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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Everybody saw this coming.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / The Information About the Russian Bounties On US And Coalition Service Members Evolves

The Information About the Russian Bounties On US And Coalition Service Members Evolves

by Adam L Silverman|  June 28, 20209:40 pm| 209 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

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Since The New York Times broke the news that Russia’s GRU had been placing bounties on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, bounties that were being pursued by the Taliban and Taliban aligned militias, the reporting has evolved. Within several hours The Washington Post had confirmed the reporting. This was followed by Fox News. Then CNN confirmed and expanded the reporting to include that our EU allies intelligence services had also confirmed the original reporting. The New York Times has now confirmed CNN’s expansion of their reporting. As has Sky News, also a Murdoch property like Fox News. NBC News has also confirmed the reporting. Finally, The NY Times is now reporting that US Special Operations Forces and military intelligence had reported this information up their chains of command as early as January this year.

The President and his administration are, of course, pushing back. The current Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, tweeted out a denial, based on a quick internal review of records, that the President and the Vice President had been briefed. What he did not deny or pushback on was the actual substance of the reporting. Specifically, that Russian military intelligence, the GRU, has been offering bounties for US and coalition forces in Afghanistan to the Taliban and Taliban aligned militias. The Press Secretary also issued a similar denial to DNI Ratcliffe’s. Former Acting DNI Grennell tweeted out a complete denial as a response to Congressman Lieu’s tweeting about this that covered the briefings and the intelligence assessment that the GRU had taken out bounties on US and coalition forces. Grennell was then dragged by Chief Warrant Officer (ret) Jim Wright for not knowing what he’s talking about, which is a fact as Grennell has no intelligence experience, but a lot of experience spilling sensitive and classified information when serving as the US ambassador to Germany. The President also got in on the denials, tweeting out his own denial that he’d been briefed, as well as the Vice President and his new Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, but not denying the reporting about the intelligence assessment. He then went on to assert no one has ever been tougher on Russia and attack The New York Times, VP Biden, and his son Hunter. It also doesn’t help that the President’s tweet came out after the Russian embassy’s that appears to mimic key phrases from the Russian’s twitter denial.

The Russian Bounties On US And Coalition Service Members Evolves

The Russian Bounties On US And Coalition Service Members Evolves 1

Here’s what I think is really going on. I have no doubt the intel is solid and the leak is accurate. It has been confirmed by too many different sources, including our allies, and reported in too many different competing news outlets. Including Fox and Sky, which given their ownership and editorial stance, are sympathetic to the President. The new DNI, John Ratcliffe who also has ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE WITH INTELLIGENCE, did not deny the underlying truth in the leak in his response – that the GRU had been offering and paying bounties to the Taliban and Taliban affiliated militia to kill US and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He just denied that the President had been briefed, which was also the official White House position and that includes the denial the President tweeted out. While former Acting DNI Grennell has now weighed in claiming that all of it is a lie in a tweet responding to Congressman Ted Lieu, frankly Grennell might not have been in the loop. All we know is that this was assessed and then briefed sometime up to the beginning of March. It may have been briefed before Grennell took over, though he was installed in February. The reason for that is that as soon as this got to the theater commander and the US ambassador in Afghanistan from the Special Operations Forces and military intelligence personnel in theater, it would have been sent back as a priority for the National Command Authority’s situational awareness. The President’s denial that his new Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows was not briefed means nothing, because Meadows didn’t become the White House Chief of Staff until March 31st and then didn’t really start on site until mid April because he had to self quarantine for two weeks. So he wouldn’t have even been around based on the timeline being reported.

What we’re seeing in these denials are semantic games around the words brief and briefing. The NY Times reporting indicates this intelligence was included in the President’s Daily Brief (PDB). We know, from previous reporting, that the President does not and will not read his PDB. And we know from previous reporting that his primary briefers tend to not tell him anything negative about Russia, or anything else that would upset him, because he immediately loses his temper and blows up the briefing. My take is that it was in the PDB, which covered the intelligence community’ butts, but that because the President doesn’t read that and because no one will risk a temper tantrum by briefing him on anything Russia does that is negative, that it was never formally briefed. As in told to him in a session on a calendar with a block of time marked briefing. I would expect, however, that someone did mention it to him some other way. As an aside, in a different setting, what have you. Which is why they are being so precise in denying he was briefed. Notice they’re not denying he was told or notified, just not briefed. It is important to remember that the President had at least a 1/2 dozen phone calls with Putin between March and June. And those are the formal ones we know about because they were official. It does not count him talking to Putin on his private cell phone from the residence at night or early in the morning before he bothers to actually go into the Oval Office.

Mark Zaid, who was of counsel for the whistleblower has publicly offered to represent any and all US intel or nat-sec personnel who have knowledge of this, can confirm it, and wish to formally blow the whistle. Specifically that he and his firm will take the case pro bono and ensure that all the proper forms, formats, and processes are taking to ensure that the whistleblower complies with the law and is protected. We’ll have to wait to see where that goes.

The Washington Post is now reporting that US and coalition forces were, in fact, killed in action in Afghanistan as a result of the bounties offered by the GRU. Given that no one in or around the President, with the exception of Grennell, has even attempted to deny the actual underlying facts of the reporting, this story is only going to get worse. If the principals knew about this because they all get the PDB  – any and/or all of the Director (or acting) of National Intelligence, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor, the Senior Directors for Afghanistan and for Russia on the National Security Staff who work for the National Security Advisor – and they should have and they never actually said anything to the President, then all of them are derelict in their duties and need to be removed from their positions. If it was in the Presidential Daily Brief and neither the President, nor the Vice President read it because they can’t be bothered to read them, then they are derelict in their duties and need to be removed from their positions. What we know now is not the end of this story. I expect more information will come out, it will continue to be damning, and the President and his surrogates will try to ignore the underlying reality while lashing out at those who are reporting it. All while we have US and allied coalition forces in contact with the enemy in Afghanistan. An enemy that is being monetarily incentivized to kill them by the GRU/Russian military intelligence. If this failure to do anything to make Russia stop what they’re doing, from the most basic issuance of a démarche telling Putin to stop, let alone anything resembling real pushback, is not a clear example of a high crime and misdemeanor, then nothing is

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 28, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    Good post. Note, however, that “principle” and “principal” are not synonyms.

    /pedant

  2. 2.

    Wapiti

    June 28, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    is not a clear example of a high crime and misdemeanor, then nothing is

    Narrator voice: and according to the sitting Republican Senators, indeed, nothing was.

  3. 3.

    joel hanes

    June 28, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    all of them are derelict in their duties and need to be removed from their positions

    This describes nearly every member of Trump’s cabinet, his White House staff, and his agency appointees.

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    June 28, 2020 at 9:50 pm

    It’s horrible, and I hope that we will end up taking back an extra GOP Senate seat or 2 or 3 on this one.

    Unconscionable.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    Back in 45 or so. Going to walk the dogs!

  6. 6.

    SFAW

    June 28, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    is not a clear example of a high crime and misdemeanor, then nothing is

    Once again, you libtards are just trying to overturn the 2016 coronation via underhanded means.

  7. 7.

    SFAW

    June 28, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    It’s horrible, and I hope that we will end up taking back an extra GOP Senate seat or 2 or 3 on this one.

    I’m so old, I can remember when being a Russian/Soviet sympathizer was, in the eyes of Republicans, a bad thing. Not these days, of course.

    These days, only some amorphous/ill-defined “socialism” is BAAADDDD! in their eyes. When the Dems do it, that is.

  8. 8.

    dexwood

    June 28, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    Liars, traitors, monsters, ghouls. All of them.

  9. 9.

    Marcopolo

    June 28, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    Just as we have seen repeated instance of Trump folks misusing private email accounts for public business (“but her emails”), it only seems appropriate that he would have his own version of “Benghazi” only, you know, real (though you could also put the death of the soldiers in Niger who were ambushed into this category as well.

    There isn’t enough time to hold as many Congressional in investigations into this as Benghazi but I think one well-done televised one would do the trick. Maybe schedule it for the week of the RNC.

  10. 10.

    Fair Economist

    June 28, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    The total message disorganization shows the Republicans who know what really happened are covering it it from other Republicans. It must be really bad.

  11. 11.

    Just Chuck

    June 28, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    But of course we’ll have to give POTUS a mulligan on a second impeachment because this is an election year, it’s right there in the conspitushum. Then we’ll have to “look forward, not back”. The narrative must never be contradicted

    And oh yeah: Butter emails!

  12. 12.

    Ken

    June 28, 2020 at 9:59 pm

    That’s a pretty long list of people who are underbussed by the claim that the President wasn’t briefed. Is it a record for this administration?

  13. 13.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 28, 2020 at 9:59 pm

    Sweet mother of massive incoming information swarm, that’s a lot of fucking links.

    That’s a PGA Tour of links. A sausage factory production line if links. A link to the past and a link to the current times which will forever be linked with massive GOP fuckery and failure that is directly linked to the Reagan era when GOP fuckery became a corporate interest. A Summer of Love era TV show of Lincs.

    That’s a lot of links, Silverman, christ that’s a lot of links.

  14. 14.

    Marcopolo

    June 28, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    @Elizabelle: I’m in the middle of making end-of-quarter campaign contributions to most of the candidates in flip situations so from your lips to the FSM’s ears.

    And I hope we get a post up soon encouraging folks to make contributions by midnight June 30.

  15. 15.

    scottinnj

    June 28, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    What did the President know and when did he know it?

    Also, too, all those “but Gorsuch” Evangelicals should meet with the widows and mothers and explain why Trump is worth it. I’m looking at ‘Christians’ like a Rod Dreher.

  16. 16.

    Miss Bianca

    June 28, 2020 at 10:01 pm

     

    @Marcopolo: You know, it’s not just Trump and his crony administration that needs to be investigated within an inch of their fucking lives and beyond – it’s the media figures who made the decision to fluff Trump and flog Hillary with that “but her emails!” shit. Finally drag the whole vast right-wing conspiracy. They’re going to scream like scalded weasels no matter what a Democratic administration decides to do – let’s give them something real to scream about, for once.

  17. 17.

    cain

    June 28, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    @joel hanes:

    And Republicans in the legislative branch. They will still cover for this traitor – it drives me into fury since they made such a fucking big deal about Benghazi and how many have we had thus far?

    If it drives me crazy.. I can’t imagine what Hillary must be feeling.

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    June 28, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    How could Trump, the poor slob, be expected to do anything about this? After all, the guy was so occupied dealing with the pandemic and social unrest and, well, not dealing with them so much as making them far worse, but still…

    I genuinely hope this story costs him another 3-4% drop in approval.

  19. 19.

    Bruuuuce

    June 28, 2020 at 10:03 pm

    @SFAW: 

    some amorphous/ill-defined “socialism”

    Not amorphous, and precisely defined: “Socialism” is any action that might keep the oligarchs from reaping every last centime that they can, legally or otherwise.

  20. 20.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 10:08 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: This applies to everyone who decides to be pedantic.

    Did you understand what was being said?

    Did your decision to highlight the error add anything to the discussion?

    Do you understand none of the FP are paid for their time and efforts?

    Honestly, I’d rather deal with trolls than those of you who decide this is your job.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    June 28, 2020 at 10:09 pm

    Trump has betrayed the country to enemies, foreign and domestic.

    And yet Congress and his base still stand behind him.

    The plutocrats got their massive tax cuts and a hands-off approach to almost all regulation.

    The evangelicals are certain that they will get a repeal of Roe v Wade and a reinstatement of school prayer

    Who needs a democracy?

  22. 22.

    Ken

    June 28, 2020 at 10:09 pm

    @West of the Rockies: After all, the guy was so occupied dealing with the pandemic and social unrest

    Timeline. This was back in February or early March, when Trump was calling the pandemic a hoax, George Floyd was alive, and it was business as usual at the White House.

    Come to think – it’s likely Trump got his non-briefing, and went out golfing later that week. Hmm. Anyone got a contact for the Lincoln Project?

  23. 23.

    central texas

    June 28, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    OK.  The nasty Ruskies are misbehaving.  I’m still trying discern exactly what is different here than the many years we spent arming and financing the various mujahideen (Osama Somebody seems to ring a bell) to kill Russians.  In Afghanistan. We even were obliging enough to pass out man portable SAMs until someone belatedly figured out that the Stinger does not care whose aircraft it kills. Hell, we even had members of Congress prancing about getting selfies with the clients.  So far, I haven’t heard of the GRU being that dumb.

    I’m all aboard with the notion that we make active membership in the Waggoner Group or other mercenaries a one way ticket to a grave.  (and let our Mr. Prince know that he is retired, or else).  If there are GRU wandering around in a hazardous area, they should know better and hopefully signed up for good insurance. But we have been fucking around in Afghanistan for what, 17 years?  And I still don’t think there has ever been a cogent statement of what we are doing and how we know it is done.

    Having watched and encouraged bleeding the Russians in Afghanistan, I’m sure that they are enjoying watching us do the same damned stupid stunt.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    June 28, 2020 at 10:11 pm

    As I said earlier, and I’m sure others have said the same/similar: it is not enough to vote him out in November.  Not nearly enough.

    Fred Hiatt has an op-ed up in the WaPo that lists all of the impeachable actions trumpov has taken just since his last impeachment, and this isn’t even on that list (yet).

    Let’s go, House.  Let’s rocket-docket an impeachment charge a week, from now until the election if we have to.  Who cares if the Senate votes to acquit every time?  Just do it.  Make trumpov the first American president to be impeached 16+ times.  Make the Senate GOP flat-out OWN THIS SHITHEAD.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 10:13 pm

    Real men would not be afraid of a temper tantrum. // Particularly because lives have been lost, and because it sounds like the threat is still there.

    Any idea whether this will affect the members of the military who appear to be Trump supporters?

  26. 26.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 10:16 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): You snapped at me when I was trying to help you fix an error that I assumed was caused by autocorrect, and now you’ve snapped at G & T for similar, and I don’t think he deserved it.

    I’ll sit down now .

  27. 27.

    Ken

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @debbie: It is still the lead story at Stars and Stripes, though I don’t know how that translates into the opinions of individual members of the military.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @Brachiator:

    And yet Congress…

    Not the entire congress.  It’s Republicans who are standing behind Trump, propping him up.  Not the democrats and not the entire congress.  You and everyone else here understands that, but there are still a lot of people who think it’s both sides.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Sometimes, it’s also deflating. Wordsmithing is hard.

  30. 30.

    Aleta

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    Trump replaced Bolton last September with chief hostage negotiator Robert C. O’Brien,  who became his 4th national security adviser .

    (Business Insider, Sept. 19, 2019)

    One source — a staffer to a Democratic senator on the Foreign Relations Committee, worried that O’Brien would prove too deferential to Trump “There’s concerns in the national security community that this guy — who lacks a background in national security affairs let alone in running an interagency process — will be nothing more than a yes man to the president.”

    …
    Dave Rothkopf, a visiting professor in international affairs who published a book on the National Security Council, told Business Insider: “He is the least qualified person ever to hold the job, as close to a foreign policy nonentity as you can imagine. He got the job because of that not in spite of it — that and his knack for the kind of ‘Dear Leader’ flattery Trump loves.”

    The family of an American missing in the Middle East said O’Brien — though pleasant to deal with — struck them as a policy lightweight with little knowledge of international issues.  “It it was clear he was a lawyer from Los Angeles who was trying to score high-profile goals for his bosses.

    (A)ccording to a private security consultant based in Dubai who specializes in kidnapping and ransom operations … “On the tough [hostage] cases —which generally aren’t public and thus seem to get little attention from a publicity-mad president — there’s no sign O’Brien had the ability to get the rest of the US government to pay attention and act on intelligence or opportunities.”

    A European law enforcement official, who works closely on hostage matters in the Middle East (said), “I never sensed that he could organize anything in terms of bringing the various parts of the US government together — coordinating intelligence with diplomacy and even the military. That is also part of the job and it’s one that I never felt like he really understood.”

    “There was a sense that his relationship with Trump was enough to make up for his lack of substance on national security matters,” the official added.  “But as a top adviser it seems implausible he will be effective, because he never grasped the key things that he will need to do in the new position.”

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: I’m unclear about something.  Do you think its a lot of links?

  32. 32.

    MagdaInBlack

    June 28, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Thank you

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    June 28, 2020 at 10:24 pm

    And of course, this mother of all scandals is not even in the top 5 stories on Fox News dot com right now.

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 28, 2020 at 10:25 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): Adam has my e-mail. If he’s annoyed he can tell me about it.

  35. 35.

    Nelle

    June 28, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): Thank you.  I taught comp and lit at universities.  I only correct three people on spoken English..my daughter, my son, and my husband.  The first two never need it.  Wouldn’t dream of correcting anyone else, unless they requested it.

    Written English corrections, only if part of my job.   Even then, it is done with care and clear purpose in mind.  Otherwise, no.  I’ve had so many non-native writers and, while that isn’t the case here, I never want someone so hesitant of error that they are hesitant to write.  (Silverman is safe, of course, but i find it best to observe the practice across the board.)

    I fat finger.  I miss autocorrect errors.  Pedantry can come across as one upping others.

  36. 36.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    Ok but OTHER than promoting a supporter yelling “white power” and equivocating on an enemy paying bounties for our soldiers what ELSE did he do wrong this weekend? NOTHING. Shaking my head at your tds— HatWasNeverBriefed (@Popehat) June 28, 2020

  37. 37.

    Ken

    June 28, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    @Jeffro: Let me guess. Bengazi; Fast and Furious; Summer Salads; Refugee Caravans; and The Magnificent US COVID Response As Orchestrated by Our Glorious Leader?

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 28, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Adam, thank you for plunging into the details.

    The bottom line is that Donald is a defacto Russian asset, and should be immediately removed from office.  That’s not going to happen, of course, as there are 52 treasonous sacks of shit in the Senate who will protect him even if he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue in front of multiple witnesses.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    June 28, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Fat Bastard needs to be impeached again on principle. Do it in November after we shitcan his ass as a nice ‘fuck you, bye bye’.

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    @debbie: Yeah, I can see that. It’s almost a reflex with me and I have to restrain myself after being slapped down so hard.

    I really do appreciate all of the hard working FPers, the work they do for free, and especially TaMara’s posts, not to mention her ducks.

  41. 41.

    Comrade Bukharin

    June 28, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Carville said that Trump ‘will have the worst Monday of his life’ tomorrow and thinks there is a 50% chance he will resign before November.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 28, 2020 at 10:31 pm

    @Jay: He probably also cheated at golf.  We know from previous statements by Jules Winnfield, Mace Windu, and Nick Fury that he does.

  43. 43.

    PaulWartenberg

    June 28, 2020 at 10:32 pm

    the part about trump not even reading his Daily Briefs is a scandal all its own. this would have been grounds for impeachment or 25th amendment suspension for any other person in the White House, but noooooooooooooooooo, it’s trump, so the rest of the corrupt GOP has to cover for his lazy ass.

  44. 44.

    prostratedragon

    June 28, 2020 at 10:35 pm

    @Aleta:  Heh, odd or maybe telling choice. Wouldn’t a hostage negotiator have occasion to flatter psychopaths?

  45. 45.

    Benw

    June 28, 2020 at 10:36 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: how was the walk? I walk the big dog around the same time because he’s black and overheats instantly in the sun and to avoid people, too. We got in a little over 1 mile tonight.

    If your guess is right, and we’re lucky in Nov, Biden’s going to have to fire the majority of the top levels of the US govt. What about the military? It seems hard to believe this wasn’t known at the Joint Chiefs of Staff level but equally hard to believe they would have tolerated this?

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 28, 2020 at 10:37 pm

    @Aleta: Incompetence is the hallmark of Donald’s White House.

  47. 47.

    Marcopolo

    June 28, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    @central texas:   In this case, it is the juxtapositioning of Russian paid bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan–which our government seems to have vetted as true in January of this year–with the fawning treatment that President Trump has given and continues to give to Putin since that time.  I’ll agree with you that all’s fair in war but to not take a stand for your own soldiers (by invoking whatever countermeasure you choose though retaliatory cyberwarfare seems to have been the most pushed option) and further invite this adversary to the next G7 meeting (which they were kicked out of for bad actions in Ukraine) is contemptible.  And add that to all the word salad that spews out of Trump’s mouth about how he is so great for the troops.   Christ, what an asshole.  I so wish the election was next Tuesday.

  48. 48.

    bluehill

    June 28, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    Adam, what would some of the key things Putin try to exploit knowing that Trump seems willing to look the other way, dismiss or not read intelligence reports and his staff seems afraid to raise Russian-related issues or bad news in general? I’m sure they have already been taking advantage, but curious where they would concentrate their efforts particularly with the possibility of a less-friendly administration coming in. All of them Katie or too speculative?

  49. 49.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I don’t give a fuck about Adam. He’s a big boy.  I fucking hate it when y’all think it’s cute to do that and put your little /pendant tag on it.

    You look ridiculous when you do and it’s disrespectful to the information being provided. And I’m going to start calling everyone on it.

  50. 50.

    cain

    June 28, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    @Jeffro: 
    Surprised that Hillary’s emails is not being covered right now. Probably would hit too close to home.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    June 28, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    @Miss Bianca: come sit by me… at the appropriate distance… ‘natch.

     

    The other shoes are the fact that we had outright treason/aka political shakedowns condoned by the GOP with the last impeachment, now we get to ask the entirety of the GOP Senate if this too is acceptable in their eyes.  Would love to get Martha McSally’s and Tom Cotton’s take on this, since they’ve chosen to wrap themselves in their previous service.  Just ask them for comment… every single motherfucking day.

  52. 52.

    pattonbt

    June 28, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    (the cynic in me)….The best way to approach the media on this is through their desire for personal glory. This is the type of story that can make careers (how awesome would it be if I could become the next Bob Woodward!?).

    (back to reality)….I’ve hated Trump and the Republicans from the moment I realized I had a conscience at 17, and they have done untold damage over my lifetime, but this story is damn near the top of reprehensible-ness.

    I don’t like to psychoanalyze Trump because its unnecessary, but I bet he thinks “so what, we did it to them in the past and who cares”. He probably just thinks that’s the way things roll and if I wanted to do something like that I could. He is just so chuffed that he thinks he is part of the dictator club and that they get to do whatever they want (which for Trump is lining his pockets and receiving adulation).

    But for the life of me, I do not understand how this story is not blowing up bigger.

  53. 53.

    trollhattan

    June 28, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    @cain:

    Psst, Chelsea is Biden’s running mate. Pass it on.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    MilitaryTimes:

    […]

    John Bolton, a former national security adviser who was forced out by Trump last September and has now written a tell-all book about his time at the White House, said Sunday that “it is pretty remarkable the president’s going out of his way to say he hasn’t heard anything about it, one asks, why would he do something like that?”

    Bolton told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he thinks the answer “may be precisely because active Russian aggression like that against the American service members is a very, very serious matter and nothing’s been done about it, if it’s true, for these past four or five months, so it may look like he was negligent. But of course, he can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it.”

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a member of the “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders briefed on sensitive intelligence matters, told ABC’s “This Week” that she had not been been informed about the reported bounties and requested a report to Congress on the matter.

    “This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score, denies being briefed. Whether he is or not, his administration knows and our allies — some of our allies who work with us in Afghanistan had been briefed and accept this report,” she said.

    The Times, citing unnamed officials familiar with the intelligence, said the findings were presented to Trump and discussed by his National Security Council in late March. Officials developed potential responses, starting with a diplomatic complaint to Russia, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the report said.

    Trump responded to Biden on Twitter, saying “Russia ate his and Obama’s lunch during their time in office”

    But it was the Obama administration, along with international allies, that suspended Russia from the Group of Eight after its unilateral annexation of Crimea from Ukraine — a move that drew widespread condemnation.

    […]

    So, Donnie’s White House knew, but – again – they didn’t brief the Congress.

    It will be interesting to see what is in the report to the Speaker, and what the whistleblowers (that I assume are coming) will say.

    As shocking as this would be in normal times, I cannot help but feel that even this is not the depth of Donnie’s incompetence, depravity, and treachery. It will get worse. It always gets worse with him.

    Grrr….

    Thanks Adam.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    Yutsano

    June 28, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Probably? That’s a known quantity. And the least of my concerns about him. I just know he gotta go.

     

    @Comrade Bukharin: Carville needs to shut the fuck up. He doesn’t have any great insight here. Not even through his wife.

  56. 56.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    @trollhattan: I thought we were supposed to keep that on the down-low, but I missed the last meeting.

  57. 57.

    JoyceH

    June 28, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    The news keeps reporting that Trump has denied the allegations. No, he did not. He replied with a word trick so sneaky a lawyer must have come up with it. Go back and reread his tweet. He denied being briefed about Russians attacking Americans. Which of course is not at all the allegation so of course he wasn’t briefed about that. They’re hoping we won’t notice that Trump himself has never actually denied being briefed about the Russians paying Afghanis to attack Americans. And so far the media has fallen for it. Sigh.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    via GIPHY

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 10:47 pm

    @trollhattan: Speaking of Clintons…

    11-0 Clinton map of VA's US House districts. 2018 population. https://t.co/XOe49BUWrL pic.twitter.com/d4ZM3YIL9V

    — Chaz Nuttycombe (@ChazNuttycombe) June 29, 2020

    Looks good to me. Make it so.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    Feathers

    June 28, 2020 at 10:48 pm

    There really should be another impeachment hearing(s). Everyone (well a lot of people) is just sitting at home and two weeks of hearings would get everyone’s attention fast. It really would be humorous to limit the hearings to impeachable things he’s done since the last hearings.

    There won’t be a traditional campaign this year. Holding hearings on Trump’s conduct and having the Sargent at Arms round the miscreants up, while Joe stays at home isolating in Delaware sounds like a plan.

  61. 61.

    Betty

    June 28, 2020 at 10:50 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): The definition of “pedant” I just checked is not very flattering. Something I wouldn’t want applied to me anyway.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    @Another Scott: That map means nothing to me.  What are you seeing?

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 10:52 pm

    @Ken: I’d be amazed if he wasn’t notified in January. This isn’t the type of thing you sit on in theater or at the three letter agencies.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 10:53 pm

    @Feathers: I don’t know how practical it would be, but it would be nice to make the Rs have to squirm and vote to acquit once again.

    Who needs evidence and witnesses about a little thing like betraying your country and your troops, right?

  65. 65.

    Martin

    June 28, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: That’s a redraw of VAs congressional districts that in 2018 would have resulted in 11 Dem 0 GOP House seats.

  66. 66.

    Marcopolo

    June 28, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    @WaterGirl:  VA is going to be redistricted after the 2020 census.  What he has linked to is a map that is drawn so the D wins every congressional seat.  11 D reps no Rs.  And it doesn’t even look like gerrymander jerky.

  67. 67.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    @central texas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_assistance_to_Osama_bin_Laden

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  68. 68.

    Kent

    June 28, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    @central texas:OK.  The nasty Ruskies are misbehaving.  I’m still trying discern exactly what is different here than the many years we spent arming and financing the various mujahideen (Osama Somebody seems to ring a bell) to kill Russians.  In Afghanistan. We even were obliging enough to pass out man portable SAMs until someone belatedly figured out that the Stinger does not care whose aircraft it kills. Hell, we even had members of Congress prancing about getting selfies with the clients.  So far, I haven’t heard of the GRU being that dumb.

    Aiding a proxy ally is not the same thing as scalp hunting.  Which is what this is.  The last time the US government actually paid a bounty for enemy scalps was during the genocidal Indian wars in the 1800s.

  69. 69.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 10:55 pm

    @opiejeanne: Explain to me how that comment, detailing my issues with being pedantic was “snapping” at him? Wow.

    I guess I’m not allowed to have an opinion.

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 10:56 pm

    @Martin: Ah, so that’s the redrawn map with the new changes that are already in place for the November election?

    edit: guessing from Marcopolo at #66, no those lines will not be in place in Nov 2020.  So it won’t help at all in the election.

  71. 71.

    Martin

    June 28, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    @WaterGirl: No, it’s hypothetical for a post-census redraw.

    BTW, the legislature can redraw districts whenever they want, but they have to use the  last  census data. They could have redrawn them between 2018 and 2020, provided they had the votes (invariably a Dem favorable map will unseat some dems when their home address winds up in a different district, so even the party in power isn’t always so enthusiastic about such measures).

  72. 72.

    Benw

    June 28, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    For fans of 90s alt rock: Jane’s Addiction live:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFW37YmqfKY&list=RDtFW37YmqfKY&start_radio=1

  73. 73.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 28, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    There were some links. Indeed.

  74. 74.

    Kent

    June 28, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:@Ken: I’d be amazed if he wasn’t notified in January. This isn’t the type of thing you sit on in theater or at the three letter agencies.

    So this was almost certainly in the Presidential Daily Brief.  And I assume that those documents are carefully stored and archived.

    Whether or not the President was paying attention during the briefing or rage-tweeting about something he saw on Fox news is kind of beside the point.  And whether or not he actually reads them is also beside the point.  If the intelligence agencies put it in his daily brief then he was briefed.  He is not a fucking toddler.

    I’m not sure what level of classification the presidential daily briefs have, but most certainly it is something that the House Intelligence Committee can request.  There will absolutely be a paper trail on this one and it isn’t going to be some side-channel thing like Rudy and Ukraine.  This will have come through the front door in the regular channels for which there will be meticulous documentation and probably a lot of drafts and discussion.

  75. 75.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 28, 2020 at 11:01 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Wasn’t this the kind of thing they created the DNI for after 9-11, so things don’t get lost in finger pointing from 3 letter agencies?

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: It is an example of redistricting Virginia.  With the districts drawn so that Democrats will have a big advantage in each of them – they are groupings where Hillary won a majority.  11 Virginia Democrats and 0 GOP going to the House would be great.

    What’s nice about it is that it’s a kinda plausible map.  No blob here and another blob 200 miles away connected by a strip of land 5 fee wider than a roadway.

    HTH!

    [eta:] Zooks you people are fast tonight!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    @Benw: The walk was good, though it is beastly hot and humid here even at 10 PM at night. So I’m soaked and as soon as I cool down a bit, I’ll hop in the shower. And I walk the girls at night because one is black and the other is dark brown – the older one is a black lab mix and the younger one is a chocolate lab mix – and it is a bit cooler to walk at night. Also, there is almost never anyone else out, so I don’t have to mess with a mask, which is good given how sweaty I get, or have to avoid anyone.

    To your second question: most everyone I referred to is a political appointee, so if VP Biden is elected, they’ll all be gone between November and January. As for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that is going to be the question. Normally, their terms overlap administrations. The DOD transition team are going to have to make a determination just what they actually did, when they did it, and whether they can be trusted given their actions during this administration. Then they will have to decide whether they just let them serve out their terms and not put them in for a second three year appointment, they tell them to prepare to retire when their current terms end, or tell them to submit their retirements immediately.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:03 pm

    @TaMara (HFG):

    wash your hands you filthy animal, wear a mask properly and come sit two metres away from me on the big couch,

    we have adult beverages,…..

  79. 79.

    Kay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:03 pm

    In the article, Bob Woodward, the Post legend who protected the identity of his Watergate source, Deep Throat, for 30 years, was going to unmask one of his own confidential sources. He was, in particular, going to disclose that Judge Kavanaugh had been an anonymous source in his 1999 book “Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate.”
    Mr. Woodward was planning to expose Mr. Kavanaugh because the judge had publicly denied — in a huffy letter in 1999 to The Post — an account about Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton that he had himself, confidentially, provided to Mr. Woodward for his book. (Mr. Kavanaugh served as a lawyer on Mr. Starr’s team.)

    At the end of the day they’re all just huge liars. I find the sanctimonious Trump liars the worst, and Kavanaugh is that. Remember his outraged, red faced bellowing at us about how ethical and honest he is?

  80. 80.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 28, 2020 at 11:04 pm

    @Kent:

     He is not a fucking toddler.

    I beg to differ.

  81. 81.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    @bluehill: Anything that weakens all forms of US national power across what we call the DIMEFIL. So diplomatic, information, military, economic, financial, intelligence, and legal power. As well as anything that further tarnishes the idea that self governing liberal democracy is a good idea.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:07 pm

    @TaMara (HFG):

    I don’t give a fuck about Adam.

    I’m hurt! ?

    He’s a big boy.

    I resemble that remark! ?

  83. 83.

    wuzzat

    June 28, 2020 at 11:07 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): Thank you! At best, the grammar police come off as show-offs. At worst, they’re being horribly rude by calling attention to a small error in front of a crowd.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:11 pm

    @JoyceH: Did you even read the post?

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:14 pm

    @WaterGirl: I was offline most of the afternoon, but if you’ve not watched it and martial arts violence doesn’t bother you, I highly recommend Into the Badlands. 

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    @Kent: I’ve seen three different news reports, including the one I’ve linked to where I stated that in the post, indicating it was in the PDB. I’m taking that to mean it was in the written PDB.

  87. 87.

    bluehill

    June 28, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, that seems to cover pretty much everything. Any thoughts on what it would take to uncover everything that they’ve done or at least contain it in some way.

  88. 88.

    West of the Rockies

    June 28, 2020 at 11:17 pm

    @Comrade Bukharin:

    I’m not as optimistic.

  89. 89.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: LOL. I’m just trying to picture a world where you need me riding in and defending your ass.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    ^^^ Did you also know that One America News (OAN) owner Robert Herring, Sr. met and married HIS Russian wife, Tonya in Russia.

    There seem to be lots of Russian handlers (I mean wives) of key Trump propaganda outlet players.

    — JΞSŦΞR ✪ ΔCŦUΔL³³°¹ (@th3j35t3r) June 29, 2020

    Hmm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): How can you not see what you said as snapping at him? You said he was worse than a troll. His appending the word “pedant” to the end was an apology for being pedantic, it was not being cute.

    No one said you’re not entitled to an opinion, but that was pretty harsh. And if you don’t give a fuck about how it affects Adam ( as you said in your reply to G&T) because he’s a big boy, then why did you bother to respond?

    This is a big deal to you, it has hit a raw nerve. I understand this.

    I think we’re all a bit tense right now. I know I am. Gardening can only do so much, and this is the place where my sanity is saved by you and Adam and WaterGirl and Anne Laurie and the blogmaster and all of the rest. This is the safe place for a lot of us, so please,  let’s not blow it up over something so trivial because I can already see the battle lines being drawn over this triviality.

  92. 92.

    Benw

    June 28, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: same here (long island, NY), my t-shirt goes right into the wash after at walk at 10 pm! The big boy (black lab/dane mix) and I walk at night for exactly the same reasons.

    I don’t envy the (hopefully if Biden wins) DOD transition team. I’m sorry but I expect the DOD blame shifting and finger pointing will be epic and pathetic.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes. But the President got rid of Coates and his senior deputy because they told him and Congress what they needed to know, not what he wanted to hear. And then he got rid of MacGuire for the same reason. Grennell was sent in to break DNI and dig stuff out that could be used by the President, AG Barr, Devin Nunes, Rudy Giuliani, etc to dirty up Biden and Ratcliffe was sent to backfill Grennell to finish the job.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    June 28, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    @wuzzat:

    I think there is one circumstance where calling out a spelling /grammatical/syntactical mistake is justified: when it leads to an obvious factual error or ambiguity. Anything else is just clever-dickery.

  95. 95.

    Feathers

    June 28, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    @TaMara (HFG):  Yes. Also, read the room. Grammar corrections downthread, after a few jokes and some punches have been thrown, can be forgiven. But snarky pedantry in the first comment after a very serious Adam informational post? Go away. Leave us alone.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 11:21 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Sounds interesting.

    The last martial arts movie I saw was decades ago with a TV star who was then a cook/chef on a submarine who saved the day, but is now a crazy right-winger.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:21 pm

    @bluehill: It’s going to take a new administration with a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress who will back the appointment of an Independent counsel to run a truth and reconciliation committee staffed up with forensic accountants, counterintelligence specialists, and prosecutors to get to the bottom of everything.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): I’m just being my usual smartass.

  99. 99.

    Mike in NC

    June 28, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    Both Trump and Pence keep slipping in nonsense about Radical Leftist Democrats like everyone listening to them is an 85-year-old hermit living in The Villages.

  100. 100.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    @Another Scott: I did. Also, the wife of the guy who owns Parler is also Russian.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:24 pm

    @Another Scott: And Chanel Rion’s family is the poster family for MICE – Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego – manipulation. Based on the family history, starting with her father’s multiple real estate scams and where her grandmother is from, that they are working for the North Koreans, the Chinese, or the Russians.

  102. 102.

    BellyCat

    June 28, 2020 at 11:25 pm

    Considering this fustercluck and the state of the economy, Trump has finally lost the votes of the three remaining Reasonable Republicans ™ .

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:26 pm

    @Benw: I lived in Bethpage for a year, the year before I went to work for the Army, when I was a criminology professor at LI U. So I understand completely. Been there, done that, have the sweaty t-shirts!

  104. 104.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Jesus. Every time I think they can’t surprise me with how utterly corrupt they are, something worse crawls out from under a rock.

    I would like to believe that this thing, this betrayal, is the bottom, but I wouldn’t take a bet on it.

    Thank you for what you do for us.

  105. 105.

    artem1s

    June 28, 2020 at 11:28 pm

    am I crazy for thinking this sounds like something Putin has probably been doing for years? at least going back to the clashes over Syria? Has there been any real analysis yet on how long the Intelligence Community has been trying to get this on someone’s radar? And why is it coming out now? I mean it’s no secret that Dolt45 doesn’t pay attention to briefings or understand anything he’s told- and hasn’t since he was nominated. Why the urgency now?

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    June 28, 2020 at 11:28 pm

    @TaMara (HFG): With respect, the Internet is forever.  I think most corrections offered here are offered in the spirit of helping the FPer – especially those offering their wisdom and expertise on a topic – with a fresh set of eyes.

    At least that’s been my frame of mind when I’ve flipped into pedant mode.

    My $0.02.  YMMV.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    @WaterGirl: Hahaha! I recognize that movie/actor.

  108. 108.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    @WaterGirl: I trained with some of his students for a time down in Miami. We’ll just leave it at Bless their hearts!

    As for Into the Badlands, it’s three seasons. 10 episodes a season if I’m recalling correctly. I somehow got stuck about 2/3 of the way through season 2, so I need to go back and finish that and then watch the final season. The martial arts is a very well done variant of the Hong Kong/Shaw Brothers style of wire work martial arts from those movies from the 60s through the late 80s/early 90s. You should be able to get all three seasons on Prime or Netflix or just AMC on Demand. Here’s a link to the AMC page.
    https://www.amc.com/shows/into-the-badlands

  109. 109.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:31 pm

    @BellyCat:

    Important Metrics To Get Us Through the Weekend 1

  110. 110.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 28, 2020 at 11:31 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: There were too many words.

  111. 111.

    Ken

    June 28, 2020 at 11:32 pm

    @Mike in NC: Both Trump and Pence keep slipping in nonsense about Radical Leftist Democrats like everyone listening to them is an 85-year-old hermit living in The Villages.

    Everyone listening to them is an 85-year-old hermit living in The Villages. That is, if you take “listening to” as “believes the spew of nonsense”.

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:32 pm

    @opiejeanne: Ewe argh wellkumb!

  113. 113.

    Yutsano

    June 28, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: How you humans voluntarily live in humid conditions I will never understand. I went to Kansas City MO in May of 2016. It was 40% humidity in the mid 80s and I was DYING. I have no idea how I survived Richmond VA later that summer for two weeks! Except Charlottesville was nice.

  114. 114.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    @artem1s: As I wrote in my original post on this on Friday night, I will not be surprised when we find that he’s been doing something similar with our troops in Syria and Iraq. There was some targeting by Russian troops and Wagner Group mercenaries of American forces in Syria, but that didn’t end really well for the Russians. It is also not taking out bounties on their heads.

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: LOL!

    I love smart-ass Adam.

  116. 116.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 11:35 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    I mentally correct road signs, etc. all the time.

    But I also write at work, and there are two separate teams that judge my work. I can’t tell you how many times they’ve tried to fail me for an alleged comma offense, but each time, I come right back at them, waving my style guide like a battle axe. Bastards.

  117. 117.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    @Aleta:

    There are nothing but rank amateurs in this administration.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:37 pm

    @opiejeanne: His aikido students are not very good. Especially if you take them out of his style. To quote Jackie Chan from a cheesy, yet enjoyable martial arts movie: “He’s got no kung fu!” Interestingly enough, Saito Sensei’s students, or, rather, those training within Saito Sensei’s style given he’s been dead for a while now have the same problem. I’ve trained with some of their senior people at seminars and they can’t take themselves out of the style they train in regularly. Which is a real problem if you actually have to use your aikido for real. Of course most people won’t ever have to and really aren’t training to be able to no matter how advanced their rank is.

  119. 119.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:40 pm

    @Yutsano: I’m not voluntarily living here. I came down her for an assignment in 2015 and then got stuck here when I quietly blew the whistle on the unintentional Federal and state lawbreaking and then quietly resigned. Every time I’ve supposed to be relocated from here the sequester or its after effects destroys the funding for the assignment and, as a result, I remain stuck here. I’ve had 12 full time equivalent assignments, 11 of them back up north, one of them in Seattle, go poof since October 2015.

  120. 120.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 11:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Ditto

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s on Netflix!

  122. 122.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    @Yutsano: It’s humid here, west of the Cascades, and it has been over 80 a few times the last two weeks. I have lost the ability to tolerate much heat at all, and I used to live in freaking Riverside, CA. I’ve forgotten my heat survival skills and gotten soft.

  123. 123.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It may not be the most crucial position, but that this administration would appoint as federal prosecutor someone who had never prosecuted one fucking case is just appalling.

  124. 124.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    'News of this Russian plan, and the direct targeting of British troops, will again raise the question of when the long overdue report into Russian interference by parliament's Intelligence & Security Committee will be published.'#ReleaseTheRussiaReporthttps://t.co/M4k8oRXRsV— Defend Democracy (@DefendDemocracy) June 28, 2020

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:42 pm

    @WaterGirl: Enjoy!

  126. 126.

    Aleta

    June 28, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    For the first time in more than three decades, Democrats have the largest bloc of registered voters in Maine, with more than 40,000 new party members enrolled since the last presidential election cycle in 2016.

    Over the same four-year period, Republicans have added fewer than 6,000 new members, according to voter registration data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

    That gives Democrats more than a 90,000-vote advantage – the largest in the last five presidential election cycles – over their conservative rivals.  Significantly, Democrats now also outnumber unenrolled voters, who have long dominated registrations in a state known for its independent-minded citizens.  The shift occurred in conjunction with the March presidential primary, which featured would-be Democratic challengers to President Trump …

    …

    Although they trail Democrats significantly, Maine Republican enrollments are still the largest they’ve been since 1990, and the party has eclipsed its last peak of 287,452 voters in 2004.

    Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas said she was unconcerned … (and) she believes many of the new Democratic voters … may not even show up in November.

    Dream on Chairwoman.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 28, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    @Jay: That thing only comes out over Boris’s dead body. Remember, his current girlfriend, who is the mother of his sixth or seventh child – there’s apparently some question as to how many he’s actually fathered – was cultivated by the Russian ambassador to Britain. Who was also the paymaster and in country director of the Brexit op for Putin.

  128. 128.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    @debbie: I used to have two bosses at equal levels, who both liked to review when I wrote something up.  One would always change utilize to use, and the other would change it in the other direction.

    I’m sure there were other changes, too, but they were both quite predictable about editing!

  129. 129.

    Doug R

    June 28, 2020 at 11:47 pm

    Defund the grammar police.

  130. 130.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Gotta love Pence suddenly parading around with a mask. //

  131. 131.

    TaMara (HFG)

    June 28, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    @MagdaInBlack:

    @Nelle:

    @Jay:

    @wuzzat:

    @Feathers:

    I just took hot chocolate chip cookies out of the oven, y’all can come sit (an appropriate distance) with me and have some. ? (And anyone I might have missed)

  132. 132.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    @Doug R:

    Nice!

  133. 133.

    opiejeanne

    June 28, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    @debbie: Hahaha! Yeah, I still have my Strunk & White Style Book from college somewhere, back when I was an English Major.

    I will confess to correcting sung lyrics on the radio, and I have erased an unnecessary apostrophe on a chalkboard outside a bookstore that announced that “(something) book’s are available”. Just casually wiped it with my thumb as I walked past. The woman behind me thanked me, said it was bugging her too.

  134. 134.

    dmsilev

    June 28, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    @WaterGirl: So, you chose who looked at the draft first based on which word you preferred?

  135. 135.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the report won’t come out until London stops relying on dirty, looted Russian and other kleptocracies money.

    but it will increase the pressure.

  136. 136.

    Sandia Blanca

    June 28, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @JoyceH:  Is it misdirection, or is it the projection/unintended confession he does so often? You know, since we are all assuming it is worse than we know so far, maybe the Russians are also attacking out troops? And he’s blurting it out because that’s what he does. Just a thought experiment.

  137. 137.

    debbie

    June 28, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Yeah, I’ve worked for two people at the same time. I would end up changing it back to what I had. They never noticed.

  138. 138.

    Jay

    June 28, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    @TaMara (HFG):

     

    thanks for the cookies, still warm from the oven.

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    June 28, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    @dmsilev: Pretty sure that I did!  :-)

  140. 140.

    oclib

    June 28, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    The story line is changing a bit….a new excuse has now been inserted….

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1277431695248183298

  141. 141.

    Doug R

    June 29, 2020 at 12:00 am

    @Doug R: Defund the grammar police police.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    June 29, 2020 at 12:00 am

    @TaMara (HFG): I didn’t realize I was hungry until I read that.  I guess I’ll just go to bed rather than eat something.

    Good night, all.

  143. 143.

    debbie

    June 29, 2020 at 12:01 am

    @oclib:

    And in response:

    You’re fucked. Intel leaked it because they knew it to be credible; knew it was traitorous to do nothing; and knew you’d lie once it was revealed.They’re smarter than you. And now they will bury you with corroboration.— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) June 29, 2020

  144. 144.

    Punchy

    June 29, 2020 at 12:02 am

    @Another Scott: He is not a fucking toddler.

    Well….yeah, he kinda is.  Emotionally at least.  Can’t expect a toddler to read more than 2 sentences without needing a distraction.

  145. 145.

    sanjeevs

    June 29, 2020 at 12:02 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Did you see that the British head of the NSA (and Civil service) Mark Sedwill resigned this weekend.

    He’ll be replaced as NSA chief by David Frost the Brexit negotiator and former chief of the Scotch Whiskey Association.

    Another win for Vlad.

  146. 146.

    Another Scott

    June 29, 2020 at 12:03 am

    @Doug R: Hehe.

    Speaking of police…

    A reminder that after he returned from destroying the ring, Frodo temporarily served as Deputy Mayor of the Shire, and his sole act was to defund the police pic.twitter.com/jmEVWzOvmP

    — Samuel Miller McDonald (@sjmmcd) June 27, 2020

    Hmmm… :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  147. 147.

    opiejeanne

    June 29, 2020 at 12:03 am

    @Adam L Silverman: I had no idea he taught anything at all, but that’s interesting.

    There’s a correlation to that within the dance world; some teachers have such a pronounced style as to be technically incorrect part of the time* so that their students can’t perform any other way, which is a handicap when you want to dance professionally, and Bob Fosse is dead but he wouldn’t hire these dancers anyway.

    * think Bob Fosse’s hunched shoulders and flexed feet, and after he learned proper technique he made that his personal style; the dancers he hired had to know proper technique for him to hire them. Watch what he and Gwen Verdon do in this, flexed feet/not pointed in a lot of the kicks, Fosse dancing flat-footed : https://youtu.be/BIiZuAVZH4w

  148. 148.

    Haydnseek

    June 29, 2020 at 12:04 am

    @opiejeanne: I was at a crawdad joint in Lake Charles LA and there was a bulletin board on the wall with locals posting notices about various things in town.  Someone had a 3×5 card on it with the simple message “For sale, yard eggs.”  I swear they had managed to work two apostrophes into that simple statement.  Don’t ask me why, but  it just made me love that state even more.

  149. 149.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 12:04 am

    Nothing has changed since Russia invaded Crimea, Newton’s 1st law of the GRU – agents will stay in motion with the same speed & in the same direction unless acted upon by a counter force. We are 6 years in, ?? has not pushed back.— Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) June 28, 2020

  150. 150.

    opiejeanne

    June 29, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @Doug R: We work for free.

  151. 151.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 12:10 am

    The mayor of St. Louis is facing backlash for reading aloud during a public briefing the full names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department. https://t.co/ADwjPFmH5G— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 28, 2020

  152. 152.

    opiejeanne

    June 29, 2020 at 12:11 am

    @Haydnseek: egg’s’? I’s that where the two apostrophe’s were?

  153. 153.

    terry chay

    June 29, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @central texas: If you are advocating we go back to a Cold War state with Russia like in the 1980’s when we were doing it to them or the 1960’s when they were doing it to us in Vietnam or the 1850’s when they and China were doing it to us in Korea, then fine, all is fair in war.

    So let’s take all their foreign assets and sanction them. Let us enforce all our airspace’s and shoot their planes for the sky, let’s put a bounty in their heads in Syria.

    Moron. It is NOT the same. Putin knows it which is why he is denying it. If he admits to doing this like we did to each other in the Cold War (and freely admitted to such back then), he knows that the consequences are an end of Russia’s entire economy followed by the end of his rule. They engage in this asymmetrical warfare the same reason other countries like the Taliban themselves do it. Because they have no power projection.

  154. 154.

    opiejeanne

    June 29, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @Haydnseek: Also, yard eggs? Meaning his chickens lay the eggs where ever they damned well please, and the owner has to go wading through the bushes and weeds looking for them? Or is it just that he has chickens and will sell you some of their eggs?

  155. 155.

    Haydnseek

    June 29, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @opiejeanne:Eggsactly!  I just seem to remember things like that.  I  thought it was funny and sort of charming.  Put politics aside, and it’s just that kind of place.

  156. 156.

    Haydnseek

    June 29, 2020 at 12:18 am

    @opiejeanne: I wondered about that at the time, and the first thing that came to mind was some sort of weird Easter egg hunt scenario.

  157. 157.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 12:22 am

    @oclib: @debbie: From the final paragraph of the post:

    I expect more information will come out, it will continue to be damning, and the President and his surrogates will try to ignore the underlying reality while lashing out at those who are reporting it.

  158. 158.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @sanjeevs: I had not.

  159. 159.

    hitchhiker

    June 29, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Doug R:

    lol, for real.

    a throwaway comment has taken up way more than its rightful share of emotional energy in this here thread.

  160. 160.

    West of the Rockies

    June 29, 2020 at 12:31 am

    So, Adam, if you are still here, do you think this story will result in any firings in the administration? Trump and Pence will (I hope) see their approval ratings take a hit, but do you see anything beyond that? I know I’m asking you to speculate, but do you have any gut feelings?

  161. 161.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 12:32 am

    Interesting!

    After Trump cancelled his Taliban meet an envoy today arrived in Russia. Yesterday Russian officials were urging for Trump to resume negotiations. Last time Taliban was in Russia was in May.

    Sidenote. where is the * Russian media assigns when talking about terrorists pic.twitter.com/CUNx0YbDeg— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) September 13, 2019

  162. 162.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 12:35 am

    @opiejeanne: Segal used to have his own aikido organization. It was never very big and once he sort of made it in Hollywood choreographing fight scenes for movies and doing his own, he began teaching a lot of actors. He royally screwed up Sean Connery’s wrist, as in he broke it, doing kotegaeshi/wrist turning throw on him. Which is really hard to do because the whole point of kotegaeshi is that because you’re going with how the joint turns and rotates, while you can apply some pain for control, you can’t break the bones in the wrist.

    Anyhow, his was never one of the larger US aikido organizations. And eventually he moved away from aikido to the fusion stuff he was doing in his movies.

    The interesting, or perhaps ironic, thing about the people doing Saito Sensei’s style is they are taught to mimic their instructors. Basically be a clone. The entire style is pure form, no function. When we had one of their senior instructors in for a seminar when I was running the dojo at UF I told my students that the key to success for the weekend was to mimic what the guest instructor would be teaching as closely as possible. I apparently did such a good job that she offered to promote me if I’d jump to her organization.

    Anyhow, my interests are in things beyond form. And, frankly, beyond function. I’m interested in the strategic concept that underlie aikido and its strategic applications. Which is not something you can really work on on the mat. Or in any dojo.

  163. 163.

    patrick II

    June 29, 2020 at 12:38 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I had a friend who had a black belt in Karate.  His 18 year old son had a brown belt.  They gave a karate demonstration on stage at a Japanese festival immediately followed by an Aikido demonstration. After the Aikido was over my friend and his son were talking to the head of the Aikido school — a third-degree black belt named Mark. The young man told Mark how beautiful the art was, and that it was too bad it was totally useless in a fight.  Mark looked at him and asked, “Why don’t we step out into the mat?”  The kid looked to his dad who said “Don’t look at me”.

    So the kid steps out onto the mat and after his first real attempted punch went flying across the stage.  Important lesson, a brown belt should never tell a third-degree black belt his art is useless.

  164. 164.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @West of the Rockies: Most likely not.

  165. 165.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 29, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @Punchy: 3 year old trapped in a 74 year old body.

  166. 166.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @patrick II: Oopsie!

    When I was in St. Andrews, which is where I started aikido, at one point I was seeing a woman from the Shotokan karate dojo. Actually, over the years I dated three different women from that dojo. Anyhow, one year when they would bring Enoida Sensei, the Shotokan Shihan/Grand Master/Head of Organization in for a seminar he came upstairs to figure out what all the noise was above him. It was me teaching an aikido class and we were in the room directly above where he was running his seminar. He stuck his head in the room and went “Oh, aikido”, nodded, and went back to his class. At the end of the week I went to watch the woman I was dating do a test for promotion. When Enoida started talking after the tests he saw me sitting to the side and launched into that karate was about learning to master ki from the outside in and aikido from the inside out and those who are truly practicing them will eventually get all the same principles and concepts, but from different directions. I’ve always thought this was as good a description as any.

  167. 167.

    KrakenJack

    June 29, 2020 at 1:03 am

    @Adam L Silverman: I took Aikido (Shinshin toitsu) fairly intensely for several years in Hawaii. It was a relief after the testosterone-poisoned university karate dojo bragging about their bar fights. I liked the ethical under-pinnings. It was very traditional dojo and the style is more focused on the mental aspect than practical self-defense. Our particular dojo had women and retirees. However, I’d still get chewed out by the sensei for “shibai” if I didn’t attack with intent.

    In the 30 years since, I’ve moved around a lot but haven’t found a Ki Society that I could fit into my routine. I tried Aikikai (dojo run by some kids, unfortunately). I’m probably too old for hard-style Aikikai. I’m inspired to try again post covid.

  168. 168.

    Origuy

    June 29, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @trollhattan: Psst, Chelsea is Biden’s running mate. Pass it on.

    Considering her doctorate is in international relations, I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden appoints her to some position in the State Department. It’s going to need a complete makeover.

  169. 169.

    Adam L Silverman

    June 29, 2020 at 1:09 am

    @KrakenJack: Send me an email and let me know where you’re at and I’ll see who I can recommend. The Ki Society is not what it was. And it was never as big in the US as either Yamada Sensei’s Aikikai or my sensei’s, Saotome Sensei’s Aikido Schools of Ueshiba.

  170. 170.

    Yutsano

    June 29, 2020 at 1:12 am

    @Origuy: It would be worth it for the wailing and gnashing of teeth alone. But I highly doubt you could get her back to DC no matter how much her skills would be sorely needed in the State department.

  171. 171.

    Kent

    June 29, 2020 at 1:19 am

    @Adam L Silverman:@Kent: I’ve seen three different news reports, including the one I’ve linked to where I stated that in the post, indicating it was in the PDB. I’m taking that to mean it was in the written PDB.

    Which means that EVERYONE did their job but the President.

  172. 172.

    Brian

    June 29, 2020 at 1:21 am

    @opiejeanne: ”actor” is doing some heavy lifting.

  173. 173.

    Amir Khalid

    June 29, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @Brian:

    Especially these days. That “actor” has grown much weightier in recent years.

  174. 174.

    AxelFoley

    June 29, 2020 at 1:31 am

    @joel hanes:

    This describes nearly every member of Trump’s cabinet, his White House staff, and his agency appointees.

     

    Fixed that for you.

  175. 175.

    Keith P.

    June 29, 2020 at 1:37 am

    I must confess I have a guilty pleasure – watching Steven Seagal videos and interviews on Youtube.  There’s a really funny one with him eating a carrot and thumping a melon in Belarus, but his aikido demos are the hightlight (particularly the recent ones).  He stuffs a towel in his gi to mask how fat he’s gotten, and his throws have been reduced to pushing a charging student left or right and having them dive all over the place, occasionally getting their directions mixed up.

  176. 176.

    Greg Hilliard

    June 29, 2020 at 1:41 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Trump May have gone too far in his tweet, saying he was neither briefed nor told.

  177. 177.

    PIGL

    June 29, 2020 at 1:57 am

    @Adam L Silverman: thats what my Fu style Tai Chi master said re chinese internal vis-a-vis external arts.

  178. 178.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 1:57 am

    @Kent:

    as Adam noted, nope. Just putting it in the PDB (which Dumph doesn’t read, even if you put it in cartoon form) isn’t “doing their jobs”, it’s just CYA.

    If needed, on an issue to this severity, if the President sticks his tiny fingers in his ears and goes “lalalalalalal I can’t hear you!” and refuses to hear you,

    You go on Faux and Friends or OANN.

    Then, you have “done your job”.

  179. 179.

    prostratedragon

    June 29, 2020 at 1:59 am

    @patrick II:
    One thing I learned from my days of martial arts was a humble appreciation of the skills, actual or potential, of others.

  180. 180.

    JCNZee

    June 29, 2020 at 2:09 am

    @TaMara (HFG): Right on.

  181. 181.

    TS (the original)

    June 29, 2020 at 2:18 am

    @hitchhiker:

    thanks – it really has distracted me from the information Adam is providing – which is always worth reading.

  182. 182.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 2:45 am

    The mayor of St. Louis released the full names and addresses of protesters during a public briefing, so protesters showed up to her home tonight. https://t.co/vvIaiNPBhK— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 29, 2020

  183. 183.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 2:49 am

    The @nytimes found at least 70 people died in law enforcement custody after saying “I can’t breathe.”

    The majority were stopped over nonviolent infractions, 911 calls about suspicious behavior or concerns about mental health.

    More than half were black. https://t.co/Caauezt4CT— Danielle Ivory (@danielle_ivory) June 29, 2020

  184. 184.

    opiejeanne

    June 29, 2020 at 2:53 am

    @Brian: This is true. I found it difficult to believe he was a cook, let alone anything beyond that.

  185. 185.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 2:56 am

    Rich people came out of their mansion armed with guns and pointed them at #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators in #StLouis who were protesting the Mayor for doxxing local activists. https://t.co/cGCyPlQKNT pic.twitter.com/j4PHdsts3d— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) June 29, 2020

  186. 186.

    James E Powell

    June 29, 2020 at 3:02 am

    @Origuy:

    Considering her doctorate is in international relations, I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden appoints her to some position in the State Department.

    The NYT will go insane. She & her husband will end up having to produce every financial record since before they were married.

  187. 187.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 3:02 am

    Tonight Detroit police drove into a group of protesters, then, when they were stopped in the middle of the group, they hit the gas.?: @DJEazyTwist pic.twitter.com/ksQPlpvZSP— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) June 29, 2020

  188. 188.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 3:28 am

    The first #Pride started as a response to police brutality. Today, peaceful protesters were pepper sprayed on the 51st anniversary of Stonewall. This is incredibly disturbing. We need a full investigation into what happened today. https://t.co/QpUG9OIej7— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) June 29, 2020

  189. 189.

    Jay

    June 29, 2020 at 3:47 am

    is this what you said right before siccing riot cops and tear gas on teenage violinists https://t.co/YBmSupQNqa— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) June 29, 2020

  190. 190.

    TS (the original)

    June 29, 2020 at 4:37 am

    @James E Powell:

    The NYT will go insane. She & her husband will end up having to produce every financial record since before they were married.

    And I fervently hope they would refuse. Trump has set a new record.  Biden should produce NOTHING for the media. Let them cry & remind them how they demanded nothing from trump.

  191. 191.

    Amir Khalid

    June 29, 2020 at 5:12 am

    @TS (the original):

    They wouldn’t refuse. Chelsea’s parents have been releasing their taxes as a matter course for decades, even without any legal or indeed ethical requirement.

  192. 192.

    Barney

    June 29, 2020 at 5:23 am

    One correction: Sky News is no longer owned by Murdoch. In the restructuring of Murdoch’s empire, Disney got 21st Century Fox, and Comcast got Sky. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_UK .

  193. 193.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    June 29, 2020 at 5:23 am

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah, and a lot of good it did them.  That’s how they found out about one Hillary’s crimes, speaking fees.

  194. 194.

    MomSense

    June 29, 2020 at 5:39 am

    @opiejeanne:

    He also hired a lot of Luigi trained dancers.

  195. 195.

    prostratedragon

    June 29, 2020 at 5:49 am

    Random observation: morning should not be guilding the fucking sky at 4:45am.

  196. 196.

    Barney

    June 29, 2020 at 6:00 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Have you seen Boris’s current tactic to suppress the report? He is trying to get the Intelligence and Security Committee to appoint Chris Grayling as its chairman. Not only does he have no experience in the area, as that article says, he is also a running joke in British politics as hopelessly incompetent – his attempts to run the Department of Transport (eg giving an emergency contract to run ferries for vital supplies in case of Brexit breakdown to a company that had never owned a ship, and which based its online terms and conditions on a pizza delivery company) were a national punchline.

    So there’s all-party opposition to this – Labour, SNP, Lib Dems and the Tories who care about security (I think some Tories are toeing the Boris line). Which puts it in deadlock, and has stopped the committee from forming for months. And if they were to give in and appoint the doofus, then the ISC would be incompetently run by someone who owes his position to Boris.

  197. 197.

    Brian

    June 29, 2020 at 6:52 am

    @Amir Khalid: Ouch

  198. 198.

    SFAW

    June 29, 2020 at 8:13 am

    @prostratedragon:

    should not be guilding the fucking sky at 4:45am.

    “gilding,” (he said, waiting to feel the wroth of the “no fucking pedantry in this joint, asshole” crowd)

    That said: I agree. Should probably move into a different time zone.

  199. 199.

    patrick II

    June 29, 2020 at 8:32 am

    @prostratedragon:

    So did the boy…eventually.

  200. 200.

    dimmsdale

    June 29, 2020 at 8:34 am

    @Adam L Silverman:  Frankly, I’ll not be surprised to find out Talking Anus has HIMSELF been collecting a portion of each bounty paid, as a commission. Look at his behavior! so very early in his “presidency,” people were asking, “If he were indeed on the Russian payroll, would his actions be any different?” And the answer was Of Course Not. “Same as it ever was……”

  201. 201.

    jonas

    June 29, 2020 at 8:51 am

    Looks like now Trump is claiming that the bounty-on-troops thing was on the IC’s radar, but that it was deemed “not credible,” so it never made it into the PDB. And I’m assuming by “not credible” he means “deemed likely to piss me off because it would force me to confront Putin over it, so it was buried.”

    Meanwhile people at the DIA and CIA are like “why the hell isn’t the president saying something about this?” and when they realize that political appointees at some level are embargoing the intelligence, they leak to the press.

  202. 202.

    chopper

    June 29, 2020 at 9:37 am

    @SFAW:

    you mean “wrath”. (gets thrown off the bridge of death)

  203. 203.

    Chief Oshkosh

    June 29, 2020 at 9:54 am

    @TaMara (HFG): Lighten up, Francis.  ;)

  204. 204.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    June 29, 2020 at 11:17 am

    I finally had time to read this post. It’s absolutely damning.

  205. 205.

    cwmoss

    June 29, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    @opiejeanne: seems to me that big kids can easily ignore a /pedant note about a typo or whatever. I easily ignored that one (though I did notice the principal/principle spelling errors by wasn’t bothered by them, as it’s a freee we sent joke at my office that no one knows which one to use in which situation).  It’s taken a bit more work to ignore the low intensity flame war about whether it’s ok to point out such errors.

     

    (idk how to make the “1.”below go away)

  206. 206.

    Another Scott

    June 29, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    @cwmoss: The “Numbered list” icon in the editor (8th button from the left in the Visual edit window) probably got clicked.  Clicking it again would make the “1.” go away.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  207. 207.

    John A. Broussard

    June 29, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    Somewhere in this discussion the question of whether or not Trump is a liar has come up.  That question deserves the comment that, whether or not he lies is really irrelevant.  What is important is whether or not what he says is true.  Fortunately, that is much easier to resolve than dealing with the pejorative term “liar.”

    If a person flatly contradicts themselves….over and over again.  Than there is something radically wrong with that person.  No moral judgement need be made.

    If that person happens to be the President of the United States, then those flat-out contradictions have significant consequences for this country, and for the whole world.   That person cannot be trusted.  But trust, alone, is not the issue.  The question really is, “What should be done about this extremely dangerous person?”

  208. 208.

    WaterGirl

    June 29, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    @John A. Broussard: What a great comment!

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