[Trump/Russia/GOPgate] sock puppet org busted

    Previous 5-month long thread here:

    http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/barr-trumps-soiled-reputations-35202

    New charges may signal a more expansive effort to weed out Russian sockpuppet orgs for influencing elections & public opinion, right and left. ["failure to register as a foreign agent"]

    13 Russians charged by Mueller in absentia 4 years ago, but this one seems to point higher up the RU food chain plus charges Americans as well.

    The presence of investigation in Tampa (thoselcharging Black Hammer ATL as well) instead of SDNY may also signal a broader effort or different regional approach (good morning, Mr. DeSantis - nice hotbed of dissent you got there, would be a shame to see it go belly up)

     

    Anyway, the ties to the more senior Russian Official may be why the candidacy is included.

    Among other reasons.

    This is the one place where this indictment is NOT about FSB1, but instead RO and FSB2. pic.twitter.com/prsXnX8OHE

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) July 29, 2022

     

    Longer thread from Marcy

     

    FSB Officer objective: get your dissident group to stage a rally *in* the state capitol.

    [Corrected]https://t.co/TnkH8HkovK pic.twitter.com/QaW68Lg48E

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) July 29, 2022

     

     

    Comments

    Previous post Black Hammer:

    https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-group-implicated-in-russian-influence-s...

    Previous comment Secret Service leads' erased texts:

    http://dagblog.com/comment/319253#comment-319253

    Trump loses appeal on giving tax filings to Congress from 3 years ago, tho narrowed a bit, will be appealed again higher for sure.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/appeals-court-congress-trump-f...

    Trump asks for absolute immunity from all civil lawsuits as Přez:

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-asking-appeals-court-him-053711379.html

     


    3 degrees of   Kevin Bacon  Roger Stone


    Manafort also angling for a pardon during 2020 campaign. Doing what with his Russian friends?

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paul-manafort-secret-trump-adviser-book_n...


    Twitter has made the WaPo Gaetz hot mike story a  'news event'

    1 hour ago

    Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions

    As Roger Stone prepared to stand trial in 2019, complaining he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to incriminate Donald Trump, a close ally of the president repeatedly assured Stone that “the boss” would likely grant him clemency if he were convicted, a recording shows. At an event at a Trump property that October, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) predicted that Stone would be found guilty at his trial in Washington the following month but would not “do a day” in prison. Gaetz was apparently unaware they were being recorded by documentary filmmakers following Stone.

    Video via @washingtonpost.....


    Mho this is VERY well framed:

    He always cared more about 'ratings' than real governing, but has now totally gone over to a fantasy land presidential campaign. For him this is now all about winning the most 'fans' and admirers on the right, not about having the job of president. While the fight about the presidency is currently still useful, he doesn't necessarily need that, he can turn around and use an alternative, like, say, representing the worst case scenario of the Deep State coming after you, the ultimate victim, but he is the one superhero savior who can fight back. It always comes down to 'ratings' for this man, it was never simply about politics.


    P.S. consider this: when push comes to shove, he may realize that he really doesn't want the job of president as he once deluded himself that he did. Look at how he despised all those minions who pestered him with actual presidential duties and how he paid no real attention to what his cabinet secretaries were doing, caring only if they reflected well on him. Look at how he spent 1/6, shut up in his dining room, enthralled watching his fans fight for him on the teevee and loathe to deal with it in any real way! Look at him trying to record that video and Ivanka struggling with getting him to use certain words. He is not so much thinking 'coup tactics" all he really cares about is not discouraging the fans from continuing to fight for him. He even uses the famous celeb words to fans "we love you"


    Sometimes Seth Abramson surprises with his understanding of pop culture (even tho he usually comes off like Joe Friday on 'Dragnet');

    this guy's got the reality


     


    According to internal communications reviewed by Rolling Stone, Trump’s team is “quietly” planning for criminal charges as they wait for the Justice Department to make its move




    a reminder that Richard William Painter ...is an American lawyer, professor, and political candidate. From 2005 to 2007 Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota, and since 2016 has served as vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW),[2][3] a government watchdog group.[4]....


    But Hillary's emails! Hunter's laptop! Ashley's diary!


    is trending "BUT HER EMAILS"


    Peter Strzok on emails

    Peter Strzok @petestrzok

    Number of marked classified documents recovered from Donald Trump? More than 300. Number of marked classified documents recovered from Hillary Clinton? Less than 5. https://nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/politics/trump-classified-documents.html…

    Quote Tweet

    Peter Strzok@ petestrzok  Aug 12

    also: intent to engage in particular especially criminal conduct




    No need to imagine - Jan6 getting it today.


    Trump really did do some really crazy 25th-amendment style stuff in his lame duck period

    Axios: Trump tried to pull troops from around world after election loss https://t.co/1xK7aY2gJ8 via @YouTube

    — Barry C King (@ArdRiBarreK) August 4, 2022

    What impresses me after listening to this is that it got stopped, it didn't happen, we still had a government that worked


    but HIS emails! 



    and here's Liz tweeting the video ad by her dad -


    Methinks a good buy because their viewership is an older demographic who will know who he is and like him!


    Managing Editor @LawCrimeNews


    nice catch of a quote


    As the plaintiff's lawyer noted with Alex Jones, "when you're questioned in direct (his lawyer) you remember everything. When i ask you can't remember anything"



    saw that and saw how outraged many people are but one wonders what can be done about it until the Nov. elections are over, you have to know what kinda Senate you'll have and it seems to many that there are already a gazillion investigations going on 

    I guess the point: if you want him impeached first you got to get out there and work hard for a better Senate situation; for just one example:


    Takes 2/3 of Senate to impeach



    NYPost's Editorial Board coming out as given up on Trump:

    concluding line

    It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.


    "Hitler's silence on Kristallnacht is damning"

    "Al Capone's silence on the Saturday Night Massacre is damning"

    "Manson's silence on the Tate-LaBianca killings is damning"

    "It's up to the DoJ to decide if the slaying of Nicole Simpson is a crime, but OJ has proven himself unworthy to lead Buffalo again"

    Media leading the horserace indeed - profiles in courage.

     


    Wagner Group? What Wagner Group.

    Barrack trial in Sept may open some of this up

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-fundraiser-says-uae-investment-171519453.html


    Inside the War Between Trump and His Generals by Susan B. Glasser and Peter Baker -


    BREAKING: Former President Donald Trump said his home at Mar-a-Lago was “raided” by FBI agents. https://t.co/sElpFNIvWl

    — CBS News (@CBSNews) August 8, 2022


    laugh


    A.P.

    Ken White:


    Maggie Haberman:


    10,000 retweets in an hour:

    Please retweet if your home or office wasn't searched today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a warrant issued by a federal judge upon a showing of probable cause.

    — George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 8, 2022

    edit to add:

     


    Jr.:





    rats. sinking ship.





    Michael Cohen:

    recalling a legal distinction he used ta make for his client?




    YUGE. BIGLIEST WARRANT EVER!


    she was trying to be fair BUT


    "Save America Jesus Fucking Christ?

    And at home with 500 of his closest friends?




    Good to lighten one's mood; Trae's a funny good ol boy. I especially like the little phrase he slips in there for Trump so you'll have that..laugh




    Representative Scott Perry says the F.B.I. seized his cellphone.

    Luke Broadwater @NYTimes.com,Aug. 9, 2022, 7:50 p.m. ET

    WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. on Tuesday seized the cellphone of Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania and the chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, according to the congressman’s office.

    Mr. Perry, who has been issued a subpoena by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said three F.B.I. agents seized his phone Tuesday morning while he was traveling with family.

    “They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish,” Mr. Perry said in a statement. “I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the F.B.I., under the direction of Merrick Garland’s D.O.J., would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress.”

    His statement was reported earlier by Fox News.

    Mr. Perry compared the seizure of his cellphone to the F.B.I.’s search of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property Monday, in which agents took out boxes of materials after an all-day search related to an investigation into the mishandling of White House documents.

    “My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents and friends. None of this is the government’s business,” Mr. Perry said. “As with President Trump last night, D.O.J. chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys. These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every citizen.”

    It was not immediately clear why the F.B.I. had seized Mr. Perry’s phone. A spokeswoman for the congressman did not respond right away to a follow-up question, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Mr. Perry has refused to appear before the Jan. 6 committee, and his lawyer has argued that there was “nothing improper” about his actions during the buildup to the attack on the Capitol.

    In the weeks after the 2020 election, Mr. Perry was among at least 11 members of Congress who were involved in discussions with White House officials about overturning the election, including plans to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to throw out electoral votes from states won by President Biden, according to the committee. Mr. Perry also endorsed the idea of encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol, the committee has said.

    A member of Congress since 2013, Mr. Perry also compiled a dossier of voter fraud allegations and coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general, who was resisting Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, with a more compliant official.

    Mr. Perry is not the only ally of Mr. Trump whose phone has been seized in recent weeks. In June, federal agents seized the phone of John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who advised Mr. Trump on strategies to overturn the election.

    Luke Broadwater covers Congress. He was the lead reporter on a series of investigative articles at The Baltimore Sun that won a Pulitzer Prize and a George Polk Award in 2020. @lukebroadwater

     

     


    OH


    what a surprise NOT


    The Donald on those who plead the Fifth, May 2018:


    OMG - can you say SPIES boys and girls?

    Domestic, foreign, or both?


    PS. To be clear, they already had them:


    OH


    DOJ moves to unseal warrant that led to FBI search of Trump’s Florida home, AG Garland says

    @ Twitter events. Aug. 11

    The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it is moving forward with unsealing the search warrant and itemized receipt of what was taken from former president Donald Trump’s residence at his Mar-a-Largo Club in Palm Beach, Florida, during an FBI search of the property earlier this week. It was Attorney General Merrick Garland’s first public statement since Monday’s search and the first public acknowledgment that the department is actively investigating Trump’s handling of classified presidential records.

    Video via @washingtonpost



    The documents that were the focus of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort were reportedly classified files related to nuclear weapons. https://t.co/CppujPYXuY

    — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 12, 2022

    "Experts in classified information said... search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club & potentially in danger of falling into to the wrong hands."

    https://t.co/wimnGeN9VU

    — Zhi Zhu (@ZhiZhuWeb) August 12, 2022


    "Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said.

    Publicizing details about US weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems." pic.twitter.com/U56by9oixK

    — Zhi Zhu (@ZhiZhuWeb) August 12, 2022

    "the type of top-secret information described by the people familiar with the probe would probably cause authorities to try to move as quickly as possible to recover sensitive documents that could cause grave harm to US security."#NationalSecurity https://t.co/wimnGeN9VU pic.twitter.com/IUkURJxsJr

    — Zhi Zhu (@ZhiZhuWeb) August 12, 2022

    "during the Trump administration, highly classified intelligence about sensitive topics... was routinely mishandled...

    Such intercepts are among the most closely guarded secrets because of what they can reveal about how the United States has penetrated foreign governments." pic.twitter.com/rdXBtez2k5

    — Zhi Zhu (@ZhiZhuWeb) August 12, 2022

    "A person familiar with the inventory of 15 boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago in January indicated that signals intelligence material was included in them."#NationalSecurity https://t.co/wimnGeN9VU

    — Zhi Zhu (@ZhiZhuWeb) August 12, 2022

    Comprehensive thread by @rgoodlaw on the documents found at Mar-a-Lago and support for the possibility that this is a case related to the Espionage Act: https://t.co/VFkNDQoYkg

    — Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) August 12, 2022

    Josh Marshall:

    This story isn’t going anywhere. So I’m not going to jump to conclusions abt what documents relating to nuclear weapons mean. But I assume they’re not talking about a kids book about the Manhattan project. The story also references signals intercepts among the documents.

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 12, 2022


    2/ Clearly the magnitude and seriousness of this story has escalate dramatically. But it’s worth stepping back and asking what conceivable innocent reasons Trump wld have to be housing these documents at his beach resort. Set aside whether he owns them or has any right to them.

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 12, 2022

    3/ Why on earth are they there? We have very light indication Trump is a details guy or gives materials a close look when he’s supposed to. Is he eyeballing the yield curves on some next Gen nuclear device. Is he re-reviewing intercepted calls from foreign govts?

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 12, 2022

    4/ Why are they in a pantry at Mar a Lago? I think most of us have been assuming these are important govt documents that he doesn’t have right to keep. So the USG wants them back. But absent some clear criminal activity the FBI isn’t going to go in with a warrant and …

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 12, 2022

    5/ confiscate them. But maybe we’ve gotten this wrong. Maybe he was holding on to material the government couldn’t allow to be unsecured even for a brief time. I confess I really can’t figure out what any of this means. But wtf?

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 12, 2022

    edit to add new tweet


    Their gut says nuke info to Saudis in 2018:



    and that works with this, where anything "bad" will have been planted:

    Former US President Donald Trump has said he will not oppose the release of the warrant that let FBI agents search his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this week.

    In a statement, Mr Trump said he was encouraging its "immediate release" - but repeated his claim the search was unnecessary and politically motivated....

    BBC, 1 hr. ago




    a little digression, a reminder that on 1/6/21, while basically live blogging on the action on Dagblog, I said something like 'they've been inspired by the BLM defund/abolish protesters." And I got tons of shit from NCD and rmrd that they have nothing to do with each other (both of whom were also supporting the narrative that if they were Black, the evil Capitol Police would shoot them). I got good support from oceankat, who sensibly realized that it was all, both things about RULE OF LAW and society having the forces to support it.

    Here you go. You either hate the idea of cops or you don't:

    Yep: https://t.co/ZDBzOozuLB

    — Alex Vitale (@avitale) August 10, 2022

     Which side are you on, having rule of law or ditching it for all just politics and identity and interest groups fighting each other to death all the time?


    I always found the Defund movement weird, but still a lot to clean up?

    https://theintercept.com/2019/04/25/bronx-120-report-mass-gang-prosecuti...




    Ken White retweeted:


    and then this laugh



    hashtag #TraitorTrump now trending on Twitter; edit to add also #TRE45ON


    lots of legal opinions in replies


    Lawfare:




    Judge Denies Trump Executive’s Request to Dismiss Manhattan Tax Case

    Allen H. Weisselberg, who was indicted last summer, and the Trump Organization are scheduled to stand trial in October.

    By Jonah E. BromwichBen ProtessWilliam K. Rashbaum and Lola Fadulu @ NYTimes.com, Aug. 12, 2022, 10:38 a.m. ET

    A Manhattan state court judge on Friday declined to throw out the criminal case against Donald J. Trump’s family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, clearing the way for a trial in the case scheduled for the fall.

    Mr. Weisselberg and the business, the Trump Organization, were charged last year by the Manhattan district attorney’s office with having engaged in a 15-year scheme in which executives were compensated with hidden benefits so that they could evade taxes. The charges stemmed from the office’s long-running investigation into the company’s business practices.

    In February, Mr. Weisselberg and the company filed motions to dismiss the charges, arguing that the case was politically motivated and that the defendants were charged only because of their link with former president Donald J. Trump.

    The decision marked the latest legal blow to Mr. Trump in a week full of them.

    On Monday, the F.B.I. searched his Florida home in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation. And on Wednesday the former president invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the New York state attorney general, which is conducting a civil inquiry into some of the same practices that are being examined by the Manhattan district attorney.

    The judge, Juan Merchan, granted a significant victory to the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. His prosecutors argued in May, in response to the motion to dismiss, that there was nothing extraordinary about the charges: Mr. Weisselberg had violated the law in failing to pay his taxes and was being prosecuted for it, they said.

    “Over the course of the period charged in the indictment, Weisselberg evaded payment of taxes on a total of $1.7 million in income,” they wrote in a memo filed with the court. “Such illegal conduct is regularly prosecuted and this office would have been remiss not to have done so here.”

    Justice Merchan dismissed one count of criminal tax fraud against the Trump Organization and its affiliated payroll company, letting stand 14 of the 15 counts in the indictment against the business and all of the counts against Mr. Weisselberg. The prosecutors had conceded in May that the count should be dismissed because of issues with the statute of limitations [....]



    That's not "legal advice", it's a PR stunt to paint him a victim it's expected to be disseminated publicly and widely.



    ah just a refresher, as one tends to forget all the shit going down at Mar-a-Lago while he was President


    Democratic activist Thomas Kennedy told NBC Miami that he and a group of friends paid $1,800 for a plane to fly a banner plane with the message "ha ha ha ha ha" over Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. The act came while supporters of the former president rallied outside in protest of this week's FBI search of the home.'Taste of his own medicine': Plane flies ‘Ha Ha Ha' banner over Trump's Mar-a-Lago home

    Natalie Neysa Alund USA TODAY, Aug. 11-12, 2022

    A Florida man on Wednesday commissioned a plane to pull a sky banner with the message "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha" and fly over Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home as supporters of the former president rallied outside to protest this week's FBI search of the home.

    Miami resident Thomas Kennedy told USA TODAY on Thursday that he and a handful of friends paid $1,800 to fly the banner for four hours Wednesday near Trump's estate in Palm Beach.

    "We thought it would be funny," said Kennedy, a self-professed Trump critic and Democratic activist. "From our perspective, Trump is a bully, and we wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine." [....]



    Oh I don'r think so - he usually has a reason, usually a very good reason for his scenarios and interests.

    Trump is effing brilliant for what he does. People who lose track of that are simply retarded, no other word for it after 6 years of deception, deflection and getting his own way Master Class.


    Trump is effing brilliant for what he does. People who lose track of that are simply retarded

    It's not so much that we are simply retarded. It's more that we're not very good at understanding how the simply retarded think.


    Hmm, you got me chasing my tail on that one, but good to hear from you.

    See if you grok this piece:

    https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mule


    yez. thank you for piping up cause more and more I am going with the simply retarded angle. I was just thinking on that after looking at pictures of him in Helsinki with Putin; Putin got him acting like a chastised little kid. Kim Jong Un and Saudis wrap him around their fingers. Looking at pictures of him with EU leaders, it's like they are mystified by a village fool and don't know how to handle him. He's got an intuitive feel for what's offensive to the "simply retarded" on the culture wars/politically-correct front but it's not like even Lee Atwater level. In the 90's he'd call the gossip columnists in NYC and say he was John Barron with a hot tip, they all knew it was him but would have to pretend they didn't. The balloons of a baby Trump in a diaper resounded for a reason. Rex Tillerson, a quintessential CEO- establishment Republican type who would at the same time understand at least some basic marketing to the masses really pegged it: fucking moron.

    The fans are mostly morons who are sick as hell of being talked down to by elites and he knows how to humor them because he is one, there is nothing genius level at his rallies, they are moronic


    He maintained rock stable 40-42% approval all through his presidency, and he did get maybe 48% of the vote twice (63m then 74.2m votes). He completely changed the nature of US politics that can't be attributed to anyone else even though he had support (opposition would have and did die) and has held on to much of that change, reversing large swaths of precedent, expected behavior and comportment, the rules of the game l. He completely changed foreign policy and *popular* attitudes towards Russia and Saudi Arabia, to their delight, and has carried a good portion of the population Kon a variety of other journeys betraying previously hard-hepd attitudes - inspiring amazing devotion and steadfastness. He has been revolutionary more than any other president ever. He has been involved with around 4000 court cases, about 2/3 initiated by him, has never been charged with a felony, and then survived 2 impeachment trials. Maybe he's a retard, but he's a very clever and successful retard. Underestimate him at your (and our) own risk. Again, read Foundation and Empire/The Mule.

    PS - curious how total vote for top 2 in 2016 was only 129m, 4 years later it was 155.5m - a whopping 20.5% increase. (Total vote 158.4m/136.7m = 1.159, or a 16% increase.)

    PPS - somebody got it, 5 years ago - wondering how he's updated it based on subsequent events - tho hasn't really needed to. The Mule is a grotesque clownish self-absorbed figure that no one could take seriously - making him *nearly* invincible (but still highly effective and dangerous).

    https://mashable.com/article/foundation-mule

    PPPS - he does compare our Jan 6 with Russia's 1991 failed coup

    https://mashable.com/article/failed-coup-history

    plus hilariously gives us Deathmatch Meditation

    https://mashable.com/article/meditation-competition

    (yes, that has nothing to do with Trump)


    Trump does have his rabid supporters but I wonder how many republicans voted for him thinking, he may be a moron but he's our moron. Everyone I know hates Biden but they still all voted for him. Not me, as I said before. I feel defeated on the political forum. We've lost so much so often. I've lost all hope. I'm retired on a beautiful 10 acres of land with my dogs. I just want to live in peace and bucolic simplicity with my dogs. I've dropped out but I can't help myself from still watching the show.


    Do u think Biden's done a bad job?


    It's not genius it's just being an alternative to what the Dems have become to 7% since they abandoned Bill Clinton's DNC. approach. They were approving he was better than having a Dem president. They tell the focus groups that "it would be even better if he quit with the Twitter" They don't like the behavior, but they like the results.

    Look, Bill Clinton had the 65% approval rating all through his 2nd term.

    33% ultra conservative voters have been a given nationally out whole lifetime!

    It's no genius to get an extra 7% to get to 40%. Its genius to get 60%

    My successful real estate business brother convinced my GenX brother that Trump, tho dumb, is better than the alternative, delivers the results you want. Loves DeSantis,. Both loathe political correctness, always have. New is they won't register as Republicans, they think the liberal media distorts and/or lies and Dems have become too socialist and try to regulate everything. He's the one who loves DeSantis and despises the California government which he sees as having ruined a paradise. Surprise, suprise,old Dagblogger momoe shows up and confirms what he says:DeSantis is liked and does the job.

    Bill Maher says he didn't leave the Democratic party, they left him.

    Plenty of Hispanic Americans of different subculture prefer a Trump type (or a Mayor Adams type) to an AOC type.

    I think a part of your problem in not seeing how easy it is to win over 7% by being anti-liberal, that lies in that you are deluded that Hillary has the same centrist rep as her husband. She does not! To too many she is a shrill version of AOC, "politically correct" and divisive, elitist, not down home, and would let all those tax-and-spend types regulate-to-hell and ruin the economy. Yes it's unfair to her. So fucking what! Life is unfair. I don't get defending her like she's your mother. She was a bad choice politically espec. with Trump out there! Things would have been little different if she had won, with him out there raising his rabble against her! Every day it looks like a bad choice of candidate, It might have actually turned out worse if she was president!  A very good chance of that with him out there not having to perform, just criticize

    Don't underestimate how much a couple Sister Souljah moments might change Biden's approval rating once inflation dies down. He won the election. The majority just don't trust him yet to right the economy and not pander to the left. 

    You cannot get that 7% and pander to the left, you just can't. They are fed up. Maher does speak for them. That is not genius. It is simply recognition of how you cannot ally with lefty liberals and win nationally. You have to repudiate them. Yes, it's unfair as the deal with Trump is "wish you would stay off Twitter" while lefties have to be banished, but it is the way it is -nationally the whole is more tolerant of conservative nuts than they are of lefties

     


    Oh give me an effing break - he wiped out the *ENTIRE GOP OPPOSITION* easily. Boom. How many years Jeb Bush & Mario & Ted Cruz sucked cock with doglike groveling to be the possible man of succession, and Trump laid them out in weeks. Wassername, former head of HP, same. For a few days after Jan 6 it looked like Trump's mojo was gone, then BOOM, they're all crawling to him to kiss his ass again. This isn't about the fucking left - it's about a sinister but grossly perversely talented man who's able to spin a spell over people or find out their needs and have them invested in his own obviously flawed personality and late night TV household ads. Trump corrupts *EVERYONE*. He makes everyone complicit, uses them up, discards them, it's so predictable - but few complain. He's still the Big Daddy in the room - De Santis is holding his breath hoping he can unseat him, but when Trump speaks, a million journalists stop what they're doing and start taking dicktation - Trump's dicktation, always spun the way he wants it, those little fine tune details, the "innocent" omissions, etc. He controls the news cycle, they do his bidding. Now he's got half of the nation saying it's ok to keep top secret gov information at home (the laughable name for his resort) to show off to dinner guests or raffle off to whatever secret foreign agents are hanging around the compound to find exactly this kind of stuff. GOP Congress? they're all on board with it. "Maybe Trump declassified all the documents!" they schemingly disingenuously gullibly proclaim. Putin's sent troops into Ukraine, exactly the kind of compromise we were worried with Trump withholding Congressionally mandated arms for Kiev, and yet we might as well be in some Gorby Glasnost period where Russiagate was just a figment of our imagination and Trump was the greatest prez evuh, war economy immigrants energy foreign policy coal makeamericagreatagain. Facts be damned - he knows how to deflect, he knows how to project. It's all good. Trump is GOAT to his followers, who are a lot more than rationally expected. Whatever he does, he's doing it pretty goddamn well - he's still floating in mid-air after walking off the cliff years ago.


    One thing the internet has shown us is how many stupid and ignorant people there are in America and just how far gone so many are. I'm not just talking about the real crazies that believe Alex Jones and Qanon. There's also the simple basic shit. I was just reading the NYT article on the focus group from Wyoming about LIz Cheney. One participant said, "I don’t feel like we have a voice because we don’t have as many people as some of the bigger states. And that’s been since I’ve been in high school. I just don’t feel like we have a voice." 

    I'm like wtf. You have a population of 500 thousand and get two senators and California has nearly 40 million and gets the same two senators. Now we can argue whether that's good or bad, that's subjective. But to claim Wyoming doesn't have a voice when it has a disproportionately larger voice than any other state is just stupid. And I'm just fucking sick at so much stupid out there all the time.         


    (to be clear - it's just an informed guess on her part)


    Michael Cohen guesses Jared too:


    Daniel Dale saying it like it is:


    This goes with that smiley



    Bob Costa  thread following up on Bolton on Trump's handling of documents:

     




    A reminder of why we all take what Mary Trump says more seriously than the usual family member of a national politician: he is first and foremost a textbook narcissist and she knows him all her life as well as having a PHD in clinical psychology

    I still remember Trump lavishly praising Bill and Hillary Clinton on television, and Bill and Hillary attending Trump's wedding. https://t.co/t3uCTzxuKK

    — Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) August 15, 2022

    The only 'party' he really cares about is Trump.He'll switch any allegiances in a NY minute if he sees it as to his personal benefit. There's no other there there.


    ego, a lot of it may simply be ego, liking to brag about using power for its own sake, no matter who or what it destroys or hurts

    “We’re looking at maps and shit and I’m like, am I supposed to be seeing this? He asks me what should we do about N Korea”- roaring maniacal laughter from Tucker…

    -Kid rock while hanging out with Trump

    Trump uses classified intel to brag and boost his ego. #Sociopath https://t.co/z4gc7gfr0n

    — Julie B(rooklyn) Multi Racial Resister (@JMeanypants) August 15, 2022

    History Check: wasn’t the first things #TraitorTrump did once he took office was to go to Langley and disparage the CIA? Then invite the Russians into the Oval Office laughing about getting rid of Comey? #TrumpEspionage pic.twitter.com/AxnQ5QFpxS

    — Jyn Erso’s Hope (@WyzoneJeannine) August 13, 2022

    certainly it's what he did in NYC prior his "Apprentice" years



    also too - 



    oh boy...



    wink


    good point because: nobody will work with him in the future except the dregs who got nothing to lose:

    while it increases the victimization factor for the fans, he certainly can't do what he does alone


    Přez power gave him much more ability to cover up, destroy, amanioulate, and take care of those he had doing all these things for him. Certainly Jan 6 et al were huge events with a lot of players enabling. Others were too.


    Just another 'Karen' bitching about following the rules?



    this looks right up your alley

    Trump ​Mar-A-Lago Extortion Files Thread

    cheeky


    Has that look


    hah



    Just In: A government watchdog group obtained emails showing the Secret Service identified a social media account threatening Speaker Nancy Pelosi two days before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/jQ0oOsNmL0

    — San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) August 17, 2022

     


    And elsewhere 2 weeks before the attacks:

     


    Must admit I do question faulting them for not taking that seriously, since Pelosi is the constant target of masses of virulent hate on the internet which means squat as far as actionability.


    Process, process, process



    Kash Patel declassify weirdness thread

    Yeah, dig into the MINDF©️K threads


    Weisselberg guilty tea leaves




    You can't do Franken-style sarcasm on social media, there's too many earnest angry people out there -





    Liz Cheney tweeted Aug. 19:


    David Ignatius on Kash Patel: Meet King Donald’s point man in his ​Mar-a-Lago fight against the ‘deep state’

    Updated August 20, 2022 at 12:38 p.m. ED



    There's Trump's stable 40% support in action.


    The 45th president just casually accused his own Secretary of Transportation of being "crazy" and getting "rich on China" pic.twitter.com/y0UYDq92VV

    — Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 21, 2022

    Elaine Chao was a part of Trump's Cabinet for 1,441 days where she was in charge of over a dozen different federal agencies. If Trump accuses her of corruption, then it's a testament to his own incompetence that he appointed her at all, and it should be thrown in his face often.

    — Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 21, 2022

    'interesting how he goes for racist accusations only when he can think of no other slur? plus he nonsensically goes after spouses...


    Non-sensically? It's total family smear, like a Mafia Don would.

    well it's nonsensical because he hired her, and he even protected her from investigation. or is it that other Pres. Trump that did that?




    for the record, from yesterday:


    note this little tidbit, from the above, narcissist has to keep the love letters:

    Among the items they knew were missing were Mr. Trump’s original letters from the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and the note that President Barack Obama had left Mr. Trump before he left office.

    Two former White House officials, who had been designated as among Mr. Trump’s representatives with the archives, received calls and tried to facilitate the documents’ return.

    Mr. Trump resisted those calls, describing the boxes of documents as “mine,” according to three advisers familiar with his comments.


    Jan6 Oval Office calls gone (from March report)

    Erasing stuff kind of a trend...

     



    just fyi, the latest whine:


    for a distraction, nice Trump imitation


    Wow, Jamie Foxx - haven't seen him in forever. Spot on voice.





    Or Mets' 5th inning lead (vs the *Rockies*?) yes, they eventually won... in the 9th.


    "National Guard" trending on Twitter; some examples:


    Pussies Riot, the Sequel 


    Tony Ornato gonna try to take the story to his grave? (Or does he want to sell it?)


    Jim Trusty, one of the lawyers working for Donald Trump on the investigation into his handling of classified documents, 'was hired after Mr. Trump saw him on television,' The New York Times reports....

    https://twitter.com/search?q=Trusty&src=trend_click&vertical=trends


    nice summary list by a pro:


    Meanwhile Hillary violates decorum


    Mary Trump recommends:


    That Jan 5 bomber...

    2/ The following thread is an analysis of multiple videos published by the FBI and the Washington Post of the 5 January 2021 Pipe Bombing Suspect. I apologize for the length of this thread, but the details are many and necessary.

    — Dr. Jack Brown (@DrGJackBrown) September 23, 2021

    And June update summary thread (not the same as earlier 100 tweet thread above)

    4/ The January 5th DC Pipe Bombings were NOT a stochastic terrorist act — they were an inside job. If any far-right terrorist organization participated, they acted upon an invitation to do so, but an extremist group was not the central planner of this act.

    — Dr. Jack Brown (@DrGJackBrown) June 23, 2022

    Anti-immigration crowd duped by obvious undercover immigrant.
    Too stupid to walk? Or too greedy to let out of the house? It's a toss-up.


    and that's without getting into how "Rothschilds" are usually a go-to natural enemy for Qanon and Alex Jones types for eons, part of the plot, deep state global for decades. But when one decides to grace Mar a Lago, all is not just forgiven, but Trumpies suddenly bow and scrape at the name. The irony is so rich here.



    This is way interesting precisely because Cohen is saying it, and not someone more political


    #ArrestTrump hashtag currently trending on Twitter; I have not checked out what/who is causing that.

    https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ArrestTrump&src=trend_click&vertical=trends



    a reminder that Mark Meadows has been thrown under the bus by team Trump

    Trump’s inner circle views Meadows as a fall guy. Trump’s legal team are actively planning strategies around Meadows’ downfall including possible criminal charges. Trump began to distancing himself from some of Meadows alleged actions around Jan 6. https://t.co/1JReYjRetq

    — Venture Capital (@kelly2277) September 3, 2022

     




    Super important followup with clarifications - thread
    (on original article "It's by @AnnaBower. Sorry I left her out!"



    about last nite, not to be missed on Putin & Xi:



    Stephens is  Author | Retired Managing Editor, Stars & Stripes Navy Vet | You don't get into journalism to find both sides. You get into journalism to find the truth




    Geraldo, traitor laugh

    Shut your fucking pie hole Geraldo! https://t.co/GcbkdVpIfG

    — BranDon_Smithe (@brandon_smithe) September 8, 2022

    Trump’s buddy Geraldo Rivera
    says he won’t support TFG again: “I blame President Trump for his shameful campaign to slander and undermine American faith in our elections.”

    Welcome to the Never Trump movement, Geraldo.

    — Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 8, 2022



    #TrumpIsALaughingStock This is great! https://t.co/hVrBFIC8Ey

    — THE BADGER! (@508gloryFelix) September 9, 2022

    Wow! I guess Rick Wilson & The Lincoln Project REALLY pissed him off! LMAO! #TrumpIsALaughingStock https://t.co/qsHtC3U7kv

    — MetalassicalGal (@cw_janene) September 9, 2022


    Did you see this video from @ProjectLincoln!
    It’s now my favorite song. #TrumpIsALaughingStock pic.twitter.com/CYEMRbErNX

    — Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) September 9, 2022

    Is very clear Lincoln Project has lots of astroturfers pumping the hashtag on Twitter. I do think ridicule works exceptionally well against Trump because of his narcissism.


    excerpt -

    ....The subpoenas were issued to a wide range of people who either worked in the White House or on the Trump campaign, including senior officials like the campaign’s chief financial officer; personal aides to Mr. Trump; and the former chief of staff to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who also served as one of his senior advisers.

    The Save America PAC was formed soon after Election Day in 2020, as Mr. Trump aggressively raised money on his baseless claims of an election “stolen” through widespread voting fraud.

    Among the recipients of subpoenas from a grand jury sitting in Washington are relatively junior aides from the White House and Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign. While the subpoenas asked for information concerning the Save America PAC, they also sought communications with several pro-Trump lawyers — like Kenneth Chesebro — who helped devise the electors plan.

    Numerous subpoenas focused solely on the fake elector plan were sent to Republican state lawmakers and state Republican officials allied with Mr. Trump starting this spring. Those subpoenas were signed Thomas P. Windom, a veteran federal prosecutor, who has been leading the inquiry into the scheme.

    At least one of the new subpoenas bore the name of a veteran fraud prosecutor, and still another had the name of a third federal prosecutor, Mary L. Dohrmann, who has been working in recent months with Mr. Windom.

    Last month, for example, both Mr. Windom and Ms. Dohrmann filed appearances in a case brought by the lawyer John Eastman, one of the architects of the fake elector scheme, who is seeking the return of a cellphone seized from him by federal agents in June.

    Mr. Jack’s role in the White House was generally confined to advising Mr. Trump on races further down the ballot. He has not been paid by Save America.

    Mr. Miller has been paid by Save America since leaving the White House, but he is not known to have had a planning role in the electors scheme or the fund-raising efforts, although he did discuss electors on television.

    On Dec. 14, 2020 — the day the Electoral College met to cast its votes for president — Mr. Miller appeared on Fox News and announced that state lawmakers in several key swing states were in the process of sending “an alternate slate of electors” to Congress.






    Keep in mind that EVERYTHING he does is cynically oriented to his narcissism.


    don't miss the altered name plaque in the picture of Gosar that he uses here, it's a nice touch:

    So far after Espionage-A-Lago

    Sen Ron Johnson 1,3,7
    Gym Jordan 1,3
    Rep Gosar 1,3
    Scott Perry 1,3,5
    Mo Brooks 1,3
    Rep Biggs 1,3

    1 = evidence against
    2 = pleaded 5th
    3 = begged for Pardon
    4 = Grand Jury subpoena
    5 = FBI raid/phone
    6 = arrested
    7 = confessed pic.twitter.com/fAbzqAO8nD

    — Tomi T Ahonen Still Not Lost His Phone To FBI (@tomiahonen) September 14, 2022

    (edit to add: also note it's a thread with more names, if that doesn't display right away)

     


    @tomiahonen
    STATUS of Jan 6th Plot Leaders:
    ===========
    Giuliani
    Sidney Powell
    Flynn
    Bannon
    Eastman
    Meadows
    Roger Stone
    Don Jr
    Ron Johnson
    Gym Jordan
    Mo Brooks
    The Gaetz of Hell
    Perry
    Gosar
    Biggs
    Hice
    Babin
    Harris
    Gohmert
    Marjorie Traitor Greene
    Jenna Ellis
    Navarro
    Patrick Byrne
    My Pillow Guy
    Trump

    ==
    The Jan 6th plot of coup d'etat was hatched on 18 Dec 2020

    Attended
    Donald Trump
    Mark Meadows *

    FOR COUP
    Sidney Powell
    General Mike Flynn
    Patrick Byrne
    (+ Some young lawyer)
    Giuliani **

    AGAINST COUP
    Pat Cipollone *
    Eric Herschmann *
    Derek Lyons *

    * Joined soon
    ** Joined later

    ======
    On 21 Dec coup d'etat expanded to Congress, guided by John Eastman memo

    Attended by:
    Trump
    Pence *
    Meadows
    Giuliani

    HOUSE GOP:
    Mo Brooks
    Brian Babin
    Andy Biggs
    Matt Gaetz
    Louie Gohmert
    Paul Gosar
    Andy Harris
    Jody Hice
    Gym Jordan
    Scott Perry
    Marjorie Traitor-Greene

    * against

    ===================

    Status (24 original organizers)
    (Do note "seized phone" can take 6-12 months to crack,
    tho some like Rudy had phone seized > a year ago)
    1 = Jan 6th Committee has evidence
    2 = pleaded 5th to Jan 6th
    3 = begged for Presidential pardon
    4 = Grand Jury (= criminal) subpoena
    5 = FBI seized phone or raided home
    6 = arrested
    7 = has confessed
    Rudy Giuliani 1,2,3,4,5,7
    Steve Bannon 1,4,6
    Roger Stone 1,2
    General Mike Flynn 1,2
    Don Jr 1,2,4,7
    Mark Meadows 1,3
    Sen Ron Johnson 1,3,7
    Gym Jordan 1,3
    Rep Gosar 1,3
    Scott Perry 1,3,5
    Mo Brooks 1,3
    Rep Biggs 1,3
    Rep Babin 1,3
    Rep Harris 1,3
    The Gaetz of Hell 1,3
    Marjorie Traitor-Greene 1,3
    Rep Hice 1,3
    Navarro 1,6
    John Eastman 1,2,3,4,5
    Sidney Powell 1,2,5
    Jenna Ellis 1,4
    Patrick Byrne 1
    My Pillow Guy 1,5
    Donald Trump 1,2,4,5,7


    How Trump uses Kompromat






    Do note taking the 5th in a *civil case* is considered incriminating. 400 times even moreso.


    Politico Magazine Opinion | Trump Made N.Y. Attorney General’s Fraud Case Virtually Unbeatable

    He should have settled early, but he got boxed into taking the Fifth — and that can be used against him now.

    09/22/2022 02:19 PM EDT​

    by Renato Mariotti, the Legal Affairs Columnist for POLITICO Magazine. He is a former federal prosecutor and host of the “On Topic” podcast.


    Judge Cannon overturned! Forget Special Master, all that stuff...

    In a unanimous ruling that includes two judges appointed by the former president, the 11th Circuit stays Judge Cannon's order & permits DOJ to resume use of classified materials in both its criminal & intelligence investigations. pic.twitter.com/OnCUis6R7g

    — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 22, 2022

    Breaking: 11th Circuit Appeals court grants DOJ investigative access to classified documents seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago https://t.co/rHv3F6HvS6

    — Cat, Reigning Typo Queen (@typo_cat) September 22, 2022





    'He knew nothing about so many things': Trump White House staffers were 'startled' by his ignorance

    Tom Boggioni @ RawStory.com, September 20, 2022

    While promoting their book "The Divider" on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday morning, journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser revealed anecdotes about Donald Trump's absolute ignorance about world affairs and even geography when he was president that stunned aides [....]

    "We decided to do this book after he left office because there was more to learn," Baker admitted. "One was the great anecdote where apparently Trump calls up [former Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin at the Davos conference when he's meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and put him on the phone, and said, 'Hey king, I've got a great deal for you, I'm going to give you the West Bank.' And anybody who understands Jordan where the Palestinian population is sort of a restive force in politics there and understands that was not anything King Abdullah wanted."

    "He told an American friend, 'I nearly had a heart attack, I doubled over, I couldn't breathe,'" Baker continued. "It went to where Donald Trump's view of the world is very superficial and transactional -- and he is simply going to give the king something the king has no interest in having."

    "It explains a lot about his foreign policy, which was very, very much built on the basis of someone who didn't spend a single day in office prior to becoming president and he had a lot to learn, " he elaborated. "He didn't know the difference between the Baltics and Balkans. One aide was saying he knew nothing about so many things, it was startling to them even after they spent time in his presence."

    Watch the video below or at this link.

    [....]


    Air heads, coiff heads ($18k?)



    Many Secret Svc texts found


    by Maggie Haberman at The Atlantic (!), "Three Conversations with Donald Trump":

    “The question I get asked more than any other is: ‘If you had it to do again, would you have done it?’” Trump said of running for president. “Yeah, I think so. Because here’s the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.” https://t.co/qB5X51wV3O

    — Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) September 25, 2022


    Haberman glosses: “Reflecting on the meaning of having been POTUS, his first impulse was not to mention public service, or what he felt he’d accomplished, only that it appeared to be a vehicle for fame & that many experiences were only worth having if someone else envied them.”

    — Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) September 25, 2022



    How he uses those donations....


    If you're watching the referenda


    Russian drones target Hasidic Jews? WTAF? You're gonna get your asses whooped.

    https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/ukraine-conflict/1664304645-iranian-drone...


    Backgrounder(?) Nordstream leak


    Trump lying under oath (the Master Class)


    Obama basically reminds hare that it's all an act to feed the narcissism

    That's not to say that the politeness wasn't an act, too, just that there's no there there, that it's all an act and he coud basicaly go in any direction.

    From

     


    Just another example:


    National Archives says it’s still missing records from Trump officials

    By  @ WashingtonPost.com, October 1, 2022 at 6:15 p.m. EDT

    The National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee that it has not yet recovered all of the records from Trump administration officials that should have been transferred under the Presidential Records Act.

    The Archives will consult with the Department of Justice “on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,’ as established under the Federal Records Act,” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter sent on Friday to the committee’s chairwoman, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.).

    Steidel Wall added that the Archives has been unable to obtain federal records related to “non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.” Presidential advisers are required to forward such messages to their official accounts under the law, she noted.

    “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Steidel Wall wrote, according to the letter provided to The Washington Post. [....]









    This woman thought we were describing a drag show but we were describing a Trump rally. pic.twitter.com/kI0TxTAhKi

    — The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) October 7, 2022

    It's a sign of our times that more hasn't been made of this blatant irony, that so few point it out. The Trumpie co-option of gay disco counterculture from the 1970's is just shrugged off like "so it's nonsensical, so what?"

    Furthermore, Trump does come out of that world (& so does Giuliani - they did more than one drag skit together in the day), he never disavowed the NYC demimonde, nor kinky Epstein world. How did he get to the point where a Bette Midler is decrying them and he's won over this large flyover white underclass cohort? All very strange







    The wedding photo of all the Trump kids with their dad, clearly showing how none of them inherited the desire to paint their skin orange cheeky

    Barron is looking good pic.twitter.com/q1lcT9Ajp2

    — Patrick Basedman (@patrickbasedmn) November 13, 2022



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