Topic: Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[SimonNZ]

Russians likely eavesdropped on Giulani’s calls with Trump: report
Washington Post says call logs suggest Trump and others are still using unsecure phones

"“Congress and investigators have call records that suggest certain things but have no means whatsoever of getting the actual text. . . . I guarantee the Russians have the actual information.”

Those are the words of John Sipher, the CIA’s former deputy chief of Russia operations, telling the Washington Post that Russia probably knows more about Rudy Giulani’s calls regarding Ukraine than impeachment investigators do.

The Post reported Thursday that phone logs between Giuliani and the White House switchboard suggest high-level communications on personal cellphones that were almost certainly under foreign surveillance.

Sipher told the Post that Russian intelligence likely monitors Giuliani’s calls and that through the continued use of unsecured phones, Guiliani and President Donald Trump have effectively “given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion or in the twisting of information.”

An unnamed former senior aide agreed that the Russians have likely been eavesdropping on calls between Trump and Giuliani. “It’s a bonanza for them,” he told the Post.

And it’s not just calls with the president — the Post said that Giuliani’s phone conversations with people such as Lev Parnas could be just as valuable to foreign spies, especially if he was recounting conversations he had with Trump."[...]


but.
her.
e-.
mails.

[BasilValentine]

Russians likely eavesdropped on Giulani’s calls with Trump: report
Washington Post says call logs suggest Trump and others are still using unsecure phones

"“Congress and investigators have call records that suggest certain things but have no means whatsoever of getting the actual text. . . . I guarantee the Russians have the actual information.”

Those are the words of John Sipher, the CIA’s former deputy chief of Russia operations, telling the Washington Post that Russia probably knows more about Rudy Giulani’s calls regarding Ukraine than impeachment investigators do.

The Post reported Thursday that phone logs between Giuliani and the White House switchboard suggest high-level communications on personal cellphones that were almost certainly under foreign surveillance.

Sipher told the Post that Russian intelligence likely monitors Giuliani’s calls and that through the continued use of unsecured phones, Guiliani and President Donald Trump have effectively “given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion or in the twisting of information.”

An unnamed former senior aide agreed that the Russians have likely been eavesdropping on calls between Trump and Giuliani. “It’s a bonanza for them,” he told the Post.

And it’s not just calls with the president — the Post said that Giuliani’s phone conversations with people such as Lev Parnas could be just as valuable to foreign spies, especially if he was recounting conversations he had with Trump."[...]


but.
her.
e-.
mails.

Purely academic at this point. The Russians own Trump's ass. Only idiots don't know this. The Republicans have accepted his shadow overlord because there is nothing they wouldn't sell to keep a hold on power.

[SimonNZ]

It bears repeating, though. None of Trump's misdeeds or hypocrisy should be allowed to get lost in all the noise.

meanwhile:

More than 500 legal scholars sign letter saying Trump committed 'impeachable conduct'

More than 500 legal scholars signed on to a letter published Friday accusing President Donald Trump of having "engaged in impeachable conduct" in his dealings in Ukraine.

"There is overwhelming evidence that President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government to help him distort an American election, for his personal and political benefit, at the direct expense of national security interests as determined by Congress," they wrote. "His conduct is precisely the type of threat to our democracy that the Founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution."

The letter comes after four other legal scholars testified at the first House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing Wednesday, with three of them making the case for impeaching Trump.

The dozens of academics -- hailing from a variety of educational institutions including Yale, Columbia and Rutgers -- said in the letter that they were not taking a stance on whether Trump committed a crime.
"But conduct need not be criminal to be impeachable," the group added. "The standard here is constitutional; it does not depend on what Congress has chosen to criminalize."

They pointed to treason and bribery as the two potential charges prompting impeachment "because they include conduct undertaken not in the 'faithful execution' of public office that the Constitution requires, but instead for personal gain (bribery) or to benefit a foreign enemy (treason)."

The scholars cited Trump's phone call asking the Ukrainian President for a "favor," his and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's public statements about the call, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's role pursuing Ukrainian investigations, and testimony from top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor and US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland that Trump held military aid and White House visits as incentives for Ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals.

The group highlighted impeachment as a key check against "conduct that corrupts elections."

"Corrupting elections subverts the process by which the Constitution makes the president democratically accountable," the scholars wrote. "Put simply, if a President cheats in his effort at re-election, trusting the democratic process to serve as a check through that election is no remedy at all. That is what impeachment is for."[...]

[SimonNZ]

Trump says people 'flush the toilet 10 times' and seeks solution

"Americans are in the midst of a toilet-flushing epidemic, according to the president.

Speaking to the press on Friday, with the hammer of impeachment poised to fall and countless domestic and international crises to consider, Donald Trump took on a pressing enemy: poor water pressure caused by conservation laws.

“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once. They end up using more water,” Trump said while talking with business owners about what he called ‘‘commonsense” steps to end overregulation.

The government, Trump said, was investigating: “We’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers,” he said, prompting listeners to picture him staring as hard as he could at a tap."[...]

[Daverz]

“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once.

I guess only demoncraps use plungers.

[Florestan]

Trump says people 'flush the toilet 10 times' and seeks solution

"Americans are in the midst of a toilet-flushing epidemic, according to the president.

Speaking to the press on Friday, with the hammer of impeachment poised to fall and countless domestic and international crises to consider, Donald Trump took on a pressing enemy: poor water pressure caused by conservation laws.

“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once. They end up using more water,” Trump said while talking with business owners about what he called ‘‘commonsense” steps to end overregulation.

The government, Trump said, was investigating: “We’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers,” he said, prompting listeners to picture him staring as hard as he could at a tap."[...]

Simple, common-sense solution: shit 10 times, flush only the 10th time. 

What a moron!

[Todd]

Nancy sure did get testy and wag her finger a lot.  Oh no.

[Herman]

Pelosi was right to reject the "Do you hate Trump?" question. Large parts of the media, getting tired of the issues at stake in the impeachment proceedings, are trying to cast this as a sort of junior high spat. X doesn't want Y to be the most popular girl in class, etc, supposedly because this would make it more palatable to the tv viewers. In reality though it's a GOP strategy to keep the people away from what's happening. "The hearings are so boring nobody's watching," "It's  nothingburger," "They've got nothing"  -  that kind of stuff. So that's why Pelosi reacted the way she did.

[Todd]

Pelosi was right to reject the "Do you hate Trump?" question. Large parts of the media, getting tired of the issues at stake in the impeachment proceedings, are trying to cast this as a sort of junior high spat. X doesn't want Y to be the most popular girl in class, etc, supposedly because this would make it more palatable to the tv viewers. In reality though it's a GOP strategy to keep the people away from what's happening. "The hearings are so boring nobody's watching," "It's  nothingburger," "They've got nothing"  -  that kind of stuff. So that's why Pelosi reacted the way she did.

This is what passes for thoughtful analysis on GMG.

67.

[SimonNZ]

This is what passes for thoughtful analysis on GMG.

67.

groan...

this is what passes for a clever response in Todd's mind

If you've got a different perspective then share it, otherwise would you please just fuck off

[Todd]

groan...

this is what passes for a clever response in Todd's mind

If you've got a different perspective then share it, otherwise would you please just fuck off

So much powerful writing.  Wow.  Who knew you had it in you?

[dissily Mordentroge]

Purely academic at this point. The Russians own Trump's ass. Only idiots don't know this.

Totally agree but I do wish you could avoid summoning up such nauseating imagery.
Just seeing this nausiating little Putin puppet fully clothed is enough to induce vomiting.