Wednesday, June 20th
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
A longtime US lobbyist for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska visited Julian Assange nine times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last year, according to visitor logs seen by the Guardian.
Adam Waldman, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist for the metals tycoon since 2009, had more meetings with Assange in 2017 than almost anyone else, the records show.
It is not clear why Waldman went to the WikiLeaks founder or whether the meetings had any connection to the Russian billionaire, who is now subject to US sanctions. But the disclosure is likely to raise further questions about the extent and nature of Assange’s alleged ties to Russia.
US intelligence agencies concluded with “high confidence” last year, in an unclassified intelligence assessment, that the Kremlin shared hacked emails with WikiLeaks that undermined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as part of its effort to sway the 2016 election in favour of Donald Trump.
I’ve mentioned Andrew Waldman on Daily Check-In 02/09/2018 and Daily Check-In 02/15/2018. He was the lobbyist who was in contact with Senator Mark Warner, and had his conversations, which were classified and privileged, leaked to Sean Hannity via Julian Assange.
This tells me a few things.
First, Waldman was a go-between between Oleg working for Putin and Wikileaks. He was one of, if not the main cut-out.
Second, there is now a new way that JAss got the messages between Waldman and Warner. Waldman could have given them to Assange directly. I personally doubt this happened, since the timing of the leak to Hannity went something like this…
- Warner and Waldman text.
- House Intel wants a copy of the conversation for “their investigation.”
- Months pass.
- Senate Intel gives House Intel copies of the conversation.
- Minutes pass.
- Something happens.
- Sean Hannity gets banned from Twitter (Daily Check-In 01/30/2018). A parody account is created, and is so lifelike, Julian Assange messages the parody, offering dirt on Mark Warner.
- About a week later, Hannity does the dumbest thing possible and runs with a story AFTER proof of him working with Julian Assange comes to light.
Finaly, this proves the rumor I heard a while back about foreigners using lobbyists to get favorable stories to the press. A good deal of Waldman’s work was communicating with journalists to set up stories favorable to Deripaska, Russia, and their interests.
Get ready to hear his name more in the coming months.
COHEN
- Michael Cohen slams Trump’s child separation while resigning from RNC
- Michael Cohen resigns from RNC committee post, sources say
- Publisher of National Enquirer Subpoenaed in Michael Cohen Probe
- Michael Cohen’s friend: He will be ‘pivotal’ in U.S. history
I’m not sure what’s more incredible, the fact that Michael Cohen was STILL a senior member of the Republican party WHILE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR DOZENS, IF NOT HUNDREDS OF CRIMES, or that he quit because of the child separation policy.
“As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching,” Cohen wrote in an email to RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, per ABC. “While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.”
Whoever had on their Bingo card “Cohen shows he’s not a complete monster”, raise your hand. You just won a prize.
TRUMP FOUNDATION
It’s not unique in that the transgressions were tiny, or minuscule, but that they were so blatant, over the top, long running, and ridiculous.
People will go to jail for this. And I’ll laugh.
IMMIGRATION
Tender Age Facilities
- Toddlers Separated From Parents at the Border Are Being Detained in ‘Tender Age’ Shelters
- Babies and Toddlers Detained in ‘Tender Age’ Shelters
- Dozens of ‘tender age’ facilities have history of abuse
- Migrant Babies and toddlers being detained in “tender age shelters”
- Ted Lieu to Trump administration: ‘End your #BabyJails’
Rescinding the Policy
- Homeland Security drafts plan to end family separation
- Trump administration drafting executive action to stop migrant family separations
- Trump May End Family Separation Through Executive Action, Like He Could Have Done All Along
- Trump reverses migrant separation policy
- Trump says he’ll be ‘signing something’ on detained children
- Trump reportedly knows kids at the border suffer, but he ‘doesn’t want to look weak’ and back down
- Trump falsely claimed for days that he couldn’t end family separations
- Trump’s executive order only protects against family separation for 20 days
Though President Trump declared that the executive order he signed Wednesday would “solve” the problem of family separation while parents are prosecuted for illegal border crossing, the order is really only good for 20 days, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports, citing a source familiar with the drafting of the order. The order does not override the 1993 Flores v. Reno Supreme Court case, which says that detained migrant children cannot be held in government detention facilities for more than 20 days.
Essentially, this means that after the 20-day mark, children may still be separated from their parents.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently separates most families when they are apprehended for illegal border crossing, Reid notes. But now, with the executive order, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will take custody of the entire family. However, at the 20-day mark, under the Flores consent decree, the department will have to release the children from custody.
Nothing in the executive order stops the government from releasing the whole family, Reid says, but under Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ zero-tolerance policy, which states that the U.S. will prosecute all who cross the border illegally, releasing the family is unlikely.
Sick Pieces of Shit
- “Stephen Actually Enjoys Seeing Those Pictures at the Border”: The West Wing Is Fracturing Over Trump’s Callous Migrant-Family Policy
- Protester yells ‘fascist’ at Stephen Miller dining in Mexican restaurant
- Why won’t the mainstream media tell the truth about racist ghoul Stephen Miller?
- Trump aide Stephen Miller, meet your great-grandfather, who flunked his naturalization test
- Corey Lewandowski refuses to apologize for mocking disabled child separated from family
- Corey Lewandowski Draws Outrage After Mocking Separated Immigrant Family: “Womp Womp”
- T-Mobile Urged to Drop Corey Lewandowski After ‘Womp Womp’ Immigration Comments
Shame
- Chanting activists confront DHS secretary during dinner at Mexican restaurant
- DHS Secretary Nielsen Shouted Out Of Mexican Restaurant By Protesters
- Homeland Sec. Nielsen Driven Out of Mexican Restaurant With Chants of “Shame”
- Video: DHS Secretary Nielsen Shouted Out of Mexican Restaurant by Protesters
- Nielsen’s career forever linked to family border separations
Political Fight
- Senator denied entry to see Florida child migrant facility
- Governor Cuomo Announces Intent to File Multi-Agency Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration for Violating Constitutional Rights of Children and Families
- 11 states are pulling National Guard troops from the US-Mexico border in a growing protest over Trump’s family separation policy
- Arnold Schwarzenegger Says Politicians, Not Kids, Should Be Held In ‘Cages’
- The Washington Post: GOP leaders voice hope that bill addressing family separations will pass Thursday
Citizens Fight
- Microsoft Facing Threats of Boycott for Collaboration with ICE
- Former Border Patrol Agent To Current Agents: Refuse Orders To Separate Children
- Ask the State Dept: If My Family Is Rather Tan, Will They Be Mistaken For the Brown Criminal Infestaton Your President Fears, and Can They Choose the Size of Their Cage?
- Audio of Separated Migrant Children Crying Blasted Outside Trump Hotel During GOP Fundraiser
- Religious leaders, former judges asks DC to revoke Trump Hotel’s liquor license due to president’s ‘lack of good character’
- Antifa Shares Names And Photos Of 1,600 ICE Employees
- Ad using audio of children in border detention centers launched by billionaire, Latino group
Kids May Not See Their Parents Again
- ICE Can’t Guarantee Immigrants Will Get Their Kids Back
- Immigrant children forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs, lawsuit claims
- There will be no special effort to reunite families already separated
Planned from the Beginning
- Trump planned to erect tent cities to house immigrants since the start of his presidency
- “These Folks Are Suffering Needlessly”: A Damning New Report on Deaths in ICE Detention
Indefensible
- Separating children from their parents isn’t just immoral. It also threatens our national security. – The Washington Post
- Grimm Compares Audio Of Crying Kids To ‘Same Exact Things’ Heard At Daycare
- ICE Director Uses Nazi Defence to Claim Border Policy is Not Like Hitler Regime: We’re Just Following Orders
Not Cheaper
- Trump admin’s ‘tent cities’ cost more than keeping migrant kids with parents
- Separating children at the border costs 3x’s more than keeping them with their families
- Company that runs immigration detention centers is top donor for two Texas congressmen
Reactions
- United States Commemorates World Refugee Day
- Trump alone to blame for family separations, but entire GOP will pay
- Donald Trump wants credit for ending a crisis he created.
- Jesus, These People Are Ghouls
- Donald Trump is indisputably the worst president in American history
COLD WAR 2.0
- Trump reportedly threw Starbursts on a table before Germany’s Angela Merkel at the G7 summit and said, ‘Don’t say I never give you anything’
- EU hits back at Donald Trump with billions in tariffs on Bourbon whiskey, jeans and motorcycles
- Theresa May condemns Trump’s family separation policy and says she will challenge him on UK visit
- ‘What’s going on in the United States is wrong:’ Trudeau adds voice to chorus condemning Trump – National
- German intelligence sees Russia behind hack of energy firms: media report | Article [AMP] | Reuters
- Mattis ‘not aware’ of North Korea taking any steps to denuclearize
#NEVERAGAIN
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- Exclusive: ‘Little Russian media project’ tries to turn America against itself
- Grimm Compares Audio Of Crying Kids To ‘Same Exact Things’ Heard At Daycare
- Fox Commentator Geraldo Erupts on Hannity Over Border Policy: ‘When Did We Become the Party of Child Abuse?!’
WHITE HOUSE CHAOS
- White House misspells ‘separation’ on immigration executive order
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross shorted shares of a Kremlin-linked company days before a bombshell story dropped
- Republicans Quietly Back Measures to Confront Pruitt’s Ethics Scandals
- Senate rejects billions in Trump spending cuts as two Republicans vote ‘no’ – The Washington Post
- Scott Pruitt Has Spent a Total of $4.6 Million on Security, New Disclosures Show — Including $1,500 on “Tactical Pants”
- Trump ends Obama-era policy to protect oceans, created in response to Deepwater Horizon oil spill
GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD
- Trump alone to blame for family separations, but entire GOP will pay
- Kansas officials told to keep enforcing voter ID law that was ruled unconstitutional
- Company that runs immigration detention centers is top donor for two Texas congressmen
- “Family Values” Conservatism Is Finally Dead
- Top GOP Operative Renounces Party, Aligns With Dems
- GOP strategist Steve Schmidt denounces party, will vote for Democrats
- ‘Today I renounce my membership’: Longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt announces he’s leaving his party
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
- West Virginia Supreme Court justice indicted on 22 federal charges
- Canadians who’ve used pot can be forever barred from entering the United States
- Kansas officials told to keep enforcing voter ID law that was ruled unconstitutional
- Ex-soldier who shot up Afghan village may seek clemency from president, lawyer says
RUMOR MILL
Yeah, he’s on SIGINT. Probably used “encrypted texts” from WhatsApp to talk to Julian and Oleg, among others.
That’s it for Wednesday. Thursday and Friday might be combined into a post, depending on what happens.
I’ve been cagey for a while, but I don’t think it’s finally time I talk about why I’m so elusive about getting things finished, and why I’m not talking as much as I’d like to about the immigration stuff. Soon. Very soon. Likely by the weekend soon. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.
Thank you, and have a good one.
None of this is Normal 
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