Secret CIA source claims Russia rigged 2016 election

Eh, I think there’s a difference between saying, “We need to do X which is literally impossible (prevent nomination of a SCOTUS justice, for instance)” and saying, “Holy shit Trump is a lunatic.”

I mean, I’ve been saying Trump was woefully unfit for office since forever.

I’ve never intended to suggest that folks should “suck it up”, but rather that their resistance to Trump should be focused on things which actually matter, which is GOTV efforts for November. That’s something which we can actually affect.

So, this seems bad.

I guess that Russia is saying that they want the US to hand over this guy to them, for interogation?

And when asked about it, Trump’s administration said…

This a test of whether DT is the president to look after all Americans or only his own. In Putin he has found a match for his own Clinton hatred, so does he frame this as an attack on the US, or make an agreement and use this to fight back against the Deep State?

Edit: @Billbrowder and @McFaul are having an active day on twitter

This seems like an attempt at whataboutism, right? We didn’t do the thing you accuse us of, but even if we had, look what these guys did. Furthermore it seems to parallel the indictment of the Russian intelligence agents last week. For what purpose, I’m not sure. Not like we intended to try and extradite those folks, I’d imagine. Had DoJ asked to interview them?

He meant starting today I’m sure.

not much info yet


Got to love how he’s willing to talk about sending them McFaul but won’t even consider anything about the indicted Russian nationals.

Here is the thing, former Sec. of State Madeline Albright,on yesterday’s Newshour, described Putin as a “very smart man, who has played a weak hand brilliantly.” The Russian people aren’t wrong to view him as a strong capable leader. Obviously, it sucks to be on the wrong side of him with prison, death or banishment. It also suck for those who belief in self-determination, democracy, gay-rights, treating people for alcoholism or HIV. The life expectancy of white middle age males has declined even more severely in Russia than in the US. Plus most all Russians are white.

Trump has been an admirer of Putin since long before the election, Scarborough taked about interview he had with him back in Dec. 2015 where he talked about what good leader the guy has. So whatever dirt or I think far more likely money he owes Putin goes back before the election.

I think George Will summarized the unknown WHY, best.

Americans elected a president who — this is a safe surmise — knew that he had more to fear from making his tax returns public than from keeping them secret. The most innocent inference is that for decades he has depended on an American weakness, susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.

The explanation is in doubt; what needs to be explained — his compliance — is not. Granted, Trump has a weak man’s banal fascination with strong men whose disdain for him is evidently unimaginable to him. And, yes, he only perfunctorily pretends to have priorities beyond personal aggrandizement. But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man.

Interesting Putin went to the wrong head of state when asked about Bill Browder.

Nice read, thanks.

This seems even worse than Trump’s comments at the press conference the other day. He discussed, in a private meeting with Putin, handling over a former ambassador to the Russians. 48 hours later the administration still hasn’t realized how fucked up that is and is still considering this “incredible deal.”

It’s all good now. He cleared it all up in the interview with CBS. He told Putin to stop it. We can relax.

I mean, essentially what Sanders is confirming is that, in a closed door session with the head of an adversarial state, the President discussed the possibility of committing treason. He’s still considering.

In other news Monday, the Trump Administration actually made it easier for Russia (and others) to meddle in US elections:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dark-money-groups-dont-need-to-disclose-donors-to-irs-treasury-says/2018/07/17/38f5d8aa-89d0-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?utm_term=.80e02f593218

Nonprofits that spend money to influence elections but are not required to disclose donors to the public — called “dark money” groups by critics — no longer need to share their donors’ names or addresses in their tax filings under a new Treasury rule announced Monday.

The Democratic National Committee has been trying and failing for months to force documents into White House adviser Jared Kushner’s hands to let him know that he is being served with a lawsuit, according to a Tuesday Bloomberg report.

The DNC sued Kushner back in April for alleged collusion with the Russians to alter the 2016 election. Since then, they have come up against a ridiculous multitude of obstacles in trying to officially deliver the notice to him.

After being rejected from his Manhattan apartment three times and from his Washington residence by the Secret Service, they finally tried to just send the documents in the mail. No dice. No one would sign for them and they got returned.

The committee reportedly asked a judge Tuesday for permission to simply mail the summons and complaint to Kushner in ordinary first class, so the package does not require a signature.

Per Bloomberg, the DNC sued Kushner alongside Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks for interference in the 2016 election.

FWIW, we did a swarm today with a group composed of 13 Democrats, 13 Republicans, and 19 independents. In that group we had 21 who voted Clinton in 2016, 17 who voted Trump, 3 who voted for someone else, and 4 who didn’t vote at all in 2016.

We showed them video of President Trump’s whole Would/Wouldn’t statement yesterday. No commentary, just the 90 second clip of him explaining that. Then we asked if they believed the president misspoke, as he said he did.

(Before the group gets to that stage of the replay, they pick a range of 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80 or 80-100. Then we drill down for an exact number.)


“Dark Money” is what’s killing democracy generally. If money=protected free speech then own up to it, goddammit.

Scalia said that it should be public information.