Darkness On The Edge of Drumpftown . . . .

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Wtf??:

Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, learned that Kushner had contacts with foreign officials that he did not officially report or coordinate through official channels, the report said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-kushner/kushner-loses-access-to-top-intelligence-briefing-sources-idUSKCN1GB2VE

Contact with foreign officials?  Isn't that the fucking job of the Secretary of State and their people?  What in god's effing name was this guy doing being in charge of all of these foreign relations activities that Drumpf had him doing, pretty much on his own, and outside of the purview of the Department of State and without a fully vetted security clearance??  And what "foreign officials" did H.R. McMaster catch him communicating with and what was the substance of those contacts?

Holy Hillary's E-mails shit!

The Gadfly has already expressed his views on Jared Kushner's exterior character and demeanor, noting that Kushner makes those tiny little hairs on the back of The Gadfly's neck wiggle to attention in a wave whenever he see's Kushner's Damien The Omen mug on tv or in the news. He's just downright creepy and this only heightens The Gadfly mistrust of him.

Anyhow, in other amazing fucking news today that had nothing whatsoever to do with $130,000 pay offs to a porn stars . . .

Drumpf's Communications Director Hope Hicks is resigning a day after being interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee and just over a month after having been interviewed for two days by Mueller's team.  Gulp!!  The young lady has had the spectre of spending the best years of her young life in federal prison time subtly imbued to her it does appear.

Also - apparently Robert Mueller is now probing into Drumpf's business dealings during the time period when Drumpf was hinting about, but before he announced his candidacy for the presidency.  Oh dear.  Red line time!

All of this dear readers is the tip of the iceberg.  The literal, holy, motherfucking hot damn shit of what is yet to come was predicted by some, including yours truly here, and is going to be incomprehensible to many.  But it will be reality, and it's gonna shake a lot of shit up in this country, and if the outcome of that shake up isn't for the good, with lessons learned - well then we're truly fucked as a democracy.




----TFG

Further Affirmation That The "Moral Majority" in America Has Never Been Either...

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Oh that's rich . . .  in the New York Times - a high profile figure in the U.S. evangelical movement tries to flimflam away the justification for the evangelical movement's overwhelming support for the incomprehensible, amoral shitgibbon in the White House:

My reporting suggests Donald Trump is on a spiritual voyage that has accelerated in recent years, thanks to evangelicals who have employed the biblical mandate of sharing and showing God’s love to him rather than shunning him. President Trump told me that he “was exposed to a lot of people, from a religious standpoint, that I would’ve never met before. And so it has had an impact on me.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-evangelicals-president.html

This simply does not pass the bullshit and hypocrisy smell test for The Gadfly.

Evangelicals comprise around 27% of the U.S. population (interesting how that number hews closely to the percentage of unwavering, hard core Trump supporters as well).

These evangelicals are deluding themselves in to believing that Donald Trump is one of them.  In doing so, they commit the cardinal sin of willingly lying to their own hearts and minds, solely because in reality, they actually value only a handful of Trump's political policies more than they do his clearly non-existent spiritual or moral values.

It is pretty safe to say that when the guiding life principles of a person, such as one's core spiritual and moral beliefs, are as malleable as silly putty, those beliefs cannot be worth much more than the pious spittle that is generally spewed while obtrusively proselytizing them.

There is another underlying reason though as to why the evangelical fluffing of Trump irks The Gadfly so much.

On one hand, you had our previous president, an African American, a self-described Christian, who kept his religious views as private as he could in his powerful position.  But more than the mere admission of being Christian, he practiced true moral values as only an authentically moral man could do.

However, apparently that wasn't good enough for the Christian evangelicals in this country, and that was evidenced by the way in which their movement treated Mr. Obama with snide disregard, suspicion and quite often, openly hostile contempt.  It was clear that to the evangelicals, Obama's aggregate sin of being black, intelligent, a Democrat and unwilling to inject his own personal religious beliefs in to the fetid cauldron of politics and policy making made him an inferior "leader."

In Donald Trump, on the other hand -- there is a long, long, long history of selfish hedonism, vice, larceny, deceit, ruthlessness and cruelty, and generally malevolent behavior towards other human beings unfortunate enough to be outside of his tightly controlled syndicate.  And the evangelicals have unconditionally embraced him.

Hence, the bullshit and hypocrisy.

The Gadfly believes that it is pretty safe to say that if there is a "spiritual voyage" that Donald Trump ever intends to go on, they had better have on board plenty of young, nubile, scantily clad women who don't mind being groped and fondled by a perverted old man, along with a contingent of shady businessmen ready to present their shady business deals to Mr. Trump.  Oh - and it goes without saying that if you are one of those shady businessmen trying to curry favor with Saint Donald, name-dropping Vladimir Putin is a surefire way to get yourself a backstage pass and a personal meet & greet session with the beatified grifter.




----TFG

They're So Cute When They Are In Such Deep Denial . . .

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Ohhh -- they are going to be so disappointed when it comes time for the real "locking up" to take place.  Observe:

We've reached the "lock her up" portion of CPAC pic.twitter.com/H0tYM40LYF

— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) February 22, 2018

[h/t:  https://crooksandliars.com/2018/02/lock-her-chants-break-out-cpac-just ]




Btw dear readers-- do you know where Drumpf got the idea for the "lock her up" shtick?  It came from Paul Manafort - Drumpf's former campaign manager - and a guy who is now under indictment for all kinds of dirty, criminal foreign money shenanigans in Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian ratfucking in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort used that very same "lock her up" tactic while working as a paid advisor to the former Putin friendly Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 Ukraine presidential election.  Yanukovych used it as a political rally cry to his supporters, in that presidential campaign, against an opposing, female reform candidate named Yulia Tymoshenko who was more aligned with NATO and western interests.

And you know what happened dear readers?  Yanukovych won the election.  And Viktor Yanukovych did jail his opponent - on Trumped up, kangaroo court charges.  The Russians then went on to annex The Crimea and the region is now an east/west powderkeg that could blow up at any moment.

But that's not the best part of that story.   Want to know what became the fate of Putin's little buddy Yanukovych?  He was deposed (as in mobs with pitchforks and torches deposed) from power by his own Ukrainian people in their 2014 Revolution.  Viktor Yanukovych is now living in exile in Russia, having been granted Russian citizenship by a "secret decree" of Vladimir Putin.  Yulia Tymoshenko was freed from prison, and completely exonerated with all charges dismissed.

Following along here?  Ok.

So - Paul Manafort played a key, paid role in a bid to assist a right wing, Russian friendly political candidate take control of his country's government and then cozy up to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.  In that role, Manafort colluded with his client, Yanukovych, to smear the reputation of an opposition party presidential candidate, Yulia Tymoshenko, which ultimately resulted in her false imprisonment.

The Gadfly is trying to paint a fairly lucid picture here for you folks.

Knowing that background now -- are not the similarities between the Ukrainian "lock her up" history and what has occurred, and is occurring, right now here in this country, eerily alike - huh?  A loud mouth, right wing, authoritarian bully and Vladimir Putin butt boy smears and slanders his woman political opponent and riles up his goons to elect him to power - power which he then actually uses to "lock her up."

Sounds pretty fucking similar to The Gadfly, and whoever believes that it's all just a coincidence, you're much too mistrustful of your own cynical instincts.

And no - as The Gadfly has alluded to on numerous occasions, The Gadfly is not, nor ever has been, a lock step supporter of Hillary Clinton and yet even if he were, it does nothing to change the facts about Paul Manafort's history in Ukranian politics and the similarities which that history has that are relevant to what is happening here, right now, in American politics.

And as far as that video in the Tweet above goes, clearly, by virtue of the enthusiastic "lock her up" chanting and cheering at the CPAC Convention, quite a few of our fellow citizens apparently would not mind seeing the same sequence of Paul Manafort orchestrated events occur here in The United States of America as have occurred in the Ukraine.

To which The Gadfly would respond -- Fuck them.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.

All that The Gadfly has to say is that if regular karma is a bitch, then the kind of karma that these democracy-hating people have coming to them is is going to be a Mueller mean bitch!




----TFG

Cleaning Out Dens of Thieves is Arduous Work...

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The Magnificent Bastard moves stealthily in on his objective . . . .

Washington (CNN)

Special counsel Robert Mueller's interest in Jared Kushner has expanded beyond his contacts with Russia and now includes his efforts to secure financing for his company from foreign investors during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

This is the first indication that Mueller is exploring Kushner's discussions with potential non-Russian foreign investors, including in China.

US officials briefed on the probe had told CNN in May that points of focus related to Kushner, the White House senior adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, included the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation, his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Kushner's own contacts with Russians.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/19/politics/mueller-investigation-kushner-foreign-financing-efforts/index.html

It's hard work untangling byzantine webs of deceit and financial skullduggery - dontcha' know? 

Jared Kushner's old man did prison time for white collar crime.  It is not a stretch of the imagination to think like father, like son and all that - mkay? ... Also - apparently - The Wonder Twins, Jared and Ivanka, are up to the napes of their pasty white necks in debt with god knows how many foreign banks (can we say - National Security Risk?), and if you couple that with the known history of Kushner's covert activities with Russian contacts during the transition, The Gadfly would have been astounded if Mueller WASN'T sifting through his financial cat litter box.

Keep in mind too -- Kushner currently does not have a full security clearance and with the multitude of duties that he has taken on in his position in the White House, he has direct access to a whole helluva lot of information of a sensitive nature to U.S. and allied interests, in addition to national security material!  He's a fucking national security risk compounded.

But The Gadfly has to tell you what is really bothering him folks -- of all the sociopaths in the Drumpf cadre of slithering creatures, Kushner is the one who unnerves The Gadfly the most - even more so than that adolescent version of Gollum, Stephen Miller.

There's something extra especially disturbing about Jared Kushner - in a shudder down the spine kind of way.  There's something unsettling about his Damien/The Omen dead eyes and demeanor, and in that subtly sneering gaze of his that he puts on display whenever he's forced to interface with the public - you know - the one that never strays far from just outright, vengeful, vitriolic contempt for the world and the people in it?  Stephen Miller is definitely creepy, but Jared Kushner is Michael Myers motherfucking scary and The Gadfly wouldn't trust him as far as he could throw him.

Anyhow, it'll be interesting to see how much Kushner is willing to sweat before crunch time forces his hand.  Will he flip like Flynn or will he choose to go down with the sinking ship - the USS Drumpf?

Things are really beginning to happen fast now - if you have not noticed dear readers.  So be prepared in the next few weeks for something fairly big to happen.  Bigger than anything yet - quite likely.

Let's just hope it's not something bigger than what our already wounded democracy is able to handle and survive.



----TFG

Usurpation By Willful Neglect of Duty? Let's Find Out...

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Conservative writer David Frum is now beginning to wonder . . . .

Trump’s gravest responsibility is to defend the United States from foreign attack—and he’s done nothing to fulfill it.

The new question is this: What has been—what will be done—to protect American democracy from such attacks in the future? The Russian attack in 2016 worked, yielding dividends beyond Vladimir Putin’s wildest hopes. The Russians hoped to cast a shadow over the Clinton presidency. Instead, they outright elected their preferred candidate. Americans once thought it was a big deal that Alger Hiss rose to serve as acting temporary secretary general of the United Nations. This time, a Russian-backed  individual was installed in the Oval Office.

From that position of power, Trump has systematically attempted to shut down investigations of the foreign-espionage operation that operated on his behalf. He fired the director of the FBI to shut it down. His White House coordinated with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to misdirect the investigation. He mobilized the speaker of the House to thwart bipartisan investigations under broadly respected leadership. He has inspired, supported, and joined a national propaganda campaign against the Mueller investigation.

And all the while, Trump has done nothing—literally nothing—to harden the nation’s voting systems against follow-on Russian operations. On Sunday, he publicly repudiated his own national-security adviser for acknowledging at the Munich Security Conference the most incontrovertible basics of what happened in 2016.

It’s worth thinking about what a patriotic president would have done in Trump’s situation. He would be leading the investigation himself. He would be scouring his own campaign—doing everything in his power to reassure the country that whatever the Russians may or may not have done, his government owed Putin nothing. He would have imposed penalties on Russia for their outrageous acts—rather than protecting Russia from penalties voted by Congress. Above all, he would be leading the demand for changes to election laws and practices, including holding Facebook to account for its negligence.

At every turn, Trump has failed to do what a patriotic president would do—failed to put the national interest first. He has left the 2018 elections as vulnerable as the 2016 elections to Russian intervention on his behalf.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/america-is-under-attack-and-the-president-doesnt-care/553667/

David Frum is just now getting around to asking the same question that The Gadfly has been asking for several weeks now - better late than never presumably, to ask one supposes.

But really -- how deep?  How deep does the Russian ratfucking of America's democracy go?

If any one thing is clear, the answers to that question most certainly will not be forthcoming from this administration - not voluntarily least ways.

And that is why Robert Mueller must be allowed to finish his investigation.  The American people have a right to be presented with the evidence in that investigation and be offered the opportunity to form their own opinions as to whether or not there was, and perhaps still is, treachery afoot by some of our citizens to sell this nation's democracy down the river in order to curry favor with an incalculably wealthy and ruthless dictator.

Let's find out who the "real" Americans are.  Let's find out how deep this ratfucking with the Russians truly goes.  Let Robert Mueller finish his investigation and let the American people view the evidence and make their own decision as to what's "fake news" and what is not.


Unadulterated transparency and fairness - nothing less.




----TFG

How Deep Is Their Love . . . For Mother Russia?

Not to speak for anyone else, but The Gadfly is a bit unnerved about the quite large pachyderm that just burst in to the room, that people and the media apparently have not yet realized - in that with Mueller's Russia indictments, this country is now treading perceptibly more dangerous waters as a functioning democracy.

Observe:

And the material in the indictment—which you can read for yourself here—outlines a thoroughly complete campaign of ratfcking aimed exclusively at electing Donald Trump to be president of the United States. This was Donald Segretti on steroids, with the power of a huge apparatus behind them.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18212230/what-mueller-indictments-mean/

What The Gadfly perceives Charlie Pierce to be saying here is  that this is likely to be the mother of all political scandals historically unfolding right before all of our eyes here dear readers..

Drumpf's back is up against the wall.  He's flailing.  His protesting Tweets are less enthusiastic rehashes of older Twitter denials of wrongdoing.  He looks haggard, he sounds haggard.  His wife can't stand to be near him and avoids public displays of affection with him like he's got active leprosy.  He's got sex scandals hopping out of the bushes at him like rabbits.  He's had so much top level turnover in his administration, that more than a year in to his presidency, there is a crisis level, credible leadership gap, from the top down to - fuck, who knows? -  and it's worsening by the week.

His back, already on the wall, inches in the direction of the nearest corner.  What does he do now?

This is where the danger part comes.

And it boils down to a single question that The Gadfly has been asking repeatedly in previous week's and month's posts --- and that question still is - HOW DEEP?   How deep does the Russia fondling rot go? - within the conservative movement primarily - but not just politically deep - how really, really, really D E E P does it go?

The Gadfly believes one of two things is very likely to happen here.

Either - Mueller's pace of indictments continues unabated, and former people in Drumpf's political orbit continue to be flipped by Mueller and commit to cooperation with the investigation and the noose incrementally continues to tighten . . . . . and every new indictment and every new plea deal effectively guarantees that the American people are going to be presented with a great many unpleasant truths in the answers to the depth question and be called upon to make some likely grave decision making.

Or -- OR! . . . Drumpf sees the writing on the wall and does a Saturday Night Massacre on Rosenstein and Mueller and then it's full steam on ahead constitutional crisis time.

And what would be the outcome of that scenario? . . .  Law and Order and the United States Constitution against Authoritarianism? . . . . . . hmmmm ...

How deep??








----TFG

When It Rains It Pours - When It Storms, Shit Gets Fucked Up...

Remember - Drumpf and all of his lackeys -- they all got on national tv and sneered dismissively that the Stormy Daniels story was completely untrue - just old, recycled tabloid trash - filthy innuendo and smearing:

NEW YORK (AP) — Stormy Daniels, the pornography star whom President Donald Trump’s personal attorney acknowledged paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, her manager told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, believes that Trump attorney Michael Cohen invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories were published Tuesday: One, in which Cohen told The New York Times that he made the six-figure payment with his personal funds, and another in the Daily Beast, which reported that Cohen was shopping a book proposal that would touch on Daniels’ story, said the manager, Gina Rodriguez.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” Rodriguez said.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/stormy-daniels-going-to-tell-story

Oh dear heavens to MAGAtroid!

Anyone else notice how Trump's face has aged like 10 years in the past 10 days or so?  The incessant lying and the deceit, and the denial are all catching up to him - like a swarm of rousted hornets catching up to the one who rousted them out of their nest.

The Gadfly and many others warned you conservatives not to do it -- we begged you not to vote this supremely unfit, unqualified, ethically compromised and deeply dishonest individual to the presidency.  But you did not listen - you never do.

And now your dumb asshole chickens are coming home to roost and you have nobody to blame but yourselves.








----TFG

Did The Gadfly Miss The Memo About U.S. Being at War with Russia?

via GIPHY

With all the other crazy ass shit going on with this 4 alarm blaze of a presidency, did anyone happen to notice this story from a few days ago?:

Reporting out of Moscow suggests that some number of armed Russians—up to 200—were killed by the US-led, anti-ISIS coalition after crossing the Euphrates River deconfliction line in eastern Syria on February 7.

If the reports are true, this was by far the bloodiest incident for Russian personnel since Moscow’s military intervention in Syria at the end of September 2015.

http://www.newsweek.com/euphrates-massacre-200-russians-left-dead-proxy-battle-us-806798

So apparently, US Forces, using US military hardware, wiped out around 200 Russian "mercenaries" in a single counter-attack in Syria?  And apparently Vladimir Putin and his government are just kinda blowing it off like, meh -- shit happens dude.  Just wow!

Several other news orgs aside from Newsweek are reporting this by the way, and yet it's not been anything but a blip on the national cable tv news scene.  Apparently you have to be a negro with a Muslim sounding name having shit like this occur on your presidential watch before the mainstream media fucking notices it huh?

That is some flabbergasting shit right there folks.  We splatter a couple hundred of Russia's elite special forces guys all over the Syrian desert and Vlad the impaler Putin just shrugs his shoulders?  The same people who fought a 10 year war in Afghanistan over similar shit like that for god sake?   Man -- someone very special in our government must have some extremely generous friends in high places in Moscow to finagle that kind of forgive and forget generosity from the likes of Putin -- if you get The Gadfly's drift . . .

Anyhow, this will be a good story to keep on eye on in the coming days/weeks, especially so if you are just downright sick of all the wife beaters, hookers news.

And speaking of hookers . . . . oh - that's The Gadfly's next post.  Nevermind.



----TFG

For What It's Worth . . . . . Sigh . . .

 
MAGA.
      U
      N
      S

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - A 19-year-old gunman returned to a Florida high school where he had once been expelled for disciplinary reasons and opened fire with an assault-style rifle on Wednesday, killing 17 people before he was arrested by police, authorities said.

. . .

The gunman surrendered to police without a struggle . . . Investigators believe he was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition, according to the sheriff.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting/ex-student-kills-17-in-shooting-spree-at-florida-high-school-idUSKCN1FY2WI

You want to know how The Gadfly believes that we can "make America great again" dear readers?  Make it so that nobody in this country - absolutely fucking nobody - should have to worry about sending their kids off to school - every day - wondering if they'll ever see them again because some psychopath with a gun fetish, and/or a deeply mentally disturbed mind, decides to exercise either his 2nd amendment rights and water his tree of liberty, or exorcise the demons that have been knocking around inside their head.

We, the majority of people, can change this.  But moral courage and resolve to effect change are not enough any more.  We have to be angry about this.  The Gadfly is talking about the kind of anger that makes you get up off of your fat ass and do something, anything to fix the problem.  Ahh yes -- the problem.  What is the problem here?  We all know what the problem is don't we?  And we all know that there is a simple, common sense solution to that problem - right?

But that simple, common sense solution is currently being held hostage, at gunpoint, by a minority faction of politically powerful, very vocal, unrelenting and uncaring group of people in this country, who will look you right in your face, and tell you that the 17 kids dead in Florida today are the price that you and The Gadfly must pay for our liberty.  Those people are full of shit.  Those people are evil --  Oh yes they are.  If you are the type of person who can look any one of the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters or friends of one of these dead kids right in their eye, and unemotionally say to them that the lifeless, bullet-riddled body of their loved one, still laying in a pool of blood at the crime scene, was their price to pay for their liberty -- well, The Gadfly isn't going to mince words here -- you are one ghastly, evil motherfucking human being.

Nothing will ever change until enough moral heroes in this country decide to stand up and do something to effect meaningful change.  The Gadfly would gladly join in with that movement if he saw enough of his fellow Americans, who feel equally compelled as The Gadfly is to see an end to this madness and horror, get mad and do something to fix this fixable problem.  There is strength in numbers.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

~~~ Buffalo Springfield, 'For What It's Worth'

----TFG

The Only Thing They Have to Fear . . . . Is Fear of the Truth Itself . . .

The cover-up of the cover-up deepens:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday blocked the release of a classified memo written by congressional Democrats to rebut a Republican document that he allowed to be made public last week that claimed FBI and Justice Department bias against him in the federal probe of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election.

The Republican president’s decision -- the latest controversy relating to an investigation that has hung over his year in office -- infuriated Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “Millions of Americans are asking one simple question: what is he hiding?”

White House Counsel Don McGahn said the Justice Department had identified portions of the 10-page memo written by Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee that “would create especially significant concerns for the national security and law enforcement interests” of the country.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-democrats/trump-blocks-release-of-russia-memo-drafted-by-democrats-idUSKBN1FT2NP

It was never their intention to allow for a fair, even-sided analysis of this stuff.  Trump was caught on video and audio at the State of the Union telling a GOP rep that he would "100%" approve the release of the Nunes memo - and that was before he had even fucking seen it:





And release it he did, with lightning like speed.  In doing so, he completely turned a deaf ear to the national security objections of the DOJ leadership as well as those of his own FBI director Christopher Wray, who issued a public statement stating that there were "grave concerns" over the accuracy of the material being presented in the memo.

But now, with the Dem rebuttal memo, Trump and his accomplices in the GOP are employing the stalling tactic of feigned concern over national security to block the minority party from having their views equally presented to the public.

So if you are following along here, Trump expeditiously approves release of the Nunes memo which supposedly contained evidence that there is some kind of "secret society" and/or "deep state" within the ranks of the DOJ and the FBI that are conspiring against Donald Trump.  They released the Nunes memo without having allowed either the DOJ or the FBI to have any input to the material in the memo. and over the national security objections of both organizations.

But now, all of a sudden, they have newfound respect for the views of the FBI and DOJ as it relates to the minority party rebuttal memo.  Imagine that.

It has become crystalline clear at this point that Trump and a certain faction of conservatives in the Republican party are genuinely untrustworthy -- untrustworthy as in their loyalty to this nation and constitutional law and order needs to be seriously questioned.  Their actions indicate a perceptible desperateness to keep some apparently very awful truths hidden from the American people.

This is how one-party, authoritarian (like Trump's mentor Putin has with his hand-picked Kremlin) governments operate dear readers.

The sooner that Robert Mueller indicts this sonofabitch for obstruction of justice (or perhaps even worse crimes) the sooner that this country can get on with the unpleasant, but vital business of atoning for the horrid judgement and utter foolishness of the people who enabled this deeply, hopelessly corrupt miscreant to come to power in the first place, and who continue to endorse and promote him.




----TFG

Reading? Reading?? He Don't Need No Stinking Reading Material! . . . .

Apparently, the prospect of having a mentally attentive Potus who is studiously engaged in, and fully cognizant of what his deadly serious duties are as commander-in-chief of the nation's national security just wasn't one of those presidential qualifications that the "deplorables" took in to consideration when they defiantly waddled in to the voting booth, and did willfully and with malice aforethought, cast their vote for this loser named Donald Trump:

President Donald Trump asks intelligence officials to give him oral presentations of the President’s Daily Briefing rather than reading the brief himself, as most previous presidents have done, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Trump prefers to rely on oral presentations — featuring graphics, videos and maps —rather than reading the report because that’s his “style of learning,” the Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the situation.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wapo-trump-intel-briefing-oral-presentation-rather-than-reading

He needs "graphics" and "videos" to learn anything?  The Gadfly envisions a Drumpf daily briefing that resembles something akin to this:





Perhaps Hope Hicks and John Kelly can hire the same firm that produced these toddler educational videos for Playskool and have them remake the daily intelligence briefs to accommodate Little Donnie's "learning" level.

 Just a helpful suggestion . . . .




----TFG

Can Something Be Ghastly and Humorous at the Same Time? . . .

The Gadfly saw this the other day and it made him do a Scooby-Doo double take:

Fight their Violence of Lies, with the Fire of Truth. pic.twitter.com/u3gXml3tuF

— NRATV (@NRATV) February 7, 2018

Ain't that some brazen, brownshirt shit?

Somewhere, roasting on a spit in Hell, Eva Braun is watching that video and going, "meh - ok, so she's got the Aryan look, and the fascist shtick down pretty well darling, but that black leather is just a tad too 'Himmler' for my superior race taste."

Haha!

Good lord, these freaks.



----TFG

Third World Country Status Ain't So Bad . . . Think of the Russian Tourism We'll Get!...

 
The Navy Seal who is credited with the kill shot on Osama Bin Laden, sending that bastard to sleep for eternity with the fishes, has something very obvious to say about Trump's request for a military parade:

A military parade is third world bullshit. We prepare. We deter. We fight. Stop this conversation.

— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) February 8, 2018

But apparently Little Trumpoleon Bonerparte kicked his little feet and clenched his tiny fists so vociferously in demanding his parade, that it looks like it's probably going to happen:

At the urging of President Donald Trump, the Pentagon is moving forward on planning for "a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America's armed forces," the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The paper said the cost of the parade "could run in the millions" given the cost to ship tanks and other hardware to Washington.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/06/dod-moving-forward-on-trumps-grand-military-parade-says-report.html

Rob O'Neill, The Navy Seal who risked his life to kill Bin Laden just said - and The Gadfly quotes:

"A military parade is third world bullshit."

So what does that make the U.S. President who just asked for one then?  The Gadfly will tell you the answer to that one -- it makes that president a third world leader of a third world nation -- you know -- like one of them banana republics?  Hmmm . . .  well, let's see here . .  basically this is the generally accepted definition of what a "banana republic" is:

ba·nan·a re·pub·lic

noun

derogatory

noun: banana republic; plural noun: banana republics

1. a small nation, especially in Central America, dependent on one crop or the influx of foreign capital.

Hmm . . . A nation "dependent on one crop or the influx of foreign capital."  Ok.

Well -- we certainly do have the influx of foreign capital -- Russian rubles aplenty - (if you get The Gadfly's drift?)  And as far as the part about being "dependent on one crop" -- The Gadfly feels that would apply quite aptly to the right wingers and Trump supporters in this country -- it's pretty fucking clear that they have all pretty heavily invested what remains of their souls in that one deplorable, cornucopia crop of willful ignorance, hate, fanatical nationalism, and of course - racism.

So - what are we to do as a nation about this situation?  This dilemma actually?

How do we handle the horrifying prospect that a solid quarter to a third of the country is beginning to project intimations that it might very well like to stage a real-life reenactment of 1930's Germany?

It is quite the conundrum is it not?  Is that the way American democracy dies?  As a mushy, stinky, overripe, Russian speaking banana?

Fucking sigh . . . . . .

It's getting to the point, with all of this fucking insane shit, that hardly a day passes anymore that The Gadfly isn't wishing that there was a comet screaming toward earth to bring us all sweet relief from the madness . . . . . .



via GIPHY


But until that celestial event occurs, The Gadfly will contentedly settle for some Robert Mueller indictments that will not only shock the world, but will also shut a whole lot of stupid goddamn pieholes.



----TFG

Trying To Force The Square Peg of Lies in to The Round Circle of Truth . . .

It really, literally is an exercise in futility attempting to keep pace with the blizzard of stories coming out daily about the Amusement Park from Hell -- Trumpworld.  The situation has become so ludicrous that before you are even finished reading one horrific story about either Drumpf himself or one of his hired jackals, another story is blazing across the headlines to knock it down to chyron status.

And the thing is - any one of these stories would almost assuredly be the political death knell of any establishment Republican or Democratic politician, but amazingly Drumpf just keeps sailing along, and his supporters are lapping it all up as they lay the fantastical groundwork for their dear leader's anointing and deification in the deplorable recesses of their fevered, tiny minds.

The depths of dishonorable belief that Drumpf's supporters are willing to sink, in order to kick reality and truth to the curb,, solely to justify their continued, unbending support of President VSG (Very Stable Genius), is unfathomable.  The behavior that Drumpf's most hard core supporters are exhibiting is the very similar kind of slack-jawed obeisance and credulity that allowed Hitler and Mussolini to come to power in their respective, fascist nations in the 1930's.

Take for instance this bullshit:

Devin Nunes' pathetic dud of a memo was released on Friday after nearly 2 weeks of non stop "#ReleaseTheMemo" craziness on twitter and Fox News (aka Trump News Central).

The memo was hyped as the nuclear bomb that would sink the Mueller investigation, lead to the arrest of scores of FBI and DOJ officials and probably lead to Rob Rosenstein being fired.

Guess what? None of that happened. In fact, the thing was such a dud that even Republicans backed away from it over the weekend, panning it for cherry picking details.

Back to Nunes' interview. So one of the key points of the Nunes memo was that the investigation into Trump DID start because George Papadopoulos got wasted and admitted to an Australian diplomat that he was told that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

Well, Nunes tried his best to discredit Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, even though he had played a major part in the campaign. Instead of being labeled a "coffee boy," Nunes actually denied that he even MET with Trump.

Nunes said: “As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even had met with the president."

https://crooksandliars.com/2018/02/hmm-devin-nunes-claims-donald-trump-never

"As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even had met with the president."

Let that quote soak in for a moment dear readers.

Once that quote is good and soaked in to your spongy brain, take a look then at this photo that was released by the Trump campaign in March of 2016 touting a very serious meeting of Trump with his own hand-picked national security and foreign policy advisory staff:

[ click pic to enlarge ]

That's dear leader at the head (top) of the table obviously.  At the opposite end (bottom left) of the table is the future Attorney General of the United States, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.  Now you see that swarthy, debonair gent second to the left of Sessions and with his melon basking in the photographic highlight?  That dear readers is the individual who Devin Nunes is now claiming that Trump "never even had met."

Get it dear readers?? THAT IS A FUCKING PICTURE OF DONALD TRUMP AND GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS SITTING AT THE SAME GODDAMN TABLE FOR A MEETING ON FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY!!  IT IS A PICTURE THAT THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN TOOK THEMSELVES, AND DISTRIBUTED TO THE NATIONAL MEDIA.

Yet Devin Nunes, the man who is now smugly requesting that we Americans just trust his judgement on his "memo" and on his claims of a "deep state" and "secret society" inside the FBI and the DOJ where there is a conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump on purely political grounds, says --

Nunes said: “As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even had met with the president."

 https://crooksandliars.com/2018/02/hmm-devin-nunes-claims-donald-trump-never

You Lying Fucker.  The Gadfly would say those words right to Devin Nunes' face, "Mr. Nunes, you sir are a known fucking liar - how do you account for that sir?"

But it gets better -- did you know, based on their own internal emails, that one of the principle topics of discussion at this very serious meeting between the future POTUS, Attorney General, national security and foreign policy experts --- oh and the "coffee boy" --- was about,  you guessed it . . . .:

In fact, this specific meeting is quite important. According to internal Trump campaign emails obtained by the Washington Post, Papadopoulos offered to broker “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump.” 

In other words, not only did Trump meet with Papadopoulos, but they literally discussed building a bridge between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

 https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/5/16973936/nunes-memo-trump-george-papadopoulos

Ruh-roh Raggy.

So - fast forward - to this past October, when surprise word came out that Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents and was willingly cooperating with the Mueller investigation.  Trump and team threw that fucker under the bus instantly and then called in a fleet of buses to run him over repeatedly.  They cut him loose so fast that within minutes they had bobble-head lackeys all over tv laughably claiming that Papadopoulos was someone who was no more than a "coffee boy."

Yeah -- because it's totally fucking normal for the office "coffee boy" to be sitting at a table with national security and foreign policy heavy hitters and the (possible?) future U.S. Attorney General and the President of The United States.  That fucker must know how to brew up one hell of an amazing cup of joe.

Anyhow, the point that The Gadfly is trying to make here is that these people lie extremely casually and preternaturally.  They lie disturbingly.  They lie dangerously.  They lie endlessly to the point of mass confusion - which of course is their intent.  And yet, nearly all of their lies are easily debunked, and most have been with on the record, verified and documented evidence.

But don't try to tell that to your average Drumpf supporter.  It's all "fake news" as they have been instructed to believe by their puppet masters on Fox "news" and other right wing media outlets.  And boy - they do believe it - unquestioningly.

But this is primarily about just how deeply and how shamelessly and how calculatingly the Trump crowd lies.  And they have been doing that lying, so far, with near impunity.  And The Gadfly is decisively convinced that nothing good will ever come to this country, or to the good people of this country, from that kind of lying.

This has to end.

The Gadfly knows for a fact that there are better human beings that we can have as our leaders in this nation aside from these Trump sons of bitches.  The only question The Gadfly has though is -- just how many are willing and courageous enough to stand up and make their voices heard at this critical moment in our democracy's history?

“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.”

― Joseph Goebbels

----TFG

The Last Refuge of a Short-Fingered Scoundrel . . . .

He's not a delusional, narcissistic authoritarian huh? . . . .

By Matt Shuham | February 6, 2018 6:45 pm

Pentagon officials are following the President’s orders and planning for a parade in the style of the yearly Bastille Day military parade held in Paris, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Citing two unnamed officials briefed on the planning for the parade, the Post said Trump’s desire for a flashy show of strength came to a head in a Jan. 18 meeting with top generals at the Pentagon. In addition to the President, those in attendance included Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Post reported.

One unnamed military official said Trump’s “marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France.”

NBC News’ Hans Nichols reported following the Post’s report that the Pentagon is “aware” of the request and exploring potential dates:

Pentagon confirms WaPo scoop ON THE RECORD. “We are aware of the request and are looking at possible dates,” Charlie Summers, a Pentagon spokesman, just told reporters.

— HansNichols (@HansNichols) February 6, 2018

Oh -- and it goes without saying as to what date Lord Donnie demands to have his dear leader parade:

Trump attended the annual Bastille Day parade in July of last year and hasn’t stopped raving about it since, including by expressing his desire for a similar July 4 parade back home.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-trump-told-military-i-want-a-parade-like-the-one-in-france

Drumpf's going for the jugular on the fascist uber patriotism angle.

The Gadfly sees exactly what this is all about.  It's brilliant.  A fucking military parade would be just the kind of spectacle to wind up the batshit lunacy of his base of wingnuts - and probably right around the time Mueller's indictments are flowing fast and hard.  A huge, fucking tanks and jets and ICBM missiles and artillery guns parade would literally send a thrill through the crotch area of your average Drumpf supporter, and stiffen their resolve to profess ever fiercer fealty to their revered savior.  The Gadfly can just envision them - watching their dear leader standing on a podium overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, the majesty of the people's White House as a backdrop, confidently, chin-juttingly overseeing a magnificent parade of this nation's war machinery.  And then the marchers with torches come marching down the parade route and the Trump supporters all murmur in unison ...."Oh dear leader, oh the Glory. . . the, Red, White, Blue & Trump Glory" . . . . . ahhh -oooh" . . . . . . . . . . . and then they have a communal cigarette.

Sigh . . . . . have we learned not one fucking thing from this awful period of world history? . . . .





That's all.




----TFG

The Republican Party's Epitaph in One Paragraph - Written By One of Their Own...

[ click on pic to enlarge ]

This one paragraph says it fucking all:

The Republican Party’s head-first dive into breathless conspiratorial fantasies in defense of Donald Trump is a brand-defining moment as the Party of Lincoln morphs into the Party of LaRouche. Listening as members of Congress, the Fox News/talk-radio world and the constellation of batshit-crazy people drawn to Esoteric Trumpism adopt increasingly baroque theories to protect The Donald isn’t just depressing; it’s tragic. A diseased slurry of fake news, post-Truth Trumpism, and Russkie agitprop infects the Republican Party. It’s an ebola of wild-eyed MK-ULTRA paranoiac raving, spreading to every organ of the Republican body politic.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-gop-a-conspiracy-of-dunces

The very rarest of creatures spoke those carefully studied words dear readers --namely a sane Republican.  A guy named Rick Wilson.  Wilson has been a lifelong Republican and GOP political strategist at both the state and national levels.

Wilson gets it.  Wilson sees the madness in their madness.  Wilson recognizes the danger that is posed to democracy should power ever be consolidated in the hands of people like Drumpf and the slackjaws who comprise the core of his base.  That was Rick Wilson saying goodbye to what remained of his Republican party.

Rick Wilson is a sane Republican.  Did The Gadfly mention that sane Republicans are the very rarest of creatures?




----TFG

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Burnt Toast . . . .

That's right -- let's get ALL of the fucking truth out in the open:

By Massimo Calabresi and Alana Abramson

7:05 PM EST

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page bragged that he was an adviser to the Kremlin in a letter obtained by TIME that raises new questions about the extent of Page’s contacts with the Russian government over the years.

The letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013, was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits to an unpublished manuscript he had submitted for publication, according to an editor who worked with Page.

“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” the letter reads.

http://time.com/5132126/carter-page-russia-2013-letter/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter

This is why Carter Page had been a person of national security interest to the FBI since 2013.

This is why the FBI sought an extension of an existing FISA warrant in October of 2016 after Page had become involved in the Trump campaign.

Page had already been on the FBI's radar for years because of his skulking around with Russians - for fuck sake, the guy was openly boasting that he was an "informal advisor to the Kremlin!"

So once he cozied up to a presidential candidate in an election year, it was only inevitable that the law enforcement people would want to keep tabs on his activities.  The Gadfly would expect nothing less of people charged with protecting America's national security.

Time magazine has obtained possession of this clown's correspondence.  The "Nunes memo" is toast.  Any shred of credibility that Trump and the GOP may have had remaining is toast.  They're whole fucking charade of the FBI being corrupt and the Russian collusion investigation being partisan is burnt toast.

So what's the best thing to do with burnt toast?  Feed it to the dog, if you have one.

Here Mueller boy! - here boy! - yeah, that's a good boy - that toast must taste real good huh Mueller fella - you chomped it up real good?  Who's a good boy - who's a good boy . . . . .  ?



----TFG

The Choices We All Make (Part Deux) . . . . .

[ click pic to enlarge ]

If anyone of you dear readers cares to postulate that the maelstrom of the coming constitutional crisis - or democracy crisis as The Gadfly more fittingly sees it - is just another, "both sides do it," partisan political skirmish, then you have not been paying attention, and you could not be further from the bare reality.

This is about the law, this is about order, this is about national security, this is about the U.S. Constitution, and this is about the history of the United States of America and whether that history continues on, or dies with the appeasement of Vladimir Putin, his government, and his hand-picked aide de camp, Donald John Trump - along with a loyal GOP syndicate of constitutional termites.

This is not a fucking local yokel, tearing each other's campaign signs down sort of partisan political kerfluffle we've got going on here folks.  This is about one of our two major political parties, willingly and with malice aforethought, working in concert with (the very definition of collusion) a sitting U.S. president, to obstruct justice in a special counsel investigation, an investigation which said president is very well likely to be under active law enforcement analysis for his own obstructing of justice, and possibly even worse transgressions.  This is holy shit kind of stuff dear readers!

Now, before we go any further - it needs to be noted that not every single Republican is marching in locked goose-step with Devin Nunes and the conspiracy minstrel show that he and the bumbling Teabaggers are staging in the House of Representatives.  A few (few too many), John McCain for example, have spoken up and they should be acknowledged for taking a stand and speaking truthfully.  But those voices amount to little more than muted murmurings within the ranks of the ruling right wing at this stage of the crisis.

The Gadly does truly wonder though -- what are the Trumpies truly so abjectly terrified of?  Why did Nunes and his fellow GOP House Intelligence Committee (HIC) lackeys insist on releasing an obviously hastily prepared, amateurishly written screed of mendacious charges questioning the integrity and character of FBI and DOJ leadership with the goal to, as Trump himself admitted in a Tweet, undermine Robert Mueller's Russian election meddling investigation?

What act have these people committed, that is so egregious, and that has so gotten them so untethered from reality and sanity to the extent that they have actually convinced themselves that a three and a half page, practically crayon-scribbled memo, that Devin Nunes wrote himself as chairman of the HIC, that he refused to allow the FBI and the DOJ to view and vet, and that he also refused to allow a rebuttal response from the Democrats on the same committee, needed to be rushed to Donald Trump for his release approval, with the pomp and circumstance that occurred?  Why have Nunes and gang gone to such extreme lengths to do what they have done.  This all smacks of breathless desperation and cover up.

The Gadfly can confidently guarantee you that the contorted machinations that Trump, Nunes and the cover up crowd are spinning and weaving are most unquestionably not being whipped up for frivolous reasons.  These people have something very, very serious, very abominable and very dangerous that they wish to keep hidden from public and legal oversight.

The Gadfly long ago arrived at the elementary conclusion that if you really want to know exactly what the modern-day, conservative political movement is presently up to - simply document all of the accusations of wrongdoing and skullduggery that they are leveling against their perceived enemies.  What you will have then is a list which will be a point-by-point accounting of the activities that the conservatives themselves are willfully engaged in.  For if anything has become abundantly clear with these conservatives, based on The Gadfly's many years of observing them, is that they are the masters of projection - meaning that whatever it is that they are accusing others of, the likelihood that they themselves have probably already done it, are presently doing it, or are in the late planning stages of preparing to do it, is most decidedly assured.

Carl Bernstein, one half of the investigative reporting team of Woodward and Bernstein, the former Washington Post reporters who uncovered Nixon's Watergate crimes, sedately stated yesterday that Donald Trump is an authoritarian, and that he has plunged the United States of America in to some of the darkest days since the Joseph McCarthy communist witch hunts of the 1950's:

As some Republicans suggested the memo exposed a scandal at the heart of the FBI worse than Watergate, the reporter who was one of the duo who exposed the White House's involvement in the 1972 Watergate break-in, said it was Republicans who had got it wrong.

Bernstein called the memo a “disingenuous partisan document.”

“We may well have not seen such dark days for American democracy and its institutions since the days of Joe McCarthy,” Bernstein said, referring to the notorious anti-communist purges orchestrated by the Wisconsin Republican senator in the 1950s. “In the case of McCarthy, it was a senator, not the president of the United States, who was a demagogic authoritarian.”

http://www.newsweek.com/watergate-reporter-carl-bernstein-says-authoritarian-trump-has-plunged-us-its-798894

Bernstein is unquestioningly right of course and that in turn begets quite a sobering conundrum - one that a great many Americans who, prepared or not, are going to be starkly faced with here soon -- a choice between protecting American democracy and it's institutions, or the alternative choice - shrinking away in democracy's darkest hour, by not caring, and not making your voices heard.

The choices we all make . . . . . . . . . . . .

That's all.

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”

― Thomas Paine, 'The American Crisis' - December 23, 1776

----TFG