Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The willow is too close to the house.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

We still have time to mess this up!

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Everybody saw this coming.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

This blog will pay for itself.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / From Russia with love

From Russia with love

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Nothing to see here, folks:

[A] former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.

[…]

In June, the former Western intelligence officer—who spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clients—was assigned the task of researching Trump’s dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to the former spy and his associates in this American firm. This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project’s financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.) “It started off as a fairly general inquiry,” says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, “there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.”

This was, the former spy remarks, “an extraordinary situation.”

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Here either

    Andrea Chalupa
    ‏@ AndreaChalupa
    In intel circles, the story goes FSB filmed Trump in an orgy while in Russia. Yes,this all ends in a Trump sex tape.

    or maybe she just wanted to use the words “Trump sex tape” as a Halloween scare for political twitter

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    DougJ, I was just coming here to post about that Mother Jones article. This paragraph caught my eye:

    The first memo, based on the former intelligence officer’s conversations with Russian sources, noted, “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.” It maintained that Trump “and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.” It claimed that Russian intelligence had “compromised” Trump during his visits to Moscow and could “blackmail him.”

    If Moscow actually has blackmail material on Trump, I suspect that it’s almost certainly sex with girls in their early teens.

    The same paragraph continues:

    It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based on “bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls.”

    Of course they have a dossier on Hillary Clinton – she was a US Senator, Sec’y of State, Presidential nominee, and will probably be our next President.

    Also, every high level diplomat in the world knows their bags are going to get searched and their calls bugged while they’re travelling out of country; it goes with the territory, so I doubt Clinton would have said anything the Russians could seriously use against her in any calls they intercepted. She would know better than to communicate anything important or sensitive on unencrypted equipment in that scenario.

  10. 10.

    Patricia Kayden

    Behold Trump’s sin will find him out.

    This is much more important than Clinton’s emails.

  14. 14.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    Saw a tweet over at LGF that the F(R)BI is claiming no connection between Trump server and Alfa bank server. OTOH how can anyone trust what they say now?

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    Drump’s main Russian spokesbot Boris is on the FSB payroll, in addition to being buddy to his idiot son who attended Georgetown U.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Off-topic, except it’s politics. For shits and giggles, I just counted the number of panicky send-us-money emails from Dem candidates and organizations that have landed in my inbox just since midnight.

    Seventy-six.

    There’s a Broadway song in there.

  28. 28.

    gf120581

    @SiubhanDuinne: Got to love those last minute pleas for money during election season. It’s always, “If you don’t give us money we are DOOOOOMMMMMEEEED!!!” Even if they’re on track to win by 20.

  32. 32.

    CaseyL

    @SiubhanDuinne: @gf120581:

    I first noticed this during the 2014 midterms: fundraising pleas from various Democratic Party groups using apocalyptic all-is-lost-if-you-don’t-contribute terms. Considering how badly the mid-terms have gone for Dems since 2010, it’s not like I don’t believe them… it’s that shoveling more money their way doesn’t seem to accomplish anything, when what we need are more and better (i.e., aggressive, proud Dems) candidates, not to mention more and better GOTV.

    It’s gotten so I just delete them all.

  33. 33.

    Mary G

    @SiubhanDuinne: ONLY YOU, MARY, CAN SAVE US!!!!!!!!!!
    I didn’t count mine, but I was deleting whole pages of emails, most from candidates I unsubscribed to. Hillary’s are ridiculous, and the suggested amount is 150% of my biggest donation.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    I’m excited about the opportunities to POUND. THE LIVING CRAP. OUT OF TRUMP AND HIS SURROGATES. for the next week about being PAID SERVANTS OF A HOSTILE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE. It seems to be the only thing that rings a faint, distant bell of conscience for them.

    The post-election fallout is going to be tremendous on Trump and everyone who fell in line behind him. Hillz may as well nominate Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers for that 9th SCOTUS vacancy, she’ll get it through.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @gf120581:

    Normally, I delete them as soon as I see them, but partly out of curiosity, partly out of lethargy, and partly out of no access to email during the day,* I decided to let them accumulate for a full 24 hours to see how many there would be,

    * I’m doing poll watching through Election Day, and can’t use my phone/iPad at all within the voting perimeter, so except for sending my reports to the Democratic Party of Georgia every hour or so I’m not using any device — barely glancing at BJ and pretty much ignoring email.

  36. 36.

    WarMunchkin

    Hold up. The NYT has published an article that says FBI clears Trump of any connection to Russia. They spoke to the same source that’s leaking to Mother Jones and other sources, according to the article, and they were not convinced that the source had reliable or actionable information.

    This whole election has been a goddamn trash fire.

  37. 37.

    mai naem mobile

    I want to stick my fingers in my ears and yell “lalalalalalalalalala” because I can’t handle this election anymore.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Of course the Trump orgy conflicts with the idea that Trump’s a NeverNude
    “The funny thing is, there’s a side of Donald that not even [Marla] has seen. She has never seen him completely naked—at least almost never—because he won’t let her. Whenever they’re about to have sex, he makes her go into the bathroom while he gets undressed. As soon as he takes off his clothes, he jumps into the bed and pulls up the covers. She knows that he’s ashamed to show her what a flabby old body he has. He has no idea that just makes him seem cuter and more cuddly to her.”

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mary G:

    ONLY YOU, MARY, CAN SAVE US!!!!!!!!!!

    Look at this blog, it appears that chicken littling is common among Dems. It does not motivate me. I would prefer a “Hey, we are ahead, but let’s make god-damned sure argument.”

  40. 40.

    dm

    @JGabriel: As I said a moment ago, Mother Jones broke the Romney 47% video. The reporter who did it was David Corn, who is also the reporter behind this story.

    I think it’s time for me to stop ignoring their “we see you’re using an ad blocker, how about supporting us in some other way?….” notes.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    @Mary G: I just reflexively delete all of them. Clinton, the campaign committees, individual Senate and House candidates, groups like Emily’s List, etc. All of it, straight to the bitbucket.

    You want to know how Abedin had 650,000 emails on that computer? She probably gave $10 to some House race four years ago….

  44. 44.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @dm: I get “We see that you’re using a beta blocker, have you considered just getting more exercise?”

    Not sure how they know.

  45. 45.

    tobie

    @dmsilev:

    ‘anonymous law enforcement sources’, told the NYT that they thought maybe it was just a spambot.

    And these anonymous sources respond with almost breakneck speed to this evening’s stories, and the NYT reports their leaks breathlessly without providing any other evidence.
    The collusion of forces conspiring to win this thing for Trump is breathtaking. I don’t recall being this frightened for the country in a long time.

  46. 46.

    bluehill

    I like TPM’s less conspiratorial (than mine) view:

    Think of it this way.

    If Trump is advocating for Russia in the US political arena (he is), and Russia is conducting an espionage and disruption campaign on Trump’s behalf in the US political area (highly likely), do I need to know if they’re actually talking to each other while both these things are happening? I’m not sure I do.

    Isn’t this a much bigger deal than it has been made out to be?

    If they are, if Russia has coopted or cultivated or compromised Trump that is a threat of the highest order. I can’t go on the word of an unnamed retired spy whose identity we don’t know, whose motives we can’t interrogate and whose evidence we can’t see. But I don’t think I need additional evidence. What’s been in plain sight for weeks, actually months, is more than enough to ring every alarm bell. And yet, with all the hints and arch remarks about Russia, the alarms have barely been rung.

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Patricia Kayden: It just broke this evening. Also, Corn is an MSNBC contributor and they didn’t even have him on tonight. My guess is it broke to late for their bookers to switch gears. He’ll be on with it tomorrow I’m sure.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Donald needed to find new lines of credit to maintain the illusion of being a multi-thousandaire…and US banks knew him to be a shithead, a deadbeat…so he had to go to Russia.

    Now look at him. Ivanka had better have first rate bodyguards…they’ll go after her first.

  49. 49.

    Mary G

    For a break, the short film in this post, sent by the blogger’s daughter Ellie, of her recent travels in France is gorgeous, has no politics or indeed any talking. It’s just the refreshment I needed tonight. Plus adorable dog.

    ETA: fubar link fixed, I hope.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @dm: The reason I use an ad blockers as ads invariably break sites and make them impossible to read.

    Fuck the ads…not because they’re ads, but because they break shit and don’t care that they break shit.

  51. 51.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: I just put this downstairs in response to a similar comment:

    I’m not defending Comey here, nor what we think we know as the result of the WSJ reporting last night; especially in light of the fact that its author, Devlin Barrett, clearly has a source within the FBI that is trying to settle scores and grind axes based on yesterday’s story and the McCabe story from 24 October. I think, however, we need to keep two things in mind. The first is one of the traps/pitfalls of intelligence analysis, as well as criminal investigation: investigating backwards. Basically one decides on the conclusion and then reasons/researches/investigates backwards. This is not how things are supposed to work, but I’ve seen even experienced analysts and investigators make this mistake and do so in good faith. I’m not saying that the investigators that simply can’t let go of investigating Secretary Clinton have done this, but based on the reporting we saw yesterday that seems to be the case. I also don’t think we have enough information to determine whether this is a good or bad faith example. Though based on Barrett’s reporting it is easy to draw the latter conclusion.

    The second issue, what you and Kay (in the previous post) and several others have drawn from the NY Times article on the supposed DOJ/FBI counterintelligence and/or criminal investigations into Trump, Trump advisors/personnel, and/or the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, is the seeming appearance that they’ve drawn the most generous conclusions in regard to reported connections – including that reported out by Foer and posted about by Tom earlier today. My view is that 1) downplaying this makes a lot of sense if asked for comment and cleared by Public Affairs to do so. There are investigative reasons for doing this above and beyond the DOJ policy and guidance about not doing anything to interfere in an election so as not to spook any of the subjects of the investigation, as well as to make them feel comfortable enough to let their guard down as they now think they’re off the hook in the hope they’ll make a mistake that can be exploited to further the inquiry. It is important to remember that these are not just criminal investigations, they are counterintelligence ones and that’s a whole other ball of yarn. And 2) there’s no real mention here of the news that David Corn broke and reported out earlier this evening in Mother Jones. Given the severity of those allegations I would expect no one to say anything about that in any official way, shape, or form as its a full on counterintelligence operation.

    Finally, I think its important to remember and understand that despite all the hard work to build an Interagency system and process that sets all of these agencies, departments, and bureaus to the same purpose to do the work that they need to be doing together, there are still significant rivalries. And this includes internal to each of them. Having different parts of the same organization, let alone different agencies, departments, and/or bureaus pull in different directions instead of the same one is not unheard of. For those with Army experience in the last couple of decades the Army equivalents would be the differences/disagreements between 1) the Army’s Special and Conventional Forces, 2) the Generating Army and the Operational Army, 3) Training and Doctrine Command and Forces Command within the Generating Army, and 4) Training and Doctrine Command (a major/four star command) and its subordinate (3 star command) the Combined Arms Center. And this is before we get into inter-Service rivalry for funding and for proponency authority, etc.

  59. 59.

    Timurid

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This is something like the 20th Trump scandal more important than Clinton’s e-mails.
    But nobody in any position of real authority in the media or government cares one bit.

  60. 60.

    Peale

    I guess I really want there to be a sex tape. But who will hold my hand when it’s time to watch it? I think it will have to be watched lights on with ample excuses made to go to another room. Kind of like how I got through Blair Witch so many years ago.

  61. 61.

    Lollybee

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have to wonder, though, at this point, if such a tape would have any effect on his followers. They haven’t been deterred by the Access Hollywood tape or the upcoming civil trial on rape charges. Why would visual proof bother them?

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    From Julia Ioffe:
    https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/793271363918323712

    Follow

    Julia IoffeVerified account
    ‏@juliaioffe Julia Ioffe Retweeted Sarah Kendzior
    I heard a version of this, too. Are we all talking to one person?Julia Ioffe added,
    Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior
    OK, I guess since it’s out there now, I’ve heard this multiple times as well…with some very nasty details. No confirmation though. https://twitter.com/AndreaChalupa/status/793263468447236096 …

  64. 64.

    Matt McIrvin

    My impression is that the Foer story about the server really is nothing, so the FBI calling it nothing is not terribly sinister. But the idea that the Russian activity isn’t aimed at electing Trump is just bizarre, given how one-sided it is. Are we expected to believe that Trump and the RNC just have super-awesome unhackable IT security? Or that they didn’t go through Assange, who has an obvious vendetta against Hillary Clinton, for a reason?

  70. 70.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman: And what of Liz Mair’s insistence that NDA solidity needs to be investigated as there are bombshells from women who signed them? I can’t keep up.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JGabriel: Unlikely. I think there are enough mundane explanations, such as Congressman Cummings’ or Matt Miller’s, to explain his actions.

  72. 72.

    WarMunchkin

    @Adam L Silverman: I feel like I’ve been Lucy and the Football’d all day regarding Trump and Russia. I suppose this is why we don’t comment on ongoing investigations?

    Either way, two stories stick out for me: 1) our deep state apparatus is a shitshow of rival factions trying to leak and counterleak each other, and 2) journalistic malpractice – very few people are bothering to verify sources and find proof. They’re just being fed whatever a source wants to be put in the news. I don’t get why our news media doesn’t seem to have enough self respect not to be taken for a ride.

    I’ll keep an eye on the Corn story specifically.

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): That is separate from what Ioffe, Kendzior, and Chalupa (worst law firm name ever…) are talking about, which is a Russian Intel honey trap on Trump that resulted in a sex tape. I think that what Mair is hinting at with the NDA thing, and what Rick Wilson is even more opaquely hinting at as well, is separate and different from this. In Mair’s case I think the give away is here:
    https://twitter.com/LizMair/status/793162290870837249

    Follow

    Liz Mair
    ‏@LizMair
    The real issue is his admitted sexual assaults, allegations of rape, sexual harrassment, maltreatment of women he’s slept with, etc.

    I think the implication of what Mair is suggesting is that he’s used the NDAs, or threats of invoking them, to prevent charges of rape and/or sexual assault and/or sexual harassment and/or mistreatment of women. While you and I know that an NDA can’t be used this way, does the average 22 year old aspiring fashion model or beauty pageant contestant?

    And I’m not suggesting this is the case, Mair is – this is just my take on what she seems to be intimating. While I don’t know her, from reading her tweets and watching her on TV, I’ve gotten the impression, though, that Mair is someone who has cultivated a persona, so this may just be her playing out that persona for effect.

  76. 76.

    patrick II

    The big lie:
    “The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.””

    The big truth:
    A truth so “colossal” that no one would believe someone could have the impudence to it as the truth.

  77. 77.

    WarMunchkin

    @WarMunchkin: As an addendum, maybe I missed some detail here, but as far as I can tell in this story, the actual story is that a memo was sent to the FBI saying that the Kremlin passed information to Trump, then the FBI asked for a followup with evidence. That’s not the same thing as verifying that these actions took place, is it? The story is that the FBI is investigating claims.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: Leos? In any case, if the subject line heads that way, it gets deleted. The Den data analysis folks should figure out that I will never respond to that. Unless we are really behind.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WarMunchkin: In case of the former it has always been the case. We’ve honestly come along way, but some of these rivalries are so old, and to be frank developed as the result of disputes between key leaders who, decades ago, had personality clashes and poor relationships and it trickled down, that they’re baked into the cake now. There’s also still some heartburn left over from the reworking and reorganization everything got after 9-11. At the end of the day there are a lot of people trying to do right by their fellow citizens all constrained by institutional structures and very distinct organizational cultures.

  80. 80.

    Timurid

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    So our last big score happens when some people driven by pure moral outrage and the goodness of their hearts break NDA’s, sacrifice their hush money annuities and get themselves sued back to the Mesozoic by a guy who still has a non-trivial chance of becoming President? We may be waiting a long time for that one…

  82. 82.

    Mary G

    If there is a sex tape, we’re going to need a lot of those black bars, size extra large.

    @Adam L Silverman: Liz was forced to resign from Scott Walker’s campaign after she was found to have authored a bunch of tweets disparaging Iowa and Iowans before the primaries began. Since then, she’s been ardently #NeverTrump, so I’m not sure how she’d have access to this?

  83. 83.

    Lizzy L

    Sam Wang says of the Presidential race: “That cake is baked.” At least, based on what he sees up until right now. He also comments, “Donating to the Presidential race at this point, while satisfying I bet, is not the optimal use of money.” He suggests putting funds into Senate or even close House races. I’m figuring on sending Doug Applegate in CA-49 some more funds.

  84. 84.

    Timurid

    And I’m not sure a last second oppo dump changes things anyway. Trump should be a smoldering corpse by now. He’s been tied to more than a dozen scandals far worse than Clinton’s e-mails. He’s repulsive and inept. But there are authority figures in government, business and the media lined up around the block to fall on grenades for him. They’ve been carrying him all this way, and I’m sure they’ll find a way to pull him through the fifteenth or twenty-third scandal that would have reduced any Democratic candidate to ash…

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WarMunchkin: Corn’s reporting is that a very experienced and well regarding former Western intel official, now working for a US contractor supporting the Intel Community and DOD, was assigned to work on oppo research looking into Trump’s ties with Russia. First by a GOP campaign opposing Trump, then by a Democratic one. Based on what he found he wrote several in depth analyses (white papers) and after reflecting on them decided they needed to be seen by US officials. He then passed them on to US officials who were equally concerned and asked for additional information/assessment/analysis, which he then provided. That happened, according to Corn’s reporting, in August of this year.

    You are correct that Corn’s reporting does not verify that any of this took place. He indicates he’s spoken to the former intel officer, read his reports, spoken to currently serving senior officials who indicate his source (the former intel officer) is legit and well regarded, and verified that the material has made it to the appropriate folks in the US government and that they are now working it. This does not verify that anything being alleged is true. That said, and as Josh Marshall wrote, Corn is a very senior, very experienced, and very well regarded Foreign Affairs and Security correspondent. He doesn’t write and publish his stuff if he’s not crossed all his “i”s and dotted all his “t”s.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I need to ask you a lawyer question. I am acutely and guiltily aware that whole shitloads of those emails came to me directly from Hillary Clinton. If I surrender myself to the FBI (as clearly I must), will you provide legal advice?

  88. 88.

    bemused senior

    I am not discounting Foer’s story. If Paul Vixie has examined the logs, I would bet a lot of money his opinion and tealeaves etc are more trustworthy than unnamed internal techies from the FBI. They know what traffic from a spam bot looks like.

  89. 89.

    fuckwit

    @BIG410: The Russians are not Communists. Not any more. Far from it. They’re a kleptocracy just like the USA and China and the UK and the rest of the modern globalized Capitalist world.

    Putin, also, is an authoritarian. They tend to stick together (Hitler and Mussolini, BFFs). They have the same vision of the world: men are kings, might makes right, women are property, winner take all.

    Almost certain the Trolll blackmail material involves sex… and it’s too horrible to speculate on what kind and with whom.

  91. 91.

    Emma

    You know what? It really doesn’t matter. Trump voters are not going to be discouraged by anything. Committed Hillary voters won’t either. The usual morons will do what they will do. This battle will be won on turnout and by fighting back on voter suppression.

    And if will lose, well, it’s going to be interesting living in the last gasp of democracy. For some value of interesting.

  93. 93.

    GrandJury

    I think you people are chasing a bunch of dead ends.

    The story out there now on CNN is that Trump disagrees with the pentagon about how to deal with ISIS. I think that’s about the best we are going to get in the MSM for now. Sure would be nice if someone with access to Apprentice out takes leaked some of that footage. Supposedly there is some real juicy stuff there.

    I don’t doubt that Trump has financial interests with Russia somehow. I think the “Russians have a sex tape of him” thing is a little far fetched. It’s probably just financial interests.

    There have been rumors that he is indebted to some Eastern European interest for years. That sounds like the most plausible story. Probably that his paper thin ego doesn’t want it to get out that he’s up to his ass in debt with Russian bankers and not worth anywhere close to what he says he is.

  94. 94.

    Lizzy L

    @Emma:

    Trump voters are not going to be discouraged by anything.

    I think a tape of Trump having sex with underage girls would lead to some number of his current supporters choosing to not go to the polls. I could be wrong. But I agree with you, the place for us to put our energy is getting out the vote and making sure that all our folks CAN vote, unobstructed.

  95. 95.

    Emma

    @Lizzy L: No. They won’t. They’ll say it was faked. Or he was drugged and then posed. They will believe anything, anything, rather than let go of their hatred.

  96. 96.

    JGabriel

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My view is that 1) downplaying this makes a lot of sense if asked for comment and cleared by Public Affairs to do so. There are investigative reasons for doing this above and beyond the DOJ policy and guidance about not doing anything to interfere in an election so as not to spook any of the subjects of the investigation, as well as to make them feel comfortable enough to let their guard down as they now think they’re off the hook in the hope they’ll make a mistake that can be exploited to further the inquiry. It is important to remember that these are not just criminal investigations, they are counterintelligence ones and that’s a whole other ball of yarn. And 2) there’s no real mention here of the news that David Corn broke and reported out earlier this evening in Mother Jones. Given the severity of those allegations I would expect no one to say anything about that in any official way, shape, or form as its a full on counterintelligence operation.

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Unlikely. I think there are enough mundane explanations, such as Congressman Cummings’ or Matt Miller’s, to explain his actions.

    Good points. I’ll try to withhold judgement on Comey, et. al., for a little longer.

  100. 100.

    fuckwit

    Thinking about it a bit more, there’s nothing surprising about any of this.

    Troll’s biggest tell is his projection. Completely 100% predictable. I can bank on that.

    Everything he accuses people of, of which he hasn’t already been proven guilty, he’s likely soon to be.

    Lying.
    Corrupt.
    Guilty of jailable offenses.
    Pandering.
    Irresponsible.
    Should be ashamed.
    Crooked.
    Vindictive.
    Nasty.

    What’s Russia got on him? Deep financial entanglements, for sure.

    But look at the guy’s long history of creepy behavior. The NDAs with his victims have kept him safe, but my guess is that those aren’t enforceable outside the USA.

  101. 101.

    Stephen

    Reposted from previous thread:

    For those interested in the DNS communications story, this paper lists one of the less obvious approaches.

    http://scholarworks.rit.edu/cg…..text=other

    There are even linux packages out there to do this, it being a widely known method. I’ve run VPNs through firewalls on port 53 in the past, but most network admins are wise to that method, and block anyhting that doesn’t look like an outgoing DNS UDP packet.

  102. 102.

    bluehill

    Here’s an NYT story that seems to be backed with more evidence about Trump’s massive tax losses and how is loss carryforwards were likely improper.

    It is unclear who first glimpsed a way for Mr. Trump to dodge a huge tax bill. But the basic maneuver he used was essentially a new twist on a contentious strategy corporations had been using for years to avoid taxes created by canceled debt.

    The strategy, known among tax practitioners as a “stock-for-debt swap,” relies on mathematical sleight of hand. Say a company can repay only $60 million of a $100 million bank loan. If the bank forgives the remaining $40 million, the company faces a large tax bill because it will have to report that canceled $40 million debt as taxable income.

    Clever tax lawyers found a way around this inconvenience. The company would simply swap stock for the $40 million in debt it could not repay. This way, it would look as if the entire $100 million loan had been repaid, and presto: There would be no tax bill due for $40 million in canceled debt.

    Best of all, it did not matter if the actual market value of the stock was considerably less than the $40 million in canceled debt. (Stock in an effectively insolvent company could easily be next to worthless.) Even in the opaque, rarefied world of gaming impenetrable tax regulations, this particular maneuver was about as close as a company could get to waving a magic wand and making taxes disappear.

  105. 105.

    srv

    I don’t understand why progressives are worried. The Marxist Obama and Autocrat Commissar Putin have through their Comrade Trump-vessel foiled Hillary.

    You dodged a bullet with Che Sanders. He would have been a disaster.

  106. 106.

    catdevotee

    @SiubhanDuinne: That’s why, after donating and voting, I unsubscribed from a big bunch of email lists. I still get lots of email pleas every day from Hillz and her team, but the worst offenders are gone.

  109. 109.

    jl

    @efgoldman: Trump is raving white bigot, authoritarian, proud and arrogant ignoramus, and vicious bitter xenophobe. From the polls, it looks like that will get him 40 to 45 percent of the vote in the general election. Sad.

  110. 110.

    jl

    Also, from what I read tonight, I wonder if there is some confusion among the BJ commentarate reg Comey’s refusal to sign FBI on to government report on Russian interference in the US election. As I understand it, that report was not about any Trump ties to Russia, it was simply about what seems to me to be obvious facts that Russia government has been involved, or has ties to those who have interfered with the US presidential election, including hacking emails and propaganda campaigns.

    Seems to me only explanation Comey wouldn’t sign off is that it might hurt GOP. Comey is a crummy little chickenshit.
    Why anyone would trust a white man, particularly a Republican white man, is beyond me.
    Now, I happen to be a white man, though not a Republican one.
    Anyway, this little creep is a discredit to his race, all I have to say.

    Edit: being a white man, I guess I need to check if I am embezzling money from my own bank account and stashing it someplace and lying to myself about it.

  111. 111.

    Xenos

    @fuckwit: good point. If Trump had accused Hillary of having sex with 13yo Russian girls and then getting blackmailed by the FRB, then I would be convinced this story of a Russian trap is true. The same way we can be confident that he really is a teetotaller because he has never accused Hillary of being a drunk.

    If he has not projected a sin on others, he is not fearful of it being discovered about himself. Consider it a corollary to “Trump’s Law.”

  116. 116.

    piratedan

    Reposted from LGM

    this is awesome… so a candidate, previously exonerated by the very same agency of any wrongdoing… yet castigated by the Director of the FBI for her administrative failings…. by his own admissions, can’t prevent his own staff from not following their own agency’s directives when it comes to handling election sensitive investigations and then proceeds to violate those very same set of protocols and laws in order to “inform” us all about additional e-mails found, through another unrelated investigation. Alludes to the fact that they know the e-mails are there, despite not having said warrant to even examine said device… which most likely carries nothing but copies of the previously examined e-mails indicating essentially nothing except a propaganda boondoggle for her opponent…

    yet.. on the other hand, we have evidence of a foreign power, at the behest of said candidate himself, hacking a political organization in the middle of an election, for the express purpose of harassment, if not illegally attempting to gaining some means by which to cripple his opponent. Somehow, THIS is too sensitive an item to comment upon on the issue of fairness.

    Addendum…

    while we’re watching the FBI split hairs on the Russians motives, I feel it’s time to call out the bullshit for the bullshit that it is… The statements that Russians are playing this game to fuck with the elections but not “throw them to Trump” is essentially bullshit. They attacked the Dems, ergo, its done in support of the GOP, which essentially makes it pro-Trump. You want to say that there is some 11th dimensional chess being played… they know that they can’t stop Hillary but if they can screw with the Senate and the House, awesome, more political gridlock in the US for at least another two years.

    What bothers me in equal amounts of horror and disbelief, is that we have 17 separate intelligence agencies that are stating that another state is actively fucking with our elections and the supposed bastions of what make us America are essentially asleep at the switch. The press is ignoring this because it doesn’t help drive their horse race narrative or fit into their GOP friendly POV, and the GOP is fucking silent about it, proving them to be the sociopathic power hungry fucks that they are, because whatever dude, if we get to stay in power, whatevs.

    the idea that THIS is not THE fucking story of the election is beyond me. We have a foreign government, who is apparently so incredibly scared of a grandma becoming President that they’re willing to subvert our elections is incredible in and of itself. The fact that two of our major institutions are essentially meh about it, scares the living crap out of me.

    Now as for the NYT reporting that the FBI has cleared Trump of any illegal ties with Russia, I will simply say this… there was supposedly a reason why Comey came out ahead of his leakers within his own agency (despite their own policy) and I have no issues believing that there is a quite vigorous pro-Trump faction within the FBI and we certainly know that the NYT has been a willing handmaiden in the anti-Clinton campaign. There’s a forest full of incendiaries around Trump and his relationship with Putin and for the FBI to suddenly start waving their arms stating that there’s nothing to see here strikes me as incredibly fucking dubious.

  118. 118.

    Applejinx

    @dmsilev:

    You want to know how Abedin had 650,000 emails on that computer? She probably gave $10 to some House race four years ago….

    OK, you win the thread and all subsequent threads from now until the election ;)

    back to watching WTF happens when Trump AND the FBI are Russian moles.

    One thing about it, if they’re this determined to stop or obstruct Hillary, now I really believe our platform is real and represents intentionality. Who knew the oligarchs could mistrust her this hardcore? It’s as if she refuses to use ANY of the Clinton Foundation for evil. Where there’s smoke there’s really determined arsonists.

  119. 119.

    Applejinx

    @Stephen: I think this is a misunderstanding. Though it’s possible to carry messages via DNS packets, I don’t think we’re talking about that (correct me if I’m wrong). We’re talking about a Trump server that’s talking exclusively to an Alfa Bank server, was taken down when this fact became politically embarrassing, and then a replacement was put up which Alfa Bank immediately communicated with. In other words: relatively normal and unspooky email server traffic, except it’s a persistent connection between two entities that are maintaining secrecy and not handling ordinary traffic.

    This is not a super sekrit spy method. This is the red phone to the Kremlin, speaking through one of the nastiest Russian banks. It was recognized not because it was a crazy espionage thing, but because it was a very private email connection carrying traffic that (a) appears to be legitimate email communications and (b) is statistically tied to political events. It’s recognized not because the FBI or American spy networks conducted counter-spy things and exposed it (they seem compromised and working for Putin through Republican enablers) but because the pattern of DNS accesses is public information and because a completely unexpected source, techies interested in DNS, noticed the pattern of communications, where it was going, and when the communications were happening.

    If it was down to the FBI we’d still never have heard about it. The DNS side of all this is a totally separate issue from things like ‘Trump sex tape’ or ‘Russian mob intimidates Republicans and spooks into cooperating with hostile intelligence network’. That stuff is a power dynamic between (craven) people who know what’s happening and WILL NOT blow the whistle on it. The DNS stuff is people who have no idea what’s happening but stumbled upon smoking guns establishing a connection where one should not be. The techies in the DNS story aren’t (weren’t) being intimidated by Russia to shut them up, because Russia had no idea there was a need to shut them up about that, and they’re not privy to anything else (for instance, they don’t know the content of the Trump/Alfa hotline, only that it persists and is statistically tied to political events and would be very difficult to fake convincingly.

  120. 120.

    JR in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I once, back during the serious Cold War, saw a cultural exchange group from the USSR’s Red Army, including a men’s chorus, Cossack cavalry dancers with sabers and throwing knives, leaping and kicking, and a small orchestra.

    I was probably 10 or 12 at the time, around 1960ish. My Dad was very interested in Classical Music and worked with a Community Concert group to bring culture into southern West Virginia.

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