It’s completely obvious that Trump thinks Putin has something on him. Josh Marshall nails it:
When the full story comes out, to the extent it ever does, how are people going to explain how all these bizarre and really inexplicable things were happening and they just said, “Well, he’s got an odd style.” Or “He just doesn’t like people questioning his epic election win.”
That doesn’t remotely make sense now and it will seem willfully oblivious later. Obviously for most of us who are mere observers it doesn’t matter that much. But many others aren’t just observers. They had power to act.
It’s a lot like Iraq. It was obvious that there were issues with the so-called intelligence about WMD and equally obvious that Bush Co. didn’t have much of a plan for the post-invasion. But the serious conventional wisdom was that there we WMD and we’d be greeted as liberators. Some people have changed their roles — many neocons have been onto Trump and Russia from the word go, and Glenn Greenwald is one of Trump’s staunchest defenders. Overall though the same Very Serious People who said Iraq would be glorious are now telling us that Trump is probably not compromised.
No one will save us from what’s happening except ourselves. The only thing that matters is winning in November. So we’re doing another fundraiser.
Reader Shane writes:
Until 2013, Utah had three congressional districts, and the relatively liberal Salt Lake City was represented by the Blue Dog Democrat Jim Matheson. When a fourth CD was added, SLC was divided up like a pizza, Matheson declined to run for the newly gerrymandered 4th CD, and that seat was narrowly won in 2014 by Republican Congresswoman Mia Love, who was then re-elected in 2016.
This year she has a much stronger challenger in Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. Some controversies over siting homeless shelters and new development have strained his popularity, but he remains a well-liked figure. As mayor of the county (not the much more liberal SLC proper), he has mastered the “moderate centrist” balance necessary to win over moderate white Mormons in the suburbs. Moreover, the district is heavily Hispanic and Pacific Islander, two groups with whom Trumpism is not popular—and Mia Love has proved to be a useless rubber stamp on Trump’s power grabs, and voicing only the weakest of protests against the administration’s abuse of immigrants.
The optics of the race are awkward. Love has a compelling story: the daughter of Haitian immigrants, the only black congresswoman in the GOP delegation, and the only member of Utah’s congressional delegation who is not a white man. Nevertheless, she votes with Trump 96.5% of the time, and she has to go. Ben McAdams is a smart, charismatic public servant with integrity, and I would be proud to see him represent Utah in congress (though not in my district, as I have the misfortune to be represented by the odious but safely gerrymandered Chris Stewart).
You know what to do.
I have a very good baby picture too.
MisterForkbeard
Ha! Love the pic – we have the exact same clothes for our baby daughter.
Jerzy Russian
Cute kid. He looks just like you (since I have never seen a picture of you I have to extrapolate a bit here).
John Cole
Your baby looks like James Corden.
father pusbucket
Apologies if this has already been shared downpage, but this is pretty good:
A Theory of Trump Kompromat
zhena gogolia
@John Cole:
Much less goofy.
I’m excited that he’s going to be in the Cats movie, though. With Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella!
debbie
Great t-shirt.
p.a.
How bad is trump? there have actually been (not enough and too low-level) RESIGNATIONS!!
That’s unheard of in the US today.
DougJ
@father pusbucket:
Great article
schrodingers_cat
@father pusbucket: Way too convoluted.
Ocean dude
Holy hell your baby is adorable. The highlight of my week was babysitting my good friend’s 11 month old. Natural healers toddlers are. They remind you that just about everything is a wonder, and the littlest thing can be riotously funny.
The Dangerman
@John Cole:
Preschool Karaoke?
ETA: Baby, baby, baby…
/Bieber
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes, I found it unconvincing.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I think Тяump thinks Putin has something on him because Putin does have something on him. None of this shit makes any sense any other way. The only mystery is what it is, but my guess is money.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I think Putin has hard evidence of serious criminal act/acts by the current resident of the WH. Money laundering and/or trafficking.
The Other Chuck
@father pusbucket:
The Russians don’t need kompromat on Trump. He’s destroying this country because he wants to. He’s too stupid to even understand how he’s doing it: his brain is simply on “Trumpie make a poopie” over and over and over, and he has an entire political party behind him to turn that into policy.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I think it’s money related rather than anything about pee. Money is all he’s ever cared about, period.
sdhays
@The Other Chuck: Just because they may not need kompromat does not mean they don’t have kompromat on him.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: He is on record having a perverted interest in underage girls.
ETA: Do you remember, Eastern Promises
The Other Chuck
@sdhays: Oh, without a doubt they have it — I’m just not sure that’s what compels him. Maybe fourth down the list after greed, stupidity, and hate.
schrodingers_cat
@The Other Chuck: I sense fear, in the interaction with Putin.
The Other Chuck
@schrodingers_cat: Ultimately, I don’t care what his internal motivations were, so long as he and his entire party pay the price for treason. Most people don’t know what really made Hitler tick either.
sgrAstar
That New Yorker piece describes the operations of a mafia state. It *is* convoluted. Trump is enmeshed in the spider’s web. His financial entanglements are the threads that RM and his crew are pulling on. The complexity and lawlessness of the “sistema” make a clear path to the truth difficult to perceive, much less follow. I just hope that a clear enough narrative emerges, such that the malfeasance is indisputable.
Shana
I also love the tshirt. Recently on vacation we walked past a children’s clothing store that had some books in the window Went in to take a look at one and ended up buying two copies. We don’t have any kids or grandkids to give them to but will hold on to them until we do. Title: Go The F*ck To Sleep. We also picked up a bib that says “We both know that’s not an airplane.”
Someday there will be someone to give them to.
J R in WV
Any black congresswoman who votes with Trump over 95% is too stupid to have employment.
I wish the best of luck to the Democratic candidate, Ben McAdams, in this race. I can’t contribute to or work for every Democratic candidate, unfortunately. Actually George Soros can’t really contribute to every Democratic candidate. So not this time, sorry.
Hope he does well fund raising and better at vote getting!
eemom
That baby is GORGEOUS!!! And so happy!!!
Cole, how about we all admit that the whole political experiment is a horrific failure, and you make this a 24/7 babies/animals/gardens/food/travel blog? We’ll all live a lot longer.
joanne Ross
What’s the word above “Snuggle”? Darling baby.
NeenerNeener
I’m assuming the word above “snuggle” is “the”, as a play on
“The Struggle is Real”.
DougJ
@joanne Ross:
The
SWMBO
@father pusbucket: @zhena gogolia: The former CIA agent is Jack Devine. Any relation to Tad?
aretino
Actually, there has been no role change for Glenn Greenwald. He supported the invasion of Iraq, too.
Regine Touchon
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
You forgot the last word, laundering .
jonas
An even simpler explanation: Trump loves authoritarian rulers and admires Putin in particular and wishes to kiss up to him. Putin may or may not have real kompromat on Trump, but looking at how he approaches thugs like Kim, Duterte, Erdogan, and others, it seems that he’s infatuated with strongmen and wishes to be like them. So he strokes them the way his own ego likes to be stroked.
jonas
@Shana: Go The F*ck To Sleep is a venerable classic at this point. The authors should do a version for teenagers, called Will You Please Get the F*ck Up!?!.