Are you a Peeliever? The Creeping Credibility of the Steele Dossier

[Milchshake]

Being a natural skeptic, I never took the Steele Dossier at 100% truth, but nor did I think it was completely false. It was just an interesting artifact of political information gathering. But as time has marched on, more elements of the Dossier have been corroborated. And the odd behavior of the dossier's subjects, make thee weirder parts feel more plausible.

Credit to Jonathan Chait or whomever coined the term Peeliever, it made me laugh. I'm determined to use it as much as I can in conversation today to make others laugh a little. Also his look on the creeping credibility of the Steele Dossier.

I used to doubt that this episode really happened. I now believe it probably did. I am obviously far from certain, but since Steele’s dossier came out, an accumulation of evidence has tipped the balance from unlikely to likely. Let’s review what we’ve learned since the allegation first surfaced.

1. Christopher Steele is credible. Steele isn’t just some gumshoe. He’s an experienced intelligence collector whose work has been valued by the British and American governments. His sources seem to be serious, too, including “a former top-level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin,” a “member of the staff at the hotel,” a “female staffer at the hotel when Trump had stayed there,” and “a close associate of Trump who had organized and managed his recent trips to Moscow.”

2. Trump is unhealthily obsessed with Obama. Obama hatred is the lodestar of Trump’s often confused policy-making. “It’s his only real position,” a top European diplomat told BuzzFeed last year. “He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’” Even bizarrely self-defeating actions like sabotaging the health-care exchanges, which will cause premiums to spike right before this November’s midterm elections, seem to be motivated by a desire to defile his predecessor’s legacy. Getting prostitutes to pee on the bed Obama slept in seems to be very much in character.

3. Trump has mixed his denials of the pee tape with obvious lies. Comey’s account describes Trump denying the pee tape, and, in the same breath, denying things that happened on a tape that has been seen by the entire country:

4. Trump’s alibi is at least partly false. Also according to Comey, Trump “argued that it could not be true because he had not stayed overnight in Moscow but had only used the hotel room to change his clothes.” But reporting by David Corn and Michael Isikoff reveal that Trump did spend a night at the hotel in Moscow where the episode was alleged to have taken place. Why would Trump offer up a false alibi for something that isn’t true?

5. Trump is comfortable with gross sexual behavior and can be blackmailed. We know more about Trump’s sex life now than we did in November 2016. He has had a lot of affairs. He has gone to great lengths to keep them quiet — which is to say, he can be blackmailed. And he is not averse to a sexually unconventional milieu.

[cubby]

I would not be surprised whatsoever if that entire dossier was confirmed and validated. Great post btw.

[Drutt]

I would not be surprised whatsoever if that entire dossier was confirmed and validated. Great post btw.

That's where I am at this point.

The fact that Trump wouldn't stop talking about the pee tape to Comey is a huge indicator that it's probably true to me. When people fixate on things like that, it's usually because it actually happened. Fabrications don't tend to be obsessed over by most of us. The fact Trump latched onto that so hard looks rather suspicious.

[Stormspark]

That's where I am at this point.

The fact that Trump wouldn't stop talking about the pee tape to Comey is a huge indicator that it's probably true to me. When people fixate on things like that, it's usually because it actually happened. Fabrications don't tend to be obsessed over by most of us. The fact Trump latched onto that so hard looks rather suspicious.

Yeah, the fact that Trump keeps bringing it up, when noone was talking about it before, means it's true.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...SpecificDenial

[NYC17]

I'm not sure why objective minded individuals would see it as out of character for Trump. It is entirely in line with his personality and actions.

[Lenonis]

The sad reality is whether or not it is true doesn't matter to the remnant of true Trump supporters. There is nothing he could do to lose them as it's just a cult at this point.

The man had his lawyer give hush money to a porn star he had sex with. Paying hookers to piss a bed is pretty much in the same category. The Stormy Daniels affair didn't make him lose support so this won't either.

I'm just glad that all signs point to, at worst, that him and his vile VP will be done in 2021 when the new president is sworn in.

[Glnger]

from the start I knew it was true, Trump is so transparent. He uses twitter like a teen uses lies to boost their ego and image.

[BrerBear]

As pointed out in Comey's book...

Comey recalls Trump asking him about the dossier during a private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017. Trump brought up the dossier and said, “He may want me to investigate it to prove that it didn’t happen. And then he says something that distracted me because he said, you know, ‘If there’s even a 1 percent chance my wife thinks that’s true, that’s terrible.’”

“‘And I remember thinking, ‘How could your wife think there’s a 1 percent chance you were with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow?’ I’m a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true. So, what kind of marriage to what kind of man does your wife think [that] there’s only a 99 percent chance you didn’t do that?”

[lockedout]

As pointed out in Comey's book...

That's how most women think if you plant the seed.

[SirBeef]

What do you mean creeping credibility. It has always been credible outside the echo chamber that is the conservatives.

[NYC17]

Proof Russian propaganda is working. Time to ask who’s really undermining US democracy.

Same answer as always; Trump and his enablers.


You're still extremely bad at this.

- - - Updated - - -

That's how most women think if you plant the seed.

Do you have much interaction with women or is it limited to specifically what Trump tells you about them?

[Edge-]

That's how most women think if you plant the seed.

Uh...no it's not. Unless you subscribe to the, "Bitches be crazy" theory that all women are insecure as hell, which is objectively sexist.

[Dug]

I believe it but because I think most absurdly rich people do weird fetish shit with hookers and drugs. I mean who wouldn't? But knowing it would embarrass Trump is pretty good in my book so if its there release the pee tapes!

[Deleted]

No, I'm actually not. It would be awesome if it existed, but I don't think it's real.

[Paranoid Android]

As stated in another thread. Trump tried to plead to Comey on how this might affect Melania. Yeah, Trump cared about hurting Melania.

I'll go with the pee tape in how vindictive this motherbleeper was toward Obama. I mean for me to be in a hotel room where my supposed worst enemy stayed and I wanted prostitutes to soil the bed. It's not Obama did any crazy police. Even a policy that hurt him in anyway. So his deep seeded hate for Obama is well, yunno.

[Sunseeker]

I'm not sure if I believe it's legit.

I don't consider it out of character for Trump though.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Uh...no it's not. Unless you subscribe to the, "Bitches be crazy" theory that all women are insecure as hell, which is objectively sexist.

There's a reason many of these people are on these forums 12 hours a day: They're single.

[Orbitus]

Proof Russian propaganda is working. Time to ask who’s really undermining US democracy.

Proof WalkinDude is gullible as fuck, right here in this post.

[DarkTZeratul]

At first I wasn't. I assumed it was an element of the dossier that was more rumor than fact.

Then Trump's bodyguard opened his mouth and it suddenly became a whole lot more credible.

[Noxx79]

Still don’t believe in the pee tape, but we know other stuff in the dossier has been corroborated sand proven true.