What women in politics are up against...

The fact that a flagrantly demented pathological liar who faked a note from his doctor was able to convince voters that his female opponent was not healthy enough to be President tells you everything to need to know about what women in politics are up against.

Netanyahu's former Mossad Director: "This is no smoking gun. The gun smoked many years ago."

Netanyahu’s former Mossad Director, Danny Yatom: “This is no smoking gun. The gun smoked many years ago. The information could have once been a smoking gun but is irrelevant today.”

Hoping for that blue wave...

WIRED: Robert Mueller Likely Knows How This All Ends

GARRETT M. GRAFF
SECURITY
05.01.1811:27 AM
ROBERT MUELLER LIKELY KNOWS HOW THIS ALL ENDS

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1. Mueller always knows more than we think. Every single indictment has been deeper, broader, and more detailed than anyone anticipated. This “misunderestimating” of what Mueller knows has been true of both the public and media reports, and of his witnesses and targets: Both Rick Gates and Alex van der Zwaan were caught in lies by Mueller’s team, who have known far more specific information than their targets first realized. Presumably, Mueller’s questions to Trump are informed by even more evidence that we haven’t seen.

2. Mueller is building a bulletproof case. Paul Manafort spent the spring trying to argue that Mueller was a loose cannon, a reckless, out-of-control prosecutor straying far beyond his assignment. His court case, though, proved just the opposite: The release this spring in court of a previously classified memo by Rod Rosenstein makes clear just how cautiously and conservatively Mueller is proceeding legally. One of the key members of Mueller’s team, Michael Dreeben, specializes in looking down the road at potential legal pitfalls and how cases might appear not just at initial trials but in later appellate courts. And Dreeban’s work has paid obvious dividends: After reviewing the evidence in Manafort’s effort to dismiss the charges against him and Mueller’s highly detailed 282-page rebuttal, Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Manafort’s lawyers, “I don’t really understand what is left of your case.”

3. There are more loose threads than ever. Perhaps the most troubling conclusion after reading Mueller’s proposed questions is just how many questions exist about the behavior and motivations of the President of the United States during his first year in office. The 49 questions lay out just how much remains unanswered and unknown, publicly at least, nearly a year into Mueller’s special counsel work. It’s hard to tell from the questions alone which ones represent the most possible jeopardy for the president, but when matched against the five core areas of Mueller’s investigation, it’s clear that Mueller wants to talk with President Trump about nearly all of them, from obstruction of justice to the Trump Organization’s business deals in Russia to the 2016 Trump campaign’s involvement with various Russian officials. Add in the full breadth of the investigation, from New York taxi medallions to Virginia rug stores, and the “supporting players”—including Erik Prince, Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, Tony Podesta, Carter Page, Sergey Kislyak, Sergey Gorkov, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, as well as the hackers of Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear—and it’s clear that this is no made-up “witch hunt.” There are likely more indictments yet to come.

4. We still don’t know the biggest, most important evidence. There’s an ever-growing pile of evidence that exists that hasn’t become public yet. That includes, obviously, the evidence that George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Rick Gates all traded to Mueller for their plea deals over the last seven months. Presumably, Mueller considers each defendant’s testimony worthy of trading months—and even years—off of a potential prison sentence, so it seems significant that more than seven months after Mueller “flipped” Papadopoulos, we still haven’t seen a single iota of the evidence he presumably provided to the investigation.

5. Mueller likely already knows how this story ends. Add up the four above points and it seems clear that Mueller might actually be relatively close to wrapping up the investigation. Given that the FBI raid on Michael Cohen’s office, stemming from an investigation by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, was sure to provoke a reaction from President Trump—the investigative equivalent of kicking a hornet’s nest—it seems likely that Mueller and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who approved the raid, understood that one or both of them might be fired by the president in its wake. It seems likely that before they took such a provocative step on the case that they could see their way through to the investigation's end.


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The Rest:
https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-trump-questions-investigation/

More Pearl Clutching - "Have they no sense of decorum?!

Dear Sarah, I imagine you feel like an innocent victim in all this--I think you got off easy.

Dear Sarah,
MAY 1, 2018 /

I’ve been trying to reach you for a few days, but I know you’ve been busy lately with this whole White House Correspondents Dinner business—which I imagine you’re already pretty sick of talking about.

Honestly, I am too.

Please know this has nothing to do with that.

This is about you—and it’s about Jesus. (Well, sort of.)

You see, I’m a Christian and I’ve heard you claim that you’re a Christian too—and watching you work recently, it got me thinking:

How does she do it?

What I mean is, how do you reconcile your supposed faith in Jesus of Nazareth, with your current position as a mouthpiece for this morally malignant President?

As a professed Christian, how do you make peace with the reality that you regularly mount the largest bully pulpit in the nation—and you lie for a living on behalf of a serial predator?

How do you square your Christianity with the realization that you are the most visible and vocal surrogate for a man who is by nearly every measurement—fully devoid of Christlikeness?

Look, all Christians (myself included), feel some measure of fraudulence as we live this life while claiming we’re trying to perpetuate the character of Jesus in the world.

None of us can avoid the hypocrisy inherent in professing faith in a perfectly loving, compassionate, merciful Savior—while being profoundly flawed human beings. That tension and duplicity are ever-present.

But this isn’t that.
This is about actively working for the opposition.
This is about purposeful betrayal of your namesake.
This is about conspiring with the enemy.

I watch you every week as you repeatedly distort the truth,
as you attack journalists who come carrying facts.
as you vilify politicians who oppose your employer’s malfeasance,
as you categorically defend his every vile statement, every personal attack, every nonsensical Tweet, every baseless firing, every legislative assault.

I watch your face contort with the unmistakable tells of a person who doesn’t believe a word they’re saying; one who’s sold their soul and is now hopelessly trapped in a lie about a lie about a lie.

I wonder what Jesus-story you tell yourself, about the fact that every week you stand in front of a microphone and willingly perpetuate falsehoods that do great harm to millions of people?

That has to be rough—or maybe it isn’t.

Maybe it’s a breeze for you now.

Maybe you’ve convinced yourself it’s somehow all the Lord’s work.

Maybe you’ve been on this slippery slope of deception for so long that you actually believe the lies now too.

Or maybe your Jesus and my Jesus are just that different.

Maybe your Jesus is good with deporting immigrants.
Maybe your Jesus celebrates the poor staying poor.
Maybe your Jesus is fine with affairs with porn stars.
Maybe your Jesus is totally cool with supremacist Cabinet members.
Maybe your Jesus amens the banning and the wall-building.
Maybe your Jesus sanctions the fear of brown people.
Maybe your Jesus is pleased with sick people going broke trying to not die.
Maybe your Jesus applauds the racism and the bitterness and the cruelty.
Maybe your Jesus somehow blesses the lies you broker in on behalf of the monster you work for.

If that is your Jesus, Sarah—then know you are evangelizing brilliantly right now.
You are spreading the Gospel of that Jesus exponentially.
You are a powerful preacher of that Jesus to the watching world.

But for my money, that Jesus is the reason so many people want nothing to do with Christianity anymore.
It’s why the Church is hemorrhaging.
It’s why the pews are emptying.
It’s why people run from Christians.

I imagine you feel that thirty seconds of jokes from a comedian is terrible treatment; that you feel unfairly bullied, that feel that you didn’t deserve to be personally attacked.

I imagine you feel like an innocent victim in all this.

Given the countless hours you’ve spent lying to the world and claiming Jesus while you’ve done it—I think you got off easy.

CNN 8/17-US intel intercepted Russians re:"conversations w Manafort-encouraging help from Russians"

Big Reminder

1. Most interesting Mueller Q is on "any outreach by...Paul Manafort to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign"

2. Recall CNN scoop Aug'17:

US intelligence intercepted Russians relaying "conversations with Manafort, encouraging help from the Russians":

More Appropriate WH Correspondent's Association Dinner Jokes For 2019

APRIL 30, 2018
MORE APPROPRIATE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER JOKES FOR 2019
TEDDY WAYNE

Good evening, and welcome to the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. After last year’s uproar, I’ve been instructed to use only dignified language and humor considered appropriate for our current cultural discourse.

Low-IQ crazy Kellyanne Conway is here tonight. Kellyanne came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also graced us with her presence. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.

I see Fox News in the back, which is a failing pile of garbage and the enemy of the American people. I never watch Sean Hannity, who I once called “the dumbest man on television!”

A few members of the Trump cabinet showed up this year, such as Liddle Jeff Sessions, who lied to Congress under oath. He is an untruthful slimeball. And there’s Mike Pence, who is weak, both physically and mentally. Don’t threaten gay people, Mike!

I’m so glad to see the Trump family represented. Let’s see, there’s Crooked Don Jr., who embarrassed himself and the country with his email lies. I refuse to call Ivanka Trump a bimbo, because that is not politically correct. And let’s not forget Eric, who should be forced to take an IQ test. Not very bright.

As for the First Lady, I did try and fuck Melania. She was married. I moved on her like a bitch. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

In closing, I will reserve my most civil words for the president himself, who has finally made an appearance at this dinner. Bad (or sick) guy!


with links:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/more-appropriate-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-jokes-for-2019

Wake Up - Before it's too late (1950s edition)

In case you think politics has gotten ugly recently, Willis Smith (assisted by a young Jesse Helms) won this race in 1950 — unseating an incumbent senator in the process.






https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/991316379327516672

Chapelle re: Wolf: "I gotta respect the gangsta"

Lovely snippet:

https://twitter.com/The_UnSilent_/status/991165633256620032