The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has reported a three part documentary series on the President, his campaign, and its connections to Russia entitled Trump/Russia: Follow the Money.
The first part aired last Monday and can be found here. Or on ABC’s iView platform (flash player required). A full transcript for the first episode is available at the link for the first episode. Here’s ABC’s synopsis for their documentary series and an excerpt of their interview with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper from the transcripts of the first episode.
It’s the story of the century: The US President and his connections to Russia.
In a Four Corners special series, award winning investigative reporter Sarah Ferguson follows the spies and the money trail from Washington, to London, to Moscow.
In this three-part series, Four Corners delivers a riveting account of the allegations and evidence from the characters central to the drama that has gripped the world.
On Monday night, the story begins:
Follow the Money: Four Corners follows the money trail from New York to Moscow, tracking the ties between Trump, his business empire and Russia.
Secrets, spies and useful idiots: in part two, Four Corners speaks to key protagonists at the centre of the unfolding drama over members of the Trump team accused of being compromised by Russia.
Moscow Rules: in part three, Four Corners investigates the central allegations that members of the Trump team, including possibly the President himself, actively colluded with Russia to subvert American democracy.
Months in the making, filmed across the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia, Sarah Ferguson charts the extraordinary allegations, interrogating the evidence and interviewing central characters in this unfolding story that could be lifted from the pages of a blockbuster spy novel.
A three-part investigative special series reported and presented by Sarah Ferguson, begins Monday 4th June at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 5th June at 1.00pm and Wednesday 6th at 11.20pm. It can also be seen on ABC NEWS channel on Saturday at 8.10pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: It starts with a road trip across America in 2014.
Before the US Presidential campaign was underway, before Donald Trump was a serious candidate, two Russian spies were criss-crossing the country, gathering intelligence on the US political system, looking for and finding vulnerabilities.
ROD ROSENSTEIN, US DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Two of the defendants allegedly travelled to the United States in 2014 to collect intelligence for their American influence operations.
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: Initially, and traditionally, these kinds of operations are very innocent in their overt behaviour and appearance.
But that was just kind of foundation building.
Establish a presence, get online, and again, for a long time it would appear to be innocent. But it turns out after time that they weren’t.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The spies were the forward team from the infamous Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg the front-line organisation in Vladimir Putin’s asymmetrical war against US democracy.
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: For me, I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff in 50 years in Intelligence, but it’s very, very disturbing, just viscerally disturbing that an adversary country was aggressive, so aggressively meddling in our political process.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: What was different when you say viscerally disturbing? What was different?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: I came to understand the magnitude and the aggressiveness and the dimensions of this, it was viscerally, you know, made me ill.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: It made you ill?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: Yeah.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Did you share that with your colleagues?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: Yes. I think it affected all of us that way.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The spies left America undetected the intelligence they gathered would fuel the cyber war in the coming Presidential election.
SERGEY ALEKSASHENKO, FORMER DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, CENTRAL BANK OF RUSSIA: The idea, underlying idea of Mr Putin was to disturb the situation as much as possible.
To create different tensions, points of tensions, points of social discontent, of political fighting. So, to create turbulence in the stable society.
To make America weak.
The idea of Donald Trump to make America great again, the idea of Vladimir Putin to make American institutions weaker.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Do you have any doubt at all about Putin’s authorship of the campaign against America?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: I do not.
You have to remember, Putin’s personal history.
He’s a KGB officer.
And so, I think there’s an innate resentment and aversion to the United States and what we stand for and our system.
Part two airs tonight (Australian time) at this link and focuses on, among others, Carter Page and George Papadopolous. Here’s their extended interview with Carter Page from tonight’s episode:
And here’s their extended interview with Tim O’Brien, one of the President’s biographers, discussing the way the President conducts business:
Part three should air next week.
I expect Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow will be on CNN any minute now condemning Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull for allowing Australia’s national and government funded broadcaster to undermine the President 1/2 an hour before he meets one on one with Kim Jung On and only a pair of interpreters.
Open thread!
schrodingers_cat
Do we stay frosty or toasty?
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Depends on which hemisphere you’re in.
hellslittlestangel
Boomeranged in the back.
lollipopguild
@schrodingers_cat: Semi-frosty or lightly toasted.
Doug R
Good to see both ABCs stepping up in their own ways.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Frosty, then. Its quite warm here.
waspuppet
None of our fearless American networks have done anything like this, have they?
Of course if they did, they’d have to run another three-part series to “balance” it:
Part One: Nuh-Uh.
Part Two: OK, But Nothing Really Came Of It.
Part Three: But Her Emails!
Tenar Arha
This sounds great. Guessing I cannot watch it right now though; going to have to save it for later.
(I’ve been very very angry lately, to the point where if anyone brought up anything like pro-lock-up-asylum-seekers in a bar I’d go Cinderella turning her glass slipper into a shiv on them).
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
You may have missed the question I had for you re that Malaysian restaurant in Florida, since I got to the thread very late. Where is it? What’s it called? Is the menu ethnically and regionally diverse; or does it just concentrate on something like Nyonya (Straits Chinese) cuisine or the Malay cuisine of a particular state?
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Also too, I’m in the tropics. Should I go for frosty or toasty?
cervantes
Funny thing how you can’t see anything like that on ‘Murcan TV. I wonder why that is?
John
How much you want to bet that the #DumbestPresidentEver hears that ABC is running this piece and he demands another apology from Bob Iger?
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Here you go:
https://www.bungarayaflorida.com/#authentic-malaysian-cuisine
In terms of Malaysian cuisine on their menu that I’ve had, I’ve had the Redang Beef, the Shrimp Sambal, and the Curry Laksa. All of them are excellent. Their roti canai are very, very good. And the chicken broth they make for their Malaysian won ton soup is to die for. Often I get sushi there. They do a very, very good job with their sushi as well.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Depends what the weather is like where you are today.
ruemara
With any luck, mobs of angry people will fall on the money men and rip them to shreds just because. Yes, I am blood-thirsty. I’m peaceful, not pacifist. I will curbstomp a perceived threat as a warning to others.
rikyrah
follow the money.
follow.the.money!!
The Dangerman
“Interpreters”? Is that what hookers are called there?
ETA: So, what’s the forecast? I know Trump is going to come out and call it the best thing since Orange Spray-On Tan and Fox will fellate him but …
Mary G
I read a story about a woman on a bus near Las Vegas mouthing off when the Border Patrol boarded demanding IDs and frightening her Hispanic seatmate. She used rough language (Heavens to Betsy) and the driver reprimanded her for cursing, but she still pointed out that the bus was more than 100 miles from the border and they had no legal authority, and they caved and left the passengers alone. This is all our responsibility now:
Steve in the ATL
On the one hand, a thorough and well researched documentary on the events that may well lead to the end of our republic…
…but flash player required.
Ryan
Bah! Fake news. ABC cancelled Roseanne, clearly it’s part of the Deep State!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mary G:
A young white woman in NJ recently tried something similar to this. She ended up being tackled to the ground for being “uncooperative”. The reason? The cops saw she had alcohol on a public beach. It was unopened but they wanted her to pour it out. She refused. They tried citing her, she refused to give them her name, saying she had done nothing wrong and walked away. Cue them bum rushing her. It was caught on body cams too.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You know, reading that “fuck Obama doctrine” quote. I am beginning suspect this is all less some master piece of 11 dimensional chess of Russia’ part and more Trump was so desperate to attack Obama that Trump whored himself out to Russia.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G:
https://taskandpurpose.com/im-us-born-army-vet-border-patrol-just-try-arrest-wife/
Much more at the link.
Mandalay
CNN just asked Michael D’Antonio about Trump’s claim that “I’ve Been Preparing All My Life” for North Korea.
D’Antonio’s thoughtful reply: “Well in a way that’s true…”.
Everyone, including Trump, knows that Trump’s claim is nonsense, and nothing more than rhetoric and bluster, yet CNN still mange to find the one drooling moron who actually takes the claim literally and seriously.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Especially given they called their streaming service “iView”…
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
US$12 for koay teow goreng?! Man, that’s pricey.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@waspuppet:
Of course not, news is Infotainment these days. Even if anetworks did do a special on this everyone would complain about the networks trying to make them think
trollhattan
@hellslittlestangel:
Your internets are on the way!
rikyrah
Dennis Rodman and Sean Hannity leading the US Delegation in Singapore
……………………
Just to compare…
IF this were 44…
and, he took along Ro-Ro and I’m trying to find a washed up sports star. got a suggestion?
The MSM would be howling.
THE.CURVE.FOR.UNQUALIFIED.WHITE.MEN.IS.REAL.
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Umm, unless she was standing up for immigrants, I don’t see the parallels.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Not really. Especially given the size of the portions. Their prices are comparable to the better/best Chinese and Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese restaurants in the area.
Humdog
@ruemara: I am nearly willing to be your backup. Scary, kinda, the violent daydreams these fuckheads lead me to have.
Lapassionara
@rikyrah: True dat.
ruemara
@Humdog: I gotta be honest, it’s what the situation entails. We have a legitimate method to forestall the most massive win for fascism since the Hitlerian war machine. Imagine a fascist dictatorship with our military might, and a population that is mostly impoverished with the best careers being serving a corrupt regime in constant conquest mode. Your children are sick & starving if you don’t believe in the cause. Your water is poison if you’re poor. The only way to relieve your frustrations will be having a captive group to take out your suffering on. These people are not fucking playing and left, right or center, everyone will take an L that can be seen from outer space. That is the only reason I have to getting my citizenship – stopping a fascist regime with American nukes, military, techbros & economic power. It’s here & now or weapons & destruction later.
Ohio Mom
This series sounds like just what I need. I got lost in the thicket months and months ago. Too many characters, too many events exposed out of the sequence in which they originally occurred, for me to keep track of. To have a storyteller lay it all out in chronological order with visuals — I am a visual learner — gives me hope I’ll finally get the story straight.
I mean, I know Putin arranged for Trump to steal the election (duh),
maybe the rest is just details, but I’d like the full picture.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, this is street food in Malaysia, and I’m going by street-food prices here. Hence the sticker shock.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
The parallel is this: unless you’re obviously rich and famous, the police aren’t going to tolerate any “disrespect” even from white people. I still support the strategy to protect immigrants but most people just aren’t going to stick their necks out like that, if it means they’re going to be manhandled and imprisoned by agents of a proto-fascist state.
Too many people who should know better will go, “Well, they should have just not disobeyed the officers.” Authority figures are always right in authoritarians’ minds.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: I can appreciate that.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
The parallel is this: unless you’re obviously rich and famous, the police aren’t going to tolerate any “disrespect” even from white people. I still support the strategy to protect immigrants but most people just aren’t going to stick their necks out like that, if it means they’re going to be manhandled and imprisoned by agents of a proto-fascist state.
Too many people who should know better will go, “Well, they should have just not disobeyed the officers.” Authority figures are always right in authoritarians’ minds
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Is that some sort of a communist plot or what?
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Dude. ICE aren’t the police. They use ignorance & lack of language skills to do their job. And yes, you can stand up to police, but if it’s about alcohol, it may not go that way for you. Sorry, but I don’t see this as a parallel.
Leto
@Ohio Mom: Here’s the Mother Jones Trump/Russia timeline. It starts in 1986 and goes till the latest update, all chronologically: “The Long, Twisted, and Bizarre History of the Trump-Russia Scandal” Sorry, there’s no visuals. Occasional video but that’s about it.
Edit: apparently it only goes through March of this year. Still, very comprehensive.
MattF
The interview with O’Brien is really interesting– Trump seems to have a weak spot for career criminals. Or something.
trnc
Does anyone here know anything about the interpreter on the US side? Does DT actually have a crony with clearance who speaks Korean? If not, when the deal blows up, the interpreter is probably going to be the first one to get the blame.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Well he did sell what passes for a, I can’t even type soul when talking about this asswipe. I don’t believe in the concept in the first place but even if I did, dumpf didn’t have one to sell. Ever. But he is such an low life useless fuck who has never done one thing positive for anyone, including himself. He’s not capable. Of anything remotely good. I’m amazed that he doesn’t have a gold spray painted cow to worship. Even if he dropped dead this afternoon, he’d leave dense in charge. So still nothing positive.
germy
@Leto: Another comprehensive timeline of the Russia scandal and related developments:
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-comprehensive-timeline-of-russia.html
trnc
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
No, it’s the money. Attacking Obama was a side benefit, but it’s all about the benjamins.
Jeffro
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: @trnc:
As we say around here, por que no los dos?
Trumpov has obviously been compromised for a very, very long time. When Obama won in 2008, I have no doubt that Russian interests started whispering in his ear. When Obama won re-election in 2012, Trumpov went ballistic AND those interests started whispering very loudly. Once the very-anti-Putin Hillary was on track to be the 2016 nominee, the interests grabbed a megaphone and ramped up their direct support of Trumpov.
A perfect storm of treason, racism, misogny, business corruption, and Russian revenge.
stinger
@Ohio Mom: Me too.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
Look, think of it this way. If two white police officers with body cameras are willing to rough up a young white woman because of alcohol on a beach what do you think ICE agents, with little institutional accountability, would do to an uppity libtard who was protecting “illegals”?
That story about the couple driving around the Vermont-Canadian border, only to be stopped by Border Patrol, being accused of illegal entry gave me chills. The guy who was in the situation, along with his wife, even noted how scary it was to be in the middle of nowhere with these hyper-aggressive loons; that the Border Patrol Agents could have shot them and spun it anyway they wanted.
Chyron HR
Just another example of the DNC (Down-under Neoliberal C*nts) making excuses for losing to Trump by negative 3 million votes.
germy
Others here have suggested the NYT was involved in some of the dirty money Tim O’Brien talks about in the above clip.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Yes this.
And @trnc: Is correct that it’s always about the money. This man has one objective – money. He’s so incompetent he can’t hold on to any that he gets or even just use it to make more, he’s so tacky that he turns everything he touches to gold spray painted shit and he’s so stupid that he thinks he’s smart.
jl
Know your enemy:
Bob & Doug McKenzie – Twist-off Tops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04u58ifxmRA
Leto
@germy: Thanks. I’ll have to check that one out after work.
germy
@Ruckus: I never understood all his bullshit. Someone here said that if he’d simply taken his inheritance and invested it in index funds he would have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Play golf, watch shark week with adult film actresses, enjoy junk food. A life of ease.
Instead he brings all this… heat… on himself.
germy
@Leto: It’s insanely long, but he keeps it updated every few days.
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: And the examples are not on isolated roads with absolutely paranoid agents. It’s not the same, Goku. Don’t live up to being Baka. It’s a very different set of situations. It’s already hard for people to speak up publicly to obvious wrongs; conflating the two things are giving cover to going along to save your skin. Once again, glad my not being slave didn’t rely on that. We got killed, maimed, raped. I’m not saying get aggressive in the situation the vet found himself in, but I am saying that speaking up in a very much public area where you know what the rights are is a benefit. You can’t get pissed at what you perceive is handwringing about somethings, then twist yourself into knots over another. My ancestors paid in blood – a lot. My damned uncle paid with his life for calling out a corrupt development that would ruin pristine habitats. The least I can do is stand up in a relatively safe public area against stormtroopers. Obviously, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this.
Mnemosyne
@Ryan:
You beat me to it. I fucking GUARANTEE that there will be a bunch of morons on Twitter calling for Bob Iger’s head because ABC did this series. And it will live on forever as an urban legend. ?♀️
jl
@germy: Democrats rejected Trump’s bid to be a conservaDem years ago. then the black guy humiliated him in front of the whole country after the birth certificate stunt fizzled. Trump’s revenge.
piratedan
@Mnemosyne: what’s especially sad about this is that we have the resources and data at hand here with a multitude of networks and none of them here have stepped up to do anything like this.
kind of damning showing how the media itself is just as culpable to where we are as any number of other players, the GOP, Putin, Trump himself etc…
any kind of forum for this would have likely quelled all of the “but her e-mails” bullshit that allowed so much cover…. no one has the brass balls to say, you’re treasonous bastard for working with, seeking out and catering to Russian interests and if you want to prove otherwise, show us where the money went.
satby
@rikyrah: well, to be fair, Rodman is unqualified too this time. ?
But he’s at least been to NK.
Leto
@germy: The Mother Jones one is too, but I feel like it’s a civic responsibility to know about all of it. If no other reason than when Republicans/Tumpovs try to gas light us in 2 years, we can hold this shit up and make them look at their ugly portrait. Plus when I start in on my rants to some of my co-workers/friends, the fact that I can just keep naming off all the names/connections usually makes them take the information a bit more seriously. A few of them have done the, “Wait, what?” or “I didn’t know that!”, at which point I usually keep walking them through whatever connection their was. I try to do my part when/where I can.
Jeffro
@germy: Two words: Fred Trump. Okay, another two: malignant narcissism. A final two: unbridled wealth.
He was twisted at an early age and never dealt with his issues ‘cause he never had to – it made it worse, and it made it that much easier for him to ignore, too.
gene108
@rikyrah:
Who is Ro-Ro?
prostratedragon
Part 1 somehow wouldn’t play for me at ABC site, but I found it on youtube.
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: Dennis Rodman.
Ruckus
@germy:
Forbes estimated that if he had put the bulk of his inheritance in a decent fund, say Vanguard, he’d actually be worth 10-11 billion he used to say he was worth. Forbes also stated that he was worth maybe 3 1/2 billion, but I’d bet that a lot of his assets are so mortgaged (to the Russians) and so sort of off the books, that he actually has a negative worth. The Russians aren’t stupid and they know a cheap, stupid whore they can use when they see one. And all of the people he runs with or who run with him are in many ways, like him, RS, PM, MC…… Willing, if fact eager to take any stupid risk, as long as there is a pony at the end of the rainbow.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
I have already come to the conclusion that speaking up if I encounter this kind of situation is my patriotic duty. As a middle-aged white woman, the odds that I will get an actual beatdown are pretty low.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
At any but the cheapest restaurant, you’re paying more for the service than for the food.
Jager
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I don’t know what has changed with cops, we had a flat on a rent-a-car one afternoon, we were on a divided freeway with a broad paved shoulder. The flat was on the right rear. I pulled as close as i could to the concrete wall on the side of the road,, got out to take a look at the tire. A highway patrol car pulled up behind me and the cop started screaming at me through the loudspeaker, “Get back in the car, get back in the car immediately, do it now!” I said, ‘fuck it” and walked over to the cop car, and asked the cop in the right seat what I was supposed to do. She said, ‘We told you to get back in the car.” I said, “What am I supposed to do, sit in the car and hope magically the tire repairs itself?” She got more pissed, “Get back in the car, like we told you to.” I said “sorry, but if it’s against the law to change a tire in Arizona you better arrest me now, because that’s what I plan to do.” I went back to the car and changed the tire. The cops sat and watched me for a couple of minutes and then burned rubber and left the scene…I have no idea what they were trying to accomplish. Of course if I was black or Hispanic I would have been in deep shit, right? I told the guy at Enterprise what happened, he told me they usually make you drive to the next exit and get off to change the tire and when that happens the tire is completely ruined.
Adam L Silverman
@prostratedragon: Excellent. Thanks!
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
A young white woman in a bikini is pretty likely to get roughed up by cops who want an excuse to cop a feel and put her in her place as a subordinate woman-thing. Sad but true.
Roger Moore
@trnc:
I think it’s a concurrence of circumstances. There’s plenty of evidence Trump was already in bed with Russia long before any of this; he’s been laundering money for the Russian mob for decades. With the current Russian government, that means being in bed with Putin. He’s also expressed an interest in running for President for a long time. My gut feeling is that the combination of him being in good standing with Russia, having political ambitions, being angry at Obama showing him up at the WHCD, and Putin being backed into a corner over Crimea led to the decision of Trump to run with Putin’s backing.
Lee
Apparently the NRA is also up the their neck with Russians.
lynn
Burn that Bridge…Burn that Bridge…..Burn that Bridge…Burn that Bridge……
Adam L Silverman
@Lee: I wrote about that here last year.
Mnemosyne
@Lee:
Yep. As are many evangelical churches. When it comes out that Franklin Graham has been taking money from the Russians, I will not be surprised in the least.
That’s right, I said “when, not “if.” That’s how sure I am that his hands are dirty.
JPL
@Lee: Money is fungible so they are using foreign funds for candidates. The pro fetus folks use that against planned parenthood.
gene108
@Adam L Silverman:
Can’t be Rodman. She said ” he took along Ro-Ro and I’m trying to find a washed up sports star. got a suggestion?”
I assume Hannity is the equivalent of Ro-Ro here, while Rodman would be the washed up sports star.
Trump = Hannity, Rodman
Obama = Ro-Ro, ????
chris
@Lee: Brexit is looking more and more like a Russian operation.
Thanks for this, Adam, I’ll watch tonight.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Its been a bad day if you just want to be a decent person.
Adam L Silverman
@Lee: @Mnemosyne:
https://balloon-juice.com/2017/12/03/what-does-penetration-at-all-levels-actually-mean/
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: I’m not following.
Shana
@rikyrah: Charles Barkley? Pete Rose? Mike Ditka?
Adam L Silverman
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: He is what he’s always been. This should not be surprising in any way, shape, or form.
Aleta
Re @Mary G:
Here’s the account of Tiana Smalls, the black woman who stood up on a greyhound bus (not within 100 miles of an international border) to announce that the ICE boarding and demand for everyone’s papers was illegal. (She spoke first in E and then read a goo gled translation to say the same things in Spanish.) This links to a four part screenshot of what she wrote on her facebook. (Need to read all 4 for the whole story.)
The person who put up the screenshots also tells a different story of their own, below them. Tiana Smalls later wrote:
At Mary G’s link, I saw this story: ICE Came for a Tennessee Town’s
Immigrants. The Town Fought Back. (At the NYT)
and Will Wilkinson’s distinction:
Brachiator
@Leto:
Yep. This is how you do it. Trump true believers think that this stuff is rumor or “fake news.”
You may not change their minds when you hit them with facts, but this might at least slow them down.
prostratedragon
@Adam L Silverman: My pleasure.
gene108
@Adam L Silverman:
Trump’s entourage to the N. Korea summit is Hannity (entertainer) and Rodman (washed up sports star).
I assume when she stated it’s as if Obama took along Ro-Ro and I can’t think of a washed up sports star, that Ro-Ro would be some sort of entertainer (i.e. Obama’s equivalent of Hannity), therefore I don’t think she meant Ro-Ro to be Rodman.
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: Now I’m following what you’re writing. I have no idea.
Platonailedit
Immanentize
After today’s Supreme Court ruling, I am positively worried that there is so much criminality and bad shit going down in the republican party that all bets will be off in November. Trump needs a big immigrant scandal and some more innocent black boys shot to rile up the base. But tanking opportunity, health care, and rising gas prices will even it out? It’s going to be a long hot summer.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jeffro:
I know it really doesn’t change the end result, but the way I see it; Trump always affected this mobbed up persona, the Russian mob bail him out in the 90s to use for money laundering so Trump being Trump the idiot appoints himself a made man in the Russian Mob to go along with Trump’s fantasy he is a Vietnam War vet because he was screwing models doing the war. Obama gets elected, that gets Trump’s racist goat (likely because Trump is sensitive his own mother wasn’t American), then that Correspondence Dinner were Obama mocked Trump to his face and Trump went nuts (go read the “Fuck Obama Doctrine” quote, the speaker goes on and on about Obama apologizing)
Trump tries offer himself as a puppet to Russia, they don’t take him seriously, Trump runs in 2012, fails but that gets the Russians attention. But it’s really Trump pushing this on the Russians all along, which explains why it’s so lame, easy to uncover and why the Russians seem to be sort of embarrassed about it all (if anything when Trump comes up with Putin, Putin comes across like some guy creeped out about some strange crazy gal having a crush on him)
Mike in NC
Spent most of today in South Carolina where there is a Republican primary coming up soon. The radio was blanketed with attack ads for people running for everything from dog catcher to governor. Everybody was trying to run to the right of Trump and McConnell and Ryan. A candidate who wouldn’t promise to ban 100% of all abortions was not a True Conservative. Another one who endorsed ‘open carry’ but not bump stocks and gun suppressors was “an enemy of the Second Amendment”, etc. Truly crazy shit going on down there.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Yup, we are in for a bumpy ride. BTW I noticed that shootings are increasing in Boston. I was surprised by that.
Immanentize
@MomSense:
It is a small incteaseso far, but yes, worrisome. Massachusetts is now awash in New Hampshire guns.
germy
Next week’s installment should be interesting. They’ll be discussing “useful idiots” and I’d love to see if the idiots have anything to say for this ABC documentary.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
I see that you’re right. It’s important to stand up to these people
Lee
@Adam L Silverman: This seems to have new information regarding the russians & the NRA
FlyingToaster
@MomSense: There’s also an uptick in dumb criminals. The last time this happened was when a bunch of numbskulls finished their prison sentences and all came home one summer.
Calouste
@Mike in NC: With the advances in construction technology, South Carolina is now exactly the right size for an asylum.
danielx
Confidently expecting Lord Shortfingers to declare war on Australia later this week.
Adam L Silverman
@Calouste: Perhaps we could build a wall around it…
Aleta
@Adam L Silverman: So did I, and others, and others elsewhere. And it’s still good to mention it again.
Lee’s new link/comment is useful.
Zelma
I know I am not the first one to say this and I certainly won’t be the last, but it is quite clear that Russia went to war with us in 2016 and won. And we rolled over. Worse still, a large proportion of us cooperated with the invader not under duress but enthusiastically. We are so done.
Ohio Mom
@Leto: Thanks — I think that is exactly what I need. I can print it out and always have it handy.
MomSense
@FlyingToaster:
I spent a lot of time in South Boston as a student and then as a teacher in the 80s. The gun violence was horrible. It May have been the summer of 1990 that was especially deadly. Some of those years have blurred a bit for me.
Ohio Mom
@germy: And thanks for this time line too. I see it starts in 1980 — that was the year before I landed my first grownup, professional job. This horror has been brewing my entire adulthood. A sobering thought.
FlyingToaster
@MomSense: 89-90-91 were the years (I got here in ’87); all years with over 100 murders. Then 93-94-95 in the 90s, between 85-100. And then the great drop-off. 2005-6 and 2010 were up again to the 70s. We’re on track for a raised murder rate again this year. Alas.
afanasia
@Mnemosyne: Ditto. And I’ve had some practice feigning well-intentioned, low-key white lady confusion with angry Republican. It often does slow them down. Sometimes it even embarrasses them. God knows why.