Leaks are serious. A leaking air conditioning or heating duct can cost you a ton of money, a leaking pipe can destroy your house and a leak in information can destroy the credibility of congressional committees and entire administrations. The Washington Post points that out in an editorial column just this past March:

“His committee’s investigation should be halted immediately — and Mr. Nunes deserves to be subject to the same leaking probe he demanded for the previous disclosures.”

The newspaper said Nunes’s decision to openly discuss the information has compromised Congress’s ability to probe Russian meddling in last year’s election.

Source: Washington Post: Investigate Nunes for leaks | TheHill

Greg Miller, also with the Washington Post, talks about his numerous sources supporting his story that President Trump himself leaked confidential information to the Russians in this CBS News interview. So it seems that the Washington Post is very concerned about leaks, or at least leaks coming out of this administration or from its allies.

So I’m sort of disconcerted about this report where the Washington Post seems to have encouraged a leak just to embarrass the Republican leadership and further disparage Donald Trump. Of course when Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made the comment, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” he was cracking a joke. But a joke can tell you a lot about a person’s true feelings and the Post goes to great lengths to emphasis that.

See, I think leaks do cause a great problem. The above “joke” came about in a private conversation between congressional Republican leaders and the conversation should have remained confidential. Making every conversation public is not conducive to a free flow of ideas which is needed if we are going to have good legislation.

So, shame on the Post for encouraging the very same type of leaks that it has rallied against in recent articles.

Things are getting serious. There are charges of obstruction of justice being thrown around and even suggestions of treason. Deserved or not I think we can all see that our future consists of louder and louder demands to impeach Donald Trump.

There’s a web site with more than 976,000 signed onto a petition encouraging Congress to impeach Trump. There’s even an “Impeach Donald Trump” Twitter handle.

It is highly unlikely — there’s almost zero chance — Trump would be impeached by a Republican Congress.

Source: Trump Impeachment Talk Grows From Conspiracy Theory To Mainstream : NPR

I’m not sure that a Republican Congress can prevent it. More and more Republicans seem to be positioning themselves away from Donald Trump than are coming to his defense.

The FBI Director
Got into a little stew.
How was he to know
The Russians would get him too.

Standing in an L.A. office
Building morale among his staff
Send lawyers, guns and money
He just got the shaft.

He’s an innocent appointee
Just following the clues.
But the president just dismissed him
and he found out on the news!

WHAT! He found out on the news?

Yeah, he found out on the news!

Now he’s being sought out by the Senate
He has a little plan
Send lawyers, guns and money
Trump may wish he’d never ran.

Even when I agree with her I generally am shaking my head over the partisanship she is exuding. This time it’s different. I’m agreeing with her and applauding her acknowledgement that we don’t have to agree on everything to be a party member.

“This is the Democratic Party. This is not a rubber-stamp party,” Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters.

“I grew up Nancy D’Alesandro, in Baltimore, Maryland; in Little Italy; in a very devout Catholic family; fiercely patriotic; proud of our town and heritage, and staunchly Democratic,” she added, referring to the fact that she is the daughter and sister of former mayors of that city. “Most of those people — my family, extended family — are not pro-choice. You think I’m kicking them o

Source: Pelosi: Democratic candidates should not be forced to toe party line on abortion – The Washington Post

The Democratic Party could do very well among moderates if some of these litmus tests for candidacies were done away with. A candidate who supports 90% of the Democratic Party’s platform but balks at some of the hard stands on reproductive rights or gun control should be welcomed into the fold, not disqualified as a candidate because very few people honestly hold on as sacred every plank in the platform.

Now if Paul Ryan would only come out with a similar statement for Republicans.

Sam Armemtrage saved his money for a down payment on a new home, negotiated a  fifteen year mortgage loan on the remainder of the purchase price and moved into his Lawrenceville dream home. After fifteen years his mortgage company quit sending him a bill.

How did he do this? He paid his mortgage payment on time every month without fail. Not once in those fifteen years did he face foreclosure.

George Chidi makes a lot of sense here and reflects exactly my thought on the matter.

Let me state the obvious: whoever is responsible for storing material under the interstate that could melt a bridge had better still be in prison when Eleby gets out.

Source: Sure. Blame The Crackhead. – GeorgiaPol

The headlines proclaim “Adviser reassigned after disagreeing with Trump”, but that isn’t quite the case here. He did more than disagree with him.

Deare reportedly knocked the Trump administration’s handling of Latin American policies during a speech at The Wilson Center Thursday in Washington. He also criticized overall White House dysfunction, Politico reported based on a source.

Source: White House confirms adviser reassigned after disagreeing with Trump – CNNPolitics.com

It sounds more like he slammed the administrations policies in public. That goes a lot further than disagreeing with the president.

It is the job of any adviser to point out opposing opinions to the president and even advocate for them in private. That disagreement should always remain private during the term of the president. Public disclosure of dissent from the presidents advisers can take place after the administration has had its run.

Intelligence officials feared the national security adviser had misled the vice president after saying he did not discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

Source: Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, officials say – The Washington Post

Giving the devil his due, this is a brilliant move by Putin if he is looking to make the exiting Obama administration look small all while endearing himself to the incoming Trump administration. My hope is that President Trump recognizes this and uses it to his own advantage.

“We won’t create problems for American diplomats,” Putin said in a statement released by his press service Friday afternoon, adding that Russia retained the right to punish U.S. diplomats in the future. He said he would “plan further steps for restoring the Russian-American relationship based on the policies enacted by the administration of President Donald Trump.”

Source: Putin says he won’t deport U.S. diplomats as he looks to cultivate relations with Trump – The Washington Post

Why, oh, why didn’t President Obama see this coming? Whatever proof our intelligence agencies have that it was the Russians behind the DNC network intrusion is of such a technical nature that it is easily dismissed by anyone not incredibly technically sophisticated who is the least bit inclined to dismiss it.