I went out to an adult Halloween costume party last night, so I didn’t spend a lot of time on the open post this week. This one’s going to be fairly bare-bones. What did I go as, you may ask? Ash Williams, of course. Again. I did it last year too. Pretty easy costume to put together.
The biggest news this week was the backlash against Special Counsel Bob Mueller over Uranium One and the revelations that the Fusion GPS/Steele Dossier was paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has called for Mueller to step down over his perceived conflict-of-interest in previously covering up Clinton scandals. Mueller responded to this devastating week by totally-not-coincidentally letting it slip out that someone is going to be arrested on Monday. That this information even leaked is a felony, but nobody cares. That indictments are finally coming down probably isn’t any sort of sinister timing on Mueller’s part though. Trump’s lawyer stated back in August that he expected Mueller’s investigation to wrap up before Thanksgiving.
We get to spend the entire weekend wondering who is being indicted and for what. Based on my social media crowdsourcing techniques, the conventional wisdom is going with “Paul Manafort, for Money Laundering, in the Study, with the Rope.” Manafort’s lawyer says he’s not being indicted, but then, how would he know for sure?
A question I have is whether or not the indictments will represent the end of Mueller’s investigation or whether this is just one area that’s being closed. It’s clear to me that Trump isn’t going to fire Mueller or Rosenstein. At least, I’m not seeing any signals that indicate it right now. It’s going to be allowed to play out, win or lose. Either way, it’s bound to be a week filled with outrage and bitter arguments. Good fun!
That’s all I’ve really been paying attention to, besides Stranger Things 2. Anybody watch it yet? I’m only two episodes in, so no spoilers please.
What shall we talk about? I’ll jump in when the ibuprofen takes effect.
might start my StrangerThings Marathon today..
As for Muller, he will stay,many attempt to fire him would cause HUGE backlash. Tot eh left it would e proof that Trump is dirty, and Muller is on to him. As for the conflict of interest thing… what conflict?> there is no scandal there./. nothing to see. everyone does it…….
as for teh indictments…. who knows it might be some minor infraction of banking law or lying to teh FBI. ect ect..
Well, Trumpalos gonna trumpalo I guess. Whether this can be seen as direct response to Republican cucks threatening mueller’s investigation or not, it’s coming at the conclusion of (at least thus far) months of investigations. Unlike the wide eyed Trump supporters that swallow every dumb diversion he shits out on Twitter, arms to the air, swaying and singing “Hallelujah, dear leader!” I am willing to let this event mature before I pick a camp. One thing that I did get a chuckle about happened directly after discussing the NFL anthem thing last week. As soon as Drudge could post some… Read more »
NFL ratings still dropping. Sponsors are now starting to complain to the NFL about it.
Meanwhile, World Series ratings just hit a 5 year high…interestingly where no kneeling protests are going on.
I love that people keep saying the “nfl ratings are down.” Says it all right there. Lmao If there’s any question as to the incredible amount of ignorance not only in the above statement, or the clickbait stories that confirm it to the unwashed masses, there’s also the completely unknown, unconsidered and generally ignored idea that people might actually not be watching due to the treatment of the protestors. Wait, what? No fucking way, you say! Well, who knows? There doesn’t even seem to be a measure dedicated to even entertaining this segment. Could be a factor or not a… Read more »
http://deadline.com/2017/10/dodgers-win-world-series-game-1-ratings-down-astros-fox-this-is-us-1202194362/
It’s like people don’t even fucking care about the truth. Lmao
Trump’s rise or fall will be dictated by the economy and jobs, same as most presidents. The public is annoyed by a variety of topics such as the latest Gold Star feud, the lack of any legislation on health care, and the like. But Trump has to deliver on jobs and economic growth and if he does, he’s assured easy re-election. At the moment, the outlook is promising.
That’s an interesting article of faith there because the stock market keeps setting records, gdp is 3 percent and trump’s approval rating is a lowly38 percent.
I spoke to the approval rating already. It’s the small stuff he’s getting hammered over. On the economy he looks better. Take a look at this NBC poll. Note that on his handling of the economy, his “approve” is higher than his “disapprove”. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-s-approval-rating-drops-lowest-level-yet-new-nbc-n815321 As I pointed out last week, Trump has had plenty of good news, but he keeps getting himself sucked into damaging events that dominate the news cycle. I think the polls are overstating the negatives but the reality is that Trump needs to correct his messaging. He shouldn’t be talking about anything but the economy.
Like my article being about game 4, but your article being about game 1.
Never mind that your own article was updated to say game 1 was the second most watched game 1 since 2010. It’s even in the updated headline:
You are such a toolbag, you really should read articles before posting them based on the URL.
Roger Stone is suing Twitter:
https://www.thewrap.com/exclusive-roger-stone-says-he-will/
Then tell Jeff Sessions to get off his derriere:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/29/president-donald-trump-tweets-clintonrussia-ties-investigated/
And the others involved?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/29/hill-republicans-want-more-answers-from-wasserman-schultz-podesta-about-trump-dossier-money.html
Is the Walking Dead still worth it?
revelations that the Fusion GPS/Steele Dossier was paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign. So I’m clear – what’s the scandal here? I mean is it really a surprise that the secret funder of the opposition research was Trumps opposition? Seriously, what’s the scandal? And that Tweet is disingenuous. No one is mad that Trump did oppo research. They’re mad at the allegations that Trump and a foreign Government colluded to break the law, hack into American servers, and release both true and fake information in order to influence the election in favour of what the Russian Government wanted,… Read more »
So I’m clear – what’s the scandal here? This article spells it out. Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz both privately denied to congressional Russia investigators that they had any knowledge about an arrangement to pay for opposition research on President Donald Trump, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The interviews happened before this week’s disclosure that the Clinton campaign and DNC paid for the research. Senate investigators may seek to further question the two top Democrats and dig deeper on the origins of the so-called Trump dossier, one… Read more »
Ah ok – so the scandal is lying to congress, not hiring Fusion GPS.
If it’s discovered that Clinton and Podesta did lie to congress, they should be charged.
But it doesn’t in any way change the situation. We’d be in the same place if Bruce Campbell had paid for the firm, and then lied about it. It changes no games.
Zurvan, you’re so incapable of grasping any of this I honestly debate to myself whether I’m just picking on someone mentally inferior. You posted game 4 ratings OF THE FUCKING FINALS of a different sport, taking the care of an albatross landing to avoid comparing the ratings sport to sport, regular season vs. post season, hell not even year over year. I’m between you being deliberately dishonest about the article I posted stating that the ratings, year over year for this event have fallen, or if you just skimmed the srticle looking for an ounce of information that didn’t make… Read more »
If it’s discovered that Clinton and Podesta did lie to congress, they should be charged. It’s not just that. The FBI used the dossier and apparently claimed that it was its own investigative work when submitting it as evidence for a FISA warrant. CIA Director Brennan said as much. Basically, the Democrats paid a firm to gather intelligence on Trump partly by colluding with the Kremlin and then got the FBI to use that intelligence to try to prove that Trump was colluding with Russia. It also looks bad that they tried to hide the payments from the FEC. And… Read more »
I just finished watching Stranger Things 2.
I’ll admit it: I was very skeptical that it would be on par with Season 1. I thought they got lucky and couldn’t possibly do it again. I was so very, very wrong and will never again doubt the Duffer Brothers. It was fantastic. Highly recommended.
Hey, JDPS, remember how we were talking about the crazy trails the JFK investigation followed a few days ago offline?
Did you see that Hitler apparently escaped Berlin?
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/655755/Nazi-Conspiracy-Adolf-Hitler-Alive-Argentina-CIA-Files-Open-Declassified-World-War-2-Reich
How so?
I’m sorry, I don’t speak idiot. Perhaps you could attempt English every now and then. It would make things easier for everyone.
As for the rest of it, it’s hardly my fault you didn’t read your own link showing ratings were the second highest since 2010 for game 1, you buffoon.
How so? That’s where the intel purportedly came from. Mr. Steele makes clear that his unproven charges came almost exclusively from sources linked to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He identified his sources as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure,” a former “top level Russian intelligence officer active inside the Kremlin,” a “senior Kremlin official” and a “senior Russian government official.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/democrats-spread-false-russian-information-on-trum/ Let’s recap this once more. The Trump/Russia narrative started with the Democrats secretly (and possibly illegally) paying a contractor millions of dollars to harvest opposition research from the Russians. Remember back when doing this was a… Read more »
Good game between the Dodgers and the Astros, now this is what sports is supposed to be like, not about overpaid SJWs.
Kevin Spacey comes out of the closet:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/kevin-spacey-gay-article-1.3598122
So does Spacey’s past behavior mean we shouldn’t watch House of Cards or any of his other performances anymore?
harvest opposition research from the Russians. Um – see this is a different perspective thing again. Steele is a spy. If he gets information about Russians, of course he gets it from Russian sources. Where do you think he’d go to get information on Trump/Russia? Jamaica? Or do we think that Judi Dench was colluding with Bloveld by getting Bond to spy on him? Did CNN get the story because they were colluding with congress? Austin Powers was colluding with Dr Evil all this time! What exactly do you think the grand Clinton plan was anyway. Call up the old… Read more »
Sure enough, it’s Manafort…and Rick Gates (who?). This seems to be unrelated to the 2016 campaign. Now what?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/paul-manafort-indicted.html
But if it’s just good old research, it’s all good. Dirty Washington politics, but nothing that doesn’t happen everywhere. Okay, let me see if anything has changed since the last time we discussed opposition research Donald Trump Jr met with a Russian who requested a meeting to provide him with opposition research on Hillary Clinoton. He offered nothing to her and received nothing from her. You thought that was unusual. By contrast, the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid millions of dollars for opposition research into Trump, denied that they paid for it, and appear to have broken the law… Read more »
The more interesting case, being overshadowed by Manafort is the now-unsealed guilty plea and cooperation by George Papadopolous. He worked on Trump’s campaign as a foreign policy adviser. Indictment on him is here: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4163402/Papadopoulos-Statement-Offense.pdf It looks similar to the DJT Jr meeting, honestly. A Russian claimed to have dirt on HRC and started working on Papadopolous to get a higher-level meeting. Some might call it “good old research” but Papadopolous appears to have lied to the FBI about certain details of his relationship with the Russian guy. It comes back again to Russians actively trying to get an “in” with… Read more »
And not only that they did opp research, but said made up and uncorroborated information was used as THE basis for FISA warrants by the Obama administration and then ultimately a special counsel.
I mean, surely that would give anyone pause as to how far and illegal this activity should be. It’s one thing to use this to get dirt, it’s another to create false accusations to then be used to open investigations into opposing campaigns and parties.
Is Tony Podesta next? This does give some credence to what Tucker Carlson was saying last week.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/tony-podesta-stepping-down-from-lobbying-giant-amid-mueller-probe-244314
And now Nancy Pelosi wants another Russian investigation to investigate the Russian investigation that was launched from the Russian investigation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/30/nancy-pelosi-calls-additional-fully-independent-in/
Hmm:
https://lawnewz.com/high-profile/mueller-teams-apparent-mistake-could-really-really-hurt-their-case-against-manafort/
Firstly – if those two things are the same, then I’m not sure why YOU think it’s a scandal. Because: if the Russians had some valid information about the Clinton campaign, I wouldn’t care what the source is. Only whether or not it was true. Pee. Tape. 🙂 Secondly, I don’t equate those two things. The suspicion in the Trump/Russia scandal is that the Trump Team actively worked with the Russian Government to hack into the DNCs emails, coordinate the leaking of them through Wikileaks and to help them spread disinformation to the most effective areas. The Trump team denies… Read more »
But that was a lie Pardon me, but The suspicion in the Trump/Russia scandal is that the Trump Team actively worked with the Russian Government to hack into the DNCs emails, coordinate the leaking of them through Wikileaks and to help them spread disinformation to the most effective areas. This is not a lie. No evidence has ever come out of any of that happening. Trump Jr. being duped into a meeting regarding opposition research that turned out to be nothing of the sort isn’t even in the same sport as your statement above. If they lied about never meeting… Read more »
Firstly – if those two things are the same, then I’m not sure why YOU think it’s a scandal. It’s a scandal because: 1. The DNC and Clinton campaign attempted to conceal their payments to Fusion GPS from the FEC, thus breaking the law. 2. The dossier was used to justify wiretapping the Trump campaign by Obama’s CIA and Justice Department, despite the fact that we know some of it was definitely fabricated. If you don’t see why either of those is problematic, I don’t know what else to tell you. If you want to twist yourself into knots trying… Read more »
Couple of more things I’d like to discuss.
First, I haven’t seen it being discussed very much that Mueller threw the book at Manafort and Manafort plead “not guilty.” I remember a lot of speculation about whether Manafort would flip and become a witness against Trump. That clearly hasn’t happened. Did anyone expect that?
Second, where’s Flynn? The failure to register as a lobbyist for foreign agencies charge that Manafort and who’s-it got applies to him as well.
Worth noting that if the Trump team had actively cooperated somehow with the Russians to hack and release any of Clinton’s emails at any point in the campaign, they would hardly need to have a minor player like Papadopolous futilely trying to arrange meetings with fake nieces of Russian officials.
Stuff like this makes it seem less likely that there was any collusion, not more.
This is not a lie. No evidence has ever come out of any of that happening. I was referring to the fact that the Trump team said they never met any Russians. OK, maybe not a lie. How about ‘multiple lapses in memory, and confusion when filling in forms.’ The golden shower thing was made up on 4Chan and shopped out to a journalist who fell for it and it made its way into the dossier. See the smiley face next to it…. Unfortunately, me and millions of other Americans aren’t convinced that Russia hacked the DNC Probably worth investigating… Read more »
Oh.
Is that like this?
I only ask because one is a crime, and one isn’t.
Yep.
#whataboutism
But, hey, maybe it’s Wales? Maybe it’s a DNC insider, exactly as Assange and the VIPS organization has been saying. The intelligence community doesn’t KNOW. They have “high confidence” that Russians did it. That means they don’t know. They might have been able to get more certainty if it had been fully investigated but they never saw the server. They just took the DNC and Crowdstrike’s word for it that it was all Russian’d out. Nope – but you’ve got to admit, of all the Lawyers in the world for DJTJr to meet with it’s really really unlucky that this… Read more »
*The Russians had already hacked into the DNC servers in mid-2015
Again ILC, you haven’t addressed that this dossier full of fabrications and paid for by the DNC was used as THE basis for the prior administration to use wire taps etc to investigate the leading candidate of the opposition party?
Do you see no problems with this? Did the Obama team know it was all fabricated due to the fact the frickin DNC paid for it?
This is a HUGE issue that you seem unable or unwilling to address. FISA warrants etc all based on lies created by the DNC and then acting upon by the former POTUS.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/10/30/gregg-jarrett-still-no-evidence-trump-russia-collusion-but-hillary-is-different-matter.html Worth a read. But that did not stop them from accusing Donald Trump, Jr., of illegally conspiring with the Russians when he met with a Russian lawyer to obtain information on Hillary Clinton. What law did he break? None. The Federal Election Commission has made it clear that it is perfectly lawful for foreign nationals to be involved in campaigns, as long as they are not paid and do not donate money. Which brings us to Hillary Clinton. It is against the law for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to funnel millions of dollars to a… Read more »
It isn’t defined as anything except when anyone who had anything to do with the Trump campaign was so much as standing in the same room as a Russian, from what I can tell. There’s nothing wrong in just colluding in a thing. It depends what the thing is. I can collude with you to make a delicious lemon iced Victoria sponge. That’s fine. But if I colluded with you to throw 5,000 puppies off a cliff, then that’s bad. So 2 questions a) Did the Russians act to meddle in your election and b) Did the Trump team help.… Read more »
Apologies – I’m having trouble posting (I think it’s something my end though)
Again ILC, you haven’t addressed that this dossier full of fabrications and paid for by the DNC was used as THE basis for the prior administration to use wire taps etc to investigate the leading candidate of the opposition party? if the Dossier had some valid information about the Trump campaign, I wouldn’t care what the source is. Only whether or not it was true. /snark From what I understand that isn’t actually confirmed. But if it were – then it might point to the fact that there were things in the dossier that the DOJ and a FISA court… Read more »
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/mueller-manafort-gates-testimony-244339 Hate to break up the lovefest here. According to the lickspittle brigade there’s nothing to see here, and the Drudge Report assured us that this means Hillary is toast. Could be true but I found this tidbit almost unreported today but huge in unprecedented legal significance. Apparently mueller was able to convince a judge for a judicial order waiving manafort’s attorney client privilege. From everything I can understand reading about it, this is fucking huge and the burden of proof is such a high bar most judges don’t ever allow it. The inquisitive part of me thinks that this… Read more »
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/925066745408360448
Four sealed cases between the Manafort and papadopalous dockets. The mind reels!!
Is it podesta, don jr, sessions, Flynn?
But if I colluded with you to throw 5,000 puppies off a cliff, then that’s bad. Good start. Just like a) Did Thrill steal oll those puppies and throw them off a cliff and b) Did Cress help? So far, so good. Those are the right questions. You may not ‘need’ me to help me throw those puppies off a cliff, but maybe I can make you more effective. And that’s where you lose it every time. Say I have 5,000 puppies that I need to get rid of somehow because they’ve been breeding out of control. The city is… Read more »
That analogy is awesome. I absolutely wouldn’t disagree. The only difference I’d say is that you see the lack of concrete evidence presented (yet) as proof of innocence, and I don’t. Watergate took ages, yadda yadda yadda.
(By the way, this has been a real education. I’ve found researching your points online pretty tricky – when I imagine they’re right at the top of google for you…)
The inquisitive part of me thinks that this is how trump’s satellites thought they’d get away with fraud; by using the attorneys as the middle men, but it got uncovered. You do know that Manafort and what’s-his-name are being prosecuted for crimes that had absolutely nothing to do with their work on the Trump campaign, right? I’m reading your comment and I can’t help but read it any other way than that you must think it is related to Trump and Russia collusion. It’s far less than the big deal you think it is, but have fun with it. After… Read more »