A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump administration, according to a former administration official in the room with him.
[….]p>According to the ex-colleague, Harrington considered it a gesture to the Kremlin that would enable the nascent Trump administration to see if its desire for a friendly relationship with Russia would be reciprocated. It was included in a strategy paper that, conspicuously to the former official, made no mention of Russia as either a competitor or adversary.
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Mnemosyne
Remember, kids, it’s not treason if we’re not actively at war with the country you sell us out to!
zhena gogolia
Don’t drag Eric Clapton into this.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: One has to wonder what exactly Putin has over the Orange one.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Financial illegalities involving money laundering and more and disgusting kompromat among other things.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
@Yarrow:
Also, white supremacy and hating all the same people — life for LGBT people really sucks in Mother Russia. Putin and Trump hate all the same people, so there’s a bond there.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: What about collusion? If the president pinky-swears that there is no collusion, is that definitive?
Adam L Silverman
Harrington is the dipshit who worked for Peter Thiel at his hedge fund. He has no foreign policy, national security policy, or military experience. Specifically he managed Thiel’s personal wealth. Here’s a rundown of his lack of qualifications for this job:
https://gizmodo.com/who-is-kevin-harrington-the-peter-thiel-associate-who-1791925769
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
Everything.
Steeplejack
@dmsilev:
I think he has to say “No backsies!” on the record.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
Trump also has a well-demonstrated fondness for sadistic assholes who don’t merely have a lot of power, but use it to brutalize those underneath them. Come to think of it, another argument in the ‘Trump considers himself a Nazi’ file.
Baud
Dear Vlad,
Thanks for the assist. One word: Alaska. Call me.
Love,
DT
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: That’s the stuff they use to get the leverage they need. Flattery, finding common ground. That gets dumbasses like Trump to trust them. Then the marks get tangled up with the money-laundering and so forth and then they’re owned.
Villago Delenda Est
Naked fucking treason, selling out our NATO allies.
These people need to be taken down.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: Yup, that’s key. The White Supremacists view Russia as the Motherland, even though if you scratch a Russian, you find a Tatar.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: Adam says it’s worse than the “”piss tape”, so use your imagination.
Villago Delenda Est
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Probably has something to do with underage girls. Roy Moore territory.
schrodingers_cat
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Child prostitutes and money laundering is my guess.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Villago Delenda Est: I think we’re in dead girl(s) or live boy(s) territory.
Yarrow
LOLOLOL
Hello, discovery!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m skeptical of the pee tape just because it’s almost too good to be true. Just skeptical, not dismissive. But I’d be surprised if there isn’t criminal money laundering at this point. I confess I’m not a hundred percent clear how money laundering works, what the indictable crime would be for the launderer–tax evasion?
that gross house in Florida that the Russian cement mogul bought and tore down… it’s like a corpse in the middle of the drawing room, and we’re just waiting for someone to call an Inspector
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
I’m pretty sure that Vlad is also a white supremacist, so they bonded on that level.
Yarrow
@Villago Delenda Est: Jeffrey Epstein territory.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tax evasion and RICO.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: They’re not sending their best.
Viva BrisVegas
Russia is a fascist kleptocracy with a Potemkin democracy.
What’s not to like. It’s a 0.1 percenter paradise.
The Russians caught Trump by laundering their stolen money through his real estate. Though I think he would have volunteered if they had just given him a chance.
As for the Republicans, the Russian social and political schema is what they aspire to.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the 0.1 percenters with political influence have been debating among themselves as to how much of the economy they are willing to share with the plebs, and we are now seeing the answer. Not much.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Trump may have thought they bonded. Putin is using him. Discussing white supremacy would be a tool to that end. That they agree on it makes it easier, but doesn’t mean anything to Vlad. He’ll toss Trump under the bus as soon as he’s no longer useful.
schrodingers_cat
Is Melania, the Philip to T’s Martha?*
* The Americans, reference. Philip, the deep undercover KGB agent marries the secretary at the FBI counter intelligence unit.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is no pee tape.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Who, Queens? True.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
Or as I like to refer to it, human trafficking. Can it be considered rape (legally) if you have sex with a child so young that she can’t give consent, even if you’re paying your pimp for her?
Mike in NC
Trump and Putin bonded over their shared loathing of Obama, who’s one of Those People. The Trump Crime Family has been making overtures to the Kremlin since 1987.
DougJ
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s yellow
WaterGirl
@Mike in NC: Trump only thought they bonded. He was the mark.
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA: yeah buddy!
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Yes that’s a better term. I would guess so, but I am not a lawyer.
Yarrow
@Mike in NC: I think you have that backwards.
Aardvark Cheeselog
That is the best song on that album.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: Yep. Though some, I’m sure, are wonderful people.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yarrow: These guys don’t realize what they’re doing. They have no clue. Does Cohen even know what “discovery” entails?
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl: Let’s ask Ivanka about all that.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
What I don’t get is: even if there were a pee tape, why would any rational person think it would change anything? Shitgibbon’s base won’t care, because “at least he’s not Hitlary”; Turtle and ZEGS will tut-tut, as they semi-did vis-a-vis Roy Moore, and they still gave Moore a pass. About the only thing that would spur this Congress to action would be an EO which somehow put a hurtin’ on the Kochs, Mercers, DeVoses, Adelson, and so on.
Hell, the tape — if there is even a tape — could be of Shitgibbon selling Tiffany into slavery, and his base would say “She must have done something REALLY bad, to deserve that.”
So, ignore the (presumed) tape, and keep working on getting a Dem House and Senate.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
Actually, I seem to recall reading (in the last year or so) that Shitgibbon was sucking up to them around that time.
schrodingers_cat
@DougJ: Uranium?
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, LAO lives there — but, unfortunately, Queens isn’t sending her to the White House.
ETA: Baud/LAO 2020
Millard Filmore
@Adam L Silverman:
One can take that literally, as “there is no Golden Shower tape”, or as a shorthand for other sexually oriented tapes, “no underage, gay. or snuff tapes.” On the other hand you have mentioned “much much worse”. Which would only leave fabricated tapes of look-alikes playing. I don’t believe tapes of Trump signing documents of illegal transactions would get much of a rise.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
When I first read the Cohen tweet, I thought (for a second) that it was the Michael Cohen who sometimes writes Op-Eds that appear in the Glob, which would have been distressing. Then I realized it was Shitgibbon’s idiot lawyer. (Hey, Mike, how’s Felix Sater doing these days, you fucking traitor?), so my BP went back to normal.
Doug!
@Adam L Silverman:
I agree. It’s unlikely that they didn’t use a more contemporary recording format. I’d guess mp4 or mov.
Thoughtful David
@SFAW:
I think there is a pee tape, or its equivalent (probably underage girls), but we’ll never see it. It’s far more valuable to whoever has got it as long as it’s unseen. Once it’s “redeemed” it can never be used again.
Keep in mind that Putin *wants* Trump in power.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: Yep and yep.
Adam L Silverman
@Millard Filmore: The RUMINT is that allied, partner, and competitor intel services all have a variety of video and stills – some legit some dupes – of the President doing a number of different perverse things. Things allegedly worse than the pee tape referenced in the Steele Dossier. The issue, of course, is being able to prove the real ELINT collections of video and stills from the dupes. While the various intel services themselves may know, to validate them would require burning sources. And remember this is RUMINT. I would certainly expect that the intel services everywhere he travelled before becoming President have other SIGINT on him, specifically from telephone calls.
B.B.A.
@Thoughtful David: Putin wants chaos. Hence his backing every challenger to Hillary.
Whatever kompromat there is, will be released precisely when Trump is no longer useful to Putin, and no sooner.
Adam L Silverman
@Doug!: Cute.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
zhena gogolia
@Doug!:
lol
Doug!
@Adam L Silverman:
They are Russians though so VHS or Betamax isn’t out of the question.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Conan interviewed Colbert after he stayed in the pee-pee suite in Moscow (3:18).
Electric mirrors??
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would think that confidence is likely misplaced.
Adam L Silverman
@Doug!: This is true.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: I have no idea.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
lost tracks from Bowie?
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: Yep. Definitely something not normal there. Remember those 3 photos that were going around before the election? 13-year-old Ivanka lounging very comfortably in daddy’s lap in a sexual way? Some things you just can’t un-see.
edited
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
None that wouldn’t also send Bannon to jail for a long time, anyway.
But narcissists are also prone to underestimating just how much they’ve pissed other people off, so we’ll see.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
Luckily, I have not seen them. No need to remedy that – really.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Jeffro
I have to say, explaining how international money laundering works to my 16-year-old is not how I thought I’d wrap up the evening.
One the one hand, I guess I’m a pretty good explainer: she ‘gets it’ now.
On the other hand: this is our goddamn country, and now I’m all mad again before bedtime.
Thanks Trump! Thanks GOP enablers! I really appreciate what you’ve done for the country and hope you are repaid in full at the ballot box and courthouse this year.
Another Scott
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Good flick.
Terrible reality. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@Thoughtful David:
I heard Chief Editor Korir has the original.
zhena gogolia
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Yeah, he’s the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful man I’ve ever known.
(from memory, probably not exact)
sdhays
@WaterGirl: There were rumors in 2015/2016 that Trump had been a guest on the yacht of that millionaire/billionaire who had underage sex slaves on said yacht. Nothing ever became of those rumors, but after seeing that picture and seeing the interview on the daytime talk show where he answered the fluff question about what he and his daughter (sitting right next to him) had in common and he immediately answered “Sex.” made me a believer.
Frankensteinbeck
@SFAW:
No. They would laugh and think it was hilarious. This is important to understanding Republicanism in general and Trumpism in particular. They don’t excuse things we consider horrible, like Moore’s pedophilia. They enjoy them.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I am not evil enough to search them out and post links. Ugh.
WaterGirl
@sdhays: wow, that’s all news to me. Ugh. Not surprising, just disgusting.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Some here are.
Another Scott
@sdhays: Lots of creepy stuff summarized in the Trump Files at Mother Jones.
Cheers,
Scott.
Calouste
@Adam L Silverman: Bannon is a dead man walking, I doubt anyone trusts him to keep his mouth shut.
Millard Filmore
@B.B.A.:
It would not be a good assumption that Trump’s evil deeds were only done in Moscow, or that Putin’s spies were the only ones with recording devices in the right place.
Millard Filmore
@WaterGirl:
I think this photograph suffers from ambiguous perspective. If you look closely, she is sitting on Daddy’s thigh. If may be inappropriate, or not, but its not a lapdance.
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
Maybe if there is video evidence of something particularly vile or distasteful. Otherwise Trump has better teflon insulation than Reagan. Bannon disses Trump and is torn apart and discarded. It seems like only yesterday when he was described as Trump’s indispensable Rasputin.
burnspbesq
@SFAW:
She’s in law school, which is worse.
marv
@Aardvark Cheeselog:
I was going to make some sort of half-hearted reply – there’s a lot of great songs on that record. But when you’re right, you’re right. And thanks to Doug for the reminder
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: I doubt she has loans.
scott (the other one)
Whether or not the pee tape is real, I actually think—and, yes, I know that so far there has been absolutely nothing Trump can say or do to make his base turn against him—that if there really is a video of him happily getting pissed on, that THAT would be a bridge too far for…let’s say all but 27% of his supporters. And I think it’s just barely possible he manages to get that down to sub-25%. Because Trump’s one strength, the reason he baffled everyone, is because he always always always doubles down, no matter how shitty his hand. Which connotes strength. But (and no shaming anyone’s kinks!) I believe to the overwhelming majority of people in the south and midwest, a man getting urinated on is inherently showing weakness, and that would be his one undoing.
Now, if he were the one urinating, well, then, never mind.
(My god what has the world come to…)
Steeplejack
@scott (the other one):
I believe the pee tape is purported to show Trump watching two hookers urinate on a hotel bed once occupied by Barack Obama.
And, yes, what has the world come to? ?
SFAW
@scott (the other one):
First of all, he’s not that far above 27 percent now, so it would hardly be a “fall.” Second: what the electorate thinks has been shown not to matter, if the Rethuglican Congress wants something bad enough. They didn’t want to repeal O-care bad enough in the spring, but their masters told them what they wanted re: tax heist which helps destroy the so-called “welfare state.”
I’m thinking that the only thing that would get Shitgibbon in true hot water would be a tape wherein he all-but-confesses to giving aid and comfort, in very explicit terms, to an enemy, or one where he is acting like he’s John Gotti — maybe we call him The Crapper Don? — wherein he explicitly puts out a hit on someone who later turned up dead. His base wouldn’t care, but Turtle might actual say “Fuck it” and try to get him taken away. (ZEGS would be ZEGS, meaning do nothing but mouth platitudes.)
I was semi-joking earlier re: selling Tiffany. And I don’t think the hoped-for tape has him doing anything like what I describe above. So I guess I’m saying: pretend there’s no tape, and proceed accordingly.
joel hanes
@Aardvark Cheeselog:
That is the best song on that album.
with the quibble that “Little Wing” is probably the best song,
but “Bellbottom Blues” is probably the best performance of a song
Yarrow
@Brachiator: Trump’s loyalty only goes one way–he demands people be loyal to him. He has no loyalty in the other direction. It’s no surprise he threw away Bannon. He’d do it to anyone, including his own kids.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
You’re forgetting his legendary loyalty to the Truth.
“Legendary” like the Loch Ness monster, or the Yeti, or a “moderate Republican.”
EthylEster
@zhena gogolia: or Bobby Whitlock