The Muscovite Candidate

[Scooter]

[Burning Petard]

I vividly recall once again an active discussion on another BB [many of the current members here were posting there at the time] after the election of Bush 43.

"And then they voted" was repeated frequently in that discussion' it almost became a mantra.

snailgate

[BoSoxGal]

I'm blown away by the stories of ACA recipients who didn't realize that it was Obamacare they were benefiting from - how much intellect is required to compel a person to do the most basic research before voting?! I guess maybe they deserve to lose their healthcare for caring so little about such an incredibly important decision.

I'm just glad I live in Massachusetts and am already enrolled in MassHealth; because I'm chronically ill and very low income, I *should* be okay when massive cuts to Medicaid force our state to begin denying benefits to new applicants. But I'm still praying that Congress won't let this loser AHCA pass.

[RayThom]

[Lord Jim]

Grassley holds up Deputy AG nomination until he hears from Comey on Russia

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that he will not permit President Trump’s nomination for deputy attorney general until members of the committee are briefed by FBI Director James Comey on Moscow’s involvement in last year’s election.

Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, halted the nomination of Rod Rosenstein, a longtime U.S. attorney for Maryland. Rosenstein, the pick for the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, said earlier this month that he was not aware of any requirement that he recuse himself from a federal investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. But he said he was open to appointing a special counsel to look into the matter if he ultimately determined it appropriate.

“Here’s what I’ve done: the Justice Department would like to get their deputy out of committee just as soon as they can,” Grassley told reporters at the Capitol, according to Politico. “I’m not going to schedule a hearing on the deputy attorney general until we get a briefing from Comey.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last week from any investigations touching the Trump campaign following revelations of his undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador. That move means the Russia inquiry would be under Rosenstein's watch.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at Tuesday’s hearing that Rosenstein has “impressive credentials” and she does not question his “integrity.” But she said, “We need steel spines and there is a real danger the Justice Department could become politicized.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03 ... ussia.html

[Guinevere]

Good for Chuck, although too little and too late. He should have held the Sessions nomination on this point.

[Burning Petard]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpos ... bd77969a60

Trump/Putinism continues to grow. At least they are not called 'Commissars' even if their duty is to ensure adherence to the party line--such monitoring is necessary particularly when the line changes from moment to moment.

snailgate

[Lord Jim]

AP Exclusive: Manafort had plan to benefit Putin government

By JEFF HORWITZ and CHAD DAY
Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.

Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.

Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.

"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."

Manafort's plans were laid out in documents obtained by the AP that included strategy memoranda and records showing international wire transfers for millions of dollars. How much work Manafort performed under the contract was unclear.

The disclosure comes as Trump campaign advisers are the subject of an FBI probe and two congressional investigations. Investigators are reviewing whether the Trump campaign and its associates coordinated with Moscow to meddle in the 2016 campaign. Manafort has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated and misguided. The documents obtained by AP show Manafort's ties to Russia were closer than previously revealed.

In a statement to the AP, Manafort confirmed that he worked for Deripaska in various countries but said the work was being unfairly cast as "inappropriate or nefarious" as part of a "smear campaign."

"I worked with Oleg Deripaska almost a decade ago representing him on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments," Manafort said. "My work for Mr. Deripaska did not involve representing Russia's political interests."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump's critics in the Senate, called the disclosures about payments to Manafort from the Russian billionaire "very disturbing if true."

"That's basically taking money to stop the spread of democracy, and that would be very disturbing to me," he said Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Democrats on the House intelligence committee said the new revelations will feature in the congressional investigations. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said on MSNBC on Wednesday that Manafort should appear before the committee, and he raised the specter of a subpoena should Manafort not appear on his own.

More of this sordid tale here:

https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a

[Lord Jim]

US officials: Info suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians

Washington (CNN)The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, US officials told CNN.

This is partly what FBI Director James Comey was referring to when he made a bombshell announcement Monday before Congress that the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, according to one source.

The FBI is now reviewing that information, which includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings, according to those U.S. officials. The information is raising the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence investigators that the coordination may have taken place, though officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive and that the investigation is ongoing.

In his statement on Monday Comey said the FBI began looking into possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives because the bureau had gathered "a credible allegation of wrongdoing or reasonable basis to believe an American may be acting as an agent of a foreign power."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/ ... l?adkey=bn

[Guinevere]

Next up from the American President, "I'm rubber and you're glue."

President Trump in a new interview dismisses a question about risks to his "credibility" if any of his statements are proven wrong, saying he is not “doing so badly, because I’m president and you’re not.”

I suppose we could at least acknowledge the fact that he correctly identified who is president, and that the reporter is not president, as an actual, confirmable fact.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -youre-not

[Lord Jim]

I suppose we could at least acknowledge the fact that he correctly identified who is president, and that the reporter is not president, as an actual, confirmable fact.

Yes, congratulations Donald, you finally managed to say something that is indisputably true!

[Sue U]

Pretty sure "president" should be in quotes.

[RayThom]

History repeats itself, and fittingly, with an ideal fuck up.

"When the President does it, that means it's not illegal." —President Richard Nixon, in a 1977 interview with David Frost

[BoSoxGal]

It's linked in the article Guin linked, please DO read that whole interview with Time. It hurts the brain of a reasonably intelligent & mature person, but it's important to see how disturbed this President really is.

[Lord Jim]

Russian banker who met with Jared Kushner has ties to Putin

(CNN)The Russian banker who met with Jared Kushner in December has ties to the Russian government and was appointed to his job by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting between Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, and the chairman of a state-run Russian bank will likely be scrutinized by congressional investigators probing links between Trump associates and the Russian government.

Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, the chairman VneshEconomBank, or VEB, in December 2016. The meeting raises additional questions because VEB has been under US sanctions for three years, and because Kushner has been trying to attract financing for a building project of his in Manhattan.

The White House said Kushner was acting as a Trump adviser -- not as a private developer -- when he met with Gorkov.

"He was a conduit and to -- to leaders and that's until we had a State Department, a functioning place for people to go," White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday.

VEB confirmed the meeting with Kushner in a statement to CNN, though described Kushner in his role as head of Kushner Companies, not as a representative of Trump.

"During 2016 the bank's management repeatedly met with representatives of the world's leading financial institutions in Europe, Asia and America ... including the head of Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner," the VEB statement said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/ ... -to-putin/

[Econoline]

WHITE HOUSE DENIES ANY TIES TO UNITED STATES

• WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a fiercely defiant statement on Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, denied that any member of the White House staff has ever worked “in any way, shape, or form” for the benefit of the United States.
  
  Angrily addressing the press corps, Spicer said that any allegations that members of the Trump Administration have ever acted in concert or collusion with the United States are “unequivocally false.”
  
  “At no time during the transition or afterward did any member of the Trump team have meetings, conversations, or any other contacts that furthered the interests of the United States of America,” Spicer said. “In the thousands of communications that took place, the United States never came up even once.”
  
  Drawing a stark contrast with the Administration of former President Barack Obama, Spicer said that many members of Obama’s staff were “clearly and flagrantly working for the United States government at all times.”
  
  “President Trump has put an end to that,” he said.

[Lord Jim]

Flynn offers to testify on Russia for immunity

President Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has reportedly told the FBI that he is willing to testify about the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia, in exchange for immunity from prosecution, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Flynn resigned in February, after it was reported that he misled White House staff on his interactions with Russia and had discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak ahead of President Trump's inauguration.

The Journal reported, citing officials familiar with the matter, that the FBI and the House and Senate Intelligence committees that are investigating Russia's attempts to interfere in the U.S. election have not taken his lawyers up on the offer.

Flynn's lawyer said in a statement that “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.”

“Notwithstanding his life of national service, the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo directed against him. He is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated,” Flynn’s lawyer Robert Kelner said in a statement.

“No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.”

Kelner said there have been discussions with the House and Senate Intelligence panels.
Flynn spoke with Kislyak multiple times during the transition, including on Dec. 29, the day then-President Obama retaliated against Moscow for its hacking of Democratic political groups and individuals, which intelligence agencies say was done to aid Trump’s campaign.

Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose ties to Russia have been under scrutiny, and son-in-law Jared Kushner earlier this week volunteered to interview with the House Intelligence Committee's probe of Russian interference. Former aides Roger Stone and Carter Page, who have also been in the spotlight in the Russian investigations have also offered to talk with the committees — but none with any conditions of immunity.

FBI Director James Comey last week confirmed that the bureau is investigating Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election — including any links or coordination between members of Trump's campaign and Moscow.

Following his resignation, other revelations have been made surrounding Flynn, including that he was paid tens of thousands of dollars by multiple Russian companies for speeches made prior to becoming a formal adviser on Trump's campaign.

Flynn received $56,250 in payments for work done for two Russian firms and Kremlin-backed news outlet RT.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... r-immunity

[rubato]

so Flynn is admitting that he has things he needs immunity from prosecution for. GO GOP! Such dignity.


yrs,
rubato

[Bicycle Bill]

For those of us who are not brain-dead red-cap-wearing Trump zombies, this is just getting better and better.

Right now I'm not sure which metaphor — a house of cards or a huge domino tableau spread out on the floor — is better suited to describe Trump's administration.  But one thing's for sure .... once the first one falls, the whole shebang is going to go down with it.

-"BB"-

[RayThom]

Flynn offers to testify on Russia for immunity

This doesn't smell right to me. I suspect Flynn's back is against the wall so, reluctantly, he may agree to testify to avoid the alternative.

If so, I predict more sandbagging than we saw during Katrina. The little worm is up to something.