Tuesday March 13th. Today has been a crazy day. I’m going to have to go short on some of these stories, since I’ve been watching the PA-18 race a little too closely.
So, here’s what we know…
- Rex Tillerson spoke out against Russia and Putin yesterday, flat out saying that the Skripal poisoning was performed by Russia.
- About twelve hours later, Trump tweeted out that he was firing Rex Tillerson.
- Trump will nominate CIA Director and sycophant Mike Pompeo as his new Secretary of State.
- Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel will be the first woman to run the CIA. She’s a life-long spook who ran one of CIA’s black sites where she oversaw torture, then destroyed the evidence of it afterward.
- Trump’s team tried saying that Rex was asked to leave on Friday, but refused.
- Rex’s spokesman said no.
- Rex’s spokesman was fired for not towing the party line.
- Rex leaves by saying “Russia did it.”
I’ve never liked Rex Tillerson. He was too chummy with Russia, and a complete left-field choice that was out of his element, when Mitt Romney was probably the best, only choice to be America’s chief diplomat.
Pompeo is a Trump sycophant. Trump likes him because he’s a yes man, one of his “loyal” men. I’m worried about him, but this assumes that he even gets to a Senate hearing.
The greatest thing that Rex Tillerson did as Secretary of State was calling Trump a “fucking moron.”
ROGER STONE HAD CONTACT WITH WIKILEAKS BEFORE KNOWLEDGE OF HACKING BECAME KNOWN
Two people testified before Mueller’s Grand Jury that Roger Stone told them that he had contact with Wikileaks and Julian Assange before the hacked mails became common knowledge. One of these men was Sam Nunberg. The other was the source for this story.
10:53 PM: Fuck, I need a drink. Lamb’s up by 755 votes, but it’s WAAAYYYY too close to call. The absentee ballots will need to be counted. Washington and Greene Counties won’t get theirs done tonight, but Allegheny and Westmoreland should have their absentees counted by Midnight.
This could actually fucking happen.
10:56 PM: 95 fucking votes? Are you fucking shitting me?! 95! 100% of precincts in Greene, Allegheny, and Washington are in. 99% of Westmoreland is in. The absentees are still outstanding.
Allegheny: 3500 absentee ballots requested
Washington: 1140
Westmoreland: 1800
Greene: 203
11:06 PM: 847 votes. Pennsylvania does not have automatic recounts for Congressional Districts, only for statewide races. Allegheny’s absentee votes were counted. About 90% of the requested absentees were returned. 3143 absentee ballots, plus two precincts fro Westmoreland are left. They’re likely being driven to Greensburg, and the roads and weather were a little lousy today.
11:22 PM: Looks like Westmoreland and Washington are counting their absentee ballots tonight. Saccone would need to pull a 2:1 margin from the absentees to have a shot.
11:39 PM: Washington county is counting the absentees right now. This could take a few hours. I am NOT staying up for that, no matter how much stress I go through.
11:59 PM: All precincts are in, and the absentee ballots are counted for Westmoreland. Conor Lamb is up by 579. Washington County and Green have (1195+203) 1398 ballots left. Greene probably won’t count until tomorrow/today, but it might be a moot point. Doing the math, Saccone would need to win more than 75% of the remaining ballots there. Including Greene, Saccone would need…more than 70% of the vote from Washington County. Saccone is quickly entering mathematically eliminated territory.
STORMY WATCH, FROM THE STORM CENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER
- Friend overheard phone calls between Trump and Stormy, there were about sex.
- Stormy Daniels’s Lawyer Says Trump Missed Settlement Offer Deadline
NEW CIA DIRECTOR RAN A BLACK SITE
This was during the Bush 43 days, during the “Torture is good” days.
GOP REP TOM ROONEY: “WE LOST ALL CREDIBILITY”, TREY GOWDY DISAGREES WITH GOP HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE
Funny how they’ll come out of the woodwork to criticize it after Nunes makes an ass of the House of Representatives.
JOHN McENTEE, TRUMP’S PERSONAL ASSISTANT, FIRED FROM WHITE HOUSE
McEntee was Trump’s body man, his PA. He was forcibly removed from the White House yesterday. He was grabbed and shown the door. They wouldn’t let him gather his personal belongings. Fuck, they wouldn’t let him get his coat.
He is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for some serious financial crimes that are unrelated to Trump. Looks like he has a fuckton of gambling debts from online poker, and a few other financial problems.
In classic Trumpian fashion, he has been hired for the Trump Re-election Campaign, and is being paid with a salary coming from the Republican National Committee.
SPEED ROUND!
ICE SPOKESMAN RESIGNS, CAN’T ABIDE THE LYING ANYMORE
EXXON MOBIL WITHDRAWS FROM ROSNEFT DEAL DUE TO SANCTIONS
Exxon stands to lose $200 million from cancelling this deal. They can pull it from their spare change jar.
SECOND PUTIN ENEMY FOUND DEAD IN LONDON, AS COUNTER-TERROR POLICE LAUNCH INVESTIGATION
MANAFORT COULD FACE ‘REST OF LIFE IN PRISON,’ JUDGE SAYS,CURRENTLY FACES A MAXIMUM OF 305 YEARS
That’s just the known indictments. This doesn’t include the sealed indictments that are still out there.
PDF: STATUS OF RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION FROM HOUSE INTEL DEMOCRATS
Eric Garland has a quick breakdown here from his Twitter. I need to go through this with a fine toothed comb.
This is the woman from Oleg’s boat, who’s stuck in a Thai prison.
ALEX JONES IS FINALLY GETTING THE DEFAMATION LAWSUIT HE DESERVES
Fuck Alex Jones.
FROM RUSSIAN ROULETTE: PAPADOPOULOS CLAIMS TRUMP PERSONALLY ENCOURAGED HIM TO MEET WITH PUTIN
Looks like I’ve got a new book for my listening list.
RUMOR MILL: TILLERSON, POMPEO, AND HASPEL
Yes, I rock the Oxford comma.
The firing of Tillerson was a shock, and several of the Alt accounts said that Rex was the nicest of the Cabinet members, and the most patriotic, which was a bit of a shock.
Pompeo is a shit, and no one likes him. He’s an asshat who has taken more money from the Koch’s than anyone else.
Gina Haspel is a weird one. Her involvement with the torture and black sites paint a dirty picture, but several people, including those near the NatSec community, say that she’s a good choice for the job, and will put the country first.
That’s it for today.
A link to a tweet for the 7000 shoes memorial on the Capitol lawn. Each pair of shoes represents a child who was killed by gunfire since Sandy Hook. Each pair is a little boy or girl who will never grow up. A teenager who will never fall in love. A kid who loved to play with toys, but never got a chance to outgrow them. Each pair of shoes is a parent who had to say goodbye to their baby.
According to the BBC, Professor Stephen Hawking has just passed away. He was 76 years old, and quite likely the most brilliant man of the 20th century. Because of him, we have a better idea of how the universe and multiverse work. He has long suffered from ALS. He held the same chair at Cambridge that Sir Isaac Newton held. Stephen did not want to receive a knighthood, even though the Queen offered it to him about a dozen times. He was also the first person to play himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
He was one of my childhood heroes. A Brief History of Time still sits on my bookshelf, and every so often, I’ll flip through it again.
From the stars we came, to the stars we return. We are all made of stardust.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
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