The media in attendance during the February 3rd press briefing was expected to dutifully distribute the possible plot as accepted fact.

The United States has acquired intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine using a faked video that would build on recent disinformation campaigns, according to senior administration officials and others briefed on the material. The plan — which the United States hopes to spoil by making public — involves staging and filming a fabricated attack by the Ukrainian military either on Russian territory or against Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine.
— New York Times, 2/3/22

The usual suspects’ accepted anything coming from a Democrat administration as unchallenged gospel.

CNN: US alleges Russia planning false flag operation against Ukraine using ‘graphic’ video
NPR: Deputy NSA talks on Russia’s possible ‘false flag’ attack to justify Ukraine invasion
Fox News: Russia planning Ukraine false flag as pretext for invasion: Pentagon
MSNBC: U.S. intelligence suggests Russia considering ‘elaborate’ pretext to invade Ukraine
USA Today: DOD: Intel shows Russia plotting false flag attack
VoA: US Says Russia Preparing ‘False Flag’ Operation to Justify Invading Ukraine

Lee wasn’t buying it and needed a wee bit more than “Well, I said so”.

For years, conservatives were ridiculed for not blindly accepting news presented by the legacy media. Liberals mock anyone using the term “false flag”. Millions were told to get a vaccine that would prevent them from catching COVID-19. For over five years, millions of Americans were led to believe Donald Trump was a Russian spy that stole an election. There is instance-after-instance where what we were told to believe then is now the complete opposite with seldom an admission of error issued.

A quickly and efficiently failing Biden administration, that looks for anything to exploit that might result in a one percent bump in any poll, is very dangerous as desperate politicians and staff have little regard for whomever they may hurt in order to maintain power. They’ll even conduct missile strikes and are indifferent to any collateral damage and casualties they may cause. They may even find a way to enter a conflict with the belief there’ll be solidarity behind a wartime Commander-in-Chief.

Not like it hasn’t happened before and at least one reporter knows a rat when he smells one.

During the announcement, General McKenzie actually said some Americans left behind “want to stay for awhile”.

In case you don’t believe a human being could be so callous, hear for yourself….

He said the number of remaining Americans is in the “very low hundreds.”
— Yahoo News, 8/30/21

Oh well, that’s not so bad.

White House says ‘small number’ of Americans remain in Afghanistan
US military admits several hundred Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan are stranded
Sacramento school district confirms 24 students are still stranded in Afghanistan
Animal Rights Group Goes After Biden Administration For Allegedly Leaving Service Dogs Behind
Thousands of American University of Afghanistan students and graduates were left behind
American woman trapped in Afghanistan and tear-gassed at airport:
‘The last flight is gone and we’re left behind’
‘We have Americans stranded in countries all the time’:
Pentagon defends leaving hundreds of citizens in Kabul
Biden Banks On Taliban To Rescue Stranded Americans

Let’s hope and pray over the coming days, weeks and months, we don’t start getting reports of the tradition atrocities we’ve come to expect from the Taliban, especially committed against Americans, stranded by the Biden administration, who chose to remain because they “wanted to stay for awhile”.

Not like anyone in the Biden administration gives a shit about them.

For example, it’s a well know fact there IS a blacklist against Hollywood conservatives. Unless you’re an A-list entertainer, even a hint of Republican orientation can result in your never-going-to-work-in-this-town-again. Whether we’re talking Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C. or any other progressive enclave, employed Republicans must keep their political views to themselves and have had to do so for decades.

Political discrimination is a topic very seldom reported in the it’s-no-big-deal media because it’s proudly practiced against conservatives, but now it will be an issue in need of yet another “discussion” because it could be happening to (heaven forbid) … liberals.

OIG found evidence of leadership and management deficiencies and mistreatment of career employees in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO). These inappropriate practices included disrespectful and hostile treatment of employees, accusations against and harassment of career employees premised on claims that they were “disloyal” based on their perceived political views, and retaliation associated with conflicts of interest.

During the course of this review, OIG received allegations that two personnel actions were undertaken by IO leadership for improper motives: the removal of the IO Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS), a career senior foreign service officer, and the cancellation of the selection process for a career position in the IO Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. OIG found evidence that both actions by IO leadership were likely based on non-merit factors and thus violated Department policy.
— Office of Inspector General Review, August 2019

Two.

Conservatives have and continue to work in environments where partisan liberals fearlessly blurt out their disdain for Republicans, President Trump and are “disrespectful and hostile” to anyone not a Democrat. Thus conservatives are routinely passed over and/or outright ignored in hiring in blue areas if any hint of their party affiliation is discovered. There is no redress.

Only defense.

The Friends of Abe is a small group of Hollywood conservatives who meet anonymously, with the exception of a few well-established high-profile members, because they know damn well they’ll get blacklisted into oblivion if they’re outspoken in their political views.
— Human Events, 1/24/14

In the United States it’s widely perceived that we have rights guaranteeing “freedom of association”. Unfortunately lawsuits, some of whom were decided by the Supreme Court, have made “freedom of association” more on a case-by-case basis but if there was a class action lawsuit including every Republican (who was forced to either keep his or her political beliefs to themselves under threat of verbal assault or even punitive actions including termination), we’d probably see so many aggressor companies, supervisors, and employees named that today’s whiny headlines about a few liberals being hassled would be beyond a bad joke.

Trump appointees routinely bullied State Department staffers, IG reports
Report details ‘subhuman’ treatment of employees
State Department Officials Berated Staff Over Political Views, Report Says
Watchdog Censures Two Trump Appointees for Harassing Career Staffers
Senior Trump officials, including ‘Vino Vixen,’ harassed, abused, retaliated against career State Dept. employees
Democrats slam alleged politicization of Trump State Department after IG report

As someone who’s personally felt the sting of the political discrimination lash (even worse because I’m NOT a black Democrat) and know persons on both coasts who have to work with intolerant liberals who make their political views known loud and proud, multiple times per day, let’s not accept the word of a few State Department employees or the media that have too many believing they’re victims. State Department employees, in particular, have been in full dissent mode against the Trump Administration and have plotting behind the back of the boss since his inauguration.

From AFSA: What You Need To Know When You Disagree With U.S. Policy
Dissent Channel: The State Department’s internal dissent channel, covered in 2 FAM 070, states that the State Department may not punish an employee who uses the dissent channel. It also prohibits raters and reviewers from negatively mentioning an employee’s use of the dissent channel when writing said employee’s EER. The Foreign Service promotion precepts explicitly recognize appropriate dissent as a positive factor to be considered when reviewing employees for promotion.
— USAID Alumni Association, 1/31/17

Try that at your place of employment see what happens once the boss finds out as this kind of public dissent and disrespect is NOT limited to the State Department.

Sorry, conservatives don’t routinely behave like this, especially during work hours.

Employees from two Department of Agriculture research agencies stood and turned their backs to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue at an all-hands meeting Thursday to silently protest a decision to relocate the agencies halfway across the country.
— CNN, 6/13/19

Think about the cultural contempt and partisan unity it would take to do something like this.

Again, NO ONE should have to be concerned about retaliation over their political affiliation, especially at the workplace. But until either everyone has to keep those views to themselves, everyone can speak freely without genuine concern it could cost them their jobs, don’t buy into the media narrative that poor liberals are being bullied on the job and it’s only a Trump-era phenomenon.

That, too, is another media lie.

UPDATE

The long-standing trend of political discrimination against the right has now been verified with numbers!

American workers who like President Trump face sweeping bias against them, with some managers refusing to hire his supporters and those already employed facing discrimination and mockery, according to a new study.

In a survey of hiring managers and workers shared with Secrets, the marketing firm Airtasker found that left-leaning firms are especially anti-Trump, with 20% vowing to reject a job candidate who backs the president.

And those who support Trump and who are already in the workplace face substantial mockery, including name-calling. The survey listed the responses to several examples of what pro-Trump workers face:

28%, joking about them.
23%, overly critical of them.
21%, being dismissive of them.
11% facing name calling.

This has been going on for decades in the workplace. It’s only now that the intolerant left has been so emboldened, it’s being documented.

The survey found that even more than Trump, a job candidate’s view on race and gender politics will help, or hurt, their chances of getting a job.
— Washington Examiner, 8/19/19

Maybe that explains it….

Had the American people seen just how fast-and-loose government employees were playing with taxpayer dollars, the media-driven sob fest concerning the dire plight of some of those employees may have been entirely different and many Americans just may have demanded these workers to stay home for good.

A new analysis released by OpenTheBooks.com found 66 agencies spent $97 billion last September, the final month of fiscal year 2018. The end of the year taxpayer-funded spending spree included contracts with Coors, millions on iPhones, furniture, and CrossFit equipment.

“In the final month of the fiscal year, federal agencies scramble to spend what’s left in their annual budget,” OpenTheBooks.com said. “Agencies worry spending less than their budget allows might prompt Congress to appropriate less money in the next fiscal year. To avoid this, federal agencies choose to embark on an annual shopping spree rather than admit they can operate on less.”
— Washington Free Beacon, 3/7/19

Just a hint of why so many of the #Shutdown workers paraded in front of our televisions looked like they could afford to miss a meal or two and why so many supposedly had little to no food: the American taxpayer was feeding too many on the job!

Resulting government expenditures included $4.6 million on lobster tail and crab; $673,471 on golf carts; $1.7 million on pianos, tubas, and trombones; $9.8 million on workout and recreation equipment; and $7.7 million iPhones and iPads.

A Wexford Leather club chair cost taxpayers $9,241. The government spent $293,245 on rib eye, top sirloin, and flank steak.

The federal government spent $2.1 million on games, toys, and wheeled goods, $490.6 million on furniture, and $62.1 million on household furnishings. Bureaucrats spent $1.1 million on standing desks, as well as $2.7 million on ergonomic chairs, $643,833 on sofas, and $40,379 on clocks.

Again, emphasis on prime “food”… and booze.

Agencies spent $402 million on food, including the Pentagon, which spent $2.3 million on snow crab, Alaskan king crab, and crab legs, and $2.3 million on lobster tail. The Pentagon and Department of State spent $308,994 on alcohol, including a $76,173 contract with Coors Brewing Company.

The total $97 billion spent in September 2018 amounts to a 16 percent increase from the previous year. Similarly, last year’s end of the budget spending binge included millions spent on cars, scooters, fidget spinners, and shuffleboards.

It appears government employee performance can be inspired when they personally benefit.

“In the final seven days of the fiscal year, agencies ramped up their spending to a total $53 billion—that’s more than they spent in the entire month of August,” OpenTheBooks.com said.

So, the next time you’re told how much we should empathize with federal government employees, remember their blatant disrespect for your hard-earned, confiscated tax dollar, especially when they indifferently overindulge at our expense.

But also because there was a lot of, dare I use the word, treasonous activity committed by those who believed they’d never be caught had Hillary Clinton won, and are now praying liberal media interference will keep their pasty, fat asses out of prison.

It is now clear that elements within the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the State Department were actively working against the Trump campaign, and that these elements continued to work against President Donald Trump’s administration following his surprise win.

Immediately following Trump’s victory, these efforts focused on two specific fronts: hobbling the effectiveness of Trump’s newly formed administration and simultaneously working toward his impeachment. Complicit in this effort was the mainstream media, which almost gleefully promoted story after story full of half-truths and partial facts.
— The Epoch Times, 12/27/18

Keeping the liberal sheep distracted and angry is all the left and their media has, also knowing once the truth comes out, a very important question will be asked: How much of this did the media know and why did they take it upon themselves to be accomplices to what’s in essence a coup d’état?

And if the media admits they were totally hoodwinked by rogue elements within the FBI, CIA, DOJ and State Department, then what fucking good are they?

Everything appears to be still riding on the never-ending Mueller investigation and that’s NOT a good card to be relying on.

The Mueller investigation has proven to be an emotional issue and a source of concern for many. But there are some potentially reassuring facts for those concerned the special counsel is acting out of bounds. Mueller’s investigation has exhibited a common theme: influence peddling and FARA violations. And the majority of his investigations, such as the one into Paul Manafort, relate to events preceding Trump. Thus far, there have been no allegations of collusion in any of the Mueller indictments relating to the president.

Remember, the Democrat left and ALL of their allies have assured their consumers and donors that President Trump worked in cahoots with the Russians to change the minds of rational Americans into voting against Hillary Clinton.

Christopher Steele, British national and former MI6 agent, admitted in a recent court filing that he was hired for the purpose of providing information that would allow Hillary Clinton to challenge the validity of the 2016 election.

The Steele dossier was used by both the FBI and the CIA, and a summary of the document was provided directly to President Barack Obama. And yet, for all the weight attached to this document, most of its assertions have never been proven to be factual, many have been proven to be false, and it remains unverified to this day.

Armed with the best investigative law team taxpayer money can buy, all Mueller’s “team” been able to do is kick in the doors of the homes of lower level federal and campaign employees, break them into plea bargaining to charges that have NOTHING to do with Russian collusion (because it never happened); and some of these charges pertain to rarely-enforced “crimes” that preceded any direct affiliation with Donald Trump, his campaign, transition team or administration.

The investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which began in May 2017, began to return indictments, but has noticeably failed to produce any evidence of collusion on the part of the Trump campaign. Each indictment from Mueller has specifically noted there was no collusion on the part of any American citizen.

The truth ALWAYS comes out and when it does, the same indifferent lack of mercy should be shown to these people. The same level of mercy that’s resulted in some having to sell off their assets in order to obtain legal representation on par with the FBI and/or DOJ, not to mention going to jail for things Democrats were offered immunity for after doing much worse.

We should also not let the likes of ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, Newsweek, TIME, as well as MoveOn, the ACLU, Democratic AGs or any of the other liberal nonprofits that pushed the “Russian collusion” hoax to a semi-trusting American people solely for the purpose of initially damaging and ultimately impeaching a sitting president off the hook. This should also include all those presently investigating the president, knowing he did nothing wrong and still want to damage him politically just because they can.

Lock them up.

Yes, lock them all up and throw away the keys.

UPDATE

Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and most everyone around them were afforded immunity or friendly agreements from the Obama DOJ despite the stench that’s been growing from new revelations.

The Justice Department “negotiated” an agreement with Hillary Clinton’s legal team that ensured the FBI did not have access to emails on her private servers relating to the Clinton Foundation, former FBI special agent Peter Strzok testified during a closed-door appearance before the House Judiciary Committee last summer, according to a newly released transcript. The DOJ’s goal, Former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee until 2017 and is now a Fox News contributor said, was to “make sure they hear no evil, see no evil — they had no interest in pursuing the truth.”

Chaffetz added that the DOJ’s behavior, including its award of immunity to top Clinton aides early on in the investigation, signaled a clear double standard: “They didn’t go make a deal with anyone in Trump’s orbit. They seized it. They used guns and agents — and just went in there and took it.”
— Fox News, 3/14/19

Meanwhile, anyone associated with Donald Trump’s campaign has been financially damaged, prosecuted and even imprisoned and afforded no such soft cushion. In some cases, those in the Trump orbit were hassled even though partisan investigators knew these people did nothing wrong.

If President Trump declassifies evidence in the Russia investigation, Carter Page’s summer bike ride to a Virginia farm and George Papadopoulos’s hasty academic jaunt to London may emerge as linchpin proof of FBI surveillance abuses during the 2016 election. The two trips have received scant attention. But growing evidence suggests both Trump campaign advisers made exculpatory statements — at the very start of the FBI’s investigation — that undercut the Trump-Russia collusion theory peddled to agents by Democratic sources.

The FBI plowed ahead anyway with an unprecedented intrusion into a presidential campaign, while keeping evidence of the two men’s innocence from the courts.

Multiple FBI officials have testified that the Christopher Steele dossier had not been verified when its allegations were submitted as primary evidence supporting the FISA warrant against Page. We know the FBI failed to tell the courts that Steele admitted to a federal official that he was desperate to defeat Trump in the 2016 election and was being paid by Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to gather dirt on the GOP candidate.
— The Hill, 3/14/19

It doesn’t give much confidence of the fairness of the criminal justice system when law enforcement feels free to investigate and pressure people they know are innocent just because they can.

The agents themselves, the lower level level agents at the Department of Justice, there has to be a sort of retraining. You can’t suborn perjury. You can’t suppress evidence. You can’t extort false testimony from witnesses through intimidation and threats. This is stuff that we’re seeing now constantly all the time.

We have a political system that has weaponized our criminal justice system for selective and political prosecutions. There is no greater threat to our government than a country that uses its criminal justice system to selectively and politically prosecute people. This isn’t Russia or China or Iran. That’s exactly what happens over there. It’s not supposed to happen here.
— Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, 3/13/19

We all know it happens on the state and local level, but if you are a Republican and can have your life destroyed just because vindictive Democrats have the power and desire to  do so, they our nation is in more trouble than we think.

That is, until a few were introduced to the world of candidate-and-now President Donald Trump. They are now an insignificant means to an end for his removal from office.

Michael Flynn pleaded guilty late last year to lying about the subject of conversations he had with high-ranking Russian officials after President Donald Trump won the election, but before he took office. “All along you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States,” U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Arguably, that undermines everything that flag over here stands for.”
— Politico, 12/18/18

While the media in-concert shouted-out U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan’s admonishment to Flynn that “You sold your country out”, they’re selectively omitting his “walking back” the statement.

“I made a statement about Mr. Flynn acting as a foreign agent in the White House,” he said. Sullivan added that he realized that was incorrect.

The left, ever since the initial indictment of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, has played fast and loose with his being guilty of some form of treason. They kinda’ need (again) to read up on what they talk about before going there.

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
— 18 U.S. Code § 2381 – Treason

Not sure what war enemy we’re engaged with that Michael Flynn offered aid-and-comfort to but the selective enforcement of the law with regards to “foreign lobbyists” is jacked.

Anyone who’s spent any time in and around Capitol Hill knows that lobbyists bring millions of dollars aimed at politicians in office and those who wannabe. Anyone in the DOJ or FBI need be very wary that those they hassle today could either be placed in the chain of command above them or have the ability to affect their department as a whole or even individually later.

Thus, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is widely blown off until something blows up they can’t avoid… or people involved are those federal law enforcement deems worthy of targeting. Collateral human damage under said target is something these prosecutors are callously indifferent to no matter how many lives are damaged.

For the most part, high-profile documented enforcement of FARA can total the number of fingers in less than two hands.

Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin are accused in an indictment of conspiring to “covertly and unlawfully” influence U.S. public opinion and politicians, all while concealing that the Turkish government was directing their work. The campaign came during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign while Flynn was a top surrogate for Trump’s campaign. Both men are charged with conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Alptekin is also charged with lying during an interview with the FBI.
— Associated Press, 12/17/18

Had it not been for Flynn’s involvement with Donald Trump, Kian and Alptekin would be living their lives here today just fine.

A Russian gun rights activist pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July. In plea papers, prosecutors agreed to drop a second count against Russian national Maria Butina of violating a law that requires foreigners working for their government to register with the U.S. Justice Department. There is no suggestion in the documents that Butina was employed by the Russian intelligence services, but violations of the law are considered more serious than a separate law that requires registration by paid lobbyists for foreign entities.
— Washington Post, 12/13/18

Had it not been for the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School and the expected, yet amped-up ire against the NRA, Butina would be living her life here today just fine.

The prosecution of Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry reflects what current and former Justice Department officials say is an aggressive enforcement strategy against unregistered foreign agents that began even before special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation exposed a shadowy world of international influence peddling. The effort comes amid revelations about Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and a stream of high-profile foreign-agent filings from President Donald Trump’s associates.
— US News, 5/22/18

Had it not been for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign defeat and looking for anyone and everyone else to blame, Chaudhry would be living his life here today just fine.

Federal law requires people to disclose to the Justice Department when they lobby or perform other political activities in the U.S. on behalf of foreign governments. But the Justice Department has rarely brought criminal cases, choosing instead to encourage people to comply with the law rather than prosecute them when they fail to do so.
— Firstpost, 5/8/18

Is this another case of fat and comfortable federal employees not doing their job unless it will result in higher pay and greater retirement benefits? The case could be made.

While both firms disclosed the work to Congress under less-rigorous domestic lobbying rules, John and Tony Podesta did not initially register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment alleges that was done intentionally — by routing the money through a Brussels-based nonprofit — “to minimize public disclosure of their lobbying campaign” that “was under the ultimate direction” of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the Russia-aligned former president of Ukraine, his party and his government.
— New York Times, 11/20/17

There are too many partisans within the Justice Department to ever let any details of Democrat/Clinton malfeasance see the light of day. See: “Uranium One“….

The U.S. government charges Victor Podobnyy, an alleged Russian intelligence operative in New York City and two other Russian operatives for acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government, after it had broken up a Russian spy ring aimed at seeking information on U.S. sanctions. Federal prosecutors include the Russian intelligence effort to recruit Carter Page as part of the government’s evidence.
— Slate, 11/7/17

Had it not been for Carter Page’s low-level position on the Trump for President campaign, Podobnyy would be living his life here today just fine.

“The U.S. Department of Justice has only brought six criminal FARA prosecutions since 1966 and it has secured only one conviction during this period,” said Kevin Downing, Paul Manafort’s defense attorney. “It is far from clear what activity triggers a requirement to file a report as a foreign agent.”
— CNN, 11/6/17

Had it not been for his very brief stint at the helm of the 2016 Trump campaign, Manafort would be living his life today just fine.

New Abedin emails released to Judicial Watch this week show that Huma Abedin served as liaison between Clinton Foundation donors, including foreign governments, and the State Department. When foreign donors had difficult in getting appointments with Mrs. Clinton through normal State Department channels, Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band would email Huma Abedin, and poof! the doors would open as if by magic. Donald Trump has criticized this as “pay for play.” But it also raises questions as to whether Huma Abedin and Mrs. Clinton were in fact serving as unregistered agents for foreign powers who sought to impose their anti-freedom agenda on the United States.
— The Hill, 8/23/16

Had it not been for her husband’s attention-getting debauchery while having a potential president’s ear, Huma would be living her life today just fine.

And not many of these “unregistered foreign agents” met with much scrutiny during most of the Obama administration.

All 10 suspected Russian spies who pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York have been flown out of the United States and are now headed for Russia. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on July 8 refused to comment on the case, saying, “I am going to refer all inquiry about this matter to the Justice Department.” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on July 8 that the “extraordinary” case had taken years of work, “and the agreement we reached today [July 8] provides a successful resolution for the United States and its interests.”
— Radio Free Europe, 7/9/10

They plead guilty and served no jail time, in fact they got to go home. This shows how seriously being an “unregistered foreign agent” is really taken, that is until you have any kind of association with someone Democrats don’t like, if not downright hate.

They’ll use the almost unlimited prosecutorial budget of the federal government to attack your reputation, invade the privacy of your home at their whim, force you to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to defend yourself in court proceedings, and as you may be that little fish they don’t really want, you may have to spend a few days in jail because of flimsy charges and/or prosecutorial funny business, if at all.

A growing number of State Department employees are charging they are being put in career purgatory because of their previous work on policy priorities associated with President Barack Obama and in offices the Trump administration is interested in closing.

The situation has got so serious that several officials tell CNN they have retained attorneys after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to raise concerns about being assigned to low-level jobs in Foggy Bottom such as answering Freedom of Information Act requests. The issue has also come to the attention of senior Democrats on Capitol Hill.
— CNN, 1/28/18

While the Democrats and their media would have us all believe these are poor government workers caught up in a Republican witch hunt to exact revenge on Obama loyalists, there’s a little more to this that we’ve covered here before and these employees are not as innocent as they’d have us all believe.

Dissent at the U.S. State Department: Why Trump Should Welcome It
It was precisely in order to avoid that sort of stark choice that the State Department’s dissent channel was first established. Created during the Vietnam War, when many Foreign Service officers understandably had grave misgivings about U.S. foreign policy, it offered a way for them to speak their minds while continuing to serve their country. Since then, the dissent channel, at its best, has been a source of creativity and open thinking inside the bureaucracy, allowing diplomats to question widespread assumptions and challenge ideological stances from within.
— Foreign Affairs (published by the Council on Foreign Relations), 2/3/17

Yes, these same picked-on employees have a portal where they can communicate about State Department matters, but in this case, quietly bitch, moan, “dissent” and plot against President Trump’s agenda; an agenda they are to implement because he’s their boss.

From AFSA: What You Need To Know When You Disagree With U.S. Policy
Dissent Channel: The State Department’s internal dissent channel, covered in 2 FAM 070, states that the State Department may not punish an employee who uses the dissent channel. It also prohibits raters and reviewers from negatively mentioning an employee’s use of the dissent channel when writing said employee’s EER. The Foreign Service promotion precepts explicitly recognize appropriate dissent as a positive factor to be considered when reviewing employees for promotion.
— USAID Alumni Association, 1/31/17

Yes, dissent is a formal mechanism to advancement in the State Department amongst the left.

Anyone who’s worked with liberals know they are quite at ease in making their opinions know in the workplace. They can be quite vocal, from initiating discussion to epithet-laden outbursts. When they are in the numerical majority, they can all be quite the bullies, especially when their superiors are of like mind and will not restrict their intrusions. Whether you’re in the Republican minority in the federal government who had to keep political opinions to themselves or risk political retribution by empowered Democrats or in other industries like entertainment in Hollywood where conservative sympathy can result in your never working in that town again, it’s almost amusing to now watch liberal federal employees whine about being given monkey work because they’re hard to fire.

When Barack Obama was elected twice, liberals celebrated in our faces and Republicans accepted the results and organized appropriately. When Donald Trump was elected, liberals immediately denied Republicans the opportunity to revel in a hard fought victory and have taken to the streets ever since in #resistance dissent. Taking it to the federal workplace may have gone too far and now they’re whining because THEY are no longer running the show and believe they’re being punished for their political beliefs.

How does it feel?

And considering the Obama administration was not all that cooperative in replying to FOIA requests, these State Department employees have some catching up to do.