Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower reveals that Stephen Bannon was testing phrases like "drain the swamp" and pushing a pro-Putin narrative years before he joined the Trump campaign.

Chris Wylie

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Conservative strategist Stephen K. Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters, a former employee of the data-science firm said Tuesday. 

The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year. 

Among the messages tested were “drain the swamp” and “deep state,” he said.

According to Wylie, Bannon was the big boss and everything had to go through him.

And get this: 

The data and analyses that Cambridge Analytica generated in this time provided discoveries that would later form the emotionally charged core of Trump’s presidential platform, said Wylie, whose disclosures in news reports over the past several days have rocked both his onetime employer and Facebook. 

“Trump wasn’t in our consciousness at that moment; this was well before he became a thing,” Wylie said. “He wasn’t a client or anything.” 

The year before Trump announced his presidential bid, the data firm already had found a high level of alienation among young, white Americans with a conservative bent. 

In focus groups arranged to test messages for the 2014 midterms, these voters responded to calls for building a new wall to block the entry of illegal immigrants, to reforms intended to “drain the swamp” of Washington’s entrenched political community and to thinly veiled forms of racism toward African Americans called “race realism,” he recounted.

Besides the Trump catchphrases that Bannon was testing out in 2014, there was also this startling revelation: 

“The only foreign thing we tested was Putin,” he said. “It turns out, there’s a lot of Americans who really like this idea of a really strong authoritarian leader and people were quite defensive in focus groups of Putin’s invasion of Crimea.”

Now look I am really fighting the urge to put on my conspiracy theory tinfoil hat here, but there is no way to categorize this as a string of coincidences. 

It really sounds like there was an anti-immigrant, racist, pro-Putin platform all ready to go and all they needed was a figurehead to be the face of the campaign.

Cue Donald J. Trump.

Or, and this is only a little less conspiratorial, since Bannon met Trump way back in 2010, perhaps all of this was tested with him in mind, and he has literally been planning his campaign since at least 2014 or 2013.

Whatever the truth behind this is, what cannot be refuted is that people essentially voted for a Steven Bannon in Trump clothing.

Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House. Again.

Let's be best friends. You can even come for a sleep over.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

U.S. President Donald Trump invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the United States during a phone call, and said he would be glad to see Putin in the White House, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying Trump returned to the subject of an invitation a couple of times during a call last month and that Russia was now expecting Trump to formalize the invitation. 

“We proceed from the fact that the U.S. president in a telephone conversation...made such an invitation, said he would be glad to see (Putin) in the White House, would then be glad to meet on a reciprocal visit,” said Lavrov, according to a transcript of an interview with RIA on the foreign ministry website. 

“He returned to this topic a couple of times, so we let our American colleagues know that we do not want to impose, but we also do not want to be impolite, and that considering that President Trump made this proposal, we proceed from the position that he will make it concrete.”

Well so much for Trump suddenly getting tough on Putin.

You may remember that trump made this same offer almost exactly a month ago, and for all we know he has made it several times in between.

Of course since then there have been more cyber attacks from Russia, and of course this whole Syria airstrike Kabuki performance.

Let's simply point out once again that Trump is Putin's bitch, and he proves it almost every single day.

Russia warned the US where they could not bomb in Syria, and the US did not bomb in those locations.

Courtesy of Sky News:  

Russia has revealed it warned the US about "red lines" it should not cross before it launched airstrikes on Syria. 

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is reported to have said that officials in Washington were contacted before last weekend's strikes by the US, UK and France. 

Mr Lavrov said: "There were military leadership contacts, between generals, between our representatives and the coalition leadership. 

"They were informed about where our red lines are, including red lines on the ground, geographically. And the results show that they did not cross these red lines."

Keep in mind that Trump also warned Russia and Syria a few days before the actual airstrike, so that they could move the chemicals and anything of value out of the targeted areas.

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

But even with Trump obeying those orders from his Kremlin overlords, Russia still feels that after this strike they are now free to support Syria, and Bashir al-Assad, with impunity:

Mr Lavrov says that, following the airstrikes, it is morally free to deliver S-300 missiles to the Syrian regime. 

He said: "Now, we have no moral obligations. We had the moral obligations, we had promised not to do it some 10 years ago, I think, upon the request of our known partners. 

"We took into consideration their claim that this could destabilise the situation. Even though it's purely defensive. Now we don't have this moral obligation any longer."

So to be clear, the Kremlin told Trump where he could and could not drop his bombs, he did not drop his bombs in the forbidden areas, and yet the Russians still feel empowered by the airstrike to provide Assad with more military weaponry.

Does anybody else feel that America got played here?

Donald Trump hits the brakes on implementing those new Russia sanctions.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.” 

Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley had said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. 

But Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.

Aw, is Trumpy wumpy a worried that the sanctions will anger his buddy Pooty Wooty, and they can't be best buddies anymore?

It was also reported that Trump threw a giant tantrum after learning that we had kicked out more Russians than the Europeans kicked out.

Also courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies. 

The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil. 

“We’ll match their numbers,” Trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.” 

The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials — far fewer than the 60 his administration had decided on. 

The president, who seemed to believe that other individual countries would largely equal the United States, was furious that his administration was being portrayed in the media as taking by far the toughest stance on Russia.

Remember how those folks were saying that Trump's aggressive tweets at Vladimir Putin over Syria, and his administrations new tougher stance, all proved that Trump was not actually Pootie's butt boy?

Yeah, they might have wanted to wait a beat or two before saying that. 

Looks to me as if Putin still has a pretty tight grip on Trump's ball sack.

What the hell happened to Ed Schultz?

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Speaking this week in a National Review podcast, hosted by Jamie Weinstein and published Friday, the TV host refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin for his troubling human-rights record, instead declaring that Putin is “viewed as a progressive Democrat” by the Russian people. 

When confronted with his own past comments acknowledging Putin had a “nasty human rights record,” Schultz focused on the “tremendous friction” between the U.S. and Russia, and claimed that his previous remarks about Putin “might have been overboard.” 

“Does he have a nasty human rights record?” Weinstein pressed further. “I think the United States has a nasty human-rights record,” Schultz replied. 

“I do think that every super power on the globe has a very poor record on human rights.” 

While his former home MSNBC has hit ratings gold—due, in part, to its extensive coverage of the ongoing probe into Russian ties to the Trump campaign—the famously bombastic progressive Schultz has gone in the opposite direction since departing the network in 2015. 

As The New Republic noted in 2017, since joining Russia’s state-owned television network, Schultz has repeatedly praised Trump’s political acumen while downplaying accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Schultz also brushed off Russia's annexation of Crimea, and defended Vladimir Putin as working to improve Russia.

Yeah, apparently by robbing the country blind, and subjugating it's people.

True confession time, Ed Schultz was NEVER among my favorite MSNBC hosts.

In fact I typically skipped his show, and when I was invited to meet him when he came up here I said I couldn't cause I was washing my hair.

But still I thought that he had some integrity, with his whole defend the middle class shtick.

But now that looks like it was all bullshit.

Hey I understand having to make a living (I've done some shit to make money that we are not going to discuss here.), but to completely sell out like this is pathetic.

At least when Keith Olbermann left MSNBC he managed to maintain his ideological credibility. 

Donald Trump finally attacks Vladimir Putin by name over Syria gas attack.

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

I have been wondering if there was anything that could happen that would cause Trump to pull his lips off Putin's ass and use them to criticize him.

As it turns out dozens of dead and dying Syrian children was simply too much.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus, and aid groups on Sunday blamed President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the assault. 

The attack after dusk on Saturday sent a stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems to clinics, medical and rescue groups said. Western governments expressed alarm at the attack, with the British Foreign Office calling for an urgent investigation and saying that if the use of chemical weapons proved to be true, “it is further proof of Assad’s brutality.”

I guess this is to be expected once Trump announced that he was removing American troops.

Assad now has carte blanche to punish his people any way that he sees fit, and Putin will not do a thing to stop him.

Of course Trump could not be counted on to stay on the high road.

If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

Yeah, you have to get those digs in on your political enemies.

It should be pointed out that President Obama TRIED to end Assad's attacks on his people, but he made the unfortunate choice of trusting Vlad:

The so-called “red line” episode in September 2013, when, in a last-minute decision, President Barack Obama called off U.S. air strikes in Syria,1 has continued to shape his legacy. Instead of striking the Syrian government in retaliation for a nerve gas attack near Damascus, Obama took Russian President Vladimir Putin up on an offer to peacefully dismantle the Syrian chemical weapons program and craft a United Nations resolution2 to make sure no gas attacks ever occurred in Syria again. 

Alternately described as one of the former president’s greatest successes or as one of his worst failures, what remains of Obama’s red line deal is now under attack. After a UN-appointed panel determined that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are still using poison gas, albeit at a much more limited scale than before, Putin refused to abide by the September 2013 deal, which promised joint U.S.-Russian efforts in the United Nations to punish all violators.

So if Trump wants to blame somebody for this most recent humanitarian crisis he need look no further than his speed dial.

The question is can he bring himself to do anything more than simply tweet his displeasure?

Donald Trump instructs military leaders to prepare to bring troops home from Syria.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump has instructed military leaders to prepare to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, but has not set a date for them to do so, according to a senior administration official. 

In a meeting with top national security officials Tuesday, Trump stressed that U.S. troops can be involved in current training tasks for local forces to ensure security in areas liberated from the Islamic State, the official said. 

But the president said that the U.S. mission would not extend beyond the destruction of the Islamic State, and that he expects other countries, particularly wealthy Arab states in the region, to pick up the task of paying for reconstruction of stabilized areas, including sending their own troops, if necessary.

Don't get me wrong, I want American troops to be brought home as soon as possible.

However we sent troops there to fight ISIS and to keep Assad from murdering his own people with poison gas.

When Russia entered the fray they started bombing opponents of Assad, as well as civilian targets such as hospitals. (Source.)

The Russians are not there to help the Syrian people, they are there to protect Putin's buddy Assad and help him to oppress the Syrian people.

Once American troops are out of the way, that will be significantly easier.

As I said before, this is Donald Trump openly doing Vladimir Putin's bidding right out in the open, for all the world to see.

Donald Trump wants to pull troops out of Syria, put them on the Mexican border instead.

JUST IN: Trump says he wants to pull US troops out of Syria https://t.co/BMsNpjiaT3 pic.twitter.com/ra63KOOqar

— The Hill (@thehill) April 3, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill:

President Trump on Tuesday signaled that he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, but said no final decision has been made. 

“I want to get out. I want to bring those troops home," Trump said at a news conference with leaders from Baltic states. 

"Seven trillion dollars in the Middle East over the last 17 years, we get nothing out of it … except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing.” 

The president pointed to America's success in combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group in the region, adding that he will consult with his advisers and foreign leaders about the American military presence in the war-torn nation.

Now I think that a lot of us would like to see the troops brought home from overseas, including from Syria.

However keep in mind that Putin has made it known that HE wants the American troops out of the way, so if Trump brings them home rest assured that he is not doing it for the troops or for the American people.

So where DOES Trump want to send the troops?

Funny you should ask.

Courtesy of Politico:

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he intended to deploy troops along the U.S.-Mexico border until a wall was built there, proposing an escalation of efforts to prevent people from entering the country illegally via the southern border. 

The move would ramp up Trump’s battle over immigration, after he has run into hurdles carrying out his campaign-trail promise to build a wall at Mexico’s expense. Most recently, he has been preoccupied by a group of migrants, mostly from Honduras, making their way north through Mexico toward the U.S. 

“We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said on Tuesday during a session at the White House with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. “We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing and, by the way, never showing up for court.”

I'm sorry did I miss the memo?

When did we declare war on Mexico?

Keep in mind that pulling the troops out of Syria would please Trump's puppet master Vladimir Putin to no end, while placing the military on the border to defend America against people wanting to work here will please his xenophobic deplorable base.

In other words Trump is clearly trying to please to different constituencies.

Trump also seems to be getting very sensitive about allegations that he is Putin's bitch.

Trump just told one of his biggest lies ever: “No one has been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump," said Donald Trump. #ImpeachTrump pic.twitter.com/zpr93jUVan

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 3, 2018

"Probably nobody's been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump."

Please, the only person who has been a bigger sycophant to Vladimir Putin is probably the guy who oils him up before he poses for those bare chested magazine covers and calendar pages.

Trump is not even trying to give the appearance that he isn't Putin's butt boy anymore.

So why the fuck is he still in the White House?

Donald Trump invited Vladimir Putin, who is still orchestrating hacks of our power grid, to the White House.

So wen I visit I will take you room. You can have the couch, understood?

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

President Trump has reportedly invited Vladimir Putin to the White House for a visit, according to a statement from the Kremlin. Putin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters Monday that during a March 20 phone conversation, Trump “suggested that the first meeting could be held in Washington” between the two leaders. “If everything goes well, I hope that the American side would not refuse its proposal to discuss the possibility of organizing the summit talks.” According to an Agence France-Presse reporter, a senior U.S. official did “not deny” that Trump “floated the idea of a White House summit,” noting that “no planning has begun as yet.” According to a TASS state media report, Ushakov told journalists that since the U.S. and Russia has expelled their respective diplomats from their countries, “there have been no specific discussions of a possible meeting.” He also said Russia “would like to believe that preparations for such a meeting will begin.” The news follows reports Trump congratulated Putin on his re-election over the phone on that call after his staff told him explicitly not to—as well as a suspected poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil and amid special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. 

I have said this before, but let me say it again, Donald Trump does not work for the American people.

Donald Trump works for the Kremlin.

And and by way of proof do you remember when Trump kicked out those 60 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of that former spy in Britain?

Yeah well that was only for show, because he is allowing all of them to be replaced by new Russian diplomats who will also be spying for the Kremlin.

Like I said, Trump does not work for us. ANY of us.

Donald Trump defends his congratulatory phone call to Putin, while also attacking his predecessors.

I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also). The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing.......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018

.....They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race. Bush tried to get along, but didn’t have the “smarts.” Obama and Clinton tried, but didn’t have the energy or chemistry (remember RESET). PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018

Once again President Obama's call to Putin was at a time BEFORE Russia had interfered in our election, hacked both the RNC and DNC computers, weaponized Facebook, undermined our power grid, and started openly killing people on British soil.

If Obama were the President right now there is NO DOUBT that he would be doing far more than simply excoriating Vladimir Putin.

So why isn't Trump?

Former CIA chief John Brennan has a pretty good idea.

Former CIA chief John Brennan on Trump: "I think he's afraid of the president of Russia." pic.twitter.com/prvUFhimoB

— Axios (@axios) March 21, 2018

Courtesy of CNN:

The former director of the CIA suggested Wednesday that President Donald Trump is withholding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin because the Russians might have compromising personal information on Trump. 

"I think he is afraid of the President of Russia," John Brennan said of Trump in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 

Asked why, Brennan said, "The Russians could have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult."

Bingo!

You should see how the conservatives on Twitter are freaking out over this statement.

I guess it's true what they say, the truth hurts.

So Donald Trump really did call to congratulate Vladimir Putin for stealing another election in Russia. Update!

OMGD! I'm so proud of you! You really put the "dick" in dictator. I wish I was there to kiss your ass in person.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

President Trump on Tuesday congratulated President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his recent re-election victory, but failed to ask him about either the fairness of the Russian vote, which Mr. Putin won with a lopsided margin, or about allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 

Mr. Trump also did not raise Russia’s apparent role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil — an act that prompted the United States to join with Britain, France and Germany in denouncing the Russian government for violating international law. 

Instead, in his phone call with Mr. Putin, the president focused on what the White House called “shared interests,” including North Korea, Ukraine and the escalating arms race between the United States and Russia. He said he and Mr. Putin were likely to meet soon to discuss those issues. 

“We had a very good call,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he was meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. “We will probably be meeting in the not-too distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”

And why is the arms race getting out of control?

Because these two demagogues are in a dick measuring contest.

So just let this steep in your mind for a moment. This president called the man who interfered in our election, has hacked into our power grid, and is currently having people murdered on British soil, to congratulate him for oppressing his people and stealing their right to choose their own leader.

You know who never would have done that?

Hillary Clinton, that's who!

Hell even John McCain would have had the cojones to do the right thing.

An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election. https://t.co/lcQTBi7CA1

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) March 20, 2018

Yeah, no shit!

Take a look at this completely surreal moment when Sarah Huckabee Sanders explains why Trump did not say anything to Putin about stealing this election.

Sarah Sanders is asked whether the Russian election was free and fair: "We don't get to dictate how other countries operate." pic.twitter.com/kqEWvNFeOa

— Axios (@axios) March 20, 2018

Wait, what?

AMERICA does not get to dictate how elections in other countries operate?

 Well I bet Afghanistan and Iraq are glad to hear about that.

And she calls herself a Republican. 

I am so far down this rabbit now hole that I am certain I will never see the sun again.

Update: Courtesy of WaPo:  

President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers when he congratulated Russian President Vladi­mir Putin Tuesday on his reelection, including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call. 

Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn Putin about the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow. 

The president’s conversation with Putin, which Trump called a “very good call,” prompted fresh criticism of his muted tone toward one of the United States’s biggest geopolitical rivals amid the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials.

I don't know folks. I'm beginning to think there might be something hinky going on between Trump and Putin. 

Or am I just being paranoid?

Former Russian spy reveals Vladimir Putin's "who to poison next list." Christopher Steele is on it, but guess who isn't.

Courtesy of The Mirror: 

A Russian spy who defected to Britain today reveals he was also poisoned – and claims he is on a hit-list of EIGHT targets he says Vladimir Putin wants dead. 

Boris Karpichkov says he survived an assassination attempt – but lost nearly five stone and all of his body hair. 

The ex-KGB major has since learned of seven others – including double agent Sergei Skripal – he believes the Russian President wants to execute. 

In a terrifying development, Karpich­kov says he has been warned to watch for weapons disguised as e-cigarettes but which conceal deadly nerve gas.

 Karpich­kov does not believe he will see his next birthday, and he has reason to worry since the Kremlin was most likely behind the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Others that  Karpichkov identified as being on Putin's hit list include the following:

• OLEG GORDIEVSKY, 79 . MI6 spirited Britain’s top Cold War double agent out of Russia in 1985 in the boot of a Ford saloon. He has provided British Intelligence with information ever since. 
• BILL BROWDER, 53 . A US-born British financier banned from Russia in 2005. Interpol rejected Russian extradition requests after Browder was sentenced in his absence to nine years for tax fraud. 
• CHRISTOPHER STEELE, 53 . Former MI6 officer running private intelligence firm. Made ­unsubstantiated claims of Russian spies holding compromising video of US President Donald Trump cavorting with prostitutes. 
• IGOR SUTYAGIN, 53 . Russian nuclear weapons specialist accused of spying for Britain, for which he served 11 years for treason. Swapped in 2010 along with Skirpal for Russian sleeper agents in a US spy network including femme fatale Anna Chapman. 
• YURI SHVETS, 65 . Former KGB major who defected to America in 1994. A key witness in the police investigation into the 2006 poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko. 
• VLADIMIR REZUN (alias VIKTOR SUVOROV), 70 Captain in GRU Soviet military intelligence until his defection to Britain in 1978. Now writes controversial books on Soviet military history.

I would remind you that Putin is not the only one targeting Christopher Steele: 

Two Republican senators have called for the investigation of Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled a dossier on alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. 

In a letter to the US justice department, Charles Grassley and Lindsey Graham claimed there was reason to believe that Steele had misled US authorities over his contacts with journalists and called for him to be investigated. 

The letter, the first criminal referral from Congress since it started investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, comes at a time when Republicans are seeking to divert those investigations from scrutinising Donald Trump’s links to Russia to focus instead on whistleblowers, the FBI, and the special counsel investigating the issue, Robert Mueller.

Christopher Steele is not an American citizen and yet he felt obligated to reveal to the US authorities that the Republican candidate for president might be compromised, and for his trouble he is marked for death by the Russian leader and is the target of an investigation by the Republicans attempting to protect that Kremlin agent who now resides in the White House.

You know we need more Americans like British citizen Christopher Steele. Individuals who actually put their lives at risk protecting the interests of the United States of America.

As I allude to in my headline one of the prominent names missing from this list is Donald J Trump. And I imagine there are no other Republicans that should fear being added either.

Nor anybody in the Trump White House for that matter as they even refused to identify Russia as the culprit behind these recent attacks. 

Sarah Sanders condemns poisoning of ex-spy in U.K. but declines to accuse Russia despite statements from PM Theresa May. pic.twitter.com/NDGtSiLxab

— Axios (@axios) March 12, 2018

But you can bet your ass that if Hillary had been elected she would be at the very top of this list, with an added financial incentive included for the agent who managed to take her out.

Putin says that he does not care if Russians hacked the US election, and suggests that they might have been Jews or that they were paid by Americans.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told NBC News that he "couldn't care less" if Russian citizens tried to interfere in the 2016 American presidential election because, he claims, they were not connected to the Kremlin. 

In an exclusive and at-times combative interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly, Putin again denied the charge by U.S. intelligence services that he ordered meddling in the November 2016 vote that put Donald Trump in the White House. 

"Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?" asked Putin, who will probably be returned as president in the March 18 elections.

"So what if they're Russians?" Putin said of the people named in last month's indictment. "There are 146 million Russians. So what? ... I don't care. I couldn't care less. ... They do not represent the interests of the Russian state." 

Putin even suggested that Jews or other ethnic groups had been involved in the meddling. 

"Maybe they're not even Russians," he said. "Maybe they're Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don't know.

Putin also claimed that he had seen no evidence that the Russians actually did any of the hacking, which is odd because you would think he would be eager to read the updates they sent him on their progress.

I do not know why NBC allows Megyn Kelly, a former operative from Fox News, to even interview this guy when they know he is simply going to lie his ass off?

The only person that I want to hear interviewing Vladimir Putin is Robert Mueller.

Under oath if at all possible.

There is at least one positive outcome from all of this. At least now Kelly realizes that Trump is likely compromised by Putin.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

“I would not say that Putin likes Trump,” she said. “I did not glean that at all from him. I did glean that perhaps he has something on Donald Trump." 

“I think there’s a very good chance Putin knows some things about Donald Trump that Mr. Trump does not want repeated publicly,” she added.

Gee, no shit.

Robert Mueller has a fan letter that Donald Trump wrote to Vladimir Putin back in 2013.

Did you get my letter?

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Donald Trump was so eager to have Vladi­mir Putin attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that he wrote a personal letter to the Russian president inviting him to the event, according to multiple people familiar with the document. 

At the bottom of the typed letter, Trump scrawled a postscript adding that he looked forward to seeing “beautiful” women during his trip. 

Trump’s letter to Putin, which was described by people with knowledge of its contents, shows how interested he was in attracting the personal attention of the Russian president. The real estate magnate, who owned the Miss Universe pageant, wrote the note at a time when he was looking to expand his brand to Russia. 

The letter, the first known attempt at direct outreach by Trump to Putin, has been turned over to investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. It is unclear whether Trump’s missive was ever delivered to the Russian president — and if so, whether Putin responded. 

John Dowd, an attorney for President Trump, said he was not familiar with the letter. “It’s all nonsense,” he said. A White House spokesman and attorneys for the Trump Organization declined to comment.

I think "It's all nonsense" is lawyer speak for "WTF? I had no idea this even existed."

And by the way there is no way that Trump did not have this letter delivered to Putin.

After all Trump was going all fan girl over Putin in those days.

Now I just want to know if Trump got an answer back from his idol, or if Putin dismissed him as yet another one of his groupies?

By the way if Mueller was able to get his hands on this letter, than I am more and more convinced that he also has all of Trump's tax returns as well.

And it makes the request by Trump's lawyers to wrap this investigation up seem more than a little silly.

Don't worry that Donald Trump is upset about all of the negative press he is receiving. The only person who matters to him thinks he is doing just fine.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin lavished praise on President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been “eating itself up.” 

Speaking in an interview with the Russian state television, Putin described Trump as a great communicator. 

“I have no disappointment at all,” Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. “Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.” 

The two leaders met on the sidelines of international summits last year. Putin praised Trump as a “balanced” man, who easily gets into the gist of various issues and listens to his interlocutor. 

“It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin added.

Yeah I think that last line is Russian code for "The little bitch will do exactly what I fucking tell him to do."

Vladimir Putin famously does not like to compromise, and with Trump in the White House he does not feel he has to anymore.

Oh by the way in case you have not picked up on it, Trump does not work for us, he works for the Kremlin.

And EVERY SINGLE DAY that fact is reinforced by Trump's actions, as well as Putin's supportive comments.

While Donald Trump plays sycophant to Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader brags about his country's improved ability to wage war on America and NATO allies.

So what’s our defense? Thoughts and prayers?

Putin boasts military might with animation of Florida nuke strike @CNN https://t.co/RAoaYzOgje

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) March 1, 2018

Courtesy of CNN: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted Thursday of new weaponry he claims will render NATO defenses "completely useless," delivering a warning to the world about Russia's resurgent military might. 

In an annual address to the Russian parliament, the Kremlin leader said Russia had developed a new, nuclear-capable cruise missile with "unlimited" range that is capable of eluding air-defense systems. 

He also said Russia had developed an "invincible" missile that can deliver a warhead at hypersonic speed. 

Putin is running for reelection in mid-March on a platform that emphasizes his strength as a leader. And Thursday's speech was an occasion for the Russian President to showcase his country's strides in military technology.

"Russia still has the greatest nuclear potential in the world, but nobody listened to us," he said. "Listen now."

Jesus Christ!

So while Trump lubes himself up to make Putin's intrusion into our political system friction free, Vlad slaps his dick in our faces as he brags about his ability to bomb the world back into the stone age and our inability to do a damn thing to stop him.

Of course America officially refutes these claims, but then again America also thought that our cyber security was top notch.

As long as Trump is in the White House we are sitting ducks for any Russian attacks, be they military or cyber. And that is becoming more obvious every day.

Donald Trump has now joined his buddy Vladimir Putin on Amnesty International's list of human rights villains.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

President Donald Trump joins authoritarian leaders like Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping in spreading hate and promoting regressive policies in 2017, Amnesty International’s annual human rights report determined. 

The report looks at the human rights situation in 159 countries and territories throughout 2017, Trump’s first year in office. 

“In the U.S.A., President Trump wasted little time in putting his anti-rights rhetoric of discrimination and xenophobia into action, threatening a major rollback on justice and freedoms—including by signing a series of repressive executive orders that threatened the human rights of millions, at home and abroad,” reads the report released Thursday by the human rights group.

The report details how the Trump administration oversaw and promoted abusive border enforcement practices and the detention of asylum-seekers on the U.S. border with Mexico.

And just in case you thought that Amnesty International was being completely unfair, get a load of this.

Courtesy of Politico: 

State Department officials have been ordered to pare back passages in a soon-to-be-released annual report on global human rights that traditionally discuss women’s reproductive rights and discrimination, according to five former and current department officials. 

The directive calls for stripping passages that describe societal views on family planning, including how much access women have to contraceptives and abortion. 

A broader section that chronicles racial, ethnic and sexual discrimination has also been ordered pared down, the current and former officials said. 

The move, believed to have been ordered by a top aide to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, reflects the Trump administration’s rightward turn from the Obama administration on family planning issues. It also appears to highlight the stated desire of Tillerson and President Donald Trump to make human rights a lower priority in U.S. foreign policy.

So yeah when a US report on human rights is stripped of language to identify abuses and protect human rights, I would suggest that we are no longer a leader in that endeavor.

Which I guess answers this question for a number of people in this country.

Yes, yes we are. 

Yes, I do.

Best President of my lifetime.

So Donald Trump had another phone call with Vladimir Putin. How do we know this? Because the Russian media, not the American media, is reporting it.

I'll call you later.

Courtesy of TASS: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday evening he has just had a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, Donald Trump. 

"I have just spoken over the phone with United States President Mr. Trump. Naturally, we spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli settlement," he said at the beginning of talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 

"I would like to convey to you his best wishes," he added. 

Yes he sends this best wishes to the Russian people.

To his own people however he tries to take away their healthcare,  embarrasses them on a daily basis, and if they cannot produce their papers sends them over our southern border.

You know if I were under scrutiny for possibly colluding with Russia to steal an election, I would make sure to notify the media EVERY time I contacted Vladimir Putin, immediately provide a transcript of the call, and make damn sure that every call was about furthering America's agenda in some way.

I mean, if I didn't know better, it would almost seem as if Donald Trump does not want us to know how often he calls Russia.

You know what I mean?

Joe Biden comes right out and says that he thinks Donald Trump is being controlled by Vladimir Putin.

(The pertinent portions starts at the 5:25 mark.)

Courtesy of Addicting Info: 

As everyone else avoids directly addressing what is going on with Donald Trump and Russia, former Vice President Joe Biden just doesn’t seem to feel the need to mince words. 

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell asked Biden on Thursday why Trump was “so reluctant to take on Vladimir Putin” — and she got an answer she probably was not expecting. 

“Look, you know, I want to give every American, including the president, the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t fathom any reason other than he is concerned of what Putin might say or do, or what information he may or may not have,” Biden said, adding that the Trump administration was not making a sufficient effort to prevent Russia from again interfering in our elections. 

“But look, unrelated to the whole issue of whether or not there’s collusion, separate and apart from all that, it’s necessary for us to stem this problem,” he told Mitchell. “It’s necessary for us to corral the Russians.”

Leave it to Joe "This is a big fucking deal" Biden to come right out and say what so many of us know to be true.

Yes, Donald Trump is an asset for the Kremlin.

And EVERY American, without regard to party affiliation or ideology, should be demanding that he be removed from office.

I would also add that any American NOT calling for that is essentially a traitor to their country, and that includes every Republican in Washington working to undermine the FBI or to obstruct the Mueller investigation.