Confronted by numerous new revelations concerning his administration’s collusion with the Russians, Trump, staying true to form, indicates that he’s ready to give the Russians back their spying facilities in Maryland and New York

Now that all of the confusion over Trump’s mysterious early morning tweet has been cleared up by Sean Spicer, who explained to the American people that ““a small group of people” who knew “exactly what (the President) meant,” let’s move on to the other big news of the day… which is that the Trump administration, in spite of the fact that all 17 of America’s intelligence agencies are in agreement that the Russians interfered in our last election, has begun the process of handing two U.S. diplomatic compounds that had been seized by the Obama administration back to the Russians.

That’s right. The compound in Maryland, which, according to former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer John Schindler,‏ “was a RIS SIGINT site aimed at NSA & DoD facilities on the Chesapeake, may soon be reopened thanks to Trump. And, one would imagine, this would be done over the objections of the U.S. intelligence community, which, according to Schindler, had “wanted to close (this compound) for decades.” [SIGNIT is intelligence community slang for “signals intelligence,” or the gathering of intelligence by way of intercepted signals. RIS the Russian Intelligence Service.] But, I don’t guess we should be surprised. This is, after all, the same President who, the day after firing the man heading the FBI investigation into possible collusion between his campaign staff and the Russians, snuck Russia’s most senior U.S. spy into the White House, where he then proceeded to share classified information concerning the identity of an Israeli operative working inside ISIS.

Here, for what it’s worth, is the Russian tweet from last week that appears to have started the wheels turning in the Trump administration.

And, for what it’s worth, today’s news about Trump wanting to give the facilities in New York and Maryland back to the Russians broke on the same day that White House spokesperson Sean Spicer informed the press that, from now on, he would no long be taking questions about evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians… Oh, and we also learned that Congress is investigating the possibility of yet another undisclosed meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Russian spymaster Sergey Kislyak. So, in just a matter of a few days, not only have we learned that the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner attempted to establish a secret communications channel with the Kremlin, and succeeded in meeting covertly with with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a sanctioned Russian bank, but now it looks as though our Attorney General might still be lying about the extent to which he interacted with Russians during the transition.

But, apparently, even if it’s all true, it’s nothing to really worry about… That’s right, after months of denying backchannel communications and collusion, it seems as though the administration is now taking a slightly different approach. Yesterday, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway referred to Kushner’s undisclosed backchannels with Russia as just something that happens during the “regular course of business.” And, meanwhile, on Fox News, Gregg Jarrett was explaining to the American people, if you can believe it, that “collusion is not a crime.” Here, if you need a good laugh, is the video.

So the bar is moving. While the White House is refusing to talk, the administration’s supporters are attempting to reframe the issue. No longer are they saying there was absolutely no collusion, but now they seem to be saying, “Sure there was collusion with the Russians, but so what?” And, not only was there collusion, and an attempt on the part of the administration to use a secure communications channel inside the Russian embassy in order to talk directly with the Kremlin without the knowledge of the U.S. government, but, guess what? We’re going to give the Russians back their spy compounds. Oh, and we’re also going to pull out of the Paris Accord. Sure, it means the end of the earth as we know it, but, on the plus side, the Russian oil companies will make out like bandits.

And, in spite of it all, Trump still has his supporters… Maybe he was on to something back during the campaign when he said that he could shoot someone and not lose any voters. I suspect, if we stay on this trajectory much longer, we may find out.

Lastly, here, because I can’t stop watching it, is video of Spicer attempting to do the impossible earlier today and explain away the President’s “covfefe” typo as a well thought out message to “a small group of people” who knew “exactly what he meant.” And, yes, this is what Spicer’s job has come to, standing in front of a small group of people who see him as a pathetic joke, and, with completely dead eyes, regurgitating whatever lies he’s been instructed to repeat, no matter how laughably ridiculous they may be.

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7 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 6:50 am | Permalink

    Another entry for your “Collusion, So What?” file.

    https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/870107959518314496

  2. Claude Taylor by proxy
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 6:59 am | Permalink

    Can you imagine what Putin has on him? The silver lining is that at some point, Putin will show us. No Donald, Putin is not your friend.

  3. Claude Taylor by proxy
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 6:59 am | Permalink

    Returning Russian spy compounds. That’s it then. Trump is no longer trying to hide or deny being Putin’s bitch.

  4. David Olson
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 7:59 am | Permalink

    Starting to smell like quid pro quo to go alone with that obstruction of justice.

    Worth noting that the new undisclosed Sessions meeting with known spy-master Kislyak at the Mayflower was also attended by Kushner and Flynn—and all three denied or “forgot” about the private meeting during their vetting and security clearance protocols. Session was under oath when he failed to disclose.

  5. Jean Henry
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 9:33 am | Permalink

    There is no statute against collusion outside of anti-trust law. That would be over broad and impossible to enforce. Fox News was correct.
    But as always they omitted the statutes that Trump may be in violation of because of his interactions and quid pro quo with Russia: 1) emoluments clause of the constitution (benefiting financially from the presidency) 2)interfering with elections 3)obstruction of justice.

    It’s important to understand what can and cannot bring down the presidency. Trump is pushing the envelope of our system of checks and balances and exposing its weaknesses. A lot of things many presumed to be illegal are not. And many of them should be. It may not be as much fun as deriding our president, but we need to understand the legal issues we are spouting off about if we are ever going to fix them.

  6. Kat
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 10:06 am | Permalink

    What do you think the Russians were referring to in their tweet when they threatened counter measures? Do you think that maybe they really do have something on Trump?

  7. Citywatch
    Posted June 1, 2017 at 10:21 am | Permalink

    Business deals. Once again, we need to see his tax returns….all of them.

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  1. […] the highlights from the first year, in alphabetical order… Agalarov, Bowling Green Massacre, Covfefe, DeVos, emoluments clause, fake news, etc… After a while, though, I just got too depressed. […]

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