Jump to content

The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
in Cloak Room

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 34.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Biff Tannen

    1458

  • atomheartbevo

    1395

  • tx 3 putt

    1326

  • Brisketexan

    1193

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

aggie08
aggie08

This is such unbridled horseshit. I live in fucking California, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Fuck Trump shirt/flag/bumper sticker/whatever in person. I can't go a day without seeing Let's Go B

Jive Turkey
Jive Turkey

Did not have former Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach talking shit to MAGA cult members on my bingo card. But here we are.  

Ghost of LL
Ghost of LL

Yep. I was a George Will/Ronald Reagan/Al Laffer conservative.  I genuinely thought that if you cut taxes for the upper classes, then they would spend and invest and the economic result of that w

Posted Images

Horn Dog

Horn Dog 9674

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

We live in a time that a GOP candidate for wearing swastikas and peeing in ones own mouth does not in anyway seem like a disqualify event.  In fact I would expect such a candidate to easily win in a large number of red districts in this country.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32342

Posted
Posted

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/12/indiana-lawmaker-accused-racism-after-posting-meme-black-kids-celebrating-free-money/3115113001/

 

Quote

Indiana state Rep. Jim Lucas is defending himself against accusations of racism — again — after he posted a photo on Facebook of black kids dancing with the words "We gon' get free money!"

Jeannine Lee Lake, an African American woman who is running as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Greg Pence in the heavily Republican 6th Congressional District, was among several people who commented on Lucas's latest Facebook post saying it was racist. 

 

Quote

"It makes me want to cry," she told IndyStar. "And that's the truth. I'm just amazed. He's a leader in our state. This is not Indiana. It's not the best of Indiana certainly. And it's sickening." 

Reached this morning on his cell phone, Lucas, R-Seymour, said he doesn't see color and doesn't believe his post was racist. He's said he created the meme Monday night to protest federal bailouts that have created more debt for future generations. He happened to find a picture of black kids dancing in the meme generator, he said, but could have just as easily chosen a photo with white kids. 

 

 

Quote

And, as for the language, he said that's how he and other people talk. 

"I don’t see anything wrong with it," he said. "People who want to find racism are going to find racism in anything."

Lucas, who has a history of controversial social media posts, defended himself similarly from similar accusations last August when he posted a photo of a hangman's gallows on a story about a black man who pleaded guilty to rape.

"This is just like that whole thing of when I used the picture of the gallows," Lucas said, "and everybody made an issue out of that because I used an image of a gallows on a post about a black professed rapist."

 

Quote

Lucas pointed out he created several memes Monday night, including one saying people should think for themselves, one saying the Constitution does not allow for the stay-at-home order, and one expressing skepticism about the economy reopening when the coronavirus curve is flattened. 

"It's a vicious circle," he told IndyStar. "The government puts people in a situation that makes them desperate. They shut down the businesses and they take away all of the options and the only option they have is the government giving them money." 

After his interview with IndyStar, he created a new post this morning defending the meme, using a photo of the image he found on the meme generator without the added words. 

 

Quote

Lucas is a Marine, owns an awning company and was first elected in 2012. He's most known for his ardent support of gun rights and has a history of making controversial comments. 

In June 2017, he posted a letter to Facebook saying women should arm themselves to avoid becoming victims of rape. While he indicated he wanted to empower women, others accused him of victim blaming. 

In January 2017, Lucas was criticized for another Facebook post he shared after the post-inauguration Women's March. The post showed a police officer in riot gear, pepper-spraying a woman in the face, with the overlaying text: "Participation trophies, now in liquid form."

In December 2016, he posted a meme on Facebook of a woman in a car trunk with the caption: "Wanna know who loves you more: your wife or your dog? Lock them both in your trunk and see who's happy to see you when you let them out." 

Lucas deleted and apologized for the posts in December 2016 and January 2017 after he received criticism from the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

He later said he believed those posts were blown out of proportion.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Captainant

Captainant 27465

Posted
Posted

“Such a warrant being served on a sitting U.S. senator would require approval from the highest ranks of the Justice Department and is a step that would not be taken lightly.”

Less than a month ago, Burr signed off on a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirming Russia meddled in the 2016 election in an effort to elect Donald Trump. What Burr did was wrong, but I think Trump and Barr are signaling to GOP members there will be consequences for breaking ranks.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/senate-intel-report-confirms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dnaguy

Dnaguy 11777

Posted
Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

 

19 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

He's still alive?

 

Buried the lead. Wanhua Chemical is the World’s leading producer of formaldehyde.

 

So my guess is .....no?

 

vintage 80s GIF by Tras la Cámara

 

(Statement of fact is indeed not factual or rooted in any reality)

Edited by Dnaguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted (edited)

We put in just a touch of formaldehyde in beer for flavor.  

Makes some people sick.  But if you get rushed to hospital, when you return, we give you a free salad.  

Edited by Lobo
Link to comment
Share on other sites
bolverk

bolverk 29402

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

For the dumbasses here, what is ballot harvesting?

Per Wikipedia:

Ballot harvesting, also called vote harvesting, is the collecting and submitting of absentee or mail-in voter ballots by volunteers or workers. It occurs in some areas of the U.S. where voting by mail is common, but is illegal in some other states. The practice has been credited with changing the outcomes of certain recent elections.

Edit: Also from Wiki, the practice is not illegal in California. So, while Nunes remains a fetid puddle of liquid feces, he's actually not advocating breaking California law in the election.

Edited by bolverk
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
NameAlreadyInUse

NameAlreadyInUse 5106

Posted
Posted

Ahh, so ballot harvesting is basically what those idiots in North Carolina were doing, except they were taking it a step further and changing the votes.  And I guess the reason its illegal in most places is because of the ease in which votes could be changed by those workers/volunteers.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Brisketexan

Brisketexan 104628

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
Man I am absolutely loving the pearl clutching. Obama didn’t even say Trump’s name. And he has done nothing but take the high road while Trump tees off on him on a regular basis.

I like the fact that Obama simply listed what the entire world k ones are shitty character traits...and all the Trumpkins immediately knew that it was a reference to Trump.
It’s as if I said “hey, we all should have a problem with stupid, racist shitbags,” and you immediately jumped up with “stop criticizing me!” Way to admit that your guy is an epic piece of shit, Trumpkins.
  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Horn Under a Bad Sign

Horn Under a Bad Sign 20344

Posted
Posted

Woke up from a nap. Saw that Karl Rove was trending on Twitter. Very disappointed to learn that it wasn't because he had died a horrible, painful death.

Remember when Rove had "pollsters" calling folks in North Carolina during the 2000 primary, asking them if they'd be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if they knew he'd fathered an illegitimate child with a black woman?

Now he's lecturing us on unseemliness. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jive Turkey

Jive Turkey 12568

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

I think my eardrums are injured from this dog whistle.

 

Obama implicitly criticizing POTUS for abject stupidity leading to the unnecessary death of tens of thousands of Americans = "classless" according to Mitch and a "drive by shooting" according to Rove.  and a host of racist epithets by Trumpists.

Trump calling a sitting Senator a "LOSER" = "hell yeah, Trump tellin' it like it is" and "drain the swamp" and "kill all the RINOs" and "that's my president!"

the ads are writing themselves.  yet i'm not seeing them.  Lincoln Project needs help from others.  they can't do it alone.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hank Kingsley

Hank Kingsley 20708

Posted
Posted

Not sure where to put this, but holy shit. 

But those filmmakers, and the rest of the pro-life evangelical community, have another curveball coming. In the final third of director Nick Sweeney’s 79-minute documentary, featuring many end-of-life reflections from McCorvey—who grew up queer, poor, and was sexually abused by a family member her mother sent her to live with after leaving reform school—the former Jane Roe admits that her later turn to the anti-abortion camp as a born-again Christian was “all an act.”

“This is my deathbed confession,” she chuckles, sitting in a chair in her nursing home room, on oxygen. Sweeney asks McCorvey, “Did [the evangelicals] use you as a trophy?” “Of course,” she replies. “I was the Big Fish.” “Do you think you would say that you used them?” Sweeney responds. “Well,” says McCorvey, “I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. That’s what I’d say.” She even gives an example of her scripted anti-abortion lines. “I’m a good actress,” she points out. “Of course, I’m not acting now.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grandioso

Grandioso 2592

Posted
Posted

Fucking cowards repenting on their deathbed. Reminds me of this cunt.

2612f9aa-e6ca-4a27-9f40-9592e7352373-car

Carolyn Bryant Donham, 84, seen in this image from video taken in 2004 by a "60 Minutes" video crew, is quoted in a 2017 book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” as saying she lied about Till accosting her in 1955. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28713

Posted
Posted
On May 18, 2020 at 11:05 AM, Bama Chick said:

I think my eardrums are injured from this dog whistle.

 

Yep, that was excruciatingly blatant. 'A drive-by shooting?! That's what black street gangs like the Bloods and the Crips do!'

He cranked it up a notch from virtually, practically...yeah he didn't actually call Obama "boy" when he made that "classless" comment but you could still sort of hear it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Red Five

Red Five 40665

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

I just like the idea that Trump can accuse Obama of treason and say he should be in prison, and Obama is supposed to just sit there silently. He responds with basically "I think our leaders should act like adults and be responsible" and Team R turns into "Why I've never! Someone shut up that awful negro!". 

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bama Chick

Bama Chick 28596

Posted
Posted
I just like the idea that Trump can accuse Obama of treason and say he should be in prison, and Obama is supposed to just sit there silently. He responds with basically "I think our leaders should act like adults and be responsible" and Team R turns into "Why I've never! Someone shut up that awful negro!". 

The best part is that Obama didn’t even mention Trump.

But the Trumplicans still went rabid about a minor criticism.

They told on themselves - they know Trump is all the things Obama says he is but they don’t give a fuck.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32342

Posted
Posted (edited)

Probably gonna need a Pompeo thread before long.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/pompeo-s-elite-taxpayer-funded-dinners-raise-new-concerns-n1210746

 

Quote

As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled, flag-lined lobby: Billionaire CEOs, Supreme Court justices, political heavyweights and ambassadors arrive in evening attire as they're escorted by private elevator to dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Until the coronavirus shut them down in March, the gatherings were known as "Madison Dinners" — elaborate, unpublicized affairs that Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, began in 2018 and held regularly in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the government's dime.

 

Quote

State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo's political ambitions — complete with extensive contact information that gets sent back to Susan Pompeo's personal email address. The officials and others who attended discussed the dinners on condition of anonymity.

An NBC News investigation found that Pompeo held about two dozen Madison dinners since taking over in 2018. NBC News obtained a master guest list for every dinner through the end of 2019, as well as internal State Department calendars from before the pandemic emerged, showing that future dinners were on the books through at least October. The master list includes the names of nearly 500 invitees and specifies who accepted, although it is possible some individuals RSVP'd but did not show up in Foggy Bottom for dinner.

 

Quote

The records show that about 29 percent of the invitees came from the corporate world, while about a quarter of them hailed from the media or entertainment industries, with conservative media members heavily represented. About 30 percent work in politics or government, and just 14 percent were diplomats or foreign officials. Every single member of the House or the Senate who has been invited is a Republican.

The dinners are named after James Madison, America's fourth president and fifth secretary of state, who made a habit of inviting foreign diplomats to exchange ideas over dinner. But historians could point to no precedent for a secretary of state's playing host to such frequent gatherings, paid for by State Department funds, involving political and business leaders.

 

Spoiler

"Madison certainly paid his own entertainment expenses," said Kevin Gutzman, a professor at Western Connecticut State University who wrote a biography of Madison.

The Madison dinners, which aren't disclosed on Pompeo's public schedule, add another element to what his critics say is a pattern of pushing the edge of the envelope by using government resources for potential personal or political gain.

State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who was abruptly fired Friday evening, was investigating whether Pompeo made a political appointee carry out personal errands like walking his dog, NBC News reported.

On Tuesday, a State Department official and two other people familiar with the matter identified the political appointee to NBC News as Toni Porter, who had also worked for Pompeo at the CIA and works currently in the Office of the Secretary of State. Emails reviewed by NBC News show Porter was the chief liaison between Pompeo’s office and the Office of the Chief of Protocol, which runs the Madison dinners.

It's unclear whether the inspector general was also investigating the Madison dinners, but two administration officials told NBC News that Linick made some type of inquiry last week, before he was fired, to the protocol office. One of the officials said Pompeo's office was then notified.

When the dinners started, two State Department officials said, concerns were raised to the State Department's legal adviser, who they said responded by saying events hosted by the secretary should be foreign policy-related. On Capitol Hill, several committees have also been looking into the dinners, congressional aides said.

In the opinion of a senior Trump administration official who requested anonymity out of concern for retribution, "If the president knew about any of this, he would have fired Pompeo months ago."

"I am concerned by allegations that the Secretary appears to be using those taxpayer resources to host large domestic-focused political gatherings that serve little-to-no foreign policy purpose," Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter Tuesday to the State Department reviewed by NBC News. The letter requested "a complete accounting" of funds used for the dinners and copies of any remarks Pompeo delivered at a Madison dinner.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the dinners are “a world-class opportunity to discuss the mission of the State Department and the complex foreign policy matters facing our exceptional nation. Invited guests have included many foreign diplomats, thought leaders, academics, government leaders at many levels, business leaders, Members of Congress and the media — each of whom has a stake in America and its leadership in the world.”

She added that Pompeo “has benefited greatly from these gatherings as he has gained knowledge listening to his guests from all across the political spectrum and all around the world.”

“Foreign policy-focused social gatherings precisely like these are in the finest tradition of diplomatic and American hospitality and grace.” Ortagus said. “The Secretary looks forward to continuing these Madison Dinners as they are an important component of the execution of his duties as Secretary of State.”

An invitation to an 'intimate evening'

Invitations obtained by NBC News describe the dinners as an "intimate evening" in the spirit of James Madison, who as secretary of state "hosted dinners that gathered thinkers and leaders to share ideas on the future of America and the World."

"Through the Madison Dinner Series, Secretary Pompeo honors their wisdom in seeing the value of building relationships and sharing intellectual thought to enrich our country and to further our diplomatic goals," an official invitation reads.

Many of those invited are, indeed, global thought-leaders whose perspectives could be valuable to America's top diplomat: foreign ministers from allied countries, senators and prominent historians. But others seem to have little connection to the world of diplomacy, such as country singer Reba McEntire, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

As President Donald Trump was edging away from a potential military confrontation with Iran in January, at one of the final dinners before the pandemic, Pompeo and his wife hosted the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Princess Reema bint Bandar; Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy; national security adviser Robert O'Brien; and Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, according to a seating list reviewed by NBC News.

At a dinner in November, as impeachment hearings were in full swing, the Pompeos dined with former Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, American Gaming Association President Bill Miller and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, the influential anti-abortion rights lobbying organization. The Malaysian ambassador and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., a key defender of Trump during the impeachment proceedings, rounded out the list.

Then there was the dinner in May 2019 that occurred after Trump stormed out of an infrastructure meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who accused him of a "temper tantrum." Among those invited for the next evening's dinner were Fox News host Laura Ingraham, the EU ambassador, Republican power-couple Matt and Mercedes Schlapp and Chik-fil-A Chairman Dan Cathy, a major donor to campaigns against same-sex marriage.

"The CEO of Chick-fil-A is not someone I would say is involved in foreign policy," a person with knowledge of that dinner said.

NBC News obtained a master guest database that details each guest's name, title, spouse, dietary restrictions and dates of invitation and acceptance. The database runs from July 2018, a few months after Pompeo was sworn in, through the start of 2020.

The business moguls invited to the affairs include AOL co-founder Steve Case and Republican megadonors like Home Depot founder Ken Langone, hedge fund executive Paul Singer and Texas real estate tycoon Harlan Crow. The invitees also include Pompeo's old classmates from the U.S. Military Academy, including Joe DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven, and Steve Cannon, whose company owns the Atlanta Falcons.

Twenty-three percent of invitees have been associated with media or entertainment, and another 30 percent are government types: current or former officials, members of Congress and judges and their spouses. Media figures skew heavily toward conservative TV personalities, with 39 percent of them from Fox News.

Only 14 percent are diplomats or foreign officials. More than 50 ambassadors show up on the guest list, with nearly two-thirds from countries in Europe and the Middle East and smaller numbers from Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Many are major players in GOP politics, such as former Bush strategist Karl Rove and David Urban, a lobbyist and political consultant on Trump's 2020 advisory committee. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch appear on the list, as do Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, although it's unclear whether all of them attended.

The master guest list includes many notations on specific invitations being handled directly by Susan Pompeo, including those for Sununu, the New Hampshire governor; Dr. Larry Beamer, a surgeon in Wichita, Kansas; and historian Niall Ferguson. Pompeo, a former House member from Kansas who entered political life without significant wealth, has presented himself publicly as more of a low-key politician, especially compared to his last two predecessors at the State Department, who were extremely wealthy.

"I'm not in it for the fancy dinners in Paris or Switzerland or Vienna," Pompeo told the American Conservative Union Foundation in February, alluding to frequent European trips by former Secretary of State John Kerry. "That, my friends, is a lot of cocktails."

The night before those remarks, NBC News journalists had spotted guests arriving in the State Department lobby for pre-dinner cocktails as one of the last pre-coronavirus gatherings got under way.

Cocktails and conversation

The evening typically starts at 6 p.m. Guests arriving by car pull in to the horseshoe driveway of the Harry S. Truman Building, headquarters of U.S. diplomacy, where officials are waiting to greet and escort them to a special elevator reserved for the evening, people present for the dinners said.

Once upstairs on the eighth floor, they're given a walking tour of the iconic Diplomatic Reception Rooms, a museum of U.S. diplomacy that includes the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, the Martha Washington Ladies' Lounge and the John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room.

Then it's cocktail time for roughly half an hour before the guests are seated for dinner, which lasts about an hour. The secretary or his wife tap their glass and give a welcome toast, but the conversation is informal, and there's no specific topic or theme.

The menu, however, is often curated to reflect the season. The featured cocktail might be one paying homage to the time of James and Dolly Madison, or French 75 cocktails might be served up in honor of Mardi Gras. At a dinner in February 2019 occurring the same week as Mardi Gras, guests were served king cake, a New Orleans tradition with a baby figurine baked in.

"It's not the secretary of state of the United States. It's more like Secretary Mike and Susan," said a person who's been at one of the dinners.

A checklist for the events shows that a harpist is brought in to play the cocktail hour, and a photographer is arranged to take a group photo in front of a fireplace.

As guests depart, usually around 9 p.m., they're given a journal and a pen as gifts — both custom-embossed with the Madison dinner logos. The State Department special-ordered hundreds of each in 2018, the pens for $23.75 apiece and the journals for $8, officials said.

Pushing the envelope on precedent?

Madison was, indeed, known to hold salon dinners in the early 1800s to build bridges on foreign policy between Americans and foreigners. Hospitality, public diplomacy and the informal exchange of ideas are among the traditional tools secretaries of state use to promote democratic values and advance U.S. interests, and other secretaries of state have held social events to expand their networks and conduct informal diplomacy.

"The dinners are not unusual," said former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, a Trump critic and MSNBC contributor who attended one of the dinners. He said the dinner was in keeping with Pompeo's diplomatic role and added: "There's no big deal there."

But the manner in which Pompeo has carried out the dinner series has raised concerns for State Department officials on multiple fronts, including the use of taxpayer dollars and the involvement of his wife.

Former officials said that it's up to each secretary to decide how involved their spouses should be and that no regulation prohibits a spouse from playing the role of de facto social secretary. Susan Pompeo, who isn't a government official, was also known to play an active role when Pompeo was CIA director, and although he has called her a "force multiplier," her presence on official State Department trips has raised questions before.

In the Madison Dinners, Susan Pompeo's role is central. Emails obtained by NBC News show her communicating directly with State Department officials, setting guest lists and dates to be put on the calendar for dinners, and arranging menu choices.

Officials involved in carrying out the dinners say all the information collected by the State Department during the invitation process, including the names and contact information for potential guests, is emailed back and forth to Susan Pompeo's private Gmail account. Two congressional officials expressed concern that information could then be used by Pompeo as a potential donor Rolodex if he runs for office again. The Hatch Act prohibits most federal employees from engaging in political activity at work or in their official capacities.

Pompeo has resisted ongoing efforts by Senate Republicans to recruit him to run for the Senate in Kansas this year, and he is also often mentioned as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

The dinners are paid for out of the State Department's Emergencies in the Diplomatic and Consular Service Appropriation, known as the "K Fund," which can be used for "confidential requirements in the conduct of foreign affairs as well as other authorized activities that further the realization of U.S. foreign policy objectives," according to the State Department's website. Current and former officials said that to comply with the spirit of the appropriation, State Department officials generally work to ensure that a significant proportion of foreign dignitaries or officials attend.

Unlike for most State Department events, cost estimates for the dinners aren't circulated to staffers working on the events, officials said. But two sources with knowledge of the events and the underlying costs estimated that the bill probably runs several hundred dollars per plate, likely pushing the total cost of the dinners to date into the six figures.

The dinners also circumvent the normal procedure for an official event for the secretary, in which an "activity sheet" is sent out from the secretary's office notifying other officials of the plans. People familiar with the Madison dinners said they're instead arranged informally between the Office of the Chief of Protocol and Pompeo's executive office on the seventh floor.

That means there's no coordination with the desks at the State Department overseeing specific regions of the world. For example, if the South Korean ambassador goes to a Madison dinner, the State Department's bureau handling Asia may not even be aware or know to follow up to see what the ambassador and Pompeo may have discussed, officials familiar with the dinners said.

 

 

200519-pompeo-invite-9-18-19-ew-614p_751

Edited by Francisco 2.0
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32342

Posted
Posted

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/us/politics/mike-pompeo-state-department-inspector-general-saudi-arabi.html

 

Quote

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined an interview request for the State Department inspector general’s inquiry into whether the Trump administration acted illegally in declaring an “emergency” to bypass a congressional freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to three people with knowledge of his actions.

Mr. Pompeo chose instead to answer written questions from investigators working for the inspector general, Steve A. Linick, who was fired by President Trump on Friday.

 

Quote

That indicates that the secretary of state was aware of Mr. Linick’s investigation and the specific lines of questioning about Mr. Pompeo’s decision last year to resume the sales of bombs and other weapons, which had been stalled since 2017. Saudi Arabia has led Persian Gulf nations in an air war in Yemen that has resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths.

It is still not clear why Mr. Linick was dismissed. He was also pursuing inquiries into whether Mr. Pompeo was improperly asking a State Department employee to run errands for him and his wife. And a senior department official and longtime friend of the secretary, Brian Bulatao, told The Washington Post that Mr. Pompeo was concerned that Mr. Linick was not aggressively tracking down past leaks to news organizations about what he was investigating.

 

Quote

Some officials say that it may have been a combination of issues, rather than any single investigation, that led to the dismissal of Mr. Linick, one of four inspectors general Mr. Trump has fired or demoted in recent weeks.

The State Department has declined to comment publicly about Mr. Linick’s investigation into the arms sales or provide any detail about its scope. But the push by Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump to resume the sales, especially after the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, was opposed by some lawmakers from both parties and was highly controversial among some Foreign Service officers, who argued that Mr. Trump’s desire to win arms sales for American contractors was overriding human rights protections.

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brisketexan

Brisketexan 104628

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

Former Texas LT Governor David Dewhurst, had his ribs broken by his 40 year old girlfriend. Dewhurst is 73. Had the pleasure of losing the 2012 Senate runoff to Ted Cruz, and followed it up two years later losing his job to Dan Patrick.

here is here IG

https://www.instagram.com/lesliedecaron/

Like in a fight, accident, or really kinky sex?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...