Why Is A Dairy Farmer With No Intel Experience The House Intelligence Committee Chairman?

[Stonepounder]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/58d831cde4b0c0980ac0e756

It was one bizarre week for Rep. Devin Nunes, Chair of the only committee in the U.S. House investigating the possibility that Russia handed the 2016 election to Donald Trump. On Monday he gaveled open a hearing in which most of his GOP colleagues seemed more concerned with plugging leaks to the press than chasing down leads that Trump campaign and transition officials may have colluded with the Kremlin.

<--snip-->

Two days later, breaking with all precedent for an intelligence oversight chairman, he held two press conferences that book-ended his unilateral end-run down Pennsylvania Avenue to brief Mr. Trump on what he called possible “incidental” coverage of the Trump transition team during a legal surveillance operation at Trump Tower.

<--snip-->

Then, after throwing out the rulebook for intelligence oversight protocol, Devin Nunes abruptly announced the cancellation of a public hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which the former directors of CIA and National Intelligence were due to testify.

The most important person on the witness list for that session would have been former acting A.G. Sally Yates, fired after she warned that Michael Flynn, then White House National Security Advisor, could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Flynn (who was later dismissed) has been exposed since then as a covert foreign agent for the Turkish government and a conflicted paid surrogate of Russian interests.

This from a guy who came to Congress with absolutely no intelligence or or military background. The who article is long but well worth the read. Including the fact that the guy who is the head of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Gang of Eight who are entrusted with the Nation's most classified information, said in a news conference that he didn't know who Carter Page or Roger Stone were!

[onecaliberal]

1. Follow the money

[no_hypocrisy]

3. MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-LA!

[Chasstev365]

51. Lol!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. He's probably in somebody's pocket.

But the fact that he's a rank amateur sure shows. The real professionals will eat his lunch.

[L. Coyote]

27. The right question: "Why did trump place Congressional Intelligence people on his Transistion Team?"

To compromise the people responsible for investigating #TrumpRussia!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. That's probably the answer.

But what I'm trying to figure out what's in it for Nunes to run cover for Trump. Does he have financial interests in Russia, too? You can almost always get to the bottom of these things by following the money, but has any money landed in Nunes' pockets?

[Blanks]

32. As a member of the transition team...

He believes that he will go down with them.

Surround yourself with stupid people and you can tell them what you want.

Trump: "Nunes, get your ass over here. You're gonna look bad when this shit comes out."

Nunes: "Oh no, I'm screwed I better help cover this up. "

Pretty easy to see really.

[atreides1]

4. Nunes has a reason!

Devin Nunes’ principal intelligence obsession has been a pet project aimed at relocating The Africa and European Command centers, currently in Stuttgart, Germany to Lajes Air Base on the island of Terceira in The Azores, a volcanic archipelago in the North Atlantic 1,021 miles West of Lisbon.


Rep. Nunes is of Portuguese-Azorean ancestry and he has doggedly campaigned to put those key intel centers on the remote island in defiance of the DOD’s plans to create a “fusion” facility in the U.K. Even the conservative National Review, described his pork barrel initiative, which would cost an extra $1.2 billion, as a “One-Man War On The Pentagon.”


I'm wondering if Nunes is not acting as a representative for the Azores, and not so much for the people in his district???

[onecaliberal]

5. I'm in his district. We have put up missing flyers.. People are out there in front of his office

daily, but he's yet to show his face. Keep in mind this is a RED district.

[pinboy3niner]

10. He has an ag event scheduled for Friday in the district

Is Nunes still going to the "Ag Lenders Society" in his district this Friday
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028862653

[onecaliberal]

40. The closest we will get is protesting outside. He's there for BIG Agra farms that get

Millions in subsidies and pollute the Central Valley. Good luck getting in there.

[maxsolomon]

6. Laurence O'Donnell's opinion:

Ryan had to put someone there who'd place party over country, and he didn't have a lot of options. the GOP doesn't have a bench of experienced, sober thinkers with a bi-partisan approach to intelligence. they have a caucus of angry yahoos.

"Nunes is in over his head".

[pinboy3niner]

12. It was Boehner who originally made Nunes chair, mainly because the two were very close

Nunes already had experience as a member of the committee, which normally is considered sufficient qualification for the chairmanship.

[maxsolomon]

17. i must have fallen asleep at that part.

anytime after 10 I could drop off!

[Blanks]

34. They probably took smoke breaks together...

And cried about stuff.

[mulsh]

7. He's got a Masters in Agriculture do you? You guys sound like that smart ass Harvard Law

co-chair. With your superior reasoning and language skills. Cut him some slack. He's got a lot on his plate what with getting walking orders from the Kremlin Krew and having to translate it to Tulare Co aggie on the fly 'n shit. . Its very hard

[GulfCoast66]

19. My post may be predictable

and the guy is scum, but enough knocking on agriculture graduates. I am one.

Many of the degrees, especially advanced ones, require rigorous sciences courses. A high percentage of the work on genetics gets done in agricultural colleges. And most ag. Colleges at major universities require a pretty strong dose of Liberal arts.

This is exactly the kind of STEM careers we are encouraging our young people to enter.
And is often the case at major universities we science majors made fun of the liberal arts majors who struggle through two courses in algebra. And had no prayer at chemistry or physics.

Slam the guy for being a traitors and a dick.

Leave the agriculture degree out of it.

[metroins]

28. It's ok to slam the ag degree

When it's his only experience for running an intelligence committee and creating law.

I don't want lawyers or military commanders dealing with ag and I don't want ag dealing in intelligence.

He should be running something he has experience in.

[GulfCoast66]

33. I so enjoy a polite disagreement, and it appears we have one.

Do you really want all of our intelligence and defense committees filled with Ivy League lawyers and ex-military commanders? Who will probably be engineering or other science degreed graduates from one of the military academies.

One of the things we liberals have going against us, and have often brought upon ourselves is an appearance of elitism.

An Agriculture degree often prepares a person for a full and total career. I knew several Economics grads who changing their major to Ag Econ because it gave them a much more nuanced look at the world. And a better job prospect.

A little secret is that many of the doctors and dentist in this country went to school to study veterinary medicine. But could not get into one of the 28 vet schools. However, they had no problem getting into one of the hundreds of colleges of medicine or dentistry. I know a dentist and an anesthesiologist who started out to be Veterinarians but could not cut the grade. So now they treat people!

Do not buy into the Green Acre's vision of agriculture. There and women and men in those schools who have what it takes to serve on any committee in congress.

But I have kind of hijacked this thread. Sorry. We both agree that the congressperson from California is not qualified. Not because he is stupid, but because he is a traitor.

You have a very nice evening.

[Blanks]

35. I've seen the dig on his agriculture degree here before...

And I kind of agree that he should be a chair on a committee with some agriculture or scientific function. I'm sure there are plenty.

It'd be different if he got his agriculture degree and then did a stint in military intelligence, and with that in his background he was assigned to the intelligence committee.

The greater concern here is that we've got these republican law makers and they don't have any experience with law making. Ryan has some kind of liberal arts degree and thinks he's a number guy.

The people who put them in power do this because they are out of their element and easy to manipulate.

At least that's my theory.

[GulfCoast66]

38. He would be just as big a loser on an agriculture or (??scientific function, whatever that means??)

It is an oversight committee. Do you really want all the people on that committee to be ex-military intelligence and lawyers. I cannot not think of a bigger disaster.

Understand I am not now arguing for or about Nunes who is unqualified due to the fact he is a lying traitor.

But I strongly disagree any Bachelor of Science degree makes a person disqualified from any oversight committee.

And I sure as hell would want a science major rather than some of the communication, journalism or education majors I knew in school. The could not open a jar with instructions.






Last sentence...the whole shoe on the other foot thing

[nolabels]

60. I have seen on the job training before but never seen the trainee put in to run the organization

Well then, except for when *Bush was in charge and put the horse expert in charge of FEMA. Mostly everyone knows how that went

[GulfCoast66]

61. I think he was a member before

Chairman but am too busy to look up.

And he could have 20 years of OTJ training and would still be unqualified. His problems are more of ethnics than capability. Although I do not think he all that capable.

[Blanks]

62. Here's the thing...

Nunes was on the Trump transition team. I don't believe he's a traitor, I think he's looking out for his future.

Whatever happened, it shook him. If he'd had some kind of military or legal experience, he'd have known before he screwed up, that he was screwing up, the screw up occurred when he was on the transition team, it's why he was selected I expect.

They probably wanted him on the team so that they could compromise him. That's my theory anyway.

My point is that it isn't so much that there is a problem with having people like him (with his educational background) on the intelligence subcommittee, it's a problem when someone like him is on both the subcommittee AND the Trump transition team.

He was probably honored to be a part of the transition team, when he should have been asking himself "why me?" He needs to figure out 'why him' pretty quickly, or this is gonna ruin his life.

[GulfCoast66]

63. Oh, I agree

Especially about the head of the intelligence committee on the transition team. What could go wrong??

But background means little compared to ethics. I am thinking of one General Flynn.

He is no genius but is smart enough to realize that he has put himself in a bad place. So he panicked.

Now his story changes by the day and he acts like a caged rat.

[Blanks]

65. They're gonna try to pin this all on Flynn...

You watch. They'll make some announcements, point out some things that everyone already knows, and they'll claim he was just a rogue character in a group of otherwise wonderful people.

In fact, Rachel pointed to the cover of National Enquirer, and the article about Trump 'catching' the Russian spy in his midst. He thinks the Enquirer is actually news.

They'll try to put an end to it, but that's not gonna stop the banking investigations. The Russian political connection is only part of the scandal, the banking part is what is gonna expose Trump.

[GulfCoast66]

66. Flynn will turn stool pigeon before he takes the fall

He is going to look after number 1.

[Blanks]

67. Then it's gonna get ugly. eom

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. Nothing wrong with an ag degree; I'm sure the academics are

as rigorous as any other advanced degrees. However, it isn't the optimum background for managing the intelligence committee. Nunes doesn't seem to understand either law or politics.

[GulfCoast66]

36. What degrees are optimum?

Lawyer? I am pretty sure I do not want all of the members of our intelligence committees to be lawyers. Ex-military? That will work out well.

So are there others? Poli-Sci? And is that really any different than a lawyer? Economics? It took 4 economic classes while getting my degree. You get my point.

And are we talking degrees or backgrounds? Perhaps his background makes him unqualified. Although I think it his ethics that are really in question. But his degree does not necessarily have anything to do with it.

I think all of the derogatory comments about agriculture on this thread illustrate an unconscious bias many liberals have against rural life because most rural folks voted Trump. And of course lots of urban people think Green Acres when they think Ag degrees. The irony being that most Ag majors do not live in rural areas and being college educated are not necessarily huge trump supporters.

Have a great evening.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

37. Nunes has demonstrated that he hasn't a clue what he's doing.

But that may have nothing at all to do with his academic background. I don't think everybody should be lawyers because you don't want the same thought processes to be applied to all situations, which is what can happen when everybody has the same professional credentials. I do think that a member of Congress should have a strong understanding of the Constitution, the legal process and the legislative process, which Nunes apparently either lacks or doesn't care about. I don't care how congresscritters acquire that knowledge but they should have it.

As to farmers - I'm a part owner of a farm, which is actually operated and managed by a guy with an engineering degree and a former career in mechanical engineering. He, and his father before him (a guy with an aeronautical engineering degree), does a great job. I have enormous respect for farmers; it's a much more complex business than most people think.

[GulfCoast66]

39. Then we totally agree

Farmers are not necessarily Ag majors. The only comments I objected to were ones that stated that his degree disqualified him which I think is wrong.

His personal background and ethics are what make him so unsuited to the job. Oh, and the fact he is a traitor.

Have a great evening.

And sound like you have an interesting thing going on. Would it give away to much of your anonymity to tell me what kind of farm?

I look forward to the day that the Democratic party once becomes the party of farmers. And with so many of them losing their labor force right now if we play our cards correctly we may be.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

47. In Minnesota, where I live, the Democratic Party is actually called

the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, reflecting its origins as a merger of parties who represented ag interests and the miners in the northern part of the state. The DFL has mostly become an urban party, though; we've lost most of the farmers to the GOP, and the unions don't have much power any more.

Our farm isn't in MN; it's out on the plains. It's mostly corn and soybeans. The way farming is done now is very precise and scientific, using the services of agronomists to analyze the soil, and GPS to figure what, where and how to fertilize, etc.; you can't just throw some seeds onto the ground and hope for the best. Why so many farmers voted for Trump sort of escapes me, since the ones I know are pretty smart people. They might soon be very sorry if he imposes tariffs and keeps expelling immigrants.

[rzemanfl]

8. Bullshit experience? n/t

[procon]

9. Its all part of Bannon's plan for the deconstruction of the administrative state."

Look at all the incompetent idiots that Trump has put in place to run (or ruin) the country by destroying every government agency to the point where they can no longer function effectively or provide the necessary services that people need for themselves, their business and their future.

[NCjack]

13. Smells like Nunes is being influenced by Russian money. Does he have connections

to Russian oligarchs? Maybe buying worn-out farms and then selling to Russian rich business people for obscene profits?

[Greywing]

41. He is also part owner of a winery with Russian ties

IMO I think Nunes' bizarre behavior is due to his name being on this mysterious intel showing unmasked names collected incidentally. I think his former aide who is working in the WH is the Nunes informant and showed his/her former boss the information ... Nunes must have peed his pants. Thus the trip to the WH the day after he saw the document and the stupid behavior since.

[NCjack]

43. Sure are a lot of Russians revolving around those

who revolve around Trump.

[milestogo]

14. Its the new thing - the less qualified you are, the more likely you are to get the job.

Its a Trump thing.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

15. Because he'll do what he's told. Just pull the strings and he'll dance to the tune. nt

[delisen]

16. Boehner appointed Nunes. Nunes was loyal to Boehner.

and were said to be close. I don't know whether Nunes requested the assignment or why he wanted it.

Hh has been perseverating on getting the Pentagon to move cybersecurity to the Azores from England -a quest deemed inimical to NATO interests but beneficial to Putin.

If Putin really is the master of the "long game" he would have taken notice of Nunes but Nunes onlyrussian connection I know of is this one and his vineyard investment.

I wonder what Boehner is thinking of his protege now.

[ProudLib72]

18. Maybe with his degree in agriculture

he would be better suited tending to Michelle's garden?

[GulfCoast66]

42. I should quit while I am ahead

Go read all my comments above.

With my studies that included Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Economics, History and Political science courses while earning my Bachelors of Science degree I can assure that tending Michelle's garden would not have suited my major. While working in the genetics lab I did not learn how to compost collards.

But since I am not a dumbass I know how to garden. My grandfather with a 3rd grade education was a great gardener.

Nunes is not disqualified due to his college major but to the fact that he is a traitor who will do anything for power.

To imply that a person with a degree in Agriculture is not qualified to be in his position show the liberal bias we often see against people in rural American. Which is ironic since most Ag majors do not live in rural areas any more than most engineers do.

Not attacking you, just asking that you consider what you type when you attack an entire academic career.

Have a nice evening.

[panader0]

44. I admire your attitude. Dissing a degree in Ag is something I won't do.

[GulfCoast66]

48. Why thank you

The irony is that there are tons of good jobs in the field and not enough students. Good STEM jobs. And most Ag schools are desperate for minority and urban students. After all, we are talking about major State Universities.

Each state has a University with a Land Grant College of Agriculture. You may have heard of a few of them...Ohio State, Purdue, University of Wisconsin, Cornell, Penn State, Rutgers. You get the idea.

Thank you for the compliment and have a nice evening.

[ProudLib72]

49. Wow, with two masters degrees

I should be senator as well. Heck, I even took a poli sci course once.

You will have a difficult time convincing any rational person that an agriculture degree qualifies him to be a senator much less chair an intelligence committee.

[GulfCoast66]

52. Proud Lib?

Maybe in some ways, but you are pretty quick to stereotype Agriculture majors.

I am not defending Nunes. He is not only unqualified, but it is becoming apparent that he may well be a felon and perhaps a traitor.

What other degrees are, to any rational person, unqualified to be a Senator?

Engineers? Economist? Communication Majors? Because the College of Agriculture offers degrees in all of the above. Only they have to take an additional 20-25 hours on top of the normal discipline. They get all the training of those in their field but they specialize. And they are Agriculture majors.

You have no idea what my profession is or what I do, but because I majored in Agriculture I am not qualified, to any rational person, to be a Senator?

So tell me, what major is required to be a senator. And are there special Universities that make a person qualified? You tell us you have 2 masters degrees. Do they by the fact that you have them disqualify you from being a Senator? I am truly curious.

We as a party are getting killed in rural America. I will be the first to agree we can never give up our social justice standards to court them to join our party. But if we are telling rural, or any Americans that a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture disqualifies them from ever being a Senator in our party, we are really telling them to fuck off.

Have a nice evening.

[ProudLib72]

53. Nope

Simply jumping on someone because you feel put out by association does not mean your argument is supported. And the fact that you felt justified picking on my post because someone else posted something mean about an agriculture degree would tend to suggest you are trolling.

If you want to get into particulars, my second masters came from UConn, you know the university with big agriculture program and the dairy farm across the road. I may not have been in the program, but that does not mean I am unfamiliar with agriculture programs.

I NEVER SAID YOU WERE NOT QUALIFIED! I will restate: You will not convince anyone that merely having an agriculture degree qualifies ANYONE to be a senator. The point is that having any degree does not automatically qualify someone to be a senator. It does not automatically make someone smart or prepared. Hence my sarcasm that having two masters degrees must mean I am qualified.

[GulfCoast66]

54. I agree that merely having an agriculture degree is hardly a qualification for Senator

And we see and example of the danger of communicating on he internet. The word 'merely'.

Re-reading your post I responded to I have no doubt you meant it as you just explained. Had you used the work merely in the original post I would not have responded as I did. I admit that I probably read the post with a little to much defensiveness.

I am sensitive to the bias I often see here about people in agriculture and rural folks as a whole. And I am heartened to see that you are aware of the huge impact the agriculture plays on many of our major universities. Too many liberals just write off rural folks as nothing but Trump supporters to be denigrated when I see potential to reclaim a voter group that we used to own.

So if I overreacted, you have my apologies.

And for you information, I am the least qualified person to be a Senator you will ever type with!

I have had interns from UConn. They were always good kids. Among the best educated we had. We could always put them on the more technical jobs and they got them done. But to this Kentucky Wildcat they pulled for a crappy team!

Have nice evening. I do enjoy hashing these things out in a somewhat civil manner. Too bad it is so rare.

[ProudLib72]

56. Thank you

I also apologize. I am becoming increasingly aware of my need to be precise when I type posts.

[mrs_p]

55. Why shouldn't you be a senator?

If you have a strong understanding of the constitution, the will to represent the people of your state, and a previous career in leadership and service, I think you would be more than qualified.

Someone with an Ag degree or two masters degress as you do could fit that bill.

Who do you consider qualified?

[ProudLib72]

57. Everything you mentioned in the first sentence

is what qualifies someone to be a congress person. I worked for a few months as an aide to a representative in the Irish parliament (one semester of my first masters degree). He was well liked by his constituents and fellow representatives alike. He had started out his career as a school teacher. Later he became a principal. From there, he became a member of parliament. It's excelling in that type of service background and leadership role that qualifies someone to represent. Honestly, I think that studying and talking to him taught me more about politics than any of my classes.

Edit: I should include the person must be proven to be ethical. It's a shame we can't just assume ethics come with leadership. You would think that a person who wants to be a leader wishes to do so partially in order to model good ethical behavior. I think that's what HRC wanted when she said we would go high when they went low.

[mrs_p]

59. Gotcha. And agree

With the point about ethics too. Yeah, funny how that needs to be emphasized these days.

[tallahasseedem]

20. Because it's easier to become part of the U.S. House

than it is to get a Drivers License. They should be given the same Citizenship test that Immigrants have to take...seriously.

[Initech]

21. Because the republicans don't care.

Their only qualifications are "you're not a liberal? You're in!"

[malaise]

22. I'll take so that he can milk

the cash cow known as government for $2,000 Alex

[lpbk2713]

23. He's doing a heck of a job Brownie.

(Brownie had absolutely no experience related to the job when Dumbya
made him the head of FEMA. And then along came hurricane Katrina.)

[KewlKat]

24. Because he's one of the Ru$$ian klan. They distribute his wine.

[diva77]

25. No one is answering his phones today. Makes one wonder...

[L. Coyote]

26. Because he gives more milk?

I searched "Nunes" on Twitter. The trolls are out from under the bridge today.
But this cartoon alone made it worth wading thru all the slime.



For some reason Trump bots are pushing this link en masse, I guess to push Fox's version to the fore:

Link to tweet

To stay ahead of this story, perhaps:

Link to tweet

At the end of the day, there may be nothing to this story other than a lot of distraction from the real story. See cartoon above.

Link to tweet

[democratisphere]

31. EZ. Same reason a multi-failed so-called businessman, psychopath,

narcist, bad actor reality TV failure can reside in the oval office. Stupid voters.

[Amaryllis]

45. Lawrence O'Donnell went into that extensively on one of his shows last week; probably Tuesday

or Wed. It was the one where he said Nunes was in way over his head. NO expreince that would qualify him for this position, which raises the question of why Ryan put him there and leaves him there.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

46. Short answer??? The damned Electoral College.

[Generic Brad]

50. He knows how to milk it for all it's worth?

[ck4829]

58. Because he's not legitimate

[jeanmarc]

64. Because someone enjoyed Green Acres too much

He's in way over his head. It's obvious.