Daily Check-In 05/18/2018

Daily Check-In

Friday, May 18th and the weekend.  There were five major stories that broke since Friday, on top of the normal noise.

10 high school students murdered in yet another shooting.  This time in Houston.

Trump and Nunes try to expose an intelligence source to try to protect their asses.

Donnie Jr. met with Erik Prince and George Nader, representing the Saudis, who offered help during the 2016 election in order to kill the Iran Deal.

Trump calls for an “investigation” into the “informant”, and Rosenstein calls his bluff.

Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle, an American actress.

Oh, and Roger Stone’s time in the barrel is almost upon us.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION: CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

Burning the Source

F.B.I. officials concluded they had the legal authority to open the investigation after receiving information that Mr. Papadopoulos was told that Moscow had compromising information on Mrs. Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” months before WikiLeaks released stolen messages from Democratic officials. As part of the operation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, the F.B.I. also began investigating Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his future national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.

A couple days back (Daily Check-In 05/16/2018), the New York Times mostly confirmed what I’ve described before; there was an FBI informant working with the Trump Campaign.  We’ve got some new details.

The Right Wing Media will run with the narrative that the FBI planted this informant to spy on the Trump Campaign.

Bullshit.

What really happened is the informant is a long time FBI, Counterintelligence, and MI6 source with known connections to the Russians involved.  They heard about the Russians offering dirt and assistance to the Trump Campaign, so he (I don’t know if it is a he, but I’m using that pronoun for this argument) looks into the Russians.  While investigating the Russians, he discovered that at least three members of the Trump Campaign were working with the Russians.  Actively.  Voluntarily.  And the work they were doing wasn’t just a small favor here or there.  What he saw shocked him.  There’s only one word to describe what he saw.

Treason.

The source was investigating the Russians, trying to slow them down and see what they knew, but he instead saw people like George Papadopoulos and Carter Page actively sharing sensitive information with the Russians.

Fast forward to this weekend, where Trump, along with Dipshit Cowpoke Devin Nunes, are trying to force the DOJ to identify the informant that spoke to at least three members of the campaign.  This is not only illegal (See Valerie Plame), but extremely dangerous to the source, anyone who knows them, national security, and our relationship with Great Britain.  All so Dotard can try to save his ass for a few more minutes.

Donnie Jr., Erik Prince, and the Saudis

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. met during the 2016 campaign with a private military contractor and an adviser to Middle Eastern leaders, both of whom have since become a focus of investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller, a lawyer for President Donald Trump’s eldest son said Saturday.

Erik Prince, an informal adviser to the Trump campaign and former head of Blackwater, and George Nader, a veteran operative who has advised the United Arab Emirates and helped American contractors secure business in the Middle East, met with Trump Jr. at Trump Tower to discuss a social media proposal, lawyer Alan Futerfas said in a statement.

As we’ve long suspected, it’s not just the Russians that the Trump’s accepted aid from during the campaign.  Time to throw the Saudis in the mix.  Their terms were in exchange for assisting Trump, if he became POTUS he would rescind the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Why?

The Saudis hate the Iranians.  Saudi Arabia, especially the ruling religious faction, is Hanafi Sunni, while Iran’s populace is mostly Ismaili Shiite, per this map.  There’s a time and a place for the breakdown of the differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but that is not now, and not here.  Short version, think of it like the Catholic/Protestant split, but earlier on in the history of Islam.

These countries hate each other for religious reasons, which makes their hatred “holy” and “sacred.”  In other words, intractable, stupid, and likely to cause collateral damage.

I’m wondering, if we lined up the timing of these meetings, along with when Trump started campaigning against the Iran Deal, how well does that line up?

What I’m not wondering about is how much Mueller knows about this.  Notice the second name in that text block.  That’s right, everyone’s 4th or 5th Cooperating Witness, George Nader.

Trump demands an “Investigation”

This could have been an ugly one, but once again Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein pulled an end-around.  He included this “investigation” in the scope of an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Inspector General, which is expected to wrap up after Mueller’s work wraps up.

Roger Stone

Mueller’s subpoenaing everyone and anyone who so much as texted Roger Stone.  If this pattern sounds familiar, he did the same thing with Paul Manafort before charging him.

Roger’s days of freedom are numbered.

Senate

Scope of the Corruption

What is Mueller Doing?

 

#NEVERAGAIN

I’m not sure what else can be said.  Another preventable tragedy, in the only country in the world where this happens.  Once again, everyone lines up for their battles.  The ammosexuals go apeshit and find every excuse possible as to why it’s not the easy access to guns that led to another group of parents burying their children.

There’s a phrase I heard a lot as a kid.  “You can’t have freedom without responsibility.”  They want the freedom to own arsenals, but none of the personal responsibility and societal responsibility needed to make sure they don’t fall in the wrong hands.

This must end.  If that means voting out each and every politician with an A-rating from the NRA, so be it.

 

ROYAL WEDDING

Yes, I admit it, I watched the Royal Wedding over the weekend.  I found it interesting, and entertaining.  They seem like they might actually be nice people.

What I found really cool during the buildup and coverage was that all of the questions about whether or not this was proper or acceptable all had to do with her being an American, and none about her race.  Aside from a few racist trolls online, it was a non-issue.

That makes feel … good.

 

COHEN/STORMYGATE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS:  TRUMP HATES WOMEN, AMAZON

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

“He’s the president of the United States,” the former mayor of New York City said earlier this month. “We can assert the same privileges other presidents have.”

But during a live interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Friday, Giuliani was forced to confront remarks he made in 1998 that appear to undercut that very assertion. “You’ve got to do it,” Giuliani told Charlie Rose when asked about a presidential subpoena in 1998. “I mean, you don’t have a choice. There is a procedure for handling that.”

“That’s extremely unfair what you’re doing right now,” Giuliani complained as the clip played on a split screen. “This is the reason people don’t come on this show.” He later called the network “disgusting.”

One of the great things about comedy, and especially satire, is that one can say things that they could never get away with in regular conversation.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

RUMOR MILL

Something that didn’t escape the attention of a few people was how quickly the NRA responds after a school shooting, and how overwhelming their “supporters” act.  Not just the speed, but it’s the coordination of the response that’s creepy.  Within minutes of the killer being identified, there were hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook pushing doctored photos of him wearing HRC swag.  Hundreds in just a few minutes.  Even with most of those accounts being deleted almost immediately, enough got through to reverberate this message through the echo chamber.  Then, on petitions for or against gun control, hundreds if not thousands of comments in favor of the NRA’s position are copypasta.  These actions don’t include the “official” rapid response measures from the likes of Oliver North and Dana Loesch spreading their lies and deceit.

One user creating a hoax is one thing.  Hundreds of accounts pushing the same hoax within minutes is coordination.

 

That’s it for today.  The last few days kicked my ass, so if I don’t have an article up for Monday, I needed to rest.  I’ll try to get something up if a big story breaks, but I might take it slow, and add a little extra to Tuesday’s article.

That being said, expect Monday to be a clusterfuck.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

Published

4 thoughts on “Daily Check-In 05/18/2018”

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