Tag: White House

“Loose Lips Sink Ships”

The title is from a poster printed during the WW2 era.

They say that it is the “Ship of State”….and our ship has sprung a leak……

Where does all this tie together?

Well, it seems that Trump and his cronies are concerned about all the leaks that are pouring out of the White House……it is so bad that the Trump White House is said to be the leakiest one in history.

While journalists always like having as many sources as they can, time constraints usually mean each story will rely on only a few (sometimes as few as one). Five is better, 10 is fantastic. But recently we’ve seen lines like this one, from a Washington Post article examining the behind-the-scenes scrambling around the firing of FBI Director James Comey, particularly regarding the utterly implausible line the White House was putting out about how and why Comey was sacked: “But the private accounts of more than 30 officials at the White House, the Justice Department, the FBI, and on Capitol Hill, as well as Trump confidants and other senior Republicans, paint a conflicting narrative centered on the president’s brewing personal animus toward Comey.”

Thirty officials! There are some seriously loose lips in this administration. And for that, we should be thankful.

Source: Why this is the leakiest White House in history

Trump and his cronies, and that includes those freaks that are still his ardent supporters, are all butt hurt because the these leaks.

The endless whining as they dash to the nearest camera to get on the evening news……it is all so humorous…..well according to them it will be the ruination of our society.

I say humorous because if the election had gone the other way these same naysayers would be applauding the leaks and nominating some of the reports for the Pulitzer.

This is all so fascinating to watch…it is truly like the train wreck in slow motion that you cannot look away from……

I love it!

Finally! Some Sanity!

Breaking News!

It appears that someone has finally shown that there is some semi-intelligent thinking in DC.

The little toad from Breitbart, Bannon, has been kicked off the National Security Council….

Steve Bannon, the controversial former head of Breitbart News who now serves as the chief political strategist for President Donald Trump, has been removed from his post on the National Security Council.

Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs reports that Trump reorganized his NSC on Tuesday to remove Bannon, while also “downgrading the role of his Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert.”

The move also puts Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford — the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — back as :regular attendees” of the NSC’s principals committee.

On Twitter, Jacobs also claimed that Bannon “never” went to meetings, while noting that his original role as an NSC member was to “look over Gen. Flynn’s shoulder.”

This says a lot about the functioning of the NSC….now maybe it will do the job it is suppose to do….advise the prez on national security questions.

But will Trump listen?

The only downside to this is that Bannon has not been shown the door for good.

Nunes The Word

The Soap Opera of the Week……..

Rep. Devin Nunes has made the headlines now for almost a week….it seems he cannot stop talking long enough to get his stories straight.

The story is that Nunes as head of the House intel committee had some info and instead to dealing with his committee he ran to Trump with the news.

The night before House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell Wednesday, claiming President Trump’s transition team communications had been “incidentally collected” by US intelligence agencies, he disappeared out of an Uber. He was in the car with a senior committee staffer when he got a communication on his phone and abruptly exited the vehicle without telling that staffer what he was doing or where he was going, multiple sources tell the Daily Beast. The following morning, he announced the press conference at which he made the surveillance claims; even his own aides didn’t know what he had planned for the press conference before it was held. Days later, the bizarre series of events is making headlines, and the Guardian reports that the incident could endanger the committee’s Trump-Russia inquiry.

After the press conference Wednesday, Nunes went to the White House to brief President Trump, after which Trump said he felt “somewhat” vindicated (since he claimed then-President Obama had wiretapped him during the election), even though Nunes still says Trump Tower was never wiretapped. Nunes has since apologized for going directly to Trump, a controversial move. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, has referred to Nunes’ Uber departure as a “peculiar midnight run,” criticizing Nunes for “what appears to be a dead of night excursion.” He says Nunes, who was a member of the Trump transition team, is acting more like a “surrogate” for Trump than a leader of a bipartisan investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s team and Russia during the election. Nunes has since called off a second committee hearing on the matter that had been scheduled for Tuesday; the Guardian says the committee’s entire investigation may be “in danger of unraveling.”

After pissing up everything Nunes has tried to apologize……

The GOP chairman of the House panel exploring possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign apologized in private to his Democratic colleagues Thursday for his controversial decision to brief President Trump before them on new information, while CNN is out with a potentially big development. Here’s a look at developments:

  • “It was a judgment call on my part,” Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters Thursday about his decision to call a news conference, then visit the White House, to assert that communications of Trump associates may have been picked up “incidentally” in surveillance. Behind closed doors, he apologized to angry Democrats for the move, reports the Guardian.
  • The Lawfare blog does a deep dive into that Nunes news conference here, finding that what he’s alleging is a “bit opaque.”
  • The larger development comes via CNN, which reports that the FBI is investigating whether Trump associates communicated with Russian operatives during the campaign to coordinate the release of information hackers stole from Democrats. The agency is looking at travel, business, and phone records, and other accounts of meetings, per the report, which notes that the information is so far “not conclusive.” Read it in full here.
  • A post at Vox sees the CNN story as “stunning” if true because “it is the first such report suggesting that the FBI may have credible information—say, an account of a meeting where collusion was discussed, to give one wholly hypothetical example—of a possible Trump campaign-Russia plot against Hillary Clinton.” Read the assessment here.
  • When asked by Chuck Todd of NBC News whether the evidence of collusion was circumstantial, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence panel responded, “I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now.” That’s further than Adam Schiff would go just last weekend, but things seem to have changed. “There is evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of an investigation,” Schiff said.
  • Schiff separately lashed out at Nunes for his Wednesday press conference, accusing him of being a “surrogate” of the president instead an independent panel chairman. The public sniping prompted Sen. John McCain to call for a special committee to step in to investigate the alleged Russian ties because the House panel has “lost the credibility to handle this alone,” per Politico.
  • Trump, meanwhile, tweets that news accounts of what’s going on are “totally biased and fake.”
  • Breitbart has a post with “four major holes” on the allegations Schiff made against Trump at FBI chief James Comey’s hearing, including his reliance on a “discredited” former British intelligence official. Read it here.

Nunes talks and crap falls out of his mouth…..

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer admitted on Monday that it was “possible” that someone at the White House leaked surveillance information to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) that was later used to defend President Donald Trump’s wiretap allegations.

Nunes confirmed this week that he received intelligence about the alleged surveillance while visiting White House grounds. He has insisted, however, that White House staffers were not the source of the information.

But during his Monday press briefing, Spicer suddenly struck a very different tone. He said he’s not concerned about the possibility that someone in the White House leaked to House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). Nunes, in a clumsy attempt to validate Trump’s discredited claim that Obama wiretapped him in October, announced Wednesday that he had learned Trump transition officials had been incidentally and legally surveilled. After holding a news conference on the subject, he headed to the White House to brief Trump personally.

Nunes got the intel from the White House but they were not his source….really?

Come on people you gotta love this type of total bullshit…it is amusing and disturbing all at the same time.

All this could be put to bed when the hearing by the Intel Committee met on Tuesday….not happening!

– The White House says reports it tried to keep Sally Yates from testifying on ties between Russia and the Trump campaign are “100% false.” The Washington Post reported Tuesday that, according to documents it received, the White House was planning on claiming presidential communication privilege to prevent Yates from testifying on certain matters. The former acting attorney general was fired by Trump in January but had been deeply involved in the investigation of Michael Flynn before that. She was scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, but chairman Devin Nunes canceled that hearing, angering Democrats on the committee, CNN reports. According to NBC News, Nunes denies discussing Yates’ testimony with the White House.

And the plot thickens….tune in tomorrow…..I am sure that episode 5 will be as silly as the previous ones.

The Perfect Spokesman

It is nothing new that hypocrisy runs rampant in Foggy Bottom…..it just has to after all it is a town dedicated to the subject.

Americans live and breath hypocrisy all this back and forth about fake news or alternative facts is just an extension of this.

Then there are those purveyors of this are everywhere but the its use has hit the popularity chart with the election of the new man in DC and to spread this hypocrisy he has hired the perfect person as Press Secretary, Sean Spicer.

He is the perfect spokesman……for example…….the idiots on the Right gave Obama grief for doing what every president has done since the invention of TV…play golf and guess what Trump plays golf and he is taking time away from DC to do so…..but now it is not a problem….why?

Amid a plethora of headlines like the Washington Post‘s recent “How much is Donald Trump’s travel and protection costing, anyway?” Sean Spicer Monday defended President Trump’s golf habits. Responding to a question from Yahoo White House correspondent Hunter Walker about the 10 golf trips Trump has taken to Florida since becoming president—specifically, how they are any different from the golf games then-President Obama played, which were often criticized by Trump before he became president—Spicer explained that Trump himself has talked about “how you use the game of golf” for diplomatic purposes, Politico reports.

“You saw him utilize this as an opportunity with [Japanese] Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to help foster a deeper relationship in southeast Asia … and have a growing relationship that’s going to help US interests,” Spicer said. He added, per the Washington Post, that Trump isn’t necessarily always playing golf when he heads to the golf course; sometimes he’s just having meetings. Walker followed up by asking why, then, the media is not hearing details from these meetings, to which Spicer replied by saying, multiple times, that Trump is “entitled to a bit of privacy.”

Stolid Crier Of  The “Ignorati”…….

That is only one example…there are so many more and only been on job for 60 days……

Wanna add anything?

Don’t Forget Your Tin Foil Hat

WE have crazies on the Right…well that is an understatement….we have a wealth of batcrap crazies…..and the Trump administration has put most of them to work.

Remember those guys back in the day that wore a tin foil hat to stop the brain waves being tapped by aliens?  Or from receiving secret messages from space?  Nice to see that these people have found gainful employment…..within the Trump admin.

Well maybe those guys are not as crazy as we pretended they were…..and it goes all the way to the White House…..

She may have been speaking from her home in New Jersey, but Kellyanne Conway put the focus back on NYC’s Trump Tower on Sunday. In an interview with the Bergen County Record, Conway was asked about President Trump’s allegations that Trump Tower was wiretapped by the Obama administration, and her response was read by the Record as a suggestion that something “broader” may have been going on. The key lines: “What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other now … There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets—any number of different ways, microwaves that turn into cameras, etc. We know that that is just a fact of modern life.” Cue headlines like these:

  • “Kellyanne Conway Suggests That Obama Could Have Used Microwaves to Spy on Trump” (New York Magazine)
  • “Yes, Kellyanne Conway just suggested Trump Tower could have been monitored through TVs and microwaves” (Washington Post)

On Monday, Conway hit back at such coverage, tweeting, “response to Bergen Record was about surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign. Headline just wrong.” On Good Morning America, she said she “was making a comment about the articles from this past week [like this one] … I wasn’t making a suggestion about Trump Tower. These are two separate things.” The Post still faults her for linking them, with Aaron Blake writing, “Her decision to invoke these kinds of surveillance techniques when asked about alleged monitoring of Trump Tower by the Obama administration is only going to [breathe] life into the story going forward.” As for any alleged wiretapping of Trump Tower, “The answer is I don’t have any evidence and I’m very happy that the House intelligence committee are investigating,” Conway said on GMA.

For me the best line was……”The Bergen Record journalist asked her was “do you know that Trump Tower was wiretapped?” — and said she’s “not in the job of having evidence.”

No better closing that that statement.

But if I had to find a better closing statement to add to the humor is one Sean Spicer…..he just had to add his version of the lunacy…..

According to Spicer’s new argument, Trump didn’t necessarily mean wire tapping when he said “wire tapping” — and reporters should know this because he put the phrase in quotation marks. By “wire tapping,” Trump could have been referring to any one among “a whole host of surveillance types.” Obviously.

Please stop talking!  You answer are dropping the IQ of anyone listening.

The Cult Of Backstabbers

The White House these days are a mish-mash of conservatives…..some moderates, some Tea Partyers and some alt-Righters.

I can only imagine that this would be a bit difficult for the argument of all parties on policy….I bet there is some backstabbing going on and eventually it will boil over into a full fledged brawl around the Twitter button.

There is already some rumors of cracks forming in the White House team….mainly around the Chief of staff, Rancid Prius……

As the White House struggles to gain its footing almost two months into Donald Trump’s presidency, administration officials increasingly put the blame on one person: Reince Priebus.

In interviews, more than a dozen Trump aides, allies, and others close to the White House said Priebus, the 44-year-old chief of staff, was becoming a singular target of criticism within the White House.

They described a micromanager who sprints from one West Wing meeting to another, inserting himself into conversations big and small and leaving many staffers with the impression that he’s trying to block their access to Trump. They vented about his determination to fill the administration with his political allies. And they expressed alarm at what they say are directionless morning staff meetings Priebus oversees that could otherwise be used to rigorously set the day’s agenda and counterbalance the president’s own unpredictability.

Source: Knives are out for Reince – POLITICO

I know it is early in the life of the present administration but these types of cracks can be dangerous to the president and his policies…..can these people work out their differences or will it become too much too handle?

Racid needs to watch Pence and Bannon…they both are mongoose waiting to strike.

From The Manure Pile Of A Cover-Up

I apologize to my readers for the large number of posts today and probably for the week…..I have 30 drafts in waiting and need to get them cleared out for events will start spiraling soon and I need the space….enjoy.

Not since Nixon and Reagan and possibly Clinton has there been a hint of a possible cover-up….but don’t you know that if anyone would be capable of a cover-up it would be Trump and the malignant toads that surround him.

What I am referring to is the meeting between Rancid Prius and the FBI…..

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to dispute media reports that President Trump’s campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, a White House official told the AP late Thursday. The official said Priebus’ request came after the FBI told the White House it didn’t believe a New York Times report last week describing those contacts. As of Thursday, the FBI had not stated that position publicly and there was no indication it planned to. The White House official would not comment when asked if the administration was concerned about the appropriateness of Priebus’ communications with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Priebus’ discussion with McCabe sparked outrage among some Democrats, who said he was violating policies intended to limit communications between the law enforcement agency and the White House on pending investigations. “The White House is simply not permitted to pressure the FBI to make public statements about a pending investigation of the president and his advisers,” says Michigan Rep. John Conyers. CNN reports that after it first reported the discussion, White House press secretary Sean Spicer disputed their account. “We didn’t try to knock the story down,” he said. “We asked them to tell the truth.” The FBI declined to comment.

Do you think that some media reported on this meeting is the reason they are barred from the White House?

Of course according to the Trump camp and the throngs of adoring worshipers this is a “fake” story.  And to control these “fake Stories”…..the Trump clown show has decided to secretly go after anyone who commits the damnable crime of leaking…..and then there was a oops! moment……

Now even White House leak crackdowns are leaking to the press. At a meeting called by press secretary Sean Spicer, staffers were told to dump their phones on a table for a “phone check,” to prove they had nothing to hide. New security measures include random phone checks of staffers, overseen by White House attorneys.

Source: Spicer Leak Crackdown Leaked to Press | RealClearInvestigations

You just cannot make-up a comedy sketch like this one…..gets NO better than this….now does it?

Take The Punishment And Smile

WE have had about 2 weeks of a debate on “fake news”….even here on IST there has been a bit of a conversation….and as usual there will remain two sides to this debate…..those that see the “fake news” and those that will not…..

The Trump camp is doing nothing to clarify this debate……and they have even admitted that they use the term “fake news” to punish those that criticize the president……

Deputy Assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka, said that the White House is going to continue calling the media fake news until the press stops being critical of Trump.

According to CNN, Gorka said, “There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term. That’s how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, ‘fake news.’ I’m sorry, Michael. That’s the reality.”

Any story that criticizes Trump, or that the President does not like is going to be labeled “fake news” by the White House. It seems that the only real news that the White House will accept is stories that praise Trump.

The real point of the Trump White House’s adoption of the fake news term as a weapon is the delegitimation of the free press. The White House is attempting to delegitimize facts and information that they don’t like by labeling them as not real. If President Trump and his team are able to successfully confuse the American people, it will be more difficult to hold them accountable for their actions.

Personally I think it is a bit juvenile….what can you expect from a reality star…..but now we know that there use of “fake news” is just a tactic……

Really?  Journalism is truly dead!

NO one is allowed to be critical?  I believe a history student, even a dumb one, can point to a time when this was used extensively…..and that did not turn out well.

Side note:  After all the grief the Right gave Obama for his golf games and Trump played just over the weekend and nothing nothing was said….I wonder why?  (that was rhetorical and sarcastic)