Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving up is unforgivable.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

In after Baud. Damn.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

So many bastards, so little time.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Tick tock motherfuckers!

“woke” is the new caravan.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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Archives for 2020

Open Thread: Late Night Notes on Lev Parnas

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Per an unreliable narrator:

But look how happy he was, at Mar-A-Lago!:

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Potential Book Club Material: “A Very Stable Genius”

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I’m kidding, of course — we know most of this crap already. But kudos to the authors on the timing of their release…

President Trump reveals himself as woefully uninformed about the basics of geography, incorrectly telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” He toys with awarding himself the Medal of Freedom.

And, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig, Trump does not seem to grasp the fundamental history surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor…

“A Very Stable Genius” — a 417-page book named after Trump’s own declaration of his superior knowledge — is full of similarly vivid details from Trump’s tumultuous first three years as president, from his chaotic transition before taking office to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and final report…

The book by the two longtime Post reporters — who were part of the team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Trump and Russia — was obtained ahead of its scheduled release Tuesday.

Many of the key moments reported in the book are rife with foreign policy implications, portraying a novice commander in chief plowing through normal protocols and alarming many both inside the administration and in other governments.

Early in his administration, for instance, Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin — so much so, the authors write, “that during the transition he interrupts an interview with one of his secretary of state candidates” to inquire about his pressing desire: “When can I meet Putin? Can I meet with him before the inaugural ceremony?” he asks…

In spring 2017, Trump also clashed with Tillerson when he told him he wanted his help getting rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prevents U.S. firms and individuals from bribing foreign officials for business deals.

“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump says, according to the book. “We’re going to change that.”

The president, they go on to explain, was frustrated with the law “ostensibly because it restricted his industry buddies or his own company’s executives from paying off foreign governments in faraway lands.”

The book, the duo writes in an author’s note, is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 sources, corroborated, when possible, by calendars, diary entries, internal memos and even private video recordings. (Trump himself had initially committed to an interview for the book, the authors write, but ultimately declined, amid an escalating war with the media).

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday…

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Domestic Terrorism Open Thread: Good for Governor Northam

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… A sense of crisis enveloped the capital of Virginia on Thursday, with the police on heightened alert and Richmond bracing for possible violence ahead of a gun rally next week that is expected to draw white supremacists and other anti-government extremists.

Members of numerous armed militias and white power proponents vowed to converge on the city despite the state of emergency declared by Gov. Ralph Northam, who temporarily banned weapons from the grounds of the State Capitol. The potential for an armed confrontation prompted fears of a rerun of the 2017 far-right rally that left one person dead and some two dozen injured in Charlottesville, about an hour’s drive from Monday’s rally.

The unease increased after the F.B.I. announced the arrest on Thursday of three armed men suspected of being members of a neo-Nazi hate group, including a former Canadian Army reservist, who had obtained weapons and discussed participating in the Richmond rally. The men were linked to The Base, a group that aims to create a white ethnostate, according to the F.B.I.

For weeks, discussions about the rally have lit up Facebook pages and chat rooms frequented by militia members and white supremacists. Various extremist organizations or their adherents are calling Monday’s rally the “boogaloo.” In the lexicon of white supremacists, that is an event that will accelerate the race war they have anticipated for decades…

The rally on Monday, the holiday marking the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was initially organized to protest the Virginia Legislature’s proposed restrictions on gun purchases.

The organizer, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, is prominent in the state’s Second Amendment rights movement, donating tens of thousands of dollars to lawmakers over the years. Its president, Philip Van Cleave, refers to himself as an extremist but issued a statement saying the rally was meant to be a peaceful protest about gun rights.

In the past, its lobbying efforts were focused on loosening the state’s gun laws.

But with a new Democratic majority in the Legislature, the group has made it clear that Monday’s event will be focused on opposing sweeping gun control measures that could be enacted next week....

On Thursday, the House of Delegates and the Senate held their regularly scheduled sessions under tighter-than-normal security by the Capitol Police. The Senate approved several gun control measures, including a bill that limits people to buying only one gun each month.

Also Thursday, a circuit court judge upheld the governor’s temporary ban on weapons in the area around the Capitol from Friday until Tuesday…

The F.B.I. has grown increasingly concerned about The Base as it has worked to recruit more people. The group encourages the onset of anarchy, according to the Counter Extremism Project, an organization that tracks far-right extremists. Experts say that its founder, an American, appears to be living in Russia…

Of course not every ‘gun rights activist’ is a racist, nor is every racist an ammosexual — but is it surprising how much the two groups overlap?

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Election Year Open Thread: BIDEN 2020 – You’ll Come Around, Folks!

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One way we can tell most voters haven’t been paying as much attention as we have over the last many months: This is still a new idea to a lot of people…

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Follow The Money!

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Detective-looking guy following dollar signs embedded in pavement to St. Basil’s Cathedral, just across Red Square from the Kremlin

Following the money is difficult and tedious. Each story is detailed, and the stories appear at different times, later overshadowed by the next Trump scandal. In this post, I collect instances of Russian-associated money going into Republican coffers.

There aren’t enough instances to connect into a pattern beyond that theme, although some names occur in more than one example. I hope reporters will see this as a fertile path forward. Foreign money is prohibited in US political campaigns, but there are ways to get around that.

There are probably more – add them in the comments, preferably with a link, if you have them.

Rusal Aluminum Rolling Mill in Kentucky

Shortly after sanctions against Russia were lifted in early 2019, Rusal, a Russian metals company in which Oleg Deripaska has an interest, announced that it would participate in building an aluminum rolling mill in Ashland, Kentucky. Mitch McConnell, of course, is from Kentucky. (Washington Post, New York Times)

Dallas Morning News, Updated May 2018

Donations from several Russian-associated American citizens to campaigns of Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham are documented. The donors are Len Blavatnik, Andrew Intrater, Alexander Shustorovich, and Simon Kukes. There are connections among them and to Rusal, in which Blavatnik holds a 20.5% stake with Viktor Vekselberg. Blavatnik gave $6.35 million to GOP political action committees in 2015-2016, including $2 million from one of his companies to McConnell’s PAC.

Vekselberg is the president of the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in aluminum, energy, and other sectors. Intrater is the chief executive of Columbus Nova, Renova’s US investment arm.

Shustorovich, chief executive of IMG Artists, attempted to give the Republican Party $250K in 2000 to support the Bush campaign, but his money was rejected because of his ties to the Russian government. $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.

From 1998 to 2003, Kukes worked for Vekselberg and Blavatnik. He contributed a total of $283K, much of it to the Trump Victory Fund. He had no significant donor history before that election.

Steven Mnuchin owned a Hollywood financing company with Blavatnik until he sold his stake to accept Trump’s appointment as Treasury Secretary.

The Citizens United decision made these contributions legal.

A quote from the May 17, 2017, Washington Post:

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy….

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman

Kevin McCarthy has said he will donate to charity funds totaling about $185,000 received from Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. His campaign organizations received the money just before McCarthy called for US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich to be removed from her job. Parnas and Fruman have received some of their money from Dmytro Firtash, who is in Austria, fighting extradition to the US on bribery charges and has been a front man for the Kremlin in attempting to gain control of Ukrainian natural gas supplies. Giuliani, who Trump says is his lawyer, has accepted money from Parnas and Fruman. Investigation continues.

Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants Inc.

Columbus Nova, mentioned in the Dallas Morning News article, paid $500,000 to Michael Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants Inc. That company was the vehicle for paying hush money to one of Donald Trump’s mistresses. Viktor Vekselberg and Andrew Intrater were involved. Cohen was the treasurer of the Republican Party, and this payment may have been made while he was in that post.

National Rifle Association (NRA)

The NRA has been closely associated with the Republican Party in fighting limitations on gun ownership. Maria Butina infiltrated the organization as a Russian agent, establishing “lines of communication to advance Russian interests.” An 18-month investigation by the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff found that the NRA supported Butina’s activities and those of her supervisor, Alexander Torshin in setting up a trip for NRA executives to travel to Russia with the expectation of enhancing their personal business activities. Such use of a nonprofit’s funds is illegal.

Counterintelligence Investigation

A counterintelligence investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election preceded the Mueller investigation, was folded into it, and still continues. We need to hear more from that investigation. That investigation may have turned up the hacking of the Republican National Committee by Russians, from which no information has been leaked.

Hotel in Azerbaijan and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

This money in this story is not Russian, but rather from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Trump organization may have laundered money for the Revolutionary Guard through a hotel built in Baku, Azerbaijan. The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson did the investigation and has been trying to get the attention of other media on Twitter, given the current hostilities with Iran. Here’s one of his Twitter threads.

Not money, but it might be useful to cross-check the 16 times that Trump has spoken privately with Vladimir Putin.

Paul Manafort worked for Deripaska and owed him millions of dollars.

This may not be a full listing of Russian money going to Republican candidates and organizations. If you have other examples, add them in the comments, preferably with links.

Russia is not a friend of the United States, so one might ask a number of questions. Why are Republicans willing to accept Russian money? Is there similar evidence for Democrats? The account in the Dallas Morning News says that they are reporting on “99% Republican donations.” Does this money influence officeholders’ opinions and votes?

Seems important to me.

Image source

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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Open Thread: Have We Discussed That GAO Report Yet?

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Schiff Statement on GAO Decision that Trump Broke the Law

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead House Manager for the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, issued the following statement:

“Today’s decision by the Government Accountability Office that President Trump broke the law when he withheld hundreds of millions of dollars of vital military aid to Ukraine demonstrates once again that the President violated his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed as he put his personal and political interests above the interests of the nation and its security.

“President Trump illegally withheld U.S. taxpayer dollars as leverage to get the Ukrainian president to help him win reelection, another indication of the extreme lengths to which the President would go to coerce a foreign power into helping him cheat to win. The President was willing to violate the law in withholding security assistance from an ally at war with Russia, a gross abuse of the powers of his office, acts for which he was impeached.

“In its opinion, GAO states that ‘faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law.’  President Trump’s conduct is all the more egregious because he was not withholding the funds for a policy reason at all, but for the corrupt purpose of seeking foreign help in his reelection campaign.

“As it has with the House, Trump’s State Department and OMB have ‘failed, as of yet, to provide the information’ GAO needs to complete its investigation.  As GAO opinion states: ‘All federal officials and employees take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution and its core tenets, including the congressional power of the purse.’

“Now, the Senate will have the opportunity to act on its oath.”

The usual suspects are talking about how this is no big deal (!!) and the Hannity talking points that GAO contributes to Democrats and Socialists. I cannot make this stuff up, but will not link to that garbage.

It’s time for every journalist to get a microphone in front of every Senator and ask them what they think of the GAO report and get it on the record. I’m sure we’ll get more McSally moments.

Open thread

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Leaving it all on the field

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In a series of arcane rituals in a building that still has “cloak rooms,” Nancy Pelosi handed over the articles of impeachment to Mitch McConnell. She’s done her job by investigating and putting all the facts and testimony she was able to obtain in the face of unprecedented and unlawful obstruction on the table. Pelosi honored her obligation to the U.S. Constitution.

Now McConnell will do the opposite, ignoring his Constitutional obligations and doing everything in his power to bury and obfuscate the extraordinarily damning evidence against Trump and keep new evidence from being considered in the Senate trial, even as more material that exposes the scale of Trump’s criminality and corruption spills into public view in the media.

Since the deeply corrupt and cynical McConnell controls the process now, our best hope is to extract the highest possible political price from Republicans for shielding the administration’s criminal activities. Will we get witnesses? Not if McConnell can prevent it, but the strain is showing:

The House Managers will be reading the charges aloud in the Senate any minute now. Pelosi is under no illusions about what will happen next, so she’s leaving it all on the field and calling the whole corrupt bunch out:

Good for her. I’m represented by two corrupt Republican shit-stains in the U.S. Senate, but despite the futility of appealing to their nonexistent sense of duty, I plan to do so anyway. I also plan to convert my disgust for the sleazy, corrupt criminals who’ve captured our government into inspiration to kick them out at every level. That’s how regular people like us can leave it all on the field.

Open thread.

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