The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Does anyone pay attention to the media anymore?

    By nothere on Sat, 10/29/2016 - 9:13pm |

    As everyone has heard, Tony Weiner has once again reared his head (or poked his nose into the tent) with predictable (I want to say disastrous; but apparently we're not there yet) results. But all of that...a digression and a sideshow to what appears to be missing in this. So, without any sort of preparation of a coherent timeline, the real story:

    It appears in "The Media" here :

    "Donald Trump's daughter-in-law also hinted team Trump may have something damaging to throw at Hillary Clinton in the campaign's last days. 'Well, there's still a couple days left in October,' she said, floating the idea that the Trump campaign has an 'October surprise' to use on Clinton" Timestamp: Published: 08:33 EST, 24 October 2016 | Updated: 18:38 EST, 24 October 2016

    The question, or perhaps questions, that should be asked is from whom did Lara Trump learn about the October Surprise? Obviously, she learned it either second or first hand; the only credible, first-place source, is Donald Trump.

    Which demands the question: Who told Donald Trump?

    (Before the peanut gallery of naivety pipes up, remember the last time we had a strong man in charge, during the Reagan era? First thing that crew did was similar to what Trump is doing with Putin: engage in extra-diplomatic activities with a hostile foreign power to affect the outcome of an election; then, once ensconced in positions of power, they ran drugs and guns from the basement of the White House.)

    I reiterate: Who told Donald Trump? How did Donald Trump know? That's the real story; and no one seems to see it.

    Then, less than a week after Lara Trump drops the hint about the October Surprise, Tony Weiner....reappears (will he ever just go the fuck away?)...breaking very many things, again.

    I'd send a note to Josh Marshall at TPM; but he's such a fossilized centrist it'd be like throwing a hot dog down a wind tunnel, if that. I mean, just look at his posts about Comey, in which he assumes the best about him. How naive can one man be? Pretty fucking naive.

    This may, but I'm not sure, have Roger Stone written all over it. But it also requires at least one person in either the FBI or the DOJ to leak; it may or may not have gone from the leak directly to the Trump campaign, but it made its way there somehow.

    I'm not sure what pisses me off more: that Tony Weiner continues to fuck up things; that no outlets seem to see what is, IMO, so fucking large that if it was a snake they'd all be dead; or if normal, everyday people really just don't pay attention; or, if they do, will pull a Josh Marshall and go all sensitive centrist pony-tail man with a booster shot of naivety, JIC.

    That's politics, for fuck's sake. You're welcome.

    Comments

    Awesome to see you back here, chthonic. Good catch with Lara Trump comment. I don't rule out your leak hypothesis, but journalists need more than a cryptic hint about a late October surprise to make a story out of it. They made the Stone-Podesta connection because a) Stone admitted to having a back-channel to Assange, and b) he predicted not just more wikileaks releases but specifically mentioned Podesta by name. Again, it wouldn't shock me if someone at the fbi leaked, but I don't know how you'd go about uncovering evidence of that.

    Sorry to blow your hotdog ;)


    by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 8:32am

    PS What we do know for certain is that people at the FBI are apparently leaking details to the press after Comey's letter. What's up with that?


    by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 8:43am

    Josh posted this today.  I think he's starting to see the light:

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/just-a-few-days


    by CVille Dem on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 9:28am

    Brilliant  -  but will someone ask Lara Trump the obvious - is this the October Surprise she was talking about, or is there another one tomorrow?


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 10:28am

    No search warrant for the computers, FBI does not even have one to review Abedin emails.

    When Comey wrote the letter, “he had no idea what was in the content of the emails,” one of the officials said

    GW Bush's administration ethics lawyer:

    (Comey's) acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election. That is why the F.B.I. presumably would keep those aspects of an investigation confidential until after the election.

    And that is why, on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics.


    by NCD on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 10:10am

    And there's this ...


    by barefooted on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 11:16am

    Comey is doing a Ken Starr rake in everything you can without cause or search warrants.

    No thanks to Obama...##^&*@%^#...for his non-partisan touchy feely post partisan appoint Republicans to his administration FAIL. Comey was appointed for 10 years in 2013 by Obama.


    by NCD on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 12:30pm

    Unless he is found guilty of defying the Hatch Act.

    BTW, I am waiting to hear Obama's take on this.  He is, after all, our President.  Our Democracy is at risk, no?  Maybe that's hyperbole, but I would like a little reasoned verbiage from Barack Obama.  

    He needs to speak about this, but he should wait until Comey has had a chance to explain himself, and hopefully defuse this toxic bomb.  From TPM posts I gather that this should be a two-or- three day job with current software plus a major team effort to put eyes on the (likely) 20 or so emails that end up getting flagged,

    Comey's previous editorializing and now this letter designed to give Donald Trump the red meat he loves to exploit with one lie after the other, show that he was incapable of rising above partisanship.


    by CVille Dem on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 9:40pm

    Good point on Obama, verbiage is warranted.

    He appointed Mr. egocentric grand stander Comey. Prosecutor and jailer of Martha Stewart in 2003 as Manhattan federal DA.

    My question is, when will the Democrats tell the GOP to F#*@ off ?? And start long invetigations of them? Russian connections to Trump campaign, Comey - special prosecutor Nov. 9th on violation of the Hatch Act while Comey is suspended, investigation of all the anti-Hillary FBI grunts who worked on the case. What did they know and when did they know it? did they violate the 4th amendment on illegal searches of Abedin as she was not the target?

    Obama admin extreme yes we will do what the GOP demands (like Charlie Brown with the football) we follow good government 'etiquette' and if we do the Republicans will not claim we are tyrants, crooked, usurpers etc

    "AG Lynch met Bill Clinton on the Phoenix Airport  tarmac, the GOP went nuts saying it compromised the email investigation". So Lynch removed herself from her role as decider in the bullshit email case.

    Scalia used to get all expensive paid vacations from corporations with cases before the court. Thomas's wife works for a corporation that represents cases in the court. Neither ever sat out a decision from these.

    If Bill wanted to influence Lynch he could have privately phoned her and not accidently met on a hot tarmac. His word and her word should be enough on the matter. Screw the GOP.


    by NCD on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 10:42pm

    Just want to point out that chthonic was right as demonstrated by Giuliani. 


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 11/04/2016 - 6:37pm

    Yep, if had tipped out Josh & he'd done something, might have had a breakout story.


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/04/2016 - 6:59pm

    Regarding the lack of any sort of earlier reply: I wanted to wait a week to see what would happen in 'The Media'. I suppose something is better than nothing? No idea...

    What I did see, starting with Trumps' daughter-in-law and continuing with Ghouliani, is the sneering arrogance within a particular concentration of power. That they could just openly say this, expecting impunity....

    Also, while Ghouliani is laying claim to his role in all this and its accompanying fame: Roger Stone (who unquestionably has, and maintains, contact with domestic intelligence) is still very much in the room; and it wasn't Ghouliani who told Trumps' daughter-in-law...the identity of that person, the source, must be someone in the family.

    Because the horror of considering the source as pillow talk between either Stone or Ghouliani, and Trumps' daughter-in-law, is just searing....but not incredible, now that I think about it. Still and all, utterly Ghastly.

    At this point in the process, if *anything* happens that is relevant, it looks like it will be after the election.

    Also, what Josh needs is someone on his staff to go balls-out, full-fucking Gonzo. Or, I suppose, a genuinely scary Vagina-dentata Gonzo...whatever the hell that would look like; just as long as it puts Fear deep in the hearts and bowels of people like that coterie around Trump.

    I miss Gawker. Nick Denton would know what to do.


    by nothere on Sat, 11/05/2016 - 7:59pm