Chemical weapons are horrible. Most ways that civilians die in war are horrible. Yet we have legitimate, important reasons for creating norms that prevent the use of certain classes of weapons. Chemical weapons are high on that list. But if the events of the last few days take you from “hands off, not our problem” to “Assad needs to go” it’s hard to come to any other conclusion than that you simply weren’t paying attention until now.
Well, not just un-masking but that’s part of the discussion. In Episode #15 of The Josh Marshall Show I talk to Brookings Institution Fellow Susan Hennessey. Susan is the Managing Editor of the must-read national security Lawfare blog as well as a former Intelligence Community lawyer who worked at the National Security Agency.
The Trump/Russia story has pushed to the center of the news a whole series of questions and practices about how intelligence collection works, what’s legal, what’s not and a lot more. These are technicalities that many of us just don’t know that much about. But they’ve become increasingly important for understanding what the stories we’re reading mean. That is why I was so excited to talk to Susan for Episode 15 of The Josh Marshall Show. Listen right here and let us know what you think.
President Trump a few moments ago when asked about a potential staff shakeup: “I think we’ve had one of the most successful 13 weeks in the history of the presidency.”
Rosland Capital, the company that will sell you gold to store in your home safe for the apocalypse and//or race war has decided to remain as an advertiser with Bill O’Reilly.
Since we’re now on the precipice, my argument: The Dems are right to filibuster, nuclear option or not. Let it happen.
I want to continue the discussion that Josh began with his recent post on Trump’s demotion of Stephen Bannon from the “Principals Group.” The question to ask is whether after a month of unmitigated political disaster, Donald Trump has finally learned something. There are hints, but only bare hints, in this and other moves that he may have.
Devin Nunes to “step away temporarily” from running House Russia probe.
They do not appear to be using the word “recuse”, but that sounds like the gist of what we’re hearing … This appears to be driven by a new Ethics probe into Nunes action.
More after the jump …
Picking up on my argument from last night about how campaign era figures like Bannon, Flynn et al. (likely Russia scandal compromised figures, mind you) are being nudged to the side in favor of figures like McMaster, McGahn, Mattis, etc, (national security bureaucrats and party regulars) here’s a related point.
There’s no subtle insight required to note that Steven Bannon’s removal from the National Security Council’s principals’ committee may be a significant development. White House officials claim Bannon’s role had primarily been to monitor the activities of former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. Bannon himself said in a statement: “Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration. I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized.” These explanations barely rise to the level of preposterous and seem to employ big words to make up whatever gap remains. But this dramatic step comes in the midst of other developments which we cannot know are explicitly connected but together look like a qualitative sea-change in the evolution of this still quite new administration.
“I guess the thrill is gone,” J says to me. J owns a small landscaping business. He drives a pickup truck. He is in his fifties with long hair. He is prone to conspiracy theories. He used to recommend these suspect websites to me. I was surprised last winter when he admired my “Bernie for President” sign. He liked Bernie. But his candidate was Donald Trump, and he voted for him last November. Now he was telling me that the thrill was gone.