Vino Vixen shortly before she became a "senior adviser" at the State Department

Another day, another surreal tale of cultism, incompetence, and petty political retribution. According to a dozen sources at the State Department, Foreign Policy reports, a former food and beverage lobbyist and wine blogger - meet "Vino Vixen" - and newly hired "senior adviser" to the State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs is on a mission to sniff out Bolsheviks...oops, we mean staffers not sufficiently loyal to Dear Leader. Appointed in April to the Bureau, which oversees diplomatic relations with the U.N. and other international bodies, Mari Stull has allegedly been combing through the social media of staffers for "signs of ideological deviation," reviewing whether they signed off on Obama-era policies, and then excluding any miscreants from meetings and briefings. Says one senior diplomat, “She is actively making lists and gathering intel (to) see if they are toeing the line."

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Sources say Stull also insists that every directive issued by the office be reviewed by her first. And, in an agency that deals with international organizations, she has stripped all mentions of “international law” from memos; notes one appalled staffer, “I don’t know if she thinks international law doesn’t exist if they just take out any reference to it." Even with Trump's ugly history of targeting non-partisan federal workers for their perceived political loyalties - aka the possibility they liked the black guy - Stull represents a new and distinctly McCarthy-esque low. Says one source, “I have in my entire federal career never experienced anything at this level of chaos and dysfunction.” As a result, at least three senior officials are said to be leaving the sinking, grifting ship: "Everyone is looking to bail." But Stull will still be there with the same stellar skills that, as Vino Vixen, she displayed in a Christmas column about "sampling the bubbly...and (being) perfectly pleased to be your guide to pouring the perfect potation for the season." Because only the best people.