Daily Check-In 01/30/2018

It’s Tuesday.  At 9PM EST, Trump will deliver his first, hopefully only, State of the Union Address.  Here’s some of what happened today.  A lot happened, so I’m hitting this up News Dump style.  Also, I’m writing this before and during the SOTU, so if something crazy happens, I’ll talk about it here.  Otherwise, I’ll assume it’s the standard issue Trump train wreck, and it’ll be covered here tomorrow.  That, and I’d rather slam my dick in a car door than listen to Trump talk for an hour.

SHEARER DOSSIER, A SECOND MEMO HANDED TO FBI BY STEELE, UNDER SCRUTINY BY FBI

Cody Shearer, a long-time Clinton supporter who has the money and connections to do his own opposition research, did just that against Donald Trump last year, and came to many of the same conclusions that Christopher Steele did.  His research uncovered that the Russians had sexual kompromat on him.  His research also uncovered things that Steele didn’t.

Why am I talking about Cody Shearer?  Isn’t he the guy who voiced Apu Nahasapeemmapetalion?  No, that’s Hank Azaria.  Harry Shearer voiced Ned Flanders and was in Spinal Tap.

The reason I’m mentioning Cody Shearer is that his memo ended up in Christopher Steele’s hands, and he handed that to the FBI.

And the FBI is still looking into some of it’s claims.

Yes, after more than 15 months, the FBI is still digging into some of its claims.  They don’t do that if it didn’t have legs.

I think this memo, dossier, write-up, recipe for treason soufflé has something a lot more important than whether or not Trump likes getting spanked with his own face or enjoys golden showers.   I go into more detail in the Rumor Mill section.

 

TRUMP ASKS SESSIONS TO PROSECUTE MUELLER

In a move that reeks of guilt, desperation, and autocracy, Trump allegedly asked the Keebler Nazi to look into prosecuting Special Counselor Robert Mueller.

Here’s the thought process, and I use that term loosely…

Trump knows the shitstorm he’ll cause by firing Mueller without cause.  But, if Jeff Sessions can find something, ANYTHING to discredit Mueller, they could use that as just cause to fire Mueller.

I don’t have a date for this story, but if it’s like most things leaking out of the White House that incriminates Trump, this likely happened months ago. Or earlier today.  But, I’d venture a guess that this was a few months ago.

Why?

This lines up with the general strategy that Team Trump brought up months ago with targeting the Comey Witnesses in the FBI.  This is the kind of thing that makes sense for someone obsessed with protecting themselves.  It almost feels like something leaked from a defense lawyer who’s trying to save their client’s ass.

 

PAUL RYAN: ‘CLEANSE THE FBI’

When the Speaker of the House uses language straight out of a Banana Republic or some other Fascist regime, we are on the precipice of dangerous times.

This isn’t the language of an innocent man or party.  These are the actions of someone trying to save their ass from prison.

 

MSNBC ANALYST ASKS CONGRESSMAN IF NUNES IS COMPROMISED BY RUSSIANS

Dipshit Cowpoke’s actions don’t make any sense by themselves.  All of his consistent, coordinated attacks against the IC and Law Enforcement communities ultimately make him a target, and Trump has no loyalty to anyone, so he’s putting himself out there as a target.  This doesn’t make any sense.

Unless, he’s been compromised.

Someone’s got some shit on Devin Nunes.  Whether it’s video of him screwing a little boy, or him taking part in planning a kidnapping, someone’s got the dirt on him.

Considering that he’s been Trump’s bitch this entire time, it’s either Trump, the Russians, or both.

 

5 QUESTIONS THE NUNES MEMO NEEDS TO ANSWER

Asha Rangappa asked 5 questions that must be answered in Devin’s 4 page memo for it to be anything other than a partisan PR stunt to try to say that Carter Page wasn’t a Russian Agent.

  1. When did the FBI open their investigation on Carter Page?
  2. Who in the DOJ conducted the Woods review to verify the FISA application?
  3. Which judge approved the memo?
  4. Was the FISA warrant extended?
  5. Has Mueller used anything derived from this investigation?

If these questions aren’t answered, then this is nothing more than a glorified attempt to blow smoke up our asses.

 

SEAN HANNITY PARODY ACCOUNT CATFISHES JULIAN ASSANGE

Remember all of those times I said that Sean Hannity might be under an FBI Investigation?  Well, looks like there’s some fire to that smoke, and it came out in the dumbest way possible.

Over the weekend, Sean Hannity’s twitter account disappeared.  Twitter was purging some bots, and his verified account was removed.  During that time, while the real Sean was fighting to get his account restored, several fakes arose.  One of these fakes was so convincing, an old friend DM’ed the account.

That old friend was Julian Assange.

Julian sent the fake Hannity direct messages and offered some condolences, and offered our Fake Sean some dirt on Senator Mark Warner.  He also said that if he wanted to talk, he knew how to get a hold of him through other channels.

Trump talks to Hannity.  Hannity talks to Assange.  Assange talks to Go-Betweens like Nigel Farage, and those Go-Betweens talk to Russia.

 

CIA DIRECTOR POMPEO MET WITH SANCTIONED SVR DIRECTOR ON UNITED STATES NO FLY LIST

There’s a few questions that need answering, like “Who the fuck let this guy in the country?” and “Why are the heads of the CIA and DNI meeting with him?”

 

POMPEO: RUSSIA WILL INTERFERE IN MID-TERM ELECTIONS

I’m hoping the above story about the meeting was a warning to the Russians to not even try anything, but Trump is a god damned Russian Asset.

Any inaction this year is being complicit in an attack on this country.

 

RUSSIA ANGRY ABOUT TREASURY LIST OF OLIGARCHS

Putin is angry at the United States because the Oligarchs are angry at Putin because they showed up on a list of potential targets for sanctions.

Before too long, sanctions will be the least of their problems.

 

AMAZON, JP MORGAN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY TO JOIN FORCES AND CREATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY

Just the news of these three giants getting together caused the stocks of several existing insurance companies to drop.

Granted, if the United States had Universal Health Care, we wouldn’t need another health insurance company, but more competition is needed.

 

NYT OP-ED: IS IT TIME FOR REPUBLICANS TO FORM A THIRD PARTY?

This is something that I’ve talked about before in The Multi-Party System.  There isn’t any room in the modern Republican Party for the Trump supporters and the true conservatives.  The only question I have is who will leave first.

 

RICK WILSON: A CONSPIRACY OF DUNCES

This article is definitely worth a read.  Rick Wilson has a way with words that I wish to get to one day.  If I could stay on topic for a few thousand words while dropping a new insult every 10 words, I’d still have a long way to go.

 

HARLEY-DAVISON TO CLOSE KANSAS CITY PLANT

H-D has been coasting for years, and their “loyal fan base” wouldn’t let them innovate and move forward. Any time they would try to expand the lineup or come out with something new and exciting, the “Loud Pipes Save Lives” crowd would bitch and cry about how these new bikes weren’t “true” Harley’s.

Harley-Davidson made their fortunes in the last 30 years by being a symbol of the counterculture of the Baby Boomer youth, which was 20 years before that. They pared down their lineup of almost everything sporty, fast, and nimble, and concentrated on selling rolling sofas to Grandma and Grandpa.

They’ve kept this up for the last 15 years, and have milked the Baby Boomers for all their worth. Meanwhile, younger people see these bikes less as a symbol of rebellion and more as a symbol of a dentist playing weekend warrior.

Harley-Davidson is exhausting their base, and they aren’t bringing new riders to the tent. Most young people that do ride like sport bikes, enduros, adventure bikes, or smaller, cheaper cruisers. By the time a rider has enough money to buy a Harley, they have other things to spend that money on like day care and a mortgage.

There’s an allegory here to be made about the current state of the Republican Party. Two long-term brands that started off as the symbol of rebellion, falling on hard times in the 1970’s, and had to reinvent themselves by committing themselves to their true believers. Now, they’ve committed so hard to their ideals that they’ve painted themselves into a corner. If they don’t change their ways, neither will be around in 20 years.

 

WRAP-UP AND RUMOR MILL: BUT IT GOES TO 11

So, back to the Shearer Dossier.

It hasn’t been released to the public, and likely won’t be for a long time, so there’s no way of knowing what’s in it, but based off of some rumors that I’ve heard, I want to make a couple suppositions about what’s in it.

Cody Shearer is a long-time political insider, but is deep enough in the background that a basic Google search doesn’t pull much up.  So, he’s not out there hogging the spotlight, and he doesn’t have so many enemies that a search for his is overwhelmed.

It looks like he has money and connections.  That means he likely has connections to other people with money, and money people.  People who handle money, and know who else is handling money.

So, what does his memo have in it that Christopher Steele couldn’t verify on his own?

Campaign money laundering.

Something missing from the Steele Dossier that was part of the original corruption rumors was that the GOP had coordinated with the Russians to launder money into the elections, and this was caught on tape by the FBI at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.  Part of that rumor was that it had been independently confirmed by opposition research, and that was widely believed to be the Steele Dossier.  Only problem with that hypothesis is that Steele never mentions Cleveland, or the Republican Convention.

So, if Steele didn’t mention it, but it was attributed to him, how does that happen?

That’s where Shearer’s Dossier comes in.  My guess is that his sources in the campaign finance world saw that something was up and clued him in on it.  He followed up with a few more sources, and heard some rumors about the Russians in Cleveland.  At some point, this got into Steele’s hands, who then handed it over to the FBI.

This memo or dossier has been talked about and alluded to for a while, but it didn’t break into the press until today.  Angry White House Staffer was surprised it stayed hidden for as long as it has.  He also claims that the information in it is the reason the GOP is losing their shit right now.

I’m putting a few pieces of this puzzle together, and making more than a few connections, but if Angry is right about this dossier, and that the GOP is going into full panic over the contents of it, and the FBI has spent a year following up on it, then the claim has to be big.  Big in impact and scope.  Big enough to cause the entire party leadership to go full, complete, desperate, self-preservation mode.  Big enough to cause most of the House and several Senators to panic.

What ties them together?

Money.

Cody Shearer knows the money people.

 

That’s it for today.  Like I said earlier, tonight is the State of the Union.  It’s late, and I didn’t hear about the Dotard taking a dump on the floor or anything like that, so I’ll cover it tomorrow.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

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