Monday, October 22, 2018
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
- Former White House lawyer: Mueller probe isn’t a witch hunt
- U.S. Begins First Cyberoperation Against Russia Aimed at Protecting Elections – The New York Times
- Russian trolls get DM from US Cyber Command: We know who you are. Stop it | Ars Technica
- Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Headlines Pro-Russian Conference In Armenia – Talking Points Memo
- The FBI Says It Can’t Find The “100 Pictures” Trump Said He Has Of James Comey And Robert Mueller Hugging And Kissing
- Lawmakers postpone interview with Deputy AG Rosenstein
- NRA Accused of “Elaborate Scheme” to Evade Campaign Finance Law – Mother Jones
- FEC complaint alleges coordination by Hawley campaign, NRA | McClatchy Washington Bureau
- Rand Paul’s Campaign to Appease Russia Comes to Congress
KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA
- U.S. announces penalties against Saudi agents in response to killing of journalist
- Turkish president says murder of Jamal Khashoggi was ‘planned,’ calls for extradition of Saudi suspects
- Donald Trump touts nonexistent $450 billion in Saudi orders and 1 million jobs
- Saudis in damage control mode as outrage grows over Khashoggi’s death
- Trump calls Khashoggi killing ‘worst coverup ever’ but says it’s up to Congress to act
- Trump’s disinterest in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is a betrayal of the promises of the First Amendment
- Conservative justice critic Clement says Canada should use Magnitsky Act sanctions in Jamal Khashoggi case – National Post
- Bill Browder: Canadian MP’s join US Congress and British MP’s in calling for Global Magnitsky sanctions against the Saudi officials who tortured, killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi. It’s one of the obvious tools to deal with the atrocity
- Canada willing to freeze armoured vehicle exports to Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi, Trudeau says, but notes difficulty in ending contract
- Andrew Laufer, ESQ: So @realDonaldTrump is critiquing the slaughter of Khashoggi as inept & incompetent. Granted, he is thoroughly familiar with those concepts. However, he sounds more like a coconspirator making an after action assessment than a real man who would’ve sanctioned KSA by now. Soft.
- Standing Ovation for Saudi Crown Prince Thrusts Conference Attendees Into Limelight – The New York Times
- Caroline Orr: Asked about Saudi Arabia (re. murder of Jamal Khashoggi), Trump tells reporters: “They had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups. They had the worst cover-up ever.” umm…. WTF??
SCOTUS
- Supreme Court shields commerce secretary from answering questions in census controversy
- Neil Gorsuch Is Already Assisting the Republican Project to Rig the System
- Neil Gorsuch Just Telegraphed His Plan to Let Trump Sabotage the Census
- The Supreme Court stepped in to stall a climate lawsuit. That’s really weird.
- With Kavanaugh Aboard, Supreme Court Shields Wilbur Ross From Testifying Under Oath About How He Lied Under Oath
- GOP Sen. Jeff Flake: ‘I Don’t Know if I Believed’ Brett Kavanuagh
THEN YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE VOTED FOR HIM, YOU SPINELESS SHIT!!!
#METOO
TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET
- Trump To Meet His Handler in Paris After the Midterms
- Trump calls Khashoggi killing ‘worst coverup ever’ but says it’s up to Congress to act
- Trump’s disinterest in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is a betrayal of the promises of the First Amendment
- Donald Trump touts nonexistent $450 billion in Saudi orders and 1 million jobs
Nationalism
- Trump declares himself a ‘nationalist’ while stumping for Ted Cruz
- Donald Trump just embraced nationalism. Yes, really.
- Cruz declines to embrace Trump’s ‘nationalist’ label, Cornyn accepts it after Houston rally
- Ambassador McFaul: Self-proclaimed “nationalist” , Donald Trump, talks so tough when discussing his militant plans against children seeking asylum, but rolls over for autocrats in Russia, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Not my kind of “nationalist.”
- Tea Pain: If you’ve read Tea’s new book, “Home Tweet Home”, you’d know his Grandpa Virgil fought White Nationalism in France and Germany. Last night Trump embraced the very same movement. If we don’t vote to stop this evil doctrine, then our parents and grandparents fought in vain.
- Robert Reich: Let’s be clear: Nationalism is not patriotism. Real patriotism involves strengthening our democracy, defending the ideals we share in common, and protecting the rights of all Americans. Nationalism is rooted in fear and division. We must reject it on November 6th.
- Tea Pain: We defeated white nationalists in Europe 73 years ago. Time to defeat “em here now.
- Joe Scarborough: “His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never accept blame; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; repeat it frequently enough people will believe it.” 1/2. Hitler’s psychological profile in a report prepared during the war by the United States Office of Strategic Services. 2/2
TRAITOR TOTS
- Bill Browder: Great little 4 minute video by @michaeldweiss about Dana Rohrabacher’s Putin loving tendencies. Please share far and wide. Everybody needs to know this
- Dana Rohrabacher Defends Himself — and Putin — in Battle to Keep His… Rep. Dana Rohrabacher went from fighting with the mujahideen in Afghanistan to the fight of his career for his House seat in this November’s election as Puti… youtube.com
- Rand Paul’s Campaign to Appease Russia Comes to Congress
- Nunes to speak at luxury Republican summit | The Fresno Bee
- Bolton rebuffs Russian appeals to remain in key nuclear arms control pact
- Defiant John Bolton signals no way back for arms control treaty after Vladimir Putin meeting
So, John Bolton, a man with known ties to a Russian Honeypot (Daily Check-In 07/18/2018) had a meeting with Putin and is helping Trump exit out of a treaty that limits the amount of nuclear weapons in the world? This whole thing stinks like his drooping ball-bag after he had unsatisfying sex with Maria Butina.
FIGHTING BACK
- CREW Files Hatch Act Complaint Against Kellyanne Conway
- Kellyanne Conway Under Investigation for Violating Federal Law Again—this Time Over Midterm Elections
- Mitch McConnell does not get to play the victim in restaurant protest
- Barack Obama Bashes He Who Shall Not Be Named With ‘Fact-Based Reality’ Speech
- Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges: Donald Trump “is the product of a failed democracy
IMMIGRATION
- ‘No Proof Of Anything’: Trump Unravels When Pressed On Migrant Conspiracies
- Trump admits he has ‘no proof’ of ‘Middle Easterners’ in caravan, ‘but there could very well be’
- Trump admits ‘there’s no proof’ of his ‘Middle Easterners’ caravan claim
- Trump vilifies caravan, says he’ll cut Central American aid
- Divided Democrats struggle to answer Trump’s claims on migrant caravan
- Geraldo Rivera Taunts Sean Hannity Over Migrant Fear: ‘Are You Gonna Shoot ‘Em, Sean?’
- Donald Trump says Democrats want to give cars to undocumented immigrants.
- Stop the hysteria: The media is covering the migrant caravan all wrong
- Why Mexico isn’t stopping the migrant caravan
- Rogue Senior White House Advisor: So you’re telling me that rich liberals indiscreetly paid a caravan of people to infiltrate America but due to the conspicuous nature of 10,000 people walking 1000’s of miles, saw their plans backfire & instead inspired Republicans. Cool story! Now show me who really organized it. Cough Fox News Cough Heritage Foundation Cough
COLD WAR 2.0
- 911corlebra777: Goldman Sachs is in deep shit. It appears they helped to launder $3.5 billion along with UAE’s IPIC. The Swiss are investigating Falcon Bank over 1MDB. Falcon Bank is also implicated in Ru Govt money laundering
- Newsbreak: MACC looking into 1MDB-IPIC settlement | The Edge Markets
#NEVERAGAIN
FIXING THE INTERNET
- Ajit Pai, Telecom Lobbyists Are Now Coordinating Their Lies In Perfect Symmetry
- Libertarian and Police Accountability Pages Deleted in Facebook Purge
- Twitter’s Russian Troll Dump – What Can Internet Research Agency Bios Tell Us? – patribotics
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions
- Donald Trump says Democrats want to give cars to undocumented immigrants.
- Geraldo Rivera Taunts Sean Hannity Over Migrant Fear: ‘Are You Gonna Shoot ‘Em, Sean?’
- Stop the hysteria: The media is covering the migrant caravan all wrong
- Explosive device found at residence of George Soros, liberal philanthropist and target of far right
- Explosive Device Mailed To Liberal Philanthropist George Soros’ New York Home
- Caroline Orr: Per @CNN, police found a pipe bomb near George Soros’ home in NY (possibly in the mailbox?). It was found in a package sent to Soros; police say he was specifically targeted, likely for his political views. Conspiracy theories have consequences.
WHITE HOUSE CHAOS
- Capitol Hill’s Swelling Crisis of Ethics | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC
- CREW Files Hatch Act Complaint Against Kellyanne Conway
- Kellyanne Conway Under Investigation for Violating Federal Law Again—this Time Over Midterm Elections
TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY
- U.S. stocks rattled as two industrial giants warn of trouble
- The Republican tax cut is a big, fat failure
- Trump’s tax cuts were a dud, so he’s made up new ones that don’t exist
- Caterpillar shares dive 7% after industrial giant says material costs are rising because of tariffs
- Economist cited by Trump says tariffs won’t bring back lost jobs
- Dow is set for 400-point loss after 3M, Caterpillar earnings disappoint
- Gov. Kasich says automation will force Ohioans from current jobs
- Harley-Davidson Sales Plunge After Trump Said He Would Back Boycott
- Republicans Control the Poorest States, Democrats Control States With Highest Earners: Report
- Asbestos Imports Surge as Trump White House Moves to Keep Deadly Carcinogen Legal
- Chinese-owned pork producer qualifies for money under Trump’s farm bailout
GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD
- The Far Right Represents Only 6% of U.S. Citizens, Study Says. 67% Make up the ‘Exhausted Majority.’
- It’s Official: Trump Comes Out of the Closet Wearing a White Hood
- Ouch: ‘Fundraising’ Dinner Featuring Steve Bannon Now Giving Away Tickets for Free
BLATANT BIGOTRY
- Trump administration looks at removing ‘transgender’ as legal identity
- Rep. Joe Kennedy: This nation’s darkest days have always come when our government deemed civil rights conditional. @realDonaldTrump’s ongoing assault on transgender Americans betrays our most fundamental responsibility to treat and see each other as human. Today we raise our voices against an Administration that continues to cower to the forces of hatred and bigotry, and we tell every single transgender American that the rest of this country stands by their side. #WontBeErased
- Lady Gaga: Donald Trump ‘driven by ignorance’ on gender policy
PRIESTS
ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE
- The Supreme Court stepped in to stall a climate lawsuit. That’s really weird.
- Scientists catch bizarre ‘headless chicken monster’ on video
- Want to be a world-class CEO? Get an engineering degree.
- So many people are buying Mega Millions tickets that number combinations are running out
ELECTION 2018
- Nunes to speak at luxury Republican summit | The Fresno Bee
- ‘Voter fraud’ is a myth that helps Republicans win, even when their policies aren’t popular
- Arkansas Democrat was left off one county’s ballot as early voting began
- Barack Obama Bashes He Who Shall Not Be Named With ‘Fact-Based Reality’ Speech
- Brian Kemp Caught on Tape Warning His Donors About Black People Voting … Again
- Brian Kemp owes more than $800,000 in insider loans to bank he helped start
- Conservative Lawmakers Are Attempting to Steal the Votes of Thousands of Native Americans
- Cook shifts 8 House races toward Dems
- Disgustingly Racist Robocall Goes Out Against Andrew Gillum In Florida
- FEC complaint alleges coordination by Hawley campaign, NRA | McClatchy Washington Bureau
- Georgia NAACP files complaints alleging voting machines incorrectly registered votes
- Gerrymandering Is A Threat To Democracy, Eric Holder Says
- In Leaked Audio, Brian Kemp Expresses Concern Over Georgians Exercising Their Right to Vote
- More than half of Republicans support ‘Medicare for all,’ along with 70 percent of all voters, poll finds
- Obama goes up against Trump in fight for Nevada Senate seat
- Ted Cruz Renewed SleazyDonald.us and DaffyDonald.us This Year
- Ted Cruz says Beto O’Rourke can have ‘double occupancy cell with Hillary Clinton’ after supporter chants ‘Lock him up’
- Texas sees massive turnout on first day of early voting
- The Far Right Represents Only 6% of U.S. Citizens, Study Says. 67% Make up the ‘Exhausted Majority.’
- Ouch: ‘Fundraising’ Dinner Featuring Steve Bannon Now Giving Away Tickets for Free
IN OTHER NEWS…
- iPhone XR: The best $250 you ever saved on a new phone
- Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announces she is withdrawing from public life because of dementia
- WWE star Roman Reigns announces he has leukemia, relinquishes universal title on Raw
Here’s hoping that Roman has a speedy recovery, and can beat leukemia back for good. Or, at least keep it in remission for the long haul.
I’ve mentioned many times before that I’m a big fan of wrestling, but I usually keep my opinions about specific wrestlers out of these pages. Personally, I think Roman Reigns is one of the best performers in the business, but he’s been given a lousy story that doesn’t fit his character, and because of that he was unjustly booed. I put him in the same tier of wrestlers as The Rock or John Cena. He’s good, and will pull a good match out of most people, but is saddled with his character’s limitations and limited moveset once he became “The Man.” Put him in a match with a better wrestler, and he’ll have a great match, but the endings to his bouts are telegraphed from a mile away. He’s no Bret Hart, Kenny Omega, or Seth Rollins, but he can work with them and put on a great match and tell a great story.
I knew something was wrong when Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe, two of the biggest heels in WWE, were saying nice things about Roman Reigns. They rarely break character, but both of them being nice was a big red flag that something was wrong.
Hopefully he can get healthy and come back. His first, most important thing is to get healthy. Returning to the ring is a secondary goal.
RUMOR MILL
Also pointing out the
@NRCC@GOP@HouseGOP@GOPLeader@senatemajldr all green this negative & defamatory “mid slinging” Political Ad MN-01: “Owns” https://youtu.be/GyMkH7WfTS0 via@YouTubeVA-02: “The Code”
@RepScottTaylor subpoenaed for “fraudulent” signatures April 2018 a Special Counsel was appointed to investigate Taylor’s fraud https://youtu.be/SMdjwi7FwTE via@YouTubeYou can read the various court filings via
@DPVA To say@RepScottTaylor is in it, that’s an underestimation of the severity of the allegations.As stated above
@RepScottTaylor subpoenaed over the fraudulent signatures his staff collected for Shaun Brown. The@DPVA ‘s position is Taylor & Brown conspired to dilute the votes for Democrat Elaine Luria..August 7th Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate any criminality of
@RepScottTaylor and/or his campaign staff. My understanding is additional Special Prosecutors appointed to investigate Rep Taylor of other (potentially) criminal actsIn fact FIVE of
@RepScottTaylor campaign staff submitted declarations stating they would exercise their 5th Amendment Privilege & would decline to answer questions.Declarations
https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/d8/dd841061-9c0f-5a2f-bb2a-4af0f38167e1/5b905bf83a514.pdf.pdf …
Remember the US housing market meltdown of ~2008? Same basic thing will happen with the online advertising industry once corporations realize that “engagements”, “click-throughs”, “impressions”, and other related metrics are inflated to bejeezus and back by bots and clickfarms.
I’m sure there are some legitimate advertisers out there (maybe), but the reality of today’s internet advertising ecosystem is driven by lies, hype, deceit, and more lies. Someday the executives (i.e. suckers) paying those advertising invoices are going to wise up.
Wise executives will realize that people (i.e. potential customers) often get angry at online ads. When anger is caused, attribution is often given to that anger. So why the fuck are you nitwits throwing your company’s logo in front of a person whose anger was just activated??
Did none of these advertising geniuses consider the Pavlovian consequences (you know, Pavlov, the guy with the dogs and the bells). You are consistently re-enforcing a response of anger to logo. Therefore, people that see your logo are going to associate it with bad things.
[read between the lines for a glimpse at what is coming]
- Sara Danner Dukic: And how long till we find out that bots and trolls were being used to exhaust opposition ad budgets and f*ck with metrics?
- Eric Garland: You know what would kick this story up a notch? Mentioning Josh Hawley’s donations from Peter Thiel! 😀. I believe Peter Thiel was slated to hang out at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative this week. Put a reporter on it.
- Julius Goat: The reason you’re not “supposed” to use the word “nationalist” is, it’s the word neo-Nazis use to describe themselves. Congrats to the Republican Party on your coming-out party. Thread, and it’s a long one.
- Lincoln’s Bible: A yr+ of digging, & I’ve found a sh*t ton. Some on characters that I haven’t exposed. Frankly, b/c there’s only so much time in the day. I almost forgot about one (he’s forgettable). But since he can’t stop pretending 2 be a big boy mobster on TV…(CONT). Thread
- Ming: Heres the thing. there are a lot of ‘small unit conspiracys’ going on. they may not know they were used in the grand conspiracy. but that not really matter.
- Ming: Why trump yapping about caravan of innocents like it ‘Battle of the bulge”?
- Tea Pain: These Trump/Hitler comparisons must stop. Hitler served in his military.
- Twitter’s Russian Troll Dump – What Can Internet Research Agency Bios Tell Us? – patribotics
That’s it for Tuesday.
Something that’s bothering me, and a lot of other people, is that this whole Migrant Caravan issue seems a little too…organized. Not that I think all of these refugees were sitting around waiting for a message to start marching at once, but there’s too many things that are just a little too coincidental for me.
First, the timing. We’re less than a month out from the biggest midterm elections in American history, where the fate of the western world hangs in the balance, and possibly the only remaining issue that could motivate the MAGA base starts and gets plastered over the Main Stream Media like it’s the slowest invasion against America. Walking 2,000 miles takes a long time. I haven’t done the math yet, but why do I have a feeling that if they keep up their current pace, they’ll arrive at the U.S. border just in time for the election?
Second, the motivation. Not the whole “trying to make a better life” or “running from gangs of drugs dealers and killers”, but what convinced a couple thousand people who just lost everything they owned and are fleeing for their lives to suddenly head north all at once? How did all of this violence, destruction, and crime get organized at once?
Crime. Organized. Wait a second…
Here’s my crazy hypothesis. The Trump Team and/or GOP, seeing that they’re about to get pounded in the polls and are likely to lose at least the House, and possibly the Senate, are pulling out every trick. The Russians are helping him with propaganda, the GOP tried talking about how great their tax cut is, but that went over like a fart in church, so now they’re forced to claim that they want to protect parts of the ACA that they’ve voted to kill more than 70 times, suppress the vote where they can, and play the race card. Since Trump is up to his fourth chin deep in the mob, someone proposed the idea of creating a flood of brown people fleeing violence and the drug cartels in Central America, and use their suffering to get the base out to the polls, because nothing scares his white people more than brown people looking for help. His mob ties organized some violence, and pushed these people to march. They then got Fox News and other friendly media outlets, or at least those with other mob ties, and are covering this like some kind of existential threat to white people, and not covering it like the humanitarian crisis or criminal conspiracy that it is.
If this sounds nutty or like some tin-foil hat, I don’t disagree. This sounds crazy even as I type it. The thing is, we’re in crazy times. A criminal is in the White House, and he’s willing to do anything to save his own ass, even if that means burning everything down around him.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
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