Michael Ramirez for February 25, 2018

I see the NRA-GOP propaganda memo of the week has been sent out.

At least they can see when an enemy country tries to steal an election. But yes. They failed with Cruz.

Is he looking at me, or at Congress?

Mr. Tяump is, of course, in cahoots with the Russians. Even the most casual and disinterested observer can see that at a glance.

For more than a year his people explained it away, aggressively forwarding the idea that Russia is our natural ally, and that previous administrations were foolish to view them as hostile to America.

Maybe that view of Russia’s intentions had a slight bit of credibility before 2016, but now there is no doubt whatsoever how the Russian government feels about America and Americans. They spit right in our face and laugh about it while giving medals to those that do it best.

The CIA, NSA, and U.S. Military Intelligence agencies have always viewed Russia as a natural foe, and for good reason. Mr. Tяump, half of his cabinet, half of his family, and who knows how many aides & associates openly have close personal and financial dealings with Russia.

Our spy agencies were monitoring any interaction between Americans and Russians long before Mr. Tяump came along. His shenanigans with Putin in Moscow and elsewhere were and still are under scrutiny by the CIA and the NSA, et al.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the FBI are ridiculous. Subtract the FBI entirely from Mr. Tяump’s Russian treason and you still have 16 more U.S. intelligence agencies saying the same things.

All of America now knows about Mr. Tяump & the Russians. The only question left unanswered is whether he is acting in his best interest, or ours.

Mr. Ramirez, had he been there, with his pistol would have no doubt ran out to stop the bum with the AR-15. So would have Bone Spurs Trump!

All this blame-gaming and finger-pointing is deliberately misdirected.

No one in Red state Florida did the right thing.

Vote out Republicans, they don’t care at all.

There seems to be a lack of respect for the police and other human beings as the number of swatting incidents continues to rise in spite of penalties. And the police seem be treating the public as enemies … shoot first and ask questions later. The death of swatting victims indicates that today’s police (the good guys with guns) may not be a wise choice for protecting the innocent especially if teachers or students have guns themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting

He must be talking about the NRA-GOP cabal that keeps making assault rifles easy to get for 19-year olds who have these kinds of issues. He must be talking about the gun manufacturers who make weapons of war for school children. He must be talking about the right-wing media attacking survivors of shootings.

Yes, the NRA sponsored government officials didn’t do their due-diligence, but fortunately for the NRA and ammosexuals, they did protect, and continue to protect those precious, military type assault weapons. Dead children? Ah, well. . .

With all of the missteps, if the shooter hadn’t had a gun, those kids would still be alive. Nice effort to deflect from the central issue Mr. Ramirez.

Do all these cartoons mean that the Florida high school mass murders really took place?

.

I mean, everyone knows that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, right?

Entirely fake news, with fake children’s deaths, entirely fabricated by the media, right?

.

Trump Disciples are rightfully angry that the deputies that were totally outgunned refused to be dead heroes. That’s what they signed up for, no?

And anyway, isn’t that supposed to be how the second amendment work? The government is supposed to be fearful of its armed citizens, isn’t it?

Gosh, it must be a difficult and dangerous job to be a second-guessing cartoonist.

I appreciate that the FBI receives around 700 tips/day as reported. Blaming them for not acting is like focusing the blame on the reporting mechanism that missed the Japanese Pearl Harbour attack instead of dealing with and responding to the attack itself

Funny how the fright wing never, ever mentions that the US purchased 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (90% U235) from Russia. And since the agreement specified that the uranium be converted to low enrichment uranium (5% U235) prior to shipment, that means the Russians shipped something like 9000 metric tons of enriched uranium to the US.

Mined Uranium has 0.7% U235. So we are talking about more than 64,000 metric tons of mined uranium to equal the U235 we got from Russia.

The US Uranium production is less than 2000 tons per year. 20% of that is 400 tons per year. Even if there were no restrictions on selling Uranium, it would take 160 years equal what we got.

This crap is all about hating Clintons, not Uranium.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program

The United States imports most of the uranium it uses as fuel

Owners and operators of U.S. nuclear power reactors purchased the equivalent of 50.6 million pounds of uranium in 2016. About 11% of the uranium delivered to U.S. reactors in 2016 was produced in the United States and 89% came from other countries.

Sources and shares of purchases of uranium produced in foreign countries in 2016:

Canada–25%

Kazakhstan–24%

Australia–20%

Russia–14%

Uzbekistan–4%

Malawi, Namibia, Niger, and South Africa–10%

Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, and Ukraine–2%

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=nuclear_where

The worldwide production of uranium in 2015 amounted to 60,496 tonnes. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 70% of world uranium production.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining

A nice graph of who produces what fraction of Uranium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining#/media/File:World_Uranium_Mining_Production_2012.png

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/UF-US-uranium-producers-call-for-level-playing-field-1701188.html

If we had a nickle for every time conservatives went out of their way to miss the point on an issue, we’d be able to pay off the debt and balance the budget!

So sorry SFCGATOR, are you upset that people are calling out all your RWNJ ideas? So glad you think your “Fearless Leader” has nothing to do with Russia. We’ll see how glad you are when Mueller finally finishes his investigation. His totally useless investigation that’s produced HOW many indictments? HOW many guilty pleas?

I just laugh every time I think of all the idiot GOP led investigations of Hillary without one charge for anything, and then Mueller with his one investigation producing so much. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

How about the fact that the traitorous right ignores that Trump has yet to enact the sanctions against Russia that Congress (in a rare bipartisan, and nearly unanimous action) mandated.

And that in spite of the exposure of Russian meddling, no serious sanction enforcement.

Trump has extensive business with Russia (said by Don Jr). Sanctions will hurt Trump business, so no enforcement. Pretty simple.

The FBI, sheriff, deputies, and hired guards all failed at their duties. It’s obvious that an armed teacher would do a MUCH better job.

Aw Sfc, still as self deceiving as all the rest of the RWNJ’s eh? You keep telling yourself “there’s no place like home. There’s no place like home” while Mueller keeps pulling the string around the Orange Idiot tighter and tighter. Your little fantasies about Hillary will end up like all the rest of your dreams about her. Just as you’re about to reach what you hope will be an amazing climax, the investigation will go soft and nothing will come of it. Poor sad little troll.

I do agree with you on this one 100% Michael, we keep seeing these failures from Federal agencies since the attack of 911. It is frustrating, and it hurts!

Gator cannot follow the truth: Neither Hillary nor the DNC paid any Russians! The money was paid to Fusion GPS, a US company. It’s called opposition research, and is exactly what was sought by the first party to contact Fusion GPS.

In October 2015, during the Republican primary campaign, The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website primarily funded by Republican donor Paul Singer, hired the American research firm Fusion GPS to conduct general opposition research on Trump and other Republican presidential candidates.1 For months, Fusion GPS gathered information about Trump, focusing on his business and entertainment activities. When Trump became the presumptive nominee on May 3, 2016, The Free Beacon stopped funding research on him.22021 The Free Beacon has later stated that “none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier.”

Opposition research is legal.

In April 2016, Marc Elias, a partner in the large Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie and head of its Political Law practice, hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research on Trump. Elias was the attorney of record for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton presidential campaign. As part of their investigation, Fusion GPS hired Orbis Business Intelligence, a private British intelligence firm, to look into connections between Trump and Russia. Orbis co-founder Christopher Steele, a retired British MI6 officer with expertise in Russian matters, was hired as a subcontractor to do the job. Orbis was hired between June and November 2016, and Steele produced 16 memos during that time, with a 17th memo added in December.

According to Fusion GPS’s co-owners, Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, they did not tell Steele who their clients were and “gave him no specific marching orders beyond this basic question: ‘Why did Mr. Trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun?’”

cont’d …

In total, Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS $1.02 million in fees and expenses, $168,000 of which was paid to Orbis and used by them to produce the dossier. Simpson has stated that Steele did not pay any of his sources. According to Luke Harding, Steele’s sources were not new: “They’re not people that he kind of discovered yesterday. They are trusted contacts who essentially had proven themselves in other areas.”

Steele delivered his reports as a series of two- or three-page memos, starting in June 2016 and continuing through December. He continued his investigation even after the Democratic client stopped paying for it following Trump’s election. After the election, Fusion GPS co-owner Simpson “reportedly spent his own money to continue the investigation”.

According to Steele, he soon found "troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. He said that, according to his sources, “there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” Luke Harding states that “Steele was shocked by the extent of collusion his sources were reporting.” Steele told friends: “For anyone who reads it, this is a life-changing experience.” He felt that what he had unearthed “was something of huge significance, way above party politics”. Howard Blum described Steele’s rationale for becoming a whistleblower: “The greater good trumps all other concerns.”

On his own initiative, Steele decided to also pass the information to British and American intelligence services because he believed the findings were a matter of national security for both countries. According to the testimony of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, Steele approached the FBI because he was concerned that the then candidate, Donald Trump, was being blackmailed by Russia, and he became “very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat”.

Source: Wikipedia

The thing is, Gator, that Mueller is methodically working to expose the Russia-Trump Campaign connection. Indictments require strong evidence.

Do the Russians had something on Trump, to use for blackmail? Seems like pure speculation at this point. If there were something, it probably had to do with business rather than “golden shower” behavior. I can’t see Trump being worried about the latter, even if true (and I’d like to think he would be more careful than that). But something that would hurt the Trump business, that would be a concern.

Trump’s minions were falling all over themselves to hear “dirt” on Hillary from “the Russian Government.” They were clearly disappointed that none was given, and that there seemed to be no real Russian Government connection.

But here’s the thing:

Trump fired Comey over the investigation into Russian meddling.

Trump has repeatedly sought to disparage the Mueller investigation, and the FBI.

What Trump should be worrying about is not collusion, but obstruction of justice, which is definitely a crime.

And why hasn’t he enforced the congressional sanctions?