"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here…so let's just move on." #TrumpThroughHistory pic.twitter.com/booczMHiLI
— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) December 29, 2016
If that two bit hotel break in didn't change the course of the election was there even a story there?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 30, 2016
Thing of it is… I can’t figure out Putin’s hold over Trump. The sex tape theory is pretty weak, unless it involves Trump schtupping a sex worker wearing an Ivanka mask, and even that seems unlikely to qualify as ‘too embarrassing’ for the guy we’re talking about. He doesn’t seem to care enough about any of his kids and/or spouses to want to protect them from exposure. If it’s some kind of financial misfeasance, Donald’s walked away scott-free from so many failed deals that I don’t think he could be shamed into cooperation just by fear of exposure. And he’s got the Secret Service to keep the legbreakers away from his precious person. ‘Tis a mystery!
Either Trump wants to be part of a Kremlin-Kissinger grand bargain to loot the world, or he is compromised & is owned & operated by Putin.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 30, 2016
I think it's simpler than that…Trump yearns for respect & thinks Putin respects him. https://t.co/LZ2AYPMY14
— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) December 30, 2016
5. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, admits to being in contact w/Assange, who released info hacked by Russia https://t.co/i29EbTF2Nb pic.twitter.com/CPpbFZg6ka
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 30, 2016
7. Trump's behavior is certainly consistent with someone who fears Russia. He's Mr. Tough Guy, except w/Russia, who he constantly flatters
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 30, 2016
10. The investigation could be handled by an independent commission, like the one that investigated 9/11
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 30, 2016
6/ Trump is getting sworn in. He's going to be President. If you are more concerned that his wittle feels are hurt that the truth of…
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 30, 2016
8/ flirting with disloyalty to the security of this country well beyond a political disagreement.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 30, 2016
12/ …you don't want Trump's presidency to have an asterisk next to it, like a ball player with a home run count fueled by steroids and HGH
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 30, 2016
13/ Tough. It's already there. So here's my question for Trump defenders; how much RUS intervention in our elections is ok with you?
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 30, 2016
The only reason Trump will be president is because GOP already made this decision. Now it's haggling over the price. https://t.co/GPJH9KRKok
— GothamGirlBlue (@GothamGirlBlue) December 30, 2016
chanster
When I saw the “Vulgar Speculation” headline I thought this would be about Josh Marshall’s porn tweet…
Major Major Major Major
If the GOP stands up to Trump or in any way doesn’t go along with his plans (if they pick country over power) I will buy and then eat a hat. (I like the hats I currently own.)
ETA: @chanster: OMG whaaaaa??
Dog Dawg Damn
@chanster: Let’s refrain from Targeting Close Associates, shall we.
seaboogie
Putin’s hold over Trump is that he is a “strong-man” world leader who flatters Trump. Putin knows Trump’s weak spot, and is playing to it hard – because it’s easy. It is really just that simple.
tpherald
@chanster: I’m close to peeing myself laughing at the replies to that Tweet
Dog Dawg Damn
@tpherald: Twould only have been better if it was John Cole, but Josh’s reach makes it quite delicious.
Trentrunner
@chanster: Everyone, especially Josh, should know by now:
Erections have consequences.
Raven Onthill
My guess is that Putin has brokered lots of loans for Trump. Then again, Trump could just have been threatened with assassination.
Major Major Major Major
@tpherald: So seriously what’s the deal?
Trentrunner
Re “What does Russia have on Trump?”
I’d bet my pension that Trump has raped at least one underage girl.
I’d bet $1K that he’s raped Ivanka while she was a minor.
Trump isn’t sure what Russia has, but he knows it could be either of these. So he’s scared as shit of them.
chanster
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Indeed, we certainly don’t want to do that. Though I have to give Josh credit for standing by his tweet – that takes some chutzpah.
Suzanne
@Trentrunner: Don’t forget how many abortions Trump has paid for. A lot. I am sure.
tpherald
No worries on the whole Russian interference thing though … We have our own Taibbi and Oliver Stone throwing shade on the entire idea that Putin was involved in hacking the election. Apparently, these stalwarts of Liberal US thinkers are willing to believe along with Donald Trump, that the CIA, FBI and 17 US intelligence agencies are lying.
This is what we can expect over the next 4-8 years. Libs are always disjointed and weak when responding to serious threats like Trump and GWB. We’ll see tons of these sort of “maybe Trump isn’t really that crazy after all” garbage.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/something-about-this-russia-story-stinks-w458439
Trentrunner
@tpherald: I’ve had it with these myopic brocialists. Seriously.
Trentrunner
@Suzanne: I don’t disagree, but I don’t think either he or his supporters would care about his paying for his partners’ abortions. To them, since when is it a man’s fault anyway? Filthy sluts with their sexy parts hypnotizing men…
But they’d care about child-rape. Donald knows that.
hitchhiker
If he meant to do it, I do not get that porn tweet.
I also don’t get why DT is so exuberant about Putin’s cold screwing around with us — with our election, our intelligence agencies, our president, our media — with US. Maybe he is just insane. That would be just as likely as anything else at this point.
And finally, I still can’t get my brain to accept that DT is actually going to sit in the oval office in a few weeks. If that happens, the oval office will become more than anything else a symbol of how corrupt and stupid our country has been exposed as. It won’t be the almost mystical place where certain bits of history unfolded … it will be more like one of those cheap “museum” things you see in crappy western towns just off the freeway.
A tourist trap. A shoddy imitation of something that used to seem real.
tpherald
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t know, but I’m going to up all night reading that thread, it’s the best thing to happen in 2016
chanster
@Major Major Major Major: Josh says it is a follow up to his previous tweet where Kelly Conway was complaining that Obama’s latest actions towards Russia were really targeting the Trump campaign. “Close associates” I guess? Whatever it was, reading that thread certainly brightened my Friday night.
Sloegin
Josh Marshall’s tweet in response to ‘Team Trump We’re the true target of Obama’s sanctions’ tweet by Politico. Just wow. But no faulting him for it, it’s an epic response to Conway and Mayor noun-verb-9/11 whining about it all being about them. Which you would think someone would be smart enough to get the both of them to shut it – their response paints them as being in completely in bed with Putin.
Like the pair of lovely ladies in that tweet.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Sloegin: From twitter:
Major Major Major Major
@chanster: @Sloegin: I still don’t get it. Is he using it as an example of the kind of close associates that the Trump campaign and Russia are? Why that video? It’s got to be an accident that he is managing to spin.
hitchhiker
He’s saying that KAC and Giuliani are performing & getting each other off in front of cameras?
Okayyyyyyyy. It seems out of character for him to need a 25-minute graphic sex tape to make that point, tho’. I think of him as more of a hard core language guy.
Major Major Major Major
Wow, the p-hub twitter account is kind of awesome.
I wish Al Giordano would unblock me.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Major Major Major Major: Correct it’s an accident. Incorrect that he is managing to spin it.
Trentrunner
@Major Major Major Major: That’s what it is. But, hey, it could have been worse. Oh, god, it could have been worse. And if anyone asks how…bless your heart.
Dog Dawg Damn
It was up a longgggggg time before he responded to the reaction to it.
Major Major Major Major
@Dog Dawg Damn: Sorry, I meant trying.
Trentrunner
@Major Major Major Major: I’ve seen Al tweet that he’s willing to unblock if you contact him (no idea how) and just ask/explain/whatever. Seems more open than most…
BillinGlendaleCA
@chanster: Kelly Anne does realize there is no Trump campaign anymore, unless she’s thinking four years hence.
Aleta
It could be simple. One possibility is huge loans from/payoffs to state banks controlled by the Russian mob. Another is that he has used their banks/mob to launder money and to hide it.
Or, for example: He used Manafort to arrange for Russian help to get him elected. (MSNBC wrote that he redesigned his platform to reflect Russian desires at the time of the convention, and that his pro-Russian statements began around that time.) The Russians may have tried more avenues of influence than are known now. This deal with them is probably not a huge stretch from how he’s operated in the past to get things done in other countries. And from when he made ‘campaign donations’ to AGs in states with suits against the university. But it’s huge if exposed. (Traitorous, criminal, and worst of all would ruin his imagined rep as a great man.)
Sloegin
@Major Major Major Major: Could be an accident? Yeah certainly. It doesn’t seem to be an attempt to game or generate clicks. His follow-up tweets don’t seem to indicate his account has been hacked either. I’m still leaning towards him being fed up with the nuclear-level diarrhea being spewed by Trump cronies and this possibly being an alcohol-fueled response.
fuckwit
@Major Major Major Major: as said in the replies, it passes the Bechdel test with flying colors
Major Major Major Major
@Trentrunner: Huh, alright. Emailed him.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Sloegin: I’ll DM Al to unblock you if he agrees to block Omnes Omnibus instead.
Aleta
@tpherald: I couldn’t believe the shallowness of what Stone wrote.
Larkspur
I don’t understand anything in this post or the comments. It could be that I lack cluefulness – I acknowledge that I often do – or maybe I just need some sleep. Good night. Maybe this will all have disappeared into the cornfield by morning.
ChristianPinko
Just my humble early morning and alcohol-altered opinion: don’t spend too much energy thinking about or working against Trump, whatever he does. He’s more interested in being President than in actually acting as President. Trump’s cabinet, and Republican Congressional leaders, are the people we need to focus on.
Major Major Major Major
I can’t stop giggling about this tweet.
Aleta
What’s not shocking is the Congress people, media and Repub operatives who don’t care about Tr and Russia. These are the people who didn’t get upset that we were torturing prisoners, who were also captured illegally. Didn’t care that Repub companies profited from deaths in Iraq and from ripping apart a country they said they were rescuing. Didn’t care about the 9-11 whitewash. These are stone cold people. Traitor means nothing to them.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Aleta: Some of them do care. Particularly in the Senate. Their constituents should let them know they appreciate it.
fuckwit
@Sloegin: he fucked up. not sure how he gets out of it.
just deleting the tweet and apologizing to anyone who accidentally saw more than they wanted to, should be sufficient.
i mean, ernie anastos kept fucking that chicken and he stayed on the air.
Dog Dawg Damn
@fuckwit: but he waited so long, it had already gone viral. I hope he has a work & home life where this can be funny, because it sure as hell is.
seaboogie
@Trentrunner: I bet Josh hits his subscription target tonight…gifs on his thread are pretty priceless!
Major Major Major Major
If this happened to me I would delete and apologize, ha ha we all make mistakes.
ETA: Haha
Dog Dawg Damn
@Major Major Major Major: Takes a brave person to let it all hang out.
Major Major Major Major
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Not much of that going on in the video.
James Powell
@Sloegin:
I don’t get it. I guess I’m thick as a brick.
Gretchen
Putin has something on Trump, but Trump doesn’t know it yet. What’s going on now is that Putin has flattered Trump, and Trump thinks Putin thinks he’s awesome, way smarter than Obama, and he’s busy congratulating himself on how much greater US relations will be with Russia because Putin thinks he’s awesome. He’s in for a hard fall later on, and will be taking the rest of us with him, but that’s what’s happening now.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Just speaking as a guy, Trump does like those young pretty little blondes a lot, doesn’t he? I mean his wife is literally younger than his daughter. I think it’s pretty obvious what a hypothetical Trump black mail sex tape would involve.
Major Major Major Major
Here’s a great response.
EDIT: lots of edits.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Al Giordano blocked you?
I think the porn tweet was an accident but now he’s owning it.
ericblair
@Gretchen:
I agree, there’s no need to go beyond that given Trump’s mental processes. Trying to use kompromat on Trump at this point would be insanely dangerous: there’s no predicting how he’ll react, but he’s all about dominance and domination and Russia would be blatantly trying to dominate him. Putin is eventually going to want Trump to do something for him that Trump doesn’t really want to do or doesn’t care about, and then shit will start breaking down between them. If there’s one thing a thin-skinned egocentric bully can’t stand, it’s another thin-skinned egocentric bully.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: Yeah, I think he had an itchy trigger finger at the time. He said something bitchy to me, I said something pissy back, then he responded to one of my other tweets constructively, then he blocked me. He was tweetstorming.
Thanks for the kind words btw.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
No, she’s older, but not much.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Major Major Major Major: Angry Black Lady blocked me. I have no idea why. Really liked following her.
ruemara
@BillinGlendaleCA: They just both have that weirdly weasley eyed stare. Like, creepy similar faces. Ugh.
BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara: I think it’s the modeling training.
Major Major Major Major
@Dog Dawg Damn: @opiejeanne: I think my notion of what counts as acceptable online discourse has been, ah, calibrated wrong by commenting here too much.
ruemara
@BillinGlendaleCA: naw. cheekbones, eyes. The Slavic heritage. Not modeling. I’m not talking about the ducklips face. It’s in the bone structure and eye spacing. They look very similar.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Major Major Major Major: Same. And I get that Twitter is enemy territory, with very few clues as to who is an ally.
Major Major Major Major
@ruemara: It’s the drag queen make-up.
Joyce H
@BillinGlendaleCA:
A few years ago, Ivanka extracted a promise from Daddy Dearest to not date or marry women younger than her. We know this because Trump told the story in an interview, apparently find it a funny and heartwarming family story and not realizing the depths of dysfunction it illustrated.
As for the vulgar speculation part of the thread, I’m convinced that Putin has something on Trump, and that Trump either knows or suspects it. I can’t think of any other way to explain Trump’s consistent obsequious fawning over Putin. With everyone else, with even those closest and most loyal, he might be mostly approving, but will show flashes of that viciousness and mockery that is so much a part of his character.
What might it be? I don’t know, but I’d think getting a hold over Trump would be the easiest thing in the world for a Cold War era spymaster. Remember that Trump took his pageant to Moscow. Now, most adults are smart enough to know that when you’re visiting a police state, for the entire time you are in the country, you don’t do anything or say anything that you wouldn’t want your spouse, kids, parents, business partners, or the public at large to learn about. But Trump isn’t most people, he’s stupid and reckless on an unimaginable scale. I think if he were in Russia and one of his new oligarch buddies, men who are rich many times beyond even the wealth that he claims to possess, chummily invited him to a wild night with hot young girls, it would never cross his mind to say no.
I’m nearly certain that somewhere there’s a video of Trump and young girls who are visibly underaged, so much so that you couldn’t plausibly claim ‘she said she was 18!’. And I wouldn’t so much as blink in surprise if the video also featured bondage, of a clearly nonconsensual nature.
SectionH
Countdown clock: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/newyear?p0=274
Taylor
@Aleta:
I gather you haven’t seen any of his films then.
If I were the paranoid type, I’d say his JFK film was financed by the CIA to discredit the conspiracy theorists. What an embarrassment.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Joyce H: It’s disgusting that this is so fucking plausible.
James Powell
@Joyce H:
And if it existed and had been released during the campaign, none of his supporters would have deserted him.
fuckwit
@Dog Dawg Damn: wait. wasn’t underage hookers what finally took berlusconi down?
Major Major Major Major
@fuckwit: Well, he lost political power for political reasons, actually. Then there was tax fraud, and then some bunga bunga issues, but I believe he’s back in government in some capacity.
wasabi gasp
This here cold war in my pocket got all hot targeting your associates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkGUI4bnQbQ
Noskilz
I suspect it’s nothing as interesting as blackmail and Trump’s just a chump for puffery. The downside of this take is that I expect he’s just as likely to turn on Putin or anyone else if it suits him – I’ll be curious to see how Trump handles a situation where Putin has clearly played him for a fool. My guess is he will not take take such a thing well or respond in a carefully considered way.
Major Major Major Major
@Noskilz: This seems like a safe bet.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, there’s a couple of people I tiptoe around when they’re in a mood, but they’re usually ok.
The kind words about your project are well-deserved.
Aleta
@Taylor: I liked them up through the doors. Then got bored by the next one and stopped going. I heard JFK was bad and senseless.
opiejeanne
@Dog Dawg Damn: Hi there. My nym is the same there if you are interested, and so is BettyCracker’s. I’ve found a few people to follow, like Bob Schooley, DocRocket, GaileyFray, etc.
I also learned to block people pretty fast.
fuckwit
@Noskilz: most likely scenario? troll owes hundreds of millions of dollars to the russian mafia.
money, not sex. they own him.
EBT
@fuckwit: This, but a billion or more. And he isn’t good for that much.
mai naem mobile
It’s either that Lumpy has loans to the Russians that be doesnt have the money to pay off or he has very obvioualy laundered money or done something very illegal related to the sanctions. Something that would land him in prison.
MomSense
@tpherald:
A long time ago Taibbi wrote a deplorable piece about his time in Moscow. Not surprised he is defending Russia now.
NeenerNeener
@ruemara: I’ve heard that they have the same plastic surgeon, and that’s why Melania & Ivanka look so much alike.
And I still think Putin has a sex tape of Donald as a bottom. Sex with a female child wouldn’t bother Trump’s fans, but sex with a guy might.
Juice Box
M@Dog Dawg Damn: She blocked me too, for strongly agreeing with her.
Frances Perkins
Daily Kos had a story suggesting that when Trump lifts the sanctions on Russia, the massive deal Exxon has to exploit oil reserves in Russia’s Arctic territories can go ahead resulting in billions of dollars in payoffs to Putin, Trump and others. Its all about the money.
Steeplejack (phone)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Melania Trump is 46; Ivanka Trump is 35.
rikyrah
@Frances Perkins:
Yep
SW
Mystery? They bankrolled his failing business and got him elected President. How could you possibly be more in debt to anyone?
Barry
“If it’s some kind of financial misfeasance, Donald’s walked away scott-free from so many failed deals that I don’t think he could be shamed into cooperation just by fear of exposure. ”
Simply owing some people a lot of money would be no hold now. I’m sure that Goldman Sachs (you know, the Evul Bankerz who own Hitlery) had a multibillion $$$ deal for him on the morning of Wednesday, Nov 9.
It could be that he was laundering clearly dirty money, and very likely that he was committing tax evasion on a hundred-million dollar level.
The sex angle is good, though, because it’s so personal – corporate ‘crimes’ are less personal, and heavily excused by our system. Given his sloppiness, sociopathic narcissism and bullying tendencies, I could see him getting rather vicious on an underage girl. And that’s even before some white party powder got up his nose.
Dennis
@EBT: Yes, follow the money. Blackmail not necessary. Trump owes his propped up business empire to vast loans from Putin associates, since he he burned all his bridges with legitimate banks.
Mike G
Putin is Trump’s role model, everything he wants to be — an authoritarian bully who can order people killed and countries invaded, immense political power and corruption being exploited to get immensely rich.
Maybe Trump is gullible and thirsty enough to be flattered rather than coerced into being a Russian stooge. He probably suspects or knows Putin has some dirty personal thing on him, but Putin is not going to use it if he can dupe Trump into doing what Putin wants voluntarily.
quakerinabasement
@Dog Dawg Damn: Me too. No idea.
Dalai Rasta
@Aleta: Yes. One of the biggest movies of the ’90s was an attempt by an ostensibly lefty director to rehabilitate an egomaniacal, unethical prosecutor’s homophobic witch hunt.
jcgrim
@Dalai Rasta: Check out this report on Trump & his associates’ long-time financial dealings with Russian Oligarchs. This reporter gives historical context to this complex financial network related to the fall of the Soviet Union and the international financial collapse in 2008. One could speculate that Trump is Putin’s fool. http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-private-russian-connections/
LongHairedWeirdo
I won’t deny Trump’s behavior is *consistent* with someone who fears Russia, but it’s also consistent with someone being worked by Russia – flattered and groomed and made to feel like “with friendly engagement, Russia can be a GREAT ally!” This fits with his notion that, wow, he’s smarter than all these anti-Russia people, so he can do something no one else can.
This is what makes a goddamned fool, and the political party that supported him, so dangerous, in this situation.
Remember: there was a competent, safe candidate on the ticket, one who was not a puppet of Putin’s. The GOP could have sighed, and thrown the election.