By Whskyjack, a Trail Mix Contributor
It looks like Mueller has decided to use his position to drain some of the Washington swamp. Republican lobbyist Manafort and company aren’t the only ones in his gun site. He is also after Democratic swamp dwellers as well. Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta, is feeling the pressure.
All I can say, “it’s about time”
From USA Today:
Reports: Tony Podesta leaves lobbying firm amid Robert Mueller probe
Robert Mueller. Making America great again one indictment at a time.
Today is actually Dia de los innocents. Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos.
What’s El Día de los Muertos? It’s Not Scary, and It’s Not Halloween
Enjoy all the food and memories
cnn: How much trouble is Tony Podesta in?
“The biggest story yesterday, the one that has the Dems in a dither, is Podesta running from his firm,” tweeted the President of the United States on Tuesday morning. “What he know about Crooked Dems is earth shattering. He and his brother could Drain The Swamp, which would be yet another campaign promise fulfilled. Fake News weak!”
What, exactly, is President Donald Trump talking about? Podesta! Wait, isn’t that the guy who ran Hillary Clinton’s campaign? Is this controversy as big a deal as Trump says it is?
Start here: Tony Podesta, the guy with the lobbying firm, is the brother of John Podesta, who was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, chief of staff to then-President Bill Clinton and a major player in Democratic political and policy circles for decades.
As John rose up the ranks of Democratic politics, Tony was following a similar ascent in the world of political influence — emerging as one of the most powerful Democratic lobbyists (and biggest party donors) in Washington.
[….]
Podesta founded the eponymous Podesta Group in 1988 along with his brother, John, although John left in the mid-90s. So far in 2017, the Podesta Group has raked in almost $16 million in lobbying fees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
On Monday, Podesta — Tony, that is — announced he was leaving the firm to concentrate full-time on his ties to special counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 election.
How did a prominent Democratic lobbyist get wrapped up in an investigation of Russia’s efforts to help Trump and hurt Clinton in the 2016 race? By working with none other than Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign chairman for Trump, who now faces a 12-count indictment linked to his work in Ukraine.
The Podesta Group, along with Manafort’s firm, were tasked with leading an PR effort on behalf of a group called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.
The ECFMU was a non-profit group whose true goal was allegedly to soften the Obama administration’s opposition to the pro-Russian Ukrainian government in power at the time.
[….]
Beyond being mentioned in the Manafort indictment, it’s not clear how large a role the Podesta Group — or Tony Podesta himself — will play in Mueller’s investigation going forward.
What Trump seems to be doing in his tweets is trying to wrap Manafort, Tony Podesta and John Podesta into one big ball of corruption. (Worth noting: While John Podesta helped found the Podesta Group, he is not currently affiliated with it.)
John Podesta is fighting back. “Not bad enough that I was the victim of a massive cyber crime directed by the Russian President,” he tweeted on Tuesday morning. “Now I’m the victim of a big lie campaign by the American President.”
How much trouble is Tony Podesta in? The truth is, we don’t know. The Podesta Group insists it was under the impression that it was doing work for a nonprofit to educate American government types about Ukraine, not engaging in a stealth image rehab effort for Yanukovych and his party.
There’s no evidence yet to disprove that fact.
sorry about delayed posting. slept late today, have a nasty ear infection that’s drivin me nuts
Notional conversational for Thursday: Mr President, Bobby Three Styx is asking to see you–now.
Jamie, thank you for the correction on the day of innocents (got ahead of myself) and for the video… wonderful. here’s one for you just as haunting
Pat, the cover of the current Economist with its illustration featuring Donald’s friend, Vlad. is exceptionally noteworthy. Ol’ Yeller should be proud to have him as his master.
Hope you feel better soon, Craig.
Until it is confirmed that any Democrat had anything to do with Russian meddling in the presidential election, I will take it as a false accusation. So much shit flying around by the Trumpelstiltskins trying to throw up distractions.
Doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s possible. There’s always at least one black sheep in every family.
I know she’s not everybody’s fav for many different reasons, but last night she did a pretty good job pointing out details in some of the documents (like arrest warrants which were different for each – gates released on
own personal recognizance, but manafort was released on “high intensity supervision program” ) that were unsealed by the court much later in the day after the initial indictment docs were.
It’s wonderful that Day of the Dead is becoming widely known and celebrated. It is such a wonderful way to honor the memories of friends and family (and family pets) We celebrate it here and feel lucky to have learned about it from friends and neighbors.
Thnks Jaime
https://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/print-covers/20171028_cna400.jpg
Renee Pat
How bad is it for Podesta?
It is bad enough that Podesta walked away from a multimillion dollar company that he founded and the company is “rebranding”, Which I assume means taking his name off of everything in a “Podesta? what Podesta?Who you talking about?” manner.
Like I said last thread possible Russian moles in the Republican party, given Podesta and Manaforte’s relationship one has to wonder if the Russians got any moles into the Democratic operations.
This is starting to look much bigger than just Trump and unlike Republican apologists, I’m not interested in giving any Democrats involved a free ride,
Drain the swamp.
Jack
jack, ‘fraid you’re right about the mole infestation highly likely. wonder if Have-a-Heart traps come in sizes large enough for human type polecats
flatus, great cover title “a tsar is born”
sure gonna make the twit jealous
Jack… if it’s true about Tony Podesta, I agree.
I’m not interested in giving anyone a free ride when it comes to Russian involvement. And that includes Independent Jill Stein.
The panic about Russian moles in the ripper party and WH should be timed with the ’18 election. Set it off ’round about Nov 1st.
Drain the Swamp. Lock ’em up. Hang ’em high.
“Drain the Swamp. Lock ’em up. Hang ’em high.”
xr, going soft on us? you left out draw and quarter and feed to hogs
Garrison Keillor in WaPo :
When his old campaign manager was indicted Monday, Mr. Trump called me on the phone, crying like a baby, and begged me to endorse him. I said, “You’re already president, Mr. President. You were elected.” He said, “I’d still like your endorsement.” I have a recording of the phone call. It’s so sad. Donald Trump is done. He couldn’t get elected dogcatcher in New York, his hometown. I was very very nice about it. Very nice. But New Yorkers love dogs and he does not. There are 14 recorded instances of him kicking small dogs, and I have documentary proof of all but two of them.
Plus many other instances of him running around grabbing women’s cats. Knocked on the door, grabbed the cat, walked away. Just to show that a famous rich guy could get away with it. Where is the apology? No, the man couldn’t even get a job as a school crossing guard in New York. Look at him leading his grandchildren toward the helicopter — thank God there’s a Marine there to keep them from walking into the rotor.
He’s very wary of children, afraid they’ll pull off the wig. It’s from La Bouffant on 8th & 45th, 3rd floor. Horsehair. Palomino Filly. I have receipts.
Trump shot a man on Fifth Avenue last year just to see if he could get away with it and he did. His base said, “Well, some people just need to be shot, that’s all. As a warning to the others.” Why is he so hung up on virility? Because the Army rejected him on account of bone spurs that you get from wearing high heels. Everybody knows that.
Just look at how he salutes the Marine honor guard — TOTAL DISASTER — it’s not a salute, it’s a little yoo-hoo. Uniforms are a huge turn-on for him. And when he salutes the flag, he doesn’t even look at it. Total disrespect for the flag. And the salute is very weak in the wrists. Know why there’s ABSOLUTELY NO video of him hitting a golf ball? Because (pardon me for being politically incorrect) he swings like a girl. And when he slices it into the parking lot, he tees up another ball. Mr. Mulligan. Mr. Multi-Mulligan.
He sits at that ridiculous little desk in the Oval Office and signs a presidential proclamation as if he’s Kim Jong Un or something and he holds it up like a kid holding up his school project that his mama wrote for him. The man can barely read, that’s why he hates TelePrompter. Total lightweight.
He is NOT A NICE PERSON and so the name Trump is as popular as herpes these days. Trumpet players have taken up the cornet. Card players refer to the lead suit as the jump suit. Tramps prefer to be called hoboes, town dumps are now refuse heaps, and girls named Dawn are becoming Cheryls. To residents of his crummy building on Fifth Avenue, it’s now known as Chump Tower because it’s caused so much grief and tragedy for people. It wasn’t constructed — it was fabricated. FABRICATED. Plywood modules shipped down from Canada and installed by minimum-wage temps from Hoboken. I can prove this. I have documentation. The wind whistles through the tower at night, roaches the size of rats. Ask anybody.
People who voted for him are humiliated. So his ratings have tanked. The same people who admire him tend to drive Dodge Darts and wear sweatshirts from schools they didn’t attend. Nobody stays in his hotels except foreign CEOs and their tootsies. He is weak. Weak on #s, weak on 1st Amendment, worst president in history. Failed @ real estate and now @ politics. His record = BAD. First president in my lifetime who DOES NOT KNOW the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The lips are not even moving.
He quit holding rallies in stadiums because nobody wants to go hear a loser brag about his manliness for an hour, you can hear that in any barroom. Only places he can draw a crowd are rural areas where billboards are riddled with bullet holes, shot by men angry because they can’t read. He is so over. Totally irrelevant, exhausted, flamed out. The sleepytime eyes and la-di-da hair and the tweet-tweet-tweet say it all. Real men don’t tweet. Ask anybody. We bark, we protest, we thunder, condemn, denounce, we give ’em hell, sometimes we post. Wimps tweet. And now the perps are going to start walking and talking. And the fat lady is waiting in the wings.=
Washington Post
Garrison Keillor is an author and radio personality.
“…have a nasty ear infection that’s drivin me nuts”
boss, sorry to hear that and hope you’re better once up and around. are you sure it’s an infection and not an earw(H)ig news craziness boring in to your brain.
Sorry, Ms Pat. I may have been temporarily influenced by a Cute Kitten pic. I have since re-installed my bloodthirsty manhood.
Draw and quarter the base turds, mount their heads below red state Interstate overpasses, and feed the rest to billy graham jr., the huckster (Ummm, tastes jus’ lack skwerull), erick erickson, the holy mercers, and other hogs.
xr, that’s more like it
and thanks for the Keillor… loved the “many other instances of him running around grabbing women’s cats. Knocked on the door, grabbed the cat, walked away. Just to show that a famous rich guy could get away with it. Where is the apology?”
The corruption at the global level is neither party or political philosophy but the expedient way to amass as much money as possible without paying any taxes. The richest man in the world is putin. $200 billion?! The world IS a putincracy.
Have you gone to the doctor Craig? I hope you get some treatment. I know you have problems in the past and it is so damned annoying to have ear problems. Unnerving.
Keillor kills it….sigh.
What if Tony Podesta were secretly a deep cover mole in the russo-publican 5th column ?
From 2014 — lobbyists in disarray as dictator flees.
Waiting for more? One low reported is SFB nominee for Agriculture scientist, Clovis, and his campaign role and his Russian contacts. And, that he is “cooperating“. That is code word for spewing his guts out.
When will the next blood be let? I hope that Mueller lets out a little every other day just to keep the WH updating those “I quit” letters and dialing the Rolodex looking for a new place to work, outside of jail. It would be fun to have Flynn show up at FBI headquarters at 0730 Friday. Or maybe even SFBjr.
from wapo: Russian ads, now publicly released, show sophistication of influence campaign
Lawmakers on Wednesday released a trove of ads that Russian operatives bought on Facebook, providing the fullest picture yet of how foreign actors sought to promote Republican Donald Trump, denigrate Democrat Hillary Clinton and divide Americans over some of the nation’s most sensitive social issues.
The ads that emerged, a sampling of the 3,000 that Russians bought during the 2016 presidential campaign and its aftermath, demonstrated in words and images a striking ability to mimic American political discourse at its most fractious. The targeting information also showed a shrewd understanding of how best to use Facebook to find and influence voters most likely to respond to the pitches.
[….]
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the lawyers: “This isn’t about relitigating the 2016 U.S. presidential election. . . . This isn’t about who won or lost. This is about national security. This is about corporate responsibility. And this is about the deliberate and multifaceted manipulation of the American people by agents of a hostile foreign power.”
[….continues….]
trump whisperer and inauguration genius, barrack of colony capital had to fire rick gates and his bid to buy weinstein’s company, gone. Bad week for the wealthy.
For the record, wilbur ross, of banking and
laundromatoperations in Cyprus was a democrat until November of last year.clovis was on cnn every day during the election…he filled the screen.
grassley’s pal and the USDA nomination — he is not a scientist, but has a doctorate in PA.
As a Senate candidate in 2014, Clovis told Iowa Public Radio that he was skeptical that human activity is driving climate change.
“I have looked at the science,” Clovis said, “and I have enough of a science background to know when I’m being boofed. And a lot of what we see is junk science.”
Just saw a clip of SFB making fish mouth motions about something this morning, I keep the volume off when he is on. He needs to fire his spray painter. He has a two tone orange and lighter orange face, along with a two tone head. The dead squirrel seems to be very light orange and the sides sort of brownish orange. Really weird. Toussad’s will have a hard time matching wax colors of him for the horror gallery.
none of us really want to see clovis get ‘boofed.’
cia’s pompeo releases 470,000 files from the osama bin laden raid.
The material contains audio, document, image, video and software operating system files. The material is posted in the original Arabic and in as close to the original form as possible, modified only so the files cannot be edited. Among other things, this release includes:
Usama Bin Ladin’s personal journal and more than 18,000 document files.
Approximately 79,000 audio and image files, which include practice reels for public speeches, audio correspondence, and imagery gathered or generated by al-Qa‘ida for a variety of purposes.
More than 10,000 video files, which include a video of Hamza Bin Ladin as a young adult, al-Qa‘ida “home videos,” draft videos or statements by Usama Bin Ladin, and jihadist propaganda.
Ok, boys & girls, let’s consider a bit about the tax bill the pugns and SFB are cooking up.
Paul Waldman at Wapo is doing yeoman’s work following it.
Lest we lose sight of the important doings in our zeal to see SFB’s scoundrels in stripes.
Material being withheld from the release…notice ‘The kremlin from inside’ joins antz and chicken little.
With today’s release, the information remaining in the Abbottabad collection that has not been released publicly includes materials that are sensitive such that their release would directly damage efforts to keep the nation secure; materials protected by copyright; pornography; malware; and blank, corrupted and duplicate files. For example, some of the material being withheld from public release are the following copyrighted videos:
Antz
Batman Gotham Knight
BBC Great Wildlife Moments
Biography – Osama bin Laden
Cars
Chicken Little
CNN Presents: World’s Most Wanted
Final Fantasy VII
Heroes of Tomorrow
Home on the Range
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
In the Footsteps of bin Laden – CNN
National Geographic: Kung Fu Killers
National Geographic: Inside the Green Berets
National Geographic: Predators at War
National Geographic: World’s Worst Venom
Peru Civilization
Resident Evil
Storm Rider – Clash of the Evils
The Kremlin from Inside
The Story of India
The Three Musketeers
Where in the World is Osama bin Laden
BW, correct me if I’m wrong, but the OBL files that aren’t materials protected by copyright; pornography; malware; and blank, corrupted and duplicate files are much more likely to reveal details about personnel that are still, like, alive, and processes that are still being used to gather information by our military and intelligence services. I mean a lot of that stuff happened after the advent of fax machines, PCs, the internet, cellphones and drones UNLIKE THE KENNEDY INVESTIGATION FILES. WTF is going on in Washington? Someone PLEASE tell me.
(XR pointed out an error I made. The fax machine predated the Kennedy assassination. Pardon the error – I stand chastened and will endeavor to do deeper research – like googling shit – in the future before I make assumptions based on my own limited experience. 😉 )
US is not a Center/Right Nation
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/america-is-not-a-%e2%80%98center-right-nation%e2%80%99/ar-AAujt1p?ocid=spartanntp
XR, there’s a good bit of meat in that Levitz article, but one thing it doesn’t do is is give the “Liberal plus moderate” percentage – or if it did I missed it in my rapid reading. The one thing that jumped out at me is the white voter structural advantage the pugns are taking advantage of and the dems are not. Poobah has waxed on this in the past.
PS – getting past my structural laziness I clicked on the Gallup link. The difference between those identifying as liberals and conservatives is 11% (25 v. 36%). Moderates are 34% – even I can do that arithmetic.
First Fax Machines (from Wikipedia)
Scottish inventor Alexander Bain worked on chemical mechanical fax type devices and in 1846 was able to reproduce graphic signs in laboratory experiments. He received British patent 9745 on May 27, 1843 for his “Electric Printing Telegraph.”[2] Frederick Bakewell made several improvements on Bain’s design and demonstrated a telefax machine. The Pantelegraph was invented by the Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli. He introduced the first commercial telefax service between Paris and Lyon in 1865, some 11 years before the invention of the telephone.[3][4]
In 1880, English inventor Shelford Bidwell constructed the scanning phototelegraph that was the first telefax machine to scan any two-dimensional original, not requiring manual plotting or drawing. Around 1900, German physicist Arthur Korn invented the Bildtelegraph, widespread in continental Europe especially, since a widely noticed transmission of a wanted-person photograph from Paris to London in 1908, used until the wider distribution of the radiofax. Its main competitors were the Bélinographe by Édouard Belin first, then since the 1930s the Hellschreiber, invented in 1929 by German inventor Rudolf Hell, a pioneer in mechanical image scanning and transmission. [….]
XR, who knew the 80s that called wanting their fax machine back were the 1880s? Please pardon my untimely reference to the fax machine.
Holy Imelda! The former first lady of San Francisco, the mooch’s smooch claims she owns an estimated 500 pairs of shoes?
The Fox News cohost of The Five explained that on the show she sits in the ‘leg chair’ so needs to make sure her shoes are always on point. “One of the questions that I get asked all the time and I’m terrified to answer it or actually know the true answer: ‘How many pairs of shoes do you have?’ Really good question. This is why it pays to be bad at math. The truth would frighten me.” She admitted to Us, “There have been estimates of about 500 pairs. Is that more than Imelda Marcos? I think it is.
Not so fast, kim, not even close!! Faux news, fake numbers like trump.
Imelda Marcos left behind at least 1,220 pairs of shoes, along with a vast collection of clothes and accessories, when she fled with her husband, President Ferdinand Marcos, during a 1986 uprising.
The’ leg chair,’ like the ‘leg desk’ (like the one megyn kelly used) still being used at fox.
The terms liberal and conservative have been meaningless for a century – since woodrow wilson fled ‘unfettered free enterprise,’ coming out in favor of regulated markets and banking, and remaining ‘liberal’. WH Taft favored liberal ‘unfettered free enterprise’ but was a called a conservative. The right should stand for a strong executive, State Church w/civil and political power for religious leaders, and a hierarchical society. The left should be democrats, anti-clericism, and levelers.
If it weren’t for those legs, who would ever watch the 24/7 infomercial for the ripoffliklan party ?
XR, that the terms librul and conservative are meaningless is, well, meaningless. That voters who identify as liberal or conservative vote democratic or republican DOES matter. Aldous Huxley after a mescaline trip explained the importance of perception in his iconic work The Doors of Perception. I am a liberal even if that term is now meaningless, which probably explains a lot. ?
Despite my love for a well turned female leg on an attractive female, I…just…can’t…watch…that…
BULLSHIT…stuff.Sometimes a guy needs a thing to get him through a rough patch. I needed the season my Dodgers had to help me get through treatment for and start recovery from my cancer. Dodger playoff fail against the Cubs in 2016 marked the beginning of my illness.
But then along came these fellas in the spring and summer of 2017. They played with an infectious joy that made me smile when I struggled to make myself smile. The way they won during the regular season gave me an external focus, and something to look forward to almost every day.
Now, coming up one game short is going to take me a minute to put into proper perspective. I had a lot invested in this team. Maybe that’s just silly. But for me, this team helped keep me from dwelling. It kept me from getting stuck in my own mind. It kept me from thinking about all the things that could go wrong. All the things that were hard over the last 12 months, rooting on these Dodgers made dealing with those things easier for me.
Sometimes it is more than just sports.
I’m sure Houston fans feel something like that after all that city has been through.
But someone has to lose. One group of fans has to be disappointed. Guess that’s my team, and me this time. And now, once again, I’m forced to wait until next year.
At least I’m pretty confident that I’ll be around to root on the fellas next year.
I am an democratic ultra-leveler and anti-clericist. The only good stuffed shirt can be found on a scarecrow. Organized religion needs to be protected against the State, and that goes double for vice versa. Those three characteristics makes me left.
Liberal or undeservative ? I like books and don’t deserve anything I don’t already have. I guess that makes me a liber something.
I think everyone should develop to the highest degree that each can achieve, and that the State has a prominent role to play in that development. I also believe that every American should have health care coverage as good as mitch mcconnell’s. Corporations left on their own wreck havoc on neighborhoods, towns, and most importantly, people’s lives, so for the sake of public safety, corporations must be regulated. What goes on inside a woman’s body is probably none of my business anymore, if it ever was. People deserve clean air, water, and food. Critters too. Keep guns and ammo out of the hands of maniacs. Death penalty can only be applied to the criminals who supported the death penalty.
I remember a tirade on the trail that hillary was the devil, satan infused. I also remember watching humans at trump rallies rolling on the ground like holy rollers claiming hillary was the devil incarnate. Damn you putie.
russian trolls ads link clinton and satan. trolls utilized foil dynamics to make us all stupid during the last election.
I think trump is terrified of his upcoming asian trip…he doesn’t have the stamina and china, russia are laughing at him, not the US. Those countries may think we deserve him, but it must be great fun to watch the ‘humperdoo’ ruin this country’s institutions at a rapid pace.