No wonder the elite mock them!

JUST WHILE I WAS REPENTING of my elitist ways after hearing Congressman Dent tell us these coal miners and assembly line Trump supporters just want to be respected AND having finished "The Retreat of Western Liberalism" by Edward Luce in which he says much the same thing, I FIND THIS NONSENSE POSTED BY ONE SUCH. (He works at a call center, not a factory, but call centers ARE the new factories.)

TRUMP SUPPORTERS - You want respect? Don't say such effing IGNORANT things as my friend (and he IS my friend) is saying.

I'll respect your hard work, your love of family, your ethical seriousness, the degree to which your livelihoods and paychecks have been diminished over the last 40 years (AS HAVE MINE)... but I CANNOT respect your belief in Breitbart, InfoWars, Russia Today, and other crackpot nonsense.

SLAP YOURSELVES!
For those on planet earth, feel free to cut and paste for YOUR Trump idiot friends.

And so it begins...

TRUMP DORK: you have plenty demonstrably false facts.

You accuse the president of colluding with Russia to beat Hillary without any evidence whatsoever up to this minute, none.

When you are ideologically driven apparently again facts, evidence, proof-- all those things don't matter.

This is why it's hard to take you seriously.

You're ready to impeach on a technicality.

You know that's a reflection of your weak philosophy don't you?

RESPONSE:

"You accuse the president of colluding with Russia"

I have never accused Trump of colluding with Russia.

I have accused him of LYING about his and his campaigns' CONNECTIONS to the Russian government (as in Don Jr's "oh, goody!" response to the Russian governments offer of dirt on Hillary), Jared Kushner's meeting with a sanctioned Russian bank that does not operate as a bank, has had one employee imprisioned as a Russian spy and whose top guy - the guy Kushner met with - was hand-picked by Putin after the guy graduated from Russian spy school. Also, Trump's odd good fortune when it comes to killer real estate deals with Russian oligarchs, and his campaign manager (Manafort) and erstwhile National Security Advisor (Flynn) being on the payroll of foreign governments (the pro-Putin Ukrainian president, Turkey) promoting the interests of Russian oligarchs.

As usual you have no clue as to what is going on. Every one of the clauses above have been verified BY Don Jr., real estate transactions records, Kushner, Manafort and Flynn.

Now we're going to see if any of that - and, I suspect, MUCH, MUCH, more - rises to the level of collusion in the expert opinion of the Special Prosecutor, his highly capable attorneys with specialties in RICO and money laundering and the all-powerful DC grand jury they have assembled.

Oh. And obstruction of justice. Of COURSE I fired Comey because of Russia, he says, to NBC news and Russian diplomats IN THE OVAL OFFICE.

Again, demonstrably true per NBC's video and the White House read-out on the Oval Office meeting.

But do go on about my "demonstrably false facts."

How about refuting some of them? :-) :-) :-)

I AGREE WITH PAUL RYAN.

I AGREE WITH PAUL RYAN. Damn. Did I say that out loud, or just think it? :-)

A leak can mean I'm party to an off-the-record lunch with Trump but then anonymously leak what was said. Impolite and grounds for termination if an employee. But not illegal.

The leaks that count are leaks from classified information that comes into one's possession through one's professional employment. Leaks that endanger the means and methods by which the government acquired the information (such "means and methods" possibly including an individual whose life has just been put at risk).

If that employee determines, for whatever reason, to leak that information to the journalist it is fair game for the media outlet to make that public... AFTER confirming the information with the government and making whatever reasonable redactions the government requests... then that is on the leaker and the press HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY to give up their source to the government.

Now, if the journalist IN ANY WAY encourages or enables or assists the leaker in leaking, then they share - morally and legally - the guilt of the leaker.

If the individual who leaked the contents of Flynn's intercepted (presumably by the NSA, CIA, or FBI) call to the Russian ambassador at the end of December is caught, their career is ruined and they'll probably go to jail. And, legally, they should.

However, had they not leaked that, we would still have a foreign agent as National Security Advisor, James Comey would still be head of the FBI, and we would not have a Special Prosecutor who - I am convinced - WILL get to the bottom of who did what in the election.

So, legally, guilty. Morally, God knows. Historical legacy?

They may yet be naming elementary schools after him or her.

"Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended journalists Friday, saying that while intelligence leaks compromise national security, it's "the problem of the leaker, not the journalist."  

""Leaks are concerning because leaks can often compromise national security, but that’s the problem of the leaker not the journalist," Ryan said at an event in Muskego, Wis., on Friday afternoon."

Paul Ryan: Intel leaks 'the problem of the leaker, not the journalist' (The Hill)