rolling trump-russian collusion

"i'm, heh heh, ...DOUBLING DOWN"
"dude you got no chips"
"THEN I'M TRIPLING, NO I'M FOURPLE-ING DOWN, THEN!"

what does Ryan even have to lose by defrocking him now.

wait so moo vaughn is gabbneb?

How/why does that relate to the Russia investigation?

russia (!!!) releasing a video showing off fancy new nukes (!!!) raining down on -- of all 50 states -- florida (mar-a-lago!!!) seems rather pointed, but who knows, could be totally unrelated / coincidental, or maybe like a joke in poor taste about the stoneman douglas high school shooting. meanwhile comrade kompromat says boo

another ethics complaint filed against Nunes

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier

wow that steele piece. at least there’s a lol bit

"His free time is devoted largely to his family, which includes three cats, one of whom not long ago replicated the most infamous allegation in the Steele dossier by peeing on a family member’s bed."

jane mayer is a hero

indeed

moo vaughn is gabbneb?

Moo's political positions are somewhat reminiscent of gabbneb, but their writing styles differ markedly. I say no; Moo is Moo.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/05/im-sorry-for-creating-the-gerasimov-doctrine

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/07/what-we-believe-mueller-is-investigating/

The scale, the scope ...

that "gerasimov doctrine" piece is great, thanks Simon

"His free time is devoted largely to his family, which includes three cats, one of whom not long ago replicated the most infamous allegation in the Steele dossier by peeing on a family member’s bed."

― maura, Monday, March 5, 2018 3:32 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this stood out to me too, great article otherwise

https://medium.com/@ScottMStedman/deripaskas-private-jet-newark-moscow-molde-for-secret-yacht-meeting-280494a6cb48

Holy shit at the way that is all coming into focus. I wonder if Mueller, privy to all this shit and more, ever sits back and smiles as civilians slowly piece together what he's known for months.

Alternative: I wonder how often Mueller is surprised by these scoops then suddenly swoops into action to catch up.

moo vaughn is gabbneb?

Moo's political positions are somewhat reminiscent of gabbneb, but their writing styles differ markedly. I say no; Moo is Moo.

― A is for (Aimless), Monday, March 5, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzNsOGt3bHk

xpost — he is surprised by none of it.

a series of completely random events

May 7, 2000 (Vladimir Putin takes office)

December, 2004 (Paul Manafort begins working for Viktor Yanukovych)

2005 (Paul Manafort signs a $10 million per year contract with Oleg Deripaska)

August 7, 2008 (Russia invades Georgia)

February 25, 2010 (Viktor Yanukovych wins the Ukrainian presidency)

October 11, 2011 (Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's opponent, is locked up)

November 9, 2013 ((Trump) Miss Universe (Moscow))

February 20, 2014 (Russia begins 'annexing' Crimea)

March, 2014 (first round of sanctions against Russia)

August 26, 2014 (Russia invades Ukraine)

June 16, 2015 (2scoops announces candidacy)

March 28, 2016 (Manafort volunteers for Trump campaign, to deal with GOP convention delegates)

April 11, 2016 (Manafort emails Konstantin Kilimnik: "How do we use to get whole? Has Deripaska's operation seen?)

May 19, 2016 (Manafort promoted to Trump campaign chairman (still not taking any pay))

June 9, 2016 (Manafort, 1/2 scoop, Jar Jar, and Bannon meet with Russians in Trump about "adoptions")

July 18, 2016 (the only change the Trump campaign requests at the RNC convention is for weakening support of Ukrainian opposition to Putin)

August 19, 2016 (Manafort resigns his (unpaid) position with the campaign)

August 20, 2016 (Frank Ocean releases Blonde)

1985 - Falco records...

you skipped Kid A

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-a-personal-letter-trump-invited-putin-to-the-2013-miss-universe-pageant/2018/03/09/a3404358-23d2-11e8-a589-763893265565_story.html?utm_term=.d8d5301467e0

Donald Trump was so eager to have Vladi­mir Putin attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that he wrote a personal letter to the Russian president inviting him to the event, according to multiple people familiar with the document.

At the bottom of the typed letter, Trump scrawled a postscript adding that he looked forward to seeing “beautiful” women during his trip.

Trump’s letter to Putin, which was described by people with knowledge of its contents, shows how interested he was in attracting the personal attention of the Russian president. The real estate magnate, who owned the Miss Universe pageant, wrote the note at a time when he was looking to expand his brand to Russia.

The letter, the first known attempt at direct outreach by Trump to Putin, has been turned over to investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. It is unclear whether Trump’s missive was ever delivered to the Russian president — and if so, whether Putin responded.

The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal - US elections 2016: the october surprises

"I will keep you in suspense" - US Elections 2016: the Final Thread

Wow. Whoa. That is some group of people. Thousands. - US Election Day 2016

not sure what you're getting at with those links!

but i will say that skimming through the election day thread is like watching the kind of horror movie where the friends are all cheerful and happy as they pick up supplies on the way to the cabin in the woods, and everyone keeps making fun of the person in the backseat who expresses fear about the forest

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cwwei-KUoAAhyuT.jpg

i can reread just about any ilx thread but yeah those ones running up to the 2016 election genuinely give me little anxiety pangs and chest tightness even looking at the thread titles

ugh

oh man, just came across the part where i drunkenly yelled at ILX at 1 in the morning for being so confident that clinton would win. god, that was a terrible night. i like mookie's comment earlier that evening, after it became clear that something was deeply wrong:

gonna start a game of civ 2; see you on the other side

― mookieproof, Tuesday, November 8, 2016 10:17 PM

xpost same

i took a cold shower at 11 pm election night

I had serious trauma after 2004, so when i started seeing bad signs i catastrophized a surely dire outcome right away and fled most media and internet.

Reading through the thread the morning after, watching everyone realise the shit was hitting the fan was fucking heartbreaking.

I just remember ending up on the mta bus toward my work building the next morning, sitting near a coworker, a product manager about twenty years younger than me. Nodded to each other grimly. Got off at the stop and started walking together. I tried to say something and just started crying instead. Her: ‘yeah’.

San Francisco felt very silent, walking to work that morning.

I wound up at a bar on election night as things started to look bad. Red state but a young, non-homogenous crowd so everyone just looked sad and dumbfounded (and increasingly drunk). One redneck asshole started to troll people but his friends shut him up.

Probably the most sudden and jarring swing from extreme optimism to deep depression I've ever experienced.

yeah, i was only moderately optimistic (about the outcome, at least) to start with, but the +/- between how i felt the mornings of november 8 and 9 were in different universes

the days after were incredibly surreal, second perhaps only to the days after 9/11. people seemed so sleep deprived and miserable. it didn't seem like *anyone* was celebrating - even the fuckers I knew who voted for Trump had this perpetual "oh shit" look on their faces.

I still think it's the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11, and maybe ultimately as impactful, and I agree the feeling was very similar, which really underscores what a disaster Trump is.

Like, there's going to be a Trump recovery effort.

"I should go," I mumbled to the friend around 10:30 p.m. to whose house I'd brought my laptop for live blogging.

San Francisco felt very silent, walking to work that morning.

this was also the case in *toronto* btw

The only salve I found was, following the disappointment of telling my girls before they went to bed that they were probably waking up to the first female president, them reacting with disappointment but nothing significant the next morning. For them, most of their life, Obama was president, and therefore the norm. To them, Trump - the stupid racist white male - is the anomaly. Fortunately they will be older and more mature before they realize Obama was the odd one out, but thanks to Trump, they will be politically engaged and involved and know the importance of both, so maybe he will ultimately be the anomaly after all.

I still think it's the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11, and maybe ultimately as impactful, and I agree the feeling was very similar, which really underscores what a disaster Trump is.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, March 10, 2018 3:13 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalin

I think the further we away we get from these two events the more evidently 9/11 will appear as an obvious catalyst for what happened in November 2016l. I remember being up on our roof all day looking on in disbelief at what had happened and having an exchange with a neighbor who had walked over from the adjacent roof, and we shared—maybe out of desperation—the hope that maybe this horror would prompt a new, reflective national mode, reevaluation of soft empire etc.

But the seeds for everything that made Trump possible were p much sprouting after the candlelight vigils ended and well before the (literal) stench from downtown vanished. Obv. fear has been the political capital of both parties for generations but 9/11 was a demagogic boon. There's no national anthem controversy to gin up w/o the sudden ubiquity of flag pins and "God Bless America" at ballgames etc in the wake of 9/11. Almost overnight disregard for international consensus became a point of pride for "moderates" in both parties, the CIA (!) was being openly villainized by Republicans, and Nixon's old, shamed lieutenants were moving to concentrate executive power for good.

Ugh 9-11 happened literally the second week of me becoming a fully functioning adult - just graduated college, started a new job. I knew we were truly fucked when it happened, especially since the dumb as shit ceo president who didn’t need to be competent because lol it’s the “end of history” was in charge of the response.

Sorry to go off-topic but...

After testifying before a grand jury for 5.5 hours, Sam Nunberg says he believes the Russia probe is “warranted.”

“No, I don't think it's a witch hunt,” Sam Nunberg told ABC News. “It's warranted because there's a lot there and that's the sad truth.” https://t.co/FBmctIc59D

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 10, 2018

On election night my wife and I freaked out and chain smoked for an hour on our deck (neither of us are regular smokers) while talking about buying guns, getting a passport for our toddler and figuring out exactly how far we were from the Canadian border. Then I slept for an hour and laid awake the rest of the night with my heart beating in my head.

It felt worse than 9/11 to me because I was 15 years older with more at stake; it was less surreal and detached and unknown. For a while at least after 9/11 everything felt fucked up but I at least felt some connection to other Americans while Trump winning felt like a gross violation of trust and faith in my neighbors.

chin up everybody

Being a Catholic attending a Catholic School, I was age 14 and sitting in my Algebra class when an announcement came through our PA system that our President was Trump. We prayed the rosary for him when shortly there after another announcement came to us that our treasured President was gonna be Trump. We were sent home shortly and remember crying feeling, so shocked and thinking of his wife, and children that will grow up with out a Father. Being young minded I remember how thrilled I was that a Irish Catholic became President of the USA. I felt as though our President was my hero, as I too, was an Irish Catholic.

So the dream created by this family was dead and that hurt when thinking about how something like this could possibly happen? Times were different, people were not killing each other, how could this happen?

Arriving at home, I began to openly cry and my Mother hugged me. We watched in shock with the rest of the country the news regarding the Trump being president of US. My Father and younger siblings were home now and my Father spoke about this tragedy repeating over and over that the person that committed this dreadful act will be reprehended soon. I believed him.

I think it was a Sunday, not sure but I was watching the television when I actually viewed the live unveiling of the pee tape. I called for my Father who was in the other room and told him what happened. He could not believe it. Our entire family cried because we felt our lives had changed forever. We now were a witness to pee. We turned the television off and spoke about this new crime against the suspect. We prayed too, for God to help put our country back together again. We felt that our country was sinking fast. At this time, we did not know if it was a foreign attack on our President or if it was just some random pee. I remember feeling afraid. My parents assured us all that our country is safe and that this crime will be solved soon.

The inaguration was like no other that I had ever seen, it was truly yuge. It was a large Trump inaguration with people from all over the world attending. I remember watching Mrs. Trump and told my Mother that I do not know how she could remain so strong? Mrs. Trumpset an example of dignity, respect, and love of family for her president trump husbands funeral. Although heavily veiled during the inaguration you could still see her pain. Her children were at her side and suddenly her little son probably chester or something, stepped up as the casket passed and he saluted his Father. Everyone in our home cried. It was so terribly sad yet everyone was so proud of this family’s composer and grace.

These are the memories that I have of our good President and his Family. The President’s Trumping and ensuing Non stop win rate changed our Country for good in that we no longer seemed to have trust that our President would always be protected. We must be on guard as bad people exist that cause grievous harm and pain to others.

I will always remember the Presidential Family called TRUMP , that once lived a life that was admired by all in our Country, and then they were awesome winners in a matter of seconds. Life can be sad!

which chapter from Mary McCarthy's memoir is that from?