115 thoughts on “Mueller Time: Russians On The Run”

  1. This proves that there is a there, there.  Now, SFB would literally be admitting collusion if SFB fires Mueller.

    ps… once again…. wish I was a fly on SFB’s wall!

  5. today sfb will spend all his time attacking the fbi for their giant screwup with the Parkland shooter

  6. Craig, looking at your azalea made me think back to when we had that devastating hard freeze that reached the Everglades. It killed everything in St Pete. When was that–’89?

  8. All 37 pages of a really good read

    Basically they attacked Hillary Clinton with spurious material while supporting Trump and Sanders with particular emphasis on those swing states where 79,000 votes made the difference.  Low info  voters who fell for this gave us the monster in the White House by their willingness to believe anything bad said about Clinton and anything good said about Sanders.

  13. the daily caller also noticed #43
    Mueller Indictment Shows Russian Trolls Also Promoted Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein
     

     

    Russian internet trolls not only used social media accounts to promote President Donald Trump’s election bid, they also operated accounts supporting the candidacies of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein.
    Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment for 13 Russian nationals affiliated with three Russian companies suspected of interfering in the 2016 election. The goal of their campaign was to sow discord in the U.S. political process.
    The indicted Russians operated both pro- and anti-Trump social media accounts, and accounts were also used to support Democratic presidential candidate Sanders and Green Party candidate Stein.


    Photo: Screenshot/Mueller indictment

     
    Russians named in the indictment also set up a “Blacktivists” Instagram account that promoted the message: “Choose Peace and Vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote.” They also used the Instagram account “Woke Blacks” to encourage people not to vote.

    Photo: Screenshot/Mueller indictment
    […continues…]

     

  15. SFB tweeting that this proves there was no collusion on his or his campaign’s part…  Ha!  I may not be a lawyer, but even I know that an indictment is only about those named and doesn’t preclude indictments of other individuals down the road.

     

  18. Sturg,  our first daffodil will be in full bloom tomorrow–Korean Cherry tree is perking-up as well. Don’t want to give Craig a big head, but our azaleas won’t be in full fettle until the week before the Masters. Got up to 82 today–a/c felt cool.

  19. The altar still burns brightly and everyone says Mueller is such a straight shooter…I am enjoying his delicious irony in dropping 13 indictments on Friday to a superstitious trump.   What about the cia’s pompeo?  In November it was revealed he met with a conspiracy hack to disprove the russian election meddling.  Now, pompeo takes a meeting on our soil with the same (one indicted by Mueller) russians behind the election hack.

     

  20. trump is becoming more expensive…taxpayers still paying for the marital separation which seems to be back on.

    During the Boston Marathon Bombings, I thought the fbi dropped the ball on the ruskie bros investigation before they plotted against our government.   gov. scott now calling for Wray to resign for another fbi fumble in the Parkland shooting.   scott protecting trump?   Too late…‘putin’s chef’ was just indicted.  Everyone fumbles…even the locals.   

    With every indictment, it is stated — No votes were changed?  I have been hearing that forever.   This is the part of the election heist that may never be proven or heavily pursued.    In a country with voter suppression by one party, this should be investigated.   I think it is still very easy for one person to hack a voting machine in a rural county in any purple state,  USA.

  21. Off the top of my head, I would say that Pompeo’s chats and statements did no harm to the investigation–perhaps helped it. I’ve used disinformation to our advantage in the past; I don’t know why Mueller would be bothered if Pompeo, perhaps unwittingly, was the vehicle of that tactic.

    FWIW, Pompeo’s responsibility for domestic activities is minimal. Three cheers to the Bureau!

  22. BW, I’m totally, absolutely, unchangedly convinced that there must be a paper backup to electronic ballots.

  23. From the article about the meeting —
    Naryshkin is currently under sanctions imposed by the U.S. under the Obama administration for his alleged role in Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. At the time, he was the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma.
    He was banned from entering the United States, but sanctions experts told Reuters there are processes allowing people under sanction to enter for official business.
    On Tuesday, Trump refused to impose new sanctions against Russia, passed unanimously by Congress in response to Russia’s campaign to tip the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

  24. My little town has a vote scan machine.  You get a paper ballot… ink in your choices with a black sharpie provided in the booth.  The machine reads the black marks off the paper ballots.  The paper ballots are a hard copy back up.   I’ve been involved in recounts… the machine worked amazingly accurate at that time.

  26. Renee, your system is fine so long as ballots such as those that cost Gore Dade County don’t make it to the booth.

  30. Flatrium, I’ll tell ya……this particular coming Spring is awfully important.  Was talking to the kids about seeing Spring this year in the Catskills……..saw it in the Rockies, Smokies, Alleghennies, the Shenandoah, the Sierra, ( What’s them New Mexico ones? Ruidoso, Cruces, and Raton Pass ), the Poconos, the Adirondacks…..really looking forward to those Catskills…….I’m thinking about becoming a Jewish Comedian.

    I’ve even already got a line for hecklers………”I’m busy right now, we can chat later…….are you on twitter?”

  32. My dad’s tackle box is full of my old cel phones.

    Ain’t that weird?

    —Brother Dave Gardiner, from his comedy Album of the same name.

  33. Old boy got busted for pot in 62 and never quite recovered………died up in Myrtle Beach, just draggin’ thru.

  37. Dammed Myrtle Beach. I’ve been there once in Spring of ’47; second/last time was ’bout ten years ago.

  38. Did enjoy the drive going north of Charleston, the Gullah baskets etc. We stopped for a long walk and lunch in that fishing village ’bout half way. We enjoyed that.

    I was looking for a place to go on Spring vacation. Thought about the Chamberlin Hotel by Newport News/Fort Monroe. The place has basically disintegrated. So much for that. I love Chesapeake Bay with the working fleet scouring the area for whatever critters are around.

  40. I was in Myrtle as a young moo-Jician 73, 74…….it was the wild and wooly west. Gamblers, mobsters, and all their accoutrements……..all a young goof-ball could ask for……

    That was right after I came off the road from Joe Savage, the Snake-Man……

  41. I would here refer you to a story in the short story collection by Wm Price Fox, prof at U of South Carolina, called SOUTHERN FRIED + 6, about the Myrtle Beach and Charleston gambler…….might want to check one of the stories out also called  “The B-Flat Cornet”

  44. Hillary’s latest tweet.  Makes me sad thinking of what we could have had:

    Mass shootings are not inevitable. The majority of Americans support common sense gun reform. Though we feel angry, heartbroken, even helpless now, we have the power to elect people who will protect lives, not gun sellers’ profits. Remember these feelings in November, and VOTE.

  46. RR

    We have the same system in WA.  Need to make it nationwide.  Hard copy sent in the reader.  I know how I voted and get a receipt for how I voted and there is a hard copy of what was read by the computer that can be counted after the fact.  It is what all states need.

  49. Had to drive through a flooded NCWV today so plenty of time to listen to politics on S/XM. SFB thinks the indictments disprove collusion?  Is he stupid? Well, OK. He is. We’ll see if those indicted tie back to SFB’s campaign folks. This is a movie that SFB thinks is a photo.

  50. Real question here, Why the Friday afternoon dump?

    And after reading the indictment, Real bold statement in the undercurrents from Mueller. If you emailed it I read it, if you talked about it I heard it. I know what you did so now make a deal.

    It aint over

    Jack

  51. Saw where Bannon has spent over 30 hrs. with team Mueller. Then decided to not talk to House intelligence committee. Looks like Bannon flipped. Trumps real problem is his lack of loyalty so nobody is loyal to him. Nixon, Reagan and Clinton all had people loyal enough to go to jail for them. Trump is a piss ant in the presidential pantheon.

    Jack

  52. So if I need to entertain my self for an afternoon in Charleston as Mrs Jack attends meetings ………

    Seems Mrs Jack is going to be in Charleston for several meetings this spring and is wanting me to come along for a 4 day stay.

    Jack

  53. Bannon loves one thing more than SF – Bannon’s ass. Flipped? Dunno. Flip? In a second (or 20 hours) – whichever.

  55. Jack,  the market is a must. Easy to kill an hour there.  A harbor tour is a blast and kitschy as it sounds a carriage ride from the market through the historic district is a great hour or so. Go to the Fleet Restaurant and have the Huguenot cake. Goddam heaven on a plate.

  56. Pogo

    Sounds good.

    Just incase the cake is as good as you say, Ill take a full bottle of insulin.

    Jack

  57. Ya know I have become so pissed off  at the response to all the mass shootings that I can’t even watch the news. All they want to do is show the grieving families and offer no solutions. It is porn with out the sex.

    Jack

  58. Out a ways from down town but there are Magnolia Gardens, and Middleton Place……

    you’d see The Battery on one of the carriage rides, and could take a boat trip to Ft. Sumter…….

  60. Spending a day at Folly Beach would be quite a treat…..The Edge Of America, a very unique beach……

  61. Jamie, thank you for that Hillary debate clip on Russian/WikiLeaks interference.  both candidates were being briefed (albeit only unclassified info) by that time I would assume so he was well rehearsed how to pivot if the subject came up during that last debate.

     

  62. ” If you emailed it I read it, if you talked about it I heard it. I know what you did so now make a deal.”

    jack, am sure that memo was not-so-blind copied in caps to the twit…. and if he hasn’t read it, his lawyers certainly have.

  65. Jamie & pogo, one of the comments about twit’s thumbs up response was

    “he didn’t throw band-aids at them…?”

  66. why is fl gov scott calling for fbi wray to resign but says nothing about the local sheriff or other county officials who also are responsible for the many tips over the years about the shooter not being followed up?   in fact, he’s more responsible for the slack response than wray given the gov’s budget cuts.

  67. Bill recaps the top stories of the week, including the latest Mueller indictment and another alleged Trump affair.

  68. in case you’d rather read about it instead of watch, here’s huffpo report:

    Bill Maher: Donald Trump Is ‘Plainly A Traitor Who Doesn’t Defend His Own Country’

    The “Real Time” host also posed a question for Trump’s supporters.
    Bill Maher posed a question for President Donald Trump’s supporters on Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time.”

     

    “What is left for you?” Maher asked, after dissecting the day’s earlier news that special counsel Robert Mueller had indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities for allegedly seeking to boost Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

     

    “(Trump is) plainly a traitor who doesn’t defend his own country,” claimed Maher.

     

    The comedian went on to note how Trump this week backtracked on his campaign pledge not to cut certain programs in the budget.

     

    “These Trump supporters, they’re not conservatives,” said Maher. “They’re Drew Barrymore in ’50 First Dates.’ If you lose your memory every night it all starts to make sense.”

     

  69. also from huffpo: http://‘The Daily Show’ Translates Standard GOP Responses To Mass Shootings
    Republicans trotted out the same old meaningless platitudes following Wednesday’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

     

    In a bid to break down what the lawmakers really meant, “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” responded on Thursday by sharing a “GOP Mass Shooting Response Translator” on Twitter:

    Follow Follow @TheDailyShow

    More

     

    Learn how to speak Republican.

     

     

    12:16 PM – 15 Feb 2018

     

     

  71. Pence is in Dallas to attend a big-dollar, Repug fundraiser.  Ted Cruz walked off the plane with them.  ???

     

    Russia is a bad actor, but…

    You can’t explain away the appeal of Bernie’s ideas by blaming Russia.

    You can’t explain away Hillary’s campaign & the DNC teaming up to take down Bernie by blaming Russia.

    I haven’t been on FB in years; the only time I see anything from a social media platform is what I read here, or if ABC or NBC cover tweets or viral videos since I also haven’t had cable in years.  Folks actually liked someone else besides Hillary for reasons that had nothing to do with Russian involvement.

    Russia is a bad, bad actor.  (Maybe China and others, too.)

    One way to by-pass disinformation is for the networks to provide more time for debates…or just give equal air time to interview candidates, no debate involved.

    News programs could actually cover the candidates instead of  some of the garbage they cover.

    Do we need another 1-hour show covering a horrible crime?  That is just food for the mentally ill.  (I mute the TV as soon as a show goes to commercial because I don’t need violent garbage being sold to me as entertainment.)

    Marcio Rubio, paid mouthpiece of the NRA, should be ashamed of himself.

     

    Manaford has bigger, banking problems.  Kushner and Trump will eventually get tied up in more and more stuff.  They are all going down.  Russia is a bad, bad, bad actor, but they didn’t invent greed.

    Happy Presidents‘ Day weekend to everyone except Donny, who probably thinks it’s his day.

    It’s tea time.

  72. Jack – a couple days ago during a high risk communication training someone asked our instructors why current media is so much not reporting but as going for the most clicks.  It used to be for TV or papers “If it bleeds, it leads” or “if it bleeds, it is above the fold”.  Now is just “show blood and tears”.  Clicks are the source of income now and the general media needs the income.  We had a good discussion about it, but focused on what it means for us if we are being interviewed and the reporter is looking for more clicks.

  73. Jack….let me know when you’re here, we can try to catch a brekkus or a lunch……(I don’t go about at night, have to be safely south of Maybank by twilight)

    Flate, this I guarantee…..if you read Southern Fried + 6 you will be immediately lured into buying his other books:  DIXIANA MOON, and RUBY RED are 2 of them.

     

  74. Great stories from Southern Fried:

    “Razor Fight at the St Louis Bar and Grill”

    “Hair of the Dog” about local Columbia baseball in the fifties

    “Southern Fried”

    “The B-Flat Cornet”

    All the stories are great…..one long run of absolutely luscious stories about Columbia and SC

    foreward by Kurt Vonnegut extolling Fox as a new Twain

  75. Can’t remember the title of the gambler one, but it’s in there.

    but, don’t get them unless you dearly love a good belly laugh…..

  77. BiD

    You can blame the Bernie followers for retweeting and promoting everything the Russians were dishing.  You can blame Bernie for never once refuting any of the charges.  You can blame Bernie for the nonsense at the Convention.  You can blame both Bernie and Stein for bleeding votes from Hillary.  So yes, I do blame Bernie for the current garbage in the White House.

  78. From the above 538 article

    That’s largely because Clinton was viewed as dishonest and untrustworthy, exactly the sort of message that the Russian campaign (which used hashtags such as #Hillary4Prison) was trying to cultivate. Trump, of course, was trying to cultivate this message too. Media coverage often struck the same themes. And voters sometimes heard variations on this theme from Sanders and his supporters in the more contentious moments of the Democratic primaries. Was some of this Clinton’s fault? Yep, of course. Would Clinton still have been “Crooked Hillary” even without the Russians? Almost certainly. But the Russians were at least adding fuel to the right fire — the one that wound up consuming Clinton’s campaign.

  79. patd…  loved when Bill Maher asked his panel last night if they thought Trump would read the indictments and Fran Leibowitz piped up with…”no, Trump has never read 37 pages collectively in his entire life.”

  80. Our Revolution — so what have they done?

    All the work of getting candidates elected is being done by actual Democrats the vaunted Sanders group  pffT

    If this is such a stirring movement where were they in Va NJ and other places where the Dems have turned long-held gooper seats. Nothing and no one is standing in their way.

  81. 80 full time employees targeting purple states, sending positive messages about SFB, Bernie! and Jill and negative messages about Hillary. Get that?  You, Blue, posted the same things here regarding Bernie! and Hillary and denied that those messages were a problem for Hillary. The only person you’re likely to convince is you. But that’s ok, you’ll sleep better thinking you weren’t complicit. Now we’re stuck with SFB. Thanks so much for helping.

  83. Sturg…  just ordered a hard cover copy of Southern Fried +6 off of eBay.  They say it will get into my hands by a week from Monday.  2 weeks from today we will be going to our annual trek up north for Rick to ski (hopefully… warmest winter ever!) and me to hot tub and read.  Gonna bring it along then.

  85. Ya know…  anyone who thinks the Russians spent millions of dollars but didn’t influence any voters… probably also thinks that companies that spend millions on advertising are just stupid because it obviously doesn’t work…

    just sayin’….

  86. “Style,” writes William Price Fox, “is not an exclusive property in the aristocracy of the arts. A jockey, a shortstop, a used car salesman, or even a mechanic grinding valves can have it, and the feather-trimmed hookers working the curbs along Gervais and Millwood are not without it.”

  87. I think it is stupid to ask Sanders to disavow the Russians – just like it is stupid to ask Trump what he thinks about domestic violence.  These are tabloid questions.

  88. So Melania did go with him but apparently won’t ride in the same car to the airport or be seen getting on the plane with him. I think Melania might be a stress eater

    Also I think we have to visit SFB’s denial’s about the bizarre story in the dossier  I think he is very capable of being involved  in any kind of arrangement

  89. KGC – I think there might be some trust issues in that marriage.  We will know something is really happening when she starts showing up in flats wearing loose tops and jeans, no make up and hair in a pony tail.

  90. bbronc, flats and frump wear would probably violate the vows and fine print in prenupt…. too risky to lose the golden parachute.

  91. BB

    She came pretty close this trip — I think she was honoring the Amish/Mennonite community with her dress.

  94. She made a bad bargain and she knows it. Does that mean that she’ll abandon her kid? To the likes of Shithead? Hell, no. She’ll keep careful notes of his infidelities until she has a fighting chance to survive. Just her and Barron along with her maiden name.

  95. He has never had custody of any of his kids.

    I think they are padding her accounts on a daily basis to get her to stay and also helping her parents in many ways.

  96. timely excerpt from the guardian‘s read worthy book interview today

    My six years covering neo-Nazis: ‘They’re all vying for the affections of Russia’

     

    Vegas Tenold, author of Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, discusses his reporting on the far right

    America’s dark underbelly: I watched the rise of white nationalism

    [….]
    The neo-Nazi leader you followed most closely in your book, Matthew Heimbach, said he’s been accused of secretly working for Russia. He’s also faced questions about who might be funding him, how he affords to travel to Europe to meet with far right groups there, even as he says he has been fired from multiple jobs for his racist views. Do you know where he’s getting his money?
     
    I think all the various Nazis and nationalists in America right now are sort of vying for the affection of Russia, and I think they believe there’s a big pot of money there, and there might very well be, but I don’t think we’ve so far seen so much evidence of actual monetary aid. They’ve certainly helped eastern European parties. I know the Hungarian Jobbik party is pretty closely linked to Russians. Russia is the beacon of white nationalism in the world now. I think Matthew would very much like to get his hands on some delicious rubles. I don’t think there’s been anything forthcoming.
    Most of the money – there’s membership dues coming in. I don’t think it’s much. I know he saves up money. He has his activism season and then he has his work season. He might very well have a sugar daddy. I don’t know. I’ve been traveling with him enough to see how shitty he travels. There’s always six or seven people to a hotel room. If he does have a benefactor, it’s a frugal one.

    [….continues…]

  99. Ground to Air Crawford. Roger that, 70-deg F here, high overcast, pressure steady at 29.77 in, winds 270 deg 3-8 mph. Shaw has been alerted to your anticipated presence.

  104. I can’t help but think that her taking him to the cleaners has been paramount in her mind from the beginning……

  106. Ever wonder whether the $26 million from SFB inauguration that went to Melania’s friend might get re-routed to Melania as a retention bonus?

  107. Well there was all the talk that a divorce was already in the offing and then Trump went and got elected and she was stuck with the FLOTUS job.  There very well could have been a major payoff to get her to turn up for the balls.

     

  108. craig, his long time personal lawyers (like the one who shelled out the 130K) know him too well to have him subject to such a clause.  if there were one, it would only apply to HER not him committing adultery… provable shmovable, just the hint of impropriety on her part is probably cause enough.

  109. “….a major payoff to get her to turn up for the balls.”

    Jamie, yep that sounds like his m.o. especially when it comes to balls…. and other body parts.

  110. ny times via msn: Prominent Republican Donor Issues Ultimatum on Assault Weapons
    A prominent Republican political donor demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians.
    Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer who was a leading fund-raiser for George W. Bush’s campaigns, said he would seek to marshal support among other Republican political donors for a renewed assault weapons ban.
    “For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?” Mr. Hoffman said in an interview. “It’s the end of the road for me.”
    Mr. Hoffman announced his ultimatum in an email to half a dozen Republican leaders, including Jeb Bush and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida. He wrote in the email that he would not give money to Mr. Scott, who is considering a campaign for the Senate in 2018, or other Florida Republicans he has backed in the past, including Representative Brian Mast, if they did not support new gun legislation.
    “I will not write another check unless they all support a ban on assault weapons,” he wrote. “Enough is enough!”
    Mr. Hoffman, a former ambassador to Portugal, has donated millions to Republican candidates and causes over the years, including more than $1 million to Right to Rise, a “super PAC” that supported Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign in 2016.
    A critic of President Trump, Mr. Hoffman has continued to donate heavily to other Republicans.
    Alluding to past mass killings, Mr. Hoffman argued in his email that future gun massacres were inevitable without government intervention: “If we go from Orlando to Las Vegas, and now Parkland, you just have to know that there are others around the country just dreaming about staging another mass murder.”
    […]
    Even on its own, Mr. Hoffman’s money will be missed: He contributed heavily to Republican congressional candidates in 2016 and gave
    $25,000 last spring to the Senate Leadership Fund, a group backed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, that is focused on defending Republicans’ Senate majority.
    He said he would close his checkbook to that group and others like it, and would encourage others to do the same in the absence of action on guns.
    “I’m going to email every single donor I know in the Republican Party and try to get them on board,” he said. “We’ve really got to start a little movement here.”
     

  112. Just read an article about a NC EEOC Administrative Judge who said that NC can’t fire NC civil magistrates for refusing to perform same sex marriages without trying to accommodate their religious objections. I hate seeing such bs decisions that allow a civil employee’s religious beliefs to trump fundamental rights.

Comments are closed.