US Politics, January 2020. Because we hate ourselves.

the weirdest thing is parnas is the most perceptive, most interview adept, and maybe the most informed and most skilled person in all of trumpland i've heard so far. by a bit. that makes him neither honest nor credible, but i admit i did not see it coming.

One presumes that these flailing, dysfunctional public figures are dependent upon at least a handful of people who are content to stay in the shadows while demonstrating some semblance of competence (however debased those competently-handled acts may be). Like if it's abject morons all the way down they would've blown themselves up on a runway by now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-and-fury-smart-genius-obama-774169%3famp=1

Why u gotta burn fourth-graders so harshly, Newsweek

Newsweek is 100% garbage now, avoid

https://splinternews.com/what-the-hell-is-going-on-at-newsweek-1822742941

It's Lev whose head i've seen showing that even his haircut is more there by intention than fact isn't it?
Looks like a few black strands combed over nothing in several of the shots I've seen.

BUt did sound like what he was saying on Rachel Maddow was pretty damning. & i think there's more to come tonight isn't there? Think I heard word of a part 2 at the end of the podcast version I was listening to.

good luck usa

Hard to overstate how unpredictable talking to voters can be: Melissa from Algona, Iowa, caucused for Bernie in 2016, then voted for a Trump; she supports Medicare for All but supports Buttigieg, but will likely vote for Trump again if Buttigieg doesn’t win the Dem nomination. pic.twitter.com/ZgvQQ7NoW2

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) January 16, 2020

i can...uhm...just....ugh...err....oh my....huh...what?

didn't mean to go full Mystikal there but that is just baffling internal consistency there.

We’re so fucked.

Lo... I have been to Iowa, it is indeed a mystical place.

yes we're gonna be fucked by this one voter

We’re so fucked.

Yep, and not just the Americans.

It's just attention grift

My takeaway is "don't ask people political questions when they're high"

obviously not this one voter . I have not seen anything these last three years culminated by this shit show of a democratic race that would lead me to believe that a large portion of the most vulnerable people in our society will not continue to be fucked.

Immediately afterward, Melissa was asked to point to Iran on a map and pointed to a spot in the lower Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest land

In a groundbreaking NYT interview, a disheveled man loitering outside a 7-11 and wearing a Dire Straits t-shirt as a bandana claims next president will be can of half-eaten peas.

We r doomed.

Who let this man hold our fates in his hand. Who.

uh I would vote for a can of half-eaten peas over Donald J. Trump.

peas 2020

LOL, I didn't even notice that I suggested it was a can full of partially-eaten peas rather than a can that had been half consumed. That changes everything.

Canned yam trolls gonna be on you so bad

ok I have not really followed the Lev Parnas stuff, what did he say and how is it different from what's already revealed?

http://www027.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/9-Plant-Based-Proteins-You-Should-Be-Eating.jpeg

Drag 'em, Nancy: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Nancy-Pelosi-Facebook-ads-misinformation-fake-news-14980860.php

Peas on earth, can it be

the oldest of lunches

is anyone else fallowing this Dmytro Firtash stuff?

Former Rudy Giuliani amigo Lev Parnas may have revealed a staggering scandal on Wednesday, with Ukrainian gas billionaire Dmytro Firtash at the center.

The allegation is this: Trump and his legal team offered to have federal foreign bribery charges against Firtash dropped if the oligarch, described by federal prosecutors as an “upper-echelon” associate of the Russian mafia, helped Trump discredit the Mueller investigation and Joe Biden.

If corroborated, Parnas’ allegations would implicate Attorney General Bill Barr in the scandal in a deeper way than previously known, and would suggest that federal indictments are up for grabs as a bargaining chip for Trump’s political fortunes.

Even Firtash, is that really new? I thought those two scummy Fox lawyers Joe and Victoria were representing him already, and he pops up a lot in Maddow's book. He's under house arrest in Vienna, right? Like, here's a chunk from the Times in Nov.:

But interviews with the two Ukrainian oligarchs — Dmitry Firtash and Ihor Kolomoisky — as well as with several other people with knowledge of Mr. Giuliani’s dealings, point to a new dimension in his exertions on behalf of his client, Mr. Trump. Taken together, they depict a strategy clearly aimed at leveraging information from politically powerful but legally vulnerable foreign citizens.

In the case of Mr. Firtash, an energy tycoon with deep ties to the Kremlin who is facing extradition to the United States on bribery and racketeering charges, one of Mr. Giuliani’s associates has described offering the oligarch help with his Justice Department problems — if Mr. Firtash hired two lawyers who were close to President Trump and were already working with Mr. Giuliani on his dirt-digging mission. Mr. Firtash said the offer was made in late June when he met with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both Soviet-born businessmen involved in Mr. Giuliani’s Ukraine pursuit.

Mr. Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, confirmed that account and added that his client had met with Mr. Firtash at Mr. Giuliani’s direction and encouraged the oligarch to help in the hunt for compromising information “as part of any potential resolution to his extradition matter.”

Mr. Firtash’s relationship to the Trump-allied lawyers — Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova — has led to intense speculation that he is, at least indirectly, helping to finance Mr. Giuliani’s campaign. But until now he has stayed silent, and many of the details of how and why he came to hire the lawyers have remained murky.

Dunno what this has to do with Barr, though of course I like many suspect Barr knows more than he lets on.

This is what Parnas was saying about Barr specifically, last night

Even Firtash, is that really new?

nope, it's been festering for a long time. just like the Parnas/Oleg thing, whose names first started popping up several months ago. but that's why i asked if anyone's been following the Firtash thing - not sure i've seen anyone on ilx mention it.

Dunno what this has to do with Barr

The allegation is this: Trump and his legal team offered to have federal foreign bribery charges against Firtash dropped if the oligarch, described by federal prosecutors as an “upper-echelon” associate of the Russian mafia, helped Trump discredit the Mueller investigation and Joe Biden.

in order to drop federal foreign bribery charges, you gotta have a bill barr

KM watch the inteview, it's not deduction—Parnas is making a first person account of Barr's direct involvement

but i guess josh's larger point is just, what is the point of discussing any of it if it's not going to actually lead to consequences. i guess. i still stubbornly like to pay attention to what crimes are happening and how they happened. that way, as i sit in the smoldering ashes of the post-apocalypse and people are being maddeningly vague about what happened and why, i can be the boss of the trashcan fire

BREAKING NEWS

I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2020

ok i lol'd

people around the trashfire are going to be like "...there were bad men...and they told lies...and we paid for those lies..." and i'm going to poke the fire a bit with a stick and then drop the most detailed oral history imaginable over the course of 2 months

xxp the whole decision to impeach was made with the understanding that it probably won't "actually lead to consequences"

KM watch the inteview, it's not deduction—Parnas is making a first person account of Barr's direct involvement

think you might be mixing me up with someone, i didn't say parnas was being deductive. he seems like a scumbag and a half, but so does everyone in trump's orbit. he also has a reason to tell the truth and rat on other people (to lessen his own sentence)

Had anyone in the history of the English language actually used the phrase 'perfect phone call' prior to a few months ago?

Outside of like the manager of a call center?

Melissa from Algona is the lionized swing voter, ie a schizo moron

i propose a new clinical term: "caucusoid"

I heard a werewolf making a phone call at Trader Vic's
the call was perfect

Ha no, Karl: I'm saying *we* don't need to deduce anything, per your "if DOH, then Barr" construction

That there's a guy who was running these errands for Barr saying as much

Lev Parnas is 42 years old holy shit

Whah!?

He must have a fantastic-looking picture in his attic

sorry fake news he is 47

still though

ha I was just about to fact-check

it says he was born 1972. xpost He still looks like he is hitting 60 hard.