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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Russiagate / Yet More Seychelles

Yet More Seychelles

by Cheryl Rofer|  March 7, 20188:52 pm| 173 Comments

This post is in: Russiagate, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell

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After Betty wrote her post, the Washington Post impolitely dropped an explosive addendum to the Times story of last night. (That was last night, wasn’t it?)

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.

This is the first big leak about what Mueller is doing. Notice that I am not saying “from Mueller’s shop,” because they have been very, very careful. I need to read the article much more carefully to try to figure out who the source(s) is(are).

That’s two times now that Trump people tried to set up secret backchannels to Russia. Now the UAE is involved too.

The writers keep introducing new characters from all different parts of the world that honestly make it hard for casual viewers to track the plot.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 7, 2018

So Erik Prince lied to Congress. His sister visited Marjorie Stoneman Douglas School yesterday. The kids were unimpressed.

I think there’s a lot more in the Times story that I’d like to figure out. I should be less busy tomorrow than I’ve been, so maybe I can do it then.

Oh, and another thing.

"If the Kremlin believed that Col Skripal might have helped with the compilation of the dossier, it could explain the motive for the assassination attempt"

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) March 7, 2018

PAGE 1 of the dossier: "A former top level Russian intelligence officer" – this fits Colonel Skripal to a T. pic.twitter.com/HctBnmVJDL

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) March 7, 2018

 

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Reader Interactions

173Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    And this seems to have happened too. Apparently all the news tonight is going to break in prime time.

    *to have Mueller fired. (Mea culpa.)

    — Matthew Kahn (@matthew_j_kahn) March 8, 2018

  2. 2.

    Baud

    March 7, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Why does the president need a back channel to the Kremlin? Did they get rid of the red phone?

  3. 3.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I meant to add that, but I’m arguing with a reporter on Twitter, so my attention was divided.

    All in all, though, I think that WaPo wins tonight’s news slam.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    Sen Warren blasting this banking bill that is getting D votes. Like her or love her, she’s nailing this issue.

  5. 5.

    patrick II

    March 7, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    I have a question. There was a computer server in Trump tower that may have been in secret communication with a Russian bank. It was discovered and shut down. At some point Jared asked for a backdoor channel to communicate with the Russians, and now this meeting at the Seychilles where the same subject comes up. What is the timing of these meetings in relation to the loss of the Trump/bank server connection? Were they trying to replace a secret means of communication that had been lost?

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    Warren just said she’s not running. She’s running.

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    So Erik Prince lied to Congress.

    Of course he did. Now what?

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Strike Hard!

  9. 9.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    @Baud: Jared’s and this one would not be subject to the ordinary White House rules of recordkeeping. We’ve seen far too many meetings by Trump, Tillerson, and others in which NO other Americans took part. No interpreters, no note-takers.

    There are many reasons to have an interpreter. The baseline is to be sure that you understand what is being said to you and to the other person. A note-taker takes the pressure off the principals so that they can concentrate on the meeting. And both are witnesses to what was said.

    Every president has worked with people who help to record his meetings, ultimately for the public, even though not everything is immediately available.

    This bunch doesn’t want to work like that. We can draw some nasty conclusions from that.

  10. 10.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 7, 2018 at 9:03 pm

    looks like being a colossal piece of shit ages you at least at least a decade

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:03 pm

    I’d also like to point out that this administration seems to have found every scumbag to come out of the Navy Special Forces community. Prince, Zinke, Higbee. There’s one more, but I can’t remember his name.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    March 7, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    We can draw some nasty conclusions from that.

    Consider them drawn.

  13. 13.

    danielx

    March 7, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.

    I do not believe I have ever used the word ‘treason’ in regard to Le Affaire Russe. But…this particular pile of really filthy political manure is beginning to smell mightily like it. Lord knows no sane person wants a shooting war between us and the Russians, nor any other country/entity for that matter. That’s a long way from the Russians having the best interests of the US at heart. About as far as it is distant from normal for an incoming administration to try to set up a back channel with a country that does not have our best interests at heart….

    Am I being too credulous?

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    @patrick II: The server, which seems to have been in the middle between Alfa Bank’s server and a server for a company owned by Betsy DeVoss (Eric Prince’s sister), was discovered in the late summer/early fall of 2016. Or at least made public at that time. These arrangements for the backchannels, both Kushner’s with Kislyak via the Russian Embassy in DC and the one with Prince, the Russians, and this Lebanese-American fixer for the Emiratis happened during the transition.

  15. 15.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 7, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    @Baud:

    Did they get rid of the red phone?

    No, but no one in the administration can figure out how it works.

  16. 16.

    jonas

    March 7, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    @Baud: So that Putin could relay instructions about what he expected from the WH in a way that wouldn’t get picked up by the press.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Miller’s a chain smoker. Nunberg, apparently, has a drinking problem.

    Kellyanne Conway was born in 1572 and occasionally bathes in the blood of young, virginal women…//

  18. 18.

    ? Martin

    March 7, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    The kids were unimpressed.

    The kids were not invited. Seriously.

  19. 19.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    His sister visited Marjorie Stoneman Douglas School yesterday. The kids were unimpressed

    I never did learn how that turned out. She actually went in front of these kids?

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @patrick II: That’s a great question. The server-to-server connection was running in the summer of 2016. The connection ended in late September.

    Both Kushner’s and Prince’s attempts to set up the connection were after the election.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Kellyanne Conway was born in 1572

    Is she the older woman Jewish Steel’s wife left him for?

  22. 22.

    Jay

    March 7, 2018 at 9:11 pm

    @Baud:

    While there is some privledge in WH Communications, it’s supposed to be “all on the record”.

    If you are going to be engaging in a little light treasoning with Vlad the Impaler, you’ld want it off the books.

  23. 23.

    ? Martin

    March 7, 2018 at 9:11 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: The core competency of every one of these people is criminality. If they had upstanding lives outside of this administration, they were working really damn hard at it, because the moment they got the opportunity to bend the rules, they ran hard.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:12 pm

    @Corner Stone: I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t read those posts.

  25. 25.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    The writers keep introducing new characters from all different parts of the world that honestly make it hard for casual viewers to track the plot.

    I was really confused by the part where America was about to give the rose to Hillary and then gave it to Donald instead.

  26. 26.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 7, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: There’s still Katie Hopkins and Alex Jones to explain.

    Hell, rappers aren’t known for their attention to healthy practices, yet the only ones I’m aware of who’ve aged that horribly are Ras Kass (44), Lil Wayne (35) and Flavor Flav (58) [and quite a few others wear their age, but they generally don’t look a decade older].

  27. 27.

    jc

    March 7, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    Mr. Trump must be so impressed with his BFF Vlad, watching how he deals with those who threaten his interests. Trump only wishes he could poison his enemies. Those damned legal and ethical constraints keep getting in the way.

  28. 28.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:14 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Kellyanne Conway was born in 1572 and occasionally bathes in the blood of young, virginal women…//

    If she actually did that she wouldn’t look like she was sixty.

  29. 29.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:14 pm

    @danielx:

    Am I being too credulous?

    I have a problem with this too. Accusing someone in a high post of coordinating with a hostile power is a very heavy thing and should not be done without proper evidence. Alternatively, it sounds like a conspiracy theory.

    That’s why I have been very careful in how I write about this. But the evidence that comes in seems to be going in one direction only. And friends who I respect are struggling with the same thing.

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 7, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I’m not going to reconstruct the whole thing from memory after a couple of cocktails, but I looked at the Alfa Bank thing at the time it became public, and there seemed to be much less there than it looked to people who don’t understand DNS very well. IOW, there was, based on the data available at the time, an easy and relatively benign explanation. I haven’t followed the story after that, though.

  31. 31.

    ? Martin

    March 7, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @Corner Stone: Yep. Her protege is running for a House seat here in CA and has the voter backing and the CA Dem Party didn’t endorse her. I don’t get it.

  32. 32.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Betsy Devos came to my school, talked to three people, and pet a dog. This is incase the press tries to say something else later

    — Alanna//#NEVERAGAIN (@AgCI3Cu2) March 7, 2018

  33. 33.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    March 7, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I saw a student tweet that said De Vos “met with three people” and then left. So she didn’t exactly get up in front of an assembly.

    It’s like Trump deliberately appointed the least suitable person for each job.

    ETA: What Cheryl posted

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Accusing someone in a high post of coordinating with a hostile power is a very heavy thing and should not be done without proper evidence.

    Trump was not yet in that post.

  35. 35.

    B.B.A.

    March 7, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    @different-church-lady: They weren’t expecting to get renewed for another season and had to through a wrench into the storyline because the planned conclusion left them with nowhere to go.

    No, sorry, that was Code Geass.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    March 7, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Finding scumbags seems to be a real strength in this administration.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Noted. I will update your file.

  38. 38.

    ? Martin

    March 7, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Trump is not unknown. He’s done this shit his entire life – break any rule, any law to get ahead. This is completely in character for him.

  39. 39.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I don’t know enough about computers to make a judgment, but my sense is that your view was up for a while, and then people found something else or reinterpreted the data, and decided that the link looked maybe not harmless.

  40. 40.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 7, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Here’s one of the students reacting to DeVos. I don’t think it went very well.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @different-church-lady: Even necromancy can only accomplish so much.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    March 7, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Is it possible that since Kelly was in the room when Trump spoke to Preibus and then McGahn, he informed the special council?
    Kelly is a liar and a creep, but it could still be possible.

  43. 43.

    Mike in DC

    March 7, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Bad news is raining down on this admimistration like a Katyusha barrage.

  44. 44.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:21 pm

    If you sent this script to any fifty random agents in Hollywood, each and every one would send it back postage due.

  45. 45.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2018 at 9:22 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Kushner looks 16, though.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:23 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: It is a strange place we find ourselves. As I’ve written here several times: I should not be able to link all of these people – from the President, to members of his family, to his closest business and political aides and appointees – to Russians who are all within one or two links of Putin.

  47. 47.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 7, 2018 at 9:24 pm

    @efgoldman: If you gave it to them in person, they’d all punch you in the face for wasting their fucking valuable time.
    @schrodingers_cat: Because he’s less a hate-filled piece of shit than he is a total fucking tool. Who is also a piece of shit.

  48. 48.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Conway was born in 1572 and occasionally bathes in the blood of young, virginal women…//

    Why the sarcasm tags when you typed the truth?

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:26 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: He hasn’t hit puberty yet.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    @efgoldman: She hasn’t produced the birth certificate. So it could be 1472. I understand the President has a team in New Jersey looking for it and you won’t believe what they’re finding!

  51. 51.

    JPL

    March 7, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: That is why I miss Nixon and the Watergate hearings.

  52. 52.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: He does look like that. How does he sound? Has anyone heard him speak.

  53. 53.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:30 pm

    @WereBear:

    Finding scumbags seems to be a real strength in this administration.

    Clearly not strength enough. There are still hundreds of empty desks in various departments, especially state and DOD

  54. 54.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 7, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    Why would Putin kill witnesses when there was no collusion.

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    March 7, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    @efgoldman: like we are living in The Runn8ng Man.

  56. 56.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Has anyone heard him speak.

    Yes, one time in Prague. He stopped next to me at the bar and asked if I had the time. “The time for what?” I responded. The next three weeks were a blur but I’ll never forget his milky soft hands and the desperate gleam in his eyes when I grabbed him by the back of his head.

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: He has the voice of a 7 year old girl. Or a castrati. I’m not kidding.

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:32 pm

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Everyone has hobbies…

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:32 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    If you gave it to them in person, they’d all punch you in the face for wasting their fucking valuable time.

    And have your car towed from the visitors’ lot.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    @Corner Stone: Give a warning first!

  61. 61.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    …the desperate gleam in his eyes when I grabbed him by the back of his head.

    …and forced his face down into the toilet?

  62. 62.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:35 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    I’ll never forget his milky soft hands and the desperate gleam in his eyes when I grabbed him by the back of his head.

    You are one sick puppy. Funny, but sick.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 7, 2018 at 9:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t know much Italian, but isn’t the singular castrato?

  64. 64.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 9:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    He sounds nor looks anything like any 37 year old I’ve ever heard of or met.

  65. 65.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    Wow, holy crap.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    LOL

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 7, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: What, you were in Prague at the same time?

  68. 68.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:42 pm

    … and the scrape of snowplows is heard in the land.

  69. 69.

    Jay

    March 7, 2018 at 9:42 pm

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    I’m looking forward to the coming Polonium Epidemic in the Republican Party.

  70. 70.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: who wasn’t?

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: he’s a twerp.

  71. 71.

    eric U.

    March 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    what’s amazing is that even with only the publicly known information, any Democratic presidency would be sunk by now. And it seems clear that we don’t know some really bad stuff that they have done.

  72. 72.

    Amir Khalid

    March 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    @Baud:
    The red phone (which to me always seemed to have the ring* of a fictional invention) is an official channel. I’d bet the conversations on it are secret,but still recorded/transcribed. Jared might have been thinking of that when he asked for a private channel — he would have wanted something not subject to official monitoring. Everything Jared thinks up has to have its dose of stupid, and I think asking the US Government to provide you such a channel (which of course they would monitor without telling you) is a big helping of stupid.

    *Geddit? Geddit?

  73. 73.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:
    @Cheryl Rofer:
    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    She’s such a coward.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    March 7, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’d also like to point out that this administration seems to have found every scumbag to come out of the Navy Special Forces community.

    I had a younger cousin who briefly worked for a state agency that had developed a reputation for being corrupt. He didn’t know how bad it was before working there and got out as fast as he could. He noted that the agency was fairly diverse, but the common link, no matter where the key staff came from, were that they were all crooked, unpleasant and untrustworthy.

    This seems to be the case with the Trump administration, with the GOP leadership as co-conspirators.

  75. 75.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 7, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    When they found Sepe in the meat
    truck, he was frozen so stiff it
    took them two days to thaw him out
    for the autopsy.

  76. 76.

    raven

    March 7, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    @Amir Khalid: The Red Telephone – Love

    Love was awesome!

    They’re locking them up today
    They’re throwing away the key
    I wonder who it’ll be tomorrow, you or me?

  77. 77.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 9:48 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    he’s a twerp

    What Ivanka sees in him I’ll never know. Unless it’s his fake millions. Just like his father-in-law.

  78. 78.

    hellslittlestangel

    March 7, 2018 at 9:49 pm

    @Baud:That’s the phone for complaining that his Diet Coke is the wrong temperature.

  79. 79.

    lgerard

    March 7, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    Is it wrong to hope that the participant also made that same misleading statement to the FBI?

    I think not

  80. 80.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    OT FYI

    A researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says he’s revising a study he co-authored after admitting that “criticism is valid” of initial findings that Uber and Lyft drivers are making a median pretax profit of $3.37 an hour and a vast majority are making less than minimum wage.

    Uber said the working paper had “a major error in the authors’ methodology.”

    Using one new method of calculating the median profit that incorporates Uber’s criticism, the figure “rises to $8.55/hour from the $3.37 initially reported,” the lead author Stephen Zoepf wrote in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday. And using another alternate method, the median profit goes up to $10 an hour.

  81. 81.

    RandomMonster

    March 7, 2018 at 9:51 pm

    That’s why I have been very careful in how I write about this.

    Thank god I’m not in some position where I have to exercise skepticism. When the Republican party changed only a single plank of their platform after the primaries— and it had to do with easing sanctions on the Russians — I could just freely assume a conspiracy on the part of the likes of Manafort.

  82. 82.

    different-church-lady

    March 7, 2018 at 9:51 pm

    @efgoldman: HUGE flakes.

  83. 83.

    mad citizen

    March 7, 2018 at 9:51 pm

    I have a random question. One day I looked at the treason statute and the language was something like “enemies of the United States”. What defines Russia, or any other nation, as an enemy of the U.S.? I can get if we’ve declared war against a nation, but are their other criteria?

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    March 7, 2018 at 9:53 pm

    So, we’re finding out that Trump likes it from the back channels…. But enough about the Stormy Daniels revelations.

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    She’s such a coward.

    Didn’t she get a medal for bravery at the Battle of Bowling Green?

  86. 86.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: general consensus in my circles is that he used to be kinda stupid-cute, and two middling society-striver types would naturally be attracted to each other.

  87. 87.

    Feebog

    March 7, 2018 at 9:55 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    What happens in Prague stays in Prague.

  88. 88.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm

    @mad citizen: IANAL, but that seems to be one of the reasons not to call the administration’s actions treason. What is said is that treason can only be committed with an enemy of the United States.

    I don’t feel like I’m missing much in not using the word. Describing the acts and the evidence for them is bad enough, although only Mueller is preparing his work for a court of law.

  89. 89.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm

    Well, that’s all she wrote on the power front.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    March 7, 2018 at 9:57 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
    They do say a young man wants a girl like the one that married dear old Dad. I reckon young women do something similar: they learn, from watching their fathers, what to look for in a man. And in Ivanka’s case, Dad is a high-rolling but crooked and inept real estate man. I’d throw in the sleazy personal morals if I could, but I haven’t seen any sign of that in Jared.

  91. 91.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: oh no!

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I would argue that Elizabeth Báthory was a better person than Conway.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Other than words for food, please, and thank you, I don’t know any Italian so you’re probably right.

  94. 94.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Well, that’s all she wrote on the power front.

    We’re still OK (but most of our wires are on poles and the snow is getting heavy).

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Ivanka has been secretly feeding him high doses of estrogen supplements for several years. Don’t tell anyone.//

  96. 96.

    Jay

    March 7, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    @mad citizen:

    Nope.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    March 7, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    @mad citizen:
    An enemy state in a declared war. Russia is a geopolitical adversary, yes; but the US is not formally at war with it, so Russia is not an enemy for the purposes of the statute.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    @Brachiator: Toxic leaders create toxic environments that only other toxic people are willing to tolerate.

  99. 99.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I’m afraid to ask, but why would she do that?

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 7, 2018 at 10:02 pm

    @Amir Khalid: If I recall correctly, the Cold War-era “red phone” (aka the hotline) was never actually a phone on the President’s desk; it was a teletype.

    These days Trump probably just calls up Putin on his unsecured cell phone.

  101. 101.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 10:02 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: or desperate people.

  102. 102.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    And in Ivanka’s case, Dad is a high-rolling but crooked and inept real estate man. I’d throw in the sleazy personal morals if I could, but I haven’t seen any sign of that morals in Jared.

  103. 103.

    WereBear

    March 7, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: What pity I might have for Ivanka is that her father was a terrible role model for a husband.

  104. 104.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    Ivanka has an Elektra complex and her father most likely has the hots for his daughter. Family values!

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Actually Wendi Deng, who is an asset of the PRC, was the matchmaker. And after divorcing Murdoch she has dated Putin.

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    March 7, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Man do I feel for the White House Marines…

  107. 107.

    Anne Laurie

    March 7, 2018 at 10:05 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    What Ivanka sees in him I’ll never know.

    They both grew up with overbearing, narcissistic, criminally-inclined daddies. It’s a weird form of bonding — gives them a shared emotional ‘vocabulary’ that they couldn’t find dating people from less fvcked-up families. Kinda like the way children of alcoholics have a way of ‘finding each other’ even when they don’t know each others’ backgrounds; as one such person said “It saves so much time when you don’t have to explain all these things… “

  108. 108.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:05 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t think anyone would find fault with your logic.

  109. 109.

    Amir Khalid

    March 7, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    the Cold War-era “red phone” (aka the hotline) was never actually a phone on the President’s desk; it was a teletype.

    You mean, Hollywood’s been lying to me all these years?!

  110. 110.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @RandomMonster: I guess it’s not easy for someone with a serious research and data driven background to reach too far without nailing it all down first. But I’m with you. I’ve never been smacked in the face with a fish but I’m sure it stinks. Same with this whole WH crowd. they stink to high heaven.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @Yutsano: Eh, you feel for all the Marines. :P

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I was being sarcastic. Hence the sarc tags: //

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:07 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Those too. Also, those who just don’t care and are making time.

  114. 114.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 10:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: ah yes, after her affair with Blair ended.

    She is such an obvious Bond villain.

  115. 115.

    Amir Khalid

    March 7, 2018 at 10:08 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
    I know that that’s the common speculation here and elsewhere, but I primly decline to engage in it myself.

  116. 116.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:09 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    They both grew up with overbearing, narcissistic, criminally-inclined daddies. It’s a weird form of bonding — gives them a shared emotional ‘vocabulary’ that they couldn’t find dating people from less fvcked-up families.

    Ivanka is a graspy, greedy, striver for acceptance. She saw a man with a B in front of his bank account and figured it was a way to secure the next phase of her ambition, given that Daddy had went bankrupt four or so times already.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:10 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Honey trap.

  118. 118.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:10 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I bet that you are able to sleep at night without chemical help.

  119. 119.

    Yutsano

    March 7, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: My soft spot for Teufelhunden is well known. :P However this is supposed to be the post of a lifetime…and it’s for the Dolt45 crew. They’re consummate professionals but eww.

  120. 120.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    She saw a man with a B in front of his bank account

    Apparently all those zeros were vaporware.

  121. 121.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2018 at 10:13 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Wow, holy crap.

    Anything in particular, or the entire thread, or life in general?

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:13 pm

    @Yutsano: And unlike the civilians there, they don’t have a choice.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    March 7, 2018 at 10:14 pm

    @danielx:
    Treason…yep

  124. 124.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2018 at 10:14 pm

    @Corner Stone: You have a vivid imagination. Also too, funny!

  125. 125.

    efgoldman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    @Yutsano:

    My soft spot for Teufelhunden….

    Teufelhunden

  126. 126.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: He may be stupid but he is certainly not cute.

  127. 127.

    mad citizen

    March 7, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thanks Cheryl and Amir for the answers! I agree with the comment that a Democratic administration would have been toast by now. I was on the CNN website thinking if Obama has a past affair come to light when he was President, people would be hounding him out of office.

  128. 128.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: yep.

  129. 129.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 7, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    @WereBear: @Amir Khalid:
    @Anne Laurie:

    I feel most sorry for their kids.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    March 7, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    I don’t see why you are struggling. There simply aren’t enough coincidences in the Western World , for there to be any other conclusion than TREASON

  131. 131.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: his brother’s kinda cute.

  132. 132.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:29 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Are you suggesting that whirlwind time was not real?
    *Crushed face*

  133. 133.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 10:29 pm

    @rikyrah: There is something very wrong going on in the administration. It may or may not be treason according to the legal definition. Mueller has indicted people for conspiracy to defraud the United States. That may wind up being the charge against all of them.

  134. 134.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:31 pm

    @Corner Stone: Prague is a magical place.

  135. 135.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:31 pm

    This lawyer for Stormy D is on point.

  136. 136.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    I had the absolute pleasure of explaining who Stormy Daniels was to my son earlier today. Since both his mom and I are up front about the birds and bees this did not shock him. But it was still a lot of fun.

  137. 137.

    JR

    March 7, 2018 at 10:34 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: and yet Louis XVI was collaborating with the Austrians.

  138. 138.

    Calouste

    March 7, 2018 at 10:34 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah. I mean, people go to sleep there and wake up as a giant cockroach.

  139. 139.

    The Lodger

    March 7, 2018 at 10:35 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Like Lord Varys, without the warmth.

  140. 140.

    Major Major Major Major

    March 7, 2018 at 10:36 pm

    @Calouste: well played.

  141. 141.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:36 pm

    @The Lodger: Sure. If I knew who Lord Varys was.

  142. 142.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 10:36 pm

    And even as we were discussing backchannels…

    Jared Kushner "did not invite the American ambassador — Roberta S. Jacobson, a diplomat with more than 30 years of experience in the region — to join him in the meetings." https://t.co/gSGh5K4DKr

    — David Gura (@davidgura) March 8, 2018

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:37 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Jesus Fucking Christ.

  144. 144.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: He’s done it before.

  145. 145.

    mad citizen

    March 7, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @Corner Stone: That sounds great. Were you able to get into why people use aliases, like Stephanie Clifford = Stormy Daniels, or Donald Trump = David Dennison, or John Barron or John Miller?

  146. 146.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:42 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: These are the dumbest people ever. Demonstrates the value of a Harvard bachelors degree…

  147. 147.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    March 7, 2018 at 10:42 pm

    @Calouste:

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah. I mean, people go to sleep there and wake up as a giant cockroach.

    The giant cockroach later teamed up with the Golem, Dr Faustus and Doctor Dee, as Prague’s own crime-fighting team of superheroes.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:43 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I know. It blows my mind every time.

  149. 149.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 7, 2018 at 10:52 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I think it’s more than dumb.

  150. 150.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: It is.

  151. 151.

    Corner Stone

    March 7, 2018 at 10:57 pm

    @mad citizen: No. He has a news feed on his phone and we discuss anything that strikes his fancy. This blurb just lead to, “Who is Stormy Daniels?”
    “I am glad you asked that!”

  152. 152.

    The Lodger

    March 7, 2018 at 10:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Sorry, I forgot you’re not a Game of Thrones fan. He’s a eunuch. Unlike the fate of a couple of other characters, his captors did the job when he was young.

  153. 153.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2018 at 10:59 pm

    @Calouste: @Sm*t Cl*de: You see what I mean.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 7, 2018 at 11:11 pm

    @The Lodger: No worries. Now I’m tracking.

  155. 155.

    T S

    March 7, 2018 at 11:13 pm

    @Corner Stone: I don’t have to “love” anyone to vote for them. They just need to be pushing the debate and the policies leftward. But then again, I’m not a liberal snowflake, just a liberal.

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2018 at 11:16 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    @Major Major Major Major:
    I realized that I knew very little about Wendi Deng, so I looked up her Wilipedia profile. This part made me laugh:

    Businesswoman, movie producer, gold digger, co founder of Artsy

    Wonder if that’s on her business card.

  157. 157.

    Tom Levenson

    March 7, 2018 at 11:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: hey!

    [looks around]

    Shrugs.

    As you were.

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2018 at 11:23 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    O/T, but thank you for closing the parentheses :-)

  159. 159.

    Jay S

    March 7, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    These are the dumbest people ever. Demonstrates the value of a Harvard bachelors degree…

    It lets stupid people into positions of power?

  160. 160.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Me too. Whenever I think I’m fully immune to being shocked by anything coming out of this maladministration, they remind me all over again of just how much arrogance and contempt they bring to … well, to everything. Norms, institutions, simple manners, all tossed aside like a used Kleenex.

  161. 161.

    Jinchi

    March 7, 2018 at 11:35 pm

    That’s two times now that Trump people tried to set up secret backchannels to Russia. Now the UAE is involved too.

    Don’t forget Jared’s unannounced trip to Saudi, to meet one-on-one with the Crown Prince. Just before the royal purge.

    The Saudi Royal Purge—with Trump’s Consent

  162. 162.

    Procopius

    March 8, 2018 at 12:22 am

    Because it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  163. 163.

    charon

    March 8, 2018 at 12:46 am

    @The Lodger:

    Not just a eunuch – a courtier whose stock in trade is information, runner of a flock of spies.

  164. 164.

    Procopius

    March 8, 2018 at 1:09 am

    @danielx: “Am I being too credulous?” Probably not, but you don’t seem to understand what “treason” is under the American Constitution. In the absence of war, there can be no treason. In the context of the constitution, there is no way to understand the word “enemies” except as adversaries in war. We are not at war with Russia, and there is no objective reason for us to even be adversaries except that’s what the neoconservatives and imperialists want.

  165. 165.

    Procopius

    March 8, 2018 at 1:15 am

    @Jay: Anything transmitted over “the red phone” would be so highly classified probably nobody except Trump and Jared could read it (it’s actually an old-fashioned teletype machine).

  166. 166.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 8, 2018 at 1:21 am

    @Procopius:

    so highly classified probably nobody except Trump and Jared could read it

    You did it, I saw it.

  167. 167.

    Shalimar

    March 8, 2018 at 1:30 am

    @Adam L Silverman: So you’re saying Kellyanne Conway hasn’t been able to kidnap and kill virgins since she got increased scrutiny from working in the White House? Theoretically, 450 year olds should show no signs of aging over a trivial period of a year or two.

  168. 168.

    Procopius

    March 8, 2018 at 2:39 am

    @mad citizen:

    … are there other criteria?

    No.

  169. 169.

    Magda in Black

    March 8, 2018 at 5:58 am

    @Jinchi:
    Leads us to wonder what tidbits of information Mr. No Security Clearance shared …

  170. 170.

    evodevo

    March 8, 2018 at 7:39 am

    @schrodingers_cat:In the case of he AND Ivanka, I suspect liberal applications of plastic surgery or botox, or both…

  171. 171.

    beef

    March 8, 2018 at 9:44 am

    @Procopius:

    I’ve heard about enough pedantic internet-lawyer explanations of the peculiar US legal meaning of ‘treason’. The word has a plain English meaning as well, and that’s what everyone means when they talk about Trump’s treason. We weren’t at war with Russia during the Cold War, but I don’t think you’ll find too many people who think the Rosenbergs weren’t guilty of treason.

  172. 172.

    arielibra

    March 8, 2018 at 9:49 am

    @Sm*t Cl*de:

    The giant cockroach later teamed up with the Golem, Dr Faustus and Doctor Dee, as Prague’s own crime-fighting team of superheroes.

    FIVE STARS WOULD READ.

  173. 173.

    Barney

    March 8, 2018 at 11:09 am

    Skripal is not, however, “a former top level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin” (he was jailed and swapped years ago), so Stedman has got that one wrong.

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