Presidents* Trump & Putin bromance

[Vrede too]

Found: "It's Mueller time!"

[JTA]

Monday is fast approaching. Who's going to be indicted? Trump and his allies seem to have picked up pace in trying to distract us from this development. Hannity tweets he has some big news to drop himself this coming Monday. Trump is leveling charges that the Uranium One deal during the Obama admin is evidence of corruption and or collusion with Russia. I'm assuming tomorrow's revelations have them scared shitless. Over in the conservative news eco-system, Mueller's Monday indictment is barely a blip with focus STILL on Hillary Clinton.

[JTA]

Another thing to keep in mind: When Mueller and his team were working on the Enron case, they went after the wive's of some of the big shots to pressure them into cooperating:

The Enron team made aggressive and risky moves. For example, it shocked Houston high society by charging the wife of Andrew Fastow, the chief financial officer, with tax evasion to put pressure on him. It worked. Mr. Fastow began to cooperate with the government. (His wife pleaded guilty.) Every prosecutor knows this strategy works, but for various reasons today, few put in the painstaking work needed to penetrate the sophisticated legal defenses of highly paid executives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/opin ... ation.html

I bet when/if the clamp starts closing down on Trump, he'll try to get rid of Mueller. The conservative news ecosystem is already working on the angle that Mueller is corrupt and partisan:

“What was supposed to have been a search for Russia’s cyberspace intrusions into our electoral politics has morphed into a malevolent mission targeting friends, family and colleagues of the president,” Powell wrote in The Hill. “The Mueller investigation has become an all-out assault to find crimes to pin on them — and it won’t matter if there are no crimes to be found. This team can make some.”

...

Page said in the statement that he has worked with the executive branch and Congress since being contacted in March. But he also suggested that revelations about the Democratic Party having helped finance a dossier to smear Trump has tainted any Russia probe.

...

“In terms of ‘charges', I can’t even imagine what might even be considered now that the false evidence from the politically-motivated, big-money-financed Dodgy Dossier that started this extrajudicial disaster has instead been so thoroughly exposed as a complete sham,” Carter wrote in the statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10 ... probe.html

Sean Hannity said there is now reason for special counsel Robert Mueller to resign his post, citing "conflicts of interest" during the time the Uranium One deal was approved.

"There's no way the American people can trust Robert Mueller to investigate anything Russia related," he added.

Hannity also called into question the roles of current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was in charge of the investigation into the deal at the time.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/24/h ... al-counsel

[billy.pilgrim]

Another thing to keep in mind: When Mueller and his team were working on the Enron case, they went after the wive's of some of the big shots to pressure them into cooperating:

The Enron team made aggressive and risky moves. For example, it shocked Houston high society by charging the wife of Andrew Fastow, the chief financial officer, with tax evasion to put pressure on him. It worked. Mr. Fastow began to cooperate with the government. (His wife pleaded guilty.) Every prosecutor knows this strategy works, but for various reasons today, few put in the painstaking work needed to penetrate the sophisticated legal defenses of highly paid executives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/opin ... ation.html

I bet when/if the clamp starts closing down on Trump, he'll try to get rid of Mueller. The conservative news ecosystem is already working on the angle that Mueller is corrupt and partisan:

“What was supposed to have been a search for Russia’s cyberspace intrusions into our electoral politics has morphed into a malevolent mission targeting friends, family and colleagues of the president,” Powell wrote in The Hill. “The Mueller investigation has become an all-out assault to find crimes to pin on them — and it won’t matter if there are no crimes to be found. This team can make some.”

...

Page said in the statement that he has worked with the executive branch and Congress since being contacted in March. But he also suggested that revelations about the Democratic Party having helped finance a dossier to smear Trump has tainted any Russia probe.

...

“In terms of ‘charges', I can’t even imagine what might even be considered now that the false evidence from the politically-motivated, big-money-financed Dodgy Dossier that started this extrajudicial disaster has instead been so thoroughly exposed as a complete sham,” Carter wrote in the statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10 ... probe.html

Sean Hannity said there is now reason for special counsel Robert Mueller to resign his post, citing "conflicts of interest" during the time the Uranium One deal was approved.

"There's no way the American people can trust Robert Mueller to investigate anything Russia related," he added.

Hannity also called into question the roles of current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was in charge of the investigation into the deal at the time.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/24/h ... al-counsel

reckon they will go after Ivanka's wife?

[JTA]

I bet Trump would be dumb enough to do a repeat of Nixon's "Saturday night massacre". I wasn't alive at the time so I don't have any idea as to the general mood of the public/media at the time concerning Nixon's move, but nowadays with the poisoning of the well already well underway by Trump's supporting media, I bet a good portion of people would be totally cool if Trump did the needful for himself and got rid of Mueller in whatever way he can legally do so.

I wonder if Jeff Sessions will resign? He's already threatened to do so several times. If he actually did resign, the Trump propaganda machine could spin it as "Session's has already threatened to resign several times, as reported by the NYT and others. This resignation has nothing to do with Mueller's investigation". I dunno. That's all pure, 100%, conjecture on my part and has no basis in anything I've read. But hell with the way this train wreck has been going the last ten months or so it wouldn't surprise me.

[Vrede too]

"Conspiracy against the United States" - Whoa!

Great minds, JTA, you beat me to it by seconds.

Senators Introduce Legislation To Protect Special Counsel From Political Interference
Legislation would place a judicial check on the executive branch's ability to remove special counsel

Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey)

[JTA]

"Conspiracy against the United States" - Whoa!

Great minds, JTA, you beat me to it by seconds.

Senators Introduce Legislation To Protect Special Counsel From Political Interference
Legislation would place a judicial check on the executive branch's ability to remove special counsel

Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey)

As expected from the two best states in the country.

[JTA]

Bahaha

Sean Hannity Tweet:

.@newtgingrich: "Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this [Trump] campaign to where it is right now."

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/ ... anafort%2F

[rstrong]

Keep in mind that Paul Manafort's arrest is the *minor* news today.

The major news is Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with people close to the Russian government. While searching for "dirt" on Hillary. He's described as a "co-operating witness."

New Republic: The Manafort indictment is bad for Trump. The Papadopoulos plea might be worse.

In sum, a member of Trump’s campaign has pled guilty and provided evidence that the campaign did collude or attempt to collude with Russia. That cuts to the heart of the Mueller investigation—and it means that the president should be in very deep trouble.

As for corroboration of the collaboration, Trump Jr. doing so is a nice walk down memory lane (Video: Stephen Colbert)....

Independent journalist Jared Yates Sexton:

I...worked on this story for a year...and...he just...he tweeted it out.
---
Like. I spent hours and days and weeks and months. And his son just, hit tweet.
---
I tracked down sources. Followed so many dead leads. Labored over this. And then, he just, you know, tweeted out the proof.
---
I'm not entirely convinced I'm not having a break from reality.
---
For the record, I'm beside myself in relief that this stuff is out there it's just...my god. I cannot believe this.
---
Like, so many people out there were trying to track this down. And it just...got delivered on a tweet. What the hell.

[Vrede too]

Bahaha

Sean Hannity Tweet:

.@newtgingrich: "Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this [Trump] campaign to where it is right now."

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/ ... anafort%2F

19 Aug 2016

Update: "Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this Trump presidency to where it is right now."

[rstrong]

The function of an ambassador is to transmit accurately the values of the administration that sent him or her.

We... don't know... how to handle this....

[bannination]

[Vrede too]

The function of an ambassador is to transmit accurately the values of the administration that sent him or her.

We... don't know... how to handle this....

Up to you, but I would suggest treating Kelly Knight Craft - K, K, hard C, really? - like you would treat the Ambassador from Russia. Hope that helps.

[JTA]

I saw this on the internet:

MAGA - More Assholes Getting Arrested.

[JTA]

Here are some of the ads on social media purchased by Russia: https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/

[GoCubsGo]

I saw this on the internet:

MAGA - More Assholes Getting Arrested.

[Vrede too]

Republicans on House’s Trump-Russia Probe Not That Interested in Trump or Russia
Only three of the 13 House intel committee Republicans regularly show up to grill Russia-related witnesses. Meanwhile, GOP staffers are chasing the trail of the pee tape dossier.

[Vrede too]

49 percent of Americans think Trump likely committed a crime (POLL)

The numbers will only get worse for Putin's Agent Orange as more indictments are handed down. Regardless of charges or impeachment, it is already a failed presidency, which is probably record time. No POTUS gets his agenda with this kind of broad and deep opposition.

[O Really]

The entertaining part is that Trump keeps making matters worse with his reactions, responses, and comments. I guess that's what could be expected from a guy who was elected mostly by people voting against their own interests.

[Vrede too]

Bob Mercer, a prominent Trump backer, leaving hedge fund

One doesn't often see the rats deserting the luxury yacht in limousines. My guess: This is about more than political differences, Mercer is soon to be in serious trouble or he knows that the trouble is about to hurt him and/or people close to him. People like him and the sleaze he's been running with don't make choices based on morality.