It’s Friday. It’s Groundhog’s Day. If Trump sees his shadow, expect 6 more weeks of covering up Treason.
THE NUNES MEMO RELEASED
Once again, the Right Wing Media built up a release of information from Devin Nunes as the worst thing to ever happen to this country, and anyone who isn’t on board with protecting Trump is an enemy of the United States. Then, when the information comes out, it’s a dud.
We’ve seen this movie before, but I liked the original with Bill Murray better. At least in that Groundhog’s Day, Phil drove a truck off a cliff.
Nunes picked the wrong hill to die on. The memo has 5 points.
- The FISA warrant against Carter Page originated with the Steele Dossier. No previous evidence was used. And since this was paid for by the Democrats, it shouldn’t count.
- A news piece based on the Dossier was used as evidence in the FISA court apporval. (Notice how this already contradicts the first point about how only the Steele Dossier was enough evidence for the warrant.) Also, because Steele talked to a journalist, he was terminated as an FBI contact.
- Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, whose wife works for Fusion GPS, maintained contact with Steele, and served as a go-between with Deputy AG Sally Yates, Acting Deputy AG Dana Boente, and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.”
- Confusion about timing at the FBI about the Dossier, where Nunes tries to show that it was “not corroborated” in January 2017, but by December 2017, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said that a warrant wouldn’t have been pursued if not for the Dossier.
- George Papadopoulos is mentioned in Page’s FISA application. George’s involvement led to a CI investigation by Peter Strozk in July 2016. He then goes down the rabbithole of the Strozk/Lisa Page (no relation) text messages, which CLEARY showed a bias against Trump.
That’s the extent of the Nunes Memo. That’s what the Traitor Who Cried Wolf was screaming about.
Now, let’s think about this for a second…
Devin’s entire memo, which he claims he wrote with Trey Gowdy, which Gowdy denies, revolves around abuses in the FISA process and poison fruit investigation of Carter Page, a man who the IC had eyes on since 2013 due to his enthusiastic contacts with Russians, and was renewed at least 3 times by 4 different judges and signed off by three different Deputy Attorney Generals, which started in October 2016, but was based off of opposition research, and some FBI employees really didn’t like Trump, so the whole thing should be thrown out. And it was based off of multiple pieces of evidence including info gathered from a person who has since turned states evidence and it was months before the warrant, but ignore that part.
Like I said in Daily Check-In 02/01/2018, Devin Nunes picked the wrong hill to die on.
Of course, the memo is just part of the story. Here’s some of the related news stories that came out about the memo…
“Trump suggested to aides and confidants that the memo might give him the justification to fire Rosenstein — something about which Trump has privately mused — or make other changes at the [DOJ], which he had complained was not sufficiently loyal to him.”
Of fucking course, Sean Hannity gave Trump advice.
Republican Senators Thune, Collins, and Graham call out Devin’s bullshit.
Dipshit Cowpoke didn’t even read his own fucking memo.
Nunes also lied about McCabe’s testimony.
FBI texts between Peter Strozk and Lisa Page show no conspiracy against Donald Trump.
Even Ed Snowden is throwing shade at Devin Nunes.
From Senator John McCain:
“In 2016, the Russian government engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy. Russia employed the same tactics it has used to influence elections around the world, from France and Germany to Ukraine, Montenegro, and beyond. Putin’s regime launched cyberattacks and spread disinformation with the goal of sowing chaos and weakening faith in our institutions. And while we have no evidence that these efforts affected the outcome of our election, I fear they succeeded in fueling political discord and dividing us from one another.
“The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”
FBI Director Chris Wray had this to say:
“Talk is cheap, the work you do is what will endure. We speak through our work, 1 case at a time, 1 intelligence product at a time.”
DOW DROPS 600 POINTS IN ONE DAY
The Dow Jones is not an accurate tool for measuring economic performance today, but a lot of people still put a lot of weight in this. If this is just a self-correction after the artificial market rise of January following the GOP tax cuts going into effect, then this isn’t too bad and will level out soon.
But, if this is just the beginning of worse market, then buckle the fuck up. Trump has so far survived many things, but a bad economy will help make for the perfect storm. Of course, that assumes he makes to Summer…
THE DEBATE ABOUT MUELLER’S ABILITY TO INDICT TRUMP
The Politico article talks about the two main legal opinions that have been established that would prevent Mueller from pursuing charges against Trump.
The first was an opinion from the Justice Department back in 1973 during the Watergate investigation, which states that employees of the DOJ cannot pursue criminal charges against the President. This, in turn was saying that U.S. Attorneys couldn’t work a case against Nixon.
The second opinion came in 2000, after Bill Clinton’s Impeachment. This opionion states that a sitting President cannot have charges brought against them because that would get in the way of executing their constitutionally required duties.
Notice a pattern here?
Both legal opinions were written by persons at the Department of Justice, during the terms of the only two serious Impeachment Proceedings of the 20th century, in favor of the President that appointed them, and saying “Nah uh, you can’t do that. I’ve got my shield up, I’m not it, you’re it! I’m TELLING! MOMMY!!!”
Neither of these opinions have ever faced a serious legal challenge, because we’ve never been in this position before. Both of them are dubious as best, as they both put unconstitutional restrictions on who can or cannot bring criminal charges against an individual who just happens to be the President.
If Mueller does unseal and release indictments against Trump, this case will get fast-tracked to the Supreme Court. Once there, expect a ruling that includes the phrase “No man is above the law.”
As far as when, one of the lawyers interviewed predicts sometime in the Spring. The reason for this is that Mueller likely wouldn’t want to interfere or influence the upcoming elections more than he had to.
FOX NEWS INTERVIEWS RUSSIAN LAWYER SPY VESELNITSKAYA
What in the Actual Fuck is going on here?
Think about the optics of this for a moment. Someone sat back and said “Gee, you know what’s a good idea? On the same day that Trump and his little bitch Nunes make a big fucking stink about FISA warrants against a person in contact with the Russians, lets interview a lawyer spy that was at a meeting in Trump Tower. That’s a brilliant idea.”
And people wonder why I sometimes drink.
SPAM KING EXTRADITED TO UNITED STATES
The Russian head of the world’s largest spam bot network was extradited from Spain. He was caught while vacationing in Spain.
This might not seem like it’s related, but this article from Louise Mensch last April ties Pytor Levashov to Boris Epshteyn and Team Trump.
A botnet is a collection of networked computers that are used to run malware. That malware can do many things, like sending spam, manipulate social media, or perform a DDoS. Distributed Denial of Service, an old-school method of clogging up an IP address.
A handful of skilled hackers can cause havoc, but you’d need an army of bots to actually do anything of impact. Levashov owned the largest botnet in the world, and has significant ties to Russian Mafia and Government.
SENATOR RON WYDEN SEEKS DOCUMENTS ON NRA TIES TO RUSSIAN MONEY
40 years ago the NRA transitioned from a Gun Owners Rights group to a Lobbyist for the gun manufacturers. When that happened, they became a fire hose of money to the Republican Party. This was cemented in the 90’s with the Assault Rifle Ban enacted by Clinton and the Dems 93-94. The NRA stopped any pretense of bipartisanship and funneled all of their campaign money to the Republican Party, becoming their largest donor. This also forced a “purity test” on all GOP candidates since then that any gun restriction is bad, no matter what good it does.
The Russian Money didn’t start until 2012, a couple years after Citizens United kicked in allowing unlimited campaign donations, and Congress was debating the Magnitsky Act. The NRA exploited a part of the law that allowed for no tracking of donations whatsoever, and the Russians, keen on not having their assets frozen, made repealing Magnitsky their largest foreign goal.
Yes, it always comes back to money with the Russians.
FLORIDA’S LIFETIME BAN ON FELONS VOTING RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A Federal Court ruled that Florida’s ban on felons voting is unconstitutional.
If this holds, more than 1 million ex-felons who have served their time, most of them minorities, would regain their right to vote.
Between this and the half a million Puerto Ricans that moved to Florida after Hurricane Maria, the political map would change from a toss-up to solidly Democratic state for a generation.
RUMOR MILL: WHAT ARE THE BEST BOOTS TO WEAR IN A SHITSTORM?
Today’s a bit of a weird day, and a lot of it has already been mentioned, like Dr. Grayson posting that little bit about Carter Page “predicting” the future, but there were a couple general themes on Twitter. Some of it was doom and gloom, how this was the beginning of the end, everything is falling to shit, and Trump will fire everyone who he doesn’t like, so why bother anymore?
Fuck that noise.
The core of the Rumor Mill took… a different approach. “Itching for a fight” is an understatement.
The lawyers brought their A game and pointed out a shitload of laws that Nunes likely violated. The reporters connected the dots to the GOP’s complicity in the fight. The spies and Intel people talked about a bunch of crimes that the IC knows about. By the way, I’m pretty sure today was the first time that Countercheckist explicitly stated that the Russians have tape of Trump raping an underage girl. Considering he called each and every major move ahead of time, including the indictments, this carries a lot of weight. And Louise was having a field day with one confirmation after another.
I don’t write about everything I’ve seen or heard, but a lot of the weird shit I heard last Spring is coming to fruition now. Shit that I first thought was completely insane, like the Republican Party accepting foreign money through close-knit donors like Megachurches and the NRA, are starting to get coverage in the Press. Yes, I said Megachurches. They were mentioned in the same rumors as the NRA and other Pro-GOP groups that were being used to launder Russian money to the GOP. I don’t have names yet, but I will laugh my ass off if Joel Osteen was involved. But if you want a spoiler alert, ask why Billy Graham’s son Franklin is so quick to defend Trump against the Russian allegations.
That’s it for today. I’ll probably do something over the weekend. I’m not sure what yet, but I’ll do something. I still want to do a write-up on Mueller’s Justice League, plus a few other things. I’ve got a feeling that they’re going to get a lot of work coming up.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 