Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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

I really should read my own blog.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You cannot shame the shameless.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Russiagate Open Thread: Carter Page, International Man of Mystery

Russiagate Open Thread: Carter Page, International Man of Mystery

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The mystery being: Why would any serious person, having spent even fifteen minutes in his company, trust Carter Page with so much as the mid-afternoon Starbucks run?

Former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, who has come under scrutiny in the investigation of Russian election interference, told a House committee that he sought permission for a July 2016 trip to Moscow from senior Trump campaign officials, and reported to other Trump officials about the trip when he returned…

Page, whose sworn testimony was released Monday night, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he sought permission to make the trip from campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also notified Hope Hicks, who is now the White House communications director.

Lewandowski told Page he was clear to go on the trip as long as the travel was not associated with his work on the campaign, Page told the committee.

Page also acknowledged that he had been aware that another volunteer campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had been meeting with a professor with links to the Kremlin, according to the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Both men served on a campaign foreign policy advisory committee under the supervision of Jeff Sessions, who was then a senator and is now the attorney general. Page testified he told Sessions about the July 2016 Moscow trip, it has been previously reported.

Sessions “advised nothing” when Page told him about his plans to travel to Russia, Page said in the transcript…

Page told the committee he wrote to Mueller on Oct. 5, explaining that he intends to plead the Fifth Amendment and keep documents related to his work in Russia to himself…

… Page revealed during his testimony that he met with both members of Russia’s presidential administration and with the head of investor relations at the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow last July.

He also congratulated members of the Trump campaign’s foreign policy team on July 14 for their “excellent work” on the “Ukraine amendment” — a reference to the Trump campaign’s decision to “intervene” to water down a proposed amendment to the GOP’s Ukraine platform.

The original amendment proposed that the GOP commit to sending “lethal weapons” to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russian aggression. But it was ultimately altered to say “provide appropriate assistance” before it was included in the party’s official platform. The dossier alleges that the campaign “agreed to sideline” the issue of Russia’s invasion of Crimea and interference in eastern Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Page also revealed that Trump campaign adviser Sam Clovis had asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement upon joining the campaign — and that he discussed his July Moscow trip with Clovis both before he went and after he returned…

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    clay

    Steele dossier panning out: Page met w/ both the head of investor relations for Rosneft AND members of Russia’s PA while in Moscow last July pic.twitter.com/k2mCTLIGUP

    Not the dodgy dossier??!?

    It’s very hard to know what to think of Carter Page. He’s not acting the way an innocent person would act, but he’s not really acting the way a guilty person would act. He’s simultaneously paranoid, blabbermouthy, defensive, offensive, and dumb. He reminds me of that old Martin Short SNL character:

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiSmvuZ2azXAhWBZCYKHa8vAAIQtwIIJjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbc.com%2Fsaturday-night-live%2Fvideo%2Fsaturday-night-news-segment—nathan-thurm%2Fn9367%3Fsnl%3D1&usg=AOvVaw0hrHc31jic7k06ONGPQIw8

  2. 2.

    Barbara

    “This is why you shouldn’t be a moron.” Love it. But really, from everything I know about this, spies are cultivated, coached, enabled, and immersed in deception through baby steps, until it becomes impossible to deny and impossible to undo or reverse course. Which is to say, that there is a good chance Page didn’t even realize the first time he was being used as a spy.

  3. 3.

    Barbara

    @clay: Per what I said above, he may still be in a state of denial that he has been working as a traitor in service to the Russian state.

  4. 4.

    mad citizen

    Given how flat/shallow the campaign team was, there is no way in hell that Trump didn’t know this stuff was happening. Traitors all!

    Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
    (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    He may be crazy, or a moron, or a spy, I don’t care, but I just hope to $DEITY that he keeps on flapping his mouth without the advice of counsel.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    And for the other Russiagate junkies (you know who you are) here’s a good backgrounder on Serhiy Leshchenko, the former journalist and current Ukrainian MP who’s been working the Manafort issue for a long time now. Article is in English.

  10. 10.

    Dave

    @clay: Honestly he’s a moron. Probably a guilty moron but still a moron. There may well be more going on than that, some genuine physiological/physiological issue, but barring the tiny chance that he is some sort of Keyser Some (he’s not) at the end of the day he’s nature’s perfect patsy. Also known as a moron.

  14. 14.

    Dave

    @Yarrow: Generally I discount that idea, people don’t work that way even truly brilliant people can be dumb as stumps from time to time, but given the nonsensical nature of reality we’ve experienced recently I have to at least keep the option open.

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    I told you…I believe everything in the dossier.

    Steele dossier panning out: Page met w/ both the head of investor relations for Rosneft AND members of Russia’s PA while in Moscow last July pic.twitter.com/k2mCTLIGUP

    — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 7, 2017

  17. 17.

    Barbara

    @Redshift: I voted at 6:00 am in Arlington and there was a steady stream of people. That’s really early. Fingers crossed. Hoping to get out early and do last minute canvassing because I am a nervous wreck.

  19. 19.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    After I scanned my ballot this morning I said to the volunteer, “I hope today is not as depressing as the last time I was here.” He chuckled. Straight D down the line. A few choices only had republicans so I left those blank. Bastards.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    Theodore Dortch,37, is a former felon who had his voting rights in Virginia restored this year. Today he voted for the first time pic.twitter.com/WNFlkwOyrc

    — Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2017

    LaVaughn Williams is a former felon who voted for the first time in Virginia today. Listen to her talk about the power of the ballot pic.twitter.com/wQWjTXeSn4

    — Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2017

  24. 24.

    clay

    Does anyone know what actual credentials Carter Page has? Like, he claims he gives lectures at universities across the world, which I guess is verifiable enough, but what does he actually know? Is he a PhD? Did he go to a top university?

    What was his deal before the 2016 campaign?

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    Found this over at TOD about the happenings in Saudi Arabia:
    arapaho415
    November 7, 2017 at 9:59 am

    Most of the tweets from this user are in Arabic (which is Greek to me — unfortunately, English is the only language I know), but interesting speculation — which says a yacht transferred tons of cash to the grotesque evil occupying the WH during May visit to Saudi Arabia:

    tweets of @mujtahidd about scandal involving President @realDonaldTrump and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman pic.twitter.com/N8QpYvixfR

    — نورة الحربي (@n_alharbi12) November 7, 2017

    And there is no American ambassador to Saudi. Westphal left in Jan 2017 and no replacement appointed.

    — Ramsey Cooper (@Ramsey_Cooper76) November 5, 2017

    Next tweet: “This isn’t the same prince who died in helicopter crash. So now we have 2 dead princes within 24 hrs.”https://t.co/kExDQNu2q0

    — Arapaho415 (@arapaho415) November 6, 2017

    CONFIRMED: Prince Abdul Aziz, youngest son of late King Fahd, has died. He was arrested recently and may have suffered injuries in gunfight. pic.twitter.com/2VRk4X2sIy

    — F. Jeffery (@Natsecjeff) November 6, 2017

    Ignatius says Kushner and MBS stayed up until 4 a.m. plotting strategy when Jared was in Riyadh https://t.co/GjX8xZV7ca

    — Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) November 5, 2017

  26. 26.

    clay

    @Boatboy_srq: I dunno. The amoral can usually lie like they breathe. Look at Trump. He lies all the time, but he does it so forcefully and convincingly that he probably convinces himself that it’s the truth. Carter Page, on the other hand, seems like he’s lying, even when saying ‘hello’. He’s definitely shady, but he’s not a sociopath like Trump.

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    @clay: He went to USNA, reportedly not an idiot there. Allegedly he got a PhD from University of London in 2012. It would be interesting to look at (for?) his dissertation, given how amusing Seb Gorka’s is.

  30. 30.

    Calouste

    @rikyrah: I wouldn’t be surprised if certain elements in Saudi society construe that last bit as the Crown Prince taking orders from a Jew. He better really carefully vet his bodyguards. Decades of state propaganda about Israel does funny things to people.

  31. 31.

    bemused

    Page is lala land loopy and doesn’t seem to grasp the situation he is in. As off the wall as Page is, trump and cohorts are pretty damn loopy too, just a little more aware they have needed to cover their tracks even though they haven’t been very good at it. Greed, arrogance, stupidity and enormous senses of entitlement fueled their fantasies they could everything they want without getting caught, without any repercussions.

  33. 33.

    Quinerly

    @clay: pretty extensive Wiki page. Investment banker, foreign policy analyst, oil industry consultant. USNA, NYU, Georgetown for degrees….and PHd from University of London.

  34. 34.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: You know, when I heard about the princes who had been rounded up or who had died, I kept thinking how shocking it is that this seems very much like the reputed Topkapi Palace intrigues, where the only way to ensure your right of succession in the Ottoman Empire was to make sure all the other contenders were killed. And speaking of perfidy, otherwise off topic, The New Yorker published another Weinstein related story by Ronan Farrow, this time about the investigation conducted by various outfits on behalf of Weinstein to try to prevent publication of TNY and NYT articles. The highlight comes from statements by David Boies, whose law firm nominally supervised one of the companies (run by former Mossad agents) at the same time he was representing NYT in a libel case. Here is a link if you are interested: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies/amp

  36. 36.

    sharl

    @clay: Does anyone know what actual credentials Carter Page has?

    There is actually a fairly substantial Wikipedia page on him. Though I should note that the ‘Talk’ page for that entry – accessible by clicking on the ‘Talk’ tab at upper left – is rather long. That is often an indication of serious disputes among Wiki editors over the Main Page content, and a quick perusal suggests that is the case here. So caveat lector and all that…

    That Wikipedia page says he got a Ph.D. at the University of London SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), and there are a couple links to news articles backing that up. The link to the description of his doctoral thesis didn’t provide much beyond title, and his name is weirdly formatted, though maybe that’s a British academia thing I’m just not familiar with. No advisor name listed either, though again, maybe that’s normal for the University of London SOAS,

    ETA: Quinerly at 33 done beat me to it.
    ETA2: and G&T at 29.

  37. 37.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly: Thanks for the heads-up about Souza’s Fresh Air interview. I’ve got meetings today, so will check out the podcast. Looking forward to your January (?) visit!

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    The Case of Wilbur Ross’ Phantom $2 Billion
    Dan Alexander , FORBES STAFF
    …………………………………………….

    Ross protested, citing trusts for his family that he said he did not have to disclose in federal filings. “You’re apparently not counting those, which are more than $2 billion,” he said. When asked for documentation, the 79-year-old demurred, citing “privacy issues.” Told that Forbes nonetheless planned to remove him from the list for the first time in 13 years, he responded: “As long as you explain that the reason is that assets were put into trust, I’m fine with that.” And when did he make the transfer that allowed him to not disclose over $2 billion? “Between the election and the nomination.”

    So began the mystery of Wilbur Ross’ missing $2 billion. And after one month of digging, Forbes is confident it has found the answer: That money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004. In addition to just padding his ego, Ross’ machinations helped bolster his standing in a way that translated into business opportunities. And based on our interviews with ten former employees at Ross’ private equity firm, WL Ross & Co., who all confirmed parts of the same story line, his penchant for misleading extended to colleagues and investors, resulting in millions of dollars in fines, tens of millions refunded to backers and numerous lawsuits. Additionally, according to six U.S. senators, Ross failed to initially mention 19 suits in response to a questionnaire during his confirmation process.

    Nearly a week before this article went to press, both Ross and his team at the Commerce Department were sent a detailed list of questions. “Secretary Ross has filed all required disclosures in accordance with the law and in consultation with both legal counsel and ethics officials at the Department of Commerce and Office of Government Ethics. As we have said before, any misunderstanding from your previous conversation with Secretary Ross is unfortunate.” They declined to provide further answers on the record.

    But Ross’ questionable assertions to Forbes, combined with a recent controversy about a multimillion-dollar stake in a shipping company that does big business with close associates of Vladimir Putin, paint a clearer picture of the commerce secretary’s tactics. His slippery statements during his confirmation hearings–“I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal and any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of doubt”–came as no surprise to those who have known Ross for decades.

    “Wilbur doesn’t have an issue with bending the truth,” says David Wax, who worked alongside Ross for 25 years and served as the No. 3 person in his firm. Another former colleague, who requested anonymity, was less circumspect: “He’s lied to a lot of people.”

    Twenty-six years before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Wilbur Ross disappeared. It was 1990, corporate America was sick on junk bonds, and Ross was a top bankruptcy negotiator. But one November day, he failed to show up at an important meeting to brief bondholders in a furniture company’s bankruptcy. They didn’t know where he had gone.

  39. 39.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    I have no problem believing trump and family did this and probably more the same we have not yet heard about.They are all amoral mobsters. Time will tell how this shakes out.

  40. 40.

    kindness

    @Barbara: Not a traitor in his mind. In his perspective he thinks he was furthering the TrumpCo cause. In his mind he’s a patriot. The explanation of which is the moron aspect covered above.

  41. 41.

    Yarrow

    @Barbara: That latest Ronan Farrow article about how Weinstein hired former Mossad agents to stalk an investigate women to prevent articles from being published is crazy. Farrow said researching this story the most afraid for his life he’s ever been.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    @Yarrow:

    @Barbara: That latest Ronan Farrow article about how Weinstein hired former Mossad agents to stalk an investigate women to prevent articles from being published is crazy. Farrow said researching this story the most afraid for his life he’s ever been.

    Just reading the excerpts creeped me out.

  45. 45.

    germy

    From the WTF?!? FILE…a fundraising email from Trump received today. This is fishy cuz it went to an address only used only to donate to DNC/Dem candidates, NEVER to Trump/RNC candidates/causes. Was this donor list a gift to Trump courtesy of Russians DNC hack? #TrumpRussia pic.twitter.com/pYGeSETiMp— TickTockTrump ??✌ (@DCtheBruin) October 21, 2017

    Democrats everywhere have had their emails stolen, provided to the RNC, and the RNC is utilizing the list. Cc @RepAdamSchiff @MarkWarner https://t.co/XO0VYPpUi3— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 7, 2017

  47. 47.

    Quinerly

    @O. Felix Culpa: playing around with dates a bit for the Bernalillo rental. Looks like arrival there 1/26. Departure 2/25. Want to coordinate with commenter dexwood on a Chaco Canyon excursion towards the end of my stay. You interested in joining us? Think on it.

  48. 48.

    germy

    @Yarrow: C’mon, nobody’d have the balls to kill Frank’s son!

    I have no doubt they’d harm or otherwise ruin anyone less famous.

  52. 52.

    sam

    As a democrat, I keep laughing at this guy. As a lawyer, I keep reading stuff like this and shouting (in my head) “shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up”

    you can’t spend the entire day testifying about everything, and THEN plead the fifth. THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS.

    That’s also why you get a damn lawyer.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    Ross aide served on Navigator’s board while working at Commerce
    Wendy Teramoto served as a part-time adviser to Ross while maintaining her board seat at the energy shipping company with a Kremlin-linked client.
    By LORRAINE WOELLERT, NANCY COOK and ANDREW RESTUCCIA
    11/06/2017 06:20 PM EST Updated 11/06/2017 09:21 PM EST

    A top adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross served on the board of Navigator Holdings, a shipping company whose clients include a Russian energy company with Kremlin ties, while she was working in the Trump administration.

    Wendy Teramoto retained her seat on Navigator’s board after joining Commerce in mid-March as a part-time adviser to Ross, one of the most influential voices in President Donald Trump’s ear on global trade and economic policy. She also continued to serve as an executive of Ross’s private equity firm WL Ross & Co. after becoming a government employee.

    Teramoto didn’t resign her seat on Navigator’s board until July 17, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She left WL Ross that same month. On Aug. 1, she was formally named Ross’s chief of staff.

    Her role with Navigator is notable because Ross has come under scrutiny after the release of a cache of documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on Sunday that showed him profiting from investments in Navigator, which does significant business with Sibur, an energy company partly owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. Sibur has not been subject to U.S. sanctions on Russian energy companies, though one of its owners is, according to the ICIJ report.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    LDF will be on the ground in #Virginia today helping to ensure no one has trouble at the polls. Follow @NAACP_LDF for updates! pic.twitter.com/dhDKR6DCOB

    — Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) November 7, 2017

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    If you live in VA and get a call saying your polling location has changed today, call @866OURVOTE. Confirm your location and VOTE!

    — Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) November 7, 2017

    We will continue fighting #votersuppression wherever we encounter it. Call our @866OURVOTE hotline with voting questions or complaints. pic.twitter.com/Wmd0OS25HB

    — Election Protection (@866OURVOTE) November 6, 2017

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    Wait, Trey Gowdy and Carter Page were in the same room, conversing, and the universe didn’t collapse into a singularity of stupid? Shit, I passed that course too.

  60. 60.

    Barbara

    @germy: Weinstein must be a sociopath. That’s all I can say about him. But one of the very real problems with people like Weinstein — engaging and successful and seemingly a good pal to so many — is that the people who are around him often think that they and he have a common understanding of things like “rape” or “abuse” or “sexual harrassment” or “unwanted touching.” One reason why women are not believed so often is that the friends of these guys have trouble comprehending just how different their friend is from them because it doesn’t appear that way in their own interactions and relationship. This happens all the time in the context of assaults in fraternities — the tendency of non-rapist men to think that rapist men are operating according to the same playbook.

  61. 61.

    Wapiti

    @Quinerly:

    USNA, NYU, Georgetown for degrees….and PHd from University of London.

    My nephew graduated from USNA a few years back. They have a program with Georgetown where the smart cadets can cross-enroll at Georgetown during their senior year, then finish the masters before heading to the fleet. iirc, nephew had gone to Gtown for at least the spring of his senior year, graduated, then moved to Gtown for summer and fall before getting his MA.

  62. 62.

    Quinerly

    @SiubhanDuinne: The morning ad for Fresh Air prompted to go to Amazon for the book. I had started an Amazon order over the weekend, so this was like adding dessert to my order.?

  63. 63.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: Also, you can go to Iwillvote.com, which will let you link to your actual registration information on the Virginia election website, which will confirm your registration and your polling location.

  67. 67.

    schrodingers_cat

    Mass Deportation Update:
    TPS revoked for Nicaragua, from Jan 25th.

    Jury Duty Update: I was able to postpone it from January to June, since I did not want to drive north in snow and ice.

  70. 70.

    sharl

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks! I originally followed her on Twitter based on her Central Asia expertise, so it’s good to see her be able to put that background to good use here.

  71. 71.

    Gelfling 545

    @rikyrah: I think the problem is going to be proving Trump knows or ever knew anything about anything given his complete indifference to reality. Any person with an IQ above room temperature would have known. With Trump, it’s hard to say. His blatant stupidity may work in his favor.

  72. 72.

    germy

    CARTER PAGE (lips on microphone): I killed Jonbenet Ramsey
    ADAM SCHIFF: …All I did was thank you for being here. We haven’t even started— Turkey Jerky (@MarkAgee) November 7, 2017

  73. 73.

    catclub

    @rikyrah: You beat me to that. I was going to mention it. Who knew that Trump would attract fake billionaires?

    Mark Cuban wins again.

  74. 74.

    Fair Economist

    @Barbara:

    I kept thinking how shocking it is that this seems very much like the reputed Topkapi Palace intrigues, where the only way to ensure your right of succession in the Ottoman Empire was to make sure all the other contenders were killed.

    A transition from the “collaborative monarchy” of Saudi Arabia to a patriarchal one is frightening enough, but when you realize there are literally THOUSANDS of Saudi princes with a claim as good as the one that put George I on the throne of England, you see this could go very far south in a hurry.

  77. 77.

    Miss Bianca

    @sharl: You know, I’m not a Twitterer, or Tweeter, or whatever the technical term may be, but I’m seriously tempted to follow Popehat these days.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    I hear a lot of testimony and (frankly) a lot of liars – although lying under oath is less common than you might think- and I have to say I was finding some of the Trumpsters persuasive on the Russia denials just because they were so unequivocal.

    Wrong again! They’re just REALLY ballsy liars. In the top 10% of liars, even! Unusually practiced liars.

  83. 83.

    ruemara

    I’m sitting here reading comments from the client my last videos were for. Turns out my Coms Director & Aide hadn’t actually gotten script & board approvals before giving me the greenlight to shoot. Oh, yes, somehow, I’m to blame despite me not being involved in client contact. On the one hand, I know I gave them a good product and this was not supposed to be on my plate with less than 3 weeks to give them a final, no more budget and talent & crew all currently booked on different projects. On the other hand, it’s nice to have an eyeball melting problem that isn’t about DJT.

    Also, anyone still questioning Russian collusion, interference, etc., is not a serious person. Coup d’twits

  84. 84.

    PST

    @Quinerly:

    This is why you shouldn’t allow morons from nowhere volunteer for your campaign.

    Or as we say in Chicago, “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”

  85. 85.

    Kay

    Brazile says she found “no evidence” that Democratic primaries were rigged for Clinton

    As anyone who read the piece she wrote already knows….. :)

    It’s not just that there was no evidence. There was no charge either. It was like..some words that sounded kinda bad.

  86. 86.

    eclare

    @Kay: John Oliver had a twitter fight a while back with POS, where POS said his show was boring and had bad ratings, but they were desperate to have him on, and POS said “No”! Oliver said even though his show does not have guests, POS was so adamant that he was invited on, John called a staff meeting just to confirm no one had invited him. John said it was weird, he thought, well, maybe someone did? Otherwise why would he say this?

    Because he is a lying POS.

  87. 87.

    randy khan

    @Redshift:

    OT: Strong turnout at my Northern Virginia precinct, and I’m getting similar reports from lots of others. Go, team!

    Fingers crossed. There was a steady stream at my precinct, which is heavily Democratic, and the Republicans appeared to have just left sample ballots sitting on a chair, weighed down by a rock. The Democrats handing out sample ballots said the Republicans were on a break, sort of implying it was a very loooong break.

  89. 89.

    TenguPhule

    Any day now I expect to see a signed and dated contract detailing exactly what Trump’s duties to the Kremlin were in exchange for his payments the way things are going.

    How the flying fuck did the media miss this other then intentionally?

    I mean FFS, they didn’t even TRY to hide this shit.

  90. 90.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay:

    Brazile says she found “no evidence” that Democratic primaries were rigged for Clinton

    MEDIA: “Donna, why are you doing this to us?”

  91. 91.

    GregB

    What is going on is a massive global conspiracy of the worst elements of the assembled plutocrats. The coal, gas and oil interests, military and a gun industries.

    The Saudi Prince also wants to corner the media information distribution systems.

    The fuse is lit for a regional conflagration. One Saudi minister was reported to hsve told the people of Lebanon that they are as guilty as Hezbollah and thus legitimare targets.

    The deep evil of these people is about to be displayed.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    @Miss Bianca:

    @sharl: You know, I’m not a Twitterer, or Tweeter, or whatever the technical term may be, but I’m seriously tempted to follow Popehat these days.

    I don’t have a Twitter account either. I depend upon others to give me names of folks to search and read their tweets.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I have to say I was finding some of the Trumpsters persuasive on the Russia denials just because they were so unequivocal.

    I never believed them, Kay. ALWAYS believed that they were lying.
    Why do people dance around the Russian thing?
    It is phucking TREASON against this country!
    They are so used to lying and nobody challenging them. Following up on what they’ve said. let alone, there being consequences for what they say.

  96. 96.

    GregB

    While I think we are about to quicken into dark times, my fear is tempered by the inevitability of failure with all of these crumb bums.

    They are evil but also arrogant, sloppy, hubristic and dumb as rocks.

    Nothing will go as planned, they lead their troops into bluffs, will invite rebellion and disloyalty and it will end badly for them and those near their vortex of malignance and greed.

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    Trump not invited to global climate change summit: http://hill.cm/DPKUzyV

    – – -President Trump is reportedly not invited to the climate change summit that will be held later this year in France.

    An official in French President Emmanuel Macron’s Cabinet said Trump is “for the time being” not invited to the event in Paris, Reuters reported.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: They lie about the most picayune things–it’s a fractal structure of lies, more lies than you could fact-check if you spent all day doing it, and the easiest ones to debunk are so petty that you sound like a crazy nitpicker if you even go after them.

    Classic gaslighting, in other words, and the point of that is of course to drive others into outright mental instability. It’s much easier to just assume that they’re always lying, and will almost certainly be correct.

  101. 101.

    randy khan

    @GregB:

    The stuff going on in Saudi Arabia is very strange. From what I can see, it appears to be a repudiation of a longstanding arrangement to ensure that nobody has enough power to, well, do what’s being done right now.

    One of the stranger things about it is that the Crown Prince appears to want to liberalized things somewhat. He’s the guy who announced that women will be allowed to drive, which is a big deal there, and definitely something that the religious conservatives didn’t like. So maybe the thought is that they need to consolidate power to pull the country into the 20th century.

    And on top of this, ARAMCO is looking at an IPO, and you’d think they wouldn’t want there to be concerns about stability of the government before that happens.

  103. 103.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @Barbara: Repeated speaking invitations are part of that pattern, they play to his inflated self regard. “I am so brilliant! The university wants me to speak again.” When the spy agency asks the organizer of the forumn to invite Patsy Page back, the organizer shrugs his shoulders and thinks it’s no skin off my nose, I’ll invite the airhead to speak. Carter Page is the perfect doofus for a smart recruiter.

  105. 105.

    MCA1

    @rikyrah: That’s tremendous. I like how Macron knows how to pull the Twittiot’s strings (evidently better than any Americans can). He’ll take it as a personal affront and to rectify that will either (a) further abdicate America’s former position of leadership on all matters relating to climate, which will allow the rest of the world to confidently move forward without us, or (b) unilaterally revise the U.S. stance on the Paris Accords or whatever else in order to get the invite.

  107. 107.

    GregB

    @scav:

    I can’t picture Johnson without seeing him stuck on that zipline waving flags. Buffoon-tastic.

    He’s also sucked up in the Russian information war along with the odious Farage.

    Need to read up on Patel some more.

  108. 108.

    SatanicPanic

    @Cheryl Rofer: It’s not the biggest revelation, but that Trey Gowdy quote is awesome:

    Mr. Gowdy: All right. I’ve written down four different words. I didn’t think I’d ever be going through this with anyone, but we’ve got to, I guess. You seem to draw a distinction between a meeting, a greeting, a conversation, and you hearing a speech.

    It’s karma that Trey Gowdy has to be annoyed by a serial obfuscator

  111. 111.

    cursorial

    IANAL, but reading clips of Page’s testimony I keep thinking “Dr. Page, it’s true that remaining silent can make you look guilty. But you shouldn’t discount the possibility that confessing to many, many criminal acts can also make you look guilty.”

  113. 113.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Why would any serious person, having spent even fifteen minutes in his company, trust Carter Page with so much as the mid-afternoon Starbucks run?

    He’d fuck it up and bring me a cappuccino instead of a mocha.

  114. 114.

    The Moar You Know

    There’s the local inane lot and then there’s the UK’s Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.

    @scav: Boris kills me. He is religiously convinced he is the smartest man in the room and, with very few exceptions, is always the dumbest.

  115. 115.

    TenguPhule

    @Fair Economist:

    but when you realize there are literally THOUSANDS of Saudi princes with a claim as good as the one that put George I on the throne of England, you see this could go very far south in a hurry.

    What do you mean, could?

  116. 116.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @cursorial: “Better to be silent & be thought an idiot, than to open one’s mouth & remove all doubt,” (Lincoln, Twain, Prroverbs, whoever.)

  118. 118.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: It’ll be really interesting to see what happens if/when global leaders just sort of…disinvite….or simply neglect to invite…Trump to global summits and events from here on out. I keep wondering if that will wake up a certain sort of conservative – not the mouth-breathing xenophobes of the base, but the ones to whom American prestige and influence in the world actually still matter.

  123. 123.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: Trump hires only the BEST people. At lying.

    Except that most of them are still pretty bad at it. Huckabee Sanders makes me wince whenever she tries to wave off Trump’s latest embarrassment/lie/treason.

  124. 124.

    MisterForkbeard

    @different-church-lady: Yeah. No goddamned shit, this is exactly what we’ve been saying since the primaries started getting rancorous. People who believed it was “rigged” were idiots.

    Would have been fantastic if Brazile hadn’t, you know, said they were rigged last week. And damaged a lot of democratic enthusiasm before the Virginia elections.

  125. 125.

    mike in dc

    With regard to Carter Page, my money’s on “psychotic break”. Imagine being a pivotal figure in one of the biggest scandals of all time–the stress must have reached an inflection point, and he just…broke. At some point prior to all this, he had to be coherent enough to function and get through college, perform jobs, etc.

  126. 126.

    TenguPhule

    The paranoid Carter Page transcript: What in God’s name did I just read?

    I am at a loss for words. Carter Page obviously wasn’t.

    Carter Page: Hello. I am a doctor and a scholar, and I am here about the world premiere of the dodgy dossier that inexplicably made all kinds of charges against me, an innocent man who has never met anyone directly in my life! I have been illegally wiretapped by the FBI, CIA and other U.S. propaganda agencies, and my life has been ruined. I must be continually on the move, like a shark. I have done nothing wrong, but I will answer none of the questions put to me, because I have been studying the law. I am, as I said, a scholar. Here is a letter. I know it looks like a scrawl in red crayon, but trust me — it is a letter about the CIA’s illegal dossier.

    Its comedy or insanity at its finest. I’m just not sure which at the moment.

  127. 127.

    HeleninEire

    @sharl: Oh holy hell. Thank you for this. I am late here cuzza the time difference. But OH HOLY HELL. Popehat has been broken.

  128. 128.

    J R in WV

    @clay:

    Carter Page allegedly graduated from Annapolis in the top 10% of his class… must have been the year they admitted those bright sheepdogs from England? Can’t explain it. I’ve met some really sharp guys that graduated from service academies, known smart kids who didn’t get in, too. But there’s always the other side of the curve, right?

  129. 129.

    NMgal

    @Quinerly: Hey, saw your plans — dunno if we’ve ever had a back and forth, but I’m a daily lurker/occasional commenter in Taos. I’ve got to burn some leave in the first couple of months of the year and Chaco is a favorite — was just there for equinox, amazing trip. If you’re putting a party together I might be able to contribute some Chaco-head lore and some Coleman stove skills. Good call to board the doggie — some of the hikes are not dog-friendly.

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