Daily Check-In 11/16/2018

Daily Check-In

Friday, November 16, 2018 and the weekend.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

If the Russian Honeypot flips, we could be in for some crazy stories coming out.  Remember, she worked with John Bolton on producing actual Russian propaganda, and had access to ALL levels of the GOP.

There’s stupid, there’s lying, and then there’s Trump levels of stupid and lying.

No attorney worth their law license would let their client write their own answers to a questionnaire like this.  They might let them give them the initial answers, but would lawyer it up quite a bit.  But, since Trump’s ego is more fragile than centuries old glass, he has to claim that he wrote the whole thing by himself.  I doubt this for two reasons.  The one I already mentioned about his lawyers not wanting to get disbarred for lying to the court, and legal documents can’t be submitted in crayon.

NOTE: More legal moves for George Papadopoulos —> New DC lawyer, Michal Patrick Hatley, appears in his criminal case, and Caroline Polisi, who is representing him in the DNC’s lawsuit, is seeking to appear as well.

BREAKING: George Papadopoulos’s new lawyers seek an order continuing his bail pending the outcome of Andrew Miller’s appeal challenging Mueller’s authority, asserting it could “directly impact the validity of Mr. Papadopoulos’s prosecution and conviction.”

Here is the full memo:

USA v Papadopoulos – Motion – 111618 Source document contributed to DocumentCloud by Chris Geidner (BuzzFeed). documentcloud.org       

As notes, this George Papadopoulos filing comes 10 days before he is supposed to report to prison.

Also: It is very difficult to challenge a plea agreement. Here are some of the waivers in his:

Judge Moss orders the special counsel’s office to respond to Papadopoulos’ request by 11a next Wednesday.

Yep, George is an idiot.

Once again. McConnell is complicit.  If he weren’t trying to run interference on this investigation, he would have let this bill hit the floor last summer.

Personally, I think this is all show.  Even if they could try to subpoena both of them, they have less than three working weeks left in the session, and the dancing around and posturing would take at least two of those.

Still, keep an eye out for them to try some fuckery.  I wouldn’t put it past them to issue the subpoena and try to refer their refusal to show as a criminal matter as a Parthian Shot.

 

Let’s talk about Julian Assange. [THREAD]

1/ Whatever legitimate journalism Assange’s Wikileaks may’ve done previously, by 2016, he was an asset of Russian intelligence. The coordinated released of stolen Podesta emails an hour after the Access Hollywood tape dropped was not journalism; it was an act of cyber warfare.

2/ In general, the indiscriminate dumping of sensitive documents stolen by hackers is also not journalism. This is something the Bolsheviks did with Romanov papers after the Revolution, BTW. It was done to sow chaos.

3/ Assange was intimately connected with Edward Snowden’s defection to Russia. He helped a traitorous spy escape, and he helped implement a propaganda campaign to present that spy as a First Amendment hero.

4/ Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy because he was wanted in Sweden for sexual assault. A guiltless man might demand his day in court, so that he would be exonerated. Assange fled the country & hid out in an embassy basement. You know, like an innocent man would.

5/ Remember some years ago, when we on the left falsely believed Assange was the cat’s meow, and Obama did not? Yeah, Obama had intel we didn’t have. He knew what Assange really was: an opportunistic fame whore & chaos agent with unseemly ties to the FSB.

6/ Recent visitors to Assange include: Nigel Farage, Roger Stone, and Sean Hannity. Hannity has a fishy relationship with Assange:

Sean Hannity to Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy

7/ Also, Assange reached out to Hannity, or tried to, with anti-Dem info:

Julian Assange Offered Hannity Impersonator ‘News’ About Top Democrat

8/ Hannity is one of three clients of Michael Cohen, who reportedly met for over 40 hours w/the Mueller team, and was also supposedly in front of the Grand Jury this past week.

9/ Wikileaks DM’d with Donald Trump, Jr. during the campaign.

Secret Correspondence between Assange and Trump Jr.

10/ Wikileaks is “Organization 1” in the Mueller indictment against the 12 Russian hackers. So we know Assange is on his radar.

What the Latest Mueller Indictment Reveals About WikiLeaks’ Ties to Russia—and What It Doesn’t The indictment may only be an accusation, but it hints at the remarkably granular forensic intelligence that has been gathered. newyorker.com       

11/ And now Assange, we find out, is under sealed indictment. Assange, who coordinated w/Junior & Stone and possibly Hannity during the campaign.

U.S. prosecutors get indictment against Wikileaks’ Assange: court… American prosecutors have obtained a sealed indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose website published thousands of classif… reuters.com       

In short: no matter how many anarchists sing his praises, or how many ex-Baywatch babes he boinks, Assange is what Mike Pompeo said he was: head of a non-state hostile intelligence service aligned with Putin’s Russia. He belongs in US prison. That’s where he’s going. [END]

PS

Aaron Rupar: As rumors of Assange’s prosecution swirl, a reminder of what Trump was saying on campaign trail in October 2016 (via @SRuhle): “This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove… It’s been amazing what’s come out on Wikileaks… Now, this just came out. Wikileaks! I love Wikileaks.”

 

Mueller’s team has been looking into the communications and political dealings of John Hannah, the former Cheney adviser who later worked on Trump’s State Department transition team. This includes interactions with Lebanese-American businessman and fixer George Nader, who brokered meetings between foreign dignitaries and Team Trump, and Joel Zamel, a self-proclaimed social-media guru with deep ties to Israeli intelligence. The Daily Beast previously reported that the three men met with a top Saudi general in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration to discuss plans to undermine and overthrow the government of Iran.

That Saudi General is one of the people MBS is setting up to take the fall for Khashoggi.  And as beautiful as it would be to see Dick Cheney wrapped up in the Trump mess, this might be one evil scheme he’s not involved in.  Remember, George Nader is one of the Cooperating Witnesses.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRUMP VS. THE MILITARY

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Pro-gun arguments all sound like ad slogans, and there’s a reason for that.

Every argument against gun control, if interrogated, ultimately reveals itself as an argument against changing gun violence as the status quo. Which suggests some things about what’s being defended.

I don’t think these gun defenders are even actually defending guns, per se. I think what is desired is our status quo of a persistent and ever-present potential violence. The violence is the product.

You need a gun to protect yourself from violence. But that means you need violence, so that there’s something from which to protect yourself.

What is desired is the personal option to deal lethal damage based solely on one’s own personal discretion, in a manner and a time and a place one sees fit. Without a culture of gun violence, the opportunity to do this becomes less realistic.

Both mass shooters and gun defenders agree that violence with guns is the best possible solution for the problems they perceive in the world, and themselves the most appropriate possible instrument to deliver it. They disagree only on the appropriateness of target.

There are gun owners – many of them – who desire to own guns for reasons of sport or hobby. You can spot them because they also want gun control. But you can also spot the ones for whom the product being sold them is the realistic opportunity for violence.

the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun my version of gun control is to use both hands an armed society is a polite society These aren’t arguments. They’re ad copy for a society in which gun violence is the preferred status quo.

They don’t even sound like good ad slogans.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

Dear new members of Congress, Here is some free advice that you need: 1. Put the House Ethics Office on speed dial or, if you’re a Senator, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Add the committee’s email to your contacts. 2. Go introduce yourself individually, even if you…

…have already received an ethics briefing. When I say go introduce yourself, I don’t mean only to the members on the committee — I mean introduce yourself to the STAFFERS on that committee who will be available to advise you. Bring your top staffer with you to meet them. Get…

…some phone numbers and email addresses. USE those numbers and emails in the coming weeks. 3. Ask them to train your staff. 4. Ask them about gifts, disclosure, fundraising, misuse of position and outside activities. Ask what else you should be asking. 5. Tell your staff…

…that ethics is important to you. 6. SHOW your staff that ethics is important to you. (If this item doesn’t prove to be unpleasant for you, you’re doing it wrong.) 7. Make a pledge (and keep the pledge) that you will never ever respond with anger when someone on your…

…staff raises an ethics concern or gives you ethics advice that you don’t like. (Otherwise, your staff will be afraid to raise concerns and you may wind up hearing it from the Office of Congressional Ethics or the ethics committee — you will not enjoy that.) 8. If you’re in…

…the House and you don’t know what the Office of Congressional Ethics is, find out NOW! (It’s not the ethics committee.) 9. Read The Onion article titled “Congressman Hurt To Discover Lobbyist Not Really His Friend..” Don’t be like the legislator in that article. Nobody…

…who wants anything from you in this town is your friend. 10. Get to work on your new entrant financial disclosure report. Know this: You are going to get it wrong. That’s why you should either get help from the Ethics Committee, if they have time to look at a draft before…

…you file it, or (if they don’t) from somebody who knows what they’re doing. Now go forth and be ethical legislators and do a great job for your country.

 

ELECTION 2018

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Ladies and gentlemen – a festivus carol On the first day of Mullermas, my Mueller gave to me Paul Manafort in a pear tree (thread)

On the second day of Mullermas my Mueller gave to me Two Mike Flynns and Paul Manafort in a pair tree

On the Third day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me Three MAGAX, Two Mike Flynns and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the fourth day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me 4 Traitortots*, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree [*inc Jared]

On the fifth day of Mullermas my Mueller gave to me FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 6th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 7th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots*, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 8th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me eight Butina boyfriends, Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 9th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me nine Cohens singing, eight Butina boyfriends, Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 10th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me @Ten_GOP, 9 Cohens singing, 8 Butina boyfriends, Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 11th day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me 11 FISA warrants, @Ten_GOP, 9 Cohens singing, 8 Butina boyfriends, Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

On the 12h day of Muellermas my Mueller gave to me 12 Trump indictments, 11 FISA warrants, @Ten_GOP, 9 Cohens singing, 8 Butina boyfriends, Vault 7 catfish, 666 Park Av, FIVE EYES IC 4 traitortots, 3 MAGAX, 2 Mike Flynns, and Paul Manafort in a pear tree

I promise I won’t sing this out loud.  Mostly because I sing like an amputee.  I can’t carry a note, and I can’t hold a tune.

 

That’s it for the last few days.  I’m still waiting on information about the likely indictments coming out of D.C., just like many others.  I try not to get caught up in the hype, and I try not to spread that hype either in case it turns out to be bogus, but we’re also the last to hear about anything happening, either.

As far as things this week go, it’s a holiday here in the U.S., so the schedule will be different this week.  I make no guarantees about posting on Thursday or Friday.  Also, I start a new work schedule for the next few weeks, so my posts might be more sporadic in frequency or more streamlined in content.  I might also focus on one or two main stories during the next month, especially if something momentous breaks.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

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