Month: August 2018

Daily Check-In 08/30/2018

Thursday, August 30, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Part distraction, part disinformation, and part NPD, Trump is now claiming that the Lester Holt video was faked, or altered, or fudged, or selective edits to show him admitting that he fired Comey for the “Russia Thing”.  He did the exact same thing following the Billy Bush tape, claiming that was faked, too.

It’s interesting why he decided to pick now to make this claim.

 

COHEN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

This statement, at least the headline, reminds me of the old phrase “A broken clock is right twice a day.”  I agree that those companies are too large and should be broken into smaller companies, but definitely not for the reasons Trump says.

For the young kids out there, clocks used to be analog and had these things called hands that would move.  When the clock would break, the hands stuck in the same spot.  Eventually, twice a day, the broken hands would match the current time, hence the phrase above.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

McCAIN

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

ATTACKS AGAINST JOURNALISTS

 

 ENVIRONMENT

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

PREGNANCY

 

NFL

From this comment in the NFL Subreddit /r/nfl

A reminder, since there’s some misinformation that pops up in every single one of these threads:

• ⁠If Kaep win this, it does not immediately void the CBA.It doesn’t void it at all. There’s an almost infinitesimally small chance it would even open the door to the CBA being voided.

• ⁠This is a labor grievance as laid out in the CBA, similar to appealing a suspension.It is not currently a lawsuit against the league, like Brady and Elliot’s cases were.

• ⁠Just because there may be a legitimate reason that people wouldn’t hire him doesn’t mean collusion didn’t also happen.

editing to add

• ⁠If he wins this, he only wins “the amount by which the collusion damaged him,” i.e. whatever the impartial arbitrator thinks he should have earned had he been signed.That’s going to an especially the interesting part of the case, if it gets that far. My guess is it would be somewhere in the realm of the average cost of a serviceable backup’s contract, like a McCown or a Fitzpatrick.

• ⁠The burden of proof for Kaepernick is “a preponderance of the evidence,” or 51% of the evidence.This is the “more probable than not” phrasing that the league used in the Brady case.

• ⁠Kaep does not need to prove collusion between all 32 teams.He needs to prove it between any two of 33 parties: the 32 teams and the league office.Two teams agreeing that neither would sign him would constitute collusion. A single team agreeing with the league office would also constitute collusion.

• ⁠Whether or not Kaep turned down contracts is irrelevant to whether or not collusion happened.He could say no to thirty straight offers, but if the last teams in the league got together and said “well, no way in hell we’re signing this ingrate,” that would constitute collusion.

• ⁠Even if he turned down contract offers from all thirty two teams wouldn’t mean he wasn’t colluded against. If every team agreed not to offer him anything more than the veteran minimum, and they all did, and he turned them all down…that would still be collusion.

• ⁠It’s true that Kaep opted out of his contract with San Francisco, but he did so after being told explicitly by John Lynch that if he didn’t the team would be cutting him even later in the year.There was absolutely no reason for him not to opt out to get a head start on free agency.Regardless, that point is irrelevant — see above.

edit 2:

I’m aware that the New York Times article says his damages could be tripled.Based on the language in the CBA (defining compensatory damages as “the amount by which any player has been injured as a result of such violation” and allocating “compensatory damages shall be paid to the injured player or players” and “non-compensatory damages, including any fines, shall be paid directly to any NFL player pension fund, any other NFL player benefit fund [or other charities]”) implies to me that that’s not the case.It reads as though teams can be subject to escalators if they’ve been found guilty of collusion under this CBA at least once already.To my recollection, none have, so it’s unlikely that punitive damages would be awarded, and it’s certain that that money would not go to Kaep.

I’m not a lawyer, though, so I could be missing some nuance — in particular with regards to the Times’ reference to an “open hearing.”Feel free to set me straight.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DOXXING

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

#METOO

 

ELECTION 2018

Florida

 

Texas

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  There are some rumors floating around about something big happening on Friday, but those are still just rumors.

I’m changing some of the section headings around and checking to see what stays, what gets moved around, and what goes.  Each one has a reason for being included, but there’s not always stories for it for the day.  Plus, with all of the headings, this post gets longer every day.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/29/2018

Wednesday, August 29th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

While it was common knowledge in the White House that counsel Don McGahn planned to depart after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, McGahn was “surprised” by Trump’s abrupt tweet announcing his departure, The Washington Post reported.

According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Post, McGahn was not angered by Trump’s tweeted, but rather saw it as the exact way he’d expect the Twitter President to behave.

“Of course it happened this way,” McGahn reportedly said, according to a person familiar with McGahn.

Don McGahn, the White House Counsel and the Mr. Smithers to Trump’s Montgomery Burns, is leaving the White House this fall.  This was known around the White House, but leave it to the Dotard to announce it to the world in some kind of “I’m firing him” tweet.  If it doesn’t look or smell bad, it should.

McGahn, while a crook, asshole, and racist, appears to have limits on what he’ll do for Trump.  He has stopped Trump from trying to pardon Manafort (Daily Check-In 08/27/2018), so I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump tries to get someone in that job that would let him do it.

 

When federal prosecutors charged Maria Butina with infiltrating the conservative movement on behalf of the Kremlin, questions began to swirl around a Washington think tank that had published her pro-GOP writing—and hosted then-candidate Donald Trump’s Russia-friendly first foreign-policy speech.

The executive director of the organization, the Center for the National Interest, insistedthat its interaction with Butina was “very limited.”

But previously unreported emails and direct messages between Butina and officials at the Center show her relationship with the think tank’s president—former Richard Nixon adviser Dimitri Simes—was closer than previously understood. The two didn’t just make plans to have dinner together. According to emails and Twitter DMs reviewed by The Daily Beast, Simes looked to use his connections with Butina and her associate, Russian Central Bank official Alexandr Torshin, to advance the business interests of one of the Center’s most generous donors.

The Center’s executive director, Paul Saunders, declined to comment on the record for this story, as did Butina’s lawyer. An attorney for the donor—Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the one-time CEO of insurance and financial services giant AIG—said he did nothing inappropriate. Indeed, there’s no evidence that Greenberg requested the outreach or was even aware of it.

It’s been about six weeks since Maria Butina was arrested, and we’re still figuring out how deep the honeypot goes. (Daily Check-In 07/16/2018).

 

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether a fugitive Malaysian financier laundered tens of millions of dollars through two associates and used the funds to pay a U.S. legal team that includes former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and a lawyer who represents President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jho Low, the Malaysian businessman, has been described in U.S. court filings as playing a central role in the alleged embezzlement of $4.5 billion from a Malaysian fund called 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Malaysian authorities this week separately charged Low with money laundering in the case, which investigators suspect may be one of the biggest financial frauds in history. He has been moving around Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China in recent months, according to people with knowledge of his whereabouts.

Low was close to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rajak, who unexpectedly lost an election in May and was arrested last month in Kuala Lumpur. Najib has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust in connection with the 1MDB scandal.

Time for 6 Degrees of Corruption…

Low worked for 1MDB, who hired Elliot Broidy to help kill the DoJ’s investigation into them.  Broidy, a convicted felon, was named Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee.  Broidy hired his fellow Deputy Finance Chair Michael Cohen to supposedly represent him to pay off his mistress.  Michael Cohen is… Michael Cohen.

 

A letter that Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of President Trump’s personal attorneys, sent to Romanian officials opposing a corruption crackdown in that country has drawn the attention of the State Department and renewed questions about his continued work for foreign clients while representing the president.

In his letter last week to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Premier Viorica Dancila, Giuliani criticized anti-corruption efforts in that country, expressing concern about “continued damage to the rule of law in Romania, committed under the pretext of law enforcement.”

Writing under the letterhead of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, the former New York mayor criticized the “excesses” of Romania’s anti-corruption agency and warned that recent moves could affect foreign investment.

Giuliani’s letter caused significant ripples in Romania and raised questions about his decision to work for foreign clients while serving as one of Trump’s chief attorneys dealing with the Russia investigation.

It also put him in opposition with the State Department, which has supported efforts to prosecute corruption in Romania. The United States joined with 11 other countries in June in a statement warning Romania not to take measures that would weaken its “ability to fight crime or corruption.”

Giuliani received a call from State Department officials this week about his letter, he said in an interview Wednesday.

Here’s a gentle reminder that Giuliani has not filed his work for Romania under the FARA Guidelines.  Ask Paul Manafort about how being an unregistered lobbyist for a foreign power worked out for him.

[N]ew documents show that American bank examiners delved deeper into the embassy’s financial activity than was previously known — and reveal why they flagged two of the transactions as suspicious.

The first, made just 10 days after the US presidential election in 2016, was a $120,000 lump-sum check to then-ambassador Sergey Kislyak that was twice as large as any payment he’d received in the previous two years.

The second, just five days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, was a blocked attempt to withdraw $150,000 in cash that a bank official feared was meant for Russians the US had just expelled from the country.

In their investigations into 2016 election interference, special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI are scrutinizing the financial activity by the Russian embassy, according to three federal law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Last November, BuzzFeed News began revealing suspicious embassy transactions, including a $29,000 wire transfer to the embassy’s US bank account to “finance election campaign of 2016”; $325,000 in payments to the Russian Cultural Centre in Washington; and $2.4 million paid to small home-improvement companies controlled by a Russian immigrant living in Virginia.

Hmm… sounds like Money Laundering.  Better questions are who was the money from, and what was it for?

The decision puts to rest weeks of public hand-wringing by his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, who has been acting as an informal spokeswoman for her husband. She said in an interview with ABC News earlier this month that her husband was strongly considering backing away from the agreement he struck with Mueller that led him to plead guilty to lying to the FBI.

Good move George.  You just saved yourself from a world of pain. (Daily Check-In 08/16/2018)

 

COHEN

A portion of voters for President Donald Trump—a small portion, but a portion nonetheless—said they would have changed their vote if the Stormy Daniels affair allegations had surfaced the week before the 2016 election, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The survey from YouGov/The Economist asked a series of Daniels-related questions, including: “If the week before the 2016 Presidential election you had heard a news story in which a porn star claimed she had an affair with Donald Trump just after Melania Trump had given birth to their son, would that have changed your vote for President?”

Five percent of respondents who voted for Trump said, “Yes, I would have voted differently,” according to the survey. Eighty-nine percent of Trump voters, however, said they would have voted the same. Seven percent of Trump voters responded they weren’t sure if their vote would have changed in that hypothetical universe.

That’s what the payment to Stormy Daniels was worth.  5 percent.

5 percent might not sound like much, but in one of the “closest” elections in history, 5 percent changes the score completely.

Using the figures from the 2016 Election, let’s have some fun.  Let’s first look at all of the states that Trump won with less than a 5 percent margin of victory (MOV), and their Electoral Votes (EV).  And Georgia, because it was very, VERY close to that threshold.

  • Arizona: 3.55% MOV, 11 EV to Trump
  • Florida: 1.20% MOV, 29 EV to Trump
  • Georgia: 5.13% MOV, 16 EV to Trump
  • Michigan: 0.22% MOV, 16 EV to Trump
  • Nebraska 2nd District: 2.24% MOV, 1 EV to Trump
  • North Carolina: 3.66% MOV, 15 EV to Trump
  • Pennsylvania: 0.72% MOV, 20 EV to Trump
  • Wisconsin: 0.76% MOV, 10 EV to Trump

That’s 118 Electoral Votes.  Remember, the election wen 306 to 232 in Trump’s favor, and 270 are needed to win the election.

Now, let’s say that 5 percent of Trump voters decided to not vote for him because the Stormy Daniels news breaks withing 2 weeks of the election.  They don’t vote for Hilary, but they don’t vote for Trump.  What do those numbers look like?

  • Arizona: 1.14% MOV, 11 EV to Trump
  • Florida: 1.28% MOV, 29 EV to Clinton
  • Georgia: 2.66% MOV, 16 EV to Trump
  • Michigan: 2.20% MOV, 16 EV to Clinton
  • Nebraska 2nd District: 0.12% MOV, 1 EV to Clinton
  • North Carolina: 1.19% MOV, 15 EV to Trump
  • Pennsylvania: 1.73% MOV, 20 EV to Clinton
  • Wisconsin: 1.64% MOV, 10 EV to Clinton

With just 5 percent of Trump voters not voting for Trump, that takes away 4 states and 1 congressional district from Nebraska from hin and gives them to Clinton.  76 Electoral Votes.  Moving 76 from Trump to Clinton makes the new total 230-308 in favor of Clinton.  Hell, even just a 2 percent change flips Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, giving Clinton the victory.

Now, let me qualify this… this math assumes 5 percent in each state or district, nothing like all of them from California, Illinois, or New York.  There would bound to be some fluctuation from state to state, but this also assumes that not a single one of those 5 percent would vote for Hilary Clinton.  And it also assumes that Russian wouldn’t pull even more last minute shenanigans against her.

This is why Cohen’s plea deal is so disastrous for Trump.  It shows that her payment influenced the campaign and swayed the election in Trump’s favor.  This was never about sex, it was about whether or not the payment benefited the campaign.

 

A second Trump Organization employee discussed a potential immunity deal with the federal prosecutors who charged Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, according to people familiar with the matter.

That employee ultimately did not receive immunity after prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York decided against granting such protection. The person was not called to testify before the grand jury, the people familiar with the matter said.

The employee’s identity couldn’t be determined by CNN. Spokespeople for the US Attorney’s office and Trump Organization declined to comment.

This has really got to chap Trump’s ass.  Not only did his CFO flip, but we wasn’t the only person who talked with the government about a deal.

I see two reasons why this deal didn’t happen.  Either this person didn’t have enough of value, they didn’t have Weisselberg yet and once they got Allan, they no longer needed this person.

That is terrible for Trump.  That means there are multiple people that can corroborate Cohen’s story, and that even more people are in legal jeopardy and could flip on him.

 

Trump Tower

 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

FBI Building Interference

 

China Bullshit

 

IMPEACHMENT AND INDICTMENT TALK

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

PUERTO RICO

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

The United States Postal Service has released the entire federal security clearance application of a former CIA officer running for Democratic Congressional seat, in what experts say is a highly unusual and perhaps unprecedented move, given the extensive, highly personal nature of the information contained in such documents.

In an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday, the former officer, Abigail Spanberger, accused the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, of improperly obtaining the document, and suggested that the Trump administration may have leaked the information for partisan purposes.

But BuzzFeed News can confirm that an unredacted copy of the federal security clearance application was obtained by America Rising, a research group allied with the Republican Party, through what the organization believed was a response to its July 9 Freedom of Information Act request from the US Postal Service’s human resources section. Once America Rising obtained the documents it then shared it with its client, the Congressional Leadership Fund.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

GAY CONVERSION “THERAPY”

 

ELECTION 2018

 

WEED

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT OF THE DAY

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  I’m looking forward to a nice, long weekend.  I need to spend some time recuperating. At some point in the last week, I injured my back.  It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last, but I need to spend a day or two lying down with an ice pack strapped on.

Like I said earlier this week, I want to write a piece about Michael Cohen being the linchpin of this whole operation, and who’s connected to him.  Not only is he the most connected person in this whole process, but as the fixer he knows all of the dirty shit Trump did over the years.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/28/2018

Tuesday, August 28th, 2018.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

AUB’s success came despite the Russia Central Bank’s 2006 warning against doing business with AUB. The key to overcoming allegations of financial impropriety? Installing former American officials — specifically onetime GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, as well as former senator J. Bennett Johnston — on its board.

While Dole’s involvement with the bank didn’t generate much coverage in the United States, it played a seminal role in revealing just how easily supposedly pro-democracy American officials could be bought. As one former Kyrgyz official told ThinkProgress about Dole, “I remember being disgusted by how cheap U.S. politicians [were] on sale.”

For years, it’s been a mystery how and why Dole ended up joining AUB’s board. Not anymore. ThinkProgress spoke with Eugene Gourevitch, one of the key players in AUB’s operations, about Dole’s role with the bank. Described by Bloomberg as a “finance whiz” — and identified by Foreign Affairs as Kyrgyzstan’s “premier financier” — Gourevitch, an American citizen, was sentenced in 2014 on fraud charges stemming from his work in Kyrgyzstan.

Gourevitch — who was recently released from prison — described to ThinkProgress how Dole, who didn’t respond to ThinkProgress’s request for comment, first joined the bank’s board, how few questions Dole asked about the bank’s operations, and what that said about the state of affairs in Washington.

The story about Dole was this: Back in 2006, the Russian Central Bank issued a letter basically instructing its client banks to suspend all operations with AUB because AUB was involved with an [illegal] imports scheme. The Western partners that AUB had, they came running to us saying, “We can’t possibly continue clearing your dollar and Euro transactions, because even though this is Russia, it just doesn’t look good on us to continue doing this.” We had a brainstorm and said, “Well, what is it we can do to sort of fight back against this?” One of the ideas that we had was to bring in, since we had U.S.-based shareholders, a U.S. consulting company to see if there was anything we can to do to sort of reassure Western partners.

We brought in [U.S.-based PR firm] APCO Worldwide, and APCO Worldwide already had a reputation for taking on risque clients. We approached them, and their recommendation was, “Well, why don’t we get somebody on your board who’s really a heavyweight and who will sort of stand up and say that the bank is a squeaky clean institution and that it’s doing absolutely nothing wrong, etc., etc.” We asked who they could get, and they started throwing around names that we honestly thought there was no way they could get. My feeling was that there was absolutely no way any of these reputable people would ever get involved with a bank in a small country, and I certainly wouldn’t expect a former presidential candidate to even consider it.

But I didn’t know how Washington worked, and that people are basically willing to sell their reputation to the highest bidder, which we now keep seeing again and again and again.

What really surprised me, jumping ahead a bit, was how little understanding the senators and the professionals at APCO had about anything having to do with the banking business. And I like Dole — he’s obviously a war hero, and it’s not like I have anything personally negative to say about him. But there was this lack of even the most basic curiosity about what we do, even just as simple as asking, “How is this Central Asian bank able to generate the money to pay me what they pay me?”

…

Dole’s and Johnston’s job was they had to show up in [Kyrgyzstan] once or twice a year, and we had to charter a private plane and bring their whole entourage there. We would also show up and have a board meeting in Washington once in a while, and come there, and we’d bring the financial reports and presentations, but that was all. And the senators would pat us on the back and congratulate us on doing a tremendous job, to keep doing it. It was all this fluff.

At first, there was just a sense of disbelief — when [they] brought up Dole’s name, our jaws universally dropped. We thought, like, maybe APCO can get some former junior congressman no one had heard of — but they said Dole would listen. But then they brought him in, and the guy didn’t ask any questions. My expectation was Dole would say, “You guys are all fucking insane, how dare you even suggest this, don’t you know who I am.” And then when I met him, and he looked at the presentation and was open to it, it was just a revelation. It was absolutely surreal.

With Dole, it was like if I was invited to join the board of an aerospace engineering firm. I could pretend to know what was going on, but I wouldn’t really. It was the same thing with Dole. He had no expertise in banking or Central Asia. In my opinion, he was there for the money.

There’s always been this weird, dangling thread that’s hung off this tale like that one dangling string from the collar of a new shirt from the discount bin at Penney’s.  And, just like tugging on that thread unravels everything, asking this question brings down the entire facade of this operation.

Why was Bob Dole on the Board of Directors for a Kyrgyzstan bank that was so corrupt even Russia noped the fuck out of there?  Money.  A truckload of money.  Enough money that a former Senator and Presidential candidate didn’t even ask questions as to how the bank makes money, wants him, or can afford him.  He’s the face of legitimacy endorsing the lousy product.  He’s Krusty the Clown, and that bank is the Krustyburger franchise that sells deep fried rat.

Manafort’s trial showed his connections to AUB, and in turn their connections to Bob Dole.  That name stuck out like a sore thumb.  That’s like hearing about the cops raiding a Meth Den and finding out that the High School Principal was in the building when they showed up.  The first question you ask “what the fuck is that he doing there?”

Turns out, he was there for money.  But digging into this instance of someone cashing out by unethical means digs up a hornet’s nest of shadiness.  Dole was hired by the bank after an audit was performed by an industry leader named Kroll’s, but Kroll’s didn’t do a full audit because they were only hired to audit one portion of the company, and only that portion was audited because Dole was joining, and Dole joined because of Kroll’s, and so on.  They’re all giving each other plausible deniability.  A said B said X was clean, B said C said X was clean, and C said A said X was clean, but no one actually looked at X.  It’s like if the Krustyburger from earlier only had the freezer inspected by the Health Department because Krusty showed up and asked for the freezer to be inspected because it was a new freezer and the installer wanted to impress Krusty, but everyone closed their eyes and said the rest of the place was clean because the freezer worked.

This raises several questions.  How many of these sweetheart deals where ex-politicians serve on company boards are dirty AF and only using them to gussy up their image?  How many have other problems under the surface?  How many companies are involved in this whitewashing game?

 

According to two people familiar with his trip across the pond who requested anonymity to discuss the chairman’s travels, Devin Nunes, a California Republican, was investigating, among other things, Steele’s own service record and whether British authorities had known about his repeated contact with a U.S. Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. To that end, Nunes requested meetings with the heads of three different British agencies—MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. (Steele was an MI6 agent until a decade ago, and GCHQ, the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, was the first foreign-intelligence agency to pick up contacts between Trump associates and Russian agents in 2015, according to The Guardian.)

A U.K. security official, speaking on background, said “it is normal for U.K. intelligence agencies to have meetings with the chairman and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.” But those meetings did not pan out—Nunes came away meeting only with the U.K.’s deputy national-security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri. The people familiar with his trip told me that officials at MI6, MI5, and GCHQ were wary of entertaining Nunes out of fear that he was “trying to stir up a controversy.” Spokespeople for Alessandri and Nunes did not return requests for comment, and neither did the press offices for MI5 and MI6. GCHQ declined to comment.

If this sounds familiar, Devin’s aides tried the same thing with Christopher Steele last summer.  It’s not uncommon for the head of the Intelligence Committee to meet with British Intelligence, but it is highly unusual that it’s for a dirt digging mission against an American bureaucrat, and even more unusual that said head can’t meet with anyone higher up than a mid-level manager.

Pace might be on to something.  Check his statement in the Rumor Mill.

 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

How Christian

 

Google

 

GSA

 

 

IMPEACHMENT AND INDICTMENT TALK

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

PUERTO RICO

 

McCAIN

 

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

This is not the first time that Giuliani has copped publicly to the game he’s playing. He has admitted that he aims “to attack the legitimacy of the investigation” and said he’s mostly preparing for the potential impeachment battle lying ahead — given that it appears Mueller doesn’t believe he can indict a sitting president. “It is for public opinion, because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach,” Giuliani said in May.

But the latest comment is especially telling. Giuliani isn’t just saying that the investigation is illegitimate — as he has many times before — or that he’s preparing for the after-action. He’s admitting that job No. 1 is to undermine the man in charge of it. It’s the end that justifies all the unholy means. It’s the thing that makes him a good lawyer for his client.

It’s often said that politics ain’t beanbag, and that’s true. We should probably expect that a lawyer like Giuliani would have this goal, and it’s certainly what Trump demands of his lawyers. But what’s remarkable here is the wager that Giuliani has placed on that whole strategy, his admission that it is all just a strategy and the cost at which it may come for him personally.

Giuliani’s defense of himself isn’t, “What I’m saying is just the truth,” but instead, “What I’m saying is working because it’s tearing down my opponent,” who happens to be a respected longtime law enforcement official. It’s a uniquely Trumpian philosophy, so perhaps it’s only appropriate that it’s become Trump’s chief line of defense in an increasingly embattled presidency.

Can we PLEASE ignore Rudy now?

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

#METOO

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE…

Take the time to watch this.  It is funny as fuck.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  It’s a little light on some of the extras, but that’s what happens from time to time.

One thing I’m absolutely thrilled about was Rachel Maddow’s A block.  Instead of starting off with election coverage, she went into explicit detail about Bruce Ohr’s history, and focused quite a bit on his work against Russian Mafia Boss of Bosses Semion Mogilevich.  Semion’s name is getting air time, and not just on any show, but on Rachel Fracking Maddow.  He’s now tied to this mess.  If there’s one thing he hates, it’s exposure, and being prominently featured on the opening segment of the most watched cable news program in America sure isn’t helping him keep a low profile.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/27/2018

Monday, August 27th, 2018.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The talks between the defense and prosecutors occurred last week as the Virginia jury was deliberating, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. The newspaper said it was unclear what issues Mueller raised or what terms for a potential plea might have been proposed.
Representatives for Manafort and Mueller declined to comment to the Journal.

Here’s the thing when it comes to making a deal with prosecutors; you have to have something they want and don’t already have.  Rick Gates likely gave them everything already anyway.  Whatever Manafort has that Gates doesn’t, like personal conversations with Trump or with Russian Oligarchs, he has to be willing to give it up.

 

WASHINGTON — When a lawyer for one of Russia’s most powerful reputed crime bosses arrived at F.B.I. headquarters one day around 2006, he wanted to cut a deal. The Russian, Semion Y. Mogilevich, had been indicted three years earlier by the department on charges of defrauding a company outside Philadelphia out of $150 million and could not travel for fear of arrest.

As the lawyer made his pitch, a supervising F.B.I. agent and a senior career Justice Department official, Bruce G. Ohr, both listened intently, according to a former bureau official who described the meeting. The case was significant for American law enforcement. It had made headlines and laid the groundwork for Justice Department efforts to combat Russian organized crime overseas.

Finally, the F.B.I. agent spoke. No deal, he said; Mr. Mogilevich must surrender. Mr. Ohr said little, but his unwillingness to negotiate was signal enough: The Justice Department would not compromise with the Russian mafia.

…

In nearly three decades at the Justice Department, Mr. Ohr has made a career of supporting and facilitating important cases that targeted Russian organized crime. Now he is a target of President Trump, who has put his security clearance under review and attacked him publicly, and allies. They have cast Mr. Ohr and his wife — who worked as a contractor at the same research firm that produced a damaging dossier of information about Mr. Trump — as villains, part of a pro-Clinton cabal out to destroy the president.

But Mr. Ohr, 56, is far from corrupt, friends and former colleagues said. An experienced law enforcement official, he has a deep understanding of the underworld of Russian organized crime, they said, including raising concerns about at least one oligarch whose name has resurfaced amid the scrutiny of contacts between Trump associates and Russia.

As part of this work, Mr. Ohr met a British spy who specialized in Russia, Christopher Steele, and the two men developed a bond based on their shared expertise. Mr. Steele went on to investigate ties between Mr. Trump and Russia for the same research firm, Fusion GPS, where Ms. Ohr was a contractor.

Those connections have upended Mr. Ohr’s once relatively anonymous life, dragging him into the maelstrom of the Russia investigation. Justice Department officials transferred Mr. Ohr, an associate deputy attorney general, to a less powerful post last year after learning about his contacts with Mr. Steele and the scope of his wife’s work. If he loses his security clearance, he would probably be forced to leave federal law enforcement after nearly three decades.

…

“Until 9/11, organized crime was one of the main priority criminal programs at the Justice Department,” said Mr. Lowrie, who retired in 2008. “Russian organized crime was a focus. Bruce knew a lot of the Russia stuff and traveled there.”

Mr. Ohr’s section supported the 2000 prosecution of Pavlo Lazarenko, the former prime minister of Ukraine, who was convicted of money laundering, wire fraud and extortion in a case brought by the office of the United States attorney in San Francisco at the time, Robert S. Mueller III, who is now the special counsel.

Mr. Ohr was a manager, not a litigator, who built bridges with law enforcement agencies around the world, former Justice Department officials said. He sent top deputies to Hungary to root out the nascent Russian mob in the early 2000s. F.B.I. agents viewed the commitment as a sign of his seriousness about combating Russian organized crime.

In 2006, Mr. Ohr was part of a group of government officials who revoked the visa of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and aluminum magnate. Officials were concerned that Mr. Deripaska might try to come to the United States to launder illicit profits through real estate, a former law enforcement official said.

Mr. Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has been tied to the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted last week of tax and bank fraud. In 2016, Mr. Manafort offered private campaign briefings to Mr. Deripaska, raising concerns about the prospect of Russians wielding influence inside the White House. In April, the United States imposed sanctions on Mr. Deripaska.

In 2007, Mr. Ohr met Mr. Steele, who was still with MI-6, the British spy service, according to a former senior American law enforcement official who knows both men. Both governments approved their contacts, the former official said.

Mr. Ohr moved on to other senior jobs, starting in 2010 as counsel for international relations in the Justice Department’s transnational organized crime and international affairs section, where he bolstered partnerships with foreign law enforcement agencies. In 2014, he became the director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, distributing grant money to bolster prosecutorial work.

Bruce Ohr, everyone.  The mid-level DOJ official who has fought against the Russian Mafia for the better part of 30 years, and according to Cult45 Public Enemy #1.

Think about this for a second.  Trump’s Enemies List includes FBI Agents, Lawyers who investigated Russia, a former spy, members of the Intelligence Community, and a Politician who connected all of these people together.

Also, we’re finally getting Semion Mogilevich’s name in the paper.  He is the Boss of Bosses in Russian organized crime, and runs Moscow.  If there is one person that could control Putin, it’s this guy.  Think of every shady, illegal, violent, and disgusting thing ever associated to a Russian criminal, and it all ties back to Semion.

Fuck Glenn Greenwald with a rusty spiked dildo.

 

McCAIN

Here’s the short, short version of Monday’s events at the White House…

The White House, like the rest of Washington, flew the flag at half-mast out of respect for John McCain.  Trump is petty bitch who ordered it back to full height.  Everyone called him out, including the American Legion.  Trump cracked like a bitch and “ordered” it lowered back to half-mast.  Fox News will say some shit like “John McCain deserved it” or “Trump’s not an asshole for this”.

Fuck him and anyone who defends Trump on this.  If anyone ever tries to pull that “He loves the troops” bullshit ever again, show them this.  Remind them of how Trump “honored” the memory of a Navy Veteran, POW, and Senator.

 

COHEN

$210,000 is a slap on the wrist.  Meanwhile, they evicted dozens, if not hundreds of people from their homes illegally.  Unless this is used to establish greater criminal charges, I’m pissed about this.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller.  In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week. “It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.)

Trump is self-destructing.  Not that any of this is a surprise to anyone paying attention, but he’s now trapped in his own bubble with the walls closing in.  He’s lashing out at everyone and everything, unsure about what to do, but convinced he needs to do something, without realizing that any action he does will only make the situation worse.  He can’t sit still and let things work themselves out, or let the experts do the work.  He has to do something, anything, because in his broken, feeble little mind, he’s the only one smart enough to do anything to fix his problems.

Take the issue with trying to pardon Paul Manafort.  I’ve gone into detail before about why that’s a bad idea, (GTKYG-Pardon Limitations), and all of the lawyers and smart people in the White House agree with me that Trump’s attempts to continue down this path are a bad idea.  Trying to swing a pardon around like a hammer will break his presidency, but he can’t help himself.  He won’t listen to anyone that doesn’t agree with him, and he’s too focused on himself to see that what he’s asking his lawyers to do will ruin their lives.

 

 

IMPEACHMENT AND INDICTMENT TALK

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The FBI and Capitol Police want to talk with Rep. Maxine Waters’ 2018 Republican opponent about a fake letter he posted to Twitter that falsely indicated the congresswoman wants to resettle tens of thousands of refugees in her Los Angeles district.

The Republican candidate, Omar Navarro, said he will meet with FBI agents at his California campaign office Wednesday at their request.

 

In December, Waters formally asked the FBI and Capitol Police to investigate the letter,which appears to be on Waters’ House office stationery and includes her signature.

 

It is a federal crime to impersonate a federal official and misuse a federal seal.

Navarro told The Times after Waters filed the December complaint that someone he did not know sent his campaign the letter on Facebook, and he did not vet whether it was real before putting it online.

 

“I don’t know why they are looking into me since I’m not the one who fabricated the letter,” Navarro said Monday. He said he has not had contact with the person who sent him the letter since December.

 

Navarro has not deleted the tweet from his account and it continues to be retweeted, totaling more than 800 times as of this week.

 

He reacted online to the FBI meeting Monday, tweeting, “Let’s get this straight I tweet a letter which says Maxine Waters wants to bring 41,000 Somali refugees. I only tweet according to this document asking a question. Now the FBI is on me for her complaint. She threatens the president and his supporters and no investigation on her.”

Really?  This ignorant mother fucker wants to play the victim card?  Really?

Let’s start with him saying that he was given this forged letter and didn’t confirm the contents.  That alone should disqualify him from running a fucking Wendy’s Drive-Thru window, let alone running for Congress.

Next we get to him still hosting it, even though it’s a proven fake.  Making a fake letter on Congressional letterhead is illegal, but hosting a copy of the fake might not be, but he’s still disseminating it AFTER it’s been proven to be a fake.  Any credibility this fucktard ever had is gone.

Then he wants to pull a case of Whataboutism because Maxine was mean to the Orange One and recommended peacefully calling out the racist, traitorous pieces of shit for what they really are, while his idol has literally called for his supporters to physically attack people they don’t like.

Fuck this guy.  I hope the FBI break his fucking spirit.

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  I’d like to say I’m glad it was a little “slower” of a newsday, but I can’t.  Right now I’m sitting in pain with a jacked up back, and everything hurts.  It happens from time to time.

My next couple pieces, outside of the Daily’s, should be about Michael Cohen and the differences between the Democrats and Republicans.  Not just the policy points, but the whole lawlessness and corruption vs. holding assholes accountable thing.  That’s been overlooked recently.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur