Fired Intel Community Inspector General Very Nicely Tells President Crime-Baby To Eat A Bag Of F*ck
Michael Atkinson has a few more things he'd like to say!
Friday night, in a late news dump, we learned that Donald Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general, because we guess he was having a little shithole authoritarian temper tantrum and that was the only thing that would make him feel better. Yes, Trump did this in the middle of a pandemic that he is so serious about that he's obsessively trying to make Americans ingest an unproven drug that may or may not be effective.
Atkinson's sin, obviously, is that he protected the whistleblower who made America aware that Trump was trying to steal another election by actively extorting Ukraine to announce fake investigations into Joe Biden in exchange for military aid that Congress had already appropriated and was desperately needed by Ukraine in its hot war with Russia. Atkinson also made Congress aware of the whistleblower complaint, which is what he was supposed to do according to the law. And yes, that includes Adam Schiff, because he is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
In other words, Trump fired Atkinson for doing his job, exactly as we'd expect an un-American barely elected president with authoritarian tendencies to do.
Atkinson has responded to being fired, and it's quite a statement, albeit an extremely professional one:
It is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General, and from my commitment to continue to do so.
Yep, that's what happened! Here is the full statement:
Atkinson gave a fervent defense of our American process for protecting whistleblowers from regimes that just cannot stop committing crimes, defended his lawful handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, and signed off with a message for the other IGs, which kinda boils down to "Yes I am being fired for doing my job, and Donald Trump is trying to intimidate all the other IGs who are witnesses to his crimes. Fuck him."
Of course, he says it nicer than that:
Finally, a message for any government employee or contractor who believes they have learned of or observed unethical, wasteful, or illegal behavior in the federal government. They are counting on you to use authorized channels to bravely speak up -- there is no disgrace in doing so. It is important to remember, as others have said, that the need for secrecy in the United States intelligence Community is not a grant of power, but a grant of trust. [...] I have faith that my colleagues in Inspectors General Offices throughout the federal government will continue to operate effective and independent whistleblower programs, and that they will continue to do everything in their power to protect the rights of whistleblowers. Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices.
"Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices." Ooh, we wonder what he means by that!
Before coronavirus became the only thing we have time to think about, Trump was on a rampage purging all the people who witnessed the crimes he committed against Ukraine and against American democracy, for which he was rightfully impeached forever and then acquitted in a Kremlin-style Susan Collins sham trial in the Senate. Trump's little stunt Friday night shows you where his heart really is, and it's not with the thousands of dead bodies piling up, deaths he could have done something to prevent if he wasn't singularly focused on exacting retribution against the patriots who saw something and said something about his crimes.
Trump's mal-developed shitbaby pattern continues even in the coronavirus crisis, as we saw the other day when the (acting) secretary of the Navy relieved Captain Brett Crozier from command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after Crozier spoke out to protect the 4,000 sailors in his keep from the mindfucking incompetence of the Trump coronavirus response. Trump claims he didn't personally make the decision to fire Crozier, but that didn't stop him from publicly bitching and moaning about Crozier this weekend. And if Trump in fact did not make the decision, it doesn't negate our point, but merely confirms that Thomas Modly, the (acting) secretary of the Navy, is a Trump hack who doesn't need to be told to do Trump's dirty whiny ass titty baby work.
"The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place," Trump said. "That's not appropriate."
"I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter," Trump said.
Fuck you.
And of course, Trump also found time during the pandemic this weekend to bitch and moan some more about acting ICIG Michael Atkinson, whom he had fired the night before.
On Saturday, Trump defended his move to fire Atkinson during a press conference, saying, "I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible."
"He took this terrible, inaccurate whistleblower report and he brought it to Congress."
That whistleblower complaint was 100 percent fucking accurate, maybe the dumbshit president of the United States should READ TEH TREAJSJD;KFADKKFJAJICRRIPT5!11!1PENIS!
Trump also said of the whistleblower during that presser that "somebody should sue his ass off," and babbled more about "fake reports" and "perfect calls," because he literally knows 100 words and just recycles them over and over again:
Trump says of whistleblower: 'Somebody ought to sue his ass off' www.youtube.com
This is what Trump is using his corona-lingus press conferences for these days. Whining and bellyaching about the few remaining competent people in the United States government, both the ones he's fired and the ones he hasn't had a chance to fire yet.
Isn't it awesome that Trump is whining like this while dead bodies pile up all around him? This must be what MAGA really means.
[ Politico / New York Post ]
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Trump's entire career is a testimony to the power of the Peter Principle and its equivalent derivation: that most managers and "leaders" would rather pass the problem to somebody else, because they lack the moral fiber to enforce accountability.
And now accountability itself is claimed to be partisan.
Please, keep talking, everyone who is an expert. Those of us who really do have common sense are out here and listening, even if the Performing Monkeys with bigger platforms (a current problem we are also trying to address) are trying to do their best to drown you out