Daily Check-In 05/24/2018

Daily Check-In

Thursday, May 24th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

I know we’ve been waiting for months on Roger and Julian to go to prison, but it feels like the pace is accelerating.  I’m not sure when, but something will happen soon.  Just don’t ask me to quantify soon.

Following yesterday’s (Daily Check-In 05/23/2018) news about the DOJ briefing about the FBI Informant into the Trump Campaign, it was decided that the Gang of 8, along with Adam Schiff, Democratic lead of the House Intelligence Committee, would attend their own briefing.

Two other people that were there that had no right to be were White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and Trump’s impeachment lawyer Emmett Flood.

A lawyer, representing a client who is the subject of an ongoing investigation, attending a meeting about how evidence was collected for said investigation.

That’s about 50 Shades of Fucked Up.

Supposedly, Flood left after making an opening statement, but the mother fucker should never have been there to begin with.  And depending on what he did say and do while there, he exposes himself to legal jeopardy, including possible Obstruction of Justice charges.

As far as why the informant was there, he wasn’t “planted.”  He was monitoring the Russians as they talked to Page, Papadopoulos, and Manafort.  And Flynn.  And Clovis.  And Sessions.  And EVERY OTHER FUCKER IN THE CAMPAIGN THAT TALKED TO A RUSSIAN!  Normally, that’s one or two people.  With Trump, it’s like everyone.

The Associated Press, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post and Politico are suing for the unsealing of various types of warrants used in the special counsel’s investigation, as well as sealed court documents specific to the case of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was indicted last fall.

“The fact that certain charges have been brought does not imply that the Special Counsel’s investigation into the assigned matters is closed,” Mueller said, arguing against the release of the records. “Nor does it imply that the search warrant materials could be unsealed at this time without creating a serious risk of jeopardizing the ongoing and interconnected aspects of the investigation.”

…

In the filing, Mueller also said that many media reports about the nature of the investigation “may be inaccurate or incomplete” and may be “based on unofficial sources, half-understood facts, or speculation.”

Mueller, in the filing, said that he was not opposed to unsealing the two Manafort warrants that have been subject to legal challenges that Manafort has brought seeking to throw out certain evidence, with Mueller acknowledging that many of the details about them were already coming out in open court proceedings.

This is interesting, but not unexpected.  Mueller’s team is working on many things that haven’t been released to the media yet, and giving them everything they’re asking for would cripple their other investigations.

 

 

COHEN:  FOLLOW THE MONEY

 

COLD WAR 2.0

For the first time, the Dutch-led team said the missile had come from a unit based in western Russia.

All 298 people on board the Boeing 777 died when it broke apart in mid-air flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

It was hit by a missile fired from rebel-held territory in Ukraine. Russia says none of its weapons was used.

But on Thursday Wilbert Paulissen, a Dutch official from the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), told reporters: “All the vehicles in a convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces.”

He restated the JIT’s conclusion that the plane had been destroyed by a Russian-made Buk missile, adding that it had been supplied by the country’s 53rd anti-aircraft brigade in Kursk.

At a news conference in the Dutch city of Utrecht, the investigators also showed social media pictures which they said traced the route the missile convoy had taken to reach eastern Ukraine.

MH17 was shot down flying over Europe by a missile launched from Crimea, the part of Ukraine that Russia invaded in 2014.  Here are the two hypothesis in place.

Russia’s story, at first, was that the plane was shot down by Ukrainians.  Then, it was “Ukranian Rebels” using Ukrainian missiles.  Somehow, this evolved to the exploits of a B-grade action movie where a handful of rebels, armed with AK-47’s, commandeered a missile launcher from a fully armed convoy (though no soldiers were lost, no injuries sustained, and no equipment damaged).  Then, used the missile they just stole, and instead of attacking a Russian Air Force jet, of which there were plenty of targets, they decide to shoot down a passenger plane flying overhead.  Just to frame the Russians.

The second hypothesis is the Russians shot the plane down themselves and blamed Ukraine for it.

The first stretches credulity.  The second fits all know facts, evidence, and known patterns.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

I’ve said for a while, but nearly ANYONE ELSE would be better as a President than Donald Trump.  Anyone.  Pick a random stranger off of the street, they’d do a better job.

Why?

This random person would be so scared of the job duties, and sobered by the overwhelming responsibility of each and every action, that they would view each and every action with panic-inducing fear, and would be forced to ask experts what to do.  Trump’s narcissism is so complete that he doesn’t think, but he KNOWS that he’s smarter than the experts.  Combine the narcissism with incompetence, impatience, and mendacity, and Trump is a shit sandwich with a side of shit.

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

A lot of ink has been spilled over the last year and a half explaining how congressional Republicans are complicit in the damage Trump is doing to the country because of their failure to hold him accountable. I certainly don’t disagree with that. But based on what has been reported from behind the scenes, it is obvious that most of them know that he is unfit for office, but are too afraid to say so in public. That represents a new level of political cowardice, but the truth is that they are simply trying to protect their jobs in an atmosphere where Republican base voters won’t tolerate disloyalty to the president.

 

TRUMP HATES IMMIGRANTS

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

NFL:  THE F IS FOR FASCISM

The NFL got played, and played itself.  This new policy is a blatant violation of free speech, and since there was no official vote by the owners, also in violation of their own guidelines.

Expect lawsuits against this by the end of June.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Morgan Freeman?  That sucks.  I could use some good news to cheer me up after that.

YEAH!!!!!  That’s what I needed.

The lawsuit is from an employee of Alpha Omega Winery, who was asked to work a 2015 charity cruise on the San Francisco Bay. What may have begun as a charity event was filled with men who “appeared to be cocaine and ‘drawing straws’ for which sex worker to hire” the lawsuit says. The cruise was part of a night that was auctioned off at a fundraiser. The winning bidders were allegedly “important investors in Alpha,” the lawsuit revealed.

The staffer, Alene Anase, described the sounds of “sexual activity” happening in bedrooms and saw one man “fondling and suckling” sex workers’ breasts. She noted that the sex workers also seemed to be “too young to consent” to the activity.

I heard a rumor from Pace that Devin was about to have a prostitution problem.  Not sure if this is it, but it’ll be interesting to see how close this gets to him.  I can only hope he’s balls deep in this scandal.

The Pun Jar is now $26.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCHADENFRUEDE

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

Keep this in mind for when the sex abuse cases against Trump and his ilk ramp up.  When I get time, I’ll link to the actual case documents from here.

 

That’s it for Thursday.  This post is going on up on Friday, as Thursday night was hectic.  This weekend will be as well, but I hope to get something posted.  I have a few articles on deck.  Maybe I’ll dive into one of those.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

Published

One thought on “Daily Check-In 05/24/2018”

  1. Pingback: Daily Check-In 11/28/2018 – None of this is Normal

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