WHEN MICHAEL ATKINSON, the intelligence community’s inspector general, received a whistleblower’s complaint on Aug. 12 about President Trump’s attempt to extort political favors from Ukraine, he judged that it was “credible” and of “urgent concern.” As sworn congressional testimony later conclusively confirmed, he was right. Federal law required that in those circumstances, the whistleblower report be delivered to Congress; in a Aug. 26 letter to the acting director of national intelligence, Mr. Atkinson said the legal standard had been met.
For that, Mr. Atkinson, a respected, nonpartisan public servant with a 17-year record, was fired late Friday night by Mr. Trump, who used the cover of night and the novel coronavirus pandemic to extend his purge of officials who cooperated with the exposure or investigation of his wrongdoing. It was the most blatant and shameful act of retribution yet by a president who has sought to shut down all independent checks on his behavior.
@
BigOnYa:
I'm doing good, just made my first drink of the day, so better now, Captain and Coke today. I had to cut grass all day, then get my hair cut. I messed with my wifey, she knew I was going to get hair cut, and I went and bought a purple dyed wig, and came home wearing it, she freaked out, thinking I dyed my hair purple, was funny.+1
@
JakobAir:
Damn, I haven't been on here in while. My wife and I went on a mushroom trip like 10 years ago. A friend had a PS3TV with the glasses and some racing game. It hit when I was playing the game and I freaked out because I thought I was really driving and crashed.
