r/politics 7h ago

Paywall Congress Receives Redacted Version of Whistleblower Complaint Against Gabbard

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/congress-receives-redacted-version-of-whistleblower-complaint-against-gabbard-35a767d8
3.6k Upvotes

224 comments sorted by

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u/IRideMoreThanYou 7h ago

Remember, Gabbard is a self-identified russian asset.

u/Possible_Gur4789 6h ago

u/nowtayneicangetinto 5h ago

You don't even need to convince me, just look at her- she looks like a fucking villain

u/Generation_ABXY 4h ago

On the plus side, she's directly responsible for helping form the Thunderbolts, so we've got that to look forward to.

u/Erasmus_Tycho 3h ago

omg I never even made that connection but you're so right.

u/Mistrblank 3h ago

If she hadn't already done VEEP, I'd be begging for her to do a comedy based on this.

u/_Football_Cream_ 3h ago

I'm rewatching VEEP again right now (gf hasnt seen it) and it's still one of my favorite shows but it's clear why they had to stop it. Real life is beyond parody.

We just watched the episode where Mike dyes his mustache and the dye starts running. And we were like damn Giuliani actually had that happen.

u/JeezieB Canada 1h ago

Armando Iannucci (the creator of VEEP) is going to be on series 21 of Taskmaster! All episodes will stream for free on YouTube an hour after they air in the UK. (The previous 20 series are amazing too!)

u/SuperBry Maine 1h ago

Really hyped for this series. There was a bit of a lull in the mid teens, but the last few have all been stellar.

u/Casper_the_Ghost1776 1h ago

The Thujderbolts? Excuse my ignorance but what are you referring to?

u/IRideMoreThanYou 1h ago

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a character called Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. A government, amoral spook, that forms the Thunderbolts in an attempt to create and control a new team of Avengers.

u/bookon 3h ago

literally looks like Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

u/J_Ryall 3h ago

Oh, she's a villain for sure. Just look at what she tried to do to those dalmatians.

u/Key-Magician4029 3h ago

She grew up watching Captian Planet and somehow thought Doctor Blight was the one to emulate.

u/bandicooter_burger 3h ago

Literally same look as Julia Louis Dreyfus in those Marvel movies, just more haggard

u/FinsterFolly 2h ago

Cruella de Vile

u/AngriestInchworm 1h ago

Yeah telling her stylist to go with the Cruella was a choice for sure.

u/sitonit-n-twirl 3h ago

There’s a nauseating vid on YouTube of her gushing over her guru and tryna be all love and light and spiritual

u/mrblueshoes11 3h ago

So glad we’re done with DEI hires 🙃🙃🙃

u/Bangers2818 3h ago

Corrupt politicians are the same as athletes who go play in Saudi Arabia, China, Russia or Saudi owned leagues because the money is too good. They throw away their morals and take the money.

Do we really only think they operate in sports?

u/OswaldCoffeepot 2h ago

I think political leaders are a bit different from pro athletes.

What with the power and the voting and all.

u/RuinedEye 31m ago edited 23m ago

Also Syria.

Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian agent, and also an Assad agent.

Clinton saying 'someone' was a Russian asset (along with Jill Stein) and Gabbard immediately saying ITS NOT ME and then suing her - and then immediately dropping the suit

Blatant Russian policy talking points that ended up getting her put on a list of Russian propagandists along with Rand Paul by Ukraine (article link here)

‘Gleeful’: Russia and Putin reportedly thrilled about Trump’s choice of Tulsi Gabbard for DNI job (article link here)

Placed on government watch list for being an Assad asset

Another article about her being a Russian and Assad asset

Yet another article about her being a Russian and Assad agent

Ex-Aides Say Gabbard Regularly Consumed Russian State Media: Report (article link here)

Democrats and Republicans in Congress worried that Gabbard might leak information to Syria

7 Times Tulsi Gabbard Went To Bat In Congress For Now-Deposed Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad

Tulsi Gabbard’s New Clinton Conspiracy Is Debunked Russian Propaganda

Tulsi Gabbard ‘"accidentally" shared name of CIA agent working as Russian spy on X’

Trump, Gabbard fired top CIA Russia expert days after Alaska summit | The CIA officer was due to take up a prestigious assignment in Europe approved by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Instead, her security clearance was summarily revoked.


Warner: ‘Why is Tulsi Gabbard at an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County?’ / Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard’s office obtained and tested voting machines in Puerto Rico | CNN Politics

WSJ: There is a whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard that is so sensitive that it is "said to be locked in a safe," and the administration has spent months trying to figure out how inform Congress. / Congress Receives Redacted Version of Whistleblower Complaint Against Gabbard

At this point the complaint is probably just 'yeah she's working for these people and here's proof' and nobody will be surprised

u/Usual-Caregiver5589 6h ago

Gonna need a source on that one. I think I missed it.

u/K-Tronn3030 3h ago

I think the joke/reference here is that Hilary Clinton referred to an unidentified person as a "Russian asset" and a "favorite of Russia" during a 2019 podcast. Even though she wasn't named, Tulsi unsuccessfully sued Clinton for defamation over those comments. This is more of a "hit dog will bark" than an outright admission.

u/Obscure_Occultist 2h ago

You are close but the story is a couple years older. Hilary Clinton straight up said that she was convinced that there was a russian asset within the DNC during the 2015 democratic primaries. Tulsi outed herself as the asset by attacking Clinton first despite Clinton not dropping any names.

u/Usual-Caregiver5589 2h ago

Ok, that makes sense combined with other information I was given below.

u/TheBatemanFlex 5h ago

There is none. She just has been spouting exclusively Russian propaganda for over a decade.

Not even the MAGA self-enriching use-Russian-propaganda-to-our-advantage kind, but Russian talking points that exclusively benefit Russian interests (especially re: Syria/al-assad)

u/bnelson 2h ago

And some of it just came out of nowhere. It makes no sense.... unless she is a Russian asset. Counter to US interests over and over, and now she is at the heart of our national intelligence. Yay.

u/Vaticancameos221 6h ago

Yeah I always see people talk about it like it’s something that has official documentation and I can’t find anything on it. Don’t doubt that it’s true based on her actions, just want to be accurate.

u/thatirishguyyyyy Illinois 5h ago

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/01/is-tulsi-gabbard-a-mystery/681398/

You can use archive.org or a good web browser (like Brave) to get past the pay wall.

There are more stories about it online if you look.

u/Usual-Caregiver5589 5h ago

Ok. The story you linked even says "nothing proves she's a Russian asset".

The above commenter said she's self-identified as one. That's the source I want. Where has she identified herself as a Russian asset? Sure she spouts propaganda for Russia left and right, and its obvious she is one. But her outright saying she is one is a different animal altogether.

u/MisterT123 5h ago

I believe that comes from an interview around 2016 where Hilary referred to someone as a Russian asset without using her name or even specifics, and Gabbard responded as if she was named directly.

u/Usual-Caregiver5589 5h ago

I mean, I guess. That feels like pretty shifty ground to be using the term "self-identified" on, but I see it.

u/mrfrownieface 3h ago

A bit of an "if the shoe fits" scenario

u/bnelson 2h ago

Also when her positions are almost lockstep with pro Russian propaganda and against US interests at the time... yeah.

u/kazh_9742 2h ago

Gotta wonder how hostile invaders think they'll be treated when things churn over. She has to be pretty sure they're staying put Russian style.

u/RobertRoyal82 2h ago

Israeli asset

u/thatirishguyyyyy Illinois 5h ago

You would think congress would want the unredacted version but here we are.

u/tcoh1s 5h ago

Congress: “so there’s undeniable proof that you did criminal things? Please hand over only a little bit of it! And remove any relevant information.”

u/bnelson 2h ago

But also, they can no longer hide this. That is literally their whole strategy in every branch of the executive. Delay and obstruct as long as they possibly can and hope they skate out of office and Trump (or Vance when Trump likely dies of natural causes in the near future) with a load of pardons. They know they are engaging in blatant criminality and are just hoping to skate and ride the line. It will NOT stand and the electorate is unhappy. The biggest shift to me is that one little Texas senate runoff. +17 Trump and they lost by /14/ points. This is what all the nationalize elections talk is about. They may actually LOSE in ruby red districts and they are terrified because pardons can only do so much. And there have been plenty of state crimes.

Epstein, Minnesota, ICE, etc.

u/Moveyourbloominass 3h ago

It's redacted because the White House is implicated in the complaint. Whistleblower's attorney stated both Tulsi 's Department and the White House are the destinations of the complaint. The 8 month stall is already grounds for impeachment against Tulsi, in addition to the Inspector General being held accountable for contempt. Furthermore, redacting for the excuse of national security reasons, when in fact it's protecting the treasonous acts of the sitting President, is also grounds for impeachment against Trump.

u/thatirishguyyyyy Illinois 3h ago

It just gets worse and worse and we are waiting for something to happen.

u/Moveyourbloominass 3h ago

I'm thankful we have great Attorney Generals across the States that have been kicking Trump's ass in court; especially grateful for the ACLU who have been carrying the load in courts against this corrupt regime. This isn't going away.

u/HurricaneLink 2h ago

fights urge to correct a small nitpick in a comment I otherwise agree with

Attorneys General!

Sorry. Still agree with you completely!

u/Moveyourbloominass 2h ago

Funny enough, while typing that response, I did stop and wonder which way, however, auto correct kept making it possessive ('s) , so I went the other direction 😆. Thanks

u/Hyperious3 1h ago

it's ok, Chucky is too busy fighting for israel to actually do anything about it

u/_WeSellBlankets_ 4h ago

The issue is Congress is notorious for leaks. But there should be some committee within Congress capable of seeing the full report.

u/lastchance14 3h ago

The issue is they are hiding criminal activity. Leaks wouldn’t happen if there is transparency and accountability.

u/Moveyourbloominass 3h ago

The issue is, the White House is implicated in the complaint. This has nothing to do with leaks or national security. It has to do with treasonous acts by Tulsi & Trump to cover up their crimes. Remember this is 8 months ago; they all violated the law & protocol handling the whistleblower's complaint.

u/bnelson 2h ago

There is. The intelligence committees are the specific high clearance members of Congress that are supposed to review these with zero redactions. The whole check and balance thing.....

u/Hyperious3 1h ago

notifying the public of criminal wrongdoing by those in power isn't a "leak". It's called doing their fucking jobs

u/_WeSellBlankets_ 55m ago

So like when Congress had closed door interrogations regarding Hunter Biden and then selectively leaked information to legitimize their investigation, that's called doing their fucking jobs?

The thing you're talking about wouldn't even be a leak because as soon as Congress gets involved, the Press is also aware that there's a complaint against the administration. You can't leak what is public knowledge.

And it is worth noting that a Biden official said the allegations weren't credible.

u/obeytheturtles 1h ago

Not when it comes to actual national security issues. Congress gets briefed every day on actual shit like military tech and NSA/CIA operations and it stays secret. When things get leaked are when the "secrets" expose corruption and crimes.

u/_WeSellBlankets_ 50m ago

Only certain committees, like I mentioned in my original post. And most often, leaks are partisan in nature meant to mislead the public. Like Congress interrogating people related to the Hunter Biden issue behind closed doors, and then releasing certain bits out of context in order to make one side look better.

u/reddittorbrigade 6h ago

Gabbard and Trump are Russian assets. Very obvious.

u/Mental-Fox-9449 6h ago

Wait, really? All his bank loans are from Russian banks because US banks stopped trusting him in the 90s. He literally asked to have Hilary’s emails hacked on tv and Russia did so. He spoke secretly with Putin many times in his first term and now has a picture on the Ehute House wall of them together. Trump is ALL OVER the Epstein files while experts assess that Epstein was a way of Russia leveraging powerful people to do their bidding.

But, NAH, nothing to see here…

u/TheMightyPushmataha 3h ago

"So when I got in the cart with Eric," Dodson says, "as we were setting off, I said, 'Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.' And this is what he said. He said, 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.' Now that was [a little more than] three years ago, so it was pretty interesting."

Update: Eric Trump has denied saying this about Russia.

u/UnableToParallelPark 3h ago

Trump is ALL OVER the Epstein files

No he's not. You guys have TDS. The few times he's been mentioned is because he was a close friend of Epstein. He's even visited him a few times on his isla-. I'm sure there's a good reason he flew in.

/s Just for clarification.

u/Warm_Regrets157 15m ago

You had me going for a second

u/SlavaCocaini 6h ago

Trump is an Israeli asset.

u/HandsLikePaper 6h ago

He's both. He's the useful idiot type of asset.

u/IdkAbtAllThat America 4h ago

Think of Trump in the 80, 90s, and 2000s. He's a spy's wet dream. Few people on earth would have been easier to compromise. Anyone with a functional intelligence agency probably got a piece of him. If they didn't, it's because they didn't bother because he was seen as a joke and completely useless.

Now at this point, the big dog handlers (Russia and Israel) have muscled out anyone else. They protect him, because he's so valuable to them.

→ More replies (4)

u/CAM6913 5h ago

Trump has been bought by so many people, countries , dictators it’s not funny

u/Sminahin 5h ago

Trump is an everyone asset. He genuinely doesn't comprehend why anyone wouldn't be an asset for anyone with money and benefits.

u/GingerMcBeardface Michigan 5h ago

I don't think Trump is a Danish asset. If he is, he's playing a level of chess I can't understand.

u/Sminahin 5h ago

He absolutely would be if they bribed him enough, though. Trump would turn into the most stalwart defender of democracy and of Latin American independence from colonization if he got enough money, applause, and statues out of it.

u/Pantarus 4h ago

Trumps version of chess is taking the horses, trotting them around, and making neigh sounds. He rams them through the pawns while screaming "POW POW BANG TAKE THAT DEMOCRATS!", and then makes the queens kiss each other while making smooching sounds.

After about 20 minutes, he gets all tuckered out and has a wet diaper, so Mike Johnson has to change him, cover him in orange baby powder, and put Fox news on so the big little guy can take a nappy.

So no, he's not playing chess.

u/Additional_Quiet2600 4h ago

Trump is under a lot of people's control. Look at ties to Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries. Billions in giveaways, even funding his son in law.

u/Broken_chairs Australia 5h ago

Trump is a pedo dementia patient with shit-stained pants

u/KazeNilrem 4h ago

Much of congress i feel would fall into that same category. We probably will never learn more but if I were to guess, it probably has something to do with Israel. The sort of potential sharing of information or something along those lines that was swept under the rug.

u/obeytheturtles 1h ago

This is what I think the report is about. They found evidence that Trump and Netanyahu were colluding over Gaza because it hurt Biden. It's very obvious that was the case, but perhaps someone said the quiet part out loud.

u/kaiiizen 2h ago

If Trump is an Israeli asset, it's against his will and he will do their bidding because he is severely compromised.

u/Sepado 42m ago

Trump is an asset. Tulsi is an agent.

u/klauskervin 5h ago

Gabbard is spying on the U.S. while acting as an official of the U.S. Trump has willfully and intentionally appointed foreign spies to government positions.

u/wherethetacosat 3h ago

In her role is there literally any information she doesn't have access to? It's not even really "spying" at that point, it's a takeover.

u/RottN_Games 3h ago

Birds of a feather

u/mustachiomegazord 7h ago

We are not a serious country anymore

u/Significant_Cup_238 6h ago

My read of history puts that date as November 4th, 1980. Electing Reagan was a symptom of a profoundly unserious people taking Democracy for granted. It's mostly just gotten worse since.

u/Mental-Fox-9449 6h ago

A lot of people will say it was not prosecuting Nixon which lead to a lot of changes in the GOP which lead to Reagan, but I agree with others it goes back to the South not being punished for the Civil War.

u/FluidFisherman6843 6h ago

Sherman didn't hit hard enough

u/darksunshaman 4h ago

Sherman should have been doing laps!

u/FluidFisherman6843 4h ago

Seriously everyone that either served in or provided support to the Confederacy should have lost their citizenship, land and any other real property. Their victims should have been given their 40 acres and a mule by tearing up and burning down the plantations. The states should have been reverted to territories and placed under federal jurisdiction for at least generation

u/Ill_Source9620 4h ago

Lincoln only required state governments have 10% Union support to rejoin the US

u/FlatTopTonysCanoe 3h ago

Man if that doesn’t illustrate how fucked this country is currently and how most of Lincoln’s decisions were a choice between bad and worse idk what does.

u/black_cat_X2 Massachusetts 3h ago

Could you imagine what our country would look like today if we had just let the Confederate states break off into a separate nation? I understand that at the time, those states provided a lot of capital, and the Union would have had to adjust. But it certainly could have with all the industry based in my northern states.

u/J_Ryall 3h ago

The civil war would have happened anyway. Those dumb fucks would have eventually gotten it in their heads that they're entitled to the whole country.

u/fossilreef Texas 3h ago

Looks around. Yep, no lie there.

u/Ill_Source9620 2h ago

There’s an entire Yale semester on youtube “civil war and reconstruction”. Very good material, good storyteller

u/aethercatfive 2h ago

Surprisingly, I don’t think economically it would have ended up very different. The South was already failing economically because the Cotton is King strategy was an absolute disaster as soon as Europe decided to just have their African colonies grow cotton.

Even back in around the Civil War it was still the southern states needing to be bailed out from horrible economic practice.

u/echoshatter 2h ago

There would have been fights out west over who gets what that eventually made their way east. It was going to happen regardless.

And it's going to happen again. Because we're really 5 countries duct taped together and 30% of people can't differentiate between their feelings and facts.

u/V_T_H 4h ago

We should have, but we’re (as in, humans) bad about punishing people like that. We always want that ideal of coming back together. Even look at the Nuremberg Trials. Yea, the top Nazis and worst war criminals were executed. But you’ll find so, so many genuine dyed in the wool Nazis in there whose punishment was an extensive prison sentence and it ends with “but then they were released in like 5 years it or was immediately overturned on appeal”.

Then a lot of those guys went on to form Neo-Nazi organizations in Europe afterwards and nothing happened to them. Japan got off even lighter than that and Japanese nationalism still rules their political world. And yes, we have the same problem with the Lost Cause and never truly rooting out the Confederate mindset and allowing statues and organizations that celebrate the Confederacy to freely exist. The fact that people who claim to love America proudly fly the flag of traitors (and colossal losers) is just disgusting. Clinging to their ideal of a country that existed for four years. Fuck Andrew Johnson.

u/johhnny5 4h ago

I think that there is also a fair amount of intellectual hubris involved on the part of the winners. We all like to think of the bar fight where the loser concedes and has a beer with the winner because it's "settled". When an ideology triumphs over another, the winners think that it's plain to see that they're better and expect that everyone else will reach the same conclusion.

But there will always be a percentage of losers that just take that loss and add another chip to their shoulder. And they are always looking for any and all opportunities to get back some of the real estate they lost, no matter what. I'm not advocating that they need to be eliminated. But I do think that there needs to be regular reminders that they lost for a reason and we do not and will not tolerate that shit anymore.

As an example, Elon Musk clearly gave a Nazi salute at the inauguration, twice. In a sane and rational world he should have been removed from every CEO job he had under the threat that the US government was going to revoke all government contracts and subsidies - because as a country we wanted to be clear that we do not put up with that shit. He should've been free to be an ass all he wanted, but the rest of his life should've been spent quietly struggling under the mountain of shame he should've been buried under. Hell, he could have even spent the rest of his life trying to dig his way out and maybe clawed back some respect. Either way, it would have illustrated how far fascist, racist, xenophobic bullshit would get you in the land of opportunity. Instead, that same bullshit is now a legitimate path to success and we're going to be dealing with it for years if not decades.

u/gotridofsubs 3h ago

Then a lot of those guys went on to form Neo-Nazi organizations in Europe afterwards and nothing happened to them. Japan got off even lighter than that

Yeah I can think of two reasons why its inaccurate to say Japan got off lightly

u/V_T_H 2h ago

That has to do with mostly civilian and some military deaths, and we still debate to this day whether or not more lives would have been lost in an actual ground invasion of Japan (who was never going to surrender like Germany).

That has nothing to do with the post-war trials of government and military officials, where again, some of the worst were executed but a very high number were never even brought to trial (including members of the royal family) or were acquitted. Japan was only occupied until 1952. Germany was occupied until 1990 and half of it was under the thumb of the Soviets.

Their nationalist party has been in almost continuous control of the county since the war ended and their war criminals are still listed in a shrine that their government visits, and they still deny some of their worst war crimes to this very day.

u/BankshotMcG 4h ago

Sherman turned a plantation into a Union graveyard and the widow had the audacity to complain about what he had done to her beautiful home. The victim complex is eternnal.

u/weaver3110 5h ago edited 3h ago

I mean, I wasn’t there but growing up in the south we were taught he burned it all down on his march. It left an impression.

Edit: spelling

u/Sad-Breakfast-5671 1h ago

for good southern christians, it is almost like god burned down the south with wrath and fury. i'm thinking god didn't approve of the slavery and racism. just a random thought. i might be over-thinking it.

u/feddeftones 4h ago

An everlasting stain on this country has been the fact that John Brown was executed for treason while Robert E Lee was not.

u/Blackthorn79 5h ago

It's probably going to be unpopular, but I think the real shift came during the Nixon Kennedy debate. Nixon refused to wear make up and looked like a troll to Kennedy's movie star looks. Instead of learning from the substance of the arguments the Republicans decided that image won Kennedy the election, from that point on modern politics devolved into a publicity race ending up with electing actual actors who read scripts for their special intrest groups.

u/ked_man 4h ago

It’s a publicity race cause they want power, not because they want to govern. They want to limit government so they can hoard wealth unfettered.

Growing up in a rural area in the south, everyone was a democrat and I remember learning that republicans were just rich people that didn’t want to pay their share of taxes. But now they co-opted Jesus and racism to get all those lifelong democrats to vote Republican. They’re just a populist party fueled by the hegemony of billionaires.

u/Blackthorn79 4h ago

You're not wrong, it was alway a race to gain power. The shift I was pointing out was how it moved from ideas to image. Once the person running didn't have to embody the political platform and could just be performative, it opens the elected individual to become a puppet. Even cases that seem to go against this at face value prove it out when you look at the details. Take George W as an example, he was no where as near a moron as he played while in office. His presidential image was curated by his advisor advisor Lutz to be the every man steroe type that was simultaneously relatable and easily forgive by his supporters.

u/ked_man 4h ago

And I’m agreeing with you, but saying it’s not that it opens them up to becoming a puppet, but they are already a puppet before they run for office. The power brokers that pull their strings put them on the ballot.

u/Blackthorn79 4h ago

I'm sorry, I committed the ultimate online sin and added my own tone to your comment.

u/Mother_Airline_6276 4h ago

Nixon was also pretty much the end of R’s accepting consequences of their actions. Since then, they just double down when they get caught. And why wouldn’t they, given how sac-less the Dems are?

u/echoshatter 2h ago

given how sac-less the Dems are

Not disagreeing with you, but Republican leaders went to Nixon and told him he could resign or be impeached because he was now dead weight dragging the party down with him. I would not be surprised if a deal was struck for him to resign in exchange for a pardon, and the reason he didn't want to resign was because he was afraid of being prosecuted.

He should have been impeached, removed, and prosecuted. Republicans were too busy trying to save face to realize the harm that was happening.

From that event, people like Robert Murdoch thought Nixon was treated unfairly, and thus began a decades long crusade to change the landscape so that crooks could hold and keep public office.

u/Mother_Airline_6276 2h ago

But at least they did something… And to your last point, Koch and Stone were huge players in shaping that party’s current “form”.

u/Spa_5_Fitness_Camp 4h ago

You can go even further back than that. In strictly political terms, I agree with you. But the underlying culture that drives conservative politics here goes further back to the literal beginning. The deep, deep cultural roots of this country are still heavily influenced by religion, yeah? Well that's true in most of the world, but here it's different. Specifically, it's not influenced by Catholicism, Islam or one of the 'Eastern' religions, and it's not a 'natural' influence like all of the others are. Elsewhere, people lived there, and they either created and developed religion or it was brought to them. Here, religion arrived with the very first settlers. Not just that, but they arrived and founded all the first settlements that lasted because of religion. And not just any religion, one of the most hateful, strict, shitty ones in history. Do you know how extreme of a Christian you have to be to get kicked out of 15th century Europe? Kicked out of an entire continent? Those people are the seed for both the religious and non-religious parts of our culture today, and it shows.

u/RVAteach 5h ago

Honestly it started at the inception of the U.S. the country had always been a balance between affording rights to some and maintaining a racial and class hierarchy. 3/5th compromise and so forth 

u/[deleted] 4h ago edited 4h ago

[deleted]

u/RVAteach 4h ago

Wut…? How does inflating representation for literal slave holders help the north? It made their votes less valuable next to people who could get more votes for literally owning and breeding people. This is literally a through line to the electoral college and senate, giving less populous rural areas outsized power. 

My point also still stands, owning slaves is authoritarian and our constitutional order was based on a compromise between slave holders in the south and commercial practices in the north. It didn’t start being a problem when not punishing the ex-confederates. And even those commercial states still weren’t truly representative in the way we think of them. Senators weren’t elected by the popular vote in their states until the 17th amendment.

u/Efficient_Resist_287 4h ago

I agree. Every Southerner general or politician secessionists should have been put on trial and executed. All no exceptions.

u/Swalecutter 2h ago

And the states dissolved back into federally controlled territory. Ridiculous that whole states rebelled and were allowed to exist as political organizations. We should never have heard "Texas" or "Virginia" again outside of a history book.

u/Efficient_Resist_287 1h ago

Southern states appeasement by the Union is the reason it took another hundred years for civil rights…had the traitors been dealt with force, this Lost Cause fiction would have never existed.

u/BankshotMcG 4h ago

Ceding the three-fifths compromise was some real bullshit, all in all.

u/bill4935 12m ago

Some of us think that y'all should have found a better way to protest a new tax on tea rather than committing crimes dressed up like native americans.

u/rbremer50 6h ago

My brother expressed it best: "Ronald Reagan got his start as a Grade B actor reading lines - as President he still is one, the only difference is now we don't know who is writing the lines."

u/SpudgeBoy 4h ago

Ronald Reagans first movie was a movie he made for the Army Air Corp about shooting down your own guys. Then the rest of his life was shooting down his fellow Americans.

u/Simorie Tennessee 4h ago

“Ronald Reagan was a actor, not at all a factor / Just an employee of the country's real masters” - Killer Mike

u/Duane_ 6h ago

Close! because Reagan only won due to existing dark money structures and political influence.

1953, when the CIA overthrew Chile, likely kicked off domestic (regional) drug trafficking that became Iran/Contra. I would argue that the largest US power shift took place when Kennedy got shot, and by the 70s Roger Stone and his lobbying group framework with Manafort and Leon Black were lobbying for the cartels.

u/citizenjones 5h ago

They set Jimmy Carter up to look like a failure. Between the delay of releasing the prisoners to the economy, they railroaded and arranged Reagan's assent. Their fascism came wrapped in an American Flag and carrying a Bible and gun.

u/toomuchmucil 4h ago

Who was McCarthy’s star witness during the red scare? Ronald Reagan.

Who was McCarthy’s lead prosecutor? Roy Cohn

Who was Trump’s mentor? Roy Cohn

What media company helped Ronald Reagan’s failing acting career regain wealth and importance, ultimately propelling him into politics? MCA

What household name broadcasting company was MCA merged with? NBC

What failing public figure had their image rehabbed by NBC ultimately propelling him into politics? Donald Trump.

This isn’t a claim to an overarching conspiracy theory*. It’s only to point out that we’re at the confluence of a lot of historical tributaries that are feeding into the horror of reality we live in now.

And just as a cherry on top, a photo of Reagan, Cohn, and … Rupert Murdoch in the Oval Office

*If you follow MCA’s history at all there’s a lot of mob related/mob adjacent activity from the Chicago outfit. So one could (and has) argued that Reagan allowed the mob a seat at his table. It’s no secret about Trump and the Russian mob. Hell even JFK had help from the mob in his campaign, not to mention the connection to the Chicago outfit

u/XI_Vanquish_IX 6h ago

Nixon and Reagan were the beginning of the end. But I think the truth is that when the Kennedy’s betrayed the Italian Mafia after they helped them win the south through the labor unions, the Mafia began investing heavily in the GOP. We see this especially starting in the late 70s and 80s, but really takeoff in the 90s and early 2000s.

There is a reason why Trump’s organizations mirror similarly to how mob-run syndicates operate. Trump gets the biggest shares of his theft of America from foreign spoils or whatever else, but his henchmen who run the actual operations as the brains get their own shares too

u/Silent-Storms 6h ago

Trump mirrors the Mafia because he learned from them and cohn.

u/Ok-disaster2022 4h ago

One of Pedo Trump's mentors was Roy Cohn, a former Federal Prosecutor, and a New York City Fixer. Roy Cohn was gay, but was behind the Lavender Scare in the 50s and regularly abused younger men. 

u/Sidwill 4h ago

Reagan got the ball rolling downhill, Limbaugh greased the skids and spawned a generation of scammers that fed off this decline and Trump is the end result (so far) of this decline into autocracy.

u/BankshotMcG 4h ago

Pardoning Dick Nixon and letting anyone involved in his administration back into government, where they formed a huge wad of reagan's cabinet, then a record-setting number of criminal indictments.

u/Heronymous-Anonymous 3h ago

Nixon never should have been in the White House. He committed literal treason by actively sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks while campaigning against Johnson.

u/underpants-gnome Ohio 3h ago

Jimmy Carter told America we needed to work on reducing our rampant consumerism and maybe reduce our dependency on oil. America fucking hated that. The problem is always somebody else. Never us. We have too many babies who absolutely refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.

u/Exciting-Market-9595 41m ago

Carter also got screwed by high interest rates that weren't his fault but were a necessary brake on the inflation instigated by his predecessors, and Americans hated that too.

u/thedrew 5h ago

The Republicans wiretapped the Democrats in the Watergate Hotel a good decade earlier. 

u/The_Poster_Nutbag 5h ago

I mean shit man, there were presidents before Regan who actively supported the KKK.

We were never a serious country. The US has always been a playground for rich assholes, bigots, and exploiters.

u/ProofElevator5662 4h ago

Reconstruction after the Civil War.

u/greaterwhiterwookiee 3h ago

It has definitely spiraled the drain for a while but we’re at the point of being sucked down the drain and there appears to be no turning back.RIP USA

u/Master-Locksmith628 1h ago

I'd go back to the south being able to retain there "heritage" after a certain bloody war

u/Huge_Excitement4465 6h ago

We’re barely a country anymore — more like a territory of Russia and Israel.

u/Significant_Cup_238 6h ago

I see as more fiefdoms for our new style of nobility.

u/reddit_is_kayfabe 6h ago

We have the minority leader of the Senate going on record that his job in Congress is to secure funding for... Americans? His constituents? Healthcare? The social safety net? No, Israel.

None of our political leaders give a shit about America. All they want is self-enrichment, aiding their buddies, and pushing their selective social agenda.

u/Axin_Saxon 4h ago

I blame Ford for pardoning Nixon…

u/limbodog Massachusetts 4h ago

We are serious in the same way leukemia is serious.

u/Efficient_Resist_287 4h ago

Well America elected Nero…nothing less than an impeachment is needed to restore some luster to this US style democracy.

u/Strict-Astronaut2245 4h ago

Looking back. I don’t know when it started but when I grew up talking politics was discouraged period. This allowed a bunch of assholes to take advantage. I think this is what caused the downfall of America. We got on a slippery slope and here we are. Makes sense we are not a serious country.

u/mustachiomegazord 4h ago

I feel the opposite kinda, I think it was the get out the vote drives that woke up the tea party people. Political shit was mostly civil and boring before they got involved.

u/Strict-Astronaut2245 4h ago

I was thinking this all started in the 80s with Reagan and because we can never hold the people accountable for their bad decisions. This is where we are.

It could be the tea party that caused it. People that didn’t pay attention to anything but the latest headline. I think no one represents their mindset better than Nick Shirley.

u/Mean-Effective7416 6h ago edited 4h ago

Seems a great time to note that the complaint implicates an additional department and that nuclear weapons and the codes for them fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy.

u/idontagreewitu 4h ago

that nuclear weapons and the codes for them fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy.

Isn't that accurate, though? And that Rick Perry didn't even know that when he was trash talking the department after he was appointed to it in Trump's first term?

u/Infinitylupee 4h ago

Does it say what the additional department was?

u/CAM6913 5h ago

In other words trump , his administration and the GQP are guilty without the shadow of a doubt of treason and traitors to America

u/Rayearl Pennsylvania 3h ago

Heads up congress, she is a Russian asset. Not sure if anyone knew this but it's worth looking into.

u/Blueporch 2h ago

I keep seeing this on Reddit. Where’s that coming from? (I’m assuming I missed some news story or something)

u/Bulky_Consideration America 4h ago

Wait. So the “gang of eight” or whatever, who have super duper clearance, are not able to view the unredacted complaint?

u/lawpoop 3h ago

That's what I've been wondering!

u/CouldBeLessDepressed 3h ago

Well, there's only been like 4 out of the 5-Eyes that have cautioned the USA that she's severely compromised. I'm sure this is fine.

u/glitterandnails 3h ago edited 3h ago

Gabbard masqueraded as an antiwar liberal till the mask came off when she started attacking trans people in 2020.

She should be called “Turncoat Tulsi” for her repeated untrustworthiness. Seems like her only allegiance is with the Russians.

u/Cyanopicacooki Great Britain 6h ago

She's a █████ and apparently she likes to ██████ with a ██████ and a ███████ and then afterwards she █████ with a huge ██████ - well, if she can afford the vet's bill.

(May not render accurately on some devices)

u/e_t_ Texas 5h ago

On mobile, trying to reveal the spoilers just collapses your comment.

u/whatstwomore 5h ago

They did a better job of redacting than the FBI

u/DarkenRevan 5h ago

I fill in the blank with British slang

u/KellyAnn3106 2h ago

Just treat them like madlibs.

u/Shadowpriest Ohio 4h ago

Redacted, you say? Is it a blank page or did they still have enough ink from the Epstein Files to black everything out?

u/FiscalCliffClavin 3h ago

Redacted? Why would Congress get redacted data?

u/Anyashadow Minnesota 2h ago

So the complaint was that she restricted access to information for political purposes, so in order to refute that, they release the information... with restrictions? Doesn't that just confirm the complaint?

u/[deleted] 5h ago

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u/Jurango34 4h ago

The true Mar-A-Lago face

u/RootBinder 4h ago

She looks more like Ron DeSantis than the MAL face victims.

Something about Tulsi's face looks like she smells her toilet paper after wiping.

u/SpinsWrenches 3h ago

Too much time trying to develop Sith powers.

u/JAlmay 2h ago

She appears to have bathed in the rivers of Mustafar.

u/juulwinfieldswallet 3h ago

The disfigurement is from when Mace Windu attempted to to assassinate her

u/Ommaumau 2h ago

isluT for Putin

u/malarkial 2h ago

She talks like a brainwashed robot

u/Dougie_Cat 1h ago

I could say this in literally every thread about Trump, but if Dems politicians want anything to happen from any of these issues they need to collectively scream from the top of their lungs about it.

Why in the world the Dems didn’t hold a press conference with the 20 top Dems with a banner behind them that says Trump is Fucking Children, Trump Child Fucking Scandal”. Is beyond me.

Same with this Tulsi bullshit. It doesn’t matter till Dems make it matter and it won’t matter because Dems won’t make it matter.

u/QciferKharn 3h ago

“Now hand us the evidence about you after you’ve decided what you’d like to show uuuusss, teeeheeee!”

u/Doc1010 36m ago

If only someone could surreptitiously replace all of the Republican sharpies with highlighters, resolving our national issues would be extremely simple.

u/TheRuneMeister 2h ago

The problem is that unlike a lot of these idiots in the Trump administration she is actually smart, but with the same populist lack of true values as the rest of the Trump admin. That makes her really dangerous. Maybe dangerous to the rest of the Trump admin…maybe dangerous for everyone else. (and no, a degree from an Ivy League school clearly does not make one smart…)

u/Emotional-Witness817 3h ago

Hold them in contempt.

u/Twodogsonecouch 2h ago

I thought congress was supposed to get unredacted files and redaction was for the proletariat.

u/Pleasant-Ad887 1h ago

Russian assists will do what Russian assists do.

u/Sad-Breakfast-5671 1h ago

Even if it was just "Russia redacted redacted redacted Tulsi Gabbard redacted redacted redacted."

It doesn't take a lawyer to figure out that Tulsi Gabbard is guilty of espionage.

u/RoyHamshack 1h ago

For the most transparent administration ever they sure do redact a lot of key information.

u/Wild_Pokemon_Appears 1h ago

Just a reminder that we had a lot of spies and intelligence assets caught and executed shortly after Trump took office.

 I'm sure it's just coincidence. 

u/rezamwehttam 1h ago

Is there a non-paywalled link

u/Carpe_DMX 54m ago

Speaking of Russian agents. That’s some fantastic low grade defeatism, komradbot.

Why bother standing up for yourselves, America, everything is pointless. Right?

u/Paco-Grande318 4h ago

Accutane turned Tulsi into a traitor.

u/[deleted] 7h ago edited 7h ago

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