The Muscovite Candidate

[wesw]

public corruption, in McCain s case, and lying and spying on and to congress, in clapper s case, are unpatriotic.

Lindsey is just creepy....

[Lord Jim]

Apparently Mitch McConnell, who "wasn't concerned" over the weekend, has found religion. Or he is getting involved to assert control over the process to protect the P-E (which would be entirely consistent with how the incoming administration appears to be operating).

How serious McConnell is about this will be seen by who he appoints to be the GOP members of the committee; particularly who he appoints to chair it.

Since McCain will be running his own investigation on The Armed Services Committee, Mitch is off the hook for appointing John to head up the select-committee panel...

My nominee for that job would be Marco Rubio...

[Guinevere]

Mrs. Clinton lost three states – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – by less than a percentage point, and Florida by only slightly more. If she had won any three of those states, she would be president-elect.

That statement is inaccurate...

Trump won 306 electoral votes. If you deduct Florida's (29) he still has 277, if you deduct Pennsylvania (20) he has 286, if you deduct Michigan (16) he has 290, and if you deduct Wisconsin, (10) he still has 296...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/electi ... t/map.html

You read it incorrectly. Not any single one of those four states, but three of the four.

[Guinevere]

Apparently Mitch McConnell, who "wasn't concerned" over the weekend, has found religion. Or he is getting involved to assert control over the process to protect the P-E (which would be entirely consistent with how the incoming administration appears to be operating).

How serious McConnell is about this will be seen by who he appoints to be the GOP members of the committee; particularly who he appoints to chair it.

Since McCain will be running his own investigation on The Armed Services Committee, Mitch is off the hook for appointing John to head up the select-committee panel...

My nominee for that job would be Marco Rubio...

Yes, obviously. See my ETA about Richard Burr. And no, not "I'm not sure I really want to be a Senator" Marco.

[Lord Jim]

You read it incorrectly. Not any single one of those four states, but three of the four.

I stand corrected...

(I must have had a brain fart; I transposed the words when I read it... )

And no, not "I'm not sure I really want to be a Senator" Marco.

Rubio has been very hardcore about this; as I posted earlier:

Marco Rubio has been mum on the WikiLeaks hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and advises Republicans to do the same, warning that while Democrats are being hacked today, Republicans could be exposed tomorrow.

In a statement out Wednesday morning, the Florida senator refused to acknowledge any of the revelations exposed by WikiLeaks’ hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal email account.

“I will not discuss any issue that has become public solely on the basis of Wikileaks,” said Rubio, who sits on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. “As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it.”

Rubio’s position is a clear break with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and some of his surrogates. Trump has repeatedly exploited the hack, blasting out though his Facebook and Twitter accounts negative Clinton headlines that have emerged and encouraging his supporters at rallies to look at the revelations themselves because, he said, the media aren’t reporting on it enough.

Trump, however, is also the candidate who once encouraged espionage, inviting Russia earlier this summer to hack Clinton’s emails.

But Rubio warned Republicans not to seize on the attacks, because while Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have all been breached this year, GOP networks could be next.

“Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us,” he said.

Speaking in Tampa later on Wednesday, Rubio warned that giving credence to foreign hacks against U.S. officials could be “an invitation to chaos and havoc.”

“Just think about this: Do we really want to be a country where foreign leaders or foreign intelligence agencies can blackmail our elected officials and say to them that unless you do what we want you to do, we’re gonna release emails from your campaign manager, your wife, your daughter, your son, and we’re gonna embarrass you. So unless you wanna be embarrassed you better do what we want you to do. Is that what we want?” Rubio asked. “Because I’ll tell you that’s what Vladimir Putin does. I think there’s plenty of material in which to line up and take on Secretary Clinton. I think this one is an invitation to chaos and havoc in the future.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/m ... z4NlKdQfub
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

Plus he's one of the three GOP Senators (the others being McCain and Graham) who has been the most publicly critical of Tillerson as a prospective SOS...

I think Marco's got a lot of cred on this issue, and a strong understanding of just how serious it is; he'd be a good pick to head the committee.

[Sue U]

Putin's wet dream:

Trump goes to war with China over Taiwan and South China Sea territories, offers no resistance to Russia reasserting its "historical and natural rights" to Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Belarus.

Worst part: Completely plausible.

[Guinevere]

You read it incorrectly. Not any single one of those four states, but three of the four.

I stand corrected...

(I must have had a brain fart; I transposed the words when I read it... )

It needed better editing, I had to read it a couple of times to make sure I understood what he was saying.

And no, not "I'm not sure I really want to be a Senator" Marco.

.


Rubio has been very hardcore about this; as I posted earlier:

Marco Rubio has been mum on the WikiLeaks hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and advises Republicans to do the same, warning that while Democrats are being hacked today, Republicans could be exposed tomorrow.

In a statement out Wednesday morning, the Florida senator refused to acknowledge any of the revelations exposed by WikiLeaks’ hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal email account.

“I will not discuss any issue that has become public solely on the basis of Wikileaks,” said Rubio, who sits on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. “As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it.”

Rubio’s position is a clear break with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and some of his surrogates. Trump has repeatedly exploited the hack, blasting out though his Facebook and Twitter accounts negative Clinton headlines that have emerged and encouraging his supporters at rallies to look at the revelations themselves because, he said, the media aren’t reporting on it enough.

Trump, however, is also the candidate who once encouraged espionage, inviting Russia earlier this summer to hack Clinton’s emails.

But Rubio warned Republicans not to seize on the attacks, because while Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have all been breached this year, GOP networks could be next.

“Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us,” he said.

Speaking in Tampa later on Wednesday, Rubio warned that giving credence to foreign hacks against U.S. officials could be “an invitation to chaos and havoc.”

“Just think about this: Do we really want to be a country where foreign leaders or foreign intelligence agencies can blackmail our elected officials and say to them that unless you do what we want you to do, we’re gonna release emails from your campaign manager, your wife, your daughter, your son, and we’re gonna embarrass you. So unless you wanna be embarrassed you better do what we want you to do. Is that what we want?” Rubio asked. “Because I’ll tell you that’s what Vladimir Putin does. I think there’s plenty of material in which to line up and take on Secretary Clinton. I think this one is an invitation to chaos and havoc in the future.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/m ... z4NlKdQfub
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

Plus he's one of the three GOP Senators (the others being McCain and Graham) who has been the most publicly critical of Tillerson as a prospective SOS...

I think Marco's got a lot of cred on this issue, and a strong understanding of just how serious it is; he'd be a good pick to head the committee.

I don't trust Marco any more than I trust McConnell. I think you have to assume he is speaking out because it is in *his* best interest, nothing more, nothing less.

[Guinevere]

Putin's wet dream:

Trump goes to war with China over Taiwan and South China Sea territories, offers no resistance to Russia reasserting its "historical and natural rights" to Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Belarus.

Worst part: Completely plausible.

What is it you say, GAH!?!?

[Lord Jim]

I think you have to assume he is speaking out because it is in *his* best interest, nothing more, nothing less.

I don't think that it was necessarily in his best interest to take such a hardcore and unequivocal public stand on the Russian hacking and the Wikileaks email releases during his re-election campaign...

He probably ticked off some Trumpanzees doing that...

[Bicycle Bill]

LJ ... Guinevere said "if Mrs. Clinton had won any three states" (of the four she named — Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) "she would be president-elect".

You are only counting one state at a time; Guin was talking about a combination of three.  So even taking the three states with the least amount of electoral votes (Pennsylvania with 20, Michigan with 16, and Wisconsin with 10), if they had gone to Hillary instead of 'The Hairpiece That Walks Like A Man' that's a swing of 46 electoral votes ... making the final tally 260 for Trump and 278 for Clinton, and Mrs. Clinton earns the title of "Madame President".

-"BB"-

[Long Run]

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has tapped ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to lead the State Department, dismissing concerns about the businessman's close ties to Russia and bringing a long public audition process to a conclusion.

Two people close to Trump's transition team said Monday night that Trump had selected Tillerson. They insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the pick ahead of that announcement.

[Burning Petard]

And today the Donald has announced his scheduled press conference to take questions about his conflict-of-interest policy is cancelled.
The announcement speculated that it will be re-scheduled for some time after the inauguration in January.

I suspect it will happen right after the Donald releases his tax returns.

snailgate

[Econoline]

[liberty]

One can see Russia from Alaska; that is why we need to be afraid of Russia.

[Econoline]

• Vladimir Putin’s Popularity Is Skyrocketing Among Republicans
  The guy is accused of manipulating U.S. politics and enabling the killing in Aleppo, and his favorability rating goes up. Seriously?
  12/14/2016 | 02:49 pm ET
  
  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s net favorable rating among Republicans has climbed by an astonishing 56 percentage points since July 2014, according to a new YouGov/Economist poll.
  
  Thirty-seven percent of Republicans polled hold a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Putin, while 47 percent hold a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion of him.
  
  Though still negative overall, that -10 percentage point net approval rating represents a drastic increase from 2014, when Putin’s net favorable rating stood at -66 points among Republicans, according to YouGov Elections Editor Will Jordan.
  
  Democrats’ attitudes toward Putin, on the other hand, have grown even more negative since 2014. His net favorable rating among Democrats sits at -62 points in the new YouGov/Economist poll, down from -54 points in 2014.
  
  Overall, 21 percent of Americans polled report a favorable opinion of the Russian president, while 56 percent hold an unfavorable opinion.
  
  Much like President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, 9 in 10 Republicans describe Putin as a strong leader. Nonetheless, about 7 in 10 say they’re confident in Trump’s ability to “handle Russia.” By contrast, only 28 percent of Republicans say they have confidence in the CIA.
  
  Despite this, 58 percent of Americans overall believe Russia is unfriendly or an enemy to the U.S. That number drops slightly to 52 percent among Republicans and 56 percent among declared Trump voters.
  
  As Syria’s bloody civil war grinds on, Putin has supported Syrian leader Bashar Assad and the pro-government forces that are reportedly slaughtering civilians in the battle for the city of Aleppo. Speculations over Putin’s involvement in U.S. politics and the 2016 election have been in the spotlight as well.
  
  A CIA assessment released this week found evidence that Russia did in fact interfere with the U.S. presidential election to help Trump win. Back in July, the Democratic National Committee email leaks were attributed to Russian hackers.
  
  Among Americans who believe the Russian government is responsible for hacking into the DNC, 68 percent believe the motive was to help elect Trump, according to the YouGov/Economist poll. Another 25 percent believe the purpose was to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.

[BoSoxGal]

Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave, right?!

[Econoline]

Spinning rather rapidly, actually...and I'll bet there are a lot of other dead Republicans doing the same. (If we could harness them all to electricity-generating turbines, we'd probably be able to completely eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels.)

[Lord Jim]

Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave, right?!

I understand they've got a landscaping crew working 24/7 at his grave site at the Reagan Library to keep replacing the dirt so he doesn't spin out of it...

[BoSoxGal]

That's a



Except yeah, the whole situation is

[Lord Jim]

You know things are bad when you're watching Designated Survivor and you think, "Gee, even that situation looks better then what we've actually got going on"...