rolling trump-russian collusion

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fox-news-contributor-sues-over-discredited-article-on-dnc-staffer-1501606036

xp. Well given that Louise Mensch had an op-ed in the NYT I would say so.

oh, ok, fox covered it. i guess it's mainstream in terms of visibility and viewership.

Sean Hannity devoted several nights to Seth Rich, wtf?

Fox News is obviously a bit of an outlier in terms of the fact that it is a huge network but is batshit insane

And you should really read the column, the whole thing is about a weirdo dude on twitter. Not exactly a great example if the point is mainstream acceptance.

Also, try and google 'Breitbart Seth Rich' and 'Infowars Seth Rich'. Conspiracy hustling IS the right wing media mainstream.

yeah but fox news is also very much in the public sphere in a lot of parts of the country.

The politicization of the DoJ at the hands of a far-right AG, amid an attempted purge of employees deemed insufficiently loyal, is never described as McCarthyism, but the idea that the "deep state" is full of secret leftists, here protecting their traitorous queen....

— Charles Davis (@charliearchy) December 21, 2017

Does Greenwald still talk about Louise Mensch? That may indicate some degree of desperation on his part if he’s done that say in the past year.

What the hell is up with this?

"allegedly" oleg deripaska, sergei pridhodko, and paul manafort were the go-betweens between mr. putin and mr. trump?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/world/europe/russia-youtube-instagram-navalny.html

*prikhodko

not sure re Mensch but bear in mind the NYT gave her a byline less than a year ago, only a couple months before it was broadly agreed she was certifiable

Yes, that is in the Chait piece.

have yet to read, was responding to NP regarding the acceptable Mensch burn window

yes there is certainly no lunatic fringe today on RussiaRussiaRussia

I am so confused-- now it's RUSSIA that is spreading the real/fake stories about Russian influence over Trump?! pic.twitter.com/6oHyoleI9x

— Peter Hart (@peterfhart) February 13, 2018

Yeah sure but that’s not a good example probably.

I find that plausible: that it's as much about sowing chaos as it is about guaranteeing a specific result.

Why would Russia not be spreading misinformation about Russia’s activities?

What is this kindergarten playbook people think that foreign intelligence services are reading from

a better example would have been the lib accounts claiming that something awful in the Trump budget was "straight out of the Putin playbook" or whatever

The online version of the article doesn't appear to make that claim any more, if it's from the NY Times.

never gets old

"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.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

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."

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?utm_term=.1ebb39551c67

where's jason chaffetz when you need him? and jim "the USA FISA courts are corrupt tools of hellary benghazobama killton" jordan (r-oh) and devin "grapefruit fucker" nunes? #MRGA

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-rick-gates-plea-deal-20180218-story.html

A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days — and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.

The change of heart by Trump's former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manafort's, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.

"Rick Gates is going to change his plea to guilty," said a person with direct knowledge of the new developments, adding that the revised plea will be presented in federal court in Washington "within the next few days."

case closed. no collusion

Manafort getting squeeeeeeeezed. Gates, that additional mortgage fraud charge ... Mueller must want something from him, I just can't put my finger on what. Maybe cheap rugs?

the thing that trump knows that no one else knows about the latest mueller indictments is that, if you look at them, none of the people indicted were in the trump administration or campaign. and that proves that there was no collusion. and since mueller's work is done, that's the end of the story.

Makes sense to me.

June 9, 2016 ~ Half Scoop's, Jar Jar's, Manafort's, and Bannon's Trump Tower Russia meeting
June 9, 2016 ~ Trump tweets about missing Clinton emails
June 12, 2016 ~ Wikileaks promises to release more Clinton emails

July 18, 2016 ~ Trump campaign surrogates make RNC Platform Committee soften stance against Russia, reduce support for Ukraine
- Other Platform Committee members note that 2scoops's people took almost no interest in any other platform planks
- Carter Page congratulates Trump surrogates via email: "As for the Ukraine amendment, excellent work."
http://www.businessinsider.com/carter-page-congressional-testimony-transcript-steele-dossier-2017-11
July 22, 2016 ~ Wikileaks releases DNC emails

but tax cuts! tax cuts!!

maybe we should place upper age limits on voting too

A Florida woman who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesn’t believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls https://t.co/DmgDRFRwyn pic.twitter.com/OAz5julCyA

— CNN (@CNN) February 21, 2018

maybe we should place upper age limits on voting too

A Florida woman who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesn’t believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls https://t.co/DmgDRFRwyn pic.twitter.com/OAz5julCyA

— CNN (@CNN) February 21, 2018

What if outrage over Russian interference could lead to a broader discussion about the dangers of online psyops, soft power, and meddling in other countries affairs instead of a one-note outrage orgy by partisan hacks who defend these same practices when done by the US

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) February 21, 2018

Russian bot activity goes back decades. #knowyourmasters pic.twitter.com/dQrYhaGd16

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 23, 2018

point
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/taibbi-russiagate-skeptics-take-a-beating-mueller-probe-w517006

counterpoint
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/02/26/the-mounds-of-evidence-russiagate-skeptics-have-to-ignore/

That Taibbi piece's entire opening premise was completely undercut by this piece from someone who worked at Facebook

https://www.wired.com/story/how-trump-conquered-facebookwithout-russian-ads/

"During the run-up to the election, the Trump and Clinton campaigns bid ruthlessly for the same online real estate in front of the same swing-state voters. But because Trump used provocative content to stoke social media buzz, and he was better able to drive likes, comments, and shares than Clinton, his bids received a boost from Facebook’s click model, effectively winning him more media for less money. In essence, Clinton was paying Manhattan prices for the square footage on your smartphone’s screen, while Trump was paying Detroit prices. Facebook users in swing states who felt Trump had taken over their news feeds may not have been hallucinating."

(also distrustful of any pal of greenwald's saying 'it's not that big of a deal,' tbh)

not to mention so much is classified that we are getting incomplete pieces of a puzzle. in the other thread, we agree that it's hard to tell where Mueller's going, but note that things are definitely happening. Taibbi seems to think this means it might be a nothingburger, even though as I previously said, we've only seen pieces of a much larger puzzle.

I mean it's like saying "NO CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT OJ KILLED WIFE, CALL ME A SKEPTIC" 48 hours after he was arrested

tbf, it's been many years and they still haven't found the killer, so ...

yeah but OJ's looking for the killer, remember

How is he supposed to do that if people keep taking away his money and resources?

So re: Mueller: the guy was FBI director for 12 (!) years. Why are there seemingly so few pictures, let alone gifs/memes, in circulation? These are the important questions!

at last, someone has linked two Stories of the Century I have never found personally compelling. xp

So re: Mueller: the guy was FBI director for 12 (!) years. Why are there seemingly so few pictures, let alone gifs/memes, in circulation? These are the important questions!

I'm fascinated by this because there is such a cinematic quality to all of it - not just the fact that we never see or really hear from him, but also his legendary sense of thoroughness and his reputation as the ultimate bureaucrat...apparently absolutely nothing gets past him. Compared to Trump, who wants nothing more than to be on TV all the time, doesn't really care about anything in depth, whose sense of right and wrong only depends on how things pertain to him. There's actually a good WaPo article about this very thing, though I feel I've mentioned it in the USPol thread several times

two Stories of the Century I have never found personally compelling

If you view the story as "the Russians stole the election for Trump by tweeting thousands of nasty remarks about HRC", then I could see being unimpressed by it. But for many months the Watergate story appeared to be "a third rate burglary by some misguided Cuban exiles and some other guy with somewhat puzzling connections to the administration", until it expanded. The Russian influence story has not yet expanded to its full size.

Eventually, I think it is likely to reveal Trump was actively involved in international racketeering in partnership with the Russian mafia, shady Russian banks, shadier Russian billionaires, and ultimately with Putin's security and intelligence agencies. Pee tape or no pee tape, I find that outcome would be kind of compelling when you're talking about the President of the United States.

at last, someone has linked two Stories of the Century I have never found personally compelling. xp

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, February 27, 2018 5:48 PM (one hour ago)

oh is that why you post one snarky "russiagate isn't real" tweet after another, because you don't find the story "personally compelling"

you and your fellow Russkie hunters could nail Yam's ass to the wall on a dozen other things we DO have sufficient evidence on, if you had the power.

one snarky "russiagate isn't real" tweet after another

As Bob Dole said, "Stop lying about my ILX record."

i mean once again i would like to point out that all of this is very very probably about the money, and that’s why trump is so caged animal about it

trump is broke and in hock to the shady russians who launder cash through all his tacky ass buildings

but the path to that is long and winding thanks to trump being a liar with a cult of personality

absolutely, anything that is mysterious about him is the nonmystery of money.

So much weirdness in here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/27/in-thai-jail-after-sex-training-a-model-who-rattled-russian-elite-asks-u-s-for-help

MOSCOW — A self-described sex expert whose videos highlighted the ties between one of Russia’s richest men and the Kremlin has been jailed in Thailand and is calling for U.S. help, claiming she has information about links between Russia and President Trump.

Anastasia Vashukevich, an escort-service worker from Belarus who catapulted to a certain measure of fame after filming a yacht trip with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, was detained in Thailand over the weekend in a police raid on her “sex training” seminar. While still in custody on Tuesday, she published Instagram videos asking U.S. journalists and intelligence agencies to help her.

She should probably make herself comfortable in Thai jail.

whoa when did Bob Dole post to ILX