Month: October 2018

Daily Check-In 10/12/2018

Friday, October 12, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

KHASHOGGI

On the 12 steps toward authoritarianism, where is “Letting another country murder its political opponents, who are your legal residents, with impunity and tacit approval?” Justice for

2/ Additional authoritarianism points: “Well, they buy our military products with which they slaughter Yemenites, and they book rooms in my Emolument Hotel, so they can murder whomever they like.”

3/ I follow a good number of conservatives. Other than the solid and admirable , the silence from the right about Khashoggi’s murder has been nauseating. The Full Trumpification of the Republican Party marches on.

Jared Kushner and #Kashoggithread: How can Kushner be investigated for alleged corrupt ties to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar? The Foreign Emoluments clause arguably applies to Kushner as Senior Advisor ot the President as an “office of trust.” (But it’s complicated)… 1/

2/ Foreign Emoluments Clause: “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the US] shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

3/ Is an unpaid Senior Advisor an “office of trust”? There is historical debate about the scope of this phrase, and courts have not resolved this question. But in 1982, the OLC (the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel) suggested broad coverage: https://www.justice.gov/file/22956/download …

4/ Kushner resigned as CEO from the Kushner Companies, but reports are that he only partially divested. He still benefits from the profits of these companies, and thus received emoluments from foreign governments…

5/ Last March, I wrote about Kushner Co. receiving a $184 million loan from Apollo under very shady circumstances. “One of the largest investors in Apollo’s real estate trust is the Qatari government’s investment fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.”

6/ And Kushner is getting bailed out of his disastrous $1.8 Billion purchase of 666 5th Ave by Brookfield, a Canadian firm whose largest outside investor is Qatar and whose board has ties to UAE.

7/ It was widely reported that Kushner could not find any takers on such an obsolete overpriced building. But Brookfield gave Kushner implausibly generous terms. A source, an expert on real estate deals, explains: “The $300M junior debt was written off…”

8/ Source:”The $1.1B was paid off as was Vornado by Brookfield. It looks like Kushner has recovered cost, so if the option is exercised they should make some money on the deal. For the Kushners, this seems like the best possible outcome one could hope for.” And no other bidders.

9/ Now recall a series of stories about Kushner’s corrupt links to Saudi. Kushner. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who allegedly is behind #Khashoggi‘s murder, bragged that he had Kushner “in his pocket.”

10/ It is my understanding from @ddd_reporterthat Canada has an anti-corruption law that bars transaction that violate that laws where the transaction takes place. Canada’s Brookfield is arguably violating the Foreign Emoluments clause in its purchase from Kushners… @CBCNews

11/ Canada regulators could inquire into Brookfield, Kushner, Qatar, Saudi, and UAE connections before approving this sale. And state attorneys general in the U.S. in NY, NJ, and Delaware could investigate. They all have quo warranto powers.

12/ If you want #JusticeForKhashoggi, contact your state AG. The Maryland and DC AGs @BrianFrosh@AGKarlRacinehave standing to sue Trump Org. for #Emoluments. State AGs have “special solicitude” in our federal system. Kushner emoluments endanger state/federal/foreign balance.

13/ And in particular, @NewYorkStateAG@TishJames@NewJerseyOAGGubir Grewal and @DE_DOJMatthew Denn all have established quo warranto powers to investigate the Kushner Companies for corruption, fraud, and emoluments violations. #JusticeForKhashoggi

14/ Finally, this is why winning the House is so important: subpoena power. If you want to know whether Russia, Saudi, UAE, Qatar, etc. have leverage over Trump and Kushner, you want Congress’s subpoena power.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS & #METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

The good times President Trump brought to the stock market may be ending.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is down nearly 7 percent from its peak in late September, and the Nasdaq index, which includes many hot technology stocks, has fallen nearly 10 percent from its high.

Doubts appear to be overwhelming investors’ bullishness. They are concerned that Mr. Trump’s bellicose trade policy will disrupt corporate America’s supply chains and push up costs. Mr. Trump’s tax cuts have contributed to a ballooning fiscal deficit. Borrowing costs have also risen this year, which could dampen investment.

“Donald Trump has made uncertainty great again,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist of Gluskin Sheff. “His policies are doing more harm than good.”

The market reaction is a stark reversal. Investors had piled into stocks with abandon for much of Mr. Trump’s presidency. Taxes and regulations were being slashed, earnings were surging and the United States economy was performing better than many of its rivals. The S.&P. 500 is up 28 percent since Election Day 2016.

Crucially, to investors, it is not clear when the threats to the stock market will lift. But until they do, stocks could remain weak.

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

Gather ’round, it’s story time! 2 months before starting my current position I came across a data breach involving a PR firm named 720 Strategies. It contained proof of astroturfing efforts they had engaged in on behalf of bigname clients (masquerading as “grassroots campaigns”),

After identifying the likely origin of the data, I did the right thing and notified 720 Strategies of the exposure. At that point though, all I knew for sure was that the exposed backups had a great deal of apparent login credentials. Even the keys to their named “castle” server.

After receiving a suspiciously hostile, yet follow-up phone call from 720’s counsel (an attorney from the firm of Akin Gump), it occurred to me that 720 probably had something to hide and, considering the business they are in, it would probably be best to more-thoroughly review.

I’ll leave you with the two attached images. The first is a letter from 720’s attorney that I received (in which I have mercifully redacted her name). The second image is the response I emailed back to her. You’ll probably wonder what is blacked out near the end of my response.

All you need to know about that particular line is two things: 1. I never heard back from the Akin Gump attorney. 2. That redacted line has borne fruit.

 

That’s it for Friday.  This was a busy last couple days, and I should be back to normal posting by Tuesday.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 10/11/2018

Thursday, October 11, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

According to reports, Mueller’s team is letting Trump’s lawyers answer questions about collusion and conspiracy in writing, but still want an in-person interview with him about Obstruction.

I don’t know what to make of this, except it makes me think of a section from Bob Woodward’s “Fear”.  In it, there’s a description of Jon Dowd talking with Bob Mueller, and Mueller said that he wants to talk to Trump to determine whether or not he had corrupt intent when he did, well… everything.  Even though it looks to the rest of the world that everything was done with a corrupt intent, he wants to hear it from The Dotard’s mouth.

Some weirdness could be in store next week regarding Manafort’s sentencing hearing.  Judge Ellis wants to wrap everything up with him, but Manafort is currently cooperating with Mueller.  This could throw a wrench in the works.

 

KHASHOGGI

Khashoggi was supposedly working on a story that tied Jared Kushner, MBS, and the Qataris together in a deal to refinance 666 Fifth Avenue.  Kushner gave US Intel to MBS help him overthrow his family and rise to power, then he would use that power to pressure Qatar into getting financing for that albatross of a mortgage hanging around his neck.

There’s more to it, but that’s the basic story.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Fed watchers now worry that Trump is trying to strong-arm the Fed into reversing its policy of gradually raising interest rates, after a decade of radically easy monetary policy. But Trump is probably thinking of something else completely: lining up a convenient villain he can point to if and when markets turn negative and the economy slumps. It fits perfectly with Trump’s modus operandi.

Trump, for instance, has been relentlessly bashing the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller, so far, has had precisely nothing to say about Trump himself. So there’s been no need at all for Trump to defend himself against Mueller, up till now. But by repeatedly calling the probe a “witch hunt,” Trump is preparing for the eventuality that Mueller will some day impugn him. Trump is trying to preemptively invalidate the probe, in the mind of the public, by the time it actually touches him.

Trump, in fact, is something of an expert on scapegoating. He blames immigrants and China for the falling living standards of working-class Americans. He blames companies such as Harley-Davidson and Amazon for rational responses to his own harmful economic policies. And of course he blames Democrats for illegal immigration and many other national problems.

There’s another piece of this puzzle at play.  Trump’s terrible credit score.  The Trump Organization has a Business Credit Score of 19.  Out of 100.  In other words, it’s shit.  As anyone who’s had credit problems know, when the score is low, getting financing for anything is a pain in the ass.  Assuming one doesn’t get turned down outright for everything, all loans would require cosigners, massive collateral, crazy down payments, or interest rates that make loan sharks blush.  In business, it’s no exception.

Loan interest rates are usually shown one of two ways.  They’re either a straight percentage, or a Prime+ rate.  A straight percentage rate, also called a fixed rate, stays the same and is shown with a number like 5.45% or 3.64% or 23.89%.  A Prime+ rate is a variable rate, where the interest rate changes based on the prime rate set by the Federal Reserve.  If the rate is Prime+2%, then it might be at 4% one day, but go up to 5% if the rate increases.

How do those things tie together?  Trump has shit credit, no one will sign for him, he has little to no collateral, and won’t put down any of his own money for a project.  That only leaves lenders with one option: crazy ass rates.  Mortgage rates like 23% or Prime +15%.  The kind of rates that most people would laugh at and say “HAHAHAHAHA No.”  Trump doesn’t have that option.  He’s broke AF, and welches on his debts.  The only way the bank will see a penny from him is if they make it all on the interest payments.

Trump has multiple loans in the Prime + 10 to Prime + 20 range.  Each time the prime rate goes up, his payments go up.  That’s a big part of why he wants them low.

 

 

Donnie Jr.’s birthday is New Year’s Eve.  He’ll spend it under a known indictment.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Kanye

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

Jared Kushner was in the oval office for that Kanye spectacle. Smiling big, with the press pool all around him. Did any reporter question Jared about MBS & Khashoggi? ANY ONE? Any questions about the reports that MBS claimed Jared is “in my pocket,”?!

I’m not f*cking done with this. Hey WH PRESS POOL! Did any one of you think to ask Jared if he gave US intel to his murdering buddy, MBS, in exchange for pressuring the Qataris (via joint UAE blockade) to bail our his 666 5th Ave real estate debacle? No? Too complex? Okay…

How about just asking him & Trump whether or not they sat on intel about MBS’ threat on Khashoggi’s life? You remember him, right? The journalist who was reportedly murdered inside the embassy in Turkey. No? Still too hard for you? Kanye was that important – that distracting?

How many of you gave Kanye a hug after the spectacle? Because I saw one for certain. Is this what it’s all about? Celebrity access? Soaking up the limelight? Getting in to that inner circle? Well, maybe there’s a book deal in there for you. Or better yet, a mobligarch’s yacht.

Your colleagues are being murdered. Do your damn job.

 

Peter Smith’s method of “suicide” was a bag over his head and a canister of helium blasting into the bag.  His note said he was in poor health, and that he was killing himself to cash in on an expiring life insurance policy.

That doesn’t make any sense.

First, I’m not familiar with any life insurance policies in the U.S. that pay out on suicide.  Sure, this could be some rich guy thing, but as a former insurance agent, I’m pretty sure that nearly every policy has a clause that cancels payment in the case of suicide.

Next, the method.  Here’s a rich guy with a clean record and access to a lot of things, including doctors and medications.  Suffocation isn’t the most common method that a guy would use to kill themselves.

Finally, there are reports that Peter was making plans for after his suicide.  Even as early as that morning, he was making plans with people for later on.  That kind of behavior doesn’t sound like someone who was planning on killing themselves.  Either suffocating himself was a plan he pulled together at the last minute (which doesn’t add up since the receipt for the helium tank was from the day before), or this was a murder designed to look like a suicide.

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Hopefully I’ll get Friday’s update out late Friday or early Saturday.

I think I’m going to start another series, the None of this is Normal Book Club.  I’ll talk about the books I’ve been reading and listening to that deal with the Russian Investigation.  Hopefully, I’ll start that this weekend while “Fear” is still fresh in my mind.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/10/2018

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Pinedo

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a California man to six months in prison and six months of home confinement after he pleaded guilty to a felony identity fraud charge tied to Russian troll activity that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign.

The sentence for Richard Pinedo, 28, is the most severe penalty handed down yet in special counsel Robert Mueller’s high-profile investigation into Moscow’s meddling to help elect President Donald Trump.

Pinedo’s case stemmed from his admission in February to unwittingly selling stolen bank accounts to Russian internet trolls who used the credentials to buy internet ads that sowed discord among Americans in the lead-up to Trump’s upset victory almost two years ago.

In brief statement before U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich handed down his sentence, Pinedo said he took “full responsibility” for his actions and pleaded for leniency because of both his full cooperation with Mueller’s investigators and the threats that he’s experienced since being publicly identified in the wider Russian efforts to influence the White House race.

“Never did it cross my mind that the services I was providing would be used in crimes at the highest level,” he said.

…

Mueller prosecutor Rush Atkinson said Pinedo’s cooperation did implicate others in alleged crimes, but he explained that the special counsel referred those matters to other U.S. attorneys around the country because the charges fell outside the special counsel’s original mandate to investigate the 2016 presidential campaign.

Atkinson added that Pinedo’s testimony to the Mueller team did assist in providing advice to U.S. private industry “to tighten up its security functions.”

But the Mueller attorney said that Pinedo’s cooperation was “not significant enough” to assist in the special counsel’s February indictment against three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens who allegedly also used social media activity to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s team, he said, already knew about the information Pinedo provided.

Richard Pinedo, the Identity Thief who sold bank accounts to the Russians at the Troll Farm was sentenced to 6 months in jail.  His actions let the trolls spoof PayPal and funnel Russian money into local campaign activities, as well as giving people a “verified American” to work with.

Richard was very cooperative, but Mueller already had all of the information he provided.  Richard was helpful, but not “No prison sentence” helpful.

It’s like that scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when they bring that one prisoner from Azkiban to testify and name the other Death Eaters, but they know all of them.  That was his position.

 

Khashoggi

Jared Kushner’s cozy relationship with MSB is likely responsible for this.  Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him that when news from the NSA came up to the White House, Kushner either killed any motions to protect Khashoggi, or tipped off the Saudis that they were about to get busted.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

 SCOTUS & #METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

USA Today Op-Ed

 

Rally

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Haley

 

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

I’m out, too. After more than 40 years, I’m leaving the Republican Party. <thread — I’m afraid it’s a long one. Sorry.>

2…I started my professional life as a conservative Republican, moving from a entry-level job at @NROjust after college to Washington to work on the Hill. I’ve worked on campaigns for Republican politicians in four states, and in government for…

3…Republican elected officials from four different states, in both houses of Congress and the Capitol here in Madison. For both political and personal reasons I did mostly business and nonprofit work in more recent years, retaining my political identity as a Republican…

4…along with a lifelong belief that I knew better than the Party’s leaders what was good for the country. My formative experience was as Senate staff in the Reagan years; the modern Republicans I most admired were legislators like Bob Dole and Richard Lugar, who understood…

5…the importance of American institutions — the Senate above all — and American leadership in the world. And of course the men (in their time it was mostly men) who had made the best of the Republican tradition in American politics — Lincoln first, Theodore Roosevelt…

6…Lacey, Pinchot, Stimson, Lovett, Eisenhower and Reagan — had great meaning for me, and still do. But their day is over, and their party is dead.

7…I commend recent thoughtful essays by @MaxBootand @RadioFreeTomon their own respective decisions to leave the GOP. My reasoning is a little different though not entirely inconsistent with theirs. The language of electoral politics is one I understand and appreciate…

8…but as a means to an end, nothing more. The end is government, and government is responsibility: for the whole country, its interests around the world, and its future. There is nothing more important. Failure in government is a serious matter; abandonment of responsibility

9…is unforgivable. I’ve seen a mostly successful Presidency, and an effective Congress; I know what they look like. More recently I’ve seen what failure looks like: wars carelessly undertaken and not won in spite of enormous expenditure of lives and resources,…

10…a Congress unable to timely pass routine legislation and spending bills, massive tax cuts passed to provide campaign donors a return on their investment, the financial services industry left deliberately to regulate itself until it nearly blew up the global economy,…

11…and triggered a devastating recession, the worst in 80 years. Then followed abandonment of responsibility. In the face of this cruel recession, that cost millions of Americans their jobs and hundreds of thousands their homes,…

12…the Republican leadership in Congress resolved to do…nothing. There was a Democrat in the White House, and a Negro one at that — the seething resentment of Barack Obama’s race was something he never wanted to acknowledge; I didn’t either, but there it was.

13…Eight years followed of Republicans in Congress appropriating the name & heritage of their party to beg for money before the richest people in the country, keep Congress & all of government from functioning, hoping that the minority of Americans who vote would reward them…

14…for abandoning their responsibility. Which they mostly did, to their discredit, right through the 2016 election, when through a fluke of the Electoral College Donald Trump became President.

15…C2K: Corruption, Criminality and the Kremlin. There are Republicans who revel in these principles of the Trump administration, and Republicans who are merely terrified of the President, but what is quite clear is that each of these principles has a devoted constituency…

16…in Trump’s party. In a Republican Party grown dependent for support of its enormous campaign infrastructure on concentrated private wealth, Corruption was already well established before Trump even got to Washington and started using the Presidency to enrich himself.

17…The single most corrupt act during the whole sordid Trump era to date was last year’s tax bill, written as its predecessors in 2001 and 2003 had been to reward donors of large sums to Republican candidates. This bill was mostly written in Congress.

18…Criminality by Trump personally was helpfully detailed by the New York Times just a few days ago: the man is a massive tax cheat. A steady stream of Trump associates and supporters have gone before Robert Mueller’s team of investigators, and thence to prison.

19…It’s as if the President of the United States were the center of a criminal conspiracy. As If. As to the Kremlin, let’s be perfectly clear: Republicans in Congress are determined that Russia’s intervention on Trump’s behalf should not count against his Presidency.

20…Trump’s sponsorship by the heirs of Stalin’s secret police has inspired no rebellion among any Republican elected official. All Republicans in both houses of Congress are fine with it. I think we ought to take American patriotism a little more seriously than they do.

21…I would do Trump himself an injustice were I to leave C2K as the whole of his contribution to American government. His rank, stinking, putrid ignorance could be bottled and exhibited at the Smithsonian for the next thousand years as an unequalled specimen of its kind.

22…Trump is more indolent than some corpses. He despises black people, loathes Hispanics, thinks Muslims not contributing to his skeezy hotel business are terrorists, and incorporates all his backward prejudices into government policy. Trump hurts people, and enjoys it.

23…To the extent Trump can be said to govern at all, he governs only for his supporters — the chumps who go to his campaign rallies, the white-right, the flatterers who appeal to him on TV day and night, and of course — always — the donors.

24…What is there left of Lincoln in today’s Republican Party? Of Theodore Roosevelt? Nothing. The party of Trump is the party of the Charlottesville white-right mob, the party of concentrated wealth, and perhaps most of all the party that rejects responsibility.

25…So I’m out, and for good. I will be an Independent. I will oppose Republican candidates for public office, and support Democrats whenever possible. We’re in a dark period in America, and the road to something better does not go through, or near, the Republican Party.[end}

 

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

While this isn’t a surprise it is certainly shocking. Also is it time to talk about Trump’s yacht yet? Hint Trump Princess Crown prince sought to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and detain him, U.S. intercepts show – The Washington Post

So here’s the 2015 duty to warn directive WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN HIM? Oh wait… 282-foot, $70 million Nabila I’m going to drag you with serious facts.

If any of you are questioning the authenticity of that 2015 Directive 191, below is the link to the 4 page Directive I don’t traffic in fake documents, ever

Some Far Right extreme reversals that Sept-Oct 2018 brought to the world:

1. Liberals went from “snowflakes” to a dangerous “mob” – requiring Rand Paul’s wife to keep a gun by her bed.

2. Alt-Right went from “Gorilla Mindset” alphas to men who need their mommies to defend them.

3. Nazis went from despising “Chad” (their term for whiny, silver spoon, prep school boys who succeed from privilege) to embracing King Chad of Chadlandia, Kavanaugh.

4. screeched & clutched his pearls, & thinks he found his balls. Wait… he’s always done that.

5. Lastly, the total abandonment of Taylor Swift by the White Supremacists who’ve had her back since Kanye stormed the stage & stole her moment 9 years ago. Oh, & unrelated to Swift’s pro-Dem vote stance, the Nazis now embrace… Kanye West. Perfection.

6. Maybe it’s all been cos-play after all. (Except for the part where Bannon’s Incel Nazi’s kill people. That’s real.)

 

Listen VERY closely at the 4:04 marker…you do understand that there ARE separate investigations into Kavanaugh, right? Wait for it…

Kyle Griffin: This whole 4-minute clip is worth watching. Kamala Harris grills FBI Director Chris Wray on the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation, Wray confirms that the investigation was “limited in scope” by the White House. (via CSPAN)

Watch at 1:25, Ludington met with the FBI in NC, listen to what he states, there is in fact a separate investigation into Kavanaugh, as in lying to Congress. 💥BOOM goes the dynamite💥 HT to my anon follower Charles Ludington Interview via

Ludington met with the FBI Raleigh Satellite office. He was (most likely) given instructions NOT to speak any further if there is still an ACTIVE investigation into Kavanaugh. Mux that with Dir Wray’s comment, seems to be a verification of an ACTIVE investigation.

SKH: “did the FBI look into allegations that Judge Kavanaugh lied to the Congress” DCW: “that is not something I can discuss here” FBI SOP: they do NOT publicly speak about ongoing/active investigations. 🚩distinction-Wray could have said no Investigation. Now do you Get it?

The exact transcribed Exchange occurs at the 4:04 minute marker thru 4:11 If you listen closely you will find i transcribed the Exchange verbatim. The reason Ludington’s interview buttresses the conclusion is his interview strictly proffered Kavanaugh lied under oath

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  I’m going to update The Indicted in a few minutes.

My input is pretty light today.  Okay, it’s damn near nonexistent.  I ran low on time for this post.  Hopefully Thursday’s won’t be as light.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/09/2018

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The office of Russia’s infamous troll factory believed to be at the vanguard of Russia’s information war has been set on fire in St. Petersburg overnight.

An investigation revealed last year that the secretive troll factory had rebranded itself as a media conglomerate with 16 news websites generating more than 30 million pageviews every month. Its operational hub, a website called FAN (Federal News Agency), is based a stone’s throw from the troll farm’s original location in northern St. Petersburg.

The Fontanka.ru news website cited police as saying that an unknown suspect broke the agency’s ground-floor window and threw a Molotov cocktail inside at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

Surveillance footage published by FAN showed flames erupting at one of the empty workstations and a female staffer stationed on the opposite end quickly exiting the office.

“I believe this is tied to FAN’s activities,” its chief editor Yevgeny Zubarev said. “We’re most often attacked online, but these types of attacks have already taken place offline.”

FAN said its office came under another arson attack on the eve of the 2018 presidential elections in March.

The troll farm is believed to be run by billionaire restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as President Vladimir Putin’s “cook.” A U.S. special counsel indicted Prigozhin and 12 other Russians this year on charges of defrauding the U.S. government by interfering with its political process.

St. Petersburg police told the RBC news website that they were looking for the culprit and planned to launch criminal proceedings.

Not suspicious at all.  In the same few days as a couple reporters disappear (Daily Check-In 10/08/2018), and a Senior Lawyer for the Russian Government dies in a helicopter crash (Daily Check-In 10/04/2018), this is a perfectly normal series of events, right?

Right?

The troll farm was the target of arson by method of a Molotov Cocktail.  At this point, I’m not sure if this is staged from Putin’s goons trying to clean up their mess, or angry protesters fed up with his shit.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Forget all the noise. Trump’s true story is simple and clear and not disputed by Trump, himself. – His father created a company built on decades of tax fraud: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html …1/

– After dad died, Trump kept the same people, running the same kinds of schemes: https://www.newyorker.com/news/swamp-chronicles/allen-weisselberg-the-man-who-knows-donald-trumps-financial-secrets-has-agreed-to-become-a-cooperating-witness …– Trump’s major addition to the family business was to expand the business to suspect figures around the world: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal …2/

– Trump used the same techniques of his father–secret shell companies, accounting irregularities–to protect himself politically as candidate and president: https://www.newyorker.com/news/swamp-chronicles/the-president-has-been-implicated-in-a-criminal-conspiracy …3/

– Colluding with the Russians would have been entirely in keeping with Trump’s practices. But even if we never prove that he did, he is the head of what appears to be a multi-generational criminal enterprise. 4/

– If Democrats take the House and/or several key state AG races, they will use subpoena power to reveal much more about the workings of this company. – At every step, the truth has shocked even those (like me) who thought they were prepared for the worst. 5/

– Six months from now, I predict, the whole operation will be laid bare and will truly shock. – Yes. Maybe, the GOP will do nothing. That’s what everyone tells me. But I still believe that there will be some moment when something is revealed that forces all to see the truth. 6/

– There is profound legal risk for the Trump family. They could lose much of their money and some could go to jail. – The incentive for non-Trumps to flip will only increase, while the value of flipping will decrease, forcing something of a rush. 7/

– Trump’s response will likely be ever-more aggressive and crazy. – In short, 2019 promises to be many times more insane, terrifying, high-stakes, than anything we’ve seen so far. – My gut tells me there will be a breaking point, even for GOP sycophants. 8/

– But I know that the GOP turning on Trump, even at the very worse, is far from certain. – If they back him, all the way down, I fear for what will be left of our nation. – We ain’t seen nothing yet. 9/end

I’ve been saying for a while that the news is going to get a lot worse.  Trump Towers have been a laundromat for Russian Mafia.  Don’t think about the romantic version of gangsters from Martin Scorsese movies.  These monsters are just that: monsters.  Drug running, murders, rapes, kidnappings, sex trafficking, tearing the tags off of mattresses, they’re in all of it.  And Trump helped them clean up their blood money.

 

SCOTUS & #METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 Haley

This is interesting.  Nikki Haley announced her resignation as Ambassador to the United Nations, effective at the end of the year.  I’ve seen a few different hypothesis as to why.

  1. She’s getting out while the getting’s good and she can still have a career.
  2. She quit over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
  3.  She plans to run for POTUS in 2020.
  4. There is some convoluted plan for Trump to fire Jeff Sessions, replace him with Lindsey Graham, and have Nikki Haley take over Graham’s Senate seat.
  5. She’s about to be under a massive ethics investigation.

Considering she’s been around since the beginning of the Trump Administration, she’s infected with a case of #ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies), so if she has a career left after this, it won’t be much of one.  She didn’t speak out over Brett Kavanaugh, but might have been biding her time.  I don’t buy it, though.  She’s so staunchly Right Wing that she’d have no problem towing the party line, and this excuse gives her too much credit for having empathy, decency, and/or a soul.  A run in 2020 has riled up the RWM, but I wouldn’t expect anything to be announced from that until early next year.  If Trump is out of the picture, or about to be out of the picture, she might try.  The convoluted plan requires Lindsey Graham to give up an almost guaranteed Senate leadership position for the next 20 years to take a job that might only last 2 years, and would almost require him to open himself up to several crimes.

The reason I’m leaning toward is the last one, that she’s about to go under an ethics investigation that could ruin her career and possibly put her in prison.  She’s proven to be reckless with taxpayer money (Daily Check-In 09/14/2018) when she dropped over $50,000 on new curtains for her apartment in New York.  If she’s willing to spend that much on taxpayer money, accepting flights on luxury jets and accepting tickets to sporting events isn’t far off.

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

The Party of Trump has proved itself keen to propagate any conspiracy theory, no matter how ridiculous or racist.

Well, almost any conspiracy theory.

There were the microwave ovens that surveil your every move. There were those fake jobs numbers, crafted to make President Barack Obama look good (though today, oddly, those same jobs numbers somehow make Obama look bad, according to Republicans). There were autism-causing vaccines, 3 million illegal votes, alleged murders, a pizza-parlor child-sex-slavery ring, the convoluted nonsense of QAnon.

Then Friday, Trumpkins revived a conspiracy theory that long predates our current president and has remained popular with far-right political regimes around the world: that of the International Jew.

Thousands of protesters had shown up to voice their anger over Brett M. Kavanaugh’s imminent ascension to the country’s highest court. They were, understandably, mad about Kavanaugh’s record — on reproductive rights, campaign finance, executive power and other key policy concerns.

They were also mad about Kavanaugh’s personal conduct — not only high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct but also his nasty, partisan attacks on Democratic senators, his claims of a vast Clintonian left-wing conspiracy and his statements under oath whose veracity has been disputed even by his friends.

But perhaps most of all, they were mad at the Republican Party.

After all, the GOP had stolen a Supreme Court seat from Obama, taken away the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees so they could push through a pick without 60 votes, and arranged for a sham FBI investigation when their pick was credibly accused of sexual assault. Some of them even mocked a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted.

Despite all this, Republican leadership somehow couldn’t fathom why legions of Americans might be genuinely, grievously upset. Instead, several Republicans suggested, all those Kavanaugh protesters — just like those phony Women’s Marchers last year — must be mercenaries. That is, they were only pretending to be mad, because they were being paid to be mad.

Not merely paid: paid by an evil, rich, foreign-born Jew.

Trump’s tweet echoed a comment from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who told a Fox Business Network host that he thought the protesters were probably paid by Soros.

Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani amplified the conspiracy theory, retweeting a comment calling Soros “the anti-Christ” and urging that his assets be frozen. Other Republican pundits also called for the survivor of Nazi-occupied Hungary to be jailed and his wealth seized.

This was not merely an attempt to scapegoat someone, anyone, for Republicans’ deeply unpopular actions. It was a call for tinfoil-hatters to revive the blood libel. Soros has inherited the archetype of the International Jew who haunted the fevered dreams of Henry Ford, one of the original America Firsters. Soros has apparently shapeshifted out of “Jud Süss”  and Mayer Rothschild and Shylock before him — a rootless, ruthless villain supposedly conspiring to undermine the rightful gentile order.

In any other presidency, such a dog whistle might have pierced news coverage for weeks. Instead, Republicans’ anti-Semitic conspiracy-theorizing dominated headlines for barely a day.

And in fairness, why should such bigotry shock anyone at this point? Despite the Jewish faith of his daughter and son-in-law, Trump has suggested that a horde of torch-toting neo-Nazis included some “very fine people.” He tweeted an anti-Semitic meme during the 2016 campaign and closed it with a TV ad pairing images of famous Jews (including Soros) with a pledge to destroy the “global power structure.”

Moreover, Trump launched his political career with a bigoted conspiracy theory: that our first black president was secretly born in Kenya and was therefore illegitimate.

His paranoid crackpottery has been almost parody-defying. But these days it’s not just the Alex Jones aficionados or QAnon breadcrumb-gatherers who buy into Trump’s conspiracy theories. Mainstream Republicans such as Grassley do, too. Carefully reported debunking, including by The Post’s own fact-checking team, seems unable to shake some sense into them.

One puzzle remains, however.

Despite Republicans’ willful credulity over Soros and microwaves, the one conspiracy theory they dismiss outright is the one we actually do have mounting evidence for: the conspiracy against the United States led by the Russia government, possibly with the Trump campaign’s consent.

And no number of previously undisclosed contacts between Trump officials and Russian operatives, emails from Donald Trump Jr. or special-counsel indictments could convince the party faithful otherwise.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin says Republicans are right to be skeptical. Whom has he blamed instead for U.S. election meddling?

Why, the Jews, of course.

This is where we’re at.  We’re at the point of the story where it is easier and more acceptable for Republican politicians and spokespeople to blame Jews for organizing a protest against them than to recognize or admit that large swaths of the population hate their actions.  Better yet, they distract from the actual problems they cause, and their propaganda machine is more than willing to run with crazy conspiracy theories, instead of addressing the problems at hand.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PUFF PUFF PASS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

When you have eyes directly on the RU-backed propaganda machine, you can predict that which seems unpredictable at the time. I watched them weaponize this organic movement. The emotional terrorism inflicted on our nation by @GOParound Dr. Ford/ Kavanaugh was inevitable. /1

2/ For new followers, and many older ones, there may still be some confusion over the seemingly disparate subjects covered by this twitter account. They are not separate topics. They are all related, because I’m metaphorically standing in the money pot underneath it all.

3/ If you stand there with me and look up, here is what you’ll see: – The Alt-Right media machine. Coordinating with both conservative PR firms (many of which are registered foreign agents in the FARA database), and Hill Staffers.

4/ – Corruption in our corporate lifeblood, incl. media companies & silicon valley.

5/ – A global corruption scandal unfolding across nation states.

6/ And when you look down, you see the whole framework. How it was built. Who built it. And every tentacle that was born out of it, including the one named @realDonaldTrump.

7/ So stay close. You’ll see it all. We’re going to keep showing it to you. This is about the dark money pot. It’s always been about that. And you know what? The more of you who put your eyes on it – the more exposure it gets…

8/ … the less power it wields. Someday, it’ll all be ours.

9/ The fight is against corruption. Against that money and all that it controls. And the tool we need to fight it is not only awareness & exposure, but our justice system. This is the institution that has always been in Trump’s sights.

10/ No matter what that dark money pot kicks up to outrage you, stay focused on it instead. Focus on the money. Focus on the corruption. VOTE.

11/ And let those of us who dig down in that pot send up the flares. We’ll alert what’s coming – to the best of our ability. We’ll do what we can, slinging away against Nazis & dirty players in the trenches. It’s an honor, truthfully. Happy to do it. LB

 

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Wednesday’s looking like it could be interesting.  Christopher Steele makes a return to the news, and the server story is finally getting some traction.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur