The Sun wishes you a Happy Halloween

courtesy NASA

Also...courtesy Ann Telnaes

Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell?

(Thanks to Mr. Merle Haggard, may he rest in peace, for that line, if not for the entire song.)

At the very least, it would seem to me, Republican congressional leaders ought to be forced to take a position as to what they would do if the president* fired Robert Mueller now that the first shoe has dropped. This should be an easy one, of course, but there is that tax bill to pass, and all that money to shove upwards to the donors, so obligations to the Constitution can wait.

More significant is the fact that Mueller is apparently investigating every damn thing he can get his hands on. The role of the Bank of Cyprus in all of this has taken on a critical importance and it’s important to remember that Wilbur Ross, the current Secretary of Commerce, used to be on the board of that bank before he joined Camp Runamuck. This damn thing could go everywhere.

  Charles P Pierce

One thing you might expect would be for Congress to defund the investigation as proposed in August. Oh, sorry, we just don't have the money for that. I wonder what would happen then. It didn't seem to have a lot of support in August, but I just don't know how desperate the Republicans will become as this thing progresses. Shit's gonna fly, though, I'm pretty sure.

Over the weekend, the WSJ ran an editorial demanding that Mueller resign. It also published an op-ed by a couple of Bush 2 lawyers advising the president* to pardon everyone—a move that likely would set off cranial detonations at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and the birthing of bovines generally throughout the country.

The birthing of bovines.

Nevertheless, when the WSJ editorial page last drifted into the plak tow, the vast conservative media apparatus was still in its larval stages. God alone knows what will happen now that it’s fully gestated and howling across the landscape. With the Republican congressional leadership so far hiding behind the curtains, there’s nothing to restrain the beast and, sooner or later, the president* is going to find his phone.

Great day in the morning, it’s going to be bloody.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Surely not

There is a good bit of debate and some disagreement among constitutional scholars about the ways the president could remove Mueller if he wanted to, and the legality of such steps. But one thing is clear, it would not be as simple as firing off a termination letter, as the president did to remove FBI Director James Comey.

[...]

But could he legally squash the investigation if he wanted to?

Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation, the decision to appoint a special counsel fell to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. In his order making the appointment, Rosenstein cited federal regulations issued by the attorney general in 1999, 28 C.F.R. § 600.4-600.10. The rules were drafted in the wake of the Kenneth Starr investigation of President Bill Clinton.

According to those regulations, a special counsel “may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General” (or in this case, the acting attorney general). And Rosenstein can’t just do it on a whim, either. Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation, the decision to appoint a special counsel fell to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. In his order making the appointment, Rosenstein cited federal regulations issued by the attorney general in 1999, 28 C.F.R. § 600.4-600.10. The rules were drafted in the wake of the Kenneth Starr investigation of President Bill Clinton. According to those regulations, a special counsel “may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General” (or in this case, the acting attorney general). And Rosenstein can’t just do it on a whim, either.

  Factcheck

Surely Rosenstein, who was shamed after writing a note covering Trump's big ass for firing Comey, wouldn't want to relive that debacle by firing Mueller. But what if Trump fired Rosenstein? Who would have the authority then?

“It’s certainly theoretically possible that the attorney general could fire him, but that’s the only person who has authority to fire him,” Rosenstein said. “And in fact, the chain of command for the special counsel is only directly to the attorney general, in this case the acting attorney general.”

Could Jeff Sessions rescind his recusal? He's in enough trouble as it is in this whole thing. I can't imagine he's got the balls to get himself in any further. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he's already secretly turned cooperative with Mueller in the hopes of staying out of jail.)

If he wanted to, wrote Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and co-founder of Lawfare, Trump could then fire Rosenstein. In that case, the authority over Mueller would fall to the associate attorney general. In theory — and ignoring the political consequences of doing so — Trump could keep firing people until he got someone to follow through on an order to fire Mueller.

[...]

There’s yet another route the president could take, Neal Katyal, a professor of national security law at Georgetown University, wrote in a piece for the Washington Post on May 19: “Trump could order the special-counsel regulations repealed and then fire Mueller himself.”

[...]

" If Trump tries to blow through the regulation and fire Mueller himself, would DOJ or Mueller accept the termination or instead challenge and litigate the purported removal?” Goldsmith wrote. “That litigation would be … interesting.”

To say the least.

You think there wouldn't be riots outside the White House if they fired Mueller?  I think it's gone too far now that these indictments have been handed down and Papadopoulos took a plea deal.  They may spew and fume, but I have to think they all know now that Mueller has real and damning evidence against them, and their inclinations will be to do whatever it takes to mitigate damages, shift blame and stay out of jail. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Scared tweeting run

Somebody finally got through to him to stop tweeting about the Mueller investigation. Or maybe he finally left his bedroom and TV.

Since his five early morning panic tweets, The Most Notable Loser has tweeted seven times - maybe a daily record - and not one has been about "collusion" or Hillary. Perhaps he thinks these are great distracters for his Twitter followers, or perhaps somebody told him, "Sit over here and try to find the good things to focus on."

These are his topics: 1) coal production is up 7.8% (Fox); 2) home prices at "all-time highs" in August (CNBC); 3) consumer confidence index highest since December 2000 (CNBC); 4) child tax credit in the works (Ivanka); 5) wishing everyone happy halloween; 6) thanks to Luis Rivera Marin for a Miami Herald op-ed thanking Trump adm for leadership in Puerto Rico recovery; and 7) statement by the president on alleged Benghazi attacker role.

Taking bets on how long before he loses it and goes back to whinge-tweeting?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Are Trump voters tired of winning yet?

A note about the Papadopoulos charges

I've been seeing people tossing about a "he was only guilty of lying" defense of George Papadopoulus, as though what he was charged with in the pleadings was all they have on him. But the other reason this is a bad argument is, lying isn't the only thing they mentioned in the filing - the other thing mentioned was dropped as part of the plea deal. (And even with that addition, we can't know what else they have on him that they used for bargaining purposes but never put in the complaint.)

It's good to be retired

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Why so scared? - Part 2

Papadopolous was not freelancing and [...] others in the campaign were aware of his activities and on board with them.

[...]

We don’t know the identities yet of the unnamed campaign officials who received Papadopoulos’ updates. In the plea they’re called the “campaign supervisor” or the “high-ranking campaign official,” or “another high-ranking campaign official” (indicating at least two were directly in the loop).

  Just Security

There's a hook if I ever saw one. If you know you're the guy being referred to without being named, what would you do? And I'm looking at you, Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner.  At least some of those guys will surely start singing for Mueller. (I'd almost bet on Sessions to squeal.) Especially considering this:

We know what Papadopoulos said to Trump campaign advisers, keeping them updated on his work and the conversations he was having with Russian officials. But, for the most part, we don’t know what they said back to him, but presumably Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team do.

And when any one of them is called in on the record (and some already HAVE been) and lies because they didn't realize Mueller already had this info from Papadopoulos, they're automatically guilty of a crime - lying to the FBI. The guys on the lower rungs of the ladder might be as anxious as Papadopoulos to strike a plea deal by turning over even more evidence on the guys at the top.

The responses we have, thanks to this plea, are significant, and imply that Mueller has far more information about the role other campaign officials played and the views they had about working with the Russians.

Looks like this house of cards is ready to collapse.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Why so scared?

[T]he Papadopoulos plea shows that [AG Jeff] Sessions — then acting as Trump’s top foreign policy adviser — was in a March 31, 2016, meeting with Trump, at which Papadopoulos explained “he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin.” It also shows that Papadopoulos kept a number of campaign officials in the loop on his efforts to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin, though they secretly determined that the meeting “should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal,” itself a sign the campaign was trying to hide its efforts to make nice with the Russians.
  Marcy Wheeler

But, Trump implies like he hardly knew the low level volunteer. George who?

More recently, on October 18, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Sessions a series of questions about his knowledge of interactions with Russians, including whether he had discussed emails with Russian officials since the campaign. To that question, Sessions said he “did not recall.” Franken then asked, in an attempt to clarify the confirmation questions, “You don’t believe that surrogates from the Trump campaign had communications with the Russians?” “I did not — and I’m not aware of anyone else that did. I don’t believe that it happened,” said the attorney general. [...] It’s part of a pattern that began early for Sessions. He initially denied categorically meeting with Russians during the campaign, but was forced to walk that back when it emerged he had met at least twice with then-Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He then claimed that the meetings had focused purely on foreign affairs and his senatorial duties, a claim rebutted by Kislyak himself, who told his superiors that he spoke with Sessions about the 2016 campaign. [...] To be sure, Papadopoulos’s plea perhaps hurts Trump the most. After all, Trump was in the March 31 meeting too, along with Sessions. Trump personally intervened in the White House spin about the June 9, 2016, meeting, pushing the line — and the lie — that it pertained to adoptions rather than obtaining dirt on Clinton.

Somebody keep an eye on that nuclear football, please.

Another breakdown of what we learned from the Papadopoulos plea.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Scared stupid

Oh, yeah.  A MUCH bigger story than Mueller, Gates and Papadopoulos indicted by the Grand Jury on criminal charges.  LOL.

OK, asshat..."what we know about crooked dems is....."

Earth shattering!  LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Give me a minute to catch my breath.

LOLOL

OK.  The two Podestas were the only swamp denizens then?  When you said "drain the swamp", I bet no one on this (shattered - LOL) earth thought:  he means Tony and John Podesta.  And how could you have "drained" them anyway?  Neither was government staff.

SAD!  LOL 

Wait a minute...what campaign promises have been fulfilled?  Othern than the unspoken one of you being a total loser, I mean.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The "young, low level volunteer named George"

That description of Papadopoulos, as a campaign nobody, doesn't jibe with the picture painted by the court documents unsealed on Monday or with Trump's own words.

In a Spring 2016 interview with the Washington Post editorial board, then-candidate Trump was asked about who was advising him on foreign policy. He began listing names, and listed Papadopoulos second, referring to him as an "energy and oil consultant, excellent guy."

  NPR

Hardly knew him. Of course, with Trump, he could have not known him from Adam and still said he was an excellent guy because he was on the team. Doesn't matter. The top members of the campaign staff knew him. Only....

Papadopoulos also appears in an Instagram photo from March 2016, posted by Trump, with the caption "Meeting with my national security team in #WashingtonDC."

Ooops.

Yeah, THAT George.

"George Papadopoulous, a 2009 graduate of DePaul University, has described himself in several lengthy published résumés as an oil and gas consultant and expert in eastern Mediterranean energy policy.

But his claim to have served for several years as a fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute was refuted by David Tell, Hudson senior fellow and director of public affairs, who said the institute's 'records indicate that Mr. Papadopoulos started here as an unpaid intern in 2011 and subsequently provided some contractual research assistance to one of our senior fellows.'

[...]

He also cites the delivery of a keynote address at the 2008 annual American Hellenic Institute Foundation Conference. The conference agenda that year noted Papadopoulos's participation on a youth panel with other students; it lists 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis as the keynote speaker."

Hey. Who DOESN'T pad their resumé?

DePaul University professor Richard Farkas taught Papadopoulos [in] in Russian politics and Russian foreign policy [and] described Papadopoulos as "zealous and a bit simple."

[...]

"There's no likelihood he could access [the Russian government] effectively. I think he probably was just embellishing," said Farkas, who has taught at DePaul for more than 40 years. "I've been teaching about this part of the world and know people in Moscow. I don't think I could access people at that level, not at least without really working it."

Sounds like a snobby professor to me.  "If I, with my fabulous credentials couldn't access the Russian government, how could my lowly student?"  Papadopoulos was a business associate of Paul Manafort, who was a business associate of Russian mobsters, who would be able to "access" the Russian government. And, Professor Farkas is missing the main point: Mueller has indicted and flipped George Papadopolous. If he were simply embellishing, he wouldn' be in the spot he's in.  Pay attention, professor.

Prior to joining the Trump camp, Papadopoulos also advised Republican Ben Carson's campaign.

Just a low level volunteer, I assume?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fear in the White House

What would you expect the lawyer to say?  And events mentioned are our clue that Mueller is going after the whole shebang. The Most Notable Loser is the one who needs a better lawyer. Someone who could impress upon him the need to STFU.

"The young, low level volunteer named George."  LOL.

You know who else was a "volunteer"?  Paul Manafort.

They might be able to if you'd quit talking about Russian collusion, fool.  Only, your tax cut proposal might not be the thing you actually want them to focus on.  I've heard it's going to shock some people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Miss Lindsey changes his mind again

He's just so fickle.

So much for the short-lived cozy up for presidential favor.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Sam Clovis withdraws his name in 3...2...1....

Sam Clovis is not a scientist. But the reason he'll be withdrawing is his connection to George Papadopoulos.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/2:

Aaaaaand, there it is.  He did hold out for three whole days, though.

They'll be sweating bullets in the White House

The one-two punch of the Manafort and Gates indictment, followed by the Papadopoulos plea deal just over an hour later, [...] suggested that Mueller was taking the hostile political climate into consideration. Before Monday, many observers thought Manafort was the likeliest subject of an expected indictment. But the Papadopoulos revelations came as a complete surprise and undermined conservative talking points.

“Not only does this suggest that Mueller is taking into account the optics and the politics of the moment, but that he’s actually trying to take advantage of them to maximize the clout of the investigation and to control the narrative,” Vladeck said.

Other filings released Monday revealed Papadopoulos was actively cooperating with Mueller’s investigation as part of his plea deal. “One assumes that the plea deal was in exchange for something” on Papadopoulos’s part, Vladeck said. “And the ‘something’ is clearly not related to the Manafort indictment. So the real question is, what exactly did Papadopoulos give up?”

Papadopoulos’s plea agreement was initially sealed. According to a motion filed in July, were its particulars publicly known at the time, they would have hampered his ability to work on behalf of investigators as a “proactive cooperator.” According to Barrett, that phrase could refer to Papadopoulos “having law enforcement-monitored meetings,” including wearing a wire or arranging “calls or emails with other subjects of the investigation who are unaware that he is cooperating with the government.”

[...]

“[Mueller]’s setting up the scene,” said Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who now runs a security firm called the Soufan Group. He noted that the special counsel could file additional charges in the future. “This indictment is a living document,” Soufan explained. “It’s going to continue to change based on the evidence and on the investigative strategy of the special counsel.”

Most importantly, the filings and indictments signified that Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation is nowhere near over.

  The Atlantic

Starting on the outer edge and tightening the noose. The hunter encircles the prey.

“Manafort might be a bigger fish, but Papadopoulos is a bigger story,” said Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor. “To me, this is the kind of plea deal that puts the c-word—collusion—back on the table.”

It's the first time I've thought it might be an actual claim to be litigated.  More and more interesting.

Looks like another loss is in the making for *The Most Notable Loser*

A lot of the support for the tax reform comes from people who think they're going to get something specific out of the tax plan. But the need to fit the plan in the $1.5 trillion box is going to require telling a lot of those people they aren't going to get what they expected.

[...]

There was a surprising announcement in late September: The National Association of Home Builders was "enthusiastically backing" the Republican tax reform plan.

[...]

In recent days, the home builders have switched to a less surprising position: They will vigorously oppose the proposal, on the grounds that it eliminates tax provisions that encourage people to buy homes. And we've learned why the home builders switched sides: They thought they'd be getting a new tax credit for homeownership in the bill, which would offset the loss of homeownership-related tax deductions, but Republican congressional leaders decided not to create such a credit after all.

We're going to see a lot more of this in the coming days and weeks.

House Republicans plan to release legislative text for the tax plan on Wednesday. That text will tell a lot of people they're going to get screwed under the plan, and it will become even more unpopular than it already is.

  Busienss Insider

More details if you read the whole article.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

House Intel didn' know about Papadopoulos

Too busy trying to provide cover for The Most Notable Loser.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Apparently Carter Page doesn't have an attorney

Or is he just begging for Mueller to bring him in and offer him a deal?

Watch it.  It's pretty amazing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Leaky, Leaky

The president digested the news of the first indictments in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe with exasperation and disgust, these people said. He called his lawyers repeatedly. He listened intently to cable news commentary. And, with rising irritation, he watched live footage of his onetime campaign adviser and confidant, Paul Manafort, turning himself in to the FBI.

[...]

Though frustrated that the media were linking him to the indictment and tarnishing his presidency, he cheered that the charges against Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were focused primarily on activities that began before his campaign.

[...]

But the president’s celebration was short-lived. A few minutes later, court documents were unsealed showing that George Papadopoulos, an unpaid foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[...]

White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, along with lawyers Ty Cobb, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, advised Trump to be cautious with his public responses, but they were a private sounding board for his grievances, advisers said.

“This has not been a cause of great agita or angst or activity at the White House,” said Cobb, the White House lawyer overseeing Russia matters. He added that Trump is “spending all of his time on presidential work.”

  WaPo

LOL.

But Trump’s anger Monday was visible to those who interacted with him, and the mood in the corridors of the White House was one of weariness and fear of the unknown.

But that's not new, is it?

“The walls are closing in,” said one senior Republican in close contact with top staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “Everyone is freaking out.”

Trump is also increasingly agitated by the expansion of Mueller’s probe into financial issues beyond the 2016 campaign and about the potential damage to him and his family.

Which is exactly what needed to happen.

Trump staffers fretted privately over whether Manafort or Gates might share with Mueller’s team damaging information about other colleagues. They expressed concern in particular about Gates because he has a young family, may be more stretched financially than Manafort, and continued to be involved in Trump’s political operation and had access to the White House, including attending West Wing meetings after Trump was sworn in.

In fact, I read that Gates was represented this morning by a public defender. If the powers that be are not willing to get him a high-priced lawyer, he may not feel obligated to protect their asses.

“I’d like to start the briefing today by addressing a topic that I know all of you are preparing to ask me about, and that’s tax reform,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Monday afternoon’s news briefing.

LOL! Does Sarah have a sense of humor?

Collusion?

This from the Popadopoulos indictment:

If they're letting him cooperate in exchange for a relatively light charge and sentence recommendation, he must have a lot to tell them.

She's working double-time to deflect for The Most Notable Loser.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

James Comey tweets under the name Reinhold Niebuhr

Serious business

There must have been some concern that they'd try to leave the country, eh?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE November 1:

In a bail memo unsealed Tuesday evening, special counsel Robert Mueller argued that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign aides indicted recently, are a flight risk given the serious nature of the charges, the wealth of the two men, and their extensive travel history.

  TPM

And "their history of deceptive and misleading conduct, the potentially significant sentences the defendants face, the strong evidence of their guilt, [...] and their foreign connections.”

Both have been placed in home confinement with bond set at $10 million for Manafort and $5 million for Gates.

[...]

Mueller noted that both have traveled abroad extensively and revealed that Manafort currently has three U.S. passports with different numbers. Manafort has applied for a passport ten times in the last ten years, per the court filing.

[...]

Gates listed his personal liquid assets at $25 million in February 2016 and at $2.2 million in March 2016.

What the hell happened?

They're all running scared

And maybe aren't getting the best legal advice. But, Carter Page - what's he thinking? That he'll get out in front to distance himself from the others?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Conspiracy against the United States" explained

So apparently, this doesn't necessarily mean there was anything going on with a foreign agent.

Renato Mariotti has a thread discussing what the indictment against Manafort and Gates means. You can read the whole thing here.

What the... ??

Story in the New York Times indicates that two Navy SEALs (from the famous Team 6) are "under suspicion" of strangling a Green Beret soldier last June in Mali. Too much to unpack here, just read it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/16/18:  Four murder convictions.

Tweeting scared

Yeah, why?

We'll see about that.

In the meanime, there IS money laundering...and he knows he's in on that.

UPDATE 7:00pm:

Renato Mariotti is an Illinois attorney who is running for IL AG.

This doesn't look good for Trump campaign, either

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Well, there's a surprise

Yeah, I'm not even going to read it to confirm.  I'm just assuming these days any nominee of the Trump administration is the most inappropriate person to hold the job.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Whitefish contract cancelled

Whitefish Energy Holdings says it is “very disappointed” that authorities in Puerto Rico have canceled its $300 million contract to help rebuild the U.S. island’s electricity system.

  TPM

How did PR authorities cancel a contract unless they were a party to it? And if they were a party to it, why didn't they realize how bad a contract it was? And, do they have a replacement?

While government officials in Washington and San Juan have argued over how a company from Whitefish, Mont., with connections to the secretary of the interior but only two full-time employees secured an emergency contract that requires the work of thousands of people, the majority of Puerto Rico is still without electricity, nearly six weeks after Hurricane Maria knocked down thousands of poles and lines.

[...]

Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló announced on Sunday that he had asked the power authority’s board — which he appoints — to cancel the contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings, two days after FEMA issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the deal. FEMA said it had “significant concerns” and warned that it might refuse to cover the costs of the contract if it was found to be improper.

  NYT

Sounds to me like the governor might have been "colluding" with Secretary Zinke and his friends at Whitefish ... kickbacks, anyone?

Mr. Rosselló said he had asked for a federal investigation of the contract award process, and for the power authority to appoint a trustee to review contract bidding. He stressed that no wrongdoing had been discovered, but he said that the contract had become a “distraction” and that attention had to be refocused on restoring service.

Yeah, right.

“I am making this determination because it is in the best interest of the people of Puerto Rico,” Mr. Rosselló said at a news conference.

He misspelled "got caught". And it doesn't look like it was Rosselló alone.

The chief executive of the power authority, Ricardo Ramos, defended the contract, which he awarded.

Appears the people of Puerto Rico have some governmental house-cleaning to take care of when elections roll around.

Mr. Ramos said Whitefish had recently requested security protection because people had started throwing rocks and bottles at the company’s crews on the island, in the belief that the contract had been awarded corruptly.

[...]

He said the power authority had already paid Whitefish or been billed about $20.8 million for work done so far, and would have to reimburse the company for the cost of returning helicopters, trucks and other equipment from Puerto Rico to the United States. He said that work that was already in progress would be completed by Whitefish.

So, not a total loss to the crooks.

Mr. Ramos said he would send a letter to the electric company board asking for a resolution formally ending the contract, and that the board would meet Monday or Tuesday to address the matter. The cancellation would take effect 30 days after a resolution is adopted.

Meanwhile, the people are left without electricity. Mr. Ramos and Governor Rosselló will, of course, have generators if needed, but I'm sure theirs were among the very first homes to get electricity restored.

Of course the US Army Corps of Engineers is on the island, apparently not in great enough numbers. Aren't there any out-of-work electricians in the US to bring on board? Oh, wait. The US government would have to pay them.

GOP counter-attacks

The Republican Congress is using its investigative apparatus not to discover the extent of Russian interference in the election, but instead to lash out at Trump’s political opponents. The Republicans have developed a bizarre theory of alt-collusion, which holds that the real interference was Russia feeding false allegations against Donald Trump to private investigator Christopher Steele. Since the FBI investigated Steele’s charges, the FBI is the agency that colluded. And since Robert Mueller is close with the FBI, Mueller, too, is tainted.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page has been serving as a barely filtered outlet for this line of attack from Republicans in Congress. The page has called for Mueller to resign, and other Republican media outlets spent the weekend amplifying this message.

[...]

House Republicans appear to be intent on generating investigations against Clinton and the Obama administration in pursuit of their spurious alt-collusion conspiracy. (One strand of this plan is a fixation with an insignificant deal to sell non-weapons-grade uranium, with which Clinton had a tangential role.) “This probe of the Democratic Party’s Russian dalliance has a long, long way to go,” reports Kimberley Strassel, the Wall Street Journal columnist and Congressional Republican message conduit.

[...]

We are watching an important marker in the GOP’s slow metamorphoses into an authoritarian party.

  NY Magazine

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Manafort Indictment

"The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts," the federal special counsel said in a statement.

[Manafort and Gates] laundered over $18 million through offshore accounts, the indictment alleges, using the untaxed proceeds to lead lavish lifestyles. They also failed to register as agents of a foreign principal and made false and misleading statements to hide payments received from Ukraine, it said.

  RT

"Conspiracy against the United States."  That sounds like something that would keep open the line of investigation targeting a charge of collusion in the Trump campaign.

And, here's a worrying thing: The Most Notable Loser will have to resort to some desperate moves to knock this off the front page.

Read the indictment for yourself here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

So apparently, this doesn't necessarily mean there was anything going on with a foreign agent.

Renato Mariotti has a thread discussing what the indictment against Manafort and Gates means. You can read the whole thing here.

It's Manafort & Gates

And The Most Notable Loser is madly flagging another story.

Paul Manafort [President Trump’s former campaign chairman] surrendered to federal authorities Monday morning, after a person close to the case said the first charges were filed in a special counsel investigation.

Also charged was Mr. Manafort’s former business associate Rick Gates, who was also told to surrender on Monday, the person said.

  NYT

I don't believe we're talking about Russia collusion here. I've never thought that was the crime that would take down The Most Notable Loser. The arrest of Manafort's "business associate" leads me to believe I was right.  Of course, there may be collusion somewhere in there, too.  I just think that one's too hard to prove, and frankly, the DNC also buying info from Russians puts everybody in the same pot.  I'm sticking with money laundering and racketeering until proven otherwise.

Mr. Manafort had been under investigation for violations of federal tax law, money laundering and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying.

[...]

Attempts to reach Mr. Gates on Monday were not successful.

[...]

Mr. Gates is a longtime protégé and junior partner of Mr. Manafort. His name appears on documents linked to companies that Mr. Manafort’s firm set up in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe

That's not clear to me whether Gates absconded or the Times just couldn't reach him. The money laundering aspect of the investigation ought to encompass the Trump organization. I suppose we shall see. This could be a long, drawn out process. It could, in fact, last for the rest of The Most Notable Loser's term, which gives him plenty of time to destroy what's left of the country.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, said there were no concerns that Mr. Manafort would offer damaging information about the president in exchange for a deal.

We'll see. That may depend on whom he fears more: the Russian mob or the FBI. I know who I'd pick.

As for Rick Gates, I don't recall hearing about him before.

Gates’ name first became publicly known during the Republican National Convention when Gates was accused of being responsible for the alleged plagiarism of Melania Trump’s convention speech. However, another woman later took the blame for cribbing some phrases from Michelle Obama’s speech.

  Heavy

So, that's even taking the whole thing closer into Trump campaign territory. Why would Manafort's business associate be involved at all?

Politico reported that Manafort, the man Trump hired (briefly) as his “new chief campaign strategist” brought in people with lobbying histories to hold key positions in the Trump campaign. One of those people, said Politico, was Rick Gates.

According to Politico, Gates “was identified as an agent of a Ukrainian oligarch in a 2011 racketeering lawsuit that also named Manafort.”

Okay. Two fellow racketeers in the Trump campaign.

Gates was heavily involved in efforts to make sure that party rules were not changed at the Republican National Convention in a way that would hurt Trump.

Ah, the mob style of persuasion. Start with threats.

Before he was suspended [from Twitter, Roger] Stone had tweeted that he spoke with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort after the CNN story and that Manafort indicated he knew nothing about the special prosecutor’s action.

Stone called Manafort? Those were scrambling, worrying moments, weren't they? If Manafort is planning to flip on The Most Notable Loser, he's not going to tell Roger Stone, is he?

UPDATE:

Jeremy Corbyn does the unthinkable

Labour is entangled in a fresh row over Israel after it emerged that Jeremy Corbyn has refused to attend an official dinner with the the country’s prime minister this week to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, which helped to pave the way for a Jewish nation state.

The Labour leader’s snub came as Israel’s ambassador to London told The Sunday Times that those who oppose the historic declaration are “extremists” who reject Israel’s right to exist and could be viewed on a par with terrorist groups such as Hamas.

  The Times

A terrorist because he won't go to dinner to kiss Netanyahu's ass.  Who said he opposed the declaration and Israel's right to exist?  He doesn't want to dine with a monster.  He's sending foreign secretary Emily Thornberry.  Oh, wait...a woman?!  Salt in the wound.  Go, Jeremy!

The ambassador, Mark Regev, also suggested a “vocal minority” of British students and academics are still intent upon the destruction of Israel, 70 years after the country came into being.

No they're not, you slimeball. They're intent upon freeing Palestine from the illegal settlements and harsh, cruel Israeli occupation.

Israel and Trump have a lot in common.  White supremacy tendencies, privileged and constantly whining.

I'm starting to like this guy.

We're breathless

What if the leak was wrong and there is no indictment coming?

No, no.  Let's play.

I vote all of the above.  And then some.

I hope The Most Notable Loser has a sleepless night.

So THAT's it

Big Boy weighs in

“I would say the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation,” [Chris] Christie said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “No one has told him that he is. He's been cooperating fully with the special counsel's office.”

  Politico

Has anyone told him he's not?

Meanwhile, the Republican governor said on ABC that anyone charged under Mueller’s investigation shouldn’t count on a pardon from Trump.

“That’s a very important power to use,” Christie said. “And I haven't heard the president say anything like that, and I think we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. … It’s a big step.”

Hey, Chris. I don't think he's talking to you about much these days.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

For what it's worth - a poll

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that just 38 percent of Americans approve of the president's performance, his lowest rating since taking office, with 58 percent expressing disapproval.

  Politico

Accounting for the fact that Trump's base is 100% for him, and the #Resistance is 100% against him, always have been, always will be, the important information in this pollis this:

The drop has come from independent voters whose approval went from 41 percent last month to 34 percent now.

That's big.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Tweeting scared

All this twittering complaining about "Russia" talk right when the "Russia" investigation is about to announce a criminal indictment. Coincidental?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.