Month: May 2018

Daily Check-In 05/23/2018

Wednesday, May 23rd.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Ledes

Remember on Daily Check-In 05/02/2018 when it came out that Ukraine stopped working with the Mueller Investigation in exchange for missiles to defend themselves against Russia?  It turns out that they set the meeting up by bribing Michael Cohen.  A bribe of $400,000 set up a meeting between Ukraine and Donald Trump, which led to this agreement.

So not only is it straight up bribery, but this is also a FARA violation.

Lost in the noise of Kushner getting a security clearance from wife’s lover/father, last month Jared Kushner met with Mueller’s team for 6-7 hours worth of interviews.  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said that the investigators don’t ask questions that they don’t already have the answers to, and 6 hours is a long time.

He was interviewed as a witness, not a subject or target.  Same thing was said of Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos as well.

George pled guilty to lying to the FBI back in October, but his sentencing was deferred while he assisted the investigation and provided evidence.

There’s a few things we can infer from this action…

First, Mueller doesn’t need George any more.  He’s either provided all that he can, or he’s no longer of use.  If they use him any more, they’ll have to file an addendum to this motion.

Second, the timing.  George won’t be sentenced tomorrow, but sometime in the next couple months.

Finally, the sentencing itself will be of note.  While there’s no hard rule about it, the more helpful a cooperating witness is, the less time they serve in jail.  What he pled to carries a maximum 5 year sentence, but normally results in a 2 year prison term.  If he gets a few months, or even a suspended sentence or probation, George delivered the goods.

Pompeo, who previously was Trump’s CIA director, was pressed by Democrats on whether he accepted that finding during testimony Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Yes, sir,” he said. But that was only after he initially said the judgment that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump win “was the least confirmed, that is, there was the least support for that” in the report issued by the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency in January 2017, a few weeks before Trump took office.

WASHINGTON – Three months before the 2016 presidential election, an Israeli social media specialist joined a Gulf Arab emissary and a former Middle East security contractor for a meeting with Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., to discuss ways they could help the Republican nominee beat his opponent.
The existence of the meeting in Trump Tower in New York City, first revealed on Saturday by The New York Times, has prompted US special counsel Robert Mueller to send investigators to Israel to probe the activities of the Israeli social media firm, which allegedly employed former Israeli intelligence officers and collects user data to help manipulate public opinion. The Israel Police is cooperating with the probe, the Times found.

 

 

COHEN:  FOLLOW THE MONEY

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

FBI agents armed with a court order have seized control of a key server in the Kremlin’s global botnet of 500,000 hacked routers, The Daily Beast has learned. The move positions the bureau to build a comprehensive list of victims of the attack, and short-circuits Moscow’s ability to reinfect its targets.

The FBI counter-operation goes after “VPN Filter,” a piece of sophisticated malware linked to the same Russian hacking group, known as Fancy Bear, that breached the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign during the 2016 election. On Wednesday security researchers at Cisco and Symantec separately provided new details on the malware, which has turned up in 54 countries including the United States.

So, what should you do?

If a victim reboots an infected router, the malicious plugins all disappear, and only the core malware code survives. That code is programmed to connect over the Internet to a command-and-control infrastructure set up by the hackers. First it checks for particular images hosted on Photobucket.com that held hidden information in the metadata. If it can’t find those images—which have indeed been removed from Photobucket—it turns to an emergency backup control point at the hard-coded web address ToKnowAll[.]com.

On Tuesday, FBI agents in Pittsburg asked federal Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan in Pittsburgh for an order directing the domain registration firm Verisign to hand the ToKnowAll[.]com address over to the FBI, in order to “further the investigation, disrupt the ongoing criminal activity involving the establishment and use of the botnet, and assist in the remediation efforts,” according to court records. Lenihan agreed, and on Wednesday the bureau took control of the domain.

REBOOT YOUR MOTHER FUCKING ROUTERS NOW!  Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

…

If there isn’t a button, just unplug the power cable, leave it out for 15 seconds to a minute, then plug it back in.

…

It’ll take a moment to come back on.

…

Ok, if your roommates, kids, or spouses are yelling about the WiFi being out, this is why.  Just make up something.  They’ll freak out less if they think the cable cut out for a second than if you tell them that the Russians are using were using your router to engage in espionage against the United States, and the guy in the quasi-conspiracy theory blog told you to do this.

…

Did it?  Good.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

In Texas, Santa Fe High School had two armed, trained school resource officers who roamed its halls. The student who opened fire in it knew that full well. That did not stop him from bringing weapons onto the campus and opening fire.

 

He had a death wish and the means to execute it.

 

Not only was the deterrent effect nonexistent, but once the carnage was underway, the presence of two good guys with guns did not “solve the problem instantly.” Rather, the guards confronted the shooter within four minutes and intermittently exchanged gunfire with and negotiated with him for 25 minutes before he surrendered.

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCHADENFREUDE

 

BLUE WAVE

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:  THE “FUCK ROGER GODDELL” EDITION

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for today.  I’m not going to guarantee a post for both of the next couple days, but I’ll see what I can do.  The weekend is booked, but I want to write something.  Not sure what yet, but something.  But, that assumes I get a few hours.

There’s an overwhelming sense of desperation coming down the pipe from Trump’s camp.  Their actions aren’t thought out, they’re desperate and without direction, like throwing haymakers in a brawl.

These aren’t smart people.  They’re mobsters in way over their heads, going up against the best that Democracy has to offer.

We’ll get through this. But we have go through it first.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 05/21/2018

Monday, May 21st and Tuesday, May 22nd.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Ledes

The Gulf Meeting Fallout

Rudy Giuliani is a liar, demented, or both

Trump in a Panic

Burning the Source

Reactions and OpEds

 

COHEN:  THE TAXI KING FLIPS

Evgeny Friedman, the “Taxi King” and former business partner of Michael Cohen, decided to plead guilty to one count of tax evasion and receive 5 years probation and testify against Michael Cohen.  It was either that, or face up to 125 years in prison.

Evgeny Freidman, welcome to Cooperating Witnesses.

Don’t be surprised when it comes out that Trump knocked up the Playmate, not Broidy.

 

EPA ROUGHOUSING

The Environmental Protection Agency is barring The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants.

The EPA blocked the news organizations from attending Tuesday’s Washington meeting, convened by EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told the barred organizations they were not invited and there was no space for them, but gave no indication of why they specifically were barred.

Pruitt told about 200 people at the meeting that dealing with the contaminants is a “national priority.”

Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

CORRUPTION ON A RIDUNKULOUS SCALE

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

BLUE WAVE

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for today.  And yesterday.  I try to put a post together every night, but sometimes that’s not possible.

It’s easy to get lost in sadness, despair, and depression when it feels like everything if falling apart, but the men and women working in the background to bring these villains to justice.  America is a country of laws, not people, money, or personalities.

It feels like nothing’s happening, but Justice is like a zombie horde.  Slow, methodical, and relentless.  And nothing can stop it.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 05/18/2018

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

Daily Check-In 05/17/2018

Thursday, May 17th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of President Donald Trump’s campaign, has cut a plea deal with the Justice Department that requires him to cooperate with other criminal probes, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Jeffrey Yohai, COME ON DOWN!  YOU’RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON LET’S MAKE A DEAL!

Yohai is Paul Manafort’s former son-in-law, and was a business partner of his on some of Manafort’s real estate/money laundering deals.

Yohai has pled guilty to undisclosed charges that remain under seal.  This is part of the continuing effort to flip Manafort.  Not that I think they need him, but it will make taking down Trump easier, and won’t require burning Intel sources to do so.

$20 says it wasn’t Ghostbusters.

A Russian plane linked to the country’s government flew into the Seychelles the day prior to a 2017 meeting now under review by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to the airport flight data obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Mueller’s team is examining a series of meetings that took place in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

 

COHEN:  FOLLOW THE MONEY & STORMYGATE

From the interview clip, Avenatti’s team has just about finished vetting two women’s stories that match Stormy’s to a T, and there are others in the preliminary stages.

President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has reportedly confided in friends that he’s at his wit’s end with federal investigations into his business dealings, Vanity Fair reported Wednesday.

According to two people familiar with Cohen’s thinking who spoke to Vanity Fair, Cohen is “fuming” over Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti’s release of information about his bank records and has grown weary of all the news coverage surrounding his attempts to sell access to Trump after the 2016 election. Cohen has reportedly confided in friends that he “just can’t take this anymore” and is focused on protecting his family, whom he thinks is suffering because federal investigators want to get to Trump, a friend told Vanity Fair.

I only see two ways out for Cohen.  Either he flips on Trump, or swallows a bullet.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

They’re more worried about leaks describing how terrible they are, then they are worried about not communicating with each other and solving the country’s problems.

#NEVERAGAIN

I have even worse news coming in the Friday post.  Looks like another school shooting just took place in Texas.  I’ll have more details on the next post.

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Why, for the love of fuck, does anyone still give a flying rats ass what Rudy Giuliani says?  He’s either senile, a corrupted lying snake, on the take, secretly working to compromise Trump’s team, or a combination of the above.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

BLUE WAVE

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for today. Well, yesterday. I was a little under the weather, and needed to catch up on sleep. Sometimes I need a whole 5 or 6 hours.

Friday’s update will likely be posted on Saturday morning. I also need to update some other pages, thanks to the news about Yohai.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur