Friday, July 27th and the weekend
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
- Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid
- Witness list for trial of Trump’s former campaign chief released
- Mueller names 35 witnesses for first Manafort trial
- Brad Heath: Witness list for Manafort Trial
- Paul Manafort spent $18,000 on karaoke equipment for his house in the Hamptons, court documents show
- Paul Manafort’s Trial Starts Tuesday. Here Are the Charges and the Stakes.
- Spotted: Mueller and Donnie Jr. at the same airport gate
- Assange’s embassy stay in doubt after Ecuador president’s comments
- How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies
- Donald Trump Promised Dirt On Clinton 2 Days Before Trump Tower Meeting | HuffPost
- Fraud in Russia’s elections – Daily chart
- Official: Russian hackers targeted 2016 Montana election
- Opinion | Maria Butina is just the tip of the Russia iceberg
- Opinion | The baseless, shameful campaign to discredit Rod Rosenstein
- Opinion | The Trump-Russia investigation looks like a mob case – The Washington Post
- Press Release | Press Releases | Press | U.S. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina
- Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked
- House Republicans Decide Against Impeaching Rod Rosenstein in Outbreak of Suspiciously Noninsane Behavior
- “It Was Never Plausible Trump Didn’t Know”: A Complete Guide to the Collusion Question
- 19 times Trump and his allies denied he knew of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting
- Analysis | The Trump Tower meeting increasingly looks as bad for Trump as it initially seemed
- As Collusion Evidence Emerges, Obstruction Allegations Begin To Look More Damaging | Just Security
- Carl Bernstein: It Would Be ‘Very, Very Damaging’ For Trump if He Knew About Trump Tower Meeting Beforehand
- Make no mistake: The U.S. is at war with Russia
- The Trump Tower meeting increasingly looks as bad for Trump as it at first seemed
- This June 2016 Trump speech teasing dirt about the Clintons seems incredibly suspicious now – ThinkProgress
- Trump Has Changed His Mind A Lot On What He Knew About The Trump Tower Meeting
- Watergate Figure John Dean Warns Trump: ‘I Don’t Think It Is Boding Well For The President’
- What happened and when: The timeline leading up to Donald Trump Jr.’s fateful meeting
As I mentioned in Daily Check-In 07/26/2018, Trump knew and the evidence is mounting for the public to see. Part of this is the roll-up to the meeting.
On June 7, 2016, Trump had a big press conference where he said he’d have something big to say about Hilary in a couple days. When does Cohen say that Trump approved the meeting with the Russians?
June 7, 2016. Shortly before his press conference, if the reports are accurate.
So, we have a meeting with Trump, Cohen, and between 3-5 other people on June 7th to approve and prepare for this meeting with Veselnitskaya and the rest of the Russian team.
Who were the people in the prep meeting? We know that Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Donnie Jr. were in the official meeting. If, and this is a big if, if all three of them were at the June 7th meeting, leaves Cohen and one other. Personally, I doubt that Jared was at the prep meeting, since he wasn’t mailed about it until the next day. It’s more likely that someone at the meeting said that they should include Jared, as he’s the least of a fuckup out of all the males in the family. That leaves two spaces open for the meeting. My guess is that the following attended the prep meeting:
- Donald Trump
- Donald Trump, Jr.
- Paul Manafort
- Michael Cohen
- Trump’s secretary Rhona
- Rick Gates
Rick Gates. As in, Cooperating Witnesses Rick Gates. Why him? He was Paul Manafort’s right hand man in the campaign, and was deeply involved in all of the minutia. Paul and Rick were likely pulled into this at Trump’s behest as well. As long as either Paul or Rick were there, Mueller has had the notes from this meeting for a long time. With Cohen, we have two eyewitnesses to Conspiracy Against the United States, and a slew of other crimes.
COHEN
- Giuliani Tries to Explain Why He Flip-Flopped on Cohen: “I Didn’t Know Him Very Well”
- Giuliani: Cohen and Trump’s legal teams have severed ties
- Cohen Probe Reaches Into Trump’s Business, and the Red Line He Drew
- 3 theories on what, exactly, is Michael Cohen trying to do
- What Michael Cohen’s bombshell means
- Trump’s ex-lawyer: Giuliani hurt Trump’s case by flip-flopping on Cohen
- If Cohen is right, Trump was the 1st presidential candidate to accept offers of help from Moscow
- If Cohen Is Telling the Truth, That Ought to Be Ballgame
- If Trump Knew About the Russia Meeting, He Could Be on the Hook for Conspiracy
- Jed Shug: How Cohen could affect Trump’s case
- Micah Grimes: Rudy’s stance on Cohen has changed since May
- Rudy Giuliani called Michael Cohen an ‘honest, honorable lawyer’ in May. Now, he’s an ‘incredible liar.’
- Rudy Giuliani claims the Trump-Cohen tape was tampered with
- Rudy Giuliani: Michael Cohen Has Been Warned To Keep His Mouth Shut | HuffPost
- Rudy Giuliani: Michael Cohen Has Been Warned To Keep His Mouth Shut
- Rudy Giuliani’s Shameless Hypocrisy Is Truly Amazing to Watch
- Trump Org ‘bookkeeper’ is actually a right-hand man.
The fallout continues with Rudy committing witness tampering.
STORMYGATE
- Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, says 3 other women claim they were paid by AMI, Donald Trump, Michael Cohen
- Avenatti: Hush money paid before election to 3 more women who claim affairs with Trump
- Avenatti: Presidential candidates should be required to take an intelligence test
- Michael Avenatti reveals another client’s case involves Trump, AMI
- How Many Cops Will Be Fired For Setting Up Stormy Daniels? | Above the Law
- Second Playboy model alleges an affair with Trump, received payment from AMI
- Playmate Who Had Affair With Major GOP Fundraiser Has Never Met Trump, Sources Say
Three more women are coming forward, and one of them involved a pregnancy.
TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET
- NBC Politics: Putin invites Trump to Moscow
- Trump open to visiting Putin in Moscow, still looks forward to hosting him in Washington
- Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, saying they need to talk in person
- Russia’s Putin says he invited Trump to Moscow
- GOP lawmaker: ‘Nobody’s going to be surprised’ if Trump approved Russia meeting
- Trump doubles record for longest time without science adviser
- Trump Has Repeatedly Tried to Ban or Punish Reporters Who Annoy Him
- Trump had repeatedly asked aides to ban reporters before barring CNN journalist from press event: report | TheHill
- Trump Administration Neuters Nuclear Safety Board
- Trump admin has no central strategy for election security, and no one’s in charge
- Donald Trump Clearly Doesn’t Care About Election Security
- Donald Trump Promised Dirt On Clinton 2 Days Before Trump Tower Meeting | HuffPost
- Alarm grows among Trump officials over lack of cyber defenses
- How Vladimir Putin Will Take Down Donald Trump When He’s No Longer Useful
- N.Y. Times publisher says he told Trump that attacks on media could lead to violence
TRAITOR TOTS
- RNC Chair complains about internet bias on Fox News after Republicans killed net neutrality
- After her party killed net neutrality, RNC Chair complains of internet bias against conservatives
- Help us identify Trump’s unknown golf partners
- Former National Enquirer Exec: ‘Trump is in bed with the publication that started fake news’
- Trump defenders downplay evidence of Russian collusion: “So what?”
- Paul Ryan is helping Trump undermine the rule of law
- GOP Reps.’ attack on Rosenstein is an attempt to undermine Mueller investigation
- Jordan: If Rosenstein doesn’t deliver, Meadows and I will force impeachment vote
FIGHTING BACK
- Anti-Trump White House Protests Near Two-Week Mark As Organizers Raise More Than $100K
- Anti-Trump White House protests show no signs of stopping as they near two-week mark
- Writer Greg Olear on “Dirty Rubles”: Trump is “gravest existential threat” to America in 150 years
- Pentagon Creates ‘Do Not Buy’ List of Russian, Chinese Software – Defense One
- Citing Trump, some Republican women to vote Democratic in Ohio election
- Rep. John Lewis hospitalized after falling ill on plane
- Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis hospitalized after in-flight emergency
- Grand Junction billboard replaces ‘O’ in ‘GOP’ with hammer and sickle
- Putin wanted to interrogate me. Trump called it “an incredible offer.” Why?
- EXCLUSIVE: Black Lives Matter planning march from NYC to D.C. to create ‘wave of love’ – NY Daily News
- Prankster puts Putin’s portrait in Trump’s place in presidential gallery – NY Daily News
- After all our frustration with Trump, it’s time to make the big play
- Trump biographer David Cay Johnston reveals Trump’s been compromised by Russia for 30 years
- TV anchor: Trump smells like a Kremlin agent
- Opinion | Distinguished persons of the week: Stopping Trump’s cavalcade of corruption
IMMIGRATION
- Wife of a former US Marine is facing deportation to Mexico
- Judge demands independent audit of conditions at detention centers for migrant children
- Judge allows census lawsuit, citing evidence of Trump’s ‘animus toward immigrants of color’
- 711 kids in custody haven’t been reunited with their parents. What happens to them now?
- A 6-Year-Old Girl Was Sexually Abused in an Immigrant-Detention Center
- United Airlines donates flights to reunite immigrant families – San Francisco Business Times
- Federal judge says Trump administration is ‘at fault’ for losing track of deported parents
- The Number Of Parents Who Were Deported Without Their Kids Keeps Growing
- Trump threatens to ‘shut down’ government
- Trump’s push to make city cops into stooges for ICE suffers strange, messy courtroom defeat
- Philadelphia will no longer let ICE access arrest database
- ICE Detainee Diagnosed With Schizophrenia Spent 21 Days in Solitary Confinement, Then Took His Own Life
- No, the Government Did Not Make the Deadline to Reunify Children With Their Parents
- Coffee company rejects $40K Salesforce contract, citing tech firm’s ties to Trump border policy
COLD WAR 2.0
- Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid
- Russians still trying to interfere in US elections every ‘way they can’: GOP senator
- Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill
- Trump Ready to Bomb Iran Within One Month: Australian Govt Sources
- US airlines caved to China’s ‘Orwellian’ demands on Taiwan — but now Beijing says it’s not enough
- Sanctions on Russia’s Rusal could be lifted, Mnuchin says
- Bill Browder: Why would the U.S. lift sanctions on Rusal?
- Kyle Parker: The Capitol Hill Staffer Who’s on Putin’s List and in His Craw | National Review
- Palestinian teen protester Ahed al-Tamimi leaves Israeli prison
- Has Steve Bannon Found a New Soul Mate in BoJo?
- German defense minister: Trump has ‘no strategy’ for dealing with Putin
- France measles outbreak: babies hit hardest – VaccinesToday
#NEVERAGAIN
- Shannon Watts: “Not right for Texas” means “The @NRA told me no.”
- Five dead, including gunman, in Texas nursing home shooting: official
- Largest police group in Texas endorses Greg Abbott over former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez | 2018 Elections | Dallas News
- Shannon Watts: George O’Neill is “person number 2”
- Shannon Watts: The NRA-Wisconsin Connection
- Complaint alleges NRA used shell company to unlawfully coordinate with Johnson’s campaign | News | wisconsingazette.com
- Country music star Eric Church slams NRA for Las Vegas massacre
- Senators Demand Answers from Justice Dept. on Dangerous 3D Gun Settlement – Press Releases – United States Senator for California
- Analysis | Actually, guns do kill people, according to a new study
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- Arizona town ‘heartbroken’ after Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Who Is America?’ brands them racist
- Senator Ted Cruz has defended Alex Jones after the conspiracy theorist’s Facebook pages were suspended
- Facebook suspends Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist Alex Jones
- Alex Jones claims Donald Trump requests and receives InfoWars transcripts
- Scaramucci: Trump’s attitude toward reporters ‘galvanizes the press’ against him
- Trump Has Repeatedly Tried to Ban or Punish Reporters Who Annoy Him
- Trump had repeatedly asked aides to ban reporters before barring CNN journalist from press event: report | TheHill
- Trump claims his polling numbers among GOP are higher than Lincoln’s
- Former National Enquirer Exec: ‘Trump is in bed with the publication that started fake news’
- N.Y. Times publisher says he told Trump that attacks on media could lead to violence
WHITE HOUSE CHAOS
- White House restores missing question to Trump-Putin transcript
- White House uses foreign aid agency to give jobs to Trump loyalists
- Black man accuses Sean Spicer of calling him a ‘n*****’ when they were at school
- Steelworkers hospitalized for carbon monoxide exposure hours after Trump tours facility
- The White House just misspelled ‘United States’
- The Trump Administration’s Census Cover Up | American Civil Liberties Union
ECONOMY
- “You Can’t Eat GDP”: Reminder That Most Workers Are Struggling as Trump and Corporate Media Tout Economic Growth
- Donald Trump. Jr says Obama never broke 2 percent GDP growth. He did. 15 times.
- Fact checking Trump’s victory lap after the second-quarter GDP report
- Media slams GDP boom: ‘Don’t buy it,’ ‘blip,’ ‘too big’
- Economic growth accelerated sharply in 2018’s second quarter, but economists caution it could be a blip
- The Trump Administration Says Poverty Is Over. They’re Lying. | HuffPost
TRADE WAR
- Farm aid: Foolish tariffs beget foolish subsidies
- Koch officials: President Trump’s trade tariffs hurt Americans
- GOP frets Trump tariffs will hit midterm prospects
- ‘If We Didn’t Trade,’ Trump Argues, ‘We’d Save a Hell of a Lot of Money’
- Trump 2020 campaign denies reports it’s producing flags in China
GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD
- Top Koch network official: ‘The divisiveness of this White House is causing long-term damage’
- ‘Koch brothers’ rebrand underway, still a conservative force
- GOP lawmaker’s home listed as top single-family water user in Austin last year: report | TheHill
- GOP Rep. Jason Lewis called people on government assistance ‘parasites,’ said blacks on welfare ‘plantation’
- Hunters who donate to Republicans given special permits to import lion trophies, report says
- Report Shows Trump Administration Issued Permits For Lion Trophies To Republican Donors
- Trump Just Made It Legal to Bring Back the Heads of Slaughtered Lions
- Rick Scott Is Getting a Boost From a Private Prison Company. Too Bad It Might Be Illegal.
- Decadelong Republican Gerrymanders Could Be Undone by Reckless GOP Emails
- Donald Trump Clearly Doesn’t Care About Election Security
ENVIRONMENT
- We’re headed for a future where only the wealthy can enjoy nature
- Hottest Four Years Ever? 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018?
- Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer – The Washington Post
- Documents: Trump golf course damaged protected sand dunes
- Trump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
- EXCLUSIVE: Dana Rohrabacher Called the Cops On Woman Who Asked Tough Questions – The Daily Banter
- Cop admits framing two black men as Florida town’s false arrest scandal widens
- Bill Would Ban Sex Between Law Enforcement, Those in Custody
- ‘Verbal judo’: the police tactic that teaches cops to talk before they shoot
- Police held ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor Ving Rhames at gunpoint for entering his own home
- Officers fired, charged after allegedly beating man and calling him “fake American”
- Indiana synagogue vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti
- Killings of black people lead to arrests less often than when victims are white
- Aussie bank links to ‘Russian mafia’
- Trump’s Views On Due Process Are Straight Out Of Slavery
- Bush Claimed Power to Override a Torture Ban. What Did Brett Kavanaugh Think About That?
#METOO
- Les Moonves and CBS Face Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
- Report: Kimberly Guilfoyle Left Fox News After Misconduct Probe – The Daily Beast
The title is misleading. Kimberly wasn’t the victim, she was a perpetrator. One of her “hobbies” was sharing dick pics around the office and telling people who they belonged to. Not who sent her the pics, but whose dicks they were.
ELECTION 2018
- Young Voter Registration Increases Nationwide and in Arizona
- Why Is the Trump Campaign Attacking Senator Kirsten Gillibrand?
- Why So Many People Are Betting on Beto O’Rourke
- Russians still trying to interfere in US elections every ‘way they can’: GOP senator
- Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill
- 100 days: Dems have midterm edge, but it’s not historic
- No deal yet: Ted Cruz digs in as Beto O’Rourke pushes for 6th debate, more town halls, and not all on Friday nights when Texans are busy
- Beto O’Rourke adding campaign offices to target crucial voters in DeSoto, Fort Worth
- Role reversal: Architect of 2010 GOP House takeover in trouble – POLITICO
- CNN Key Races: Path to House majority comes into focus as a dozen races move toward Democrats
- Churches may have to pay taxes, and members of Congress may pay politically
- Donald Trump-supporting Nazis and racists are on the ballot for the 2018 US midterm elections | South China Morning Post
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM
- US TOPS LIST OF MOST DANGEROUS PLACES TO GIVE BIRTH
- Socialism is no longer a dirty word in the US – and that’s scary for some | Arwa Mahdawi
- Americans actually like ‘socialist’ policies – The Boston Globe
- Ocasio-Cortez slams military spending: We must ‘reprioritize what we want to accomplish as a nation’
- Opinion | Bernie Sanders: Bail criminalizes poverty and undermines justice
- Ripping ‘Greedy Wall Street Vulture Funds’ Profiting From Misery, Warren and Sanders Introduce Bill to Cancel Puerto Rico’s Debt
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We don’t have nice things because we haven’t chosen to.
- Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why | Robert Reich
- How the Republican tax cuts are failing workers, in one chart – Vox
REBUILDING
- Bryce Tache: We remember, we rebuild, we ensure this never happens again
- It’s Time to Start Talking About the Post-Trump Amendments
- Carmelo Anthony says the government ‘completely turned their back’ on Puerto Rico
- New political movement seeks members from left, right and center to find solutions
- House Republicans Deeply Confused About Why Puerto Rico Might Benefit From Wind and Solar Power
- President Donald Trump blasted reporting from Puerto Rico as “fake news,” but heeding it might have saved lives during Hurricane Maria
- In a divided U.S., therapists are hearing the same name over and over: Donald Trump | CBC News
RUMOR MILL
- Countercheckist: A lot of tweet deletions going on
- Counterchekist: Why we keep seeing deza about hacked vote totals
- Eliot Woodrich: Glenn Greenwald is deleting about 27,000 tweets
- Eric Garland: It’s Over
- Carole Cadwalla: IPA getting involved with Brexit.
- Carole Cadwalla: LeavEU put out ad about murder right after it happened
- Caroline Orr: “There is no evidence that hackers changed votes.” thread
- Caroline Orr: Trump has tweeted about Mueller 22 times.
- Lincoln’s Bible on Maggie Haberman
- Lincoln’s Bible: A Kitchen Conversation
- Lincoln’s Bible: The words we use are important
- Lincoln’s Bible: This is not white collar crime
- Louise Mensch: There is a tape
- Louise N: Leakers
- Louise N: This didn’t age well, did it?
- Spicy Mic on Bribery
- Spicy Mic: Save the date, August 1st.
- Tea Pain: The Trump Tariffs will add $5200 to the price of an F-150
- Pace: EPA already rewriting rules Scott Pruitt put in place when he was there
That’s it for the weekend. Things are coming along and picking up speed. Manafort’s trial begins on Tuesday, and is expected to last 2-3 weeks. Expect a ton of rage tweeting and crazy attacks in the next couple weeks.
Meanwhile, the other threads are all weaving together like a tapestry. I try to keep things separated for convenience sake, but the closer we get to the endgame, the more the random threads tie together. Certain players were involved in multiple parts, like Michael Cohen. Not only was he deeply involved in all of the dealings with women, he was also privy to the Russian meetings in June. We can make an easy jump from one crazy part of this saga (Seychelles meeting with Erik Prince) to another random part (Maria Butina) in only a couple small steps. It’s like a corrupt version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Let’s see who the next player is, and how they can connect Mark Burnett to David Pecker in less than four moves.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 
3 thoughts on “Daily Check-In 07/27/2018”