Itâs always important to remember that Vnesheconombank has deep ties to Rosneft which has deep ties to Rex Tillerson who has known ties to Vladimir Putin âŚ
Always follow the money.
Seems like just yesterday the Trump campaign was denying any contacts or connections with Russia. How quaint.
Trump told reporters, âI have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.â Jan 16, 2017
I hear Guantanamo Bay is lovely this time of year.
So now we have contacts going as far back as April, and continuing through out the campaign.
The April date in particular is going to be troublesome, because now we are months before the June time frame when things started heating up everywhere elseâŚand we are also before Trump won the nomination.
Which of course raises the questionâŚWas Russia putting their fingers on the scale for Trump against other republicans? I wonder how THAT is going to playâŚ
Iâm not sure where I read this, but one hypothesis is that all these leaks are designed to inoculate Trump against blackmail----if there are no secrets, there is no blackmail. All these leaks may hurt a criminal case, potentially, so finding another reason makes sense.
Of course he f***ing did.
Oh boy. RealDJT is back. Iâm guessing the team of lawyers isnât vetting tweets yet.
OhâŚand one other thing.
This makes, by my count, including the secret meeting to discuss back channels, 4 additional conversations that Kushner lied about on his AMENDED security clearance formâŚamended because he lied about having any conversations with Russians.
How many mulligans do you get when applying for security clearance? I always thought it was supposed to be zero.
Yeah, that falls into the same category as Kinsleyâs op-ed this morning in the NYT. (Big surprise there), basically urging everyone in the media to say nice things about Trump. Because, while yeah sure, his actual tweets are very bad, but isnât having the President tweeting a good thing from a meta perspective? Innovative?
Basically, âyeah sure, we are lying about everything and up to our ears in cover up, but its a good thing that its coming out anyway, because now I canât be blackmailedâ
Or as the fox grumbled while walking away âI didnât want those grapes anyway, they were probably sourâ
âIn the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.â
- John F. Kennedy
He always wants to pretend that he holds all the cards, even though he doesnât. His decision may well actually depend upon how he feels about being âownedâ by Macron in the hand-shaking contest and Macronâs previous spurning him for Angela Merkel. Heâs a petty man ruled by his need for petty revenges. My bet- he takes us out of the Accords.
In his capacity as CEO of Exxon-Mobil,Tillerson had people shuttling in and out of Russian on an almost hourly basis. If someone wanted to set up a back-channel system for non-nefarious purposes, I would think that they would have or could have used something like Tillersonâs business channels, even though he had stepped down from Exxon. Perhaps Kushner moved too quickly, not anticipating Tillersonâs role in the government, *orhis purposes *werenefarious. Just thinking out loud, trying to wrap my brain around this crazy bit of news, wondering whose side various people are on.
Until he releases his taxes he can always be blackmailed. Anyone he owes money to has the ability at any time to make his debt to them public, which would likely raise a hundred more questions about his nefarious dealings.
So have we all stocked up on popcorn, beverage of your choice, and now most of all aspirin?
And you know who I feel sorry for? I feel for all those mystery writers of spy novels. Theyâre never going to compete with the news. 
The Senate Intel committee should have his taxes quite soon, right?
Sadly The Onion has it twenty times worse.
Supposedly. But that doesnât mean they would be released publicly.
Yeah, if it were a House committee, leaking would be guaranteed.
Sadly this badminstration will kill off parody, satire, and good beach reads. So why defund the Arts and Humanities?