And you get the last word.
This reminds me of a Rubio tweet.
Flag / General Officers actually never really retire - they just go on inactive status.
More broadly speaking, this is a really dumb fight for both Trump and the GOP to pick.
First, in an age of falling regard for many govt. institutions, the IC and the military still command respect from most Americans - much higher than any politician.
Second, Adm. McRaven is a Seal who took down Bin Laden. He is considered a GOD in the military and the other security institutions. His letter is both a clarion call for his colleagues and a warning shot to the Politicos.
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This is the point. The POTUS IS the security system. If he or she is compromised, the whole system is compromised - there is NO backup plan. He can both look at any classified data he wants to, and prevent the dissemination of classified data to anyone else so as to prevent its use for anything he is against - like counter-intelligence, law enforcement or national defense. Theoretically he could pull the clearances of the entire SCO, leaving Mueller’s investigation dead in the water.
This is why the Congress SHOULD be on a hair trigger to impeach, convict and remove this guy from office if there is even a HINT that he is beholden to Putin.
The fact that after 18 months it is clear this guy is in Putin’s pocket but the GOP won’t even consider having the Judiciary Committees of either House look into it, is both scary and appalling. IMHO that means that anyone with an ® behind there name is complicit, and will NEVER get my vote again.
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I guess that’s the point of the image. The straw in itself would be meaningless, the reason it breaks the camel’s back is that it has been preceded by all the much heavier stuff.
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If anyone has a few minutes it might be worth a mosey through this article on Ms. Haberman.
Lazy may not have been the best description. There were/ are certain members who work very hard.
Too much media consolidation is the biggest factor now. That and too many cocktail parties whose attendees are supposed to be the ones covered. Fox News and other extremely partisan outlets who present skewed, even false, viewpoints.
Still, the truth does find its way to the top, even if too late. That has to change.
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Trump’s stunning incompetence and possible treachery, not Brennan, is THE national security threat of the highest order. Where are the Republicans? “MAWA” Make America White Again", Donny we’re with you, we’re the new Republican Sycophant Trump Republican Party. Yes we used to be against almost everything you politically, economically, and personally stand for like a $1.4T deficit to date or $1T + deficits for years into the future, crippling trade tariffs, ignored the family values of honesty, integrity, porn star philandering, world record serial lying, etc, heck we’d even forgive treachery now. However, we also understand 30% to 35% of American’s are intolerant, xenophobic, misogynist, or outright racists, and are your vehement supports and our majority. So only somewhat hypocritically, even though you are humiliatingly making liars and cowards of us too, we’re falling inline because without your naive, gullible, ignorant, intolerant, and desperately insecure deplorables, we’re afraid we couldn’t win a race for dog catcher.
A big story featured here today, Friday, about Omarosa (never thought I’d be giving this individual so much though) and her cache of 200 tapes was co written by Haberman and Vogel. So far according to the comments people are horrified by the revelations, but not horrified by either of the writers.
This is one amazing chart, color coded squiggly graph bars, numbers and more numbers, arrows! Thanks for sharing.
If what I’m reading lately is any presage, Nunes is likely to be declared redundant by his own constituents come November…
Low IQ lowlifes and dogs maybe…?
I know all about what happens when you’re being cleared. It was… invasive, to say the least.
I think Trump is creating a precedent that forces a change to that basic concept. I think we might end up adding some kind of requirement that a candidate must pass at least a basic background check before being issued a high level security clearance (or even qualifying to run for the office).
That or add a couple of layers of security. Who else is needed to activate the nuclear football, for example, and would they recognize an insane or unlawful order when they got one from a madman president? And shouldn’t “need to know” still dictate what a president sees and doesn’t see?
Trump has proven we may need to revisit all of this…
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Or as Elvis Costello once sang, “And when they finally put you in the ground, we’ll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down…”
(Written to Maggie Thatcher, but I think Trump certainly qualifies for a similar level of disdain.)
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I agree and I know somewhat of clearances as well. In any other situation the thought of trump having access should elicit gales of laughter
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I hope you’re right, and Janz is hitting him hard. But I think they see him as a hometown boy made good.
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The “oh this guy makes so much money, why doesn’t HE pay for my stuff” argument is ridiculous. Everyone needs to do their share and step up for the things they care about to the best of their ability. They also need to take responsibility for their own lives, their own bills, their own problems. Expecting people with more money than you to buy you stuff is loserville.
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The day he invited the Russian ambassador and Foreign Minister into the Oval Office (an unprecedented level of access), AND literally handed them extremely sensitive foreign intelligence, I knew we were in trouble. And this was what, mere weeks after having been inaugurated? I saw that as a clear bit of quid pro quo straight away.
My biggest concern isn’t that he uses his powers to block any investigations, it’s that he gives away the store to Putin & Co.
Because, given what we do know (yes, the Russia investigation, but even based on the Oval Office invite alone), his recent holding of what amounts to a “secret meeting” in Helsinki, for no good goddamned reason, with NO public record whatsoever, leads me to naturally assume the worst.
I can think of no other top level meeting like that, being held in absolute secrecy, at any time but one of great crisis (e.g. the three way meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, or between Kennedy and Kruschev).
The unprecedented nature of that Helsinki meeting reinforces my concerns to the extreme.
This. And, relatedly, “access journalism”.
And it was, according to Ben Bagdikian, and I believe also Hertsgaard, who noted that the first President to weaponize “access” by punishing journos who said mean things about him, was Reagan.
It’s a combination of laziness, fear of losing access, bothsiderism, and some other unsavory stuff.
And yes, of course, there are plenty who work extremely hard, and are very good.