may be rude

yeah this is awesome.

some tweets and maddow's A block from last night - Rudy's pals Lev and Igor look like mobsters being investigated in a counter intelligence investigation

it's also easier than people think to end up blackmailed or just utterly fucked. a lot of people have ugly secrets that could be revealed with a little hacking or espionage. people also often engage in crimes they think they will get away with, but could have drastic consequences. it's business as usual for russian intel to coax people into compromised positions and surreptitiously lure them deeper and deeper into being an asset over the course of years. there's also corrupt greed, which can be combined with implicit leverage and idealogical trickery to pretty thoroughly fuck a human. with flynn, once he lied to the fbi about talking to kislyak about lifting sanctions, the russians were able to wield that culpability over him - a possible 8 year prison sentence (5 for lying to fbi and 3 for violating the logan act). that's (at least one of the reasons) why obama and yates both warned the trump admin flynn was compromised (which they tried to ignore). carter page is stated to be a russian asset by US intel. not sure if the details are public, there. my theory about trump is that he was indebted to some entities associated with the russian mob and was actually trying to get close but lose in 2016 because he didn't want to end up in this position. but once he ended up being president, the conman he is, all of a sudden he's winking to putin like crazy because he knows he can cash in like mad by effectively selling state concessions. does it seem like the US is being busted out?

this is insane. naturally i'm skeptical but wtf

why wouldn't they support a spoiler candidate? remember how putin invited flynn to a dinner in moscow and they sat at the same table? jill stein was at the same table. i recently realized that putin and his mafia state are running out of runway because of the inevitability of green energy. they're entirely dependent on oil revenue. they are going all in. and yeah, god may shoot this planet in the head soon.

so hillary just said in a podcast she thinks tulsi gabbard is a russian plant who will run as a third party candidate. she did make that odd comment about syria at the debate the other day.

biden reminding me why i like him in this press conference in columbus, ohio, today. he's sounding stronger this week. i've looked into the dirt... i'm not sold on the ugly accusations. i think he's just biden. and his son took a nepotism gig... i don't give a fuck. it cannot be stressed enough that concerted propaganda campaigns against hillary are what put trump in office, and of course that is what they are trying to do now. i was glad to see this actually puncture the discussion last night, with both klobuchar and booker speaking to how the democrats need to not damage each-other too bad. regarding the debate, i was glad to see klobuchar give a strong performance. i like a lot of the dems.

actually trump gave a clear and explicit green light in the initial whitehouse statement, on oct 6. here is the first paragraph: from the oct 6 statement at whitehouse.gov trump just later lied and said that he didn't give the green light.

i guess this is the time when the courts are getting around to getting through some of the things that had been pending, regarding stuff like mueller evidence and tax returns. Trump lost his appeal in a federal appeals court to stop a House subpoena of his tax documents - (Oversight Cmte vs accountinf firm Mazars - This was the US Appeals Court - 8 years of accounting records including tax documents) A federal judge signaled Tuesday that she might give House Democrats access to some of Robert Mueller’s remaining secrets. - (District court - now it goes to Appeals) New York federal Judge Throws the Book at Trump’s ‘I’m Above the Law’ Defense - (case: whether Trump could prevent his accounting firm, Mazars USA, from turning over to the Manhattan District Attorney his personal and corporate tax returns since 2011 the NY DA wants the documents as part of a NY state criminal case into whether trump broke state laws in his actions regarding the stormy daniels hush payments.) what i'm really interested in right now is this: trump released the call record that is the central evidence of the charge that has a majority of votes in the house - why. trump consulted with mcconnell and mcconnell told him to - why. mcconnell played out the chess. if the dems didn't have the evidence then they would spend time getting it. this means they would not be in a position to move forward until ... likely next year. this prospect concerned mitch mcconnell so much that he told trump to release the smoking gun - why. if the dems didn't have all they needed right now to move forward with impeachment based on ukraine, alone, then they would be more likely to have what they need to move forward with the obstruction of justice offenses detailed by mueller as well, by the time they get what they need to move forward with the ukraine offenses. by that point it would be Q1 2020 and impeachment would have been dominating the media since now. dems could have tax stuff and emoluments stuff to throw in the articles by that point, too. this is what i'm saying: instead of rushing a lightweight set of articles of impeachment that are unlikely to pass in the senate, the dems could achieve a blue wave and actually get trump removed from office if they do this the way they're supposed to, and hold trump accountable for everything. mcconnell wants this over soon because he knows that, in the end, if trump's not removed by a 2/3 senate vote then impeachment was ultimately a failure and republicans can campaign on that. but if the impeachment articles are too numerous and the proceedings lengthy and damning enough then the republican senate could have no choice but to remove him from office and they will suffer a blue wave as well. i think mcconnell is so scared of this that he told trump to release his impeachment smoking gun. he's hoping the democrats will do articles based on ukraine alone, and soon. 3 republican senators announced they're not running for reelection. romney speaks up against trump. a block of 4 breaking off gives cover to others. none of them are going to SAY they would vote to remove yet... they are the jurors. they won't say for as long as possible, because of that, but you can see them being undecided. jeff flake said at least 35 senate republicans would remove in a private vote - at least 35 out of 52.

leading observers are saying rudy giuliani has rabies

oliver stone's the untold history of the united states. episodes 8, 9 and 10 on reagan through bush w are good

oh. if you google "Battles Juice B Crypts" then google shows you this, but i guess it's wrong:

2 days. hype

i like how you got me pondering trump's conscience on his deathbed. i picture him relating some cheap revelations to ivanka or whoever but his mind being way too far gone to reach anything like clarity or peace. it's an interesting question, though. trump's conscience ties in with a new element of the phase we are in that has observers "lending their eyes a terrible aspect." maddow touched on it last night a few minutes into a remarkable A-block, talking about how trump is a cornered animal. full show audio here's palmer: maddow illustrates an interesting weapon being deployed in the information warfare arena - how they are zapping terms like "fake news" and "corruption" as though with radar jammers... and it works. msnbc posted that part of the A-block video:

lol wtf

i think you're incorrect to define criminal process as investigation alone. also, the term "judicial process" clearly does not refer to investigaton. "judicial process" and "criminal process" include indictment.

wow this could work against that OLC opinion memo about presidents not being indictable, which the constitution says nothing about, even though the framers certainly thought about the question. already we seem to have a ruling from a judge that may bear more weight, and is explicitly in contradiction with it.

i guess it's a series if it's 3 1-hour episodes. the bill gates "mini series" on netflix is surpisingly good, if you appreciate bill gates.

morning tweet selection (about trump talking to may):

romney or some group breaking would help others. those 50 dudes are team players though. look at the kavanaugh vote. the GOP senate, or at least enough of it, very well may bite down and shield stable genius because they think it's good for the party. flake said 35 of them would remove trump if the vote were secret. that's what slimey pieces of shit they are. the dems can now bring their attention back to the problem they had before trump got elected - the republicans. trump was in some ways the result of the republican situation, and the dems can rightly allow impeachment proceedings to illustrate to the public the GOP senate's moral bankruptcy. there's a lot of talk about whether or not to roll up everything into articles of impeachment or to keep it simple and straightforward. i.e., include mueller and emoluments, etc, or just make it about soliciting investigations into political opponents. talking heads bat this topic around but i don't think there's a chance the dems will leave articles out. pelosi stated that she's directed all committee chairs to proceed with their investigations under the umbrella of impeachment. the simple reason is that when the articles go to the senate, a senator only has to think that 1 of the counts merits impeachment to vote yes. so i would be very surprised if the democrats rushed the articles and left the mueller obstruction cases out. same with the contempt of congress count from the mueller stuff. it's not that the dems want to drag this out, but impeachment proceedings may continue into next year, and it will just grow worse and worse for republicans to shield dumpster. the next year, including much of 2020 election season, could be overshadowed by republicans shielding mushroom duck from more and more heinous offences with clearer and clearer evidence laid out more and more for the public with consensus on the logical reality building more and more.

interfering with congress's oversight function goes toward "contempt of congress," which was one of the articles nixon got, in addition to obstruction of justice

come on now. warren would be the right person for the job. the country needs warren to be the president imo.