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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Russiagate Open Thread: Paul Manafort, Short-Time Coffee Boy

Russiagate Open Thread: Paul Manafort, Short-Time Coffee Boy

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The Oval Office Occupant is incapable of not drawing attention to himself, even when doing so is obviously gonna make a bad situation worse. He’s like a toddler who bursts unexpected into the grownups’ cocktail party, face covered in crumbs, screaming I DIDN’T DO IT I DIDN’T DO IT THAT BAD MAN MUELLER AND THE FBI ATE THE COOKIES! (Also, he’s soiled his big-boy pants, and from the acrid smoke now billowing out of the kitchen, managed to set something on fire.)


Tom Barrack, actual billionaire, former chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee, and one of the few if not the only person who’s called Trump “a friend”. What’s that poem about the snake, again?

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  2. 2.

    Frank Wilhoit

    “…we should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn’t have been hired!”

    …yeah, he would.

  4. 4.

    Jerzy Russian

    I am glad no one paid for Shut The Fuck Up lessons for him, or if anyone did, they did not do him any good.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    “I see here you’ve been involved in three suspicious deaths, tax irregularities, and – are those fresh needle tracks between your fingers? Hm? You say you’ll work for nothing? Welcome aboard!”

  6. 6.

    RSA

    …and he wouldn’t have been hired!

    Mistakes were not made! It was a conspiracy!

    (The passive voice is so beloved.)

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    It infuriated me for years that the other Republican pols could pretend to be grownup and pretended to be statesmen and women; but Trump is about as convincing as a child in a white shirt and a plastic stethoscope on Halloween.

    On the other hand, he’s trying to destroy us as a nation, and so there is a downside to the screaming obvious.

  9. 9.

    smintheus

    Trump was told the Russians were trying to infiltrate his campaign; Manafort was Exhibit A.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    yes, I’m posting a Bill Kristol tweet. Don’t at me

    Bill Kristol Retweeted Donald J. Trump
    Have Trump’s lawyers been told that Manafort is flipping?
    and/or:
    Is Trump getting ready to pardon Jared and Don Jr., and intends to blame Manafort for ensnaring them?

    I’m going with B. I’ve pretty much come to believe that Manafort fears for his or his daughters’ lives if he flips. And not because of trump

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    Is law enforcement required to tell the target that he or she is being investigated? Trump’s sense of entitlement is bewildering.

  14. 14.

    Patricia Kayden

    @WereBear:

    he’s trying to destroy us as a nation

    Is he? Or is he just trying to grift as much $$$ as possible for as long as he and his cronies are in the White House? He’s certainly working hard to turn us into a fascist state where his dictates and whims prevail and he’s above the law.

  15. 15.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    The most maddening thing about this whole shit show is that his fans still won’t believe any of this. Manafort came on board in March? Who cares? Tapeworm says he came on late, and that’s good enough for them. The F.B.I. warned him about Russians milling around, trying to weasel their way into the campaign in early 2016? Who cares? Tapeworm says nobody warned him, and they’ll eat that shit up. I find it hard to believe, but yet I know that there is nothing this guy could do to shake his 27%. He could skull fuck a kitten on live television and they’d stick with him. Shit. He could skull fuck a baby on live television, and all we’d hear about is that they didn’t vote for him to be a role model or some shit like that. He’s at 40% or something now. That’s only going to drop. But it’s only going to go down so far. Those 27% will stick with him all the way down that long ride on the bomb to the ground.

  16. 16.

    dexwood

    Trump, his family, and the people they trusted, hired people who would do the questionable tasks they wanted them to do. A crime family.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    @Jay: You are wrong, because tomorrow he’ll say that Mike Pence said I should hire the covfefe boy. It was a mistake to trust Mike.

  18. 18.

    sukabi

    @Patricia Kayden: it’s not that he thinks he should be told. It’s that he thinks HE’S off limits to any investigation. Being installed in the WH has just reinforced this belief.

    He’s managed to bully and blackmail his way out of any consequences up til now.

  20. 20.

    TS (the original)

    He is the president* The media treats this sh!t like it is normal for a US president to behave in this fashion.

  21. 21.

    Another Scott

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Yup.

    But as you say, they’re not a majority. They only win when sensible people don’t show up.

    Someone (attributed to Woody Allen) said something like – “80% of life is showing up.” When Democrats vote, Democrats win. We can’t worry about the MAGAts. We have to turn out Democrats and Democrat-leaners.

    156 days to go…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  22. 22.

    TS (the original)

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Is he? Or is he just trying to grift as much $$$ as possible for as long as he and his cronies are in the White House?

    He’s trying to make the US in his image. He wants his grifting and lying to be the norm for the US government and US business.

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’m going to suggest that attempting to throw Manafort under the bus may not be the smartest strategy Trump could have come up with.

  26. 26.

    Hungry Joe

    Oh, where were you on the night of June the third?
    Who were you with on the night of June the third?
    Were you with a stranger?
    Did you take a walk?
    Was your heart in danger?
    Come on, woman — talk, talk!”

    — Fats Waller

  27. 27.

    Schlemazel

    @WereBear:
    “trying” is the wrong word in that sentence. He IS destroying us as a nation. Internationally we are badly damaged in ways that will injure any future POTUS. Domestically he is destroying the one entity that stands between the people & the unfettered power of the oligarchs. He has given free rein to the worst elements, people who do not want a United States. That is a genie that will not go back into the bottle quietly.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    @sukabi: I just read Huff Post and Giuliani and Trump believe that. Paul Ryan will say that is not helpful, and move along to cut medicare and social security.

  31. 31.

    Schlemazel

    @TS (the original):
    see the tweet string in the previous post. It is not that he is trying to make lying cons the norm it is that he believes that is the ONLY thing that is

  32. 32.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: from twitter
    specifically, from whom? in any case I find it completely credible

    Watching Kasie Hunt’s Sunday show for the first time while waiting for food to be ready… my god she’s awful. trump has won the no collusion fight. A few minutes ago she had Steve Schmidt on and they agreed Democrats are failing to get their message out. There were, as noted in these threads many times already, no elected Dems on the big Sunday shows today. Kasie had Terry MacAuliffe on earlier, and from what little I saw, they mostly talked about Bill Clinton and Little Willie.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It’s gotten to the point where all of these people need to be locked up forever because they’re a danger to the country, or dealt with in some other manner (cough, Mussolini or Ceausescu, cough).

  40. 40.

    gene108

    @Schlemazel:

    Trump is just accelerating whatever decline in standing Republicans have created. We cannot ratify any treaty, because Republicans in the Senate refuse to want to do this. They are, as a party, opposed to international treaties. They as a party hate the U.N. John Bolton’s animosity to the U.N. is just an extension of the strain of Republican thought from luminaries like Jesse Helms, who actually blocked U.S. funding to the U.N., in the late 1990’s, when Republicans retook the Senate and he became a committee chair.

    Getting a Republican in the White House just lets the bad ideas of Republicans out. Trump is just a matter of degree.

    Basically, as long as Republicans refuse to change, and Republican voters want more and more right-wing candidates, we are going to be doomed anytime a Republican becomes President.

    And the rest of the world now knows that Bush, Jr was not a one of a kind bad hire.

  41. 41.

    Platonailedit

    The traitorous thug loves media attention (which the minions do everyday) but hates media scrutiny (which they rarely do). If only Mueller can secure some jail time (looking at you, judges), instead of just indictments, for some of his top campaign cabal of traitors, just to a start new narrative.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Schlemazel: He’s incapable of understanding mutual benefit from an agreement. He knows only zero sum.

    He is a monster.

  48. 48.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Dems are not to blame but they should continue to hammer Republicans running for office by using Mueller’s indictments in their ads. Keep the issue at the forefront of competitive races. Smear the entire GOP with Trump’s sleaze.

  49. 49.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: They are the original purity ponies, everything they don’t like is neo-liberal. Guardian and Hindu (India’s version of the Guardian) have been beating that word to death since Bill Clinton was in the WH. They loved themselves some BS during the primaries. So I am not surprised that they don’t like Ds much.

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: I definitely believe Rudi said it, there were lots of rumors back in the transition that Rudi wanted State, and it’s at least 50/50 that trump offered him AG, or at least dangled it as dignity-bait

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Patricia Kayden: I think there are only a few swing districts where that would be effective. And it would depend in the Republican in the district.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t mind people who don’t like neoliberals. The problem is the inaccurate use of that term.

  52. 52.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Baud: They probably think it’s a step towards hastening the arrival of a True Left party. All the biggest, loudest wannabe-leftist dumbasses think that, including Jane Sanders and, frankly, Bernie Sanders.

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: I think it’s the VSP disease. Katty Kay of the BBC seems very accepting of the “conventional wisdom” about US politics as well, in the reporting of her’s that I’ve seen. Foreign reporters and foreign news organizations want to be accepted by the political establishment in the USA, so they have a default slant that accepts the Republican framing because that’s what most of their US counterparts have.

    “Ah, but TheGuardian is lefty! That can’t be it!” I hear you protest.

    I would argue that it’s the just the other side of the same coin. Democrats should be able to win easily in the USA, their thinking is, and the fact that they can’t – and can’t push sufficiently lefty policies when they do manage to win – means that they’re Corrupt™ and/or In the Pocket of Wall Street™ and/or unworthy of governing.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Villago Delenda Est: I don’t even think he understands zero sum. He may not even have sufficient memory. I imagine him, in the spirit of the Tom Hanks SNL “Mr. Short-Term Memory” sketch from the 1980s, paying money for something, getting that thing, completely forgetting cause and effect, and then either cackling about how he now has a new thing, or blowing up with rage about how the money isn’t in his wallet anymore. This is also why he constantly has to talk to his “friends” to assess for him whether he did a good thing or a bad thing.

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Indeed, lefty newspapers and purity politicians like BS label anything they dislike neoliberal. Milton Friedman and his acolytes at the Chicago school, they are neoliberal not the Democrats.

  57. 57.

    FlipYrWhig

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s particularly stupid for a British newspaper, considering that left-of-left-of-center politics has been getting shellacked for the better part of a decade throughout the developed world and the winners have been people they love to hate like Trudeau, Macron, and Obama.

  59. 59.

    Raoul

    why wouldn’t the FBI or Department of “Justice” have told me that they were secretly investigating Paul Manafort

    Because then it wouldn’t have been much of a secret, you fucking shitgibbon of narcissistic need.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @Jerzy Russian:
    Have a hunch Fred Sr. made Fred Jr. the chosen one not because he was firstborn but he realized little Donny was an arrogant, proudly ignorant little prick. Maybe if Fred Jr. didn’t have a substance abuse problem Donny wouldn’t be our problem.

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    BuzzFeed News‏Verified account @BuzzFeedNews

    Trump’s power doesn’t come from fear. It comes from fatigue: wearing his enemies down with the same talking points over and over again, writes @jprollert

    One of the replies:

    YardySpice ?? ??‏ @ABlackTweeter

    Replying to @BuzzFeedNews @jprollert

    He can’t wear black people down. We’ve got this. We’ve got this for a while. We’ve worked with a Trump, lived next door to one, and we live in fear that one will pull us over. So this new talking point is NOT FOR US. KThnxBi

    1:03 PM – 1 Jun 2018

  63. 63.

    Steve in the ATL

    Question for the nerds: any idea why this thread loads fine (though reply and edit don’t work) in Safari on iOS 11.4 on iPhone X, but in Firefox tries to load but keeps flashing black and white? Previous thread loaded fine. Some shitty ad that’s not getting blocked?

  64. 64.

    Jay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Trudeau’s not left of center, anywhere but the USA. Since his Dad’s days, the Liberal Party of Canada has moved further right.

    Even the Dippers have embraced neoliberalism.

  65. 65.

    Chyron HR

    @Jay:

    Yeah, yeah, sure. I recommend voluntarily surrendering your country to the nazis to save yourselves from the scourge of neoliberalism. It works great.

  67. 67.

    GregB

    This will be a debate topic at the next values voters summit:

    Values Voters for Summary Executions of Political Adversaries.

    Andrew McCarthy will moderate.

  69. 69.

    gene108

    @trollhattan:

    Fred, Sr was disappointed in Fred, Jr, which led Junior to drink himself to an early death.

    Junior had no head for business, was not interested in the family business, and went on to become a pilot. Senior didn’t really approve and gave a junior shit for it.

    I can picture 11 year old Donny seeing 19 year old Junior, back from college, and getting chewed out by the old man. Probably had a big influence on Donny to fall in line with what dad wanted.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    WILDLY off-topic: Amongst (male) Juicers, is there by any chance a member of ΠΚΦ fraternity? I have a protocol question.

  71. 71.

    mainmata

    Just a reminder that it doesn’t matter what the public thinks about Trump and his known crimes (never mind the traitorous ones that will be revealed by Mueller). It only matters what Congress chooses to do about any of this. And if he pardons himself and all others involved in the Russian mess, basically saying “phuc you. I’m the king” not much anybody, EXCEPT Congress can do about this. So, ultimately, it’s the voters’ decision. Not real confident about how many voters care about democracy really.

  72. 72.

    Mai naem mobile

    What’s Trumpov done with Melanie? Did Putin kidnap her? It would be irresponsible not.to speculate if Melania is Trumpov’s handler. She was after all born in Slovenia. If Obama was the blackity black sooper dooper Muslin Manchurian candidate from Kenya then why can’t Melanie be Trumpov’s handler?

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @Chyron HR:

    Yeah nope. I’m a surviving Red Tory. If I have to hold my nose and vote Liberal, I will, despite Kinder Morgan and the trashing of everything I hold dear, including my family. But the NDP won’t even bother to support Unions anymore, so, politics sucks.

    I’ll vote the lesser of Three Evils all day long, I just wish I could vote “for” something, not always against something.

  77. 77.

    Bobby Thomson

    Gee, I don’t know Dipshit Donnie, how about “You can’t keep a fucking secret to save your life” for starters? If you don’t like that, how about, “you’re as crooked as Harry Potter’s birthmark and more mobbed up than Frank Sinatra?”

  78. 78.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I’m running Firefox 60.0.1 on Linux and haven’t had trouble with Balloon-Juice since I figured out how to block that video ad that keeps trying to load bullshit.

    I didn’t have much trouble before that, as clicking on the X to stop loading stopped loading. Clicking on the round arrow starts loading back up to get new stuff.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    Just so you know, I was the toddler that was caught drinking out of the grownups glasses when they set them down at a cocktail party that my parents had when I was 3. My first taste of hard liquor. I seemed to find it OK. Apparently I may have been too drunk to walk, I don’t remember. Seems like a good party though. And I fessed up right away too, none of this falling down drunk yelling I didn’t do it shit! Mom was so proud. Every time she told this story she giggled the entire way through it.

  81. 81.

    David Evans

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t see the Guardian every day, and didn’t see the items you refer to. But if you search their site for “Republicans” you will find many more critical views than if you search for “Democrats”

  82. 82.

    Kathleen

    @Joe Miller: Thank you. for that link. I also clicked on the story about Merkel’s visit to detention center in Texas where children are being held. He was refused entrance and cops were called. Wonder if we’ll see this story on the TeeVee.

  84. 84.

    sgrAstar

    @Another Scott: do you guys even read The Guardian? They do have some leftist opinion writers- thank dawg- and their news coverage is quite good. The paper did not endorse BS. Also too, their coverage of environmental issues is first-in-class. The Guardian has a US bureau; you can choose to read either the GB-oriented paper, the US stuff, or both. Win,win.

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