This morning, I’m feeling so disgusted with our loathsome “president” that I can barely bring myself to read the news or turn on the TV. Will we ever be rid of this egotistical monster?
Yesterday former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper came right out and called Trump a Kremlin asset on national TV and almost no one is talking about it. Clapper was discussed the recent friendly phone calls between Trump and Vladimir Putin. Kevin Liptak reports at CNN:
“I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with the President,” said James Clapper, the director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
“You have to remember Putin’s background. He’s a KGB officer. That’s what they do. They recruit assets,” Clapper added. “And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him.”
In response to a question, Clapper maintained that he was “speaking figuratively,” but it was obvious he meant what he was saying. Please watch the video and tell me Clapper wasn’t actually speaking literally.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: Vladimir Putin "knows how to handle an asset and that's what he's doing with the President" https://t.co/1bOnWU9hVI
Clapper, a retired Air Force three-star general, is widely respected in national security circles, across partisan lines, as a guy who knows his stuff and focuses on the job. Naturally, he’s exceptionally discreet as well.
That changed yesterday, when Clapper went on CNN to drop an unimaginably large bombshell on President Donald Trump. Since the inauguration in January, Clapper has made a few critical comments regarding the president and his strange ties to Moscow, but these have been largely anodyne. Clapper began showing his hand in September, with a comment that the IC assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election raised questions about why Trump was in the White House: it “cast doubt on the legitimacy of his victory in the election,” he stated.
Andrea Zampatti won the Land category with a photograph of a dormouse
At the end of October, in an interview with Politico, Clapper added more about Kremlin interference in the 2016 election: “The Russians have succeeded, I believe, beyond their wildest expectations.” Clapper dismissed President Trump’s repeated attacks on the investigation of his Moscow links as “fake news” with a warning that the Russians “have been emboldened and they will continue to do this.”
On Clapper’s claim that he was speaking figuratively, Schindler writes:
When pressed about what exactly he was saying, Clapper explained that he meant his words “figuratively,” but that barely mitigates the shock value of what he said. To be perfectly clear: America’s most experienced spy boss publicly termed our president an asset—that is, a witting agent—of the Kremlin who is being controlled by Vladimir Putin. Even if meant only “figuratively,” this is the most jaw-dropping statement ever uttered about any American president by any serious commentator.
Besides, there’s not much difference between literally and figuratively when we’re talking about the inhabitant of the Oval Office. If the American president is being controlled or unduly influenced by a country that’s hostile to us, that’s a big deal….
It needs to be stated that Jim Clapper’s words, while shocking to the public, are utterly uncontroversial in American intelligence circles (or with our spy partners worldwide, for that matter). In our Intelligence Community, it’s widely understood that Donald Trump possesses longstanding ties to the Kremlin which are at best suspect and at worst reflective of an unsettling degree of Russian influence over our commander-in-chief.
Click on the link above to read the rest at The Observer.
Daisy Gilardini photographed a polar bear clinging on to its mother
Trump even bragged about his most recent call with Putin during his “national security strategy” speech yesterday. That was the apparent highlight of the speech for Trump, since he doesn’t seem to have read (or even agree with) the 55-page document the speech was supposed to be based on. Peter Beinart at The Atlantic:
If you oppose Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy, take heart. Apparently, he does too.
Fifteen minutes into his speech unveiling the strategy on Tuesday, Trump butchered it in a revealing way. In its fourth paragraph, the strategy declares that the Trump administration will pursue a “strategy of principled realism.” But Trump mangled the phrase, declaring instead that, “Our new strategy is based on a principle, realism.”
Although likely unintentional, Trump’s goof was telling. “Principled realism” probably appeals to Trump’s establishment-minded foreign-policy advisers because it adds a moral patina to America First. That ethical gloss is necessary because one of the National Security Strategy’s main themes is that Trump—unlike his predecessors—recognizes that the United States faces a new era of great-power rivalry with Russia and China. It paints this looming competition in intensely moralistic terms. America’s battles with China and Russia, the strategy announces, are “contests between those who value human dignity and freedom and those who oppress individuals and enforce uniformity.” Thus the importance of the adjective “principled.” It suggests that Trump’s sovereignty-obsessed nationalism—unlike the versions peddled by Moscow and Beijing—aims to create not simply a richer America, but a freer world.
This depiction of a globe divided along ideological lines—between white-hatted American democrats and black-hatted Russian and Chinese authoritarians—sounds more like John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Marco Rubio than Donald Trump. Which may be why Trump largely abandoned it in his speech.
George Cathcart was highly commended for his photo entitled WTF
In a stunning but not all that surprising admission on Monday, a White House official said that he wasn’t sure if Donald Trump has read the administration’s new national security strategy.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump national security spokesman Michael Anton said he “can’t say” whether the commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military has read the 55-page document, which was released Monday.
After Blitzer asked whether Trump himself “read the entire strategy document,” Cohen said:
The president has been involved in the drafting of it from the beginning, has been presented with sections of it over the past many months and was briefed on the final document several weeks ago. The president himself personally led the presentation of the document to his Cabinet only about a week ago. … I can’t say that he’s read every line and every word. He’s certainly had the document, the entire, throughout the process and has been briefed on it. And remember, this document specifically is based on his words, it’s based on his campaign speeches and his major speeches this year. So this document is a summation of everything he’s been talking about for at least the past two years and really much longer.
The “president” is a complete joke, and everyone knows it. The Republicans in Congress are even using his ignorance and corruption to pass the worst tax cut bill in the history of our dying country. I think they’re doing it because they know they’re going to lose their seats soon, and they want to pillage as much loot as they can for their upcoming retirements. Supposedly the House will vote on the bill today and it may get to the “president’s” desk before the weekend.
Carl Henry’s was highly commended for his photo entitled All Dressed And Ready For Church
By 2027, more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — would pay more in taxes under the tax bill agreed to by House and Senate Republicans, a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center finds. That year, 82.8 percent of the bill’s benefit would go to the top 1 percent, up from 62.1 under the Senate bill.
And even in the first years of the bill’s implementation, when it’s an across-the-board tax cut, the benefits of the law would be heavily concentrated among the upper-middle and upper-class Americans, with nearly two-thirds of the benefit going to the richest fifth of Americans in 2018….
The paper is the first rigorous analysis of who wins and loses under the bill as agreed to in conference committee. House and Senate negotiators agreed to a number of changes in the bill, most notably lowering the top income tax rate for individuals to 37 percent from its current level of 39.6 percent. The analysis does not include an additional cost of the legislation: its repeal of the individual mandate, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could cause as many as 13 million fewer people to have health insurance, reducing federal spending for poor and middle-class Americans’ health insurance by $338 billion over 10 years. That worsens the bill’s distribution for the poor and middle class.
Jean-Jacques Alcalay captured the moment it looked as though a wildebeest was riding on the back of its companions
To understand the cynicism and mendacity underlying the Republican tax bill, look no further than a provision that would benefit President Trump and other property tycoons that is in the final legislation Congress is expected to vote on this week.
The provision would allow people who make money from real estate to take a 20 percent deduction on income they earn through limited liability companies, partnerships and other so-called pass-through entities that do not pay the corporate tax. The beneficiaries would also include members of Congress like Senator Bob Corker, who last week decided he would vote for the bill even though Republican leaders did nothing to address his concerns about an exploding federal deficit.
The biggest winners would be people like Mr. Trump, his family and similarly advantaged developers who make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars every year on swanky office towers and luxurious apartment buildings. An earlier version of the bill passed by the Senate provided a 23 percent deduction but put limits on its use that would prevent wealthy developers from profiting from it. The House version would simply have reduced the rate at which pass-through income is taxed.
Republican leaders and Mr. Corker, who owns a real estate partnership in Tennessee, say the new loophole was not put in place to win over his vote. Mr. Corker has become more important because his party can afford to lose only two votes, and Senator John McCain will be absent because of the aftereffects from his cancer treatment.
Of course no one believes Corker, who has obviously decided to burn his reputation in return for millions of dollars in graft.
As for Mr. Trump, he has been going around saying the tax bill would “cost me a fortune” and his accountants “are going crazy now.” This claim has always been “fake news.” But with the new loophole it has become even more nonsensical. Having done nothing to drain the Washington swamp, the president now luxuriates in its warm waters.
If that doesn’t turn voters’ stomachs, I don’t know what will.
I’ll leave you with this excerpt from an op-ed by Sally Yates, who was fired by Trump supposedly because she refused to defend his Muslim ban, but really because she outed Michael Flynn as another Kremlin asset. USA Today: Who are we as a country? Time to decide: Sally Yates.
Olivier Colle spotted a hare munching on grass
Despite our differences, we as Americans have long held a shared vision of what our country means and what values we expect our leaders to embrace. Today, our continued commitment to these unifying principles is needed more than ever.
What are the values that unite us? You don’t have to look much further than the Preamble to our Constitution, just 52 words, to find them:
“We the people of the United States” (we are a democratic republic, not a dictatorship) “in order to form a more perfect union” (we are a work in progress dedicated to a noble pursuit) “establish justice” (we revere justice as the cornerstone of our democracy) “insure domestic tranquility” (we prize unity and peace, not divisiveness and discord), “provide for the common defense” (we should never give any foreign adversary reason to question our solidarity) “promote the general welfare” (we care about one another; compassion and decency matter) “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (we have a responsibility to protect not just our own generation, but future ones as well).
Our forefathers packed a lot into that single sentence. Our Bill of Rights is similarly succinct in guaranteeing individual liberties — rights that we have come to take for granted but without vigilance can erode and slip away, such as freedom of speech (our right to protest and be heard); freedom of religion (the essential separation between how one worships and the power of the state); and freedom of the press (a democratic institution essential to informing the public and holding our leaders accountable).
Our shared values include another essential principle, and that’s the rule of law — the promise that the law applies equally to everyone, that no person is above it, and that all are entitled to its protection. This concept of equal protection recognizes that our country’s strength comes from honoring, not weaponizing, the diversity that springs from being a nation of Native Americans and immigrants of different races, religions and nationalities.
The rule of law depends not only on things that are written down, but also on important traditions and norms, such as apolitical law enforcement. That’s why Democratic and Republican administrations alike, at least since Watergate, have honored that the rule of law requires a strict separation between the Justice Department and the White House on criminal cases and investigations. This wall of separation is what ensures the public can have confidence that the criminal process is not being used as a sword to go after one’s political enemies or as a shield to protect those in power. It’s what separates us from an autocracy.
Please go read the whole thing.
What else is happening? What stories are you following today?
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A grand HUD giveaway has got to figure in the real estate deal somehow.
NW Luna
So the rich have “pass-thru” companies which pay no tax, and then there’s only 20% tax on income from the pass-thrus. Meanwhile, we peons pay more. America, the land of opportunity! Riiiight.
Fannie
You mean they are going to destroy the projects and sell it to the richest white men?
The projects have been coming down since the nineties. Folks decided they concentrated, poverty, race, etc. Nowdays they more interested in Section 8 Housing, where individual homes and apt. units are contracted. Blackstone is one of the largest, if not the largest real estate asset managers, with lots of deversified companies. One of their largest is Blackstone, and oh yes, they have Section 8 apts everywhere.
NW Luna
Yates’ writing is eloquent.
The president* has a grade-school vocabulary (and brain). Of course he hasn’t read anything that’s 50 pages long. He won’t even read something that’s 5 paragraphs long. And to think that I thought Bush was bad!
bostonboomer
Bush looks like Einstein compared to Trump.
Fannie
Hahahah…………….Wish Yates would run for President.
NW Luna
The National Transportation Safety Board says the train that derailed Monday as it made its way from Seattle to Portland was going more that twice the posted speed limit when it jumped the tracks on a bridge over a busy interstate highway.
…
NTSB officials said that investigators have not yet spoken with the train crew and they were uncertain whether the crew was familiar with the speed limits in the zone. The train was making its inaugural run on a 14.5 mile stretch of recently refurbished track.
Fannie
Really, what the hell is going on with these speed freaks.
That vote will be certified with or with him in less than a week.
Pat Johnson
This nation is in serious trouble with this idiot in charge. Along with his greedier than ever congress this nation is headed for some bad times.
This nut job has done nothing but dismantle the Obama administration’s efforts to bring some quality to our lives. But because of some personal vendetta all we have seen is an effort to obliterate Obama’s legacy out of spite.
This man is insane. Inept, uncomprehending, ignorant and petty. And the majority party is complicit in all this wrong doing. A party focused on donors. A party without principle. A party of ignoramuses who deny facts.
They are all puppets of the Russian Puppet Master. All in collusion with that agenda. All more than willing to look the other way while this moron tears apart the fabric of this nation unhampered by law.
Not great holiday cheer this year. It mirrors the last when he was declared the winner. But now our forebodings have come to fruition.
All we can do is hold on. And even that is not enough.
Fannie
YUP, well said, well said.
Enheduanna
I don’t know if Sally Yates would make a good politician, but I’d vote for her.
Fannie
Mercy yes.
NW Luna
In a heartbeat!
Catscatscats
I love her too but in my dream world she is Hillary’s AG…
Public opposition to tax bill grows as vote approaches
Opposition to the bill has grown 10 points since early November, and 55% now oppose it. Just 33% say they favor the GOP’s proposals to reform the nation’s tax code.
Fannie
Money, Power, and taking us back to the dark ages.
bostonboomer
Hahahahaha!!
The House has to vote on the tax bill again tomorrow, because they put some things in it that are against Senate rules. These doofuses can’t even loot the government competently.
Paul Ryan probably was too busy peeing his pants with Randian glee. His dream of denying every one else what it took to get him anywhere is finally going down.
Fannie
Thanks BB for sharing much needed information. I’m sharing it. About Trump reading the 55 pages on National Security, hell, he can’t even read the teleprompter, much less the republican security policies. And speaking of fuck ups……..the house has to revote on the tax bill tomorrow, because they can’t read the lobbyist bill, and don’t know what the hell is in it, and so they didn’t follow proper procedure. Can you believe that? Can you?
This:
“I’m feeling so disgusted with our loathsome “president” that I can barely bring myself to read the news or turn on the TV. Will we ever be rid of this egotistical monster?”
Is so true and so much of what I am feeling too.
Nice post B.B. , I thought it was Wednesday and was going into the site to start the cartoon post when I saw that you were working on this thread…even now it still feels like a Wednesday.
I had to go look that seen up. It would have bothered me all night.
Loved the animals, when I read this in my phone, I thought the polar bear was facing ass to the camera. It wasn’t until I read the caption that I saw it was a baby cub.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the Boston archbishop who became one of the most influential Catholic leaders in the United States before resigning in 2002 amid revelations that he and other prelates had known for years of rampant child molestation by parish priests, a scandal that has been called the church’s darkest crisis of the modern era, has died at 86.
… then-Massachusetts attorney general Thomas F. Reilly concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the Boston archdiocese or its leaders. But his office released a report on the matter, declaring that “the mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable.”
bostonboomer
Yup. I celebrated yesterday when I heard he was dead. He should have been prosecuted.
How to Make Lawmakers Rue the Day They Voted for This Scam of a Tax Bill
We can use this bill as a catalyst for the next wave of tax-fairness and economic-justice organizing.
Comments
59 responses to “Tuesday Reads: The Kremlin Asset In the White House”
Hang in there, Sky Dancers! We will get through this somehow.
Stronger together and onward!
BB, I am enjoying the photographs you chose for this post. I can’t decide whether the hare, the dormouse, or the owlet are the cutest.
Aren’t they great?
I hope that the fox was on one of Trump’s golf courses! 🙂
I loved all of those pictures – thanks for the link, BB!
Haha! I hope so too.
That was my favorite and that was also the first thing I thought when I saw the photo!
Thanks. I just happened to come across them on Twitter.
Love the polar bear and baby.
A grand HUD giveaway has got to figure in the real estate deal somehow.
So the rich have “pass-thru” companies which pay no tax, and then there’s only 20% tax on income from the pass-thrus. Meanwhile, we peons pay more. America, the land of opportunity! Riiiight.
You mean they are going to destroy the projects and sell it to the richest white men?
The projects have been coming down since the nineties. Folks decided they concentrated, poverty, race, etc. Nowdays they more interested in Section 8 Housing, where individual homes and apt. units are contracted. Blackstone is one of the largest, if not the largest real estate asset managers, with lots of deversified companies. One of their largest is Blackstone, and oh yes, they have Section 8 apts everywhere.
Yates’ writing is eloquent.
The president* has a grade-school vocabulary (and brain). Of course he hasn’t read anything that’s 50 pages long. He won’t even read something that’s 5 paragraphs long. And to think that I thought Bush was bad!
Bush looks like Einstein compared to Trump.
Hahahah…………….Wish Yates would run for President.
Really, what the hell is going on with these speed freaks.
In keeping with the Wildlife Comedy theme….
https://twitter.com/Jamie_Woodward_/status/943021196056068096
Too adorable!
Hey Luna! Here’s some Red Pandas playing in snow my brother-in-law sent me (after I sent him this one – hahahaha):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSehQsYU9h4
Like little Ewoks running around!
That panda is having a blast! So cute.
Because of course.
https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/943146996575227904
The Huckabees fall in to this category as well.
That vote will be certified with or with him in less than a week.
This nation is in serious trouble with this idiot in charge. Along with his greedier than ever congress this nation is headed for some bad times.
This nut job has done nothing but dismantle the Obama administration’s efforts to bring some quality to our lives. But because of some personal vendetta all we have seen is an effort to obliterate Obama’s legacy out of spite.
This man is insane. Inept, uncomprehending, ignorant and petty. And the majority party is complicit in all this wrong doing. A party focused on donors. A party without principle. A party of ignoramuses who deny facts.
They are all puppets of the Russian Puppet Master. All in collusion with that agenda. All more than willing to look the other way while this moron tears apart the fabric of this nation unhampered by law.
Not great holiday cheer this year. It mirrors the last when he was declared the winner. But now our forebodings have come to fruition.
All we can do is hold on. And even that is not enough.
YUP, well said, well said.
I don’t know if Sally Yates would make a good politician, but I’d vote for her.
Mercy yes.
In a heartbeat!
I love her too but in my dream world she is Hillary’s AG…
Bringing this up
https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/943113706447261696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fskydancingblog.com%2F2017%2F12%2F18%2Fmonday-foggy-day-reads%2F9
I am going nuts reading it, can’t handle it. The word “looting” hits home.
https://twitter.com/jenlarino/status/943215346126852096
LOLOL I wonder if it will grow into those ears!!
Awwwww. . .
Wow, that is something to see.
Why are Rethugs sticking with this doofus?
Poll: Trump’s approval rating hits historic low of 35 percent
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/19/poll-trump-approval-ratings-304742
and they obviously are more afraid of donors than their voters:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/19/politics/cnn-poll-tax-bill-opposition-grows/
Public opposition to tax bill grows as vote approaches
Money, Power, and taking us back to the dark ages.
Hahahahaha!!
The House has to vote on the tax bill again tomorrow, because they put some things in it that are against Senate rules. These doofuses can’t even loot the government competently.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/19/congress-tax-bill-votes-304908
Yeah, I can smell the urine starting to flow again. Hahahaha.
Paul Ryan probably was too busy peeing his pants with Randian glee. His dream of denying every one else what it took to get him anywhere is finally going down.
Thanks BB for sharing much needed information. I’m sharing it. About Trump reading the 55 pages on National Security, hell, he can’t even read the teleprompter, much less the republican security policies. And speaking of fuck ups……..the house has to revote on the tax bill tomorrow, because they can’t read the lobbyist bill, and don’t know what the hell is in it, and so they didn’t follow proper procedure. Can you believe that? Can you?
This:
“I’m feeling so disgusted with our loathsome “president” that I can barely bring myself to read the news or turn on the TV. Will we ever be rid of this egotistical monster?”
Is so true and so much of what I am feeling too.
Nice post B.B. , I thought it was Wednesday and was going into the site to start the cartoon post when I saw that you were working on this thread…even now it still feels like a Wednesday.
I had to go look that seen up. It would have bothered me all night.
Loved the animals, when I read this in my phone, I thought the polar bear was facing ass to the camera. It wasn’t until I read the caption that I saw it was a baby cub.
Shit. I meant scene.
https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/943238145583321088
Children are going to die
https://twitter.com/SenAngusKing/status/943293141607702528
We could fund CHIP for 900+ years with the trillion $ spent on the Rethug’s tax scam.
WTAF? If this doesn’t sound like a dictator I don’t know what does.
https://twitter.com/michellenichols/status/943282165898412037
Wow. That’s disgusting.
Actually, that would make me WANT to vote against “us.”
*crying*
https://twitter.com/SenatorCantwell/status/943343956938465280
OMG
My heart breaks.
This patriarchal, misogynist, child-assaulting, church “leader” facilitated institutionalized predation.
Yup. I celebrated yesterday when I heard he was dead. He should have been prosecuted.
How to Make Lawmakers Rue the Day They Voted for This Scam of a Tax Bill
We can use this bill as a catalyst for the next wave of tax-fairness and economic-justice organizing.
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-to-make-lawmakers-rue-the-day-the-voted-for-this-scam-of-a-tax-bill/