US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

careful, melania successfully sued the daily mail for suggesting she was involved in hardcore stuff below the belt

SCOOP: Rod Rosenstein will announce multiple indictments during his press conference this afternoon, I'm told by two sources at the DOJ

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) February 16, 2018

beat ya to it Ned

anyway I'm hopin for Don Jr. but it's probably gonna be Hillary

What a bunch of sad sacks you all are today

Whaddaya wanna bet that NYer piece winds up putting David Pecker on Mueller’s interview docket

beat ya to it Ned

Punk.

A little more about that.

BREAKING: 13 Russians, 3 Russian entities indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe https://t.co/FUVWUZgECX

— CNBC (@CNBC) February 16, 2018

The Russian defendants are being charged with crimes for alleged activities intended to help Trump and hurt Clinton, including creating fake social media personas and organizing rallies in the U.S.: pic.twitter.com/GAiP2U30vS

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 16, 2018

lmao

Kaverzina! What a Chatty Cathy. https://t.co/6nwK0ix8Wf pic.twitter.com/jna2UDouHR

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 16, 2018

The prosecutors allege the Russians even wired money to an American to cover the cost of building "a cage large enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform." pic.twitter.com/soowFD78Lw

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 16, 2018

pfft that doesn't hold a handle to what Soros does

fake indictment, fake words

Fake indictments, right? Anyway, see, the Russians committed all the crimes, this clearly and totally, once and for all, exonerates Trump, completely, and the investigation is now over. Time to move on to Hillary.

"I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with colleagues"

So so far: well over a dozen indictments, two guilty pleas, possibly three plea-deal cooperating witnesses ...

And to think, if he never won the election none of this would be happening.

Wait, no indictments for Schiff and the other Democrats on the house intelligence committee? The deep state fix is truly in!

a fairly historic deep state document

https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

no mention of gates, manafort, kushner, bannon, sessions, pence, or trump. whatever mr. mueller still has up his sleeve must be pretty compelling

I'm very confused, these people are all Russians. If they are all Russians, then how can they be charged with colluding with the Russians?! They can't collude with themselves. Therefore, there can be no collusion. I rest my case.

This headline from WaPo is a thing that only makes sense in 2018:

“Special counsel indicts Russian troll farm”

tax cuts forever and ever, amen

Good catch

Just gonna drop this here pic.twitter.com/uqjFbUmpAH

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 16, 2018

A relevant point

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/964566238914588673

Ah, never mind, followup:

I've deleted the tweet saying the "known and unknown" language suggests there's more to come, since Popehat knows better: https://t.co/tSl85jWhPh

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 16, 2018

Also true

The Russians will never allow for the extradition of their people listed in this indictment. This is a public statement by Mueller that this isn’t a witch hunt and that there was Russian interference.

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 16, 2018

if the corporate tax rate weren't so high, the republicans wouldn't have needed to cheat with the russians

In progress:

1/ Today the Justice Department announced that Mueller obtained an indictment against 13 Russians and three Russian entities. You should read it yourself: https://t.co/9XLt8GiLnQ

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) February 16, 2018

Old Lunch otm btw: the path to hurting Trump politically is to show him speaking in favor of reproductive choice, gay rights, immigrant amnesty, single-payer healthcare, or the existence of Clintons. The Outrage of the Day media cycle just gets buried in noise and seen as either fake, pearl-clutch, or both.

many xps

also, indictments announced? Must be Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

toasting the next indictment which will (fingers crossed) indicate the americans who conspired with our russian adversaries

lol I remember @TEN_GOP

Good grief, will the day end?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-16/mueller-announces-guilty-plea-of-california-man-in-investigation

well this infrastructure week hasn't disappointed huh

Nice that you can tell from her tweets that Kaverzina and her colleagues were clearly doing organized and paid work.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday released plea deal with Richard Pinedo, saying he knowingly used the IDs of other people in connection with “unlawful activity” and was paid at least $1,000 for doing so, Bloomberg News reports.

Also doesn't this place even more obvious pressure on Twitter to do something?

So ... third guilty plea (so far), and second, after Snuffleupagus, from a dude no one had heard of?

Pointed out by smart cyber expert on NPR a few weeks back, twitter and Facebook, et al, their entire business model is built around targeting people and controlling the flow of information, just as these Russians did. It would go against the financial interests of social media to make it harder to do what the Russians did/are doing.

Perhaps key takeaway from Renato:

7/ The Russians charged in this indictment will likely never be brought to the U.S., but an American could be charged if (1) the American knew of the criminal activity and helped it succeed ("aiding and abetting") or (2) agreed to be part of the criminal activity ("conspiracy").

amazing how Trump manages to get the "inside the White House's disastrous week" headline like 3 times a month

xxpost It would go against it, and they can argue 'we're not responsible for content!' but the path of 'wow isn't it funny this US based business is assisting foreign agents in disruption' being implied if not outlined directly can't be making for happy times up on Market.

i want to know what the russians' training was like

"7/ The Russians charged in this indictment will likely never be brought to the U.S., but an American could be charged if (1) the American knew of the criminal activity and helped it succeed ("aiding and abetting") or (2) agreed to be part of the criminal activity ("conspiracy")."

that's the other Plea that was just announced (Pinedo)

Just called the number I have for Mikhail Burchik, named in the indictment as an employee of the Internet Research Agency. He said "Yes I have heard the news" and hung up.

— Adrian Chen (@AdrianChen) February 16, 2018

i want to know what the russians' training was like

I hear it involved heavy use of steroids and Human Growth factor. also, how to substitute clean urine for their own.

apparently the Russians knew more about campaigning than Hillary Clinton

Russian troll farm owner Evgeny Prigozhin says he is "completely not bothered" by the indictment, per RIA.

"The Americans are really impressionable people, they see what they want to see. I greatly respect them. If they want to see the devil - let them see him."

— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 16, 2018

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman:

"13 people meddled in the US election? 13 against billion-dollar budgets? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest methods and technology? Isn't that absurd? Yes. But it's contemporary American political reality."

— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 16, 2018

russians otm

badass

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson failed to explain who was paying 13 Russians to meddle in the USA elections and why they'd bother, if as said, it was a pointless and futile exercise from the get-go.

"The Americans are really impressionable people, they see what they want to see.

This came out of the mouth of someone who has given this matter a lot of thought and has come to a sound conclusion.

i hope that like with school shootings each time the russians interfere in american elections the republicans offer thoughts and prayers, reminding us that now is not the time for action, and besides, nothing can be done prevention-wise in the first place. 2nd amendment. tax cuts

i know that my anxiety instinct is just finding a new tree trunk to wrap itself around here, but between this showy indictment & eli lake banging the war drum over that skirmish in syria i'm starting to get a real, real bad feeling again