Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The willow is too close to the house.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

He really is that stupid.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Looks Like Kushner Was Playing Footsie with the Russian Ambassador, Too

Looks Like Kushner Was Playing Footsie with the Russian Ambassador, Too

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Hey, remember the Fortunate Son(-in-Law)? Apparently, when he wasn’t toasting future business deals with Chinese oligarchs, he was horning in on Mike Flynn’s meetings with Ambassador Kislyak.

The NYTimes, more in sorrow than anger:

Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday.

Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said…

The New Yorker reported this week that Mr. Kushner had met with Mr. Kislyak at Trump Tower in December. Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, confirmed on Thursday that Mr. Flynn was also at the meeting in response to questions from a New York Times reporter…

What is now becoming clear is that the incoming Trump administration was simultaneously striking a conciliatory pose toward Moscow in a series of meetings and phone calls involving Mr. Kislyak.

“They generally discussed the relationship and it made sense to establish a line of communication,” Ms. Hicks said. “Jared has had meetings with many other foreign countries and representatives — as many as two dozen other foreign countries’ leaders and representatives.”…

Bonus story, here come the Trump Crime Cartel’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, per USA Today:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not the only member of President Trump’s campaign who spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a diplomacy conference connected to the Republican National Convention in July. At least two more members of the Trump campaign’s national security officials also spoke with Kislyak at the event, and several more Trump national security advisers were in attendance.

It’s unknown what the Trump campaign officials who spoke with the ambassador – J.D. Gordon and Carter Page – discussed with him. Those who took part in the events in Cleveland said it is not unusual for presidential campaign teams to interact with diplomats…

Hossein Khorram, an RNC delegate from Washington State who wasn’t part of Trump’s campaign, attended the diplomacy event and said it provided a forum for diplomats to share their concerns with GOP officials. After formal panel discussions, the attendees broke off into informal conversations.

“Basically the ambassadors — including the Russian ambassador — they were expressing their, mainly, fears about the war on terror and collaborating with the United States,” he said. “There was no promises made on behalf of the Trump administration.”

Sessions, Gordon, and Trump campaign national security advisory committee member Walid Phares all spoke on stage at the Global Partners in Diplomacy program on July 20 in an auditorium at Case Western Reserve University, according to the program schedule and pictures posted on social media. Current Deputy National Security Advisor KT McFarland was also present at the day’s sessions…

“Nice little party ya got here — be a shame if something were to happen to it.”

THANKS, REPUBLICANS!

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    For the record, I have had no contacts with the Russian or any other country’s ambassador. It seems like I am the only one who can claim that.

  4. 4.

    XTPD

    Probably Kushner’s greatest crime was running the New York Observer into the center of the Earth.

  8. 8.

    Gravenstone

    O/T (but still Trump-centric) but I saw several headlines this morning about Trump considering “direct military action” against the NK nuclear program. Choosing not to link directly as the three headlines currently showing are of sketchy veracity (CNBC, BI and NY Post *shudder*)

    Still, if that’s even remotely accurate, no way that could go wrong. =P

  10. 10.

    japa21

    Does Kushner even have an official title within the government? Who provides him written authority to speak for the US? Does he have a security clearance? Is it even legal for him to be doing this.

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    There a thing going around the intertrons that’s Carrie from Sex & The City at her laptop musing, with the caption, “and I started to wonder–was the Russian ambassador seeing everybody but me?”

  14. 14.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Gravenstone: He’s going to run out of alternatives to ‘rally ’round the flag, boys’ sooner or later. Given the present clip with which he’s burning through the ordinary distraction tools presidents have at their disposal, it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

    Sorry, Seoul — you’re boned.

  20. 20.

    japa21

    We all know the Benghazi folderol and the email scandals were much ado about nothing, but there was some degree of material out there to justify an initial look see, but not enough to go to the extent the GOP did. There is 20X as much material here to have several deep investigations going on, but all we have so far are some little gestures by the GOP, the size of which is comparable to Trump’s hands or other parts.

  21. 21.

    Gravenstone

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Sorry, Seoul — you’re boned.

    Pretty much. One of the managers at work spent his teen years living as a military dependent near the DMZ. He said it was common knowledge that NK has enough tube artillery in range of Seoul to basically level the city in a matter of hours. I always thought that had to be a really bizarre background to grow up in.

  22. 22.

    Major Major Major Major

    @zhena gogolia: I think it’s why they broke up. Ages ago though.

    @Gravenstone: yep. Millions of deaths in a day or two. Clever situation on NK’s part of course.

    ETA: I had a couch surfing acquaintance visiting from Seoul last summer and she was really excited to be in the US and play Pokémon Go. They didn’t have it there because NK jams their GPS.

  23. 23.

    mai naem mobile

    I force myself to listen to Gary Kaltbaum on the radio during the week just to see what the other side is thinking. He’s an FBN guy. Even he tonight was taking a wait and see attitube towards Sessions. He,of course, slammed the media on how they kissed Obamas ass. He usually defends the Trumpers so it was telling today.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gravenstone: So I’ve read the reporting on that, specifically the Independent’s. Apparently a National Security Council review was requested for all options pertaining to recent North Korean/Kim government actions/aggression. Including the missile tests. The reporting indicates that a meeting of the Deputies Committee was chaired by KT McFarland, who is the Deputy National Security Advisor. My understanding of what I read is that they’re doing a full top to bottom scrub on possible responses to/action in regard to North Korea. What will happen is that the folks working the East Asia Desk at NSC, and more specifically those working North and South Korea, will pull in everything from the Intel Community, State, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, and anyone else from the Interagency that has something to contribute. They will then produce a policy proposal. This will have a short (1-3 paragraph) review of existing policy and the history of the issue at hand with a reference to a much longer annex. Then there will be, usually 3 policy proposals, but sometimes 4 or 2 depending on the issue (occasionally even more). One of these will be status quo – no policy change. One is usually a middle ground adjustment and one is usually a major change. This will include a FAS (feasible, acceptable, suitable) assessment of each option and then conclude with a recommendation of which one to go with and a justification for why it is the most feasible, acceptable, and suitable. Total length of the base document, not counting annexes with supplementary information, should be no more than 5 pages. This will then be staffed back through the Interagency for comments, revisions will be made based on those inputs, and the final document that emerges will then be pushed up to the Principals Committee for review. The Principals will then either accept it or send it back down to the Deputies Committee for additional revisions. Once its blessed off at the Principals level it will be distilled into the preferred briefing format for whoever is President and then briefed to him (and one day her) for a final decision. The briefing book will include the full proposal and the annexes for the President to review both before the briefing and after as he decides what to do.

    Or at least this is how it is supposed to work.

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Percysowner: This is not going to go away either. As, apparently, the guy who organized the thing on behalf of the Russian think tank immediately went to Moscow for debriefing as soon as the conference was over.

  29. 29.

    mai naem mobile

    What I find disgusting is that Trump and Musher did it for money. They were already very wealthy but they just had to get more money to get even richer.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jerzy Russian:

    For the record, I have had no contacts with the Russian or any other country’s ambassador. It seems like I am the only one who can claim that.

    What about Baud! ?

  32. 32.

    Gravenstone

    @Adam L Silverman: Normally I’d be comforted to learn that it’s basically a review of the situation and update of reasonable/practical responses. But seeing KT McFarland mentioned in there tends to … temper my level of comfort.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @Davis X. Machina: I don’t think the military will let him drop the hammer on North Korea, at least not as a first-strike. We would be talking about millions of people dead.

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    I have to confess a connection with the Russians: Some of my great-great-grandparents emigrated from there.

    Mainly to escape Tsarist-era pogroms.

  39. 39.

    danielx

    @Gravenstone:
    @Davis X. Machina:

    Spoiler – if something bad happens, Trump will say it’s the South Koreans’ own fault for locating their capital 35 miles from the DMZ, and has nothing whatever to do with him running his mouth.

    In 1950 the NKs took Seoul in four days. Kind of wondering how long it would take now.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    People were saying in the previous threads that it’s probably easiest to list the Trump figures who do not have Russian connections, but then we had trouble coming up with a list. His son Barron? Maybe Tiffany?

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    Its time to fess up my Russian connections.
    I know two Russians, but neither is an ambassador called Sergei. I have at least 4 matroshka dolls, a cutting board and some shot glasses with CCCP insignia.
    I sometimes put a scarf around my orange kitteh’s head and call her Olga.

  44. 44.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @GregB:

    Russia isn’t sending us their finest.

    And we’re clearly reciprocating…

    Quid pro squat…

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gravenstone: As long as she’s the Deputy NSA she chairs the Deputies Committee. But the more people that LTG McMaster brings in, like the announcement today that Fiona Hill from Brookings is coming on board as the Senior Eastern Europe and Russia Officer on the NSC is a good sign.

    What you want is process. Process, specifically the Interagency process that the NSC oversees, is what reduces the chances of the Yemen raid. And whacked out Executive Orders. The people on the NSC – the professionals, civilian and military, from the various agencies and departments within the Interagency and the political appointees – are the ones that keep things on the straight and narrow. Process will also begin to place, and then keep, the WH SIG in a box, which will minimize the damage that those folks can do.

  50. 50.

    Davis X. Machina

    @mai naem mobile: In the 70’s and 80’s I had a friend who used to take comfort in the fact that various traitors — Hansen, Boyce & Lee — had done it for money, and not out of ideological motives. (This was supposed to prove the system in the USSR was incapable of drawing converts. I used to point out that in a capitalist country, doing something just for the money is ideological.

  53. 53.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Jeffro:

    Russia isn’t sending us their finest.

    Yeah but think of the level of distraction from his Russian problems it would provide…

    There’s always an upside… and an ulterior motive…

  56. 56.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Process will also begin to place, and then keep, the WH SIG in a box, which will minimize the damage that those folks can do.

    So, basically we’ve moved from containment as grand-scale foreign policy to containment on the scale of a single building.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: It will be in the briefing book for him to review as he sees fit. Or to ignore. What he’ll get is a one pager with the options that come out of the principals committee and an explanation of why the proposed one is superior to the other ones. Everything else will be in the briefing book as background.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    @Gravenstone:

    One of the managers at work spent his teen years living as a military dependent near the DMZ.

    Huh. When my dad was there (1959-60) it was a 13-month tour, no dependents allowed.

  62. 62.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: But, will ‘process’ ensure that a sane and honest person will be with Donny when he looks at the one pager and checks off one of the boxes? He ain’t reading no briefing books.

  63. 63.

    GregB

    For the record, Russian dressing was invented in Nashua, NH and I once lived there.

    That is the extent of my connections.

  64. 64.

    chris

    @schrodingers_cat: Haha! Olga!

    I have a Russian fur hat with hammer and sickle badge that was purchased for me at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. When I wear it I have an an uncontrollable urge to say, “Papers, please!”

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: That, and apparently based on AP reporting, Seb doesn’t have a clearance. Provided that reporting is accurate, no matter what he may say on TV, he’s not actually looking at anything of substance. Which means anything he’s recommending is based on not much at all. And I’m not surprised by this. The externally funded (by his relative by marriage) named professorship at MCU wouldn’t have required a TS clearance, let alone an SCI. Once he left that position and went back to the IWP and his side gigs at Breitbart and Fox, even if he had a Secret clearance, it would have been made inactive. But given what the WH needs to deal with on any given day, a Secret level clearance isn’t going to be of much help. Except, apparently, to read the report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

  67. 67.

    danielx

    I must confess: daughter insists that one of kitten duo to be adopted in future should be named Ivan. And there’s a couple who were Russian figure skaters living a couple of houses down from me. I’m told one can see Russia from their back yard.

    Edit: and I once almost purchased a stainless steel flask with a KGB insignia on it at a gun/militaria show.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @schrodingers_cat: My father had a pen pal in the CCCP in the ’60s-’70s. They exchanged gifts occasionally. My dad got a watch from him (I don’t recall what my dad sent back in return, maybe a Seiko?). I remember seeing one letter where the guy had an intricate drawing of a single-blade safety razor that he was hoping for. I was shocked to see it – it looked like something out of the ’40s. I think my dad sent him one, along with a bunch of double-blade cartridges and a handle. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    a meeting of the Deputies Committee was chaired by KT McFarland

    Isn’t she one of Mango Malignancy’s village idiots?

    will pull in everything from the Intel Community, State, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Energy

    State? Without any of thee professionals left? Is Jared going to send a report?
    Energy? Where Goodhair Perry is “in charge”?

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Lizzy L: She’s just chairing the meeting because she’s the Deputy NSC. My educated guess is that just about anything and everything they discuss, including, possibly, what take out to order for lunch, goes right over her head. I expect that she will eventually leave of her own accord because she is not going to be able to perform at LTG McMaster’s required level for his subordinates. I’ve seen what happens when his staff lets him down. It is not a pretty sight. There’s a colonel somewhere in the US that hasn’t sat down since early 2013.

  74. 74.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I have a friend who applied to the CIA in the 80s. He’s ethnically Ukrainian and speaks Russian. Anyhow they turned him down because he was too old. I think he said he was 30. He thinks the Ukrainians screwed up giving up their nukes.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: The National Security Advisor should be there. Whoever else is there is up to the President.

  77. 77.

    danielx

    @efgoldman:

    Still was in 1964. My uncle was a career master sergeant and he truly disliked the place because the North Koreans were (and are) among the craziest, most indoctrinated people in the world. Disliked it so much he decided to volunteer for Special Warfare school, thereby leaping from the proverbial frying pan right into the flames.

  78. 78.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I saw a piece somewhere(BJ maybe?) that private sector cos. are seeing unbelievably qualified applicants for their jobs because of all the people leaving federal jobs at State,DOD etc. Major brain drain from the US government. This is going to cause long long term damage.

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @danielx:

    In 1950 the NKs took Seoul in four days. Kind of wondering how long it would take now.

    The South Korean army is parsecs more formidable now.
    Also in 1950 there were no ICBMs (land or sub-launched) that could reach NoKo in minutes.
    Also, I doubt very much that the Chinese would send troops this time.
    Not saying it would go terribly well for the South Koreans, but it wouldn’t be a complete walkover either.
    Of course, with two narcissistic megalomaniacs facing each other 10000 miles apart, who knows.

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    @p.a.: Yup! I remember seeing labels in such old cabinets. It always seemed weird to me.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman:

    There’s a colonel somewhere in the US that hasn’t sat down since early 2013.

    Smile.

    ETA. That type of story is the only thing keeping me on the sane side of CraCra Town.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: I’m sure there’s more than one, and from screwing up for other commanding generals. But this is the one I know of.

  84. 84.

    lgerard

    @danielx:

    A few years ago there was a book written by a person who had gone to NK to teach privileged teenagers, called Without You, There Is No Us.
    The take away is that these young adults were like little children, incredibly naive

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Seb doesn’t have a clearance. Provided that reporting is accurate, no matter what he may say on TV, he’s not actually looking at anything of substance.

    What’s to prevent Citron Shitgibbon from looking at a piece of paper, then handing it across and saying “Seb, what do you think about this?”

  87. 87.

    chris

    Too late but… she seems nice.

    McFarland had two brothers, Tom and Michael. Michael died of an AIDS-related illness on June 8, 1995. Prior to his death, McFarland outed her brother as gay, blaming his homosexuality on family abuse. In 2006 her surviving brother Tom Troia, in defense of their father, told The New York Post, “If I had one word to describe my sister, it would be ‘evil'”.[14]

    From wikipedia

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Nothing. The President has ultimate declassification authority. However, looking at a one page, bullet pointed summary isn’t going to get you very far if you want a deep understanding of what is going on.

  90. 90.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @efgoldman:

    Of course, with two narcissistic megalomaniacs facing each other 10000 miles apart, who knows.

    Not to mention the hair…

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @schrodingers_cat: My grad school adviser’s family escaped from Ukraine in the ’40s (he himself was born in Germany and grew up in Australia). He and his wife spoke Ukrainian at home. They’re amazingly devoted to their homeland even though they never lived there…

    People who think Ukraine is just going to roll over for Putin and the “little green men” really have no idea what Putin’s got himself in to.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    Turgidson

    Don’t worry everyone. Michael Tracey says Dems are being stupid for caring about any of this. We can all go home.

  97. 97.

    XTPD

    @schrodingers_cat: My Russian connections: I have a mostly-Russianized Ukrainian friend whose parents worked at Chernobyl (about 10 years before her time); she’s actually very apolitical.

  98. 98.

    danielx

    @efgoldman:

    Of course, with two narcissistic megalomaniacs facing each other 10000 miles apart, who knows.

    One more reason my level of unease is well above normal at the moment….and I’ll give lord shortfingers his due, he hasn’t started executing people with antiaircraft guns. Yet, anyway.

  100. 100.

    Suffragete City elftx

    So in their rush to protect Kushner these idiots forgot they had the Russian ambassador enter the back door so it would not be recorded on C-Span.
    I consider them evil bastards, but my goodness what doofuses.

  104. 104.

    TenguPhule

    @danielx:

    he hasn’t started executing people with antiaircraft guns.

    That we know of, yet.

    It says something of how bad things have gotten when you can’t actually be sure its not true.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: so this whole “deconstruction of the administrative state” thing is a little shortsighted, is what you’re saying?

    Lol…ultimately we will be saved by their incompetence

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: Yes. Its very hard to utilize the power of the government to achieve your objectives if you’ve dismantled said government because that was the first objective in order to achieve all the others.

  108. 108.

    Smedley the uncertain

    @danielx: There won’t be anything left to take. If the ROK assets and ours are not in the air or on on the move before the first rounds hit Yongsan it’ll be a long up hill fight.

  110. 110.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @p.a.: My house growing up was built in 1960 and those slots were part of the medicine cabinets. And those razors were still the standard non-electric razor I remember well into the 1970s. I remember buying packs of those single-edge blades all the time, but I can’t remember why. I think because they were so common there were various utility knives built to take them.

    The packaging the blades came in had the same little slot in the back of the box for disposal of used blades.

  111. 111.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Another Scott:

    People who think Ukraine is just going to roll over for Putin and the “little green men” really have no idea what Putin’s got himself in to.

    Bingo!

  112. 112.

    Smedley the uncertain

    @Gravenstone: Some 30 years ago as I was being read in as a senior civilian at a Major Army command, I made the grand tour of our sub-commands. While being briefed a Yongsan, it was pointed out that the command chair I was sitting in was a primary target of 100’s of tubes of NKDPR artillery. Our troops and the Koreans have lived with this for over half a century. And, to a later comment, accompanied tours have long been routine.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Gin & Tonic: Hell, expatriate Ukrainians fighting Russians was a central thread in Frederick Forsyth’s early ’80s novel “The Devil’s Alternative.”

  118. 118.

    Origuy

    @chris:

    I have a Russian fur hat with hammer and sickle badge

    I have one that I bought outside Red Square, but it has a Tsarist eagle badge. The name for that type of hat is ushanka. The really expensive ones are real fur, but mine is fake fur, what the Russians call “fish fur”. Since my traveling companion is vegan, real fur was out of the question.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Origuy: I just want it noted in the official record that I could make a double entendre comment in regard to:

    Ever met a vegan who didn’t freak out about fur?

    But I am not going to.

  124. 124.

    efgoldman

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I remember buying packs of those single-edge blades all the time, but I can’t remember why.

    In the long ago lost to history days of analog recordings, they were used to cut tape for splicing out misteakss.
    They’re still good for some kinds of paint scrapers.

  125. 125.

    efgoldman

    @Origuy:

    The name for that type of hat is ushanka.

    I still have my dad’s US Army version from Korea. Damn, it’s warm! I wore it to football games in snowstorms.
    (No badge. I think the rank badge was pinned to the front.)

  127. 127.

    Scourge7Cs

    @XTPD: De-lurking for first time since Cole had one dog to say I miss the halcyon days of the peachy-pink New York Observer like I miss H&H Bagels. A good thing gone forever. You are a person of taste, indeed.

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