Month: October 2018

Daily Check-In 10/02/2018

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

When Sen. Mitch McConnell was told by then–CIA Director John Brennan before the 2016 election that Vladimir Putin and Russia were attempting to interfere with the goal of assisting Donald Trump, McConnell’s response took him aback, according to Greg Miller, a Washington Post reporter who has just released a book about Putin, Trump, and the election. The majority leader said he wouldn’t sign on to any condemnation of Russia’s actions and that if the administration went public with the intelligence, McConnell would in turn call out Brennan as a partisan intervening on behalf of Hillary Clinton, Miller colorfully revealed in a CNN interview Tuesday.

Mitch calling the Russian Interference a partisan attack isn’t much of a surprise, but that he pulled this shit against the CIA  Director is a new level of WTFness.  Turtle got into a screaming match with the head of the CIA, saying that if Obama or them went forward with any claims that the Russians were interfering, he’d attack those claims as a partisan witch hunt.

Sound familiar?

Mitch McConnell is one of the most evil mother fuckers in history.  There’s a part of me that wants to say that this was just him seeing the world through his hyperpartisan viewpoint, but this meeting with Obama and Brennan took place after the RNC Convention, after the DNC Convention, after the email leaks from Wikileaks, and after the GOP leadership met with Sergei Kislyak in Cleveland.  By this point, Mitch either had to know something was up, was being blackmailed or was complicit.  Possibly both of the last two.

Remember, the Republicans had their emails hacked, too.  Those just weren’t released for the world to see.

Staff Changes

Kyle Freeny and Brandon Van Grack are leaving the team.  I’ll speculate on that in the Rumor Mill section.  I’ll also update The Justice League after posting this.

 

Gamble v United States

I had a couple conversations on Tuesday about the upcoming Gamble v United States case headed to the SCOTUS. I talked about the case HERE and HERE, but there’s a lot that got left off of the Reddit and Twitter arguments last week.  I’m going to put all of these thoughts in one post eventually, but I want to try to dispel some of the myths around that case.

The basic question before the court is whether or not the Feds can charge a person with the exact same crime that they were already tried for in a different sovereign jurisdiction. It’s not questioning whether the state can do the same, or if a person pardoned for a crime in one jurisdiction can or can’t be charged with similar crimes in other jurisdictions.

The hypothesis running around last week was that a partisan SCOTUS would overturn 150 years of precedent and rule that a crime can only be charged in one jurisdiction. Then, Trump would pardon everyone involved with every crime he’s taken part in, and those blanket pardons would prevent the states from ever charging any of his co-conspirators with crimes.

There are several holes with that hypothesis.

First, the hypothesis doesn’t match the question before the court.  The question facing the court is whether the United States can charge a person with the exact same crime that the person was charged with in state court.

Second, the ruling would have to be so vague and wide ranging that it would fall apart on even the slightest review. The only way that the ruling could work that way would be if it were written to include any and all state statutes that could be similar.  I call this the Worst Case Scenario Ruling, or WCSR.

Third, this assumes the states would interpret “similar” the same way.  One state may decide that state tax evasion is similar to federal tax evasion, but another would not because they use distinct forms.  Others might argue that since the wording between drug possession statues have a comma in the wrong place, the meaning changes altogether and are therefore different statutes.

Fourth, pardons only work on criminal penalties, not civil. Sure, they might not go to prison, but that doesn’t mean the states and the feds can’t use that pardon as proof of guilt and take everything they’ve ever owned.  I recommend checking out Civil RICO.

Finally, this argument assumes blanket pardons like Nixon received from Gerald Ford, not pardons for specific crimes. A blanket pardon covers a wide range of potential crimes, but if done preemptively before any crimes are charged, then we get to the next great legal questions;

Is it Double Jeopardy if a person was never charged with a crime but accepted a pardon in a different jurisdiction before they were charged? How could it be Double Jeopardy if they were never in Single Jeopardy to begin with? If the person was never charged with a crime at the federal level before accepting a pardon, how could the state ever know if they would have been charged with the exact same crime to invoke DJ protections?

The states could make a good argument that since they didn’t know what the defendant could have been charged with, they have to assume that only some charges would have been brought forward, not all of them.

Also, even in the WCSR, the states would almost certainly challenge this ruling on 9th and 10th Amendment grounds.  Per the U.S. Constitution:

Article [IX] (Amendment 9 – Unenumerated Rights)

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article [X] (Amendment 10 – Reserved Powers)

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

These two amendments are trotted out every time some right-winger wants to cry foul about “government overreach” on liberal policies, like the ACA or the Interstate system.  These two are usually used in combination with each other to make an argument that unless it was specifically laid out in the Constitution, then the Federal government can’t do it.  The WCSR would be a violation of both of these in that it would take the power of the states to prosecute their own crimes away from them.  The WCSR would be challenged faster than a kid running to his PS4 to play Fortnite.

I don’t think there’s too much to worry about with Gamble at this time. Several states including New York already have Double Jeopardy protections on their books preventing them from charging a person for the same crime the feds charged them for, but they have their own crimes on the books that they can go after.

Still, keep an eye on that case when it comes up.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Stormy Daniels

President Trump personally directed an effort in February to stop Stormy Daniels from publicly describing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, people familiar with the events say.

In a phone call, Mr. Trump instructed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to seek a restraining order against the former adult-film actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a confidential arbitration proceeding, one of the people said. Messrs. Trump and Cohen had learned shortly before that Ms. Clifford was considering giving a media interview about her alleged relationship with Mr. Trump, despite having signed an October 2016 nondisclosure agreement.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Cohen to coordinate the legal response with Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and another outside lawyer who had represented Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization in other matters, the people said. Eric Trump, who is running the company with his brother in Mr. Trump’s absence, then tasked a Trump Organization staff attorney in California with signing off on the arbitration paperwork, these people said.

Direct involvement of the president and his son in the effort to silence Ms. Clifford hasn’t previously been reported. The accounts of that effort recently provided to The Wall Street Journal suggest that the president’s ties to his company continued into this year and contradict public statements made at the time by the Trump Organization, the White House and Mr. Cohen.

The White House referred a request for comment to the president’s outside counsel. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, declined to comment. A person close to the situation said Eric Trump had acted as the president’s son and not in his role as a company executive. The Trump Organization declined to comment. Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.

Holy shit, this is big.  We know that Cohen tried to get a restraining order against Stormy Daniels earlier this year to keep her from speaking to the media, but now we know that he was ordered to do so by then-President Trump.  While he was in the White House.  And that Eric Trump, who’s supposed to be running an independent Trump Organization, helped.

Cohen pleaded guilty on Daily Check-In 08/21/2018, and has been cooperating with EVERYONE since then.  Mueller, SDNY, State of New York, New York City.  Hell, I’m expecting to hear that Cohen is working with the March of Dimes to seize one of the Trump properties in lieu of payment owed.

Donald Trump is already an unindicted co-conspirator on election fraud charges.  Cohen said in court that he was ordered to pay off Stormy Daniels using campaign funds.  Now, here is the President of the United States ordering his personal attorney to work with the head of a private company to silence a critic and opponent in a lawsuit.  Sounds like several crimes there.

Being implicated in trying to silence a porn star that he paid off with campaign funds.  There’s no way his day can get any worse, right?

Right?

<Cue Something Big>

From /u/The-Autarkh, summing up the points.

  1. The Trumps’ tax maneuvers show a pattern of deception, tax experts say
  2. Donald Trump began reaping wealth from his father’s real estate empire as a toddler
  3. That ‘small loan’ of $1 million was actually at least $60.7 million — much of it never repaid
  4. Fred Trump wove a safety net that rescued his son from one bad bet after another
  5. The Trumps turned an $11 million loan debt into a legally questionable tax write-off
  6. Father and son set out to create the myth of a self-made billionaire
  7. Donald Trump tried to change his ailing father’s will, setting off a family reckoning
  8. The Trumps created a company that siphoned cash from the empire
  9. The Trump parents dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by grossly undervaluing the assets they would pass on
  10. After Fred Trump’s death, his empire’s most valuable asset was an I.O.U. from Donald Trump
  11. Donald Trump got a windfall when the empire was sold. But he may have left money on the table.

Yep.  This is big.  A couple years too late, but it is certainly big.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Holy shit.  The Self-Made Billionaire myth is just that: a myth.

Fred Trump made a lot of money, and had deep ties to organized crime.  He set up trusts for all of his kids and made sure they were well off from the beginning.  He came up with tax tricks and cheats to move and hide his wealth from the government, and eventually give it to his kids through illegal means.  And Fred realized that Donald sucked at business.

Donald Trump is a con-man fraud hack, but we know that already.  Now, the New York Times has the receipts.  Literally.  They have the fucking receipts from the fake purchasing company.

Ever since the 80’s when Donald Trump tried to create his own empire, with money laundering a main source of income, self-promotion was a big part of it. He’s the poor man’s idea of the rich man, and plays it up by slapping his name on everything he can while his properties are a laundromat for criminals of all sizes.

Part of the way he gets away with it is that he’s up front with it. Most people ignore the obnoxious jerk, as long he stays to himself or plays in his own yard. Cops are looking for guy sneaking in the shadows, not the one screaming “I’m doing illegal shit.” There’s a scene from High Anxiety where they’re trying to get past airport security without being noticed. Instead of skulking around, they’re loud, obnoxious, screaming at each other. Eventually, the cops let them go because they don’t want to deal with them. That’s been Trump since the 80’s. He’s so loud and obnoxious, most people didn’t look into how much of a crook he is, because how stupid would someone have to be to draw unnecessary attention to themselves?

Donald Trump stupid, that’s how stupid.

Here’s a guy who ran for President because he’s been bullshitted into believing he could do it and/or was blackmailed into it.  He won with the help of every corrupt organization around (including the Russians), and put himself, his family, his businesses, his relationships, and everyone who’s ever known him under a microscope.

That microscope is here.

The most egregious violations came after Donny tried getting his daddy to change the will, giving him access to more money up front.  Fred and his daughter Maryanne Trump-Barry, a sitting Federal Judge at the time, said it “didn’t pass the smell test.”  But, they realized that Fred was getting old and sick, and if he died right away, his billion dollar empire would mostly go to taxes.  They created All County Building Supply & Maintenance to funnel money to the children.  Fred Trump’s company would buy equipment for his properties through All County, like a boiler or stoves or construction supplies, but at a significant markup.  $10,000 in washing machines become $20,000.  A $2,000 furnace repair becomes $5,000.  All County would make the purchase, then bill Fred Trump’s company the inflated amount.  Fred would pay the inflated amount, then the owners of the company would split the profits.

The owners of All County Building Supply & Maintenance were Donald Trump, his siblings, and cousins.

These purchase would show up on taxes as legitimate purchases.  Fred Trump would claim them as business expenses, All County would write off even more expenses, and the adult children made millions off of this scheme.

What makes this even worse is that the Trump’s would then petition the city to increase the rents on their rent controlled properties because their expenses increased.  So, they fraudulently increased their expenses to increase the rent their tenants paid, which created more money to launder, which created more expenses, which increased the rents, and so on.

Donald Trump received $413 million from his father, and paid taxes on a sliver of that.  Him and his siblings, including Maryanne Trump-Barry, benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars from fraudulent purchases, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.

Unfortunately, it’s highly likely that these crimes are all far beyond the criminal statute of limitations.  But, not civil statutes, and the State of New York has already said they’re investigating these claims.

Also, just a reminder, Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg  is a Cooperating Witnesses.  He’s been around since Fred’s days, and likely played a part in all of this.

 

SCOTUS & #METOO

In an unprecedented move, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released an explicit statement that purports to describe the sexual preferences of a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of misconduct.

The statement, which was circulated to the hundreds of journalists on the Judiciary Committee’s press list, was from Dennis Ketterer, a former Democratic congressional candidate and television meteorologist who said he was involved in a brief relationship with Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick in 1993.

Swetnick said last week in an affidavit that Kavanaugh was present at a house party in 1982 where she alleges she was the victim of a gang rape, a claim he vehemently denies.

In his statement, Ketterer said Swetnick once told him that she sometimes enjoyed group sex with multiple men and had first engaged in it during high school. Ketterer said the remark “derailed” their relationship, which he described as involving “physical contact” but no intercourse.

Ketterer said Swetnick “never said anything about being sexually assaulted, raped, gang-raped or having sex against her will” and “never mentioned Brett Kavanaugh in any capacity.” He described their relationship as lasting for a “couple of weeks.”

It was highly unusual for a congressional committee to release a statement that included such explicit and unconfirmed details about a member of the public. The Republican side of the panel, which said the statement was provided by Ketterer “under penalty of felony,” emailed excerpts to journalists and posted the full statement on its website.

Ketterer said that his “lasting impression” of Swetnick was that she was “smart, fun and funny.” He also described her as “an opportunist” who sought him out at the bar where he said they first met.

“I felt she only had interest . . . because I was on television and well-known,” he said.

…

Reached by phone Tuesday night, Ketterer said he provided the statement to the committee Monday night after hearing Swetnick’s allegations last week and discussing his memories of her with local leaders in his church. Ketterer described himself as a longtime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and lives in the Salt Lake City area.

“We talked about doing the right thing, and the right thing was not to hold it back,” Ketterer said in an hour-long interview.

Eventually, he said, one church leader reached out to a former LDS bishop who had a connection to the office of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is also a member of the church.

Ketterer said he spoke with Hatch’s staff last Friday and was then handed off to staff for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who he said pressed him in a long phone interview about his knowledge of Swetnick’s background and her family relationships.

…

Ketterer lost his bid to represent Maryland’s 8th Congressional District as a Democrat in 1996. Now a registered Republican, he says he identifies more strongly as a political independent and does not support President Trump.

Ketterer said he has never met Kavanaugh and did not know who he was until Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court. Ketterer said he provided his statement because he wanted to “do the right thing” and because he sympathized with Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley.

When the sexual assault defense gets to the slut shaming phase, the defense is desperate.

The standard operating procedure of fighting a sexual assault case is to first deny any involvement.  If that’s not possible, attack the character of the victim or witnesses, claiming that they can’t be trusted because of their background.  When that fails, dig up any dirt whatsoever on the victim and play the “it can’t be rape because she likes sex” routine.  Of course, this hurts the defense even more, because they can no longer claim that there was no encounter between them.

Slut shaming a rape victim is the last ditch effort of the rape defense.

 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Shooting the coach?  Really?  They should have done what every other parent of a low-talent player does and join the booster club.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.   Like I said earlier, two of the lawyers are leaving Mueller’s team, and there’s speculation on both sides as to what that means.

The Right Wing claims that this is an obvious sign that there is nothing more to investigate, and that Mueller is wrapping things up.  Obviously, because there wasn’t anything there.

The Right Wing claims that this is an obvious sign that there is nothing more to investigate, and that Mueller is wrapping things up.  Obviously, because they found everything and are finished with their job.

There’s another hypothesis that I want to float around, and that’s that this is perfectly normal.  The people that have left have returned to their previous assignments because the part of the case they were working on being taken over by other departments or people.

The Mueller Team is a black box.  We don’t know what’s going on inside of it, and only learn about events well after the fact.  For all we know, they’ve likely coordinated with every law enforcement agency in the country, handed off what they’ve discovered, and tasked those groups to unleash hell on the command word “Alfalfa.”

I’ve got a story in the pipeline about Mueller’s Gameplan, and I think this fits with it.  There’s so many avenues to pursue, one team couldn’t do it on their own.  Outsourcing the work to every field office is just one part of it.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/01/2018

Monday, October 1st and the weekend.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

SCOTUS & #METOO

Once again, I’m not breaking this down into several sections, but here’s what happneed over the weekend and into Monday.

Reports came out that White House Counsel Don McGahn, after working with Senate Republicans, gave the FBI instructions on who they could interview, about what they could interview, and how long they had to work.  This leaked to the press in a heartbeat.  There’s confusion as to whether the FBI would follow this or not, but it sounds like the plausible reaction from the FBI was to tell the White House to pound sand.

Shit got even more confusing on Sunday as multiple reports came out that several people who wanted to talk to the FBI either weren’t getting called, or were getting stuck in a runaround.  The Dotard sent out a tweet claiming that there were no such instructions given to the FBI, but no written orders came.

On Monday, Trump repeated the same thing, and we’re getting reports that more and more people are getting interviewed.  One of the newest pieces to come out is that a mutual friend of Brett Kavanaugh and Deborah Ramirez named Kerry Berchem received text messages from Brett where Brett asked a mutual friend, Karen Yarasavage, to go on the record in his defense before the New Yorker story came out.  Karen and Kerry also talked about how uncomfortable Deborah was around Brett at a wedding for a mutual friend back in 1997.

These texts messages could be innocuous pleas for help, or they could represent witness tampering.

Meanwhile, that turtle-looking-mother-fucker Mitch McConnell is trying to force a vote through this week.  It could be bluster, but it is the kind of evil shit he’s famous for.

Also, don’t be surprised if something big happens by Wednesday.  Why Wednesday?  Not sure, but Wednesday sounds like the best day for a withdraw or replacement.

 

 

Translation: he’s obviously guilty and the White House is terrified of The WH is refusing to allow Julie Swetnick’s allegations to be investigated as part of this probe.

More in the story: Don McGahn and the White House have given the FBI a specific list of witnesses they are permitted to interview

I would expect significant pushback from the Senate on this. Flake, Collins, and Murkowski are already uncomfortable with this process, and this isn’t what they agreed to.

As I mentioned Daily Check-In 09/28/2018, Trump is scared shitless of Avenatti, but will inevitably play into his hands.

 

Another allegation

“Dear, Senator Grassley, et al.

The current situation regarding the accusations made by Dr.

Ford against Brett Kavanaugh have prompted me to write you

today. I have moved on with my life since he forced

himself on me as well. The times were so different, and I

didn’t expect to be taken seriously, embarrass my family,

be believed at all.

I was at a party with a friend. I had been drinking.

She left with another boy, leaving me to find my own way

home. Kavanaugh and a friend offered me a ride home. I

don’t know the other boy’s name. I was in his car to go

home. His friend was behind me in the backseat. Kavanaugh

kissed me forcefully. I told him I only wanted a ride

home. Kavanaugh continued to grope me over my clothes,

forcing his kisses on me and putting his hand under my

sweater. ‘No,’ I yelled at him.

The boy in the backseat reached around, putting his

hand over my mouth and holding my arm to keep me in the

car. I screamed into his hand. Kavanaugh continued his

forcing himself on me. He pulled up my sweater and bra

exposing my breasts, and reached into my panties, inserting

his fingers into my vagina. My screams were silenced by

the boy in the backseat covering my mouth and groping me as

well.

Kavanaugh slapped me and told me to be quiet and

forced me to perform oral sex on him. He climaxed in my

mouth. They forced me to go into the backseat and took

turns raping me several times each. They dropped me off

two blocks from my home. ‘No one will believe if you tell.

Be a good girl,’ he told me.

Watching what has happened to Anita Hill and Dr. Ford

has me petrified to come forward in person or even provide

my name. A group of white men, powerful senators who won’t

believe me, will come after me. Like Dr. Ford, I’m a

teacher, I have an education, a family, a child, a home. I

have credibility.  Just because something happens a long

time ago, because a rape victim doesn’t want to personally

come forward, does not mean something can’t be true.

Jane Doe, Oceanside, California.”

JFC.  Not only is this another allegation, but it’s also the most disturbing to date.  This one goes into graphic detail about the attack itself, and shows an escalation in aggressiveness.  It’s not a drunken smack in the face with a dick, or taking part in a train on a passed out girl, or even an attempted rape, but a full attack in a car with a friend of his.

Updating the count from Daily Check-In 09/26/2018, we’re now up to as many as 7 allegations.

  1. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.  She was attacked at a house party in high school, got away when Mark Judge tried to join in and knocked Brett off of her.  Around 1981-1982.
  2. Deborah Ramirez.  Had too much to drink at a dorm party and while she was trying to get in her room, Brett dropped trou and hit her in the face with his dick.  At Yale, around 1982-85.
  3. Julie Swetnick.  Claims that Brett and Mark were rapists that got girls drunk or drugged enough so they couldn’t fight back against a gang rape.  She says she was raped in 1982 in the same manner she described.
  4. Unknown woman who went to the Montgomery County Police on Daily Check-In 09/24/2018, further detailed in Daily Check-In 09/25/2018.
  5. Rhode Island, 1985 boat assault.  Victim unknown.
  6. 1998 attack.
  7. Car Rape and attack.

Three of these women have placed their names out there for the public to hear them.  Nothing is still known about the fourth allegation, and no names are known for the last 3.  While the veracity is still in doubt, this sounds like more than enough to establish a pattern.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Kanye

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Las Vegas Anniversary

  • Brett Schwanbeck, 61, Bullhead City, Ariz.
  • Austin Meyer, 24, Reno
  • Pati Mestas, 67, Menifee, CA
  • Nicol Kimura, 38, Placentia, CA
  • Christopher Hazencomb, 44, Camarillo, CA
  • Keri Galvan, 51, Thousand Oaks, CA
  • Tara Roe Smith, 34, Okotoks, Alberta, CAN
  • Andrea Castilla, 28, Huntington Beach, California
  • Carly Kreibaum, 33, Sutherland, Iowa
  • Steve Berger, 44, Milwaukee, WI
  • Brian Fraser, 39, Walnut, CA
  • Derrick “Bo” Taylor, 56, Oxnard, California
  • Denise Cohen, 58, Carpinteria, CA
  • Laura Shipp, 50, Thousand Oaks, CA
  • Christiana Duarte, 22, Torrance, California
  • Candice Bowers, 40, Garden Grove, California
  • Lisa Patterson, 46, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
  • Rocio Guillen Rocha, 40, Eastvale, California
  • Jordyn Rivera, 21, San Bernardino, California
  • Austin Davis, 29, Riverside, CA
  • Calla Medig, 28, Jasper, Alberta, Canada
  • Carrie Parsons, 31, Seattle, Washington
  • Cameron Robinson, 28, St. George, Utah
  • Michelle Vo, 32, Los Angeles, California
  • Brennan Stewart, 30, Las Vegas
  • Erick Silva, 21, Las Vegas
  • Dorene Anderson, 49, Anchorage, Alaska
  • Heather Alvarado, 35, Enoch, Utah
  • Hannah Ahlers, 34, Beaumont, CA
  • Stacee Etcheber, 50, Novato, CA
  • Christopher Roybal, 28, Denver, CO
  • Victor Link, 55, San Clemente, CA
  • Melissa Ramirez, 26, Bakersfield, CA
  • Kelsey Meadows, 28, Taft, CA
  • Dana Gardner, 52, Grand Terrace CA
  • Bill Wolfe, Jr., 42, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
  • Carrie Barnette, 34, Garden Grove, CA
  • Thomas Day Jr., 54, Corona, CA
  • Jennifer Parks, 36, Lancaster, CA
  • Kurt Von Tillow, 55, Cameron Park, CA
  • Jack Beaton, 54, Bakersfield, CA
  • Denise Burditus, 50, Martinsburg, WV
  • Sandy Casey, 35, Redondo Beach, California
  • Angie Gomez, 20, Riverside, California
  • Jennifer Irvine, 42, San Diego
  • Jessica Klymchuk, 34, Valleyview, Alberta, Canada
  • Rhonda LeRocque, 42, Tewksbury, Massachusetts
  • Jordan McIldoon, 23, Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada
  • Sonny Melton, 29, Paris, Tennessee
  • Adrian Murfitt, 35, Anchorage, Alaska
  • Rachel Parker, 33, Manhattan Beach, CA
  • John Phippen, 57, Valencia, CA
  • Quintin Robbins, 20, Henderson
  • Lisa Romero-Muniz, 48, Gallup, New Mexico
  • Bailey Schweitzer, 20, Bakersfield, CA
  • Susan Smith, 53, Simi Valley, California
  • Neysa Tonks, 46, Las Vegas

 

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

A new study found that some of the negative reaction tweets about the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie were created by Russian trolls, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Researcher Morten Bay of the University of Southern California found that 21.9 percent of all the tweets analyzed about the film had a negative view, with 50.9 percent of the negative tweets showing indications they were “likely politically motivated or not even human.” Bay added that a “number” of those users appeared “to be Russian trolls.” Bay concluded that the tweets were part of “deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments” that aimed to propagate “widespread discord and dysfunction in American society.” “Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation,” Bay wrote. He also wrote that the movie’s political undertones were “consistent” with older Star Wars films, leading him to believe that the political divisiveness of the Trump era “primed these fans with a particular type of political messaging that is in direct conflict with the values presented in The Last Jedi.”

Oh, that’s it!  Fucking with the election is one thing, but screw with Star Wars, and THIS. MEANS. WAR.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Trump and McConnell are nothing if not opportunists. They have no personal loyalty to Kavanaugh. Trump is famous for firing people when they outlive their usefulness. McConnell takes situational ethics to a new low.

 

So Trump and McConnell will surely consider the risks and benefits of standing by Kavanaugh, and the odds of his prevailing. Those odds are worsening.

 

There is a fair chance that early this week, Kavanaugh will be asked to fall on his sword. You know the routine. “I have decided to spare my family and our country further ordeal and embarrassment, and blah, blah, blah.”

 

That way the FBI investigation is short-circuited and the subject is changed. The spectacle of Republican men defending a likely sexual assaulter against a highly credible woman goes away.

Trump and McConnell get to fast-track another nomination, preferably female, such as the ultraconservative Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The court seat is saved, the optics on women shift, while the ferocious white male base is furious at Kavanaugh’s treatment and turns out to vote in November.

 

As McConnell and Trump take a close look at the risks and alternatives, dumping Kavanaugh has to be very tempting. As for Kavanaugh himself, even withdrawing may not spare him further trouble in the investigation of what actually occurred at that fateful party. He could be the subject of further inquiry by the House or Senate, or by Maryland prosecutors.

A smart person would not have nominated Kavanaugh in the first place.  A dumb person surrounded by smart people whom they listen to would have a long list of names, ready to pick from.  Fuck, the first minute that allegations against Kavanaugh surfaced, Trump’s staff should have had a list of backups ready to go at a moment’s notice, complete with judicial filings, paperwork, and everything required to get a non-controversial nominee through in a matter of weeks.

Instead, we get Trump, who will destroy the GOP for years to come because he wants his guy.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kavanaugh step aside, or Trump and McConnell force him out, but never underestimate the ego of a megalomaniac.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

Most recently, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), cut off funds for two GOP incumbent campaigns, for Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) and Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). The Super PAC, which has already raised about $100 million for the 2018 election cycle, is pulling out of $1 million in TV ad spots it had reserved for Coffman and $2.1 million it had reserved for Bishop. The fund will redirect the funds elsewhere, according to an article in Politico.

Political action committees give a disproportionate amount of their campaign dollars to incumbents because congressional re-election rates are typically in the 90% range. So, to see PACs walk away from incumbent races, especially funds so flush with cash, is quite unusual. But then again, this mid-term election is anything but typical.

According to Republican officials, in both races, Democratic challengers are leading and are expected to outspend Coffman and Bishop significantly in the final weeks leading up to the election. But another PAC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, isn’t convinced Coffman is a lost cause and has agreed to fill the gap with a $600,000 TV ad buy, according to the Politico article.

…

Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee has pulled funds from other races it sees as unsalvageable at this point, such as the Congressional District 17 in Pennsylvania. It recently canceled its ad reservations in the district where Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) is up against Conor Lamb (D). The PAC had spent about $2.2 million in ads opposing Lamb. But the Democrat has significantly outraised his Republican challenger at $7.3 million to Rothfus’ $2 million, according to a report at the end of June by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Other Republican candidates have been unhappy about the lack of support from the NRCC, such as Rep. David Young (R-Iowa) and Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.). And others are in danger of getting cut off, including Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Pa.) and Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa). But as former Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), who was involved with the NRCC during his tenure, said, “These are very Darwinian decisions. It means selection of the fittest.”

Follow the money.  That’s what we’ve heard for years about corruption and politics, and nothing is more prescient about how things are going than campaign spending in October.

There are two reasons why a group suspends spending on a candidate.  Either they’re so far ahead that any extra money spent is a waste, or they’re down by so much that the candidate might as well start looking for a new job.  There’s only so much money available for these PAC’s that they have to be wise about where they spend.   Think of it like garbage time in a football game.  The home team is up 42-0 early in the third quarter, and they’ve pulled all of the starters, letting the backups get some playing time.  The losing team is still trying, but they’re getting ready to sit their starters, too.  It all depends on if they score quick on the next series.

That’s what’s happening with most of these races.  The NRCC has pulled funding from Keith Rothfus.  He’s getting slaughtered by Conor Lamb in the local polls, local ads, spending, and canvassing.  I’ve driven through PA-17 recently, and the Lamb:Rothfus yard sign ratio is about 10:1 in the areas I’ve seen.  In 2016, the yard sign split was pretty even between Dems and the GOP for the same area.  As far as television ad buys, I’ve seen two Rothfus commercials, and several Lamb spots.  Last night I saw the first attack ad against Lamb.  And there was only one.  Lamb had several spots in the same show.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Who paid off 6-figures worth of Kavanaugh’s debt just before his nomination? What was their motive for doing so? Was said debt paid off so it wouldn’t be a confirmation/background issue? Was it someone linked to tRUmp’s lawyer(s) or admin? These questions need answers.

^^ The lack of interest here from (who didn’t press him at all about it) and the likes of , , etc is not only baffling, but concerning. Whether or not his debts will compromise the integrity of the court is *the* most important issue.

 

 

That’s it for the last few days.  It’s been a crazy ride, and it’s only going to get worse.  Remember to keep your wits about you, and your head on a swivel.

A spoiler for Tuesday, Stormy Daniels is back in the news.  No, she didn’t get arrested again, but it is bad news for Trump.

I don’t have any other article ideas floating around right now, but I keep playing with the idea of seeing if there’s some kind of rideshare I could volunteer for on Election Day to help people get to the polls.  I have no clue where to start, or if it’s feasible, but I feel like I should do something.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

They Are Not The Same

The following post is a departure from my normal posts.

 

Both parties are not the same.  Not even close.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard in my life that both parties are the same.  Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t matter.  They’re both corrupt cheats.  This was a common claim that I’d hear from…. well, everyone.  For a long time, I’d hear this from everyone.  I’d hear it from those on the left, the right, the middle, the informed and the ignorant.

The last couple years have proven that this claim is total and utter bullshit.  I’ve seen this since the early Obama days, but ever since January 2017, the only ones that make try to make that claim are the ignorant or the guilty who are looking to shift the blame.  The blatant corruption, greed, and hypocrisy are on display for all to see.  But, every time a Republican gets caught in a lie, breaking the law, or abusing their power, someone has the audacity to say “both sides are the same.”

Bullshit.  Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Democrats didn’t order children to be separated from their parents and thrown into cages.

Democrats didn’t push to kill net neutrality.

Democrats didn’t ignore the threats to the upcoming elections.

Democrats didn’t work to kill the EPA.

And, most importantly, the Democrats didn’t work to put an (alleged) rapist on the Supreme Court.

At the time of this writing, the Republican Party is pulling out every dirty trick to install a  corrupt, entitled, blackmailable prick onto the Supreme Court.  The only thing that’s slowed down his nomination to this point is that Senators Jeff Flake and Lisa Murkowski aren’t comfortable voting for him unless the FBI investigates the sexual assault claims against Brett Kavanaugh.

Only 2 members of the Republican Party in the Senate, out of 51, have a problem with putting an alleged rapist on the Supreme Court.  If I’m doing my math right, that sounds like 49 are okay with it.

I’d like to say that I’m surprised and ashamed by this mentality, but I can’t.  I’m ashamed, but not surprised.  The Republican Party has long been the Anti-Woman party.  Now, they can add being Pro-Rape to their platform.

Hating women isn’t a recent development for the Republicans.  While they’ve never been the political party that’s catered to women, they didn’t openly advocate hating women until the Pro-Life movement began in the late 1970’s.  At that point, hating women was a side effect to hating black people.  The Pro-Life movement began in the years following the signing of the Civil Rights Act.  Since white people weren’t allowed to legally discriminate against black people in most businesses and actions, they had to go somewhere to spew their racism.  So, they went to the most racist places allowed in society: church.  I’m not saying that they weren’t God-Fearing Christians before, but now they had a place to go to practice their dog-whistling.  This was the rise of the Evangelicals and the genesis of the Religious Right.

The thing is, the Religious Right didn’t have another cause to help rally the troops until Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across the country.  Before then, fighting against abortion wasn’t a major tenet of any sect of Christianity, except for the Catholics.  And Evangelicals are about as far from Catholics are as possible.  But the Evangelicals jumped on the abortion bandwagon when they were able to create the message of the “irresponsible black woman” who used abortions because they “couldn’t keep their legs closed.”

The Religious Right and the Republican Party fed off of each other, amplifying their racist dog-whistles at every turn.  Welfare went from a way of providing for a poor white war widow and her family to the main method of lazy black women to get money.  Public education went from the bedrock of society to poorly funded and even worse performing  places that gave the Religious Right the excuse to push school vouchers, stripping even more money from those schools.

But the fight against women was their most insidious battles.  The same groups that didn’t want to pay for welfare for poor people also went out of their way to hurt women. And their messaging has gotten worse over time.  Back in the 90’s, the GOP started their long battle against the right to choose by trying to place more and more restrictions on when and how a woman could get an abortion.  But at least then, if a politician didn’t at least claim an exception for rape and incest, they were nuts.  Now, there is only a handful of Republicans left that even think that rape victims shouldn’t be forced to carry their rapists’ babies, let alone say these views.

Now, let me be clear, the Pro-Life movement isn’t actually about supporting life.  A real Pro-Life stance includes allowing exceptions for abortion in situations when the mother’s life is in danger, or the child cannot be cared for.  It includes providing health care for the pregnant women and helping women care for their new babies, or finding appropriate homes if the mothers are not able or willing to raise the children.  Pro-Life includes a realization that sometimes forcing a woman to have a child is the worst possible decision.

The people that label themselves “Pro-Life” aren’t Pro-Life.  They’re Anti-Woman.  They’re Pro-Suffering.  They only give a shit about the woman’s baby until the baby is born.  At that point, they disappear faster than a Trump when the bill comes due.  They don’t want to support the woman who has the baby when they can’t afford it, they don’t want to provide for the children’s education, and God help those women if the baby is black, because the Evangelicals sure as Hell won’t.

Want to know how disgusting the “Pro-Life” view is?  Imagine hearing a story about an 11-year-old girl that was raped and impregnated by her Uncle, or a family friend, or her pastor.  This girl, who has already been raped by someone she trusted, now has to fight to get an abortion.  Depending on where she lives in the United States, she has to travel to some distant city, stay overnight in some low-grade hotel because she has to go through two consultations with a medical professional, then fight through a line of holier-than-though protesters calling her a whore and a slut, because they think that she’s at fault.

If you’re first thought isn’t feeling terrible for this girl but saying that she’s a killer because you think the collection of cells inside of her is more important than her this girl’s life and future and she deserved all of the torment she went through and then some, then fuck you.  Learn some fucking empathy, morals, and ethics.

Up until 2016, the Republican Party kept sliding further and further into Anti-Woman policies, almost always using the excuse of “Religious Freedom.”  The most common example was getting state laws passed that allowed pharmacists to refuse to administer birth control.  But things got worse when Donald Trump became the nominee for the Republican Party.  A serial philanderer, when his “Grab’em by the pussy” tape came out, that should have been the end of his political career.

No, it wasn’t.  He somehow survived.  22 women have accused him of sexual assault, but the Republican Party lined up behind him.

It’s been two years since that tape dropped, and a year since the beginning of the #MeToo movement.  In that time, we’ve seen the largest protests since the Vietnam War, and they were led by women.  We’ve seen women speaking out against men in power.  Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Les Moonves, Bill O’Reily, Bill Shine, and Charlie Rose.  All of them lost their jobs because of their past treatment of women.  Harvey’s looking at losing his freedom, just like Bill Cosby.

Another man that lost his position and power was Al Franken.  Two women accused the Senator of inappropriate sexual behavior, and the Democrats forced him to resign.

Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh gets accused of sexual assault by three women so far, and the Republicans want to promote him to the Supreme Court.

Jim Jordan gets implicated in the cover-up of a rapist doctor’s actions at Ohio State, and the Republicans want to promote him to Speaker of the House.  Yes, that doctor abused women, too.

Roy Moore was accused of molesting young teen girls while he was in his 30’s.  The Republican Party tried to make him a Senator.

What’s made matters uglier is Trump’s actions against the women coming out with these allegations.  Here is the President of the United States, dismissing their accusations, attacking these women, and blaming them for the assaults.  And, since the Republican Party is completely beholden to Trump for everything now, his ideas now become official party policy.

Because of the this, the Republican Party is now the Pro-Rape Party.

If there is any good that has come from Trump being President, it’s that we’re finally having this conversation about how women are treated in our society.

Now, the next question is how far the Republican Party is willing to go in their alienation of women.  Are they willing to say goodbye to women for the next 40 years?  Because that’s the price of confirming Kavanaugh.  The fact that 49 Senators think it’s worth it shows how little they think of women, but if they go through with continuing their Anti-Woman platform, they need to know that they will lose the women’s vote for good.  If they’re willing to ignore, or worse silence these accusers, to put an (alleged) rapist on the Supreme Court that would make abortion illegal, then they need to know that that they will lose women for good, just like how the Democrats lost the racist vote with the Civil Rights Act.

So, we’re now at the point where if someone says “I’m a Republican”, asking them “Why do you hate women?” is no longer a cheap attack but a valid question.  The only question I have left is should their new name be the Rapepublican Party or Rape-Publican Party?  I’m not sure whether that should be hyphenated.

 

Note:  By the way, I’m only saying alleged for legal purposes.  Do I think that Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist?  Yes.  Has it been proven in a court of law?  No.  Do I have evidence against him? No.  Does he act like a lot of the frat boy asshole rapists I’ve met in my life? Absolutely.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.