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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Trumpery / Trump-Russia

Trump-Russia

Bannon Slithers Back Onstage

by Betty Cracker|  April 12, 20181:00 pm| 270 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

In the Pompeo thread downstairs, the subject of Steve Bannon’s reemergence came up, which deserves its own thread, IMO. Last night, in an interview with Bob Costa, Maddow covered Bannon’s preposterous plan for Trump to fire Rosenstein and retroactively rescind administration officials’ testimony in the Mueller investigation. It’s a dumb plan, and it sounds more like Bannon trying to worm his way back into Trump’s good graces than a serious proposal.

But maybe Bannon is more motivated to save his own blotchy ass than Trump’s. Perhaps he’s panicking at Trump’s catastrophic tar-pit wallowing and perceives it will endanger himself and his patrons. The fact that Bannon is back in DC pitching absurd plots to folks in power is significant. As I alluded to in the thread below, I believe that if we ever get the whole story on Russia’s attack on our election, we’ll find that it was abetted wholeheartedly by Bannon and the Mercers.

We’ll find that undermining liberal democracies worldwide was always the Bannon-Mercer strategy, and that riling up Nazis and alt-right goons globally was their technique in service of this aim. I don’t mean to imply this is some startling new insight that I came up with just now while sitting here eating Cheerios. Y’all know this stuff, and I’m glad to have you to talk to about it, because I know I sound like a crackpot to my non-political junkie friends when it comes up.

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We already have proof of Bannon and the Mercers’ activities in this vein at home and abroad. We know their connections to Russia. But again, I’m glad to see Bannon ooze back onto the scene, and not just because I own stock in Febreze. Bannon slunk away after Trump fired him over the Wolfe book, and our Beltway haircuts moved on to the next squirrel. But Bannon is a key plank in this rickety Jenga treason tower,* and the more scrutiny he gets, the likelier the entire con is exposed.

That matters, because while Trump has thus far proved a cowardly and inept vehicle for the racist ideologues and fanatical oligarchs who’ve burrowed into his orange hide like fat, juicy ticks, we can’t count on our luck to hold in that regard. Not now, during the Trump nightmare, and not in the future once the current demagogue is excised from the body politic like a cancerous polyp.

If not exposed, the forces the foisted this nightmare on us will be waiting in the wings with a new, more competent demagogue. I caught part of a Fresh Air interview on NPR yesterday with Robert Kuttner (from the American Prospect), who has written a book about how global capitalism is driving the emergence of fascists worldwide. He calls Trump a symptom, and he’s right.

“Economic anxiety” has rightly become a punchline in these parts because it ignores the bone-deep racism, sexism and xenophobia that animates Trump supporters, many of whom are actually well-off, and it perpetuates the lie that the “working class” is white and male. But it would be a mistake to completely discount global economics and rising wealth inequality as factors too.

Authoritarian kleptocrats and wannabes all over the planet are fomenting hatred and exploiting ignorance and resentment to enrich themselves and advance their crackpot causes. And if Trump succeeds in wrecking the Obama economy, it will only get worse. We should be prepared for that, and an honest accounting of how these sleazebags are manipulating people worldwide is good preparation.

Anyhoo. Whew. Glad to get that off my chest. Open thread?

*Image stolen from @hoarsewisperer on Twitter.

Bannon Slithers Back OnstagePost + Comments (270)

“Is this what Watergate was like?”

by Betty Cracker|  April 10, 20189:26 am| 292 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

I had dinner with some teens and 20-somethings last night. Our phones were blowing up with news alerts about the raid on Michael Cohen’s office and residences and Trump’s reaction to those events, so the conversation turned to politics.

As the grizzled warhorse of the group, I was asked if this quickening investigation and presidential freak-out reminded me of Watergate. I indignantly reminded the assembled foals that I was too young at the time to really remember Watergate.

That’s true in one sense. My sister and I used to stomp off in a huff when we realized that the televised hearings would preempt our cartoons yet again. In those days, we only had four or five TV channels and one TV because dinosaurs.

But I do remember my mother’s excitement as she settled in front of the TV with an ashtray, fresh pack of smokes and cup of coffee. She hated Nixon’s guts and watched the Watergate hearings like they were the world’s juiciest soap opera.

Mom would try to explain what was going on in the hearings to us. I found her accounts of it fascinating — she was a good storyteller. But though I tried a time or two, I could not hold still to watch boring old white men droning endlessly on TV, and I often wondered how Mom harvested such startling examples of depravity and hubris from such fallow soil.

I don’t have to wonder what Mom would make of the current political situation. She died in 2014, but like all decent, conscientious, hardworking people who aren’t brainless dupes, Mom loathed the braggadocious conman Trump long before he ran for president.

Anyhoo, now I understand why Mom anticipated those hearings with such glee: It was the prospect of seeing lawless thugs who thought they were above the law brought low and held accountable.

We may not get a similar catharsis in our present age. The Republican Party is an order of magnitude more venal and amoral in 2018 than it was in Nixon’s day, and there is a large, well-funded media ecosystem devoted to obfuscation.

But think of Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s dismay as agents in blue FBI jackets swarmed his residences and office yesterday. A goon who has intimidated countless “escorts” and disgruntled employees and investors, Cohen likely imagined weaponizing federal law enforcement against Trump’s enemies, not staring down the business end himself.

As others have noted, it’s like Watergate, only dumber. I intend to enjoy the show this time.

“Is this what Watergate was like?”Post + Comments (292)

Global Con

by Betty Cracker|  April 5, 201811:24 am| 131 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

Well, we knew shady, fanatical oligarchs perpetrated a global plan to stoke bigotry and sow fear to subvert democracy, but this illustrates the con in a visceral way:

SCOOP: In the final weeks of the 2016 elections, Google and Facebook worked with a dark money group to target anti-Muslim ads like this at swing voters. Docs obtained by @OpensecretsDC show Robert Mercer was the group's largest donor, giving $2 million https://t.co/tbboWNBXkC pic.twitter.com/S3BTeXhFtI

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) April 5, 2018

The Islamic States of America ad above was the last in a series of three ads the group ran in 2016. Here's the Islamic State of France, which shows the Mona Lisa wearing a burka, and the spires of the Notre Dame replaced with the domes of a mosque pic.twitter.com/XAm73mCNlB

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) April 5, 2018

In the Islamic State of Germany ad, visitors are invited to “celebrate the arranged marriages of future jihadi soldiers” at a pork- and alcohol-free Oktoberfest. “You can even sell your daughter or sister to be married.” pic.twitter.com/R2tPfoWcn2

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) April 5, 2018

All out of can’ts to even.

PS: You can read the OpenSecrets.org report here.

Global ConPost + Comments (131)

What if there ain’t no saint?

by Betty Cracker|  April 4, 20181:14 pm| 134 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, General Stupidity

I wouldn’t mind having some of this Mueller iconography for my backyard bar, particularly the candles:

I don’t see it so much among the bitter cynics at this here blog, but Mueller’s legend as the Patron Saint of Justice who is poised to smite TrumpCo has reached epic proportions in some quarters. I wish they’d manage their expectations better.

Mueller seems like a straight shooter, but we should remember the man is a Republican. Anyone who remained a Republican through the Bush II and then Obama years is morally suspect in my book until they prove otherwise.

Even if Mr. Mueller possesses a store of integrity that is vanishingly rare among modern Republicans, it’s possible that his investigation will come to naught, either because there isn’t enough direct evidence to nail Trump and his current associates or because Trump’s toadies in the DOJ and congress manage to suppress the report.

I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer here. Mueller’s investigation has already uncovered a storehouse of malfeasance and corruption that would mire any predecessor’s administration in scandal until the day it was turned out of office by angry voters. It says something about the lunacy abroad in the land that Trump can show his face in public anywhere without being pelted by rotting produce.

Maybe the indictments issued so far are just the beginning. Maybe the report alluded to in the news last night will provide impeachment fodder for a Democratic majority congress. I fervently hope Mueller is allowed to continue his work, and I hope he brings the whole astoundingly corrupt pack of grift-mavens down. This is just a reminder that we shouldn’t count on it.

Open thread!

PS: My phone is blowing up with alerts about Roger Stone claiming he “dined with Julian Assange” right before Wikileaks started publishing the DNC emails. Haven’t we known that for a while now? Maybe Mueller can figure out why Stone had advance knowledge about Al Franken’s troubles. If Trump-Russia explodes the myth of Roger Stone, that alone would rid the American body politic of its most prolific and loathsome political tick.

What if there ain’t no saint?Post + Comments (134)

Performance Review Scheduled

by Betty Cracker|  April 2, 20189:52 am| 181 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

According to ABC News, which got its info from a Russian readout of a recent call between Trump and Putin, Trump invited Putin to visit the White House. (The White House’s version of the call readout neglected to mention the invitation.)

President Donald Trump proposed hosting Vladimir Putin at the White House during a recent call with the Russian leader, a Kremlin aide told Russian media today.

“When our presidents we talking on the telephone, Trump proposed to hold a first meeting in Washington, in the White House,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.

Usually the employee visits the boss’s office for a performance review, so this is a bit irregular, but whatever.

I’ve always been struck by this photo* of Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the day after he (Trump) canned Comey:

We know he gushed about removing the Comey problem and blurted out top secret intelligence. But the body language was also strange. Trump usually wears that pursed-lipped, jaw-jut face that he imagines to be tough and statesmanlike when photographed in the Oval. But here, he looks like a supplicant — a junior executive newly admitted to the executive washroom and trying to fit it. He’ll probably invite Putin to sit behind the Resolute Desk.

Meanwhile, Twitler has been on a Twitter rant about DACA, Mexico, Democrats, NAFTA, Sinclair Broadcasting, Amazon, the US Postal Service, etc., this morning. This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.

*I know Trump’s horrid visage is repugnant to, well, all of us, and I usually try to spare readers front-page photos of him, but it’s material to the point I am making this time.

Performance Review ScheduledPost + Comments (181)

Tick-Tock, Mofos!

by Betty Cracker|  March 28, 201812:44 pm| 205 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Russiagate, Trump-Russia

Acting on a tip from valued commenter and awesome law-giver Cleek in the thread downstairs, I call your attention to CBS News and Washington Post stories about the Mueller team’s interest in Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates’ work with a Russian intelligence agency asset. Via The Post:

The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.

The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, also allege that Gates had said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service.

The allegations underscore Mueller’s interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Looks considerably rat-fucky, sounds pretty tick-tocky and smells fairly smoking-gunny to me, friends. What do you think?

Tick-Tock, Mofos!Post + Comments (205)

Fox Investigates Hen House Malfeasance, Finds “No Issues”

by Betty Cracker|  March 27, 20182:44 pm| 163 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

Here’s a shocker via CBS News:

White House officials have been looking into whether $500 million in loans that went to Trump administration senior adviser Jared Kushner’s family real estate company may have spurred ethics or criminal law violations, according to the head of the federal government’s ethics agency.

David J. Apol, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, said in a letter sent late last week to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi that the White House Counsel’s office told him that officials were probing the loans to Kushner Cos. and whether “additional procedures are necessary to avoid violations in the future…”

In a statement from Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell to CBS News early Tuesday, Lowell says he confirms White House counsel has concluded there were “no issues involving Jared.”

Pay no attention to the feathers littering the floor of the coop, ladies and gents — the fox has assured us that all is well in the hen house.

But while the Trumps might be devouring Uncle Sam’s choice poultry, the Trumps themselves are seen as fat, slow-moving pullets by a far more ruthless predator. Via TPM:

By all evidence President Trump had to be pushed to sign off on this expulsion of Russian diplomats/spies. Reports also say that Trump refused to commit to the expulsion until he saw that other European allies committing first. Both domestically and internationally, Trump seems to have been faced by a fait accompli. All that said, he did sign off on a major expulsion. Yet note that Russia appears to be placing the blame on the United States and President Trump…

President Trump has been extremely accommodating toward Russia and lavish in his praise and defense of Vladimir Putin. It has not been reciprocated. Russia has continued with a series of aggressive buzzing of US navy ships, particularly in the seas north of Europe. Putin gave that wild speech about new nuclear missiles that could obliterate Florida and could overwhelm any missile defense (we’ve known both are true for like half a century). Trump’s toadying has been met with provocations and what can only be called trolling, though perhaps that’s not yet part of international relations jargon.

Trump’s too dumb and vain to realize he’s being serially humiliated by Putin, but the rest of the world sees it. Hard to see how this ends well.

Open thread.

Fox Investigates Hen House Malfeasance, Finds “No Issues”Post + Comments (163)

Soo-weeeeee Generous (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  March 21, 201811:06 am| 165 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity, Not Normal

The Trump White House is as leaky as a rowboat constructed of colanders, window screen and Scotch tape. That’s entirely on the recalcitrant man-baby at the top, who delights in pitting aides and advisers against one another. Trump is like a sadistic child who fills a glass jar with dung beetles, wingless flies and fire ants and giggles maniacally while shaking the jar to encourage mortal combat.

So it’s not surprising that when Trump does something particularly bone-headed, like calling the Kremlin to squee over Putin’s sham reelection and failing to mention the recent use of a deadly nerve agent on the soil of our closest ally or the attack on our own elections, the disgruntled palace guard goes straight to their reporter pals — via The Post:

President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Russian President Vladi­mir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call.

Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.

The president’s conversation with Putin, which Trump described as a “very good call,” prompted fresh criticism of his muted tone toward one of the United States’ biggest geopolitical rivals amid the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials.

Leave it to Lil’ Marco to identify the true outrage, though:

I don’t agree with congratulating #Putin but bigger outrage is this leak that could only come from someone in @POTUS inner circle. If you don’t like President resign, but this ongoing pattern of duplicity holds potential for serious damage to the nation https://t.co/DHwXp63SYx

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 21, 2018

Other Republican tut-tutters fret that the “duplicity” Rubio decries will become the new normal, and how will you libturds like that, huh? Huh?!?

Of the many thousands of ways the Trump presidency is undermining American democracy and warping established norms, the prospect of future West Wing staff undermining future presidents through leaks on a Trumpian scale is close to the bottom of my list of worries, to be honest. Leaking to advance competing agendas has been an issue in every White House to some extent. But in this one unique instance, I expect norms to reassert themselves once the herd of possessed swine currently inhabiting the White House departs.

Soo-weeeeee Generous (Open Thread)Post + Comments (165)

Cambridge Analytica Suspends CEO

by Betty Cracker|  March 20, 20183:28 pm| 339 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

London’s Channel 4 ran the last segment of their Cambridge Analytica undercover exposé today — the part about the Trump campaign. Immediately afterward, CA suspended its CEO:

An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.

An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran key parts of the presidential campaign for Donald Trump.

The British data company was secretly filmed discussing coordination between Trump’s campaign and outside groups – an activity which is potentially illegal.

Executives claimed they “ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy” for President Trump.

They also claim credit for spreading the “Defeat Crooked Hillary” meme, proving once again that it’s always about projection with these lowdown creeps. Top CA execs were caught bragging about how they evaded congressional investigation and, in a crowning irony, claimed that the candidate is “always” a puppet.

Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ. You can watch the program on YouTube here.

Cambridge Analytica Suspends CEOPost + Comments (339)

The Widening Gyre

by Betty Cracker|  March 18, 20189:23 am| 248 Comments

This post is in: Birdwatching, Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

Before we get to today’s unpleasantness, here’s a downy woodpecker drumming in our bamboo stand this morning:

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier, downy woodpeckers are the smallest woodpecker species in North America, and their eggs are about the size of jelly beans. Isn’t that cool?

Stop reading here if you’d like to hold onto pleasant Sunday morning thoughts.

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Still with me? Okay. Before yesterday, Trump had never tweeted the name “Mueller.” He’s tweeted it twice in the past 14 hours:

The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

Every single sentence in that tweet is a lie. More lies and paranoia this morning:

Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

I’m gonna disagree with Doug’s post from last night a little here:

The elections in November are the only thing that matters. All this bullshit about norms and so on is a waste of time.

I agree that the upcoming elections are the most consequential of our lifetimes. That was true in 2016 too, but that outcome makes this midterm even more important, for obvious reasons. But I also believe dismay about norms being folded, spindled and mutilated daily before our eyes is not only warranted but essential, if channeled into energy to stop this slide into authoritarianism. Voting is one form of expressing that energy — the most important, arguably.

But so is speaking up at every opportunity and resisting this madness on a daily basis. And, in the event Mueller is fired, which I believe will happen soon, public demonstrations to protest the breaking of that norm must follow. Here’s a link I shared yesterday to find a local protest. Me, I think I’ll head to DC, and I hope tens of thousands join me.

The Widening GyrePost + Comments (248)

Treason Tribble Tweets

by Betty Cracker|  March 17, 20181:52 pm| 208 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

Trump might actually believe this since he’s a malignant narcissist whose sense of “right” and “wrong” is aligned precisely with “good for Trump” and “bad for Trump.”

As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

So, Trump’s story is that Nunes & Co’s absurd clown show cleared the Russia matter up, and his next move will be to try to shut the Mueller investigation down. Yes, it would be outrageous, and it’s legally and politically dicey, but Trump definitely doesn’t give a shit about that. A couple of years ago, a president publicly and brazenly using the DOJ to punish enemies would have been unthinkable. Today, we call it “Friday.”

The question is, can he sell this steaming load of horse shit to enough people to get away with it? He doesn’t need to sell it to the deranged fart-huffers who watch Fox News all day — they already believe it. But he does need to convince a sufficient number of non-Republicans that it doesn’t much matter whether Trump is subject to the law or not.

As Kay observed this morning, the DOJ is gone now, as an institution that’s a check on Trump. With Republican majorities in both chambers, Congress never was a check on Trump, and that can’t be rectified for several months. So for now, it’s Mueller. After Mueller, it’s us. Keep this link handy. I’m afraid we’re gonna need it.

Treason Tribble TweetsPost + Comments (208)

“The saint he thinks he is…”

by Betty Cracker|  March 16, 20189:01 am| 196 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

There’s some speculation that James Comey moved up the release date of his highly anticipated memoir from May 1 to mid-April to get ahead of a possibly damning report due from the FBI inspector general about his (Comey’s) handling of the Clinton email server investigation. Via Politico:

The book could land at a complicated moment for Comey, as well. “A Higher Loyalty” was originally scheduled for release on May 1, but the publisher last month announced it was moving up the publishing date because of the “intense scrutiny” surrounding the FBI.

Comey detractors, however, have speculated that the change had more to do with spinning another major piece of Comey’s legacy: his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email during the 2016 election, which he is also expected to detail in the memoir.

The FBI inspector general’s report reviewing allegations of misconduct by Comey in connection with the email probe is also expected to come out this spring. “It’s hard to believe it won’t be critical of how he handled things,” said [Matthew] Miller. “There is speculation that he moved up the publication date to get ahead of the report. In the book he will come off as the saint he thinks he is.”

Miller was DOJ spokesman during the Obama administration. His remark captures my ambivalence about / contempt for Comey. On the one hand, there’s credible evidence he threw the election to Trump with a grandstanding letter to Congress days before the race ended. On the other, no Comey, no Mueller investigation.

Will the book make a big splash? Miller speculates that it could drive public opinion and become a PR headache for the White House, but being up to their eyeballs in negative publicity is normal for Team Trump.

So, regardless of what Comey reveals in the book, his legacy will likely come down to this: Comey set the house on fire, but at least he notified the fire department on the way out the door. My father-in-law was an old-school fireman, and he used to joke that his department had “never lost a basement.” We’ll see if Mueller’s team is able to salvage more than that.

“The saint he thinks he is…”Post + Comments (196)

“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia…”

by Betty Cracker|  March 15, 20185:41 pm| 170 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

The GOP is selling it hard on Twitter today:

Adam Schiff ain’t buying it:

Treasury will finally punish Russian individuals who, for the most part, were already indicted or subject to sanctions. This from the President who said he was tougher on Russia than Obama. These sanctions will send a message to Russia, just not the one we want to send.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 15, 2018

I have no idea how this shakes out. Anyhoo, open thread, I guess.

“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia…”Post + Comments (170)

So Soon?

by 15 flush mistermix|  March 15, 201811:59 am| 153 Comments

This post is in: Trump-Russia

But what about Devin Nunes’ memo?

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed fresh financial sanctions on Russian government hackers and spy agencies to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, and for a cyberattack against Ukraine and other countries last year that officials have characterized as “the most destructive and costly” in history.

Sanctions also were imposed on individuals known as “trolls” and the Russian organizations that supported their efforts to undermine the election. Additionally, the administration alerted the public that Russia is targeting the U.S. energy grid with computer malware that could sabotage the systems.

I have my doubts about the effectiveness of this:

In all, the new sanctions target 19 people and five organizations. Many were indicted last month by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the race’s outcome. Those 13 individuals and three entities are accused of spreading propaganda using social media and other means, with the goal of sowing discord.

The sanctions also target the KGB and GRU (somehow). I doubt that they’ll make much real difference since the whole Russian hacking effort yielded a high reward for relatively little cash, so they’re going to keep doing it. But, better this than nothing.

So Soon?Post + Comments (153)

“Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked…

by Betty Cracker|  March 13, 201812:39 pm| 353 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity, Sweet Fancy Moses!

…have been sacked:

JUST IN: Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein is being fired for contradicting the account of Rex Tillerson’s dismissal, White House official tells @PeterAlexander

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) March 13, 2018

Jesus, what a fucking shit-show. Open thread!

“Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked…Post + Comments (353)

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
14m 1204840167271489541

idiots screaming blue lives matter while cheering as the President calls the FBI scum is 2019 in a nutshell

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
23m 1204837688953757696

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Marking Beliefs To Market: My Post Last Night Was Wrong Because the Reporting It Was Based on Was Factually Incorrect -

Balloon Juice | Marking Beliefs To Market: My Post Last Night Was Wrong Because the Reporting It Was Based on Was Factually Incorrect

Last night I did a post decrying a forthcoming Executive Order (EO) that would, based on The New York Times‘ reporting about the forthcoming EO,...

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
29m 1204836390283960320

umm, Hemingway's assertion was easily fact checked and disproved by *CHECKS NOTES* turning on your fucking television.

Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald

Any criticism or revelation of corruption on the part of the NSA, the FBI or DOJ would offend the bulk of their news staffs, which are now composed of ex-agents of those agencies, so suppressing all of these unpleasantries is almost like a matter of corporate etiquette #StateTV https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1204804524365496320

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Retweet on TwitterJohn Cole Retweeted
carterforva avatarLee ☃ Carter@carterforva·
1h 1204826430825218048

At the first ever Virginia AG's cannabis summit, hearing from experts in states that have legalized and regulated cannabis.

Excited to announce that I've reintroduced my bill to legalize it, and I look forward to making the bill better this year as HB87.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB87

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
2h 1204820158780452866

God damn

RT @dusttodigital: Remembering Big Mama Thornton, born on this day in 1926 in Ariton, Alabama. Here she is performing “Hound Dog” in 1965 with Buddy Guy, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Lee Robinson and Fred Below.

Twitter feed video.
Image for the Tweet beginning: God damn RT @dusttodigital: Remembering Big
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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
2h 1204819128189632514

How are you feeling today @CharlesPPierce ? The day after is usually worse

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
2h 1204808720615661574

The President of the United States just called the FBI scum. Happy Wednesday.

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
3h 1204804012064825344

someone fucking tell john roberts

This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry

This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry

A JPMorgan employee and a customer secretly recorded their conversations with bank employees.

www.nytimes.com

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
5h 1204769413880303616

New Post added at Balloon Juice - People Like Us -

Balloon Juice | People Like Us

I don’t know who said it recently, but someone mentioned that Democrats might do better worrying about how their candidate is going to appeal to...

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
7h 1204732553057488896

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Open enrollment and zero premium plans -

Balloon Juice | Open enrollment and zero premium plans

The ACA open enrollment period for almost everyone will be ending in the next week.  After this Sunday, anyone who is looking for individual market i...

www.balloon-juice.com

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