Imagine All The People - Thinking With Their Brains, Ooh-woohoo-ooh-wahoo...

Rudy Giuliani gets ripped to shreds for claim getting intelligence from Russia is fine https://t.co/j5t5y5jpEA

— The Progressive Mind (@Libertea2012) April 22, 2019

As well he should be shredded.

Imagine if the scenario were different . . . stay with The Gadfly for a moment on this one, humor him.

Imagine if in the role of Trump you had Hillary Clinton, she having come into office the same manner as Drumpf, with all the same scandalous baggage that he grifted his way to power with.

And imagine that in the place of the Russia collusion scandal, replace Russia with North Korea.

And then imagine that everything that has transpired these past two years with Donald Trump and the Mueller probe, has equally transpired with Hillary - right up to this week's release of the final investigative report.

Got it?  Ok.  And remember replace Hillary with Donald, and North Korea for Russia in this scenario - mkay?

Now imagine Hillary sending one of her highest ranking surrogate mouthpieces out on to the cable news shows right after the the redacted Mueller report was released, to spout the line that "𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜" with Hillary's having accepted political intelligence and cyber hacking efforts from North Korean associates of Kim Jong Un, that were intended to help her win the election.

"𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜."

Got that?  There was "𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜." with Hillary Clinton taking advantage of North Korea's hacking of our presidential election with the intent to help her win, and smear her opponent.

Imagine all of that had take place right up to this very moment.  Then ask yourselves the question - that one question, you know, the one that you know unquestioningly, more than any other, needs to be asked at this very moment.   And if you are honest with yourselves, the answer that you arrive at would be to acknowledge the very concerning reality that we have a problem with Donald Trump, his presidency and his ideological promoters, and that problem revolves around some very serious questions pertaining to their actual loyalty to this American democracy, our laws and our constitution.

Imagine.


----TFG

U.S. Conservatives: We Don't Need No Stinking Election Security . . . .

From that raging libtard Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal:

April 19, 2019 5:30 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report is unambiguously clear on this point: Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and sought to help Donald Trump win the White House.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-has-won-mueller-report-details-the-ways-russia-interfered-in-the-2016-election-11555666201

Let's take a ride in the Wayback Machine to this August 1, 2018 USA Today article:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/01/republicans-block-money-election-security/884438002/

Keep in mind - this move last fall by the GOP to thwart a public investment in to securing our national electoral system, came AFTER all 16 U.S. Intelligence and national security agencies had issued a rare, joint public statement affirming the truth that Russian operatives interfered in the 2016 election, with the express intent of benefiting Donald Trump's prospects for taking the White House.

And now, with the release of the Mueller report, we have evidence-based confirmation that the Russians hacked in to voting databases of at least two of the battleground states of Florida and Illinois, and possibly a third, Wisconsin.  This had been reported on previously, but Mueller's investigation has now confirmed that the hacking did indeed occur [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/u-s-intel-russia-compromised-seven-states-prior-2016-election-n850296].

But don't look to Trump and the GOP to take any meaningful or effective measures to prevent Putin and his Vodka swilling cyber monkeys from ratfucking the upcoming 2020 election.  That would most certainly not be in their best interest.  And Vladimir Putin is quite cognizant of the fact that the door to the American electoral security hen-house has purposefully been left wide open, and that he has been granted free reign by Trump and the Republican party, to invade and plunder as he pleases.  And besides that - why would Putin quit his assault on our democracy, especially considering the level of fabulous success that he achieved in 2016?

No - the last thing conservative Republicans want is clean and fair elections.  They know that they are on the downside of shifting demographics in this country and that their party, now officially the property of Trumpian MAGA, is on a steady trajectory toward extinction, and/or self-defeat through their own corruption and treachery.   And it is why, at every turn, that the GOP makes calculated efforts to ensure that our electoral system is anything but clean, fair and uncompromised.

When it comes to U.S. elections, clean, fair, and uncompromised, quite simply observed, are not the kind of attributes that benefit the modern-day conservative movement, primarily because that movement is built on a foundation of lies and corruption and charlatanism, and Drumpf and his enablers all know that it is just a matter of time before their con game is entirely exposed, and their grip on political power is permanently wrenched from their crooked and deceiving hands.

Very simply put - Donald Trump needs to be impeached, even though we know that the GOP Senate will protect him.  Regardless, it is imperative that Drumpf gets that big, bold asterisk of impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, eternally associated with his perfidious presidency in the history books.  His actions in office have more than justified attaching that stain to his despicable name.

And lest The Gadfly neglect to note - the modern-day conservative movement is a deadly virus in need of a powerful antibiotic that will destroy it.  That antibiotic is clean, fair, and uncompromised elections, and We The People can ensure that our democracy endures by holding these American (and Russian) democracy-hating bastards, and election ratfuckers to righteous account for their betrayals of the principles and ideals that make The United States of America a great nation.




----TFG

The Emperor With No Clothes and His Featherless Parrots . . .

You gotta love these phony fuckers.  Observe . . .

.@ChrisCuomo: It matters that Trump asked WH lawyer to fire Mueller!

JIM JORDAN: But he didn't do it

CUOMO: If I ask you to punch Meadows & you don't, the request is still wrong

MEADOWS: But it's not a crime unless he assaults me!

C: So that's the standard? Not being a felon? pic.twitter.com/Bhn7hPQy7a

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 19, 2019

Suppose if you will - that if back during one of the eight (or is it up to nine now?) GOP led congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi attack, Barack Obama had ordered Hillary Clinton to not answer any questions, or even worse, to lie to Congress about the administration's actions during the Benghazi raid.  And suppose then that Hillary Clinton disobeyed that order and told investigators the entire truth instead (which btw - she actually did, in every one of those eight, or is it up to nine now?, GOP investigations).

Now - imagine, if you can, how these two Republican ass-clowns Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows would have gone on national cable news providing the same, cynical, lame-ass argument in defense of Obama's illegal orders, as they are doing for Drumpf.

Then laugh your mother-fucking asses off, and should urge to mercilessly mock these two fake national "leaders" take root in your heart, by all means - please do so.



----TFG

One of The Great Mammaries . . . er, Memories...

So the Mueller report was released today.  Not the full report, but the one that Drumpf's fixer Bill Barr scrubbed clean in order to paint Drumpf's behavior and actions in a lighter shade of filth than what is deserved.

But there was something culled directly from Mueller's report that fascinated The Gadfly.

But first -- remember how *pResident "Very Stable Genius" likes to crow about how awesome his own brain is and how great of a memory that he has?  If you don't remember, here's a refresher:

𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘞𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 "𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦" 𝘢𝘯𝘥 "𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴" 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦.

𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘸'𝘴 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘓𝘢 𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘜𝘚 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩, 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 "𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦."

 https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gold-star-great-memory-2017-10

Great memory he has.  One of the all-time greats.  Of all time - was that mentioned?

Anyhow, see how, in reply to Mueller investigator's questions, Drumpf pukes out cowardly page after page after page of curt replies of, "I do not remember," and "I do not recall," and "I have no recollection:"

"I do not remember."
"I do not recall."
"I have no recollection."

These are some of President Trump's written responses to the Special Counsel's questions about Russian interference. We're counting mentions of key names and phrases in Mueller's report: https://t.co/rlcbZPcJRF pic.twitter.com/N4uqWFXITq

— Post Graphics (@PostGraphics) April 18, 2019

So you Trump supporters --- explain this then --- which The Gadfly knows you fucking can't, but go ahead, try it anyway.  Amuse The Gadfly.  Explain to all of us how it came to be that "one of the great memories of all time" couldn't remember a mother-fucking thing when it came to answering questions about his campaign's level of involvement in the Russian ratfucking of the 2016 presidential election.  All-time great memory and poof! . . . instantly can't recall, remember or recollect his ass from a whole in the ground.

The Gadfly is just going to come right out and say it.  If someone is that addle-brained that they cannot remember, recall, or recollect a goddamn thing about - pretty much anything - that went on in their own winning presidential campaign, then they have no fucking business being in charge of a world super power with nukes at their fingertips.  And there is actually a constitutional amendment that addresses that very scenario btw - ( LINK ).

But we know that Donald Trump didn't really all of a sudden come down with a temporary case of amnesia in regards to the Russian/Putin contacts crawling all over his campaign like flies on dog shit thing, don't we folks?  And how do we know this?  Because Donald Trump is a brilliant man.  He's a smart man.  He comes from a superior gene pool.  And he has a great memory as he's regaled us.  And we know this to be so for he and his clapping seal supporters bleat it incessantly - to the point of nausea.

But the MAGA crowd's great hero and leader wouldn't really sink so low as to fake an instant case of amnesia when it came time to truthfully, under penalty of perjury, respond to Robert Mueller's legal questionnaire would he?   Would he??

For if so, which getting access to the full, unredacted Mueller report can probably confirm for us, then it can only mean one thing  . . . Drumpf is lying to the American people to save his own corrupt, criminal ass and by doing so, shitting on everything that is just, decent and lawful, the actual attributes that are supposed to be the bedrock principles of our nation and our civil society.  If Donald Trump is lying about his involvement with Russia's attack on this country's democratic backbone, our elections, then he is stabbing a knife into the back of the U.S. Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law, not to mention the hallowed concept that...

𝕹𝖔 𝖔𝖓𝖊 𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖘 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖆𝖜.  

So here's the uncomplicated deal then - if you are one of one of these people who either do not not care, or worse, are appeasers of Drumpf's assault on the aforementioned attributes and ideals, then all that The Gadfly wants to know from you is .... why?  Why do you hate America and democracy so fucking much??

krrrnkkkk! (sound of mic dropping).




----TFG

Quite The Taxing Situation...

The Gadfly is going to go out on a limb here and postulate that Donald Trump never, ever, ever intended to release his tax returns to the public.  Never, ever.

Keep in mind the following as Drumpf and his lawyers go to hell and high water, and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court, to keep the American people from ever seeing his tax returns -

In the runup to, and during the 2016 campaign, Drumpf unequivocally stated that he would release his taxes.  There are many videos of him saying as much (with Drumpf, there's always a video or a tweet):

As the 2016 election drew nearer, Drumpf pivoted from say he was going to release his taxes to, "oh, so sorry, I can't, I'm being audited, they won't let me."  There is absolutely nothing in IRS law that prevents someone under audit from publicly releasing their tax returns.  People do it all the time.  Richard Nixon did it, and did so at the height of the Watergate investigation.

After Drumpf was "elected" the story of his taxes being under audit grew in scope - he suddenly began claiming that he was being audited in perpetuity, so sorry folks, no taxes, probably ever.

The IRS does not comment on people being audited.  However, they do send a formal letter to audit targets.  Drumpf has failed to even produce the official IRS audit letter, which contains no private information as it is just a form letter, that would indeed corroborate his story that he is currently under IRS audit.   Drumpf's long-time personal attorney Michael Cohen testified recently that he tried to get a copy of the IRS audit letter in 2016 from Drumpf, to combat press reports.  Drumpf declined to provide it.

And now that the House Ways and Means Committee in Congress is threatening to subpoena his tax returns from the IRS, which by law they have a right to do, Drumpf is now saying that he will fight the release of his taxes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Quite the dramatic reversal huh?  The kind of reversal that makes one believe that there may be some scandalously explosive information in those tax returns.

The spectacle of watching Drumpf hide under the skirt of a federal government agency (the IRS) to keep even more of his unethical, probably criminal deeds hidden from public view is entertaining to say the least.

You know which presidential candidate in 2016 instructed the IRS to release 15 years of their taxes, showing that they and their spouse paid back more than 40% of their income in state and federal taxes, and - also showed charitable contributions totaling 10% of their gross income during that timeline?

Uh-huh . . .

And The Gadfly is just going to leave that right fucking there.

----TFG

A Future People's Republic of Americastan?

[click pic to enlarge]

This is a must watch interactive journo-doc [link at bottom of post].

Scroll through to the end, it's worth it.  And no - it's not a video of Drumpf urinating on some hookers in a Moscow hotel room.

No this is something much more sinister and terrifying.

This is about the elite sponsored, "Big Brother" surveillance state that the Chinese government is in the process of experimenting with, and likely mastering.

 

And you just know that the Chinese and the Russians both would love nothing better than to have a willing authoritarian fasci-garchy (The Gadfly just invented that term btw) accomplice in their bid to subjugate as much of humanity under the rule of a small cadre of, supremely wealthy and powerful, nation-state despots, as they can.

If after watching this, you still do not understand why The Gadfly gets, admittedly, a bit overzealous in squawking about Drumpf and his shady, international business dealing past, then quite honestly, you are helpless.

But stop and think about this for a moment. We already know that prior to and during the 2016 election campaign, Drumpf and his people had more than 100 different contacts with Russian individuals and entities, many of them with known connections to dictator Vladimir Putin.

When Putin was asked at the Helsinki Summit, on live TV, if he wanted Donald Trump to win the presidency, and did he help Trump, Putin responded, "Yes I did. Yes, I did."

Then you have Jared Kushner (one-half of Jarvanka) playing the creepy international banker masquerading as an authentic diplomat bullshit.  When he's not trying to drump up more cash for his business schemes, he's working with his father-in-law to give nuclear technology to the Saudis, one of the most repressive regimes in the Mid-East.

 

And by no means should we discount Drumpf's enigmatic, Stepford daughter Ivanka in all of this authoritarian regime coddling and footsie playing.  She herself has been getting Chinese product trademarks approved by the Chinese government hand over fist this past year.

 

And to top it all off, with the mother of all cherries on the topping, this past week, a Chinese national (spy??) gets arrested by the U.S. Secret Service strolling around Drumpf's "southern White House," Mar-a-Lago, carrying two passports, four cell phones, a laptop, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive loaded with malware software.

Clearly, the people that Drumpf and his clan are cuddling and canoodling with are not nice, or good human beings, and they don't give a flying shit about America, and baseball, and apple pie, and mom, or even Leave It To Beaver.  They don't give a rat's sphincter about any of that shit.  They'd like to take a flamethrower to it all quite frankly.

So if you paid attention to these Uighur people in this article's video that are presently under repressive Chinese rule, when you see in this article the faces of those people in that city - the faces of people in the street, in their shops, anywhere in public - there are no smiles, no laughter, no joyous activities.  Nobody looks each other in the eye for more than a nervous glance.  Did you notice?  Just a bunch of imprisoned zombies, shuffling their miserable fucking dead souls away into nothingness.

 

Today it's the Uighurs - tomorrow, who knows?  Perhaps it'll be the Kansans, or the New Yorkers, or even the loudmouth Texans.

So here's the deal -- none of this circle-jerk funny business that is going on with Drumpf and his Jarvanka gang, between them all and the Russians, and the Chinese, and the Saudis -- none of it is normal.  Mkay?  And that is not solely a fucking partisan Democrat observation.

And so that. That right there is why we need to pay attention to what's going on with this Drumpf business folks. Our future freedom might very well depend on it.

 

LINK ⏩ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/04/world/asia/xinjiang-china-surveillance-prison.html

 

 

 

 

----TFG

 

 

Always With The Questions Mr. Gadfly . . . .

via GIPHY



So here's a few observations that perhaps some Drumpf supporters can help The Gadfly try to comprehend a bit more clearly.

If Donald Trump is all of these "great" things that he constantly boasts about himself to be, then how come - -

If he is a “Billionaire”, why can nobody see his tax returns?  And why, 2 years after he promised the American people, on camera, that he would release his taxes, is he still peddling the bullshit excuse that he's "under audit" by the IRS, when the IRS themselves have publicly stated that they were unaware of any such audit?

If he is such a “Stable Genius”, why did he feel compelled to pay his fixer Michael Cohen to threaten his colleges with lawsuits if they ever released his academic grades?

If he is truly the "Healthcare President," how come after he has had four years (2 as candidate, 2 as POTUS) to come up with the bare bones details of a health care plan, not a shred of evidence exists indicating there is any plan at all even?  And now he's saying he's got a plan, but when asked to provide details, he refuses, and says they will let the American people know AFTER the 2020 election.  How is that not the most arrogant thing you've ever heard?

And last but certainly not the least - If he is truly, unquestioningly, and completely "Vindicated," and “Exonerated” in the Russian collusion stuff, then why isn't he out in front of the public, every damn day, loudly demanding that the entire report be released to show the American people just how much of a "hoax" and "witch hunt" Mueller's probe really was?

The Gadfly will tell you why.

It's because a sizable number of American people are being conned by the biggest con-artist in the history of con-artistry.  They are being flim-flammed by one of the biggest flim-flammers in the annals of flim-flammery.  That's the sad reality.  And the infuriating reality is this -- Donald Trump is hell-bent determined to put this country, and it's people, through some of the worst national trauma in our history - and he's going to do it just so that he can save his own treacherous, rotten, crooked ass.




----TFG

Still Saddlesore, But Ready To Get Back On The Trail

And now a word from our sponsor . . . . .





The Gadfly is back in the Blogger saddle.  Come one, come ye all.




----TFG