Treason's Greetings! (The Mueller Investigation Part 62)

Link to previous thread for reference:

Previous thread titles for reference:

First Charges Filed in Mueller Investigation (10/27/17)

First Charges Filed in Mueller Investigation, Part Two (10/28/17)

The Four Treasons: Mueller Investigation, Part 3 (10/31/17)

A Man For All Treasons: Mueller Investigation, Part 4 (11/5/17)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Treason! The Mueller Investigation Part 5 (12/4/17)

Treason Is The Reason For The Season! The Mueller Investigation Part 6 (12/16/17)

Treason to Believe (The Mueller Investigation Part 7) (12/26/17)

I Love You For Sentimental Treasons (The Mueller Investigation Part 8) (1/3/18)

Give Me One Treason To Stay Here... (The Mueller Investigation Part 9) (1/15/18)

Treasons of Love (The Mueller Investigation Part 10) (1/24/18)

For Treasons Which Are Well Known To Them (The Mueller Investigation Part 11) (1/30/18)

Come on and Treason Down, Treason Down the Road (The Mueller Investigation Part 12) (2/6/18)

13 Treasons Why (The Mueller Investigation Part 13) (2/18/18)

By Treason of Insanity (The Mueller Investigation Part 14) (2/23/18)

The Edge of Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 15) (2/28/18)

A Treason to Live; A Treason to Die (The Mueller Investigation Part 16)…(3/10/18)

Treasons of the Heart (The Mueller Investigation Part 17) (3/17/18)

A Stormy Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 18) (3/21/18)

Lovin', Touchin', Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 19) (3/26/18)

Everything Happens for a Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 20) (4/4/18)

For All the Right Treasons (The Mueller Investigation Part 21) (4/11/18)

Treasons Change (The Mueller Investigation Part 22) (4/16/18)

Dangerous Tre'asons (The Mueller Investigation Part 23) (4/22/18)

Don't Stop (the) Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 24) (5/1/18)

Got This Treason in My Body (The Mueller Investigation Part 25) (5/7/18)

I'm Treason on a Jet Plane... (The Mueller Investigation Part 26) (5/14/18)

Treasonnaires' Disease (The Mueller Investigation Part 27) (5/21/18)

You've Lost That Lovin' Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 28) (6/2/18)

Multiple Treasons Why (The Mueller Investigation Part 29) (6/9/18)

For Undisclosed Treasons (The Mueller Investigation Part 30) (6/18/18)

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 31) (06/23/18)

Treason d'être (The Mueller Investigation Part 32) (06/30/18)

My Treasons Are Not My Own (The Mueller Investigation Part 33) (07/08/18)

The Treasons a Baby Cries (The Mueller Investigation Part 34) (07/13/19)

Get to Know Your Family Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 35) (07/15/18)

All You Got To Do is Hold Him And Kiss Him and Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 36) (07/17/18)

Fall or Spring? Which Would / Wouldn't Be Your Favorite Treason? (The Mueller Investigation Part 37) (07/18/18)

It's the Time of the Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 38) (07/21/18)

My Treasonal Summer Job Abroad (The Mueller Investigation Part 39) (07/25/18)

Yellow is the Color of the Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 40) (07/27/18)

When will it Be Mushroom Treason? (The Mueller Investigation Part 53) (09/21/18)

The Treason for my Life's Trials and Tribulations (The Mueller Investigation Part 41) (07/31/18)

Hunting Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 42) (08/04/18)

It's Swimsuit Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 43) (08/07/18)

Treasonably Priced (The Mueller Investigation Part 44) (08/12/18)

Tre45onal Affective Disorder (The Mueller Investigation Part 45) (08/16/18)

A Plea for Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 46 (08/21/18)

Untreasonably Hot (The Mueller Investigation Part 47) (08/22/18)

There is a Treason... Turn, Turn, Turn (The Mueller Investigation Part 48) (08/24/18)

The Voice of Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 49) (08/28/18)

The Golden Age of Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 50) (09/03/18)

Treasons for Remaining Anonymous (The Mueller Investigation Part 51) (09/08/18)

Hurricane Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 52) (09/16/18)

All Natural Mushroom Treasoning (The Mueller Investigation Part 53) (The Mueller Investigation Part 53) (09/22/18)

Treasoning with an Alcoholic (The Mueller Investigation Part 54) (09/28/18)

Judicial Treasoning (The Mueller Investigation Part 55) (10/06/18)

Treasons for Hidden Genius (The Mueller Investigation Part 56) (10/15/18)

Trick or Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 57) (10/25/18)

Several Treasons to Get Out and Vote in the Midterms (The Mueller Investigation Part 58) (11/5/18)

Heading Back to the Magical Keebler Elf Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 59) (11/11/18)

It's Turkey Picking Treason (The Mueller Investigation Part 60) (November 18, 2018)

Stepping into the Holiday Treason! (The Mueller Investigation Part 61) (November 26, 2018)

Treason's Greetings! (The Mueller Investigation Part 62) (November 29, 2018)

And yes, I was surprised this title hadn't been used already.

John Brennan told a bunch of people that Trump would be out of the White House by Christmas.

That's the real reason he had his security clearance revoked. Trump is just so vindictive.

Well, wouldn't that make for a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Even Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews will be shouting it from the rooftops..

Where did Brennan say that? Is this something he said today after the Cohen court filing?

Mueller dealing the Dump crime family nightmares before Christmas would count for the merrier Christmas this country has ever seen!!!

Mueller dealing the Dump crime family nightmares before Christmas would count for the merrier Christmas this country has ever seen!!!

Remember... they don't ask questions they don't already know the answers to.

(From previous thread) ... "Don’t forget the Russians also hacked into GOP emails. I am sure Putin has plenty of dirt on Repugs he can unleash if he wants to. And since the Steele Dossier is being proven factual......."

Why do you think so many Republicans have been and are still siding with Trump? How scared is Lindsay Graham? We pretty much know what compromot the Russians have on Miss Lindsay. But what do you all think they have on McConnell? on Paul Ryan? What is Devin Nunez's stake in this?

Ms. Lindsey kompromat.

Melania is rumored to be pregnant, they will milk it for sympathy.

Can't wait for Ms. Lindsey to go down.

With all the confessions now about travel to Europe to secretly meet with Russians by Cohen, Papadopoulos, Page, and maybe Junior are there any more thoughts or is there any more information on that weird trip Ivanka took to Europe right after she had her baby? Haven't seen that one talked about in a while. Would seemingly fit in with their modus operandi for illicitly meeting with Russians.

Why are you guys so hopeful that Trump is out of the office before Christmas? Could someone explain to me how they could get him out of there? He will never voluntarily resign and impeachment is quite a process. It will take months and I doubt those lying old fuckers in the senate would really impeach him. They won't even protect the Mueller investigation and they probably have even more information than the general public.

If they have anything on McConnell, it's probably related to his sodomy arrest while he was in the Army Reserve in the '60s. I've also read rumors here that he's supposedly visited Thailand as a sex tourist.

President Pelosi would be glorious — like the end of a novel, just awesome. Just until the next election, when Beto takes charge.

Do you think all the Repugs heads would actually explode if Pelosi was sworn in as president? That would be great. For all his charisma, has Beto ever actually been in charge of anything? I don't know his history. Did he ever run and organization or a charity or foundation or anything? He was never a mayor or anything, right?

Beto has served three terms in the U.S. House — as many as JFK.

He is three years older than JFK was at inauguration.

He will be President 46.

He built a business.

<3

Adam Schiff was on Pod Save America last week. Worth a listen.

r5, I think Brennan might be overly optimistic about that one.

Then again, I'd love to be wrong.

Thanks again, OP and posters.

Let's wait for the Dems to own the house before ousting trump or pence.

Trump AND Pence

I don't want him to go down on the basis of lying about negotiations over his Moscow tower. I want it ALL to spill out. I want the full corruption and treason of Trump—of the whole Republican party—to be glaringly clear.

Team Nancy.

Never fear, R29.

Looking forward to a beautiful December. I will enjoy the images of Trump miserable and shunned in Argentina today. TGIF!

all them trump kids on so much nerve pills they don't who where is da way to san jose...

[QUOTE]Melania is rumored to be pregnant, they will milk it for sympathy.

Good Lord, where did you read that, R13?

It gives me great joy to hear that Trump is wailing and gnashing his teeth in anguish! I fucking love it!

You people have been watching too much Fantasyland TV, aka MSNBC. Trump ain't going anywhere anytime soon. He will be POTC until at least 2020.

“Melania is rumored to be pregnant, they will milk it for sympathy“

Rosemary’s Baby

We'll see r36, we'll see.

No kidding r37, I was thinking the SAME EXACT THING when I read that post!

The idea of Donald procreating again at his age....shudder

Baby would be better off if his father REALLY WAS....Satan.

Bless your heart, R36. Even though a lot of recent studies reveal that it’s really racism, I’ll cut you some slack and say, in your case, it’s economic insecurity.

[quote] Melania is rumored to be pregnant, they will milk it for sympathy.

Who's the father? Is it the security guard at trump tower. We demand a DNA fest.

The rumor I heard (saw it alluded to on a DL thread actually) was that they were trying to get her pregnant for sympathy, and that’s what the month long absence was about (she had issues). I don’t believe it for a second... I think it may have been started by Trumpsters trying to get sympathy for that devil woman.

This one’s more accurate, with Putin as the free chip.

Look at Melanie's boobs before her absence and after. She went up three cup sizes.

Kidney problems? Pregnancy? Not even.

Miss Lindsey needs to be included in the indictment bingo board. She'd snap her fan in anger if she realized she wasn't important enough to be included!I hope the digital images of Lindsey having a train pulled on her by gentlemen callers of all races, creeds, and colors make it onto the internet. .

Today is Coffee Boy's fifth day in incarceration. Is he getting ripped on the jailhouse weight bench?

[quote] Melania is rumored to be pregnant

Please. This bitch is 48 years old. Yeah, possible. Not likely.

Melania is 48 and Don the Con is 72. The only thing most people will be thinking if she's pregnant is "Ewwwww!"

R48 You mean, Who?

It’s possible but very remote. Maybe she did in vitro during her month off. But I don’t buy it. I think it was plastic surgery, especially much bigger boobs. They actually look pretty terrible. They make her look fat.

Trump is already a liability to the Republican party: comments a few months ago from Charles Koch, more recent comments from Justice Roberts, and Republicans uniformly criticizing Trump’s stand on the Saudi prince, all signal that the unified wall of support behind him as head of the party is beginning to crumble.

The Mueller report will be every bit as damning to Trump as we expect and hope. The level of illegality amd immorality will be staggering. Though Trump’s hardcore fanboys will still stand by him, the lion’s share of the party will find it all too much. It won’t be long before the big donors for the Repug party and Repug politicians who have to run in 2019 and 2020 will pressure McConnell to make Trump resign “for the good of the party” just as Nixon was forced to resign. The next presidential election is less than two years away, the Republican establishment will want to clear the decks for Mitt Romney or some such, the kind of handsome country club type they feel comfortable with. Trump was always trash and will be kicked to the curb when he’s outlived his usefulness. And that day will come when Mueller’s report is issued.

Here, here, R51.

It makes sense that Melania wants to have a chance at raising a “normal” child.

Sidebar: Fux News Twitter "boycott" persists into its 3rd week now ... wow, that's some loyalty to Tucker Carlson...

Melania is not pregnant. Trump is an idiot, a grifter, corrupt, a blowhard, a bigot and a jackass, but the man understands PR. He knows if nearing 50 Melania is suddenly pregnant, the immediate assumption across the board will be that it's NOT his. As much as he'd love any salacious distraction, his ego will not be able to handle that kind of speculation.

Regarding where we are on impeachment:

Yesterday on CNN, a Dem strategist said that as things stand right now, the House Dems will impeach only when the Rethugs turn around and come to them with "We're for impeachment".

Also, Bob Woodward told Anderson Cooper that there will need to be very solid documents - like the Nixon tapes - before impeachment can be brought. He said the fact that the Cohen plea reveals Cheeto lied all the time about deals with Russia is not enough.

Trump schedules impromptu G20 meeting with Putin after Russia says he canceled over Cohen scandal.

Translation: Donald gets his quarterly performance review without having to appear before the press afterwards - scheduled meetings get press conferences, "impromptu" meetings do not.

A transcript of that meeting: "HELP! OH, SWEET JESUS, HELP! CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING? ANYTHING? I'M DYING HERE!" "Nyet."

I see Ivanka at the G20 meeting. WTF? Is she arranging to take a pic in their offices, seating at their tables? I let you fuck my daughter if you let me build a Trump hotel/golf club in your country.

I can't wait for all of them to go to jail

*sitting

It's interesting that it doesn't appear like Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, tipped off Trump about the Cohen deal. Trump must have been furious at Whitaker for not leaking that information.

Analysis from the Economist, today:

A towering intrigue

Robert Mueller digs into the president’s Russia affairs

Donald Trump’s former lawyer is spilling the beans

Democracy in America

Nov 30th 2018

by LEXINGTON | WASHINGTON, DC

SEVERAL POSSIBLE explanations have been offered for President Donald Trump’s strange affection for Russia. He is said to approve of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian tendencies; to be compromised by embarrassing material in the hands of Russian authorities; to have business interests in Russia. These theories are not mutually exclusive. Yet on November 29th evidence for the last, and perhaps the most plausible, emerged. Deep into Mr Trump’s presidential campaign—indeed several weeks after he had sewn up the Republican nomination—it seems that his advisers were lobbying the Kremlin to help them secure permits and financing to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

This revelation emerged from an unexpected court appearance by Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer. Mr Cohen, who was representing Mr Trump’s interests in Moscow, pleaded guilty in a court in Manhattan to lying to Congress about them—in an effort, he said, to cover up for the president.

Mr Cohen had previously told two congressional committees, which were investigating Russia’s efforts to fix the 2016 election for Mr Trump, that negotiations over the possible Moscow tower had concluded by January 2016, before the onset of the Republican primaries. He also claimed to have discussed the aborted negotiation with Mr Trump on only three occasions. According to court documents filed alongside Mr Cohen’s guilty plea, he had in fact discussed the project with Mr Trump more often. He had also briefed “family members” of the president on it.

He had lied about the timing of the negotiations “to minimise the links between the Moscow project and [Mr Trump]” to “give a false impression that the Moscow project ended before the ‘Iowa caucus’”. This was done, Mr Cohen said in court, in an effort not to contradict the president’s “political messaging” and thereby “to be loyal” to him.

In the drip-feed of Trump-Russia revelations, it is often hard to know what matters. But this is a major development. At the least, it suggests Mr Trump repeatedly lied about his interests in Russia, both before and after the Russian plot to elect him had been uncovered and made public. “I have no dealings with Russia,” he said in January 2017. “I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we’ve stayed away.”

It appears Mr Cohen may not have been the only one of Trump’s advisers to have lied in support of the president on this. Adam Schiff, the incoming Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, to which Mr Cohen testified, released a statement saying his guilty plea “highlights concern over another issue—that we believe other witnesses were also untruthful before our committee”. The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump junior, a vice-president of the Trump Organisation, is among the other Trump associates who have testified before it. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year that he was only “peripherally aware” of the Moscow deal. (He was interviewed by the House committee behind closed doors.)

Mr Cohen’s plea was also a significant strike for Robert Mueller. Mr Cohen had previously pleaded guilty to several offences, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations, after being prosecuted by the US attorney’s office in the southern district of New York. His latest guilty plea was to a charge brought by the special counsel, with whom Mr Cohen is now co-operating.

Of the dozens of indictments and convictions Mr Mueller has so far served up, this was the first to touch on the president’s business interests—something Mr Trump had attempted to draw “a red line” around. In the process it sheds some light on the possible case Mr Mueller could be building against the president.

...

...

He is believed to be investigating Mr Trump and his associates on two related tracks. He is trying to ascertain whether they colluded with the Russian election-hackers—including 25 Russian individuals and three Russian companies—that Mr Mueller has already indicted over the affair. Second, he is investigating whether Mr Trump has sought to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigations into the election-hacking, including by first leaning on and then sacking James Comey, his first FBI director.

It was until recently assumed that the second track against Mr Trump was likelier to bear fruit. Arguably, Mr Trump has been attempting to obstruct justice in plain sight. He said publicly that he sacked Mr Comey over the Russia investigation. He has lambasted the Justice Department and Mr Mueller repeatedly, and last month sacked his attorney-general, Jeff Sessions, in an apparent effort to gain control over them. Yet Mr Trump’s Republican supporters, who would have to desert him for the president to be in any serious impeachment danger, have grown inured to such noisy antics. Republican congressmen refer to his threatened assaults on the rule of law as if to the regrettable eccentricities of an elderly relative. Having defended Mr Trump thus far, it is hard to think of an obstruction case that could convince many Republicans to condemn him.

Apologising for collusion by Mr Trump or his associates with a hostile power’s attack on American democracy would be a harder stretch, however. And Mr Mueller’s investigation does appear to be making accelerating progress on that investigative track. The Moscow tower revelation does not provide evidence of such collusion. But it does more than offer a possible explanation for Mr Trump’s fondness for Russia. It points to an open line of business communication between the Trump team and the Kremlin even as the Russian hacking campaign began. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post notes that the court documents filed in Manhattan suggest Mr Cohen reached a decision to stop pursuing the Moscow tower project “on or about June 14th”. The Post ran a big report on Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer network that same day.

Mr Cohen’s plea adds significance to several other Mueller-related developments. It comes only a few days after Mr Trump filed written responses to a long list of questions from Mr Mueller, which are reported to have touched on the proposed Moscow tower. If Mr Trump’s answers differed from the information revealed by Mr Cohen’s plea, the president will have created fresh trouble for himself.

The plea also raises the salience of another strand of Mr Mueller’s collusion investigation. This concerns the alleged efforts of two Trump supporters, political operatives Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi, to encourage or co-ordinate the release of damaging Russia-hacked material by Wikileaks. Tweets by Mr Stone and emails between the two operatives, which were obtained by Mr Mueller, suggest they knew in advance that Wikileaks was about to publish hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. Mr Corsi, who this week refused a plea bargain offer from Mr Mueller, has said he came to know this through “divine intervention”.

Mr Mueller’s latest strike also makes it even more desirable that Congress should pass a bill to protect the special counsel from Mr Trump’s threatened attack on him. There is such a bill to hand. Yet the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, refused once again this week to allow a vote on it. He says it is unnecessary. Yet the president’s attacks on the special counsel sound increasingly desperate.

He responded to Mr Cohen’s plea with fury. He lambasted his former lawyer and fixer as “weak” and accused him of lying. He then added that “even if he was right, it doesn’t matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign.” Sooner or later, Republicans politicians may be called on to decide whether or not that is true.

R61, supposedly Rosenstein is still overseeing the investigation. Whitaker is being kept in the dark, for good reason.

I had heard that, R64, and was surprised. I thought Whitaker was going to try to insert himself into the investigation. Really, isn't that why Trump appointed him in the first place? But maybe Whitaker is smart enough to know better because anything he does will be heavily scrutinized, not just by Congress and the media, but also by future historians.

Whitaker is also the subject of lawsuits concerning his appointment and may be under investigation himself. He can try to insert himself all he wants, but if no one of import acknowledges his authority, he's not going to get access.

My totally uneducated guess though is he's not pushing it because he has so many shady dealings in his own past. He knows if he ruffles any feathers they'll go after him too. I guarantee the feds (even the GOP lackeys) are more loyal to and have way more respect for Mueller than this yutz.

Maddow and Buzzfeed is absolutely must see viewing. You have to see this. In fact all her coverage on Cohen from last night. I worry about Cohen. I hope the Feds are taking measures to keep him safe. He needs a food taster.

r41....dont joke....he did exactly that to Marla before he would acknowledge Tiffany.

[quote]Whitaker is being kept in the dark, for good reason.

I don't know that he's being kept in the dark -- he was notified in advance of the Cohen plea and I'm willing to bet Trump disappearing early from the tree lighting ceremony was due to Whitaker texting him the news -- but he is not overseeing the investigation.

[quote] I worry about Cohen. I hope the Feds are taking measures to keep him safe. He needs a food taster.

MSNBC showed him just walking all alone in Manhattan. Scary.

I hope the House Intelligence Committee takes up the Alfa Bank matter.

I think at this point the House Intel committee has a laundry list of items to investigate. These are som corrupt son of a bitches. Did anyone see the video of Putin greeting MBS at the G20 and high fiving him? They greeted one another very warmly. What a fucking trio. Trump Putin and MBS. They all need to be in a maximum security prison. I think it is a very legitimate concern and the FBI and the Marshals ought to be on top of it vis a vis Cohen, Gates, and anyone else who is cooperating. Manafort is not only counting on a pardon. He is being publicly "uncooperative" because he fears for his life. IF Cohen is smart he will dial it back and go underground. With protection. These are some very brutal, vicious people.

Sheryl Sandberg Is Said to Have Asked Facebook Staff to Research George Soros

Sheryl Sandberg asked Facebook’s communications staff to research George Soros’s financial interests in the wake of his high-profile attacks on tech companies, according to three people with knowledge of her request, indicating that Facebook’s second in command was directly involved in the social network’s response to the liberal billionaire.

Ms. Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, asked for the information in an email to a senior executive in January that was forwarded to other senior communications and policy staff, the people said. The email came within days of a blistering speech Mr. Soros delivered that month at the World Economic Forum, attacking Facebook and Google as a “menace” to society and calling for the companies to be regulated.

Ms. Sandberg — who was at the forum, but was not present for Mr. Soros’s speech, according to a person who attended it — requested an examination into why Mr. Soros had criticized the tech companies and whether he stood to gain financially from the attacks. At the time, Facebook was under growing scrutiny for the role its platform had played in disseminating Russian propaganda and fomenting campaigns of hatred in Myanmar and other countries.

Anything for a buck with the silicon set. Nothing is off limits.

the tobacco companies blush when it comes to Silicon Valley.

That is some ultra-concentrated bitchface at R73.

R69, per the article "how long Whitaker knew about Cohen’s impending plea is unclear."

Given how clearly shook Trump and his staff were, he couldn't have known too much ahead of time. A courtesy call is not the same as being kept in the loop.

I hope Cohen stays away from any balconies.

On Pod Save America yesterday, they were talking about how, if Trump pardons Manafort, Manafort could run to another country, say Cyprus, where he might have stashed money. They said it'd be good if NY and/or VA indict Manafort for the state crimes he's committed, so they can get custody if he's pardoned for his federal crimes. But they need to act sooner rather than later, so there's no gap between the pardon and the handing-off to NY/VA.

Isn't there a double jeopardy case before the SCOTUS?

Manafort would have to be charged with exclusively state crimes IIRC.

R80 Manafort as part of his plea agreement also pleaded guilty to STATE charges that were against him. Which makes his violation of the agreement all the more foolish.

The moment Trump padons him for the federal crimes he'll be handcuffed and hauled off to the state pen.

If Manafort is counting on a pardon, then he didn't read the plea agreement that he signed. Sure, he may get a pardon for the federal crimes, but he has already admitted to violating state tax laws in Virginia, New Jersey, and California. Yes, Mueller put that in the agreement. True, there have not been any state charges filed yet. But if tRump pardons Manafort then the Democratic AGs in those states would be more than happy to get them filed immediately.

Double jeopardy will have no effect on state tax fraud charges. They are completely separate from federal tax fraud charges. It may appear to arise out of the same set of facts, but it is a separate crime.

What looks curious to me is that the Moscow Trump Tower deal seems like it's been done by a financially fluent Trump. Where could he have had the money from to build, or attempt to build, a Trump Tower in Russia? It would not make any sense for Trump to beg Putin directly allowing Trump's name to be on a Russian tower when it's being built by a Russian oligarch or a foreign investor (that Russian oligarch, or foreign investor, would have done that himself).

Was that building project a cover for something else (money laundering)? Was there ever any intention to actually build something?

It's strange that there is nothing in the media about Trump being broke and living on credit (and licensing his name to anyone who wants it for his or her product or building) and yet the media seems to sell the idea that Trump was rich enough to come up with the funds for building something overseas with his own money.

Thanks guys,

.

r81

Interesting, R86.

I have to imagine Mueller and Cohen have some of the best protection known to man. Donald wishes he has that kind of protection.

Sorry, meant R85.

R85, please listen to this episode of the Ezra Klein Show. This New Yorker writer, who started Planet Money, talks all about that money laundering and financing stuff, and the "Trump has no money but licenses his name, etc." stuff. You're spot-on, pretty much.

Episode Info

The question of whether President Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election has consumed Washington since the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller special counsel in March 2017.

But there's another question worth considering: the financial corruption swirling around Trump’s businesses, and now his administration. In any other White House, this would be the ongoing, constant story — the site of endless investigations and inquiries. And it still might be. We know Mueller is looking into the web of financial ties between Trump’s businesses and the post-Soviet bloc, and we know that part of the Mueller investigation gets Trump particularly outraged. Plus, we still don’t know what’s on Trump’s tax returns, or what could be discovered if Democrats take back a chamber of Congress and get subpoena power.

Here’s my bet: If there is some scandal lurking that’s going to derail the Trump administration, I think it’s going to be found by following the money, not by following the Russian bots.

Adam Davidson has been investigating this since Trump's election. If you're an avid podcast listener, you probably know Adam from his days at Planet Money. He's now at the New Yorker, doing some of the best investigative work on the Trump Organization. You’ll want to hear what he’s found.

Has there ever been such low class trash in the WH before?

Is this a first?

I doubt r70 that he was alone, you just didn't see his security.

There are still many shoes to drop in this scandal. “Given the extraordinary obsequiousness the president has shown in his relationship with Putin, it begs the question of whether there’s more leverage than this,” said Schiff. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re so determined to make sure that we look into any credible allegations of financial entanglements, whether that involves potential Russian money laundering in the Trump Organization or anything else.”

But even before those inquiries begin, we can see that Putin has been in possession of crucial information about Trump’s business interests that the president deliberately hid from the American people. In a normal political world, Republicans would have enough patriotism to find this alarming and humiliating. Every day of the Trump presidency is a national security emergency. The question now is whether Senate Republicans, who could actually do something about it, will ever be moved to care.

This is premature, I know, but will it be possible for history to consider Trump the least-qualified president? I mean, even the Founding Fathers had credentials. This has been a refute to the "Someday you could grow up to be president" bullshit.

R81, the SCOTUS case only covers the (rare) case where federal and state charges completely overlap. Assuming SCOTUS rules that double jeopardy does apply, if Manafort pled guilty to anything that is a crime in any State but NOT a federal crime, then he can be prosecuted in that State even if he's pardoned.

Also, the SCOTUS case doesn't actually address pardons explicitly. If they rule there is double jeopardy, a defendant may still not be protected from any state prosecution after a federal pardon. That is actually arguably a different legal issue--whether double jeopardy requires that immunity from prosecution in one jurisdiction automatically applies in all. That hasn't been the case with, for example, transactional immunity (if the feds offer you immunity, the states don't have to necessarily have to as well and vice-versa, even though they can't use your compelled testimony against you).

...In sum, Cohen’s revelations about ongoing Trump Organization dealings with Russia puts at risk members of the president’s family, the cast of witnesses who have testified before Congress and the many individuals who had contacts with Russia and were less than truthful about them. “The blast radius caused by Cohen’s cooperation could be enormous. As Trump’s fixer, Cohen not only can implicate Trump for colluding with Russia but potentially the entire Trump organization,” says Max Bergmann, head of the Moscow Project. “He can pull back the curtain on a family business that has been extremely opaque and address whether it is indeed a vehicle for massive money laundering. This is a business operation that was never significant enough to warrant a lot of legal scrutiny. But it is certainly being scrutinized now. And Cohen was involved in multiple shady Trump organization projects in the former Soviet Union in which Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr were intimately involved. I imagine they are very worried.”

You don’t lie for no reason, and Cohen has supplied the reason why so many people found it necessary to conceal the Trump campaign’s and the Trump organization’s ties to Russia.

I saw him once in the evening, he was with his wife, probably going home after dinner. I work close to his apt. He is very ugly in pictures but he is not as ugly in real life.

R94 "In a normal political world, Republicans would have enough patriotism to find this alarming and humiliating."

I've posted about this many times but will again. (There's so much, it's easy for all of us to forget). When the Russians hacked the Dems emails, the Repugs boasted that theirs were not hacked! Of course they were! It's just that what the Russians had on the Repugs was far more valuable than the pissy shit they had on the Dems. So they released the Dems emails to scare the Repugs, and are now blackmailing the Repugs with all the info. Possibly why scumbags like Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and Paul Ryan have been siding with Trump.

The tax cuts? They could have gotten rid of Trump and gotten their precious judges and tax cuts with Pence at the helm. This is the only thing that makes sense.

It would also explain all these Republican senators retiring.

They're also afraid of the base, R99. The evangelicals who love Pence aren't enough. If they didn't show support to Trump, too many in their base would revolt.

Remember the base turned on Paul Fucking Ryan, darling of the "kill all the poors" crowd.

Facebooks role in possible treason is just the tip of the iceberg.

@Also at Thursday’s meeting was Color of Change President Rashad Robinson, who in a letter to Facebook’s top executives recently said it was no wonder the group had seen “a dramatic uptick in attacks to our platform and death threats.”

“I want you to know that your public relations campaign — built on dangerous narratives and steadily pushed to right-wing and mainstream media outlets — has threatened the safety of my team and countless others affiliated with the organization,” he wrote in the letter in which he asked for the meeting that occurred Thursday.”

This should be its own thread.

I'm confused about the suggestion that Nancy Pelosi could become President.

If Trump left office, Pence would become VP and get to appoint his own VP with congressional approval.

As much as I don't like Pence, I don't see him having his hands as dirty as all the Trump people AND he has the support of the GOP Senators and Congress people.

I was going to add the same as R101.

The GOP electorate is 90%+ Trumpian now so I doubt that even if something like the Nixon tapes was to be unveiled, the Congress Rethugs will not act for fear of being out of office.

[quote]I hope Cohen stays away from any balconies.

I would also advise him to stay away from the radiation.

The scariest thing about the base now is that, thanks to Trump, they won't be satisfied with discreet and plausibly deniable dog-whistling. I don't think they're going to again settle for less than in-your-face "get those people OUTTA HERE!" anytime soon. They won't believe they can't win if their bigotry is too overt and they'll never accept that they have to compromise on anything ever again.

So what the hell is the GOP going to do with them going forward?

R91, is it the Ezra Klein episode with Adam Davidson you’d recommend for learning what he knows?

R107, yup!

R106, thin out the herd somehow?

R103, Pres Pelosi happens if Pence is also removed with trump.

And, R103, Pence is in no way clean. He was brought onto the ticket by Manafort. He was head of the transition team while all the Russia meetings at Trump Tower were taking place. He lied about Flynn and what went on with his firing. Etc.

Is there anyone delusional enough to think a Republican controlled senate is going to allow both Trump and Pence to be impeached at the same time?

I used to think Pence was in it up to his eyeballs, but now I'm not so sure because he hasn't been questioned or subpoenaed yet in the Mueller investigation. Usually the investigators work their way from the bottom up, so Trump would be the last one to be questioned.

They will if it can't be avoided, R112. Remember, the Republican base *is* a minority. We've got to further the flames of outrage and force the Senate's hand.

I actually don't think Pence is involved. I wish he was. But I don't think he is in any real way.

This is a guy who has somehow resisted his urges to suck dick his whole life and who supposedly has very little money.

Do you really think he's going to get caught up in a financial mess with Russians?

I don't think he purposefully reached out to Russians on his own but I do think he went along because he's Trump's loyal lapdog at this point and I think he knows what is going on and is covering it up.

R113, I honestly wonder if Pence made a deal and has been a mole for Mueller since Flynn went down.

They might not have a choice, R112.

Pence is a coward. He will rather jump ship than be investigated and you just know there are some people out there who'd love to out him as gay and more than happy to show the receipts. The media will eat him alive and Pence will not let anything threaten his traditional Christian family values image. And by the time Trump has been chased out of office the people will not shout "FAKE NEWS!" when the talk about Pence being gay gets louder and louder.

I feel like Mike Pence has fucked Nick Ayers. Probably recently too.

"I won't take my nap. You can't make me."

I see him as more a frottage sorta guy, r119.

President Macri be like "Did you shit?"

did you guys see him today at G20 meeting? He was seen walking and he's fixing his jacket and it's quite obvious that he is too at the middle and he can't button the jacket. The sides don't even touch!

Trump looks like he’s got gas pains in every picture of him at the G20.

Neither Trump nor Pence are getting removed from office, not with the current GOP-led Senate. But, even if by some miracle they were willing to convict Trump after impeachment and Pence became president, most of the base will turn on Pence unless Trump explicitly tells them to support him. Otherwise they'll see him as a traitor for not doing something to "protect" Trump, and a lesser. Anyone think Trump would be gracious enough to throw support to Pence if he's humiliated by getting thrown out of office? Hell no.

Pence's political future is entirely linked to Trump. He'd never get elected on his own. If Pence is in any real danger he will sell out Trump in a heartbeat, maybe securing some nice cush wingnut welfare job for himself in the future. But his political career is over.

[quote] I feel like Mike Pence has fucked Nick Ayers.

Oh, please, Mikey is your typical power bottom slut.

I feel like I've had sex with a lot of guys that look like Nick Ayers. They all look like Aryan gods but have small nubby penises.

My husband does NOT do butt stuff with ANYONE.

So glad the House closed-door hearings' transcripts are going to be sent to Mueller, now that Nunes isn't going to head the House Intelligence Agency. Don Jr. etc.

Oh come on, do you really think a man so honorable he calls his wife "Mother" would be hooking up with men on the sly?!

Oh, wait....

Excuse me, I need to make a phone call.

Good to know, R128. I'm not surprised that a naked Ayers wouldn't be impressive.

Be sure to turn on Nicolle Wallace’s show!!

Always remember when the pussy tape broke, and no-one knew if Trump would survive the weekend, or the debate.

Pence on the spot equivocated with not the merest hint of support for his would-be President. 'Let's see', was his rabbit-in-the-headlights response.

Multiply that by ten thousand when all Mueller's dots are joined up incontrovertibly.

Different thought:

If Russians have been blackmailing senior Republican pols AND Pence is really taking it in the shitter, would the Russians know AND also be blackmailing Pence?

Excellent commentary from Figliuzzi and Heileman right now on Deadline: White House, MSNBC.

Sorry, but Pence hasn't been some potted plant sitting innocently in the middle of the WH while all this corruption swirls around him. He knows and is part of the sleaze. They all have to go.

They stole the fucking election away from Hillary, the Dems, and the majority of voters in this country.

Trump thinks these others country’s leaders will grovel before him. If he knew history, he would know that people, leaders, & countries don’t like to grovel. That was part of the problem in WWI. They’d rather that (other people) die over the matter.

As I understand it, after the new Congress takes office in January, a vice presidential vacancy would need to be approved by the Democratic House as well as the Senate. I wouldn't put it past them to have Trump and Pence both leave on New Year's Eve, so we get acting president Ryan for 2 years.

The thing is that as long the Republican senators back and support Trump the government is not able to get rid of Trump. The next best thing for us would be to humiliate Trump with one public hearing after the other where they drag him in front of a panel like they did with Hillary because of her emails. And given that it's Trump all these public investigations will have one bombshell after the other for the public to find out. Hopefully that will be enough to put the general public off of Trump and the Republican Party for good in 2020 and not even Putin's hacking will save the Republican Party or Trump.

Exactly, R140. It's a process of humiliating Trump, keeping information available and generally discrediting any sort of support for him.

I think once his children start getting indicted, he'll break. The only problem is that I don't know what 'breaking' means when it comes to Trump.

Only three sitting Presidents and one Vice President have ever testified before Congress. I doubt that tRump would go. He'd make his stooges on the Supreme Court bail him out of appearing.

Come to think of it, the logic behind the VP having a vote in the Senate is very faulty if we have separation of powers.

Why should the Executive Branch have a decisive say in deadlocked votes in the Legislative Branch? It's imposing the Executive's will on the legislature.

R139, even if your scenario played out, with Trump and Pence stepping down on NYE (???), Paul Ryan is not going to be returning. Congress won’t be in session until January 3. When it reconvenes, Dems are in power.

It makes no sense to think Paul Ryan could stay on in any capacity in that scenario.

Not counting today, the House has 10 more work days until the holiday break. The Senate ends one day earlier, on Thursday, Dec. 13. If they were to boot Trump and Pence and give us President Ryan, shit would have needed to be in motion (sarcasm) at least a half-hour ago.

I would love nothing more than to see DT being grilled for 11 hours like HC - it would be non stop alternatively boasting and lying. But I think he will go batshit crazy afterwards: no one does pettiness and pure vindictiveness like our The Donald.

[quote]The only problem is that I don't know what 'breaking' means when it comes to Trump.

He likes violence. As I recall he took it out on a wife when his hair transplant went wrong. He loved imitating a body-slam on a journalist. His sociopathic aggression when in checkmate will lead him to breaking something, breaking anything.

If they both stepped down on New Year's Eve, then Ryan would be sworn in immediately. I don't think that he would have to hand over the job to the new speaker when the Democrats take office a few days later necessarily? As long as he's acting president There is no "vacancy"; the new Democratic speaker of the house would be next in line if something happened to him, unless the Democratic house approved an interim vice president as well.

It. Ain't. Happening.

[quote] As I recall he took it out on a wife when his hair transplant went wrong

He raped Ivana.

I've always believed that, unless Pence has cut a sly deal, that they'll indict him before Trump. That's Mueller's style--to squeeze the tube from the bottom and sides first. Pence is a slimy charlatan, and knowingly played the game to get where he is. He's dirty, too.

Trump's daily, sociopathic shit storm is deliberate--designed to exhaust and confuse. The world should have stopped to clean house when the news broke on Manafort and Flynn, which would have either revealed Pence's culpability or cleared him beyond a shadow of a doubt. But Republicans kept marching forward in lock step, believing that they'd smother the country with chaos and propaganda to create a phony image of being larger than they are. Since Rove's time, they have wanted to be invincible. But the propaganda never worked on thinking citizens, and it has stopped working on everyone else but the deplorables.

I say take out who we can with any means possible and make life chronically miserable for anyone who provided even a teaspoon's worth of cover for Trump. Even if these treasonous scumbags finish their terms we need a DAILY reminder of the dirty and un-American tactics they used to protect their power. It will get easier to hobble them. The people now know what we know--and we can't not know it anymore.

Even better, overt trolling is way down across social media. Does anyone else notice? The ones still on DL are having to be very stealth, and are spending a lot of time being very concerned about what the constitution does and does not allow, and feigning doubt about whether or not there is a "there" there with individuals and conspiracy in general.

I have a question about the politics of patriotism. Perhaps in these threads on treason it has been well addressed.

What happened to patriotism as a political tool, tag, and leverage? Used to be the GOP was wrapping itself in the flag. The liberals were pinkos and anti American and so on.

Now, where are they and what have the liberal progressive politicians and the radical right done in this situation?

[quote] Even better, overt trolling is way down across social media. Does anyone else notice? The ones still on DL are having to be very stealth, and are spending a lot of time being very concerned about what the constitution does and does not allow, and feigning doubt about whether or not there is a "there" there with individuals and conspiracy in general.

At this point, Trump is more of a liability than an asset to Putin.

Here's hoping that if somehow Trump can be forced from Office he'd be willing to bring Pence down with him out of sheer vindictiveness.

Any update on Comey and Lynch being interviewed next week? Wondering if Comey's insistence on a public hearing got anywhere or if this is just a piece of GOP posturing that's going nowhere.

R155, wasn't it just last week that Fuckface von Clownstick was asking everyone whether they thought Pence was loyal?

I'd love to see Pence sell him out.

R156:

Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey and the US House of Representatives will be fighting in court Friday afternoon over whether Comey must testify to Congress in a private hearing next week.

While Comey technically seeks to pause or kill the subpoena, he is using the case to air his accusation that members of Congress in the Republican-led House and Senate selectively leak details for their own benefit when they call witnesses to testify in private. He claims this practice has deprived him of his rights as a witness.

Maddow covered the Trump Tower Moscow project really well last night. She said that a Russian Oligarch/close friend of Putin ran a bank, VTB indicated they would provide financing for the Trump project in Moscow, and the project go as far as Trump personally signing a letter of intent with them. All of this as he was locking down the nomination in June 2016.

And VTB is a sanctioned bank. But apparently that doesn’t add any illegality to the endeavor because the deal was called off.

[quote] R146: Not counting today, the House has 10 more work days until the holiday break. The Senate ends one day earlier, on Thursday, Dec. 13. If they were to boot Trump and Pence and give us President Ryan, shit would have needed to be in motion (sarcasm) at least a half-hour ago.

If I were Mitch, I would have a tiger team working on a hypothetical situation - how best to position the Republican Party given a Trump removal. For example, as you wrote. If impeachment was inevitable next year of both Pence and Trump, how should they handle that? Maybe it would indeed be best to do it now and get Ryan.

Whatever. I’d keep the team working the entire term, changing their predictions and plans as circumstances change and more is revealed.

Off the current topic: I’m actually glad Chuck Todd asked Ben Wittes just now if J Corsi has any legal exposure for spreading the LIE that Seth Rich LEAKED (as opposed to the hacking the Russians did) the DNC emails.

Wittes’ answer is that it’s hard to prove there were laws broken and it depends on a lot of factors. But a civil suit could easily be brought by Rich’s family.

I will never forget or forgive the Bernie Bros and The Nation magazine for desperately pushing the faulty “It was a leak, not a hack” narrative.

Part of me is surprised Rich's family hasn't filed a civil suit, unless they don't want to dredge up the family's pain further.

R153, the Republicans today are the party of jingoism. I love that word. It described the Fox viewers with their American flag lapel pins very well.

r159, wasn't money to be laundered by VTB through Deutsche Bank?

Is that where Justin Kennedy cam in?

R113 It's more telling that they haven't questioned Pence. They don't usually question targets until the very end, sometimes never. Also, Pence got a lawyer very early on.

If you were involved with the campaign and you haven't been contacted by Mueller, you're in danger.

Interesting. The murderer Saudi Arabian Prince and Putin have a gleeful, enthusiastic High Five. They are so happy. Does anyone know why they are so overjoyed to see each other?

Pres Bone Spurs does not look well.

Will any more big news break today? Maddow always says Fridays are nuts with late breaking news.

I’m pretty sure signing an LOI with a sanctioned party without getting a license for an exception is in and of itself an OFAC violation. And intentionally planning to launder the money through a third party shows knowledge of the regulation and intent. Although with Export Control laws ignorance is no excuse and you can go to jail even without intent.

With the possible path forward I described on the last thread (I think I was 279 - something close to that at least,) both Pence and Trump would be disqualified so there’s that. I probably should have listed it as one of the pluses.

Putin's high five with Saudi Prince is a big ostentatious performance to the world that both fine even though they aren't. Also that they don't need Trump, who they sense is going down.

MSNBC is doing a segment on Pelosi's lawsuit against Bush WH officials which led to the resignation of AG Alberto Gonzales.

Ari Melber showed a clip of Gonzales's hearing in the Senate trying to wiggle out with the old "I don't recall". Lo and behold, in this clip Sen. Sessions was like, "It wasn't that long ago, how come you don't recall."

FFW to Sessions's hearing where he "didn't recall" meeting the Russian Ambassador and other Russians just months ago.

Irony is dead,

Just some facts:

As of October 2017, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrat, 24% identified as Republican, and 42% as Independent.[3] Additionally, polling showed that 46% are either "Democrats or Democratic leaners" and 39% are either "Republicans or Republican leaners" when Independents are asked "do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?"[4]

I’m too lazy to google the population figures to calculate how many more million Dems there are vs Rep. But we vastly outnumber them. Having said that, we still have a LOT of work to do. We need to win Senate seats, and we truly need to win Governorships, plus other state and local seats. Scroll down and look at the Table of U.S. State Party Statistics. We need to fight harder.

Right now one of my pet issues is getting voting systems redone to prevent cheating. I believe we lost FL and GA governor spots due to cheating combined with suppression. We MUST stop them on this front.

I also posted in another thread, NOW is the time to be recruiting the under 30 crowd to vote so they’re locked and loaded for 2020. Old enough to remember PSA’s for Rock the Vote? It worked!!! Why the fuck aren’t we seeing promos to get the under 30 crowd voting? We can win if we get them to the polls.

Official DOJ position: "Don't pay attention to anything the President says, he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about."

Granted, there's a ton of stuff going on under the ice that we simply don't know.

--BUT--

Three things we know:

Pence ran the transition;

Manafort picked Pence; and

if you haven't been questioned yet, you could be a target.

Do we know for sure that Pence hasn't been questioned?

A month ago, Pence himself said he hadn't been interviewed.

Jesus Christ, I just watched half a movie, turned back to CNN for a second, and see this:

“People close to the President reached out to Cohen to say he would be protected.”

“Cohen under the impression he would be offered a pardon in exchange for his support.”

WTF happened?

R177, that's previously to Cohen becoming Mueller's bitch. Not now.

The same we've been hearing re House hearings, but good summary. Nunes fucked up big-time. 😂

WTF is McConnell's problem? He's so against fair play that he might as well be Russian. (Re the protect Mueller legislation)

No need to be overly analytical when it comes to Mitch McConnell. Occam's Razor always applies with him--he's just a craven partisan piece of shit and that pretty much explains everything he does.

PLEASE out this motherfucker. They're talking about it on MSNBC. Cotton wants more people in prison. Sociopath.

Cotton wants to be president, they said on Chris Hayes just now.

[quote]“People close to the President reached out to Cohen to say he would be protected.”

More evidence of dangling pardons aka witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Watching Anderson Coops on CNN

Where the fuck is the make up person? His complexion is as white as loose leaf paper.

Tone him down!

R170 is spot on. A big bro-ey show that they have used and don't need trump anymore . They both "had" him and he is now discarded all while he looked on. Absolutely a humiliation for the USA. Trump deserves a horrible painful humiliating demise.

Remember the press tripping all over themselves last week+ to tell us Trump wants criminal justice reform and praising him before he'd even done anything? So why isn't dealmaker take no prisoners Trump going after Cotton for blocking legislation he supposedly wants to happen?

The reform bill is going to go down in flames and the press will be too cowardly to call it a failure of Trump's.

Saw a clip of the G20 class pic taking. Everyone had their jackets buttoned. Cheeto tugged a few times at the jacket sides and gave up. Emotional overeating?

a bit OT here but parallel universe stuff - maddow just started a podcast on Halloween called "bag man" about Spiro Agnew.

Fascinating stuff and weirdly parallel to fat Donnie's antics.

Give it a listen!

I just want to remind everyone that the only thing the Trump team changed in the Republican Party Platform was to remove the long-standing, strong stand, against Russia. The only thing.

And, R189, directly parallel to the current VP. Crooks don't pick honest people to run with them. See: Nixon/Agnew, Bush/Cheney, Trump/Pence

Corrupt evil motherfucker Interior Secretary Zinke needs to go. He also needs to be investigated, as does former EPA head Pruitt.

Zinke is next.

Zinke's wife is another piece of work.

Such corrupt trash. The House must investigate.

So, what I’ve heard is this:

Trump, Cohen and others lied about ongoing negotiations for a Trump hotel in Moscow during the campaign and after. This meant that Putin/Russia had this compromat on Trump. They could spill the beans and thereby fuck with Trump at any time. This continued to this week. And who knows what they might know that we don’t yet know about?

Maddow is on fire tonight!

R197. I was just about to say the same thing. Our Rachel has deftly, succinctly and SIMPLY rolled out the whole corrupt plan. Must watch opening block!!

He'll never leave office but his family will go to prison and everything will be exposed.

BUT...remember...it goes much deeper than just the Trump Tower Moscow and any kompromat arising from it. There is also evidence that the Trump campaign actively participated in disseminating the stolen documents from Podesta and Clinton and the DNC as well as voters roll info ...thats where Cambridge Analytical, Brad Parcale, kid genius Kushner, Bannon and a bunch of others come into the picture. Prince is involed also because they were washing the data through the Spectrum health servers. This thing is going to start unfolding like an espionage film.

When this is all over, I see at least four major books: the journalist who gets to explain this all's book (possibly a series, like Robert Cato's LBJ works), a tell-all from Cohen, a tell-all from someone far enough in the circle (my money's on Nick Ayers) and Mueller's memoirs.

R13. By whom?

[quote]“He won't write a memoir,” Rizzo told me.

R202 you forgot Melania's inevitable book, "Becoming Melania."

R205 with an X over Michelle Obama

You mean, “My Life as a Black Woman Lawyer with Two Kids, Living in the White House” by Melania Trump.

They’d just change the cover. Judging by her Be Best graphic, I’m guessing it would be a portrait of Michelle with the face cut out and Melania’s face pasted on top, with Michelle’s black bare arms still showing.

I think Felix Sater is going to die or disappear soon. Rachel was talking about him, and it seems he has a big mouth. He's Cohen's Russian partner who worked on the tower deal. A felon.

This sounds worse and worse over the last two days.

And now I’m hearing that Trump and Putin may still meet in Argentina this weekend.

R196, yes, and it's Mueller basically confirming that part of the "utterly discredited" Steele Dossier.

Came here to say what a couple others have said: Maddow’s “A block” tonight (first 25 mins) was absolutely brilliant. It explains everything so succinctly, makes it so easy to understand. Of course, we have to wait until Mueller makes it all official, because in the meantime the Trumpies will say “There’s no proof!” (that’s what they’re saying on Facebook), but we can look forward to this plot being confirmed by Mueller soon, I think.

Dimitri Peskov, too, may disappear soon.

R209, what do you mean by worse and worse? I’m celebrating these developments...

Wow, Rachel was indeed great tonight.

I hope someone from Mueller's team is watching Rachel

I thought Sater was cooperating with Mueller ? Theres Felix Sater, George Nader, ...and didnt Goldstone testify to the Grand Jury ? It gets so confusing...

Yes, R216, it does. Mueller should be mindful that if people become bored, rather than outraged, it will work in Trump /Russia’s favor.

I bet Mueller is furious about what he knows.

I agree with R200. This is much bigger than the real estate deal in Moscow. Let me add the money laundering for oligarchs by Trump, and all the crap that has been going on with the Russians for about 10 years or more.

This is sort of off topic, but I like Toobin a lot better than Ari "watch me bat my beautiful eyelashes" Melber.

I hate ari! I switch to CNN when he comes on.

Ari Melber sitting in for Lawrence tonight is having a great show.

Great points were made about how the TT-Moscow affair was intimately connected to Russia's push for lifting the sanctions - Trump also had interest in that if he wanted the project to be viable because of the financing from a sanctioned bank (VTB), and then Jr has the TT meeting about "adoptions".

Good discussion on how Trump's compromised by the Russians.

Ari haters can have all the CNN they want.

Ari Melber is.....only 38?

I thought he was at least in his 40s

[quote]I hope someone from Mueller's team is watching Rachel

Huh?

I think it was a joke, R223.

No one on Mueller's team needs the media to tell them anything.

Fox is going all out to defend Trump. Fox is bringing in the heavyweights for a weekly series.

Yay! It’s “Meh on Film!”

Leave it to Fox to bring back the minstrel show.

Of course they're not getting a Fox News show, they're getting show on the streaming network that charges viewers. How long will Fox float this guaranteed financial failure?

Trapped like a rat. I agree, Mueller must be pissed — as someone who devoted his life’s work to the service of this country (and he could easily afford not to, he was born into wealth) Mueller must be outraged. Outraged that the vast majority of us, including him, play by the rules, and then a slimeball richboy like Trump comes in cheating, breaking every rule he can and ascends to the WH, and to add insult to injury now he’s succeeding in tearing apart every major institution we have. And all for what? GREED. Mueller wasn’t even drafted, he volunteered for Vietnam. I’m quite certain he despises DJT on multiple levels.

I think a LOT of people are incredibly pissed off, and they aren’t going to just roll over and take this. I do think this will play out quite differently than Nixon — I think that indicting Trump will be required for our country to heal. A lot of people are going to be indicted, many whose names we don’t even know yet. We NEED justice.

Keep pressuring your Senators to get a bill passed to protect Mueller!!! Keep the pressure ON, use your phone!

I see Trump will have a press conference tomorrow. So, you know, prepare for that shit show.

r226 Are those men? I thought conservatives didn't like trans people, are they supposed to be a parody?

Bush 41 is dead

R167 Probably just enjoying trolling trump.

From Evita, "Another Suitcase in Another Hall"

I don't expect my love affairs

To last for long

Never fool myself

That my dreams will come true

Being used to trouble

I'd anticipate it

But all the same I hate it

Wouldn't you

So what happens now

(Another suitcase in another hall)

So what happens now (Take your picture off another wall)

Where am I going to

(You'll get by you always have before)

Where am I going to

Time and time again

I've said that I don't care

That I'm immune to gloom

That I'm hard through and through

But every time it matters

All my words desert me

So anyone can hurt me

And they do

So what happens now

(Another suitcase in another hall)

So what happens now

(Take your picture off another wall)

Where am I going to

(You'll get by you always have before)

Where am I going to

Call in three months time

And…

R232 are you trolling us? What about Bush 41?

It's official.

Shit Bush is dead!

r236 Shit Bush Sr. is dead. Shit Bush Jr. is still alive.

^ HAHAHAHAHA

Very funny, R237. Now let’s get back on topic!

R229 I’ve been thinking the same thing about how Mueller must be outraged! He’s the polar opposite of Trump in every way. When I read that he is a good father and has a disabled daughter I thought about how Trump is a horrible father and exploits his eldest daughter. I really hope that Mueller destroys Trump. That monster deserves it.

Bush coverage for the next week, will let Mueller without distraction, though there will be the Flynn sentencing.

This will definitely cut into Mueller’s momentum, though. I wanted some indictments next week, dammit!

No, it won’t, R242.

Yeah, Mueller will be fine. BTW, is anyone else seeing more mention about that movement for a Constitutional Convention? Feels like wishful thinking to me.

Last I heard about that, several weeks ago, was that they weren’t going to be able to get it together, r244.

HW's death will be another spotlight on Pres Bone Spurs lack of respect from everyone who is sane. He will NOT be invited to the funeral.

What is great is how this era has taken the halo off of Raygun and the Bush's. The deplorables hate them now. Their legacies have been tainted because their hero hates them and has said bad things about them.

r226 it'll be over when those two start singing on Fox.

Watching CNN. 1am- Don Lemonade is working overtime reporting on Bush‘s death.

Cutaway to Wolf Blitzer in Argentina for his comments, as he read a statement from dick face Trump and Melania the whore.

The statement was heartfelt and well written, which guarantees that Trump did NOT write that condolence message.

Yeah ,no r244.

[quote]’ve been thinking the same thing about how Mueller must be outraged! He’s the polar opposite of Trump in every way. When I read that he is a good father and has a disabled daughter I thought about how Trump is a horrible father and exploits his eldest daughter.

Didn't know that about Mueller's daughter. Trump as we know finds disabilities worth mocking with public impersonations. Someone of Mueller's integrity has to hate Trump with the intensity and precision of a laser beam.

Notable that Trump recently sneered at Mueller being portrayed by many in the press as 'a saint.' Well just maybe he's a bit closer to that description than is the corrupt inadequate in the White House. 'He hath a daily beauty in his life, that makes me ugly.'

If Trump's comprehensive ugliness is exposed as we all pray it will be, Mueller will indeed qualify for whatever sanctity the global sane can bestow.

Stinky Zinke is the worst.

I’m hoping Cohen and Sater have multiple implanted GPS tracking devices and are suited up with recording devices 24-7.

That way when the Russians come to suicide them, the FBI can get the Russians.

The Orange one is scowling because his handler Putin is all the way on the other end... And Putin is scowling because someone had the bright idea to put him next to Merkel! LOL

Trump looks like a wax figure in that photo, R254.

It’s just so bizarre and inappropriate that this man is still treated as a head of state and gets to enjoy all the trappings of that. He is a total crook who would make even Nixon blush like a schoolgirl.

Look at how Putin is holding his torso. It’s such a deliberate, unnatural posture. It makes him look like an idiot, but most Russians value such ostentatious corniness. It’s an essential part of their culture.

I'm sure Trump is pleased that Bush the First is dead, after all, the Bushes openly admitted that they didn't vote for the cretin in 2016.

C. B. Spurs may be smiling today. He got him some of that Putty Poo again last night.

Stay strong, Coffee Boy! Just 8 more days until freedom!

[quote]I'm sure Trump is pleased that Bush the First is dead, after all, the Bushes openly admitted that they didn't vote for the cretin in 2016.

[quote]—No funeral invitation for you!

CNN is reporting that Bush wants Trump and Melania invited to the service at the National Cathedral. True to form, Bush puts the Presidency ahead of any personal grudges.

How rude to The Obamas and The Clintons. You'd think with his friend Michelle Obama in mind, they'd ban The Trumps from the funeral. Babs would've.

If The Trumps come, they will have to listen to eulogy after eulogy which will be dripping with venomous condemnation through subtext.

Putin looks so tough all 5'6' of him

Oh bullshit, R263. They're Republicans, thick as thieves the whole lot of them. Everybody there will be making nice.

[quote]CNN is reporting that Bush wants Trump and Melania invited to the service at the National Cathedral. True to form, Bush puts the Presidency ahead of any personal grudges.

I thought he said that he didn't want a full state funeral because he didn't want Trump to speak.

I'm assuming W and Clinton will probably end up speaking. He seemed to come to like Bill once they were both out of office.

Putin’s giving his best, chest out “little man” pose.

Trump’s just dumped in his Depends.

The Bushes have variously let it be known what they think of Trump. Such a patrician family won't be coerced by anyone, let alone the sleazebag-in-chief.

There has to be some way they'll let him and the world know further what they think, should he somehow force his way in to the funeral. Where he sits, for example. Denied the chance to speak, we sincerely hope. Needing to listen to trusted respected speakers.

And yes: all eulogies by the sane won't even need to be pointed to make the incumbent look the category error he is. The contrast cannot but be glaring. But if there are some unmistakable killer lines, with Trump on camera, so very much the better.

Maybe Clown Prince got away a bit for a pee shower by two Argentinean hos brought to another room?

[quote]He raped Ivana.

No big deal. A surface treatment.

I bet Trump will be too afraid to come to HW’s funeral. He’ll have no control over how cameras will play with him or any subtle bombs thrown his way by speakers. I bet he’ll just send Melania or his other wife, Ivanka.

Trump will bail, even when he's invited, out of fear of walking into a humiliating trap where they use the funeral to throw some massive shade at him.

Decisions, decisions -- go to the event because it's prominent but you'll be humiliated, or decline and be forced to confront your shallow, empty existence?

I'm surprised so many of you think he understands what humiliation is when it pertains to himself.

Trump has no jurisdiction over the funeral, but he could make comments in the Rotunda where he could not be turned away.

Assuming, of course, that 41 lies in state at the Capitol.

It would be a serious FU to Trump if the family did not have 41 at the Rotunda.

Interesting R275/R276.

This seems like one of the fastest threads in awhile.

[quote]Look at how Putin is holding his torso. It’s such a deliberate, unnatural posture.

He looks like a fucking Playmobil R257!

[quote]He raped Ivana.

[quote]No big deal. A surface treatment.

That's my girl. So much whining from that Christine Blasey Ford woman. MAGA!

Donald and Melania apparently are going. I hope they're treated like the elevated bumpkins they are.

Meghan McCain should do another eulogy full of shade towards Trump. I’m not a fan, but I know she would blow the doors off the place.

Too bad Obama’s too classy to throw shade like he did at the White House Correspondent’s dinner at Trump.

“We are all all here to mourn George H.W. Bush...what a pity he’s not President now!”

Sweet mother of pearl, this is going to be like having a bastard show up at your parents' golden anniversary.

I think the Moscow-TT thing with the sanctioned bank is a big deal. But I also would like to remind the media that the connections with Russia and Putin have been in place for more than ten years.Personally, IMO Putin would have loved to get Trump to run to stop Hillary in 2008. But the Barack won. In 2011, (before the Press Club bullshit) Trump and Putin were looking at it again, but Trump wasn't ready. IMO, since Trump hates to lose, or to be seen as a loser, he was not about to jump into the Presidential fray without some guarantees. All this bullshit about Trump never expected to win, doesn't fly with me. If you know his personality and the depth of his corruption, his"by any means necessary" approach to winning, you can appreciate how I came to that conclusion.

When Trump couldn't get a phone call returned to secure financing or meet payroll from our banks, Deustche Bank was there and the Russian Oligarhs were there for him. He was a money launderer for the Russian mob for years. I'm betting that will be proven, or else why raid the offices of Deustche Bank and that guy in Chicago who had financial dealings with Trump0 for years. I agree that McConnell is in this up to his ears. I have to wonder if the spinelless Paul Ryan has been meeting with Mueller. If he has I don't think it's voluntarily. Ryan strikes me as someone who'd be a informant on anyone he needed to be to save his own ass.

Both R285 & R284 are from me.

Off topic; I’m fuming!

Just now... CNN’s Wolf Blitz interviewing Mike Pompeo.... Wolf asks the lard ass Sec of State:

Wolf: “And Mexico is paying for the wall? Pompeo: “We’re going to get the wall built”

Wolf: “And Mexico is paying for the wall? Pompeo: “We’re going to get the wall built”

Wolf: “And Mexico is paying for the wall? Pompeo: “We’re going to get the wall built”

THREE FUCKING TIMES!

Smug motherfucker!

What gutless suckup Wolf SHOULD have said in response: "So that's a no."

It's not rocket science.

R288

Absolutely! That’s the answer.

Fucking Wolf ass kisser!!

[quote]THREE FUCKING TIMES!

So Pompeo was stonewalling.

Wolf is too accommodating to his subjects.

Wolf always sounds like he has trouble breathing and speaking at the same time. Adding critical thinking to that mix is asking for the impossible.

You folks do realize that only partisan Democrats who dislike Trump in the first place really care about this stuff, right?

And yet "Clinton voter" at R293 also wrote:

[Quote] Here's hoping that if somehow Trump can be forced from Office he'd be willing to bring Pence down with him out of sheer vindictiveness.

Divisive Concern Troll tactics.

Isn’t Trump holding one of his unhinged press conferences at the G20 today?

Pres Bone Spurs is all nice about HW now. We all know with the Bipolar in chief that will soon change.

He shouldn't be invited to the funeral because now Hillary and Obama must sit near him. Fingers crossed HW has some tricks up his sleeve to make that asshole as uncomfortable as possible.

Donald will send Javanka in time for the funeral.

G2 press conference cancelled out of respect for HW.

r298 Oh they knew he was going to probably slip up and start going in on HW. LOLOLOLOLOL

I want this fucked up, man-boy leader home now! I don’t want him distracted while at the G20 from thinking about how his boy Cohen threw him under the bus this week.

I want him in the White House alone, while ranting, pacing, sweating, and thinking himself into a frenzy about all the consequences he’s facing. Guess this will have to wait until next week.

For those wondering about various members of the GOP going down (McConnell, Ryan, etc), that Malaysian Prime Minister that was busted looting the treasury, was laundering funds through Elliott Broidy and guess where a good portion went ? ( Broidy was co-chairman of Finance for the RNC along with Michael Cohen and Steve Wynn) McConnell, Ryan, and about 2 dozen members of Congress. They will all go down...the Pandoras Box is opening. Broidy and his wifes Law firm are mentioned in court documents unsealed yesterday....this is about to blow up.

whoa! R301, that is massive! What a money trail. No wonder nearly every agent in FINCen has been conscripted to this investigation!

Broidy was also co chair of Finance for the Trump campaign and the Trump inaugural.....hes also the guy that used Michael Cohen to pay 1.6 million to a playboy bunny for an abortion.....many suspect to cover for Trump (ala John Edwards)

GURL

Some absolute cray cray stuff happening in NC. It’s not in the media as called out by Dan Abrams.

The local gop STOLE AND DESTROYED ballots and the dems have reciepts.

DL tptb: please make this it’s own thread!!

Is a Do-Over Election Incoming? North Carolina Republicans Alleged to Have Committed Major Voter Fraud

They just never stop cheating. The only way they can win is by cheating. Send a huge message and hang em.

Agreed. By the end of this, they have to know without a shadow of a doubt that cheating just won't work.

The shock isn't that they are cheating, but that they are so incompetent that they got caught.

I mean really, where did they get these clowns, from the "Dumb & Dumber" agency of tricksters?

If I'm not mistaken, John Oliver refers to this as "Stupid Watergate." There's the book name, right there.

I know this goes way too much into cuckoo crazy New Age philosophy but I believe these guys either deliberately or on a subconscious level self sabotage, because they believe that what they are doing is wrong and they should not succeed. That's why they fuck up so bad trying to execute their own schemes. Like they are not able to think through the whole plan and just wing it like their great furor.

I think they've just gotten away with the cheating for so long they've gotten sloppy due to hubris.

Yeah they are dumb but it's a stupidity that coes from arrogance. They all are Turmp wannabees: The rules don't apply and the law can be either ignored or rigged for your side.

As opposed to R110, I think these people are so arrogant, and so self-assured in their righteousness (they're doing God's work, doncha know). they think they're the smartest people on the planet, just like Donald Trump and his idiot family and minions.

A similar thing to the cheating in North Carolina, and possibly also worthy of its own thread: the Wisconsin GOP in a huge power grab is shifting powers away from the governor and state Attorney General—just before Democrats take those offices. (Something similar happened when a Dem was elected governor in NC a couple of years ago, and its repercussions are being felt in the current cheating scandal.) Twitter thread here.

Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States:

I think some fistfighting, face slapping, and furniture throwing need to break out in Wisconsin and North Carolina.

R314 the Michigan Republican majority Legislature is doing the same thing. It's not a coincidence and we need to look at it and consider that the GOP leadership in Congress is of the same mindset towards the opposition. I*'m surprised the Lame Duck session of Congress has not seen legislation to change the rules about how the business of Congress is conducted so as to hamstring the Democrats in the House. These are rotten fuckers.

I think it's a matter of state legislatures assuming they're too small to matter right now, so they can get away with crazy shit. That might be true, but they'll be next. In the meantime, citizens need to make as large a stink as possible about this.

These last minute powergrabs should be held in contempt and fully ignored by the new House.

I thought the NC Supreme Court overruled those changes and reinstated the full powers to the incoming governor.

People were paying attention to state government this year and we did make some gains but we have a whole lot of work to do flipping legislatures. In 2020 we need to be on the ball. There is a Republican/Conservative interest group called A.L.E.C. that sort of sets the national agenda for the GOP in the state legislatures. The governors are dictated to by the Mackinac Policy Conference. These think takes really have a stranglehold on the states. The Democrats have the State Innovation Exchange. They can be a lot more effective if more people know about them and support them. Of course we also have Indivisible but their main focus is on Congress. Although with chapters all over the United States they are developing agendas to flip the states and the legislatures. People fail to realize that state legislatures and state governments are the architects that set policy for gerrymandering, mass incarceration, and Education policies as well as healthcare, and a lot of environmental policies.

Here's another Progressive group that's been doing some good work. We really do need to educate ourselves. The thing is, none of us,except the policy wonks and the political activists really wants to get into the weeds. I get that. But at least check these groups out and check in on them regularly like maybe once a month, to try to keep up with things they're doing that you can support . Making phone calls and writing a check won't take too much of your time and we really need to beat back these MAGAmonsters. Of course I'll be supporting the ACLU and Indivisible mainly, but these other two or three are groups you need to be aware of.

On another note, what’s the latest on Comey and Loretta Lynch being called to testify in a closed-door House session? Congress is going on break soon, so I’m thinking it won’t even be scheduled, and with the new Democratic House coming into office, it’ll fall by the wayside.

It was only done as a distraction....Comey is challenging....and youre right....it wont happen.

Will not happen. Not enough time.

Pig Elliott Broidy is way up Trump's asshole. This investigation is separate from Mueller's. The Donald is really going to feel the pain on this one.

Keep in mind that the Justice Anthony Kennedy, who just resigned and was replaced by Kavanaugh, had a son, Justin, that worked for Deustche Bank. What a coincidence that Justin was Trump's banker, and happened to be being investigated for Russian money laundering at the time Kennedy resigned. The bank was fined $630 million for a $10 billion laundering scheme. Mueller had just pulled the records from these transactions and others involving Trump and Justin Kennedy before Justice Kennedy decided to retire. Rumor has it that he quit b/c if his son was implicated Kennedy would have to recuse himself from the case. I'm betting there's even more dirt than that to be uncovered here.

Didnt Sessions dismiss the majority of the fine for Deutsche Bank ? I could swear I read about that shortly after he took office...I remember because I was pissed off about it.

I hope they can prove that Kennedy left under pressure or something else that would make Kavanaugh illegitimate...at least more than he already is.

The reveals of Trump's cover ups is going to be delicious next year. We are only starting to peel back the onion layers of corruption. Get out the popcorn and get comfortable on the couch, y'all

Where is the reporting about McConnell, Ryan, et al. receiving laundered money?

R330 I want Trump’s fat ass out of Argentina, and back in the White House where he can pace, sweat, rant, scream and lay in the corner in the fetal position, wondering what’s coming.

Popcorn indeed! 🍿

R331 Dear God please let this be true. I’ll give up sweets for year.

R327, the corruption is so deep. Thanks for the reminder of about Judge Kennedy. It's sickening if it's true. I believe it is.

Streisand 2020

I apologize if this has already been posted.

But worth another look.

OMG, Sarah’s wonky eyes at the end of that video, R336.

My favorite one was Reince, though.

I’m surprised they left out Manafort’s infamous “that’s what I said, that’s what the president said, that’s...obviously what the—our position is.” It plays at the beginning of every Mueller, She Wrote podcast.

I actually saw a Trumptard on Facebook tonight claiming that there is no evidence whatsoever of any collusion or contact between Russia and the Trump campaign. And it’s someone who’s on FB a lot arguing on behalf of Trump. Unbelievable. How do these people manage to be sentient and interact with the world and not know that there were literally dozens upon dozens of contacts and meetings and emails and phone calls between Trump & co. and Russians, all of which were first denied/lied about and then admitted? How do people not know this?

Just watched the clip @ R315. Trump creates embarrassment as effortlessly as he breathes.

Loved the aide walking so swiftly from stage right trying to regain the situation. Then the Argentinian President alone, turning around and staring at - nothing.

So there it all was yet again in just a few seconds: Trump's social cluelessness, arrogance and narcissism encapsulated. He just doesn't care, and still thinks himself untouchable. We await the funeral on Wednesday with nervous interest.

Do we know why Deutsche Bank ever got involved in Russian money laundering and who the people in charge of that were?

How is this KT McFarland bitch not being charged with perjury? She always looks like a Country Club cunt in clips.

r331....Really !?!.....Do you not pay attention to what goes on ?....It has been reported repeatedly, over and over, of various members of the GOP receiving Russian funds....and thats just the tip of the iceberg. I would help you out and post an article, but you already know that or are too lazy to use google...which is your friend.

R339, we know up to a point. This is an article from 2016 that explains Deutsche Bank's basic "mirror trading" money laundering scheme and who was running it (largely, a group of American employees stationed at Deutsche Bank's Moscow branch). The recent raid at the bank suggests that the scheme affected other branches. We're not sure how the whole thing ties into Trump yet, but it is known that Trump received enormous loans from a section of the bank that is not expected to handle large commercial loans.

r331.....start here....it then branches out to other countries and questionable individuals from there.....

From Rick Wilson this morning:

When Roger goes on national television and lies about not being in contact with the Trump legal and political team, he's hoping you won't ask about the cutout Trump uses to reach him these days.

Yes, I informed the Mueller team. You're welcome!

As far as Deutsche Bank is concerned. There are some rumors that Justice Kennedy's son is already cooperating with Mueller. Eventually it will come out that Kennedy was forced out because of blackmail. Kavanaugh is super illegitimate.

Again, OP and others, this thread and future versions are my lifeline. Thanks for posting up all the great links that spell this all out.

I've been able to keep up, but I wonder how the typical American who isn't paying attention will absorb all this when Mueller really gets rolling?

I hope Mueller drops more indictments on Tuesday, just to make Trump an even bigger pariah at the funeral.

Brett Kavanaugh needs to be impeached. He is totally illegitimate.

If Trump had any brains he'd go home to Mother Russia now and forget about coming back to the U.S.

McTurtle & Miz Lindzey are 1 and 2 in receiving oligarch pac money. And the media largely ignores it. They would rather watch the turkey wattling and the sashaying for enabing Trump and the erectile excitement about Kavany.

McConnell's wife got that nice cabinet job.

What exactly did Lindsey get, besides not having his dirty laundry exposed? Sounds like he got the short end of the stick.

I would totally believe that there are pictures or videos of Graham being spit-toasted or having a (black/Middle Eastern) train run on him.

R350 I beg your pardon! Miss Lindsay always gets the long end of the shaft!

Isn’t Michael Flynn scheduled to be sentenced this month? Any idea what might be revealed when he is?

The rumors I've always heard about Lindsey is that he swaps photos with young men - I wonder exactly how young?

Wait a second maybe we got it all wrong. Maybe they aren't blackmailing the Senatrice but rather paying the girl off with Pence's dick.

You know she cant resist white haired daddy!

Usually legal, R354. He likes the butch military fellas, so at least 17 (with parental permission).

R344's information about Justice Kennedy's son made my mouth drop open, however, the twitter link to Rick Wilson only discusses Roger Stone and his cut-out. I believe that Kavanaugh is illegitimate, so I'd like more information if anyone has it.

Clearly with his bullshit tariff policies these a re designed to enrich the oligarchs and Putin. But I wonder what Trump is personally gaining from all this. Now with China he and his kids have lucrative licensing agreements. But what is he getting from the Russians? IMO I'm betting cold hard cash in some foreign bank account. The Trump Tower Moscow seems to have evaporated. And I doubt it would've been more than another laundry for dirty money. The article at R343 is a great summary and a real eye-opener. I had no idea Steve Mnuchin was part of this crap. I always thought he was just another sleazy businessman. And keep in mind, it can't all be blackmail with McConnell and Graham. There is also other stuff going on. I'm betting Miz Lindsey has a secret bank account and so does McConnell.

Jerome Corsi is disgusting looking. Has he ever met a piece of food he didn’t like?

I did some searching and found a NYT article about Kennedy's son working for Deutschbank, so thanks anyway.

For those of you who have run out of articles, the headline is "Inside the White House’s Quiet Campaign to Create a Supreme Court Opening".

I would still enjoy discussing this with anyone interested.

The FBI is investigating the NRA because they were used to launder money from Russia to the RNC. Everyone seems to have forgotten that meeting at the Mayflower hotel between Trump, Jared, Sessions, and Kislyak.

"The FBI and Congress are examining a campaign event last spring during which Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner were in a small gathering with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak and other diplomats at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News."

I remember clearly when Sessions was asked by the Senate about the Mayflower Hotel and he stuttered and stammered and totally lost his cool.

Look for Sessions to have made a deal with Mueller from the get go regarding cooperating. That's a huge part of why Trump hated him, in addition to the whole recusal thingy.

There are so many subplots to keep track of in this awful Dystopian Mystery Novel!

[quote]Jerome Corsi is disgusting looking. Has he ever met a piece of food he didn’t like?

Broccoli!

What's going on with the investigation related to Rebekah Mercer & Cambridge Analytica funding; and those odd communications some alledged to be her a few months back?

And is the Mueller team examining these shady-looking Eric Prince-related endeavors that tie into all this?

DJT and his nitwit family and bumbing inner circle could not pull all of this off alone to generate a sham election. Co-conspirators with unethical financial and political interests had to have run wide and deep.

^bumbling

I know I’m the thousandth person to say this, but Rachel Maddow's Friday show is a must-see. The first half-hour is mandatory viewing.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

R368, that's pretty damning. I believe this is all about Putin. Trump would have been strutting around if things were good with Vlad. Something has changed. Trump is in the doghouse. I laughed out loud when the WH stated that the Mueller investigation is hurting Trump's relationship with "Russia." LOL!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Hahaha

the NRA is bleeding cash.

Looks like the Russian funding has dried up. I would love to see lapierre in prison for money laundering.

Once those charges hit, the IRS will slap them with tax evasion charges plus penalty and interest.

That will be a glorious day.

In semi-related news ...

Hmmm

This is such bullshit. Another GOP dog & pony show to energize their claims of criminal wrong doing by others. They haven't sense enough to appreciate Comey's 15 minutes are over and they don't have enough time to make the kind of effort it would take to demonize the comparatively unknown Loretta Lynch. Comey has nothing new to say. Nothing. He wrote a fucking book, he has spoken in pubic on TV at hearings, on talk shows, etc.etc.etc. No one gives a fuck about Comey anymore. He is over. Unless you can prove he was one of the guys at the house party who tried to rape Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, or you can prove he got a loan from Justin Kennedy, no one gives a fuck.

Oh, as if any of this Comey stuff will matter. It's just marking time until Jan. 3.

How many hours of excoriating testimony can we squeeze in before we break for good?

Most of these GOP Reps have never experienced being the minority. They are losing their minds. This Comey testimony is a tragic last gasp.

"Get me out of here."

Oh Donald, Donny, Don, D. That'll be truer than true before you know it.

[quote]I know I’m the thousandth person to say this, but Rachel Maddow's Friday show is a must-see. The first half-hour is mandatory viewing.

They repeated it in its entirety this morning on A.M. Joy. And you're right -- quite riveting.

Maddow's exposition is brilliant. It's exhilarating to see her slice up and reduce to hard fact the vast arrogances which thought they could get away with such corruption. They thought themselves masters of the universe. Instead, puppets, with intellects to match.

What Maddow knows Mueller knows x 5,000. With similar forensic precision. All being well further such exposition will be genuinely awesome.

House Democrats on Friday unveiled more details of their first bill for the new Congress, a good-government package that would limit big money in politics, make it easier for citizens to vote and require presidents to disclose their tax returns.

The legislation, called H.R. 1, sets the tone for Democrats as they take the majority in January, though prospects for passage are murky. Republicans will still be in charge of the Senate and the White House, and it’s unlikely they’ll sign off on some of the proposals, which are still in the works.

The bill would create automatic national voter registration while expanding access to early and online registration. It would increase federal support for state voter systems, including paper ballots to prevent fraud.

Political groups would need to disclose donors, and members of Congress would be barred from serving on corporate boards.

In a nod to President Donald Trump’s resistance to releasing his tax returns, the bill would require presidents to do so. It also would create a Supreme Court ethics code.

Good first step.

I thought Rick Wilson said that about BK. My mouth dropped open. Don't scare us like that again! I thought HOLY SHIT things are really about to blow up.

NEW from @NatashaBertrand and @ScottMStedman: George Papadopoulos allegedly told a confidant in 2016 that he was pursuing a business deal in Russia that would result “in large financial gains” for him and Trump. The House Intel Committee and FBI are now investigating.

She need to use some of those "large financial gains" to fix those large pimples on her large greasy forehead.

Tell you what. There are two important court filings this week that will reveal a lot about the case against Manafort and the information presented by Cohen. It is almost guaranteed that Trump is going to do something to change the subject. Count on it. He will do something outrageous. He may even order Whitaker to fire Mueller this week. You can see him wandering around the events in Argentina, isolated, brooding and extremely angry. He is going to act out. No doubt in my mind. So we need to brace ourselves. Since Mueller's team has probably already studied his behavior and probably anticipates him being an asshole, maybe tomorrow will be the time Whitaker is charged with wrong doing in the FBI investigation into his companies, or maybe the DoJ will leak out their own bombshells. I think Trump is really pissed off that Bush's funeral events will be the focus, and Mueller will be filing away and Trump is practically handcuffed (!!!) from doing too much. So I'm bettering he will do something. Tuesday is the Manafort filing. Friday is the other filing.

Think of how ham handed Trump has acted in installing an acting attorney general who was actively dodging being subpoenaed in a federal investigation at the time of his appointment.

I think this is one of those facts that will be obvious in hindsight, but Republicans have minimized this to an alarming degree.

When the thugs vote no on hr1, they will be on the record saying they don't want transparency or people to vote.

They will be hammered on that every single time another shoe drops on the trussia mess. The Rethugs will be on the record saying no to transparency, accountability and voters.

I'm thinking Putin is tired of Trump's needy attention seeking and constant need for reassurance and "advice." I've definitely noticed beginning with the Helsinki performance that the dynamic has changed between Trump and Putin. I think Vlad is truly pissed off that Mueller has indicted his GRU guys, and that as things proceed Putin's operations, his tactics, etc are being exposed and the exposure is worldwide. He has to deal with the entire international intelligence community, and because of Trump the Russia Scandal is being dissected and discussed every single day in the United States and in Europe. Guys like Putin are schizo. On one hand he enjoys the fact that he staged this election coup, but he is also pissed at the blowback. He knew we wouldn't take it, but I think he believed Trump would have been tougher and stronger in dealing with the blow back. "Elections have consequences" takes on new meaning for Vlad, and he is not happy. Trump has become a major pain in the ass. Wonder when and how he will "cut his losses. I also believe MBS is laughing at his little buddy Jared, who's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. The Trumps are a joke on the international stage.

Putin should release all the embarrassing shit they have on all the repugs. I bet he has some truly damning shit. Like mind blowing shit. He could rock our political world to the ground and destroy a political party in the process. He didn't do this to the Dems because they didn't have anything useful to work with. repugs are dirty as Pres Bone Spurs skid marked whiteys.

Trumps are silly, ignorant, sleazy criminals but then again, so is Putin and the disgusting Saudi Prince.

The Putin/MSB shit was chilling. Right out there in everyones face.

r391....when the heat turns up on Putin, its all but guaranteed he will....he will need to do something to distract and place blame elsewhere. What better place than the GOP who aided and abetted.

All in due time, 391. I'd be surprised if this doesn't end with multiple senators and representatives being exposed. Maybe not enough to sink the entire Republican Party, but certainly enough to wound and force it to go in a new direction.

Obviously Putin has something on McConnell, Ryan, Nunes and a few others...I hope Mueller investigates those asshole.

Anyone noticed how good Papadopoulos looks in sunglasses. Kinda meh without.

Do you really think Putin will expose the Trumps? Putin put him in place to destroy our nation...has he done enough damage?

Putin will do whatever is in his own best interest.

r398....Think about your statement. If Putin exposes Trump, not only will the US be in turmoil, but so will a good portion of the free world.

R400 For a long time, I've suspected that is Putin's plan all along. What I mean is......Putin intends on exposing Trump at some point for that very reason. Put him in office, set him up, expose him, let the whole world know who is responsible and pulling the strings. It's just like in your typical gangster movie where the head gangster shoots and kills the side gangster once the job is done and he is no longer needed. It was always a part of the original plan.

r401 I think so, too.

I hop to God that Mueller goes DEEP with his investigation. There are so many corrupt players...Remember, Wilbur Ross is Commerce Secretary, and he also was co-Chairman of The Bank of Cyprus....alot of the funneling of funds happened there. The other chair was the Oligarch who bought Trumps Fla property for double what Trump paid, only to tear it down. Who replaced Ross at Bank of Cyprus ? The former chairman of Deutsche Bank who was running things when they were busted for money laundering. Then you have the Seychelles meeting with Eric Prince meeting not only with the Russians, but the Saudis as well. Hmmmm......

This thing, if it goes far enough to clean house, is going to be YUGE.

Looks like little Putin never counted on Mueller, or a blue tide of voters, or Mattis calling this shit out, or the GOP finally growing a few (here and there).

I look forward to their complete downfall. My favorite victim will be that cunt, Collins. I'd love to see the truth about Kennedy's son thrown in that bitch's quivering, smug face.

What did Mattis call out?

Attempts by the Russians to play with the Midterms.

Susan Collins? Yes, I would like to see her Dick in the dirt.

Wilbur Ross needs to be in prison, along with Zinkie. I would like to see those two suffering till death.

"I'd love to see the truth about Kennedy's son thrown in that bitch's quivering, smug face."

And the face of that other bitch, the Senatrice.

And yet he still works for this piece of shit. He is as useless as Flake. And to agree (yea, agree by not speaking out against it) Frumpf to put an army on the border, is absurd.

Matthis is looking like a damn fool right now.

What Maddow put together on Friday re. Flynn, Trump Tower Moscow, Putin etc. was good, but it still felt like only the tip of the iceberg.

I wonder at Mattis working for him quite often, R409. Trump seems to fear him.

r411....of course iths the tip of the iceberg....think of what we know already....i.e. Cambridge Analytica, servers in Trump Tower communicating with Alpha Bank and Spectrum Health, the secret meetings in the Seychelles, and throughout Europe, Bannon, the Mercers, Eliot Broidy, the RNC, the NRA, etc....and the list goes on. The people and countries involved will be mind boggling.

I think he agreed, with that other one, Kelly, to hold the line against him fucking too much with the military. I recall a few ships going the wrong way in a very professional Navy that doesn't do things like this. I also remember his 'trans ban' being pretty much ignored by the USArmy.

[quote]You folks do realize that only partisan Democrats who dislike Trump in the first place really care about this stuff, right?

Only partisan Dems care that the current President is a bought-and-paid Russian whore?

Sure, Jan.

The former R Governor of North Carolina is defending Trump’s business with Russia during the campaign. You could never have booked me to do something so stupid. You just know that isn’t going to age well.

Putin's mistake was to assume that Democrats were as corrupt as Republicans and that career bureaucrats were the least corruptible of all.

If there were Communists who believe in Communism like Americans believe in Democracy, Putin would be stamping passports in Minsk, today

let me add fux noise and facebook as entities that need to be taken down so rubes stop being fed the GRU line.

North Carolina and that asshole former governor will be investigated and found guilty of vote tampering. They've been caught actually stealing and concealing votes. Of course he's defending someone else in their fight with justice. He needs a BIG ass distraction right now because jail cells are in the future for him and all his Repug cronies.

Putin chose the repugs for a reason. Almost the entire party is corrupt. This should put an end to "but both sides" once and for all.

I thought this was fun.

Putin chose the Republicans because the Extreme Right Conservative views that most of them especially the leadership embraces are completely in sync with his own. This "thing" is a world wide movement. Putin and his clients Syria and Iran have been responsible for a significant amount of the turmoil in the Middle East for a long time. Arab Spring was something they could exploit effectively and create a ot of turmoil or at least feed it, and assist the whole refugees in rafts floating up onto the beaches in Italy, Greece, etc. The "refugee crisis" was in large part manufactured and exploited by Putin in tandem with the Extreme Right. His goal is to weaken everyone. He wants to blow up the EU, and fracture NATO. He is the Agent of Chaos our comic book villains tend to emulate. He went with the Republicans because they support the whole oligarchy concept and the isolationism, anti immigrant thing. This is worldwide. It is not happening in isolation it is going on all over the place. Paris is burning right now. Rioting. Bad shit. Anti Macron, anti tax riots. Think on that for a minute.

Why can’t someone just...”take care“ of VP?

Putin's a relatively young man (66). He could be with us for a while.

Gay Recovering Addict/Alcoholic Ryan Knight wants to baby Michael Cohen.

Not if his country implodes and he gets dragged through the streets.

Russia is an unforgiving country of alcoholic miscreants.

[quote]Susan Collins? Yes, I would like to see her Dick in the dirt.

With the slightly bigger Rethug margin in the new Senate, McTurtle may give Collins the green light to support some Dem House bills to get "cred" and save her seat in 2020.

The media will totally fall for such obvious plays. But the Dems should be on guard. She's one of the obvious seats for targeting in 2020.

[quote]But the Dems should be on guard. She's one of the obvious seats for targeting in 2020.

I think she's given them enough grist to sink her (and her concerns) in the past year. Whether ME voters will remember is a different story, but the ranked vote system won't help her.

Mainers may be a lot of things, R427, but forgetful they are not.

One hopes. She's just been so craven and willing to legislate based on polling before. I almost wonder if she's going to announce her retirement, because there's no way the Kavanaugh thing played well.

I do take solace in knowing that Olympia Snowe would have switched parties (or become an independent) if she was still in office, and also that she apparently loathed Collins.

Susan Collins looks like a man.

R431 You're right. Age has softened her looks a bit since.

Susan Collins got a pass from voters because she stressed that she was a "moderate" Rethuglican. But, that has now been exposed as a fraud. She now stands as the only GOP lawmaker in Congress from New England. I have a feeling that will only last for the next two years and the voters in Maine will toss this bitch out as well.

r433 do you really think ME will toss her out? Isn't she very popular there even after the BK vote?

There's no way that Susan Collins is running again. She just won't announce it until she absolutely has to.

She is not up to the high probability of losing a tough election and everyone hates her right now, right and left.

I thought that she was going to run for governor?

Who do we see as being vulnerable senators in 2020? Collins is a given. What about Tom Cotton (Republican, Arkansas)? Mitch (hopefully he'll have resigned or been arrested by then)? Lindsay (ditto)? Cory Booker (New Jersey's all-blue now, but still)?

During Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, someone discovered that the website "Confirm Kavanaugh" was registered in February 2017, well before Kennedy resigned.

R437, definitely Cory Gardner in CO and the seat currently held by Jon Kyl in AZ. He's said that he might leave once the new Congress is sworn in, and even if he doesn't, there is still going to be a special election for that seat in 2020.

And then for Dems, Doug Jones in AL looks like the only vulnerable senator.

If Jones loses, which is pretty much a given unless something drastic happens in the next two years, Dems would have to flip 5 seats, or 4 seats with a Dem president and veep.

Well, our Dem Senators need to get coaching directly from Dems Reps. The Reps have figured out how to break through the Rethug noise in their district, it IS possible. Campaigning as a Senator is more difficult because each state is compromised of so many states with counties that have differing needs. But voters ARE responding to talk about healthcare. They ARE responding to wages, cost-of-living, housing costs, College etc. Dems need to start sending Senate hopefuls into the field NOW. Candidates should be building coalitions NOW. I firmly believe they need to talk to the stars who won in Red areas.....

Jon Tester understands how to win in a red (presidential) state, and purple (on the state level) state. He doesn't panic like Donnelly and McCaskill. I don't know why Hietkampt's support just collapsed. She was popular there.

The Democratic Party called people over and over all through the election. First they targeted seats that leaned Republican but were close races. They called Independents and even Republicans. They talked about what borderline candidates stood for (especially healthcare) and made sure voters knew their names. Then they called for the main candidates, reminding people over and over what the candidates’ names were. Then they started calling people at least a week before the election and just telling them when and where to vote.

In my state, the volunteers who had to call Independents and Republicans were really getting a lot of abuse. It took guts to make those calls hour after hour, and they hated it. But the candidate they called the Republicans for won. I still wonder if some of those people just voted for the Dem candidate because someone called and asked them to. You never know.

I think there are a lot of traditional Republicans out there that are not too comfortable with their party right now. Sometimes you just gotta ask. It’s surprising how many people just want to hear “please.”

Heitkamp fell apart because North Dakota was divided. The eastern portion of the state (Grand Forks, Fargo) voted for her, but the central (I think Bismarck went for Cramer) and especially western part of the state went Republican. Sadly, it wasn't too surprising. North Dakota's going to be a very, very tough state to get the red out of.

To the list of vulnerable Senate Rethugs, I would add one-term incumbent Thom Tillis of North Carolina. His approval rating is about 36%. He ran and won against Kay Hagen in the 2014 mid-term election. I think that we may be able to take that seat back with the right candidate.

Don’t forget that, according to that old gal, Miz Mattis, the Russians interfered in our midterm. So who knows we might have made gains in the senate as well as the house.

I should note that I'm a North Dakotan. My dream scenario is either Heidi runs for governor and defeats Burgum (who's proving the Trump principle that high office should go to people with political experience) or she takes advantage of time off, lets Hoeven or Cramer get hung by the Trump noose and wins back a Senate seat.

Correct r445. I’m still waiting to hear exactly HOW they interfered in the midterms, have you noticed that there’s been deafening silence on that topic????? WTF? Where’s my free press on THAT shit?

r441, r443...Heitkamp was fucked the minute she was targeted. They GOP implemented numerous laws and regulations that majorly suppressed the Native American vote, which Heitkamp relied on to keep her seat. It was well reported at the time...for weeks and months before the election.

Heitkamp could run for Gov or Senate again. She would be the Dems only shot in ND. It depends on how this tariff business goes. Of course, Pres Bone Spurs got the GREATEST DEAL EVA with China. We'll see. If things don't pick up with that, farmers might start listening to Dems again.

Under NJ law Booker can run for Senate re-election and POTUS at the same time.

Technically, Beto can also run a double campaign in 2020.

R449 Just say Trump blinked first in his own stupid trade war, and caused the farmers a year of income for nothing!

I know it's probably not gonna happen but I'd love for KT McFarland to be indicted this week with the next filing about Flynn on Tuesday. I mean she lied to Congress and the FBI just like Flynn so I don't get why she's been spared

Im sure there will be some bombshells between Flynn on Tues and Manafort on Friday....we might be in for a big shock.....wasnt something else happening this week also ?

Charles Blow, just published.

a month left until Dems officially control the House! That still means we've got fuckery to come throughout December though

[quote]Putin's a relatively young man (66).

Who's had work done to look younger. What else underlined Trump's pariah status at the G20 was that psycho bromancers Putin and MBS looked comparatively youthful. Trump looked like a melting waxwork.

Optics count. It's another sign of Trump's irrecoverable decline. He thought he was untouchable, and he's now an Untouchable.

Putin’s had a huge amount of fillers. But he does seem to be in fairly good physical shape. He seems to try to maintain his figure.

Trump looks like a balloon with some of the air let out.

Trump looks terrible here. In addition to that, he seems angry and nervous as hell.

The podcast Mueller She Wrote has been Tweeting that there are rumors Pence is going to be indicted.

Dear me, those stress-related hamburgers are really showing in the image @ R458.

Looks like it took Trump minutes to sit down carefully, while groaning; and now he needs to try the same in reverse, against his will, because his fit fellow statesman has just sprung up. What a total wreck Trump is.

You know, anyone else would have read all the tweeted responses to his tweets and behavior and just died of humiliation. How can he tweet at six am, get back thousands of responses telling him he’s an idiot, or fat and unattractive, or did something really stupid, EVERY DAY and not want to hide under the bed?

This is not like deplorables telling Obama he’s an n-word, or born in a foreign country. Those things aren’t valid complaints. But if you go to the G20 and make a fool out of yourself and everyone sees you, and it doesn’t escape the notice of anyone, and they're ridiculing you for being confused or disoriented or incompetent, that’s got to be utterly humiliating.

His hair is a particularly urinaceous yellow in the clip with Miss Bibi.

Heitkamp lost by a lot more of a margin than there are native voters in the state in the first place; it was just too red for her this time.

The results in Mississippi were close enough, that I'm not so sure Doug Jones doesn't stand at least somewhat of a chance running for reelection as an incumbent. Likely, but not safe R.

Presumably, Collins would have to run with Trump at the top of the ticket on the ballot in Maine. My bet is that she retires.

R459 that seems too good to be true. I would ejaculate hands free if that actually happened.

R461 Fox "news" has the narrative that the most important part of this weekend's G20 is that Trump has "solved" the trade war issue with China and that he's gotten a new deal to replace NAFTA. They again are claiming what a master negotiator he is. All the rest in their eyes doesn't matter

[quote]The podcast Mueller She Wrote has been Tweeting that there are rumors Pence is going to be indicted.

Makes sense if you follow the trail of indictments and relationships. Pence was brought aboard by Manafort. He was head of the transition team along with Junior and the other usual suspects. And he lied about what he knew about Flynn and when he knew it. Flynn and Manafort are both in court this week with their cases being finalized in certain important aspects.

If Pence has to resign, I'm afraid he'll be replaced with Nikki Haley which would help the Repugs in 2020 since she seems to be the media's poster girl for "normal" Repug.

Yep, just like Trump solved our decades long tension with North Korea...by giving Kim everything he ever wanted. Such a masterful negotiator. All those bankruptcies taught him well.

Wait, what’s happening with China and the tariffs now? In a nutshell.

[quote]I thought that she was going to run for governor?

That election was this year.

R422, I agree. The refugee crisis was part of Putin's plan to bring chaos to the EU. He can prop up his benefactors Syria and Iran, sell them Russian weapons and at the same time displace millions of rerefugees in the civil war. It's almost like he predicted that Merkel would let them all in to collect some humanitarian points. Obama also complemented Merkel's efforts helping refugees by saying she was on the right side of history.

By now most people point to resistance in the local population towards refugees flooding their towns and villages, being one of the main factors for right wing goups popping up all over Europe.

[quote]one of the main factors for right wing groups popping up all over Europe.

How convenient!

[quote] The podcast Mueller She Wrote has been Tweeting that there are rumors Pence is going to be indicted.

Not yet!! Wait until after January 3. Then the Dems can play a role in determining who the replacement will be.

Trump looks like he's getting gout.

The UN refugee commission ought to ship all those refugees to Russia and leave them on Putin's doorstep. His own people are already hard pressed economically, so adding more fuel to the fire would help create chaos. I just love the fact that he hated Hillary and blamed her for the demonstrations and inner turmoil he faced in Russia while she was SoS. One article actually said he was "afraid" of a Clinton Presidency.

Is Mueller really speaking with Justice Kennedy’s son? I would love that if it were true.

I hope so, R474.

Over Thanksgiving we were talking about the investigation, and of course we got to the part about Hillary having the election stolen. There are these nay sayers who insist that "she lost." or "It should have never been 'that close.' " Or "she should have gone to Wisconsin." Or "She was too elitist and failed to go after/court the white working class voters." Of course most of this is 99% bullshit. The fucking election was stolen. So when I say those things I'm forced to name my sources and asked "why are you spreading fake news? Whose blog did you read to come up with that?" So I asked, rhetorically, "If you were Putin, and you set up troll factories and spent millions of $$$ and saturated social media with fake news sites and bots that spread negative information, and used wiki leaks to hack e-mails, etc. and invested three or four years in this, would you not want to actually affect the outcome? What's the point of doing it if you can't guarantee an outcome?" I then point out that more than 21 states admitted their voter rolls were hacked. I also pointed out my source for the Russians trolling and hacking:It is Mueller's indictments. Every time he files charges, he is very specific. He tells us that at least three Russian agents came here in 2014, to infiltrate and explore and set up the trolling, visiting various cities and states in the process. Mueller is very specific. All people have to do is read the fucking indictments to see what he has on them. And if he gets this specific in his indictments, you better believe he will have the proof to back his shit up. So next time you're challenged, just tell them: " Hillary won. The election was stolen. You want proof, read the fucking indictments."

R467 10% tariffs on select Chinese exports stay. No ramp up to 25% in Jan. China agrees to buy some US agricultural products. Further talks over the next 90 days to resolve "structural" issues. So essentially, Trump blinked for now, but he only pushed the deadline further off without calling off the war.

r465....NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.

If Pence is removed or resigns, Trump gets to pick a new VP...BUT, that person has to have the approval of BOTH the House and Senate. As long as Pence doesnt leave before the next 3 weeks, we very well could be looking at a President Pelosi if the rumors are true..

[quote]If Pence has to resign, I'm afraid he'll be replaced with Nikki Haley which would help the Repugs in 2020 since she seems to be the media's poster girl for "normal" Repug.

I'm not sure that Dotard would get a chance.

If Pence gets indicted, you know that sloppy bottom will throw Dotard under the bus.

I'm confused by this stuff with Justice Kennedy's son... didn't we know about all of this right when he announced his retirement? I thought we discussed it.

Yes, we did. It was reported by the media, and pretty much ignored or dismissed as implausible. SURPRISE !...... Just like Trump wouldnt and couldnt conspire against the US....SURPRISE AGAIN !

R479 we did, and we did.

However, the country and Press are walking through what it is like to be in relationship with a sociopath. People are witnessing awful events, and not given time to dwell/resolve anything because Trump drags people on to the next chaotic/outrageous event. It is all about confusion and exhaustion.

This corruption is all so complicated and so evil, Mueller will probably never come to the end of it...I think he should start laying it all out for all the world to see...only a few will be able to understand what happened and it all centers around Republicans.

I believe Whitaker will be indicted before Trump. Damn Trump had to appoint another criminal to do his dirty work.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that Susan Collins is a lesbian and got married to her beard around six years ago when the rumors were getting to be accepted as fact. You can bet your bottom dollar that she is compromised in the same way Miss Lindsey is. Her votes for Kavanaugh were secured this way.

There is no way she would be re-elected - Mainers hate her now, especially moderates and independents who see that she doesn’t have a mind of her own. Hope she gets indicted, too.

I so want the NC vote tampering to lead DIRECTLY to the GOP.

[quote]You can bet your bottom dollar that she is compromised in the same way Miss Lindsey is.

There are photos of Susan Collins being spit-roasted by dildo-wearing African gladiatrixes?

It is obvious that Putin instructed Trump on what to do with our Friends in Europe, Canada, Mexico and what to do with leaders in the Middle East...all of it bad for America.

Through Trump...Putin is trying to destroy our country and he is doing it. Deplorables don't have a clue, they have been brain washed by racist for years. All these years, who has Rush, Alec Jones, McConnell been working for?

From today.

[quote] I'm confused by this stuff with Justice Kennedy's son... didn't we know about all of this right when he announced his retirement? I thought we discussed it.

Back then it was just a conspiracy theory, gossip if you will. Soon it may very well become a bombshell fact legitimized by, say, the Mueller Investigation.

[quote]Back then it was just a conspiracy theory, gossip if you will. Soon it may very well become a bombshell fact legitimized by, say, the Mueller Investigation.

Was it though? I could have sworn we knew for a fact that his son was involved with the bank.

R490 But there was no raid on Deutche Bank at that time. Knowing his son's employment at that bank was just fuel for speculations.

r490, there are plenty of isolated facts but connecting them together turned it into a theory.

The bank stuff was reported ss fact.

Then it was speculated as the reason Kennedy suddenly decided to retire and that he may have been leaned on by Trump or GOP to do that.

Maybe not only Mueller but the House Dems can nvestigate this as part of Trump's financial and tax investigation. Mueller doesn't leak but Congress leaks like a sieve.

[quote]Knowing his son's employment at that bank was just fuel for speculations.

But we didn't just know his son's employment with Deutsche Bank, we knew that his son was head of the Real Estate Division and for over 10 years oversaw over $1 Billion in loans to Dotard.

[quote] And he cultivated a relationship with Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin, who worked closely with the Trump Organization in his role at Deutsche Bank as the global head of real-estate capital markets, according to the Times.

tRump looking for long prison term with no leniency for Michael Cohen.

Can you imagine needing protection FROM the potus ??

[quote]“’I will never testify against Trump,'” the president wrote on Twitter. “This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about ‘President Trump.’

Yes, it's not as though Stone persistently trumpeted a fake narrative about Trump's place of birth, to undermine his claims to being President. Without being 'forced' by any 'rogue' prosecutor.

Totally love by the way that Trump refers to himself in the third person - using inverted commas! As many of us on DL always have, to re-emphasise - so as never to forget - his comprehensive illegitimacy. Deep down, not that there's much depth, Trump knows he's one of the biggest jokes in history.

[quote] “’I will never testify against Trump,'”

When I come across statements like this one from the likes of Roger Stone I assume that he's singing like a canary to Mueller to save his own skin.

Not specifically related to the Mueller theme here but it was recently reported that Baby Huey will not be speaking at George H.W. Bush funeral service at the Washington Cathedral on Wednesday. Hurray! I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't show at all and sends his mold injected wife Malaria to represent the White House.

Really, I mean why attend if you're not wanted?

Trump doesn't even do the minimum that is required of him. Attending a funeral? A funeral he's invited to? I would bet good money that he's not going and rather goes golfing instead or using the latest PR stunt as excuse for not showing up.

What is Jerome Corsi’s Ph.D in? Gout?

[quote]What is Jerome Corsi’s Ph.D in?

The toilet.

[quote]What is Jerome Corsi’s Ph.D in?

Historical fiction.

If Pence were smart he would 25th Amendment Trump today and not wait another second. He's not smart, though. He has much less liability as president than VP if he gets caught in Mueller's web. Trump's tweets just from today are prime evidence that Trump has lost his mind.

I heard a rumor that Justice Kennedy's son is a target at this point. I think he's either cooperating or a target. There's no avoiding the fallout from the Deutsch Bank crap.

Didn't Kennedy's son - via his role at Deutsch Bank - lend money to Kushner as well for that 666 Fifth Avenue near-debacle?

R501, Babs is controlling things from the grave, and the all heavenly creatures will rejoice (if Trumpet does not attend).

Can you feel in your body the horrible tension of actually caring about the funeral's protagonist, and sitting there with T-Rump in his smug little bubble of vile, waiting to unleash his most hideously horrible speech yet? Then, imagine Treason pouting and watching Fox news safely ensconced at Mar-a-Lago, devouring scoops of chocolate ice cream. The air will clear, and many prayers will be answered.

Today Trump urging Stone not to talk to Mueller = witness tampering, shameless.

R495 Just to spite Trump, I hope Michael Cohen gets the lightest sentence possible and then time off for good behavior.

He is obstructing justice right in plain sight.

Exactly, R510.

r510. We don't care!

Republicans are now pressuring NC election board to certify the vote for NC09.....despite uncovering obvious voter fraud...by the republicans.

Allegedly, Harris, the Republican candidate in NC09, secretly employed a 9th District official, and promised to pay her a $40,000 bonus if he won.

Harris is a Baptist minister. Of course he is.

Does the GOP not recognize the dangerous precedent they’re setting by just ignoring swaths of the Constitution that Trump just doesn’t feel apply to him? Such as the Emoluments Clause?

If Pence resigns, would Trump be allowed to make a recess VP appointment, or whatever he did with the AG position?

NO r516

Why should they care, R515? They know they get away with everything.

R515 the Good Lord sent Donald J Trump to save us and to stand up for our faith!

We don't care about the Manafort Clause because he'll get a pardon and if that's what Trump wants then that's A-OK with us.

Jesus and Trump have brung us to it, and they'll ride us through it! MAGA!

[quote] “I think what everyone is getting at, is that under Donald Trump, the office of Presidency has been debased in a way that is unimaginable for people who served every past President.”

Nicole Wallace just now.

I believe strongly, and I may be naive here, that one great president will restore the presidencies reputation very quickly.

I believe that, too. It isn’t just the out of sight indignities Trump has wrought, it’s administration full of Deplorables and grifters. No Democratic successor would do anything like that. I really believe that.

After Nixon, the country was so disgusted that it chose Carter, a man who stated that he would never lie to the public. Imagine that! Trump lies multiple times a day! Anyway, we might therefore exit to see a Candidate who is the polar opposite of Trump . Who might that be?

Jerry Brown?

Amy Clovershire?

Hillary?

What do you think, for polar opposite?

"that one great president will restore the presidencies reputation very quickly."

By the time Trump is done with it a trained monkey will be able to restore it.

This is why everyone is clinging to GHWB's reputation for decency. Apart from the masses' gullibility and the press's fawning over rich white people who occasionally act with noblesse-oblige, no matter how many needless wars they start for their own gain, everyone's desperate for an antitype to Trump's complete indecency.

[quote]He is obstructing justice right in plain sight.

AND he's eating a meat ball sandwich!

[quote]everyone's desperate for an antitype to Trump's complete indecency.

But Drumpf was the solution for all the indecency in politics!!!!

And it should have been "Presidency's." I apologize. But I still believe. But I'm not Pollyanna here. My other dream is that little Arabella, Theodore and Joseph Kushner have their little noses pressed against their Georgetown townhouse window, tears streaming down their faces wailing, "Mommy, Daddy, where are the policemen taking you?"

[quote]"Mommy, Daddy, where are the policemen taking you?"

They are going to a farm in the country. Where they will lots of room to run and play.

Bless the beasts and their children.

Top story.

This is what they're like.

Of course its witness tampering... so is being in communication with the witnesses. No one seems to do a damn thing about it.

I mean, he was initially being investigated for obstruction of justice --- and then admitted it in an interview... and apparently we're still hearing, "no obstruction."

"Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors have told defense lawyers in recent weeks that they are 'tying up loose ends' in their investigation, providing the clearest clues yet that the long-running probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election may be coming to its climax, potentially in the next few weeks, according to multiple sources close to the matter."

Where is KAC these days?

BREAKING: A Flynn sentencing memo will be submitted by Mueller tomorrow, and memos on Manafort and Cohen will be submitted by Mueller on Friday. These memos should expose details on how much they’ve cooperated, and could reveal crimes and storylines that haven’t been made public.

R535, who's KAC?

Have you bitches already forgotten about me?

R539

Smelly-Ann-Cuntway

Maybe some plastic surgery? Maybe her husband finally killed or?

What's with all the wonk eyes in the WH?

^^^^^^^ ‘finally killed her’

Andy Dick can play KAC in the movie.

R542 Eyes are the windows to the soul, so ...

r535, I feel your KAC pain as her name is Kellyannne Conway. The A would not be raised to a middle name.

And this one:

Setting aside the potential Obstruction of Justice issues raised by the below tweet by @POTUS, what it tells me is that @realDonaldTrump fears the testimony of Roger Stone.

Oh, and on Jan 3, Democrats in the House control subpoena power.

#MondayMotivation

She's been known as KAC from the start.

Emoluments, too? Mueller AND the NY investigation into the foundation, AND a democratic house. Do they honestly think they can breeze through this like it's tearing down Bonwit's or not paying the tile guy?

Meghan McCain is such a stupid bitch for insisting that Trump will be re-elected. No fucking way will he survive this shitstorm.

What do you expect from MEMEMEgan? She loves him.

R552 Agreed. Springsteen is also saying this. Odd.

To the person upthread who said that someone would come along and restore the Presidency to its glory. It won't happen obviously, but wouldn't it be fucking something if it did turn out to be HRC.

Maybe Hillary could be Secretary of State again in 2021.

Next Democratic President should make Hillary AG.

Where has Rudy been?

In a casket filled with the soil of his homeland

Ruby Julie in chorschpittle for tritmentz of denchoor oodor.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Obama could run again in 2020, yes? I thin k the term limits only apply to consecutive terms.

Are you pretty, R562? I certainly hope so...for your own sake!

We've discussed our guesses that there are compromising photos of Ms. Graham being plowed by African-Americans and Muslims... I would also bet that Stephen Miller has a penchant for swordfights in his mouth with undocumented Mexicans.

Yes, R562 that is why in 2020 Bill Clinton and Dubya will both be running.

R562 please tell me you're a troll.

I can see Miller picking up Day Laborers from the Home Depot.

I hate Miller as much as the next person, but do we have the slightest evidence that he is gay? Or is all this just speculation?

R562, no, the President can serve 2 terms only.

I think, if a VP is elevated to the presidency with less than two years left, he can run two more times, making his presidency last for up to 10 years total.

22nd Amendment

Something about Miller screams closeted.

R528, I was just daydreaming about Ivanka tearfully pleading to a judge that she just couldn't be sent to prison-it would just destroy her young children-little Gwendolyne, Don the 3rd, and whatever that other one is.

But I'm really betting she's going to try to get pregnant again when the shit really hits the fan. They wouldn't send a pretty, pregnant girl to the big house, would they?

God, it'd be hilarious if she was knocked up and still got sent to the slammer.

R572, Something in his closet is screaming.

Ivanka is trash.

How is Law School going for Tiffany? She must almost be done!

"The other one?"

The one she dumped a week after it was born to go quick grab cash from Wendy Deng.

I'm not saying Obama SHOULD run again, or WOULD.

He's made is blazingly clear he's done with politics. As has Michelle.

Just curious if the Constitution had that window open.

Nine working days left for Congress. Well, eight days and a paid day off (Wednesday). Seven days and a paid day off for the Senate.

No, R579. It's pretty common knowledge that they get 2 terms and that's that.

Link to new thread for when this one maxes out.

[quote]But I'm really betting she's going to try to get pregnant again when the shit really hits the fan.

Back in the day, we called that "pleading the belly".

One of Ivanka's kids is named after her dad?

I would still love to see Jared be the one that gets Ivanka indicted to save his own ass.

Who was the person saying that it was reported Melania might be pregnant? Never saw that anywhere.

I'd still prefer to see Daddy kick her ass out the car in an effort to save himself.

Link to new thread for when this maxes out.

Speaking of Jared’s ass...I wonder if he can take all the big cock he’s gonna get in prison

I googled the correct names of Ivanka's children for my fantasy. Someone else with greate whimsey ascribed other names. Donald Trump Jr has Donald III.

As for Jared taking big dick, he seems to do it well at Harvard.

CNN’s Gloria Borger!!!

Lay off the fucking Red Bull, and stop jumping on other commentors words while they are speaking! What’s going on with her lately? She’s acting nuttier than Trump. Wait your turn lady.

Ditto Don Jr., R589. I'll let Bette speak for me.

^^^^^^^^^ ‘commentators’

Link to new thread.

Closing

this

thread

Out

Link to new thread.

New thread below:

R564 LOL! Hilarious.