Very few things make me laugh out loud. That photo just went to everyone I know. Bravo!

"180 in two days: "The White House says President Trump believes Russia would target U.S. elections again, even though he seemed to contradict his own intelligence officials on that point earlier today," per AP:

"Trump was asked at the end of a Cabinet meeting if Russia is still targeting the U.S. He answered: 'No.'"
"But Sarah Sanders says Trump was saying 'no' to answering more questions, although he did go on to answer an additional question." Axios

OMG too much winning. I love how easy it is to ridicule our executive branch by simply reporting things as they happen.

Unit2Sucks said:

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OMG too much winning. I love how easy it is to ridicule our executive branch by simply reporting things as they happen.

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I'm with Leon Panetta. There is some serious Republic threatening sh@t going on here. The days of our concerns being fairly characterized as "whining" are well in the past.

I refuse to watch Fox News but I still gird my loins for the occasional look into the abyss that is Pat Buchanan's mind:

http://buchanan.org/blog/trump-calls-off-cold-war-ii-129662

The spinning and damage control continues.

More from UT Austin prof @pwnallthethings:

1. This is Russia doing their standard tactic of "ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer" thing. They don't (and didn't) expect the U.S. to turn over a former ambassador for questioning. That's *why* they asked.

2. The whole thing is a response to request from various folks to turn over serving GRU officers for questioning by Mueller. Russia's response? "Sure, but only if you turn over Steele, McFaul, Browder, and half a dozen serving NSA officers".

4. Their response is intended to be read as "lol no you can't question serving GRU officers you idiots". It's not a real request.

5. That said, it *is* outrageous that SHS said "the national security counsel is looking at the request". But again, probably not for the reason you think.

7. Folks in the Russian MFA must be constantly holding their head in their hands that America finds such really basic US-RU signalling so unfathomably complicated now and manages to get even this wrong.

8. And, not to put too fine a point on it, this is yet another self-inflicted wound because the administration is patently incompetent, doesn't do its homework, and thinks it's OK to openly lie from the podium on topics where signalling matters.

I used to be against Trump, but if he's going to turn over that Furd McFaul to the Russians, then I'm okay with him.

Pretty clearly Putin is just jerking Trump's chain at this point. That's been made obvious by a number of his recent statements.

First - he said they had no interest in Trump before he became a candidate because up until then he was just a rich guy and not even that rich.

Next - the point about turning over their officers if we turn over a bunch of people (including those we clearly have no control over). Trump doesn't have enough command of basic civics to process the request and respond appropriately. If Putin had said "we will allow you to question our intelligence officers as soon as you sacrifice Ivanka to pagan idols and outlaw television" Trump would have had the same reaction - "sure, we'll look into it. What an incredible offer." Trump is only able to listen to keywords that confirm his preconceived biases. Anything else is just noise that he is unable to process.

bearister said:

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Very few things make me laugh out loud. That photo just went to everyone I know. Bravo!

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That's their love child. Took me three takes to figure it out.

This is their romantic stage.

Stuff we've all expressed before, but this time with a British accent:

Financial Times editorial: "Trump has undermined his country and his office in a series of important ways. His performance in Helsinki made it absolutely clear that the US president places his own political survival and personal vanity above any belief in the rule-of-law... Everything - truth, rule-of-law, dignity of US - is subordinated to his own partisan interests. The president's rambling and self-centered remarks also underlined the questions about his intellectual fitness for office."

OUCH! :
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/world/europe/trump-intelligence-russian-election-meddling-.html

They're calling it the Helsinki Humiliation. It's got a name.

The Case for Censuring Trump

They're calling it the Helsinki Humiliation. It's got a name.

The Case for Censuring Trump

Ok spy novel fans. What is Putin's real play here? The Helsinki Summit was so blatant that it has to be a diversion of some sort. Theories anyone?

bearister said:

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Ok spy novel fans. What is Putin's real play here? The Helsinki Summit was so blatant that it has to be a diversion of some sort. Theories anyone?

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I've been mulling this myself. It was almost farcically broad - like.a bad comedy sketch. Honestly though I think the true answer is the simplest one. We combined someone who likes cartoony super-villain gestures (nuclear isotope assasinations anyone?), with the dumbest person person to ever sit in the Oval Office and voila. Embarrassingly obvious public blackmail.

The Mooch!
""You've got to really examine the flyover states," said Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "They couldn't care less about what happened in Russia.* They love this guy, they think this guy's for them. These are low information emotional voters and they like what they see in the president. They think he's working for them." The Guardian


* The Mooch himself is low information since what he references occurred in Helsinki, not Russia.

bearister said:

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""You've got to really examine the flyover states," said Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "They couldn't care less about what happened in Russia.* They love this guy, they think this guy's for them. These are low information emotional voters and they like what they see in the president. They think he's working for them."

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That's really sad. How about the Dems use this in an ad to show these flyover voters what the GOP thinks about them. Wisen up, y'all.

bearister said:

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The Mooch!
""You've got to really examine the flyover states," said Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "They couldn't care less about what happened in Russia.* They love this guy, they think this guy's for them. These are low information emotional voters and they like what they see in the president. They think he's working for them." The Guardian


* The Mooch himself is low information since what he references occurred in Helsinki, not Russia.

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When he talks about "what happened in Russia" he could be referring to Putin's interference in our election. It would still be a true statement.

bearister said:

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The Mooch!
""You've got to really examine the flyover states," said Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "They couldn't care less about what happened in Russia.* They love this guy, they think this guy's for them. These are low information emotional voters and they like what they see in the president. They think he's working for them." The Guardian


* The Mooch himself is low information since what he references occurred in Helsinki, not Russia.

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To be fair, I think the Mooch has a valid point, and if he misspoke with regards to 'in' or 'with' Russia, I don't really care (its not egregious and sentence altering like the would / wouldn't gaff Trump made). Flyover people think this guy is working for them, and they love him for that. That or they are too embarrassed to admit they made a mistake. Of course Trump is only working for himself, and not for flyover people, but I have no idea how you get this message across to them.

Unit2Sucks said:

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bearister said:

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The Mooch!
""You've got to really examine the flyover states," said Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "They couldn't care less about what happened in Russia.* They love this guy, they think this guy's for them. These are low information emotional voters and they like what they see in the president. They think he's working for them." The Guardian


* The Mooch himself is low information since what he references occurred in Helsinki, not Russia.

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When he talks about "what happened in Russia" he could be referring to Putin's interference in our election. It would still be a true statement.

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You will be receiving instructions via private message where and when to report to the tRump Post Press Conference Spin/Damage Control Department.

bearister said:

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Ok spy novel fans. What is Putin's real play here? The Helsinki Summit was so blatant that it has to be a diversion of some sort. Theories anyone?

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Okay, let me speculate. Conspiracies I threw out 12 months ago that seemed crazy or fringe, are almost proven now. So let me go further...even these seem less impossible:

In Helsinki, Trump and Putin mostly spoke in private about how to end the investigation and/or how to react when it goes public. Putin reminded Trump of his leverage over him and what he still expects in terms of cooperation. They discussed ways to weather the storm until midterms (just keep making absurd claims and deny EVERYTHING)--and how various techniques they are using will get the result they want in November, at which point they will have so many loyalists in congress, courts, and administration that they will be able to advance to next stages of plan with less pushback.

I don't think they touched on international issues at all. Putin will tell him what they agreed to in his releases and this is why Trump can't say anything specific about what they agreed to--he doesn't know yet.

Trump is compromised by loans from Russian oligarchs (money laundering and tax evasion), by personally embarrassing material (videos or photos or recordings), he is afraid for his life, he is afraid that his business empire and ego will be collapsed in the most public way, and he has given up intelligence to Russia that has resulted in the deaths of agents (accessory to murder). He has completely lost his moral compass and is all in--no longer a human being essentially and he has EVERYTHING to lose.

Trump's agenda is to 1) satisfy Putin by disrupting the West and moving the US to more authoritarian government that can work against democracy to allow Russia more freedom to act without consequence (end Maginsky act and free op oligarch money and swallow up more Soviet territory), 2) to satisfy GOP donors and lobbyists with policy that allows massive abuse of public and profiteering by corporations without reprisal, 3) to satisfy his base with more of his Trump persona and a few pieces of red meat on social issues to make them think they are being served (guns, gays, immigrants, and abortion), 4) to satisfy his debts and put his businesses and family in a place of security and dynasty.

I think that Trump and Putin believe that every time we talk Russia (even in terms of outrage) we normalize it and move closer to accepting this evil alliance. I think they will meet as often as they can, stir as much discussion in the media as they can--get us good used to saying Russia and Putin. Being comfortable with those words. And make this seem like its just another wedge issue debate, rather than an existential threat.

I believe we are at war at this very moment. It's just a war we have never seen. And our President is an out and out traitor along with the NRA and many members of Congress. The deep state is self-confession by these people. They are the deep state. They are the secret government and they have been working on a reimagining of American government that serves different masters, punishes the Liberals they despise, and gets them closer to total wealth and control and their end-of-days fantasies. Like the Cultural Revolution, we are seeing the attack on intelligence, arts, and press, and the celebration of a bigoted loyalist fascist citizenry.

Well done, blungld. I only have one question: Is it your position that the 10 pounds of sh@t in a 5 pound bag orange guy was once possessed of a moral compass but lost it?

The one thing about the "private" meeting. You have to assume that Russia recorded it. I also think there's a likelihood that the Finnish government recorded it, and if so, it would seem they would do a solid to our intelligence community by sharing it. Thus, I think deals were discussed, but I have doubts that aspects of collusion, cover up, money laundering, shiit that could lead to Trump's impeachment, were discussed. Also, there was an American interpreter in the room who, with tilting political winds, say, after November, could be asked to explain what s/he heard (assuming they are alive). If the American interpreter were forced to listen to highly damaging (for Trump's political life) discussions, it would be like a one-way ticket to living in Spokane and being in witness protection (ain't nobody got time for that).

B.A. Bearacus said:

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The one thing about the "private" meeting. You have to assume that Russia recorded it. I also think there's a likelihood that the Finnish government recorded it, and if so, it would seem they would do a solid to our intelligence community by sharing it. Thus, I think deals were discussed, but I have doubts that aspects of collusion, cover up, money laundering, shiit that could lead to Trump's impeachment, were discussed. Also, there was an American interpreter in the room who, with tilting political winds, say, after November, could be asked to explain what s/he heard (assuming they are alive). If the American interpreter were forced to listen to highly damaging (for Trump's political life) discussions, it would be like a one-way ticket to living in Spokane and being in witness protection (ain't nobody got time for that).

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You may be right.

I would assume that there are all kinds of ways that Putin can signal and speak in code though. The main things is re-asserting his domination and control. The success of that effort was on clear display--and the normalization of seeing Trump and Putin together. Get his base more and more comfortable with that image--and even have them start protecting and being loyal to that alliance. It's coming.

Larry David's take on General Kelly, Helsinki and breakfast:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/opinion/john-kelly-breakfast-pastries-larry-david.html