Bloomberg.

what idiot is saying that?

[Brisketexan 104462]

1 minute ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

what idiot is saying that?

Our resident village one.

[Brisketexan 104462]

Reminder -- Paula White is an actual, designated "spiritual adviser" to the President, and is an actual White House employee:

Quote

“I literally went to the Throne Room of God,” she said. “There was a mist that was coming off the water, and I went to the Throne Room of God, and I didn’t see God’s face clearly, but I saw the face of God … I knew it was the face of God.”

“He put a mantle [on me] and it was a very distinct mantle,” she added. “There was a mantle and I saw it very distinctly, the color was like a goldish, a yellowish-goldish … and then I saw the Earth for a moment, and [God] brought me back, and he put me in certain places, one being the White House, and one being certain continents.”

Fuck it.  If we have put people like this in the halls of power, we deserve all we can get.  We deserve a version of the coronavirus that latches on to McDonalds or Starbucks molecules and becomes 100X deadlier.

[Guest Lobo]

 

[Mdhorn 5908]

28 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Reminder -- Paula White is an actual, designated "spiritual adviser" to the President, and is an actual White House employee:

Fuck it.  If we have put people like this in the halls of power, we deserve all we can get.  We deserve a version of the coronavirus that latches on to McDonalds or Starbucks molecules and becomes 100X deadlier

This is just trolling . If there's a mist, it's because the sprinkler system is on because the white house is on fire. And while it is, the flames so far are mostly affecting people of color and middle class rights. If u can't feel the heat, then you're not paying taxes. 

[Junior Miller 1502]

3 hours ago, Doc Sam Beckett said:

But what about socialism? 

Currently we have socialism for the top 1 percent and everyone else is getting robbed. We could use reversing that a bit and actually having some of that socialism money go to helping the 350 million people who aren't in the top 1%. Stuff like actually taking the affordable Care act and tweaking it and revising it and testing it to see how we can improve. 

[WhatTheBuck 28700]

4 hours ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

Only if they've mastered bipedal locomotion.

They can manage as long as they're not trying to chew gum at the same time. 

[Nivek 16807]

Reminder -- Paula White is an actual, designated "spiritual adviser" to the President, and is an actual White House employee....

We had psychics in the White House consulting’s for the Reagans. Stupid beliefs is historically fundamental to the Republican Party and their voters.

 

[Brisketexan 104462]

1 minute ago, Nivek said:

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Reminder -- Paula White is an actual, designated "spiritual adviser" to the President, and is an actual White House employee....
We had psychics in the White House consulting’s for the Reagans. Stupid beliefs is historically fundamental to the Republican Party and their voters.

Well, I mean, to be fair, if I was ever elected president, my choice for Secretary of the Interior is a done-deal:

[4th&Five 41457]

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

Trump finished up his rally in Las Vegas this afternoon. He spent part of the time making fun of all the Democratic candidates. He ought to have been nicer to Elizabeth Warren--he called her mean and made fun of her looks, but she might have tossed him a bone for messing up on his names:

Also, forget about that pesky First Amendment:

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

This one, though, is kind of sad. That's what you get, Mike Eruzione, when you join a dictator's cult. You have to tell someone he is good even when you know he's full of shit.

Edit- dang name mistake.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Mrs Whiggins
spelling

[4th&Five 41457]

He seriously lives in an alternate reality. 

[SmokeyTheBear 5562]

1 minute ago, 4th&Five said:

He seriously lives in an alternate reality. 

Nope. Trying to create a new, Trump approved reality. He's normalizing all this so that when he actually tries to do it, it's well.....new normal. 

[jw4381 3063]

If he can run for a 3rd term, so can Obama. And that would actually be super glorious for him to lose to Barack Hussein Obama, no?

[Guest Lobo]

For a guy who is so proficient at golf, he seems to be having a high number of strokes.  

[Biff Tannen 45477]

38 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

This one, though, is kind of sad. That's what you get, Mike Eruzione, when you join a dictator's cult. You have to tell someone he is good even when you know he's full of shit.

Yeah, there's a reason that has become a standard part of his speeches.

[bolverk 29359]

9 minutes ago, Lobo said:

For a guy who is so proficient at golf, he seems to be having a high number of strokes.  

🙄 Okay, dad.

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

This man is deranged.

What is disgusting is that once all these fuck heads are finally expunged they arestill going to make millions on the trumpers.

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

Replace the "cheats at golf" and "eats burnt steak" with "Donald Trump paid hush money to a porn star and his lawyer is in prison for it" and "The former Director of Soviet Russia's KGB wants Donald Trump to win."

It doesn’t need to be that complicated. Narcissists hate two things: to be called stupid or unattractive.

 

Just call him fat. Or a dumbass. That pisses him off bad.

 

 

[Francisco 2.0 32290]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/grenell-trump-critic-116648

 

Quote

resident Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, has for years been a vocal Trump loyalist, using his Twitter account to boost the president’s policies on everything from 5G and NATO to the Iran deal and the economy. 

But Grenell wasn’t always a Trump supporter: In 2016, before the New York real estate mogul became the GOP presidential nominee, Grenell called Trump “dangerous” and spoke out regularly in favor of former Ohio governor John Kasich, according to deleted tweets recovered by cybersecurity firm Nisos and obtained by POLITICO.

 

Quote

“He’s dangerous!” read one deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016, the day Trump tweeted that “NATO is obsolete and must be changed to additionally focus on terrorism as well as some of the things it is currently focused on!”

The tweets underscore a key irony of the Trump era: Some of the president’s fiercest critics during the 2016 race have since transformed into his most passionate defenders, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warnedthat Trump would be an “authoritarian president”; GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who denounced Trump as “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who would destroy the Republican Party; and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvany, who called Trump a “terrible human being” right before the 2016 election.

Grenell seems to have undergone a similar evolution.

 

Quote

“Trump is dangerous. Wake up. He’s reckless,” he replied on another occasion to a user who had written “vote Trump.” He urged his followers to read Trump’s interview with the Washington Post editorial board, in which Trump said, “I think NATO as a concept is good, but it is not as good as it was when it first evolved … I’m not even knocking it, I’m just saying I don’t think it’s fair, we’re not treated fair.”

“NATO needs reforming. But Trump is questioning its usefulness,” read another deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016.

 

 

Spoiler

ive days later, in another since-deleted tweet, Grenell wrote, “If you think Trump knows foreign policy issues then absolutely yes, you are stupid.” Vox highlighted some of Grenell’s criticisms in March 2017, when Trump was considering nominating Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to NATO. Nisos was able to recover more than 1,000 deleted tweets belonging to Grenell’s account through a proprietary scraper that extracted and screen-captured archived tweets via the Wayback Machine. 

Grenell did not respond to a request for comment, nor did he dispute the authenticity of the tweets, but a person close to him said: “As a foreign policy commentator, he opined on foreign policy issues and ideas. He strongly supported Donald Trump as the best GOP candidate overall.”

Grenell’s appointment as acting DNI comes as Trump, in a post-acquittal victory lap, has begun purging his administration of anti-Trump career employees and political appointees. But the fairly conventional Republican view of U.S. foreign policy Grenell articulated in 2016 appears to be at odds with Trump’s complete dismissal of international organizations, treaties and alliances.

“NATO only works when the US leads it,” reads another deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016. “The UN, too.” Trump has berated the United Nations as “a waste of time and money,” and “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” 

But Grenell also appeared to prefer Trump’s rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Kasich and Carly Fiorina. Even former Florida governor and GOP candidate Jeb Bush got some love: “@JebBush is right,” Grenell’s account tweeted on Oct. 28, 2015, during that campaign cycle’s third GOP debate. “@DonaldTrump talks about foreign policy like it’s a simple board game. #Unserious.” 

During a GOP debate on Jan. 28, 2016, Grenell’s account heaped praise on Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. “The GOP needs #CarlyFiorina,” reads one tweet from that night “.@CarlyFiorina for the win. #Loveher,” reads another. 

By February, Grenell appears to have moved over to the Kasich camp. “John Kasich is presenting the most new ideas,” reads one tweet from February 13, 2016, the night of another GOP debate. 

During the March 10, 2016 debate, Grenell’s account tweeted: “John Kasich is very good and comfortable on foreign policy.” During a March 22, 2016 Kasich, appearance on the Fox Business show “Varney & Co,” Grenell’s account tweeted: “@JohnKasich is on with @Varneyco talking the most intelligently about Brussels attacks. He is strong and yet thoughtful.” 

On March 24, 2016, when a new Pennsylvania poll was released, Grenell’s account wrote: “Pennsylvania can save America by voting John Kasich,” adding in another tweet: “John Kasich needs to stay in this race until the end. Many people know [Ted] Cruz just can’t win in November.” 

A former Kasich strategist, John Weaver, told POLITICO that Grenell was never involved with the campaign in any capacity. Though “he did show good judgment for a bit,” Weaver joked. 

Grenell has long espoused hawkish views toward Russia. He was harshly critical of what he viewed as Obama's solicitousness toward Moscow: In 2014, for instance, he called for a larger missile defense shield in eastern Europe following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a surge in funding for the U.S. government-funded outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

“NYT says Putin defies ‘the United States,’” Grenell wrote in March 2014. “Why isn’t it Putin defies Obama?” 

There's no indication that Grenell, who Trump nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Germany in September 2017, has dialed back his criticism of Russia's policies.

But he does appear to have atoned for his anti-Trump commentary. He began supporting Trump publicly after he became the GOP nominee, writing in June 2016 that he would support the Republican candidate over Hillary Clinton and, in August, that the election “is a choice between 5,000 conservative appointees and 5,000 liberal appointees.” 

He also began to mock reports that said Russia had interfered in the election to boost Trump’s candidacy, writing in December 2016: “[T]hose Russians must have demanded that Hillary not campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, too.” And he promoted the WikiLeaks disclosures, praising news organizations that reported extensively on the hacked DNC materials and criticizing those that didn’t. 

“The WikiLeaks reporting is excellent,” he tweeted at conservative news outlets Daily Caller and Independent Journal Review on October 12, 2016, days after WikiLeaks released emails Russia had stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. “Keep it up,” he wrote. On October 14, 2016, Grenell complained that the Twitter feed of MSNBC’s Katy Tur had “almost no WikiLeaks content,” and called on NBC News executives to “take action against her advocacy.”

By that point, the Obama administration had released an unprecedented joint statement from intelligence officials—minutes before the Podesta emails WikiLeaks dump—accusing the Russian government of interfering in the election through hacking.

But Grenell was undeterred. In January 2017, his account tweeted “this sums it up” above a meme of two dogs saying: “We’re glad you’re home! The Russians pooped in the hallway,” implying that Democrats were using Russia as a scapegoat for their loss. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost his candidacy.

As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell will oversee the very intelligence agencies that drew the conclusions about Russia’s interference that Grenell downplayed. “Russia always tries to interfere in elections,” Grenell wrote on April 3, 2017 in a now-deleted tweet. “Obama should have done something about the fact they hacked the DNC. He was President.” 

At ODNI, Grenell will also have declassification authority, and has aligned himself with Trump’s claims that the Obama administration was “spying” on his campaign. In one deleted tweet from April 2017, Grenell wrote: “Obama team listened in on Trump team, then selectively leaked info. Most people call this spying.” 

One of Grenell’s senior advisers at ODNI, Kash Patel, played a key role as a Hill staffer in helping Republicans, particularly former House intel chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), try to discredit the Russia probe in the year after Trump’s victory.

“@DevinNunes is solid,” Grenell wrote on March 24, 2017 in another since-deleted tweet. Nunes had briefed reporters that day on his findings about potential surveillance of the Trump campaign. “Measured, focused, and serious,” Grenell added of Nunes. 

Nunes stepped aside from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe two weeks later as he came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over reports he “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” He was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

All aboard the Trump Train. Leave your conscience at the station but bring your bags. Money makes the world go around and we are filling up!

[bolverk 29359]

11 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/grenell-trump-critic-116648

 

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

ive days later, in another since-deleted tweet, Grenell wrote, “If you think Trump knows foreign policy issues then absolutely yes, you are stupid.” Vox highlighted some of Grenell’s criticisms in March 2017, when Trump was considering nominating Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to NATO. Nisos was able to recover more than 1,000 deleted tweets belonging to Grenell’s account through a proprietary scraper that extracted and screen-captured archived tweets via the Wayback Machine. 

Grenell did not respond to a request for comment, nor did he dispute the authenticity of the tweets, but a person close to him said: “As a foreign policy commentator, he opined on foreign policy issues and ideas. He strongly supported Donald Trump as the best GOP candidate overall.”

Grenell’s appointment as acting DNI comes as Trump, in a post-acquittal victory lap, has begun purging his administration of anti-Trump career employees and political appointees. But the fairly conventional Republican view of U.S. foreign policy Grenell articulated in 2016 appears to be at odds with Trump’s complete dismissal of international organizations, treaties and alliances.

“NATO only works when the US leads it,” reads another deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016. “The UN, too.” Trump has berated the United Nations as “a waste of time and money,” and “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” 

But Grenell also appeared to prefer Trump’s rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Kasich and Carly Fiorina. Even former Florida governor and GOP candidate Jeb Bush got some love: “@JebBush is right,” Grenell’s account tweeted on Oct. 28, 2015, during that campaign cycle’s third GOP debate. “@DonaldTrump talks about foreign policy like it’s a simple board game. #Unserious.” 

During a GOP debate on Jan. 28, 2016, Grenell’s account heaped praise on Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. “The GOP needs #CarlyFiorina,” reads one tweet from that night “.@CarlyFiorina for the win. #Loveher,” reads another. 

By February, Grenell appears to have moved over to the Kasich camp. “John Kasich is presenting the most new ideas,” reads one tweet from February 13, 2016, the night of another GOP debate. 

During the March 10, 2016 debate, Grenell’s account tweeted: “John Kasich is very good and comfortable on foreign policy.” During a March 22, 2016 Kasich, appearance on the Fox Business show “Varney & Co,” Grenell’s account tweeted: “@JohnKasich is on with @Varneyco talking the most intelligently about Brussels attacks. He is strong and yet thoughtful.” 

On March 24, 2016, when a new Pennsylvania poll was released, Grenell’s account wrote: “Pennsylvania can save America by voting John Kasich,” adding in another tweet: “John Kasich needs to stay in this race until the end. Many people know [Ted] Cruz just can’t win in November.” 

A former Kasich strategist, John Weaver, told POLITICO that Grenell was never involved with the campaign in any capacity. Though “he did show good judgment for a bit,” Weaver joked. 

Grenell has long espoused hawkish views toward Russia. He was harshly critical of what he viewed as Obama's solicitousness toward Moscow: In 2014, for instance, he called for a larger missile defense shield in eastern Europe following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a surge in funding for the U.S. government-funded outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

“NYT says Putin defies ‘the United States,’” Grenell wrote in March 2014. “Why isn’t it Putin defies Obama?” 

There's no indication that Grenell, who Trump nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Germany in September 2017, has dialed back his criticism of Russia's policies.

But he does appear to have atoned for his anti-Trump commentary. He began supporting Trump publicly after he became the GOP nominee, writing in June 2016 that he would support the Republican candidate over Hillary Clinton and, in August, that the election “is a choice between 5,000 conservative appointees and 5,000 liberal appointees.” 

He also began to mock reports that said Russia had interfered in the election to boost Trump’s candidacy, writing in December 2016: “[T]hose Russians must have demanded that Hillary not campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, too.” And he promoted the WikiLeaks disclosures, praising news organizations that reported extensively on the hacked DNC materials and criticizing those that didn’t. 

“The WikiLeaks reporting is excellent,” he tweeted at conservative news outlets Daily Caller and Independent Journal Review on October 12, 2016, days after WikiLeaks released emails Russia had stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. “Keep it up,” he wrote. On October 14, 2016, Grenell complained that the Twitter feed of MSNBC’s Katy Tur had “almost no WikiLeaks content,” and called on NBC News executives to “take action against her advocacy.”

By that point, the Obama administration had released an unprecedented joint statement from intelligence officials—minutes before the Podesta emails WikiLeaks dump—accusing the Russian government of interfering in the election through hacking.

But Grenell was undeterred. In January 2017, his account tweeted “this sums it up” above a meme of two dogs saying: “We’re glad you’re home! The Russians pooped in the hallway,” implying that Democrats were using Russia as a scapegoat for their loss. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost his candidacy.

As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell will oversee the very intelligence agencies that drew the conclusions about Russia’s interference that Grenell downplayed. “Russia always tries to interfere in elections,” Grenell wrote on April 3, 2017 in a now-deleted tweet. “Obama should have done something about the fact they hacked the DNC. He was President.” 

At ODNI, Grenell will also have declassification authority, and has aligned himself with Trump’s claims that the Obama administration was “spying” on his campaign. In one deleted tweet from April 2017, Grenell wrote: “Obama team listened in on Trump team, then selectively leaked info. Most people call this spying.” 

One of Grenell’s senior advisers at ODNI, Kash Patel, played a key role as a Hill staffer in helping Republicans, particularly former House intel chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), try to discredit the Russia probe in the year after Trump’s victory.

“@DevinNunes is solid,” Grenell wrote on March 24, 2017 in another since-deleted tweet. Nunes had briefed reporters that day on his findings about potential surveillance of the Trump campaign. “Measured, focused, and serious,” Grenell added of Nunes. 

Nunes stepped aside from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe two weeks later as he came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over reports he “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” He was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

All aboard the Trump Train. Leave your conscience at the station but bring your bags. Money makes the world go around and we are filling up!

A perfect illustration of someone who has no moral center or core beliefs but is instead a yes-man, team-player or someone who is completely compromised or corrupted.

[Gil Bang 25865]

 

[RPM 26185]

19 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

 

A half million here, a half million there. Sooner or later that's gonna add up. Send your donations today!

[Gil Bang 25865]

William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration — all trying to do something — all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence.

I have known Joe for more than 40 years. There is no better officer, no better man and no greater patriot. He served for 36 years as a Navy SEAL. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and was chosen to command all of Naval Special Warfare, including the SEALs. Those were dark days for the SEALs. Our combat losses from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the highest in our history, and Joe and his wife, Kathy, attended every SEAL funeral, providing comfort and solace to the families of the fallen.

But it didn’t stop there. Not a day went by that the Maguires didn’t reach out to some Gold Star family, some wounded SEAL, some struggling warrior. Every loss was personal, every family precious. When Joe retired in 2010, he tried the corporate world. But his passion for the Special Operations soldiers was so deep that he left a lucrative job and took the position as the president of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays for educating the children of fallen warriors.

In 2018, Joe was asked to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a job he knew well from his last assignment as a vice admiral. He accepted, but within months of his arrival came the announcement of Coats’s departure as director of national intelligence. Maguire didn’t seek to fill the job; he was asked to do it by the president. At first he declined, suggesting that Sue Gordon, Coats’s deputy, would be better suited for the job.

But the president chose Maguire. And, like most of these good men and women, he came in with the intent to do his very best, to follow the rules, to follow the law and to follow what was morally right. Within a few weeks of taking the assignment, he found himself embroiled in the Ukraine whistleblower case. Joe told the White House that, if asked, he would testify, and he would tell the truth. He did. In short order, he earned the respect of the entire intelligence community. They knew a good man was at the helm. A man they could count on, a man who would back them, a man whose integrity was more important than his future employment.

But, of course, in this administration, good men and women don’t last long. Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs.

As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.

[Biff Tannen 45477]

Well that will make me sleep well tonight.

[jw4381 3063]

McRaven? Pshaw. Commie Liberal loon. Right?

[Chooky 13292]

1 hour ago, Gardner Barnes said:

It doesn’t need to be that complicated. Narcissists hate two things: to be called stupid or unattractive.

 

Just call him fat. Or a dumbass. That pisses him off bad.

 

 

Agreed.  I was thinking of just driving home some points that were once hard to swallow for evangelicals and old, hardline conservatives.  But either "Trump is fat, stupid and orange" or "Trump has a bad comb over and is a pretendonaire" works for me.  

Or just this picture with no font: