Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I was promised a recession.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

“woke” is the new caravan.

This really is a full service blog.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Let’s finish the job.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / From the BBC: The Real Housewives of ISIS

From the BBC: The Real Housewives of ISIS

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The BBC, very wisely, decided that the best way to deal with ISIS’s attempts to recruit young Muslim-British women was to use satire and ridicule. While this has drawn some controversy, the BBC is absolutely correct to go this route. Some of the most effective anti-al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) Information Operations, which was ISIS’s original name, was rooted in contextually appropriate Iraqi humor. To make them look silly and stupid. So without further ado, and for your late evening viewing pleasure, here are the Real Housewives of ISIS*:

* Before anyone decides to freak out in the comments, I am fully aware, perhaps more so than anyone else here, exactly how bad things are for the women that have been forced to become wives, consorts, or are forced into prostitution on behalf of ISIL. The BBC is not trying to make light of their situation, rather it is trying to use satire and humor to dissuade and Muslim-British women from willingly submitting themselves to that hellish reality.

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  12. 12.

    ? Martin

    @Dog Dawg Damn: Pretty sure he has been for a while. The previous reporting on investigation indicated 4 individuals but only 3 names were given – Flynn must have been (surprising exactly nobody) the 4th name.

  13. 13.

    Barbara

    I thought the bit on the matching suicide vests was funny but I am pretty sure I am not the target audience.

    @JPL: Shutting it down will only make it a bigger story. The thing about Russia, if you are the WSJ, is that business types went to Russia for a good part of the 90s to try to “capitalize” Russia, and, basically, Russia was an impossible place to do business, especially compared to China. There is corruption and dysfunction in both countries, but the diversion of all economic gain to a chosen few seems to be the dominating ethic of Russia. If someone could coax Russia into a more normal commercial relationship with the West it would actually be a pretty good thing. Trump isn’t that guy. And until someone does, basically, for WSJ business types, Russia is a dead end, especially if Trump antagonizes China or other countries where commercial opportunities and ties are much more robust.

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    Michael Cohen wants to know where the pu_syhats were made. He’s getting so many funny responses. And apparently there is a conspiracy that Soros funded the manufacturing of hats. I could use a Soros check.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano: @JPL: The point of the continual leaks is to prevent that. As Senior Chief (ret) Malcolm Nance stated last night on MSNBC: this is a spy hunt. They are looking for Russian spies, those working for them, and/or both.

    If this was a Logan Act or campaign finance investigation it would not be done by the counterintelligence section. These folks take what they do very, very seriously. They have their own prosecutors assigned to work with them. The leaks are intended to make shutting this down into a constitutional crisis type of scandal. And they’re intended to turn up the heat on the subjects of the investigation. To make them sweat. And to make the President wonder who will turn on him first.

    And, eventually, the heat will get so hot it will make it impossible for folks on his team to do their jobs.

  19. 19.

    Feathers

    I laughed. There’s a reason why SNL is getting to Trump in a way that all the newspaper columnists and online commentators ranting about him do not. It also cuts off the “But it can’t be worse than MY LIFE RIGHT NOW!!!” attitude so common among teens (and immature 20 somethings).

    Went to the Boston March. Missed meeting up with friends, so basically hung back, talking with a bunch of different people. Best moments:

    A group of French tourists asked about my (and everyone else’s) pussy hat. I had to explain several times, finally just talking to the one guy who understood colloquial English. He laughed when he got it. He then explained to the rest of the group, of which I basically understood “chat,” “Trump,” and the “grab pussy” hand gesture. There was a wide eyed gasp from the group followed by murmured nodding and a real appreciation of what they were seeing. They all thanked me, which I understood my 2nd year high school French level, but offered lots of “thank you’s” and “merci’s.”

    At the end of the march, I decided to give away my hat. I had realized it was going to be small, but thought it would be OK. It basically blocked out to fit my head, but was tight enough that I wasn’t going to wear it again. So I saw a girl around 10, said “you look like you have a small head, would you like my hat?” She just lit up, slammed it onto her head, and did a happy dance with much jumping up and down involved. Her mother told me she had been longingly admiring all the hats at the march. I’m so glad that my hat is now someone who will love and remember it as their hat from the march, rather than being my not-quite-what-I-wanted-it-to-be hat. I’m learning to give away the things that I make but don’t quite love, that just because I made it and enjoyed making it, doesn’t mean it belongs in my life forever.

    Back to work tomorrow!

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: 3 names were in the NY Times report from last week. That report went on to say there were also others. It was unclear how many others.

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    @Dog Dawg Damn: Beat me to it…hard to believe…trying to picture just how soon Republicans would expect Hillary’s resignation were it the other way around…

    …ah well, let’s play this hand we’re dealt. Flynn, Manafort, Page, Stone – just need one more wild card to make a full hand here, one that Trump will have to fold to try and save his own skin.

    Can’t wait to hear Spicer’s and Conway’s take on treason…maybe something like “they were just really into Russian culture and history, and went a little too far?”

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: Saw that too. And my understanding is yes. I’m sure Mr. KellyAnne Conway is now no longer quite so happy he was able to win his suit that allows a sitting President to be forced to testify in civil cases.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    [the leaks are] intended to turn up the heat on the subjects of the investigation. To make them sweat. And to make the President wonder who will turn on him first.

    And, eventually, the heat will get so hot it will make it impossible for folks on his team to do their jobs.

    “What did the President and Vice President (and Priebus, and Ryan, and McConnell) know, and when did they know it?” I’m sure this gang will be able to keep their stories straight, sure thing!

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: I would imagine they’d be looking at the adult kids. All can be tied back to Russian business interests that are tied to Putin. I think Jr. was the one that went to the sort of summit in August in Paris attended by Russian government and business officials.

  29. 29.

    Feathers

    @schrodingers_cat: If anyone had listened to my complaint about Moffat after Amy Pond’s second season that there are stories that men who’ve been through a nasty divorce just shouldn’t be allowed to write. Namely one where a wife essentially ends herself when she realizes that her ongoing existence is making her husband unhappy, despite his thinking that he is madly in love with her. No, she knows that he would be better off without her nasty womanly weaknesses, like getting old, or having a past, or, well, existing. Better to just get it all over with, no? Yeah, spoilers, but I don’t give a shyte.

    Seriously, someone needs to do an intervention when this situation arises and say that you aren’t the one to tell this story. I had a fantastic screenwriting teacher who wouldn’t let anyone who had actually been through a divorce write a divorce script unless they wrote at least a draft of the story told through the eyes of the ex-spouse character. Man, I read a lot of garbage scripts in groups and classes where that rule was not enforced.

    Note: I have a comment in moderation, probably for discussion of my P-hat.

  30. 30.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: Unfortunately, the republicans are turning a blind eye to it, because they have become idealogues who want their agenda passed. Barbara had a great comment (14), but Murdoch’s group helped elect Trump, and it is going to be difficult to rein him in before real damage is done.

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I liked the first half of the first episode, the entire second episode was great, but I couldn’t even watch the third one. It got so navel-gazing and affectedly “mind-blowing” that I had no patience for it whatsoever. A pity, because I was intrigued by Sian Phillips’s performance in the second episode and was looking forward to what they were going to do with her.

  33. 33.

    bupalos

    Someone calm me down about Trump. After this crowd size thing I’m pretty quickly coming around to the idea that he’s insane or in the grasp of some functional equivalent to insanity. I just can’t find the straight rational reason to instruct his spokesman to tell an obvious lie. It’s not even a lie in the traditional sense, it’s more of a statement that they refuse to accept obvious truths which they find unacceptable.

    Do we think the republicans can slam on the breaks and reverse course quickly enough?

  40. 40.

    amk

    @debbie:

    “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

    you think that current corrupt congress critters won’t normalize this also? with retrospective effect?

    murkkkans surely fucked up the checks and balances doctrine in nov 2016.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    @bupalos: Earlier on twitter, someone mentioned it was like the Hunger Games. Trump gave him the statement but for some reason is disappointed with him.

  43. 43.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Feathers: I think they lost the plot before she died. Her backstory stretched credulity. I haven’t really liked Sherlock since she entered in the scene in season 3. I didn’t care either for her or Watson.

  51. 51.

    Lizzy L

    @bupalos: This or versions of it are making the rounds on FB.

    If you are puzzled by the bizarre ‘press conference’ put on by the White House press secretary (angrily claiming that Trump’s inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes.

    1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference.

    2. Increasing the separation between Trump’s base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—which is likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as “fake news,” because otherwise they’d be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.

    3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say ‘The White House is lying,’ a third will say ‘If Trump says it, it must be true,’ and the remaining third will say ‘Gosh, I guess this is unknowable.’ The idea isn’t to convince these people of untrue things, it’s to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

    This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump’s White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they’ll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of.

    I don’t know if you will find this calming, but it is explanatory.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bupalos: Because he could. It was dominance. He now knows he can make Spicer say anything. Though from all reports he’s unhappy with how it went.

  60. 60.

    Doug R

    @schrodingers_cat: The Sherlock episode a couple of weeks ago where the major character is killed off seemed not 21st century WRT medical/first aid.
    Character died BECAUSE THE WRITERS SAID SO.

  66. 66.

    dww44

    @Feathers: I too enjoyed your story. At least the French were allowed to watch. Understand that many Canadians and British citizens weren’t allowed in to participate in the marches.

    I’d love to get a hat for my granddaughters.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    @Omnes Omnibus: duh.. I was so concerned about Pence becoming president, that I didn’t realize how that played into Putin’s hand.

    Let’s remember that we should congratulate the Falcons and their fans, since they had to play their games in that hell hole, which is John Lewis’ district. It had to be scary to attend the game today.

  70. 70.

    bupalos

    @Lizzy L: That actually would be somewhat reassuring in that you could see a plausible political strategy, except that the real Trumpers in this sense aren’t anything like 1/3 of the population, more like 1/6th or 1/10th. At lease half of the R’s that voted for this clown are doing so on the proviso that “he’s the worst thing in the world except wait, I forgot about the damn blacks and hippies.” And more than half of the other folks that voted for him did so on the grounds of “what the hell, might as well try something weird.”

    The real trumpers, in the sense of people who have a personal connection and allegiance to him are a pretty small minority. It’s hard for me to believe they think this is a winning political strategy. Maybe. I guess I hope so. I suddenly have a desire to know about the exact physical chain of events that has to happen for nukes to fly.

  71. 71.

    randy khan

    @Doug R:

    It didn’t bother me that she died – there are a lot of ways someone can be shot and die quite quickly – but there was the problem that she talked a lot and then expired. But of course we suspend that kind of disbelief all the time.

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodingers_cat: They began by doing modern variations on the Doyle stories and then spun off from there. They did manage to wedge the Musgrave Ritual into the last episode.

  74. 74.

    Feathers

    @schrodingers_cat: Another Moffat problem which first showed in Doctor Who. Women aren’t interesting in and of themselves, but only because of their backstory, which renders them somehow magically perfect for the man they are encountering. It nearly ruined “A Study in Pink” for me. Good gawd, let Irene Adler just be an amazing woman who created herself out of what she was born with. I still find more than enough to enjoy, but the unforced errors are always maddening.

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JPL:

    Let’s remember that we should congratulate the Falcons and their fans

    I did congratulate earlier today, but let’s not push Packer fans too far.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Like Federalism and state’s rights, checks and balances are really more like guidelines really…

  78. 78.

    dww44

    @JPL: But Trump was on my Teevee today saying how much he loved Georgia. They’re great people, they are. Referencing the deaths from tornadoes overnight in the southern part of the state. I just simply cannot handle seeing his face nor hearing the lies that just flow from his mouth. Kellyanne is not far behind.

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    @dww44:

    I’d probably donate it to John to buy a new bed. I can’t believe he broke the bed and the post just like we joked he would.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Lizzy L:
    Some enterprising publisher/editor should start an above-the-fold daily “hot sheet” (or whatever) cataloging Deadbeat Shitgibbon’s (and maybe KAC’s) latest lies, and also keep a running total. Add to it something like “487 days without a tax return,” “231 days without a verifiable true statement,” and so forth.

    It’s a relatively long-term project — six months at least, which is an eternity for Jeff Zucker and Pinch Fucking Sulzberger That Corrupt Fuck — but it might serve to counteract what is described in your blockquoted summary.

    The 27-percenters will scream and howl; the proper response from Bezos (or whomever) would be “GO FUCK YOURSELVES, MORONS! YOU MOTHERFUCKERS GOT US HERE, SO FUCKING DEAL!”

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Spicer’s performance sucked. And it didn’t get the response the Boss wanted. That’s the problem.

  84. 84.

    FlipYrWhig

    It could be that I’m slow, but I figured out what Spicer was saying, or supposed to be saying. He was trying to say that if you add in-person attendance to TV viewership you get a big number. That’s why he said “watched by”: that phrase combines the two. It wasn’t some sooper seekrit media disinformation strategy, it was just being a weasel to find a way to brag, which is Trump S.O.P.

  85. 85.

    Lizzy L

    @SFAW: Sure. They can add this (reported by NBC News) to it:

    … a ProPublica investigation out Friday revealed that despite Trump’s pledge to transfer control of his businesses to his children as part of an ethics agreement as president, he hasn’t filed any of the necessary documents to do so in Florida, Delaware and New York.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for your comment earlier. I just didn’t connect the dots. In some ways Putin has already won, just by having Trump in the White House. It’s up to us to keep our democracy together.

  87. 87.

    Percysowner

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m sure Mr. KellyAnne Conway is now no longer quite so happy he was able to win his suit that allows a sitting President to be forced to testify in civil cases.

    Oh, please! Trump will appoint another Justice and suddenly Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Thomas and New Guy will say they saw what happened under their original decision and THIS time it is not allowed. Then they will add the Gore election language i.e. in this case only, so they can screw any Democratic President from now until the end of time. They are ALL venal.

  91. 91.

    Another Scott

    Whenever this is reTweeted, a Trump or Trumpette gets 5 more worry lines.

    The crowd was huge!!11

    (via Krugman’s twitter feed).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @efgoldman:

    As with all WSJ articles, if you Google the exact article title—
    "U.S. Eyes Michael Flynn’s Links to Russia"
    —including quotation marks, you will get a hit that goes to the full article. Sometimes it is the second or third one of a group of nearly identical results.

  95. 95.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JPL:

    Let’s remember that we should congratulate the Falcons and their fans, since they had to play their games in that hell hole, which is John Lewis’ district. It had to be scary to attend the game today.

    I was terrified for my daughter who left the safety of Tom Price’s district to go to the game. We were already making funeral arrangements but she somehow survived. As did everyone else who attended the game.

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    @Percysowner:

    Oh, please! Trump will appoint another Justice

    But-but-but the Dems will filibuster! And that will stop Trump from getting anyone crazy/evil/stupid (pick three) on SCOTUS!

    Sorry, sometimes I crack myself up.

  97. 97.

    FlipYrWhig

    @amk: Oh, I’m sure, but AFAICT that was what he was sent out there to claim: to defend against the notion that nobody wanted to see the whole farcical ceremony by offering up that millions upon millions were watching from home and that that was the number that really counts! Which buys time for the next phase of bullshit.

  99. 99.

    Percysowner

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m not saying people shouldn’t give it a go. I’m just saying that none of us can rely on the judicial system as long as Roberts et al. have the last word and the fifth Justice will be a Trump appointee. There is a slight chance that Kennedy has SOME decency, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

  100. 100.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was mistaken last thread – I think that may have in fact been my first. My second is the reminder not to push Packers fans too far. Thanks, again.

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: @Omnes Omnibus: Yes. But as part of a larger strategy. Putin seeks revenge against the US for what he sees as America taking advantage of a poor and weak post Soviet transitioning Russia. He seeks to so weaken, as to make it ineffectual if not overthrow, the post Cold War and WW II orders in order to reestablish what he believes is Russia’s rightful historic place in the world order he will dictate. To do this he must discredit liberal democracy everywhere, but especially that of the US and EU member states as the exemplars. And he needs NATO, the UN, and other international institutions weakened if not broken. What most didn’t catch is that Russia signed an agreement with Syria on Friday.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/world/middleeast/russia-turkey-syria-deal.html

    Syria is now, for all intents and purposes, the forward operating base of a planned/proto/nascent Russian expeditionary force and capability.

  108. 108.

    Barbara

    @Adam L Silverman: When it comes to stretching the truth, the art lies in knowing how to fabricate what might sound plausible. It is the rhetorical equivalent of making costume jewelry. There was no plausibility in what Spicer said. It was the equivalent of a 7 carat cubic zirconium being passed off as a real diamond by someone who is living paycheck to paycheck.

  112. 112.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And, eventually, the heat will get so hot it will make it impossible for folks on his team to do their jobs.

    Many Trump appointees appear to be starting out in that condition with just the normal amount of heat.

  113. 113.

    SgrAstar

    @SFAW: jsyk, The Guardian has started a daily Trump admin update. Daily! Fabulous. It’s on their website, and I strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t already subscribed, to do so. Independent journalism is vital…and their irreducible Britishness is a plus. Anglophile here… :)

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Syria is now, for all intents and purposes, the forward operating base of a planned/proto/nascent Russian expeditionary force and capability.

    The Russia and the USSR before it have had a decades-long military relationship with Syria. E.g.:

    In 1987 the relationship between Syria and the Soviet Union appeared to be close and deep. Syria was clearly favored among Soviet client states in the Third World. For over twenty years, Syria had obtained most of its military equipment from the Soviet Union. In addition, there was a large Soviet military presence in Syria; by mid-1984 there were an estimated 13,000 Soviet and East European advisers in Syria. However, many of these advisers were withdrawn in 1985 during a dispute so that in 1986 between 2,000 and 5,000 remained.

    Syrian-Soviet relations were upgraded and formalized in the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation signed by Assad in Moscow in October 1980. The treaty runs for twenty years and has automatic five-year extensions, unless one of the parties terminates the agreement. It provides for regular consultations on bilateral and multilateral issues of interest, coordination of responses in the event of a crisis, and military cooperation.

    A secret protocol to the treaty reputedly details Soviet military obligations to Syria and may mandate the dispatch of Soviet troops to Syria in case of an Israeli invasion. Syrian defense minister Tlas warned in 1984 that the Soviet Union would dispatch two Soviet airborne divisions to Syria within eight hours in the event of a conflict with Israel. Tlas’s has also stated that the Soviet Union would use nuclear weapons to protect Syria. Tlas’ statements, however, were not endorsed by the Soviet Union. Syrian-Soviet nuclear cooperation is limited to a February 1983 agreement for cooperation and exchange for peaceful purposes.

    […]

    It goes on to make the point that Syria wasn’t a Soviet proxy, so it’s not as clear-cut as that excerpt. The point I’m trying to make is that there’s a long history there.

    But given that long-standing relationship, it has always surprised me that so many thought that the US could just do what we wanted there when it came to getting rid of the monster Assad, helping to impose a new inclusive government, etc. It was very easy for me, just barely an interested amateur, to see that Putin wasn’t going to stand for it. Also, he couldn’t. Russia’s prestige depends on them not losing any more international cold or warm conflicts – Putin was forced to help because of Russia’s weakness (not because of Russia’s strength). That said, Obama was right to not get heavily involved there. And since Putin’s committed so much to Assad, he was clearly going to demand a payback and try to make it look like a big victory over the undependable Obama.

    It’s not at all clear to me, though, that this means that Putin is suddenly going to try to throw his weight around elsewhere in the region. Syria is still far from pacified, and Russia, Turkey, and Iran have big internal issues (economic and otherwise) that they still need to address. Foreign adventures are costly…

    But we’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Putin never needed to own Trump. He just needed Trump to get in a position that would result in the destabilization of the United States. Which is where we are heading (if we haven’t already arrived).

  120. 120.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dm: In this case it will effect what is and is not put into things like the PDB. What is discussed in the Deputies meetings of the Interagency. If Flynn is clean – and I hope to somebody’s Deity he is – just having this hanging out there is toxic and destructive for a functioning Interagency process.

  124. 124.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @JPL: Enforceability of that NDA could be challenged. Like releases of liability, NDAs can be like voodoo – they prevent what the person who signs them believes they prevent.

  130. 130.

    sukabi

    @dm: pretty sure that’s not from the heat, it’s from basic incompetence…they are all in jobs that are well above their abilities / knowledge.

  131. 131.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: The only NDAs I’m aware of are the one’s that come with the clearances. I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that requiring an NDA of a government official – Title 5, Title 10 excepted services (Uniformed, Intel, Faculty at PME schools), Term Appointment Title 5, Intergovernmental Personnel Appointments (IPA) – regarding the President is not something that’s been done. I know there was speculation during the campaign that the now President would be requiring them, but even if he does, I agree with Bella Q that they could and should be challenged. Contractors can have NDAs in regard to their companies corporate secrets – I’m under a couple of those from my current and previous company. But that’s different and separate than the NDA I’m under to the government in regard to my clearances. That’s in effect regardless of whether I’m a contractor or an IPA or regular civil service.

  132. 132.

    PhoenixRising

    @efgoldman: Yeah, the NDAs confuse the hell out of me for that very reason: in addition to NDAs more generally being a trigger for litigation/most often acknowledged in the breach, POTUS isn’t the boss of anyone whose paycheck I’m funding, in the private-industry sense of being able to add contractual elements to employment, beyond whatever the WH personnel office does for all staff.

    This seems like the inverse of the problem Trump creates for himself by having private paid ‘security’ around him, instead of accepting the security services our taxes pay for. It’s a strange puzzle that I expect to unbraid right around the time he’s impeached and Maddow is (over)explaining what Liz Warren grilled someone on that day.

    Common thread, in case I’m too tired to make sense, is that these are predictable prompts for discovery in civil litigation, and discovery is what causes settlements…right after one or both parties come to regret the facts & the filing. It’s gonna be epic.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PhoenixRising: Exactly, the lawsuit Tribe is filing tomorrow, the first on the emoluments issue, apparently makes the argument that the President’s tax documents are needed in discovery in order to determine just how much of a problem there is.

  134. 134.

    PhoenixRising

    @Adam L Silverman: Which, if you’ll excuse me for mentioning it, was an insight no one needed Larry Tribe to produce. He’s real smart, but honestly, anyone like me who remembers contracts class could have made that argument, because it is blindingly fucking obvious.

    Which has been bugging me for 6 months. This was entirely predictable, and plenty of people who aren’t even lawyers predicted it. How did this turtle get up on the fence post?

    It’s possible Trump just doesn’t listen to anyone outside the family, or his kids are too stupid to realize the obvious, or they couldn’t figure out a way to get him to drop out, but…the discovery is going to start killing his credibility in any negotiation he may ever engage in again–as POTUS or in business–in a way that strikes me as almost self-destructive. This guy didn’t lose money on a land deal in Arkansas, he’s 99 flavors of crooked, and he must know that. There was no conceivable way he could be in office for a week without someone filing a suit in which the discovery will be at best deeply embarrassing for the family business, and very likely to ruin him financially as well as destroying his presidency.

    I just wonder what the con was supposed to be, and if they never meant it to go this far. What does the promissory note Putin is holding say, exactly–‘try to get elected & make a joke of America’ vs ‘get elected and deliver these items’?

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    @kdaug: Iran is complicated. I’m no expert, but I believe they have something in their Constitution about forbidding foreign powers from operating on their territory. That came up in the recent incident where Russia was using an Iranian air base (briefly) to attack targets in Syria. It caused some problems for the government, and I don’t know the status of that. More is here.

    I don’t know the status of any new treaties, either.

    The VOA has more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    Another Scott

    @PhoenixRising: Donnie entered the race 1 day after JEB! announced. I’m convinced that that is no coincidence. I think he wanted to destroy JEB!, probably over some “deal” in Florida that he wanted to do. Remember Donnie’s “if you screw me, I screw you 10x harder!” mantra.

    Others have said that he ran to puff up his status as some grand thinker or important person, but didn’t plan on doing much beyond showing everyone how small all the other candidates were. But once he started winning, he didn’t have a way out. It seems clear that he, and just about everyone else, thought that Hillary was going to win. And she would have without Comey’s interference (according to analysis of the polls, etc.).

    What’s the truth? Who knows. Donnie probably doesn’t know himself, given his apparent brain damage…

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  137. 137.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PhoenixRising: When you’ve spent your entire life never being told no by anyone other than your father (who was the only person it’s been reported you’ve ever listened to) and no matter the failure, the mess, the bad deal, the alleged criminal behavior never been held responsible or had to accept responsibility, then you learn that you’re invincible and untouchable.

    That’s part of how we got here. Putin is another part. The fact that the vast majority of Americans clearly shouldn’t be allowed to eat with anything but spoons is another part!

    Read this:
    http://linkis.com/wordpress.com/NEPAa

    Its by Louise Mensch who broke the FISA warrant story at the beginning of NOV.

  138. 138.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Jeb nixed his attempt to put a proper casino into Florida. We’ve got one sort of casino – a Hardrock off the turnpike north of Miami. And we’ve got a limited amount of card games allowed at paramutuel sites – the few remaining horse racing tracks. And that’s it.

  143. 143.

    bjacques

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Louise Mensch, of all people. In the UK she’s known as a dimwitted former Conservative MP and sometime columnist who bolted for New York before her term was up so she could be with her husband, who manages AC/DC and promotes music events. There is (or was) YouTube footage of her on Have I Got News For You, mocking anti-globalization protestors for drinking Starbucks coffee and getting the response that gambit deserves. What a world.

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bjacques: I’m aware who she is. I’m also aware that the current act of the show that is Louise Mensch seems to have decent sources. The world is a strange place.

  145. 145.

    Annie Mac

    Love it! Bring on more ridicule…muzzies will hate it!Am in Australia, Mum was a Pom, and we have the same problems as Britain but not as bad…yet! We are fighting back but when you have a govt..like we have that loves ’em…what can we do?

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