Expect some GOP to be triggered by this new information about intelligence produced during Trump’s term as “…it was used by the US Justice Department to support a secret court order authorising surveillance of Carter Page” “The former MI6 spy Christopher Steele produced a second dossier for the FBI on Donald Trump while...
manafort
So much still unresolved from the Trump era installed in 2016, and continued through 2020, a Russian intelligence operation. Hard to tell whether it ranks with Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, or even Operation Pandora, the plan to foment a US race war in the 1960s, although the Trump win could...
Anand Giridharadas wrote a piece for The Atlantic asserting that Biden has been moving leftward. This may only be a short term impression only because the GOP is trying to find its way after the previous guy is gone and before he may be indicted. The real problem lies with...
The Biden administration has disclosed for the first time that a Russian agent who received internal polling data from the Trump campaign in 2016 passed it along to Russia’s intelligence services. Biden to deliver remarks on Russia at 4:30 p.m./2030 GMT https://t.co/SP3vkqtDEX — Fichman (@ukrlaa) April 15, 2021 The White...
Many times during his reign, Trump could have saved his presidency by taking moderate positions and co-opting the Democrats. He felt, however that he should obey his benefactors like a beta, whether it was the evangelicals and Russia, or Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Mike Flynn. Even in the pandemic,...
Russia targeted people close to Trump in bid to influence 2020 election, U.S. intelligence says, in an apparent reference to Rudy Giuliani. The Office of the Director for National Intelligence released an unclassified version of a classified analysis of foreign influence in the 2020 election. More obvious is the continuity from...
Trump never truly understood why Paul Manafort chose Mike Pence as his Vice President. Trump thought that Pence’s commitment to theocracy would serve Trump’s con of the evangelicals and guarantee loyalty rather than the opposite. Trump got “betrayed” by Pence because he knew Trump would never really be able to deliver a...
“Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it's marginal, right?” Trump’s pardon spree is a series of corrupt gifts, administrative vandalism on the way out of the bunker, expecting others to clear up afterwards. x Donald Trump, answering phone call from 7-year-old on Christmas Eve: “Are you...
There’s a meeting of Trump and GOP lawmakers in Gettysburg PA where they will discuss a fraud to which Rudy has yet to admit under oath in court. x Trump is expected to join his attorney Rudy Giuliani in Gettysburg, PA, Wednesday where GOP state lawmakers are holding a “hearing” on...
Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be nominated as Treasury Secretary. Remember that Trump though Mnuchin lifted some Russian sanctions during the Mueller investigation on one Russian oligarch in particular, affecting steel and aluminum tariffs. Then there was Mnuchin’s stonewalling during the impeachment. x https://t.co/drXVFNCBYs— Claudia Sahm GET MORE MONEY...
Like the counterintelligence limits of the Mueller report, there are still slender skeletons to be revealed in the corruption of US interests. Trump’s inquiry about a strike against Iran last week was not about Iran’s nuclear proliferation as much as it was part of much larger regional conflict among nuclear...
Apparently there is a Trump-Orban-Putin authoritarian alliance as well as coordination and support for the Trump re-election campaign. It did seem more inevitable that Mitt Romney would choose party over country if only to demonstrate a potential leadership position upon the repudiation of Trumpism. Apparently he can vote one way...
Prior to this reporting, very few SARs had ever been revealed. The FinCEN Files encompass more than 2,100. Will there be folks taking the easy way out after these revelations, but more importantly, will this have an effect on future prosecutions that might even involve Trump and his minions, because...
As we begin a week of pure GOP propaganda, it’s time to remind ourselves how we got here as well as remind ourselves that the GOP is still entangled with Russia as well as malign forces. With less than 100 days before the presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials are warning...
“I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos.” Trump at the Council for National Policy Recalling that Mark Burnett wanted once to have Trump arrive at an event like Hitler at the Nuremburg rallies, next week’s GOP convention should have bombast to compensate...
Russian ICU ventilators in the news is not the important aspect of a story about Alexei Navalny perhaps being poisoned before a flight. It is that one of Putin’s more public critics reminds us how it still goes to the strange connection to US sanctions and the Trump administration to Russian...
It is indeed a tough way to make a living, but our lived experience tells us that we can survive Trumpism. Even if he steals the election he will get removed. Like the Las Vegas show The Act, and the Steele report of golden showers in the Russian hotel, it...
Imagine, for a moment, if in 2008 Obama campaign manager David Plouffe had coordinated with Wiki Leaks and the Russians to infiltrate and influence the readers of America's social media apparatus. Imagine then, if Mr. Obama was caught on tape regaling his exploits of how he molested women; only to...
Strange day yesterday in the Trump presser. 142,000 Americans have died–there’s still no plan for the #TrumpVirus. Trump wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well. Trump has yet to condemn Russia for bounties on US troops. x I wish SDNY well (in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell)— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) July 22, 2020...
Today in disinformation: the plan continues to be no plan, increasing our information search-costs. The best example of that is removing as campaign manager, Brad Parscale, the real manipulator of the real and imagined 2016 data-sets in the swing-states. What is normal functioning for Trump has been disinformation, as he...
“Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.” — Mitt Romney x âÂÂThe president may have had the power to help his longtime friend. But that does not make it any less a perversion of justice...
Because he’s the angel of death, Donald Trump is pressuring schools to reopen in the face of the glowing Skeletor skull that is coronavirus. Just yesterday, Betsy DeVos, the administration’s education something-something, told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the administration is “very seriously” looking at withholding federal funds from schools that...
Aside from a provocative trip to Tulsa this afternoon, there were many naked attempts to get reelected despite all the criming going on. So many other potential crimes might get covered up by more blatant manipulations. Another Friday evening featured yet another flim-flam, this time with the prosecution of Rudy Giuliani. This...
Trump delivering a White House speech on race relations written by Stephen Miller is like faking a concussion because you’re supposed to be a hard-core member of Antifa. Trump will simply repeat all his same useless lies and proclaim again that he’s the best thing since Lincoln. The White House...
What a frightened bunch, that Fox News audience, so sensitive to racist dog whistles, because the GOP is apparently blameless for racist policies. More frightening is that “this is a moment of strong cross-racial solidarity,” and the reactionary appeals of “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” have little weight. But Carlson...
Remember that DoJ dropping charges against Flynn is being done in the context of a diversion and a pandemic. There are Mueller investigation files being unsealed. x With imminent release of #RussiaTranscripts Fox News is already spinning it as raising doubts about @RepAdamSchiff saying there was evidence of collusion. So,...
Remember that DoJ dropping charges against Flynn is being done in the context of a diversion and a pandemic. There are Mueller investigation files being unsealed. With imminent release of #RussiaTranscripts Fox News is already spinning it as raising doubts about @RepAdamSchiff saying there was evidence of collusion. So, here's...
The cover-up continues as shenanigans abound. Jessie Liu is a PoC Republican, including service on the transition committee, but she might know too much about things like the Michael Flynn and Erik Prince prosecutions, as well as the Roger Stone case. x MORE: Per a source familiar, Liu was expecting to stay...
Trial without witnesses is no trial at all. The impeachment as indictment can never be withdrawn. The constant attempts to reduce the impeachment to a civil, rather than a criminal trial, since a bribe of $391 million was at stake for a personal use of public monies in the pursuit...
The AP in a new article narrates the path of the disinformation campaign related to the lie that Ukraine is the villain of the 2016 election interference in the US. Getting past it as a lingering media frame remains as the GOP keeps propping it up. The problem remains that...
Mike Flynn gets the sentencing memorandum in the aftermath of his “assistance” to the Mueller investigation. The tune-changing, much like Paul Manafort’s results in a shift in the sentencing recommendation. THREAD: Why are federal prosecutors recommending 0 to 6 months in prison for Michael Flynn? — Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January...
Of course nothing happened when Sergey Lavrov visited Trump even if they don’t agree on whether they discussed election interference. Sometimes a picture doesn’t have to be worth a thousand words. Just a few will do. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with President Donald...
Some phrases evoke strong emotions and bring joy to life: I love you. A check arrived in the mail for you, darling. Bring the wine to the bedroom. There’s nothing wrong with the transmission, I just tightened a clamp, no charge. Look, otters! The Yankees lost again this evening. And...
Attorney General William Barr is either incompetent, stupid or lying, take your pick. Yesterday in an interview, following the release of the Inspector General’s report absolving the FBI of working in concert to keep Donald Trump from the presidency, Barr responded with the words, “I don’t know about the Ukrainians”...
One guesses that omitting Obstruction of Justice leaves it to be pursued later, in the criminal indictments elsewhere and after the 2020 election. The facts are overwhelming, regardless. This is a streamlined impeachment with a narrow focus to ensure impeachment (regardless of the GOP Senate majority). What remained from the House...
(This diary is based partly on information provided by The Daily 202 and JustSecurity). Often times a timeline is useful in sorting out a complicated story, and Bog knows the Ukraine story is a complicated mess. I’ve thought about creating several timelines, but with this morning's diaries of Trump looking...
In 2016, when President Hillary Clinton (oh I am sorry right-wing) when former candidate Hillary Clinton announced she had pneumonia, along with releasing her medical records, the Conservative smear machine sprang into action. We saw a flurry of Trump-ites, and Republican operatives tell us she had either suffered a stroke,...
Daniel Dale totals the lies so far by the one-eyed Mango King. Note that the GOP members of the House Intel committee repeated the meme of #41 during its hearings. It’s been hard to communicate just how comprehensively Trump has been lying about his Ukraine scandal. So I made a...
When asked if she felt threatened, former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch answered with a simple, “yes.” Anyone, to this point, who does not believe the President of the United States has not warranted his own Impeachment is either pouring the water, stirring in the sugar or opening the packages of...
Some civil disobedience acts are better than others, like storming a SCIF, because to Gaetz, some kayfabe stunts are more legal than others during an impeachment inquiry. On the bright side, at least Gaetz didn’t melt or burst into flames. x Gaetz wants women who threw drink at him to...
In the Tom Cruise sci-fi film version of War of the Worlds, the unstoppable aliens intent on destroying mankind was eventually killed by the earth’s polluted environment, a floating swamp so to speak. What is destroying the Trump administration is the poisonous environment he has created. Involving himself in foreign...