Something interesting from David Frum:
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where candidate Trump publicly beseeched Russian intelligence to purloin and publish his opponent's emails – and then Russia intelligence immediately did so. 1/x
— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 22, 2022
David Frum’s twitter thread unrolled. He makes a compelling case!
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where candidate Trump publicly beseeched Russian intelligence to purloin and publish his opponent’s emails – and then Russia intelligence immediately did so. 1/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s campaign manager shared proprietary campaign polling information so that Russian intelligence could target Facebook advertising more effectively. 2/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s campaign team met with Russian agents in hope that those agents would share clandestine information about their campaign opponent. 3/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where the Russians dangled a huge real-estate payoff in front of Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and Trump repeatedly lied about it. 4/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where at exactly the time he was hoping the Russians would publish their purloined Clinton emails, he told the New York Times that he wouldn’t defend Estonia (and by implication other new NATO members) against Russian aggression. 5/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the time when he met the Russian ambassador and foreign minister in the Oval Office, banned all US press, and then blabbed to them that Israel was running a super-secret operation inside ISIS. 6/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s first nominee for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, lied to the Senate about meeting Russia’s ambassador, even though he himself had no reason to lie, because he knew something bad was happening, but he didn’t know what. 7/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Kevin McCarthy, then the Republican number 2 in the US House, joked in a private meeting that “we all know” Russia pays Trump. The attendees laughed, until Paul Ryan hushed them. 8/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where President Trump’s aides kept trying to prevent him from meeting alone with Putin, he did it anyway, and then Trump seized the translator’s notes and destroyed them. 9/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where he said on TV that he fired FBI director Comey to shut down the investigation of Trump-Russia. 10/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where on TV he denounced Montenegrin accession to NATO as likely to provoke World War III, even though Montenegro is more than 2000 km from Russia, because Russian oligarchs liked to park yachts and launder money in Montenegro. 11/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s son said that the family business was kept afloat during the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 by Russian money. 12/ x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump tried to sabotage weapons deliveries to Ukraine. 13/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where the Department of Justice indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers for helping the Trump campaign in 2016. 14/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where senior Trump aides – including Trump’s national security adviser – lied to the FBI about their contacts with Russian intelligence. 15/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where ex-president Trump – surely mindful of his reputation as a Russian stooge and aware that a few empty words would commit him to nothing – still could not bring himself to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 16/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where it’s become a test of Trump-loyalty in the GOP to oppose military aid to Ukraine so Ukrainians can defend themselves against Russian invasion. 17/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s most intense supporters also intensely support the network of European far-right political parties subsidized and coordinated by Russia. 18/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Russian TV regularly assures viewers that their country’s best hope for winning in Ukraine is Trump’s return to office in 2024. 19/x
Trump-Russia a hoax? Except for the part where Trump’s own top security aides almost unanimously agree he’d have tried to withdraw from NATO in a second term, abandoning eastern Europe to Putin.
END FOR NOW.
Open thread.
Update: Forgot to credit Wag for sending this to me! Sorry, Wag.
WaterGirl
I really wanted to add an image to this post, but I couldn’t bear to have an image of the Insurrectionist President.
Taxesmycredulity
In the better late than never category, glad to see Frum now gets it and has put all these points together. Hopefully more widespread enlightenment will follow.
Ken
MSM takeaway: David Frum repeatedly pronounces “Trump-Russia a hoax”.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Only time I ever want to see him again is in prison garb.
I’ll never be able to get that shitty face out of my mind unless I get Alzheimers, and even then that will probably be the one thing that sticks.
rikyrah
It’s sad when someone like Frum lays it out like this…
and our MSM….well….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as I recall the story here was they denied it was ever said, then someone leaked the tape to a reporter, but “off the record” or “on background” or whatever, so the public never heard the actual recording, but Ryan and McCarthy had to admit they said it, but they were like, totally joking! Anyone else remember differently? Was that audio ever actually released.
West of the Rockies
@Taxesmycredulity:
Frum also loves dogs. I welcome his observations. Not saying he’s Team Blue, but he’s been coherent and more candid than most conservative writers.
MattF
I’m pleased to see this. We are so used to the ‘torrent of shit’ technique for beating back any criticism that a case where pieces of a contrary case actually click together gets ignored or downplayed.
dm
Yes, I’ve been seeing both-siderisms about QAnon on the right and “the Trump-Russia hoax” on the left, though usually from fairly reality-challenged commentators.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@West of the Rockies: yeah, after (if memory serves) writing the “Axis of Evil” line for the Shrubb, and a book titled “The Right Man” about how Bush was our Churchill, and generally supporting the nuttiest of neo-connery, Frum got off the GOP train at some point in Obama’s first term. He’s still a right-winger, particularly on immigration I believe, but he’s been on the outs with Republicans since long before never-trump was a thing.
West of the Rockies
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It was released along with video as I recall.
TerryTime
@rikyrah: and Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney. The christian nationalist dominionists overthrew the neocons and it’s never mentioned.
CaseyL
I think many RWers, in and out of the MSM, had moved on to “OK, Trump collaborated with Russia. Why is that bad?” if not to the “Yes, Trump collaborated with Russia – and we’re all for it!”
West of the Rockies
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You’re right. No one will confuse Frum with Favreau, but if Frum wants to blast Trumpian fascism and Palinesque pinheads, I’m down.
Betty Cracker
Well, kudos to Frum for saying that because his erstwhile conservative brethren have settled on “Trump must be allowed to operate outside the law forever because Trump-Russia hoax” as their default argument. National Review hacks and imitators have written at least half a dozen columns making that same point. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, which is the purpose of all the lies, I guess.
Baud
I completely missed Montenegrogate.
oldster
Not long after tfg announced, I heard that his campaign manager was Paul Manafort.
That’s when I knew that his whole operation was deeply intertwined with the Russians.
Manafort was hand-picked by Putin to rat-fuck elections in Ukraine back in 2010. Years before that, he was shilling for Deripaska. He is a made man in the Russian mafia.
To me, that name alone told me everything that Frum’s thread documents.
So, yeah, as soon as I saw Manafort’s name I started screaming. And I basically haven’t stopped yet, though I’m a bit quieter since Biden was sworn in.
Kelly
I’m always willing to forgive people that come around to supporting at least some my side of politics. I was guilty of being a Libertarian for a few years in my early 20’s.
Wag
@rikyrah: I disagree. I think it is excellent when EVEN DAVID FRUM gets it. Same with Bill Kristol. I welcome them, along with Jen Rubin, to the resistance.
Baud
The judge issued a written order on the request to unseal the warrant affidavit. No real news, except that it makes clear that he could still decide to leave the whole thing sealed.
JCJ
@WaterGirl: I hear you. Yesterday I drove through Milwaukee on the way to Chicago (went to the Cezanne exhibit at the Art Institute). TFG had scheduled one of those events in Milwaukee to scam the rubes that was later cancelled. I saw four billboards with his picture on them advertising the “American Freedom” tour. Seeing his picture caused us all to get queasy.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Sad?
Baud
I wonder which, if any, of the GOP contenders in 2024 will bring up Trump and Russia (assuming Trump also runs (from prison)).
Lapassionara
Several images from early in the Trump mal-administration stay with me. The first was a video of Trump seated at a table with other people (maybe other foreign leaders) and Putin walks into the room. Trump immediately snaps to attention and gives Putin a “thumbs up.” The second was the scene after the meeting in Helsinki, when Trump is slumping and looks defeated, while Putin is gloating.
How can anyone look at those images and think “the Russian thing” was a hoax?
WaterGirl
@Wag: I just realized I forgot to credit you up to for sending this to me! That has been remedied now.
SandyZ
@WaterGirl: Appreciate that! I hate seeing his ugly mug cover the front page. Looking at you: TPM and Kos.
Mike in NC
“Some people are saying” that Donald Trump is the biggest fucking whiner and crybaby that ever set foot on the world stage. A victim of the worst hoaxes and witch hunts in the history of hoaxes! Sad!
And his Apprentice buddy Gary Busey has been arrested for sex crimes, apparently.
catclub
@West of the Rockies:
Jen Rubin is extremely conservative, but also Jewish. There might be a connection. Fascism- nazism is a step too far.
Urza
@Baud: You probably didn’t. Its just there was a new ‘should have been a scandal’ every single day so its easy to forget the little ones.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Did you miss TFG shoving the leader of Montenegro out of his way at a meeting?
catclub
Umm, self-delusion is the best. Plus the rubes know trump is a great actor. He was on TV for years.
catclub
@oldster:
Not only that manafort was doing it for no pay! huh!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: also: Saying “Russia-hoax” is all just part of owning the libs. As I forget which other never-trumper said this weekend, a lot of them know he’s lying, they know he’s guilty, (ETA: And they know Biden won the election, IMO) and they think it’s great! MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruehle said a while ago that an “Ivy League educated relative” told her that it was a guilty pleasure for him that trump just gets away with everything!
Elizabelle
I always think Frum is directing his posts to other journalists. Most of whom should know a lot better. But, $$$.
trollhattan
@JCJ: Year and a half since he looted and left the WH I still involuntarily flinch when I hear a newscaster say, “Today, the president…” Do not know if there’s a cure, but it sure seems like Trump-induced PTSD.
Fair Economist
Sort of off topic discussion of car propaganda:
There was a bad accident last night in London which one newspaper described as being caused by a collision between a Land Rover and a Tesla.
What actually happened was that the Land Rover, driving at an estimated 120 mph (on a road with a speed limit of 40 !!!), went airborne, smashed through a metal fence into a Tesla charging station, and hit the roof of the Tesla *with its wheels* before ending up on a railroad track. It’s just not acceptable that this can happen, and the only way to stop things like this is to put speed limiters on cars like we already do for electric scooters. There’s just no way to armor urban areas against airborne SUVs traveling at 120 mph. But a lot of people in the car industry don’t want people to know this, evidently including somebody with control of headlines at that newspaper, so they are covering up the real cause with a misleading claim as caused by an accident between two cars.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: “Tiny man, tiny country, CAMERAS!”
That’s our Donny.
ian
@dm: The closest ‘both-siderism’ to Q-anon on the left was 9/11 conspiracy theorists like Michael Moore. But the fringe left never though Bush consumed chemicals from babies brains, and never plotted a violent overthrow of their enemies led by some stupid shit like the president saying ‘the storm is upon us.’ These days the only 9/11 conspiracy I hear anymore comes from the same right loons as the Qanon folk. It is tricky to both sides this shit when maybe 10% of our base believed that stuff for a while and a solid 60%+ of their base believes this stuff with the heat of a thousand suns.
BlueGuitarist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wapo has transcript and video of reporter Adam Entous talking about the story.
Would be interested if anyone has a link to the actual audio.
WaPo reports asking for comment, Rs flatly deny.
Video only includes WaPo says we have a transcript, Rs say transcript false.
Both article andvideo: WaPo says have a recording, then Rs claim it was a joke.
Transcript indicates laughter, evidently nervous laughter when hearing the truth about something highly embarrassing.
Also not to be forgotten, Trump’s birther lies….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
July, 2018, from The Guardian, trump couldn’t find Montenegro on a map, Carlson bringing it up is even more telling. That’s a year after the shove.
@BlueGuitarist: thanks
VOR
And the Mueller investigation had many successful prosecutions: Trump’s NSA, campaign manager, other campaign advisors.
Uncle Cosmo
Dig up a graphic of Zola furiously scribbling J’Accuse…! – IMO that would work even better, if a tad more obscure to the historically unaware…
BlueGuitarist
@zhena gogolia:
perhaps like me Baud recalls the shoving, but didn’t realize tangerine palpatine knew whom he shoved.
Hope you are recovered/bettering.
BlueGuitarist
@Uncle Cosmo:
The streaming tv show Lupin (the French Sherlock) has a reporter with a dog named J’accuse.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, if you didn’t know T**** was white trash before then, you couldn’t miss it unless you willfully missed it.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
ugh.
Kropacetic
I, too, wish I could grab women…
Geminid
@Kelly: Some of the best analysis of Republican radicalism that I’ve read comes from Republicans. The folks at a Virginia site, Bearing Drift, are a good example of this.
And former Republican Ron Filipkowski is as devasting in his criticism of Republicans as any lifelong Democrat.
Another Scott
I was curious and looked through a listing of Frum’s 2016 Atlantic columns. He has been consistent about opposing TFG, so I’ll give him that. The fact that he can’t see that nobody on the GQP cares about his opinions on TFG or how to make the GQP more appealing apparently hasn’t sunken in though.
Whatever disease the Log Cabin Republicans have (i.e. refusing to recognize that the party is not what they want to believe it is) seems to not be limited to them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Lapassionara: That picture from Helsinki would be a good header for this post!
Chris Johnson
@Betty Cracker: Yes, that is the literal purpose of all the lies. No guessing. Money and effort is spent on a large scale for exactly this purpose.
THANK you, David Frum. No shit. I have seen all these things happening as they happened, and that is the conclusion I drew, and now anytime I see ‘Russia hoax’ I think ‘talking point, out of Russia, because damn right it is’.
One day people will understand this was WWIII, with a higher death toll than any previous war, and this is how it was waged. I would say ‘more cleanly than with armies’, but see the ‘higher death toll’ part.
Kent
That’s not surprising. I expect the reverse is true as well. I expect the most cogent criticisms of Democrats or the left in general also come from our side of the aisle. Republicans who criticize Democrats tend to go off on absurd stupid stuff like ANTIFA, kale and arugula salads, soy milk lattes, creeping socialism in the BLM movement, critical race theory, “woke” prosecutors, transgender bathroom laws, etc. and completely miss the actual weaknesses and problems that exist in the Democratic party.
oldster
@catclub:
If it’s pro bono then it must be innocuous, right? A bit of charity work, that’s all.
Lapassionara
@Geminid: yes, so long as the smirking Putin is included.
Chris Johnson
@ian: No, the closest ‘both-siderism’ to QAnon on the left is dirtbag left. Both are run by Russia intentionally freaking out dumb and panicky people and inflaming their existing attitudes and steering them.
Ukraine is a litmus test for leftists just as it is for righties. If you see leftists but they are stanning for Russia and anti-Ukraine, you are seeing QAnon for leftists. Some of those guys literally worked for Russia Today… there absolutely is ‘both sides for QAnon’, it’s just not always literal QAnon.
The thing that pisses me off is, they got Roger Waters. Rog used to be such a good leftist and had such good insight. He still has some of that but Russia has him now. He’s become an anti-NATO dude in his old age, too hung up on anti-war and easy prey for Putin conning him that ONLY the west is ever expansionist. Sucks. We lost Roger Waters. A humbling loss.
Cameron
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They both fixated on the “negro” and forgot the “Monte” part. We’re going to be replaced by Montenegros! Very aggressive! Yooge! Bigly!
Rick Taylor
They need to indict and convict the former President, if they have grounds to do so. If they don’t, Trump and Republicans will take revenge if and when they come back to power. If you come at the king, you best not miss.
Immanentize
@TerryTime: This is so obvious once it is pointed out — thank you for the insight. This has been obscured, I think, by the right wing Israeli and Israel-supporters embracing Republicans no matter how odious. I’m gonna ponder this some more. Thanks!
Jeffro
Rich Lowry’s op-ed in the NYT today, excusing Republicans for being ‘skeptical’ about the FBI warrant/search of MAL…because trump-Russia was a hoax…nearly caused me to stroke out.
Frum’s extended “oh yeah?” on the trump-Russia angle is great and covers the “hoax” BS quite well.
What I’d like to ask Mr. Lowry is, how could one possibly turn ‘going berserk and threatening the lives of federal agents’ into ‘skeptical’? F U, R L. No amount of blaming the Left will get you off the hook, RICH, when your violent and unstable base decides to kill some FBI agents because you went to bat for trump, even when there was a strong possibility he’s been committing espionage!
The entire GOP ‘establishment’, such as it is, is determined to pay absolutely no price for their dangerous enabling of this corrupt creature. This is just the latest disgusting attempt at that project.
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
Then you’ve got Yang, who seems to be a mix of pure clueless, pointless ambition.
Skepticat
THANK YOU. Not only can I not bear to see him, but I also know how much he loves being seen. Urk.
raven
@trollhattan: That’s hypervigilance not PTSD!
Paul in KY
@Baud: Liz Cheney (if she can somehow get on the stage)
Ohio Mom
@catclub: Yes, Frum is Jewish. Interestingly, in Yiddish, the word “frum” is an adjective that means “very religious,” as in, “He keeps strictly kosher and never misses synagogue, he’s very frum.”
Frank Wilhoit
@Wag: All three of them stood by Reagan when he put a price on my head (and on all our heads). This cannot, ought not, must not, and will not be forgiven.
But here is why his change of position is important. If Frum were an ideologue, he would still be standing by Trump. If he’s not an ideologue, he must be a trimmer; and the wind that he is trimming to must be ours. It cannot be the same wind that he was trimming to in 1980, because that wind hasn’t changed.
zhena gogolia
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks. Slowly, slowly.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Kelly: As I scrolled down, I read this first as librarian and I was like…………..
marklar
@catclub: “Jen Rubin is extremely conservative, but also Jewish. There might be a connection. Fascism- nazism is a step too far.”
There seems to be a trend…So are David Frum, Bill Kristol, and Dick Cheney’s cardiologist (Jonathan Reiner, who may have slipped a spoonful of humanity into his heart).
Shavuah tov!
Baud
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
She knows what she read.
ETtheLibrarian
Beau of the 5th Column has a video that shows another part of this tRump cult puzzle. It seems the cultists think that the only reason that the FBI is investigating tRump is because he would win in 2 years. This is how in the hole they are.
raven
@Ohio Mom: you misspelled schmuck!
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I thought about that one as I was considering images!
Omnes Omnibus
@Frank Wilhoit: No one ever changes their mind? Funny blog on which to suggest that.
Lyrebird
@SandyZ: Agreed!
@WaterGirl: You could add images of Henry any time! Or your pets’ muddy footprints all over the floor…
Thanks for front paging this, and for sparing us more views of the demagogue.
geg6
@Chris Johnson:
Meh. I always preferred David Gilmour anyway. If I had to choose, that is. I don’t actually like Pink Floyd.
WaterGirl
@Lyrebird: I did not think of Henry, but that would be a good antidote for T****.
Geminid
@TerryTime: The “neocon’s” failure in Iraq discredited the Republican establishment and enabled the radicals to take over the party.
The Iraq war cost the party some of its formerly loyal voters. I noticed this in 2004, when relatively affluent Albemarle County (surrounding Charlottesvile) voted Democratic for the first time since Virginia’s party realignment in the 1970s. Bush still won a close election, but the allegiance of college educated “Volvo Republicans” to the party was starting to unravel.
After Obama trounced McCain in 2008, the party needed new blood and establishment Republicans thought the tea party radicals could be useful junior partners. The Virginia establishment found out they had a problem when Eric Cantor lost his primary in 2014. Then it was too late; the secular radicals had teamed up with the bible thumpers, and now they could dominate the establishment types who used to call the shots.
A similar dynamic has been at work in the party nationally. Karl Rove’s dream of a center-right, permanent majority party has turned into a nightmare radical right party, and I think the Iraq war started the rot.
JML
Having driven through the wilds to stay with mom this weekend (recovering from her broken hip), I was struck by how weird the MN Governor’s race is shaping up to be. The GOP plan seems to be to put the Lt. Gov candidate’s face & name in front (Matt Birk, because he’s a former Viking), with a bunch of simple slogans like: lower gas prices, more jobs, etc. And their allies are trying to call Walz a liar in as many ways as possible, but particularly with signs saying “Walz lies”.
Independent expenditures have already started against Jensen (who is the GOP candidate for governor) calling him an extremist for wanting to ban abortion (they have him on tape saying he would try).
I’ve never seen a campaign for governor where they tried running on the Lt. Gov candidate before. It’s kind of bizarre. Everyone is gearing up for the fight, though, because Jensen & Birk really are a pair of extremists. Jensen, despite having an MD is a leading COVIDiot and seems to have no principles at all. Birk thinks women should be barefoot & pregnant in the kitchen at all times.
Bill Arnold
Trump-Russia is not a hoax. Very good to see Frum’s rant.
(I personally hold a Grudge against the current imperial Russian rulers and their propagandists and public intellectuals, since 2016 (saw Stuff), and especially after Trump was separated from the levers of power, have been low key (Low Key :-) committed to the disassembly of the Russian Federation.)
The Thin Black Duke
@geg6: To be fair, I don’t expect to hear nuanced and insightful political analysis from rock stars, period.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: There will be another opportunity I think.
geg6
@The Thin Black Duke:
Some are worth listening to. And some even have music I like plus are smart about politics.
Bill Arnold
@Mike in NC:
The Greatest Fraud ever perpetrated against the American people is Trump’s completely-without-evidence continuous assertion that he lost in 2020 due to election fraud. His “election fraud” fraud.
It’s basically massive affinity fraud in the political realm.
cain
@Fair Economist: the car lobby Boomers and Gen Xers will be unhappy about that – coming from the age of being bored and doing stupid shit while speeding in the midwest.
I assume someone is going to try to link guns with cars as both being important rights.
Soprano2
The argument I see consistently is “Trump-Russia hoax/FBI lied to get a warrant to spy on Trump/Stacy Abrams says she didn’t lose”. They use this to excuse everything TFG does, and to vilify law enforcement when they try to hold any Republican accountable for anything.
Scout211
I didn’t even remember this report from the DHS IG office.
It’s hard to keep track of all things criminal during the previous guy’s administration. So much down the memory hole because there is just so much!
. . .
Soprano2
Ugh, I forgot to mention that MTG was at Mike Lindell’s “most important seminar in the history of the U.S.” that he held here this weekend.
Geminid
@Scout211: National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien has come out of his stint with the trump administration unscathed, at least so far. He even managed to be out of town January 6. A canny fellow.
Eunicecycle
@Soprano2: What was the big reveal? I thought he (again) said he had irrefutable evidence of voter fraud!
lowtechcyclist
@Eunicecycle: It still is irrefutable! You can’t refute what you can’t see.
Ohio Mom
@raven: LOL
Gin & Tonic
@Soprano2:
Damn. I missed it.
Scout211
@Geminid: He was set to be interviewed by the Jan 6 committee on August 12. Link.
Maybe his testimony will be presented at the next public J6 hearing.
Or we will hear his numerous statements of “Fifth!” 🙄
Frank Wilhoit
@Omnes Omnibus: David Frum, in the most diametric contrast to ourn host, has spent his career being paid to say what someone else thinks. Whether he himself concidentally agrees, in any particular instance, is off the point. The motivation of ideology having been first considered and set aside, opportunism is all that remains. What is interesting is why rubbishing Trump is locally opportune.
Sister Golden Bear
@Eunicecycle: Where was the reveal? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering reveal.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Lindell’s PowerPoints put Lincoln’s to shame.
Omnes Omnibus
@Frank Wilhoit: Cynicism is fun.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Let’s see who is old enough to remember this.
Gin & Tonic
OT, sorta, but:
dm
@ian: Be that as it may, I’ve still heard “Russian involvement with the Trump campaign” as the go-to when one needs to add “balance” to a story about conspiracy theories.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I have never seen that before. Funny.
Soprano2
@Eunicecycle: There was none. LOL
frosty
@Sister Golden Bear: Nicely done!
Mai Naem mobile
Frum’s been doing this stuff for a while. He does a lot of tweets on guns. I think some of this is because he’s Canadian American. I don’t think Canadian conservatives have as many whack jobs as the current US GOP. They’re more like your daddy’s Republican party. Also too, Frum forgot to mention the GOP changing the party manifesto during the ’16 convention regarding Ukraine and the sheer number of Russians at the convention. If the Dems had that many Chinese nationals at their convention FOX would be running CCP conspiracy stories 24/7 for months.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Hahaha. I had not seen that before. I must be too young.
lowtechcyclist
@Frank Wilhoit:
Excuse me, but I don’t grok this at all. In the unlikely event that someone paid me to be a flak for Democratic and liberal causes, I’d be doing it because I largely believed in them, and I’d be ecstatically happy to be drawing a paycheck for doing work I believed in.
Can’t see why the same couldn’t have been true of Frum, unless there’s some serious inconsistencies in his views over the years, depending on who was paying him.
A healthy skepticism is a necessity in this crazy world (“skepticism is the chastity of the intellect” – Santayana) but I agree with Omnes that you seem to have crossed over the line to cynicism in this particular instance.
Ken
@Eunicecycle: And he does! But you’ll have to attend his next seminar to find out!! Tickets are available now, and remember to use promo code PILLOW to get your coupon for 5% off your next My-Pillow purchase!!!
Mai Naem mobile
@Scout211: the DNC should get some of their big money donors to put up a TFG scandals library. A real library not some online repository. Have some real historians working there and all. I doubt there’s ever going to be a TFG library. Even if he collects money for It, he will redirect it to himself and his businesses.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic: I bet Marvin the Martian is enjoying the show.
Eunicecycle
@Soprano2: okay I was afraid I missed it!
Quiltingfool
@Gin & Tonic: News from you re Ukraine is never OT.
Jesse
Are there any interesting prominent left/liberal/progressives who, like Frum, ended up getting off the left/liberal/progressive train? I can think of maybe one or two Clinton-era figures who might be off the train, but perhaps think of themselves as still on (Carville, for instance).
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: That’s from way back when the Internet was fun.
Baud
@Jesse: Depends how you classify early Greenwald. There may be others that don’t come to mind.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Blogs ruined everything.
Eunicecycle
@Ken: LOL that’s probably it!
Old School
@Jesse: Kyrsten Sinema?
eachother
As in horseshoes and hand-grenades.
David Frum
A right leaner gets a ringer.
BOOM
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Gin & Tonic: The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature
Jesse
@Jesse: Andrew Yang just came to my mind.
(I also thought of Zell Miller, but I think he was just a conservative Dem who somehow missed the 70s-80s switch in the south toward the Rs.)
Frank Wilhoit
@Omnes Omnibus: …and also necessary. The trick is to know when.
Ramona Rosario
@Geminid: Wow! As soon as I read this, I felt the truth of it. You have encapsulated the dynamic I have witnessed first-hand from the jingoistic cheering on of the Iraq war to the telling silence of those conservatives I am acquainted with to their current stridency.
Frank Wilhoit
@lowtechcyclist: I can either call him an opportunist (under today’s circumstances, an extremely feeble rebuke) or an accessory to incitement to genocide. Which would you rather?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Baud: from when the internet was fun:
The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature
trnc
@catclub:
Oh, he was definitely expecting a payday.
Ramona Rosario
@Jesse: Ruy Texeira?
PBK
@Quiltingfool: I’m thinking of you and Baby. It’s such a hard decision but the right one.
Duncan
@Ken: Sadly all too real
Citizen Scientist
@JCJ: at least you got to see the Cezanne exhibit. We enjoyed it!