Month: May 2018

Daily Check-In 05/10/2018

Thursday, May 10th.  This post will be light on my writing.  The last few days have kicked my butt.

 

COHEN: FOLLOW THE MONEY

Another connection to Russians?  There are more connections to Russians in Trump’s world than in Fydor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  I’m not sure what’s funnier, the news coming out right after AT&T won an award for ethics, or that AT&T actually won an award for ethics.  I’m guessing PharmaBro wasn’t available to come to the awards banquet.

 

RUDY

Mr. Giuliani took a leave of absence last month from the firm, Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s largest, to represent Mr. Trump. But the firm announced on Thursday that he no longer worked there as of a day earlier.

…

In a statement released by the firm, Mr. Giuliani said it “is in everyone’s best interest that I make it a permanent resignation” so he can focus on the special counsel’s investigation.

Firm partners had chafed over Mr. Giuliani’s public comments about payments that another of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Michael D. Cohen, made to secure the silence of a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The president has denied her allegations. In interviews, Mr. Giuliani suggested that such payments were common at his firm.

“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” he said on Fox News.

He added, “Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients.”

The New York Times asked Greenberg Traurig several times to explain those remarks over the past week. On Tuesday, a firm spokeswoman asked for more time to provide answers.

Rudy got shitcanned from his law firm, and it’s just a matter of time until he’s fired from Team Trump.  Couldn’t happen to a more deserving asshole.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

As I’ve mentioned before, Pence is dirty AF.  He’s skilled, but he’s not covered in teflon.

So here’s the situation: we have a president that is under criminal investigation, with congressional Republicans willing to put intelligence assets at risk in order to obstruct the probe. That makes them complicit in whatever crimes the president has committed.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Long before Mr. Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right-wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.

The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. But again, these times are not normal.

No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do.

So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.

Here’s the thing: The rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized.

Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.

That’s because the idea of change doesn’t threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we’re ready for that. We know that this is a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.

I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been.

So no, they don’t really need to be understood.

What they need to be is defeated.

 

This note in the post illustrates how clickbaity the headline is.

[–]CylinsierPennsylvania [score hidden] 

Just remember that as of 2016, only 26% of the population identified as Republican. So while 61% of Republicans think he is being framed, that’s only around 16% of Americans. Compare that to 29% Democrats and 42% Independents. They’re the majority in their own party but are a small minority of the country as it is unlikely more than a handful of Democrats and Independents feel the same way.

http://news.gallup.com/poll/188096/democratic-republican-identification-near-historical-lows.aspx

 

Basics of statistics and shrinking group dynamics.  Fewer people identify as Republicans, and most of those that left did so because of the crazies.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

BORDER ISSUES

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) filed a discharge petition Wednesday morning that, if signed by a majority of House members, would force votes on immigration bills under a so-called “queen of the hill” rule. Whichever of those bills receives the most votes, exceeding a majority, would pass the House — a setup that is calibrated to secure passage of a bipartisan compromise.

 

HIJINKS ON THE HILL

 

BLUE WAVE

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  Like I said earlier, the last few days have kicked my butt, so I’m taking it easy today.  Yes, this is my definition of taking it easy.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 05/09/2018

Wednesday, May 9th.

 

FOLLOW THE MONEY: A STORMYGATE/COHEN/RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION CROSSOVER EVENT

“We’re in the shit, now.  Somebody’s gotta shovel it.”

– Hercules Mulligan, Hamilton

It’s 10PM, and I’m still organizing this post.  Today’s news is like one of those crossover TV shows for DC shows on the CW; every character has a part, it’s complete chaos, and the most annoying character from each show gets too much screen time.

I’m doing this a little different tonight.  I’ll describe what happened, and try to organize the news to make sense.

Last night, Michael Avenatti dropped a bomb claiming that multiple companies had paid Michael Cohen.  (Daily Check-In 05/08/2018) Among them are AT&T, Novartis, Korean Aerospace Industries, and Columbus Nova, a subsidiary of Renova.  Over a million dollars flowed into Essential Consultants, LLC., the same company that paid off Stormy Daniels and Shera Brechard.

So, what happened today?

First, we get the confirmations from each company.  Not only did Novartis, AT&T, and KAI all confirm that they paid Michael Cohen, but they each admitted to paying more than reported.  Avenatti only release 4 months of payments, but these companies each confirmed a year’s worth of payments.

But each of them claimed, eventually, that they hired Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants for different reasons.

Korean Air

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) (047810.KS) said on Wednesday it had paid $150,000 for consulting services on accounting matters to a firm set up by U.S. President Donald Trump’s private lawyer Michael Cohen.

The arrangement came as the company, backed by state-owned Export-Import Bank of Korea, is competing to sell trainer jets to the U.S. Air Force in an auction that could be worth up to $16 billion.

So, a billion-dollar company says they’re looking for accounting advice from a real estate lawyer? Just as they’re competing for billions of dollars of government funds.

What’s the word I’m looking for? It rhymes with Mibery.

Oh, but the corruption goes even further.  From /u/charmed_im-sure

“In addition, Korea Aerospace Industries paid Mr. Cohen’s company $150,000 last November, according to the records. The company, an aircraft manufacturer, has partnered with the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin in competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the United States Air Force that is expected to be awarded this year. A representative for Korea Aerospace declined to comment.”

KAI vice president found dead amid corruption scandal by Yeo Jun-suk Sept 21, 2017

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170921000259

Korea Aerospace CEO Resigns as Prosecutors Probe Chopper Project by Kyunghee Park July 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-20/korea-aerospace-ceo-resigns-as-prosecutors-probe-chopper-project

 

Novartis

Novartis said it believed Cohen “could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. health-care policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act.”

Health care policy.  Now Cohen’s an expert on Obamacare.  OBAMA WASN’T AN EXPERT ON OBAMACARE!

Novartis, the maker of drugs like Ritalin, paid Cohen 3 times what Avenatti released last night.

 

AT&T

Now Cohen’s an expert on regulatory reform?

 

Of course, Avenatti couldn’t help but poke fun at Cohen, and rightfully so.

I know a little bit about consulting, and one thing that you have to sell the client on is your expertise in the subject matter, and how your expertise can help them.  Cohen either has deep levels of experience that are previously unseen by a “real estate attorney”, or he’s being paid for access.

 

At some point throughout the day, Cohen’s lawyers filed paperwork in court disputing “some” of the findings.

Cohen’s lawyers are arguing that the small dollar amounts belong to different Michael Cohen’s, and dispute about $20,000 worth of charges, out of $4.4 million.  They don’t dispute the rest of it, just the tiny dollar amounts, like $675.00 to Taiwan.

Their argument, though, is that because the tiny amounts are incorrect, the whole report is inaccurate.

That’s like getting caught having an affair by a PI, and the PI lists the mistress, the restaurant you met up at, the car you drove to the hotel, the hotel you shagged at, what positions were tried, what you screamed out when you came, what you ordered from room service, and what brand of condom you wore each time, but claiming the report is wrong because you used Durex instead of Trojans.

Back to the events.  What did these companies get for their payments?

They got “access.”  This is also called pay-to-play.  There’s another word for that…

Bribery.

Of course, the calls for more information continue.  What else is there?  Where did this information come from?  Where did it go?

Remember, Trump doesn’t like it when people make money off of “his brand” without him getting a piece of the action, and Trump still refers to Cohen as his attorney.

Not everyone’s happy with this information getting out in the public domain…

Rich Delmar, counsel to the inspector general, said that in response to media reports the office is “inquiring into allegations” that Suspicious Activity Reports on Cohen’s banking transactions were “improperly disseminated.”

…

Federal law requires banks to file Suspicious Activity Report on any unusual transactions over $10,000. Experts say the information Avenatti published could have come from a Suspicious Activity Report filed by Cohen’s bank to Treasury.

…

It is not uncommon, of course, for journalists, lawyers and others in the public eye to receive unauthorized leaks of sensitive information. Stipano said hundreds if not thousands of officials in law enforcement and government have access to a database of Suspicious Activity Reports.

…

Among other things, banks are required to file SARs if the transaction “has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the type of transaction that the particular customer would normally be expected to engage in, and the bank knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction.”

 

Collusion is real.  Cohen’s ties to Russia are real.  The Russians have leverage on Trump.

Ok, it’s just one of Trump’s lawyers connected to Columbus Nova, right?

Wait, what? Columbus Nova, a subsidiary of Renova Group, owned by Viktor Vekselberg, owns a bunch of Alt Right website domains?!  Now we’re tying in Horseshoe Theory, Trump vs. Bernie, and Racism And Politics Today, plus a lot of Russian interference in other realms.

These revelations are going to tie back to the Republican Party.  Remember, Michael Cohen is STILL the Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican Party. (Daily Check-In 04/13/2018)

Andrew Intrater, according to Mother Jones, is Vekselberg’s cousin. He is also chief executive of Columbus Nova, Renova’s U.S. investment arm located in New York. (FEC records list his employer as Renova US Management LLC.)

Intrater had no significant history of political contributions prior to the 2016 elections. But in January 2017 he contributed $250,000 to Trump’s Inaugural Committee. His six-figure gift bought him special access to a dinner billed as “an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees,” according to a brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Michael Cohen.  Russian Mafia.  La Cosa Nostra (what’s left of it).  Corporate Greed.  The Republican Party.  The Alt-Right.  The Internet attacks.  The only piece missing from this is the NRA, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out at this point that they wired money to Cohen for “access” and “insight” on gun rights issues.

By the way, why haven’t we heard about this mess with Cohen from Robert Mueller’s team?  The answer will surprise absolutely no one who’s been paying attention.

 

 

5. Is the special counsel Robert Mueller looking into these payments?

It appears that he is. Earlier this year, federal agents working for Mueller confronted Vekselberg after he got off a private plane at an airport in the New York area, according to a recent report in the Times. The article said the agents questioned Vekselberg and searched his electronic devices. It also said that members of Mueller’s team have interviewed Intrater, who is the chief executive of Columbus Nova.

 

Mueller knows.  He’s at least 6 months ahead of this story.  Mueller’s team interviewed ALL OF THE PARTIES, except Cohen and Trump, last year.  After interviewing and reviewing this information, two months later Stormy Daniels hires Michael Avenatti, and they begin their legal crusade against Michael Cohen.  A couple months ago, Mueller’s team referred the Cohen case to SDNY.  This was all part of the plan.

Trump’s supporters love to claim that he’s playing 4-D chess, or 12-D backgammon.  Mueller doesn’t play any fucking games.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Speaking of months ahead, Mueller interviewed Erik Prince sometime this year, after George Nader flipped.  My guess is this took place sometime between Daily Check-In 03/22/2018 and Daily Check-In 04/10/2018.  It had to take place after George Nader flipped, but not likely in the last week or two.  These sources run at least a month behind, and Erik was in the news a few times those weeks.  There seems to be a pattern with people showing up in the news while they’re interviewing Bobby Three Sticks.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

Iranian hackers are legit.  They’re better than the Russians.  Last year, the Wannacry ransomware attack occurred across the world, first hitting Ukraine.  It was released by the Russians, likely one of the Bears, but there were several rumors at the time that it originated from Iran.  Given what we’ve found out about the elite Iranian hackers (Daily Check-In 03/23/2018), it makes a lot of sense that they built it, and the Russians released it.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

This confirms what we’ve all known, Trump is a thin-skinned shit who attacks anyone who calls him out.  I, for one, am glad to be “fake news.”

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

The Handmaid’s Tale is supposed to be a cautionary story, not a blueprint for policy changes.

I’m curious, does this include an exclusion for their mistresses?

 

BLUE WAVE

 

RUMOR MILL

There was a ton of stuff on Twitter today, with a lot of it being directed at the Main Stream Media.  This information coming out about Cohen’s ties to the mob, Trump’s ties to the mob, Trump’s taste in young girls, and the blatant corruption at hand is nothing new, and was reported to outlets like the New York Times.  What did they do with these stories?

Not a god damn thing.

For one reason or another, which I’ll get to the rumored one in a minute, they didn’t run the truly salacious stories about Trump, and instead concentrated on the fluff, while trying to nail Hilary to the wall.  People that claim that Trump is corrupt AF got pushed aside as crackpots or dismissed like we were reporting on the color of the sky.

Why is that?  Why did so much of the MSM drop the ball on reporting this historical clusterfuck?

One hypothesis, the one floating around the Rumor Mill, is that all of the MSM was bought and paid for by foreign influence.  And this is right, to a point.  Many of the major media arms are owned by parties with foreign interests, and a lot of decisions on what to run comes from above.

Another hypothesis, the one I subscribe to, is that we are in truly historic times, and no one has any clue how to proceed.  There is no template for a foreign power manipulating the election of the President of the United States to encourage a world-wide crime syndicate to normalize their business functions at the expense of democracy.  That means there’s no template for fighting it or reporting about it.  All of the normal rules don’t apply.  It’s not just an organized crime case, or a political case, a sexual assault case, a white-collar crime case, or a national security case, but all of the above, and more.

Reporters are trying to make sense out of it, but they each have their own speciality.  It’s like with police work, they’re specialized into different areas.  Homicide, Sex, Robbery, Taxes, Cyber, Auto, etc.  There’s some overlap, like the Robbery Homicide Detectives of the LAPD, but it’s not common.  Each group of detectives looks at a crime from their angle, but to grasp the whole picture, they need help from all of the departments.

That’s where Twitter and the Rumor Mill come in.  Everyone has something they’re good at, but each of them is smart enough to know when it’s time for another person to step in.  LB has expertise in the entertainment world, while Louise Mensch has close ties to IC sources.  COB has a lifetime of experience in the Navy, while Dr. Kester can psychoanalyze a target in moments.  Eric Garland understands foreign policy and how things fit together in the big picture, while Countercheckist and Tea Pain offer IC insights and humor.  Me?  I make stupid jokes, write, and keep track of what’s going on.

But that’s what is missing from the MSM; they don’t have synergy.  Aside from Rachel Maddow or Anderson Cooper trying to bring experts from different fields together, each unit and reporter is acting on their own.  They’re working for their own papers, channels, or publishers.  Imaging what would happen if the best journalists, researchers, and reporters joined forces to crack this story.  Ronan Farrow working with Natasha Bertrand, Betsy Woodruff, Rick Wilson, Michael Beschloss, along with some of the staffs of the Washington Post, New York Times (not the editorial staff), BuzzFeed and TMZ (yes, TMZ) could make some real headlines.

 

That’s it for today.  I’ll see everyone tomorrow.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 05/08/2018

Tuesday, May 8th.

 

COHEN/STORMYGATE: TRUMP LAWYER RECEIVED $500K FROM VEKSELBERG, $400K FROM NOVARTIS, $200K FROM AT&T DAYS AFTER ELECTION TO SAME COMPANY, BANK ACCOUNT USED TO PAY OFF STORMY DANIELS

  • Chief among these suspicious financial transactions are approximately $500,000 in payments received from Mr. Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian Oligarch with an estimated net worth of nearly $13 Billion. Mr. Vekselberg and his cousin Mr. Andrew Intrater routed eight payments to Mr. Cohen through a company named Columbus Nova LLC (“Columbus”) beginning in January 2017 and continuing until at least August 2017.
  • Columbus Nova is a private equity firm founded in 2000 with over $2 billion in assets. Mr. Intrater is the CEO of Columbus Nova. Columbus Nova is the U.S. investment vehicle for Renova Group, a multi-national company controlled by Mr. Vekselberg. Renova group holds investments in various interests, including mining, oil, and telecommunications.

You know the definition of stupid?  Using the same LLC and bank account for accepting bribes and paying off witnesses.

Starting in the days following the election, Viktor Vekselberg paid Donald Trump’s personal lawyer half of a million dollars.  It’s very likely that Stormy Daniels’s payment was reimbursed by Russian money.

But it wasn’t just Russia.  Novartis, a pharmaceutical company that gained access to the White House, paid almost $400k to Essential Consultants, LLC.  $399,920 to be precise.  They made 4 monthly payments of $99,980.  That’s $20 shy of $100,000.  There are corporate regulations and legal requirements for wire transfers at certain thresholds.  One of the big thresholds is $100k.  At that level, there’s greater scrutiny over the nature of the wire transfer.  Structuring payments to avoid regulatory reporting is a felony.

The timelines are converging, the streams are crossed. Stormygate has now merged over with Team Mueller’s Investigation to form some kind of corruption-busing Voltron.  It’s just going to get more fucked from here on out.

Insights into the administration.  While AT&T was trying to merge with Time Warner.

This is pay to play.

This is Bribery.

On the lighter side of Cohen’s criminal activities, here’s a great breakdown of the hypothesis that it wasn’t Broidy that knocked up Playmate Shera Bechard, but Donald Trump.  I’ve covered this before (Daily Check-In 04/13/2018 , Daily Check-In 04/16/2018, Daily Check-In 04/26/2018), but this hypothesis is sounding more and more realistic every day. So much so that I might move it from hypothesis to theory.

I wonder if the Evangelicals will stand by Trump when they find out that his attorney fixer paid a Playboy Playmate to have an abortion with laundered Russian money originally earned from drug and human trafficking.

 

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL:  DOTARD VIOLATES TREATY AGREEMENT BY WITHDRAWING, IRAN AND E3 (GERMANY, UK, FRANCE) TO CONTINUE TO HONOR TREATY

How much of this is undoing Obama’s legacy, priming the pump for a war in Iran, or forcing the Iranians to launder money through the Trump Hotel in Baku is up for debate, but I’d put money down that they’re all involved.

Yes, I really think that Trump would put the world at risk to make a few bucks.  He’s that fucking petty.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

4 hours for 2 questions.  Mueller interviewed Vekselberg weeks ago.  We’re just catching up now.

 

BLACK CUBE

I covered this in more detail yesterday. (Daily Check-In 05/07/2018). Still, it’s pretty fucked up.

RUDY

Rudy’s behavior is hard to explain.  Is it dementia, he flipped and is attacking Trump from the inside, or is he just a shitty human being and lawyer?  Most likely the last one, but this is 2018.  Hush money to pay off of a porn star came from the same bank account that AT&T used to bribe the President.

COLD WAR 2.0

Ricketts was one of five military wives who received death threats from the self-styled CyberCaliphate on the morning of Feb. 10, 2015. The warnings led to days of anguished media coverage of Islamic State militants’ online reach.

Except it wasn’t IS.

The Associated Press has found evidence that the women were targeted not by jihadists but by the same Russian hacking group that intervened in the American election and exposed the emails of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta.

The brazen false flag is a case study in the difficulty of assigning blame in a world where hackers routinely borrow one another’s identities to throw investigators off track. The operation’s attempt to hype the threat of radical Islam also presaged the inflammatory messages pushed by internet trolls during the U.S. presidential race.

Links between CyberCaliphate and the Russian hackers — typically nicknamed Fancy Bear or APT28 — have been documented previously. On both sides of the Atlantic, the consensus is that the two groups are closely related.

But that consensus never filtered through to the women involved, many of whom were convinced they had been targeted by Islamic State sympathizers right up until the AP contacted them.

“Never in a million years did I think that it was the Russians,” said Ricketts, an author and advocate for veterans and military families. She called the revelation “mind blowing.”

“It feels so hilarious and insidious at the same time.”

 

The report finds that Moscow conducted an “unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign” against the nation’s voting infrastructure. Through its investigation, the committee found that Russia-linked hackers were in a position to “alter or delete voter registration data” in a small number of states before the 2016 vote.

We are at war with Russia, we just don’t know it yet.  It’s time for a regime change.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

He finally found what he sees as a kind of Rosetta Stone into Assange’s thinking in a leaked email Assange wrote way back in 2007 while soliciting support for the nascent WikiLeaks concept. One of the goals for WikiLeaks, Assange wrote, “is total annihilation of the current U.S. regime and any other regime that holds its authority through mendacity alone.”

…

WikiLeaks baffled some supporters when it started seeding or promoting fake news about Hillary Clinton’s health, Pizzagate, and even Democrats engaging in satanic rituals at the same time it was releasing genuine material stolen from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

This was not, as it might appear, a cynical bid to garner Donald Trump’s favor; nor was it simple pandering to a new funding base, argues Iain. It was part and parcel of Assange’s alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin against their common adversary, the United States.

…

In retrospect, the shift was apparent way back in 2013, during Assange’s failed bid to win a Senate seat in Australia, Iain said. To that end Assange established the country’s WikiLeaks Party, with a platform built on government transparency and libertarianism. But just weeks before the election the party was roiled by a controversy over its ranking of other political parties in Australia’s ranked choice voting, preferencing, in two races, the white-nationalist Australia First Party and the right-wing Shooters and Fishers Party above the liberal favorite, the Australian Greens.

Wikileaks first attacked Australia back in 2013.  They followed that up with Ukraine and Syria in 2014, Brexit in 2015 and the United States in 2016.  Everywhere the Russians went, and always on their side.

Get the picture yet?

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

SCHNEIDERMAN

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

BLUE WAVE

 

TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

RUMOR MILL

The above likely aren’t rumors, but I don’t read Finnish, Swedish, or Russian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  We’re crossing the precipice today.  Things are going to accelerate, and get crazier from here on out.  As the scope, breadth, and volume of the corruption and scandals reach the populace, it will feel like everything has gone to shit and it’s falling apart.  Just stay frosty, and keep your head on swivel.

Like I said yesterday, I might need to take a night or two off soon.  I don’t know if it’ll be this week or next week, but sometime soon.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

Daily Check-In 05/07/2018

 

Monday, May 7th, and the weekend.

 

BLACK CUBE

“I didn’t think much more of it until I was informed over the weekend that the gentleman in question was not a journalist, but an operative of this Israeli intelligence firm. That’s upsetting enough, but the fact that this firm was hired by the Trump Administration to spy on and entrap US individuals and organizations, is beyond reprehensible.”

Just when I think that things can’t get any more fucked up, a story like this comes out.

In an effort to discredit the diplomats that worked on the Iran Nuclear Deal, Trump’s administration ordered a private investigator with ties to Israeli Intelligence to dig up dirt on the diplomats.  When details of this operation came out on Twitter, some people connected the dots and discovered that this was the same people behind Harvey Weinstein’s bullying and harassment campaign – Black Cube.

What are the odds that Trump and Weinstein both happened to pick the same shady PI company with ties to Mossad by sheer coincidence?  If you said between slim and none, and slim just caught an Uber, go get yourself a cookie.  Or celery.  Whatever floats your boat.

This wasn’t in 2015 or 2016, this was while Donald Trump was President of the United States.  Him, someone representing him from the White House, or someone from the private sector who would benefit from screwing Iran, hired spies to attack, threaten, and/or discredit private citizens.

 

SCHNEIDERMAN ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

I’m not sure what to make of this.  On one hand, this smells a hell of a lot like Al Franken, suspiciously like Roger Stone pulling shit to illicit the knee-jerk response from the left to call for resignations over allegations.

On the other hand, this is some pretty fucked up shit, and if the allegations are true, then he should resign.

Let’s see how this unfolds…

UPDATE.  Well that was quick.

This changes nothing in the investigations into the Trump family, the efforts to change New York law to allow the state to prosecute people protected by pardons as a way to avoid justice, and this doesn’t change the NYAG’s office cooperating with the Special Counselor’s Office.

I used to play football.  Badly.  I was the 6th string JV running back, and we only had 5 running backs.  But we had a phrase.  Next man up.  Everyone practices and prepares as though they have to play.  A lot of things could happen between the first practice of the week and game day.  Injuries, bad grades, pop a piss test, get arrested for attempted assault, get shot in the ass by an angry farmer after a cow tipping incident gone horribly wrong, or one of the coaches wants to play someone different.

It’s the same situation here.  Next man (or woman) up.

 

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

The MSM is FINALLY looking into Trump’s money laundering, though they haven’t used the phrase yet.

Trump, who bragged for decades about financing his projects with other people’s money, then welching on the loans, suddenly pulled an about-face and used a crap ton of money to pay for projects.  Then, after construction, they took out loans for more than the value the properties.  That’s Money Laundering.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Tom Barrack was the chairman of the Trump Inauguration Committee.  His Chief of Staff… Rick Gates. Yes, that Rick Gates.

Remember Erik’s ties to Chinese Intelligence (Daily Check-In 03/22/2018)?  It’s nice to see the MSM starting to catch up.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is now on President Trump’s legal team, told CBS News correspondent Paula Reid Monday afternoon that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has rejected proposals to allow Mr. Trump to answer questions from investigators in writing.

The president’s legal team has previously signaled that this would be their preferred format for a possible interview as it helps protect Mr. Trump from the possibility of lying or misleading investigators, which is a criminal offense.

It’s not that Mueller’s office won’t accept written answers from Donald Trump, but there are guidelines preventing legal documents being written in crayon.

 

COHEN/RUDY/STORMYGATE

When Daniels is asked if Trump’s hair stays still as he has sex, Daniels replies, “No, [his hair is] real. He chose that.” When the interviewer presses, “And it just fluffs around as he’s on top of you?” she replies, “Yeah, that’s real. Kind of like a drunken cockatoo.” How much is the Eternal Sunshine procedure?

Yeah, a cockatoo.  I’m afraid to guess how long it will take someone to make a pic of that.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

1600 Russians arrested in protests in Russia, many of them children.  Protesting is not protected speech in Russia, so even showing up is illegal.

As they were chanting, “Down with the Tsar!”

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Holy Shit, we’ve got the trifecta of corrupt cabinet stories.  We’ve got a White House Advisor who can’t get a clearance, a Transportation Secretary connected to Human Trafficking, the EPA head paranoid AF and spending taxpayer money like he’s on a speed run and planing stories about other corrupt cabinet members like Ryan Zinke, Carl Icahn engaging in insider trading, and Ben Carson, a black man that says that attempts at desegregation are socialist.

Life is not an episode of 24.  Torture is bad, and has no place in an interrogation.  The return on investment is low.

Yeah.  Irony isn’t dead, it hung itself in the garage from the rafters.  It left a note that said “It’s all your fault.”

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

BLUE WAVE

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Oliver North came to infamy from the Iran-Contra Affair back in the 80’s for his role in Congressional testimony about a plot to… you know, I’m not exactly sure.  Out of all Presidential scandals, I know the least about this one.  I was a kid when this happened, and I remember one of my vacations spent watching this dick taco on television.

 

DOCTOR, DOCTOR

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

 

RUMOR MILL

Remember the speculation about what oligarchs were stopped at the airport from Daily Check-In 04/04/2018?  Looks like at least one of them was Viktor Vekselberg.

Ming is an interesting character on Twitter, and I’ve discussed Cassandra Fairbanks a few times before.  I’ve referenced her indirectly in a few posts, and mentioned her directly in Daily Check-In 9/11/2017 when I talked about meeting Claude Taylor.  She was a Leftist/Anarchist turned Bernie Bro turned Never Hilary turned Alt-Right/Team Trump, all while working for RT.  A true example of Horseshoe Theory.

According to this tweet, at some point she began working with the FBI…again.  I say again because there were rumors of her working with them to set up a lot of her old Leftist colleagues.

2018 has such sloppy writing and a low budget.  Reusing old sets and side characters like this?

Corruption isn’t just Russian or American.  It’s worldwide, and across many fields.  The scope will shock everyone.

That sounds like a clickbait article.  “43 ways that Corruption Infects the World.  #17 WILL SHOCK YOU!”

 

That’s it for today.  I might need to take a day off soon, but at the same time, I’m afraid that the one day I take off, everything will go to shit.  I know that’s not likely the case, but at the same time, in some weird way, writing and researching these entries are both stressful and stress-reducing at the same time.

By the way, the Pens lost tonight.  They’re out of the playoffs this year.  That means my hope for a Pens/Knights Stanley Cup final won’t happen this year.  Oh well.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur