Russia regarded Representative Dana Rohrabacher as an intelligence source worthy of a Kremlin code name https://t.co/3BObvIIy4D
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 21, 2017
He’s the twinkly-eyed Zelig of the American Treason Party:
For two decades, Representative Dana Rohrabacher has been of value to the Kremlin, so valuable in recent years that the F.B.I. warned him in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source worthy of a Kremlin code name.
The following year, the California Republican became even more valuable, assuming the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee that oversees Russia policy. He sailed to re-election again and again, even as he developed ties to Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia…
As revelations of Russia’s campaign to influence American politics consume Washington, Mr. Rohrabacher, 70, who had no known role in the Trump election campaign, has come under political and investigative scrutiny. The F.B.I. and the Senate Intelligence Committee are each seeking to interview him about an August meeting with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, Mr. Rohrabacher said. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is said to be interested in a meeting he had last year with Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s short-lived national security adviser.
At the same time, fellow Republicans — questioning his judgment and intentions — have moved to curtail his power as chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats. And back home in Southern California, where Democrats and Republicans alike smell blood, the 15-term congressman is facing his toughest re-election contest in decades, with well-funded candidates from both parties lining up to unseat him…
Mr. Rohrabacher has laughed off suggestions that he is a Russian asset, and said in an interview that he did not remember being briefed that the Russians viewed him as a source. The F.B.I. and the senior members of the House Intelligence Committee sat Mr. Rohrabacher down in the Capitol in 2012 to warn him that Russian spies were trying to recruit him, according to two former intelligence officials…
In April 2016, he was in Moscow, accepting a copy of a “confidential” memo containing accusations against prominent Democratic donors that would, months later, reappear in Trump Tower when a Russian lawyer who had reported those allegations to the Russian government, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, sat down with Donald Trump Jr. to deliver a similar document.Last August he was in London on a quick diversion from an anniversary trip to the Iberian Peninsula to meet Mr. Assange at the fugitive’s sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy. American intelligence agencies believe Mr. Assange acted as a conduit for Russian operatives seeking to release a trove of hacked Democratic emails. Mr. Assange denies the accusation, and Mr. Rohrabacher hoped to broker a meeting with Mr. Trump to allow him to make his case.
Then earlier this year, this time on Capitol Hill, Mr. Rohrabacher dined with Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime. During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, Mr. Torshin tried to set up a “backdoor” meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, according to an email that has been turned over to Senate investigators…
Mr. Rohrabacher may shrug off such scrutiny, but on the Foreign Affairs Committee, fellow Republicans have had enough. The committee’s chairman, Representative Ed Royce of California, pushed out Mr. Rohrabacher’s top committee aide, Paul Behrends, in July amid stories about his ties to pro-Russian lobbyists.
Since then, the chairman has taken a more hands-on approach to managing Mr. Rohrabacher’s subcommittee, a Republican House aide said. The chairman has not imposed a blanket ban on Mr. Rohrabacher’s travel or power to convene hearings, nor has he stripped Mr. Rohrabacher of his subcommittee chairmanship.
But Mr. Royce’s aides are closely scrutinizing his requests…
Rorabacher’s been a KGB pilot fish since the Reagan era, but as long as the Orange County revanchists kept him a safe vote for whatever the GOP put forward, they didn’t care where he was feeding. THANKS, REPUBLICANS!
Not mentioned in the NYTimes, probably due to the ick factor:
Photo of the Day: GOP Rep. Rohrabacher Poses With Holocaust Denier Chuck C. Johnson at Assange Meeting https://t.co/YtnmB47TRX pic.twitter.com/mUMBGavr65
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 17, 2017
Greg in PDX
I am from California originally and we have foisted three of the worst of the worst of Republicans on the nation. This guy, Issa, and McCarthy.
mai naem mobile
@Greg in PDX: you forget Ronnie Raygun.
Adam L Silverman
@Amaranthine RBG: Only on the third Tuesday of a month with an R in the month’s name. Except in a leap year.
Mary G
They loved him in his district because he surfed, knew everybody’s name, and because they’re really rich. He has a big target on his back next year though. I’ve been invited to several FB pages and meetings for like 4 groups and I suspect Democrats will come out of the woodwork for the primary.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t see the amaranthine one’s comment. Was he smote with the banhammer?
Mary G
@Amir Khalid: I was wondering about that.
Major Major Major Major
I like how Chuck J is doing the totally-joking-not-white-supremacy-sign-take-that-libtards-but-also-it’s-a-white-supremacy-sign thing. Classy.
—
Meet the newest character on my webcomic, Stan. He’s an art student who moonlights as a photographer. Emphasis on moonlight, he’s not especially fond of the sun.
Amaranthine RBG
@Amir Khalid:
Today the NYT does solid reporting. And we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Major Major Major Major:
Huh. I don’t know about that – what is it? I thought he was just imitating Trump’s weird mafioso gesture.
NotMax
You can’t spell Cossack without both a-s-s and c-o-c-k.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Short for Stanwise?
(Wait until he finds out moonlight is reflected sunlight.)
;)
frosty
@Major Major Major Major: I like the lamp, which hints of bat wings. If I get what you mean about not liking the sun. :-)
Major Major Major Major
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: So the 4chan/alt-right idiots thought it would be funny to convince the liberal media that the “OK” hand sign was a white power thing. So they started spreading online that it was a white power thing, even though it “totally isn’t.” That way when they do it in pictures and the liberal media is like “you’re doing a white power thing!” they can be like “haha, joke’s on you! It’s a triple-secret not a white power thing!”
It’s… a really stupid troll.
LurkerNoLonger
These are stupid people doing nefarious things stupidly. I’m relieved we’re not governed by evil geniuses.
SectionH
@Greg in PDX: Sorry, you forgot Ronnie Rayguns.
Ok, I see I wasn’t first. But I was quick, for me.)
Mary G
Crap. They really are going to do it. WaPo says Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski announces support for repealing individual mandate, a potential boost to tax overhaul.
They must really have given Alaska a big thing and of course they’re going to drill in the Arctic, which will bring in the big bucks on the tundra.
@Major Major Major Major: Is that one of those dashboard hula dancers on Stan’s desk?
James E. Powell
@mai naem mobile:
Nixon was the absolute worst of them all.
SectionH
@Amir Khalid: Oh… PLEASE….
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: Yep!
@frosty: Yep!
@NotMax: Haha, good point.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Be seeing you.
;)
John Revolta
And I totally believe him! Sure, that’s the sort of thing that could just slip anybody’s mind, I’ll bet!!
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: Well I certainly don’t remember being told I’m a Russian source, do you?
Duane
When The FBI an the House Intelligence Committee are worried that Russia is recruiting you as a spy, how in the hell are you the chairman of anything? IOKIYAR? There has to be a limit.
jl
@Duane:
” There has to be a limit. ”
The voters will have to set limits for them and give them a long timeout for self-reflection in their rooms.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Cool! I try to keep up, but am finding it a bit… nonlinear? Stan looks… well, maybe you could keep him black and white or something. I really liked his b&w sketch. Maybe 50% opacity, or something silly like that? Once in a while?
Sorry if that was out of line. I plead that just today, I had to go back to PS, after nearly a year of no serious work, and get an image ready for print. What I’d thought needed 20 minutes took 5 hours. Not all my fault: I discovered I had to lift text, fill in the background, fix text, and, and, and. Damn.
eta: just nosey, what do you design in?
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH:
This week’s strip is a one-off unrelated to …anything. I guess I should go clarify that. For the rest, I thought I’d been keeping it pretty ramrod-straight linear, other than the dream. Could you elaborate?
Stan’s office is going to be mostly black and white, and with his skin color being what it is, and preference for monochrome clothes, he’ll end up looking pretty black-and-white even in full color. I was actually thinking earlier about having him sort of be black and white with scribbly shadows, at least inside his office… we’ll see if I end up doing that.
ETA: I just use Clip Studio Paint, it has what I need and absolutely nothing else and it came with my tablet, lol
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Funny thing is, once you start claiming that the thing you’re doing is a white supremacist gesture, white supremacists who aren’t in on the joke hear about it and pick it up, and next thing you know, actual neo-Nazis are doing your “fake” gesture sincerely and you’ve lost control of the “joke.” Now they’ve invented a white supremacist gesture even if they “didn’t mean to.”
That’s why fucking around with white supremacists is a stupid thing to do.
Amir Khalid
@Amaranthine RBG:
So it was your comment, not you, that got smote. Ah well, maybe next time.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Um… the dream sequence was Jesse making potions? I admit that threw me off. (If that wasn’t it, and some other interweaving, I’m lost)
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH: That was the dream sequence, yes. Everything else has been a linear progression in time.
John Revolta
@Major Major Major Major: Of course not, tovari- I mean, ol’ buddy!
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Ok, fine. I always click as soon as I see an update.
eta, I like your maps and floor plan – esp. with BJ help. Also hoping for more inherited critter action. Should probably try posting on your own site, too.
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH: Well, if you’re having trouble following it, I’m probably doing something wrong. Would you mind telling me what didn’t work for you?
Villago Delenda Est
@Greg in PDX: Richard M. Nixon.
BBA
Can we please get the sexual harassment allegations against Cillizza out there? Or does God hate us so much that he’s the only white dude in journalism who isn’t a rapist?
Duane
@jl: I’ve lost a lot of faith in our voting public. People I know, who are basically good-hearted, voted for the orange idiot. They consider voting Republican like it’s their religion. Maybe it is.
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH: Thanks for reading, by the way.
What do you mean by ‘on my own site’? Sorry for so many irritating clarifying questions.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Of course I wouldn’t mind.
I think mostly the switch from mundane Jesse (NOT a pejorative) to the potion-maker was ? I mean, I knew from you here that he was going to inherit his granny’s legacy which was more than the house and all. But the rather nice build-up otherwise was just disrupted by the potion sequence. Did I miss where Jesse fell asleep? That was the question. I kept going back to look for some clue to the switch. I kept thinking I was missing a few panels.
Or – and this goes back to srsly old comics: the dream stuff always had little cloudy outlines at the start (and end). I was never a big comics fan, but I did read some of them long ago, and that graphic hint might still work.
If there was a cue, I missed it.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: At Against Stupidity.
Not to worry. Mr S says I’m the most imprecise person ever. (Not true, but I’m in the running.)
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH: Cool, thanks. Fair enough.
My intent was to have the two dream strips, which open part 2 after a brief break, be somewhat confusing and then turn out to be a dream. I thought about using the little clouds but figured, since it was just one and a half strips, I could make the confusion work for me rather than being disorienting. (It’s also not a random dream, and elements of it will be important.) Finally I wanted to inject some explicit magic/goose the supernatural element, but just for a second.
As for him falling asleep, no, I guess he didn’t. I’d originally intended the ‘cover’ for part 2 to be a sunrise, and it is actually, pre-dawn, but I guess that’s pretty hard to tell if you don’t know the layout of Denver.
Maybe it was a misstep. I’ve used dreams before like this, in writing, and come to think of it you’re not the first person to have, like, this exact complaint. Some people seem to like it, obviously I like it… but that doesn’t mean it’s good.
Learning!
ETA @SectionH: I try to keep the little share-outs I do like Stan here off of the website, since the only way to set the navigation sensibly right now is chronological and I don’t want to interrupt it. Maybe that’s wrong too!
SectionH
@SectionH: @M4 – in re the imprecision, partly that’s the tension between words and images. I have a lifelong back and forth. Masters in English, made most of my living in graphic design. (Well, it was that or the Dole… )
Duane
@Villago Delenda Est: As I watch the final episode of Ken Burn’s Vietnam war, the same goes for him as LBJ. Fuckem.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Or maybe I’m just old and not very comic-wise anyway. I think it was good you didn’t rely on local knowledge, because it’s an interesting story. eta: your comic story, I mean. Should not depend on knowing Denver.
Maybe the so-early shift in the strip confused me. But I’ll be prepared for future shifts, little cliche clouds or not.
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH:
That I can totally understand, and would explain why this week’s interlude could compound on that feeling. Ah. Hmm.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: Omg, sorry. Won’t do that again.
Major Major Major Major
@SectionH: Ah, do what? Lol
jl
@Duane: ” I’ve lost a lot of faith in our voting public. People I know, who are basically good-hearted, voted for the orange idiot. They consider voting Republican like it’s their religion. Maybe it is. ”
Almost 3 million more people voted for a fit candidate than voted for Trump, and that was when Democratic turnout was not very motivated for various reasons. So, if we guard voting rights jealously, we can win next time.
There are some Trumpsters in my extended family who are good hearted nice people who treat others well. But, OMG, they are truly ignorant confused frightened people, real messes in some ways. Most of the Trupsters I know are… well, they are not nice unless they consider you in their club.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major:
Oh wait, me? Um, discuss share-out things. Uh, except I may have misread your og comment. Which I now think was you share here (which I love of course) as opposed to your AS comments. But I took it the other way ’round, and was sorry that I’d mentioned Stan here.
You’re right, maybe sharing both places wouldn’t hurt. I don’t know the dynamics of your site.
Betty Cracker
I’m wide awake at OMFG o’clock because for the last hour, the sound of foghorns in the bay kept disturbing my sleep. Walked out on the carport, and sure enough, it’s foggy! Thanks for the heads up, foghorns!
TriassicSands
That’s something only a Jeff Sessions quality memory could forget.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: good morning to you and all jackals.
Have been waiting for y’all to wake up and play.
sdhays
@TriassicSands: Yeah, saying you “don’t remember” the FBI and your colleagues warning you about the KGB suggests you’re lying or care so little about not committing treason that you completely blew them off.
Or your memory is so bad that someone should be helping you in and out of your diapers every day…
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: I’ve been awake since 3. Not ready for play.
Elizabelle
@sdhays: Rohrabacher was, briefly, my congresscrook. Think he’s been cited for having a blighted rental, etc. (money problems?). Seems there is enough smoke, there would be fire if a prosecutor cared to look.
No idea if he’s in Mueller’s sights, but maybe at least on the periphery.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: my sympathies.
JR
I have to say that of all the sexual harassment stories coming out lately, the John Lasseter stuff is bumming me out a ton.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: 3-4 AM is my normal. Sometimes tho I wake up at midnight or 1 AM. THAT really blows.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Just arose from a welcome and much needed nap.
Betty Cracker
My husband has to be at work at 6 AM, poor thing. I made him breakfast since I was already up.
Central Planning
@OzarkHillbilly: 1am isn’t bad if you go to bed at 6pm.
My alarm is set for 5. I’ve been waking up earlier than that lately. I always feel rested so I don’t fight it. It’s nice to have a cup of coffee with a little peace and quiet.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: If I am not working I usually try and take a nap around 10 AM. Sometimes I even succeed, but most times I just sort of snooze right on the edge of sleep but never quite getting there. Believe it or not, just that little bit helps.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Having to be at work at 6 or 7 AM is how I got into the habit of waking at 3 or 4 AM.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@John Revolta: Good morning, BJ.
As I’m reading this Rohrabacher thing my brain is turning it into a comedy skit, a la Austin Powers and “that’s not my pump”.
“Look, here it is in your Outlook Calendar for 2012, FBI briefing, You Are A Russian Asset”
“Senator, don’t forget the FBI is giving you your weekly briefing this afternoon on What Russian Intel Got From You This Week”
“What about this poster of Vladimir Putin on your wall, signed “To Our Favorite American Intel Asset, Vlad and the boys’ “
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: I have to get up and bake pies and mince tarts in a few hours! I need sleep, people! And yet here I am, mr opiejeanne snoring beside me and I’m wide awake. AACK!
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: The mister can be at work in 5 minutes, so he gets up around 5:15. He usually has cereal and coffee, but I made him a plate of Toad in a Hole this morning!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Mysteries of spell check on the iPhone: why does it know the name Rohrabacher, something I don’t ever recall typing before? Why does it think when I wrote Vlad I wanted Vladislav? Why when I text my wife about an actual hill does it think I want to capitalize Hill or talk about The Hill publication?
Betty Cracker
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: iPhone started randomly capitalizing nouns after a recent update. Pisses me off to the point that I’m about ready to shut down autocorrect.
Ben Cisco
Morning, jackals! Currently at the job for the last day before the break. Place is already a ghost town, I might actually get a few things done today.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Betty Cracker: Presumably not with an actual toad.
Although TBH, we seem to be having English/Irish pub food fairly often these days for some reason. In Philly. So I’m familiar with that dish, though I’ve never ordered it. I think I’m trying to recapture our trip to Galway last summer. Nothing quite like coming inside an Irish pub on a miserably cold rainy night and sipping an Irish coffee while the pub musicians play a session.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Damn! The lucky dog. Most of my job sites were 1-1 1/2 hours away. Only once did I work a job that was just 10 minutes away. Sadly, it was only for 6 days. (pallet racking in a Lowes).
Betty Cracker
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That sounds heavenly.
@OzarkHillbilly: My hubby is a golf course guy, and the links are plentiful in our ZIP code.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@JR: I was really distressed to hear that one. The one that’s really breaking me, though, is Jeffrey Tambor. I haven’t even looked up the accusations, and I’m not entirely sure I will. I just hope it’s not some Cosby or Weinstein-level shit. I don’t know if I can stand to have his work tainted; there’s a good chance it’s literally saved my life on at least one occasion.
This latest rash of allegations is causing me to re-evaluate how much I let artists’ misdeeds colour my view of their work. At this point there aren’t going to be all that many people left whose work any of us can enjoy with clear consciences.
satby
@Betty Cracker: my Kindle has been doing the same thing. I can type a normal sentence, but if I correct a typo before I finish, every subsequent word is capitalized. So fucking annoying.
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major: But… if everyone in your movement simultaneously pretends that something is a symbol of your movement… then… it’s a symbol of your movement. It’s just one where you chuckle while you’re using it.
Matt McIrvin
@JR: The Lasseter allegations sound like the sort of thing that should get basically well-intentioned guys thinking about their actions. Because it doesn’t sound like he was doing anything nearly as gross as, say, Charlie Rose… but the people he was doing it to still didn’t want it, to the extent that they were treating him like a missing stair.
And it does make me wonder about some things, like Pixar’s famous reticence to have female protagonists through most of their run. And I wonder if Lotso from “Toy Story 3” was partly inspired by him. “I’m a hugger!”
Honus
@James E. Powell: also, B-1 Bob Dornan. Used to sub for Rush Limbaugh when rush was on vacation.
Sloane Ranger
@Betty Cracker: He can stomach Toad in the Hole that early in the morning? Wow, My hat comes off to him. I can’t manage it until 11am at the earliest!
JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo
There’ John G. Schmitz too, the one term Congressman who tried to primary Richard Nixon from the right in 1972.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
that’s one way to deal with the toad problem.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
I will just say — THIS.
Also, people who are huggers often genuinely don’t get how much non-huggers really, really hate being hugged.
I will now shut up again.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
The first time I ever saw Rohrabacher was when he appeared on Bill Maher’s show about 15 years ago and joked that when he was younger, he smoked so much pot that he practically “drank the bong water.”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Major Major Major Major:
He reminds me a bit of T.S. Eliot.
Mike G
Well, that’s the kind of thing anyone could forget. I mean, pick up the milk, get the prescription refilled, FBI tells you you’re a Russian agent, it’s so easy for all those petty details to slip your mind.