That loud "SNAP" you heard around 730 pm EST was McConnell's and Ryan's asses snapping shut.

[Stinky The Clown]

Frank Figliuzzi had an interesting take on the Butina flip

(can't find the link)

He was on one of the MSNBC shows earlier today, after word of Butina's flip. He says the as-yet-untold story is how much money Russia sent to many GOP politicians, including, but by no means limited to, the current GOP Congressional leadership.

Once again, DU was way ahead of the curve on this. Like months ahead when we knew their campaign coffers had been pumped with rubles.

[marylandblue]

1. We should get a Pulitzer Prize or something.

[Botany]

3. There was a reason DU was targeted* on election day 2016

* my guess by Russia

[jaysunb]

4. I'm betting you're right. n/t

[Initech]

9. Actually I think it was 4chan, aided by Russia.

Although judging by some of the morons who post at 4chan I don't think they could pull off such a hack.

[Raster]

53. IMHO, it was script kiddies at 4chan wanting to tweak the libtards at DU...

...Russia* had NOTHING to do with it. It was a sophomoric, amateur effort, exploiting our previous ability to use limited HTML commands to accentuate our posts.

[orangecrush]

65. Probably right

Sure the admins know.

[KPN]

12. Holy shit! Never even thought of that.

But it makes perfect sense. .... We may need to send the whole frogging GOP to a Gulag ... in Russia.

[airmid]

19. I am surprised the RNC doesn't end up charged under RICO at this point.

[Raster]

31. LOCK. THEM. UP.

[Delphinus]

42. An aside ...

love your tagline or signature. I need to remember that.

[Raster]

44. Thank you. I also have it on a t-shirt....

...which I thoroughly enjoy wearing around Maricopa County, Arizona.

[Canoe52]

47. +1,000,000

[ChazInAz]

48. Just the place for such a shirt.

Pima county isn't quite that bad...more purplish.

[scarytomcat]

69. they should be

clearly they are a criminal organization

[mickswalkabout41]

38. I thought something has been up for a few years

I am just shocked that A. It’s the good ole American nra. And b. It came in right under our noses. Then they lobby a bill so they don’t have to disclose donors. Coincidence? I believe it will roll down hill first, then, in typical redneck fashion, shot gun blast till it hits everyone involved. Let’s blow the lid off of this and bring them all down. No excuses. No chance for any other interpretation. To room for error. Every single republican member of our current admin needs to be locked up.

[Codifer]

49. But it can't stop there.

The take down MUST be global and international. I (when I am in a rare optimistic moment) think that the cooler heads and rational minds of the intel and judicial agencies of many nations are sharing information on many bad actors. I believe that, when that take-down happens, it will be well timed and coordinated. It must be. If it is not timed well, the result will be civil wars (plural) and the kind of political and civil chaos that grew the current Russian thuggery out of the dissolved USSR.

The republican leadership are all in and they know that if they do not prevail, they will be hung for treason. It is all or nothing. Like cornered rats, no vile act would be off the table.

It is going to be something to see.

[susanna]

16. I think so too. n/t

[uponit7771]

35. I would not be shocked or surprised. DU was had the most hits of a mostly single aisle forum on

... the net during 16

[California_Republic]

46. We should hire our on investigation team

DU investigative reports. I’d contribute to that

[Javaman]

63. I would settle for drinks for everyone LOL nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Or opening up

such that they soiled their Underoos.

It's obvious that the NRA was used to channel money from Russia to GOP political campaigns. Now we just need to find out specifically how much, and to whom.

[cilla4progress]

10. Can they get away with claiming they

Didn't know?

Yes, DU on election day 2016. That's how I came to understand we were in deep shit.

[Dustlawyer]

36. I don't think it would be limited to the NRA!

The U.S. Chamber of (Horrors) Commerce would be another RW money funnel. I wish some enterprising reporter would look into them!

[pnwmom]

5. That story was told in December 2017 by Prof. Ruth May in a Dallas newspaper.

And they republished it in May. She had published her first report on this topic in Aug. 2017.

She is a professor of business at the University of Dallas, specializing in the economy of Russia.

Too bad her report didn't wake up more people.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns

Editor's note May 8, 2018: This column originally published December 15, 2017. New allegations about $500k in payments from a Russian oligarch made to Trump attorney Michael Cohen have placed it back in the news.

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia.

Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns

[UpInArms]

22. McTurtle is dirty dirty dirty

Under oath, I want him to answer ...

Why, if you had not been in the Russian loop, did you not allow a vote on Garland Merrick? What information did you have that would influence you to “wait” for the “next” administration to fill that Supreme Court spot?

[CrispyQ]

55. I hate McConnell most of all.

Bragging how he's making generational changes to the judiciary after what he did. I wish I believed in hell so I could comfort myself that he'd burn in it.

[blm]

6. 3 years ahead

.

[C Moon]

7. I recall how suddenly Ryan flipped for Trump. He looked so nervous when he announced it, too.

[True Blue American]

61. And, now Ryan

Is getting out of Dodge.

[Initech]

8. You mean it wasn't Thanos?

[Mr.Bill]

11. I hope we are in a countdown

for the FBI raiding the headquarters of the NRA.

Fucking wingnuts will lose their minds when that happens.

[DallasNE]

13. About 2 Days Ago

I was reading an article that said that McConnell got $3.5 million from a Ukrainian oligarch with close ties to Putin.

And that other money came indirectly from Russia, such as much of the $30 million the NRA gave to Trump in 2016.

Why so much of this was possible is because people are better learning how the unregulated dark money made possible by Citizens United can be hidden and then spread around.

[smb]

52. Oh, To See Mitch End Up In The Federal Terrarium! nt

[CentralMass]

14. The sphincter clenching dynamic duo.

[Hekate]

15. KnR

[YOHABLO]

17. Perhaps the NRA headquarters has been ''scrubbed' long ago? Then what?

[czarjak]

18. Who else knew it wasn't a coinky-dinky too?

[malaise]

20. I have long believed that Mueller knows everything about this

and that explains why lyin' Ryan decided not to run again.
That WP exposure told me everything I needed to know about ReTHUG involvement with Russia.
Keep it secret.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.e2e64a269baf

KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

[UpInArms]

23. That is very interesting

Especially as McCarthy will be leading their minority

[malaise]

24. I too have wondered about his promotion

I do love how Dana Rohrabacher lost to Democrat Harley Rouda.

[Achilleaze]

27. .

[Scarsdale]

34. McCarthy was immediately

shut down by Ryan saying "Keep this in the family" So, they really are just like a Mafia family only with less scruples.

[CrispyQ]

56. The same Kevin McCarthy who urged democrats not to spend time investigating Trump, come Jan.

Kevin McCarthy Says Democrats Shouldn’t Spend A Lot Of Time Investigating Trump

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kevin-mccarthy-trump-investigating_us_5c0ed1dce4b06484c9fda235

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) urged Democrats not to dwell on investigating President Donald Trump once they assume the majority next year because “America is too great of a nation to have such a small agenda.”

“I think there’s other problems out there we really should be focused upon. My belief is let’s see where we can work together and move America forward,” McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the House, behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, said Monday during an appearance on Fox News.

“We’ve investigated this for a long period of time,” McCarthy added. “Both sides have come up with nothing in the process. I think we should put the American people first.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team hasn’t exactly produced “nothing” in its time investigating Russian interference during the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. They’ve indicted or gotten guilty pleas from 33 people and three companies so far — the latest being Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

The entire party is nothing but a bunch of fucking hypocrites of the highest order.

[Progressive Jones]

21. Freeze the passports of every GOP member of Congress. They are flight risks. nt

[Ilsa]

29. And freeze their US assets: bank accounts, real property, etc. nt

[Delphinus]

43. Yes!

Great idea.

[Achilleaze]

25. republican traitors who betrayed America deserve justice

Investigate, charge, try, convict, and lock their treasonous asses up.

[Buckeyeblue]

26. Oh the irony, the party of Reagan loves Russian money

Does Putin have more power than Stalin? The interesting thing about Putin is that he isn't out holding big rallies. He doesn't seem overly nationalistic. He seems to go about his oppression of the Russian people very quietly. He learned the Soviet tactics well. But he doesn't use ideology as a front. He just does what he does because he can.

It's difficult to tell what his end game is. I don't think he necessarily wants to rule the world. I think he is too smart for that type of goal. I do think he'd like to take back the part of the old Soviet Union that might have resources that would be lucrative to him.

He gains by having the world a little less stable because it takes attention from him. And maybe it gives him some leverage to get out from under sanctions. And to be free to do what he wants in his big corner of the world.

Honestly, with the exception of a large reserve of oil that is very expensive to get to, Russia has very little in the way of resources.

[luvtheGWN]

45. Putin's nose is still out of joint because of the

dissolution of the Soviet Union. Even though he is reputed to secretly be one of the richest men in the world because of the sell-offs of Russian businesses and resources, I believe he really wants to be regarded as head of a super-power -- maybe not the uber-super-power (leave that to China) but while the US remains on top, that really frosts his socks. Yes, he wants those sanctions lifted, and thought Trump was the person who would make it happen. He just didn't understand that -- unlike him -- the US president is not all-powerful.

He's been successful in turning the US into a political mess. He wants the breakup of the European Union and figured that Brexit -- under the "direction" of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage -- was a good start. He's trying to take over Ukraine, he's got far-righters in Poland and other EU countries thinking of breaking away from the EU, he has grand designs on the Baltic states and wants to bring them back into the fold under a Soviet Union. He wants to see an end to NATO.

He is one BAD, very BAD bad-ass, and is still in power after declaring the person opposing him in the last election to be illegitimate. Russia's last revolution was just over 100 years ago. I wonder if we'll see another one soon.....

[byronius]

62. At this point I'd love to see them dissolved and annexed for their crimes against humanity.

This is a constant cycle with Russia, over and over and over.

I'm a student of their history, and always hoped for the best for them -- now I want them over and done forever, period.

[JustAnotherGen]

28. That's why Ryan

"Retired"

[Raster]

30. said before, will say again: THE GOP IS AWASH WITH DIRTY RUSSIAN MONEY...

...there is a reason the Rethuglicans* are kowtowing to Putin* and his Oligarchs*.

[empedocles]

32. That will complicate things, in all sorts of unpredicable ways, in Congress

for a long time to come.

[AllyCat]

33. And Scott Walker

[usaf-vet]

37. Absolutely on point!

[calimary]

39. I heard some guest commentator say there were a few

GOPers in DC doing Kegel exercises.

Google is your very good friend!

[Texin]

40. That congressional committee meeting with Ryan making everyone shut up, i.e.

shortly before the election* in 2016 was always the "smoking gun" to me:

("House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.&quot

Since the break-up of the former Soviet Union, the spigots of rubles have been flowing into the U.S. (among other countries across the globe). In the book "House of Trump-House of Putin" and others like it, there are vivid accounts of how the former state-owned businesses were co-opted by Putin and select kleptocratic (i.e., Russian "maifya" mobsters) beginning in the early '90s when Yeltsin had not yet been removed and ever since, began siphoning off profits from the formerly state-owned corporations and natural resources. These same people and their minions began emigrating throughout the world and began "investing" in luxury real estate, etc. in order to establish money laundering opportunities. But none of that's new to anyone.

Frankly, it's pretty apparent that the majority (if not all) of the rethugs have been bought and paid for by these Russian mafiosos, and I imagine there are pretty fair number of Dems that have been tainted as well.

[Raster]

41. "This is how we know we're a real family here."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/paul-ryan-keeps-it-family-kevin-mccarthy-russia-trump

<snip>

And then, amid more laughter, Ryan says, “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, says.

“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan concludes.

<snip>

[CrispyQ]

57. Why wasn't this on every fucking news broadcast?

Even with our corporate compromised media how did this not get major air time? Or did I miss it?

???

[Raster]

60. No, you did not miss it... it was kept on the DL...

...you know, Rethuglicans*.

[Enoki33]

50. A friend commented that the GOP has traditionally been a bastion of white

privilege, power and money. They seem to have realized they cannot legitimately win at the ballot boxes, hence democracy is disposable, and that accepting millions from the crime syndicate that rules Russia is acceptable. Like dotard it is only the win that matters. Putin’s primary reason for giving that money stolen from his own people is that every successful democracy is a threat to his despotic rule.

[Alwaysna]

59. White, privilege, power, money and mostly male.

[gademocrat7]

54. They are all greedy treasonous bastards.

I will never forgive Mcturdle for his racist behavior toward President Obama.

[maxsolomon]

58. Ryan could give a fuck; he's out the door and on to some lucrative Conservative grift.

McConnell will pollute the Senate until his dying breath, and never see a single consequence from any action he's taken, Russians or not.

The full story will come out and America will shrug, like it always does.

[BHDem53]

64. I guess this proves that

mCconnell is a snapping turtle.

[Honeycombe8]

66. Bwahahahaha! Let's hope the rumors are true. AND she gave up the names.nt

[BigmanPigman]

67. We know they gave $$$ to the RNC and private campaign PACS,

but what about the money that was laundered through the NRA?

[scarytomcat]

68. well she can never go home if she talks

after prison I guess

[scarytomcat]

70. the Russian money to rethugs is the real story not a few bucks to women for sex

[Amaryllis]

71. MANY months ago, we knew. I've been waiting for MSM to catch up. Every time the people on those

panels, and even the anchors, scratch their heads and wonder about why GOP enables T and won't stand up to him, I think, when are you gonna follow the MONEY????