White House spokesperson angry that reporters are "pushing a narrative that just doesn't exist," invents one of her own instead.

.@SarahHuckabee: The only thing I see misleading is year's worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about Russia collusion. pic.twitter.com/BDzIaiHzNU

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 1, 2017

Transcript courtesy of the Washington Examiner:

"The only thing I see misleading is a year's worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about this Russia collusion, a phony scandal based on anonymous sources," Sanders said after being asked how much Trump helped his son write a statement about a meeting he had last year with a Russian lawyer. 

"You guys are focused on a meeting that Don Jr. had no consequence," she said. "[T]he Democrats actually colluded with a foreign government, like Ukraine, the Democrat-linked firm Fusion GPS actually took money from the Russian government while it created the phony dossier that's been the basis for all of the Russia scandal fake news."

"And if you want to talk further about a relationship with Russia, look no further than the Clintons," Sanders said. "As we've said time and time again, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 to give a speech to a Russian bank and was personally thanked by Putin for it." 

"Hillary Clinton allowed one-fifth of America's uranium reserve to be sold to a Russian firm whose investors were Clinton Foundation donors, and the Clinton campaign chairman's brother lobbied against sanctions on Russia's largest bank and failed to report it," she said. 

"If you guys want to talk about having relations, which you seem obsessed with doing, look no further than there." "If you want to talk about somebody who's actually been tough on Russia, look at President Trump. He wants more fracking, more coal, more energy, a stronger military, a stronger defense. Those things aren't good for Russia." 

"I think the distinctions are very clear," she concluded. "You guys want to create a narrative that just doesn't exist."

Do you know what narrative doesn't exist? The one about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, with all of the evidence.

But do you know which narrative DOES exist? The one about the Clinton's that I just pulled out of my ass.

Actually that is not fair.

Sanders read that response verbatim from a sheet of paper on her podium, which means it was pulled out of Donald Trump's ass and handed to her in order to create this narrative.

And of course it is indeed a putrid pile of excrement, with virtually no real factual basis.

I already dealt with that uranium nonsense here, the rest is just as bad.

The Clinton campaign chairman's brother? I mean come on!

Is there also a connection between Russia and the Clinton housekeeper's second cousin's, second wife's, former brother-in-law's kid brother?

This definitely smacks of desperation.

Kellyanne Conway gives a master class in obfuscation when asked what Donald Trump is doing to protect the integrity our election system from Russian interference.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

On Friday, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Conway about the Post report. 

“What about this new reporting that there are three dozen high-level officials that say they can connect President Putin with giving instructions to hack the DNC computers and to plant fake stories — what is the current White House doing about this?” Camerota asked. 

Conway responded by asserting that Russian hackers weren’t the only people “interfering in our democracy” last year. 

“Well Alisyn, the president has said previously, and he stands by that — particularly as president-elect — that he would be concerned about anybody interfering in our democracy,” Conway said. “We saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy by saying he couldn’t win here at home.”

Yes, because suggesting that Donald Trump could not win the election, is exactly the same as hacking the election in order to ensure his victory.

Conway also attempted to lay the blame on the DNC in a rather transparent attempt to pivot away from answering the question.

However Camerota persisted: 

“What is the White House, what is President Trump now doing to prevent Russia from doing this again?” she asked.

“This report is new and we’ll discuss it with him later, but he has been very clear on the record that he believes in any type of numbers and measures to make sure that democracy flourishes and that our voter integrity is intact, and in fact he has an entire commission on that,” she said, before Camerota interjected: “Against Russia — what is he doing specifically to try to stop this?” 

Conway replied by smearing CNN and accusing Camerota of having a bad case of Russia hysteria. 

“Alisyn, I realize that we just like to say the word ‘Russia Russia’ to mislead the voters and I know that CNN is aiding and abetting this nonsense as well, but you’ve asked me the same question three times now and I’ve answered it,” she said, still unable to point to anything Trump is doing to prevent future Russian interference.

"This nonsense" by the way is referring to reports from our intelligence agencies and media outlets that Vladimir Putin personally directed the assault on our democracy, and worked to shift the election away from the candidate that he feared to hand victory to the candidate that he knew he could outmaneuver.

As for this report being new, that is only the latest Washington Post report which exposes the fact that Putin personally directed this attack, but we have had many months of reporting on what the Russians did and how they did it, and yet Trump has developed no plan for punishing the Russians for their actions or for preventing them from happening again.

And please keep in mind that the White House is currently working to undermine the new sanctions passed in the Senate to punish Russia for their interference.

That more or less proves, despite Conway's assertions, that Trump has no plan in the works, and no intention to create a plan, to deal with this issue.

And why would he?

After all he was the prime beneficiary of their interference. To him it was a net positive.

Major investigation into Russian money laundering suddenly comes to "abrupt end." Wait, what?

Courtesy of CNN: 

A major US investigation into Russian money laundering has come to an abrupt end. 

The case aimed to expose how Russian mobsters allegedly stole $230 million and hid some of the cash in New York City real estate. Also sure to come up was the suspicious death of the Russian lawyer who exposed the alleged fraud, though US prosecutors weren't alleging that the defendants were behind it. 

The trial was set to start on Monday, but late Friday night, federal prosecutors in New York announced they settled the case with Prevezon, the company accused of buying up "high-end commercial space and luxury apartments" with laundered money. 

The abrupt conclusion has some involved in the trial wondering why this Russian investigation had been cut short. 

"What most concerns me is: Has there been any political pressure applied in this?" asked Louise Shelley, an illicit finance expert who was set to testify in support of the US government on Tuesday. 

Shelley — who founded George Mason University's Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center — said the alleged money launderers got off easy. 

"I think they won something. There's no recognition of wrongdoing," she said.

CNN's request for comment from the US Attorney was ignored.

If you are thinking that this had something to do with Donald Trump, give yourself a gold star for obvious observational skills.

If you are also thinking that Trump's Justice Department did some behind the scenes manipulations to make this whole thing go away, you go ahead and give yourself two of those stars.

And trust me this will not be the last of these investigations to suddenly come to an abrupt end.

If Trump has his way, EVERY investigation into his financial ties, collusion, or possible urination videos concerning Russia will end up on the same trash heap of history.

That is why my friends that those of us who claim to be participating in The Resistance need to keep our eyes open and spread this kind of news far and wide.

If you find any more cases of this type of obstructionism you need to send the link here to IM, but also put it on your Facebook feed and encourage your friends and family to disseminate it so that it is not forgotten, and so that we can make a timeline of what Trump did to protect himself from possible prosecution. And who helped him to do it.

We are at war, and it is a war where one side tries to spread the facts, and the other side attempts to deny the very existence of those facts.

Or, of facts in general.

The conservative's new Benghazi is accusing former National Security adviser of "unmasking" the names of Trump aides caught up in the Russia collusion investigation. Update!

Courtesy of NBC News: 

It doesn't have the ring of "Benghazi," or "Whitewater," but Republicans are seizing upon what they see as a new scandal: "Improper unmasking."

"Now we know that someone in the Obama administration was eavesdropping and specifically searching a databank looking for the Trump (people)," Sen. Rand Paul proclaimed Tuesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe. 

In fact, there is no evidence of that.

Senior Obama administration officials don't dispute that Rice requested the "unmasking" of certain Americans whose names appeared in intelligence reports resulting from eavesdropping on foreigners — meaning the foreigners were discussing the Americans or talking to them. Usually, those names are blacked out. But the blackout can be lifted if doing so is necessary to help understand the intelligence. 

Requesting that is a routine thing for national security advisers to do, according to former senior officials, including Keith Alexander, who directed the National Security Agency.

Rice didn't and couldn't "order" the unmasking of any American, current and former officials say. The agencies that hold the raw surveillance transcripts — usually the NSA or the FBI — make that decision. It's a process subject to rules and reviewed by lawyers, and it has to be justified by an intelligence purpose.

It should be noted that a request to unmask one of these names only reveals that name to the person making the request, it does NOT make the name public.

And to be clear if Rice did make this request it was only because she was doing her job, and NOT because she was necessarily targeting Donald Trump and his associates.

However considering what we have learned since the election I am pretty upset that she WASN'T targeting Trump and his associates.

For her part Rice says she had nothing to do with the names becoming public:

“I leaked nothing to nobody,” she said.

By the way the person who supposedly "broke" this scandalous story was Mike Cernovich famous for his role in spreading the Pizzagate story.

Donald Trump Jr. is so impressed with his work that he is suggesting that he receive a Pulitzer.

Congrats to @Cernovich for breaking the #SusanRice story. In a long gone time of unbiased journalism he'd win the Pulitzer, but not today!

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2017

Thought I was kidding didn't you?

Clearly this is just more obfuscation on the part of the Trump team, much like their suggestion that the real scandal is not that they have so many ties to the Russians who hacked our election, but that the information concerning that fact was leaked to the media.

Attack the media, attack the leakers, and attack the intelligence professionals conducting the investigation.

Richard Nixon would be VERY proud.

Update: Here is a little more on this Mike Cernovich douche nozzle.

This is the guy the White House is promoting today, in case for a second you thought this wasn't all a dumpster fire. pic.twitter.com/iiVdxPWLBf

— Kyle Foley (@KFoleyFL) April 4, 2017

Gee, I can't imagine why he does not have a Pulitzer already.

House Republicans defeat resolution to force the Justice Department to reveal Donald Trump's ties with Russia.

Mike Pence and House Republicans pose for a selfie.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

House Republicans on Tuesday defeated a resolution that would have asked the Department of Justice to reveal what it has uncovered about President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia and his conflicts of interest with other foreign governments. 

Eighteen Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee opposed a resolution offered by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) that would have required Attorney General Jeff Sessions to hand over information related to investigations into the president, his campaign aides, the White House and Trump’s businesses. 

The vote came about after Nadler and other Judiciary Committee Democrats made several unsuccessful appeals to Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) requesting he hold hearings on Trump’s Russian ties and other foreign conflicts. Goodlatte opposed the resolution, calling it “overbroad” and “premature.” 

Nadler’s resolution is one way Democrats are pressuring Republicans over the president’s business conflicts and his campaign’s possible ties to hacking by Russian intelligence services against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

So is that it, is this whole thing over?

Fuck no!

In fact it is just getting started.

Right now the Republicans are hoping against hope that they can obfuscate, undermine, and ultimately delay all of this until the American citizens get distracted by the next shiny new thing.

However the more pressure they receive in the form of phone calls, emails, and faxes the harder it will be for them to keep putting things off. (You can start that process by clicking here.)

Want proof?

Here is what Darrell Issa, that guy who would have investigated the Obama Administration for wearing white after Labor Day, had to say after this was voted down:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) did not support the resolution, but said committee members should send bipartisan letters asking for information related to the Russian hacking allegations. He added: “If [Russia has] attempted to distort our democracy, we need to know it.”

So why would Darrell Issa, a guy who is so partisan that he would have thrown his own mother in jail for voting Democrat, be breaking with his GOP comrades over this?

Because he just barely won his seat in the last election that's why and he is smart enough at least to figure out where the wind is blowing on this, and it is not blowing in Donald Trump's favor.

All it takes for the Republicans to jump on board the "Let's investigate Donald Trump" train is the realization that if they don't their political careers are over.

I think my irony meter just committed suicide.

In honor of Halloween, meet the "big, bad thing" that frightens Mitt Romney and the Right Wing. Nate Silver.

Courtesy of The Telegraph:

When Charles Foster Kane takes one final look back at his tumultuous life, he encapsulates it in a single, immortal word: “Rosebud”. (Citizen Kane reference fro the uninitiated.)In years to come, when Mitt Romney takes a look back at this tumultuous election campaign, I suspect he may very well do the same. Except he will not speak of a cherished object, but a person: “Poblano”. 

Poblano is the pseudonym of Nate Silver, the sabermetrician and political psephologist who has done more to influence the 2012 presidential election than other political analysts and commentator. Silver is behind The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog, which conducts a complex statistical analysis of the state of the race, and boils it down to daily estimate of the two candidates chances in the form of a mathematical percentage. Where most political commentators output is the product of briefings, gossip and personal perception, Silver deals in cold, hard facts. And at the moment, Silver’s facts are being fired like bullets into the heart of the Romney campaign. 

Over the past week Romney has had a clear strategy; give the impression of momentum. Demonstrate the post-debate surge is continuing. Get people talking about how the race is his to lose. 

Nate Silver is Mitt Romney’s nemesis. Not intentionally; although he admits to being an Obama supporter, his whole career is predicated on getting his predictions right. Like he did in 2008, when "Poblano" accurately predicted the result of 49 of the 50 states, and all 35 senate races. 

And it is that reputation for accuracy that is so damaging to the Romney campaign’s attempt to sustain their precious “momentum” narrative. People listen to Silver. And over the past 48 hours, the narrative is starting to shift. “Mitt-mentum? Not so fast” – US News & World report. “Romney’s Momentum Seems To Have Stopped” – Political Wire. “The momentum myth” – Washington Post. 

In fact, Silver is proving so damaging to their chances that Republican’s are drawing up a strategy for countering him. “Nate Silver continues to lead the Democrat Graveyard whistling choir”, Republican blogger Robert Stacy McCain wrote on Tuesday. National Review decried “Nate Silver’s Flawed Model”. “Everyone but Nate Silver thinks Obama’s lead is evaporating fast”, said Business Insider. 

But the truth is we don’t. And the Romney camp knows it.

Yes they do know it, but they are counting on Right Wing radio, conservative blogs, and Fox News to keep everybody else from knowing it.

At that is why Nate Silver scares the living crap out of them. Because he is a numbers guy, and is therefore immune to obfuscation and slick advertising campaigns. He simply hunkers down with his vast array of poll numbers and crunches them until he comes up with the kernel of truth contained within.

And right now that truth looks a little something like this.

BOO!

(P.S. For those who missed it Nate was on Real Time last night, which you can watch for yourself by clicking here.)

Presidential Debate Open Thread. Get ready to R-U-MMMBLE!!! Update!

"Let me just say right now, I got this."

I am sure I don't have to tell all of you that after the last debate between the President and Romney, where the President was shocked by the completely fact free debating style of his opponent, that THIS debate has taken on an incredible amount of significance.

It would seem to me that the town hall format for tonight's debate favors the President, but Romney has demonstrated himself to be an incredible opportunist who will take advantage of any chance to change his stated positions to fit the expectations of the crowd. Essentially if left unrestrained by the kind of fact checking provided by Joe Biden during the VP debate, Romeny will present himself as all things to all people.

So the President is going to have to be not only on HIS game, but nailing Romney down on his positions as well. Unless of course moderator Candy Crowley is willing to take a stand for truth and refuse to let Mitt the Twit bullshit his way through yet another piece of political performance art.

I will, as usual, be tweeting my impressions during the debate which you all can check here. I will also try and keep up with the comments here so that you can share your thoughts and feelings as well.

While we are waiting I thought I would share with you this picture of a beaming Michelle Obama, who sent in her absentee ballot yesterday.

The President did as well, which I understand is the FIRST time that a sitting President of the United States has ever taken the opportunity to vote early. Something by the way that I think we ALL should take advantage of just as soon as early voting starts in our area.

So get your popcorn out kids, and the beverage of your choice, and let's get ready to witness the rematch of the century. Let's just hope that this time the Champ is ready to go all Mike Tyson on Romney's ass if he starts using cheap shots or low blows.

Update: The moment Obama won the debate:

Another great ad calling out Mitt Romney for his obfuscation. Update!

You know the horse is beautiful too bad that stupid man keeps breaking in to lie during his performance.

Update: Apparently the Romney's are taking the Sarah Palin route and claiming to be victimized by this ad. Here is the response from DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse:

 “Our use of the Romneys’ dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did,” Mr. Woodhouse said. “We were simply making a point about Governor Romney’s failure to give straight answers on a variety of issues in this race. We have no plans to invoke the horse any further to avoid misinterpretation.”

It is beyond pathetic that MIttens is hiding behind his wife's illness in order to avoid scrutiny on his tax return question.  Especially now that we learn he is so freaked out at the thought of having to release them that if he had known he would be expected to he never would have become a candidate for president.