You know, there’s a reason that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence decided to issue their most recent report late in the day on July 3rd, on the eve of a national holiday. The committee is controlled by Republicans and chaired by Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, but the report contained nothing but bad news for the Republican president. If they felt compelled to issue a truthful report, they felt no similar obligation to make sure that it reached the broadest possible audience. They went for the smallest possible audience, and it seems to have worked very well considering that it isn’t among the top stories in the news today.
The committee found that Russia did indeed intervene in the election with the express purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy or potential presidency and of helping Donald Trump win. They found that the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that was released in January 2017 was based on solid information and defensible analytical assumptions. They found that Russia did in fact penetrate multiple state and local electoral boards and they reported that their subsequent investigation had unearthed further evidence of this. They noted the ICA’s previous reporting in Russian troll farms and announced “the Committee’s investigation has exposed a far more extensive Russian effort to manipulate social media outlets to sow discord and to interfere in the 2016 election and American society.” They agreed that all of this was personally ordered by Vladimir Putin.
As for the Steele Dossier, the committee found that it did not improperly influence the findings of the ICA report:
The FBI had a collection of reports a former foreign intelligence officer was hired to compile as opposition research for the U.S. election, referred to as the “dossier,” when the ICA was drafted. However, those reports remained separate from the conclusions of the ICA. All individuals the Committee interviewed verified that the dossier did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA- including the key findings – because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting.
To sum up, the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee believes that Russia aggressively intervened in the 2016 presidential election with the express purpose of helping Trump win, that Putin ordered this, that the Intelligence Community was correct in reporting these facts and that the Steele Dossier played no important or improper role in their conclusions.
All of that is contrary to both what the president and his allies have been saying. All of it.
Now, you know what else happened on July 3rd? This happened:
Republican members of Congress sounded a newly conciliatory tone in meetings with Russian lawmakers and officials here on Tuesday in a rare visit to Moscow and a preview of the looming summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) told Russia’s foreign minister that while Russia and the United States were competitors, “we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.” Later on at the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, members attending a plenary session greeted the Americans with applause.
“I’m not here today to accuse Russia of this or that or so forth,” Shelby told Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. “I’m saying that we should all strive for a better relationship.”
The Republicans’ meetings in Moscow — coming after the lawmakers visited St. Petersburg and took in the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” — helped set the tone for the July 16 Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki.
Does that seem right to you? Does any of that seem right?
In addition to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the delegation included Republican Conference Chairman John Thune of South Dakota, Homeland Security chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, and John Hoeven of North Dakota. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas was also in attendance.
Interestingly, none of these people serve on the Intelligence Committee, but most of them represent states that are highly dependent on fossil fuels.
If nothing else, they were showing their approval of an upcoming Helsinki summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump which is set to occur in the context of a major investigation into whether Trump and Putin acted in concert during the 2016 election. And if that isn’t sketchy enough, how is this for inappropriate?
President Trump “plans to meet one-on-one with Vladimir Putin at the start of their July 16 summit in Helsinki, Finland… before allowing other aides to join the highly anticipated encounter with the Russian leader,” CNNreports.
“Without official note-takers or other witnesses, one-on-one meetings lack any official record, making it difficult afterward to determine whether agreements have been reached.”
How is that okay?
I’m glad the Senate Intelligence Committee is trying to do their job, especially when contrasted with Devin Nunes’s effort in the House, but they still protected the president as much as possible by issuing the report when it was receive the least amount of attention and readership. And their colleagues were hardly acting like the findings of the committee matter to them. They were in Moscow attending Sleeping Beauty.
Somehow, that seems like a disturbing apt choice of entertainment.
Yeah, sure, it’s unsavory, but the alternative was a warmonger in the White House and a cabinet full of corrupt banksters and corporate bigwigs.
That fate at least we were spared.
Sometimes your habititual snark position veers very closely to reality.
Y’oughta watch yourself.
Really.
You might get a bad reputation amongst your fans here.
AG
Please, the FSB will be recording EVERY SINGLE second of that 1 on 1, if not for black mail value, then for the laughs at the next Christmas Party.
Sometime last week I said that no matter what Mueller does and what he proves, Trump simply will not be impeached.
I did hear a very very brief report on this on the radio either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Most of the rest of the news was either about July 4 stuff and/or there was some mention of Trump meeting privately with Putin but that’s all that was said: Trump will meet privately with Putin.
As if: it’s a done deal, so STFU.
For whatever reasons – and I’m sure there’s many out there – the so-called PTB are pretty much all falling in line behind Trump and whatever it is that he and his corrupt Admin are doing. I guess enough pockets are being lined, so hey: Why Not?
The 400 richest families in the USA could really give one iota of a shit for this country. They are certainly NOT at all patriotic (whatever that debased word means anymore), nor is Trump, nor are any of the Republicans, and frankly nor are many Democrats.
We are well and truly on our own. Good luck to one and all.
–dylan, paraphrasing somebody famous I’m too lazy to look up right now.
Certainly apt description of the BRP* m.o. going back several decades now.
*Banana Republican Party
Samuel Johnson (per Boswell): “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
How is this not illegal, treasonous, imprisonable action? And the meetings were private, no transcripts or records by American sources?
This should be headlined on every front page. American Senators on our Fourth of July, conspiring with Putin and Russian government officials. It infuriates me and confirms that anything goes with the Trump Administration.
Will voting count come November?
It’s like the old US-UK special relationship, just for white ethnonationalist kleptocrats.
Awwww, there you go again!!!
You simply must tune up your snarkometer, Davis X Machina.
It ain’t funny when it’s true.
AG
Because it’s the foreigners who committed the illegal acts. Going to serve a warrant in Russia or Ukraine?
Sure Trump’s people committed crimes, but they were stupid crimes like failing to register as a foreign lobbyist or lying to the FBI. They’ll be tried for that but there was no smoking gun in the report. As always the cover up was worse than the crime. The crime was foreign business (not the Russian government) buying political ads. Nothing like assassinating the elected leader of Chile or South Vietnam like those dastardly Russians did.
And if as Booman thinks, the rats squeal on Trump, his lawyers will point out that his accusers are serial liars. There will be no impeachment. The Democratic Party needs to sit down and ask why they lost the midwest and white workingmen generally. The answer isn’t Russia or Facebook ads.
Russian business with ties to the Russian government! How many US businesses have ties to the US government? Not even a ham sandwich here. Which is why, despite the breathless TV reporters, the public has just ignored this. Except for Centrist DNC supporters like here and at DailyKos.
I don’t doubt that Russia, Facebook ads, etc. had an effect. But they fell on fertile ground. In addition, the Republican Party has been hard at work for decades on disenfranchisement of likely Democratic voters.
Add to that a lackluster candidate who represented the past (and still hadn’t learned from her primary run against Obama how to run a national campaign) when it was obviously a “change” election, and you don’t have to go too far to figure what happened
Let’s not forget that Bernie won both the Michigan and Wisconsin primaries. Friends in both those states were expressing concern all fall at her failure to go the the small towns and rural areas. As I’ve said here several times before, the Clintons blew off Colorado, and she was lucky to win it. She lost my rural county which Obama had won. We have a new state party chair for the Democratic Party who’s determined to draw in all parts of the state, including the much neglected Hispanic populations. Let’s hope it works.
You’re wrong. It is not just foreigners who committed the illegal acts, there will be lots of smoking guns (we already have them in my opinion but it will be confirmed beyond reasonable doubt), and if you actually were following the evidence you would know this.
Read some Marcy Wheeler before ignorantly spouting off about something you previously relegated to “sour grapes” of the Clinton campaign and analogous to birtherism. As she says:
Are you a patriot or a traitor to fascism?
It is just completely baffling to me that someone who hates Clinton as much as Voice does over her corruption (Clinton Foundation!) would be outright apologetic with evidence of actual and literal quid pro quos between Russia, Israel, UAE, KSA, and the president of the United States and his family.
“Are you a patriot or a traitor to fascism?”
Y’mean…those are the only two possibilities?
Gee.
That sounds very McCarthy-ish.
Like dat, only updated to parrot the mass media.
Nice.
AG
The only McCarthyites are those who stand by the McCarthyite in office who targets his political opponents and his enemies with the full force of state power.
Here’s Arthur as fascists took over Europe:
What a ridiculous answer!!!
Lost in the ozone.
Grow up.
AG
P.S. A group…perhaps better, a cadre…of people on this site have tried everything in their power to discourage criticism of the Democratic Party as it stands today. They automatically downrate such posts and have endlessly attacked several posters as liars, pro-Trump trolls and/or spreaders of Russian propaganda. When effectively rebutted, they simply ignore the rebuttal and repeat the same attacks. This tactic is intended to exhaust the patience of the attacked posters and discourage others from reading or posting similar material. It has worked on a few posters, who have simply given up. It has not worked on me. I initially answered their attacks with attempts at reason. After realizing that this was a total waste of time, I simply stopped replying to them. My comments and articles on this site are my replies. Read what I have to say; consider what they have to say and how it is said, and then make up your own minds. Thank you-AG
link
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*P.S. I am going to add the following statement to many of my replies to your “standalone articles” (LOL!) and comments…for the benefit of new readers here. It applies to the comment that replies to as well:
*[ref.]
You write elsewhere:
Unbelievable!!!
Where have you been for the last 50+ years, nalbar? In a bunker, watching old John Wayne war movies???
A more accurate reissue of the above diatribe might be:
The major wars, less major wars and covert operations in support of other wars in which the U.S. has been involved since the Korean War have all been based on one idea and one idea only…continuing the military and economic hegemony of the U.S. and its NATO allies over as much of the planet as possible.
End of story.
I have sometimes thought that you might be a bot, nalbar, but stupidity on this level proves that you are human. Even a bot would know better than to spew that sort of arrant nonsense.
AG
P.S. My father and mother left the U.S. in 1938 to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. My father flew Spitfires in the battle of Britain and my mother was a radar operator. Once the U.S. joined that war, my father became a U.S. Navy pilot in the Pacific theater. I loved them dearly. I refused to be drafted in the Viet Nam War because I thought it was an immoral action on the highest level. They agreed. If it had been being waged against a power like Nazi Germany, I would have volunteered.
If we ever meet? Be sure to keep your mouth closed. You be bettah off. Bet on it.
Read this from Rawstory.
It’s an article by a legal analyst doing a timeline of the Trump campaigns visits to foreign countries. All countries that want sanctions of Russia removed. Read it.
We are completely compromised by the Russians.
.
Tweet thread on this by Seth Abramson is 60 tweets long …
Seth Abramson
Sorry, should have followed your link before posting a duplicate.
. . . besides describing how and why she went to the FBI with the information mentioned, she also details quite rational concerns for her own safety as a result of doing so. (This is another case where cliché applies: you should just go read the whole thing.)
This ain’t some theoretical debate in smoking jackets and armchairs at the club.
But, yeah, of course voice declares “the report” had no smoking guns, even as the real “the report” — the one that matters — has yet to see the light of day.
The one little theory that explains all the Russian love displayed by the Republicans now is that the contents of the RNC servers that the Russians hacked must contain a TON of career ending, or party destroying information.
When they hacked the DNC and RNC servers, they must have thought, – ‘we got some embarrassing stuff from the DNC, but, from the RNC we got enough stuff to OWN them.’ And who would know what was on the RNC servers ? The folks whose sent or received copies. So the R’s know, and the R’s know.
Just speculation, but still ……
There’s a community of interest that the Russians have with a non-trivial slice of the GOP that would make some of the GOP self-compromising.
You don’t have to lean on kindred spirits, not very hard at least.
As other commenters have pointed out the Republicans have sold their party, their souls, and their country out for the cold hard cash they worship. Even the NRA is in the tank to the Russians.
It’s Red Dawn except the faux `right wing patriots’ are quislings for cash.
Of course, the Democrats in their wizened ways are just hoping against hope that the voters will connect some of these dots before some elections sometime, but who knows really?
Think of how much airtime the Republicans got over Obama’s missing flag lapel pin or not crossing his heart. Think a Democrat could take a page out of the Republican playbook just for the sake of patriotism to save our democracy? Not holding my breath.
This is a room service scandal. If the Democrats called down to the hotel kitchen and ordered `I need a political party to run against that appeases our most dangerous rival on a daily basis, meets with the grand spymaster in secret and alone, works every day to destroy our national security alliances, and elevates international criminality at the highest levels.’
And it’s been delivered.
Is there a Democratic bootcamp where all these folks go where they are told to never go on offense, never press your advantage when you have it. And if you do win, make sure you appoint Republicans to the Daddy jobs at least 75% of the time.
It seemed like they were getting better for awhile. But I guess we just have to face the cold hard facts. Democratic politicians really don’t have the stomach for the fight
Didn’t JFK meet with Khrushchev alone in Vienna?
Thank you for reminding us of that meeting. I was still in college! The Wikipedia article is informative and quotes Kennedy as later believing it was a complete failure. I didn’t comb it all that carefully, but I didn’t see anything about them meeting alone. But he did misjudge Krushchev’s abilities and intentions according to various sources, including Kennedy himself.
From the article: Kennedy later said of Khrushchev, “He beat the hell out of me” and told New York Times reporter James `Scotty’ Reston it was the “worst thing in my life. He savaged me.”
Seems to me that it has to be more than money.
“Of course, the Democrats in their wizened ways are just hoping against hope that the voters will connect some of these dots before some elections sometime, but who knows really?”
And I am hoping against hope that they realize they need to do more than hope voters connect the dots, and start talking more about this publicly in ways that will help voters see the dots so they can have a shot at connecting them.
The media went wild over the nonsense flag lapel pin thing. Its cliched now, but just imagine if that were democratic senators going to Russia on July 4th, and Obama planning a private sit down with Putin. It wouldn’t have mattered that the report was released late on 7/3, the media would have blasted that news out in breathless tones, through every network, airwave and channel.
“Democratic politicians really don’t have the stomach for the fight.”
Not the ones in power now.
But soon.
We Need A New Party. A New DEMOCRATIC Party. And…IT’S ON ITS WAY!!!
How soon?
I wish I knew.
Soon enough to save us?
Let us pray.
AG
What do they have to worry about? This is America we never look back we just look forward, even if they are caught red handed nothing will happen….
We only look back when it serves us.
Heroics in WW II, even though we had many dreadful blindspots (rejection of refugees, for example). Many to the Civil War.
Haha, meeting with Lavrov on July 4th while their colleagues release a report definitively describing Putin’s efforts to ratfuck the election for Repubs. What, they couldn’t order Mad Dog Mattis to attend as well? I think we can kiss the theory of “optics” goodbye!
Repub poohbahs obviously feel they have inoculated the tribe members to accept anything at this point. And based on the ho-hum reporting of the useless corporate TV news, they are correct.
“We are now at war with Oceania!” Like the leaders and denizens of Orwell’s “1984”, their motivation hardly matters…
Republican Congressional delegation meeting with the Russians in Russia this week is the fulfillment of the expression: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They like the authoritarian Putin because Putin hates the Democrats.
The GOP: it’s always party over country.