#george papadopoulos

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Drew Sheneman, Newark Star-Ledger

* * * *

What is it about Republicans and Russian spies?

LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

FEB 21, 2024

Guess what:  A Russian spy has been spreading lies about the Democratic candidate for president through his connections with senior Republican officials.  Oh, my goodness, can that be true?  Where did I put my fainting couch? 

This time the Russian spy is Alexander Smirnov, a serial liar and fabricator who has been making up stories on behalf of Russian intelligence about Democrats, chiefly Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and feeding them to senior Republican Party government officials.  Last week, he was charged with just that – lying to the FBI that Joe Biden and his son Hunter each sought $5 million bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to fix an investigation into the company by Ukraine’s corrupt prosecutor general.

Let’s leave aside for the moment the fact that this tired lie about the Bidens and Burisma and bribes was shopped around way back in 2018 and 2019 in the run-up to the 2020 election.  Those were the days when the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Konstantin Kilimnik and Dmytro Firtash were running around trying to get “dirt” on the Bidens, and the infamous “perfect phone call” was made to Volodymyr Zelenskyy when Donald Trump, then the President of the United States, tried to extort the Ukrainian president into opening an investigation into the very thing that Smirnov is charged with lying about these five or six years later.

Oh goodness, I’m barely three paragraphs into this piece about what happened with Russian spies just yesterday and already I’m spinning down a rabbit hole we’ve been going down ever since a certain New York real estate magnate decided he would run for president as a Republican in 2015. 

Here’s a handy-dandy flashback with a few of the players we’ve met along the way:

Remember Marina Butina? She was the Russian FSG bombshell who infiltrated the National Rifle Association on behalf of Russian intelligence and spread money around and had a wild affair with a Republican political operative named Paul Erikson and took a bunch of NRA officials and Republican politicians to Moscow to meet with her phony “gun rights” organization called “Right to Bear Arms” that she established in a country where there is no right to bear arms.

Remember George Papadopoulos?  He was the Trump campaign “foreign policy adviser” who was running around London in 2016 meeting with a Russian intelligence agent named Joseph Mifsud, who was setting him up with meetings with another Russian intelligence agent, Leonid Reshetnikov, who ran some kind of Russian intelligence front called the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.  Mifsud, who disappeared and has never been seen or heard from again, was the guy that Papadopoulos met in Rome, or somewhere, who out of the blue told him that Russian intelligence had “dirt” on Hilary Clinton, including “thousands of emails” that belonged to her.

The name Konstantin Kilimnik ring a bell?  I know it gets confusing, because I already mentioned him about the whole Burisma thing, but Konstantin was the Russian intelligence guy who had worked with Paul Manafort in Ukraine when Manafort was running campaigns for Ukraine’s pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, who after being deposed by the 2014 Ukrainian revolution fled back to – you guessed it – Russia.  Anyway, Konstantin was the guy connected to a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, to whom Manafort owed something like $14 million.  The minute Manafort was appointed manager of Trump’s campaign, he emailed his pal Konstantin asking him how they could use the Trump campaign to “get whole” with Deripaska.  So, Manafort ends up meeting with Konstantin in New York City while he was running Trump’s campaign and shared campaign information and polling data with him.  Why Manafort was giving this highly secret political information to a Russian intelligence agent, well, that was never explained, but it does kind of bring up what “get whole” could have meant.  Manafort went on to be indicted for various financial crimes, for which Trump pardoned him.  Konstantin was indicted for obstruction of justice, and hell, even little honey-pot Marina Butina was indicted and spent a year behind bars in the U.S. before she was deported back to Russia and greeted as a returning hero by Russian intelligence.

That’s just a smattering of Russian intelligence agents with connections to prominent Republicans over the last eight to ten years, and what do you know?  Here comes Alexander Smirnov peddling tired old lies about the Bidens and Burisma, and this time who’s listening to him?  Oh, nobody but the two House Republican goofs in charge of the so-called impeachment investigation of President Biden, James Comer and Jim Jordan.  And what are they investigating Biden for?  Oh, let’s see…taking bribes from Burisma!

Now, having read all that history about the other Russian spies Republicans were listening to, involved with, giving information to, getting information from, and committing financial crimes with, what kind of a guy is Smirnov?  Let’s just let the DOJ motion tell us in their explanation to the court in Nevada about why Smirnov needs to be in pretrial detention:

“First, he claims to have contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies and had plans to leave the United States two days after he was arrested last week for a months-long, multi-country foreign trip. During this trip, the defendant claimed to be meeting with foreign intelligence contacts. Those foreign intelligence agencies could resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released.”

Oh, by the way, Smirnov was arrested as he got off the flight from his multi-country trip “meeting with foreign intelligence contacts.” 

But it gets better.  Smirnov has lived in Las Vegas but has no business there.  “Instead, he claims to have a ‘security business,’ that is registered in California,” according to the DOJ memo.  He lives with a girlfriend “who does not appear to even know what he does.”  What does he do for money?  His bank records do not “reflect that he is in the ‘security business,’ as he claims.”  Instead, his bank records “show large wire transfers from what appear to be venture capital firms and individuals.”

That gives him enough money to escape the country any time he wants to, according to the DOJ.  How much money, you may ask?  Oh, not too much.  Smirnov “has access to more than $2.9 million, and his wife/girlfriend (he refers to her both ways) (hereafter “DL”) has access to more than $3.8 million.”  According to the DOJ, those “funds are available to him because most of the money in DL’s account originated with Smirnov and she pays his personal expenses out of her account.”

Because most guys running around making international trips to multiple countries who have no visible means of support besides large money transfers from “venture capital firms and individuals” have millions of dollars in bank accounts in their names and in the names of their wife/girlfriends.

Are you able to follow this insane narrative?  This is the guy the House Republicans have been relying on as their chief source of information about supposed $5 million bribes to both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.  This is the crap they want to impeach Biden for?  Smirnov, the star of his own private season of “Get Smart,” has been telling Comer and his buddies that Hunter Biden was taped making phone calls about the bribes in a hotel in Kyiv that was “wired” by Russian intelligence and “under control of the Russians.”

Only one problem:  Hunter Biden not only has never been in that hotel, he has never been in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Prosecutors told the judge in Nevada that Russian intelligence is still using the Kyiv hotel to record “prominent Americans” in order to provide “kompromat” in the 2024 election.  “Thus, Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues,” the DOJ memo concludes.

Ummmmm…isn’t this the kind of stuff that was happening back in 2016 in London and Rome and even Moscow when “operatives” for Trump’s campaign were meeting with Russian intelligence agents who were peddling “dirt” on Hillary Clinton?  And Marina Butina was gamboling around with NRA officers and escorting them to Moscow and shacking up with Republican campaign operatives while she was employed as “special assistant” to Aleksandr Torshin, who was Acting Chairman of the Senate of the Russian Federation and a close pal of Putin.

With all the Russians and all the intelligence agents and all the meetings with Republican officials of one kind or another and all the secrets and lies passed between them all the way up to and including the campaign chairman of the Republican nominee for president, here is a simple way to understand it. 

It’s the same playbook Trump has used his entire life.  Get caught doing something, anything, and immediately accuse your opponents of the same thing or worse.  Charge after charge of sexual harassment and assault?  Hmmm, let’s see…how about a Pizza joint where pedophile Democrats are trafficking children out of the basement?  In business up to your neck with Russians and taking money from foreign governments?  Find some goofball with two or three foreign passports and bank accounts full of funny money traveling around the world meeting with Russian intelligence officials and get him to accuse the Bidens of taking bribes.

What Donald Trump has always called the “Russia hoax” was never a hoax at all.  It was real, and it is continuing, and it now reaches into the United States Congress and is driving the movement there to impeach President Biden for things he never did, but ironically, for stuff Republicans have been doing for at least a decade.

So where is the big Biden impeachment investigation right now, after the fourth or fifth witness they’ve advertised as “the one” falls apart in a spectacular hail of indictments and DOJ memos alleging all kinds of Russian hanky-panky?  Well, Comer and Jordan have their committee staffers purging the name “Smirnov” from anything with their fingerprints on it.  Seems like they’ve got their work cut out for them.

[gettothestabbing]

“Upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.”

“The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information. Further, the FBI did so without (i) any significant review of its own intelligence databases, (ii) collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities, (iii) interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received or (iv) using any of the standard analytical tools typicallv employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence,” the report concluded.

“Had it done so … the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject. In addition, FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials,” it said.

“In the eighteen months leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI was required to deal with a number of proposed investigations that had the potential of affecting the election. In each of those instances, the FBI moved with considerable caution. In one such matter… FBI Headquarters and Department officials required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference,” it said. “In another, the FBI elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable CHSs went beyond what was authorized and made an improper and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated.”

“And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI’s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server,” it said.

“Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos.”

“Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting. Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration.

“The FBI learned that Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, Igor Danchenko, to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the reports. Specifically, our investigation discovered that Danchenko himself had told another person that he (Danchenko) was responsible for 80% of the ‘intel’ and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.”

“In December 2016, the FBI identified Danchenko as Steele’s primary sub-source. Danchenko agreed to meet with the FBI and, under the protection of an immunity letter… the FBI conducted multiple interviews of Danchenko regarding, among other things, the information he provided to Steele,” it said. “Danchenko was unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations, and further, described his interactions with his sub-sources as ‘rumor and speculation’ and conversations of a casual nature. Significant parts of what Danchenko told the FBI were inconsistent with what Steele told the FBI during his prior interviews in October 2016 and September 2017. At no time, however, was the FISC informed of these inconsistencies. Moreover, notwithstanding the repeated assertions in the Page FISA applications that Steele’s primary sub-source was based in Russia, Danchenko for many years had lived in the Washington, D.C. area.”

“The FBI knew in January 2017 that Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011. In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money. According to one employee, Danchenko believed that he (the employee might be following a mentor into the incoming Obama administration and have access to classified information. During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information.”

“The FBI converted its investigation into a full investigation after learning that Danchenko (i) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (ii) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers… at that earlier time, Agents had interviewed several former colleagues of Danchenko who raised concerns about Danchenko’s potential involvement with Russian intelligence. For example, one such colleague, who had interned at a U.S. intelligence agency, informed the Office that Danchenko frequently inquired about that person’s knowledge of a specific Russian military matter.”

You can read the report here.

[worlds-oldest-teenager]

"Average Percy Jackson character has pissed themselves in a fight at least once" factoid just a statistical error. Average Percy Jackson character has pissed their pants 0 times. Lester Papadopoulos-

[cringefaillosershowdown]

[nofatclips]

Priest by Hypnotic Nausea (featuring Jon Voyager) from the album The Death of All Religions - Video by Shiny Happy People

[honeybee2807]

Hi! I'd love to join if you don't mind

NPT: @beavillains @jamie-fanfan118 @daenerysaugety @lumoshyperion and anyone that wants to join

5 Favourite Characters Poll (Tag Game)

I was tag by: @star-mum

Rules: make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite.

Thanks you so much for the tag

Tags <3: @meeks-beas @practically-an-x-man @outer-space-face @trashworldblog @mydearlybeloathed

[wilwheaton]

Reasons Trump is Unfit for Office, with Sources.

From this comment on Reddit:

Top reasons why Trump should not be president.

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Lost the election and lied about it.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sent an armed angry mob to Congress and told them they need to fight like hell. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Approved of the mob saying “hang Mike Pence”. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found liable for sexual assault.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found guilty of defrauding his university students. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found guilty of inflating his assets to get favorable loans.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Admitted to walking in on pageant contestants’ dressing rooms.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Allegedly Raped and beat Ivana Trump. Source

⁠⁠ Stole from a kids’ cancer charity. Source

Received $413 million inheritance despite claims that he’s a self made man. Source

Blocked his chronically ill infant nephew from getting any of that inheritance. Source

Is the first president to receive votes against him from his own party during impeachment. Source

Led us into being one of the worst hit during Covid despite our head start and resources, leading to high inflation. Source

Said the Democrats do better with the economy.Source

Was ranked as the worst president in history by bipartisan presidential historians.Source

Pushed a plot to have fake votes created and then used to make him President despite losing the election.Source

Ordered republicans to block a bipartisan immigration billso Biden would not get a win before the election.Source

Is a convicted felon guilty of falsifying records to influence an election.Source

Told the Department of Justice to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”Source

His VP, Mike Pence said Trump should never be president again, and that Trump asked him to put himself “above the Constitution”. Source

Got Fox News successfully sued for repeating/pushing his administrations election lies. A $787M settlement. Source

Said he’d be a dictator for one day Source

Trump lied to, or misled the public 30,573 times in the four years he held office. Source

Also, just regarding some of the Trump administration that have been convicted of crimes:

Donald Trump was charged, convicted, and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former campaign aide, Roger Stone, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former White House aide Peter Navarro, was charged, convicted, and is currently in prison.

Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

The Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former White House national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.

Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a conviction in a contempt case similar to Navarro’s. He’s currently awaiting sentencing.

Though he was later acquitted at trial, Trump’s former inaugural committee chair, Tom Barrack, was charged with illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of a foreign government. (Elliot Broidy was the vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, and he found himself at the center of multiple controversies, and also pled guilty to federal charges related to illegal lobbying.)

Two lawyers associated with Trump’s post-defeat efforts, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have pleaded guilty to election-related crimes.

Source

And if your vote is based strictly on economic achievements, here is a TikTok video comparing Trumps economy by the numbers. Tiktok link

[porterdavis]

The number of people in the Republican’s [Trump] orbit who’ve been convicted of crimes in recent years is so great, The Washington Post once described it as the “remarkable universe of criminality“ surrounding the former president.

That was five years ago. It’s even more remarkable now:

Donald Trump was charged, convicted, and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former campaign aide, Roger Stone, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former White House aide Peter Navarro, was charged, convicted, and is currently in prison.

Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

The Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former White House national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.

Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a conviction in a contempt case similar to Navarro’s. He’s currently awaiting sentencing.

Though he was later acquitted at trial, Trump’s former inaugural committee chair, Tom Barrack, was charged with illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of a foreign government. (Elliot Broidy was the vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, and he found himself at the center of multiple controversies, and also pled guilty to federal charges related to illegal lobbying.)

Two lawyers associated with Trump’s post-defeat efforts, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have pleaded guilty to election-related crimes.

And did I mention that former president’s business was itself found guilty of tax fraud? Because it was.

This does not include the fact that a jury held Trump liable for sexual abuse in a civil case.

By Steve Benen

[mylionheart2]

And the hits keep coming. (Updated 6/7/24)

Meet Donald Trump's Criminal Enterprise.

Donald Trump: Former so-called President & Convicted Felon: Found Guilty On All 34 counts Of Business Document Fraud. Found Liable For Se*ual Assault of E. Jean Carroll 

Rep. Chris Collins: Trump's Former Mouthpiece in Congress - Convicted

Rick Gates: Trump's Former Deputy Campaign Manager - Convicted

Paul Manafort: Trump’s Former Campaign Chair - Convicted

George Papadopoulos: Trump's Former Foreign Policy Advisory - Convicted

Mike Flynn: Trump’s Former National Security Adviser - Convicted

Michael Cohen: Trump's Former Attorney and Fixer - Convicted

Roger Stone: Former Political Consultant for the Trump Campaign - Convicted

Steve Bannon: Former Trump White House Chief Strategists and Senior Counselor To Trump - Convicted

Allen Weisselberg:  Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization - Convicted

Jenna Ellis: Former Trump Lawyer – Convicted

Sidney Powell: Former Trump Attorney – Convicted

Peter Navarro: Former Trump Advisor – Convicted

Mark Meadows: Former White House Chief Of Staff - Indicted

Rudy Giuliani: Trump's Former Attorney -  Indicted

John Eastman: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Christina Bobb - Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Boris Epshteyn: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Walt Nauta: Trump Aide - Indicted

Kenneth Cheseboro: Right-wing Attorney – Indicted

Michael Roman: Former Trump Campaign Official – Indicted

Jeffrey Clark: Former Trump Administration Official - Indicted

The Trump To Prison Pipeline:

18 People Indicted In Fulton County, GA

18 People Indicted For Election Interference In AZ

15 People Indicted For Election Forgery In MI

3 People Indicted For Fake Electors Scheme In WI

2 People Indicted For Obstruction Of Justice And Mishandling Of Classified Documents In Florida

1,400 people Arrested For January 6th, 2021 Insurrection At the U.S. Capitol

[whencyclopedia]

War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia

This comprehensive encyclopedia is edited by the acclaimed historian Richard Hall and covers the general topic of war in the Balkans during the past two centuries. Some 60 leading scholars contributed well-examined snippets on the war in the Balkans culminating in a volume that is an excellent reference for a wide range of curious researchers.

Richard C. Hall's timely encyclopedia can help reporters and scholars investigate beyond a headline. The book features informative and expertly written essays with suggestions for further reading. As a leading scholar of Balkan history, Hall, Professor of History at Georgia Southwestern State University who has written multiple books on this topic, is an ideal editor for a work of such monumental scope ranging from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and beyond.

To produce nearly 240 entries covering 200 years requires assembling a team of researchers, which is precisely what this work achieved. Altogether, 62 expert contributors wrote entries spanning five categories: Events, Individuals, Organizations, Places, and Treaties.

The most impressive category of contributions is “Events," with 132 topics compromising 56% of all entries. Each war in the Balkans has many entries, and the encyclopedia dedicates five entries to the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 alone. For these wars, there are separate “Causes” and “Consequences” essays that carefully consider the complex, intertwined factors leading to and resulting from the various Balkan conflicts. The "Events" category contains interesting and rather specific topics not commonly found elsewhere, such as a focus on the “Cold War in the Balkans” and “Ottoman Counterinsurgency Operations in the Balkans and Crete.” The scope of this category is so wide-ranging that it even includes entries covering the roles of Italy and Germany in the Balkans during the two World Wars.

The second category, “Individuals," is smaller, compromising only 24% of the total entries. This section includes an impressive array of people ranging from Ottoman Sultans to modern military leaders and politicians. Nonetheless, with only 56 entries on protagonists of Balkan conflicts, there is a little room for expansion and more coverage, especially with Greek leaders. For instance, figures such as Theodoros Kolokotronis and George Papadopoulos could have been fitting additions to the book's theme. Regardless, most major Balkan individuals are present with each entry on them following the customary high quality.

The remaining three categories — "Organizations," "Places," and "Treaties" — are understandably shorter in length. The category “Organizations” has 32 entries covering 14% of the total contributions. Topics such as the Balkan League, Black Hand, Kosovo Liberation Army, and UNPROFOR were not surprising inclusions. Yet, more concise topics like “Partisans in Albania” or “NATO in the Balkans” were surprising inclusions in a work of this kind. Once more, Greek topics could have been expanded to include groups such as the Philiki Eteria (Society of Friends) or IDEA (Ieros Desmos Ellinon Axiomatikon, or Holy Alliance of Greek Military Officers). The "Places" category could be expanded beyond its current 12 entries by including Cyprus. “Treaties," compromising only 1% of the entries with only 4 topics, could have been a more expansive, general category that included topics like Greater Serbia, Megali Idea, religion, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and drug trafficking among other issues so intertwined with the war in the Balkans.

Richard Hall’s War in the Balkans is a wonderful addition to the ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Reference collection as its high-quality, accessible, and fascinating articles along with numerous illustrations and maps make the book a must-have for scholars and history enthusiasts alike. In today's digital era, this volume might be dismissed in favor of Wikipedia or other online sources. However, the depth of analysis achieved, along with the detailed and concise topics, is not easily found in traditional encyclopedias. This encyclopedia also offers much more than what students have grown accustomed to in the age before the internet. War in the Balkans is one of those books that hardly sits on a shelf for long.

Continue reading...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Earlier this week, current Trump top advisor Boris Epshteyn and former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis plead not guilty to the nine felony charges each was charged with in connection with helping Donald Trump attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona. Given all the pleas entered by Trump’s criminal associates over the past year, we should just refer to this event as: “Tuesday.” When I read about these latest criminal developments by Trump’s allies, though, for some reason what popped into my head was Trump’s past comments calling numerous scandals ��bigger” and “worse” than Watergate because he believed it helped him politically to say that.  In fact, Trump said that about everything from Hillary’s emails to his false claim that the FBI had engaged in surveillance of one of his then 2016 campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos.

The Watergate scandal was huge and it did send more people to jail than many may recall. As a quick refresher, like Trump’s 2020 illegal scheme, the goal of Watergate was to illegally impact a presidential campaign to help the incumbent Republican President win re-election. The Watergate scandal began on June 17, 1972, when several burglars connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee. They had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.

From there, a sprawling cover up involving President Nixon and top aides was launched ranging from providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the “Watergate burglars” to a plan to instruct the CIA to impede the FBI’s investigation of the crime. By the time the criminal prosecutions came to an end, more than 40 people were charged with crimes relating to the Watergate scandal--—including high ranking Nixon administration and campaign officials.

Some of the best known include Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman who served 18 months for conspiracy and obstruction of justice, former U.S. Attorney General and reelection campaign manager John Mitchell who was found guilty of conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice and served 19 months in prison, and top domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman, convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury. Others who went to prison included Nixon’s White House Counsel John Dean, legal counsel to the Nixon campaign G. Gordon Liddy, White House aide Jeb Magruder and more. Nixon would’ve been charged with crimes if he had not been pardoned by Gerald Ford—a point former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks has made on my SiriusXM show.

In the case of convicted felon Trump, though, what he and his criminal conspirators did was far, far worse both in terms of the potential impact on our Republic and the sheer number of people involved. Trump attempted to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election. And while Nixon lacked any ethics or morals, only Trump incited a terrorist attack on our Capitol on Jan 6 as part of his scheme to remain in power. Plus—very importantly—the scope of Trump’s scheme involved both the federal government and various GOP state officials as well. Trump corrupted not just his White House associates but in essence the entire GOP across the nation—with few exceptions. Even Nixon didn’t do that!

For example, the most sprawling criminal case involving Trump and “All the President’s Men” is the one in Fulton County, Georgia, where 19 people have been charged with illegally interfering in the state’s 2020 election. The defendants include Trump and prominent Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump lawyers John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and more.  But also charged were numerous local GOP officials such as the former chair of Georgia’s Republican Party, a sitting GOP State Senator and the former head of the Coffee County Republicans. Then there are the fraudulent elector charges brought against Trump allies in five states: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan. While Trump has not been charged in these cases, all the crimes were committed by Trump’s advisors, lawyers and local GOP officials in an effort to help Trump overturn the election results in their respective states so he could remain in power as President despite losing.

[...] Yes, we are witnessing something actually far “bigger’ and “worse” than Watergate. And it’s the crime spree of convicted felon Trump and his allies. This is the person the GOP chose to be their 2024 presidential nominee knowing full well this very history. Again, this reminds us of how dangerous today’s lawless and anti-democratic GOP is and why we must politically crush them this November in order to save our democratic Republic.

Dean Obeidallah has yet another banger post: The GOP’s fake electors plot to attempt to steal the 2020 elections for Donald Trump in multiple close states was worse than Watergate ever was.

[mariacallous]

[knoxoverstreet16]

🏰🏺➿ For the Python ask game!

🏰 I'm a very new python fan and ashamed to say... I haven't watched holy grail yet. I know it's going to be brilliant so I'm planning to watch it as a reward for finishing exams!

🏺 This is a difficult one... but I'll say Mandy, bc Terry Jones' voice never fails to make me laugh. (Although as a huge George Harrison fan I'm tempted to say Mr Papadopoulos but he's not really a proper character)

➿️ Would have to say Mr Pycroft! Although I love all the characters in the Meaning of Life (with an honourable mention to Graham Chapman as a fabulous drag queen)

Thanks so much for the ask! This was great to do!

[partisan-by-default]

Trump’s Surprising Ties to Another Russian Disinfo Scheme

Former Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos and his wife, Simona Mangiante, have become involved with Intelligencer, a growing conservative site heavily critical of the war in Ukraine (the right-wing site has no apparent connection with New York magazine’s Intelligencer). Nearly half of the company’s board members are former aides, surrogates, or fake electors for Trump’s previous campaigns, The Guardian reported Thursday.

The site’s financial backing did not indicate that it had received funds directly from the Kremlin. Instead, Intelligencer began as a subsidiary of a right-wing radio station in Australia that covers a host of conservative U.S. issues, including climate change denial and Covid-19 conspiracies, until George Eliason, an American journalist with experience in Ukraine, took over the website. In recent months, Intelligencer’s conspiracy-laden articles have been shared by the likes of Alex Jones and former Trump aide Roger Stone.

“Intelligencer appears to be one of several [Russia-friendly] operations targeting the upcoming U.S. elections, leveraging a network of far-right figures and disinformation tactics,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Guardian.

Intelligencer is far from the only conservative site that’s been busted in a recent government crackdown ahead of the November election. Earlier this month, another pro-Trump media group—Tenet Media—folded under the pressure of a Justice Department investigation that found the company had been backed to the tune of millions of dollars from Russian state-controlled media.

[cringefaillosershowdown]

YOUR COMPETITORS HAVE ARRIVED

time for the announcement, 64 go in, and one will leave THE MOST CRINGEFAIL LOSER OF ALL.

May the best one win, round one will be randomized and move on from there bracketed

And if you would like to make some propaganda… well just make sure to use the tag #cringefaillosershowdown2023 bc I do wanna see it!

Matthomule from The Owl House

Reigen Arataka from Mob Psycho 100 

Berdly from Deltarune

Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things

Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney

Richie Toizer from IT 

Lester Papadopoulos from Trials of Apollo

Asa Mitaka from Chainsaw Man

Dennis Renoylds from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia 

You from Real Life

Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb

Gabriel Agreste from Miraculous

Harry Du Bois from Disco Elysium

George Costanza from Seinfeld

 Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death

 Kai Smith from Ninjago

Zane Ro’meave from Mystreet

Larry Butz from Ace Attorney

Rick Shades from Epithet Erased

Travis Valkrum from Mystreet

Dante from Mystreet

Baron Draxum from Rise of the TMNT

Lars Barriga from Steven Universe

Apollo Justice from Ace Attorney

Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney

Sebastian Debeste from Ace Attorney

Shiver from Splatoon 3

The Riddler from DC

Shang Qinghua from The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Thunder McQueen from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Abraham “Abe” Lincoln from Clone High

Beetlejuice from Beetlejuice

Cave Johnson from Portal

Leonardo Hamato from Rise of the TMNT

Childe from  Genshin Impact

Dareth from Ninjago

Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter

David Rose from Schitts Creek

GLaDOS from Portal

Giovanni Potage from Epithet Erased

Heath Burns from Monster High

 Henry Emily from FNAF

Jadeite from Sailor Moon

Jedidiah Martin from Camp Here and There

Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai

Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives

Kai Toshiki from Cardfight Vanguard

Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom

Tsumugi Aoba from Ensemble Star

The Cabbage Man from ATLA

The Maverick from OMORI

Team Rocket from Pokemon

Tang from Lego Monkey Kid

Sou Hiyori from Your Turn To Die

Silver The Hedgehog from Sonic

Shun Kaidou from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Sea Hawk from She-ra

Sasha Waybright from Amphibia

Ocean O’Connell Rosenburg from Ride the Cyclone

Zenitsu Agatsuma from Demon Slayer

Percy de Rolo from Critical Roll

Randy Valentine Jade from Dialtown

Seto Kaiba from Yu-gi-oh

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

ROUND 3 MASTERPOST

ROUND 4 MASTERPOST

ROUND 5 MASTERPOST

ROUND 6 MASTERPOST

[tournament-of-the-twinks]

Characters included in bracket

The Onceler from the Lorax (11)

Noise from Roleslaying with Roman (10)

Link from The Legend of Zelda (8)

Ambrosius Goldenloin from Nimona (4)

Enjolras from Les Miserables (4)

Chip from Just Roll With It (4)

Osamu Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs (4)

Vash the Stampede from Trigun Stampede (3)

Hong Lu from Limbus Company (3)

Silver the Hedgehog from Sonic (3)

Julian Bashir from Star Trek Deep Space 9 (3)

Homestar Runner from Homestar Runner (3)

Keefe Sencen from Keeper of the Lost Cities (3)

Marvin the Magnificent from Jacksepticeye (3)

Ballister from Nimona (2)

Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle (2)

Yuki Sohma from Fruits Basket (2)

Hunter from The Owl House (2)

Nico di Angelo from PJO (2)

Prompto Argentum from Final Fantasy XV (2)

Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club (2)

Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet (2)

Hamlet from Hamlet (2)

Daniel from Camp Camp (2)

Lear from Pokemon (2)

Asmodeus from Obey Me Shall We Date (2)

Nathan from Misfits (2)

Scout from Team Fortress 2 (2)

Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa (2)

Alfredo Linguini from Ratatouille (2)

Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss (2)

Jermey Heere from Be More Chill (2)

Shin Tsukimi from Your Turn to Die (2)

Rui Kamishiro from Project Sekai (2)

Luke Skywalker from Star Wars (2)

Nei Huaisang from mdzs (2)

Lester Papadopoulos from The Trials of Apollo (2)

Vince Noir from The Mighty Boosh (2)

Rick Pratt from The Young Ones (2)

Haruka Sakurai from Milgram (2)

Lilia Vanrouge from Twisted Wonderland (2)

Riddle Rosehearts from Twisted Wonderland (2)

Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove (2)

Ennon from Good Omens (2)

Eric “Bitty” Bittle from Check‚ Please! (2)

Mars from Project Nought (1)

Twink from Q-Force (1)

Mike from Roleslaying with Roman (1)

Icarus from Greek Mythology (1)

Kajiyama Fuuta from MILGRAM (1)

Damien from Dream Daddy (1)

Mills from Be my Villian (1)

Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket (1)

Tobias from Faroff (1)

Venti from Genshin Impact (1)

Kyoya Ootori from Ouran High School Host Club (1)

Bo from She-Ra (1)

Zazie from Trigun Stampede (1)

Leviathan from Obey Me Shall We Date (1)

Demon Eric from Good Omens (1)

Hypnos from Hades (1)

Jenson Endo from The Prince of Southland (1)

Yule from Wild Beast Forest House (1)

Lyney from Genshin Impact (1)

Kyle from She Ra (1)

Sampo from Honkai Star Rail (1)

Tartaglia from Genshin Impact (1)

Oscar from Tea for Two (1)

Ezra from Tea for Two (1)

Shut from Pretty Cure (1)

Merlin from Fate Grand Order (1)

Felix Escellun from Last Legacy (1)

Asra from The Arcana (1)

Julian from The Arcana (1)

Florian from Tea for Two (1)

Marlon from Tea for Two (1)

Errol from Tea for Two (1)

Billy Kaplan from Young Avengers/Marvel comics (1)

Chuuya from Bungou Stray Dogs (1)

Belphegor from Obey Me Shall We Date (1)

Haku from Spirited Away (1)

Anasui from Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Stone Ocean (1)

Mizuki from Kamisama Kiss (1)

Kurama from Kamisama Kiss (1)

Sigma from Bungo Stray Dogs (1)

Gowther from Seven Deadly Sins (1)

Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura (1)

Ren Ichimoku from Hell Girl (1)

Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke (1)

Shuntaro Chishiya from Alice In Borderland (1)

Bailin from Bailin and Li Yun (1)

Li Yun from Bailin and Li Yun (1)

Kappa from Castle Swimmer (1)

Siren from Castle Swimmer (1)

Jack from Check, Please! (1)

Al Leon from Appare-Ranman! (1)

Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog (1)

Shang Qinghua from The Scum Villian’s Self Saving System (1)

Lio from Promare (1)

James from Pokemon (1)

N from Pokemon (1)

Bruno from Encanto (1)

Diego the Squire from Nimona (1)

Finnian from Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler (1)

Satan from Obey Me Shall We Date (1)

Ingo from Pokemon (1)

Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket (1)

Hatori Sohma from Fruits Basket (1)

The Man with the Yellow Hat from Curious George (1)

Laurent de Vere from The Captive Prince (1)

Miles Maitland from Bright Young Things (1)

Lance Mcclain from Voltron Legendary Defender (1)

Lelouch from Code Geass (1)

Edgar Valden from Identity V (1)

Hercules (pre training) from Disney’s Hercules (1)

Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion (1)

Connor from Dear Evan Hansen (1)

Orpheus from Hadestown (1)

Charlie Price from Kinky Boots (1)

Wallace from Pokemon (1)

Keith Kogane from Voltron (1)

Double Trouble from She Ra (1)

Shigure Sohma from Fruits Basket (1)

Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket (1)

Langa from Sk8 the Infinity (1)

Jaskier from The Witcher (1)

Fay D. Fluorite from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (1)

Karube from Alice in Borderland (1)