Ryan wants to be president, and being connected to Trump in any way once all of his crimes are made public is not a good idea. By getting out before Trump’s indictment, Ryan will be able to claim that he was just as surprised as the rest of Trump’s supporters were by his selling his soul to Putin.

I think Ryan is hoping America’s short attention span will cause folks in 10 years to forget that he could have held Trump accountable — but only if he gets out now.

When you're speaking to a Russian of the ambassador variety (anywhere in the world), you would be well served to remember that there is a high probability that you're being intercepted by 1 or more agencies from 1 or more countries. One would naturally assume these "intelligent" Congresspeople, Senators, and Generals would actually be cognizant of this fact, but alas apparently it just slips their tiny little minds. :)

That sounds almost too good to be true. Talk about a smoking gun! What is a "signal intelligence recording"? And do we know who leaked the original chunk of dialogue you linked to?

The "signals intelligence" a.k.a. "SIGINT" definition is on page 292 of that document which contains "everything you [n]ever wanted to know" about CI definitions.

Who leaked it? I won't speculate. I will say that the GOP believes Evan McMullin leaked it, and Evan McMullin denies leaking it. :)

UC = Unclassified

Be right back. :)

Okay, I found something UC I can link for you.

https://fas.org/irp/eprint/ci-glossary.pdf

Be right back. :)

M'kay. Ronny L. Jackson is the White House's personal physician. Remember him? That seems perfectly not fishy, doesn't it? *shakes head*

As I understand it, that's what all of those NSA people in dark rooms with giant displays on the wall do. They intercept phone calls and computer messages and archive them for intelligence work. To believe Ed Snowdon, this can get as deep and pointlessly intrusive as listening in on the phone calls of celebrities.

Interestingly, they just had a conversation about this on MSNBC. Apparently, Mueller has gotten a lot of this sort of material, but can't use it as direct evidence, since it can't be used in court. He rather, has to use it as 'informative' and work backward to elicit other evidence that he can present in court. He has to be, in this case, Columbo, rather than Holmes.

On the other hand, Kick [6] reminds me that there's always more than meets the eye. No wonder Ryan helped Nunes shut down the house investigation. Maybe he realized that his own pre-election awareness of the Russian meddling puts him (and the rest of GOP house leadership) in the position of being an accessory to the crime. Don't forget that Obama went to McConnell and Ryan before the election to put together a bipartisan statement warning the Russians not to meddle, and the reply was 'fuck off', or similar sentiment.

That sounds almost too good to be true. Talk about a smoking gun! What is a "signal intelligence recording"? And do we know who leaked the original chunk of dialogue you linked to?

Ryan: So we should not have Ukraine fatigue, we should have Russian fatigue.

Rodgers: Yes! The propaganda...my big takeaway from that trip was just how sophisticated the propaganda...

Ryan: It's very sophisticated.

Rodgers:...coming out of Russia and Putin.

Ryan: Very sophisticated.

....

McCarthy: The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp research that they had on Trump. McCarthy: laughs

[Crosstalk]

Ryan: The Russian’s hacked the DNC…

McHenry: …to get oppo…

Ryan: …on Trump and like delivered it to…to who?

[Unintelligible]

McCarthy: There’s…there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump…[laughter]…swear to God.

Ryan: This is an off the record…[laughter]…NO LEAKS…[laughter]…alright?! [Laughter]

Ryan: This is how we know we're a real family here.

Scalise: That's how you know that we're tight.

[Laughter]

Ryan: What's said in the family stays in the family.

https://tinyurl.com/l4osq6z

Sounds to me like Ryan is already spending some "quality time" with "the family." ;)

While it would be fascinating to hear the entire recording which is rumored to contain much more damaging information, there are about 5 transcribed pages at the link.

Now it's entirely possible they're kidding in this conversation from June 2016, but based on what we know now: Does this sound like kidding or does it sound like Republican Party leaders who already knew in June 2016 that Russia had hacked the DNC and were waging a propaganda war throughout Europe? You decide.

Also rumored on K Street is that there is a signals intelligence recording of Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus speaking with Ambassador Kislyak at the RNC convention regarding distribution of laundered money to GOP candidates including Ryan through his Super PAC and discussion about Wikileaks and how best to use the hacked DNC emails against their opponents.

Based on the facts we now know along with the K Street rumors and rumblings, it's not difficult to understand why rumors are also swirling that Ryan is now done with one "family" and will return home to the other. :)

The rumor is swirling, but what is the breeze driving it? Google can be helpful in sorting this out.

I did a search this am using terms Paul Ryan, retire, resign. I get pertinent hits out to 10 pages and more.

One date stands out though : Dec 14, 2017. Politico launched the following article on that date:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/14/paul-ryan-retire-speaker-ready-leave-washington-216103

There is a cascade of articles riffing off (specifically referencing) the Politico article on that date and over the next couple of days. This seems to be the node that launched most of the speculation. The news echo chamber did the rest.

First, my apologies for the delay in posting your comment. It can be found at:

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2018/03/23/ftp477/#comment-117931

From now on, you should be able to post comments instantly, as long as you don't post two or more links per comment. Multilink comments automatically get held for moderation, which can take a while. For those who may have missed it, here is the text of katya's comment:

Just a small comment, from someone who lives in sheep country: a wether is a castrated male sheep.The bell wether was the sheep who led the flock. He wore a bell so the shepherd could more easily locate him. This is the origin of the political use of the term “bellwether” to indicate an area that predicts the results in many other areas. So wether is a real word; and yes, Donald Trump still mis-used it. Otherwise, very much enjoy the blog!

I post this here in full because I have to honestly admit, I did not know this. You learn something new every day! Never again will I hear the term "bellwether" without thinking "alpha male castrated male sheep," personally.

Heh.

And we can indeed agree on the fact that Trump misused the term...

Again, welcome to the site and thanks for your contribution to the comments, as I for one learned something through it!

:-)

-CW

But I'll take it if that's what happens!