Month: October 2018

Daily Check-In 10/18/2018

Thursday, October 18, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

A Russian billionaire who orchestrated the June 2016 Trump Tower meetingformed a new American shell company a month beforehand with an accountant who has had clients accused of money laundering and embezzlement.

The billionaire, Aras Agalarov, created the US company anonymously while preparing to move almost $20m into the country during the time of the presidential election campaign, according to interviews and corporate filings.

The company was set up for him in May 2016 by his Russian-born accountant, who has also managed the US finances of compatriots accused of mishandling millions of dollars. One of those clients has its own connectionto the Trump Tower meeting.

That’s right, it’s Aras Agalarov, the oligarch behind the June 9 meeting.  This just gets more and more interesting.  While his son Emin was coordinating a meeting through Donnie Jr., Daddy A was setting up a shell company.  In the time around that meeting, mysterious money payments flowed from Daddy A to this shell company.  Hmm… it’s almost like they were laying the groundwork for making payments of an illicit nature.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

I posted John Schindler’s piece on this last week on Daily Check-In 10/10/2018, it’s nice to see the MSM catch up.

In a normal, non-corrupt administration, what’s supposed to happen is that when the USIC learns about an attack against an American, they’re given authorization from the White House to intervene and protect this person.  Also, the White House would “strongly encourage” the aggressors to not even think about it.

Instead, our Intel groups heard about this attack, and the White House did… nothing.  They didn’t take any action to stop it.  Worse still, it’s not unreasonable to think that Trump, Kushner, and the lot were working WITH the Saudis on this.

Something else to keep in mind, Khashoggi wasn’t blackballed from Saudi Arabia until AFTER Trump was elected President.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Projects Where a Trump Family Member Overstated Sales Numbers

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Claim: Donald Trump claimed $365 million in sales in a 2007 letter to The Wall Street Journal.

Reality: Trump reported $290 million in a 2009 project audit.

Result: Never built.

FORT LAUDERDALE

Claim: Trump announced the hotel/condo was “pretty much sold out” in April 2006, according to a broker who attended the presentation.

Reality: 62 percent of units were sold as of July 2006, according to bank records that emerged in a court case.

Result: Entered foreclosure. Trump’s name removed before construction completed.

LAS VEGAS

Claim: Condos “sold out,” Trump told The Associated Press in 2005

Reality: About 25 percent of units were sold by 2011, according to press accounts.

Result: Built.

PANAMA

Claim: “It’s a 1,000-unit building, we’ve sold over 90 percent of it,” Ivanka told Portfolio in 2008.

Reality: As of three months later, 79 percent of the units were pre-sold, according to Moody’s.

Result: Built, but went bankrupt; Trump name removed.

SOHO

Claim: In 2008, Ivanka told reporters that 60 percent of units had sold.

Reality: A Trump partner’s affidavit revealed that 15 percent had been sold at the time.

Result: Built, but went bankrupt; Trump name removed.

TAMPA

Claim: The building “sold out,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in 2007.

Reality: The developers failed to sell a minimum of 70 percent of units, according to a Trump company letter that year, which deemed that a violation of its contract.

Result: Never built.

TORONTO

Claim: In a 2009 interview, Ivanka referred to the property as “virtually sold out.”

Reality: 24.8 percent of units had sold, according to a 2016 bankruptcy filing by the developers.

Result: Built, but went bankrupt; Trump name removed.

Projects Where the Trumps Suggested They Were Developers, Partners or Equity Owners (They Weren’t)

BAJA

More than 50 buyers claimed Ivanka said the Trump Organization was a developer on the project at a 2007 sales event, according to a lawsuit quoted by Univision.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

“I am excited to be building Trump at Cap Cana,” Trump was quoted saying in a 2007 press release, according to Univision.

FORT LAUDERDALE

Trump called the hotel and tower “my latest development” in a letter announcing the project.

REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA

“TRUMP INVESTS IN GEORGIA” read banners for the project, according to The New Yorker. Asked by a Fox anchor what he was “investing in,” Trump responded, “I’m doing a big development” in Georgia.

PANAMA

“I am honored to develop this extraordinary high rise with my partner Roger Khafif of the K Group,” Trump said in a 2009 marketing statement.

TAMPA

Trump claimed an ownership stake in a news article at the time, stating it was less than 50 percent, then adding: “But it’s a substantial stake. I recently said I’d like to increase my stake but when they’re selling that well they don’t let you do that.”

WAIKIKI

In the final episode of season five of “The Apprentice,” Trump announced the project on national TV, saying “that’s why I’m building the magnificent Trump Hotel and Tower Waikiki.” In 2007, he told The Wall Street Journal: “This building is largely owned by me and being developed by me.”

I talked about Trump’s Producers-like skill at killing projects in Money Laundering, and it’s time I think I restate that hypothesis.

Like the move, play, and move “The Producers”, the protagonists try to raise money for a play  that they know will bomb because that way they’ll make more money by selling the same shares to multiple people.  It’s like selling the same apartment to 5 people when there’s no chance that any of them will ever move in.  When the project fails, the investors can’t come back for their money.

Trump only builds when they absolutely have to.  A failed project is an easy way to launder funds.  Let’s say Ruslav Mafiafsky wants to convert $500 million into something he can use.  He’ll call up a real estate “developer” like Trump, who will work with them to create a project somewhere.  It will be announced that it’s a multi-billion dollar project, and that they’re raising funds.  RM’s money is put in escrow in some holding company, and some expenses are paid out of it. Once some fund raising deadline passes and the project goes belly-up, RM gets most of their money back, laundered.

One other thing I love about this story, it straight up calls Ivanka a crook.  Because she is.

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

The problem is not Brexit. The problem is the people who sold it to us cheated, lied & broke our electoral laws RT if you agree

The problem is not Brexit. It’s that we don’t know who paid for it. We don’t know where Farage’s mate got his money from. And we don’t know why the government is refusing to say if the authorities are investigating

The problem is not Brexit. The problem is a police force that seems to have parked an investigation. The problem is the PM’s political secretary is responsible & compromised. The problem is a serving minister who oversaw electoral fraud

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The former Director of Sports Marketing and Alliances at Microsoft was indicted today by a federal grand jury for five counts of wire fraud for his scheme to profit by stealing from Microsoft, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.  JEFF TRAN, a/k/a TRUNG TRAN, 45 of Seattle, is alleged to have used his position at Microsoft to attempt to steal more than $1.5 million through the creation and submission of fraudulent invoices and the unauthorized use of other Microsoft assets.  TRAN will be arraigned on the charges in U.S. District Court in Seattle in the next ten days.

According to the allegations in the indictment, TRAN oversaw Microsoft’s promotional relationship with the National Football League (NFL).  The indictment alleges that in March 2017, TRAN caused a fraudulent $775,000 invoice to be issued to Microsoft, supposedly for services related to the 2017 Super Bowl.  Tran caused the $775,000 payment from Microsoft to be routed through two Microsoft vendors and then to Tran’s personal bank account.  Tran then attempted to cause Microsoft to make a second payment for $670,000, based on another fraudulent invoice.  Tran intended to route that payment to a company Tran controlled.  When Microsoft vendors became suspicious of Tran’s activity and reported the conduct to Microsoft, Tran destroyed electronic communications and told the vendors to lie to Microsoft about the $775,000 payment.  After Microsoft confronted Tran, Tran returned the $775,000.

The indictment also alleges that Tran stole blocks of Super Bowl tickets belonging to Microsoft.  Because of his position, Tran was responsible for determining which Microsoft employees would receive Microsoft Super Bowl tickets.  However, instead of distributing all of the tickets to Microsoft employees, TRAN sold over 60 of the tickets through a ticket broker and pocketed more than $200,000.

Wire Fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case was investigated by the FBI.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Seth Wilkinson.

 

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

There was a mafia hit man known for his very specific way of killing people by luring them into a room, killing them, cutting them into pieces, then disposing of the bodies without a trace. His name was Roy DeMeo and he was part of the Gambino crime family.

He primarily served Paul Castellano. You might want to Google Castellano and his role in a certain golden tower in Manhattan.

If you’re wondering how in the hell these people could be so blasé about the torture, execution and dismemberment of an American resident, try looking at it through the lens of the mafia.

This was a human being. He was lured to his death. The guy chopping him up suggested to the others in the room to listen to music while he did it. And Trump’s lackeys were laughing and smiling and taking tourist selfies while they went to “look into it.”

 

That’s it for Thursday.  It would be nice for things to be quiet this weekend, but that’s not likely to happen.

I’ve got some ideas on stories I want to do, but I’m typing this with an infant in one arm and a bad shoulder on the other.  I’ll see how this goes.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 10/17/2018

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

The Treasury case centers on a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed News that described suspicious activity reports, or SARs, which are generated by banks when a financial transaction may involve illegal activity.

Prosecutors charged Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards with the unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports and conspiracy. The charges were filed in federal court in New York but she made her first court appearance in Northern Virginia.

Edwards, 40, lives outside Richmond and works as a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, often referred to as “FinCEN.” At a brief court appearance in Alexandria, she was released on $100,000 bond and instructed to appear next month in court in New York. She was also prohibited from speaking to anyone at FinCEN or accessing any FinCEN equipment.

…

Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Edwards “betrayed her position of trust by repeatedly disclosing highly sensitive information.”

The stories cited in the criminal complaint filed against Edwards match the headlines, wording and information contained in BuzzFeed News stories, though the court papers did not identify the news organization by name.

Those stories often focused on suspicious activity reports related to key figures in the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Russian diplomats and other Trump associates.

One of the stories published in September included financial transactions involving Rob Goldstone, a British music publicist who helped arrange a meeting between senior Trump advisers and a Russian lawyer in 2016 that has been a focus of the investigation.

…

The last BuzzFeed story cited in the charging documents was published on Monday, again drawing largely on information from SARs reports.

About 2 million suspicious activity reports were filed in 2017 by banks, money service businesses, casinos and others, according to FinCEN officials. On their own, suspicious activity reports often do not mean very much. But taken with other evidence, they can help guide investigators to specific transactions that might involve financial crimes.

The 18-page criminal complaint details a search of Edwards’s phone and a flash drive she possessed, on which FBI agents say they found a lengthy digital trail of her interactions with the reporters, in which she shared SARS reports.

“The majority of the files were saved to a folder on the flash drive entitled ‘Debacle — Operation-CF,’ and sub-folders bearing names such as ‘Debacle\Emails\Asshat’,” the complaint stated. “Edwards is not known to be involved in any official FinCEN project or task bearing these file titles or code names.”

The flash drive files “appear to contain thousands of SARs, along with other highly sensitive material relating to Russia, Iran, and the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” the complaint charges.

When FBI agents questioned Edwards on Tuesday, she initially denied having contacts with the reporter whose name appears on the stories at issue, then “changed her account, and admitted that on numerous occasions, she accessed SARs on her computer, photographed them, and sent those photographs to Reporter-1” using an encrypted application on her phone, according to the complaint.

The court filing said Edwards referred to herself as a whistleblower in the interview, but added while she had previously filed a whistleblower complaint related to her work, that did not involve the SARs disclosures.

The court documents also indicate the FBI has investigated one of Edwards’s bosses, an associate director of FinCEN, noting that person exchanged 325 text messages with the reporter in question during the month when the first story appeared citing SARs reports.

The boss, referred to in court papers as Edwards “co-conspirator,” was not identified in court papers. People familiar with the case identified the person as Kip Brailey. Brailey did not respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.

A FinCEN spokesman said Edwards has been placed on administrative leave and declined to comment about Brailey.

A BuzzFeed spokesman declined to comment.

Remember a while back when we heard reports of SARs disappearing from the FinCEN system, so a Senior Treasury Official took what info they had and went to a reporter to put this in the press? (Daily Check-In 05/16/2018)  Yeah, this isn’t that.  That happened when the SAR’s for Michael Cohen went into a restricted status.  These charges are about Suspicious Activity Reports being given to BuzzFeed starting in the Fall of 2017, which formed the basis and groundwork for a lot of their reporting about the Russian Investigation.

It wasn’t just Manafort’s SAR’s that were given to the press, but also those of other parties in the Russian Investigation like Rob Goldstone, Rick Gates, The Argalov’s and Maria Butina.

I do appreciate the naming convention she used.  “Operation CF” isn’t an official project name or code name, unless the Treasury has let the agents name ops things like Clusterfuck.  CF=Clusterfuck.

She has claimed whistleblower protections.  Let’s see how this goes.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

As more details come out, the worse this is going to get, and the worse it will look.  The newest reports now refer to specifics in a recording made of the murder and torture.

How? How could he have recorded his own murder?

“Hey Siri, Record.”

You’ll have to get an app that automatically records everything once it’s opened, but this is how Jamal Khashoggi likely recorded his own murder.

Jamal wore an Apple Watch, 3rd Generation.  Not the most recent version, but the version right before that, which comes with either built-in GPS and LTE connection, or just GPS connection.  The way to tell the difference is the LTE, or cell capable watches, have a red dot on the crown.  Both versions connect to their parent phone via Bluetooth, but the LTE version can make phone calls on its own.

Jamal likely started a recording with his watch while keeping his phone outside of the consulate, but close enough to be in Bluetooth range, say 50 feet.  If he was on LTE, the range likely wouldn’t matter as he’d be calling his phone from his watch.

According to the reports, as soon as he was inside, he was attacked by his murderers, who then started cutting off his fingers.  They didn’t sedate him, knock him out, or strip him, or even ask basic questions.  They went straight to the mutilation.  Because they started hacking him to pieces right off the bat, they didn’t check to see if his watch was doing anything.

Imagine being the person on the other end of the recording, hearing someone that trusted you being butchered like a farm animal by nonchalant killers.  Now imagine the rage at knowing that this all likely could have been prevented, if so ordered.

This is why Trump and Kushner are now Accessories to Murder.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

FBI agents are probing the Manhattan district attorney’s office over its handling of high-profile cases that were dropped once lawyers for the well-connected subjects made donations, the Daily News has learned.

Investigators have been quietly seeking information in recent months about decision-making by DA Cy Vance Jr. and his staff, sources with knowledge of the undertaking said.

The queries are centered on how things are handled in the office and who the major players are, the sources said. The FBI interest grew out of revelations that investigations were closed once lawyers representing the bigwig suspects made hefty donations to Vance’s campaign coffers, sources said.

The team has asked about current and former high-level staff members and their relationships to private law firms and outside agencies, sources said. Investigators are considering whether undue influence was at play.

The extent of the inquiry was not immediately known and it was not clear whether criminal charges were being considered.

Manhattan’s top prosecutor came under fire last year after questions surfaced about his office’s 2015 decision not to go after ex-Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein after model Ambra Battilana accused him of groping her breasts in his Tribeca office.

A lawyer hired by Weinstein at the time had given Vance $24,000 and another attorney sent him $10,000 after the decision to spare the powerful producer an arrest.

In another case, the DA also failed to bring criminal charges against two of President Trump’s children in an alleged real estate scam.

Cyrus Vance, DA for Manhattan, has a lot of explaining to do.  Remember when his office wanted to press criminal charges against the Trump Children for fraud but he killed that after Trump’s lawyer Mark Kasowitz? (Daily Check-In 10/6/2017,Daily Check-In 10/11/2017)  That was last year.  In the time since then, his behavior has raised a lot of eyebrows.  Now, we finally have confirmation that his graft caught the attention of the FBI.

The question I have is how pervasive is this?  How deep does it go?

From the Pro Publica Piece:

Patterns of deceptive practices occurred in a dozen deals across the globe, as the business expanded into international projects, and the Trumps often participated. One common pattern, visible in more than half of those transactions, was a tendency to misstate key sales numbers.

In interviews and press conferences, Ivanka Trump gave false sales figures for projects in Mexico’s Baja California; Panama City, Panama; Toronto and New York’s SoHo neighborhood. These statements weren’t just the legendary Trump hype; they misled potential buyers about the viability of the developments.

Another pattern: Donald Trump repeatedly misled buyers about the amount (or existence) of his ownership in projects in Tampa, Florida; Panama; Baja and elsewhere. For a tower planned in Tampa, for example, Trump told a local paper in 2005 that his ownership would be less than 50 percent: “But it’s a substantial stake. I recently said I’d like to increase my stake but when they’re selling that well they don’t let you do that.” In reality, Trump had no ownership stake in the project.

The Trumps often made money even when projects failed. And when they tanked, the Trumps simply ignored their prior claims of close involvement, denied any responsibility and walked away.

…

Trump licensed his name for an initial fee of $1 million. But that was just the beginning of the revenue streams, a lengthy and varied assortment that granted him a piece of everything from sales of apartment units to a cut of minibar sales, and was notable for the myriad ways in which both success and failure triggered payments to him.

Consider the final accounting: In the wake of the project’s bankruptcy, a 50 percent default rate and his company’s expulsion from managing the hotel, Donald Trump walked away with between $30 million and $55 million.

…

If everything went smoothly, according to the bond prospectus, Trump’s take would be $74 million by 2010. That sum was equivalent to about a third of the entire financing for the project.

Of course, things would go less than perfectly. But Trump was protected if that happened, too. His contract created a safety net for him if prices rose so high that buyers failed to close. One provisionrequired that two years after the first closing, developers would pay the Trumps fees for unsold units — basing the amount on the average sales prices of the units that had closed. In theory, avoiding such payments provided an incentive to sell more units; in reality, it meant that Trump would get paid whether or not units actually sold.

The contract required that monthly sales and marketing reports be provided to the Trumps. It was a stipulation the Trump Organization appeared to value: In an email related to another project, Trump’s son Eric chastised business partners in the Dominican Republic for delays in making such reports. “I am getting weekly emails from my team who requests this info on all projects for basic monitoring purposes,” Eric wrote.

His sister, meanwhile, asserted her engagement with the company’s endeavors. “I’m involved in every aspect of our new construction projects,” Ivanka said in a 2008 interview. “[A] lot of what I do is get involved in the acquisition process, from sourcing the potential opportunities and then the initial due-diligence process, but then, of course, I follow the deals through to predevelopment planning, design, interior design, architectural design, sales and marketing, and, ultimately, through operations.”

…

Ivanka Trump’s exaggerations about the Ocean Club reflected a tactic she and her father employed repeatedly in other cases, ProPublica and WNYC found. Their statements, typically made in the midst of sales drives, tended to overstate the number of units under contract or the Trump Organization’s equity stake in projects scattered around the globe.

The Trumps’ propensity to overstate sales led them, as ProPublica, WNYC and the New Yorker reported last year, to be investigated on potential felony fraud charges in one case. Ivanka had announced in June 2008 that 60 percent of the units at the SoHo tower had been bought when in fact 15 percent had, according to an affidavit filed by a Trump partner. The Manhattan district attorney’s office considered charging the Trumps but backed off after a visit from a donor — Trump’s attorney Marc Kasowitz. (The DA, Cyrus Vance, denied he was influenced by the donation but later changed his policy and now refuses donations from lawyers with cases before him.)

 

SCOTUS & THE COURTS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Despite the upsides of his presidency, like tax cuts and broad deregulatory efforts, Donald Trump has always presented the most obvious reason to pull the parachute — but I’ve always believed in the fight to better the GOP. After the 2012 election, I wanted to help in expanding the party tent, in making the GOP more inclusive, and in thinking ahead to a less white America. But we all know what happened next.

When the Republican base doubled down on its worst instincts in backing Trump, I felt the fight for the soul of the GOP was more important than ever. Our country can’t abide with an increasingly authoritarian Democratic Party and a Republican Party whose response is to say “hold my beer.”

So why exit the GOP now, years later? A Republican president offering cover to neo-Nazis after the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was pretty nauseating. I still can’t forget Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio or emphatic endorsement of Roy Moore. If you go by the running list of nasty things the Republican de facto leader has said or done, obviously that would seem like ample reason to have left long ago.

…

Supreme Court nominees have been dumped or withdrawn many times before, but this time it had to be do or die. Passions over Kavanaugh were inflamed not just out of a sense of injustice, but because the pursuit of domination requires ownership of the courts. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s success in getting Kavanaugh across the finish line despite sexual assault allegations was not the kind of moment where’d you’d expect a victory party. Yet the popping of corks ensued anyway across social media and hotel bars throughout D.C.

Republicans won, Democrats lost. But who is asking if the country won anything?

 

RACISM, PLAIN AND SIMPLE

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

WOAH In Sines v Kessler, Richard Spencer just filed a bunch of discovery without marking it confidential. This includes texts between him, Eli Mosley, and Jason Kessler regarding UTR 1 and UTR 2.

Or scratch that, just UTR 1.

This is the fucking sauce right here. A conversation between Spencer and Mosley about Jason, and talking about dropping him after UTR because he was “weird.” The context here is the presser Jason gave with the Warlocks biker gang.

And here’s Jason calling Spencer “my liege,” telling him that he’s “raising an army” and will “crack skulls.” Just go to fucking prison already.

I have to do actual work and my containers are done building so I will analyze more later but suffice it to say holy shit

In another text, Eli Mosley criticizes SURJ NoVa’s planning communication style, referring to their planning document as “our literal military operation document.” That’s gonna play real well in court, champ.

They discovered that someone in Jason’s family was Jewish, so these are the discussions. I’D LIKE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THAT FUNDER.

We’ve known about the funder for months, but not the identity. One of my sources has told me that Jason received a sum of about $40,000 sometime in late 2016 or early 2017, which was linked to his recall efforts for Wes Bellamy.

The source also told me that Jason used to move money in and out of his account whenever his application renewals for his community housing were due. (This is called ‘money laundering’).

So far we haven’t been able to pin down the source, but it’s a short list, and this nugget of information allows us to update our priors.

True story, Richard Spencer’s trolling of yours truly is an important element of this lawsuit.

As the excellent @JLRLawpointed out, these materials were exhibits to a brief by Spencer to try to limit further discovery. If this is what he’s handed over, I can’t imagine how bad the rest of it is.

In this exchange, Jason tells Spencer that he will “literally fight” to have Richard there. Spencer responds by acknowledging his presence on the poster may lead to danger. Shortly later, he agreed to come. And then a woman was murdered.

Is it me or does this all feel like it was a huge plan to do violence

Withholding the after party location from David Duke is the most Mean Girls shit in this entire affair

According to the texts, Eli and Richard think that Jason’s funder was Jimmy Fry. Fry was someone who harassed me a LOT on Twitter that summer. He was eccentric even by Nazi standards.

b r u t a l

This thread is 50% uncovering exhaustive evidence of a conspiracy to commit political violence and 50% marveling in the vicious cruelty that is hormonal Nazi drama

Richard: If I attend there will likely be violence Jason: yes me and many others are ready and willing to do much violence Richard: ok let me think a bit Jason: the cops are definitely on our side and will support us doing violence

Jason: hey I need some 1 on 1 time with you no middle men Richard: right on just go ahead and call my middle man to set it up

Man, Spencer has tried arguing in court that he had nothing to do with the planning of the rally but both main organizers, Jason and Eli, are in these texts seeking his advise and permission on a bunch of factors.

I hope the pictures show up this time.  If not, please check out the Twitter thread.

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  I really need to trim down what I cover.

I’m getting a lot of noise nowadays.  Especially on Reddit.  Part of it might be with how much new news there is, or how voting has started for the midterms in a few states across the country, but I’m having a hard time seeing Russia and Mueller related news on /r/Politics.  I’m seeing the stories in other feeds, but they only appear briefly there on the New page, then disappear.  Meanwhile, stories from a week or two ago are rising to the front page.

I’ve seen this happen before with Butina stories and with Ronan Farrow articles.  Sometimes the trolls bury pieces they don’t like.  They can get overpowered by the rest of the audience, but trolls coming out of the woodwork to bury a piece is, unfortunately, getting to be common.

It’s also why I use multiple sources of stories, and try to go to specific sites instead of just aggregates.  It’s easy to see patterns in the various battlefields, if one knows what to look for.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/16/2018

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

KHASHOGGI

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

 SCOTUS  & #METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

I’m not going to link to a picture of the painting, because it’s stupid, tacky, and belongs in a psychotherapists dossier on him, but I’ll describe it.

Remember that stupid mall-quality portrait of all of the old Republican President’s playing poker?  This is almost the same thing, but puts Trump at the table, and everyone is drinking their drink of choice.

From a friend of mine, Kat, about Trump’s painting.

I’m pretty sure all of them would hate him.

Ronald Reagan might tolerate him at best, because Nancy told him to.

Gerald Ford would probably hate him at minimum for being a draft dodger.

Richard Nixon would hate him for being an idiot, and for wrecking the EPA.

Dwight D. Eisenhower would probably be suppressing the urge to light him on fire.

Theodore Roosevelt would ACTUALLY be lighting him on fire, because let’s face it. Teddy had no impulse control. Bully!

Lincoln would be generally trying to figure out what the hell happened to the party he helped create and how the fuck this moron ended up president. 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

WARREN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DATING APP?

A Trump Supporter Dating App? Is it called “Swipe Alt-Right”?.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Good morning, MSM. Do your damn jobs and put reporters on the following: child trafficking through churches, missions, charities. Tie it to the Mob, and money laundering. Get moving.

Got any actual reporters left after that? Do the state economic development corruption on legalizing gambling. Tie it to televised poker. Plenty of TV stars to make the stories clickbait-y. Now get hustling.

Still covering Elizabeth Warren’s DNA? Put it the fuck down on go look at how the Mob – particularly the Russian mafiya, led by Semion Mogilevich – has been stealing from our healthcare system for years. Leads are ALL OVER Justice Dot Gov.

Did you DARE to type the word “Kanye” into anything? Fuck that – get into and start looking at who’s lobbying for which foreign entities without registering FARA – and the donations to AMERICAN POLITICIANS. 100 Pulitzers are sitting there. Get moving.

Sorry to be brusque – but bone saws and Mobsters and child rape, you know. Patience is thinning and we could use some help. </>

Funny how that works.  It’s almost like he’s rage tweeting right after being asked by the press for a comment on a story they’re working on.

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  I’m tired, and could use a few hours off to recharge.  Instead, I’ll get caught up over the weekend.

There are some even more disturbing details about Khashoggi’s murder coming out that I’ll talk about on the next post.  Apparently, there’s about 7 minutes of audio of him being tortured and cut to pieces while still alive.

Also, expect some reports about Mueller’s team looking to report something after the midterms.  There’s something sketchy about this story, so let’s see how this plays out.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/15/2018

Monday, October 15, 2018, and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Other than a few tweets and statements, Cohen has remained relatively quiet since pleading guilty, in August, to violating campaign laws by paying off women who claimed to have had affairs with Donald Trump at what he said, in open court, was the “direction” of the then-candidate. Behind the scenes, however, Robert Mueller’s special investigation into collusion and obstruction of justice continues apace. So does the Southern District’s probe into campaign-finance violations. Despite having no formal cooperation agreement with the government, Cohen has willingly assisted and provided information critical to several ongoing investigations, according to two sources familiar with the situation, in a string of meetings that have exceeded more than 50 hours in sum. (A spokesman for the S.D.N.Y. declined to comment. A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment. Cohen declined to comment.) These conversations are the latest manifestation of Cohen’s brand of patriotism. In June, Cohen told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he would no longer be protecting Trump or the Trump family. “To be crystal clear,” he said, “my wife, my daughter, and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”

Michael Cohen has talked to various investigators, including Mueller’s team, for more than 50 hours.  That’s a lot of time to talk to tax attorneys, cops, FBI agents, and the Special Counselor.

There’s more chatter coming around on how one of the next big dominoes to fall is Cohen’s trip to Prague.  We’ve talked about it before (Daily Check-In 04/13/2018), but it still hasn’t broken into the press yet.  Once it does, things could progress quickly.

 

 

PROUD BOYS ATTACK

Something to know about the Proud Boys: Although some are white supremacists, their ideology is far-right ultranationalism. Branding them as a typical white supremacist gang is too narrow/simple. They have & will align with South/Central American ultranationalist gangs, too. 1/

Unlike typical white supremacist gangs, the Proud Boys have a “flexible” ideology when it comes to things like racial purity. One of their most well known members (“Tiny”) is Samoan American. They have black, Asian, & Latino members. Welcome to the global rise of fascism. 2/

While some members espouse more traditional white supremacist ideals, the Proud Boys as a group is less pro-white than it is anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-feminism, anti-liberalism/liberal democracy. And they love authoritarian-style strong men, death squads, & militarism. 3/

Now, that’s not to say that the Proud Boys endorse racial equality. They don’t. But they’ll work with non-white people and groups to advance their ideology, which is fascism. And they’re happy to use their non-white members as “proof” that they’re not racist, though most are. 4/

The Proud Boys want to restore a social hierarchy in which white men are at the top, & they’re happy to accept help from non-whites who are willing to accept their “place” in that hierarchy. But most of all, they reject the ideals of liberal democracy and want to destroy it. 5/

The Proud Boys are very much the face of the modern fascist movement, which is multicultural & transnational. The whole idea is to establish a brand that can exist in today’s world, and that requires adopting a more flexible ideology in certain domains to achieve the end goal. 6/

The Proud Boys have very effectively exploited male resentment and backlash following cultural flashpoints like gamergate. Their recruitment grounds span the internet (men’s rights forums, 4chan, 8chan, etc), video game culture, the metal scene, libertarianism, & more. 7/

The Proud Boys are very effective at recruiting young men and boys, including high-school age boys. (It’s easier to indoctrinate young people than to change minds). They also feed off the outrage surrounding the so-called “free speech movement.” 8/

The Proud Boys do have women who support them (more on that later), though women aren’t allowed to be members. They also have ties to law enforcement in some areas (http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jul/20/clark-county-deputy-fired-over-proud-boys-sweatshi/ …) and their tentacles reach the upper ranks of Republican politics & right-wing media. 9/

The point of all this is to say that the Proud Boys very much represent the modern global resurgence of far-right ultranationalism, aka fascism. They’re media savvy and very conscious of their image, which has allowed them to grow their membership with very little scrutiny. 10/

The Proud Boys were founded by Gavin McInnes in 2016 and have already established a presence in the US, Canada, Australia, Norway, & UK, among other places. They are extremely violent & have been engaging in public acts of violence regularly for at least a year and a half. 11/

12/ In the meantime, here’s some more info on the Proud Boys, detailing their activities starting in the spring of 2017: https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/868522403772715008 …https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/857056816458588160 …

 

KHASHOGGI

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Kushner’s Taxes

 

Cohen

 

Trump Foundation

 

Stormy

This is only her defamation case against Trump, not the NDA case.

 

 SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO

 

 TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WARREN

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

More

Trump’s biggest weapon is his RHETORIC. The fevered rallies, capitulation of @SenateGOP, press manipulation, Twitter – ALL rhetoric. There is a machine coordinating the rhetoric across @GOPleadership & media to galvanize his power. I’m going to tell you how to defeat it. /1

2/ Punch back directly at the semantics & re-orient their meaning. Do this WITHOUT outrage. If you do it from outrage, you will lose. You will. What do I mean by this? I’ll give you an example with a single word: MOB. Guess what? That’s the word I’ve been using for nearly 2 yrs.

3/ It has worked unbelievably well to punch a narrative through the noise of Twitter. I am an anonymous account, & I have gone from 0 followers to over 50k because of that one, 3-letter word. Because of it’s potency. MOB I can & have tied it right to Donald with his own history.

4/ With FACTS. With the horrible truth about who his daddy really was, and who Donald is still beholden to. There is a mountain of evidence. Trump Org is, and always has been, a money-laundering front for the mob. And 3 years after he declared his run for POTUS…

5/ This truth was finally breaking into MSM coverage. Donald Trump is owned by the mob. Full stop. That is what Trump-Russia is all about. Books were finally surfacing. Cable news finally reporting. This past summer, everyone was saying “MOB.” Remember?

Lincoln’s Bible added,

Lincoln’s Bible @LincolnsBible

When I call dotard a “mobster,” I’m not being cute. Or provocative. Or jumping on MSM’s sudden embrace of what they’ve always known & obfuscated.…

6/ And it was only getting worse with Cohen and Manafort flipping (both mobsters themselves). Mueller reached Fred Trump’s mob CFO, Allen Weisselberg, & REAL panic in Trump World set in. Oh, it’s all coming out. Count on it. So, what does the rhetoric machine do..?

7/ It finds a way to weaponize that word. Attaching it to your outrage around Kavanaugh – and the whole sh*tshow in general. This is what they do. And it works, as long as you punch back from outrage. I’m going to show you another way. I’m going to show you how to win this.

8/ 1st: understand what I mean by fighting semantic warfare from a place of outrage. You are rightly disgusted by being gaslit. By the glaring hypocrisy & projection. So, I’m watching many of you get into that argument – THEIR argument – about whether or not you’re an angry mob.

9/ Stop arguing with them about how they see you. Because the people behind generating that definition – the people running that rhetoric machine, don’t even believe what they’re saying. THEY ARE TROLLING YOU. When you argue with them about their bullshit, you lose. Instead…

10/ Bring the semantic back into your territory. They are only using “mob” now because it’s such a dangerous word for Donald. And for all of them. For anyone who took a bunch of money from some Russian mobsters, aka oligarchs. Right @LindseyGrahamSC? So, here’s how to do it…

11/ Choose either a position of mockery (very effective) or emotionless, factual statements. Be persistent. Attach “MOB” to Donald’s dirty money. Flood every venue w/ridicule & facts of his mob history. Not as counter-argument, but as dismissive fact. SCARE THEM with that word.

12/ FIGHT THE RHETORIC WITH THE RHETORIC ITSELF. Turn it on itself. You can do this. It WILL work. They are scared of that word, or they wouldn’t have taken it out of the discourse & weaponized it. They are telling you what they’re afraid of w/ their projection.

13/ Their rhetoric is a roadmap of their weakness. Of their fears. You have to get out of your outrage in order to see it that way, and fight back. This is semantic warfare. Get it together & fight. Take “MOB” from them. Make them run from it. They’ve spent a lot of money…

14/ They’ve built a whole plan for defeating Dems in Senate races by weaponizing that one word. Make them afraid to use it, by CEMENTING IT back where it belongs. Right on top of Donald Trump’s head. Because he’s a f*cking mobster. And they all know it.

When I call dotard a “mobster,” I’m not being cute. Or provocative. Or jumping on MSM’s sudden embrace of what they’ve always known & obfuscated.…

15/ That embedded thread in tweet #14 above has everything you need to fight. Make it hurt.

16/ One last note on the @GOP‘s weaponization of “mob” to deflect it away from Donald’s blood money & put it on you/us… Moms w/strollers, grandmas in knitted hats, smiling dads/brothers/sons – ALL marching peacefully is real power. Just be seen. And the rhetoric collapses.

17/ “@realDonaldTrumpcouldn’t build a building if I didn’t want him to.” – Sammy The Bull Gravano.

I’ll show you something now. Links to mafia/organized crime articles & my account used to top Google search for “MOB.” See now how they’ve gamed the algorithms on that word? Note outlets & headlines. This is the warfare. Fight back by amping “MOB” as attached to Trump history…

Push back on outlets like @washingtonpostusing “mob” 4 anything other than organized crime or actual crowd violence. Notice in this pic that there’s a story emerging about real FAR RIGHT @GOP-Trump crowd violence (like Charlottesville murder). They fear this exposure 2. AMP it.

Lincoln’s Bible Retweeted NY AG Underwood

You can use “MOB” on this from @NewYorkStateAG(click on it, add the word “MOB”, & re-tweet). In fact, I’d make that go viral if you want to dismantle an entire @GOP“left is an angry mob” campaign that they just spent a sh*tton of money on.

Lincoln’s Bible added,

NY AG UnderwoodVerified account @NewYorkStateAG

I’m disturbed and disgusted by last night’s attacks involving the so-called “Proud Boys.” Hate has no place in New York. This warrants immediate and thorough investigation by the NYPD to bring the perpetrators to justice. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS.

A little more on the @GOP“Proud Boy” #AngryMobviolence in NYC. These are full-throated @GOPTrump supporters. A male “nationalist” movement/club started by Gavin McInnes and “proudly” supported by women like Ann Coulter.

 

 

This is a bone saw. And a thread about how badly mainstream media has committed sedition in mocking the NatSec community.

Point of fact: Dozens of outlets have made Trump out to be a clown (albeit A DESPOT!) while making fun of the people that have nightmares about stories of spies, journalists, drywall knives and bonesaws. Since 2015. The MSM made Trump into a joke, not a monster.

Point of fact: The MSM made stories about hostile foreign intelligence services (Russia, other) and organized crime being “conspiracy theories” in favor of domestic politics, Wisconsin, emails, and racial provocation. And a foreign-owned Mobster became POTUS.

Points of fact: Mobsters, Russian spies, and their unholy combination do the following: poison you with polonium, cut your body up, blow up schools, addict your kids to drugs, have people fuck your kids, film it, profit. Law enforcement and NatSec pros know these stories.

So I want every editor and journalist and blogger to take a good look at that fucking bone saw. That’s what your coverage let into the Oval Office. Not fucking Kanye. Excuses about bone saws and separating kids at the border. And do you know what they then do with the kids?

This isn’t the average zany thread, is it? Guess what, these things are done by the enemies of democracy, and it isn’t cute. There’s no clickbait. And telling the truth about it PROTECTS THE REPUBLIC AND YOU AND YOUR KIDS. THE MEDIA BETRAYED THIS JOB EN MASSE.

There are stories that are even worse, horridly, than Jamal Kashoggi, because they are equally brutal, more widespread, and centrally-ordered. And some people you know and trust either allowed it, consented to it, or profit from it. And we’ve been WARNING THE MEDIA.

To no avail. And we’ve tried. Editors/journalists: you were warned. And now the real stories will come out to horrify the public. You will have lost all trust. Journalism, or “democratic story telling” or “accountability” (whatever we call it) will go on without you.

You want to serve the Republic and report some actual stories, however real and ugly. We’ve got some tips for you. It won’t be clickbait. But it won’t be seditious failure at your chosen profession, either. Choose. </THREAD>

ADDENDUM: This problem vastly outstrips the attacks on me personally, but it does show the pattern, which I analyzed with full professional rigor.

 

 

That’s it for the last couple days.  As we can see, it was a little nuts over the last few days.

LB’s thread about semantics and language is something that I want to talk about a little further.  We’re in a war of language, and we’re losing.

This past week, the RWM started calling the people protesting against Trump, Sexual Assault, and the GOP an “Angry Mob”.    Grandmas and mothers pushing their kids in strollers are not an angry mob.  A bunch of fascists and racists leaving a rally and beating up people on the street, that’s an angry mob.  Then, when arguing with one of them, they’ll point to this phrase and pull that “on both sides” bullshit, making a false equivalency.

Instead of getting dragged into a “on both sides” fight of whataboutism, flip the script on the fuckers.

“Sure, you want to talk about a mob?  Let’s talk about a mob.  Let’s talk about mob ties.  Specifically, Trump’s mob ties.  Like his ties to the Gambino Crime Family, the Columbo Crime Family, and the Luciano Crime Family.  Or, do you want to talk about his ties to the Russian Mob, like with Semion Mogilevich.”

Words have power.  This is why people get bent out of shape about the PC Culture Wars/SJW Movement, or whatever the Cro-MAGA’s are fighting against today.  By changing the way we speak, we change the way we think.  When some words are no longer used, they’re no longer acceptable.  Even small changes make a world of difference.  Changing the words we use changes the way we think.  Using powerful language gives power to that thing.  Using respectful language gives respect to that thing.  At the same time, taking a term or word and using it for the opposite purpose wears down its power and use.  Using the term Angry Mob to describe retirees protesting against corrupt politicians waters down the term, so when actual Angry Mobs show up and commit violence, what’s left to call them?

Call them out.  Call out those who try to spin language to hide the truth or abuse their power.  Name them.  Shame them.  Make them own their statements.  Make them own their words.

And do not let them off the hook.

Words have power.  Use them.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur