Not their best ever, but still better than a poke in the eye.

… Read the rest

So Trump and the trumpies knew the intelligence professionals were alarmed, so they (apparently) made haste to try to get rid of them. That’s not at all sinister or incriminating.

Three days after his now infamous phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Donald Trump abruptly fired his director of national intelligence in favour of an inexperienced political loyalist.

According to a New York Times report, the White House learned within days that the unorthodox call on 25 July with Zelenskiy had raised red flags among intelligence professionals and was likely to trigger an official complaint.

That timeline has raised new questions over the timing of the Trump’s dismissal by tweet of the director of national intelligence (DNI),

From the Guardian live:

Rudy Giuliani, livid over the whistleblower complaint alleging that he improperly tried to convince Ukraine to launch an investigation of Joe Biden, vented his frustration to an Atlantic reporter.

“It is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons – when this is over, I will be the hero,” Giuliani told the Atlantic.

He added: “I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government. … Anything I did should be praised.”

Giuliani’s role as the president’s personal lawyer has raised concerns about a private citizen getting involved in foreign policy.

Just a … Read the rest

Somebody at that event this morning recorded Trump’s ravings and gave the recording to the LA Times.

Speaking at a private event in New York, Trump described reporters as “scum” and raged at the Democrats’ new impeachment proceedings, which were spurred by the whistleblower’s complaint alleging that Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine’s leader to interfere in the 2020 election.

The still-unidentified whistleblower acknowledged that he did not listen to Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, but cited information from more than half a dozen U.S. officials over the past four months as part of “official interagency business.”

“Basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call, he never saw the call — heard

He’s losing it.

He’s all but screaming as he announces that Bidens father and son walked away with “millions of dollars from Ukraine, and then millions of dollars from [pause] CHYNAH.” Which is just made up out of his own rotting head.

Somebody needs to do something to make very sure he can’t take revenge on all of us.

Updating to add: CNN put up an instant fact check as Trump screamed lies about people into the cameras.

… Read the rest

Trump this morning (after the complaint was released):

Trump told a group of staffers from the US Mission to the United Nations this morning that he wanted to know who provided information to the whistleblower and alluded to possible retaliation, according to the New York Times.

The Times reports:

The remark stunned people in the audience, according to a person briefed on what took place, who had notes of what the president said. Mr. Trump made the statement about several minutes into his remarks before the group of about 50 people at the event intended to honor the United States Mission. At the outset, he condemned the former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s role in Ukraine at a