Summary
Democratic senators have raised concerns over Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence, citing her past meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her embrace of Russian talking points.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Gabbard shared a video echoing a false Kremlin claim that the U.S. was funding biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
A former Democratic congresswoman and critic of U.S. foreign policy, Gabbard recently joined the Republican Party and would now oversee 18 intelligence agencies and prepare the President’s Daily Brief.
Fitting, considering she completely lacks it
“Hnnngggg”
- Vladimir Putin
First, I want to congratulate the intelligence operations of our foreign enemies for this great accomplishment
Yeah, kinda scary to realize that the Cold War is only now winding down - and we lost. Badly.
BadlyBiglyBadlyBiglyYugely
Thune won the Senate Majority Leader post, and he seems like he’s not gonna press the “Recess” button to let Trump put in all his appointments without Senate confirmation, at least as long as Democrats don’t try to outright block any nominations. I think that’s probably the best deal we till get on that.
So that means we will actually get hearings on this one (and Matt Gaetz), which will be fun to watch. We’ll see if they manage to get 50 Republicans behind those two. They might not.
That article starts out by saying he hasn’t ruled out recess appointments.
“I’m willing to grind through it and do it the old-fashioned way,”
If they attempted to block or obstruct hearings, he was keeping his options open.
Honestly, this is the smart move no matter what his plans are. If he took a position either way he’d just be provoking a backlash for no reason, and at the time when his position is most vulnerable.
Not even pretending to not be driven by cronyism.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/tulsi-gabbard-dni-intelligence-trump-appointment/
Gabbard, a former lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, is a one-time middle-of-the-road Democratic member of Congress who has evolved into a Trump supporter. She moved leftward in 2016—endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders that year—and ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 on a campaign that blasted the Democratic foreign policy establishment, before endorsing Trump this year.
Along the way, Gabbard has demonstrated excessive credulity about claims of autocrats hostile to the United States. In 2017, she drew fire for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a secret trip to Syria. Later that year, she said she was skeptical of US intelligence findings that led then–Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to say US officials had “a very high level of confidence” that chemical weapons attacks that killed dozens of people in Syria “were carried out by aircraft” under Assad’s direction.
Gabbard’s position aligned with arguments from Russian officials, who provided key backing to Assad and argued that the 2017 attack was staged by agents of the United Kingdom.
Gabbard again bolstered Russian propaganda in 2022, when she tweeted a video repeating Kremlin claims that US-funded labs in Ukraine were developing biological weapons. The Russian claims appeared to be largely made-up justifications for Russia invading its neighbor.
Gabbard’s comments drew widespread criticism. “Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) tweeted at the time. “Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”
As Stephen Colbert used to say, reality has a Russian bias. That “biolabs are pure awesomeness” is a strange hill to want to die on. Nevermind that Americans need to instigate/perpetuate a war on Russia to be happy, and then after losing, need to spend even more on military to catch up.
The complete investment of your identity in US disinformation propaganda is exactly why your government is shit, and just got shittier. Tulsi is a ray of hope to be less shit.
As Stephen Colbert used to say, reality has a Russian bias.
Do you mean when he was a fake conservative on a show making fun of Fox News?
You do know that show was all fake, right?
his actual quote is “reality has a liberal bias”. Liberal used to be inclusive of anti-war, and included non-suicidal respect for Russia.
So you put your words in his mouth.
Are you usually this dishonest?
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Nice word salad there, but you still dishonestly put your words in his mouth and attributed them to him.
Also, taking out a letter doesn’t make your bigoted ableism any less bigoted.
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Dumbest motherfucking people in the world elected the dumbest motherfucking administration ever. The only upside that I can anticipate is that these dumb motherfuckers may greatly hasten the weakening of this country, and hopefully speedrun toward something like an end to US hegemony around the world.
the irony…
It’s over everyone. Where are ya’ll moving? I’m thinking NZ
Hope you’re a millionaire. It’s expensive to just exist there.
I’m thinking of starting a suicide cult
I have a sinking feeling a lot will just be skipping the cult part
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
All are welcome
The right answer is “a nearby commune full of trustworthy people with skills”
I’m not sure I”m ready to call anyone “trustworthy” at this juncture
I dont think anyone’s gonna want us.
They’re not really allowing that many immigrants because so many from the U.S. try to move there.
Claim refugee status
I don’t think anyone wants people as dumb as we are.
Mostly, empires get soft from the middle. The military and economy is still so strong that as the people get soft after generations of cushy living, they’re still protected by the hard exterior, until finally some internal calamity brings the rottenness of the whole edifice into view, and adversaries start picking off the loose pieces from the edges as they gradually fade away over time after the collapse.
You could say that’s what’s happening here, but definitely Russia’s espionage and propaganda operation that put Trump in charge is a huge coup while the US is still pretty strong at the edges. They found a way through the barricades to strike at the rotten spot, and they’re nowhere near done twisting the knife to maximize the damage.
As always, technology doesn’t change human behaviors, it just speeds them up.
Tulsi Gabbard and Director of National Intelligence, what an oxymoron.
It’s a typo. They meant to write Vladimir Putin.
He’s just trolling us at this point.
Cant wait to see American spies in Russia mysteriously getting caught by fsb en masse after Jan 20. Would be an odd coincidence…
Just like last time
I’m not sure I understand why the voters decided this was the right way for their revolution, but it just seems like a weird approach to destroying your government. You still have tons of nukes on your soil. You think those can only go off outside your borders? You think you get a share when the launch codes are sold to the highest bidder? Or are you hoping Musk will be in charge of that, because he’s a rocket scientist?
I hope they get what they want though.
