Nunes' Info Allegedly Came from White House, Russia's Election Influence Debated, Trump Attacks Freedom Caucus: P.M. Links

• 

  Michael Reynolds/EPA/Newscom

  The leaks are coming from inside the house! The White House, apparently. Sources told the New York Times that the classified intel being provided to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that shows incidental post-election surveillance of President Donald Trump's team came from two White House officials.

• Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that his government attempted to meddle with America's 2016 elections.
• Meanwhile meanwhile, the Senate's Intelligence Committee is having a hearing to discuss all the ways that Russia attempts to meddle with other countries' elections.
• Trump's idea of trying to unite the country apparently includes attacking the Republican Freedom Caucus on Twitter for not voting for his health care reform proposals and suggesting its members need to be fought just like the Democrats.
• It appears as though North Carolina will repeal its controversial transgender bathroom law and replace it with a new law that simply bans cities from adding new categories to antidiscrimination and public accommodation ordinances. The new legislation (that I discussed earlier here) has passed the legislature and has just been signed by the governor.
• The Trump administration is reportedly relaxing rules of engagement intended to prevent civilian casualties in military counterterror strikes in Somalia.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Trump administration is reportedly relaxing rules of engagement intended to prevent civilian casualties in military counterterror strikes in Somalia.

All males are now considered military aged?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Military aged is just dry-aged with sulfur and charcoal.

[balff]

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that his government attempted to meddle with America's 2016 elections.

"Your rubles, sir."

[Citizen X - #6]

The Trump administration is reportedly relaxing rules of engagement intended to prevent civilian casualties in military counterterror strikes in Somalia.

They'll be the most relaxed rules. The most relaxed. Believe me.

[Zeb]

Is he channeling Rodney Dangerfield now?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

"My mother had morning sickness after I was born."

[Chipper Morning Wood]

"When I was born, I was so ugly my doctor slapped my mother."

[Philadelphia Collins]

"I got so desperate I bought a blow up sex doll. Turned out to be a lesbian."

[Fist of Etiquette]

It appears as though North Carolina will repeal its controversial transgender bathroom law and replace it with a new law that simply bans cities from adding new categories to antidiscrimination and public accommodation ordinances.

What happens when we discover new genders? You know we don't know them all yet.

[Citizen X - #6]

Crusty will finally be explicable?

[Jerryskids]

Stop segregating by gender and just go with the number of x chromosomes. It's the language those people are concerned with anyway. I don't give a damn if you want to call yourself a man or a woman or a bowl of chicken noodle soup - if you got two x chromosomes, here's your bathroom, if you ain't got two x chromosomes, yours is over there.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Triple X syndrome is not what I thought it was gonna be.

[Zeb]

That's going to be tough to monitor.

Maybe we should just do what we've been doing forever and use whatever bathroom you can get away with using with the least commotion.

[Jerryskids]

This is what pisses me off about this shit - it's got nothing to do with where people take a dump. All it is is power-tripping on forcing people to repeat the big lie, forcing them to publicly state that they believe that a person with a penis can be a woman if they want to be. Up is down, black is white, we've always been at war with Eastasia. You know you're broken and you know you're a shit-eating dog when you'll grin and say something you know damn well is a lie and everybody knows you know damn well it's a lie. It's not the sheer joy of shoving this shit in your face for them, it's the knowing that you know you're having shit shoved in your face and you're grinning and calling it ice-cream.

[mad.casual]

What happens when we discover new genders? You know we don't know them all yet.

They'll get a mandated minimum of $15/hr., same as downtown.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump's idea of trying to unite the country apparently includes attacking the Republican Freedom Caucus on Twitter...

First they flamed the libertarians and I said nothing because fuck those freaks.

[mad.casual]

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight on Twitter, we shall... shit that already sounds like a lot of tedious work.

[Conchfritters]

You had me until "We shall fight on Twitter"

[balff]

The Trump administration is reportedly relaxing rules of engagement intended to prevent civilian casualties in military counterterror strikes in Somalia.

The intention is good - let's do it!

[chemjeff]

Sources told the New York Times that the classified intel being provided to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that shows incidental post-election surveillance of President Donald Trump's team came from two White House officials.

Wait, so Nunes gets a briefing from WH officials and then Nunes runs to the camera to go and further the narrative that the WH wants him to? So this Nunes guy isn't too bright, is he?

[chemjeff]

Sources told the New York Times that the classified intel being provided to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that shows incidental post-election surveillance of President Donald Trump's team came from two White House officials.

Wait, so Nunes gets a briefing from WH officials and then Nunes runs to the camera to go and further the narrative that the WH wants him to? So this Nunes guy isn't too bright, is he?

[chemjeff]

Apologies for the squirrel attack

[Chip Your Pets]

That's way down on the list of things you need to apologize for.

[chemjeff]

I will absolutely not apologize for liking pineapple on pizza. No sirree.

[Citizen X - #6]

Nice masturbation euphemism in the alt text.

[Not a True MJG]

Clutching seems unhealthy in the long run.

[Gene]

Yes!

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Monkey's Paw was the nickname of my grandma's hand when she gave us candy.

[Jerryskids]

You're lucky - we got candy from our grandpa and he made us reach in his pant's pocket and feel around for it to get it. (He was pretty senile, I guess - oftentimes we'd feel around in his pant's pocket and he'd forgotten to put any candy at all in there!)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that his government attempted to meddle with America's 2016 elections.

This was a private operation.

[Conchfritters]

Well, the US has tried to influence foreign elections 81 times between 1946 and 2000 (that we know of). I look at this as American Winning and Russia Losing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...classified intel being provided to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that shows incidental post-election surveillance of President Donald Trump's team came from two White House officials.

Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...the Senate's Intelligence Committee is having a hearing to discuss all the ways that Russia attempts to meddle with other countries' elections.

The committee can't believe anyone would do such a thing.

[Jerryskids]

Meanwhile meanwhile, the Senate's Intelligence Committee is having a hearing to discuss all the ways that Russia attempts to meddle with other countries' elections.

Looking for tips or giving advice?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Jennifer Lawrence Is Almost Unrecognizable In This Bold New Ad For Dior

Jennifer Lawrence stars in a new Dior campaign that's doing its darnedest to link feminism and fashion, however bougie the approach.

The portfolio was shot by French photographer (and fellow badass woman) Brigitte Lacombe and, despite its admittedly narrow depiction of the feminist cause, brings the discussion of female empowerment to an industry that has not always been a friend to women.

Hopefully Dior's newest initiative brings change to the darker, more exploitative aspects of the fashion industry and utilizes the values of intersectional feminism in future portfolios.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Nice! If there's one market share that I want, it's luxury lesbian loot!

Or maybe androgynous asexual assets.....

[Chipper Morning Wood]

That's not good fapetizer, Crusty.

[Zeb]

Jennifer Lawrence, to her credit, has long supported equal rights for women.

What a brave stand to take!

Can anyone tell me in what areas women don't have equal rights, at least in North America and Western Europe? I'm having a hard time coming up with any. I guess they don't have the equal right to be drafted into the military.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

It's the family law principle of alimony and the marital household asset distribution, my guy:

"Equitable, not equal."

[Bubba Jones]

Hollywood

I am beginning to think that Hollywood is a misogynist shit hole.

Actresses turn themselves into pretzels to blame republicans for this. I think the argument is that if these enlightened democrats are this bad, imagine the horrors in Texas.

[mad.casual]

Can anyone tell me in what areas women don't have equal rights, at least in North America and Western Europe, Australia, swaths of C. America, S. Africa...?

Hell, conflating culture, corruption, and laws, you could kinda/sorta throw China and Russia in there too. Not that women aren't oppressed there but that they have access to the levers of power by law and whether you're asking about Equal rights or equal Rights. Worldwide, 10X as many male journalists are jailed as women and in the three largest offenders (Egypt, Turkey, and China), there's no law explicitly barring native women from attaining an education or foreign women (selectively) from speaking writing.

Certainly not a lot of countries where the law stipulates the maximum size of a stick men can beat their women with and that voting is explicitly limited to men anymore.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

EXCLUSIVE - Bird of paradise: Bikini-clad Megyn Kelly puts on a colorful display while flashing some skin as she snorkels out to sea in Hawaii(looking taut, toned and camera ready for NBC)

[Chipper Morning Wood]

SFed the link.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Oh, no!

Crusty, how much do you love the Daily Mail?

This much, friends.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

I don't get it. It's a fat ass.

Oh, it's a sex thing!

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

'I'm trying not to vomit or yell out Mosul': Outrage at Drexel University professor who said he was disgusted when a first-class flyer gave up his seat to a uniformed soldier

Cicariello-Maher, currently a visiting researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, was apparently disgusted after the act of kindness was applauded by his fellow passengers.

Even though his Twitter account is protected, his comments on March 26 sparked an uproar among Twitter users who called him 'unpatriotic'.

It's a Twitter story, so it's on Gillespie's beat.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Cicariello-Maher, currently a visiting researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico

Oh! A dipshit looking for pu-blitz-ity on the outrage-wave. He should practice his milk-foaming techniques.

[Not a True MJG]

He got tired of all the virtue signaling. We've all been there.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

McCain, North Korea in war of words over 'crazy fat kid' crack

The Arizona Republican's verbal put-down of dictator Kim Jong Un earlier this month ? "this crazy fat kid" ? was met with a stiff, angry response from the communist regime, which warned McCain of dire consequences to follow.

"As such guys as John McCain and [Sen.] Ted Cruz made a provocation tantamount to declaration of war against the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea], the DPRK will take steps to counter it," said an official DPRK statement, published by the Korean Central News Agency. "They will have to bitterly experience the disastrous consequences to be entailed by their reckless tongue-lashing and then any regret for it will come too late."

The statement, also coming in the wake of Cruz's efforts to label North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, went on to characterize McCain and Cruz as being "like a puppy knowing no fear of the tiger."

McCain, in a Wednesday Tweet, responded: "What, did they want me to call him a crazy skinny kid?"

[Chipper Morning Wood]

You know who else bitterly experienced the disastrous consequences entailed by their reckless tongue-lashing?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

I like my soldiers to not get into petty squabbles with tyrannical and imaginative executioner-despots.

"MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY! The mostly lesbian Double Penetrations take on the war-torn orphans of the Republic of Kane!"

[Aloysious]

This is an odd sensation. I find myself agreeing with John McCain.

Weird.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

'Stunning' Drug Lab Scandal Could Overturn 23,000 Convictions

About 23,000 people convicted of low-level drug crimes are expected to have their cases wiped away next month en masse, the result of a five-year court fight over the work of a rogue chemist.

"It's absolutely stunning. I have never seen anything like it," said Suzanne Bell, a professor at West Virginia University who serves on the National Commission of Forensic Science. "It's unbelievable to me that it could have even happened. And then when you look at the scope of the number of cases that may be dismissed or vacated, there are no words for it."

Will this change anything? Also, she was in prison for three years. #Neverforget.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

EPA Email Error Miscasts Coal-Country Senator as Trump Critic

"President Trump has chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand" by reversing regulations tackling "the greatest environmental challenge of our lifetime," Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican senator from West Virginia coal country, was quoted in the news release as saying.

The only problem? Capito never said any such thing.

And in a letter published Thursday in the New York Times, an environmental scientist at the agency described being "very saddened" to be toiling "under an EPA administrator whose role it is to dismantle the agency that he leads."

"I walk among my colleagues like a zombie in a bad dream," Michael Kravitz, the scientist, wrote. "I hope the nightmare ends soon."

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Michael Kravitz, formidable scientician, has just realized that zombies can dream, throwing four trillion years of social science theory out of the proverbial window and into the proverbial rubbish tin.

[mad.casual]

Yeah, that confused me too. In his dreams, he hungers for the brains of his colleagues? He ambles slowly or runs wildly, limbs flailing, among his colleagues just like a zombie in a dream someone had?

The metaphor, bad grammar, and distinct lack of punctuation make his meaning indecipherable, IMO. Probably best to remove the head or destroy the brain either way.

[Rufus The Monocled]

We're gonna anti-discriminate ourselves into oblivion.

[mad.casual]

I'm pretty sure this has been known for at least 50 yrs.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The EPA letter referenced above: Trump's Effort to Undo Climate Policies

I am an environmental scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, where I have enjoyed my work helping to improve our environment. But I am very saddened by what I see these days under an E.P.A. administrator whose role it is to dismantle the agency that he leads. I walk among my colleagues like a zombie in a bad dream; they also seem dazed.

Our standard weekly newsletter now contains articles mainly about flower shows and photo contests rather than articles about environmental protection. Our president comes to the E.P.A. to sign an executive order withdrawing the Clean Power Plan and other environmental policies, and the audience applauds.

I hope the nightmare ends soon.

MICHAEL J. KRAVITZ, CINCINNATI

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

THIS IS MICHAEL JAHOSEPHATITICUS KRAVITZ, SIGNING OFF!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't want to live in this dirty, dirty world anymore.

[DanO.]

post-election surveillance of President Donald Trump's team came from two White House officials

B-b-b-b-but Hillary.

[Fatty Bolger]

According to sources. What sources? How do they know? Are they in the administration, too? Were they the same sources that told the NYT that Trump was being wiretapped back in January?

[Chip Your Pets]

Am I the only one troubled by the NYT using anonymous sources to out someone else's anonymous sources? The press claims that they should be allowed to use anonymous sources because otherwise whistleblowers would be afraid to step forward -- but in this case they are HELPING to intimidate whistleblowers.

It's almost as if they think the only "leaks" that are OK are the ones that they think will help their political narrative.