Crooks & Liars writes that Christopher Wray is Trump’s choice for Director of the FBI. Wray was in the Justice Department during the Shrubbery’s Hedgemony.

Wray is currently a private attorney at King & Spalding LLC. Among King & Spalding clients are the ‘trust’ Trump set up for his assets, and Rosneft, the state owned Russian oil monopoly.

For those playing at home, Techdirt dug up the numbers on Presidential appointments. Trump has 559 jobs that he can fill after they are confirmed by the Senate. He hasn’t made any nomination for 431 positions; he has picked someone for 25 positions, but hasn’t formally submitted them; and he has 63 positions awaiting confirmation. That means that he has filled only 40 positions, or just over 7% of those jobs that are open.

Who is so pathetic that they can’t find a friend who wants to be ambassador to the United Kingdom or Canada?

From the ABC: Arab nations Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Yemen cut diplomatic ties with Qatar

Six Arab nations have cut diplomatic ties to Qatar, further deepening the rift between Gulf Arab nations over that country’s support for Islamist groups.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Following suit, one of Libya’s three rival governments has announced cutting diplomatic relations with Qatar, and Yemen’s Government has cut relations with the country.

From CNN: Trump appears to take credit for Gulf nations’ move against Qatar

CNN Exclusive: US suspects Russian hackers planted fake news behind Qatar crisis

Washington (CNN) US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US’ closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

The FBI recently sent a team of investigators to Doha to help the Qatari government investigate the alleged hacking incident, Qatari and US government officials say.

Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, US officials say. Qatar hosts one of the largest US military bases in the region.

Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is a very large US base in the region and is the regional headquarters of the Central Command, as any competent ‘commander-in-chief’ would remember from his briefings, because a competent ‘commander-in-chief’ would have and pay attention to daily briefings.

The current occupant of the White House doesn’t seem concerned about how the 10K+ US personnel on that base are going to be supplied now that there is no fresh food coming in from Saudi Arabia. He also seems to be unaware of what will happen if the Qatari government tells the US to get the hell out because of his tweets.