Daily Check-In 05/11/2018

Daily Check-In

Friday, May 11th.

 

COHEN:  FOLLOW THE MONEY

Within a month starting their contract with Michael Cohen, executives from AT&T had a private meeting with the head of the FCC, Ajit Pai to discuss ending Net Neutrality.

Novartis paid Cohen and Essential Consultants 4 times as much as all of their other lobbyists.

This is their attempt at making a scapegoat.  They’re hoping that there’s enough out there that only this person gets implicated, and everyone else can go on their merry way.

Avenatti’s paid a little from Stormy, mostly from their crowdsource fund, and the rest from the buttloads of money he’s made for his firm over the years.

In the email, from February 22, 2018, Cohen writes: “It is my understanding that Ms. Clifford has or is seeking the advice of additional counsel regarding the above matter,” referring to the subject line, “PP -vs-DD NDA,” which pertains to the non-disclosure agreement Daniels is suing Trump over. “Under no circumstances should you forward this document or the exhibits to anyone without my express written consent,” Cohen wrote to Keith Davidson, who is no longer representing Daniels.

Reason #842 why Michael Cohen can’t sleep at night.  He advised another lawyer representing a different client in a case that he worked to withhold evidence that could help their client, and recommend that said client should not pursue competent legal protection. That’s worthy of disbarment, unethical, and illegal.

Amidst the new burst of information about hush money, shell companies, and white supremacist websites suddenly swirling around Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and New York-based company Columbus Nova — as well as Columbus Nova’s relationship with sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg — one detail has provided a bizarre offshoot.

Daybreak Games, a California online game company specializing in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), is scrambling to distance itself from Columbus Nova — a company that was listed as a subsidiary of Vekselberg’s Renova company.

…

However, shuffling money to Cohen wasn’t the only business Columbus Nova undertook in the past few years. According to press releases, interviews, and policy statements on Daybreak’s website, Columbus Nova purchased Daybreak in 2015. (It’s unclear how much money the sale entailed.)

Now, however, Daybreak is claiming that the past three years have been a big misunderstanding, and that Daybreak was never owned by Columbus Nova — and that the company, in turn, never had any connection to Vekselberg.

We’re going to hear a lot more about Gamergate coming up, but this ties almost exclusively to money laundering.  Many video games have their own economies.  A player can spend money on things for a game, like in-game currency or special items.  Those items are then traded or sold for cash.  And since many of these games are international, it’s not too hard to buy armor in the game with Rubles, then sell that armor on eBay for dollars.

 

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Remember, Rick Gates (The Indicted,Cooperating Witnesses) was the Chief of Staff to Tom Barrack, the head of the Trump Inauguration Committee, and we’re seeing several reports of shady donations being made to this fund.

Ford.  One of the companies that Trump attacked on the campaign trail for building cars in Mexico.

This is interesting.  Now we have proof that it wasn’t just the companies that played ball, but others were approached as well.

See you in about 30 days, Alex!

Kremlin-linked Russian politician Alexander Torshin traveled frequently between Moscow and various destinations in the United States to build relationships with figures on the American right starting as early as 2009, beyond his previously known contacts with the National Rifle Association.

Documents newly obtained by NPR show how he traveled throughout the United States to cultivate ties in ways well beyond his formal role as a member of the Russian legislature and later as a top official at the Russian central bank. These are steps a former top CIA official believes Torshin took in order to advance Moscow’s long-term objectives in the United States, in part by establishing common political interests with American conservatives.

…

Torshin’s trips took him to Alaska, where he requested a visit with former Gov. Sarah Palin; to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.; to Nashville, where he was an election observer for the 2012 presidential race; and to every NRA convention, in various American cities, between 2012 and 2016.

…

Hall said their message was: “You know, we don’t like LGBT causes anymore than you conservatives on the right in the United States do, we are interested in engaging the NRA… the church plays an important role in Russia just as it should in the United States.”

 

FBI Special Agent in Charge Lucia Ziobro wrote an unusual column in the Boston Business Journal in April of 2014 to warn that a foundation controlled by Russian energy baron Viktor Vekselberg might be part of a Moscow spying campaign that sought to siphon up American science and technology.

Here’s the part that confused me, until I thought about it for a second.

If the FBI knew about this link to Russian Intel, why put it in some obscure journal?  They needed to warn people, but not tip off the Russians.  If they put this article in the Boston Globe or New York Times, that’ll be front page in Moscow in about 12 hours.  But, the people they wanted to warn were in a specific crowd, and likely to read this journal.  No one else should read it but their targets.

 

SCHNEIDERMAN

Gleason said that he mentioned the women’s allegation in the summer of 2013 to former New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy, who, the lawyer said, immediately offered to tell Trump.

In his letter to Judge Wood, Gleason wrote, “Mr. Dunleavy did indeed discuss this very matter with Mr. Trump as evidenced by the phone call I received from Attorney Michael Cohen.”

During the early stages of the Trump University investigation, two women accused Eric Schneiderman of physically abusing them.  They went to a lawyer, Peter Gleason, who advised them to, instead of going to law enforcement with their story, or the press, to instead go to Donald Trump.  Gleason knew that Schneiderman was coming after Trump, and Trump would pay for blackmail against him.  That way, when he comes after Trump with criminal charges, Trump could drop this bomb.

This shines a whole new light on the timing of Eric Schneiderman’s resignation.  (Daily Check-In 05/07/2018).  I now think that this breaking when it did will prove to be fortuitous.

Let’s assume for a moment that this story didn’t break when it did, and state criminal charges come up against Trump Org for Enterprise Corruption, the NY version of RICO.  Just as the trial’s about to start, details about Schneiderman’s punchy past come to light, and since he’s leading the prosecution team, shit gets disrupted right as they’re about to go to war.  Or, worse yet, Schneiderman at the last minute decides to not prosecute Trump or his family in an attempt to save his own ass.

Now, there is no magic bullet to save Trump in New York.  They can’t blackmail they’re way out of charges anymore.  Any arguments of a corrupt prosecution are gone.  They’re opponent went from a warrior with a known weakness to a complete unknown, and the most dangerous opponent is the unknown.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Ever get the feeling that we live in a gigantic simulation, and the last couple years are like some weird QA bug test?  Like the dev team is recycling old data and running crazy scenarios to see what’s broken.  Donald Trump is President, Steven Segal is a spokesman for Putin, Oliver North is the head of the NRA, Bill Cosby is a convicted sex offender, and Pamela Anderson is advocating to this generation’s Michael Jackson to lobby the President on behalf of a spy.

That means Jackie Chan will become the Ambassador to China, Joe Rogan will become Secretary of the Interior, and Claire Danes will get busted for running a high-end brothel.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

During debate, Trump-loving Pennsylvania congressman Mike Kelly (you guessed it, a Republican) tried to scold Waters, saying, “We’re trying to make America great every day and every way and the best way to do that is to stop talking about discrimination and start talking about the nation. We’re coming together as a people in spite of what you say.”

Waters quickly responded: “I want you to know that I am more offended as an African-American woman than you will ever be. And this business about making America great again, it is your president that’s dividing this country and don’t talk to me about the fact that we don’t understand… No, I will not yield, no I will not yield. Don’t tell me we don’t understand, that’s the attitude given toward women time and time again.”

Waters was then told to stop talking by Republican chair Tom McClintock. Waters complained that she was interrupted while Kelly was not. She then addressed Kelly again.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that and think that somehow women don’t understand what goes on on the floors of automobile dealers.”

McClintock angrily hushed Waters again.

“You did not interrupt [Kelly] when he was making those outrageous remarks about him knowing more about discrimination than I know about discrimination. I resent that, and I resent the talk about making America great again. He’s down here making a speech [about] this dishonorable president of the United States of America… and no I don’t yield (to Kelly), not one second to you. Not one second. Not one second to you.”

That’s some pretty Orwellian shit right there.  He can’t be bribed because his lawyer accepted bribes, he didn’t.  They probably followed that up “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.”

 

McCAIN

 

BLUE WAVE

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

Glenn Jacobs was running for the GOP nomination for Mayor of Knox County, TN. Glenn Jacobs is a professional wrestler, known better by his stage name, Kane. He’s been in the WWE for more than 25 years, the last 20 or so as Kane.

This election watching reached the top of the Squared Circle subreddit that night. It wasn’t an attack, it was a bunch of wrestling fans and media watching the results, hoping to score that sweet, sweet Reddit Karma.

 

A NEW DIRECTION

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  If I write anything this weekend, I’m going to write about Michael Cohen, the dumbest lawyer and bagman around.  That’s assuming I don’t take the whole weekend off.  I’ve been very busy the last few weeks, and things are only going to get busier from here on out.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by noneofthisisnormal

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2 thoughts on “Daily Check-In 05/11/2018”

  1. Pingback: Daily Check-In 05/14/2018 – None of this is Normal
  2. Pingback: 2018 Retrospective – None of this is Normal

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