SCOOP: An officer with Russia's military intelligence agency made a crucial slip-up in tradecraft – one that revealed his secret identity as Guccifer 2.0. @kpoulsen & I report. https://t.co/unXztJlG2q
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) March 22, 2018
From Spencer Ackerman and Kevin Poulsen at The Daily Beast:
Guccifer 2.0, the “lone hacker” who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, was in fact an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU), The Daily Beast has learned. It’s an attribution that resulted from a fleeting but critical slip-up in GRU tradecraft.
That forensic determination has substantial implications for the criminal probe into potential collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia. The Daily Beast has learned that the special counsel in that investigation, Robert Mueller, has taken over the probe into Guccifer and brought the FBI agents who worked to track the persona onto his team.
Mueller’s office declined to comment for this story. But the attribution of Guccifer 2.0 as an officer of Russia’s largest foreign intelligence agency would cross the Kremlin threshold—and move the investigation closer to Trump himself.
Proving that link definitively was harder. Ehmke led an investigation at ThreatConnect that tried to track down Guccifer from the metadata in his emails. But the trail always ended at the same data center in France. Ehmke eventually uncovered that Guccifer was connecting through an anonymizing service called Elite VPN, a virtual private networking service that had an exit point in France but was headquartered in Russia.
But on one occasion, The Daily Beast has learned, Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company, according to a source familiar with the government’s Guccifer investigation. Twitter and WordPress were Guccifer 2.0’s favored outlets. Neither company would comment for this story, and Guccifer did not respond to a direct message on Twitter.Working off the IP address, U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters on Grizodubovoy Street in Moscow. (The Daily Beast’s sources did not disclose which particular officer worked as Guccifer.)
Security firms and declassified U.S. intelligence findings previously identified the GRU as the agency running “Fancy Bear,” the ten-year-old hacking organization behind the DNC email theft, as well as breaches at NATO, Obama’s White House, a French television station, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and countless NGOs, and militaries and civilian agencies in Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
Much, much more at the link. Including a recounting of how the GRU officer posing as Guccifer 2.0’s stolen data was used by Republican campaigns aside from the presidential election. Now that Special Counsel Mueller can tie Guccifer 2.0 directly to the GRU (Russian military intelligence), it means that the counterintelligence portion of his investigation will not be contained just to the presidential campaign. Any Republican campaign official and/or operation; any Republican candidate, whether they won their race or not; and any conservative group that got and/or used Guccifer 2.0’s stolen Democratic information are highly likely to also be in the Special Counsel’s crosshairs.
As is the case with all the breaking Cambridge Analytica news this week, Ackerman’s and Poulsen’s reporting provides significant new information about another major and significant bridging node in Russia’s active measures and cyberwarfare network. This provides those of us paying attention and following the news reporting on Putin’s Cold War against the US, as well as our allies and partners, important information of who was doing what, when, and on whose behalf. It also tells us that the counterintelligence component of the Special Council’s investigation is still cranking away on determining the full dimensions and parameters of Putin’s active measures and cyberwarfare campaign against the US.
Stay frosty!
Open thread.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
The Atlantic hired Kevin Williamson of “hang women who get abortions” fame.
And it seems Carson and Shulkin are next in the crosshairs.
PPCLI
And Roger Stone said he was in regular contact with Guccifer 2…
Adam L Silverman
@PPCLI: Yes, yes he did. That is also in the reporting.
Major Major Major Major
Oh boy.
sukabi
The real question is, is Guccifer 2.0 a 400 lb. man?
Princess
So an awful lot of Republicans will have an interest in ending Mueller’s job as special counsel.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Nope, according to Ackerman and Poulsen’s reporting, two different (sequentially – one replaced the other) senior GRU officers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
By now, we have to be asking who are the targets Mueller considers high value enough that he’s collecting his information with the aim of taking down. He doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to make a plea deal with Roger Stone.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck:
Nor should he be.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: sooo, it is possible that together they weigh 400 lbs.
Jeffro
How. Does. He. Decide. every morning, “who shall I flip TODAY? who shall spill their guts over this highly-convoluted, ridiculous, unnecessary, and totally unpatriotic scam, this last refuge of scoundrels who can’t win elections just on the merits?”
What is amazing is: this whole unbelievable fiasco is probably the result of less than 50 people total, worldwide. That’s including both Guccifer 2.0 officers AND Roger Stone there. That’s all it took to tip the balance, to throw the world’s greatest and oldest democracy into this shithole alternate reality.
50 people, tops. That’s just fucking nuts.
Jeffro
@Frankensteinbeck: @Adam L Silverman: I think Stone got slid into the file tabbed “clean up” a long time ago. No need to talk to him much, and certainly no need to offer a plea deal.
CaseyL
@Jeffro: They had an awful lot of useful idiots helping them, particularly the MSM.
tomtofa
@sukabi:
People keep mischaracterizing Trump on this. He said the hacker “could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds”. The bed, the bed – not the man. I can easily imagine a Russian security officer in his fancy dacha having a 400 pound bed – perk of the office.
Yutsano
@Princess: That’s the kicker: removing the Special Counsel won’t end the investigation. Mueller may or may not go, but the investigation itself still continues.
mad citizen
Our 241 year old nation continues to hang on a small group of people investigating a criminal conspiracy at the highest levels. Here’s hoping!
sdhays
@tomtofa: Sure, that’s what he meant.
Adam L Silverman
And just to be thorough, this one as well:
Ewwwwww!!!!!!!
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: Where do you come up with that number?
different-church-lady
We live in the fastest possible timeline.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Sure.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Yep. To be honest, he’s actually low hanging fruit.
sukabi
@tomtofa: 400 lb bed? It would have to be a VERY. WET. BED. to weigh that much.
mai naem mobile
Does this mean Roger Stone goes to a federal prison in the Deep South, with no a/c and crappy food, for a long long time? We deserve at least that much if Doit45 doesnt end up in SuperMax.
Omnes Omnibus
@sukabi: Exactly.
mad citizen
@Jeffro: I’m hoping Mueller has a spinning wheel with the criminals’ names on it to decide who to flip.
If at some point we had gone to popular vote for President, we wouldn’t be in this nightmare. Aside from everything else, I’d really like to hear gerrymandering and nixing the Electoral College as major issues in the next two campaigns.
Great Scoop!
Adam L Silverman
@mad citizen: And the vast swath of the citizenry that are not willing to put up with this. Get everyone you know to register to vote. And everyone they know. Then get them to vote. And everyone they know to do so as well. The midterm elections, from municipal and municipal special district offices to US Senator and every office in between are very, very important. That is one of the most important theaters, if not the most important theater, that this war will be fought on.
sukabi
@mai naem mobile: tropical “vacay” @ Gitmo would work for me
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@different-church-lady: At least it’s November 2nd, 2018.
Frankensteinbeck
@mad citizen:
Our nation depends on us voting. Mueller is only sweeping up some of the mess.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro:
Switzerland says hi.
tomtofa
@sukabi:
As I said, perk of the office ;-)
mai naem mobile
@Adam L Silverman: i think he said that to Stormy Daniels as well. BTW, I wonder if Melania gets to redo the prenuptial again. Does she have a lawyer on call with her standard prenup with a blank for the dollar amount so that he can change it with each bimbo eruption? Also too, if I was Melania I would hire the Avinetti guy for the divorce.
Adam L Silverman
This looks interesting!
different-church-lady
@mai naem mobile: The idea that Melania didn’t know any of this was going on is farcical.
Adam L Silverman
@mai naem mobile: I’m single with two lab mixes. I know nothing about prenups. Or marriage.
mai naem mobile
@sukabi: I forgot Gitmo. Dolt45 is an enemy combatant so it’s fitting.
Jeffro
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh please. There’s America and then there’s all those other sh… …just kidding.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Omnes Omnibus: Iceland says it was rude if you to so thoughtlessly snub her.
Jay
@Princess:
Actually, an awful lot of Republicans will be wearing orange coveralls,
The 2018 Polonium Epidemic in DC’s gonna be awesome.
jeffreyw
I like pie.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: I was just about to ask you if you knew anything about that. Is it the Guccifer 2.0 news, leaked early, or something else entirely?
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: Um, sophisticated wild-ass-guess? Take Trumpov’s campaign clowns (the top dozen or so), figure there were about as many low-level cut-outs like Stone and Papadopoulus and Page, add in another dozen Russians, stir in Assange and Prince, and top off with folks like Nunes = 50 max. It’ll be sad to see if/when it comes in lower than that, because it will.
Omnes Omnibus
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Iceland knows what it did.
different-church-lady
@Jay:
You shouldn’t joke about that.
.
[…but please continue anyway.]
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: He’s like an enemy pillbox overtaken by an armor offensive…just leave a couple grunts behind to watch the entrance, take him out later.
mad citizen
Thanks for the encouragement, I agree of course. Vote vote vote!!! I’m not making promises about registering people, but will try to report if I do. My wfie and me are planning on going to the local march for our lives event Saturday.
Jeffro
@mad citizen: The EC clearly needs to go…if it won’t stop the most obviously incompetent, corrupt, illegitimate president-elect in our lifetimes, then it serves no purpose (other than increasing the voting ‘weight’ of small rural states, and fuck them).
Frankensteinbeck
@different-church-lady:
Yes. I do think Melania is essentially a sex worker on a long term contract. Of course she knew ahead of time that Trump would sleep around as much as he could. She made her decisions accordingly. I feel bad for McDougal, who it sounds like was naive enough to think he actually thought of her as anything other than a prostitute herself. You don’t have to be in love for that to be a crushing betrayal. It turns everything you think you did it for, even if that’s just ‘We’re getting along well and having fun’ into a lie. I don’t blame her for falling for it, either. I doubt she had enough warning about him at the time to know just how vile he is. He’s way beyond ‘shallow and egotistical.’
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: My guess: related to “Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA)”
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I just saw it. If there’s live video feed of it, I’ll put up a thread for it tomorrow.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
I wonder whether, in a few centuries or millennia, the names “Trump,” “Flynn,” “Sessions,” “Kushner,” et al.* will be thought of in the same way we think of, for instance, Caligula, Nero, Borgia, and Machiavelli.
*Not intended to be a complete list, by a long shot.
sukabi
@Mary G: a surprise appearance by Mr. Mueller and his crew dragging a crate of indictments and accompanying bracelets would be too much to ask for I’m guessing.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: Does this mean my Belgian mail order bride won’t be arriving?//
More seriously: that would still be a good thing.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
O/T, did you see that the original Bozo the Clown died?
Villago Delenda Est
Stone needs to hang.
Mike in NC
Gonna love the smell of more indictments on Friday morning. Smells like one step closer to victory.
GregB
Oh boy.
This looks like the big enchilada.
Does anyone have that video of the Trump crew getting dragged off to a crooner’s song?
patroclus
Not to get off the subject, but I’m watching C-SPAN 2 and there’s a good chance that the government may shut down yet again tomorrow thanks to the ever-present Rand Paul’s shenanigans.
Fair Economist
I expect a certain GRU officer is going to take an accidental swan dive out of a 5th floor window or drop a bathtub on his head or some such in the near future.
hueyplong
When shit like Bolton as NSD happens, I have to go to a happier place. I imagine Roger Stone in a windowless room. Mueller enters. Stone says he’s ready to flip, asks what Mueller wants to know.
Mueller takes a quarter out of his pocket and says, “What’s the most you have ever lost on a coin toss?”
Radiumgirl
@Adam L Silverman: Wouldn’t that be the second liaison who claimed he compared her to Ivanka?
Adam L Silverman
@patroclus: Don’t rule out a best supporting actor appearance by Senator Cruz.
tracy ratclif
@GregB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Uy0Uznw4E Daredevil season 1 finale redone with “From Russia with Love”
Fair Economist
@SiubhanDuinne:
No. Those historical figures were all smart (even if the Roman emperors were loco).
Putin might be thought of like them. Trump will be thought of more like Caligula’s horse, perhaps viewed from the rear.
John Revolta
@SiubhanDuinne: I think about this too. I believe the name on top of the list will be “Murdoch”.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I’m at an age where “Belgian” means beer, not bride.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s quite possible that “Trump” will survive, in a reverse-Machiavelli kind of way. Like, “be evil…but do everything you can to step on your own wang, publicly and loudly”
The rest don’t even deserve footnotes. How could they? They cycle in, implode, and leave with crap all over them, never to be employed again.
Actually, THAT might last several centuries: “to be Trumped”, as in, “to be so utterly debased by willing service to the lowest form of humanity that one is actually *below* that person”
That’s a definition that might last a while…
Jeffro
@Radiumgirl: The second one who’s publicly confirmed it, yes.
tomtofa
I hope Mueller isn’t a drinker. If he is he’s in the corner of a bar somewhere right now, head bent, crying into his drink and muttering “There are just too many, I can’t put all this together. Isn’t there a single goddamned innocent person anywhere in this mix?”
MobiusKlein
Myself, I am literally sick from all the botnet / cyberwar / money laundering crap going on. (yes, ER visit from stress several months ago.)
And yes, so much of it seems to come from Russia and other malicious sources. When a million IP addresses get used in one time attacks, this is a situation that has gotten out of control. I’m seriously considering breaking into people’s houses and ‘fixing’ their routers on a mass scale. You phone infected with malware bot crap? Plasma torch to the rescue.
Mary G
@sukabi: I’ve been singing that “Wouldn’t it Be Nice” song in fear and hope all day.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m going to paint with a broad brush and posit that someone who makes porn her career probably has some major psychological issues that go back to her childhood, most of which probably involve family members with Cluster B personality disorders like narcissism, borderline personality, sociopathy, etc.
I doubt that Trump was her first relationship with a narcissist. For her, a guy like that would be familiar and hard to resist.
Mike J
Off topic:
SELECT Committees.NAME, new_table.CMTE_ID, new_table.NAME, new_table.CITY, new_table.STATE, new_table.TRANSACTION_AMT, new_table.MEMO_TEXT
from new_table
inner join Committees on new_table.CMTE_ID = Committees.committee_id
where new_table.NAME='CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA';
‘NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY’, ‘C00038505’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘WILMINGTON’, ‘DE’, ‘65000.00’, ‘MICROTARGETING CONSULTING FEES’
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘57275.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘114550.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘30000.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘113674.50’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘57275.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘196000.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘98000.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘98000.00’, ”
‘KEEP THE PROMISE II’, ‘C00575431’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘500000.00’, ”
‘KEEP THE PROMISE II’, ‘C00575431’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘70000.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘6500.00’, ”
‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘40000.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘231352.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘301763.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘110000.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘6000.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘301763.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘1870.00’, ”
‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘-110000.00’, ‘SEE SCH. E LINE 24; ORIGINALLY REPORTED ON SCH B LINE 21B M9’
‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘100000.00’, ”
‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘90000.00’, ”
‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘30000.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘52495.16’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘141417.84’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘556459.57’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘71809.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘100000.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘114708.47’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘300000.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘500000.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘978655.24’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘990818.24’, ”
‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘163065.09’, ”
‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘55000.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘8400.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘358009.87’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘250449.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘389652.22’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘243047.45’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘122610.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘62925.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘87185.00’, ”
‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘476910.17’, ”
‘FRIENDS OF ROY BLUNT’, ‘C00304758’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘12000.00’, ”
‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘710.50’, ”
‘WALTERS FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00546853’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘20000.00’, ”
GregB
@SiubhanDuinne:
When I saw that name trending on Twitter I assumed Trump had a new NSA pick.
Jay
@Jeffro:
It’s way more than 50,
And then there’s all the Ususal Suspects who’s inaction, slurs and bloviating, means spending the rest of their lives having the FBI and IC pour through everything, looking for even the tiniest impropriety.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: The Borgias and good old Nicolo get a lot of undeserved bad press.
@SiubhanDuinne: I would be sad because a part of my childhood is gone, but he was a FUCKING CLOWN, FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!!!!
Adam L Silverman
@hueyplong: Bolton will self destruct. He’s an unguided, self directing weapon of mass destruction. He will cause so much chaos and confusion that he will actually wind up defeating himself. What pissed the President off about LTG McMaster is that he actually did the job the right way and took his duties and responsibilities seriously. Bolton couldn’t care less about the Interagency and Interagency process. If Secretary Mattis and Gen (ret) Kelly couldn’t get along with LTG McMaster, which, I think, was partially because they’re 4 stars and he’s only a 3 star, yet he was the nat-sec and foreign policy gatekeeper, they’re definitely not going to get along with Bolton. He will so degrade and destroy the process that the President won’t be able to achieve anything in terms of national security and foreign policy. Remember, the US economy is about to be overrun by the Chinese in the coming trade war. Do you really think Bolton has any idea how to manage the Interagency process to minimize the damage to the US economy? Not a chance.
This is definitely a sub-optimal choice, but mark my words, it’s not sub-optimal just because Bolton is an always wrong, belligerent, double A type authoritarian (kiss up, kick down). Rather it is sub-optimal because Bolton is going to self destruct, because that’s who and what Bolton is.
Gretchen
@hueyplong: we need a like button.
Mike in DC
At some point Mueller will indict the Russian hackers, and Putin himself may be an unindicted co-conspirator (though indicting him would be a blast just to watch the ensuing shitstorm). That will create the predicate for any future conspiracy and obstruction charges.
Of the “big fish” list, two are already caught, with one cooperating. The remainder:
Sessions
Don Jr
Kushner
Eric
Ivanka
Pence
45
The very first member of Team Trump to be indicted for conspiracy is likely to set off a political firestorm the likes of which we have never seen before.
different-church-lady
@Mike J:
I think all the topics are starting to collapse into a singularity.
Adam L Silverman
@Radiumgirl: I’m trying not to think about it and therefore not count the occurrences.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Couldn’t care less.
/pedant
Gin & Tonic
@Mike J: Izzat for reals?
Mike J
@different-church-lady: John Bolton Super PAC kind of jumped out at me.
sukabi
@Mike J: are those $$ amounts? And if so are they from those mentioned to Cambridge?
Where was that info pulled from?
NotMax
We’re gonna need a bigger paddy wagon.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Y u hate the Alþingi?
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic: I only downloaded the 2015-16 expenditures. But yeah, all I did was put the 2015-16 expenditure files from the FEC into mysql.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Huh?
Gretchen
@Adam L Silverman: So can we hope he will self-destruct before he causes irreversible damage? That’s the most cheerful take I’ve heard all day.
Jeffro
@GregB: What the DAREDEVIL mash-up?
ETA ah I see Tracy Ratcliff beat me to it…
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman:
Yes, but how much of the planet will he take with him?
B.B.A.
@Mike in DC: How does indicting a foreign head of state even work? Setting aside that we have no extradition treaty with Russia.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
As does Iceland.
Mike J
@sukabi: Those are dollars, info is from the FEC. I encourage others to go to their website and double check it for me.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: It says John Bolton’s SuperPAC paid Cambridge Analytica 3/4 of a million bucks in 2015-16.
Fair Economist
@Mike J: And now we know CambAnal was intimately connected to Russian intelligence.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Also: fuck the Borgias. Their name should be dirt for ruining the university at Urbino.
Vhh
@different-church-lady: She may have been relieved that Donald was getting relief elsewhere. One (kid) and done.
Mike J
@Fair Economist:
And Trump’s national security advisor paid them $750,000.
Jeffro
Strange that I know in my bones that this is coming to an end soon…because Fox News dot com is running with the McDougal affair story and not even trying to slant it.
I think they’re done with him. We just have to make sure that they don’t try to “look forward, not back” – the whole ticket is corrupt and is the result of an attack by a hostile foreign power x criminal conspiracy. New election or declare the Democrat the winner, SCOTUS.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I’m waiting for GG and Julian to weigh in before I rush to judgment.//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been wondering if there was an addendum to get her to agree to stay till he’s out of the White House, an extra 50 grand a month, 10,000 for events like yesterday’s event on “anti-bullying”
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Aha.
Steeplejack
@jeffreyw:
Did you accidentally (reverse-)pie yourself?
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, and it also says Rafael (Ted) Cruz paid CambAnal nearly 6 million clams in that reporting period.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano:
it was a cow college.
Fair Economist
I just looked at my pie list and – it works. Not many names, but they are all essentially gone and some used to be frequent. Use the power of pie!
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Heck of a football team though.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for catching that. I’m fighting a late winter/early spring head cold and am sort of out of it right now.
mike in dc
@B.B.A.: Well, in theory we could bring a case to the ICC, depending upon whether the charge was one recognized under the laws recognized by the ICC.
Villago Delenda Est
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Both of them need to hang, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@mike in dc: When did we sign on with the ICC?
Ohio Mom
@Jeffro: That’s what Margaret Mead said, it only takes a small group of committed people to change the world.
Though I think she meant that in the sense of improving things.
sukabi
@Jeffro: Tucker Carlson apparently unloaded on trump for choosing Bolton today…saw a headline, didn’t read it because -> Tucker Carlson.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: “Could care less” vs. “Couldn’t care less” has been an issue for some time. Some of us could, and actually do, care about it. Most people couldn’t care less.
GregB
Dowd is now telling press Trump told him to make his fire Mueller announcement.
McMasters is free to talk. Rex is free to talk.
Avenatti us teasing with a photo of a DVD about what it contains.
Tomorrow the stock market craters again.
The Trump Train has begun exiting the rails.
Mary G
For MomSense and Mnem as well as other knitters among us:
sukabi
@Mary G: nice????
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: I posted the link here the other night.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
One wonders is Mrs Greenspan is there as a journalist or a (paying?) guest. I think we know. She used to troll the Iran deal like it was personal to her that it go down. (and whenever somebody makes a “but her emails…” joke, I hear it in her voice)
NotMax
@mike in dc
U.S. has never ratified the Rome Statute and has informed the ICC it has no intention to be a member nor to abide by nor be held to any obligations by dint of signing.
BTW, just this week the U.N. informed the Philippines that they cannot immediately leave the ICC as Duterte wants but must wait for one year after giving notice to do so.
Adam L Silverman
@Gretchen: I have no idea on the timeline, but he will be self defeating and self destructive.
GregB
World markets are a bloodbath right now.
Heckuva job Donnie!
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: And given the amount of money the Mercer’s gave to Bolton’s Super PAC, and that Mercer is one of the owners of Cambridge Analytica, he was basically laundering his own money through Bolton’s Super PAC to his own business.
Omnes Omnibus
@GregB: It’s McMaster, damn it.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: didn’t catch the link the other night…and there wasn’t any indication in Mike’s comment where it came from. ?
Mike J
@sukabi: I didn’t see Adam’s post. I was just playing with the dataset and it was just kind of a random query I ran.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Which he also got from Mercer. Everyone Mercer backs is required to hire Mercer’s people as minders (Conway, Bannon, Bossie, and daughter Rebekah Mercer) and use his pet data shop Cambridge Analytica. Here’s a real question: how much did Mercer make off of all of this? He donates to the candidate and/or PAC. Then he requires them to hire his company to work for them. Mercer was using these campaigns and PACs as laundries.
Omnes Omnibus
@sukabi: Hence my “huh?” earlier in the thread.
? Martin
@Mike J:
I’ll be visiting her office on Saturday (assuming this fever breaks in time). CA-45 is being viewed as something of a national bellwether. First, consider that for a moment – a district deep in the middle of primarily white, affluent Orange County is being seen as a tossup.
Perhaps I’ll make a nice sign with the above information.
patroclus
Actually, it’s Senator Risch from Idaho that’s holding up the vote right now because the bill designates a wilderness area to be named after former Governor Cecil Andrus. Rand Paul is in his office trying to read the bill right now – he’s gotten up to page 600 so far.
Dow Futures down 161 while the Asian markets plummet. “Normally,” one would expect a bounceback after such a down day. It looks like the rout is continuing instead. tech and Boeing just tanking…
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I’m actually not feeling well and didn’t bother to proof the comment.
randy khan
@Jeffro:
Well, plus all of the campaign operatives in lower-level campaigns and whoever knew about the contributions from the Russians at the NRA.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
when do we move on to Pruitt and Zinke ?
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: @Mike J: I put it in a comment or two. No worries.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
Thiel’s PAC paid too, and he still sits on the FB Board.
? Martin
@Adam L Silverman:
Problem is that Trump is much more of all of that, and here we are still stuck with him. I take your point that he serves at the pleasure of the President, where Trump can’t be summarily dismissed, but Bolton is a boot licker. He’s smart enough to know what to do to keep his job, so he’ll do his work by getting Trump on board and then being the worlds best defender of those stupid ideas.
randy khan
@Gin & Tonic:
Isn’t money from Bolton’s superPAC to CA just money out of one Mercer pocket into another?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patroclus:
Well, Senator Risch sounds like a very stable genius. ETA: I think he’s in line to take over as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee when Corker’s gone, unless we take the Senate
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: You didn’t give a link or offer context. I had no clue wtf your comment was about.
Elizabelle
A headline on the WaPost at the moment: Tillerson bids farewell to a ‘mean-spirited town’
And, sadly, the teenaged girl shot by the Maryland high school student is brain dead; will be removed from life support soon. Two dead, and thank dog the shooter only had a handgun. Her name is/was Jaelynn Willey, forever 16. The shooter was Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17.
Fellow student Desmond Barnes, 14, is home after surgery on his thigh.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Just making sure you have this in your files:
? Martin
@randy khan: From one tax free pocket to another.
patroclus
McConnell’s invoking cloture and no one objected (Corker almost did but didn’t). It looks like Rand Paul played chicken for awhile and then folded because all post-cloture time is waived in the motion and they’ll move right to a vote right after this passes. So no shutdown (apparently).
Fair Economist
@randy khan:
It’s money laundering. The Mercers could use this sequence to buy things they couldn’t buy directly – like Russian operative work. Putting money into an owned company directly looks odd, and there may be ownership details that interfere.
MoCA Ace
@GregB:
Begun? It feels like the train is in a twisted burning heap at the bottom of the gorge! But yet it always seems there is room for it to get worse!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
say, what? that doesn’t sound like the Rand Paul I know!
NotMax
@Martin
Think Adam is implying that Bolton is a dime store Rasputin.
Mary G
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I did a post on this last night.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: What have you done for us lately?
Jay
@? Martin:
Nobody’s gonna follow Bolton anywhere, not South Korea, not Britain, not Canada, not Australia, not France or Germany, not Georgia, not even the members of Bush’s Coelition of the Willing.
He’s Internationally Recognized as a bugnutz crazy nutjob.
With Bolton in as NSC, Treason Tribble’s Administration probably couldn’t even get transit agreements from former allies.
Mary G
@Mary G: I’m sorry, I thought I had read all the threads. I need a brain transplant.
patroclus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Corker said that everyone’s got flights tomorrow morning to go home – Rand Paul probably does too. It’s not completely over though, so I’m still watching. Late night entertainment!
Cloture passes.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Perhaps he’s quietly laboring in the background on a Passover recipes post.
Stranger things have happened.
;)
Jay
@Fair Economist:
It’s also “pooling” and “grifting” other donors money.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Beyond that. He is a horrible supervisor and manager. The non agency detailees on the National Security Staff, as in the people that McMaster hired directly and work for the Executive Office of the President, will begin to leave quickly. The actual detailees from the various agencies to the National Security Staff will ask for their assignments to be ended early and there won’t be volunteers to replace them. So the National Security Staff will atrophy, which will negatively impact the ability of the President’s national security and foreign policy initiatives. Ans since Bolton thinks everyone else is stupid and wrong, he will ignore, if not actively piss off, Secretary Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Joint Chiefs themselves, all of their deputies, the Secretary of State, etc. It is very difficult to conduct national security and foreign policy without a functioning process, which is why the process we have now was created.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: This post and a number of comments containing typos.
Steve in the ATL
@Jay:
I hope not—we’ve got enough problems as it is with Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina as border states!
Adam L Silverman
Very stable genius!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
IIRC (and may be off base about this), Treasury and State are also a part of the NSC. Can’t see either Mnuchin or Pompeo (for different reasons) at anything but constant loggerheads with Bolton.
MoCA Ace
@Adam L Silverman:
An atrophied NSC and a gutted State Department. What could go wrong?
Edit: Don’t answer that
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
“Yes, sir. In fact, there are 4 of them in the room with us right now!”
MomSense
@Mary G:
I saw that!! As soon as I get home I’m going to start production. Bluegal is amazing.
I went on a gorgeous walk through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and saw so many beautiful creatures. After dinner I crashed for four hours and then woke up to all of this wild news. The scope of this is overwhelming. If it is mind blowing for those of us who have been following it obsessively, how are the people who’ve been stuck in the ? hole going to take it when all is revealed?
This is going to be a wild ride for our country.
? Martin
California is out here trying to save y’all.
San Francisco and Oakland (joined by some other cities including Richmond) are suing the oil companies over climate change. That’s notable when Chevron’s headquarters is just outside of Oakland and Richmond is home to major refineries.
The oil companies are now in the ‘climate change is real’ phase and relying on the ‘we didn’t know’ defense. That doesn’t bode well for them, but it also means that the only people that reject climate change are the policy makers. The suit is an alternate path to the right outcome. The courts could rule that these companies have a financial responsibility to the result, even if there was no regulatory policy that they needed to adhere to. That would put the oil companies in support of regulation since it’d ensure they’re all on the same economic playing field if they have exposure to liability. That’s why companies like Toyota and Honda backed California emissions standards – it was a market opportunity for them with the Prius and Honda’s ZEVs that they knew their competitors would struggle to meet.
Barbara
@GregB: My husband is positive that Trump told Dowd to say that and then got mad at him when it generated blowback from more than the usual suspects. Still, it’s kind of not cool for Dowd to say that as Trump’s personal attorney.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Correct. I just didn’t feel like listing every department, office, and bureau within the NSC/Interagency.
Adam L Silverman
@MoCA Ace: I have no idea…//
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic:
Next up: “flammable” versus “inflammable”
Washburn
The RWNJ blogs are already spinning this as, “So what, no evidence that Trump [himself] colluded.”
? Martin
Interesting turn tonight. The Sacramento Kings cancelled their game tonight when protestors shut down the stadium entrances over the police shooting there. Police violence is not something California has made progress on, and this is quite an effective and quickly organized response.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: There was a comedian, I cannot recall which one, who used to do a joke like that about the stealth bomber. That we should have just held a press conference in front of nothing with a set of rolling stairs and some pilots and air crew standing around and announce our new completely invisible stealth bomber. And that it only cost $4 to build, so we built a million of them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: I heard a lawyer on MSNBC today (i was in the car so I don’t know who it was) say that Dowd could be in trouble with the bar for his flippity-floppity on saying he was speaking for trump, his client, when he called for Meuller to be shut down. Also, that problematic (obstucion-y) tweet he claimed authorship for a couple months back. I’ll defer to his fellow members on that.
(wordpress spell check accepts floppily, but not flippity)
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Enflamable or don’t bother lighting it on fire!//
GregB
Get your Trump Treason Bingo cards ready for the 10:00 am presser by Rosenstein.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Wonder Woman did it first.
:)
/gratuitous comic book reference
MomSense
Hold up, didn’t Guccifer 2.0 at some point mention that He hacked the DNC through NGP VAN like Josh Uretsky and say something cryptic about “as it was agreed”.
Anyone else remember this?
Jager
I bought some incredible Ventura County grown strawberries today at a farm stand. After the Guccifer 2.0 news they are going to taste even better!
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
I still can’t quite tell from the news reports if the guy who was shot was actually the guy who was seen breaking into cars, or if he was just some poor bastard standing in his backyard at the wrong time.
Even if it was the former, it freaks me out that street theft has gone back to being a capital crime. I thought we left that behind a hundred years ago.
MoCA Ace
@Steve in the ATL:
“Thaw” versus “Unthaw”
patroclus
And the budget passes. It’s 6 months late and only lasts until 9/30 and the Budget Act requires that next year’s budget be passed in just a few weeks (which won’t happen). But we’re finally back to regular order. The bill itself at least funds the government and includes a bunch of good things and not a lot of bad stuff, which speaks well for the Dem negotiators (Patty Murray). But no DACA fix (we’re relying on the courts for that). And no wall! And no fiscal discipline. I would have voted for it, but hopefully, when they miss the deadlines for next year, we’ll have a new Dem Congress next year and a better overall bill.
Yutsano
@patroclus: The IRS FINALLY got a small budget increase. It will be good to maybe stop the massive attrition that’s happened.
El Caganer
@Adam L Silverman: It’s invisible ’cause it uses….The Cyber!
NotMax
@Yutsano
New dining room tables for all senior executives!
:)
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Trump thinks that stealth technology makes a plane invisible to the naked eye? I think Q once showed James Bond an invisible Aston Martin, but to my knowledge you Americans don’t have that technology.
Yutsano
@NotMax: Oh Gawd. If the stupid idiot Dolt45 wants for the new commissioner gets in that’s a guarantee. A fucking Beverly Hills tax lawyer? Seriously?
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: They haven’t named him as a suspect. My guess is that they were going from a description and this guy fit it and hopping his back fence was enough to convince them he was a criminal, and owning a cell phone was enough to convince them he needed to die.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
It was a guy just standing in his Grandmother’s back yard,
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
No Trump, that would not be correct: here’s a picture of two of them.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Elon Musk is working on it.
:)
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: He’s like very smart.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@? Martin: I said after the inauguration that rather than shutting down freeways, protesters should have shutdown Trump’s golf course in P.V.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: You need to understand that pretty much everyone in this administration was home schooled by Betsy Devos.
Citizen Alan
@Adam L Silverman:
I keep saying this. The pee tape is a misdirection. What they have is a tape of Shitgibbon having sex with a blond underage Russian prostitute who he loudly refers to as Ivanka.
NotMax
In reference to some of the above, Wikipedia page on flying wings is a pretty good primer. Caveat clicktor: Many rabbit holes to proceed down there.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: @Adam L Silverman: Didn’t we almost go to war with the Klingons over this?
NotMax
@Adam L.Silverman
As have said before, the Dimluminati.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Fair Economist:
I think Putin will be remembered as a selfish, evil man who put his own power and wealth over the interests of his own country as well as those of the rest of humanity.
He probably doesn’t think on the scale I do and would probably laugh at me and call me a fool for thinking so. But make no mistake, he will not be remembered fondly.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: It was the Lucas lights that caused the issue. Look up: Lucas. Prince of Darkness.
Citizen Alan
@SiubhanDuinne:
None of those fuckwits is a Machiavelli. I doubt any of them are even smart enough to be a Borgia.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
Yes, but not yet; wait a few more centuries.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Romulans. Treaty of Algeron.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Romulans.
/way too pedantic
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I was thinking of opening a Chinese restaurant and calling it Dimsuminati.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
@Jay:
Thanks. The trolls on Facebook keep claiming he was the robbery suspect the cops were looking for, but the footage didn’t seem to back that up.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: Very smart in the Homer Simpson SMRT sense.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Why is your FB open to trolls?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: He wasn’t.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: …
Dammit. Now I want dim sum!
MisterForkbeard
@GregB:
Begun? It fell off the rails a year ago. It’s been sliding and crashing into buildings and trees for months now, destroying infrastructure, jobs, and lives. But now it’s screeching towards a giant garbage fire, so we’ll see how that goes.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
You should ask the trolls why they’re trying so hard to argue the guy was the one breaking into cars when the footage doesn’t show that.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have cops in my family, and they know some trolls.
@Adam L Silverman:
CNN still has the story as claiming the man who was shot was also the guy who was robbing cars.
Right now, it sounds like the cops lost track of the guy they were chasing and shot a different guy in his backyard, but of course the PD is going to obfuscate to make people think they didn’t fuck up royally.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
They still give cops the benefit of the doubt in all situations. Because they’re morons.
NotMax
@Adam L.Silverman
The day the pandaren expansion went live on World of Warcraft had previously planned to name my first pandaren Dimsum. Name was was already taken within the few minutes it took to create a character.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
“Objectivity.”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
Have tried asking them if they think cops are capable of making mistakes/being corrupt? They’re as human as you and me and just as fallible.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Sorry…
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: They fucked up royally:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cops-killed-unarmed-stephon-clark-then-cut-their-audio-thats-unusual-expert-says/?via=twitter_page
More at the link.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I have a friend who’s son is a cop, the police are always right.
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
We have always been at war with the Klingons.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
But that’s crazy. They can’t literally believe that. You must mean they make justifications and excuses for the police, right?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Nope. They think the police are always right.
Ruckus
@Fair Economist:
Perhaps?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
There’s a fanfic somewhere in that, with Oceania as a Federation stand-in. Too bad they were progressively getting less advanced as time went on, not to mention drastically wasting tons of non-renewable resources.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
What if the police wronged them or someone else they knew?
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
No, they literally believe that. They genuinely believe that the police can do no wrong, and if they seem to have done something wrong, there’s a good explanation that exonerates them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Won’t ever happen, that’s what they think.
@Mnemosyne: Yup.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: Looks like one more wave of rain tonight and then no more until November.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And if and when it does?
Emerald
@Citizen Alan: That indeed would be funsies, but I doubt what they have on him has anything to do with sexual misbehavior. He’s proud of that stuff.
No. They’ve got him with money. Putin and his oligarchs have been basically financing his whole operation for years.
That’s why he defers to Putin as though he were in hock to his bookie. It’s why he’s so scared of him.
My $.02
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Maybe they were just trying to get out of jury service, but I heard someone say that during jury selection in a case involving police officers.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Then it’s like a Catholic whose kid got molested by a priest. Some of them get pissed off and drop their “religion” saying that all cops are good. Others will say that the one bad cop just proves that all of the other cops are still good.
If you think of it as a religious belief that’s not based in actual facts, it makes more sense, or at least as much sense as any other infalliable religious belief.
Ruckus
@MoCA Ace:
The drumpf train has left the rails and is hanging in the air like a road runner cartoon. It hasn’t realized that gravity and reality may take a bit of time to catch up, but they always do. That’s when you see that puff of dust as it lands miles down at the bottom. Don’t forget that surprised look as the realization that gross stupidity and arrogance don’t actually work as well as was imagined.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
One of my co-workers lives up in the Burbank hills. They were waiting to see if the burn areas were going to start to slide.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
I saw that smirk and heard the giggle as you typed that.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
That makes sense, unfortunately.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Obligatory
:)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Ruckus:
The Trump Train: a well-oiled machine!
Lurkerish
@Mike J: Holy shit.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
xactly.
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Close enough.
J R in WV
@Mike J:
Wow, that was a lot of work, creating that script. And it won’t work, you left off the semi-colon on the end!!
Dog Mom
@MomSense: Please add an edging of Im-Peach! I think it would really be the finishing touch.
Annie
@Adam L Silverman:
From your keyboard to the FSM’s ear. And soon please.
Annie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This assumes that Dolt45 has the money to pay her. I think that among the many things he wants to hide is the fact that he’s nowhere near as wealthy as he pretends.
No One You Know
@Mike J: OMG, this made me smile, against my will. I needed that. SQL was a while ago…