Charlie Pierce: Trump thought he could fire Comey after he won the primaries.

[Grasswire2]

But that's not the most striking piece of Pierce's commentary.

Recently, I watched Active Measures, the documentary about Putin, the Russian oligarchs he has brought to heel, and how all of them are connected to the president* in one way or another. Filmed on a shoestring and now running on Hulu, among other platforms, AM is best at illustrating Putin's ongoing attempts to delegitimize other governments for his own political and financial purposes. One way is to ratfck your candidate into office and then have your new plowhorse throw his opponents into jail. That's what happened in the Ukraine, and what almost happened in Georgia. The way you do this, of course, is that first you have to undermine the credibility of independent law-enforcement institutions that might get in your way. There is no other way to look at the president* remarkable tantrum about the FBI. "A cancer on the country"? This is an incompetent authoritarian sending signals to his master.

[link:https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23322330/president-trump-fbi-cancer-vladimir-putin-playbook/?src=socialflowFB|

[JHan]

1. K&r

[Zoonart]

2. Why would the subject of firing Comey even had come up...

before he was the party's nominee unless he is guilty as sin and had already put his eye on obstructing justice. Only the guilty have pre-knowledge of the crime.

[lagomorph777]

3. And...how did he know Comey was investigating him?

I'm asking YOU, Ghouliani!

[Cosmocat]

4. That NYC FBI office to this day

remains coopted by the right wing - if there a "deep state," that office is its capital.

[Fullduplexxx]

5. Of course there is a deep state and it's owned by the cons ypu know how they project everything