I doubt it's as good as this. They got the ruling party in this country to lick their boots.

Lord you people are suckers. https://t.co/PjmJHZaQbb

— Neera Tanden �� (@neeratanden) July 16, 2018

i kept thinking of this scene through the whole press conference

Attachment 6979

Germany's foreign secretary after the summit: "We can no longer completely rely on the White House"

The language used is no coincidence, because in that same interview he was also emphasizing the similarity in interests and the good relations between Germany/Europe and "the US" since WW2, while explicitly stating (and not for the first time) that one can't rely on "the White House". Not the first time there has been made a distinction like that from politicians over here.

The general impression i am getting is that basically Germany and the EU as a whole will pretty much wait this shitshow out and is fine treading water rather than make any decision based on making Trump happy. And in the meantime they will work on contingency plans/policies in case the crazy person gets another term.

This woman was very close to the NRA.

Gonna get a head start on this, I'm bad at learning new languages.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D9DY6WP...=9909182750601

I'm not a lawyer, so I may be misreading things, but this affidavit is Holy Shit bonkers.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-re...80766/download

Tom Winter‏Verified account @Tom_Winter









BREAKING / NBC News: DOJ announces the arrest of Russian National Mariia Butina, age 29, for "infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation." She was arrested yesterday.


She was one that was reaching out to the NRA

I'm not either, but I'd say its pretty damning. Can't wait until they reveal who "US person 1 and 2" are.

It's worse than the worst case scenario. The Russians were using a GOP operative to establish backchannel communication between the Russians and GOP leaders through the NRA.

Makes all the Kushner/Flynn backchannel stuff during the transition more interesting, too.

November 11, 2016: Maria Butina DM's Torshin asking him what "our people" thought about a Secretary of State contender.
Late November 2016: Christopher Steele says Kremlin intervened to block Trump’s initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney. pic.twitter.com/vG4Sw2atXo

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) July 16, 2018

2020 can't get here soon enough.

Judge in Manafort's case postponed a meeting on change of venue until next Mon morning. possible flipping?

Guess I was right about things moving quickly about Trump/Russia :)

And now a video from 2015 Freedom Fest where Trump was asked a question about US/Russia relations. And the woman asking? Maria Butina


Trump answers question on Russia at FreedomFest 2015 - YouTube

Give it 24 hours and Trump will do something even more absurd and go on multiple twitter rants which the media will then follow and this will all blow over.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Where's Cam? He's got some explaining to do.

Trump's problem is that Mueller doesn't care about any of that.

There's going to be a lot of these. That's the arrested spy with her Russian minder.

First episode was just on over here: first half was not great:

First section was Bernie Sanders basically being professional and not calling him a twat. Wasn’t funny either.

Second section was an old Republican couple being grossed out by, well pretty gross/stupid conversation, but being polite and not throwing him out. Again, not funny at all.

Third section was an artist being up her own arse - no surprise there, or much humour

I nearly quit TBH because it was neither thought provoking or funny, but the last section saved it. I won’t ruin it, but it was far more clever in concept, preparation, delivery, and in the scope of both numbers and importance of the people involved (assuming they were who the captions said they were)

Even if you are generally behind the people being ridiculed, you can’t be happy about some of the idiotic things they agree to in conversation, and agree to say/promote while doing a promo to camera. Again all this assumes they are who they are captioned to be, otherwise the joke’s on me!

Either perservere through the first three sections, or just skip to the last bit as that is definitely worth watching.

You'll find him on twitter preaching the good word about how background checks don't work and awarding a "good guy" of the day. You can guess what the good guy is packing!

At least we know who's paying his bills. What a true patriot! :lol:

This should surprise no one.

NEW: I can confirm that the US Congressman who allegedly met with Butina and Torshin in August 2015 in Moscow was Dana Rohrabacher. pic.twitter.com/0Kw0xgDpym

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) July 16, 2018

Not shocking in the least that it was Rohrabacker.

Just finished watching it and, overall, I agree. The last segment is 100% must watch. It's seriously depressing to see people ok with what they were pitching. I'm guessing clips or quotes from this are going to end up in campaign ads soon.

what was the last segment?

Kinderguardians

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-r...review-698440/

I'm a Sepinwall fanboy, but I think this take on the show, and our country, is really good.





I'm interested to see what current sitting congressmen did, sure. But, as a concept and a show? Meh.

US Person 1 appears to be GOP Consultant Paul Erickson:


Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent - The Washington Post

I think the moment when Trump said it's the US's fault that Russian-American relations are poor is the one that will ultimately bring him down.

First time I've been shocked by something he's said. Like, I literally gaped at the screen like a damn goldfish.

When even Joseph McCarthy is rolling over in his grave, anyone who supports him after this has crossed the Rubicon into idolatry with Trump as golden calf.

Sure enough, I've seen a few Tea Party Republican voters (not politicians AFAIK) declaring that they're now breaking with Trump.

They'll turn on Rush Limbaugh tomorrow who'll spin the issues in such a fashion that the liberal media is to blame and then they'll be happy angry Republicans again.

I do feel like this does move him into a new metric.

Larry Pratt, Trent Lott, Dana Rohrabacher, Joe Walsh, and Joe Walsh recorded a promo that supported teaching kindgergarten classroom students how to defend themselves with "pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars".

I guess this could be a poll.

But is it really possible this is blackmail? I’ve always assumed Russia was doing what a foe would do and just struck gold when the guy they helped would rather deny than admit his win was not all him.

Reading through Twitter on my phone this morning I had to actually watch the Trump-Putin video to see if it was just a case of Trump being trump causing the usual "impeach him" outrage or if it was next level. But yeah...
Whole thing felt like the final big payoff for Putin - make Trump look like a weak buffoon on the world stage and shatter all remaining confidence in the US internationally in the most demeaning way possible. Must be some particular spicy pee videos Putin and co. have in their archives.

I've joked about it ever since the pee video rumours, but is there any doubt at this stage? Only question I think is what it is - either something personal on Trump, or the threat of personal financial ruin. Even the election rigging wouldn't be enough on its own to explain that performance IMO.

What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?

Wow. Trump just sold out the USA.

No wonder our government is pivoting towards a closer relationship with China.

Even this bumpkin from the Philippines can see it. What a twat.

Corbes article above alluded to Russian financial support or embarrassing pictures.

His business(es) has had financial support from Russia interests for a while now. I also think the specter of his election being tarnished/illegitimate because of Russian interference weighs on him. So easily believe these key reasons of how he reacts to Russia.

The embarrassing pictures is probably the most dubious. If it was peeing, it would be damaging (is there a lot of evidence for this for is it from one source?) and he would probably claim it was doctored. If it was him having regular sex, I doubt he would care that much.

Regardless of the three factors, I still struggle with why he is doing this. If he was beholden to Russia, you would think he would find less visible and less combative ways of "complying" and not tarnish (more) his Presidency in the history books.

Could be as simple as money laundering for the Russian mob.

Because he's not that smart and is too stubborn to take advice from people who know better who could couch things like politicians always did.

I read somewhere that Mueller probably has Trump's tax returns. Never done money laundering but I would think there would be evidence for that in his/company's tax returns.

Maybe I'm naive, but isn't it the point of money laundering that it doesn't show up in your taxes?

***yes, I know you could have some holes in things or absurdly high interest amounts that don't match your income or whatever, but the point is, if you're money laundering, you're probably not going to report it on your taxes. What the taxes can show is who you're paying interest to, where your reported income is coming from, etc.

I don't think Trump was having his money cleaned. If, as his own sons have stated, he was selling a lot of condos in cash to Russians, those LLCs could be traced back to individuals and the sources of the money figured out.

But I'd bet there are problems for Trump extending well beyond that in his financial records.

Apparently the only other option was for Trump to declare an all out war on Russia that would have already killed is after the nukes were fired, so it's hard to argue that Trump didn't do a great job.

And GOP electeds are getting in on the act.

Rep. Pete King told me he “absolutely” stands by House Intelligence Committee’s report that disputed IC findings that Putin wanted Trump to win. Putin yesterday confirmed he wanted Trump to win.

King told me he has seen the intelligence and doesn’t believe Putin.

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 17, 2018

NowThis on Twitter: "Trump's thoughts on Brexit is like a college student trying to pull off a presentation on a book they didn't read… "

If he didn't have such power, he'd be soooo amusing. I mean, why couldn't you have a system where there is one person with the power and then one is a figure-head, he'd be so perfectly amusing to watch in such a role with high visibility but limited power :(

King Donald the First. He'd love that.