I have close to zero interest in most things Joe-and-Mike related but I’m curious to know if this kind of thing is legal (if true, which it certainly it is). Is it?
“We got a call that, ‘Hey, the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story against you guys…’ And they said, ‘If you call the president up, and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike this story,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough didn’t name names, but he said “three people at the very top of the administration” called him about this.
“The calls kept coming and kept coming, and they were like ‘Call. You need to call. Please call. Come on, Joe. Just pick up the phone and call him.'”
In other words, grovel to the president and he’ll make the mean story disappear.
? Martin
Hard to say. I think blackmail requires some demand for a real asset. I’m not sure the courts could attach a monetary value to an apology.
However, it clearly is an abuse of power of the Office of the President and should serve as grounds for impeachment.
dopey-o
“When you’re rich and famous, they let you do it.”
quakerinabasement
Sounds similar to blackmail. Which is NOT legal.
JPL
@? Martin: hahahahhaha
acallidryas
I don’t have any comments about the legality, but I want to see more stories of Trump groveling for attention from famous people. We know they exist!
Keith G
There was a time when this would be the lead story in all TV networks.
Bruce K
Well, under New York Penal Law, section 135.60:
Full article for reference.
I don’t think that what the cheeto administration did rises to first-degree coercion (which is a D felony), but the Constitution does have something to say about misdemeanors in Article 2, Section 4…
rikyrah
Trump Plans Giveaways to His Buddy Putin
by Nancy LeTourneau
June 30, 2017 8:10 AM
………………………….
Not only is Trump ignoring the cyber threat, he is considering the possibility of returning two diplomatic compounds to Putin—the very ones that Obama ordered vacated in response to Russia’s interference in the election.
Trying to follow any logic associated with Trump’s behavior is a fool’s errand. He just went on a Twitter tirade last week about how Obama did nothing in response to Russia’s behavior. Simultaneously, he was asking his national security staff to propose “deliverables” he could give to Putin, including the reversal of what Obama did in response to Russia’s behavior. This is precisely why I never assume that there is any method to the madness of his Twitter tirades. They are simply the rantings of someone with no impulse control.
The overall idea that this president is looking for deliverables to propose in his first meeting with Putin, while asking nothing in return, is remarkable. The two words that come to mind to describe it are (1) stupid and (2) guilty.
A competent strategist would find a way to at least appear neutral about Russia (if not a bit aggressive) in order to diminish the appearance of collusion. Trump isn’t even trying. That’s what makes him look guilty. During a time when we know that Russia mounted their most aggressive attempt to undermine our democracy, this president is considering giveaways to the guy who orchestrated it all. Why else would he do that unless Putin had something on him? I don’t know about you, but I can’t come up with any other justification.
If Trump set out to prove himself guilty, I can’t imagine how he could do a better job than this.
catclub
I thought the point to the story was that it ended up with no apology and no story running, so it was the usual empty threat.
different-church-lady
A certain Robert Mueller’s ears are burning at the moment…
germy
@rikyrah:
Alaska!
scav
It basically seems to be additional information about just what their price is, now being narrowed from both directions. They apparently were just fine with this behavior until at some point it got a little too close to the knuckle and personal plus they could see the value (and safety in numbers) of being somewhat opposed to the Donald.
zach
Not a lawyer, but I’d guess it might break one of these two parts of US law:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-41
It would probably hinge on whether whatever the White House was demanding has value. An apology probably doesn’t cut it. An apology on air might.
Villago Delenda Est
“Nice little morning show you have there, Joe and Mika. Would be a shame if anything happened to it.”
cervantes
Threats can be empty and still constitute illegal coercion.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: “No, not Baked Alaska…Alaska!”
bemused
Trumpettes voted for a mobster but doubt they care, not yet anyway.
gratuitous
There’s really only one response to this sort of extortion: “Put the offer in writing: The National Enquirer is ready to run a story that casts me in a bad light, but if I call President Trump and apologize or something, he’ll spike the Enquirer story. I want this written down.” Then, regardless of whether they’re stupid enough to do that or not, your response is “Publish and be damned.”
LAO
“Is that even a crime?” Words, I say daily.
catclub
@scav: Joe Scar and Mika were happy to give Trump huge amounts of uncritical coverage during the primaries.
_Maybe_ they did not realize that they were expected to continue in that mode.
Their op-ed was basically a ‘sucks to be you’ to Trump. I feel the same way about them as well.
Villago Delenda Est
@acallidryas: I want to see stories about Donald writhing in pain on the ground after a vicious beating, and the police holding back the first responders to let him suffer before he expires.
Villago Delenda Est
@LAO: “Attempted murder? Is that even a crime?” — Sideshow Bob
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: I saw too many cops with MAGA hats for that to be a realistic scenario.
Villago Delenda Est
@bemused: They probably won’t care even as they’re dying in the curb from lack of medical care.
Aleta
Good that they are publicly complaining, but I wish they would insert his indifference to health care off and on as they discuss him. He’s diverting attention. (Today he tweeted “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!”)
They need to say they were wrong to promote him as a candidate and talk about media indifference to abuse of women. His abusiveness was clear for years, but now they claim “he’s changed; not the same person we knew two years ago.” They need to change their story to include his past abuses and say they regret they minimized them and by doing so helped his campaign.
Bruce K
Tough call on extortion under Federal law, but I’m pretty sure that what the cheeto’s people did meets the definition for second-degree coercion. And even if it isn’t a felony, it’s good for a year in Sing Sing, and I believe that Eric Schneiderman is well within his rights to ignore a Presidential pardon when it comes to a New York state criminal investigation/trial.
? Martin
@zach: Ah yes, airtime has a measurable monetary value.
@JPL: Yes, clearly I have zero expectation that any such thing would happen, but this is the kind of thing that ‘crimes and misdemeanors’ was intending to cover – any sort of abuse of power of the office.
LAO
@Villago Delenda Est: I knew I got that line from somewhere. LOL. But seriously — I say it at least twice a week.
Aleta
@Villago Delenda Est: ha
Frankensteinbeck
@Villago Delenda Est:
I am not so vindictive. I just want him removed from any power he could use to hurt people.
Patricia Kayden
If that story in Doug’s post is true, it plays into Trump and his sycophants having no problem in colluding with third parties to tear down their enemies, i.e., working with Russia to interfere with the last presidential election. Let’s see what the National Enquirer has to say about Moaning Joe and Shut Up Mika in the near future. I assume it will be dirt which Trump has on them.
Patricia Kayden
@bemused: He’s their mobster so it’s all cool.
Matt McIrvin
It’s legal now!
DougJ
@catclub:
The story ran
LAO
@Bruce K: It’s my recollection, that a federal extortion conviction requires the “obtaining of property” or something of value, which I don’t believe does (or should) include assuaging hurt feelings.
Re: coercion — so unlikely, also very few (white) people get jail time in NYC for a misdemeanor conviction, especially first time offenders.
bemused
@Villago Delenda Est:
Truth. Stupid is as stupid does.
quakerinabasement
@catclub: New on the Enquired website today:
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/national-enquirer-tries-to-cash-in-on-salacious-morning-joe-story-after-trump-admits-trying-blackmail-hosts/
hellslittlestangel
Next Fox News talking point: Extortion is inappropriate, yes, but it’s hardly illegal.
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
Also true. Trumpettes are wannabe mobsters.
cgordon
@zach: 2nd paragraph clearly mentions reputation.
Bruce K
@LAO: I know the odds that there’ll be a conviction and a maximum sentence on second-degree coercion aren’t great, but on the other hand, Schneiderman does have an open file on Trump, and Al Capone went to Alcatraz for tax evasion, after all.
hellslittlestangel
@LAO: Pretty sure that Scarborough and Brzezinski could make the case that their reputations have a monetary value.
rikyrah
The CBO delivers more bad health care news to Senate Republicans
06/30/17 10:40 AM
By Steve Benen
When the Congressional Budget Office issued a devastating report on the Senate Republicans’ health care plan, it didn’t just disappoint GOP leaders, it also surprised them – because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) thought he’d gamed the system.
The idea was straightforward: McConnell knew the CBO’s score would review the impact of the health care legislation over the next 10 years. With this in mind, to make the results look better, the Republican blueprint was designed to delay some of its harshest elements until after the first decade. That way, when the initial CBO report went public, we wouldn’t see the impact of the bill in years 11, 12, 13, and so on.
We now know that didn’t work out especially well. The Republican plan is so regressive, the CBO found it would have brutal effects almost immediately if implemented. Yesterday, however, the non-partisan budget office dropped the other shoe, issuing a report on what would happen in the second decade. The HuffPost’s Jonathan Cohn explained:
LAO
@Bruce K: I’m quite confident that this is merely the very small tip of a very large iceberg. IMO, the examination of Trumps finances will be his downfall.
GxB
“Rex Non Potest Peccare – bitches!”
/Fantasy Chump tweet were he not a moron.
For the time being, this applies even if he doesn’t know it as such. This country is an absolute total fucking disgrace at the moment. And its going to be one hell of a row to hoe just to get back to pathetic.
El Caganer
@Villago Delenda Est: And he’ll even let Putin have two portions!
Major Major Major Major
I have a hard time believing this given your interest in all things printed ‘radical centrist’ pablum.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Not illegal, but really out of bounds.
Gin & Tonic
@hellslittlestangel: True. In the USA, the one-cent coin is still considered legal tender.
LAO
@hellslittlestangel: I know that we all hate Trump and wish to see him go down in flames. However, as a defense attorney, I will never be in favor of expanding the definition of criminal statutes.
Bruce K
@LAO: Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. And I bet Mueller has Schneiderman’s number on speed-dial.
hellslittlestangel
@LAO: Good point. It’s The Orange Better One himself who wants to “open up the libel laws,” whatever the fuck that means.
Aleta
And they’re still using the media to change the subject away from health care and the investigation.
Major Major Major Major
@Villago Delenda Est: great episode. “Do they give a nobel prize for attempted chemistry??”
Another Scott
@hellslittlestangel: It’s just “alternative legality”, amirite?!?!
:-/
160 days in office. Drip, drip, drip…
Cheers,
Scott.
bemused
@Frankensteinbeck:
I agree. The thing is this morning I’ve got this feeling that something big about to emerge soon. If so, hope it’s positive for us.
MattF
Well, the Venn diagram shows ‘criminal offenses’ and ‘impeachable offenses’ are different things. They could have a non-null intersection, but I’m OK with letting Trump’s lawyers deal with that eventuality.
Major Major Major Major
@MattF: an impeachable offense is whatever congress agrees it is. A tan suit is an impeachable offense, the constitution is pretty vague.
zach
@cgordon:
Yeah I don’t think there’s any doubt the threat qualifies as extortion-by-public-official or extortion-over-interstate-commerce in Federal law. It’s whether the ask-for was enough to pass some test… again IANAL but it sounds like other people here are.
MattF
@Major Major Major Major: That’s my point.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Major Major Major Major:
A tan suit is an impeachable offense,
Only if the President is not white…
randy khan
@cervantes:
Indeed they can.
randy khan
@Bruce K:
Actually, he doesn’t even have to ignore it – the President’s pardon power extends only to federal crimes.
Spanky
@bemused: Well, the banner at the top of the WaPo sez:
So I suspect nothing will drop until after our ally gets some good press for the folks back home. On attempting that with Trump present, I wish him luck. In any event, I’m guessing there’ll be no bombshells before, say, 4 PM EDT.
JPL
Congress could ask Joe to turn over his records of the conversations, but they won’t. I wonder what other journalists wrote positive stories, because of the threat of blackmail. hmm
MCA1
@catclub: Yeah, this whole episode is kind of like Trump as Otter in Animal House, telling JoeMika: “You fucked up. You trusted me!”
I have zero sympathy for them or their reputations or hurt feelings. I do, however, enjoy seeing them fight back and throw even more shade on this pathetic shitstain masquerading as a human.
The President of the United States is currently engaged in a catfight on twitter about whether or not he and his staff blackmailed two journalists over a National Enquirer story. Mind-boggling and totally unsurprising all at once.
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: Also, too the “revolving door” prison ad, which mentions Sideshow Bob. Paid for the Committee to Elect Sideshow Bob Mayor.
Major Major Major Major
@MCA1:
Exactly how I felt when I saw the headline.
Major Major Major Major
@Villago Delenda Est: is that also the episode with the “die Bart die” shirt that’s “German for ‘the Bart, the'”?
JPL
@Spanky: Let the guessing begin. I think that Flynn is arrested. The WSJ sat on that article for weeks, but chose today to print it. There has to be a reason.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@scav: I think it was more it’s all fun and games when Trump’s bullies little people but when it’s one of the Very, Very Serious Media personalities then it’s to much for them.
schrodingers_cat
I guess Mika and Joe are more important than the Travel ban lite, that’s gone into effect since last night. Also, 8 state attorneys general want to file a suit against T regime to end DACA and deport the dreamers.
ETA: Is this the 5th thread about the vacuous morning duo?
LAO
@JPL: Flynn may have been. When an individual is (1) under investigation and (2) decides to cooperate — everything is done under seal and there is/are no official court documents. So who knows, definitely possible though.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Major Major Major Major:
No one who speaks German could be an evil man…
Spanky
@Spanky: Uh oh! Now the banner atop the WaPo website sez:
Now WTF is he saying? Anybody paying attention? I can’t see it here at work even if I had the stomach for it.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MCA1:
Their statement about “he’s changed” is bullshit. He is what he’s always been, but they, the national media and much of the New York media enabled and coddled him for decades.
Frankenstein’s Monster has escaped, is destroying the village, and yet the village elders are meeting to discuss their stock portfolios.
MattF
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In fact, Maggie Haberman (in a Slate interview) says Trump has gotten worse: he used to have a sense of humor about himself. And Haberman would know– she worked for both NYC tabloids before ascending to the NYT.
ETA: And I wish autocorrect would stop changing Haberman to Habermas. It’s no longer funny.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Spanky: What Trump is trying to do is distract from him getting slapped down by Moaning Joe after attempting to distract from Trumpcare failing which was to distract from Russiagate…
Bruce K
@randy khan: Zigackly! A Presidential pardon has as much legal impact on a state attorney general as a Monopoly get-out-of-jail-free card.
(I know, I know, snowball’s chance of it actually happening, but can I at least enjoy a few minutes in a happy place where the “Northern White House” is in Ossining, New York?)
Turner Hedenkoff
Interesting. I’ve had a good laugh in the checkout lines lately about how the Enquirer and sister tab the Globe have become the new Pravda and Izvestiya, only with more celebrity cellulite stories. If they’re weaponizing the tabs instead of just lying to the rubes, that’s a whole new dimension that might cross a legal line. But before anyone gets their hopes up too much, remember that the Enquirer gets away with what it does because it has some of the best lawyers in the business.
Mike in DC
For half of his supporters, Trump’s thuggishness is a feature, not a bug.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: All emailz all the time, Vichy Times handled him with kid gloves.
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
Also too, according to a Jim Acosta tweet (which I can’t figure out how to embed), today the U.S.
(1) Announced sanctions against Chinese banks
(2) Announced a $1.2 billion arms deal with Taiwan
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/880523335549018112
ETA: Sorry, that was yesterday. Old news!
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, and the parole board member who exclaims “No one who speaks German can be evil!”
gvg
Just FYI my parents who are lifelong liberals, but who are older and follow traditional media like news broadcasts and the NYT’s say that morning joe was always pretty negative about Trump and totally disagree with our mostly consensus that that show promoted Trump too much in the beginning. I guess we are more politics junkies than most. Never thought I would be saying that about myself. Before 2000 i didn’t really follow except for general liberal lean with enviornmental issues.
germy
JPL
Jared Kushner Told Joe Scarborough: Talk to President Trump About ‘Enquirer’ Dirt
http://www.thedailybeast.com/jared-kushner-told-joe-scarborough-talk-to-president-trump-about-enquirer-dirt?source=twitter&via=desktop
david
This is great news! The personal weaknesses and ineptitude of this administration are all that’s saving the country.
Imagine if they actually knew what the Hell they were doing in the WH… it would be 100x worse than it is right now.
The best that can be hoped for is another 18 months of petty feuds, distractions, no leadership, no direction, total
lack of action, and a GOP Congress unable to corral its own cat herd.
Then, maybe, MAYBE, the Dems can learn how to win an election by 2018. Of course, that will also require some
semblance of competence, which has yet to be proven by either party, quite frankly.
NorthLeft12
I remember seeing US tabloids in grocery store checkout lines in Canada during 2016, and the vile headlines against Hilary Clinton and Pres. Obama were constant and nausea inducing.
Has there been any journalistic investigation done into why the Enquirer is so pro- Deadbeat Donald? Is it as simple as most of their readership is as ignorant and morally suspect as Trump, and are hardcore supporters of the worst US president ever? Or is there something else going on?
FlipYrWhig
@NorthLeft12: Publisher is his friend. Probably met in the same gutter.
MJS
You know what, instead of boinking each other, Joe and Mika can simply go fuck themselves. Their op-ed was insipid, claiming that it’s only a recent event that Trump has gone around the bend. The Billy Bush tape was from years ago, as was the recording of him ogling a 10 year old, as was the report of him walking into the Miss Teen USA dressing room (or whatever it was), as were all the Howard Stern interviews, etc. Here’s a suggestion for any news readers, reporters, pundits, etc. – when the President of the United States has “close advisors” telling you things, and the President denies those things, NAME THE FUCKING ADVISORS!. When the President of the United States is extorting you, TELL PEOPLE HE’S EXTORTING YOU WHEN IT’S HAPPENING, not as part of some grade-school slap fight.
Betty Cracker
@NorthLeft12: I’m no expert on the media, but it’s hard to believe the Enquirer could have much influence IF the absurd buffoon who was a Republican candidate and now POTUS didn’t use their stories to tee off on enemies. The Enquirer’s publisher, the aptly named David Pecker, is a personal friend of Trump’s, and wingnut sleazebag Dick Morris is the tab’s political commentator. So yeah, the target audience is dim-witted MAGAts who like a side of celebrity cellulite with their Two Minutes Hate.
Bevster
Am I the only person who thinks maybe we’re being played here? Joe and Mika after all pioneered the Trump call-in when the mofo was literally blocks away from 30 Rock and could’ve walked over, if he could walk. Maybe he’s just helping a couple of friends goose up their ratings.
artem1s
@zach:
Access has value. He’s promised access to his largess IF they play along.
but really, I think this is more a story on how desperate the WH staff is to keep Twittler from having a temper tantrum
mai naem mobile
@NorthLeft12: I think Roger Stone is somehow involved with the Enquirer.
MJS
@Bevster: That crossed my mind, but there’s no way Trump with his thin-skin would participate in a charade that involved him being made to look a fool.
Mike in DC
@SiubhanDuinne:
Nothing wrong with the latter, though. Continuity in our Taiwan policy is good.
NorthLeft12
@germy: I guess my gripes with the NYT are more about the publisher and editors, who are more responsible for the awful content that this once fine newspaper produces.
I write a lot for my work [Chemical Engineer at a large facility] and take pride in producing reports, documents, procedures, and emails that are informative and useful and not dumbed down. I serve as my own editor and copy editor. To me, it is all about how careful you are in writing and also how much time you are willing to spend in re-reading and correcting whatever you write.
Back in the day, my wife to be was a receptionist/typist [yes, before computers] and she typed out a procedure that I had written. While reviewing the document, I noticed she had eliminated a comma. I marked up the document and returned it to her explaining that she had missed a comma. She told me she did not miss it, she just took it out because it was not needed. Eventually, after much back and forth, I used the compelling argument that since my name was on the document, I would be wrong in my own way, and she put the comma in.
We started dating a few months after that, and have been married for over thirty four years.
BTW, that comma was definitely needed. Its removal changed the whole meaning of the sentence. She still complains about that and said that she refused to type anything for me again.
J R in WV
@Spanky:
Now this is the kind f thing I was afraid of, what keeps me awake at 4 am. Not a shower of missiles from Russia, but slightly smaller nuclear disasters starting in SE Asia, where there are at least 3 nuclear powers, India and Pakistan already nearly at war with each other, Pakistan likely to sell “surplus” weapons to other powers in that area, and DROK (North Korea, right?) rattling nuclear sabers in the headlines weekly.
Then there’s the prospect of cargo containers going off in ports all around the nation even before customs has any chance to inspect the 2% of containers they even look at.
Not happy days The Time for Strategic Patience has ended… WTF???
Completely off topic, over at LGM they have gone to Discus to manage their site “off-site” and it seems to have worked well, except that their commentary buttons for italic of bold or quite block are quite gone. And as for whoever asked, lots of people who comment or read here also comment and read over there at LGM too, so why not mention stuff happening over there? It’s about the only other blog left that I follow closely at all.
Montanareddog
@MattF:
I’ve often wondered if President Obama’s very public humiliation of Trump at the WHCD in 2011 broke something in him (Trump). Now, the President had every right to be pissed at Trump, but being a resilient person himself, maybe he under-estimated Trump’s mental vulnerability (This is not meant as a criticism of PBO in any way)
NorthLeft12
@Betty Cracker: Betty, that is one of the finest responses that I have ever received to one of my comments. Bravo.
I am not surprised that the NE political direction is set by a Dick and a Pecker.
mai naem mobile
I don’t even get it. Does Dolt 45 really think anybody gives a shit that Scarborough and Mika were having an affair? After all the affairs of different politicians and he himself having affairs. Does anybody outside of political junkies and,maybe, people from his old district know who Scarborough and Mika are? Shit, this might be a 3 day story in Mika and Joe’s circle. I am just so fucking tired of being outraged at this fucker. I can’t even be shocked anymore. And if you think of what the GOP had done any single action of any of these shitty actions this pig has done she would have been impeached and done already.
NorthLeft12
@Montanareddog:
Frankly, I don’t believe it. Anything I have ever seen about him, back to the early 90s, he has shown that he is a pompous, obnoxious, arrogant, vain, and ignorant bully. In my experience, people like that are essentially humourless, and never, ever, are able to laugh at themselves.
Their “humour” consists of mean put downs and insults.
MJS
@Montanareddog: PBO’s humiliation of Trump post-dates mountains of evidence that Trump was always broken.
NorthLeft12
@FlipYrWhig: @mai naem mobile: Thanks guys. Colour me shocked that Deadbeat Donald has a close acquaintance in a sleaze filled company.
The success of these people is living proof against Karma, the existence of God, the teachings of JC, and the whole concept of justice.
mr_gravity
@LAO: Sadly I must agree. Sadly because causing real harm to real people is of secondary concern. Stealing from the poor is OK. Stealing from the rich is frowned upon.
mai naem mobile
@Bevster: that was my first thought because if it’s one thing Dolt knows it’s the importance of teevee ratings and manufacturing events to push ratings.
Spanky
Rather than poop on Boussinesque upstairs, I’ll drop this turd here. I expect Cole to comment on it later.
Via WaPo:
TriassicSands
@? Martin:
Sorry, but in the current Republican House “high crimes and misdemeanors” are now defined as limited to “First degree murder of a white male whose net worth is in excess of $1,000,000.00 with high definition video of the act in which the identity of the president is clearly and unmistakably shown. All other presidential acts are deemed permissible and not cause for disciplinary action on the part of the United States Congress.”
The current Republican Congress has the highest moral and ethical standards and intends to hold the current president to those standards ensuring that he will be a good little boy.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MattF:
Maggie can kiss my spotty fat ass – she’s a part of that equation and is simply ducking consequences and criticism.
Patricia Kayden
@Aleta: Damn. I’m speechless.
TriassicSands
@rikyrah:
Who knows, he may ask for some of the videos or photos Putin has on him.
mai naem mobile
@TriassicSands: not net worth of $1M. It’s an annual income of $1M, unless you had the decimal point in the wrong spot and you meant $1 Billion.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/29/17
GOP operative sought Russian hacker help against Clinton: WSJ
Shane Harris, national security reporter for the Wall Street Journal, talks with Rachel Maddow about his new reporting about Peter Smith, a Republican activist who sought the help of Russian hackers who may have found Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, and implied he was working with Donald Trump aide Mike Flynn.
JPL
@TriassicSands: I’m beginning to think that’s true.
Another Scott
Hey doug! If you’re still around.
Today’s the 30th, the end of the 2nd quarter. I’ve been getting begging e-mails from candidates. Could you put up the Thermometer?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in DC:
Yeah, but either announcement alone is likely to piss Beijing off. Announcing them on the same day amplifies the message. And in conjunction with what sounds* like a bit of farting in Pyongyang’s general direction, well….
*(I have not yet heard/watched nor read anything beyond the headlines and a couple of tweets about what Trump said in his WH remarks with SK President Moon. I could easily be misinterpreting/misrepresenting. In which case, pre-emptive apologies.)
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/29/17
Trump allies work to smear FBI, discredit Russia investigation
Matthew Miller, former chief spokesman for the Justice Department, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump allies going on offense to discredit the FBI officials and the Trump Russia investigation.
rikyrah
If WH told @morningmika & @JoeNBC the Nat’l Enquirer wd smear them unless they laid off T on their show, that wd be a crime per 18 USC 872
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 30, 2017
d58826
Maybe OT but an interesting read as to what happened when Colorado Springs elected a libertarian bus. man to run the city like a business. ‘The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise
The residents of Colorado Springs undertook a radical experiment in government. Here’s what they got.’
Couple of takeaways
1. a city (state or federal) isn’t a business
2. running the city like a business does not repeal the ‘an’t no free lunch’ law
3 the mayor got into trouble because it was his way or the highway. That might have worked in his private sector job but in politics/government the other stake holders have to be listened to as they eventually will vote.
4. On the other hand just because it is government doesn’t mean it has to done stupidly. The article talked about the bad deal the previous city fathers had negotiated over the local hospital. The new guy did get a much better deal for the tax payers. So our political leaders should listen to some of the lessons from Harvard School of Business in contracting for good and services for example. But you can’t fight a forest fire or plow the snow from the highways like you run an assembly line.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/30/colorado-springs-libertarian-experiment-america-215313
schrodingers_cat
@Bevster: This bullshit controversy is sucking all oxygen from healthcare, travel ban lite and Russian collusion stories. Joe and Mika are helping T just like they did earlier when he launched his campaign.
rikyrah
Trump abandons the pretense surrounding his voting ‘commission’
06/30/17 12:40 PM—UPDATED 06/30/17 01:02 PM
By Steve Benen
Nearly a decade ago, the Bush/Cheney administration thought it’d be a good idea to give Hans von Spakovsky a six-year term on the Federal Elections Commission. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick offered some advice to senators weighing his nomination: “Do not vote for this guy.”
Lithwick’s piece was a brutal takedown, making the case that von Spakovsky “was one of the generals in a years-long campaign to use what we now know to be bogus claims of runaway ‘vote fraud’ in America to suppress minority votes.” She added, “[E]ven a brief poke at his resume shows a man who has dedicated his professional career to a single objective: turning a partisan myth about voters who cast multiple ballots under fake names (always for Democrats!) into a national snipe hunt for vote fraud.” Hans von Spakovsky, Lithwick concluded, “symbolizes contempt for what it means to cast a vote.”
It’s against this backdrop that Donald Trump has decided Hans von Spakovsky should serve on the White House’s “elections integrity” commission, which exists to find evidence of widespread voter fraud – a popular myth in far-right imaginations, thanks to people like Hans von Spakovsky. TPM reported this morning:
d58826
And words I never thought I would see from a Faux news person
Der Fuhrer really is capable of doing the impossible both for the quote and the implication that all of the things Faux said about Obama might not be true.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/105252-trump-and-women-you-get-what-you-vote-for
Stan
@Bruce K:
How about Dannemora? it’s a hell of a lot colder there.
Nelle
@TriassicSands:Oh, Trump already got his deliverables – sitting in some shell company as soon as he can break the sanctions on Russia. Next week’s gift fest is just to keep them patient until he can pull off the big give away (lifting sanctions) and then unlock some of that post election money transferred to shell companies.
Oh, were you thinking of what he was going to get for the country? I’m laughing. Laughing sardonically. Like he would ever do that!
Mike in DC
I am increasingly of the opinion that if the Special Counsel develops a real criminal case against the President, he will file an actual criminal indictment and let the chips fall where they may. It forces the hand of Congress, and creates an intolerable political liability for them. Plus, even if they do nothing, the President has to try to get reelected while under criminal indictment, and the minute he leaves office he can be arrested and brought to trial. It will be challenged in court, but resolving that will take months. In the meantime, the damage is done.
germy
@schrodingers_cat: This comment summed it up a few threads ago:
https://balloon-juice.com/2017/06/30/stop-the-fraudulent-voter-fraud-squad/#comment-6450357
Downpuppy
@gratuitous: Kushner & the morons he works with sent the threats by text. So it’s in writing, signed.
germy
Even the formerly verbose have nothing to say:
Immanentize
@mr_gravity: Dylan:
cmorenc
Meanwhile, in the alternate bizarro universe that is “Fox and Friends” over on Faux News, the cast was striving to support Trump’s verbal defense of self against all the mean haters out there insulting him, and trying to portray Joe and Mika as vicious slanderers of President Trump. Not so much as a whisper of a mention that not just in this incident, but a boatload of others, Trump has a longstanding habit of making viciously demeaning comments about women’s appearances of the sort that these doofuses wouldn’t tolerate for a second being said about their wife or daughter, nor their son saying such about anyone else’s wife or daughter.
bemused
@d58826:
Not a churchy person but I liked the last paragraph. New King James Bible warns, “He who sows iniquity, reaps sorrow”
Hal
All these people “calling out” Trump are full of it. The easiest, least politically dangerous thing for any conservative to do is criticize Trump for these comments. Next week they’ll be right back endorsing him and all his bullshit.
HeleninEire
@NorthLeft12: Best story on the internet today.
catclub
@Immanentize: In Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary: Something along the lines of “Although I do respect an inferior lexicographer, I daresay it is the first.”
catclub
@Mike in DC:
And I am presently riding the pony I got for Fitzmas.
germy
@catclub:
JPL
@rikyrah: I’m beginning to think he fires McCabe and Rosenstein today. He’ll be leaving the country soon, and he might be hoping that the noise dies down before he returns.
d58826
@bemused: Poleman has a pretty good political eye.
The Bible has a couple of references along the same line – Proverbs – ‘He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind ‘. Which is also where the play/movie title came from.
and Hosea ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind’
I’m not much of a churchy person either but the Good Book does have a lot of good to say. Just have to use it as a way to live a better life and build a better society. Unfortunately it is being used as a club by the powerful to beat the ‘lesser of my brothers and sisters’ into submission or a second class status. . Give what the religious right advocates I really wonder what Bible they are reading.
germy
d58826
@germy: There has been a lot of electrons burned on BJ discussing Der Trumps intelligence. Now I don;t think he is smart in the Obama/Einstein sense, but you must have a few brain cells to rub together if you can convince big money men to put YOUR name on THEIR hotel. And then convince many millions more that the hotel room is somehow different than a Hilton. I suspect he has the street level smarts that is implied in the old ‘smart like a fox’ cliche. Which brings me to his tweets. Are they smart or just rage.
At one level I think most of them are just the rage of a spoiled 3 year old. But I think he has figured out that a well timed rage tweet like yesterday can serve more than the purpose.
While every one was obsessing on the Mika/Joe tweet what did not get discussed in any details:
1. more evidence of collusion and that Mike Flynn was at the heart of it,
2. the Trumpcare meltdown
3. re-instating the travel ban
4. the demand for voting rolls
5. apparently demands trade war over objections of practically entire cabinet (https://www.axios.com/exclusive-trump-plots-trade-wars-2450764900.html)
6. possible steped up military action in Syria
7. another flip in our China policy
a. a couple of weeks ago he tweeted his disappointment that China did not creak down
on N. Korea like he demanded
b. yesterday he announced an arms deal (admitted one of many over the years) with
Taiwan
c. severe sanctions on a Chinese bank
d. the policy changes may well be reasonable but it looks like its retaliation for not
getting his way.
e. more threats of war with N. Korea
8. changes to our Cuba policy that just happen to help his properties (that where there all
during the Cuba embargo years) over the competitors and
9. Trump.org renewing trademarks in Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Now poke around and you find this stuff but it isn’t necessarily the lead on Huffington or in the A or B blocks of the political talk shows on MSNBC/CNN. All major stories and mostly not in favor of Trump
James Powell
The only thing President Obama – along with many of the rest of us – underestimated what the depth and breadth of the racism and misogyny in America.
bemused
@d58826:
A friend related what a mutual friend said this week. She will no longer call herself a Christian even though she believes in what Christ preached. She’s disgusted that faux Christians have sullied the faith and claimed ownership of a religion they don’t follow.
germy
@d58826: They’re also getting their ducks in a row for the next election:
rikyrah
@Mike in DC:
I am of this mindset too.
Bobby Three Sticks seems to go by the motto:
If you take a swing at the King, You best not miss.
That’s what this Murderers Row Team that he’s assembled is about.
catclub
@germy: Hey, I did pretty well for not looking it up.
I really should buy Jason Zweig’s Financial Devil’s Dictionary.
d58826
And all things Pence from Twitter
But this one is mind boggling :
As a fundamentalist bible believing Christian who believes in creationism, how can he be excited about the exploration of space? The concept does not exist in his theology. The cosmology of the big bang, Newton and and Einsteins physics do not exist, the math that allows us to put a rover on Mars does not exist because Mars moves around the earth. It is just mind blindingly insane that you can talk about sending spaces probes to planets billions of miles away and look for exo-planets that may harbor life and yet claim to believe in the 6 days of creation 6 thousand years ago.
Wait a minute reread the quote and he must be referring to the empty area between Der Fuhrer’s ears. That make it plain
hilts
@d58826:
I believe that Trump simply lacks any self control and that his tweets are not calculated to distract us from other newsworthy topics.
I attribute his successes much more to widespread stupidity among millions of Americans as opposed to any street smarts on his part.
Mnemosyne
@hilts:
Generally speaking, the rage of a narcissist is much more calculated than most people realize, because that’s one of the ways they get their way. I’m not sure that Trump is raging to distract us from the other news, but it’s a pretty basic strategy that doesn’t take a lot of thought.
But at the same time, he is genuinely enraged that the people he thought were loyal to him are criticizing him. He’s not faking it, though he may be directing it towards an end.
d58826
@Mnemosyne:
Maybe and he is just benefiting from the media obsession with the latest bright object. And the tweet is certainly a lot easier to understand than the ins and outs of sanctions on China. Just like e-mails
LongHairedWeirdo
Let’s assume there is a story.
And let’s assume there’s an iron clad agreement that if Asshole-Joe (Sorry: he asked “why do liberals want Terri Schiavo to die” – he is forever more an asshole until he admits he was wrong, and repudiates the other people who pulled the same bullshit, AND pulls a John Cole and tries to pull other assholes back from the brink.) apologizes, the story gets spiked.
Let’s also assume that there’s something shady about the story. Something where it’s clearly blackmail.
This is probably illegal, but probably unprosecutable unless someone rolls, *or* does something really stupid.
As long as everyone insists that no agreement exists, per my understanding of the law, this isn’t supposed to go to court – a jury shouldn’t be allowed to render a finding of fact of this nature. “Everyone insists it was a coincidence – the Trump team said there was a story, but they were bluffing. Then someone else heard about the rumor, and sold a GREAT story to the Enquirer, AFTER asshole-Joe didn’t grovel. The Enquirer ran with the story – free press, and you can’t shackle the press because of something they had no involvement in!
Unless someone is caught bragging about the agreement, with enough details to bring before the jury so it’s no longer “everyone insists there was no agreement, and there’s no evidence, just a very suspicious string of coincidences” juries aren’t supposed to be given this kind of case.
It’s like an attorney relaying orders for the mob. It’s illegal. But no one can be compelled to break attorney-client privilege. Without a confession, you can’t get a conviction, and you probably can’t even bring it to trial.
Still, remember: if an attorney relays orders for the mob, it *is* illegal. That it can’t be prosecuted doesn’t make it any less so. Similarly, one conservative talking point that disgusted me was that no one had standing to sue, or press charges, against Bush for illegal surveillance, because even the evidence to create standing would be kept out for purposes of national security. That Bush couldn’t be prosecuted, and that made it okay, was one of the few things that disgusted me more than “why do liberals want Schiavo to die?” The latter is hateful, slanderous, propaganda – but it’s legal. Throwing away the law, while engaging in political discussion? That’s even worse.
LongHairedWeirdo
@James Powell: I’d say that a lot of people underestimated the trust people have placed in the right wing talking points.
Ordinary people in what the GOP pretends is “real America” – they’ve all met people like Trump. They come from places where the telling of a whopper is an art form. They know people whose mouths can’t stop writing checks their bodies are *never* going to cash. They know that unhealthy levels of arrogance is a sign of massive character flaws.
But they believed that Trump wasn’t quite like that. Because they trusted the people who’ve been feeding them bullshit for coming-on 25 years.
That’s why the best hope for this country is that Trump is toxic enough to bring down *everything* on the rightwing side.
KS in MA
@gratuitous: This. (Just a bit late to the party, but … great advice!)