The Muscovite Candidate

[Bicycle Bill]

Remember all the furor over Furbys about twenty years back because people thought they could be used as espionage devices?

Same story, just a fresh batch of paranoids.

-'BB'-

[BoSoxGal]

Breaking News!!!!

There WAS collusion!!!!!


This Michael Cohen guy might redeem himself yet.

[Scooter]

Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting

(CNN) - Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources with knowledge tell CNN. Cohen is willing to make that assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller, the sources said.

Cohen's claim would contradict repeated denials by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., their lawyers and other administration officials who have said that the President knew nothing about the Trump Tower meeting until he was approached about it by The New York Times in July 2017.

Cohen alleges that he was present, along with several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians' offer by Trump Jr. By Cohen's account, Trump approved going ahead with the meeting with the Russians, according to sources.

To be clear, these sources said Cohen does not have evidence, such as audio recordings, to corroborate his claim, but he is willing to attest to his account.
Cohen privately testified last year to two Congressional committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. A source familiar with Cohen's House testimony said he did not testify that Trump had advance knowledge. Cohen's claims weren't mentioned in separate reports issued by Republicans and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.

Contacted by CNN, one of Cohen's attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.

"He's been lying all week, he's been lying for years," said Rudy Giuliani, the President's attorney, to Chris Cuomo on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" on Thursday night.

He added, "I don't see how he's got any credibility."

As opposed to you, Rudy? Please.

So since Trump has been essentially Cohen's only client for years, what Mr. Foot-In-Mouth is saying is that Cohen has been lying in the service of Trump's interests for years.

Looks like Junior may be facing perjury charges for testifying that Daddy had no knowledge of that meeting...

And this ties the man himself directly to the conduct at the very heart of the matter.

Should be fun to see how this plays out in the next few days...

[Sue U]

Don't worry, there'll be a squirrel coming along any minute now.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm more worried about devious Trumpian disinformation. Leak a story such as "Cohen will testify that Trump knew in advance" and then have Cohen deny it all, strenuously, claiming that unnamed fake news outlets offered him money to make up lies about Trump.

If not this story, then some other will suit Trump's purpose. It is, after all, a classic intelligence tactic and Trump, aside from his own lack of anything but a Dzhugashvilian reptile brain, does have some smart people helping him - some of them not even in Russia.

[Lord Jim]

Don't worry, there'll be a squirrel coming along any minute now.

I'm sure we can count on wes to point it out for us...

[Sue U]

I'm more worried about devious Trumpian disinformation. Leak a story such as "Cohen will testify that Trump knew in advance" and then have Cohen deny it all, strenuously, claiming that unnamed fake news outlets offered him money to make up lies about Trump.

If not this story, then some other will suit Trump's purpose. It is, after all, a classic intelligence tactic and Trump, aside from his own lack of anything but a Dzhugashvilian reptile brain, does have some smart people helping him - some of them not even in Russia.

Rudy Giuliani has already given us the master plan in his teevee interview yesterday: the Trumpists will spend the next month or year or whatever until trial destroying Cohen, painting him as a loudmouth liar and spineless worm who will say anything to advance his own interests and make himself look important. (Shouldn't be too hard, he's already done more than half the job himself.) Cohen will be the only witness willing to testify that Trump knew the purpose of and green-lighted the meeting to get Russian dirt on Hillary. Then Trump, Junior, Jared and Manafort will all deny it. If Bob Mueller doesn't already have a cooperating corroborating witness, Cohen's testimony will be virtually worthless -- especially for the Trumpanzees willing to believe that it's all a conspiracy to "get" Trump.

[Scooter]

[Lord Jim]

Earlier today I caught just the tail end of a clip on one of the news channels with Rudy saying this:

“There’s nobody that I know that knows him that hasn’t warned me that if his back is up against a wall he’ll lie like crazy because he’s lied all his life,” Giuliani said.

At first I thought maybe he was talking about his client, but no such luck...

And of course in fairness, that wouldn't be an accurate description of Trump...

He's never needed to have his back up against a wall to lie like crazy; lying like crazy is his default setting...

[Econoline]

[BoSoxGal]

[Big RR]

Yep, and it makes as much sense as most things Rudy says.

[Scooter]

[Lord Jim]

there are political analysts who have been predicting the same thing, based on the premise that Russian meddling in U.S. elections is not about preference for one party over another, but rather is intended to destabilize the U.S. political system. Getting Trump elected created instability by installing an administration that is wholly incompetent and corrupt. Democratic control of one or both houses of Congress while Trump is president would add another layer of instability, particularly if it results in a drawn out impeachment process. The question is whether the Russians would value that more than continuing to have Trump's actions supported by a feckless Republican Congress.

I'm sure that the strategic aim is to maximize destabilization without a preference of party or individual for achieving this. As we know from the previous batch of multiple Russian indictments, the Russians were on the ground attempting to interfere in the 2016 election in 2014, (long before Trump was a candidate) and the planning no doubt went back even further.

At that time, they had no realistic expectation that Trump would ever become President but once they saw that it was a possibility they saw a great chance to make the investment they had made in him (as was discussed in the article Crackpot linked to) payoff, so their effort focused on doing everything possible to aid his election.

That investment has now paid off huge dividends, and I think the available evidence strongly suggests that at least for the time being they will continue to want to help Trump. Whatever disruption Impeachment proceedings may bring, I'm sure Putin realizes that Trump is providing him with a unique opportunity never likely to be repeated. Putin knows that no future American President of either party will ever be as pliant and servile to Kremlin interests as Trump, and he's got to want to milk that for everything he can get for as long as he can get it...

The first strong bit of evidence to support this comes from Putin himself, with his declining the invitation to meet with Trump in the US right before the midterm elections. Putin well understands American political dynamics, (he's been studying them for 40 years; a helluva lot longer than Trump) and he knows full well that his presence in the US, reminding the electorate of his country's inference in our elections right on the eve of midterms would do nothing but hurt Trump and his supporters in the GOP Congress.

If he really wanted to help the Dems in this election cycle he'd have jumped at the chance to show up over here in October.

And now also there's this:

Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill

Russian hackers trying to influence the 2018 elections made an unsuccessful attempt to breach the computer system of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of this fall's most vulnerable Democrats.

The Daily Beast reported that McCaskill is the first known target of the Kremlin's plot to interfere in this fall's midterm elections after targeting the U.S. in the 2016 presidential election.

McCaskill has been a critic of Russia and of President Trump — who has at times doubted that any such interference happened at all and decried attempts by special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate as a "witch hunt." At a press conference last week after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump appeared to believe Putin's denials over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, though he later tried to walk that back.

In a statement, McCaskill said she "will not be intimidated" by the attempts, which occurred around August 2017.

"Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable," McCaskill said in a statement. "While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I've said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully."

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/26/63289032 ... re-mccaski

The really worrisome thing about this is that we only know about this hack attempt because it was thwarted...

The odds that the Russians would only make one hacking attempt on one US Senator seeking re-election in this cycle are infinitesimal. How many attempts have succeeded? How many more will be made before election day that will succeed?

How many public dumps of internal campaign email correspondence (cherry picked for maximum effect to suppress the Demo candidates' turnout) in how many close Senate and Congressional races will happen right before the voting?

As Rummy would say, "that's an unknown unknown"...

[Scooter]

Putin knows that no future American President of either party will ever be as pliant and servile to Kremlin interests as Trump, and he's got to want to milk that for everything he can get for as long as he can get it...

An excellent point.

If he really wanted to help the Dems in this election cycle he'd have jumped at the chance to show up over here in October.

And another one.

[Econoline]

(Yes, it's real, and not photoshopped.)

[Lord Jim]

[BoSoxGal]

(Yes, it's real, and not photoshopped.)

I wish I could read the ‘paid for by’ info; do you happen to know the backstory?

[RayThom]

... I wish I could read the ‘paid for by’ info; do you happen to know the backstory?

"Paid For By The Informed Citizens Of Mesa County And MadDogPac"

https://maddogpac.com/

[BoSoxGal]

Thank you!!

At that website I located this item in the online store:



Trump baby balloon; note the hammer and sickle diaper pin - hilarious!)

I’m sorely temped to purchase one and suspend it from my ceiling - only problem is on worse days I’d be tempted to toss darts at it.