Trump 13: More Scandal, More Fun. Yay! :/

[GeoBQn]

I'm a fan of the sitcom "The Last Man on Earth," about a group of people that survived a virus that killed 99% of the population.  Last Sunday's episode showed the onset of the pandemic from the point of view of a rich woman (played by Kristin Wiig).  They made references to "President Pence" in 2019, implying that Agent Orange did not even serve out a full term.  At one point, Wiig's husband says that nothing can be done to stop the virus, and Wiig responds, "What, you don't think that the president hasn't been vaccinated already?"  Cut to a shot of a state funeral on TV and the announcer saying . . .

"President Michael Pence being laid to rest."

"President Paul Ryan being laid to rest."

"President Rex Tillerson being laid to rest."

"President Steve Mnuchin being laid to rest."

"President Jeff Sessions being laid to rest."

"President Betsy DeVos being laid to rest."

Damn, I don't think my husband and I have laughed so hard since the election happened.

[fraurosena]

It's ridiculous that Melania is choosing to live in NY instead of the WH at the expenditure of taxpayers money. It costs about $30 million, while the Tangerine Toddler suspends military Child Care.

Quote

Taxpayers are footing the bill to the tune of an estimated $30 million for Melania Trump to live in New York City. [...]

Meanwhile, President Trump instituted a federal hiring freeze because he claimed he had to get the nation’s finances in order.

When Trump froze federal hiring, he made the child care crisis in the military even worse.

A president sets the priorities for the country, and Donald Trump’s top priority appears to be spending taxpayer money to maintain his family’s lifestyle.

The choices that President Trump make have real world consequences for children and their families. Donald Trump’s wife gets to stay at Trump Tower while the people who defend this country are left without child care.

There is a lot to be outraged about when it comes to the Trump presidency, but this isn’t reality television. What Trump chooses to do wastes taxpayer money, and harms the American people.

Donald Trump is behaving like a parasite, not a president.

The Parasitic President. Yeah... 

[onekidanddone]

27 minutes ago, GeoBQn said:

I'm a fan of the sitcom "The Last Man on Earth," about a group of people that survived a virus that killed 99% of the population.  Last Sunday's episode showed the onset of the pandemic from the point of view of a rich woman (played by Kristin Wiig).  They made references to "President Pence" in 2019, implying that Agent Orange did not even serve out a full term.  At one point, Wiig's husband says that nothing can be done to stop the virus, and Wiig responds, "What, you don't think that the president hasn't been vaccinated already?"  Cut to a shot of a state funeral on TV and the announcer saying . . .

"President Michael Pence being laid to rest."

"President Paul Ryan being laid to rest."

"President Rex Tillerson being laid to rest."

"President Steve Mnuchin being laid to rest."

"President Jeff Sessions being laid to rest."

"President Betsy DeVos being laid to rest."

Damn, I don't think my husband and I have laughed so hard since the election happened.

What about Führer Bannon?

[fraurosena]

Well isn't this just dandy. Caught in a lie. Again.

And here we can also see that the Russian Connection goes ever deeper...

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the tantrum tweets will start in three... two.... one...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaii-judge-agrees-to-hearing-on-trump-immigration-order-1489002334?mod=e2tw

Quote

A federal judge in Hawaii agreed Wednesday to fast-track consideration of the state’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s revised executive order on immigration, setting the stage for a quick initial ruling on the administration’s new effort to restrict U.S. travel from six Muslim-majority nations.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson agreed to hear oral arguments March 15 on Hawaii’s request for a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the travel restrictions, which are slated to go into effect a day later. 

 

[purple_summer]

18 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

I never was a fan of their music, but you are right.  Nobody deserves to be equated with him or any of the orange clusterfuck's wagon train of crazy

 

If I ever do my PhD my dissertation is going to be on The Spice Girls and critical feminist theory. I don't even need sources, just my memories and my feelz. 

 

Ignore me casually pretending the rest of this thread doesn't exist.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

I could go check and see who fornicated up the timeline to let Pres. Shitweasel win

I just wanted to tell you that your frequent use of the word "fornicate" has given me an idea for dealing with the next salesperson or group of proselytizers that show up on my doorstep. 

[PsyD2013]

Steve King the bsc Representative from Iowa,  (Thank you western Iowa assholes who voted this piece of shit in) is under the false impression that a deep state is trying to undermine Voldorange.  No Steve, the orange toddler is doing a damn good job of undermining himself (eg. Russia, wire tap accusations).  https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-representative-trump-should-purge-white-house-174638632.html

[onekidanddone]

Figures.  The only that that shit stain eats is probably deep fried pixy stix.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/big-candy-is-lobbying-the-trump-administration-its-also-holding-events-at-trump-hotels/2017/03/07/a07cf3a2-0027-11e7-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html?utm_term=.72cf583671be

 

[47of74]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

I just wanted to tell you that your frequent use of the word "fornicate" has given me an idea for dealing with the next salesperson or group of proselytizers that show up on my doorstep. 

Good!  I being a bad influence on my fellow FJers.  Especially when it involves the use of the word fornicate.  I have to use the word fornicate otherwise I'd be saying fuck this and fuck that all the time.

39 minutes ago, PsyD2013 said:

Steve King the bsc Representative from Iowa,  (Thank you western Iowa assholes who voted this piece of shit in) is under the false impression that a deep state is trying to undermine Voldorange.  No Steve, the orange toddler is doing a damn good job of undermining himself (eg. Russia, wire tap accusations).  https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-representative-trump-should-purge-white-house-174638632.html

Yeah I want to have a few four letter words with the population of northwest Iowa for voting this idiot into Congress.  I wish Steve would just be honest and wear his goddamn Klan robes to work.  

 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Well isn't this just dandy. Caught in a lie. Again.

And here we can also see that the Russian Connection goes ever deeper...

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the tantrum tweets will start in three... two.... one...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaii-judge-agrees-to-hearing-on-trump-immigration-order-1489002334?mod=e2tw

 

So in two and four years when the jobs aren't back and the economy has tanked, what then?  Will he blame it on the ebil media?  Say the country is doing great...move along... nothing to see here....   How many of the tRump zombies will wake up and get a fucking clue?  Sadly not enough.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Trump White House is totally changing its tune on wiretapping and hoping you don’t notice"

Quote

On Tuesday afternoon, in his first on-camera briefing in a week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this when asked for proof of Trump's wiretapping claims: “It’s not a question of new proof or less proof or whatever.” Instead, he insisted, the goal of Trump's tweets was simply to get congressional investigators to look into the possibility of wiretapping. Congress is now doing this, so, in Spicer's mind, mission accomplished.

Except that what Trump tweeted and what Spicer is now saying aren't the same thing. Not at all. And it is a question of “new proof.” Or, at the very least, some — any? — proof.

Trump tweeted Saturday that he had “just found out” that then-President Barack Obama had ordered a wiretap at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. That means conclusive evidence existed and had been presented to Trump about the wiretapping. There's no other interpretation for the language in that tweet.

What Spicer is saying now is that Trump thinks the right thing to do is to have Congress investigate to find out whether wiretapping occurred.

But Trump already stated definitively that it had! Why does Congress need to investigate something the president of the United States already has evidence of?

The most likely answer — and Spicer didn't mention this — is that Trump doesn't really have evidence of Obama wiretapping him during the 2016 campaign. Instead, as has been well documented, he read a Breitbart News story detailing conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin's theory of an attempted “silent coup” by Obama during the campaign and simply tweeted it.

In the aftermath of that tweet, everyone from Obama to FBI Director James B. Comey to former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. insisted that Trump's claim was without merit, that no wiretap of Trump Tower had ever been approved by the Obama administration.

With no actual evidence to go on, the White House decided to pivot. It's no longer a question of what evidence Trump had (or didn't have), Spicer argued Tuesday. Instead it's about Congress doing its due diligence by investigating whether Trump Tower was wiretapped.

In short: The White House is now pushing for investigations in search of the very evidence that Trump claimed he already possessed.

This isn't about a separation of powers — as Spicer claimed Tuesday — or anything else. It's about Trump tweeting first and thinking second. And a White House scrambling to make lemonade — or at least lemon water — from lemons.

...

Tweet first and think second...the only problem with that is the tangerine toddler is incapable of rational thought.

 

"21 times Donald Trump has assured us he respects women". Too many Tweets to copy, but it's an interesting read.

 

 

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

So in two and four years when the jobs aren't back and the economy has tanked, what then?  Will he blame it on the ebil media?  Say the country is doing great...move along... nothing to see here....   How many of the tRump zombies will wake up and get a fucking clue?  Sadly not enough.

Oh, silly, silly @onekidanddone, not only will it be the ebil media's fault, but also Obama's and Hillary's fault.

[onekidanddone]

8 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"The Trump White House is totally changing its tune on wiretapping and hoping you don’t notice"

Tweet first and think second...the only problem with that is the tangerine toddler is incapable of rational thought.

 

"21 times Donald Trump has assured us he respects women". Too many Tweets to copy, but it's an interesting read.

 

 

Oh, silly, silly @onekidanddone, not only will it be the ebil media's fault, but also Obama's and Hillary's fault.

Yea, I should know. It is all Obama's fault. Putin err  agent orange  said so.

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Well isn't this just dandy. Caught in a lie. Again.

And here we can also see that the Russian Connection goes ever deeper...

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the tantrum tweets will start in three... two.... one...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaii-judge-agrees-to-hearing-on-trump-immigration-order-1489002334?mod=e2tw

 

#8 is also the ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch, acting CEO of Fox News.  She could come in handy in multiple ways!

[GreyhoundFan]

"In the Trump administration, it’s always ‘A Day Without a Woman’"

Quote

Let’s hope there’s generous funding in Republicans’ new health-care bill to prevent and cure tone-deafness.

Wednesday was International Women’s Day, and to observe this annual commemoration House Republicans formally took up their legislation defunding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of health services for women.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, at a news conference Wednesday morning, boasted about ending the funding of Planned Parenthood, listing it as one of the things “we’ve been dreaming about doing.” And what better time to make this dream come true than on International Women’s Day, on the eighth day of Women’s History Month?

This could be the beginning of a new legislative style in Congress:

Bills to “build the wall” could be marked up on Cinco de Mayo.

The Iranian nuclear deal could be scrapped later this month on Nowruz.

Plans to cut military assistance to Europe could be rolled out on D-Day.

It’s enough to give new meaning to National Awkward Moments Day — observed on March 18.

President Trump, in a morning tweet, marked International Women’s Day by hailing women as “vital to the fabric of our society.” But that’s not quite the message his administration and its allies in Congress have been sending. Women’s rights activists held a strike and protests Wednesday, declaring it “A Day Without a Woman.” In the Trump White House, it must often feel like that kind of day — and not only because Melania is in New York.

A USA Today analysis last month found that men outnumbered women by more than 2 to 1 among top White House aides. Trump named only four women to his Cabinet, the fewest in a generation, and none to the top jobs at the State, Treasury, Defense and Justice Departments. His nominee for labor secretary withdrew as opponents made an issue of the way he and his company treated women, and Trump fired acting attorney general Sally Yates, an Obama administration holdover, after she refused to back his first travel ban.

Meeting with the nation’s governors recently, Trump welcomed the governors “and their wives and daughters,” as if no women were governors. Trump’s vulgar statements about women, caught on tape, were a prominent part of the campaign, and, according to the media outlet Axios, he requires women working for him to “dress like women.” He has hired as his executive assistant in the White House a 26-year-old barre fitness instructor who served as the elevator “greeter” at Trump Tower.

...

That’s quite a bit, and it’s still early. If this is how Trump and his allies in Congress celebrate International Women’s Day, one shudders to think how they will observe April 5: National Go for Broke Day.

 

"Voters don’t like what they see from Trump on Russia"

Quote

Two new polls suggest that President Trump’s rhetoric does not conceal how unpopular his actions (or lack thereof) regarding Russia are — and how mired in scandal he has already become.

In the new Politico-Morning Consult poll, “Forty-one percent of registered voters polled from March 2 through March 6 said the Russian Federation influenced the race between President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, up 9 points from a December poll. Overall, the electorate is split on the issue, with 42 percent of voters saying the former Cold War adversary did not influence the election.” Worse than that, “Fifty-seven percent of respondents (including 76 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents) said they strongly or somewhat support Congress or the Justice Department assigning an outside investigator to probe communications between Trump associates and the Russian government.” As for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “Thirty-eight percent of voters said Sessions lied, while 29 percent said he told the truth, and 32 percent said they did not know or had no opinion. Half of GOP voters said Sessions told the truth, while 60 percent of Democrats said he lied. Thirty-four percent of independent voters said Sessions lied, while 23 percent said he was truthful.” When only half of Republicans think the attorney general is truthful, that’s a problem.

American voters say 52 – 40 percent that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearings and say 51 – 42 percent that he should resign, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

Voters disapprove 54 – 32 percent of the way President Donald Trump is handling U.S. policy towards Russia. … American voters support 66 – 30 percent an “independent commission investigating potential links between some of Donald Trump’s campaign advisors and the Russian government.” The only listed party, gender, age or racial group opposed is Republicans, opposed 64 – 30 percent.

A total of 61 percent are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about President Trump’s relationship with Russia. A total of 62 percent of voters say alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election is a “very important” or “somewhat important” issue.

...

Every night before I go to sleep, I close my eyes and imagine that I will wake up in the morning to discover this has all been a bad dream.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

On Tuesday afternoon, in his first on-camera briefing in a week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this when asked for proof of Trump's wiretapping claims: “It’s not a question of new proof or less proof or whatever.” Instead, he insisted, the goal of Trump's tweets was simply to get congressional investigators to look into the possibility of wiretapping. Congress is now doing this, so, in Spicer's mind, mission accomplished

Honey, I might have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night. Who in the hell, besides the Fox News crowd of course, is buying this bullshit?

Dammit Spicey, Trump accused President Obama of wiretapping his phones you ignorant shitweasel, quit trying to spin this away! 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Figures.  The only that that shit stain eats is probably deep fried pixy stix.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/big-candy-is-lobbying-the-trump-administration-its-also-holding-events-at-trump-hotels/2017/03/07/a07cf3a2-0027-11e7-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html?utm_term=.72cf583671be

 

Speaking of candy:

Quote

 

Mexico has canceled existing sugar export permits to the United States in a dispute over the pace of shipments, according to a letter seen by Reuters, in a flare-up industry sources said could temporarily disrupt supplies.

The letter sent by Mexico's sugar chamber to mills on Monday partly blamed the situation on unfilled positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce, which it said has led to a "legalistic" interpretation of rules with no U.S. counterparts in place in Washington for Mexican officials to negotiate with.  

The cancellations are the latest dispute of a years-long trade row between Mexico - the United States' top foreign supplier of sugar - and its neighbor at a time when cane refiners are struggling with prices and tight supplies, U.S. industry sources said.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-sugar-idUSKBN16E0OZ

[GreyhoundFan]

"Conservatives insist Trump is not influenced by the alt-right. Here’s why they’re wrong."

Quote

Leading conservatives have taken to pretending that the alt-right is a fringe movement that they and President Trump have disavowed. In recent interviews and at a high-profile conservative conference last month, conservatives have taken great pains to distance conservatism — and the Trump administration — from any alt-right influence.

But here’s the reality: The alt-right’s deep influence over this White House is on display daily — in Trump’s rhetoric and his administration’s policies. The alt-right influence on Trump matters: it means the most powerful man in the world is under the influence of a racist and white nationalist movement. And conservatives should reckon with this more forthrightly.

For instance, note this podcast that the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart conducted with American Conservative Union president Matt Schlapp. Capehart pointed out that Stephen K. Bannon and Stephen Miller are Trump’s top White House advisers, and asked: “Doesn’t that mean, that despite the concerns, the alt-right is now mainstreamed, if not the power within the White House?” Schlapp flatly denied that the alt-right had been mainstreamed in this manner.

Bannon — who is now Trump’s most influential adviser — told me last summer, when he was chairman of Breitbart, that his site was “the platform for the alt-right.” Capehart questioned Schlapp about this, but Schlapp argued, implausibly, that this is not as significant as it appears. Schlapp insisted that when Bannon said that Breitbart is the platform for the alt-right, “he wasn’t trying to endorse the racist ideology of that group.” Yet Breitbart was and remains one-stop shopping for readers looking for anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-refugee rhetoric and disinformation, as well as stories about “black crime.”

This echoed similar head-in-the sand denials that were on full display last month at the ACU’s Conservative Political Action Conference. For instance, Dan Schneider, the ACU’s executive director, delivered a speech denouncing the alt-right — but not as the far-right white nationalist movement that it is, but rather as “garden variety left-wing fascists.” By attempting (not very convincingly) to pin the movement on the left, Schneider sought to portray the alt-right as an interloper that is not exerting any influence over Trump or his conservative supporters.

But hours later, Schlapp welcomed Bannon for an interview on the CPAC main stage. Schlapp didn’t ask Bannon a single question about the alt-right — or about what Bannon meant when he claimed that his web site was a platform for it.

The reality is that it is under Bannon’s influence that the administration has taken its actions that most thrill the alt-right, most notably his moves to step up deportation of undocumented immigrants, and ban refugees and migrants from Muslim-majority countries.

When Bannon and I spoke this summer, he tried to deny to me that the alt-right is a white nationalist movement, although he did concede that white nationalists and anti-Semites could be attracted to “some of the philosophies of the alt-right.” But, as I have written after Trump tapped him to head up his campaign, Bannon nonetheless praised the deeply Islamophobic ethno-nationalism on the rise in Europe, like the National Front in France, led by far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

And then there’s Trump’s choice of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. During the transition, alt-right leaders were delighted with the Sessions pick, pointing to his opposition to immigration as well as their hope that he would stop enforcing civil rights laws and might even prosecute Black Lives Matter protesters.

As Emily Bazelon writes, Sessions has long been a devoted Breitbart reader, and met regularly with the site’s writers. Trump’s dark vision of America as besieged by inner city crime, immigrants, and refugees, Bazelon notes, “provides clear justification for policies that will advance Sessions, Bannon and Miller’s divisive nationalism.” Justice Department policy, under Sessions, she adds, aims “to strengthen the grip of law enforcement, raise barriers to voting and significantly reduce all forms of immigration, promoting what seems to be a longstanding desire to reassert the country’s European and Christian heritage.”

Indeed, Sessions is altering the core mission of the Department of Justice to one with less of a focus on civil and voting rights. Trump’s false claims about voter fraud are straight out of the ugly maw of alt-right meme-making, portraying supposed voter fraud as a scourge perpetrated by African-Americans and undocumented immigrants — a possible signal that a crackdown on voting rights is coming, one that Sessions would likely help carry out from the Justice Department.

Despite the determined spin, the reality is that Trumpism would not exist without the alt-right. Conservatives can pretend it’s fringe and has little to no influence on the Trump administration — but the proof is in the policy.

...

Oh yeah, like president bannon isn't Mr. alt-right.

[47of74]

Way to make the Brits like you, Agent Fuckstick;

metro.co.uk/2017/03/08/donald-trump-just-banned-british-tourists-from-visiting-the-white-house-6495846/

Quote

Donald Trump had only just announced that the tours would now officially resume, and even crashed the first organised tour for a photo-op.

But now, the President has extremely swiftly enforced measures that will make the whole visit a massive pain in arse for anyone who’s not an American citizen.

Visitors from outside the US will now need to apply for places on White House tours – by writing to their respective embassies for assistance.

But the British Embassy in Washington DC almost immediately released a statement saying that the application scheme is already ‘on hold’.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Okay, after a spectacularly lousy day at work, I'm going to try and get some sleep, but I wanted to post a few amusing Tweets:

 

[RoseWilder]

Well, this is horrifying: 

 

[47of74]

I see the Twitter is taking Agent Orange to school for his "Irish themed" hats

http://distractify.com/trending/2017/03/07/rsJfT/maga-irish-hat-fail

Quote

The green MAGA hat features Reagan's campaign quote that Trump appropriated on the front, and a four-leaf clover on the back. There's only one problem.

The three-leafed shamrock is the official symbol of Ireland and St. Patrick's. Four-leaf clovers have nothing to do with Ireland.

Twitter picked up on the mistake right away and called Trump's team out on it.

Here's one example;

 

 

[fraurosena]

3 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

Well, this is horrifying: 

 

Yeah, I posted an interesting article on this concept in the Wikileaks thread. It basically lays bare that Wikileaks is working for Russia and the peach-colored parasite by (among many other things) pointing out how convenient it is that the latest infodump is detrimental to the intelligence agencies, whilst the tangerine toddler has need to discredit them as they are looking into the Russian Connection. 

[fraurosena]

Holy cow guys! Are things finally going to explode? 

I'm just ready the Dossier Analysis now. It's damning - and that's an understatement.

Again , but not 

 

 

Rachel Maddow also has new info on the Russian Connection:
 

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/truth-closer-on-trump-camp-pro-russia-influence-on-gop-platform-893651011874

 

[fraurosena]

I just had to post this article. Not even for what it says, which is interesting enough, but mostly for the name of one of the law students. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-congress-donald-trump-remove-us-president-impeachment-constitution-25th-amendment-mental-health-a7618241.html

Quote

Two students at a top US law school have claimed it is possible for Congress to remove Donald Trump from office without impeaching him due to a little known clause in the Constitution. 

Samuel Breidbart and Vinay Nayak argued in a piece for Time magazine that under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment which allows Congress to form its own body to evaluate the President’s fitness for office without impeaching him. 

The clause says: "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President".

They argue the phrase "[an] other body as Congress may by law provide" means the House has the power to appoint an independent body to assess whether the President is fit for office.

Wouldn't it be the absolute best joke of all if the Parasitic President and his cronie Breitbart Bannon would be brought down by a law student named Nayak and his crony Breidbart? 

[fraurosena]

Now it's clear that the NRA is more than heavily involved...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/07/top-trump-ally-met-with-putin-s-deputy-in-moscow.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

Quote

In March 2014, the U.S. government sanctioned Dmitry Rogozin—a hardline deputy to Vladimir Putin, the head of Russia’s defense industry and longtime opponent of American power—in retaliation for the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Eighteen months later, the National Rifle Association, Donald Trump’s most powerful outside ally during the 2016 election, sent a delegation to Moscow that met with him.

The meeting, which hasn’t been previously reported in the American press, is one strand in a web of connections between the Russian government and Team Trump [...] Meeting with Rogozin, a target of U.S. sanctions, is not itself illegal [...] but it is “frowned upon and raises questions… those targeted for sanctions have been engaged in conduct which is in direct opposition to U.S. national security interests.”

Which raises the question: Why was the NRA meeting with Putin’s deputy in the first place?

The NRA had previously objected to the parts of the U.S. sanctions regime that blocked Russian-made guns from import into the United States. [...]

Rogozin is no ordinary Russian official, and his title extends far beyond being merely the chairman of a shooting club. His portfolio as deputy prime minister of Russia includes the defense industry. One issue where Rogozin seems particularly interested is cyberwarfare, which he has heralded for its “first strike” capability. And he’s well-known in Russia for being a radical—often taking a harder line than Putin himself.

“It is disconcerting that they would be meeting [with a Russian official] about anything given their vocal support of the president,” said Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 presidential elections. “Due to the NRA’s opposition to sanctions, it defies credulity that they wouldn’t have discussed sanctions and their extraordinary support for Donald Trump’s campaign.”

“Russia is not America’s friend. And it’s stunning to hear that while they were attacking our democracy, one of the largest organizations supporting Trump was cozying up with a sanctioned Russian in Moscow,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee panel that oversees the CIA. [...]

The NRA spent $30.3 million to elect Trump—more than even the top Trump super PAC, which spent just $20.3 million, according to OpenSecrets.

This proved to be an important piece of the puzzle for the president’s eventual victory, giving him bona fides among Democrats from working class families.

“They got behind him early. It tends to be a lot of movement conservatives, a lot of Republicans —but the NRA’s membership is also so powerful in union households,” said Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist who wrote a book, Ricochet, about his experiences. “Union leaderships are very concerned about what the NRA has to say… This year it was a very important. NRA was the first major group to get behind Trump.”

The article has much more information on the intertwining NRA-Russia Connection. Worth the read.

This whole corruption-Russian-Republican thing is so big, so complicated and far-reaching, it boggles the mind...