March 20 Open Thread: “If This Is True, It’s Treason”

Filed in National by on March 20, 2018

That’s what Joe Biden said when, two months after the election, “all the pieces came together” for the Obama White House, according to a new book, “Russian Roulette,” reviewed at The Guardian.

The folks at Cambridge Analytica apparently don’t believe in their ability to sway elections by legal means, so they also rely on prostitutes, bribes and spies as well — in short, kompromat.

Mark Zuckerberg has his tits caught in a wringer over this, too, as it’s thrown light on Facebook’s policy of letting outside developers (like CA) have data not just on users but their friends, who did not give express permission to allow it. This violates the law in some states, and the company’s policy of it’s better not to know what those developers do with the data, taken for its supposed legal protection, didn’t stop Facebook’s stock from falling 7% yesterday.

As mediawatch noted yesterday, Trump’s new lawyer is none other than Wilmington-born and bred Joe diGenova, who rose to fame along with his wife, Victoria Toensing, harassing Bill Clinton back during the blue-dress follies. I’ve never seen a grain of evidence that he’s a good lawyer, but he and his wife are unsurpassed at self-promotion, which explains how Trump found him.

Here’s a trick diGenova’s former client, Tom Gordon, used to pull all the time: Using sockpuppets to praise him. Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, who’s running to replace Sen. John McCain, was caught praising her own video on her Facebook page. This is the analog version of Russian troll farming.

At WDEL, my former colleague Allan Loudell describes the controversy over the firing of Padua Academy principal Cindy Mann as another self-inflicted wound for the Diocese of Wilmington. If your teenager had as many self-inflicted wounds as the Diocese of Wilmington you’d diagnose her as a cutter.

About the Author ()

Who wants to know?

Comments (37)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Paul says:

    I received a text this morning that an assault weapon ban bill is set to be launched in the Del Senate

  2. Got the same text. Kinda honoring an embargo.

  3. Mike Dinsmore says:

    Hi, Alby,

    Grammar police here…

    In paragraph four: …who, along with his wife, Victoria Toensing, rose to fame harassing Bill Clinton…

    Makes more sense.

    Also, here’s another editorial from your favorite “Daily Record” columnist:

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-humourless-12204250

    Enjoy!

  4. Alby says:

    Thanks, Mike. Fixed it.

  5. Paul says:

    Then please delete my comment.

  6. Alby says:

    @Paul: You aren’t subject to the embargo, El Som is. Thanks for the heads up.

  7. Alby says:

    Trigger warning: Misogynistic comment ahead.

    Kirsten Gillibrand is a sneaky liar. She was at it again this morning, releasing a statement condemning the GOP leadership for “stripping” sexual harassment language from its omnibus spending bill.

    Except they didn’t. She proposed it, but the language was never actually in the bill. This seems like a hair-splitting detail, but it’s telling. Instead of the story being “GOP ignores Gillibrand” she’s trying to make it “GOP attacks Gillibrand.”

    There is a Clintonian dishonesty about her that lots of people have figured out. Regardless, I predict she will attract a cult of personality for her presidential bid based on her feminist bona fides.

  8. jason330 says:

    I need to get off Facebook once and for all.

  9. puck says:

    “Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented.”

    Julian Assange, 2011

  10. jason330 says:

    By the way. Typical Biden. Like Iraq. He can see the train wreck befor it happens, but never speaks up.

  11. mouse says:

    I’ve been thinking of starting a 12 step business for Facebook addiction

  12. puck says:

    Don’t worry, if Gillibrand runs for President she can always count on the women and POC firewall to assure election.

  13. jason330 says:

    What could possibly go wrong?

  14. Paul says:

    Does Gillibrand actually think she inherits the feminist political endorsement, or that of anyone else, for getting rid of Al Franken, who is worth at least 3 Gillibrands?

  15. puck says:

    Ben Carson throws his wife under the bus for furniture scandal:

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/379319-ben-carson-wife-blame-31K-dining-set

  16. jason330 says:

    Meanwhile, unknown to the DCCC, people got together searching for more from the Democratic Party.

    Back in January, a million people tuned in to Bernie Sanders’ town hall on universal health-care; yesterday, 1.7 million people tuned in to watch Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Moore, and a panel of experts discuss inequality.

    It was 90 minutes of wonkish, measured expert discussion of substantive matters of economics and policy, with special emphasis on the racial dimension of structural poverty, in webcast form, and it drew nearly 2 million viewers.

  17. RE Vanella says:

    Do those 1.7 million people know Bernie is not even a Democrat?

    And I’m very disappointed in Darrick Hamilton. A famous black scholar on economics and urban policy sharing the dais with a known racist.

    These people should be out complaining about Trump and Russia and Stormy Daniels! I bet Bernie wore an expensive jacket. At least $300 I’m sure.

    Unreal, not pragmatic.

  18. Alby says:

    I suspect the Russia thing runs deeper than most realize. The connections between Russians and the NRA and that group’s money funnel do not stop at Trump. The Tennessean in Nashville has a story headlined “Nashville lawyer who introduced Russian operative to the NRA has ties to Blackburn.”

    American politicians of both parties have been playing Footsie for Petrodollars with anti-Russian Ukrainians going back to at least the W Bush years, which Putin took as a threat (probably rightly so). He bought Rohrabacher well before Trump started running, and I’m starting to suspect he’s been buying up RWNJs through the NRA since then, too. There are too many of them for all of them to be dupes.

    I dunno, I consider all this pretty serious. I understand that American elections are for sale, but I think the buyers should be Americans.

  19. mouse says:

    As soon as 45 is removed from office we need to bring back the un-American activities committee and round up every POS talk radio educated 45 supporter in the nation. These people need to be embarrassed and humiliated for the sake of history

  20. puck says:

    As soon as 45 is removed a POS talk radio host will be 46.

  21. spktruth says:

    Off topic but didn’t no where to put it. Last night on Hannity, they claimed Biden went to China and took Hunter along…2 to 3 wks later Hunter gets over a billion in some kind of loan. What the hell is going on in this country…the elites regardless of party are robbing we the people on a daily basis…just like other banana republics.

  22. puck says:

    “Last night on Hannity…”

    You can stop right there. Go find some reliable source and try again.

  23. RE Vanella says:

    The job guarantee could end up being a key issue in Democratic some primaries this year. Kerri Evelyn Harris, a Democratic candidate running against incumbent Tom Carper for Senate in Delaware, said “It is time to offer American citizens guaranteed, quality jobs, with growth potential in the government sector.” She added that, “There are an array of areas that could use additional workers, from infrastructure to social work. A guaranteed jobs program would not only help inject hope back into communities which have broken spirits due to decades of dismal job opportunities, but it will also help pump money into the economy by way of purchases by the newly and adequately employed.”

    https://www.thenation.com/article/why-democrats-should-embrace-a-federal-jobs-guarantee/

  24. mouse says:

    Last night on Hannity..Is there a punchline ? lol

  25. Dave says:

    “but I think the buyers should be Americans.”

    LOL. Yeah! I guess they thought the Buy American Act meant “Buy An American Act.” They need better translators. Syntax errors really trip them up!

  26. mouse says:

    It’s insane that we allow the 1% to take jobs over seas, use robots and abuse immigrants to have ever more. Anyone wanting a job should be able to be placed in one. The whole economy needs to be revamped away from these psychopaths. One day one of these workers is going to employ a 2nd amendment solution against these maggots who steal the economy

  27. spktruth says:

    If you had bothered to google it..you would find a book written about it. Dont you remember when Hunter was “stationed” in the Ukraine?

  28. Alby says:

    @spktrth: You’ll notice what’s missing there — any actual evidence, other than dates, that there’s a connection, or that Biden actively steered the business to his son. It’s all innuendo, without any kind of active reporting to back it up.

    But yes, a Ukrainian petrochemical outfit put Hunter on retainer before or around the time of the Crimea takeover. This is what I was talking about in the post.

    Biden’s brother is also a high-priced lobbyist, as are all Harry Reid’s kids, etc., ad nauseum. The way families of politicians profit by such behavior is widespread. The Trumps are just clumsier about it.

  29. Alby says:

    Oh, look — a twofer! An ex-police (Secret Service, yet!) AND a shitbrained gun-hugger.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/kentucky-republican-tweets-gun-threat-democratic-lawmaker-challenged-nra/

    I fully support laws that take guns away from people who make threats to use them.

  30. Alby says:

    spktruth: It’s about almost all of them. Just change the names of the companies and/or countries and family members.

    Which is a big reason Democrats should foreswear corporate campaign contributions.

    • spktruth says:

      Agreed totally…however one thing Sanders taught them is…they don’t have to take money from the enemy. If the people support them and their issues they will donate.

  31. RE Vanella says:

    The Speaker of the DE House is a cop.

  32. RE Vanella says:

    I trust no organization that demands we rat on each other while holding sacrosact never ratting on themselves.

  33. RE Vanella says:

    https://theintercept.com/2018/03/20/larry-krasner-philadelphia-da/

    “Next, Krasner obeyed a court order to release a list of 29 officers from the Philadelphia Police Department that were on a ‘do-not-call list’ — meaning that they were so tainted that they would be considered unreliable as witnesses. The police officers on the list had either been charged with crimes or found responsible for misconduct in internal police probes conducted by the department’s Board of Inquiry. Among the offenses, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the police officers had lied to their fellow investigators, filed false reports, used excessive force, driven drunk, and burgled.”

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/philadelphia-police-list-larry-krasner-problem-cops-names-details.html

    …court order…

    It’s institutional, and it’s not your friend, folks.