White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally seemed to reach a breaking point Tuesday when it comes to questions about President Trump and Russia.
Spicer got testy in an exchange with American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan after Ryan announced a premise that Spicer disagreed with: that the White House has a Russia issue to deal with. By the end, Spicer accused Ryan of pushing her own agenda and even instructed her not to shake her head at him.
“No, we don’t have that,” Spicer said when Ryan cited the White House’s Russia issue. When Ryan continued with her question, he cut in again: “No, no. I get it. But I’ve said it from the day that I got here until whenever that there’s not a connection. You’ve got Russia.”
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Climate protections: Shame! Shame! Shame on Trump!
President Trump will take the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record Tuesday, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions.
The sweeping executive order also seeks to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing and remove the requirement that federal officials consider the impact of climate change when making decisions.
Rep. Nunes needs to go!
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee acknowledged Monday that he had made a secret visit to the White House last week to view intelligence files he then cited as proof of potentially improper spying activity against President Trump, casting new doubt on the independence of a congressional investigation into Russian election interference.
The admission by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) triggered calls among Democrats for his removal as chairman of the House panel and bipartisan appeals for an independent probe of Kremlin meddling in the 2016 election and potential connections between Russia and Trump associates.
The committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), called late Monday for Nunes to “recuse himself from any further involvement in the Russia investigation” and all “oversight matters pertaining to any incidental collection of the Trump transition,” noting Nunes was a member of Trump’s transition team.
Trump doesn’t know what he doesn’t know
Trump needs to surround himself with experts. He needs to stop dumbing down the the office of the presidency. He is just an embarrassment.
Trump, know what you don’t know and fire your blogger, Steve Bannon. Hire the folks who know Washington and how it works.
Maureen Down just eviscerated you.
RPV Chairman rebukes Corey Stewart for racialist slurs
RPV Chairman John Whitbeck issued a release this afternoon condemning PWC Chairman Corey Stewart’s racialist slur.
From the press statement:
The term “cuckservative” is racist and its use is not acceptable in political discourse under any circumstance. I condemn the use of the term unequivocally and without exception. No Republican should ever use this type of language in a campaign.
Would someone please tell me what a “cuckservative” is.
The Jeffersoniad has an article explaining the situation. I am not sure I understand a bit better. This must be Republican-speak.
The Jeffersoniad also reprinted what Corey originally said and also a few of his more vulgar remarks.
Supposedly Prince William County leaders have called for his resignation.
Why does Corey insist on embarrassing us all here in Prince William County? I was embarrassed by his antics in Charlottesville also.
Meanwhile, good for responsible Republicans for calling Corey out. I feel their pain.
The mystery deepens….
House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes went to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to personally brief President Trump about intelligence he says he has seen regarding surveillance of foreign nationals during the presidential transition.
The surveillance could have inadvertently picked up the president or members of his transition team, the chairman said.
“What I’ve read seems to me to be some level of surveillance activity, perhaps legal. I don’t know that it’s right,” Nunes said to reporters outside the White House. “I don’t know that the American people would be comfortable with what I’ve read.”
“The president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there,” Nunes added. “I think the president is concerned, and he should be.”
President Trump was asked if he felt vindicated after Nunes’s visit in his claims that he was wiretapped during the campaign at his Trump Tower headquarters by President Obama’s administration. That claim has been roundly rejected by members of the intelligence community, including FBI Director James B. Comey and even Nunes himself, who again rejected the wiretapping allegation on Wednesday outside of the White House.
Nunes’ behavior seems unprecedented Is it his place to go call on the President to alert him to irregularities? Why didn’t someone from the FBI, CIA, or NSA go inform the President if it was appropriate? Why is a congressman doing this?
Furthermore, what the hell is he talking about? I listened to his press conference and it sounded like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. What intelligence reports? Why aren’t the FBI and NSA aware of these reports?
I smell a huge, giant rat, once again. It sounds like Nunes is providing one big cover-up. Surely not. Maybe he just wanted to be on TV. His press conference told me nothing.
Trump: I’m gonna come after you!
President Donald Trump didn’t have to issue his threat seriously — “I’m gonna come after you,” he said jokingly to a ringleader of House GOP hardliners opposing his health care bill — to be taken seriously by the 200 Republicans gathered in the Capitol basement.
For a president with a penchant for vengeance – who named “an eye for an eye” as his favorite biblical passage, who banned media outlets from campaign events when he didn’t approve of their coverage, who ousted a GOP state chairman after the election whom he viewed as disloyal, who reminded a GOP governor just last week who didn’t endorse him that “I never forget” – the roll call vote on the Republican health care plan, expected Thursday, will be the first accounting of who’s with him and who’s against him on Capitol Hill.
Those close to Trump describe his largely binary world view: you’re either on Team Trump or against Team Trump. “Get even with people,” Trump outlined his philosophy in a 2011 speech. “If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.”
The president may be ideologically flexible, even to the point of disinterest, on the particulars of the health care legislation. But Trump’s been clear and consistent about one message: He wants it done.
David Leonhart: All the president’s lies
The director, the very complicated James Comey, didn’t use the L-word in his congressional testimony Monday. Comey serves at the pleasure of the president, after all. But his meaning was clear as could be. Trump has repeatedly accused Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, and Comey explained there is “no information that supports” the claim.
I’ve previously argued that not every untruth deserves to be branded with the L-word, because it implies intent and somebody can state an untruth without doing so knowingly. George W. Bush didn’t lie when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and Obama didn’t lie when he said people who liked their current health insurance could keep it. They made careless statements that proved false (and they deserved much of the criticism they got).
But the current president of the United States lies. He lies in ways that no American politician ever has before. He has lied about — among many other things — Obama’s birthplace, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.
He tells so many untruths that it’s time to leave behind the textual parsing over which are unwitting and which are deliberate — as well as the condescending notion that most of Trump’s supporters enjoy his lies.
Trump sets out to deceive people. As he has put it, “I play to people’s fantasies.”
Open Thread…………January/February/March 2017
Winter is a good time to be outside. If you are in the woods, you can really see woods! If you are at the Battlefield, you can really see some gorgeous sunsets. Some are great, some not so much but it gets me out of the house and moving about.
I am hanging out in a different place now, at least every other day. I am hanging out at the Vint Hill Dog Park.
What a great place it is. It is privately owned and supported for the public. It beats PWC’s dog parks all to hell. There aren’t any public ones on this end of the county. I like it better than Fairfax County dog parks also. It is a huge park and there are always lots of dogs there. They provide water, bowls, toys, blast horns (in the event of dog fights), pet waste bags, and of course, the big and the little pen.
I have truly gone to the dogs, at least a couple days a week. If you want to give your dog a little exercise and socialization, try a dog park!
Meanwhile, let’s hear it for sunsets!
Is Big Bird out of a job?
How many kids grew up on Sesame Street and all its characters? How many of us watched Downton Abbey religiously? How many of us record American Experience and learn about our past?
Cutting funding for PBS could very well eliminate those programs. Good grief, many kids have learned to read and count because of children’s programing. Public television is particularly important in rural areas were there is no internet. Those families don’t get HBO, Netflix or Amazon Prime. They do get public television though because it can go right to an antenna.
Then there is the Meals-on-Wheels Scandal. The federal government kicks in 35% of the funding for MoW. MoW feeds many elderly and disabled people who otherwise might go hungry. A spokesman said that this administration saw no visible signs that the program worked. What are they talking about? What measurable signs are there?
This administration is a national disgrace on so many levels. Meals-on-Wheels and Big Bird are just a few examples.
Gillespie trumps Stewart handily
From Corey Stewart’s Twitter account:
Corey Stewart
✔@CoreyStewartVA
I won in PWC 4 elections in a row – hundreds of thousands of votes. #EstablishmentEd has never won an election. Easy to buy a straw poll.10:03 PM – 4 Mar 2017 · Virginia, USA
AND
#EstablishmentEd bused in his high dollar Fairfax supporters for the PWC Lincoln Dinner. Tickets were $85 a piece. #Rigged
A president with no self-control….
Is this the only way that the boy president can control himself? Donald Trump is making this country a laughing stock.
Hopefully some of you all who voted for him will figure out how to make him stop lying and start governing. Donald J. Trump needs to be impeached and removed from office.
Sorry for so few posts. There really is just nothing to say.
