For those of you just tuning in, here’s what happened previously on From Russia with Loathe:

At a press conference on July 27, Donald Trump asked Russia, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble and if it had some time on its hands, to help find emails that were once on Hillary’s server.

Stolen emails from the Democrat National Committee and Clinton’s Campaign Chairman John Podesta, are then released by WikiLeaks at big moments like the Democratic Convention. These releases have mysteriously stopped since the election.

In September, President Obama shared intelligence with congressional leaders in an attempt to get a bipartisan statement against Russian interference with the election. Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell said, “Nah we don’t need to make a statement, it’s probably just a red herring.” Quick footnote – McConnell’s wife was recently nominated for a cabinet post by Trump.

President Obama still made a statement on his own but it’s lost in the noise of important developments like Billy Bush being fired from NBC’s Today show.

On October 28, FBI Director James Comey released his infamous letter saying more or less “If I have some time this weekend, I may look through some old emails that may or may not be from Hillary, just fyi.”

On October 30, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said the FBI had “explosive” evidence tying Trump to Russia.

On October 31, the FBI said Happy Halloween and that there was no clear link between Trump and Russia.

On November 4, Rudy Giuliani said the FBI leaked to him prior to Comey’s letter that they were going to look into more Hillary emails.

So the FBI is . . . best case – incompetent; worst case – complicit in assisting Russia in tilting things to Trump.

November 8, Trump got more electoral votes and you spent the night in the fetal position.

November 10, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said there were communications between Russia and the Trump campaign, “There were contacts. We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign.”

December 9, The Washington Post reported that the CIA says Russia was helping Trump win. One piece of evidence that supports their claim is that Russia hacked the Republican National Committee as well, but those documents were not released. President Obama finally ordered a comprehensive report on Russian interference.

Also on December 9, the President-elect had a real Sophie’s choice between believing Putin or the CIA and he chose . . . oh, I don’t want to spoil it, read it: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again’.”

A few GOP senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham have called for investigations, most have said “¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , wake me up when something worth investigating comes up, like Hillary asking Huma Abedin to print her emails out.”

So to summarize, Trump asked for Russia’s help. Russia gave it. The CIA said that Russia did it to help Trump. Many Republicans shrugged and said, “C’mon Russians haven’t been bad guys in movies since Rocky beat Drago. We’ve got nothing to worry about.” The President-elect then dismissed the CIA as a credible source of intelligence information and for good measure got in two more lies – that the election ended a long time ago (reality: a month) and he had one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history (reality: there are 45 other presidential elections with larger margins).

More Information
The Washington Post: Secret CIA Assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House

As The TrumpShaker is dedicated to serving our readers, I prepared this Trump Cabinet Cheat Sheet^TM for you to take into your upcoming reeducation class at Trump University. Ready? No, you’re not. Honestly, no one can be prepared for this list.

• Environmental Protection Agency – Scott Pruitt – is Oklahoma’s Attorney General as well as a climate change denier whose only relevant experience is suing the EPA and who is sponsored by the fossil fuel industry. But maybe he’ll do what he did for Oklahoma and really shake things up!
• Interior – Cathy McMorris – is a Congresswoman from eastern Washington who gets excited about drilling in the Arctic and Indian Reservations, sponsors bills to sell off national park land, got an F from the National Parks Conservation Association, and has a 4% lifetime score for the League of Conservation Voters.
• State (rumored) – Rex Tillerson – is Exxon’s CEO. He’ll have a lot of friends in the White House since he is against environmental regulations and he won the Order of Friendship award from Putin in 2013.
• Labor – Andrew Puzder – is the CEO of Carl’s Jr. He is anti-union, puts “hot models in commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers”, believes that “there is no way in the world that scooping ice cream is worth $15 an hour”, and runs a company that had labor violations in 60% of its restaurants. His appointment is also literally a plot point in the movie Idiocracy.
• Housing and Urban Development – Ben Carson – is a retired neurosurgeon with no government experience, has likened fair housing to communism, has a hard time telling the truth, and believes the pyramids in Egypt were grain silos.
• Education – Betsy DeVos – is a billionaire by the way of marriage to the son of Amway’s founder who supports private school vouchers in lieu of public education.
• Attorney General – Jeff Sessions – is a Senator from Alabama who opposes voting rights and was denied a federal judgeship by his own party because he was deemed too racist.
• Health and Human Services – Tom Price – is a former surgeon and current Congressman from Georgia who wants to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, privatize Medicare, and scored a 0 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.
• Small Business Administration – Linda McMahon – co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) which has “been illegally depriving its wrestlers of millions in benefits.”
• Chief Strategist – Steve Bannon – was the executive chair of Breitbart News and is a white nationalist who admires Lenin (the Russian tyrant Lenin; not the give peace a chance Lennon)
• National Security Advisor – Michael Flynn – is a retired US Army Lieutenant General who believes in no dissent from his subordinates, claims to have seen signs in Arabic in Mexico pointing the way to border crossings and tweets things like this:

Tweets of the Week

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NPR reporter Asma Khalid discusses what is was like to cover the 2016 campaign as a Muslim reporter.

Glenn Beck was visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future and now wants to buy us all a big goose to ask forgiveness for what he’s done.