The Ohr-Steele Breakfast Struck A Nerve

The report that retired MI-6 dirt-dogger Steele had briefed senior FBI veteran Ohr about the infamous Steel dossier at a July 30 meeting has struck a nerve.

The NY Times has a river of leaks from the Ohr/FBI/Clinton/Comey side explaining their long time relationship. Since both were involved with probing the Russian mob, large parts of the story ring true.

However! Folks with a long memory (or for those to whom it seems like a long time) this theme of 'controversial leaks followed by exculpatory leaks' is a replay of the May 16, 2018 Times story about the genesis of "Crossfire Hurricane". Back then, when the controversy was whether the Steele dossier had fueled the Carter Page FISA warrant, we were assured that "Crossfire Hurricane" had been launched on July 31 in response to the news that George Papadopoulos had been tipped about Russian possession of emails. We can feel the drama in the lead:

WASHINGTON — Within hours of opening an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the summer of 2016, the F.B.I. dispatched a pair of agents to London on a mission so secretive that all but a handful of officials were kept in the dark.

Their assignment, which has not been previously reported, was to meet the Australian ambassador, who had evidence that one of Donald J. Trump’s advisers knew in advance about Russian election meddling. After tense deliberations between Washington and Canberra, top Australian officials broke with diplomatic protocol and allowed the ambassador, Alexander Downer, to sit for an F.B.I. interview to describe his meeting with the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos.

The agents summarized their highly unusual interview and sent word to Washington on Aug. 2, 2016, two days after the investigation was opened. Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago Thursday, became the special counsel investigation. But at the time, a small group of F.B.I. officials knew it by its code name: Crossfire Hurricane.

Deep in the story the dossier appears:

The F.B.I. bureaucracy did agents no favors. In July, a retired British spy named Christopher Steele approached a friend in the F.B.I. overseas and provided reports linking Trump campaign officials to Russia. But the documents meandered around the F.B.I. organizational chart, former officials said. Only in mid-September, congressional investigators say, did the records reach the Crossfire Hurricane team.

Mr. Steele was gathering information about Mr. Trump as a private investigator for Fusion GPS, a firm paid by Democrats. But he was also considered highly credible, having helped agents unravel complicated cases.

Hmm. So now we know that the "friend in the F.B.I. overseas" was Ohr, and that Crossfire Hurricane was launched the day after the dossier was presented. Kind of buried the lede there.

To be fair, there is no way the FBI responded exclusively to the dossier by formally opening an investigation one day later. But asking me to believe it took Ohr several weeks to tip off his colleagues? Please.

I'll settle for believing the FBI already had concerns and the dossier added to them.

Comments

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Willowed or something;

The left is like my schizophrenic son; at some level they know they're nuts but they just can't help themselves. Schizophrenics hallucinate, progs hate.
When you get right down to it, the ubiquitous prog excuse for the universal failure of socialism "it's never really been tried" is an almost perfect paraphrase of Einstein's apocryphal definition of insanity, the only difference is progs think we're evil idiots and enemies of all that is good for not expecting a different result next time, as they do.
They can be fairly cordial and normal in their personal relationships but their ideology turns everyone outside their immediate orbit into evil and/or idiotic monsters.
Our own pathetic, demented troll being an excellent case study.

[Frau Geburtstagskind]

Erste?

[Frau Geburtstagskind]

Zweite?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--I'll settle for believing the FBI already had concerns and the dossier added to them.--

Yeah, they had concerns Trump might win and so they launched a secret campaign to prevent that.

--Since both were involved with probing the Russian mob, large parts of the story ring true.--

Nothing rings true about these crooks.

[Captain Hate]

Willowed:

We know that every disparaging word was meant for Trump supporters as much as it was meant for him.

Exactly, and they're so dense that they think we don't know this.

Congratulations on that tribute from your former student. Higher praise is difficult to imagine.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

FLASHBACK: for the selective memory, whining hypocrites- This is what Barack Obama was doing the day of Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral. (He was invited.) #McCainMemorial#McCainfuneral #LaborDayWeekend pic.twitter.com/XHwk6FWV0L

— Becky Look at her Bot🌺❤🇺🇸 (@BeckysTidePods) September 1, 2018

Photo at the link.

[Kevlar Kid]

cinco?

[Captain Hate]

Sleepy Jeff dawdles along as Judicial Watch does the heavy lifting.

[Frau Geburtstagskind]

Iggy - that caught my eye, too.

The infamous Wittges was also "a friend of the FBI." Lawfare, indeed.

[Alligator Hides]

How long did it take you to accept your sons diagnosis, Ignatz?....

.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/john-mccains-funeral-was-the-biggest-resistance-meeting-yet

My guess is that as the backlash from Wellstone II mounts, this article willl be disappeared.

They are trying this morning (at least the more astute libs are trying) to pretend that because Trump's name wasn't mentioned, he wasn't criticized.

Out here in the real world, we aren't stupid. What that funeral did is demonstrate how it really is, as George Carlin said, "a big club and you ain't in it."

Huma Abedin was invited and President Trump and Sarah Palin weren't. There is a message there, and I don't like it one bit.

[Kevlar Kid]

we don't get NBC so we had Paw out in Virginia texting updates re ND-MICH. he said we looked strong. MICH "didn't come ready to play---flashes of brilliance but a lot of mental errors."

Sign of an emotionally volatile Harbaugh team. watching Harbaugh botch the Super Bowl against the Ravens, and giving Colin KipperSnack too much money for too little reason, ditching Alex Smith after treating him like a son (and getting one helluva season out of Smith)....watching Harbaugh go through all of that mess as a Niner head coach--- he left me with no other conclusion that he's a position coach who promoted himself to head coaching jobs with his jewel-in-the-crown job circling the drain.

last nite's game with ND was a must win. the entire season is all uphill now for his emotional players. just glad it's them and not the Irish--- who just went out and won the game that needed winnin'. Coach Kelly's life is just that much easier given the alumni pressure that comes from LOSING the opener, one-point underdog or not.

TouchDown Jesus is grinnin' this morning.

[Kevlar Kid]

Re-posting the hoyden link to Surber's "Trump Schadenfreude" list.... i couldn't stop laughing. it reminded me of scenes from the Stooges where somebody gets smacked in the face with a shovel. :D

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-official-trump-schadenfreude-list.html

[Catsmeat]

Thank you, CH--it does mean a lot to me.

Anything more on Huma's note-passing at the funeral, noted by Mattis and Kelly?

[Clarice Feldman]

https://www.dailywire.com/news/35353/media-totally-has-trump-now-after-aps-seventh-hand-ashe-schow

__I always like Surber. His feet are on the ground.

[art in newport]

I wonder, will history look back at this 'funeral' as the last great event of the old elite class?

As Barbara Tuchman regarded the funeral of Edward VII of the UK in 1910. It was attended by every important figure of European aristocracy, with pomp and pageantry never again seen.

[Janet 🚬]

So Dems are trying to get traction over Trump not going to a funeral he wasn't invited to?

How weird is that?

....& this from the party that bragged about its members NOT going to the inauguration of the new POTUS.

[Jim Eagle]

How appropriate that a guy who finished at the bottom of his Navy class, crashed two planes, was present at the Forrestal FUBAR, and got shot down by the NVm, planned a detailed funeral in which the Uniparty, globalist elite died from an over abundance of confidence and criticism.

Its called "unconscious serendipity".

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-revenue-generation-model-for-DuckDuckGo/answer/Gabriel-Weinberg#

This is interesting and a good reason to use Duck Duck Go.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

Catsmeat,

I haven't seen any more about Huma at the funeral, but will keep my eyes peeled. The Q people seemed to be dissecting it last night.

[Frau Rechtschreibung]

Doom

BarackObama: "What better way to get a last laugh than to make George and I(sic) say nice things about him to a national audience?

"On Friday, McCain's casket lied (sic) in state at the Capitol Rotunda." -Caitlin Cruz

[lyle]

From Clarice’s always excellent Pieces:

McCain, called “a quiet man of faith” by the media, and a lifelong Episcopalian

Figures. There isn’t any denomination more “quiet” about faith than Episcopalians. Well, maybe the Unitarians...

(Full disclosure: I was confirmed as an Episcopalian over three decades ago.)

[Frau Rechtschreibung]

KKid - Thank goodness Sister Psychosa guided your education.

[GUS]

I've been back and forth with CHI-LURKER this a.m.

He's in Milwaukee, but I'm not having a meal with him. I told him next time, it's JAKES, and I'll see to it that Henry attends, because I'll drive him.

[hoyden]

I found this pic in the PL thread.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/politicize-a-funeral-last-time-it-didnt-turn-out-well.php

[Beasts of England]

My book of etiquette is back in town, so I'm a bit uncertain about Maverick Funeral protocol. Is the conga line done on the fifth day of the festivities or the fourth? Hope I didn't miss it!!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--How long did it take you to accept your sons diagnosis, Ignatz?....--

To be accurate he is my step-son, but it took about two seconds. Since he had, among other things, previously told me, as we rode along in my pickup, what people in oncoming cars were thinking, which when he told me what it was, was not even actual words. He then interpreted that salad talk for me.
So, the official diagnosis wasn't exactly a surprise.

A more cogent question is why you so assiduously resist your own diagnosis?

[Jim Eagle]

The other USNA graduate, fighter pilot, POW, and Senator: Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton.

https://spectator.org/the-senates-unremembered-ex-pow/

Compare and contrast.

h/t Insty

[rse]

This was to be no mere laying to rest of a Washington wise man, nor just another funeral of an elder statesman whose passing would be marked by flowery words about the end of an era. It was a meeting of the Resistance, under vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows.

In what fantasy world did anyone, EVER, refer to McCain as "wise"?

Also from mm's link is the reference to DJT as "the crude interloper". When people's reaction to your funeral is to think someone needs to nuke dc while both houses are in session something is seriously wrong.

[sbwaters]

+1 Ig.

[sbwaters]

John McCain is not the only thing being buried at this funeral.

[narciso]

Yes i referenced his name, they did do a film with hal Holbrook 'when he'll was in sessions he was in charge of the anti terrorism committee, which tracked mostly those east bloc supported forces the baader the ira the Brigitte, that fickle Alabama electorate turned him out after a cycle.

[narciso]

So who is commodus in that lineup?

[Catsmeat]

The conga lines are just on high feast days, like McCain's funeral Sunday, so you may be in time, Beasts.

[narciso]

So trump is Ferris according to that tale.

[narciso]

So downer who is part of a firm connected consulting service communicated with the bureau, what am I missing.

[Kevlar Kid]

Frau:

our collective names like "Psychosa" "Canasta" "Tawny Port" "Helen Earth" "Garlic Breath" .... all reflected our boyish resentments of larger than life figures who dominated life for 9 months of the year for 8 years.

i make fun of the nuns who were my teachers for 6 out of my 8 years in Catholic elementary school. had lay teachers in 2 and 6th grades. but those were the days when even the principal was a nun and the parish had 23 nuns from newbie to retirees (from Ireland even!) living in the convent on school grounds.

their garbs, as you well know, back pre-Vatican II were incredibly dominating from a visual perspective of a kid.

but they taught the kids and directed the charitable works of the parish. the priests controlled the collection plate, drank like fish, and got invited out to dinner and seated in front of the family picture windows for all the neighbors to see. being part of a parish was a big deal.

the nuns tirelessly taught the catechism, the Palmer handwriting method (daily!), the grammar, phonics, and the excruciating sentence diagramming.

they made history class fun (4th grade on) allowing us to give stand up presentations on topics first before they'd go into the set curricular treatments of subject matter--- which was hilarious by contrast with our hamfisted bombastics.

instilled in me, anyway, that there are more than one way to look at history---even if it is a child's ludicrous conclusions about the obvious.

taught us well. they stopped using the big rulers on our knuckles by the time i was in 5th grade. but the "write repetitively" on the blackboard until our legs gave out was in full swing when i graduated. they put the sidewall chalkboard to good use....it had at least 3 students on it daily executing some penalty for crimes unbecoming.

some of it was hilarious. "i will not cross my eyes at Karen S. when she makes me mad."

they made some kids cry and they scarred a few of my lifelong buddies with their ability to scorn with sarcasm--- forecasting eternity in hell for knocking the sandwich of one of their pet students onto the gritty asphalt during lunch time.

at one point, Paw had 4 of his six kids enrolled there. one of us had already gone on to high school at "sin city" (the local public high school). Paw was forking out a husky $55 a month at the peak of our attendance.

fond memories and a near perfect handwriting and print script to this day.

education of a lifetime. :D

Kev

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, Catsmeat!

~ ~ ~

'Now when I die, don't think that I'm a nut -
Don't want no fancy funeral, just one like old King Tut!'

Buried with a donkey, indeed.

[abadman]

About Surber's "Trump Schadenfreude list.

It is fun to think about it as a list, but looking at the thousands of people in Hollywood and the MSM with Trump Derangement Syndrome, coupled with their overall lack of judgement and impulse control, the list is more a confirmation of probability than a curse.

[Thomas Collins]

The article TM quoted provides a preview of how Oligarch Media will handle any declassification of intelligence by Trump that evidences the ongoing coup. There will be rationalizations that will be accepted by about half the country. My hope is that there will be enough persuadables who will see through Oligarch Media and will tip a couple of dozen House seats and a few Senate seats away from the Ocasio (my new name for Democrat) Party.

[narciso]

Our disciplinarian father 'lefty' an old school Jesuit, who later became principal was a tough but fair man, he passed long before buddy pope Francis came on the scene.

[abadman]

sorry S/B fun to think of it as a curse

[Momto2]

Catsmeat - Loved the Castro piece and what a tribute to your teaching style and ability to see hidden potential!

Thanks for the great Pieces, Clarice! I look forward to your insights every Sunday morning.

[Porchlight]

I wonder, will history look back at this 'funeral' as the last great event of the old elite class?

If there is any justice they will, art.

Again I have to marvel at the total perfection of the spectacle. Multiple funerals, so many that even the media can't keep them straight, the parading of the casket here and there and yon, Meghan's staged grief over the casket and equally staged Trump trashing, the Bushes and Obamas and Clintons laughing it up, and the damn thing still isn't over yet.

Thank God Trump and Palin were disinvited. Talk about a badge of honor.

McCain couldn't have possibly planned it any better.

[boatbuilder]

"To be fair, there is no way the FBI responded exclusively to the dossier by formally opening an investigation one day later."

Isn't is just a wee bit possible that "the dossier" was ordered up to justify putting "the insurance policy" into effect?

And never mind the obvious--if Trump was "colluding" with the Russians George Papadopoulos would have no reason to get excited about the Russians allegedly having Hilary's e-mails.

[maryrose]

JIB:
So Frederick got to celebrate his birthday at the coach’s House

[Momto2]

"On Friday, McCain's casket lied (sic) in state at the Capitol Rotunda." -Caitlin Cruz

From her bio page:

I'm an independent journalist who specializes in reported features about women, politics, culture, and power. I also do fact-checking and copy-editing for print and digital publications.

[Frau Schmeißen Sie das schwein 'raus]

An inspiration, Catsmeat.

Those quiet successes make up for the self-promotions of the Larry Tribe, Joe Ellis and Elizabeth Warren.

[jimmyk]

Off?

[Frau Rechtschreibung]

Momto2 - double doom! An expert by her own standards. Perhaps Saint Nick will leave remedial books on sentence diagramming and grammar along with a giant lump of coal.

[GUS]

So how many of these grieving swamp creatures and FULL COMMIES, will ever go to ANNAPOLIS to vistit 894'S grave?? Same number who go to see THE SWIMMER at Arlington?

[boatbuilder]

I awoke this morning to my local rag, the Hartford Courant, top of the front page all about how the McCain funeral celebrated a man renowned for civility, bipartisanship and class, and mourning the loss of such things due entirely to Donald Trump. Then on the front of the editorial section another phony RINO proclaiming that he was a "lifelong Republican" who was leaving the party for a short and very insubstantial list of Democratic talking points, including the whopper that the economy is in great shape entirely because Barack Obama set it up for his successor (he was apparently just getting around to tax cuts and repatriation of offshore corporate cash, he just didn't have time for it during the eight years he was in office). Inside, a Bill Press op-ed (I know...) all about what a great guy John McCain was and how crude and awful Donald Trump is, including the news that Trump didn't attend McCain's funeral (no, really) without any explanation as to why, and lauding McCain for saying that "the difference between a caucus and a cactus is that on a cactus the pricks are on the outside." Pure civility and class! (Picture the MSM reaction if DJT said that.)

For some reason Paul Simon's "Love Me Like A Rock" popped into my head:
"I say now who do, who do you think you're fooling?"

[maryrose]

Catsmeat:
I was so pleased by your former student’s praise for you.
You so deserve it!
Clarice:
Wonderful “Pieces”
TC:
Great summation of the current situation.
I also hope people will see the light.Sherrod Brown still ahead in Ohio.
Will be stepping up our involvement in campaigning for Renacci.
Bela1:
Happy to see you posting!

[maryrose]

Boatbuilder:
Agree with your analysis.

[Kevlar Kid]

i hear you on that, narc. there were some legendary Jesuit faculty at area boys high schools here in the Bay Area. they ran some pretty effective academic programs. like any human organization, the higher up you go the worse it gets. the St Peter Principle? :D

at one point, Maw and Paw were considering boarding me out for high school at one or the other. i threatened to run away if they decided that.

so the compromise was i'd agree to go to a commuter all-boy high school in the area. the one i chose was all-boy when i was in 7th grade. but in the middle of 8th grade it went co-ed. dodged a bullet! by then it was all about the chicas.

Kev

[Frau Beerdigungsblamagen]

Skimming the McCain funeral rally, I noticed Bent Willie chewing gum big time and then saw that Dubya had parked his gum in front of a tooth.

Latest funeral etiquette? gum chewing, note passing, cheering, personal tirades...and now reported "talking" caskets...

[GUS]

Boat, they are just posturing themselves as MODERATE GROWNUPS. It's comical. The FULL COMMIE in LEAGUE with the GOPe. All loved the MAVERICK, except when they hated to vote for him. He was racist, until he became AMERICA'S CONSCIENCE.

We're not buying it.

[Momto2]

Things you would never know without the internet:

"Kuwaiti police has shut down a fish store that was sticking googly eyes on fish to make them appear more fresh than they are."
(photo at link)

https://twitter.com/eldahshan/status/1035929578626318336

[Marlene]

Good afternoon! We didn't see any news all week and I guess we didn't miss much. I listened to about five minutes of the funeral in the car while doing errands yesterday. I also saw the picture of Bill the perv drooling over Arianna Grande. I read somewhere that Hillary had to have help getting up the stairs at the National Cathedral. Has anyone seen a picture?

[narciso]

Now the whopper in this tale is that they were trying to get deripaska to flip on the big bad, no not put in, the head of the bratva, the villain in mcmafia, good luck on that.

[Catsmeat]

Thanks Mom2Mom, Frau, maryrose, and all the others!

[Jim Eagle]

maryrose,

Yes, he spent his birthday practicing all day, dinner with the team, and watching Bama v. Louisville.

[maryrose]

The day after McCain won the Republican nomination the New York Times had a false article about McCain having an affair with a blonde woman who was an assistant reporter, thus smearing two people at once.
I have not read the NYT since 9/11.
Then I was reading the tributes to those who had perished.

[Captain Hate]

Latest funeral etiquette? gum chewing, note passing, cheering, personal tirades...and now reported "talking" caskets...

The "elites" are all trash.

More classic rock complaints: they can do a disco demolition on all Zeppelin recordings at any time. At some point I get tired of almost anything (see Kind of Blue, about which I've told the jazz Stasi to piss off). I was in radio hell as Stairway to Heaven was on one station and Ramble On the other. I even retreated to homo show tunes for relief before scurrying back almost immediately.

Thank God Van Halen's Beautiful Girl came on to cleanse the auditory palate. Speaking of which, what's everybody's favorite Van Halen song and album? I was late to the dance on those guys but Eddie's guitar playing overcame the excesses of Roth.

[Miss Marple (the real one)]

When CNN believe the McCain Hatefest would hurt Trump, CNN's Ana Navarro could hardly contain herself.

Now that CNN has figured out the Hatefest blowback is real, CNN's Ryan Lizza is standing in front of an elephant and asking "What elephant?"#ThisIsCNN pic.twitter.com/WRdP0lIn4R

— 'Sources Say' is Greek for 'Fake News' (@NolteNC) September 2, 2018

Screen caps at the link.

[maryrose]

Catsmeat:
I will say it again.
I wish I could take a course from you.
I know I would learn so much!
I read Portrait and Adam Bede as a junior in high school.Lord Jim and A Passage to India were difficult to get through.
We also read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
The Mill on the Floss was senior year.

[Momto2]

Marlene - here she is being helped up the stairs (at around :40)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7fUdM-v4J8

Bill was drooling but what about the Bishop?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QXNh2HeYbQ

[Clarice Feldman]

Maybe we can get catsmeat to do an online course..Of course, now that I learned her house is immaculate, I'm not sure I want to have anything to do with her. (joking).

[DebinGA]

3 Van Halens in hubs phone: Jump, Dance the Night Away, and You Really Got me

[hoyden]

The DC Elite can give themselves a big pat on the back for putting on a cargo cult funeral serving up the appearance of honor and solemnity while delivering neither. They can enlist military personnel performing their duties with pride while they, the attendees, and media degrade the whole overdone event.

[Captain Hate]

I thought Uncle Tom's Cabin was terribly written and didn't make it through the second chapter.

[maryrose]

Clarice:
What a terrific idea!
Just tell me what books to read along with some discussion questions and I am good to go!

[maryrose]

Captain:
I skimmed a lot of it but we were tested on it so I had to reach the end.

[Kevlar Kid]

CH:

i don't have a favorite Van Halen tune but there is one a like "Jamie's Cryin" (i don't know if that's the tune.) Tree Sloth wasn't so out in front as it's an earlier one of their tunes.(?)

At any rate, i came to like the tune even more when Tone Loc appropriated the big riff from that tune and pasted it into his "Funk Cold Medina" chart buster.

Cha

[Clarice Feldman]

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/403692-the-enigmatic-case-of-carter-page

[Frau Beerdigungsblamagen]

I know it's beating a dead horse, but Hillary!'s appearance gets worse and worse. Who is dressing her, some idiot at the sheltered care unit where she is warehoused?

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/mccain.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1

btw - The goracle looks catatonic and Dubya is joking with his neighbor (Shellie Obama?)

[maryrose]

I remember setting my alarm for 4:30 to finish it and fell asleep again reading it.

[Captain Hate]

Deb,

Is You Really Got Me a live recording?

[Kevlar Kid]

sorry about that. none of my obvious edits took hold on that post about "FUNKY COLD MEDINA" sheesh.

[Marlene]

Thanks Momto2! It was at Aretha's funeral,I'm getting my funerals confused. :) I see Hillary was wearing a tent coat.

[Momto2]

Wouldn't it be great fun if we could have a book club? I'll bring appetizers and a bottle of wine!

[Captain Hate]

Who is dressing her

I know she listens to The Omen for fashion tips like letting that fright wig grow long during her Secretary of State International Happy Hour tour; that worked well. The miserly harridan has enough grifted jack to pay someone to keep her looking presentable but she chooses MOAR BOOZE!

[Frau Beerdigungsblamagen]

Momto2 - It's hard for me to participate in organized groups. That's why I come to JOM. heh

[Marlene]

I listen to classic vinyl on Sirius in the car and always change the channel when I hear Queen or The Who. I'm loving the Beatles Channel. :)

[GUS]

It's the STAR WARS BAR SCENE. All the fake people lovin' each other. Maryrose, did the NEW YORK TIMES who now LOVES McCAIN, apologize for saying that he was having an affair???

[DebinGA]

CH, if you skip ahead a bit, it seems to be live

[Arrogance is a false confidence]

In their telling, she used gun rights — Ms. Butina had started a pro-gun group in Russia — to gain a toehold in American conservative circles, and then struck up a romance with a far older Republican operative to open doors further. She has denied the allegations.

Ms. Butina’s efforts to deal in Russian jet fuel, detailed in hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails, were notable not just for their whiff of foreign intrigue but for who they involved: David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association and a prominent leader of the conservative movement, who has advised Republican candidates from Ronald Reagan to Mitt Romney. They also involved Mr. Keene’s wife, Donna, a well-connected Washington lobbyist, and Ms. Butina’s boyfriend, Paul Erickson, who ran Patrick J. Buchanan’s 1992 presidential campaign and who moved in rarefied conservative circles despite allegations of fraud in three states.

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Their attempt to secure the fuel deal illustrates a reality that investigators have had to navigate in bringing a federal case against Ms. Butina. During her time in the United States, she surrounded herself not only with high-profile American conservatives but also with dubious characters who seemed bent on making a fast buck — and it was not always easy to tell one from the other.

In the emails, and in interviews with people involved in the fuel negotiations, Ms. Butina seems as naïve as she is cunning. She had no experience in the oil business, yet jumped into a scheme that hinged entirely on her securing a supply of huge amounts of jet fuel — nearly double what all of Russia’s refineries export in a month..

[Arrogance is a false confidence]

Schizophrenia is yet another reality subset Monomaniacs have not experienced. Ignatz.

It's too complex for Trumpkin minds.

[jimmyk]

Just saw that tribute to Catsmeat--wonderful!

I think I read Uncle Tom's Cabin for an American history class. No pretense that it was great literature, just of historical interest, and ripped through it without much problem.

[Frau Beerdigungsblamagen]

CH - Huma used to have Hillary's *ear* so where is she today? Was the note in the cathedral destined for that front row?

[Catsmeat]

CH, maryrose, Uncle Tom's Cabin is indeed badly written--I don't think there's any question and even Stowe scholars don't make claims for her as a stylist. The book was an international bestseller but that doesn't tell you anything--it was just the right book for the right time. The Spanish tried to ban it because of their West Indies possessions, but it was a bestseller in Madrid too. What does it (very sadly) say about our own times when The Da Vinci Code goes platinum, as it were?

[Davod]

At least the Da Vinci Code exposed Opus Dei (Pun),

[Kevlar Kid]

Why it's okay to despise John McCain the war-hero Senator:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/

[Frau Beerdigungsblamagen]

Watch your step and SOB -

Someone uploaded carp on the Hemorrhoid.

[DebinGA]

Hubs phone has Queen's "We are the Champions" and The Who's "Pinball Wizard" and Squeeze Box"

[Eye Doctor .]

NEVER FORGET: Dirty Cop Mueller Gave Tony Podesta Immunity to Testify Against Manafort After Committing Same Exact Crime
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/08/never-forget-dirty-cop-mueller-gave-tony-podesta-immunity-to-testify-against-manafort-after-committing-same-exact-crime/

[henry]

Huma have a sudden need for cash for lawyers? That laptop is getting talked about.

[Kevlar Kid]

Queen isn't for me. Whenever a national sports championship game concludes and the venue gods put on the absurd "we are the champions" tune, i want to hurl. the mere sight of Freddy "Mercury" makes me want to hurl. But that's just me.

As for The Who, the tunes i like immensely (because they are straightforward and not overthunk or self-absorbed) are 1) Baba O'Reilly; 2) Machine Gun (!!!!); and, 3) Behind Blue Eyes.

That's all.

PS: i have really been enjoying this music subthread--- we like what we like and that's okie doke!

[Captain Hate]

CH, if you skip ahead a bit, it seems to be live

Thanks. There's a live version I've heard on the radio with a really long guitar intro that I stayed in the car a long time to listen to that I haven't been able to find on Spotify or YouTube. That wasn't it but I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

[Marlene]

I hope you all realize that with the Aretha and McCain funeral hoopla,the 21st anniversary of Princess Diana's death (31st) seems to have been forgotten! :)