Month: September 2018

Daily Check-In 09/18/18

Tuesday, September 18th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Here’s why what Trump is proposing with exposing sources is dangerous.

There’s a difference between declassifying documents while keeping identities and methods redacted vs. full on declassification without redaction.

In the first, which is what we got back in July when the Carter Page FISA application was released with blocks of text blacked out ( Daily Check-In 07/20/2018), showed a completely by-the-book process but hid several key parts, mostly regarding intelligence sources. Those sources didn’t work on just the Carter Page case, but are working on other cases as well, as needed. Those sources could be anything from intercepted phone calls and texts to actual spies talking to US and Allied spy agencies.

What Trump’s trying to do is expose all of the methods and spies used to gather evidence against Carter Page. Even if the names are left out, the events can be reverse engineered to show who was the spy.

For example, let’s say that Carter Page and 5 people were in a room talking about the Rosneft deal. Out of those 5, one of them took notes on the Criminal Fucking Conspiracy and told the CIA what they saw.  These details were originally redacted, but the unredacted version gives details that only these 6 people would know. It won’t take them long to reverse engineer who talked to the CIA, and that person would be as good as dead.

It’s not just real people, either. If the UK secretly hacked the cell phone of the Rosneft board member who negotiated with Carter Page, releasing this info would burn that source. That board member would destroy their phone and get the IT department to do a full and complete sweep of the building.

That’s why this is a big deal.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, EMOLUMENTS, AND OTHER LAWSUITS

I sincerely apologize for this in advance.

A copy of the book, Full Disclosure, was obtained by the Guardian. In it, Daniels describes her mounting disbelief as Trump began to win primary contests in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination. Former castmates whom she had not heard from in years, but who had heard her story about sleeping with Trump in 2006, would call her up to marvel at the news.

“It will never happen, I would say,” Daniels writes. “He doesn’t even want to be president.”

But as Trump kept winning, Daniels writes, she began to think she might be in danger. The story she had to tell about Trump seemed more sensitive the more he won. And she had already been threatened once, years earlier, and warned never to tell the story about Trump, she has claimed.

No, not that.

The crux of the book, however, follows Daniels’ decision to go public with her story about Trump just before the election, after years of hiding the affair, she writes, from her then-husband. Going public meant that she and her daughter would be less vulnerable to attack, she reasoned. She recounts a story she has told elsewhere, of being approached by a large man in a gym parking lot in 2011 and warned not to tell the story about Trump. Trump has said the parking lot story is “a total con job.”

No, not that either.

The memoir narrates Daniels’ first experiences as a stripper while still in high school, and how she broke into the porn industry, through which she rose to become an award-winning director, writer and star.

It was in that role that Daniels attended a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, in 2006, where she and two colleagues greeted golfers between holes. There she first sees Trump: “He had a red cap, a Trump crest as a placeholder for the MAGA slogan not one of us could see coming.”

Trump’s bodyguard invites Daniels to dinner, which turns out to be an invitation to Trump’s penthouse, she writes, in a description of alleged events that Daniels has disclosed previously but which in the book are rendered with new and lurid detail. She describes Trump’s penis as “smaller than average” but “not freakishly small”.

Close.  Disgustingly close.

“He knows he has an unusual penis,” Daniels writes. “It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool…

A toadstool.

“I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart…

Toad

WHY??????   WHHYYYYYYYYYY????

“It may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion.”

Aside from being happily married, this is why I would never fuck a porn star. But mostly because my A-game isn’t even her warm-up.  This would be like playing catch with Tom Brady or fighting Ronda Rousey.  It’s the greatest achievement of your sports life, but for them it’s a pity play with some crazy fan.

Daniels’ alleged relationship with Trump included one moment in 2007, she writes, in which she is with Trump in a hotel room watching a Shark Week broadcast on cable television when he receives a phone call from Hillary Clinton, then running against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Then, to make it crazier, Hillary Clinton called,” Daniels writes. “He had a whole conversation about the race, repeatedly mentioning ‘our plan’…

“Even while he was on the phone with Hillary, his attention kept going back to the sharks.”

What in the actual fuck?  The timing is a bit nuts, but not completely out of the question.  At the time, Trump was still a Democrat, at least in name.  He didn’t leave the party until the black guy won.  Just like a lot of other old racists that I know.

Since I described Trump’s unimpressive, mushroom shaped flaccid tiny little pecker, here’s some eye bleach.

Box of puppies

Starbucks Kitty

Pittie

Pair

 

 

Now, here’s a question for you as we head for the November midterm elections, sure to be seen as a referendum on the president: Could Donald Trump be a one-man version of either Enron or Lehman Brothers, someone who cooked “the books” until, well, he imploded?

Since we’ve never seen his tax returns, right now we really don’t know. What we do know is that he’s been dodging bullets ever since the Justice Department accused him of violating the Fair Housing Act in his operation of 39 buildings in New York City in 1973. Unlike famed 1920s mob boss Al Capone, he may never get done in by something as simple as tax evasion, but time will tell.

Rest assured of one thing though: He won’t go down easily, even if he is already the subject of multiple investigations and a plethora of legal slings and arrows. Of course, his methods should be familiar. As President Calvin Coolidge so famously put it, “the business of America is business.” And the business of business is to circumvent or avoid the heat… until, of course, it can’t.

 

TRUMP THE MUSHROOM DICKED RUSSIAN ASSET

Kavanaugh

Fuck them.  They didn’t have to leave their home and go into hiding because of these allegations, like Dr. Ford’s family.

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is unable to account for the whereabouts of nearly 1,500 migrant children who illegally entered the United States alone this year and were placed with sponsors after leaving federal shelters, according to congressional findings released on Tuesday.

The revelation echoes an admission in April by the Department of Health and Human Services that the government had similarly lost track of an additional 1,475 migrant children it had moved out of shelters last year.

In findings that lawmakers described as troubling, Senate investigators said the department could not determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,488 out of 11,254 children the agency had placed with sponsors in 2018, based on follow-up calls from April 1 to June 30.

The inability to track the whereabouts of migrant children after they have been released to sponsors has raised concerns that they could end up with human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

SCOTUS AND #METOO – THE KAVANAUGH RAPEYTIME ADVENTURE SERIES

Absofuckinglutely.  Maybe, just maybe, if someone was afraid of a sexual assault they performed as a kid would haunt them the rest of their lives, they might not do it in the first place.  Besides, like I said yesterday in Daily Check-In 09/17/2018, this “Boys will be boys” bullshit only applies to white men in privileged upbringings.  The same old white men using this excuse today would be lining up to try a 17 year old black male as an adult for the attempted rape of a 15 year old white girl.

Tanya Harrell was working at a McDonald’s in New Orleans, making $8.15 an hour, when a co-worker approached her and then touched her “in my private areas,” she says. “He was very aggressive. And I just never thought that he would do something like that.”

When Harrell tried to report the incident to her managers, “they didn’t take it very seriously,” she told the Cut. Then, she says, a different co-worker forced her into a bathroom stall at work. He “did a lot of uncomfortable things towards me,” she recounted, emotion building in her voice — including, she claims, exposing himself to her. “When I was telling him to stop he didn’t stop,” she said. “I almost got raped, I got assaulted, I got treated unfairly … he didn’t show me no respect.”

After what happened when she reported the first incident, she didn’t even bother speaking up. “The owners really don’t care,” she said. “I really feel like they don’t care at all.”

In May, Harrell and nine other McDonald’s employees filed a federal complaint against the company. Four months later, they say they haven’t received any response — so today, they’re going on strike to protest what they describe as the company’s inability, or unwillingness, to prevent sexual harassment in its restaurants. Today’s action is not just bold, but historic, advocates say: This is the first-ever nationwide strike against sexual harassment, and it’s led by working-class women of color in a moment of reckoning that tends to be dominated by accounts of the wealthy and privileged.

Today’s action will take place during the lunchtime rush, in ten cities simultaneously: Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Durham. This is wholly unprecedented, according to Annelise Orleck, a professor of history at Dartmouth College. “A multi-state strike on the same day at the same time? Yes, this is the first,” she told the Cut. “We’re starting to see strikes again being considered viable options among workers … This strike is a sign of a very different kind of labor movement” — one that’s “led by women of color.”

“There’s a lot going on among workers,” she added. “It’s not just a handful of actresses in Hollywood.”

The ten women behind the May sexual-harassment charges, which were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the help of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, say they experienced lewd comments, propositions, groping, and even sexual assault while working at the fast-food chain. They also say that when they reported what had happened to them, they were ignored, if not retaliated against.

But these charges have yet to get McDonald’s attention, it seems. “They have not reacted at all,” Harrell said.

I’m officially triggered. I’m furious. I’m speaking now mostly to the women coming out in defense of . How absolutely dare you. Just because someone is a “nice guy”, a pillar of the community, a good husband, father, or basketball coach, does not mean he never assaulted anyone. Just because he didn’t attack you doesn’t mean he never attacked anyone. Super seemingly nice people do horrible things. It’s incredibly hard to step forward and speak your abuse story. I myself have not yet done that. It’s even harder when someone is respected, seemingly a good person. The fact is, not ONE person publicly shaming was there. Not ONE of you can say what definitively took place. How dare women film commercials or sign their name professing what a great man he is. Not ONE of you were there. Don’t get me started on the Men. You know who you are, dudes who know they have their own skeletons, terrified that one day their victims will bravely step forward. She deserves to be listened to. She deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. She deserves to be believed. I’m shaking. Shame on  trying to sweep this under the rug. None of you were there.None of you felt her fear. None of you have ANY RIGHT to come to his defense.The hypocrisy of the rushing through this candidate is despicable, & so is every single person who comes to his defense.

 

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

The Supreme Court today denied a stay, and lifted a temporary stay by Chief Justice Roberts, in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s (CREW) landmark dark money case against Crossroad GPS and the Federal Election Commission (FEC). This decision, following similar decisive decisions by the district court and court of appeals this week, means that effective immediately, anyone making more than $250 in express advocacy ads — ads that tell viewers who to vote for or against — must now disclose the identities of all contributors who gave more than $200 in a year. They must also identify who among those contributors earmarked their contributions for express ads. Because of this decision, the contributors for a major category of dark money spending this fall will have to be disclosed to the public.

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  I’m thinking of shifting some sections around, and also looking to get back to some regular story posts.

I’m not sure what’s coming around the bend this week, but there’s two points I’ve seen.

First, the Kavanaugh nomination has gone sideways faster than a drift car.  Rumors are floating around that the GOP expected a sexual harassment or assault allegation to arise at some point, but not this one.  They had that letter of 65 women ready to go too fast.  Plus, character witnesses from the school across town saying that he didn’t try to rape any of them is a pretty shallow thing.  Also, Kavanaugh’s story has already changed.   One spokesperson said that the two were just having some rough play, but that counters his earlier claims that he was never at the party.  We’re only a couple days in, and it’s gone weird.  Trump’s general silence on the matter is interesting as well.  No 4AM tweetstorms calling her out, no rushing to Kavanaugh’s defense, and no full-throated support for him.  We’ve gotten Trump’s standard don’t-believe-the-woman response.  It’s almost like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Second, the Carter Page push.  Why now?  Why make this push to out all of these sources now?  Remember, Manafort flipped on Friday ( Daily Check-In 09/14/2018), and the first thing he did on Monday (Daily Check-In 09/17/2018 ) was order this release.  He’s desperate and grasping at straws.  He can’t fight this in court, he’s tried firing Mueller, Rosenstein, and Sessions multiple times and failed, and his allies now the minute the Democrats win the House, his number is up.  They’ll tie him up in investigations from now until the heat death of the universe, even after Impeachment.  His only shots at avoiding a disgraceful exit are hoping the Supreme Court rules that he’s above the law, or that there’s enough doubt about the investigation due to sources getting blown or witnesses not being able to show up.  With Kavanaugh looking like things might blow up for him, his only other tactic is blow everything up.  I mean that in the metaphorical sense, hopefully not the literal one.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/17/2018

The weekend and Monday, September 17th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort

Just as a reminder from Daily Check-In 09/14/2018, Paul Manafort is a convicted felon and cooperating with the Special Counselor’s Office.

 

Ken Starr

“And so it’s all the more helpful that Paul Manafort has said, ‘You – you have me and I’m going to give you the truth and nothing but the truth,'” Starr said. “So I think this is this is really good for the country… Let’s get to the truth of the matter.”

Thank you.  That’s all we’re looking for is to get to the truth.  Each piece of information that comes out, each lead, each leak, each story gets us one step closer.

 

Declassification

Here’s another braindead idea from Dipshit Cowpoke Devin Nunes and “I didn’t see it” Jim Jordan.  They’re once again picking the Carter Page Hill to die on. This time, they’ve convinced Trump to declassify EVERYTHING regarding the investigation, in their never-ending efforts to prove a non-existent conspiracy in the “Deep State”, hurt American Intelligence and Crime fighting, get spies killed, and try to protect themselves and Trump, they’ve convinced The Dotard to declassify everything regarding Carter Page’s FISA Applications.  They’re hoping this will “redeem Trump”.  All it will do is give Fox News a chance to scream about typos or try to pretend that there is some massive conspiracy, when the rest of the world will see that Carter Page is a goddamned spy for the Russians.

This will be right up there with the Nunes Memo (Daily Check-In 02/02/2018) and the first Carter Page FISA Application release (Daily Check-In 07/20/2018).  Both of those went over like a fart in church.

 

Flynn

Looks like Flynn has served his usefulness, for now.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, EMOLUMENTS, AND OTHER LAWSUITS

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Declassification

 

Puerto Rico

 

FEMA

 

Mattis

 

Russia

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Julian Assange

The Nov. 30, 2010, missive is part of a much larger trove of WikiLeaks emails, chat logs, financial records, secretly recorded footage and other documents leaked to the AP. The files provide both an intimate look at the radical transparency organization and an early hint of Assange’s budding relationship with Moscow.

The ex-hacker’s links to the Kremlin would become increasingly salient before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when the FBI says Russia’s military intelligence agency directly supplied WikiLeaks with stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and other Democratic figures.

In a statement posted to Twitter, WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for the visa or authored the letter, naming a former associate of his as the alleged source of the document. WikiLeaks did not return a follow-up email seeking clarification on whether Shamir applied on his behalf, or whether a lawyer or someone else at WikiLeaks might have drafted the letter. The Russian Embassy in London said it doesn’t discuss the personal details of visa applicants.

WikiLeaks has repeatedly been hit by unauthorized disclosures , but the tens of thousands of files obtained by the AP may be the biggest leak yet.

The AP has confirmed the authenticity of many of the documents by running them by five former WikiLeaks associates or by verifying non-public details such as bank accounts, telephone numbers or airline tickets .

One of the former associates, an ex-employee, identified two of the names that frequently appeared in the documents’ metadata, “Jessica Longley” and “Jim Evans Mowing,” as pseudonyms assigned to two WikiLeaks laptops.

All five former associates spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, in some cases because they didn’t want their past association with WikiLeaks to become public, and in others because they feared legal retaliation or harassment from the group’s supporters.

Among other things, the documents lay out Assange’s campaign to avoid being arrested and extradited to Sweden over allegations that he sexually molested one woman and raped another during a trip to the Scandinavian country in August 2010.

Gee, what a surprise.  Right before Julian Assange got trapped in the closet at the Ecuadorian Embassy, he tried to get a visa to enter Russia.  This was when he was avoiding extradition to Sweden for charges of sexual assault and rape.

Assange, the “surprise sex enthusiast”, couldn’t wait for the Russians to respond, and ran to the Ecuadorian Embassy for asylum, where’s been waiting since then, attacking democracy around the world.

 

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

SCOTUS

Ok, let me explain… There is no time, let me sum up.

Over the weekend, more details came out surrounding the sexual assault claims against Brett Kavanaugh, from the accuser herself, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor and clinical researcher.  When he was 17, he attempted to rape a 15 year old girl at a house party.  He grabbed her on her way to the bathroom, dragged her into a bedroom, threw her on the bed, and pinned her down with his body.  When she tried to scream for help, Brett covered her mouth and turned the music up.  Brett’s friend, Mark Judge, tried to join in, but was so drunk he bumped into Brett and knocked him off of her while Brett was trying to get her clothes and swimsuit off.  That gave her the window she needed to escape.  She bolted out of the bedroom and locked herself in the bathroom for a couple hours.

That took place in the early 80’s.  She didn’t tell anyone about that until 2012, when she told her therapist the details.  Since then, Dr. Ford has only told a few close friends and family members, until Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.  That’s when she wrote her Congresswoman and Senator.

Since then, it’s been a shitshow.  Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh will testify next Monday, in the same Senate hearing.  This might be the first time they’ve been in the same place since he tried to force himself onto and into her.

Meanwhile, this has turned into a full-blown crisis for the GOP and a rallying cry for the #MeToo and #BelieveHer movements.  The trolls are crawling out and attacking Dr. Ford, wondering why she didn’t come forward 30 years ago.

30 years ago, back when “Boys will be Boys”, “She was asking for it”, and all of the other victim blaming euphemisms used back then.  Hell, it’s still used today, but the early 80’s was even before “No means No.”

A man accused of attempted rape is being recommended for the Supreme Court to make abortion illegal.

And his friend, Mark Judge, is a creepy videographer and writer.  Check out the Rumor Mill section for more.

Women are fed up, and rightly so.  The GOP is trying to ram Kavanaugh through, against the cries of women across the country.  If they keep this up, the GOP will lose women for good.

By the way, this whole bullshit about “He was just a kid” is just that.  Bullshit.  He was a 17 year old, football playing boy going into his senior year of High School, who along with a buddy tried to rape a 15 year old girl.  He got away with it because he could.  He was a jock, a meathead, one of the popular kids, and went to a private school for wealthy kids.  I knew kids like that growing up, and there was almost always this sense of entitlement that they should get whatever they wanted.  Hell, I saw that shit at public school at the suburbs in the 90’s after the beginnings of the “No Means No” movement.  The crap I saw and heard from private school kids was far, far worse.  Besides, change that from a white kid in the suburbs to a black kid in the city trying to rape a 15 year old white girl and he gets labeled a thug and tried as an adult.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

THAT’S RACIST

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ELECTION 2018

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

CONSTITUTION DAY

A Crime A Day: On this day in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. It would give Congress the power to provide for the punishment of three federal crimes and defined just one of them: Treason. Today, 18 USC §2381 still makes it a federal crime for a person owing allegiance to the United States to levy war against the country, or adhere to the country’s enemies, giving them aid and comfort in the U.S. or elsewhere. And other federal statutes still punish the other two crimes mentioned in the Constitution — counterfeiting money and being a pirate.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for the last few days.

It’s been a ride.  And it gets weirder from here.  On Tuesday, Stormy Daniels’s book comes out.  I don’t want to have to talk about Trump’s penis, but there’s quite a few stories about it.  I will do my best to add some eye bleach to the stories.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/14/2018

Friday, September 14, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

MANAFORT FLIPPED!!!!!!!!!!

Paul Manfort, Campaign Chairman for President Donald J. Trump’s election campaign in 2016, pleaded guilty to Witness Tampering Conspiracy and Conspiracy Against the United States in DC District Court.  In addition to this, he also agreed to plead guilty to the leftover charges from his EDVA case that resulted in a hung jury.  As part of this deal, Manafort agrees to cooperate completely with any and all investigations going forward.

Paul Manafort, the go-between for the Trump team and the Russian Mafia, lobbyist for the Party of Regions and Opposition Bloc in Ukraine, advocate for tyrants, criminals, and the most despicable humans of the late 20th and early 21st century, has turned state’s witness.

Paulie Walnuts has flipped on Trump.

This is big, possibly “Game Over” big.  Manafort was involved multiple aspects of the campaign, and directly ties Trump to the Russians.  Manafort was at the June 9th meeting, and also was supposedly at the pre-meeting a couple days earlier with Michael Cohen and Donnie Jr.  (Daily Check-In 07/26/2018). Manafort also organized the change in language at the RNC that softened their stance on Ukraine to favor Russia.

 

Penalties

Manafort’s not getting off with a slap on the wrist.  He’s forfeiting $46 million in assets and cash, including a life insurance policy and 4 homes.  One of those homes is his an apartment in Trump Tower.

The Federal Government now owns property in Trump Tower, and can do with it whatever the fuck they want.  Normally, they would sell this property in an auction, but I’m really hoping they do something else with it, like turn it into a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.  Maybe the John S. McCain III Memorial Veterans Affairs Office?

 

Co-Conspirators

It’s not just Trump who’s shitting bricks right now, but every lobbyist, banker, politician, criminal, tailor, judge, donor, and anyone else who’s ever done anything even slightly shady in the last 30 years is panicking.  Remember how Bob Dole joined the board of AUB? (Daily Check-In 08/28/2018) The playmakers who made that happen are the same people in this mess.

The first up on the shit list are the Hapsburg Group and Greg Craig.  They were specified directly in Manafort’s plea deal.  Craig was a former member of Obama’s White House Counsel’s Office in his first year.  I’m looking forward to the mental gymnastics that will take place to explain Manafort was framed into lying about this, but the Democrat was obviously guilty.

Documents

These are definitely worth a read.

 

Pardon

Before anyone says Trump will just pardon him out of this, I think the window’s closed on that option.  Not only was it a horribly bad idea to begin with (GTKYG-Pardon Limitations), but now the government has what they want from Manafort, and it likely has even more on Trump.

If Trump tried to pardon Manafort now, not only would it screw over Manafort it would obviously be a corrupt and criminal action meant to cover up crimes he’s connected to.

There’s a rumor about a delay that I’ll cover in the Rumor Mill section.

 

Response from the White House

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

  

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

  

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago.

The woman, who has asked not to be identified, first approached Democratic lawmakers in July, shortly after Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The allegation dates back to the early nineteen-eighties, when Kavanaugh was a high-school student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the woman attended a nearby high school. In the letter, the woman alleged that, during an encounter at a party, Kavanaugh held her down, and that he attempted to force himself on her. She claimed in the letter that Kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the room to conceal the sound of her protests, and that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand. She was able to free herself. Although the alleged incident took place decades ago and the three individuals involved were minors, the woman said that the memory had been a source of ongoing distress for her, and that she had sought psychological treatment as a result.

 

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Friday.  This was one hell of a day.  Like I said earlier, there’s a rumor going around about a delay showing up at the courthouse.

According to some reports, Paul Manafort’s team and the Special Counselor’s team arrived at the courthouse earlier in the morning, around 9:00 to 9:30, but didn’t appear before Judge Berman until an hour an a half later, around 11:00AM.  While this delay isn’t completely unheard of, one rumor going around is that Manafort was led into the Grand Jury convened for the Russian Investigation and was asked some questions, specifically about the June 9 meeting and whether or not Trump knew about it ahead of time.  That way, in case Trump tried a pardon, they would already have Manafort’s information on record.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/13/2018

Thursday, September 13, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

It looks like Friday’s going to be one hell of a day for Manafort and Mueller news.

Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group’s chief lobbyist apparently gave the race’s Republican challenger a heads-up.

Chris Cox, the top political strategist for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), assured Montana Republican Matt Rosendale that the group would spend heavily to support his bid to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, Rosendale told attendees at a July event in Washington.

PAY DIRT exclusively obtained audio of Rosendale’s remarks, which good-government groups say raise serious questions of potentially illicit coordination between Rosendale and an independent political group supporting his campaign.

“I fully expect the NRA is going to come in… in August sometime,” Rosendale said in response to a question about independent political spenders in the race. “The Supreme Court confirmations are big. That’s what sent the NRA over the line. Because in ’12, with [Republican Senate nominee Denny Rehberg] they stayed out, they stayed out of Montana. But Chris Cox told me, he’s like, ‘We’re going to be in this race.’”

Rosendale was slightly off in terms of timing, but the NRA did come through as Cox apparently promised. Early this month, the group spent more than $400,000 on ads hitting Tester over the precise issue that Rosendale mentioned—the senator’s votes on Supreme Court nominations.

Rosendale’s remarks are potentially problematic, as the NRA-ILA, a 501(c)(4) “dark-money” group, is legally barred from coordinating its ad buys with a federal campaign. As explained by nonprofit tax law attorney Holly Schadler, illegal coordination may occur “if the organization has substantial discussions with the campaign about an expenditure, or if the organization informs the campaign about a planned communication related to the campaign and the campaign signals its agreement with the suggestion to make that communication.”

The NRA, who was working with the Russians, coordinated political ads with a senate candidate in Montana in the summer of 2016.

It might not seem like it’s connected at first, if it wasn’t for ALL of the Russian connections to the NRA.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

MENTAL STATE

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

BOSTON

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

#METOO

 

HURRICANES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

So, they’re sending half a million cans of Bud Light and Coors Light?

 

ELECTION 2018

 

dark money spending

  1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  2. Crossroads GPS
  3. Americans for Prosperity
  4. National Rifle Association
  5. American Future Fund
  6. American Action Network
  7. League of Conservative Voters
  8. National Association of Realtors
  9. Americans for Job Security
  10. 45Committee
  11. Americans for Tax Reform
  12. Patriot Majority USA
  13. 60 Plus Association
  14. VoteVets Action Fund
  15. Planned Parenthood Action Fund

According to FactCheck.org, all of them except Patriot Majority USA, VoteVets, and Planned Parenthood are Conservative/Republican groups.  Not a single Liberal/Democratic group cracked the Top 10.  The NRA spent more than the Liberal groups did combined.  Also, look at the groups and what they focus on.  Free trade, tax cuts for the wealthy, gun sales, and home construction.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday looks big, as some major Paul Manafort news is coming down the pipe.  It’s almost like I’m typing this on a Friday afternoon, just hours after the information came out.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur