thanks Obama thanks!

Oh gosh, another day of fun as the world tries to get to the bottom of Donald Trump's probably very seedy ties with Russia! The New York Times has a fascinating report out that confirms something we expected mighta happened in the waning days of the Obama administration, namely that Obummer acolytes did everything they could to "hide" intelligence about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russian spies, in the couch cushions, behind the fridge, in the bottom drawer under all the dildos -- basically anywhere they could think of where the Trump regime wouldn't immediately find it and destroy it, but where intelligence officials were bound to stumble on it.

Lookit:

In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.

Like Hansel and Gretel, except not with breadcrumbs birds could have eated, but with names and dates and places that seasoned spies would recognize as Part Of The Story.

More:

At the Obama White House, Mr. Trump’s statements stoked fears among some that intelligence could be covered up or destroyed — or its sources exposed — once power changed hands. What followed was a push to preserve the intelligence that underscored the deep anxiety with which the White House and American intelligence agencies had come to view the threat from Moscow.

It also reflected the suspicion among many in the Obama White House that the Trump campaign might have colluded with Russia on election email hacks — a suspicion that American officials say has not been confirmed. Former senior Obama administration officials said that none of the efforts were directed by Mr. Obama.

See, Donald Trump? It wasn't Obama himself who was out to get you, it was just people who like him very much, and also love America and would not like to hand over the country to the Russians. That's all.

According to the Times, these Obama-loving officials would ask sneaky questions in intelligence briefings, so those questions would be preserved for the record, and they did everything they could to make sure the broad strokes of what they were learning wasn't too classified, so as many people as possible could see it. The Times notes that this enabled officials to share stuff on "Intellipedia," a Wikipedia-style thing that actually exists, because of course it does.

On the really top secret stuff, they "tightened the already small number of people who could access that information," to keep it away from as many prying eyes as they could. (And the Times doesn't say it, but remember all those reports about the intelligence community keeping some of its BEST SHIT from the Trump regime? Maybe some of it is the incriminating stuff they have, about the Trump regime!)

So, hooray for patriots who did everything they could to make sure the truth of the Trump Russia scandal would eventually see the light of day!

This, of course, comes as news trickles out every day, like a Russian pee hooker who's good at "trickling," that pretty much every person Donald Trump has ever met has weird, screwy Russian connections that need to be investigated. We're learning about Attoney General Jeff Sessions having some sort of phone sexxx with the Russian ambassador (and maybe perjuring himself in his confirmation hearings, by lying about it!). That's the same guy, Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, what got former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in such big trouble and eventually cost him his job, because they chit-chatted too much about lifting sanctions on Russia. As CNN notes, Kislyak isn't JUST the ambassador, but also "one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington." HUH!

Rachel Maddow did a fascinating story this week about weird connections between newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and his connection to a super-bizarre (and highly profitable!) real estate deal between Donald Trump and a Russian oligarch.

Oh and have you seen all this news about the daughters of former Trump adviser Paul Manafort, who has weird ties to pro-Kremlin goons in Ukraine, getting their text messages hacked, messages that suggest they were very concerned Dear Old Dad got in too far over his head with Russia and Ukraine, and that all the cash he was making in Ukraine was "blood money"? Weird, right?

AND there's the weird thing abut Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who does SO MUCH weird business in Ukraine, either hand-delivering to Mike Flynn a "peace plan" that would give Russia everything it wants from Ukraine and lift the sanctions, or maybe he didn't "hand deliver it," but he can't remember, because SAYS WHO?

And oh yeah! The Steele Dossier! Lots of which is being confirmed!

Like we said, seems like pretty much everybody Trump knows has some kind of unseemly connection with Russia.

With all this news trickling out, actual Republicans have finally started saying we need a special prosecutor (like Trump lover Rep. Darrell Issa, though he sort of walked that back), and that, in light of the news about Sessions's contact with the Russian ambassador, he must recuse himself from any investigation involving Trump and Russia. Even Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-BENGHAZI!!!111!) and Jason Chaffetz (R-BUT HER EMAILS!) are saying it. Meanwhile on the Democratic side, folks like Nancy Pelosi are just cold telling Sessions to GTFO.

So weird! Did all these Republicans not get phone calls from the Trump regime, begging them to say the Russia story is a big lie and please make the #FakeNews shut up about it? Guess Donald Trump really isn't their real dad.

(Mike Pence is their real dad. C'MON, 25th Amendment!)

Oh well, this story is just going to get weirder and weirder before it's over. Buckle up, buckaroos, we're witnessing history!

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[New York Times]