Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The revolution will be supervised.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The willow is too close to the house.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Trump’s Other Putin-Sponsored Adviser

Open Thread: Trump’s Other Putin-Sponsored Adviser

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Another Friday news dump. Michael Isikoff, at Yahoo News, “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin”:

U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials — including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue.

The activities of Trump adviser Carter Page, who has extensive business interests in Russia, have been discussed with senior members of Congress during recent briefings about suspected efforts by Moscow to influence the presidential election, the sources said. After one of those briefings, Senate minority leader Harry Reid wrote FBI Director James Comey, citing reports of meetings between a Trump adviser (a reference to Page) and “high ranking sanctioned individuals” in Moscow over the summer as evidence of “significant and disturbing ties” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin that needed to be investigated by the bureau…

Page is a former Merrill Lynch investment banker in Moscow who now runs a New York consulting firm, Global Energy Capital, located around the corner from Trump Tower, that specializes in oil and gas deals in Russia and other Central Asian countries. He declined repeated requests to comment for this story…

Page came to the attention of officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow several years ago when he showed up in the Russian capital during several business trips and made provocative public comments critical of U.S. policy and sympathetic to Putin. “He was pretty much a brazen apologist for anything Moscow did,” said one U.S. official who served in Russia at the time.

He hasn’t been shy about expressing those views in the U.S. as well. Last March, shorty after he was named by Trump as one of his advisers, Page told Bloomberg News he had been an adviser to, and investor in, Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company. He then blamed Obama administration sanctions — imposed as a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea — for driving down the company’s stock. “So many people who I know and have worked with have been so adversely affected by the sanctions policy,” Page said in the interview. “There’s a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for creating a better situation.”…

Donald Trump isn’t loyal to anything but his own best interests, and it’s looking more and more like Vladimir Putin has those interests in a vice grip.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    vice grip

    Technically, should be ‘vise grip’, but I think I like your version better. Much more Donald.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    The issue will be where the CI investigation goes as they work through both the Trump campaign and business organization and through the connections of the people Page met with. They are going to want to map both networks with Page as the connecting node.

  8. 8.

    Tripod

    Can I vote now? Can we vote now? Put this shit to bed. The gang that couldn’t shoot strait can’t keep the Clintons from a return engagement at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Boo-fucking-hoo.

  9. 9.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I did a series of three articles back in July, when I collected what was known about Russian connections in the Trump campaign. I’ll put links to them in a separate comment, in case they get eaten by FYWP. At that time it looked to me like Carter Page was potentially the most dangerous of the Russian-connected advisors. Manafort was more connected to Victor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president tied to the Kremlin, but Page presented a talk to Russian government officials earlier this year that he wouldn’t talk to the press about, and he’s written some borderline looney articles on the glory of Russia.

    So it’s about time he was investigated.

    I might also note that it seems odd that someone running for President of the United States has so many advisors with Russian connections.

    ETA: Whoo-hoo! Looks like the links posted at #13.

  10. 10.

    Davis X. Machina

    It doesn’t matter if Putin himself were a Trump advisor.

    “The people I hate, he hates. Hand me the ballot” is the whole of Trumpism from the voting end.

  15. 15.

    JGabriel

    Michael Isikoff @ Yahoo News:

    [Carter Page] declined repeated requests to comment for this story…

    Which makes Page, or his lawyer, smarter than pretty much everyone else associated with Trump’s campaign, though that’s obviously a pretty low bar.

    Edited to Add:

    The source added that U.S. officials in the briefings indicated that intelligence reports about the [Page’s] talks with senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin were being “actively monitored and investigated.”

    The NSA is on it?

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    I’m trying to think “what would this look like in the reverse?”, i.e., if Hillary Clinton were discovered to have a top adviser secretly working to advance a foreign adversarial power (for the financial gain of both the adviser and Clinton) like this…

    …am I the only one who thinks the Secretary would be found adorning a lamp post somewhere in the District come morning, courtesy of the Republicans? And they’d almost be right in this?

    Crazy, crazy stuff. We know about Manafort, we know about Trump’s dependency on Russian money, and now we have this. Trump supporters, save your last shred of decency and just write in Reagan or something to pass the time until 2020 or 2024. Don’t pull a Cruz here.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @Jeffro: haha Today I was explaining to my thirty something son, that there was once a serious Republican party. I’m not sure he believed me.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    The other thing is, remember how Trump – for every situation – said he’d “hire the best people”?

    Well when you’re a moron…you don’t know enough to avoid hiring NOT ONE BUT TWO PEOPLE ACTIVELY WORKING FOR A FOREIGN ADVERSARY instead of, say, THE COUNTRY YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO LEAD.

  29. 29.

    Felonius Monk

    Trump is not the shiniest marble in the jar. At some point, whether he wins the Presidency or not, he winds up floating face down in the East River.

  31. 31.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    @hovercraft: when her interview was tone she stood up and then nearly fell down. The first minute of interview with Maher was spent talking about how she was sick. That she is.

  33. 33.

    hilts

    Clueless Adam Walinksy, who served as an aide and speechwriter for Robert Kennedy, endorses Trump

    Throughout this campaign, he has said that as president, he would quickly sit down with President Putin and seek relaxation of tensions between our nations, and possible collaboration in the fight against terrorists. On this ground alone, he marks himself as greatly superior to all his competitors, earlier in the primaries and now in the general election…

    Trump marks himself as a man of singular political courage, willing to defy the hysteria of the Washington war hawks, the establishment and the mainstream media who daily describe him as virtually anti-American for daring to voice ideas and opinions at variance with their one-note devotion to war.

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/rfk-trump-2016-democratic-party-speechwriter-214270

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @JPL:

    haha Today I was explaining to my thirty something son, that there was once a serious Republican party. I’m not sure he believed me.

    Oh I bet. I know it (the GOP) is not just off the rails but in the ditch and about to be bulldozed over when I can – just for the exercise – make a better case for principled conservatism than any of my RW friends and relatives. They don’t even know where to start. All they know is Cleek’s Law.

    After Trump, they won’t even know that: instead of the “opposite of what liberals want, updated daily”, it’ll be “whatever Trump decrees, subject to change every 15 minutes”.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Did anyone see the Snooze Hour, Brooksie called Hillary a 1960s Democrat.

    That is beyond lazy on his part. He’s still on his “Democrats-have-only-identity-politics-to-offer” kick. Someone should make him go point by point over Hillary’s policy page and note that more than half of her positions specify how they help working families.

  39. 39.

    opiejeanne

    I was hoping to spot Raven tonight, to ask about his colonoscopy. I’m having one on Monday and am more than a little nervous.
    Reading about the prep was unsurprising, if not fun, but I was wondering if they will insert an IV for sedation or just give me a couple of pills.
    About 8 years ago I had a sigmoidoscopy but I don’t remember the details, even though I was awake during it.

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @opiejeanne: They’re going to give you versed through an IV. You’ll be out like a light before they finish pushing the plunger on the syringe.

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    @hilts: This idea that a man who would instantly tear up the Iran nuclear deal, brags about his willingness to torture, and otherwise regularly promises to commit war crimes, is somehow the peace candidate, is maybe the most bizarre thing going on in this campaign.

  46. 46.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Adam L Silverman: I am suspicious of anyone who wants to call himself (and I’ll bet it’s a himself) Leo Strauss. I’ve only skimmed the articles – I’m not capable of heavy thought at this time of night – but I am also suspicious of anyone who tells us “what Putin thinks.” I put that in quotes because it’s often used figuratively, with an understanding that of course the writer doesn’t know what Putin thinks, but it’s too easy to start thinking that you actually know what Putin thinks. I’d rather look at what he does and test out various themes he’s talked about against that. I’ve done a bit of that recently at Nuclear Diner, but I will be modest and not leave any more links tonight.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Did anyone see the Snooze Hour, Brooksie called Hillary a 1960s Democrat.

    If he’s hoping Trump is a new-millenium Goldwater who’ll open the door to a shiny cyborg New NEW ‘Southern Strategy’ Nixon in 2020… Brooks has (to misuse a 60s metaphor) taken the brown acid.

    It worked for Nixon in 1968 because the Angry White Racists were, what, 85% of the voting pool? That’s changed quite a bit in the last-half century, no matter how much David Brooks laments it, and the current pool of people of color, educated women, and young people who consider ‘racist’ an obscene slur are not going to bring back Brooks’ Strong Daddy Republican party.

  49. 49.

    Peale

    I’m seriously wondering what a Trump administration would look like. I’m assuming that we’d vastly overspend on the military but Russia would advise what we spend it on. So a 600 ship navy that doesn’t have sailors and isn’t seaworthy. And a purge of the general officers looking for the most incompetent, lazy “Pattons” they could find.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: The guy is an old policy hand around DC. The Leo Straus thing is satire as he goes hard after the Strausians and neo-Cons. He knows his stuff when it comes to Russia.

  52. 52.

    hovercraft

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    No, but I’m assuming it’s based on this column that Steve M wrote about this morning. The excerpts are bad enough without reading the full column, or listening to him drone on about it.

    Her campaign proposals sidestep the cutting issues that have driven Trump, Sanders, Brexit and the other key movements of modern politics. Her ideas for reducing poverty are fine, but they are circa Ed Muskie: more public works jobs, housing tax credits, more money for Head Start.

    Steve is scathing in his takedown of the column.

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, it seems that Trump wasn’t the only guy that got roasted by Obama when he tried to better him. Bibi got a few lumps, too.

    Newsweek:

    Obama, too, hailed the agreement, stating, “The new MOU constitutes the single largest pledge of military assistance in U.S. history, totaling $38 billion over 10 years, including $33 billion in FMF [United States Foreign Military Financing] funds and an additional $5 billion in missile defense funding. Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a dangerous neighborhood.”

    Critics of the agreement, led by former prime minister Ehud Barak, point out that the numbers are misleading. The agreement is the largest amount of aid ever only in nominal terms. Adjusted for inflation, the agreement is actually smaller that the previous MOU signed 10 years ago.

    The critics, who also include Amos Yadlin, the former commander of military intelligence, posit that if Netanyahu had not addressed Congress in opposition to the Iran agreement, Israel would have been given better terms. They assert that Israel would have received more money and without the two restrictions in the deal that may prove harmful to Israel.

    The first condition agreed to in the memorandum eliminates the long-standing practice of allowing Israel to use 25 percent of the aid for local purchases. The second is Israel’s commitment not to ask for any supplemental money from the Congress. Israel has further sent a letter committing to return any extra money if Congress were to allocate it.

    It’s with this provision that Obama gets revenge on his three major opponents simultaneously without him nor his preferred successor paying any price.

    By putting a provision in the agreement that Israel will not lobby Congress for additional funds and will return any it receives, Obama has undermined the very existence of the American Israeli Public Affair Committee. AIPAC made a fatal mistake when it decided to publicly fight the Iran accord.

    If Israel cannot request and will in fact return any funds allocated to it by Congress, one of the key functions of AIPAC is eliminated. Furthermore, one of AIPAC’s key achievements of the past few decades was Israel’s ability to use part of the assistance to fund local purchases. This has been eliminated.

    Lastly, Obama gets to reassert the primacy of the executive branch in the making of foreign policy. For decades, Congress has “interfered” in U.S. relations with Israel by allocating additional funds that various administrations have been reluctant to give. By forcing Israel to sign a letter stating that it will return any additional money, Obama has removed Congress’s ability to interfere in the process.

    Finally, by getting Netanyahu to sign the agreement, Obama has given ammunition to some of Netanyahu’s biggest critics. Ehud Barak, the former prime minister and defense minister, has dominated the news cycle in Israel for the past two days after he published a scathing op-ed in The Washington Post in which he criticized Netanyhu for using the new agreement as a club against him.

    Obama accomplished all this by wrapping the more problematic aspects of the agreement into a $38 billion package of assistance. Who can possibly criticize Obama for not being supportive of Israel after all he just allocated $38 billion for its defense?

    Well done.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Formerly I’mNotSure…)

  57. 57.

    gene108

    @opiejeanne:

    When I had fistula surgery in June, they put me on an IV before surgery. Wheeled me into the OR. Anesthesiologist said she’d be starting the anesthesia. They put a breathing mask on me. Next thing I remember is I am waking up in post-op room.

    Whatever they did to knock me out worked really fast.

    Only down side is I briefly stopped producing saliva, which made eating anything without concurrently drinking fluids difficult. Luckily, I did not have much of an appetite.

    Otherwise no side-effects.

  60. 60.

    Tokyokie

    @opiejeanne: I had a colonoscopy in January (my second), and it wasn’t as bad as the one 10 years ago. The bowel prep didn’t require as much guzzling of the bowel cleanser, and the stuff I got this time wasn’t as vile tasting as the stuff I consumed last go-round. You’ll get an IV sedative (think I got a benzodiazepine IV, then the anesthesia), and you conk out pretty quickly. You should wake up not feeling any pain or having any recall of the procedure. All in all, not too bad. The nonstop pooping the night before is the worst part.

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    @gene108: that was pretty much how it went when I had a hysterectomy in 1985. Waking up from the anasthetic was great, the first time. Hemorrhaged 2.5 hours later and had a little more surgery. Scary for everyone there, I was calm because I had no blood pressure to speak of. They didn’t warm up the first pint of blood.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    @Anne Laurie: I don’t get his reasoning either, other than he thinks she’s older, therefore has old solutions (especially compared to his new age-y vision of empowered citizens who magically take care of each other without costing each other any tax money)

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Bit of backstory here. One of Bibi’s brothers was the only commando killed during the Raid on Entebbe. The Israeli Special Forces commander at that time was Ehud Barak. Bibi loathes Barak and vice versa. They have for over 40 years.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    I got one a couple of years ago and the worst part really was the prep, and the worst part of that was that it was boring to have to sit around all day. They did an endoscopy at the same time (or, as BillInGlendaleCA was pleased to call it, “import/export”) and I think they did to an IV drip of something.

    I have zero memory of any of it and I was fine the next day.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: I don’t know his name, I know of him/who he is so to speak. His stuff on the neo-Cons and Strausianism is very, very interesting and accurate.

  68. 68.

    Tokyokie

    @opiejeanne: But a hysterectomy involves an incision and excising several organs, so the risk of bleeding is much greater than with a colonoscopy, which is just running a long tube up your colon.

  71. 71.

    hovercraft

    @Another Scott:
    Ehud Barak wrote an Op-ed about this this in the WaPo the other day lambasting Bibi for endangering Israels’ security, and leading them in an unsustainable direction.

  72. 72.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: that’s twilight sleep. It was used in the early 50s for women to n labor.
    I have not yet reached the point where I shrug and acknowledge that there are worse ways to go, but right now I need people to tell me I’ll be fine, nobody dies these days from it.

  76. 76.

    Tokyokie

    @opiejeanne: For the first one 10 years ago, I believe the bowel prep was GoLytely, which I mixed with lemonade-flavor Crystal Light and a gallon or so of water. It was horrible. In January, MoviPrep was the bowel prep. It doesn’t taste nearly as bad (though I wouldn’t serve it as an apértif) and I only had to slam down a liter of the stuff, then a second liter a couple of hours later. There’s still a lot of pooping involved, but it’s not as prolonged as with GoLytely.

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    Would it make you feel better if we say that really the only way you would die would be in some kind of one-in-a-billion freak accident?

    They apparently had a little bit of trouble waking me up afterwards because I have naturally low blood pressure but that was the worst thing.

    Also, for the weekend, look up “low-residue diet.” I ate low-residue for a day or two before my prep on raven’s advice and I do think it made the prep easier. And if you can’t find non-red Jello mix, you can make your own Jello with Knox gelatin and fruit juice.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    @efgoldman: Not quite. ;-)

    Still far too frequently I can’t post stuff because it vanishes into FYWP Oblivion, so the whole point of changing my nym was for naught, but, hey, that’s life.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    opiejeanne

    @Tokyokie: That’s the stuff I had last time. This time it starts with a laxative, 5 Dulcolax tablets, a half later I start drinking 64 ounces of chilled lemon-lime Gatorade Light that has had a powdered laxative added to it. I will have difficulty finishing it. That’s Sunday.
    The admonition against red Gatorade must be because the dye interferes with what they’re looking for. I wonder if I could have had the grape instead and entertained the people doing the procedure, but i didn’t want to find out I prepped for nothing.

  82. 82.

    Wag

    @Tripod: No. we can’t vote until we convince a sizable majority of our fellow Americans that Trump is a danger to our country and our world

  83. 83.

    geg6

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yes, this. One of my concentrations in polisci as an undergrad was the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Studied under a major expert in the subject. Leo Straus definitely knows his shit. He knows the history and has perspective. An excellent guy to follow.

  84. 84.

    divF

    @Adam L Silverman: To paraphrase Ursula Le Guin, in some respects Israel is not a nation but a family quarrel. Netanyahu’s brother-in-law (Mataniya Ben-Artzi) is a prominent mathematician and leftist; one of the Ben-Artzi sons (Bibi’s nephew), Jonathan, was an Israeli draft resister who won in court; Eric, the other son / nephew, was recently in the news for turning down $8.5M from the SEC as a reward for blowing the whistle on the Deutsche Bank, to protest the failure to punish the bank’s executives. Family get-togethers must be something else.

    My professional mentor grew up in Israel in the 50’s. He said that the Begins were regular visitors, even though the families weren’t compatible politically. They were both Polish Jews, had social connections, and it was just part of what you did.

  86. 86.

    Wag

    @Tripod:
    No. we can’t vote until we convince a sizable majority of our fellow Americans that Trump is a danger to our country and our world

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: He’s a good resource, especially for finding other resources. His understanding of what he calls the movement is, in my professional opinion, required reading.

  88. 88.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: Thank you! I will hold onto that “nobody dies” reassurance with both hands on Monday.
    I’ve heard the warning, and I think they gave me a copy of it along with the instructions. I’m not worried about a reaction to the anesthetic, I’m worried because when they tried to do the sigmoidoscopy they couldn’t do the last third, couldn’t make that last turn and knew they were hurting me because I was awake and watching the procedure (really interesting).
    They said they though it was partly because I had that hysterectomy and things were not exactly where they were supposed to be, bladder was collapsed (the resuspension during the hysterectomy failed after 20 years). I’m worried that they’ll punch through, even though they will be able to see what they’re doing much better than back then.
    Yes, I’m being a bit of a sissy but that hysterectomy had long ranging effects, including catching Hepatitis C from one of the four-plus donors. I don’t remember past the fourth pint they gave me, I was a bit out of my head from blood loss waiting for one of the four surgery suites to open up for me. My poor husband. I was 33 and he thought he was about to be a widower.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @divF: You are absolutely correct. One of the constants, and constant problems, of Israeli politics is that decade after decade, and now political generation after political generation, it is the same people always sitting around the conference table in the cabinet meeting room. Only the seats they occupy change. And, as a result, everyone knows everyone else’s positions, interests, petty grudges, etc.

  90. 90.

    Mike in NC

    Since he is deeply in debt to Russian oligarchs, Trump’s scampaign is heavily infested with FSB agents who report directly to Putin. Shouldn’t the GOP be proud?

  91. 91.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: The low-residue diet is set for tomorrow. I made a quiche tonight and the leftovers are perfect for the restrictions they set. No nuts, fruit vegetables, beans, wild rice, etc tomorrow, Liquid diet on Sunday. I might be a bit unpleasant by Sunday evening.

    I think green Jello would be entertaining for the docs. I have some of that as well as some sugar-free Otter-pops. I don’t want the red ones anyway because they aren’t cherry. Also picked up some clear chicken broth.

  92. 92.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @opiejeanne: OMG with a hyst like that no wonder you’re worried. My hyst went fine – it was without an incision. The cone a couple of months before went great, but the next day or after I dropped an angle suture and let me assure you that they put those big figure of eights in for a reason. But it was only dramatic and not dangerous, though my doc scolded me ferociously for not coming in sooner when it didn’t resolve – even though I’d been following his staff’s advice for how much is too much. Apparently it was the for two days thing that got him wound up…

  93. 93.

    geg6

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Agreed completely. I’ve been lucky. I’m a student aid officer, no longer an academic. But I studied under an expert and I have a colleague on faculty at my campus who is an expert on Russian history. We talk a lot because it keeps me sharp and no one else on campus has the interest or small expertise with whom to discuss this Russia stuff, especially since Putin took over. He turned me on to Leo Straus.

  96. 96.

    NoraLenderbee

    By putting a provision in the agreement that Israel will not lobby Congress for additional funds and will return any it receives, Obama has undermined the very existence of the American Israeli Public Affair Committee.

    *fist pump* Yessss.

  97. 97.

    Honus

    @opiejeanne: you won’t die. You won’t even feel it. They’ll hit your IV with some drugs that will make you feel great and the next thing you know you’ll be back in your room waiting to go home. Trust me, I’ve had a dozen colonoscopies, the first when I was 34.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: I’m slowly – not because its a hard read, but because of time constraints – making my way through Dawisha’s Putin’s Kleptocracy”. After that I’ve got The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin”.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    They don’t want you to have anything with red dye because it could look like blood and make them think you have cancer. So that’s why they’re so strict about the red thing.

    All of my internal organs are still in original factory condition, so I don’t have any advice about the hysterectomy aftermath. I’m pretty sure you won’t be the first one your doctor’s ever seen, but maybe talk to the nurse before they give you any drugs and make sure the doctor knows about your history? (If it’s the same doctor as for the sigmoidoscopy, hopefully s/he has notes.)

  100. 100.

    Honus

    @opiejeanne: recovery is more like 3 or 4 hours. You’ll really want to get something to eat about that time. I played golf the afternoon after one of mine. Of course I was younger then.

  102. 102.

    opiejeanne

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I recovered really quickly, probably in part due to the transfusions. I had the no-incision option too. Once I got out of the hospital I felt wonderful, like I was 12 again. I did have to stay in the hospital for a week, waiting for my innards to start functioning again.
    It was Kaiser in Fontana and the nurses and doctors were great. I suspected and still do that I caused the “rim bleeder” when I hopped, bounced, from the gurney to my bed because I felt so great after the first surgery. Took about 20 minutes to start scaring the nurses.
    Did not enjoy waking up from the second round of anesthetic, was pretty sick for a couple of hours, but after that I felt pretty good.

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: I think it is very good. Its clear that they relied heavily on it for last year’s Frontline documentary about Putin.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: If the email you use here is valid, and if you like, I can send you the report I did on the Maidan movement/revolution and the Russian provocations just as the Crimea stuff was going down.

  108. 108.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, I figured the red dye masks the problem areas, too. They would be a nice rosy pink.
    The people doing the procedure are no one I’ve met before, but I plan to tell them about the partial sigmoid if they will listen.
    This is part of a bunch of tests that are my “welcome to Medicare” exam, and I have a new doctor for my general. Tomorrow is the mammogram. (Ugh!) In a week or so they want to send me to U of Washington so they can stick fine little needles into my muscles, and light me up like a pinball to see if my muscles twitch like they ought to. I have a droopy left eyelid, ptosis, so they’re looking for myasthenia gravis. None of the blood markers are there so they want to use the fancy machine at You-Dub.

  109. 109.

    Felonius Monk

    @opiejeanne: The prep is really the worst part. You will be fine. I’ve had 2 colonoscopys and an endoscopy (same procedure, different end). All were very easy and I woke up happy. They inflate you with air, so the problems you had with the sigmoidoscopy hopefully won’t occur.

    Good luck.

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Brutus always seemed to be caught/trapped by the events he was involved in. There is a theory that Ceaser had some form of debilitating illness, like epilepsy, and that the actually engineered his own murder, leveraging Brutus, so that he could die before becoming an invalid and thereby ensuring the succession of the Empire to his designated successor.

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Interesting. Julius was a political (and military) genius and totally unscrupulous. Brutus was an intelligent, well-educated, decent person who had gone through the traditional civil and military training of Roman. Andy Jackson vs John Quincy Adams with more stabbings and poisonings.

  118. 118.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Ioffe’s piece honestly made me think “spook?” It’s really well reported, but it gets into the murk that seems to surround any attempt at traditional source-based reporting on Russian business.

    It also reminded me of the dezinformatsiya shop that Adrian Chen reported on for the NYT, and how that stuff proliferates so well in a low-trust society. Don’t believe facts, believe narratives.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    It also reminded me of the dezinformatsiya shop that Adrian Chen reported on for the NYT, and how that stuff proliferates so well in a low-trust society. Don’t believe facts, believe narratives.

    I missed the article. Can you either link or summarize?

  120. 120.

    patrick II

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Did anyone see the Snooze Hour, Brooksie called Hillary a 1960s Democrat.

    1960 Civil Rights Act, 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1964 24th Amendment,1965, Medicare/Medicaid, 1965 Voting rights act. And I’m sure I’ve missed some. Give me a few more of those 60’s Democrats please.

  122. 122.

    Aleta

    @opiejeanne: Once, very early morning on the way to a surgery, I had ‘that certain feeling’ — certain I was going to die. It was surprising to be feeling that way and it was so strong, just like being sure of something. It’s not related to what’s really going to happen, though. It’s just a weird effect that happens, maybe a rare kind of anticipation anxiety.

    Since then I’ve thought that other emotions can get confused with being certain too. Like anger, which sometimes feels the same as ‘being right.’ We sometimes mix up the two, because for some reason, to the body they feel so similar.

    I like to get unflavored geletin (there’s a vegetarian kind too) and make different jellos, like dissolve vegetable or chicken boullion in boiling water and then add gelatin. I also got lemonade and a bottle of straight ginger juice and heated the lemonade, added the gel powder and some ginger juice. (It’s a little cloudy but my doc said it’s OK.) You can even gel teas (or coffee if it’s OK).

    Good luck. It feels great afterward.

  123. 123.

    opiejeanne

    @Aleta: Thanks. I feel a lot better about this after everyone talked me down from the ledge, so to speak. Just knowing what to expect always helps me.
    I have unflavored gelatin on hand and I may do something with it, if I feel like it tomorrow, because I won’t be interested in making it on Sunday.

  124. 124.

    Mobile

    @opiejeanne:From what I’ve read, about 10% of patients given Versid (sp?) have memory issues afterwards, short and long-term. I will refuse the drug next time I have the procedure. You might want to look into alternatives.

  126. 126.

    NorthLeft12

    @Jeffro:

    …am I the only one who thinks the Secretary would be found adorning a lamp post somewhere in the District come morning, courtesy of the Republicans? And they’d almost be right in this?

    Hopefully you are the only one on here who thinks like this. Your comment is off on so many levels I really won’t bother.
    Please think before you post.

  128. 128.

    Gvg

    @Mobile: I don’t even remember what I was given but had one nuisance after effect. When the doc came in to go over the results I was lucid and asked good questions according to my sister but it turned out I didn’t retain the memories. Months later she reminded me he said to call if I had certain problems and I still don’t remember. This is apparently a commone effect for a few hours after anathesia and all it means is try to have someone with you taking notes. A family member with knowledge or good memory or good note taker.

  129. 129.

    JR in WV

    @opiejeanne:

    Opie, I was fully recovered by the time I had my shoes tied. I had no after effects except I skipped a day of bowel activity, since it was empty. Had Thai for a late lunch. Mild, but Thai. It really wasn’t bad at all.

    The apprehension was the worst part, really!

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