Daily Check-In 12/14/2017

Thursday’s events.  It was a bit of a busy day.

 

WAPO DROPS BOMBSHELL REPORT ON TRUMP’S RELUCTANCE TO ADDRESS RUSSIAN HACKING

This story was lost in the noise of the FCC clusterfuck, but the Washington Post dropped one hell of a story detailing the last year of Trump’s reticence when it comes to Russia.  It’s long, but worth a read.

The story details conversations that the heads of the FBI, CIA, and NSA had with Trump prior to the inauguration, through the White House’s attempts to remove Russian sanctions, and to the recent past.

The story that White House insiders try to paint is that Trump’s ego is so shattered by the claims that the Russians helped him, that he can’t even come to recognize that it could have happened without completely delegitimizing his presidency.

I’d buy that for a dollar.  For two bucks, I’ll throw in that his yes-men followed his orders to work with the Russians after Putin’s people showed that they’d be willing to help him.

Two parts of the story that struck me are the description of the meeting with Team Trump and the four heads of the largest Intelligence agencies in the United States, and how much Trump has pushed back against acting on Russia, even when his own staff recommended he do something.

The Directors of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the Director of National Intelligence met with Trump, Reince Preibus, Mike Pompeo, Michael Flynn, and Mike Pence.

It’s not that they had this meeting, but how Trump acted at the accusations.  They expected him to lose his shit, get mad, or something else in line with how a person would react when the leaders of the IC said “We know that the Russians helped you win the election.”  Instead, he was calm, courteous, and complimentary.  It wasn’t until after that meeting, when James Comey talked with him one-on-one about the Steele Dossier and the salacious accusations inside of it that Trump lost his shit.

Trump was cool with the Russian accusations, but the hooker golden shower tape was the point where he panicked.  Trump was willing to throw anyone else under the bus to save his skin, and became obsessed with this tape.  The next morning, he tweeted about the Dossier for the first time, calling it a leak from the IC.

The only time Trump got defensive was when potential evidence was introduced.  When he was accused of taking part in the pee tape, it became an obsession with him.  This meant that not only was Russia not going away anytime soon, but that it would only get bigger.

Finally, he hasn’t had even a single cabinet meeting about Russia?  Not one?  He’s had more meetings about giving him praise than about Russia.

He’s actively avoiding Russia.  Like, if he doesn’t mention it, it’ll disappear.  Innocent people don’t act like this.

 

FORMER HIGH LEVEL INTELLIGENCE LEADERS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP CAMPAIGN

In a very unusual move, fourteen Intelligence professionals, including some of the people mentioned above, filed an Amicus Brief, or Friend of the Court statement, in regards to a lawsuit against Donald Trump and the Trump Campaign in regards to their collusion with Russia.

The lawsuit was brought forth by a couple people who had their personal information released when the Russians hacked the DNC, and they contend that the Trump Campaign not only partook but benefited from this illegal activity, and in doing so, damaged these people’s lives.

What makes this strange is that this is the first time that high level Intelligence officials have entered anything like this in court.  They are going on the record in court saying that yes, Trump did this and benefited from it.

 

MUELLER TEAM GOT EMAILS AND DATA FROM CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA BACK IN THE FALL

I should make a new category of stories called Rumor Confirmation.

This was rumored a few months ago, and I’m pretty sure I wrote about this earlier, but the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the Mueller Investigation received emails and information from Cambridge Analytica, the data mining company behind the 2016 microtargeting of propaganda to voters, and potentially involved in the modification of voter rolls across the country.

The company, funded by Robert Mercer, worked with Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway during the election, and had signed on Mike Flynn to work with them if he hadn’t accepted work in the White House.

This was rumored back in September and October, and lines up with Mercer leaving his hedge fund and putting distance between himself, Bannon, and Milo.

UPDATE:  According to The Independent, they also requested information on Brexit.  Shit’s ’bout to get real, yo.

 

FCC VOTED TO REPEAL NET NEUTRALITY RULES

Fuck Ajit Pai.  We’ll see your ass in court, mother fucker.

I apologize for the vulgarity, but that’s the nicest I can say about him.

 

KREMLIN-LINKED SLUSH FUNDS FUNNELING MONEY TO PAY FOR CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN SYRIA

BuzzFeed is doing a series on FMBE Bank out of Cyprus, and they discovered that the money they’re laundering from Putin and his oligarch buddies is being funneled to Assad and Syria, who then used it to buy chemical weapons which he used on his own people.

Don’t be surprised.  Look at every villain around the world, and a Russian isn’t too far behind.

 

PAUL RYAN MAY NOT SEEK REELECTION IN 2018

Could it be that he knows the Blue Wave is a tsunami, and he might not even win his own reelection race, or could it be he knows that the Russian Investigation is getting close to him, and he’s getting out of town before he ends up in prison?

Could it be a little from Column A, a little from Column B?

 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD WILL NOT SEEK REELECTION IN 2018

If the trend holds up, he’ll resign his seat within the next few weeks.  The pattern so far has been:

• Deny allegations
• Have proof of wrongdoing leaked to the press
• Announce reforms in behavior
• Public outcry
• Colleagues ask for your resignation
• Announce that you won’t seek reelection
• Louder cries for resignation
• Resign

 

DISNEY TO BUY FOX, BUT NOT FOX NEWS

Disney is buying Fox, but not Fox News.  That’ll stay with Rupert Murdoch.

What does this mean?

Aside from getting Deadpool to show up in the MCU, or finally getting a complete super box set of everything Star Wars, Disney will now own pretty much everything, except Fox News.  That was left out of the deal.

 

BITCOIN BEING USED BY RUSSIANS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING AND TO BYPASS SANCTIONS

As I’ve been saying for a while, Bitcoins are an easy way to launder money, bypass sanctions, and avoid taxes.

Bill Browder agrees.  And he’s testifying in front of the Helsinki Commission about it.

Here’s how it works…

Let’s say Viktor has millions of rubles he wants to get out of Russia, but can’t use the banks, for fear of having his assets seized.  Instead of going to a bank, he’ll go online and purchase some Bitcoins.  As much as he can afford.  Then, he’ll sell them, and link that sale to a bank account outside of Russia, like in Cyprus or Panama.  The money in that account came from the sale of Bitcoins, not from anything illegal like Viktor normally does, so the money is somewhat clean.  A few more moves here and there, and he’s laundered his money.  He’ll repeat the process again later.

 

That’s it for Thursday from the news.  The Rumor Mill was all atwitter on Twitter.  Nobody would go on the record, but everyone from Countercheckist to Louise to Eric Garland and John Schneider and the Alt accounts is buzzing about something big coming down on Friday.

If someone gets arrested, don’t be surprised.

The most likely name is Jared Kushner, for lying to the FBI and multiple counts of perjury, but Roger Stone, Donnie Jr., and K.T. McFarland are also names to keep an eye on.

If Kushner goes down, Trump will have no choice but to try something drastic.  Kushner was at the center of everything.  He knows everyone involved, and what they did. He is, in my opinion, the highest ranked person worth flipping, and has the greatest motivation to work with the Special Counselor.  The only people above him are the rest of the Trump family, Trump himself, and Pence.  Kushner is looking at a long time in prison, just for all of the times he’s lied on his security clearance.  He doesn’t want to end up in prison like his dad, and he has young children that he won’t get to raise from behind bars.

As soon as some information comes along, I’ll post it.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur