Let’s talk about the House of Kavanaugh—specifically, the hefty mortgage on said house.

[THREAD] 1/ In 2006, Brett & Ashley Kavanaugh bought a house for $1.22m. They put $245k down, a number that does not appear on his financial disclosures of 2005, which show net worth of $91k.

In light of the epic (in every sense of the word) NYT story on Trump's tax fraud, let's have a quick review of all the legal troubles these traitors are now in:

[THREAD] 1/ PAUL MANAFORT, Trump’s campaign chair (May-Aug 2016): found guilty on eight counts, pleaded guilty on a bunch more as part of a plea deal in which he must cooperate with Mueller. Met w/Mueller this week, in fact.

Pleased to announce a slate of #DirtyRubles Trump/Russia events, on three of the next five Sundays: The event in Madison, my hometown, is taking place at an undisclosed secret location [insert Dick Cheney joke here]. If you'd like to come, you need to RSVP:
facebook.com/events/6757800…

cc: @reallymdp @Post_Truth_Era @CodyStumpo

Let's talk about the Putin/Alt-Right/GOP propaganda machine—the REAL Devil's Triangle—as it relates to Brett #Kavanaugh:

[THREAD] 1/ This cozy little messaging arrangement, which operates happily in the dark most of the time, is now being exposed because of the fatally flawed candidate Donald Trump has nominated to the Supreme Court.

Things might feel a bit bleak. Kavanaugh might be in, Rosenstein might be out, and both would be horrible outcomes for democracy.

So let’s put things into perspective.

[THREAD] 1/ The Kavanaugh fight is not over. Even if he gets CONFIRMED, the fight is not over. He stands credibly accused of sexual assault, and he owes lots and lots of money to…we don’t know who.

There’s also this business of HIS (maybe) stolen emails:

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1038225359877984256

Let’s talk about #Kavanaugh. This is why he should not be confirmed. And it has nothing to do with his political beliefs.

[THREAD] 1/ #Kavanaugh was not on the list of judges given to Trump by Judicial Watch, but he was tapped anyway. This was after Trump said he’d “study” (hahaha) judicial positions on various things—namely whether or not a POTUS can be indicted.

Let's talk about Vladimir Putin and his relationship to terror.

[THREAD] 1/ Vladimir Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president in 1999, on a wave of popularity generated by his decisive handling of the response to a series of terrorist attacks on Russian apartment buildings in September 1999, when he was prime minister.

Yesterday, standing in front of uniformed officers who clapped at him like trained seals, Donald Trump waved a print-out to the press that he pathetically claimed touted his many accomplishments as president.

Let’s take a moment to recall his ACTUAL accomplishments.

[THREAD] 1/ Despite Trump’s expert tossing of paper towels, Hurricane Maria claimed more American lives in Puerto Rico than did the attacks of 9/11. Trump continues to laud his handling of the disaster, because paper towels.

So Trump sees this as a binary, us-or-them, Manichean choice: with him or against him?

He is, for once, exactly right.

You're pro-Trump, or you're pro-America. No third option.

Silence is tacit approval of Trump.

Let's take a closer look:

[THREAD]

https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1035747802264035329

1/ Trump is a recidivist sexual assailant & rapist, a serial bankrupter of businesses, a proud white supremacist, & a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian mob. He cares about himself, & ONLY himself. Watch, in the days ahead, when he turns on his kids, and proves my point.

Let’s clear up a few things about Trump, as we head into Labor Day weekend.

[THREAD] 1/ Trump is NOT going to fire Jeff Sessions. Nazi Keebler Elf remains popular with GOP, and Trump has said repeatedly he hates him b/c of the Russia recusal. Firing Sessions = egregious obstruction.

Yesterday was a big day for democracy, for the rule of law, and for the United States. But with so much breaking news, it's a lot to process. Let's try and keep it straight.

[THREAD] 1/ First and foremost: Trump/Russia is real. It is not a witch hunt. It is not a conspiracy theory. It is not cooked up by a fraudster on 4Chan. It's real. Trump conspired with Russia. He did. That none of yesterday's 16 guilty pleas directly finger Russia is irrelevant.

Inspired by the great thread by @cmclymer, we went back & re-watched "Two Cathedrals," the finale of S2 of The West Wing. (Holds up beautifully).

Some notes contrasting the Bartlet Administration with the current one:

[THREAD] 1/ At his fancy prep school, young Jed Bartlet is made aware of his rich white male privilege, and much else, by Mrs. Landingham.

Trump is still unaware of his, and much else.

Let’s take a closer look at the Trump Transition Team. As per usual, Trump has surrounded himself with grifters, scumbags, con-men, and traitors.

[THREAD] 1/ The chair of the TTT? Mike Pence. The @VP has lived in the shadows for most of the last two years, emerging only to protest at NFL games or to promote zany space stuff. But make no mistake: Manafort’s Chosen One (and thus Putin’s) was IN CHARGE OF THE TRANSITION.

Right before my vacation, I was interviewed by @Salon, which called #DirtyRubles "a riveting, infuriating and, against all the odds, uplifting book. It's essential reading for all Americans."

ICYMI, I wanted to share some of the highlights:

salon.com/2018/07/28/wri… 1/ On Trump's criminality:

"I think it’s hard for people to square the avuncular guy on TV who cracked jokes and fired people with the real Donald J. Trump. The truth is, the guy’s been mobbed up for DECADES, with ties to both La Cosa Nostra and Russian organized crime....

OK, a bunch of stuff has happened in the last few weeks, and I'm just back from vacation, so I'm going to do a little impromptu Trump/Russia round-up, just to keep everything straight in my own head. 1/ First, Alex Jones and #InfoWars. The guy admitted, in a court of law, that he was a performance artist who didn't believe any of the crap he was peddling. That was last year. Why are we only now realizing that he's a BS artist & con man? Better late than never, I guess.

Stuff moves really fast these days, and I feel like we haven't properly made fun of this guy.

I badly Photoshopped him into a few pictures. Feel free to join in the fun!

Back from a lovely family vacation.

I resisted the urge to jump back in during the week, despite ostrich jackets & JD Gordon news & Sarah Slanders vying for the title of Worst Active Trumpist.

But I did want to share something from my trip.

[THREAD] 1/ We were in St. Petersburg on vacation (Florida, not Russia!), and on Tuesday we drove up to Disney World. My wife had been there years ago, but the kids & I had never been.

(“I’m too dark for Disney,” my 13-year-old son said after we left...chip off the old block!).

Let's talk about the Trump Tower Meeting of 9 June 2016.

We are spending too much time on Giuliani, not enough on the facts.

[THREAD] 1/ The subject line of the email sent to Junior, Manafort & Kushner was: "RE: RUSSIA - CLINTON - PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL." So they all knew well in advance what the meeting was going to involve. Junior has admitted as much.

Let’s talk about the “kompromat” tapes: what they are, what they are NOT—and how, at this point, they aren’t really that important.

What we ALREADY KNOW about Trump is, or should be, damning enough.

[THREAD] 1/ After Helsinki, there can be no further denying that Putin has a hold on Trump. Before, one could make the argument that Trump “liked” Putin, in the way tween girls once “liked” the stars of Twilight, and this odd man-crush was why he was so deferential.

By popular demand, the audiobook version of #DirtyRubles is now available at Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

Below are some reasons why you should give it a listen.

If you would share this and help spread the word, I’d be most obliged. Spasibo!

amazon.com/Dirty-Rubles-I… 1/ Any doubt about Trump’s utter subservience to Putin was erased on Monday in Helsinki, when the former capitulated to the latter. Trump/Russia is more timely than ever. Everyone needs to be informed.

#TreasonSummit

As the "president" meets in private with his patron, and Trump's treason becomes more egregious and impossible to deny, shall we do a roll call of sedition?

#TreasonSummit 1/ Clearly @SpeakerRyan is a traitor to his country. Thanks for selling us all out, Paul! I hope the ghost of Ayn Rand is happy about your sedition!