adorable

3/6/2018 5:37:11 PM

Quote :

"Since Trump's election, we've been told Putin was all or partly behind the lot of it: the Catalan independence movement, the Sanders campaign, Brexit, Jill Stein's Green Party run, Black Lives Matter, the resignations of intra-party Trump critics Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, Sean Hannity's broadcasts, and, of course, the election of Trump himself."

This is what happens when you treat Twitter gossip as actual, meaningful political discussion.

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 6:17 PM. Reason : All credible assessments indicate the prop is just to drive wedges in existing divisions ]

3/6/2018 6:15:58 PM

MSM has reported on all of those things though. Don't have time to dig atm but I can later.

Side note: is it Twitter gossip when it's being spread by MSM correspondents? The line is pretty blurry these days.

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 6:28 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2018 6:23:46 PM

I just don’t think it’s the predominate narrative that Putin is “totally responsible for Bernie Sanders!!!” That’s hyperbole.


Most of those movements are still on the upswing and making progress. People still treat most of those movements as legitimate, even if Russia was agitating within them

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 6:55 PM. Reason : Edits]

3/6/2018 6:40:03 PM

It's not the predominant narrative, but it's a convenient by-product. And by propping up stuff like Hamilton 68, you give that narrative power. Just keep it in mind when they start ramping up the attacks on the left.

3/6/2018 6:53:23 PM

If you’re concerned about the Russian narrative being unfairly used against the left, then you should be first in line to condemn the GOP’s obstruction of its oversight duties. That’s the public’s main avenue into intelligence. Operatives from all sides will play on the innuendo and produce bullshit talking points until we either get some juicy ass indictments or Congress starts doing its job and releasing some reports.

3/6/2018 7:06:53 PM

Quote :

"It's not the predominant narrative, but it's a convenient by-product."

If it's not the predominant narrative then what is the problem? I am fairly confident you will not find "mainstream" reporting suggesting anything other than:

1) Russians interfered
2) They did so to split us from Europe and weaken us geopolitically
3) Putin hates Hillary
4) Russia supported Trump and tangentially spread propaganda that was pro Stein/Sanders in order to further weaken Hillary

Quote :

"Side note: is it Twitter gossip when it's being spread by MSM correspondents?"

When you say correspondents are you referring to the various talking point shows that exist on all of the 24 hour news networks? If so, then yes, it's still Twitter gossip. Or are you referring to actual reporting? If so, please provide examples.

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 7:33 PM. Reason : a]

3/6/2018 7:30:45 PM

Loads of sources in this article:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/02/russiagate-bernie-sanders-jill-stein-msnbc

Quote :

"When you say correspondents are you referring to the various talking point shows that exist on all of the 24 hour news networks? If so, then yes, it's still Twitter gossip. Or are you referring to actual reporting? If so, please provide examples."

Here's the chief political correspondent for Politico:
https://twitter.com/isaacdovere/status/966380611677179905

Senior congressional correspondent for CNN:
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/968266435163230208

I'd agree that it is mostly "talking heads" spreading the nonsense on Twitter, but those are the people with the most outreach.

Quote :

"If it's not the predominant narrative then what is the problem?"

The predominant narrative for Iraq was WMDs.

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 8:05 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2018 7:56:26 PM

Thanks, let me read through those. I had to post this though since it just came up: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/politics/george-nader-robert-mueller/index.html

3/6/2018 8:12:15 PM

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/politics/michael-cohen-house-intelligence/index.html

Quote :

"Source: Michael Cohen was provided inside information about House Intel investigation"

3/6/2018 8:45:51 PM

^^^ I think that’s a bit unfair on Manu Raju. He is one of the few who just reports and he quoted Sanders directly in that chain. Twitter is an easy medium to misinterpret though, to be fair. It’s also easy to attribute the low-hanging fruit who respond first to all tweets to the original..

[Edited on March 6, 2018 at 8:47 PM. Reason : X]

3/6/2018 8:46:11 PM

You could be right, but here's another:

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/964595131000205312

3/6/2018 8:51:06 PM

I mean it was a legitimate question after the Mueller indictment was handed down. Raju does this with everyone - progressive, conservative, centrist, etc. He is good and relentless. The kind of reporter who we would be better off having more of then the awful “access journalism” so prevelant in Congress.

3/7/2018 9:01:28 AM

more background on nader:

Why an Emirates Adviser’s Cooperation With Mueller May Be Terrible for Trump
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/why-a-uae-adviser-working-with-mueller-is-bad-for-trump.html

Quote :

"Nader has also drawn particular attention for his role in two meetings between foreign officials and Trump associates. The first occurred in December 2016, when MBZ — accompanied by Nader — met with Trump advisers Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower. The UAE failed to notify the Obama administration of the visit beforehand, and the breach of protocol raised concerns in the U.S. intelligence community. Around the same time, Kushner met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., and Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker close to Putin, and discussed setting up a back channel to communicate directly with Moscow during the transition. Kushner was simultaneously trying to find foreign investors for his family’s real estate projects. The second meeting took place in the Seychelles days before Trump’s inauguration. The Times reported that Nader represented MBZ in the meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian investor close to President Vladimir Putin, and Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder and informal Trump adviser (who is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos). Sources say Emirati officials were under the impression that Prince was speaking on behalf of the Trump transition, and Dmitriev was representing Putin."

3/7/2018 11:52:33 AM

^related:

3 CNN writers resigned back in June after reporting Scaramucci met with Dmitriev and then the whitehouse went apeshit with its "fake news" schtick. This new NYT report confirms that meeting did in fact take place.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/us/politics/george-nader-special-counsel-mueller-cooperating-seychelles.html

Quote :

"Shortly after the Seychelles meeting, Mr. Dmitriev met with Anthony Scaramucci, then an informal Trump adviser, at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In an interview afterward with TASS, a Russian news agency, Mr. Scaramucci criticized the Obama administration’s economic sanctions on Russia as ineffective and suggested that the Trump administration and Russia could find common ground on numerous issues."

https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/06/26/cnn-resign-russia-scaramucci-239975


THEY JUST KEEP LYING.

[Edited on March 7, 2018 at 1:32 PM. Reason : Can we get a comment from Scaramucci? Where is the Press?]

3/7/2018 1:30:53 PM

They def should have been fired or resigned for bypassing their editor. Just sucks because they were right.

3/7/2018 1:43:18 PM

^^ good catch

^ they went through their editor and followed CNN policy

[Edited on March 7, 2018 at 2:18 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2018 2:13:39 PM

I thought they resigned or whatever specifically because they bypassed stuff.

Quote :

"An internal investigation by CNN management found that some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published, people briefed on the results of the investigation said."

[Edited on March 7, 2018 at 2:23 PM. Reason : a]

3/7/2018 2:22:26 PM

i was wrong about procedure, i guess they resigned because they didn't wait for legal to review. one of the people who resigned was the editor.

3/7/2018 2:24:01 PM

They went through the editor but allegedly didn’t follow some protocol (the article was apparently sitting in the legal department, but they published anyways.)

I mostly posted it because it’s yet another documented instance of a Trump staffer lying about meeting with Russians. At this point, any denial of allegations by anyone on the whitehouse just isn’t credible. Guilty AF.

3/7/2018 2:24:52 PM

Yea once I read the article where that quote is from I realised the editor part.

3/7/2018 2:25:14 PM

lol:
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/971375882664382464

Quote :

"The NYT version of the Seychelles meeting adds new significance to this exchange during Erik Prince's congressional testimony. He had insisted news accounts of the meeting were "fabricated" -- until he seemed to slip and acknowledge the existence of a transcript. "

haha, these guys suck at lying

[Edited on March 7, 2018 at 4:04 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2018 4:03:50 PM

Seems like Trump basically hired everyone who helped in his dirty deals to work in the Whitehouse, until they were forced out from a media scandal.

If these people weren't so incompetent, this is probably the best way to try and keep your wrongdoings from leaking out.

3/7/2018 4:15:18 PM

^^That is an amazing catch.

3/7/2018 4:46:34 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-gathers-evidence-that-2016-seychelles-meeting-was-effort-to-establish-back-channel-to-kremlin/2018/03/07/b6a5fb8c-224b-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?tidr=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar

3/7/2018 7:53:10 PM

I can’t figure out the subtext of the Seychelles meeting— couldn’t the trump team have went through typical diplomatic channels (state department)?

Why would they need to use back channels then lie about the back channels. I guess the implication is they were following up on illegal promises made during the campaign?

3/7/2018 11:42:40 PM

^^^^

I forgot Betsy Devos is the sibling of Prince-- that theory makes even more sense now

3/8/2018 4:25:00 AM

^^ it’s pretty useless to do this and Mueller knows so much more than any of us can even imagine to know but I suspect it was sanctions related and trying to get Putin not to overreact. Same as with Flynn..

3/8/2018 6:25:16 AM

Quote :

"Why would they need to use back channels then lie about the back channels. I guess the implication is they were following up on illegal promises made during the campaign?"

This was so Trump's handlers could speak to him without U.S. intelligence picking it up.

It also shows how incredibly stupid they are. Jared Kushner asked Kislyak if they could use communication systems inside the Russian Embassy in D.C.. The second one of them walked in the FBI would have picked them up because they watch the place 24 hours a day and monitor every single person that goes in and out.

On top of that, we've clearly broken their communications systems or at least some of them considering all of the traffic we've picked up regarding Russian nationals discussing Trump and his associates.

Our saving grace is how stupid these criminals are.

3/8/2018 7:43:21 AM

so the guy russia poisoned has a weak connection to orbis

3/8/2018 3:07:52 PM

it's possible he either connected Russian sources to steele or was an active conduit for information between steele and sources.

http://www.newsweek.com/russia-poison-spy-steele-dossier-836768

[Edited on March 8, 2018 at 4:17 PM. Reason : link ]

3/8/2018 4:14:04 PM

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/377542-the-memo-dangers-multiply-for-trump-in-mueller-probe?amp

Quote :

"A New Yorker profile of Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored a contentious dossier alleging Russia had compromising material on Trump, included the detail that British intelligence services had intercepted "a stream of illicit communications between Trump's team and Moscow" during the 2016 campaign. "The content of these intercepts has not become public," the author, Jane Mayer, added."

I must have overlooked this part but now I think I know why Mueller secured the GSO transition emails. This would effectively make the British intelligence admissible in court.

3/9/2018 3:12:58 PM

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/03/09/trump-lawyers-want-to-offer-mueller-interview-with-president-to-help-bring-probe-to-quick-end-wsj.html

Do these idiots understand how an investigation works?

3/9/2018 4:45:29 PM

Cohen paid with a heloc? That's not something you do unless you know you're getting paid back.

3/10/2018 1:11:59 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKGA9w-B6A

SNL on point again

3/11/2018 4:25:16 PM

hahahaha that is awesome

3/11/2018 5:35:17 PM

Do you own American steel?

3/11/2018 7:15:05 PM

Is that really how the Bachelor is?

3/11/2018 7:39:04 PM

Maybe it’s good if you’ve ever watched the Bachelor, but without ever seeing it, i can’t say it did much for me

3/11/2018 7:39:27 PM

it really works for any situation where the woman wishfully thinks the man is committed to something and he's trying to lower her expectations while backing out of the committment. Its relationship cliche.

3/11/2018 8:02:01 PM

Sounds like you know how to pick em, Earl

3/11/2018 8:09:48 PM

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/qataris-opted-not-give-info-kushner-secret-meetings-mueller-n855326

3/12/2018 8:16:47 AM

http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-has-damaging-information-on-jared-kushner-trump-mueller-2018-3

Quote :

"Qatari officials say they have information that the United Arab Emirates exerted illegal influence over White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and others close to President Donald Trump through a series of secret meetings that shifted the administration's Middle East policy — and they say Kushner's personal business interests in the region played a role as well, according to NBC News. The officials claim they have discovered that George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who served as an adviser to the UAE, and Republican donor Elliott Broidy participated in a series of secret meetings that might have led to Trump taking the UAE's side in a diplomatic row with Qatar last year. But the Qataris ultimately decided not to reveal this information to special counsel Robert Mueller's team after they met with Trump in Washington, DC in January and February of this year, NBC reported. Because the meetings with Trump seemed like they might improve the diplomatic situation between the two countries, the officials kept the information from Mueller for fear of angering Trump and spoiling any gains they might have made."

3/12/2018 12:33:11 PM

God damn, lock these cucks up already.

3/12/2018 12:41:05 PM

Quote :

"NEWS: Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have drafted a report ending their yearlong probe of Russian interference that says they found no evidence Trump campaign colluded w/Moscow—or that Russia was trying to help Trump win."

Lols.

3/12/2018 6:05:18 PM

Do we have a Betsy devos is terrible thread?

3/12/2018 6:22:22 PM

Quote :

"Several witnesses thought to be central to the investigation never came before the panel, NYT notes, including: —Paul Manafort —Rick Gates —Michael Flynn —George Papadopoulos "Others, including George Nader... only recently came to the committee’s attention.""

Hmmmm, doesn’t seem that conclusive to me. But I’m not Devin Nunes..

3/12/2018 6:41:03 PM

SHOW’S OVER, FOLKS

3/12/2018 7:18:51 PM

lol

3/12/2018 8:36:38 PM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5484079/amp/Top-Arab-spy-Seychelles-meeting-probed-Mueller.html


No one else is reporting this yet. If true, it’s a giant lie unraveling about one of these “Russian meetings.” I think you have to assume all the other alleged meetings will unravel in the same way.

Unbelievable the House Cmte is closing up shop in the face of this.

3/12/2018 8:54:34 PM