The Trump Swamp: MAGA Nation.

[dislaxxic]

It really deserves its own thread, since it has, indeed, become one of the largest swamps in American History. This thread make take some of the pressure off the "Orange Duce" thread, which is constantly assaulted with depredations of the man himself. Perhaps this thread can hold a summary of the myriad depredations and corruption of the man's appointments...

Let's begin with this: Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao's empire of corruption

As this article states, the turkey wattle and his corruption go back well before Trump appeared, but boy, are Mitch and Don ever a marriage made in heaven?

This thread is getting to this game late...it will be filled up to the brim with the exploits of Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke and Tom Price. Among MANY others...

Are we ready yet to ADMIT that Don the Con snookered the American electorate with his flim-flammery?

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[dislaxxic]

umm, cause that's what a SWAMP is...

Scott Pruitt left the EPA mired in scandal. Now he is lobbying Indiana lawmakers.

Only the very BEST pipple...

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[Brooklyn]

one swamp member goes down the drain:

[Brooklyn]

why Donny Dum's swamp needs further draining:


https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-is-je ... t-the-case

[Trinity]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07 ... -disappear

Trump’s benefactors in Saudi Arabia again.

[dislaxxic]

JOHN RATCLIFFE’S LIES ABOUT HIS TIME AT DOJ RAISE NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS CLAIM TO HAVE USED WARRANTLESS SEARCHES

"Both NBC and ABC have stories laying out how two key claims about his work at DOJ, which John Ratcliffe has used to get elected three times, are lies. Less important for this post, when Ratcliffe repeatedly took credit for “arresting over 300 illegal [sic] aliens in a single day,” he was actually taking credit for a poultry worker bust that was led by ICE and involved four other US Attorneys offices and a slew of other investigative agencies."

Great choice. Empty that Swamp alright...

Deplorables shrug

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[Trinity]

Inspector general says he can't investigate White House security clearances for the president's daughter, son-in-law and others until the president asks him to do so, according to a letter obtained by @NBCNews.

Who knew about all these great loopholes?

[youthathletics]

It’s a special club, they protect their own.

[Trinity]

Public employees.

[dislaxxic]

Grenell’s Past Foreign Clients Make Him Unprecedented Choice To Lead Intel Community

If this is not a Swamp Thing, what the fork IS? WHY would Trumpists decide (once again) that everything they have stood for previously, every position they loudly and proudly forced upon the body politic MEANS NOTHING ANYMORE?

"Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is many things: ambassador to Germany, right-wing provocateur, and Instagram aficionado.

But what may present the biggest problem is his past as a media consultant for foreign political parties, governments, and businesses – and whether that work strayed into being a foreign agent and would have complicated his ability to receive a security clearance.

Former national security officials told TPM that Grenell crossed what has traditionally been seen as a red line: getting paid by foreign clients who are adverse to U.S. foreign policy, and then entering government."

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[dislaxxic]

Further:

What Grenell’s Foreign Client List Means [TPM Subscription]

THIS is the guy that Trumpists are just peachy with as DNI?? Cause "I can do whatever i WANT!"

"Acting DNI Richard Grenell has a problem with his consulting work for foreign clients.

Fortunately for us, he once decided to boast about them to the wider world.

It’s not a disclosure under the Foreign Agents Registration Act but, rather, something else: an archived version of his company Capitol Media Partners’ website, which lists a few intriguing entities on whose behalf Grenell apparently flacked.

Here's a screen shot of the webpage:



To obsessives like those of us here at TPM, it’s all interesting, but a few clients in particular catch my eye.

One is the country of Somalia, featured in blue showing the country’s breadth along the Horn of Africa.

What is this meant to signify? In what capacity did Grenell represent “Somalia”? Was it a political party, or the Somali government?

We don’t know, because he didn’t register under FARA.

Other clients include Zaland – a television channel for the Afghan diaspora. Capitol Media Partners put out a press release in 2011 about a bizarre episode in which the network’s founder appears to have been abducted in Kabul and made to denounce himself on TV at gunpoint as a CIA agent.

The executive was released safely; Grenell did what might be referred to as “damage control” after the incident. The network also produced a Youtube series that seems to be an Afghan version of Judge Judy – Kabul Court.

But for a connoisseur of all things post-Soviet and all things corrupt like myself, the granddaddy of the client list is in the bottom right of the page, with a gray logo: ENRC, the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation.

ENRC features in a long saga involving an Israeli diamond magnate, the Congo, and the London stock exchange.

A lot of the story remains murky and unknown, and to this day is at the center of heavy, contentious litigation that recently saw the daughter of a Kazakh oligarch convicted in a British court for hiding documents to protect her father.

But the basic story is this: ENRC, a publicly traded company on the London stock exchange, tried to make inroads in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011.

The firm entered into a copper-mining partnership with an Israeli magnate named Dan Gertler, who had been accused of making billions off of corrupt dealings with Congolese leaders to loot the country’s wealth.

ENRC was forced to back out of the partnership amid widespread criticism. It soon faced a criminal investigation in the UK, which is ongoing, and recently netted a conviction of the daughter of a Kazakh oligarch who partly owns ENRC after she refused to turn over evidence involving her father.

It’s not clear whether the U.S. opened any inquiry into ENRC and Gertler, but it is clear that the firm faced a real “image” problem at the time that Grenell listed it as a client.

What’s more is that Grenell has claimed elsewhere that he had clients in the U.K., Kazakhstan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The typically secretive Gertler went on a disastrous media tour at the time in a failed bid to save the ENRC deal.

The U.S. sanctioned Gertler over his Congolese dealings in 2018, calling him a “corrupt businessman.”

I’m interested in whether Grenell was involved in trying to clean this imbroglio up back when it began in 2012. We’ll be reporting back as the story develops."

The guy is an UBER Swamp Creature, and here he is being installed as head of our IC, without any confirmation hearings whatsoever, and Trump Bots are fine with it...

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[Kismet]

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/ar ... 51532.html

"A nonpartisan watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Devin Nunes Wednesday, calling for a congressional investigation into how the California Republican is paying for his lawsuits against media companies and critics."

[CU88]

Mike Pompeo put together an undisclosed board of outside advisers while CIA director that several former senior CIA officials thought “crossed a line," using “lavish” dinners & field trips to charm business leaders and influential political figures.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/2 ... ans-283350

This is the “swamp” that Trump said he would empty. He brought it to Washington.

[Nigel]

Summer is here!
Concerts start tonight. Masks and social distancing required...uh sort of...uh, never mind...just say you're 'protesting' if asked.

[6ftstick]

Summer is here!
Concerts start tonight. Masks and social distancing required...uh sort of...uh, never mind...just say you're 'protesting' if asked.

[youthathletics]

Summer is here!
Concerts start tonight. Masks and social distancing required...uh sort of...uh, never mind...just say you're 'protesting' if asked.

Hilarious.

[Brooklyn]

Donny Dump drains his swamp:

[holmes435]

"Why do you keep hiring people you think are wackos and liars?"

[CU88]

"Why do you keep hiring people you think are wackos and liars?"

We need to see that again and again for the next five months

[seacoaster]

Where exactly did the $500,000,000 go, Steve?

https://www.citizen.org/news/keeping-50 ... ds-secret/