Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

I really should read my own blog.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Russiagate Open Thread: Like the Marx Brothers’ Stateroom Scene

Russiagate Open Thread: Like the Marx Brothers’ Stateroom Scene

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So we already knew about Trump Jr, Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rob Goldstone, and the pretty Russian lawyer-lobbyist. And now we hear there was a “former Soviet counter-intel officer”…

… The revelation of additional participants comes as The Associated Press first reported Friday that a Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin said he also attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. CNN has reached out to Akhmetshin for comment.

So far acknowledged in attendance: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names…

Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley had written a letter to John Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, describing Akhmetshin as “a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence.” Grassley was requesting “all information” on Akhmetshin’s immigration history.

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has been lobbied by Akhmetshin, told CNN earlier this year that the lobbyist is someone with “an ulterior motive” who is “involved with people who’ve got an agenda” and has “international connections to different groups in Russia.” When asked if he thought Akhmetshin was connected to the Russian security services, Rohrabacher said: “I would certainly not rule that out.”…

Plus also, there’s the translator…

So all we need (until the next shoe drops) is the name of the guy “representing” Araz Agalarov, ex-Azerbajani Russian real estate magnate. Maybe they sent along his pop-star kid Emin, just to make Donny Jr and Jared feel more comfortable, in the company of yet another opposite-of-self-made princeling?

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    2/3 of people at this meeting have been paid to advance Russian interests

    That’s only making the very shaky assumption that Trump Jr. and Kushner haven’t.

  3. 3.

    prostratedragon

    “Sometimes it causes me to tremble …”

    (I might go to H— for this.)

  10. 10.

    Frankensteinbeck

    A lot of this we know because Akhmetshin talked, which means Putin wants this known. I find that very useful in understanding how the scandal plays out.

  11. 11.

    GregB

    This meeting was the poison tree from which all the poisoned fruit were disseminated.

    More apples to drop.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    If we absolutely must affix a -gate suffix to this, couldn’t we at least be more succinct and call it Traitorgate?

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    I would say this is a major corroboration for your theory. This guy has to be working for Putin, and he admitted just enough to keep the scandal hot without confirming anything new. So that’s what Putin wants. It fits with his ‘destabilize the US’ intention, and with a foreign lack of understanding that other options might cause even more chaos. That is the kind of thing Adam has talked about.

  18. 18.

    scav

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Wouldn’t at all be unexpected. Their needs are served as well by chaos and distrust of this nation internally and internationally as by any short-term advantages they may have hoped to gain from an effective cliant administration. Might as well move to phase two now given the crew they managed to install. Plus, they’re probably pretty confident by now about their (shared) bases devotion to authoritarian white religious rule.

  21. 21.

    piratedan

    @Frankensteinbeck: well it does seem that Trump has served his purpose… US foreign relations are in the shitter. GOP is being the GOP, STILL trying to set up a theocratic white supremacist state that offers huge financial and societal incentives for the rich. That serves Putin as well and if we take Trump and the GOP is defeated, then we still have to recover from yet another worldwide crisis perpetuated upon us by the rich and greedy and stupid.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    Could be worse; could be in [insert name of blood red metro area here].   ;)

    The 4 stages of serious drinking:

    1) the jocose
    2) the bellicose
    3) the lachrymose
    4) the comatose.

  23. 23.

    jl

    Were any BJ commenters there?
    No one told me about it, and I was an operative for the Baud campaign, and I do remember some sober moments. So, I could have gone to it I guess.
    Was Baud there?

  24. 24.

    scav

    @NotMax: Well Damn! I was clearly doing serious all wrong. I went for a cruising altitude of numb in one easy step. Bother.

  26. 26.

    Susan

    Chris Hayes (All In) had a reporter (?) on his show tonight who today interviewed the former Russian spy guy and the spy guy said the Russian lawyer handed Junior a folder which supposedly contained the names of Russians who donated to Hillary. So now we know they didn’t talk about adoptions. This could be a repeat, went out, trying to catch up. This seems like the ball game to me.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    And I said to him, were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling. He said, I was not — absolutely not.
    Q Do you remember what the different way was that you asked —
    THE PRESIDENT: Somebody said later to me, which was interesting. Said, let me tell you, if they were involved, you wouldn’t have found out about it. Okay, which is a very interesting point.
    Q But did you say, okay, I believe you, let’s move on?
    THE PRESIDENT: What I said, I asked him, were you involved? He said, very strongly — said to him a second time — totally different — were you involved? Because we can’t let that happen. And I mean whether it’s Russia or anybody else, we can’t let there be even a scintilla of doubt when it comes to an election. I mean, I’m very strong on that.
    And I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia. What I’m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. You know, China is very good at this. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this. Look what they did to Sony Studios. They were the ones that did the whole deal to Sony. You know, we’re dealing with highly sophisticated people.
    So, China is very good. You have many countries. And you have many individuals that are very good at this. But we can’t have — and I did say, we can’t have a scintilla of doubt as our elections and going forward.
    Q Have you told him that?
    THE PRESIDENT: I told him. I said, look, we can’t — we can’t have — now, he said absolutely not twice. What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, okay? Because then I brought up Syria, and I said —
    Q Afterwards?
    THE PRESIDENT: Very shortly there afterward. And I said, there’s so much killing in Syria. We got to solve Syria. We’ve got to solve Ukraine.

  30. 30.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @piratedan: Probably as much of a purpose as he’ll be able to. I still think the big prize originally (after the unexpected win) was getting sanctions lifted and that oil deal done. And if this crew wasn’t a complete clownshow, they might’ve pulled it off. Go all bellicose on Iran, thump the table about Obummer’s wholly insufficient nuke agreement, and “invite” the Russians to help “renegotiate.” Get Putin to lean on Iran to extract some kind of PR win for the administration they can crow about, and “ease” a portion of the “sanctions” in exchange, as part of the broader package. Could’ve had surrogates on TV selling that. Anyone paying attention would’ve seen through it, but it provides a plausible cover story. All it would’ve required is some finesse and some patience. But this pack of assholes is so used to smash and grab that they make the Shrub people seem slick by comparison. Even without the campaign stuff everywhere, I don’t think Rexxon would’ve gotten his payday, because his bosses are just too damn stupid to be proper criminals. So instead they work in real estate.

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    Another day, another piece of the puzzle. Whoever’s directing all this, whether it’s Putin or the Cigarette-smoking Man, is working to build an exhaustive and airtight case against Trump. And doing it in public. It seems like there is indeed some sort of concerted effort, led by someone or some group; this is all coming out in a steady flow, one almost every day. Who is curating these revelations, I wonder?

  34. 34.

    Origuy

    I’ve been studying Russian for years, hoping it would help me hook up with hot Russian women. Turns out I’ve been doing all wrong. I just had to join the Republican Party.

  35. 35.

    Aleta

    Is this true or just someone having fun, the claim that Trump called in to the meeting? (And the rumor that Mueller has a tape of it.) The explanation of course is that he needed to know how many taco bowls Sessions should deliver for lunch.

  37. 37.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Aleta:

    And the rumor that Mueller has a tape of it.

    Putin definitely has a tape of the meeting, anyway.

    We’ve got to solve Ukraine.

    What a surprise. Trump has already accepted Putin’s framing, that the Sudetenland Ukraine is a problem which requires solving (rather than an unwilling host of out-of-uniform Russian armed forces).

  41. 41.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Since the new thread says “no politics,” I’ll stick this here in an attempt to get it out of my head.

    On the way home from the Y yesterday morning, I had “On Point” on the radio. They were talking about the Russia scandal, and took the first call in from a guy in, I believe, NH. He says the Democrats have destroyed Trump’s presidency and now they’re trying to destroy his son. And Schumer, Sanders, a couple of other D politicians I don’t recall, and especially George Soros and all the other “evil, Jew Communists.” At which point, NPR cut him off and made shocked sounds. All I could think was “Welcome to Trumpland.” It bothered me enough that I’m still thinking about it this morning. I’m not surprised exactly. Just dismayed.

  44. 44.

    Chyron HR

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    He says the Democrats have destroyed Trump’s presidency and now they’re trying to destroy his son. And Schumer, Sanders, a couple of other D politicians I don’t recall, and especially George Soros and all the other “evil, Jew Communists.”

    I’m sure you must have misheard. Everybody knows that the noble white working class idolizes the junior senator from Vermont.

  45. 45.

    A Ghost to Most

    So, what’s the under/over on when we learn that Twitler was actually at junior’s collusion mtg?

  47. 47.

    kindness

    I always loved the Marx Brothers. Funny thing is they really were my parent’s timeframe and they hated them. Some apples, they don’t come from that tree at all it seems.

    I think it was that era’s presentation of comedy. You look at these, Buster Keaton and what not and they make no pretense of sophistication and are cool with it.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @kindness:

    At the time A Night At the Opera was made, an alcoholic Keaton was working as an MGM gag writer for the Marx Brothers. There’s a longstanding rumor that that stateroom scene was written and staged by him.

  49. 49.

    kindness

    @Mnemosyne: That’s funny. Could be. Before my time so….And if you wanted to bring politics in to old time comedy you have Chaplin’s The Little Dictator. Hey, Chaplin was before his time, eh? Who knew how prescient he was. That wasn’t Hitler he was parodying it was Trump.

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    He was actually from Shrewsbury, MA, a suburb of Worcester. A few words before his “feckin’ Jooos” comment, I could see something like that coming — I guess because everyone he named is Jewish. For about 2 seconds, I was tempted to call in, try to find out where in Shooby he lived, pay him a visit, maybe provide a little “attitude adjustment.” But since I’m all talk, no action, I dropped that thought.

    After Harwood shut that Nazi off, Dave Drucker said “I’m still waiting for my check,” which I thought was good humor.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    The 4 stages of serious drinking:

    1) the jocose
    2) the bellicose
    3) the lachrymose
    4) the comatose.

    Never saw that one, I like it.

    As Dean Martin allegedly said: “You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.”

  57. 57.

    Citizen_X

    @SFAW:

    He was actually from Shrewsbury, MA, a suburb of Worcester.

    No wonder he had a chip on his shoulder. “Suburb of Worcester” is the geographic equivalent of “assistant crack whore.”

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    NPR is utterly worthless.

    I think Tom Ashbrook would have shut the asshole down maybe a half-second before Harwood did, but either way, it’s not as if that anti-Semitic motherfucker could have been screened out. So, not sure why the hate, unless that was just a general comment.

  61. 61.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @GregB: Ayup. We thought we’d been cleaning up The Shining City On A Hill over the last 50-60 years, but in fact we never finished the job. We redirected the vile open gutters into subterranean sewers where the refuse wouldn’t stink up the place, but I guess it was too time-consuming & difficult & costly to build treatment facilities to recycle the salvageable & sequester the rest for all time. The disgusting contents kept building up beneath our feet, waiting for someone like Cheeto Benito to send a surly band of uncivil engineers to drop pipes into it & pump it out through every fountain & fire hydrant in town. (ETA) Now over half the country is shpritzing cologne on their going-out surgical masks & hoping the wind will change.

  63. 63.

    dopey-o

    @SFAW:

    As Dean Martin allegedly said: “You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.”

    i heard that years ago from my boston irish grandfather as
    “an irishman is not too drunk if he can hold onto a blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth..”

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I’m 30-45 minutes from there. Never heard of Patel Brothers before your comment. My Indian culinary tastes are fairly limited — curry, of course, I had papadum in the past, liked it/them, some Trader Joe’s stuff. haven’t had much else — but maybe I’ll try to broaden my horizons a little.

  65. 65.

    jc

    Last Six Months: Fake News! Witch-hunt!

    Now: Most people would take that meeting.

    Trump: liar, cheater, puppet and traitor.

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