Monday, February 20, 2017

John Oliver tries to make sense of Donald Trump's relationship with Russia.

I like that song at the end. Catchy beat.

However all kidding aside this piece brings up quite a number of troubling points.

Which now hopefully even those who are not political junkies are trying to absorb.

And on that topic there is also this report that Russia is compiling a dossier to help them understand exactly who they helped to get elected: 

A dossier on Donald Trump's psychological makeup is being prepared for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Among its preliminary conclusions is that the new American leader is a risk-taker who can be naïve, according to a senior Kremlin adviser. 

Talk about an understatement. 

Apparently there is also some concern that Trump is even more unhinged than the Kremlin previously believed.

Putin's government is growing increasingly concerned about Trump's battles in Washington, according to Fedorov and former lawmaker Sergei Markov, who remains well-connected at the Kremlin. 

It is worried the president will not have the political power to improve relations with Russia, as he has indicated he might try to do, and even, perhaps, lift some U.S. sanctions.

And seriously this is really ALL ABOUT removing those sanctions.

Everything else is just background noise.

The pretense for the dossier is that Putin wishes to better understand Trump before their first official meeting face to face. (Though we have to imagine they have already privately met a number of times.) However it will also strengthen Putin's ability to continue pulling Trump's strings and getting him to do what they got him elected to do.

38 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:08 PM

    One of the biggest hammerings the Russians are taking is not being allowed to use the global banking systems--ones that link all ATM's for example.
    May Putin rot in hell.

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    1. Anonymous4:14 PM

      What about Trump and his entire family rot in hell?

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:12 PM

    Trump Lawyer Confirms Meeting Ukrainian, Denies Carrying Peace Plan

    President Donald Trump's personal lawyer has acknowledged to NBC News that he met privately in New York last month with a controversial Russian-born Trump associate and a member of Ukraine's parliament, but disputes a New York Times report that the men gave him a peace plan for Ukraine that he delivered to then-National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.

    The Times reported that the meeting was called to discuss a peace plan being pushed by a Ukrainian lawmaker, Andrey Artemenko, who is associated with a former Ukrainian leader backed by Russian president Vladimir Putin and advised by Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman.

    Manafort is the subject of an FBI inquiry over his Ukraine dealings, and the FBI is also investigating whether any Trump associates colluded with the Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

    In an interview with NBC News Monday, Michael Cohen confirmed that Felix Sater, a former Trump associate with a criminal past, asked him to come to a meeting in New York last month, and brought along Artemenko....

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-lawyer-confirms-meeting-ukrainian-denies-carrying-peace-plan-n723386

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  3. Anonymous5:06 PM

    NOTE: Putin does NOT drink alcohol, nor does drumpf
    No Booze, THAT IS HOW they USE.....

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    1. Anonymous8:42 PM

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5JffYeUMAAgciu.jpg

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:11 AM

      Pootie drinks, supposedly dRunmpf doesn't because he fears dying of alcoholism like his older bro Fred.

      Delete
  4. I got news for Russia.

    No dossier is going to help you understand Trump.

    He is a malignant narcissist and he be CRAY.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5:18 PM

    So if someone owes the Russian mob does that lift sanctions?

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  6. Anonymous5:26 PM

    The Greatest Generation are rolling over in their graves that the President of the United States is a chickenshit traitor, so scared of the Kremlin that he won't allow a word said against a Russian despot.

    They knew what the Russians were and will always be.

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    1. Anonymous6:47 PM

      unfortunately many of that great generation are fox fake news viewers and voted for trump. They do not know a fraud when they hear it.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous5:37 PM

    OT: In Anchorage today>
    https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/02/20/at-anchorage-rally-hundreds-urge-alaska-senators-to-support-planned-parenthood/

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous6:33 PM

      OT;
      http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/4-dead-in-idaho-mass-shooting/

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:38 PM

      https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/02/20/civics-101-heres-how-to-let-your-lawmakers-know-what-you-think/

      All 3 are in Alaska

      Delete
  8. Anonymous6:14 PM

    --YouTube takes down Roger Stone’s channel after FBI fingers him in Donald Trump-Russia scandal

    Yet another development in the Trump-Russia saga

    Six days ago, Roger Stone was exposed as one of four Donald Trump campaign advisers who allegedly colluded with Russian intel officers by phone during the election, with the FBI now investigating all four of them over the matter. Now, YouTube has suddenly taken down Roger Stone’s channel, apparently making all of his existing videos inaccessible to the public and enraging him in the process, raising eyebrows as to the reason why.

    “It begins,” Stone complained this evening via his Twitter account. “YouTube takes down my channel w/o explanation.” It’s possible that this was the result of some kind of technical glitch, or that Stone violated YouTube’s terms of service and is being punished for that reason. But with Stone claiming that he’s received no explanation from YouTube as to why his channel was taken down, it raises the question of whether this is connecting to the deepening FBI investigation into his role in the Trump-Russia scandal.

    Back on February 14th, the New York Times published a report on Roger Stone, as well as his fellow Donald Trump campaign advisers Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Carter Page. It alleged that all four had been caught on a wiretap colluding with Russian intelligence officers, and that all four were being investigated by the FBI for it.

    To the best of our knowledge Flynn, Manafort and Page never had YouTube channels to begin with, so it’s not yet clear whether YouTube’s takedown of Roger Stone’s channel this evening may be related to the deepening FBI investigation into the four men over Russia. But Stone’s assertion tonight that “It begins!” suggests that he believes a crackdown is underway.

    --Donald Trump’s Russian handler Felix Sater was an FBI informant

    Another bizarre twist in the Trump-Russia saga

    And as of yesterday, Sater is also known to have contributed to written proposal which Russia-implicated Michael Cohen hand delivered to Michael Flynn’s office just before Flynn’s resignation. The proposal involved blackmailing the Ukrainian president out of office in order to divert the Ukrainian territory of Crimea into the hands of Russia. But while yesterday’s New York Times report seemed to indicate that Sater was operating under direction from the Kremlin, it turns out Sater has actually been an informant for the FBI.

    --Donald Trump’s alleged Russian handler flies to Moscow, as Senate Intel Committee closes in

    Dmitry Rybolovlev skipped West Palm Beach and was recalled to Moscow

    Thanks to a pattern in which Russian operative Dmitry Rybolovlev has been curiously flying in on his private plane to whatever American city Donald Trump happens to be visiting at the time, including last weekend when Trump traveled to Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, all eyes were on Rybolovlev this weekend to see whether he would once again surface in West Palm Beach. Instead, with the Senate Intelligence Committee suddenly closing in on Trump over Russia, Dmitry Rybolovlev suddenly flew to Moscow.

    --Senate Intel Committee lays claim to Trump-Russia documents at a dozen government agencies

    Trump-Russia investigation has grown far deeper and wider than previously known

    The latest from MSNBC is a report that the Senate Intelligence Committee has now informed more than a dozen government agencies that they must secure documents relating to the Trump-Russia investigation and are not allowed to destroy them. This would presumably put any Trump loyalist who attempts to destroy evidence in contempt of Congress, making it more difficult for Trump to cover his tracks.

    This also suggests that evidence of Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia is so prevalent that it’s everywhere, spread across numerous federal agencies, and that the Senate Intel Committee is now pursuing the Trump-Russia investigation as thoroughly as Trump’s detractors had been hoping.

    https://www.palmerreport.com/category/politics/

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  9. Anonymous6:18 PM

    -Everyone who thinks it's entertaining to watch POTUS act foolishly better start being afraid. He's not funny, he's dangerous.

    -If you're happy ignoring our national security in favor of laughing at POTUS, then unfollow us. We don't want to be associated with you.

    -You don't want our country to be stronger, you just want to be right. It turns out you're just like the man you hate.

    Before long this country is going to once again be subject to terrorist attacks b/c nobody is driving b/c POTUS is too busy tweeting.

    Like it or not POTUS is the only one who has the legal auth and pwr for many decisions and actions. But he's ignoring because he's tweeting.

    -When the Yemen raid was happening, POTUS didn't even monitor the mission in the Sit. Room. Why? He was too busy tweeting.

    -POTUS ordered Yemen raid after ignoring intel briefings. Ignored why? Because he was too busy tweeting.

    https://twitter.com/RoguePOTUSStaff

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    1. Anonymous8:43 PM

      Scott Pelley CBS “Today we learned the length of the president’s fuse—28 days.”

      https://twitter.com/NaphiSoc/status/832739437519843331

      Delete
  10. Anonymous6:20 PM

    More Bomb Threats Close Jewish Community Centers Across The Nation

    “I’ve never seen a string of attacks like this that are targeting the same kind of institution in the same kind of way. This is new.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bomb-threats-jewish-community-centers_us_58ab56a5e4b0f077b3ecfec4?

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    1. Anonymous6:25 PM

      Attacks On The Jewish Community Spike As Trump Continues Ignoring Anti-Semitism

      http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/20/attacks-jewish-community-spike-trump-continues-ignore-anti-semitism.html

      Delete
  11. Anonymous6:23 PM

    Career CIA Official Quits, Says He “Cannot In Good Faith” Serve Trump Administration

    "My decision had nothing to do with politics, and I would have been proud to again work under a Republican administration open to intelligence analysis," he said.

    A man who has worked in the Central Intelligence Agency for more than a decade – under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama – says he can no longer serve in the agency because of Donald Trump.

    In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Monday, former intelligence analyst and National Security Council spokesman Edward Price wrote, “Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional.”

    In the op-ed, Price explained how he came to this difficult conclusion:

    ...The final straw, Price said, came when Trump signed an executive order last month giving white supremacist and chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon a top seat at National Security Council meetings.

    “The White House’s inclination was clear,” Price said of the decision to elevate Bannon to such a powerful role. “It has little need for intelligence professionals who, in speaking truth to power, might challenge the so-called ‘America First’ orthodoxy that sees Russia as an ally and Australia as a punching bag.”

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/20/career-cia-official-quits-cannot-good-faith-serve-trump-administration.html

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    1. Anonymous11:12 PM

      I didn’t think I’d ever leave the CIA. But because of Trump, I quit.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-didnt-think-id-ever-leave-the-cia-but-because-of-trump-i-quit/2017/02/20/fd7aac3e-f456-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:14 PM

      WATCH: CIA veteran and NSC spokesperson scalds ‘deceitful, delusional’ Trump as he quits agency

      http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/watch-cia-veteran-and-nsc-spokesperson-scalds-deceitful-delusional-trump-as-he-quits-agency/

      Delete
  12. Anonymous6:28 PM

    Eric Trump Openly Admits Pay To Play Access To 'Southern White House'

    This administration is going to do immeasurable damage to America before they are sent packing; and their blatant corruption will not go unnoticed for much longer. The hubris is galling, and people are noticing; unfortunately it's a day late, and a dollar short, but they are noticing nonetheless.

    http://crooksandliars.com/2017/02/eric-trump-openly-admits-pay-play-access

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    1. Anonymous7:30 PM

      And we are paying for secret service for dumb and dumber!!
      ==================

      Judd Legum of Think Progress wrote of this in a mini-tweetstorm. Open the tweet in Twitter and the subsequent tweets will appear.

      1. Eric Trump admits that Mar-a-lago stands to make $8 million each year selling access to his father. https://t.co/ap5B8TF7fL pic.twitter.com/RzoJ4LavSG

      — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 18, 2017

      Delete
    2. Mar-A-Lago will make more than that every time Trump stays there and the Secret Service et al has to pay Mar-A-Lago for lodging to protect Trump's ass. Not to mention all of the "balls" and parties that will be held there for one reason or another.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous6:49 PM

    Kellyanne Conway has been quiet lately. What happened to her?

    https://twitter.com/trumpenings/status/832668017238503424/photo/1

    The Downfall of Kellyanne Conway

    As Kellyanne Conway sleepwalks her way through a series of increasingly embarrassing interviews, it’s been hard not to feel sorry for her. It was difficult not to feel bad for her when “Saturday Night Live” depicted her as a craven hack driven to “Fatal Attraction”-style debasement by a desire to appear on the news. When the cast of “Morning Joe” pointed out that Ms. Conway’s recent appearances on news shows proved her a useless source of information, when they sneered at Ms. Conway’s apparent White House ostracization, it was difficult to not feel stirrings of sympathy.

    But I can’t feel sorry for Kellyanne Conway. Not anymore.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/opinion/the-downfall-of-kellyanne-conway.html

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    1. When her lack of credibility makes her useless as a White House tool for propaganda and the news shows don't even want her, she serves no purpose in the administration. They've got plenty of lawyers and plenty of secretaries.

      It will be a race to see who goes first: Kellyanus or Spicey.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:06 AM

      Yeah, do NOT feel sorry for her! She helped create this mess, and it's not like she wasn't rich before dRumpf and needed the money desperately to feed her kids.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous7:16 PM

    A dossier on Donald Trump's psychological makeup is being prepared for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    ===========
    So the psychopath wants a dossier on the sociopath HA HA.

    I hope it gets leaked. In fact I might just call Mr. Putin and request he leak it, since it appears under dictator donnie, private citizens can call anyone they want in russia.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous7:32 PM

    I want to know who was in the room when dictator donnie called putin and what was said when they turned off the tape recording.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous7:45 PM

    Meanwhile, back in the real world . . . Bristol is pimping her "weight loss energy drink."
    https://www.instagram.com/p/BQwbdPxh4Ei/?taken-by=bsmp2&hl=en

    Doesn't EVERYONE have an American flag hanging over their mantle with a pair of American-flag cowboy boots on the mantle?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous4:48 AM

      I wonder why a young woman who is not apparently working at a full-time job while taking care of her family has so little energy. I'm in my seventies now and wonder sometimes why I walk more slowly than I used to. But Bristol?
      PS As for her mantle decor, how much more study can she get up there to prove she's 175% patriotic?
      Beaglemom

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:04 AM

      I'm with you, Beagle mom. It's total overkill with the 'patriotic decor'. Same with her constant proclamations of her 'faith'.
      You crack me up, O. R.!

      Delete
  17. Anonymous8:34 PM

    --Kremlin paid $40,000 to Michael Flynn just before he joined Donald Trump campaign

    The key to Trump-Russia scandal: follow the money

    ...Flynn’s attendance with Putin at the dinner in Moscow has long been documented, and there’s even a now infamous photo of the two of them sitting together at the same table. But until today, it wasn’t known that Flynn had been paid to be there. New York Daily News now reports that Flynn was paid $40,000 just to attend the dinner, and that Flynn failed to ask for the necessary Pentagon approval for such a payment.

    That’s a bizarrely large amount of money for the Kremlin to have paid Flynn, who was a nobody and who at that point had already been run out of the U.S. government, just to attend a dinner event. Moreover, Russia Today is directly funded by the Kremlin itself, meaning the Kremlin paid Flynn the $40,000. It all comes together to suggest that the money was actually for a different purpose.

    https://www.palmerreport.com/news/kremlin-40-michael-flynn-donald-trump/1616/

    Two days before the Inauguration of Donald Trump as the forty-fifth President of the United States, Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and former intelligence officer, sat down in a Washington restaurant. On the tablecloth, he placed a leather-bound folder and two phones, which flashed with text messages and incoming calls. A gaunt, stern-looking man with hooded eyes and a Roman nose, Flynn is sharp in both manner and language. He had been one of Trump’s earliest supporters, a vociferous booster on television, on Twitter, and, most memorably, from the stage of the Republican National Convention. Strident views and a penchant for conspiracy theories often embroiled him in controversy—in a hacked e-mail from last summer, former Secretary of State Colin Powell called him “right-wing nutty”—but Trump rewarded Flynn’s loyalty by making him his national-security adviser. Now, after months of unrelenting scrutiny, Flynn seemed to believe that he could find a measure of obscurity in the West Wing, steps away from Trump and the Oval Office. “I want to go back to having an out-of-sight role,” he told me.

    That ambition proved illusory. Three weeks into his job, the Washington Post revealed that Flynn, while he was still a private citizen and Barack Obama was still President, had discussed American sanctions against Russia with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador in Washington. The conversations were possibly illegal. Flynn and Kislyak’s communications, by phone and text, occurred on the same day the Obama Administration announced the expulsion of thirty-five Russian diplomats in retaliation for Russia’s efforts to swing the election in Trump’s favor. Flynn had previously denied talking about sanctions with the Ambassador. At the restaurant, he said that he didn’t think there was anything untoward about the call: “I’ve had a relationship with him since my days at the D.I.A.”—the Defense Intelligence Agency, which Flynn directed from 2012 to 2014. But, in a classic Washington spectacle of action followed by coverup followed by collapse, Flynn soon started backpedalling, saying, through a spokesman, that he “couldn’t be certain that the topic [of sanctions] never came up.”

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/michael-flynn-general-chaos

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    1. Anonymous9:37 PM

      "The key to Trump-Russia scandal: follow the money".

      I've been telling all my friends that this situation is eerily reminding me of when I was a young guy during Watergate. Then, as now, the key is to follow the money. My theory: Russia to Deutsche Bank to Trunp. And I pray/believe it will all come out now as it did then.

      Delete
  18. Oooo. I know what Donald is getting for his birthday June 14th.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hitler-phone-auction_us_58ab36c2e4b0f077b3ecd032?section=us_weird-news

    Happy 71st Birthday from Steve Bannon!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:13 PM

    Meet the seven Russian operatives who have dropped dead during Donald Trump-Russia scandal

    Bodies don’t drop like this without a reason

    Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, dropped dead today in New York of an apparent heart attack. That may not stand out as suspicious on its own, until one considers that he’s the second Russian diplomat to drop dead in New York in the past few months – and the last one, Sergei Krivov, was also said to have died of a heart attack despite his skull having been bashed in. Even more bizarrely, since Russia’s rigging the election for Donald Trump exploded in scandal, a whopping seven Russian diplomats and operatives have mysteriously dropped dead.

    Back in January, a thirty-page dossier was leaked to the public which detailed all the supposed ways in which Russia was blackmailing Trump. Two weeks later Oleg Erovinkin, a former KGB General who had helped a former MI6 agent to assemble the dossier, turned up dead in the back of a car in Russia. While it hasn’t been proven, many have suspected that Vladimir Putin had Erovinkin taken out in revenge for Erovinkin’s complicity in exposing Putin’s blackmail scheme. But even more Russian bodies have been dropping.

    Sergei Mikhailov, who was believed to have been a U.S. intelligence asset within the Russian government, was dragged out of a meeting in Russia with a bag over his head and is now almost certainly dead as well.

    Back in January, Russian diplomat Andrey Malanin was found dead in his Athens apartment. And we all recall the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, being murdered on live television. Additionally, Russian diplomat Petr Polshikov was found shot to death in Moscow. That adds up to seven bodies now having dropped since the Trump-Russia scandal exploded.

    How many of these seven deaths of Russian diplomats and Russian operatives are connected to the Donald Trump-Russia scandal? That’s not yet clear. Some of the deaths, such as Erovinkin and Mikhailov, have much more strongly demonstrated connections to Trump-Russia than others. But bodies don’t generally drop like this without a reason. How many of his own people has Vladimir Putin now eliminated while trying to cover up the Trump-Russia scandal?

    https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/meet-seven-russian-operatives-dropped-dead-since-donald-trump-russia-dossier/1613/

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous6:01 AM

    This is good, thanks for posting it!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous10:11 AM

    Looking forwartd to see whether Putin or Trump will win the famous hand shake. Somehow I don't think Trump will be so aggressive with Putin.

    ReplyDelete

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