It was another bad week for the forces of Deep State with worse to come on the horizon as we prepare for the IG report. First, it’s become fully obvious to almost everyone that SC Bob Mueller has no idea what he’s looking for, but whatever it is, he’s convinced it’s hidden up Paul Manafort’s ass.
If this is June, it must be time to indict Paul Manafort again. The clock is ticking, and the tic-tocs are getting louder.
Robert Mueller is clearly feeling the hot breath of public impatience on the back of his neck. He was the great black-and-white hope for bringing down Donald Trump, and a year later the president is still not in prison stripes. Mr. Mueller has indicted Paul Manafort twice, and threatens now to jail him for tampering with a witness.
…
Direct evidence of witness-tampering against Mr. Manafort, in Prof. Rosenzweig’s telling, is mostly vapor. “Saying ‘we should talk’ is hardly the stuff that true witness-tampering charges are made of. More to the point, if the entire conversation in which Manafort participated lasted for less than a minute and a half, he would have to be a very, very fast talker to have accomplished anything.”
Whatever Manafort has or hasn’t done, the clear exasperation he’s given Mueller over his refusals to plea to the litany of charges brought against him and determination to fight back on all possible fronts is marvelous. Mueller honestly doesn’t seem to know how to handle it when this happens after it worked so well on General Flynn and Martha Stewart.
Team Deep State was further shaken when it was revealed that James Wolfe had been leaking classified information to the media, including a Buzzfeed reporter he was screwing.
Court documents describe Mr. Wolfe’s communications with four reporters — including Ms. Watkins — using encrypted messaging applications. It appeared that the F.B.I. was investigating how Ms. Watkins learned that Russian spies in 2013 had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump foreign policy adviser. She published an article for BuzzFeed News on April 3, 2017, about the attempted recruitment of Mr. Page in which he confirmed the contacts.
Sessions wasn’t kidding about deploying a Leak Posse, was he? The reason I say it’s bad for the Deep State is that the selective leaking of damaging information to a tame media has long been one of its primary power sources. The Strzok/Page texts also heavily emphasize this partnership. Until this dynamic is broken by aggressively hunting and prosecuting officials who abuse their positions of trust, the swamp won’t be drained. Whether or not the First Amendment will survive the war is another concern.
Buzzfeed appears to have been aware of the relationship in this case too, which raises a number of other ethical questions. Not that Buzzfeed has any ethics.
Where is #MeToo on this?
Oh, and accused leaker Andy McCabe has been begging for immunity, according to, er, a leak (later confirmed by his lawyer). Good take from Andrew McCarthy.
If McCabe was being candid with the Post’s readers, then it is hard to understand how he can now represent that truthful answers to the Judiciary Committee’s questions could incriminate him. More likely, McCabe is trying to make himself non-prosecutable.
Fuck McCabe. No.
So here we are, over two years into all of the opposition’s best efforts at surveillance and shakedowns of Trump’s associates and it has yielded nothing but prosecutions for either unrelated or incidental crimes, indictments for some Russians who won’t ever be brought to court and even if they were it is unlikely they’d be convicted, and the noose is now slowly closing in on the FBI and DOJ officials who were the true colluders in the 2016 election. The Resistance has let its imaginations (and news coverage) run wild with conspiracy theories for since Inauguration Day. All they can do is wonder why the Blue Wave is evaporating.
In that vein, here’s a good non-scandalous view on that.
The three-legged stool of the new Republican majority is a pro-citizen immigration policy, a pro-worker economic policy and a foreign policy that rejects moral imperialism and its concomitant foreign wars. John Adams described just such a foreign policy when he wrote that America is “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” but “the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
Giving up on a failed policy of moral imperialism allows Republicans to focus on forming good citizens and restoring a sense of Americanism that relies upon strong ties of fellowship and belief in a shared destiny. To that end, our candidates would be well advised to ignore strategists and consultants who talk exclusively in terms of messaging tailored to statistical constructs like “disaffected Democrats with some college” or “married suburban men who drive S.U.V.s.” When it comes to politics, most people don’t want to be addressed as members of a demographic group looking for a payoff. They want to be addressed as Americans.
That’s not to say that the author didn’t mention how badly the Trump Collusion myth-mongering has backfired.
At some point, the combination of scandal fatigue — there is almost no crime of which Mr. Trump is not regularly accused — and the continuing revelations of improprieties by government officials (in the F.B.I., at the Department of Justice and elsewhere) will lead voters to believe that Mr. Trump got a raw deal.
This is probably the one article cited in this post I would recommend reading in full.
With the accusations about colluding with Russia fading away, Trump is now free to pursue a foreign policy that benefits Russia.
President Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on his call for Russia to be readmitted into the G7 and blamed his predecessor for Russia’s aggression in Crimea.
I have a few points on this.
The first is that I think it should be understood that there’s no way this should be done without some conditions.
This actually isn’t the first time this idea has been suggested, though it was tied to Russia leaving Syria rather than the Crimea.
That leads to my second point. Putin isn’t giving up the Crimea under any circumstances. It’s gone. The Crimea is so crucial to Russian security interests that there is absolutely nothing they would negotiate in return for it.
Nothing short of war will get them out and we’re not doing that, no way. We’ll have to find other concessions for Russia to give up in exchange for G-7 readmittance because anyone who thinks Russia can or even will give up the Crimea is fighting reality.
Last one: criticizing Obama for “letting” Putin take the Crimea is an unfair cheap shot. There wasn’t anything he could have done, again, short of starting off World War III.
All that said, is Trump right about letting Russia back into the G-7? Sure, I think so. As I’ve said before, Russia isn’t our problem. It’s Europe’s and especially the economic order that Germany desperately wants to maintain. If there’s one thing that should be absolutely clear to the Germans, Poles, French, and the rest it’s that the United States has no interest spending billions of dollars and waging stupid wars for their benefit anymore.
One way or another, Europe needs to learn how to live next to Russia again. I recommend they get lots more troops and tanks of their own if they want to keep a hostile relationship in place since they won’t have ours. Alternatively, they could pursue economic incentives to keep the peace.
Economic bonds between us and Russia are better, not worse for our own security. Also, I really don’t want Putin to release the piss tape.
I could go on and on about Trump’s trolling of the G-7, but it really deserves its own post. Maybe I’ll get on that later.
Speaking of negotiations, will we one day remember when Dennis Rodman was the great mediator who ended the Korean War?
This was suggested seriously by Scott Adams months ago, when he remarked that Rodman was the only person in the world who happens to be friends with both Trump and Kim.
Adams often says that we’re living in a simulation. This may be the turn of events that has sold me on the idea.
That’s about all I have for the moment. There was more, but I have other things to do. We’ll pick it up in the comments.
Oh, hey. The comments. Did anybody notice this?
I added a plugin that lets everyone upload photos into comments so we can just start throwing memes at each other instead of all that tedious typing out of well-thought-out arguments. Have fun with it, but post no porn. I’m trying to keep RVS on good terms with everybody’s corporate IT departments.
I’m off to officiate a tennis event for the day but I must say that I find your attitude about Russia curious. Yes, Obama did not let Russia steal Crimea but there is no denying that the world still looks to the US for global leadership and his ,”Well, that was not a nice thing to do, when is my Tee time again?” attitude did not help. You say Russia needs to make concessions for this theft, what did you have in mind? How about getting out of Syria all together, a promise to quit destabilizing Ukraine, The Baltic’s, and… Read more »
You say Russia needs to make concessions for this theft, what did you have in mind? We should focus on those areas where our interests are threatened. Emphasis on “ours” rather than Europe’s. Going down the list… How about getting out of Syria all together I’m against it. The Russians are helping Assad win, which I think is the best outcome at the moment. Besides, the Russians being the ones Assad is beholden to gives them leverage to manage Iran after the civil war ends. a promise to quit destabilizing Ukraine, The Baltic’s, and The Balkans The Balkans are probably… Read more »
I’m not sure where I fit, but just to play a little devil’s advocate.
Who cares? The Nazi’s will fight a war over Austria/Poland/Denmark/Norway/Belgium/France. Will we? We shouldn’t be interested. It doesn’t affect us at all.
Should we be expanding NATO to include Ukraine? Ukraine is a sovereign state free to join any alliances it wants but in it’s current state I would be against it. They are in a shooting war (not of their choosing) with Russia so from day one we would be facing an Article 5 contingency, not very appetizing. NATO is an alliance of shared values as well as interests, if Ukraine begins to embrace these shared ideals, extricate itself from unsavory conflicts, builds up it’s military and pledges to uphold the 2% standard for defense spending that all the members agreed… Read more »
Well, speaking of memes:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/06/08/european-copyright-law-will-result-meme-ban-campaigners-warn/
It must really suck being Jeff Sessions:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/08/donald-trump-likely-support-bill-end-federal-pot-ban-cory-gardner-elizabeth-warren/685997002/
Sorry, Bernie:
https://pjmedia.com/trending/dnc-hamstrings-bernie-sanderss-2020-run/
The one that says it all:
Not to defend Nazi aggression but the way the Western allies treated Germany post-WWI by devastating its economy and separating it from its lost territories led directly to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. You can’t humiliate and devastate a nation economically and weaken its core security interests without expecting them to do something about it.
I don’t really care one way or the other, but I don’t think Western Europe is doing that now. But they were prior to the Crimean takeover. Russia could justifiably claim that it was protecting its own interests by annexing Crimea. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West. At the same time, the EU’s expansion eastward and the… Read more »
Robert DeNiro goes off on Trump:
https://variety.com/2018/legit/news/robert-de-niro-slams-trump-at-the-tonys-f-trump-1202839957/
Testing..
Non-political story here. What in the fresh hell does IHOP think it’s doing? https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/11/ihop-isnt-changing-its-name-its-just-promoting-its-new-line-of-burgers.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain This is a terrible idea. Nobody is going to start taking lunch at IHOP if what they’re primarily offering are hamburgers. It’s an unhealthy option, you can get a decent burger cheaper at other franchises, and people with short lunch breaks aren’t going to want to go to a sit-down restaurant for them. IHOP isn’t even in the top twenty of restaurants I would consider for lunch and I have two within 15 minutes of my house. Honestly, they ought to focus on breakfast food and… Read more »
I had a bigger problem with the idiot presenter…or maybe it was a winner, who talked about them being the moral compass of the country. Right.
Seriously? That’s teeth-gnashingly asinine considering Hollywood’s problems with endemic child sexual abuse, mistreatment of female actors from being used as Weinstein’s cum sock to a very real earnings gap, drug and alcohol abuse, and totally unconcealed contempt for those of us they feel the need to constantly preach at.
https://youtu.be/stg9O76W9vo?t=1m12s
I find it ironic that she would say that considering the dress she’s wearing. Eww.
ON Russia. The Ukraine has historically been Russia’s bitch for the last 300 some years. By now a very large segment of the population has direct Russian heritage, thanks to very deliberate programs enacted by the early SU leadership. Once the SU broke up, it was widely considered that Russia would move heaven and earth to reintegrate the Ukraine back into mother Russias bosom. And that is exactly what is happening, the inertia of previous events pushes Russia to do just that. They have legitimate security issues there, and Pushing NATO further and further east exasperates the situation, and Putin… Read more »
wow those are some saggy tits.
Maybe he is doing that just too piss Sesesions off, or just to see if hes really awake over there at Justice.
https://twitter.com/EmmyA2/status/1006307456396361735
They self identify as a burger joint today. Maybe tomorrow they will feel more like a salad joint. We should celebrate their courage and stand with them.
re: Russia Grendel, you’re spot-on about Russia. They couldn’t take and hold Ukraine if they wanted to even without NATO involvement. The Baltics definitely wouldn’t be worth the effort. I subscribe to the view that the Russians are in deep decline, economically and demographically, and that the reason they’ve been taking these wild risks and acting like they have nothing to lose is that they don’t. Here’s a piece I’d like your opinion on. It says that Putin is going to have to choose whether Russia ultimately becomes China’s or the West’s bitch in the next decade. https://tsarizm.com/analysis/2018/06/10/the-hi-tech-traditionalist-the-g6-will-be-brought-to-heel-it-will-be-fun-to-watch/ Trump’s push… Read more »
Or he’s looking at grabbing the youth vote and increasing his share of the black vote in 2020.
Burger King has reached Wendy’s-tier Twitter-fu.
Ha!
https://twitter.com/Wendys/status/1006195572590641152
https://twitter.com/Wendys/status/1006195937839144961
Damn! And just like that, Wendy’s turns up the dial.
Their social media team are a bunch of savages. I think they all have coffee mugs made out of human skulls and mouse pads bound in flesh.
They are savage.
We have nothing they want nor do they have anything we want. Then why the big push to readmit them back into the G-7 except to stick his big thumb in the eye of Europe and insult them needlessly? See, this is one of the few areas I think we disagree, being provocative for it’s own sake is dumb. Trump’s G-8 intervention is a gratuitous swipe at our allies (which Russia is not) that plays into right in to Putin’s strategy to divide the U.S. and Europe, and for what gain? The reason Russia got booted out of the G-7… Read more »
Then why the big push to readmit them back into the G-7 except to stick his big thumb in the eye of Europe and insult them needlessly? It’s not needless. That’s “Trump is a Cartoon Villain” thinking. Even our allies are economic competitors and it’s rational to believe that Russia should be allowed to participate. Especially since our European allies demand that we protect them from Russia even as they buy its energy cheap. You’re so in love with doing the bidding of other countries for free and I don’t get it. Russia is just another country and a dying… Read more »
Even our allies are economic competitors and it’s rational to believe that Russia should be allowed to participate. Russia got booted out of the G-7 because they are thieves, Trump wants them back in because why, just to be contrary? Russia can forge any trade agreements it likes, but there are consequences to their lawless act, no G-7 for them. Especially since our European allies demand that we protect them from Russia even as they buy its energy cheap. OK, so you want the US out NATO immediately, is that right? You’re so in love with doing the bidding of… Read more »
Trump wants them back in because why, just to be contrary? Because they’re an economic counter to the EU, a military counter to China, a potential partner in the post-Syrian Civil War, and possibly an aide to ensuring North Korean cooperation. Letting them in the G7 costs us nothing and in return, we benefit. The ONLY reason not to do it is that it hurts Angela Merkel’s feelings. OK, so you want the US out NATO immediately, is that right? Yes, NATO has outlived its purpose and isn’t necessary. If the Europeans want to contain Russia, they’re strong enough to… Read more »
You are in favor of continuing the post-Cold War policy of using American economic and military power to further the interests of other countries over your own. No even close to what I said. Until Trump takes your call and gets us out of NATO we have an obligation to stand with the other NATO members, Russia is not part of that crowd, we have no obligation to them whatsoever. Russia is a criminal state, if you want to do their bidding by lobbying G-7 partners to include Russia, over the wishes of real democracies that have been our partners… Read more »
Until Trump takes your call and gets us out of NATO we have an obligation to stand with the other NATO members, This is true, but we could certainly negotiate with the Russians and convince them to stop all military activity in Ukraine in exchange for an agreement that Ukraine will never be admitted to NATO or the EU. Let’s at least address what’s driving this conflict instead of piddling around. if you want to do their bidding by lobbying G-7 partners to include Russia Only one of us is placing the interests of other countries above his own. And… Read more »
This is true, but we could certainly negotiate with the Russians and convince them to stop all military activity in Ukraine in exchange for an agreement that Ukraine will never be admitted to NATO or the EU But this is a squabble between 2 countries, none of which are ours, you’ve been telling me for the last 3 comments now that we should not be involved in the affairs of other nations, period. Now you want to negotiate. So a foreign country invades another foreign country and illegally annexes land that does not belong to them, and you want to… Read more »
But this is a squabble between 2 countries, none of which are ours, you’ve been telling me for the last 3 comments now that we should not be involved in the affairs of other nations, period. Now you want to negotiate. I never made a blanket statement that we shouldn’t be involved with the affairs of other nations. Only that it should serve our national interests or be consistent with our own carefully chosen obligations when we do. And yes, the US by itself can block a country from joining NATO. Except that we are not king of NATO, we… Read more »
on that story. Russia is more than likely doomed, some time after Putin pases, Their biurth rate for ethnic Russian is in the crapper, adn they way to much land tro secure with a dodgy military and constricting budget. Which is massively effected by the price of oil, and now by US fracking…heh., There is a old saw about “their power is waning,: ect ect ect./. For Russia this is true. At some point they are gonna have to decide whom they rather ally with the Asian powers, which Russia has traditionally “as they see it” been the guardian of… Read more »
Very true. The answer to the question, “Why are the Russians acting like they have nothing to lose?” is that they don’t. Each year that goes by, they have fewer men of military age to send off for adventures in Syria and Ukraine. If Putin can’t expand his borders now, Russia won’t be able to any time this century.