On Friday I wrote the following in an email explaining what is actually going on with the Ukraine mess that the President has made:
I amazed that all of this current brouhaha is just a really bad Russian mob shakedown. The play here is to get Parnas’s and Fruman’s boss in the Russian mob, Dmitri Firtash, off of house arrest and out from under the extradition warrant to the US so he can go back to Kyiv and take over the Ukrainian natural gas industry, strip it of every last penny, then crash it on behalf of Putin and the Russian mob. This then forces Ukraine to buy natural gas from Russia, which allows Putin to then further knuckle Ukraine by sucking resources out of Ukraine to create leverage to force Ukraine back into his orbit. As was reported last night, Giuliani is on Parnas’s payroll and has been for a while. Parnas is on DiGenova’s and Toensing’s payroll, who are working pro bono with Giuliani on behalf of the President, though they’re using him as their translator for their legal work for Firtash. Parnas and Fruman report to Firtash in regard to Russian organized crime activities. Firtash works for the Kyiv born Semion Mogilevich, who is the titular head of the Bratva. Mogolivech works for Putin who is the functional krysha/roof/protector of the Bratva. The Biden stuff is simply disinformation recycled from the Russians from 2014 as part of the maskirovka.
Earlier this evening, Andrew Weiss, who is the Vice President for Studies of The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is in their Russia and Eurasia Program, tweeted the following explainer that really delineates all the parts of the network I was describing in my email from last Friday. (I’m going to put the first half above the jump and the second half below it).
Bear with me as I lay out some facts. They exceed the unreality of a Gary @Shteyngart novel. Yet based on my reading of these facts, several questions readily jump out. I don’t have all of the answers to these questions but think it’s worth asking them. 2/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
The other point of comparison that immediately comes to mind is an ongoing Federal criminal investigation of Elliot Broidy, a former top Trump fundraiser and the former vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign. More on him in a second. 4/ pic.twitter.com/DWADspZ8sI
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
That’s a curiously menial role for Parnas who presented himself as a high roller and whose campaign contributions gave him access to Trump and other GOP leaders. (Lawyer John Dowd says they had a similar role for Giuliani on behalf of President Trump) https://t.co/3MYZlQcVc3 6/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
In reality ties betw Parnas/Fruman and Firtash run much deeper. They were “working for Firtash" before "Parnas joined [Firtash’s] legal team…Firtash has paid their expenses in the past [including] private jet charters..& foreign travel to Vienna.” https://t.co/1PYZ6oj9eN
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
Arguably the single biggest set of toes belongs to Firtash. He was arrested immediately after the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine and has been stuck in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. after being charged by the Feds with FCPA violations. 10/ pic.twitter.com/gNAOcwdo8F
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
It’s also good to think of the gas trade as Exhibit #1 for the comingling of the Russian govt/organized crime. Firtash served as the top gas trade intermediary for the Kremlin & a Russian mob figure Semyon Mogilevich who’s on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List & helped control it 12/ pic.twitter.com/LdTWKGpc2h
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
It’s been all too easy to get a chuckle out of Parnas and Fruman’s bumbling hijinks after they joined the ranks of top GOP/Trump donors, despite having such a long trail of bad debts, evictions, and sketchy relationships back in Ukraine. https://t.co/vYeGu25kYf 14/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
What then to make of the revelation that Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles last Thursday while en route to Vienna? Or that Giuliani planned to leave for Vienna, Firtash’s home base, the following day? https://t.co/TmhXrjmhNn @elainaplott 16/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
Bloomberg's @nwadhams broke a story about Trump and Giuliani seeking special favors from DOJ/State Dept for one of the latter’s clients, a convicted Turkish gold trader who had violated Iran sanctions. Rex Tillerson thought these requests were illegal https://t.co/OFJn5fWC1m 18/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
That brings us back to where I started. Does this scandal echo the circumstances that led to the naming of Robert Mueller? Was Giuliani ever involved in seeking special favors for Firtash? Did he or anyone else ( DiGenova? Toensing?) raise this case with Trump or others? 20/
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
What is AG William Barr’s involvement in the search for dirt on the Bidens and conspiracy theories about the 2016 election? Remember: Trump told Zelenskyy to contact Barr. Does Barr have a conflict of interest or at least the appearance of one? Does he need to recuse himself? 22/ pic.twitter.com/3nYNsF64B4
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
ADDENDUM The Reuters team which broke the story about Firtash’s ties to Giuliani’s associates deserves a major shoutout @AramRoston @karen_freifeld @polinaivanovva
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 15, 2019
Weiss’s thread, however, goes beyond just making explicitly clear the different key nodes in the network behind this poorly executed mob shakedown. Weiss’s thread makes it very clear that the Republican Party has been bought by Russian and post-Soviet oligarchs and incorporated into their influence network, including the Russian mob. And as was the case with the cost of Putin’s information warfare and active measures campaign against the US, they did it for pennies on the dollar.
Open thread!
Mary G
Thanks as always, Adam. Lot cheaper than nuclear missiles, and Russian TV gets a lot of yuks out of it. And I think Barr is in this up to his chubby little Dominionist cheeks.
ETA: Also, Comic Sans? How are we still losing to these people?
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: He is. He’s in charge of the cover up.
David Fud
Since the GOP is owned by the Russian mob, and it is a slave to white supremacy, other than utter defeat at the ballot box, how can America clean these guys up? We can’t impose this from the outside, we have to clean up our own mess somehow. We will basically have a civil war on our hands if we really dig in and root out the corruption.
Quaker in a Basement
Clearly, there are many people with personal interests at stake: the oligarch who needs to get right with DOJ, Putin and his designs on the Ukrainian gas business, and lots and lots of money being thrown around.
Wouldn’t you think that would be enough to keep all the conspirators working quietly and in the shadows? But no. Trump needs to up the ante and screw the Bidens at the same time. Like so many other times, his insistence on overreach blows up the plan.
Amir Khalid
Jho Low! He has definitely eclipsed Jimmy Choo, the shoe guy, as Malaysia’s most world-famous person. It makes me proud — not.
Dan B
What does it mean to good old fashioned Republicans to be quiet about the direct connection between the Russian mob and the top brass in the White House? And are there connections to our MSM? This feels like we reached the top of the first roller coaster hill and can’t yet see the bittom of the first drop. But it does feel like there’s going to be some sort of metaphorical or real bloodbath.
Redshift
OT: Woo, Nats! ⚾
Cheryl Rofer
As usual, I’m going to counsel a bit of caution. Although your email summary is plausible, I think not all those links have been proved, like who’s on whose payroll. Finding out who pays Guiliani (certainly more than one source) would go a long way to supporting what you say, or showing where holes are.
Weiss doesn’t go as far as your email summary, but the connections he lists are still damning in a very broad sense. No President of the United States should have people involved in this stuff in this way.
This week’s testimonies in the House should also help to delineate things within the US government, the other side of all this. Ten hours of testimony can cover quite a bit of ground. Tomorrow is Michael McKinley’s turn. McKinley was Pompeo’s senior advisor, so he will have a lot to say.
Jerzy Russian
Thanks for the enlightening but depressing read. I am otherwise speechless at the moment.
Mary G
@David Fud: There need to be a lot of prosecutions, and utter defeat at the ballot box, both. I think @Quaker in a Basement: hits the bullseye, though. The president is so stupid he’s giving the game away.
Another Scott
How much of this is hyperbole? It seems clear that Donnie and his minions are in Vlad’s pocket, and lots of GOP people were more than willing to take money from just about everyone, and willing to let Donnie do pretty much what he wanted, but were they doing more than turning a blind eye?
Weiss talks a lot about Donnie and Rudy and their associates, but not so much about the GOP as a whole.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Zelma
This administration is a criminal conspiracy. It’s part of a world wide criminal conspiracy centered in Moscow. Russia isn’t a country; it’s a criminal cartel. And I’m pretty sure there are lots of career folks in intelligence and justice who know it.
Who are the players or their patsies? Putin is clearly at the center, although there is part of him who is a Soviet revanchist. Murdoch is certainly part of it. Trump may be too dumb to be anything but a tool. Likewise Boris. And the Republican pols are likewise fellow travelers.
What is embarrassing is how cheaply the Americans have been bought.
randy khan
The contrast of the belligerent tone – I mean, how awful that the committee released its letters to the public! Oh, the indecency! – with the, ah, comical typeface is pretty amazing.
Gin & Tonic
An old, old friend worked for the US gov’t (ahem) during the Cold War years, then after the breakup of the Soviet Union ended up in the “private sector” (ahem) – he knew everything and everybody in Russia-Ukraine natural gas circles. His untimely passing is such a shame, as he’d be delightful with this stuff.
But thanks for this post, Adam. As soon as I saw Parnas and Fruman were busted with one-way tickets to Vienna, the cartoon lightbulb over my head went off.
p.s. In your intro text you misspell Mogilevich.
Gin & Tonic
@Redshift: I was under the apparently mistaken impression that the Cardinals knew how to play this game.
Zelma
BTW, that song is still playing in my ears! I know. Off topic.
Adam L Silverman
@David Fud: Truth & Reconciliation Committee with actual teeth. I keep saying I’ll do a post on it. I’ll try to get to it this week.
Zelma
Just an aside. Wasn’t McCabe an expert on the Russian mob? Was that why he had to be destroyed?
At least the Italian Mafia were patriotic.
Mary G
The roof is about to cave in from all the leaks:
Gin & Tonic
@Zelma: You know who knows a lot about the Russian mob? Adam Schiff.
dmsilev
@Mary G: Apparently, pissing off a guy with a bunch of secrets, a bad mustache, and a grudge might be self-defeating. Who knew?
zhena gogolia
Sigh.
Another Scott
One does not simply fire John Bolton.
Oooh. Rooting for injuries.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@Mary G: If you’d told me a couple of months ago that I’d be cheering for John Bolton…
Mary G
Brilliant idea:
I said they could do it on pay-per-view and put a nice little hole in the deficit.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic:
IKR? Faith, ’tis a mad world entirely.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: I thought you were Malaysia’s most famous person.
Duane
@Adam L Silverman: Not too long ago a T&R committee seemed far-fetched, even ridiculous. Now it seems necessary. The evidence is abundant. The crimes have to be stopped or it’s going to get worse.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G:
Oh man. I hope somebody has the ball bearings for him to rub together as he testifies.
Mary G
@Gin & Tonic: Or that Jeff Sessions would be the cleanest AG?
Amir Khalid
@Zelma:
A quibble: Russia is still a country. Putin and his administration are the criminal cartel.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Thank you.
dmsilev
@Gin & Tonic: I believe the approved phrase is ‘root for injuries’.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
There have been a hell of a lot more Russians out on the street protesting (and getting beaten and arrested) than Americans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
damn.
I guess it was inevitable Mulvaney would be caught up in this, but I guess Bolton thought “inevitable” wasn’t fast enough
@Mary G:
If it happens, it will be because trump saw that tweet
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: In terms of the elected officials and the party officials, they’re compromised. There is extensive documentation on how Russian money, much of it oligarch/mob money, was laundered through their political action committees and campaigns. Both McConnell’s and Ryan’s leadership PACs were used as laundries for this money. As was, of course, the NRA. And a whole host of other Republican and conservative funding sources.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Only to the jackaltariat, alas.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Spoilsport.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: Elliot Brody wasn’t just the deputy co-chair of the President’s 2016 campaign, he was, until he was arrested last year, one of three finance and fundraising co-chairs at the RNC. The other two were Michael Cohen and Steve Wynn. As for the rest of the links, I’ve been delineating them for over three years now on the front page.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: I hope you will.
dmsilev
@Mary G:
It’d be a mashup of A Few Good Men, The Caine Mutiny, and The Manchurian Candidate. Box Office gold!
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Fixed, thanks.
Mary G
@dmsilev: All the farmers who can’t sell soybeans any more can switch to popcorn! Win/win!
Adam L Silverman
@Zelma:
StrozkStrzok and Ohr were the experts.tokyokie
@Amir Khalid:
Then obviously, you need to focus on Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng as Malaysia’s most world-famous person.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: It is important to remember that the National Security Council’s counsel used to work for Devin Nunes. He was Nunes’ chief counsel for the House Intel Committee when Nunes ran it. He went to the NSC under Flynn.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
STRZOK
NotMax
@dmsilev
Lie Hard.
dmsilev
@Mary G: Also, imagine the modern equivalent of Frost/Nixon. An interview conducting either by Twitter DM or jailhouse phone, depending.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
zhena gogolia
I would so love to see Mulvaney go down.
What about Stephen Miller? How can we get him?
(Time to go to bed!)
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Fine, we’ll spell it your way.
Millard Filmore
@Mary G: A more comprehensive way to express the question is here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/thaetan/status/1177296637145812992?p=v
ByRookorbyCrook
I am amazed at the brazenness of all this. It is not just the audacity of selling out the nation for campaign funds, it is the chutzpah of the implied ask of, “What are you going to do about it?” At least 27%, but most likely more are completely ok with the corruption and foreign interference as long as it upsets the right people. Liberals, celebrities, and all the others on the Right’s Enemies List need to be punished even if it destroys the nation and holding the perpetrators responsible will be inconceivable to the Deplorables. I hope a Truth and Reconciliation committee can repair the nation, but I fear that there is a lot that is irreparable. Sorry I am being a bit of a negative lurker. This stuff is just depressing
suffragettecity
And as of yet, I’ve not seen Mukasey mentioned but I’d bet he knows something.
dmsilev
@zhena gogolia: Miller’s mainly a domestic guy; as long as immigrants are suffering, he’s happy. No, the next rank of targets would be Jared and Ivanka.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: It’s useful to put narratives like that together, to see how well stuff fits. One of the difficulties of understanding the Trump presidency is that there are so many crimes, cutouts, mobs, bribes, and varieties of extortion that it’s hard to keep track of the main themes.
We’re just starting now to have enough information to put together something like what you have in your email. But there are still lots of holes. The House hearings will fill some of them, particularly on the government side. Which will open things up to learn more in other aspects.
But that is JUST THE UKRAINIAN EXTORTION!
There’s a lot more, like Mike Flynn’s Turkish connections and crazy energy schemes. For instance, today Rosatom’s CEO said they’d be glad to work with the US to build reactors in Saudi Arabia. That was part of one of Flynn’s schemes. Collusion? Coincidence? Trolling? Can’t tell yet.
And we haven’t begun to hear about Jared’s 666 Fifth Avenue and other schemes.
NotMax
@dmsilev
Speaking of movies, picturing Dolt 45 in the Dean Stockwell role and Putin in the Mercedes Ruehl role in this scene.
Cheryl Rofer
So this is the least worst of Rudy’s funding
Adam L Silverman
sheldon vogt
What connection, if any, between this bunch and the group of Senators who celebrated the Fourth in Moscow in 2018?
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: I was kidding.
Cacti
It’s not enough for Trump to be removed from office.
The whole rotten GOP structure that supported and enabled him needs to burn with him.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: I’m surprised to see that barratry and indecent exposure didn’t make the cut.
Adam L Silverman
@sheldon vogt: The connection is Russia.
Mary G
Rudy’s still talking:
And:
And:
Nice work if you can get it.
ETA: Sorry, Cheryl, was still messing with blockquotes while you posted this.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: I know
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Let’s give thanks for small miracles.
Dan B
@Mary G: Brian Williams was good this evening about Bolton saying Giuliani was in a metaphorival drug deal. Michael Steele blamed it on people being sucked into Trump’s schemes.
So, as I’d feared the “good republicans” will proclaim their pure hearts when it’s long been clear that a worldwide syndicate(s) had tenterhooks in the GOP for years. It finally came into fruition with a bumbling egomaniac. Will it be Romney or Weld, or one of the crazy Tea Partiers, who are lauded by FOX and Sinclair, and Traitorbook, as the savior of freedom?
dmsilev
@Mary G:
We guarantee your fraud, or your money back. Trust us.
NotMax
@Mary G:
Well, the NRA is “a domestic source.” Just sayin’.
NotMax
Fix. (Go ahead and delete the bad one if it suits you, Adam.)
@Mary G
Well, the NRA is “a domestic source.” Just sayin’.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I fixed it. I have no idea what you did, but whatever it is don’t do it again.
Dan B
@Adam L Silverman: I wonder who in the GOP has not been compromised by Putin. Are there any credible Senators or Representatives? Or is the fact that they had no knowledge of the NRA and fossil fuel lobbyist money laundering? Innocent like the three monkeys with their well placed hands?
patroclus
Sorry, but I need a lot more proof before I buy all aspects of this. The post says multiple times that all this has been “made clear.” No it hasn’t. Interesting theory though. They should keep digging.
SFAW
Reading this thread, I had a vision of Oprah saying either
“And YOU get an indictment! And YOU get an indictment! And YOU get an indictment! etc.”
or
“And YOU get an indictment! And you get ANOTHER indictment! And you get ANOTHER indictment! etc.”
Yeah, yeah, I know — Por que no los dos?
Hitlesswonder
@Adam L Silverman: That July 4th trip was weird and I think underreported. Was it just Putin demanding that a bunch of compromised senators and congressman humiliate themselves by being in Moscow on the 4th? That’s what it seems like. Why wasn’t that a huge story?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been told THAT…
:)
SFAW
@Dan B:
Charlie Baker, maybe?
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: I don’t know.
Aleta
@Cheryl Rofer: “crazy energy schemes”
Is it far fetched, too off the track, to wonder about ethanol production in Ukraine, Trump, US farmers?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SFAW: Alf Landon, Margaret Chase Smith and Thomas Dewey.
NotMax
OT.
Adam, any thoughts on Dolt 45 inserting himself into the court martial of Maj. Mathew Golsteyn?
Adam L Silverman
@Hitlesswonder: I have no idea why it wasn’t a bigger story, especially as it wasn’t the first time nor the last time it happened during this administration. Senator Paul made the same trip over a different holiday weekend. And there was another one of those trips for Republican members of Congress this year too.
GregB
By the way, the third GOP finance co-chair, after the jailed Cohen and criminally charged Broidy, is Steve Wynn. He just got banned from the casino business in Vegas for poor character.
All the trees are falling.
Dan B
@Dan B: I’m at the point where it might be easier to figure out which republicans are not compromised and then start combing through their staffs and funding sources to nartow the list to zero.
Redshift
@Mary G:
So, would you attest to that under oath, Mr. Giuliani?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Unacceptable, despicable, and for all intents and purposes it has now bespoiled the court martial because it is undue command interference by the commander in chief. It is also a perfect example of why shitbirds like Pete Hegseth should not have access to power.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think that Abe Lincoln is pretty clean – although it occurs to me that his SoS did some kind of deal with Russia.
Dan B
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Finally we have an answer to who the honest republicans are!
How about Eusenhower?
NotMax
Stray thought: You can’t spell Rasputin with p-u-t-i-n.
Mary G
The latest “fuck you” to Trump & Republicans from my state:
I didn’t know that, glad I have Medicare.
trollhattan
Posted this earlier today but I think this is a better thread.
Nothing to see here, nosir.
Redshift
@Dan B: A lot of them are very stupid, to the point where I’d actually believe they had no idea they were taking laundered Russian money. That doesn’t mean they should be off the hook, of course.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Point of order – Lincoln was six feet under by then.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Did Putin ever stop to consider that helping a buffoon become in charge of the country with the world’s largest nuclear stockpile might be dangerous?
Miss Bianca
@Dan B:
Recalling to mind Brian Blessed’s cri de coeur as Augustus Caesar in I, Claudius: “Is there any man in Rome who HASN’T slept with my daughter?”
@GregB: Man, when you get banned from running a casino in *Vegas* because of “poor character”…wow.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
So is that why Bolton was saying he didn’t want to get drawn into “drug dealing”? ?
JWR
More on Bolton:
Ka-Blooie!
ETA and boy, will I ever be happy to be rid of this comment editor!
Calouste
@Dan B: Three GOP governors have come out for impeachment investigations, I can’t remember who they are. And possibly Romney is not bought by the Russians.
Aleta
Yesterday’s 538 impeachment tracker:
50.3% support, 43.8% don’t support
Kent
@Gin & Tonic:
Worse still. If you told me that he looked like the adult in the room. That’s one terrifying room.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: did you miss my primer last month on the correct way to perform the “not” joke?
Steve getting back to his roots in CHI
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: très drôle—well played
Aleta
@JWR: Stun grenade
Jim, Foolish Literalist
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steve in the ATL:
That primer was totally helpful. Not! //
Kent
@Dan B:
Well, there was Lincoln. After that things started to fall apart.
PJ
@Calouste: If he had groveled enough for Trump, he would have had a cabinet position, and, who knows, maybe sent on a mission to Ukraine. But Trump was just satisfied with Romney having to ask for a job. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/308018-trump-romney-meet-at-new-york-restaurant . (Just click through to see the photo of how miserable Romney is.)
tokyokie
I take that to mean Giuliani took the dough without asking any questions.
Raven Onthill
@Another Scott: “How much of this is hyperbole?”
We know that Mitch McConnell, at least, got something that looks very like a quid pro quo. It’s a fair bet that the seven Senators who spent July 4, 2018 in Moscow got something.
It is likely that the rot is more extensive that we yet know. When you turn on the lights in the kitchen, the cockroaches go scuttling for cover. I bet there’s more, lots more.
different-church-lady
We’re gonna need a bigger rabbit hole.
TS (the original)
@Hitlesswonder:
The lyin’ liberal media didn’t want to talk about it
Aleta
@PJ: Humiliation-domination was probably first on that menu, but I also picture blatant loyalty soundings at all Trump’s nomination meetings. Grooming, testing.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Oubliette design is a recondite architectural specialization.
;)
NotMax
Le sigh. Fix.
@different-church-lady
Oubliette design is a recondite architectural specialization.
;)
lgerard
@PJ:
Mitt should have realized he wasn’t going to be offered a cabinet position
He didn’t get any beautiful chocolate cake
a lurker
@tokyokie: I think a better interpretation is “there is no question. it’s definitively dirty”
Aleta
@ByRookorbyCrook: The US doesn’t seem receptive to the humility that precedes reconciliation and truth.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kent:
I remember reading that the Republicans in the 50s tried to pass some pretty crazy shit under Eisenhower
jl
@a lurker: We may be living in a golden age of non-denial denials. We’re in the midst of the high baroque of non-denial denials.
Reverse double flip double dog dare non-denial denials.
JWR
Oh my!
James O’Keefe on the job!
jl
Need to break out the full text of famous verses from Proverbs
6:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
8:18a Especially amongeth dumbells.
6:19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
6:19a: And if ye be witless about it, they will the bus throweth ye under
jl
@JWR: ” James O’Keefe on the job! :
Figures O’Keefe would pop up, with Wohl & Burkman hogging all the glory.
O’Keefe’s stuff is little better than W&B’s. brand, but it is taken far more seriously. Or more precisely, the ratio of serious attention given to O’Keefe is far out of proportion to how much better it is than W&B. Maybe because O’Keefe is on some big funder payroll, who tells the hacks to funnel the stuff into the corporate media.
Edit: Maybe W&B didn’t quite make the credibility cut on their first outings to be worthy of big sponsorship, so it’s been all down hill for them since then, except as a novelty act.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@JWR:
Sorry, II Douche. Public figures are except from libel law protections
NotMax
@JWR
Surely totally coincidental that Tuesday’s D debate is on CNN.
(*crouches to avoid being whacked upside the head by flying pigs*)
patrick II
Hey Rudy , the name of the company that you can rule out a foreign payment from is named “Fraud Guarantee”. From their mug shots I don’t think they are the type of guys who are into irony.
NotMax
@jl
The meek shall inherit the Earth.
Shortly after the rapacious have wrung it barren.
sukabi
@randy khan: re: comic sans in a lawyer’s letter, probably a distraction ploy, like the rumpled suits. Don’t underestimate the sloppy schlub.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
You do it your way, and I’ll do it mine.
//
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
Are you saying Trump is trying to distract from/delegitimize the D debates through CNN?
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Too subtle?
;)
JWR
@NotMax:
Yes.
Flying pigs, to your stations!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Earthquake! I’m in San Francisco. Felt big and far away, not small and close.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: 4.5 in the East Bay.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: ETA: Initial reports say small and close. Which is good, relatively, because big is bad.
MisterForkbeard
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, just felt it. Then called a recent immigrant that reports to me to make sure she wasn’t panicking – she lives about 10 miles from the epicenter and hadn’t been in an earthquake before.
@JWR: It was a REALLY sad report from O’Keefe. The big points:
1) Zucker said Fox News was brainwashing people.
2) Zucker also said he understood that some of his people were friends with Lindsay Graham and Tucker Carlson.
3) Some low-level employees that don’t go on air and aren’t in charge of content at all said they really didn’t like Trump.
Basically, it’s was about 10% as wild as what’s been repeatedly reported at FOX in terms of political bias. Trump (and O’Keefe) can go fuck themselves off into the wild blue yonder.
trollhattan
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Nuttin’ felt here in Sac. By contrast, Loma Prieta had us bouncing like a Motel 6 boxspring.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: A co-worker felt Loma Prieta in our office on the 46th floor of the ARCO Tower in LA.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@trollhattan: By all accounts, you Sac’tans are too dang high to feel the earth move anyway, what with all your illegal Ukrainian legal cannabis all over the place. At least that’s my takeaway from this thread.
JWR
@MisterForkbeard: So about as accurate as his Planned Parenthood videos. But hey, morons, for some reason, gotta be morons in front of the whole world.
trollhattan
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Our mellow won’t be harshed, maaaaan!
Mandalay
A completely shallow comment on my part, but former Amb.Yovanovitch (as shown in the OP) and Fiona Hill arriving to testify yesterday both look absolutely fucking badass in those photos. When Hollywood eventually does a movie of this wretched shitshow they won’t be able to improve on reality.
And of course all the villains are fat, ugly, white men. Hollywood won’t be able to come up with baddies who look worse than those vile fuckers either.
Vhh
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: kompromat is great force for control
JWR
Hmm. From Daniel Dale’s Twitter page:
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
There’s nothing subtle with Trump
: )
Ruckus
@Mary G:
I agree that he is stupid but also that his narcissism is so overriding that it is his sole operating premise. He thinks everything through his vision of himself. And because he’s so in debt to vlad, he has to put himself subordinate to vlad. And that means he will do anything vlad asks of him. Vlad literally owns him, in every meaning possible of the word owns.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What I meant (rhetorically) was if I was being too subtle.
:)
Ruckus
@ByRookorbyCrook:
They don’t think they are doing anything wrong. OK they probably know they are breaking the law but that’s OK because they are republicans saving the world for fascists everywhere and the law only applies to others.
prostratedragon
“Heartbreaking [picaresque version],” Angelo Badalamenti
Mary G
@JWR: As long as Mulvaney is roped in.
Ruckus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Probably figured he couldn’t remember the new code from day to day so the missiles couldn’t be launched.
Ruckus
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
4.5, one mile from Pleasant Hill, a minute before your comment.
ETA and of course others got there first. That’s what I get for watching entertainment rather than a horror flick that is our current executive branch.
Sister Golden Bear
Just some mild shaking down on the Peninsula. Felt more like gentle waves, although it lasted a bit longer than most of the quakes I can recall.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Entertainment is good. Even stuff like the ‘stick with it solely to see what new levels of crapitude it reaches’ one season SF series I finished up half paying attention to tonight.
prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: Just another reason to hate these fucking guys.
@Mary G: Explosive laughter in the wee hours!
I recall soon after the election sharing a moment of introspection with my brother as we wondered what the first State of the Union address would be like.
JWR
@Mary G:
Hey, Mix ‘n’ Match criminals! I can get behind that!
rikyrah
Thanks for the post. For connecting the dots ??
dervy scram
@Mary G: har har. we’re not losing. they cheat like hell. that’s about to end.
Procopius
@Millard Filmore:
Opposable thumbs.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Ok, but remember this:
(Hmm… There’s Ukraine again.)
McCarthy was House Majority Leader. He obviously wasn’t on-board with the GOP being in Putin’s pocket – yet. Maybe he was too stupid to realize what had happened, or was kept out of the loop. But it looks like the ‘purchase of the GOP’ was sometime after June 2016. I’m not seeing much in the way of their actions that are that different before and after that date (other than changing the Platform on Ukraine).
There’s more to come, I’m sure.
Cheers,
Scott.
low-tech cyclist
@Cheryl Rofer:
During the summer when the Dems were doing their best to stay away from impeachment, I occasionally called my (Dem) Congressman suggesting other things they should be having hearings on, if they weren’t going to bother to impeach.
This was one of them. Debt that was threatening to bankrupt Kushner’s family mysteriously disappeared overnight. It still boggles my mind that the House Dems didn’t want to dig into this. Apparently what they really wanted to do was pass a zillion pieces of legislation that the Senate would never look at.
jonas
@Zelma:
Pretty much. Former CIA agent John Sipher has a very detailed and (at the time — pre-Mueller report) prescient run-down of exactly how the Russians got inside and compromised TrumpWorld and, by extension, the GOP. Is Trump a Russian agent? As Sipher explains, Russians view intelligence assets differently than their US counterparts. Trump is what is classically referred to as a “useful idiot” — someone sympathetic to Russian interests who can be compromised or easily manipulated to disseminate Russian disinformation. Manafort may be a different story, however. He was in deep with the Ukrainian-Russian underworld and we still don’t entirely understand how he came to be hired by Trump in the first place, or why he was willing to work for free. He engaged in a lot more traditional passing-intelligence-to-a-handler kind of behavior (in this case, giving internal Trump polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik); he was desperate for money. Mueller was never able to get to the bottom of Manafort’s corruption due to all the obstruction and stonewalling he faced. Hopefully unraveling the Giulliani scheme in Ukraine will lead us back to whatever Manafort had been up to — and, ultimately, what Trump knew and when he knew it.
joel hanes
@zhena gogolia:
I would so love to see Mulvaney go down.
Mnuchin too, also.
Matt McIrvin
The more complicated this gets, the harder to understand it becomes and the easier it is to just ignore it or conclude that it’s a bunch of incomprehensible bullshit. It’s important to investigate all the threads but we need to maintain a coherent central story– that’s what distinguishes the Ukraine story from Mueller’s Russia investigation.
MattF
Rumor has it that Trump’s new personal attorney will be Mike Leach.
Taobhan
Big thanks for the post, Adam, Wow, it connected a lot of dots for me – I had no idea of the full extent of the Russian mob penetration into the Trump mob and the GOP. I wonder how much of this information will eventually be explained to the American people. I think that the American people are fairly ignorant about and consequently disinterested in Russian or Ukraine affairs. But exposure about how these foreign entities burrowed so deeply into one of the two major Americans political parties could actually resonate with the public.
Jay C
@Matt McIrvin:
AFAICT, the more info that leaks out, the more it comes to look like the “Ukraine story” and “Mueller’s Russia investigation” are actually both parts of a single tale of corruption and high-stakes jockeying for influence on/control over Ukrainian energy resources.
A tale whose “coherent central story” is that the President Of The United States – through a cabal of corrupt cronies – attempted to aid one side in that struggle by attempting to use withholding U.S. military assistance as a lever to get the Ukrainians to back said cronies in the energy business. And as an aside, “uncover” – or manufacture – “dirt” to be used against Trump’s political opponents. With Russia/Russian interests in back of the whole thing.
Sounds coherent enough….
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: Be nice if whatever geenyuss photoshopped this could spell America’s Goombah’s last name correctly. I despise the clown as much as the rest of yinz, but it’s a continuing sore spot for paesani of all political persuasions how many medigani can’t be arsed to get our names right. /rantissimo.
O/t: Go Gnats!
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: If there’s a group photo of those grinning SOBs in Moskva, someone might want to publish it with the caption