US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

timely repost of this hamilton nolan article from 2018, today: https://splinternews.com/the-working-persons-guide-to-the-industry-that-might-ki-1824148959

this is also relevant


https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-adults-in-the-room-1837487584

Jim Spanfeller, the CEO of this company, meanwhile, is best known for growing Forbes.com in the mid-2000s, around the time this website was born. While he was not responsible for the “contributor network” that made Forbes a journalistic laughingstock, he set the stage by demanding increased output at all costs (up to 5,000 stories a day by the end of his tenure). The clickbait and SEO plays and sleazy monetization schemes rejected by Gawker Media were the entire point. Content mills The Active Times and The Daily Meal, which Spanfeller launched and later sold to the Tribune Company at a trivial price, ran the same playbook, and many of his ideas for growing revenue at this company (implementing slideshows to juice pageviews, clogging story pages with ever-more programmatic ads at the expense of user experience) were taken straight from that era—more than a decade ago, or approximately an eon in internet time. The only idealistic belief at Gawker Media was that a journalistic enterprise could make money without scamming people; the guiding principle at Forbes and sites of its ilk was that scams are good as long as they make money.

Who knew?

US Attorney just now said Parnas and Fruman had one way international tickets.

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) October 10, 2019

AKA perfect tickets.

scams are good as long as they make money

this is Randian free market ideology in a nutshell

it seemed like a good time for some soul searching abroad, and you can't truly do that with a roundtrip ticket

if the president does it, it's not illegal if it makes money, it's not a scam

lol why wouldn't they just buy roundtrip tickets and...not use them

i'm shocked that "adults in the room" article is still up.

Even if they were round trip, though, it’s still a slightly suspicious move to be leaving the country the day before you’ve been asked to testify to Congress

Were they flying to Argentina? That would have been perfect.

Vienna

lots of rumors flying around that they were tipped off after Barr met with SDNY yesterday

Imagine the psychic shock of being right on the cusp of escaping culpability in your misdeeds forever only to wind up in jail instead. Imagine how the tableau of sipping pina coladas on some remote island would continue to linger and taunt as you're sitting on a thin mattress staring through those unforgiving bars. Just imagine how much dirt you'd be willing to spill for just the slightest chance that you might someday get to do a little boogie boarding in that warm tropical surf.

pardons for all, let's not kid ourselves

Tell that to Manafort.

Imagine the psychic shock of being right on the cusp of escaping culpability in your misdeeds forever only to wind up in jail instead. Imagine how the tableau of sipping pina coladas on some remote island would continue to linger and taunt as you're sitting on a thin mattress staring through those unforgiving bars. Just imagine how much dirt you'd be willing to spill for just the slightest chance that you might someday get to do a little boogie boarding in that warm tropical surf.

*read in the voice of Walter Cronkite*

as you're sitting on a thin mattress staring through those unforgiving bars

Yeah much as it would gladden my heart to think so, I doubt these guys will be Shawshankin' it for long.

lol

xpost

I guess the timeline is this?

SDNY told Barr yesterday that they going to arrest these guys.

Rudy had lunch with the guys yesterday.

They buy tickets to Vienna and are arrested at airport yesterday evening.

Just wait a couple hours, I'm sure Rudy will fill in any of the details you might have missed.

Giuliani: 'Of course I told them to flee the country. I bought them the tickets myself.'
Todd: '...I can't believe you're admitting to aiding and abetting these...'
Giuliani: 'I never said that. I said that I told them to turn themselves into the police. Get your ears checked, Chuck!'

that's not at all how it happened, that is an outrageous lie, and that is exactly how it happened and anyone would do the same in those circumstances, you fake media liars

...and what about Hillary's emails

I wonder if OJ ever thought to ask the Ukrainian president if he knew the whereabouts of the real killer.

Geraldo is en route to Kyiv, hot on the trail of Al Capone's vault

"(If) I Did It!" by Rudy Giuliani

why is Rudy rolling with a couple of retired defensemen from a 70s Flyers team

they're good at thinking

https://www.phillymag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/08/simpsons-philadelphia-flyers-940x540.jpg

tickin up slowly, the problem is it's hard to guess where the ceiling is

A slim majority of Americans back House Democrats' impeachment investigation into President Trump, according to a new poll, the latest in a series of surveys showing rising support for the congressional inquiry.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Thursday finds that 52 percent of Americans support the House formally launching the inquiry, while 43 percent disapprove.

The poll found an uptick in support for the impeachment probe compared to a survey by the outlets two weeks ago in which 49 percent approved and 46 percent disapproved.

The rise in support comes largely on the strength of Independents, who now support the probe by a 54-41 margin. The same group opposed the investigation two weeks ago, with only 44 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving.

How enjoyable, the simple life

I asked Jeff Sessions by phone if he had a response to Trump calling him a "total disaster" + "embarrassment" to Alabama. He said: "I don’t have any comment on that—I just haven’t wanted to get drawn into any of that." Said he was just enjoying a "beautiful Alabama October day."

— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) October 10, 2019

But of course

SCOOP: Lindsey Graham was pranked by the same Russians who got to Adam Schiff. In a call with the "Turkish defense minister," he called the Kurdish YPG a "threat" and said Trump "wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power" in the Reza Zarrab case. https://t.co/k7479NIkCC

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 10, 2019

he's probably right! xpost

Bloomberg reported last night that Trump pressured Tillerson to ask DOJ to drop the Zarrab case. Graham suggested Trump would try to help as best he could. “I think President Trump likes President Erdogan. I think he’s a strong man and we need to deal with strong people."

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 10, 2019

how are Alabama autumns

racist

Thus, beautiful.

Rudy's all "OOH PICK ME" re the third bit.

BREAKING: A judge has approved a bail package for Parnas and Fruman, they'll be released once conditions are met:
- $1M bond each
- Home detention + GPS/location monitoring
- 3rd party custodian responsible
- Can only travel to SDNY and SDFL, and must get approval first

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) October 10, 2019

I refuse to be left hanging like this https://t.co/GMGt93mIcI pic.twitter.com/xAe1IQ0Aio

— Lindsey Barrett (@LAM_Barrett) October 10, 2019

Totally a normal way to cover this story pic.twitter.com/MV0J8YiksY

— David Marcus (@davidimarcus) October 10, 2019

Why are you even floating the possibility of bail to such obvious flight risks (read: people who very nearly fled the country). Why. Why. Just fucking why.

without bail they'd probably just be found dead in their cells

Yeah was just going to posit that it might be to avoid the Epstein Special.

Also, passports already confiscated per Tillman's follow-up tweets.

Meantime.

House impeachment investigators are subpoenaing Perry's documents relating to Ukraine, Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman.

Perry has until Oct. 18 to turn em over. pic.twitter.com/6opbAVT28D

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) October 10, 2019

Oopsy (but also, obvious)

Rudy Giuliani’s financial dealings with two associates indicted on campaign finance-related charges are under scrutiny by investigators overseeing the case, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said.
W/ @evanperez

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) October 10, 2019

Giuliani told CNN he is not aware of any law enforcement scrutiny on his financial dealings with the men and he said he has not been interviewed by the FBI in the investigation.

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) October 10, 2019

🐦[Totally a normal way to cover this story pic.twitter.com/MV0J8YiksY🕸
— David Marcus (@davidimarcus) October 10, 2019🕸]🐦

I guess the timeline is this?

SDNY told Barr yesterday that they going to arrest these guys.

Rudy had lunch with the guys yesterday.

They buy tickets to Vienna and are arrested at airport yesterday evening.

― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, October 10, 2019 11:58 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

while i am still of the belief that absolutely no one of any consequence will get in any real trouble, this looks pretty bad. esp since if they still got caught it's because feds anticipated the leak and planned accordingly

https://politics.theonion.com/they-can-t-arrest-both-of-us-says-giuliani-handcuffi-1838947437

Pete Sessions suddenly loquacious.

MORE: "I was first approached by these individuals for a meeting about the strategic need for Ukraine to become energy independent. There was no request in that meeting and I took no action. Over time, I recall that there were a couple additional meetings..."

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) October 10, 2019