Daily Check-In 10/04/2018

Daily Check-In

Thursday, October 4, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

A Russian official accused of directing the foreign operations of Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016, has plummeted to his death in a helicopter crash.

Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan was exposed in a Swiss court this year for a plot to enlist another nation’s law-enforcement official as a double-agent for the Kremlin

Media reports in Russia say he died Wednesday night when his helicopter crashed into a forest during an unauthorized flight in the Kostroma region, northeast of Moscow.

Karapetyan, 58, was intimately familiar with some of the most notorious operations carried out under the orders of Vladimir Putin. He worked closely with Veselnitskaya as well as running some of Moscow’s most high-profile efforts to thwart international investigations into Russia’s alleged crimes.

It was Karapetyan who signed a letter from the Russian government refusing to help the U.S. in a civil case it was pursuing linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was trying to expose a $230 million fraud in Russia. Leaked emails have since shown that Veselnitskaya helped to draft the document sent with that letter. 

Hey look, someone with vital knowledge of the Russian’s effort to attack the United States who wasn’t a widely known named suffered a Russian Heart Attack.  What a coinkidink.

An unauthorized helicopter crash in the woods?  Was this before or after being shot and thrown from the plane?

There are two ways to survive having knowledge of Putin’s ploys.  Either be so anonymous that no one knows who you are, or become so famous that he can’t make a move against you.

Well this is interesting.  I’m including this in the Russian Investigation and not in Cold War or Crime and Punishment because it involves at least 3 GRU members that were already indicted by Mueller, and it shows how far Russia is willing to go.

These 7 GRU officers were caught by Dutch Intelligence and were escorted out of the country.  Why weren’t they arrested on the spot?  Because Russia issued them diplomatic passports, granting them diplomatic immunity.

This brings us to today, where the U.S. charged these 7 officers with hacking into The Hague, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Westinghouse Nuclear, and a few other organizations as well.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

This whole clusterfuck has given me a new appreciation for states rights and New York.

The NYAG’s office has said that the Trump Foundation has engaged in “persistent illegality.” The foundation is the charity, not the business.  This doesn’t include the crimes that the business or family members did.

 

SCOTUS & #METOO

Here’s a list of the people who we know have not been interviewed:

  • A suitemate of Kavanaugh’s has now told the New Yorker he remembers hearing at the time about the incident Deborah Ramirez has recounted. Ramirez, who has been interviewed, had claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a dorm party at Yale. The suitemate, Kenneth G. Appold, now says he is “one-hundred-per-cent certain” that he was told the culprit was Kavanaugh. He does say he never discussed this with Ramirez, but he claims an eyewitness described the episode to him at the time. Appold has tried to share this story with the FBI, but there’s no indication the FBI is willing to hear from him.
  • A classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Prep now strongly challenges one of Kavanaugh’s assertions under oath. The person told the New Yorker that he heard Kavanaugh talk repeatedly about Renate Dolphin as someone “that everyone passed around for sex” (the witness’ words), and even heard Kavanaugh singing a rhyme that included the words “you wanna get laid, you can make it with REE-NATE.” Kavanaugh (and many others) described themselves in their yearbook as a “Renate Alumnius,” but Kavanaugh has denied under oath that this was a sexual reference, claiming, ludicrously, that it was intended to show “affection.”
  • This classmate is not named by the New Yorker. But he put his name on a statement to the FBI and Judiciary Committee that makes this claim, and he is prepared to talk to the FBI. There is no indication this happened.
  • James Roche, one of Kavanaugh’s roommates at Yale, has written a piece for Slate that claims Kavanaugh lied under oath about his use of slang and his drinking. Roche claims that Kavanaugh “regularly” blacked out. Roche has offered to talk to the FBI, but there’s no indication this happened.
  • Roche also pointedly added of Kavanaugh: “He said that ‘boofing’ was farting and the ‘Devil’s Triangle’ was a drinking game. ‘Boofing’ and ‘Devil’s Triangle’ are sexual references. I know this because I heard Brett and his friends using these terms on multiple occasions.” Roche concluded that Kavanaugh “has demonstrated a willingness to be untruthful under oath about easily verified information.”
  • NBC News reports that the FBI has not contacted dozens of people who could potentially corroborate the allegations against Kavanaugh or testify to his behavior at the time. This includes many people who knew either Ford or Ramirez at the time, and people who actually approached the FBI offering information.
  • The Post reports that Ramirez’s lawyers provided the FBI with a list of more than 20 people who might have relevant information, but “as of Wednesday, Ramirez’s team had no indication that the bureau had interviewed any of them.”
  • Blasey Ford’s legal team today put out a list of additional people who have not been contacted by the FBI, some of whom were prepared to corroborate that she had in the past discussed being the victim of a sexual assault by a federal judge.
  • Neither Ford nor Kavanaugh have been interviewed by the FBI. As the Brookings Institution’s Susan Hennessey points out: “It is inconceivable they could close a real investigation without re-interviewing Kavanaugh.”

This investigation is the kind of shit one would expect to see in a Banana Republic.  This is not an honest, full investigation.  This was a bullshit confirmation of a handful of sources.  There is one copy of the final 1000 page report being held in a SCIF, and most Senators are only being given a briefing of it, assuming they don’t just send their staffers.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

Kavanaugh cover up is the dumbest every. Next yr. Jud Chair Jerry Nadler calls all the witnesses, calls FBI officials who were restricted in investig. In no time they have impeachment articles. In the meantime any Dem group that will have a case heard by Kavanaugh should now make a motion to recuse. It’s malpractice not to. If nothing else his 5-4 votes will come as the product of bias and fraud.

Here’s the part that rational me doesn’t understand, but conspiratorial me gets.

Why in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck would they push Kavanaugh forward when most signs point to the Democrats taking the House next year?  And even if they don’t get it next year, the minute they do regain control, he’s getting investigated and impeached for perjury, lying under oath, accepting bribes, and probably a few other crimes as well.

The rational part of me sees that this will end badly soon, within. the next 6-9 months, so why go this route?  They could cut him loose, make another non-controversial pick, and be done with it.  Instead, they’re going this route.

The conspiratorial part of me thinks that this is part of some master plan to further polarize and separate Americans from each other.  What’s more divisive then a confirmation hearing? An Impeachment Trial.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  I’m not sure how Friday’s going to turn out.  Honestly, I’m not very optimistic at this point.

I’m tired.  I know this is a marathon, not a sprint, but I’m tired of the constant fighting.  I need to take a break and relax for a night.  Maybe watch a movie, have a few glasses of a sweet red wine, and decompress.  Over the weekend, I think I’m going to do that.  I’ll take a few hours off from everything, disappear, then come back to take another big bite of the shitburger.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

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One thought on “Daily Check-In 10/04/2018”

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