Wednesday, January 31, 2018

January 29th, 2017. 441 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 371 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.

the rich asshole will display the names of reelection campaign donors during State of the Union live stream

Noor Al-Sibai

29 JAN 2018 AT 20:12 ET                   

President some rich asshole has found a novel way to raise money for his reelection campaign: by offering to display the names of donors during a live stream of his first State of the Union address.
As The Washington Post reported Monday, the donation page on the rich asshole’s website allows donors to contribute between $35 and $2,700 — “the maximum amount allowed per election.”
“Please make a special State of the Union contribution to have your name broadcast on the Official some rich asshole for President livestream,” reads the donation page.
The existence of the donation request appears to have first been publicized by ProPublica’s Derek Willis when he tweeted a text message version of the page’s ask.

GOP Congressman Accidentally Admits Devin Nunes Is Still Secretly Leading Fake Russian Probe

Remember how GOP Congressman and co-chair of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes “recused” himself from the process? Even if you think you do you don’t because according to one of his colleagues’ accidental slip during an interview, he is still leading the investigation.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz appear on MSNBC’s “Velshi and Ruhle,” where he couldn’t manage to keep his big stupid mouth shut in a conversation about a memo written by Nunes’ staff that Republicans are currently attempting to use to derail the real Russia investigation.
“The Department of Justice says releasing it would be ‘extraordinarily reckless,’” said host Stephanie Ruhle. “The president refers to the Department of Justice as ‘my guys,’ so if his own Department of Justice says this is extraordinarily reckless, why is it a good idea to do it?”
House Republicans are refusing to share the memo with the Justice Department, whose officials oppose its release over national security concerns.
“Well, the Department of Justice hasn’t even read the memo so it would be hard for them to determine what would on would not be reckless because they haven’t seen it,” Gaetz said, adding that Nunes — despite his recusal — is still running the show:
“I think Devin Nunes has done a great job chairing the Intelligence Committee leading this investigation. I trust his judgment.”
“I thought he recused himself,” Ruhle replied.
Gaetz, who clearly realized he fucked up, tried to make things better. But his ramblings revealed that Nunes is still much more involved than he or his GOP allies say.
“He had because there were false charges that he had released classified information to the White House,” Gaetz said. “There was an ethics investigation into that allegation, Mr. Nunes was completely cleared.”
“He seems to be in full command and control of this investigation,” Gaetz continued. “I think that’s a good thing. All of the allegations made against him, completely proven false and he was completely cleared. He is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and I trust his judgment.”
“Co-chairman, right?” Ruhle reminded him.
“Well, he’s the chairman of the majority side,” Gaetz said.
The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on the release of the FISA memo, which was written by GOP staffers and, as Democrats have pointed out, consists of “a misleading set of talking points attacking the FBI.”
Watch the interview below:

Image via screengrab

Former the rich asshole deputy assistant: Nunes memo ‘100 times bigger’ than the abuses that led to the American revolution

Elizabeth Preza

29 JAN 2018 AT 22:29 ET                   

Sebastian Gorka, former deputy assistant to some rich asshole, on Monday described Devin Nunes’ controversial memo detailing allegations of abuse by the FBI and Department of Justice as “100 times bigger” than the events that lead to the American revolution.
Gorka was speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity about the Nunes memo, which House Republicans on Monday voted to release—against the recommendations of the Department of Justice.
“It’s kind of for some it’s hard to believe,” Hannity said. “Now that the evidence has been mounting and mounting and one smoking gun after another.”
“It has to be put in the context of the history of our great nation,” Gorka replied. “Remember, why was America created? It was created because of the usurpation of power, the capricious usurpation by a leader thousands of miles away.”
“That’s why America was created,” he continued. “It was about tea tax, and stationing troops on private property without permission. This is 100 times bigger. This is our government spying on political adversaries. This is federal law enforcement officials obstructing justice. You listed all of the things Clinton and her team did. But let’s not forget that the FBI destroyed the laptops that were part of the Clinton investigation. Who gave that order?”
Watch the video below, via Fox News:

Melania the rich asshole ‘furious with her husband’ over Stormy Daniels payoff: report

Elizabeth Preza

29 JAN 2018 AT 19:34 ET                   

First Lady Melania the rich asshole “was furious with her husband” some rich asshole after reports his lawyer Michael Cohen paid off Stephanie Clifford, the porn star known by her stage name “Stormy Daniels.”
As the New York Times reports, Melania the rich asshole is “expected to resurface” for the rich asshole’s “State of the Union” address Tuesday. But the First Lady last week cancelled a trip with the rich asshole and spent the weekend “relaxing at the spa” at Mar-a-Lago.
Two people close to the couple told the Times “few episodes” in their tumultuous relationship “have roiled the peace as much as the news surrounding” Daniels.
The report comes after Melania the rich asshole’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, on Sunday slammed what she described as “flat-out false reporting” regarding the First Lady.


January 29, 20186:08 pm
some rich asshole is an instinctual authoritarian. He is also a deeply angry, petty, and vindictive human being (or, in scientific terms, “an asshole”). This combination of character traits has made “President Erupts at [Insert Administration and/or Justice Department Official] for Reminding Him That the DOJ Is Not His Private Detective Agency” a staple of American political journalism over the past year.
Last May, said official was Jeff Sessions. Shortly after learning that the Justice Department had appointed a special counsel to investigate his campaign’s ties to Russia, the rich asshole “berated” the attorney general for his “disloyal” decision to recuse himself from that probe. the rich asshole reportedly “told Mr. Sessions that choosing him to be attorney general was one of the worst decisions he had made, called him an ‘idiot,’ and said that he should resign.” Around the same time, the rich asshole “fumed” at White House counsel Don McGahn, then–chief strategist Steve Bannon, and chief of staff Reince Priebus, ostensibly for declining to enthusiastically endorse his view that Sessions’s recusal made no logical sense. One month later, after Rod Rosenstein (ostensibly) failed to denounce “fake news” reports about the rich asshole administration with sufficient vigor, the president castigated the deputy attorney general over Twitter.
On Monday afternoon, we were treated to two vital new additions to this genre.
The first is set in the immediate aftermath of the rich asshole’s firing of James Comey. On the day the rich asshole fired his FBI director — without a word of warning, in a written note delivered by his personal bodyguard to Comey’s mailbox at the bureau’s headquarters in D.C. — Comey was giving a talk to FBI employees in Los Angeles. The FBI director learned of his termination when he saw the breaking news flash across a television monitor hanging behind his audience. Comey initially laughed, and congratulated his colleagues on “a fairly funny prank.”
This may strike the average observer as a needlessly humiliating way to go about firing someone. But in the president’s view, Comey’s firing wasn’t nearly humiliating enough. As NBC News reports:
The day after President some rich asshole fired James Comey, he became so furious watching television footage of the ousted FBI director boarding a government-funded plane from Los Angeles back to Washington, D.C. that he called the bureau’s acting director, Andrew McCabe, to vent, according to multiple people familiar with the phone call.

the rich asshole demanded to know why Comey was allowed to fly on an FBI plane after he had been fired, these people said. McCabe told the president he hadn’t been asked to authorize Comey’s flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have approved it, three people familiar with the call recounted to NBC News.

The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser — an apparent reference to a failed campaign for state office in Virginia that McCabe’s wife made in 2015.

McCabe replied: “OK, sir.” the rich asshole then hung up the phone.
The president felt so much contempt for James Comey — for refusing to pledge personal loyalty to him, or to drop an investigation into his friends — that he wanted the government to strand Comey in Los Angeles. Even though the FBI director had flown to California on government business — and an FBI plane that needed to come back to Washington was already in L.A. — the rich asshole was furious to learn that Comey would not be forced to book a commercial flight.
Then, when Comey’s acting replacement declined to endorse the idea that the FBI had a responsibility to execute the rich asshole’s petty act of vengeance, the president was so incensed, he insulted the acting FBI director’s wife.
McCabe resigned from the FBI on Monday, after weeks of lobbying by the White House for his ouster. Multiple reports suggest McCabe’s departure was not voluntary.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Monday afternoon that the rich asshole “erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be ‘extraordinarily reckless’ to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers.”
That memo outlines an alleged anti-the rich asshole conspiracy within the FBI. The details reportedly center on how federal law enforcement went about securing a FISA warrant to spy on the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page. Congressional Republicans have suggested that the FBI relied on opposition research funded by Hillary Clinton in making its case to the FISA court, without disclosing that fact. The Congressional GOP has refused to share the memo in question with Justice Department staff. And so, the DOJ is concerned that it may contain highly sensitive information.
But the rich asshole found the idea that the DOJ would prioritize keeping state secrets — over giving the president’s allies more fodder with which to discredit the FBI — outrageous. And John Kelly, the supposed “adult” in the Oval Office, scolded the Justice Department for causing the president displeasure.
For the rich asshole, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

…Kelly held separate meetings or phone calls with senior Justice Department officials last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to convey the rich asshole’s displeasure and lecture them on the White House’s expectations, according to the people. Kelly has taken to ending such conversations with a disclaimer that the White House isn’t expecting officials to do anything illegal or unethical.

After the rich asshole’s strong reaction on Air Force One over the Boyd letter, White House officials, including Kelly, sprang into action again, lashing Justice Department officials Thursday over the decision to send the letter, according to the people.
some rich asshole believes that all federal law-enforcement agents are his subordinates, and that their first loyalty is not to the law or Constitution or the American people — but to some rich asshole.

And the Republicans in Congress, and the president’s inner circle, are now doing their best to affirm that belief.

5 Reasons Why Watching some rich asshole’s State of the Union Speech is Pointless

With some rich asshole set to deliver his first “official” State of the Union speech, understandably much of the nation is going to be tuned in tomorrow night to hear what his handlers wrote for him to say.


I’m here to tell folks why this year, you can probably skip watching the event.
Under normal circumstances I’d be looking forward to watching the annual speech. It didn’t matter if it was Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama, as a person who enjoys following politics, I’ve always enjoyed the State of the Union.
Not this year.
So I thought I’d run down 5 quick reasons why I feel watching the rich asshole’s State of the Union speech is absolutely a waste of time.
1. It was written by someone else: When it comes to some rich asshole, I couldn’t care less what he has to say when he’s reading a speech written and carefully edited by other people. Time after time I’ve seen this “president” give a speech that was written by someone else that members of the media rushed out to declare as “the rich asshole proving he’s presidential,” only for the real thoughts and beliefs of some rich asshole to come out soon after via Twitter or at one of his rallies.
2. He’s going to use economic numbers he once called “fake” and “phony” to brag about an economy he had almost nothing to do with: Nothing like a “president” bragging about economic numbers he once said weren’t real to brag about an economy he had almost nothing to do with — the same economy he called a “disaster” up until the point that he was sworn into office.
Speaking of economy, I’m certain he’s not going to admit that 2017 was the worst year for jobs since 2010.
3. He’s an idiot who has no idea what he’s talking about: Does anyone really believe when the rich asshole discusses complicated issues such as the economy, health care, immigration, international diplomacy, or global conflicts he has any idea what he’s talking about? As I said in #1, this speech was written by someone else and I’m supremely confident that the rich asshole’s mind doesn’t comprehend most of what he’s going to say. He’s just going to read what someone else wrote while acting like he actually understands the words that are coming out of his mouth.

4. He’s going to spend most of the speech just trying to make himself look good: By this I don’t simply mean bringing up his “accomplishments.” That’s normal politics, and most presidents do it during their State of the Union speeches. When I say the rich asshole’s going to use the speech to make himself look good, I mean that he’s going to try to present himself in a more diplomatic, reasonable image hoping that by giving a “presidential” speech, his approval numbers might actually improve from their historic (and embarrassing) lows. As I’ve mentioned several times before, everything the rich asshole does is about making himself look good, so that’s exactly what this speech is going to be about. Though as I pointed out in #1, if anyone wants so see the real the rich asshole, just give him a few hours/days and watch what he says when he’s using his own words, not those written by someone else.
That’s why his main themes are “safe, strong, and proud.” He’s not going to present a message to unify the country, he’s going to claim the United States is “safer, stronger, and Americans are more proud of their country” because of him — even though none of that is true.
5. He’s a liar: Just like during his campaign, the rich asshole’s going to give a speech predicated on a reality that doesn’t exist. When you’re someone like the rich asshole who’s not held accountable by your supporters for any of the lies you tell, that gives him the ability to say whatever the hell he wants, no matter how unrealistic. At the end of the day the people backing him don’t care how much he lies, just as long as he’s telling them what they want to hear. So as long as the rich asshole stands there and tells them that he’s fixed the economy, that he’s kept the country safer, that he’s reduced illegal immigration, that he’s defeating ISIS, that he’s going to make Mexico eventually pay for his wall, that he’s going to rebuild America’s infrastructure — no matter how unrealistic, expensive, or dishonest any of that is — they’re going to love it because it’s what they want to hear.
Yet at the end of the day, as the rich asshole’s proven time and time again, nothing he says should be taken seriously because he’s completely full of crap.
There are obviously more reasons why the rich asshole’s State of the Union speech is all but worthless to watch, but these are definitely the “Top 5” reasons why I think people shouldn’t feel bad for skipping this year’s speech.
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National security analyst Kayyem explains how McCabe ouster could come back to bite the rich asshole

Tom Boggioni

29 JAN 2018 AT 16:05 ET                   

During a CNN panel discussion over the sudden departure of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe,who was reportedly forced out by the rich asshole administration officials, a CNN national security analyst explained that his leaving well before the FBI releases the fruits of their investigation could cripple President the rich asshole’s inevitable attack on the report’s veracity.
Speaking with CNN host Brooke Baldwin, Julia Kayyem more or less agreed with an earlier CNN guest that the rich asshole’s FBI problems won’t be walking out the door with McCabe.
According to former FBI supervisory agent, James Gagliano, McCabe’s leaving comes as no surprise since officials in his position often move on after a few months.
“My job obviously here is to call law enforcement balls and strikes,” Gagliano explained. “In the 110-year history of the FBI, there have only been eight full-time appointed directors and every one of them had their own deputy directors. The average tenure of those deputy directors is typically between three and six months. Director Wray, the eighth appointed director and confirmed by Congress came on board in August. So without all the hysteria and the noise on the outside, this is a normal process and protocol.”
“If Andy McCabe had been 50-years-old when Director Wray took over, in my estimation and that of many former FBI agents who know the process and how it works, he would have stayed a couple of months out of courtesy to the new incoming director until he could have selected his own person,” he stated.
Co-panelist Kayyem had a slightly different take, saying the rich asshole and his people are doing themselves a disservice by forcing out future fall-guys.
“It is possible this is horrible because this is an attack on law enforcement,” Kayyem began. “But just like everything that the White House does, they’re doing this horribly. In other words; there’s another way to look at it in the sense of the cover-up is so bad.”
“We know why it’s so bad in the sense when you ask a question ‘why is the rich asshole trying so hard to get rid of all these people?’ and it can only be because whatever is underlying the investigation is worse than all of this fumbling,” she elaborated. “But just taking it forward two or three weeks, this may actually come to the detrimental of the White House because then Wray has brought in people who are long-term FBI agents. He has a deputy director who’s not under the Twitter attacks.”
“You may actually see this be something that is like other things the White House has done — for example, firing [former FBI director]Comey,” she continued. “That this may actually in the end get us closer to the truth, which many of us believe has got to be worse than whatever this cover-up is that they’re trying to do.”
You can watch the video below via CNN:

‘It’s a brainwashing memo’: House intel Dem slams Nunes for ‘poisoning the well’ against the Russia probe

Noor Al-Sibai

29 JAN 2018 AT 17:01 ET                   

In an interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said he hopes Chairman Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) memo supposedly detailing “abuses” at the Justice Department “never sees the light of day.”
The memo, according to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) “is riddled with deliberate inaccuracies that can only be intended to undermine [special counsel] Bob Mueller.”
When Wallace asked the congressman why he thinks Nunes refuses to share the memo with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC), his counterpart in the Senate, Swalwell said his superior knows it would be “counterproductive.”
“I can only conclude that Richard Burr knows the true underlying facts here and that it would be counterproductive for Devin Nunes to show it to him because Senator Burr would not allow it to stand, knowing what he knows,” the California Democrat said. 
“Iis a brainwashing memo,” Swalwell concluded. “Its only purpose is to poison the well of the members who would have to hold the president accountable if he were to fire Mueller by tainting their perception of the FBI.”





the rich asshole told McCabe to ask his wife ‘how it feels to be a loser’ after he allowed Comey to take a government jet home

Elizabeth Preza

29 JAN 2018 AT 16:42 ET                   
donald trump on the phone
some rich asshole became enraged after seeing footage of James Comey using a government-funded airplane the day after he fired the former FBI director, calling Andrew McCabe to complain about the trip—and call the former acting director’s wife “a loser.”
As NBC News reports, the rich asshole was “furious” watching footage of Comey on an FBI plane the day after the president fired him and called McCabe demanding to know why the former FBI director was allowed to take a government plane. McCabe told the rich asshole he would have approved Comey’s flight, but said he was not asked beforehand.
“The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser,” NBC News reports. Jill McCabe had recently lost her bid for a state Senate seat. According to the report, McCabe replied, “okay, sir,” prompting the rich asshole to hang up the phone.
The report comes after McCabe on Monday “was forced to step down” as FBI deputy director. Last week, the Washington Post reported the rich asshole has asked McCabe, then acting FBI director, who he voted for in 2016.

the rich asshole has no clue about unemployment in black America

"He's reaping the rewards for staying the course of sound decisions made by the Obama administration."

President some rich asshole proudly proclaims that he — and he alone — is responsible for the record low unemployment figures among black Americans. As much as the president would like to take credit for any seemingly positive trends in America, that statement is yet another whopper of a presidential lie.
It is true that black Americans’ unemployment fell to a record low of 6.8 percent in December, the most recent reporting period. Similarly, the Hispanic unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent, which is close to a record low as well. Overall, the national unemployment rate is an impressive 4.1 percent.
But economists and other fiscal experts are near unanimous in clarifying that the rich asshole had nothing to do with the good numbers because the downward trend line in black unemployment began years before he took office. Worse, the rich asshole’s understanding of issues facing people of color is obviously nonexistent; he’s ignorant of the realities facing black Americans and the deep, structural inequalities that delineate their lives.
“He’s reaping the rewards for staying the course of sound decisions made by the Obama administration,” Janelle Jones, an economic analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told me Monday during a phone interview. “There’s nothing in [the rich asshole’s] policies that have led to a quick turnaround in black unemployment over the past 12 months.”
Or, as Washington Post reporter Philip Bump noted recently, the rich asshole is wrong to take credit for something he didn’t do:
It’s not as if black unemployment was 18 percent under Barack Obama and, as soon as the rich asshole took office, it plummeted. Black unemployment fell fairly consistently from 2010 on, as did the rates for whites and Hispanics.
From January to December 2017, the unemployment rate among black Americans fell 1 percentage point. During the same period in 2016, it fell the same amount. In 2015, it fell 1.9 points. The previous year, it fell 1.5 points. The year before that, it fell 1.8 points.
Jones explained it well to me, suggesting the welcome unemployment news stems primarily from employers benefiting from years of economic expansion and therefore being forced to hire people — such as black workers — they otherwise overlook when times are tougher. “This is why [progressive economists] are all for getting the nation as close to full employment as possible,” she said. “And this is what it takes for blacks to see benefits from an expanding economy.”
But full employment means different things to different people, based on their race. Even as black unemployment hit the record low, it remained nearly double the figure for white Americans. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for whites is 3.7 percent, almost half the 6.8 percent for black Americans.
If the rich asshole truly understood how the economy works, he’d know that the double-difference disparity is a historic fixture of racial discrimination at play in our national economy. He can’t truly boast until black unemployment is in line with white unemployment.
In an insightful article for The Atlantic, Gillian White pointed out that differences between black and white unemployment figures is a stubborn relic of historic and institutional racist policies that no one — least of all the rich asshole — has successfully addressed. “While it’s true that the most recent jobs report shows that the gap has narrowed a little, its existence still points to troubling discrepancies in the labor market that can’t all be explained away by differences in education and skills,” White wrote.
Nevertheless, like a sideshow carnival barker who takes credit for producing a summer storm in the midst of a prolonged drought, the rich asshole didn’t hesitate to boast that he made it rain over black America. In a flurry of false tweets earlier this month, coinciding with the release of the unemployment figures, the rich asshole claimed his policies are a mystical boon to black America.
African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! @foxandfriends

As if that weren’t bad enough, the rich asshole took issue with rapper/mogul Jay-Z, who appeared on CNN’s The Van Jones Show last weekend to factually argue that the rich asshole hasn’t done much to benefit black people since he took office a year ago.
It’s bad enough that the rich asshole lies about his role in the economy and picks unpresidential flame wars with black entertainers, but the real shame comes in the fact that the president uses the disproportionate economic hardships faced by black workers as a political prop to hide his racist words and acts.
the rich asshole’s true attitude toward people of color, black Americans in particular, becomes evident with close scrutiny of his words and behavior since taking office. He’s referred to black NFL players protesting racial injustice during the national anthem as “sons of bitches.” He supported white nationalists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis “as good people” during racially charged protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, going so far as to blame “both sides” for the violence.
With his tweet attacking Jay-Z, the rich asshole only perpetuates what is obvious to all outside his base of support. A recent Pew Research Center report showed that barely 10 percent of African Americans approve of the rich asshole’s job performance.
In his response to the rich asshole’s braggadocio over black unemployment, Jay-Z effectively explained why so few black Americans give the president credit for improving their lives.
“It is not about money at the end of the day,” Jay-Z told Jones. “Money does not equate to happiness. You’re missing the whole point. You treat people like human beings… Treat me bad and pay me well; it’s not going to lead to happiness.”

Leaked version of the rich asshole infrastructure plan reveals another ‘political favor’ for oil, gas industry

Under the rich asshole administration's plan, pipelines through national parks would only need the approval of the secretary of interior.

Since the 1920s, companies seeking to build pipelines through national parks have had to obtain approval from Congress — but a single provision in the rich asshole administration’s proposed infrastructure plan could completely upend that status quo.
According to a leaked draft of the infrastructure plan obtained by the Washington Post, the administration is considering proposing changes to the approval process for natural gas pipelines that cross National Park Service owned land. The change would only require approval from the secretary of the interior — a move that environmental and conservation groups derided as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry at the expense of public lands.
There is a reason why these pipelines require Congressional action — we’ve seen pipelines leak over and over again. National parks are where people go and spend their time, and if you have a leak, it could be dangerous to the environment and the people visiting,” Raul Garcia, senior legislative counsel with Earthjustice, told ThinkProgress. “This isn’t substantive and well thought-out. It’s just another political favor for an industry that is well-positioned within the administration.”
Beyond spills, however, opponents worry that the construction associated with pipelines — which requires companies to essentially clear-cut swaths of land on either side of the proposed infrastructure — would essentially change the landscape of some of the country’s most cherished natural areas.
People don’t go to these [parks] to see giant clear cutting and pipelines going through them,” Garcia said. “It takes way from what the national park system is supposed to provide for the American people.”
The proposed infrastructure plan would give the secretary of interior broad authority to issue right-of-way approvals for natural gas pipelines that cross National Park Service-owned land. The rich asshole administration is not the first to propose transferring the approval of pipelines that cross through National Parks from Congress to the interior secretary: In 2015, under the Obama administration, the House passed the National Energy Security Corridors Act as part of legislation funding the government. This would have allowed the secretary of interior to designate “energy security corridors” where pipeline companies could be given right-of-way through National Parks.
Conservation and environmental groups worry that allowing the secretary of interior to have such broad authority in approving pipeline projects would put development of public lands at the whim of political winds — a fossil fuel friendly administration such as the rich asshole administration, for instance, might use that authority to vastly increase the amount of energy infrastructure that is allowed across National Parks. In April, leaked documents from the Bureau of Land Management revealed that the rich asshole administration wanted to “streamline” the extraction process for fossil fuels on federal lands, representing a shift in priorities for an agency that, under the Obama administration, prioritized conservation over extraction.
This is a significant departure from the norm, and not one that we would be supportive of whatsoever,” Ani Kame’enui, legislative director at the National Parks Conservation Association, told ThinkProgress, adding that the proposed change was likely the result of pressure from particular industries. “Like so many of the provisions in the leaked document, you can draw pretty clear lines from this provision to some pet interest projects.”
Kame’enui pointed to two proposed pipelines in the southeastern United States that, if constructed, would run for miles alongside the Appalachian Trail. While neither would cross through a National Park, both would transect federally-managed public land, sparking fierce opposition from local environmentalists and conservation groups. One project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run some 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia, would transect the Appalachian Trial in the Jefferson National Forest, and require a 150-foot-wide corridor to run alongside the trail for dozens of miles. The second project, a proposed 600 mile pipeline known as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, would run below a portion the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is managed by the National Park Service. Dominion Energy, the company behind the pipeline, amended the proposed route of the pipeline in 2015 to specifically avoid crossing National Park Service land, which would have required Congressional approval and could have potentially derailed the project. Both projects recently won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline issue is a perfect example of why we are grateful to have the congressional approval issue,” Kame’enui said. “We are certainly troubled by the fact that [the leaked plan] called out National Parks specifically.”

the rich asshole boiled over in anger aboard Air Force One after learning DOJ didn’t want memo released: report

Eric W. Dolan

29 JAN 2018 AT 15:29 ET                   

President some rich asshole reportedly exploded in anger aboard Air Force One last week due to his frustration with the Justice Department and the Russia investigation.
Bloomberg reported Monday that the president erupted after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd had warned against releasing a classified memo written by House Republicans that allegedly documents FBI surveillance abuse related to the Russia investigation.
The memo purportedly contains evidence that the FBI and Department of Justice are biased against the rich asshole. House Republicans have pressed for the memo to be released publicly. But Boyd said it would be “extraordinarily reckless” for the memo to be released before the department had a chance to review it.
“We believe it would be extraordinarily reckless for the committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the (committee) of the risk of harm to national security and to ongoing investigations that could come from public release,” Boyd wrote in a letter to House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).
“Indeed, we do not understand why the committee would possibly seek to disclose classified and law enforcement sensitive information without first consulting with the relevant members of the intelligence community,” Boyd added.
the rich asshole learned of Boyd’s remarks while traveling to Davos, and after the outburst White House officials scrambled to convey the president’s displeasure to the Department of Justice, according to Bloomberg.
House Democrats have insisted that the memo is an attempt to undermine the FBI and Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Like its other attacks on those agencies, this represents another effort to distract from the Russia probe and undermine the Special Counsel. With this latest gambit, however, the Majority seeks to selectively and misleadingly characterize classified information in an effort to protect the President at any cost,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in a statement last week.


Only the best proofreaders.

GOP may need to recall State of the Union tickets over embarrassing typo

Noor Al-Sibai

29 JAN 2018 AT 15:24 ET                   

On Monday, journalists on Twitter noted something odd about tickets to tomorrow’s State of the Union — that the term “union” was misspelled as “uniom.”
As the Washington Examiner‘s Laura Barrón-López‏ noted, two Democrat aides said Republicans may have to recall the tickets due to the misspelling.
This isn’t the first time a rich asshole-related typo has made waves. After President some rich asshole fired former FBI director James Comey last year, his lawyer issued an error-laden statement that included the term “president” misspelled as “predisent.”
Check out multiple iterations of the misspelled ticket below.

‘The 7th floor of the FBI are all Comey people’: NYT reporter claims McCabe’s ouster doesn’t solve ‘the rich asshole’s problem’

Tom Boggioni

29 JAN 2018 AT 14:25 ET                   

Reacting to the bombshell announcement that Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe was pressured to step down from his position ahead of his planned departure, a reporter for the New York Times claimed the White House shouldn’t believe the rich asshole’s problems with the FBI are going to leave with him.
With CNN reporting that upper level FBI officials were both stunned and furious at the sudden departure, announced at an executive meeting Monday morning, the Times‘ Adam Goldman was asked by CNN host Wolf Blitzer if special counsel Robert Mueller was next to go.
“If the president were to fire Mueller, he would have to go to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who would actually do the firing unless he resigned in protest,” Blitzer asked.
‘That’s correct,” Goldman replied. “I mean, he can’t fire Mueller and I think the rich asshole realizes the problem is no longer Sessions — his problem is Rod. I have to tell you, it seems unlikely. We’re in the home stretch of this Russia investigation. You know, it would be like cutting off his own leg if he did that, and it would not serve him well.”
“Can I just make a point about this McCabe retirement?” he continued. “Look, McCabe was going to retire March 18th — he was eligible to retire March 18th. He’s leaving a few weeks early and even a week ago, McCabe didn’t know if he would be able to go on permanent leave until he is eligible to retire.”
“So this is what they expected, and getting rid of his chief of staff and FBI Chief Counsel James Baker doesn’t remove the problem for the rich asshole,” Goldman explained. “That 7th floor of the FBI are all Comey people. And many of the executive associate directors who run the bureau on the 7th floor were put there by Comey.”
“So I’m not so sure this getting rid of McCabe and [former Comey Chief of Staff] Jim Rybicki and the former director necessarily solves the problem. These are all career FBI agents, all of whom have worked their way up just like Andrew McCabe,” he concluded.
You can watch the video below via CNN:


the rich asshole’s travel ban is just one of many US policies that legalize discrimination against Muslims

The Conversation

29 JAN 2018 AT 14:21 ET                   

On Jan. 19, a year after President some rich asshole’s first travel ban was issued, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments against the latest third version signed by the rich asshole on Sept. 24, 2017. This version remains in full effect.
Under the ban, nationals from eight countries are subject to travel restrictions, varying in severity by country. Venezuela and North Korea are on the list, but the ban overwhelmingly targets Muslim-majority countries: Chad, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Thus, what the American Civil Liberties Union has called a “Muslim ban” will have tremendous consequences on 150 million people, the majority of whom are Muslim.
This policy did not emerge in a vacuum. In fact, findings from our recently published research expose 15 federal measures and 194 state bills that impact Muslims directly. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most critical yet overlooked measures.

Anti-Muslim federal measures

After Sept. 11, immigration became a key national security issue. As a result, 15 federal programs and initiatives were implemented that target and discriminate against Muslim individuals and communities. These measures rely on a narrative that depicts Muslims as untrustworthy and in conflict with American values. This framing has justified the surveillance, racial profiling and violation of citizens’ rights and protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.








Federal measures. AuthorsCC BY


There are two important, often overlooked measures that have discriminated against Muslims and Arabs: the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System and 2015 changes to the Visa Waiver Program.
The Entry-Exit Registration System, created by the Justice Department in 2002, fingerprinted, photographed and attempted to track all non-citizen males over 16 years of age from 25 countries. With the exception of North Korea, all 25 countries had Muslim-majority populations and more than 85,000 individuals were registered in the system. The surveillance program was implemented as a counter-terrorism tool, but the program resulted in zero terrorism convictions. Although all target countries in the program were removed in 2011, its regulatory framework remained in place for 14 years and could have been reinstituted at any time.
In December 2016, President Barack Obama officially dismantled the program. Obama was motivated, in part, by preventing the incoming the rich asshole administration from reviving the program. One of the rich asshole’s campaign promises was to implement a Muslim registry.
Additional anti-Muslim travel policies were introduced following the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2015 San Bernardino attack in California.
The attacks spurred changes to the Visa Waiver Program. The waiver allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa. The 2015 changes exempted several Muslim-majority nations including Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria from these travel privileges.
Further updates were implemented in 2017 to target citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen and visitors to those countries.

Anti-Muslim state legislation

In addition to federal measures, our database has documented 194 anti-Sharia bills introduced in 39 state legislatures across the U.S. from 2010 to 2016. The anti-Sharia movement is responsible for the creation of these bills, sponsored by anti-Muslim organizations like ACT for America, and politicians who spread misunderstandings and fears around Sharia. This movement frames Sharia as a cruel and violent set of Islamic laws that are infiltrating U.S. courts to undermine American values and freedoms.
Sharia is a moral code founded on the teachings of the Quran and the Hadith – the teachings and actions of the Prophet Mohammed. Sharia is not the equivalent of Islamic law, but rather outlines how devout Muslims should engage with the world, from what they eat to how they conduct business and personal affairs.
Anti-Sharia bills, founded on the fear of “creeping Sharia,” identify Sharia as “foreign law” and thus ban its use in courts. However, U.S. courts do regularly interpret and apply foreign law, like Sharia, so long as it does not violate the U.S. Constitution.
In states that have banned the use of foreign law, judges are unable to enforce individual contracts that call for the application of Sharia. This restricts Muslims from upholding a range of personal agreements including marriage, estate distribution after death, or awarding of damages in commercial disputes or negligence matters. For example, the Kansas State Legislature enacted anti-Sharia Senate Bill 79 in 2012. Later that year, a woman named Elham Soleimani, a Muslim immigrant from Iran, filed for divorce from her husband. Under the Islamic marriage contract she and her husband had signed, she was due US$677,000 in the event of divorce. The court refused to enforce the agreement, citing the enacted anti-Sharia law.
Anti-Sharia statutes not only fuel public fear around Islam and Muslims, but also prevent Muslims from using Sharia in rulings that call for cultural context.
The ConversationSurveillance, travel restrictions, and anti-Sharia laws represent the ways in which U.S. policies discriminate against Muslims. As we anticipate the Supreme Court’s decision in June to either uphold or rescind the rich asshole’s travel ban, the question remains: Will the Supreme Court continue to allow the legal discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.?
By Basima Sisemore, Researcher, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California, Berkeley and Rhonda Itaoui, PhD Candidate and Research Fellow, Western Sydney University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


White House: We didn't have anything to do with McCabe exit (not that we're gonna tell you anyway)

The White House said Monday that President the rich asshole had nothing to do with Andrew McCabe leaving the FBI as deputy FBI director. 
"The president wasn’t a part of this decision-making process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
She referred questions to the FBI, which she said would be putting out a statement. 
McCabe had come under withering criticism from the rich asshole for what he said was his role in politicizing the top levels of the FBI.
He had been expected to retire in March, but news broke on Monday that he would be leaving early — possibly through the use of vacation time.
Asked about the rich asshole's criticism, Sanders said. “the president stands by his previous comments.”

Deputy FBI Director McCabe steps down: reports

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down from his position more than a month before previously anticipated, according to multiple reports.
A career civil servant who was appointed deputy director in 2016, McCabe has been a frequent target of Republicans alleging systemic bias against President the rich asshole at the top tiers of the bureau.
McCabe has become a lightning rod for the rich asshole White House in recent months. President the rich asshole has criticized McCabe over Twitter, and earlier this month it was reported that the president asked McCabe who he voted for at an Oval Office meeting where they met.
The Washington Post reported in December that McCabe's intention was to retire when he became eligible for pension benefits in early March. It's possible McCabe is now simply using vacation time, a point people made to the Post at the time of their report.
A spokesperson for the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news came as speculation grew that the House Intelligence Committee would vote as soon as Monday on publicly releasing a controversial memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) alleging surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice. McCabe is reported to be mentioned by name in the document.
“Andrew McCabe cuts across every facet of every investigation in 2016 that your viewers are interested in from Secretary Clinton’s emails to the investigation into the rich asshole campaign,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told Fox News in December. 
McCabe oversaw the controversial investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. The GOP has accused him of a conflict of interest in that case because his wife accepted nearly $500,000 in political donations from Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe in a state legislature bid that predated the investigation.
the rich asshole, as early as July, had called for McCabe's ouster, demanding, "Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation?"
"How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?" he tweeted in December.
The president also criticized McCabe over reports of his March retirement, saying he was "racing the clock to retire with full benefits."
As a civil servant, McCabe cannot be fired without clear evidence of wrongdoing.
According to documents released by the bureau in November, McCabe recused himself from state corruption cases in Virginia as a result of his wife's candidacy in 2015. However, he was not warned by bureau officials to step back from the Clinton investigation when it began a few months later. 
Then the assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, McCabe "provided personnel resources" to the email investigation in its early stages but "was not told what the investigation was about" until he was appointed deputy director — months after the Virginia election had concluded. 
McCabe briefly ran the bureau after the rich asshole fired former Director James Comey, who was then succeeded by current director Christopher Wray.
McCabe has weathered one of the most controversial periods in the FBI's history, as Republicans have continued to argue that the bureau inappropriately tried to tip the scale in Clinton's favor in the 2016 presidential election.
He skyrocketed back into the public view after a series of texts from a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team added fuel to Republican claims of bias at the bureau.
The agent, Peter Strzok, disparaged political figures of both parties in the texts, including the rich asshole, whom he called an “idiot.” The agent was removed from Mueller's team earlier this year.


‘We’ve seen the reports’: Sarah Sanders laughably claims the rich asshole had no idea McCabe was being forced out

David Edwards

29 JAN 2018 AT 14:14 ET                   

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday defended the rich asshole administration’s decision to force out FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe just a month before he was set to retire.
At Monday’s press briefing, Sanders was asked why McCabe, who the rich asshole has repeatedly attacked on Twitter, was reportedly removed from his position even though he was expected to retire within a few weeks.
For her part, Sanders suggested that the White House was out of the loop when it came to McCabe’s departure.
“We’ve seen the reports as all of you have,” Sanders said, referring all questions to the FBI.
“Clearly the president seemed to be involved in a public relations campaign against Andrew McCabe,” Fox News correspondent John Roberts pointed out.
“The president stands by his previous comments,” Sanders admitted. “In terms of the situation today, we’ve seen the reports as all of you have. We don’t have an specific comment.”
“Does this mean the president was not informed?” another correspondent asked.
“No, he hasn’t,” Sanders said.
Watch the video below from CNN.


New emails reveal Scott Pruitt was personally involved in erasing climate data from EPA website

EPA staff also manipulated search results, according to emails.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was personally involved in the purging of information from the agency’s website in the early months of the rich asshole administration, according to documents obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
Soon after President some rich asshole took office, pages on the EPA’s website about climate change started disappearing or getting redirected to sites touting the president’s fossil fuel agenda. Along with webpages about climate change and climate science, the purge removed the agency’s webpage about the Clean Power Plan, the signature Obama administration effort to curb carbon emissions from power plants and one that Pruitt is now attempting to repeal, the environmental group said Monday in a news release.
“Obscuring information thwarts meaningful public participation in EPA’s work to protect Americans’ health and safety. It reinforces serious concerns that Pruitt has predetermined that he will repeal the Clean Power Plan, and that the current rulemaking process is a sham,” EDF attorney Ben Levitan said in a statement.
EDF discovered Pruitt’s direct involvement in the removal of the webpages in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents about changes to the EPA’s website pertaining to climate and air quality. In August, in a separate records batch, the environmental group received more than 1,900 climate-related web pages and files that had been removed from or modified on the EPA’s website.
Among the documents released by EDF on Monday is an email which shows J.P. Freire, then serving as Pruitt’s associate administrator for public affairs, writing to colleagues on April 28, 2017: “We would like the content at the links below removed and archived as soon as possible.” The webpage titles included “Climate Change, “Climate Change Science,” “Climate Change Impacts,” and “Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change.” Each of these webpages still directs the user to a page that states “this page is being updated.”
“We appreciate your assistance in this time-sensitive manner,” said Freire.
The Clean Power Plan purge included the elimination of access to fact sheets about greenhouse gas emissions at the state and local levels and how different demographic groups were affected by such emissions. At the time, the EPA said the website changes involved “updating language to reflect the approach of new leadership,” including the rich asshole’s views on “climate and regulation.”
In response to the environmental group’s FOIA request, records are being released on a rolling basis, and EDF is analyzing and releasing them as it gets them, spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said. EDF is posting all of the documents it receives from the FOIA request on its “Promoting Government Transparency” webpage.
In a statement emailed to ThinkProgress on Monday, the EPA said it is constantly updating its website to reflect new initiatives and projects of the agency. “Of course the site will be reflective of the current administration’s priorities. With that said, all the content from the previous administration is still easily accessible and publicly available through the banner across the top of our website,” EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox said.
According to EDF, while the removed webpages may still be accessible through various EPA archives, they are a poor substitute. They do not appear in a search of the EPA website. “The website purge fits Pruitt’s troubling pattern of ruling EPA under a cloak of secrecy, which is no way to run an agency entrusted with protecting the public health and environment,” the group said.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a nonprofit government watchdog group, released a report that concluded the EPA’s removal and ongoing overhaul of its climate change website “raises strong concerns about loss of access to valuable information for state, local, and tribal governments, and for educators, policymakers, and the general public.”
In November, seven Democratic senators wrote a letter to Pruitt asking that the previous “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments” website be returned and that an explanation for the initial removal be provided. The EPA has not responded to the letter, according to EDGI.
In the latest batch of emails, EDF found that last spring one of Pruitt’s advisers asked EPA staffers in the agency’s public affairs office how quickly they could launch a website on the rich asshole’s energy independence executive order. The administrator wanted to redirect the website for the EPA’s Clean Power Plan to the energy independence website.
“How close are we to launching this on the website? The Administrator would like it to go up ASAP. He also has several other changes that need to take place,” Lincoln Ferguson, a senior adviser to Pruitt, asked in a email sent to the public affairs office in April 2017. Freire responded: “You can tell him we … are just finishing up.”
Ferguson responded: “Can it happen today?” He added in a subsequent email, “Just asking because he is asking.”
According to the emails obtained by EDF, Freire was emphatic that all Clean Power Plan references should link to the new page about the rich asshole’s executive order. In a discussion about the new page, Freiere wrote: “This looks great, and should be on the page for the Clean Power Plan. Any reference to the Clean Power Plan, any link to it, should redirect here.”
When it was revealed in April that the EPA was removing climate change information from its website, lawmakers quickly expressed concern. At the time, Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA), co-chair of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, noted that the rich asshole administration is engaging in censorship where “certain phrases and words cannot be used in research or in government documents with respect to the Paris agreement or climate change or greenhouse gases.”
“This is Stalin science,” Connolly said, referring to a program during Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s rule where more than 3,000 scientists were persecuted as part of a campaign to suppress his scientific opponents.
The emails obtained by EDF also suggest EPA staff were directed to manipulate search results, the environmental group said. Website visitors searching for information about the Clean Power Plan would be diverted to the page promoting the rich asshole’s executive order, instead of what they were actually looking for.
In one conversation, an EPA staff member stated, “I’ve been asked about search results for the term ‘Clean Power Plan.’” A colleague responded: “We can make the Energy Independence homepage a ‘Best Bet’ and thus the first result for Clean Power Plan for our EPA Search engine if you request it.”


‘What the hell is going on?’ Senior FBI officials stunned and furious over abrupt McCabe departure — CNN

Brad Reed

29 JAN 2018 AT 13:40 ET                   

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was forced to step down from his post on Monday — and his departure has reportedly taken many FBI field agents off guard.
Appearing on CNN Monday, reporter Shimon Prokupecz said that he’s heard from leaders in FBI field offices across the country who say they and their teams are frustrated that they are first hearing about these resignations through news reports and not through official channels.
“This comes as a surprise to many people,” Prokupecz said of McCabe’s departure. “Certainly the initial reaction from folks in the field — and these are the field agents and the field leaders at the field offices — is that people are pretty angry right now. They are hearing about FBI leadership moves from the news.”
Prokupecz said that because news of McCabe’s departure broke in the news before it was announced internally, it has added to a sense of chaos engulfing the agency.
“There is some concern among field leaders, among field agents among the FBI staff about what the hell is going on and who is running the FBI,” he explained, before noting that McCabe’s abrupt departure was very similar to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
Watch the video below.


the rich asshole: Drug prices will come ‘rocketing down’ under HHS secretary who tripled insulin prices as pharma chief

David Edwards

29 JAN 2018 AT 12:25 ET                   

President some rich asshole on Monday promised that drug prices would come “rocketing down” under new Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar III.
“He’s going to get those prescription drug prices way down,” the rich asshole promised at Azar’s swearing in. “It going to come rocketing down.”
As president the big pharma company Lilly USA, Azar was criticized for raising drug prices, including tripling the price of insulin.
Turning to speak to Azar’s father, the rich asshole explained that he would only offer “congratulations” on the nomination “if he does a good job.”
Azar spoke briefly following the rich asshole and unexpectedly praised the U.S. immigration system.
“Only in America could the grandchild and the great, great grandchild of immigrants from Lebanon, from the Ukraine, from England, from Switzerland get to have [this] opportunity,” he said.
Watch the video below from The White House.

the rich asshole administration ignoring requests to reveal documents showing how Russia tried to hack US elections

Travis Gettys

29 JAN 2018 AT 11:38 ET                   

House Democrats want to see documents showing how Russia attempted to hack state election systems in the 2016 election — but the the rich asshole administration won’t let them.
All the Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform signed a letter Monday asking Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) to issue a subpoena to finally compel the Department of Homeland Security to produce those documents.
“Russia attacked our states in the last election to help some rich asshole get elected president,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). “Why is the the rich asshole Administration now concealing from Congress documents showing exactly how Russia did it?
The federal agency has been withholding the information for months showing Russian government-backed efforts to monitor, penetrate or hack at least 21 state election systems more than a year ago.
Cummings and Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) asked for those documents Oct. 20, but DHS provided just one email containing a generic, 13-sentence script read over the phone by department employees to state election officials.
The script does not contain any specific information about suspected attacks in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware.
“Congress has an obligation to help states develop technologies and protocols to prevent election interference,” Kelly said. “However, we cannot do that if the the rich asshole Administration continues to actively conceal critical documents directly related to the security of our elections and voting systems.”
The Democrats warned Gowdy that if he failed to act they would ask the full committee to vote at its next regularly scheduled meeting on a motion to issue the subpoena.

No45 cheerleader and enabler FOX reports FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe 'removed' from the Bureau (but he actually quit) 
01-29-2018
Top FBI official Andrew McCabe has been "removed" from his post as deputy director, Fox News is told, leaving the bureau after months of conflict-of-interest complaints from Republicans including President the rich asshole.
A source confirmed to Fox News that McCabe is taking “terminal leave” – effectively taking vacation until he reaches his planned retirement in a matter of weeks. As such, he will not be reporting to work at the FBI anymore.
The move was first reported by NBC News.
McCabe has long been a controversial figure at the bureau.
Republicans have questioned McCabe’s ties to the Democratic Party, considering his wife ran as a Democrat for a Virginia Senate seat in 2015 and got financial help from a group tied to Clinton family ally Terry McAuliffe.
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 11, 2017, while testifying before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on major threats facing the U.S. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
McCabe was former FBI Director James Comey's right-hand man  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
the rich asshole himself tweeted in December: “How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?”
On Monday, Democrats defended McCabe after news of his retirement broke.
“FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is, and has been, a dedicated public servant who has served this country well,” tweeted former Attorney General Eric Holder, who worked in the Obama administration and has become a frequent the rich asshole critic.
Added Holder: “Bogus attacks on the FBI and DOJ to distract attention from a legitimate criminal inquiry does long term, unnecessary damage to these foundations of our government.”
FILE- In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe addresses a news conference concerning the white nationalist rally and violence in Charlottesville, Va. A group of Chinese investors is suing McAuliffe over his past work for troubled electric car maker GreenTech Automotive. The investors filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County last week accusing McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton's brother Anthony Rodham of milking their political connections to perpetuate a $120 million scam. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Controversy erupted when a PAC tied to then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliff, an associate of the Clintons, donated money to McCabe's wife's state legislative campaign- even as McCabe investigated Clinton  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
McCabe’s exit follows recent news of other changes in top FBI roles, as the rich asshole has taken aim at other senior FBI officials who worked under the former director, James Comey.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that his chief of staff, James Rybicki, was leaving the bureau. Department of Justice officials also told Fox News that Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who is also the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security division, has been selected to step in as the FBI’s next general counsel. James Baker, who had served as general counsel, was reassigned late last year. 
McCabe's name has surfaced in connection with several other controversies.
The Daily Beast reported that a GOP memo alleging government surveillance abuse named McCabe, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and ex-FBI boss James Comey.
Incidentally, the McCabe removal comes after Wray viewed the memo Sunday on Capitol Hill, as reported by Fox News’ Catherine Herridge. The removal also comes ahead of a DOJ inspector general report regarding the handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. 
Several Republicans also want to know what McCabe knew about anti-the rich asshole text messages between two bureau officials, including one that seemed to reference an “insurance policy” against the rich asshole winning the 2016 election. 
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office - that there’s no way he gets elected - but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Peter Strzok texted on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” 
Some lawmakers think "Andy" was a reference to McCabe. 
Peter_Strzok
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office - that there’s no way he gets elected - but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” FBI official Peter Strzok texted on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Late last year, the rich asshole drew attention to news stories about McCabe's rumored agency exit.
“FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits,” the rich asshole tweeted. 
The Washington Post last week reported that the rich asshole, during an Oval Office meeting last spring, pressed McCabe, who was then acting FBI director, about whom he voted for in the 2016 election. McCabe, according to the outlet, told the president he didn’t vote.
Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to this report.

the rich asshole aide Carter Page may have been Russian agent

Newsweek

29 JAN 2018 AT 10:39 ET                   




Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Some rich asshole’s Justice Department had reason to suspect that former Some rich asshole campaign associate Carter Page was a Russian agent, according to a Republican memo.
The contentious and secret memo, allegedly created by Republicans to discredit the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, shows that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved an application to continue surveillance of Page, sources told The New York Times.
The memo alleges that the FBI and Justice Department did not adequately explain to a judge that they were relying partly on research by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele when they sought to renew a FISA warrant for surveillance of Page. Steele was the author of the highly controversial Russia dossier, which alleged that Russia had been cultivating Some rich asshole for years.
Many of the allegations in the dossier remain unproven one year after its publication.
Some sources said the Republican memo, spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, could be used to attack Rosenstein for allegedly renewing the warrant to spy on Page without having properly vetted the information in the application. The memo allegedly claims that the FBI abused FISA surveillance law by using the dossier.
Some rich asshole has reportedly been unhappy with Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Some rich asshole campaign collaborated with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential campaign. Some reports suggest that Some rich asshole would like Rosenstein to be fired.
The Republican memo and a Democratic memo responding to it both remain highly secret, and it is unclear if any of the Republican complaints about Rosenstein or the Justice Department carry weight. The White House is reportedly pressuring for the memo to be made public, while some Democrats counter that the Justice Department should be consulted before a memo based on classified information is released publicly. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote this week on whether to release the memo.


Declassify the memo. Declassify the Carter Page FISA application. Let’s stop with all the silly speculation and just get the straight truth.



Page, an oil industry consultant and former investment banker, worked as a foreign policy adviser for the Some rich asshole campaign during the 2016 presidential election. He has longstanding ties to Russia, and the Steele dossier claims that Page had met with representatives of the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft during the time he worked for Some rich asshole.
Page also traveled to Russia during the 2016 campaign, though he said it was in a personal capacity only.









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