There might be a there there.
I’d like to see more evidence still, but that’s not a good look for those who claim Russian didn’t have any influence.
I want to believe this is real, but I’m worried that we’re getting played. The Guardian article has a lot of hedging language. “Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them”—what does that mean?
We need to know a lot more about the provenance of these documents. This could be like the Bush National Guard letters all over again.
Here’s a Twitter thread pointing out problems with the excerpts in the Guardian article. Can anyone who reads Russian comment?
This is being discussed over in the Pit, in the Mueller thread, just FYI. And, the National Guard letter was brought up, too!
Another article. Nothing new, i think.
The whole, “We have tons of compromising material, as listed in the appendix that’s not included in this leak,” is a huge red flag to me.
If really a piss tape, I suppose the term “Kremlin leak” has more than one meaning…
Well, it says:
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.
The Guardian has shown the documents to independent experts who say they appear to be genuine. Incidental details come across as accurate. The overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.
So there’s no actual source being mentioned, nor are these independent experts being named. A story like this could be a complete fabrication. Alternatively, it could be completely genuine, and illegally provided to the Guardian by some high-ranking intelligence agent who understandably wishes to remain anonymous because, y’know, illegal.
When presented with a story relying on anonymous sources, you really have to judge based on the credibility of the paper reporting it. I have a high opinion of the Guardian’s journalistic standards, so I think the story is likely to be substantially true.
There are lots of real and important news stories that journalists can’t get without promising to keep their sources anonymous. It’s a mistake to assume that all articles with anonymous sources are BS.
Yeah, there’s a long way to go before I classify this as a “bombshell.” Independent confirmation is needed and even then it may not move the needle much. Trump has been regularly showing up on intelligence reports for decades now, he is at least way too comfortably embedded with the Russian oligarchy and all of this being revealed hasn’t dissuaded many of his supporters.
Sidenote: there is aggressive pushback on the part of Trump supporters against the use of anonymous sources. While those of us who understand the nature of reporting on the government, Trumpers are now making “anonymous sources” synonymous with “made up.” That just ain’t so.
This reads like a rejected le Carré plot adapted to film by the Coen Brothers, perhaps as a combined sequel that ties The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading into a common cinematic universe.
“The carpet pissers…were the Russians? Why the Russians?”
Stranger
I’m thinking the kompromat involves videotape and an underaged girl.
I long suspected/theorized that in order to do the business he did in NY/AC real estate that he did in the 80s… Donny had to “Make his Bones” and in a way that would make sure that if he turned Rat, he’d go down. I theorized that these “bones” traveled up hill… that when the families merged ( were bought into ) by the Russians… these “bones” travelled East to the Oligarchs. And that when Putin started “tossing people out of windows” (just a figure of speech; obviously he never ever did that /s ) , someone forwarded them to him as… useful Kompromat.
Do I believe that Kompromat on TFG exists? Yes.
Do I believe that it is a “Pee Tape” and not some other smoking gun ( like evidence that he orchestrated the Helo Crash in AC to consolidate total corporate control or possibly directly committed some other murder)? I can’t be sure. That said if any of you have any connections with any cop or Fed that has ever worked organised crime… you ask them if people outside the family are ever asked to “make their bones”.
I’m sure that it’s all phony Hollywood window dressing & never done…
In the long run, months, years, or decades, it will come out. I wonder if I will be alive to know the truth.
The funny part, to me, is that no one really doubts that he would DO any of the disgusting things (screw a 10-year-old, bathe in urine, bathe three 10-year olds in urine, etc.) that we’re speculating about–the only live questions are whether he’s dumb enough to allow someone to record such scenes, whether Putin has them among his vast collection of such recordings, when we will get to see this stuff exposed, etc.
Remember the Piss Tape! And the Alamo!! and the Maine!!
…je me souviens
I feel the piss tape probably doesn’t exist. And if it did, it didn’t really matter.
There was no need for blackmail. Trump would have been willing to accept Russian assistance in winning the election because it helped him win the election. And Putin would have been willing to offer that help because Russia benefitted from having Trump in office rather than Clinton.
No, dude. That’s not how it works. Blackmailers don’t want partners; they want control.
Retrieving the tape was a mission in Far Cry 5. I found that amusing.
I believe a pee tape exists. I believe that if it were released, the man in the tape would not be clearly recognizable as Donald Trump and that this would sow more doubt and confusion.
This is a technique that Vladimir Putin has used before on his enemies.
If such a tape exists, do I believe that the man in the tape is Donald Trump Sr? Frankly, not really.
I believe the Russians tried to set him up. I don’t think it’s disputed that he stayed overnight in a hotel and that the Russians offered to send 5 women to his hotel room. I also don’t have any trouble believing he ( well, his bodyguard ) turned them down. He has also said he operated under the assumption that he was being videotaped and I sort of maybe believe that.
But although I think Trump is a horrible human being with many flaws, I don’t believe hedonism is one of them. I don’t believe he’s a seeker of physical pleasure for pleasure’s sex. For him, sex is about power and control and owning women. It’s about publicly grabbing women by the pussy (insert tiny hands joke here) and fucking porn stars so he could say he did. It’s about power and winning the chase. I don’t see him as a hooker kind of guy.
Plus, even if the hookers came back, I have logistical difficulties with the pee narrative, because I don’t really believe Trump would sleep in a pee-soaked bed just to own Obama.
The Steele report was raw intelligence which Steele estimated to be 70% correct. I think the pee narrative is part of the 30%, and it was a conflated mashup of the story of Trump’s night in Russia with the story of the time Trump and some Russians attended some kinky urination show in Las Vegas - which would be a scandal in its own right if any other President had done it.
ETA: About 5 years ago, I had a theory that the man in the tape was Donald Trump Jr. - based solely on the fact that he’s also stayed in Russia and and he is hedonistic and he’s also really stupid and would probably jump at the chance to let the Russians stealthily film him getting peed on by hookers. But I never heard or saw anything to support my theory beyond that.
Trump watching Russian Hookers pee on a bed with the mentioned/told beforehand “story” to discredit Obama … I can believe.
Trump hates Black people let alone a Black Man who became POTUS. I’ll say “according to so many stories I read before he became POTUS (the Enquirer)” and his legit lawsuit background whether those who took him to court won or not. Poorer than him means, maybe, they might have had a point.
I’ve never heard anything about any Trump actually sleeping in the pee bed … just rumors they were there in the room.