The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) released the fifth and final volume of their multipart report on Russia’s Active Measures Campaign and Interference in the 2016 presidential election yesterday. You can find the first four volumes at this link.
This fifth volume is entitled Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities and despite that title it really ties together all the pieces from the previous four reports.
The real takeaway from this fifth volume of the report, and one that is not found anywhere in the report, is that despite knowing everything I am going to detail below, the 8 Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had read the initial and penultimate drafts of this report, as well as the underlying supporting intelligence and materials by the time the President’s impeachment trial was held at the end of January. All of them knew exactly what was done, who did what, etc. All of them knew that a significant portion of the President’s defense – that Ukraine had really been conspiring with HRC and the Democratic Party and had framed Russia and the President to prevent him from becoming president – was not just a lie, but a lie created by Russian intelligence transmitted by Konstantin Kilimnik, a GRU asset and the handler for Paul Manafort, to Manafort and through him to the President and other Republicans. They knew his defense was Russian misinformation and agitprop. They knew what he had actually done in the campaign and since the campaign vis a vis Putin and Russia. And they still, every last fucking one of them, voted against hearing evidence and witnesses and actually holding a proper trial. And then they, every last fucking one of them, voted to acquit him.
This is the real conclusion and takeaway from reading this fifth volume of the multi-volume report. All 8 of these Republican senators – Burr, Rubio, Risch, Collins, Blunt, Cotton, Cornyn, and Sasse – knew and not only did nothing, they actively aided and abetted the cover up! They made themselves active participants of both furthering and covering up Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war against the United States!
Now that that is out of the way, the Bottom Line Up Front from reading the entire report, is that the report makes it very, very, very clear that Vladimir Putin personally ordered the active measures campaign to bolster the President’s candidacy and damage Secretary Clinton’s candidacy. The active measures campaign was also intended to damage a Hillary Clinton presidency to the point that she would be unable to govern if she were elected or to elect Donald Trump president, which would be an even better outcome for Putin and what he intends to achieve both domestically and globally.
The report also makes it very, very, very, very clear that the President himself, his campaign, his campaign officials, his family members (Don Jr. and Ivanka), and a number of his surrogates were either in regular touch with Russian assets or were in regular touch with those who were like Roger Stone. Or, as in the case of Manafort, is actually a Russian asset being handled by a GRU officer – Konstantin Kilimnik. That all of these people were attempting to either directly or indirectly coordinate, assist, and aid the Russians in what they were doing. That several, like Manafort and Stone, were conspiring directly with Russian assets to coordinate, assist, and aid the Russians in what they were doing.
The findings make it very, very, very, very clear that the President was coordinating at least the Roger Stone part of the op regarding the WikiLeaks’ releases.
The report also makes it clear that Ivanka Trump was coordinating the campaign’s weaponization and use of the WikiLeaks’ releases through social media.
Additionally, the report makes it clear that the President, Don McGahn, Manafort, Stone, Jr, Jared, Bannon, Stone, and the President’s two private lawyers Sekulow and Giuliani were obstructing the Mueller and congressional investigations in a variety of ways.
The report makes it very, very, very clear that the President lied in his answers to Mueller because it delineated that he was personally coordinating with Stone what Stone was doing with Assange and WikiLeaks. The President denied doing this in his written response to Mueller.
The findings are explicit that Russian intelligence created the misinformation and agitprop conspiracy theory that Ukraine actually conspired with HRC and the DNC in 2016 and then framed Russia and the President. And that Russia pushed this to the President, his transition, and Republicans through Kilimnik and Manafort. This demolishes what Senators Johnson and Grassley are trying to do with their hearings into VP Biden and his son Hunter. It also completely derails a significant portion of the President’s defense to the impeachment charges against him.
The findings make it crystal clear that not only was the President, working through Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, trying to make a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, but that Cohen and Sater were in contact with senior Kremlin officials and oligarchs close to Putin. That the President lied repeatedly in his denials of pursuing such a deal. And that the President was kept fully informed by Cohen and Sater.
The findings also make clear that Flynn contacted Kislyak with the express purpose of undermining, derailing, and overturning the actions of the Obama administration. The findings are explicit that under the Constitution the Obama administration was the sole and only presidential administration during the transition and therefore the sole and only wielder of executive authority and power until 20 JAN 2017. This completely undermines what Senator Graham is trying to do with his hearings on the origins of the Mueller investigation. It also completely destroys Flynn’s argument, as well as the DOJ’s supporting argument, that the charges against him should be dropped because there was no legitimate reason – predicate – for charging him in the first place. And despite the fact that he has twice pled guilty to the charges.
The findings are clear that Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI counterintelligence investigation and the Special Counsel investigation, were properly predicated. This completely demolishes what AG Barr is trying to accomplish through the investigation he has assigned to US Attorney Durham.
The findings are also clear that Russian intelligence created the Seth Rich murder conspiracy and then laundered it through Assange and Wikileaks into conservative and right wing news, social, and digital media. So Sean Hannity and Fox News, as well as other conservative news, social, and digital media sources were actively acting as, at least, unwitting assets of Russian intelligence.
The Republican majority appendix, as well as the acting committee chair Marco Rubio’s statements over the past 26 hours or so, have attempted to spin the report to make the claim that there was no collusion between the President, his campaign, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, and his transition officials with the Russians. And that the Russians have no compromising material on the President that they could have used to blackmail him during the 2016 campaign. This is a lie and it is immediately contradicted by the report’s delineation and detailing of all the actions the President, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, and his transition officials took to coordinate, conspire, facilitate, aid, and assist the Russians in their actions, as well as their still ongoing efforts to obstruct the investigations into their actions. It is also immediately contradicted by the detailing and delineation of the pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow deal, which the President, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, and his transition officials repeatedly lied about throughout the campaign and transition. This is, itself, compromising information. Putin and some of his most senior aides, advisors, and trusted agents all knew that the President was pursuing the deal, that he was desperate to make this development deal, and that he and everyone around him were constantly, repeatedly, and consistently lying about pursuing this development deal. This provided Putin with significant leverage over the President during the campaign, the transition, and the first several months of his administration.
To tie everything together neatly, despite knowing everything that the President, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, and his transition officials had done to coordinate with, conspire with, facilitate, aid, and assist the Russians directly or indirectly in conducting their active measures campaign during the 2016 presidential election, which is a hostile attack on the United States, as well as everything the President, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, his transition officials, his administration officials, and his personal attorneys had done to obstruct their investigation and Robert Mueller’s investigation, they still voted to not hold a proper trial in the Senate. They did so knowing his defense was rooted in and making wide use of a Russian intelligence created conspiracy theory to shift the blame off of both Russia and the President, which was why the President had tried to squeeze Ukraine’s president for dirt on the Bidens in order to both validate the conspiracy theory and use it to damage VP Biden’s campaign, and they allowed that defense to be presented without so much as a peep of objection. And then, knowing all of this, they voted to acquit him. In doing so Senators Burr, Rubio, Risch, Collins, Blunt, Cotton, Cornyn, and Sasse betrayed their oaths of office and actively aided and abetted the President and Vladimir Putin’s attempts to cover up Putin’s war against the United States. A war that is ongoing. A war that the President, his family members working on the campaign, his other campaign officials, his campaign surrogates, his transition, and his transition officials were all actively involved in; involvement they, as well as a number of administration officials and the President’s private attorneys, have all actively tried to cover up.
Open thread!
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – What Learning Styles Work For You?
SW
That’s why they ALL have togo down.
WereBear
Holy crap. It IS as bad as we thought.
randy khan
I am sorry to say that I don’t think this really is news. Of course they knew.
bucachon
Besides Collins how many more are up for re election this year? And, testify!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I’m just so glad Putin and the GOP, in all their infinite wisdom, saw fit to put a toddler in charge of the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet
joel hanes
@bucachon:
You can donate to Cornyn’s Democratic opponent
here
Adam L Silverman
@bucachon: Cotton, Cornyn, and Sasse.
Gin & Tonic
Excellent summary, Adam.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Thank you.
Mike in DC
Audit the executive branch and abolish the filibuster. And pack the court if necessary.
piratedan
yeah, but you’re STILL going to have to give me a reason to vote FOR Biden…… /////
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: How about I will add you to my list of people to visit on my multi-state murder spree. I’m not a serial killer or anything, I’m just a homicide enthusiast. It’s a hobby, not a calling.//
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mike in DC:
I agree, but will Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, et al actually do it? Based on past actions, I think they’re too conventional
Danielx
And William Barr will say….what?
Adam L Silverman
@Danielx: He’s actively part of the obstruction.
rikyrah
The Twitter handle and KHive member-Black Women Views said that Hillary’s speech could be one sentence, and then drop the mic:
I told you, Bitches.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA H HA AH HA
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: or if you give me enough time to clear my schedule, I could drive for you… would even be willing to provide snacks…
Splitting Image
While I am happy to concede that, first, Putin’s Russia works by identifying people who can be compromised and arranging kompromat to bend them to their will, and second, that the Republican party is chock-full of crooks, grifters, adulterers, child molesters and other sorts of people who are thereby easy prey for Russian agents, I don’t think that we should underestimate how many of these guys are going along with this willingly.
Jeffro
@randy khan: have to agree and hope that someone takes action to remove these threats to our country. Stat.
Also, I see the president* just endorsed the wacko QAnons from the presidential* lectern. I’m torn between laughing, crying, and wanting to remind my TCNJ relatives that they actually can fall further, much further, per Michelle Obama’s warning earlier this week.
Wowzers…
wvng
I would add that on the day they voted to acquit, they had already been briefed that a terrible disease was on its way and they ALL knew that Trump was incapable of providing the leadership the country would need to get through it.
zhena gogolia
Thanks for the post.
Wag
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel about this.
Trump and Co. and criminals that deserve to rot in prison.
Wag
@WereBear: Or worse
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@wvng:
Probably thought it was “just the flu”
Wyatt Salamanca
Adam, as usual thanks for another brilliant analysis!
Balloon Juice is extremely fortunate to have you on its roster.
zhena gogolia
But what about the pee-pee tapes?
Wag
@zhena gogolia: I’ve no doubt that there’re real. Do you have doubts?
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
That would be the Greatest Thing.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: There are none.
The report intimates that he began an affair with a woman in Moscow during a trip in 1997. It could not fully confirm this and there is no indication how long it went on.
If I had to speculate, I’d educatedly guess that every time he went to Moscow an attractive woman, or women, were steered in his direction. And that there is likely imagery and audio of them interacting in his hotel rooms. The golden showers tape, however, is somewhere between most likely and clearly misinformation.
Mary G
I wish I was sure they wouldn’t get away with it, but I’m not so sure. My housemates’ family lives on Spanish FaceBook and have been busy posting Russian conspiracy theories nonstop for a couple of weeks now. The ones who are naturalized are all staunch Democratic voters, but a pretty large percentage of them may well sit the election out. She keeps trying to debunk stuff without any success. I am discouraged and depressed today, but will keep taking care of business.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Intentional misinformation?
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
This is the thread in which to repost J.-L. Cauvin’s Michael Cohen impression:
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
They won’t get away with it. It will be an obviously fraudulent election, one we should not accept the results of if we lose
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: There is an active voter suppression via text message campaign going on right now that I’m convinced is coming from the Trump campaign given how the texts are written even though they claim to be acting on behalf of the Biden campaign and the Democrats.
Villago Delenda Est
Burr, Rubio, Risch, Collins, Blunt, Cotton, Cornyn, and Sasse
Every one of them is an accomplice to treason.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: Niedermayer has no Dem opposition this year.
Roger Moore
@Splitting Image:
It’s always easier to work with both a threat and a reward. When things are going well, the reward is enough, and the threat is only implied in the background.
Mary G
OT but scary af:
Not sure there’s anywhere for me to go except the beach, as the only roads leading out of town are the I-5 and PCH, which’ll be parking lots. Packing up some pills and stuff and putting a new cat carrier together. Pray for us or whatever you do.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes. Inserted to discredit the rest of the accurate information.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Thanks, but no thanks!
Shana
@Adam L Silverman: What are they saying?
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): And just what will you or anyone else do to not accept those results?
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m aware.
James E Powell
@rikyrah:
I really want her to use the word deplorable.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
What the people of Belarus are doing right now. The alternative is to live on our knees as slaves while our collective future is destroyed. The George Floyd protests and the later resistance to the DHS goons in Seattle and Portland showed that there’s a lot of vitality in Americans
mrmoshpotato
But but but!
“and we’ll vote to acquit him, even with what we know.”
Go to hell, Susan!
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I wish, but they got away with it in 2016 and Barr has a lot of guns available.
@Adam L Silverman: Called Grandpa, who fills out everyone’s ballot after president anyway, and hatched a plan to go take them and the signed envelope the day they arrive. He’s recently retired and promises to do it. What else can we do?
Dan B
Excellent post Adam! I hope some national pundits pick it up. Their current analysis is quite blinkered.
Adam L Silverman
@Shana: I’ll do a proper post on it, but here’s the image:
And here’s the text:
This language is too similar to the Trump campaign fundraising scam emails. Of matching donations that are active or activated, but only for a limited time, etc.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G: Praying! Keep us informed if you can.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: Congrats on your nomination! And
good luck with your new hobbythanks for the post.Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Josh Marshall has said often that we need anybody who is running for anything this year to commit to an audit of every-fucking-thing that these mobsters have done in the almost four years they’ve been squatting in our government. I’m going to call my congressman and senators tomorrow.
Matt
“Republicans are criminals” is 2020’s “dog bites man”.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, come on, it’s just a few seconds and it’s brilliant!
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Sure, sure.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato:
Starfish
But Collins and Sasse are such reasonable conservatives who deserve to be taken seriously. ?
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: That’s a plan.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: Norm Ornstein tweeted it out for me, but I doubt it’ll get much push beyond that.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: And thanks for the kind words.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Geez, that language is whiny as all get out. It’s so bad it’s actually insulting to the typical Trump supporter’s intelligence
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: Nomination? I don’t understand.
Winston
Interesting, but isn’t this just what Adam Schiff said? I’d support impeachment again using this report as evidence. As to Rubio, Scott, Cruz, this unrolled thread from Steve Schmidt is refreshing.
What a privilege it is to be able to address @tedcruz @marcorubio @SenRickScott all at once. It is no slander and the same criticism applies to you. Never has anything been so clear and obvious as the truth that both Rubio and you lack principle and courage. Trump has cruelly
attacked your Wife, the Mother of your daughters and your Father. You debase yourself to maintain his favor for the low purpose of protecting your position and title. During this hour of crisis you could have stood up for American democracy, security and simple decency. You 2/
did not. You took the podium four years ago at the GOP convention and for a moment refused to yield. You capitulated. Then you collaborated. This is what you share in common with Marco. You both submitted fully to the indecency, incompetence, corruption and rank dishonesty that
you once decried. You both became lackeys for the conman you once denounced. Is it fair to speculate how the both of you would have behaved at a different place and a different time in history? Is it fair to speculate what you would do if a demagogic leader with an autocratic
disposition came to power? What if he assaulted the rule of law and attacked essential institutions would you rise up? If he gave moral succor to White Supremacists and inflamed racial animus, would you say enough? If he refused to confront Russia over their bounties
for dead Americans would you condemn him? If his idiocy and incompetence led to the deaths of 170,000 souls, a wrecked economy and a million shattered dreams would you say enough!? What would you say if peaceful protestors exercising their god given rights to speech and assembly
were attacked by State Security Services? We know the answer. Nothing. You would get in line because you got in line. That’s why this is fair. What is your argument? That you would be faithful defenders of liberty, freedom and democracy in all of the other countries with the
Exception of America? No doubt Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio look in the mirror and see leaders staring back. The rest of us see Joiners because that is what they are. The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report yesterday. Let’s call it the Rubio Report because he is the
Chairman of the Committee, having replaced Richard Burr at the 11th hour. One man’s insider trading scandal is another man’s opportunity as they say in the GOP conference. The report documents in great detail the Russian penetration of Trump’s campaign and Trump’s perjury.
Marco Rubio of course did what he always does. He did what Trump expected. He gaslit the American people by saying the report said the opposite of what in fact it said. Would Rubio have given up his position of power and privilege in 1959 Cuba to fight back against the tyrant?
Would Cruz? Of course not. We know for certain because we have watched them dance on the pin for 3.5 years now. Had they been in France in 1943 they would have made good Vichy. The Trump era is coming to an end. When we account for the massive injury Trump has done to this
Country it is important to always remember he had help. He couldn’t have done it without his accomplices and enablers. It is always so. Lastly, there seems to be some confusion on the part of the Ted Cruz’s and Marco Rubio’s of the world about why so many people are peacefully
protesting injustice on the streets in this country. Maybe this helps. Think about all the black kids that are in jail for a dime bag and then think about Rick Scott who took the 5th 75 times in a massive Medicare fraud case. That criminal gets to be a Senator and venerate
Trump next to you guys. Doesn’t seem fair. @ProjectLincoln PS. Just for Ted, My favorite Presidential directive from the 04 campaign will always be when GWB said of you, “I never want to see that asshole on TV with my name next to his.” You do seem to summon strong reactions.
bucachon
@Adam L Silverman: one can hope that we see them at the very least squirm if not a full-on implosion
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Don’t get me wrong. We need to do everything possible to avoid that. Vote early, etc.
Adam L Silverman
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): And audit is insufficient. I will do a post before Friday on it, but what we need is a proper Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Alison Rose
This ought to become Democrats’ version of Arya’s kill list. But, you know…less murdery.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You should see the push poll they texted me two weeks ago about who should be the VP choice.
Adam L Silverman
@Winston: I’ve had prior dealings with Schmidt that I cannot disclose because of a NDA. He’s erudite. He would also sell his mother for a quarter.
Alison Rose
@rikyrah: I’ve been thinking a lot about Al Gore’s intro line in An Inconvenient Truth (possibly not verbatim):
“I used to be the next president of the United States.”
Eric S.
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s a list that we should give to Arya Stark.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
Reading Adam’s comments on this report last night, I was thinking Hillary’s speech could begin with a sigh, and then just head shaking and glaring at the camera straight-on with a sigh here and there. Closing (and only) lines: “I’m not mad. I’m mad and disappointed.” We’d know it wasn’t meant for the 65,853,516 of us.
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to go eat, back in about 20 minutes or so.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But weren’t the GOP debates entertaining?
No. No. They were a shitshow from a shitpile party of at least 40 years.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: This. Criminal cases can be politicized and evaded using stolen money to pay lawyers, but I say get people like Fiona Hill and Alex Vindman to testify in every single area of the government.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My mood has been all over the pace for months. I was pretty happy today but now I’m Fucking pissed off again per usual.
Another Scott
Remember Michael Che’s Lester Holt interview with Baldwin/Trump on SNL?
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/lester-holt-cold-open/3517004 (5:11)
Yeah, it’s like that. It’s always like that.
:-(
153 days, 17 hours or so to go until Uncle Joe takes the oath, FSM willing.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eric NNY
Meme this shit and start spreading it on social media, especially in the states where those Senators are up for re-election.
MomSense
I like this salty, fbomb throwing Adam Silverman.
The Republican Party is rotten.
Mallard Filmore
@Adam L Silverman:
Perhaps your professional career path requires you to be sedate in these matters. If this “Reconciliation” thingy does not preclude a few executions for baby snatching, I’m with you.
Mary G
Mary G
piratedan
@Alison Rose: I dunno, if we don’t feel murdery, maybe we just ship them off to The Hague, I’m not sure how I feel about my tax dollars continuing their existence. They’ve yet to seize any opportunity of decency, show a single sign of redemption. I wanna go Prince Humperdinck on the entire crew and make the rest of their miserable lives just one of abject misery and pain, emotional, physical, psychological and perhaps that’s just me being petty and cruel, but for those of an old testament bent, you reap what you sow.
Damned_at_Random
Thank You. I was making this point to the spousal unit.
Cornyn, Collins, Risch, Sasse and Cotton are all up for reelection this year. Their cowardly choice to put party before country should be highlighted by the opposition and they should be questioned about this choice at debates and town halls.
Make them explain and make them sweat.
(Sorry if I am repeating another post here – I didn’t read the comments yet – just had to get this off my chest)
TS (the original)
@Mary G: We live with these fires every year in Australia – thinking the best of thoughts for you Mary
CaseyL
We’ve been speculating all along that one reason the GOP doesn’t care whether evidence of its treason comes out is because it knows it has the 2020 election in the bag. Dicking around with the Post Office, closing down polling stations, and convincing wide swaths of potentially violent assholes that anything but a Trump victory is illegitimate sounds like the tools are arrayed to ensure the GOP comes out on top in 2020 – or that the US erupts into some variety of nation-wide civil conflict.
What fun.
Luciamia
@Mary G: Oh Mary. Goddamn! Praying for your safety and everybody round you.
A Ghost to Most
@randy khan: Not only that, but it distracts from what’s coming.
Post-mortems can come later.
debbie
@wvng:
Yes, but like Trump, they thought it would only hit the blue states. //
Adam L Silverman
@Old Dan and Little Ann: You’re welcome.
gwangung
@CaseyL: What I’m afraid of is “guerrilla” attacks on drop boxes and voters, both early and on Election Day.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Do you have a place to go and the ability to evacuate now? Or within a couple of days regardless of what happens with the fires? Worst case scenario is you go home in a week or two. Best case scenario is you didn’t get trapped.
TriassicSands
And what has been very, very, very, very clear for years is that those eight senators and all but one of their colleagues are thoroughly dishonest and corrupt. The depth of their dishonesty and corruption is demonstrated by their willingness to subvert our democracy and to assist a person, Putin, and a country, Russia, that are our enemies. All that in the service of a president that no sane, decent person who values a free society would ever support. I suspect that many Republicans aren’t concerned because they refuse to entertain the idea that their senators could actually be traitors. Never underestimate the stupidity of Republicans. Plus, lots of them are fascists.
Adam L Silverman
@TS (the original): Yes, but your fires are also highly poisonous.
MomSense
@Mary G:
Mary, I’m praying for you.
CaseyL
@gwangung: Yes, which is why I’m trying to find out if there is an organized effort to guard them, esp. in swing cities and states. It’s possible no one wants to advertise such a thing, and any protection will be ad hoc and ad lib.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve seen two explanations for the pee tape, kink and desecration. Are you saying both are misinformation?
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Yes.
Tazj
Thanks for the analysis.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks. I was sure the second one was right.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
https://nickgray.net/stop-republicans/
Bill Arnold
From a previous thread, another footnote. (Cohen is, from context, Michael Cohen). Somebody should ask Cohen if this was truth or lie. (Assuming it’s not in his book.) Sideshow, sure, but if in any way true, it tells us some more about the awfulness of D.J.Trump and the henchmen and sycophants who buzz around him.
This report is very much a “always read the footnotes” document. Too bad so many footnotes are redacted.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Not really anywhere that’s guaranteed to be OK. Hotels are just as vulnerable. It’s worse in NorCal than where I am right now, but I’m packing the car with go bag and water in case and to practice.
Humidity is high and wind only 9 mph here. Wood shingled roofs have been outlawed since the 70s here and the city has become stricter and stricter about brush clearance. The Marines at Pendleton were shooting their big guns Monday, but stopped due to the warnings. So everyone is doing what we can. My neighbor the deranged wingnut ex-firefighter has gone to LA to volunteer on a crew along the Angeles Crest. Hope he doesn’t have a heart attack.
Mike in NC
I hope this gets wide coverage the next couple nights of the convention.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: Rotating Tag Nomination *
Danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
In all seriousness?
I haven’t gone to a demonstration since I was in my teens. I’m officially an old this year, and have a variety of physical issues plus a fuckton of expensive dental work. I am reasonably sure that there are plenty of DHS types, particularly of the ICE/BCP variety plus ordinary police who would have no qualms – hell, would enjoy- using live rounds on demonstrators. I’m scared.
But goddamnit, enough is enough.
UncleEbeneezer
So Adam, if you are Biden what do you do about all this when you take office?
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman:
As would the rest of these Rethuglican ratfuckers, I’m sure.
Gravenstone
I do not intend this as hyperbole or venting – when do we as a healing and fucking vengeful nation hang every last one of these fuckers?
MisterForkbeard
@Mary G: I’m also in CA and pretty freaked out about it, to be honest. We’re probably not in danger, but…. yeah. Gonna pack go-bags again tonight, updated with masks and so forth and a few days worth of food.
Good luck and stay safe. If you feel like your town (not sure if you’re comfortable saying where you are) might get cutoff, get out now. Visit family, take a short vacation, anything. We did this a couple years back for a week when it looked like 101 was cut off 20 miles to the north and looked like it might be cut off 5 miles to the south.
donnah
Thanks, Adam. I was waiting for your analysis and you didn’t disappoint.
I’d claim to be outraged by the information in this newest report except my outrage meter blew up a long time ago. But it does make me sick, knowing that in this massive tsunami of terrible events going on, this vital information will simply be washed away. People will be worried about Covid, kids going to school, the decimation of the Post Office, the Conventions, it’s all overwhelming.
And worst of all, when presented with the ugly truth that those Republicans knew beforehand about the Russian interference, will most Republicans be okay with that? I’m afraid they will.
Just Chuck
It’s time to outlaw the Republican party.
Chris Johnson
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As near as I can work out, if the golden showers tape is misinformation it’s to draw attention away from a more dangerous reality.
Yeah, Trump would not care about that stuff or be embarrassed about it. He’s not normal.
What WOULD absolutely crush him is for it to come to light that he went to the Russian mob to borrow money, couldn’t pay them back, got beat to shit and probably thrown down stairs, and ever since then has had NO money of his own. He is a kept man. Russian oligarchs (probably not only Putin?) put up the money for his lavish lifestyle and in return he has to do whatever they want… whether it is entrap American politicians, work alongside Epstein and help lure people into Epstein’s web, or run for President and destroy everything in America while serving as the false god of a ridiculous Russian propaganda cult: namely, QAnon, which is obviously a direct Russian op using the techniques I’ve been going on about (stochastic terrorism and chaos managed in a one-way fashion with virtually nobody reporting BACK to any sort of Russian overseer)
By virtually nobody, I mean folks like Ghislaine Maxwell, Jared, and very likely Melania herself. If that’s true she is a hell of a good agent, a hundred times the agent Trump could ever be, and a gutsy, brave lady on the wrong side.
That’s very speculative, of course. Trump being Russia’s guy is not speculative at all. It’s just the details of how that was managed and how it’s worked.
And I would bet you anything he was not supposed to go shouting out QAnon and identifying himself with it this early. He fucks everything up. They’ll kill him for it at some point, I think.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
What are they saying?
Frank Wilhoit
Adam,
Choosing words with care, how many organizations and/or persons — not holding or seeking elective office, and not to be named — were in a position (setting aside, for the moment, whether legally or extralegally) to put a stop to this, at any point along the way (including more than four years ago), and (if the number is not zero) why did none of them do so?
mrmoshpotato
@Just Chuck:
No can do in a democracy, but we can continue helping Democratic candidates kick their asses in the election results.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
I didn’t say it before, but do you realize that it’s five seconds of Michael Cohen and then the rest is Trump?
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
Yes, I just think those five seconds are brilliant.
Suzy
@Adam L Silverman: In his preview of his book, Michael Cohen has made references to golden showers in a Las Vegas hotel. So the story of golden showers in Moscow is getting a little more credible…
Medicine Man
So actual Treason then.
Splitting Image
@Suzy:
It’s not unlikely to have happened, although whether there is video of it is a bit more iffy. There are a lot of Trump-types in the BDSM community, and let’s face it: there are a lot of people who would gladly leap on the opportunity to piss on Donald Trump.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Okay, got it. I don’t see it, but bqhatevwr. Apologies for questioning your judgment.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
The “>>” and random capitialization are similar to rnchq.com trump campaign grifter emails. It ends up at secure.actblue.com, though (done from an anonymous IP). What is the provenance of that text, and does the link address match the blue text? It’s, as you say, appallingly similar to the Trump campaign emails.
Here’s a sample from Aug 17, with tracker links and whitespace removed. “Slow Joe and Phony Kamila” won’t get much traction IMO. The “Socialist Convention” might for the target (gullible) audience. Silicon Valley is now “dirty money”.
SFAW
@Villago Delenda Est:
My thought exactly. Let’s hope the Truth and Retribution Commission agrees.
Adam L Silverman
@Frank Wilhoit: The Republican Party leadership, both elected and running the RNC, could have stopped it if they wanted to. They didn’t because they wanted someone that would just nominate the people they told him to nominate, deregulate what he was told to deregulate, and sign whatever legislation he was told to sign.
The FBI and DOJ could’ve stopped the President any time over the past 40 years had they ever actually taken white collar crime overlapping with organized crime seriously, but they didn’t. Partially because Trump was raising money for Giuliani and Giuliani was protecting him as the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Any Manhattan DA could’ve stopped the President any time over the past 40 years had they ever actually taken white collar crime overlapping organized crime seriously.
The DOJ and FBI Nat-Sec divisions could not have stopped him because they are not set up to do so. They are set up to do counter-intelligence, which is almost exclusively done in the US as not a criminal investigation.
Adam L Silverman
@UncleEbeneezer: Truth & Reconciliation Commission. I’ll try to do a post up over the next two days or so.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: See my comment at #50.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: I still don’t get it.
Adam L Silverman
@Suzy: That was reported several years ago. I am aware of it. Getting dragged along to an adult club by that scumbag Jason Miller where the show includes water sports is not the same thing as what was alleged in the Steele dossier.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Hence my suspicions.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman:
https://balloon-juice.com/rotating-tag-submission/
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
CatFacts
Um, Florida folks? You may want to keep an eye on the tropical weather over the next couple of days. Tropical Depression Thirteen could be heading your way over pretty warm water. 2020 isn’t finished with us yet.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: I still don’t get the point of the comment.
Chief Oshkosh
Adam, thanks for the analysis. Even Cilliza (!) is dumbfounded that the Senate report is just sitting there with no takers. I guess the Democrats don’t want to take away from the convention, can’t blame them this week. And I guess there really is no such thing as “the Republicans” anymore. They’re just another foreign enemy. Sad that what Newt started so long ago has come to pass. Always projection with those guys.
Stephen
@debbie: Some people (Schindler et. al.) are saying there’s a tape showing Trump being buggered by someone, taken by a particular Russian mobster. They refer to him as “rooster”, which is apparently Russian for prison bitch.
UncleEbeneezer
@Adam L Silverman: Wonderful. Would love to know what stuff can be investigated/prosecuted and how, and how we can try to push our elected (mine will be VP!!) to make sure it happens.