The Magnitsky Act and the Woman Who Met with Trump Jr.: Part Six of a Six-Part Series
This is Part Six of a six-part series on the death of Sergei Magnitsky, what he uncovered before his death, and how it all relates to Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian woman who met with Trump Jr., Manafort, and Jared Kushner in June 2016. The springboard for the series of posts is this Michael Weiss article about Veselnitskaya and how she is connected to the Magnitsky case.
In Part One, I introduced the series and Weiss’s conclusions.
In Part Two, I began setting forth the background of the aggressive tax fraud scheme that Sergei Magnitsky discovered, as set out in Browder’s book Red Notice.
In Part Three, I discussed what Magnitsky did when he uncovered the scheme — and the terrible price he paid as a result.
In Part Four, I discussed the reaction of the Russian government to the Magnitsky Act, and why they hate it so much.
In Part Five, I discussed the connections between Natalia Veselnitskaya and the thieves behind the tax fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky.
Today, in Part Six, I conclude by discussing Veselnitskaya’s relentless propaganda effort against Bill Browder, Sergei Magnitsky, and the Magnitsky Act. I return to Michael Weiss’s weekend piece, and draw some conclusions about the significance of the meeting with the Trump personnel.
PROPAGANDIZING AGAINST MAGNITSKY AND LOBBYING AGAINST THE MAGNITSKY ACT
Weiss’s latest piece notes the by-now familiar fact that Veselnitskaya has lobbied against the Magnitsky Act:
Concurrent with her legal work, she also lobbied in Washington against the very foundation upon which the US government’s case against Prevezon was constructed.
In February 2016, a few months before her meeting with Team Trump, this Moscow resident co-founded a Delaware-registered NGO called the Human Rights Global Accountability Initiative Foundation, purporting to seek the revocation of a controversial ban on American adoption of Russian children. In actuality, the ban itself and the dangled prospect of its repeal was cleverly conceived of by the Russian government as leverage with Washington to negotiate away a piece of American legislation acutely painful to the Kremlin.
He also explains how Veselnitskaya has aggressively maintained, consistent with the position of the Russian government, that Browder and Magnitsky are the Real Bad Guys:
Veselnitskaya has frequently argued in the Russian media that the entire story of what Magnitsky uncovered and the plight he endured is a fabrication accepted by a gullible US government from Magnitsky’s former client, William Browder, the CEO of Hermitage and Magnitsky’s posthumous flame tender.
In 2014, she told RBK-TV, “Sergei Magnitsky did not uncover any theft referred in the Magnitsky Act,” and, “Many events and data stated in the Magnitsky Act did not exist.”
Weiss also details her connections to high-level officials in the FSB, which was ultimately behind the case against Browder and Magnitsky. Indeed, she is also connected to Yuri Chaika, a high-level prosecutor and Putin favorite who opposed the Magnitsky Act.
CONNECTIONS TO YURI CHAIKA, PROSECUTOR WHO SOUGHT REVERSAL OF MAGNITSKY ACT
Veselnitskaya admitted in a Wall Street Journal interview that she knows Chaika and provided him with information about the Magnitsky affair:
The Russian lawyer whom Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort met last year with the hopes of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton says she talked with the office of Russia’s top prosecutor while waging a campaign against a U.S. sanctions law and the hedge-fund manager who backed it.
Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya said she wasn’t working for Russian authorities, but she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that she was meeting with Russian authorities regularly, and shared information about the hedge-fund manager with the Russian prosecutor general’s office, including with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, a top official appointed by the Kremlin.
“I personally know the general prosecutor,” Ms. Veselnitskaya said. “In the course of my investigation [about the fund manager], I shared information with him.”
Mr. Chaika’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether he knows and received information from Ms. Veselnitskaya.
The hedge-fund manager discussed in the article is Bill Browder.
Now, recall that former tabloid reporter Rob Goldstone had written Trump Jr. saying that the dirt on Hillary was going to come from “the Crown prosecutor of Russia:”
“Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,” Mr. Goldstone wrote in the email. “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”
He added, “What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?”
There is no such title as crown prosecutor in Russia — the Crown Prosecution Service is a British term — but the equivalent in Russia is the prosecutor general of Russia.
That office is held by Yury Yakovlevich Chaika, a Putin appointee who is known to be close to Ms. Veselnitskaya.
So Veselnitskaya admits she knows Chaika, a man very close to Vladimir Putin, and the most logical candidate for the person who (according to Goldstone’s email) offered to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary. This is all rather significant because the Magnitsky Act was the focus of the meeting from the point of view of Veselnitskaya, and Chaika was similarly interested in having the Magnitsky Act sanctions removed. Financial Times:
Mr Chaika did have an interest in the Magnitsky sanctions.
Bill Browder, the US financier who employed Sergei Magnitsky and inspired the sanctions on Russian officials, has accused Mr Chaika of covering up the real causes of Magnitsky’s death in prison and of closing down the investigation into the $230m tax fraud.
Two months before the June 2016 meeting, Viktor Grin — a top Chaika deputy who is on the sanctions list — gave Dana Rohrabacher, a pro-Russian US congressman, a dossier that included materials from Ms Veselnitskaya and hinted at possibilities of better US-Russia relations if Congress repealed the Magnitsky Act.
“Veselnitskaya was working hand in glove with Chaika’s office on the anti-Magnitsky campaign,” Mr Browder said.
None of this means that Donald Trump collaborated with Russia, or that Trump Jr. or the other meeting attendees were doing so. That’s not the point of this series of posts.
But when this meeting was first announced, certain commentators on the right portrayed Veselnitskaya as a sort of odd character with an inexplicable obsession with adoption. Here is Brit Hume laughing it up at the notion that the meeting with Veselnitskaya was in any way connected to the Russian government:
Hume portrays the meeting as farcical — but someone armed with the information I have discussed in this series of posts would come to a different conclusion. Rather than some random Moscow lawyer only tangentially connected to the Kremlin, Veselnitskaya was well connected not only to the Kremlin, but also to thieves deeply involved in the fraud uncovered by Magnitsky. Now, with Weiss’s latest piece, we know that she was strangely enriched in a manner similar to the enrichment of those (like cops Kuznetsov and Karpov) behind Magnitsky’s murder.
Perhaps the stupidest single opinion I saw about Veselnitskaya was this howler from Trump shill Jack Posobiec, which I ran across while perusing a link supplied by a commenter of mine who (like Posobiec) is a mindless Trump-supporting drone:
Natalia Veselnitskaya is extremely anti-Putin and anti-Trump. Anyone who spends 5 seconds looking at her FB would see that pic.twitter.com/LqDW2eJ62z
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) July 12, 2017
This has to be a candidate for the dumbest thing I have ever seen on the Internet. The notion that Veselnitskaya is out there promoting Bill Browder’s book is something that only a dim, totally uninformed, demi-literate nincompoop would say publicly. If this series of posts has taught you nothing else, it is that Veselnitskaya is very much anti-Browder, anti-Magnitsky, and in favor of Putin’s attempts to have the Magnitsky Act repealed.
If you have come this far, and you want to see the entire story presented in a compelling documentary that contains footage of the Russian hero Sergei Magnitsky, and what his death means, I encourage you to watch this:
It’s only about an hour long, and tells the story better than I can.
You’ll never think about the issue of “Russian adoption” the same way.
[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]
Mr. Patterico what seems to be overlooked by our friend ctrl+F in this discussion of propaganda efforts against the Magnitsky Act is any mention of the role of Fusion GPS.
This troubles me.
Here’s some interesting correspondence between Mr. Ben Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management and the US “Department of Justice” dating from July 2016( about a month after Mr. Trump Jr’s celebrated meeting with a nefarious Russian lady.)
What’s interesting to me also is that the Trump campaigned spurned Natalia Veselnitskaya’s advances, cutting short their meeting with her and freezing her out of any further interaction with the campaign… and this was the message the sent in June of 2016.
It was two months later that rumors of the pee pee dossier began splashing around Washington D.C.
And a bit after that is when John McCain delivered that pee pee dossier to the corrupt FBI.
The question has been asked Fusion GPS Possibly Working With Democrats to Discredit Trump?
But I think the better question is: Was the Fusion GPS memo circulated in late 2016 in retaliation for the Trump campaign’s refusal to participate in Natalia’s anti-Magnitsky Act activities?
Other than the oversight about the role of Fusion GPS I think this series has been really phenomenal and I’ve learned a lot.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:08 amPotomac square, that Joe tripped outfit, he used to work for yeargh. Was recently flicking fir kueautee terrorists at gutmo
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:11 amThank you for this series of post, Patterico. They were informative and stimulating and very well crafted. Each one has been better than the one before.
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:13 amoops this was the message *they* sent in June of 2016 i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:15 amIts a good primer, the Russian untouchables link upthread expands the circle of player like Mr grin in following the track o where the money went to lynton Crosby and lord goldsmith in the uk
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:17 amQuotable from the post:
See if you can guess who the “mindless Trump-supporting drone” is!
Posobiec’s evidence that this lady is against Trump and Putin? As you can see, it is the fact that among her Facebook photos, there is one for Bill Browder’s book. Posobiec apparently missed the fact that when this woman mentions Bill Browder, it is always to defame him. Quoting Weiss from the post above:
Of course researching the facts is too much analysis for Posobiec. Yet his Fake News made it into some other chucklehead’s blog post, at a site called American Mirror, where one can find this riotously funny statement:
Citing, of course, Posobiec.
And then, of course, the American Mirror post was dutifully linked at this blog by our resident Trump propagandist:
Again: Posobiec and American Mirror claim she is “promoting” Browder’s book simply because a photo of her book appears in her Facebook photos. And happyfeet thinks such an allegation is worth linking us all to — not because he has researched it, but because it’s a pro-Trump link. Never mind if it is completely 100% the opposite of the truth.
From Posobiec to American Mirror to happyfeet. This is how total bullshit spreads on the Internet: when people who don’t stop for even a single solitary minute to research an assertion just spread it as fast as possible.
happyfeet’s new moniker, as far as I am concerned, is Fake News happyfeet. FNH for short.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:17 amoops above I called him Ben Browder
i keep mixing him up with that Farscape guy
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:19 amYes and you wouldn’t want to be identified with rick Wilson or Louise mensch, ghcq found her and the bbc’s Paul wood a useful tool. Still natalya is nearbeer compared to akhmetchin who is running this other circus, we’ve been dealing with for eight month, with Richard burr, jobs terrier and mark warner
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:25 amI think an intellectually honest person would apologize for having spread that Fake News on my blog.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:25 amThanks, nk. This is really the post I wanted to write — maybe this one and the last — but they just don’t have the same impact unless you have all the background supplied in the first four posts. The stuff above can be more easily shrugged off, as Brit Hume did, if you don’t have a good handle on all the players and how deep their connections are, to one another and to the Kremlin.
So last Sunday I started to write it all up and found that I had a 4300-word monstrosity on my hands. That, together with an impending busy work week (and it has been busy) led me to split it up into a series of posts that the handful of people interested in such things could follow, while worked for the taxpayers every morning, afternoon, and evening this past week.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:30 amMr. Patterico my comment what you quoted comes from here
this was like 4 days after the NYT broke the story and guess what?
even you were still using the vague phrase “Kremlin-connected” to describe Natalia Veselnitskaya (in fact you use that phrase three whole times in your short post, as if for emphasis)
and while you were active in that thread challenging other people’s comments, the one of mine you now find to be so scandalous, you let it pass unremarked!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:33 amAt the tine we didn’t know muss pepperpot, or that the Obama administration had furnished her an open ended Vusa, akhmetshin, was her supervisor and he was running another circus that ioffe and David cornwrre given tickets to
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:38 amWell that must show I approved of your stupid comment then, because if I do not refute any particular stupid comment on this blog, out of the hundreds posted every week, that shows I don’t have a problem with it.
The actual facts are that I was spending more time in that thread addressing someone who was calling me a liar for saying the woman is Kremlin-connected. And no, I didn’t bother to click or investigate your link at the time, because, you know, Fake News happyfeet.
But I ran across it while doing research for this series, and I think it is an object lesson in how actual Fake News spreads. Drones like you post the links with zero investigation. You’re part of the problem. Revealing you for what you are is part of the solution.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:42 amI might feel differently about you if you behaved the way a decent and well-meaning person would behave upon learning that they had been guilty of spreading disinformation.
I did not expect you to behave that way, or anything remotely like it. And it turns out I am right. You’re not. Hence my utter contempt for you. It’s well-earned contempt, and it has built up over a period of several years.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:46 amMy feeling is this Mr. Patterico.
At the time this was a story being largely driven by leaks and whispers from the sleazy fbi and other shady actors to the new york times and others in the mainstream media.
I felt at the time that a healthy skepticism needed to be applied to their reporting.
I still feel this way, because I think the New York Times is biased, and you can’t just accept what they say at face value.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:46 amPikachu Dorset care about anything, but this money laundering operation has been ongoing fit A longtime yet Mueller want onto it, and comey had very little scrutiny of it, Michael walker who had been chasing siviets for thirty some years now can tell you have they fumbled the ball. Russuais as Churchill once said is mystery wrapped inside a riddle inside an enigma, we thought we understood it in the 90s, we were horribly mistaken.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:51 amSo instead you accept at face value a bullshit post based on a tweet from Jack Fucking Posobiec.
I see zero regret over that. And I didn’t expect to.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:51 amThe Gateway Pundits and Posobiecs and other shills — and their enablers — are the enemies of any attempt to have rational political discourse. I will make a strong effort to treat people with respect and charity, but it strikes me as foolish to treat these people as anything but the menace they are.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:53 amin truth i’ve kinda moved on to the Fusion GPS thing
I think their role in this whole affair bears closer examination
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:54 amWhet is kluev come from, many of the operators had previous convictions not only for white collar crime but violent ones but where allowed to operate.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:56 amMy Polar Care Cube is iced up and pumping nicely and I have just received Red Notice from my postman. With no Football worth watching. I am all set.
mg (31009b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:57 amThanks Patterico.
mg,
Awesome. It’s a real thriller.
I learned about that book, and many others I have read recently, from Garry Kasparov’s Twitter feed. It’s a good follow.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:10 amThat’s true and actually a pretty good question. If I get time I’ll look into that.
It seems a commonplace that criminals are released in order to carry out fraud on behalf of Russian officials.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:12 amI felt at the time that a healthy skepticism needed to be applied to their reporting.
I still feel this way, because I think the New York Times is biased, and you can’t just accept what they say at face value.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:46 am
This better be a defensible thing to say, because I agree with it, even if adoption is a smokescreen for bad things here.
SarahW (3164f0) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:27 amNobody is criticizing skepticism of the NYT or anyone else.
What I am criticizing is happyfeet’s lack of skepticism in trying to refute my assertion that Veselnitskaya is connected to the Kremlin, by linking an utterly baseless blog post that claimed she loves Bill Browder when the truth is completely the opposite.
It’s literal Fake News, SarahW, and no amount of skepticism of the NYT justifies refuting it by spreading lies, as I’m sure you agree.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:31 amTake Maggie habermans tale on the recent London tube incident and trumps reaction to it, thanfylly it was amid event but rather than focus on yet another failure of the security services that may was largely responsible, it was an attack on trump, any apologies forthcoming.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:46 ami’ve never my whole life said Ms. Veselnitskaya isn’t connected to the Kremlin
i did say though i think she sleeps with powerful and well-connected Russian men for money, and yeah that might could be fake news
but still i think it’s a really strong hypothesis that the original CNN fake news reporting in this series wholly overlooked
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 10:55 amRenumber that first of the mirror universe trek episodes the one with bearded Spock, where that Kirk killed his way to command, disposing of captain pike, modern Russia is a lot like that.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:08 ami’m also still curious about the differences between the provisions of the original Magnitsky Act and the Global one
was the first one but the camel’s nose i muse to myself as I warm up a frozen stouffer’s spinach souffle in the oven
they take a little over an hour at 350, but i like to stop mine at 45 minutes and make a little depression in the middle for an egg, then give it another 30 minutes for to produce a serviceable oeuf en cocotte
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:08 amHf, stop with the “Idindonuffin'” and just apologize already.
felipe (023cc9) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:11 amIn a different blog, Felipe would get the Wayciss meme. But I will second his motion.
urbanleftbehind (b7e902) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:25 amMr. felipe there is nothing for to apologize! I said some people were questioning certain claims about our friend Natalia’s links to the Kremlin and linked something what indeed showed that some people were questioning certain claims about our friend Natalia’s links to the Kremlin.
And that’s where I left it, going on to point out that at that stage of the story, the media was couching Ms. Veselnitskaya’s relationship to the Kremlin in vague and indefinite terms (“Kremlin-connected”)… which is to say I was being appropriately skeptical of the reporting from the New York Times.
Furthermore, by adducing an article what laid out an alternative view of the lady’s relationship to the Russian government, I gave everyone here an opportunity quite early on in the story to familiarize themselves with the arguments that were being made.
I see no evidence that I led anyone astray. But I’m certain I gave some people a head’s up that this sort of counterpoint was out there percolating, and afforded them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the specifics that they might accept them or refute them, question them or impugn their sourcing.
I would welcome it if someone were to show me that I was in some way unhealthily invested in the ideas shared by our friend at the “American Mirror,” but to my knowledge this was but a passing moment where I shared a link about a newly topical subject wee were all just then learning about.
But I’m gratified that lo these many weeks later we’ve have had something of an airing of the matter.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:29 amoops
a newly topical subject *we* were all just then learning about
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:30 am@28. =yawn= That episode was a mere 48 minutes of a series which aired for three years and repeats now and then for half a century.
_____
Mr. Feet, you do not recognize the residual mindset of the old “Soviet” at work.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:40 amBy sharing fake news, I gave everyone here an opportunity quite early on in the story to familiarize themselves with the factually false arguments that were being made. — Fake News happyfeet, justifying spreading Fake News.
That is not a real quote. It’s a good translation of what he said, though.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:48 amI’m certain I gave some people a head’s up that this sort of utterly false bullshit counterpoint was out there percolating. — FNH
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:49 amHume portrays the meeting as farcical — but someone armed with the information I have discussed in this series of posts would come to a different conclusion.
Partisan Hume, the St. Bernard of the airwaves, betrayed his journalistic ‘objectivity and credibility’ long ago — around the time he became a tennis regular w/President Ford. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:54 amso these “American Mirror” ideas were inadmissible at first blush
these ideas what challenged the mainstream media’s narrative were verboten from their advent
unloved and stillborn
not to be linked
not to be countenanced
a source of enduring shame for anyone who made note of them
what other such ideas should i be wary of
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:54 amIt’s interesting how happyfeet can use good grammar, capitalization and punctuation when he wants to. I guess it isn’t generally worth his time and effort to be serious about these discussions, except when it’s his thoughts that are at issue.
DRJ (15874d) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:58 amFake ones? “Ideas” that misrepresent known facts? How about that as a guide?
Your practiced befuddlement is predictable and hilarious. I am enjoying watching you beclown yourself.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 11:59 amDRJ, he wants the ability to take the clown nose off from time to time — but when called on his spreading of Fake News, puts it back on and/or pretends there is no problem with what he did.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:00 pmThat’s his game, Drj. His Columbo clown is a defense mechanism.
Ben burn (96ff85) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:01 pmi accidentally hit the shift key and it made some of the letters big is all
i slipped
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:05 pm@43.i slipped
On a banana peel- as clowns are known to do.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:09 pmMr. felipe there is nothing for to apologize! I said some people were questioning certain claims about our friend Natalia’s links to the Kremlin and linked a bullshit post that had the true facts completely backwards, what indeed showed that some moronic Trump drones were questioning certain claims about our friend Natalia’s links to the Kremlin. — FNH
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:09 pm“spreading of Fake News” btw is a brand new concept
it was invented by stinkypig and her CNN Jake Tapper fake news propaganda sluts after they were humiliated by how President Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 (historical victory)
“spreading of Fake News” isn’t really a thing though, because people have always been expected to be skeptical about what they read and hear and see, especially so in a political context
i know i sure am
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:10 pmThanks for planning and executing this series, Patterico. It was enlightening and I credit you with a modest public service by publicizing these details further.
Nice thing about that comment blocker script: It doesn’t care if the clown nose is on or off. Since I don’t either, it has vastly improved my enjoyment of this blog’s comments section
Beldar (fa637a) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:43 pmI learned to loath taper when he slandered my state for salon, and his first publishing gig.
So why is there no investigation of prevezon laundromats which like castle bank Franklin national and bcci always collapse
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 12:54 pmand I still think the role of Fusion GPS in this situation is likely not a coincidence
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:08 pmOne of a number of things I admire about Patterico is his ability to admit when he is wrong, and try to address how that happened in a positive way.
It’s a sign of seriousness and maturity.
Simon Jester (fbd5ad) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:31 pmwe should all try to be more like him
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:34 pmMany of the players were in their teens and early 20s, when the soviet union collapsed and summers roadshow gang, sold the countries patrimony to a passel of thieves
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:45 pmHarry hart seems confused:
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:51 pmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/23/colin-firth-becomes-italian-citizen-amid-uncertainty-says-will
they’re a cute couple but i completely forget what he looks like two seconds after i look away
there’s never been a time his whole career i couldn’t have walked right by him and never known it
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 1:54 pm— What is real reason Russia did not send cosmonauts to Moon?
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2017 @ 2:25 pm— Government afraid they would defect.
Feedback, we get feedback. From the RedState Facebook page, this feedback on Part Four:
Someone actually went to the trouble of creating a meme about how boring my posts are, so that they could upload it to Facebook.
Oh, Internet! What would I do without you and your lovable denizens?
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 2:45 pmThe feedback continues. From RedState’s Facebook page, another satisfied customer expresses his appreciation for the work I did integrating video and other information in Part Two:
Lol.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/23/2017 @ 2:54 pmWhat you could do, Patterico, is write a post that’s more in keeping with Karen Tanner’s interests and intellectual level. This topic for instance? http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/what-does-jax-taylor-think-of-stassi-schroeders-breakup-with-patrick-meagher
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2017 @ 2:54 pmThe only thing that will help Rod O’Toole is a brain transplant.
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2017 @ 2:56 pm@52. Bingo. Flotsam eventually sinks, too.
______
@55. LOL There’s more ‘truth’ than ‘humor’ in that than you may realize.
Back in the day when the Soviets were preparing to loft cosmonauts aboard Vostok spacecraft, the Politburo boys made it known to ‘The Chief Designer’ that the spacecraft had to be ground controlled, leaving the cosmonauts little more than passengers along for the ride, out of fear they might try to defect and land outside the borders of the USSR.
Ever the engineer, Korolev quietly said ‘nyet,’ arguing if a problem arose from the ground link, the cosmonaut should have the capability to control his craft in an emergency. So just before the launch of Vostok 1, Korolev gave Yuri Gagarin a 4-digit code to use if a problem occurred to override the ground control link, which Gargarin penciled on the wall of his spacecraft.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/23/2017 @ 3:31 pmI saw that film but mostly because of Nicole kidman:
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 3:44 pmhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2hxoKotoQU
Enjoying every second of Red Notice.
mg (31009b) — 9/23/2017 @ 7:55 pmNurses and physical therapy always get in the way of a great book.
Thanks again, Patterico.
We are Penn State, barely as it turned out.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 9/23/2017 @ 8:14 pmthe fictional companion:
narciso (d1f714) — 9/23/2017 @ 8:19 pmhttps://www.openlettersmonthly.com/
2. happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/23/2017 @ 9:08 am
Was the Fusion GPS memo circulated in late 2016 in retaliation for the Trump campaign’s refusal to participate in Natalia’s anti-Magnitsky Act activities?
You think maybe Putinurned against Trump already in June 2016?
That is actuakly just aboutwhen the efforts to help him began. I mean he leaks to Wikileaks. Efforst (too little and too late) to penetrate the U.S. election machinery
Not to mention placing agents, or people they hoped would be agents, at high leveles in Trump’s campiagn – notably Manafort and Mike Flynn – who may have been a Russian spy back when he was head of the DIA, He spent a whole day at GRU headquarters in 2013.
THe false information in the dossier may have bene given to Steele because they thought he was working for MI6 or some high rnking people in the Conservative Party. The disinformation was also very very much anti-Putin. It “explained” why Trump was so favorabble to Russia – there were financial ties – they had “compromat: on him from that supposed episode in the Hotel room – and theer were also some provably false information about how the Trump campaign was colluding, like in ameeting in Prague that nvever happened.
Sammy Finkelman (ff268d) — 9/24/2017 @ 12:31 pm57. Flynn was cleared – of the created crime of lying to the FBI – right after Trump asked FBI Director James Comey on Feb 14 to go easy on him. This was promptly leaked to CNN. He wasn’t cleared of anything else.
The FBI decided, or decided to decide, Flynn had not intentionally lied about not discussing sanctions with Kislyak.
Sammy Finkelman (ff268d) — 9/24/2017 @ 12:34 pmI finally got the time to read all of these posts in the series, and what an amazing report. Thank you Patterico. Hats off to you.
Usually an enemy exposed like this unites us all against them, but not with our current zeitgeist. Russia has successfully led us to build walls everywhere between us. We’ve been infiltrated by the Kremlin, but this is a step in the right direction to put an end to it all of this baseless divisiveness.
And, by the way, take that FNH!
Tillman (a95660) — 9/28/2017 @ 11:40 am