Month: November 2018

Daily Check-In 11/16/2018

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

Daily Check-In 11/15/2018

Thursday, November 15, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Putin’s Chef DENIED

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump last year, rejected Concord’s claim that the allegations didn’t amount to a crime. The ruling means that the special counsel’s office can proceed with the prosecution.

Concord lawyer Eric Dubelier argued prosecutors didn’t accuse Concord of willfully violating U.S. laws, contending it showed a lack of criminal intent. The judge disagreed, stating it was enough that the indictment show that the company knew it was impairing the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, Department of Justice or Department of State.

“Concord goes too far in asserting that the special counsel must also show that Concord knew with specificity ‘how the relevant laws described those functions,’” Friedrich said in her 32-page ruling. “At this stage, the government has alleged the requisite intent and no more is required.”

Concord is owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose primary business is catering and who is known as “Putin’s chef.”

Unlike the Russian nationals, who didn’t respond to the charges, Concord hired a law firm and mounted an aggressive defense, questioning the legitimacy of the charges lodged by Mueller.

Looks like this case will continue along.

 

Meanwhile, in other court news…

Interesting.  Let’s check back in 10 days to see what happened that could cause them to ask for an extension.

 

Trump Scared Shitless

I’ve noticed a pattern to these events.  Trump rage tweets about something involving Mueller, trying to rile up the base.  Some big story comes out that distracts from this.  Down the line, we hear about some conversation or new piece of information that he found out about or his lawyers were involved in that kicked him in the head that day.

My guess is that this was the day he found out how truly, absolutely, positively, without a doubt fucked he is.  This is when he found out that his son is going to prison, his daughter is going to prison, his son-in-law is going to prison, his friends are going to prison, and he’s going to prison if he’s lucky.  He’s tried to think that he’s ahead of the game, but that’s no longer true in Trump World.  Either his little lackey saved his own neck and decided not to fuck with Mueller, or he gave Trump the info he could get, and it’s enough to show that Trump’s best bet is to try to flee the country.

Speaking of Tangerine Tojo’s lackey…

 

I knew this fuck-up was coming

President Donald Trump on Wednesday indicated during an interview that he tapped former US attorney Matthew Whitaker to replace then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in order to rein in the Russia investigation.

Speaking to The Daily Caller, Trump expanded on his thought process behind choosing Whitaker to take over as acting attorney general.

“Matthew Whitaker is a very respected man,” Trump said. “He’s — and he’s, very importantly, he’s respected within DOJ. I heard he got a very good decision, I haven’t seen it.”

He added that he “heard it was a very strong opinion,” referring to the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel’s 20-page memo justifying Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general until the Senate confirms a permanent replacement.

Reiterating that Whitaker is “somebody that’s very respected” — a claim that stands in contrast to many DOJ and FBI officials’ views of their new boss — Trump said he “knew him only as he pertained, you know, as he was with Jeff Sessions.”

The president then appeared to allude to the fact that he tapped Whitaker primarily to constrain the Russia investigation.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is an investigation that should have never been brought,” Trump told The Daily Caller. “It should have never been had … It’s an illegal investigation.”

He then tacked on: “And you know, it’s very interesting because when you talk about not Senate confirmed, [the special counsel Robert Mueller] is not Senate confirmed.”

The admission is reminiscent of when Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt last year that he ousted then FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

Trump’s statement to Holt now makes up one of the central threads of Mueller’s investigation into whether the president sought to obstruct justice in the inquiry, and legal experts told INSIDER his admission to The Daily Caller could add another piece to Mueller’s probe.

“What is so unusual about Trump is that he publicly forecasts his motivation in a way that is self-defeating and self-incriminating,” Elie Honig, a former prosecutor from the Southern District of New York who specialized in organized-crime cases, told INSIDER.

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the DOJ, echoed that assessment.

“The president’s knee-jerk pivot to talking about the Russia investigation when asked about Whitaker’s qualification is what poker players call a ‘tell,'” Cramer told INSIDER.

It was last Wednesday (Daily Check-In 11/07/2018) that Sessions quit and Trump named Whitaker as the Acting AG.  That day, I said the following:

This is a little league play, and Mueller is the New York Yankees. They have this wargammed out.

First, if at any point Trump so much breathes, implies, tweets, or says that he picked Whitaker to stop Mueller, then Whitaker becomes an accomplice in a Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice. Whitaker then has the choice between trying to follow Trump’s orders, or follow the DOJ’s rules. If he does try to execute Trump’s wishes after Trump makes such a stupid statement, then his actions would have criminal intent.

I figured it was just a matter of time before Trump would admit to the world that he was thinking about the Russia Investigation and Mueller when he fired Sessions and hired Whitaker.

Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long for him to fuck himself like this.  Then again, he has been moping about the midterm losses and getting his ass handed to him in the press over the rest of his fights, so it took him some time to open up his schedule enough for some self-sabotage.

 

Protecting Mueller

This isnt McConnell trying to be diplomatic or anything, or trying to avoid an unnecessary legal fight.  He’s trying to save his own shell.  He’s neck deep in this.  Don’t forget it.

 

JAss News

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been charged under seal, prosecutors inadvertently revealed in a recently unsealed court filing — a development that could significantly advance the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and have major implications for those who publish government secrets.

The disclosure came in a filing in a case unrelated to Assange. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer, urging a judge to keep the matter sealed, wrote that “due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.” Later, Dwyer wrote the charges would “need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested.”

Dwyer is also assigned to the WikiLeaks case. People familiar with the matter said what Dwyer was disclosing was true, but unintentional.

Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia, said, “The court filing was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing.”

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.

Well, well, well.  What do we have here?

This is very interesting, and moves Julian Assange from the “Assumed Indicted” category to “Waiting to be indicted”, but what for exactly?  Are these charges related to Russia, or some of his other fuckery over the years?

Let’s look at the surrounding case.

The filing in the Eastern District of Virginia came Aug. 22 in a case that combines national security and sex trafficking. Seitu Sulayman Kokayi, 29, was charged with enticing a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him and send him pornographic images of herself. But he was detained in part because he “has a substantial interest in terrorist acts,” according to the court filing.

His father-in-law, according to the filing, has been convicted of terrorist acts. The case involves previously classified information, according to government filings, and prosecutors plan to use information obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Kokayi was indicted last week and is set to be arraigned Friday morning.

The case had been sealed until early September, though by itself it attracted little notice. On Thursday evening, Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, who is known for scrubbing court filings, joked about the apparent error on Twitter — which first brought it to the attention of reporters.

I can’t find any decent info ok Kokayi in a quick Google search, but this is the first time I’ve seen his name brought up.  It’s likely he was interacting with or using Wikileaks for some of his research, and that’s how Julian Assange got pulled into this mess.  I don’t know his involvement in this case, but it was likely more than just hitting his home page.  When the DOJ looked for information on Assange, they found these sealed indictments in some database, it was mentioned in this sealed indictment.  When this document was being scrubbed, his name was missed.

Notice how on the previous legal docs I’ve hosted that people have had been called PERSON-1 or INDIVIDUAL-1?  That’s to protect people who haven’t yet been charged with a crime, or to protect victims or witnesses.  That’s part of the scrubbing process.  What happened here is someone likely missed Julian Assange’s name in this indictment and didn’t catch it until it two months later.

 

Rumor Mill Special: JAss and a Grand Jury

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

Whitaker

 

VETERANS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

Seriously, fuck this guy.  He allowed the personal details of a woman and her family to be posted on his site, then encouraged his readers to harass and attack them.  His actions crossed the line of free speech and entered into targeted assault.  His “free speech” defense ended when the first of his trolls followed his instructions and attacked them.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

#METOO

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

First and foremost, there is minimal correlation between treatable mental illness and violent crime. In a study of 235 mass shootings, only twenty-two percent of the perpetrators could be diagnosed as having any degree of mental illness, with no proven correlation between this diagnosis and the horrific crime committed.

Furthermore, less than one percent of gun homicides overall are committed by people with serious mental illness and there does not seem to be a higher rate of mental health issues in the United States compared to other nations, where rates of gun violence and mass shootings are exceedingly lower.

What is true, rather, is that grouping-suffering individuals with mental health concerns, already stigmatized by society and with poor access to care, with antisocial mass murderers only creates further stigma. Most important to note is that after years of commitment to improving “mental health” spouted by legislators after each mass shooting, there has been no real change to our health-care system or increase in access, with the majority of those with mental health issues not receiving treatment and for those actively seeking help, 1 in 5 still unable to obtain it . It is apparent, then, that the cry for mental health access is a calculated distraction to replace a proven solution with an unrelated issue.

When humanists, activists and especially physicians accept the false relationship between mental health and mass shootings, they perpetuate a lie that does a disservice to both causes. We, as doctors, must lead the way in rejecting this deception and promoting meaningful change on our own terms.

This is a public health crisis that extends well past the realm of the political and in which every doctor must have a voice. As physicians, we must encourage all citizens who are angry, heartbroken, afraid and caught in a cycle of never-ending grief to see past the “mental illness” ruse and demand that our media and politicians address the real causes of and solutions to horrific and preventable mass shootings.

We need better mental health care in this country, but it’s not the sole reason for shootings.  It’s an easy crutch, but most of the mass shooters aren’t crazy.  At least, not crazy enough to qualify as crazy.  The Parkland Shooter, the Vegas Shooter, the Pulse Shooter, and the Borderline Shooter were all not batshit-insane.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

What if your telephone company were allowed to:

-record all of your conversations -note who your friends, family, colleagues and other important people are -note all the keywords used in your conversations -note how many times you use certain keywords in your conversations -note who and what you’re talking about, and when

-assess your emotional state -track everywhere you go, even when you’re not using your phone -catalogue what your face looks like, and what your friends’ and family’s faces look like -assess your health and financial situation based on your conversations and who you call

-track all of the above information about your children

What if your phone company then: -took all of that information about you, and allowed really really bad people to have it -allowed those bad people to pretend they were someone you trust, and call you and trick you into going places and doing things

-allowed those bad people to get OTHER bad people find you. Bad people who want to do horrible things to you.

What if, when confronted, the phone company said that you were in control of 1. Your conversations – you could always opt to not talk to anyone 2. Your phone number 3. Whether or not your number’s in the phone book.

But the phone company continues to collect all of the above information with you, and continues to share it with really evil people.

Would you think the phone company needs to be held accountable? Would you think the phone company needs to be regulated?

Facebook and social media are the Wild F*ckin’ West. It doesn’t matter how many hoodies or shiny self-driving cars are part of the package. They’re operating in a lawless bubble. Remember that as our new, blue Congress is sworn in.

We need to address the problems of Social Media, starting with Facebook.  It’s ugly out there.  Europe is on the right path with their data protections, but we need more.

This sounds like a post for another time.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Apart from allowing more leeway in mandatory minimum sentences, the draft bill could:

  • Extend an Obama-era law that got rid of the sentencing differences between people carrying powder cocaine and crack-cocaine, since crack users often saw harsher sentences. The new bill could apply that law retroactively, which would affect thousands of crack-cocaine users already in prison serving lengthy sentences.
  • Lower sentencing under the federal “three strikes” laws, which 28 states have implemented from a life sentence to a maximum of 25 years in prison in some cases. The “three strikes” penalty punishes repeat offenders who commit two violent felonies and have one other felony conviction, regardless of its severity, from a federal or state court.
  • Better prepare people for life after prison by assessing their risks and needs, while also creating incentives to participate in job-training programs that could allow for earlier prison release and a chance at a job after they get out.
  • Outright ban the shackling of pregnant women behind bars, according to the New York Times, and work to ensure prisoners are placed in facilities closer to their families so they can have proper visitations.

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTION 2018

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday will be a bit of a holding pattern, waiting to see what’s going on with any possible indictments.  As of Friday 1PM EST, I haven’t heard anything yet.

The Assange thing was a bit of a surprise, but I wonder if those are indictments from before 2016.  Remember, Assange was up to some shit long before Russia in 2016.  That’s just when he pulled off the mask of being a “fighter for transparency” and revealed that he was a Russian shill.

If I get time this weekend, I’d like to write about how I would fix Social Media.  I have no clue where to start, but that’s never stopped me from spouting off my ideas before.  Sometimes they flesh out as I’m rambling.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/14/2018

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Six days before WikiLeaks began releasing Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, Roger Stone had a text message conversation with a friend about WikiLeaks, according to copies of phone records obtained exclusively by NBC News.

“Big news Wednesday,” the Stone pal, radio host Randy Credico, wrote on Oct. 1, 2016, according to the text messages provided by Stone. “Now pretend u don’t know me.”

“U died 5 years ago,” Stone replied.

“Great,” Credico wrote back. “Hillary’s campaign will die this week.”

…

But the text messages provided by Stone to NBC News show that Credico appeared to be providing regular updates to Stone on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s plans in the days before the hacked emails were released. In the texts, Credico told Stone he had insights into Assange’s plans through a longtime friend, who was also Assange’s lawyer, according to the text messages.

Reached Wednesday, Credico downplayed the text exchanges. “There’s absolutely nothing there that I had any knowledge of anything that Assange was going to do because I didn’t,” he told NBC News.

…

Stone’s lawyer Grant Smith said the messages vindicate his client.

“The texts provided to NBC News demonstrate that my client, Roger Stone, has been consistent for the past two years in his assertion that Randy Credico was the person who was providing him what limited information Mr. Stone had regarding WikiLeaks,” Smith said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating whether Stone had any advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to publish Podesta’s emails, according to people familiar with the investigation. Nearly a dozen Stone associates have been summoned by Mueller to appear before his Washington grand jury, the sources said.

The text messages obtained by NBC News appear to show that Stone and Credico exchanged messages about Assange having damaging information about Clinton at least as early as Aug. 27, 2016. The texts show that at 6:07 p.m. that day, Credico wrote to Stone, “Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary.”

We have now entered the “Eat their own” phase of the investigation. Credico will likely flip on Stone, Stone wants to bury Credico to keep that from happening, and Corsi’s sitting in the wings striking a deal with Mueller.

Remember that Politico think-piece from a couple of weeks ago, in which a former federal prosecutor wondered if President Donald Trump had already been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller and was secretly litigating that behind the scenes? One legal expert clearly told Law&Crime why that was a “bogus” idea. However, the identity of this person has remained elusive.

Just like that, though, the “mystery appellant” has returned to the stage — but they’re still hiding behind the curtain.

According to federal court records, this person challenging a subpoena filed a “sealed 6,487-word brief” with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday. Judge Beryl Howell is presiding over the case.

Remember this story from Daily Check-In 10/31/2018?  Looks like there’s a new and rather lengthy filing in this case.  The more I think about this, the more I think that this mystery guest isn’t Trump, but someone else.  Someone close to him during all of this, like Don McGahn.  If this were Trump, does anyone think for a second he would have bitched about this on Twitter yet?

 

1/ Mueller is investigating attempts by Roger Stone to intimidate Roger Credico, a radio personality Stone claims was his back channel to WikiLeaks. reports Mueller has asked about emails, text messages and online posts involving Stone and Credico.

2/ 18 U.S.C. 1512(b)(1) makes it a federal crime to use intimidation to influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of another person. To prove this crime, Mueller would need to prove that Stone used or attempted to use intimidation or to corruptly persuade Credico,

3/ He would also need to prove that Stone had the intent to influence, delay or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding. To prove Stone’s intent, Mueller could use all of Stone’s words and actions. That would include his emails and text messages.

4/ It would also include his verbal conversations with David Lugo, who quotes as saying that he testified before Mr. Mueller’s grand jury about a blog post Stone helped him draft that was harshly critical of Credico.

5/ It would not be enough to merely show that Stone tried to convince people to criticize Credico. The First Amendment broadly protects speech that is not intended to impede an investigation.

6/ This same activity by Stone could also be used as evidence of Stone’s intent or knowledge as to other potential crimes. His statements to others about Credico’s claims can be used against him regardless of whether they constituted witness intimidation.

7/ Credico was the witness who brought a comfort dog with him to the grand jury. While the standard for “intimidation” is whether a reasonable person would be intimidated, a jury could regard an attempt to intimidate Credico differently than an attempt to intimidate Comey. /end

This fits pretty well with the leak at the top of this section.  Stone is trying to attack Credico to either keep him from testifying against Stone or to discredit him when he does.

Let’s not forget that Roger Stone knew that Wikileaks was going to release hacked emails at least a week before it happened.  Roger was also in communication with Guccifer 2.0, which turned out to be Russian GRU.  At this point, witness intimidation is the least of his worries.

 

Fuck you, you turtle looking mother fucker.

This status report has an update to it from August.  Now it says that Rick Gates is helping on several ongoing investigations.

The defense they’re using is that if Russia did hack the DNC, it was a military operation, not a civilian one.  And they’re using this in court.

Holy dogshit, this is a big development here.

If this is the official story they’re going to go with, then ANY & ALL of their co-conspirators are now opened up to potential treason and espionage charges.  Anyone that helped the Russians with this hack at any point are now linked to an official military attack against the United States.  And the United States now has Russia on the record saying it was.

For anyone who wasn’t aware, the penalty for Espionage or Treason against the United States is Death.  Waving the death penalty in someone’s face is an easy way to get them to flip.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

I’m still waiting for more information to come out on this, but there’s something fishy going on.  Might have something to do with that putrid little piece of filth Jacob Wohl and his fraudulent company SureFire Intelligence ( Daily Check-In 10/30/2018 ) trying to claim credit about this.

There’s two things that I’m pretty sure about.  Either something happened and he’s being blustery as hell to dissuade the public from this, or it’s a setup and he’s going to unleash a firestorm on the person who attacked him.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

WHITAKER

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Fox News announced on Wednesday that it supports CNN’s efforts to restore Jim Acosta’s White House credential after the network filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

“Fox News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter’s press credential. We intend to file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court. Secret Service passes for working White House journalists should never be weaponized. While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the president and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people,” Fox News President Jay Wallace said in a statement.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

cc: Sounds like something you’ve written about before, John 🙂

Retired member of US intelligence community told us he heard in December 2015 from more than one foreign intelligence service that when was in Moscow in 2013 he approached the Russians to intervene in 2016 election. His pitch: “We can help each other out.”

cc: In particular, this: “Of greatest interest, NSA and its partners noted a spike in Kremlin conversations about Trump and the presidency in mid-November 2013, which was when Donald Trump was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.”

Trump Gets Caught in His Own Web of Lies

cc: Great excerpts from your piece above:

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  I hate to be that guy saying “Something’s coming”, but at the time I’m writing this, Mueller’s grand jury has been in deliberations for three straight days, and Orange Twitler went off the rails this morning.  Even more than usual.

Let’s see what’s coming in the next couple days.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/13/2018

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

I’m still looking for more info on that last one, but two reasons why they might do this is if they’re no longer needed, or George is no longer their client.  Those might sound like the same thing, but there’s a difference.  If George was serving his sentence, then he might not need criminal attorneys.  If George did something stupid, wanted to do something stupid or illegal that they advised against, or he stopped paying them.  Knowing how stupid George is, I’ll bet on that option.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

This was the purpose of the visit – if not Mueller, then Mueller’s staff – though he was already on his way home by the time the ABC piece ran. No one could say what, specifically, he was talking to Mueller about – however, he brought his own lawyer along for the meeting. Was this the signing of the immunity agreement that the American media have long speculated could help bring down his old boss? Cockburn can’t say, though he does know that even before Mr Cohen came to Washington, he had racked up 80 hours of discussions with various prosecutors (more than the 50 hours that has been widely reported). Clearly he has a lot to get off his chest.

So the whiff of panic comes from the President’s Android phone when he tweets about the man he once trusted (allegedly) to do his dirty work. ‘If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!’ But what – if any of these allegations are proven – did the ‘dirty work’ consist of? Cohen has already admitted to breaching campaign finance rules by paying hush money to a porn ‘actress’, Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump. He says he did this at the direction of the man who would shortly be elected to the Presidency.

A Wall Street Journal report on how this was done landed like a mortar bomb in the Rose Garden on Friday. The details are devastating. ‘What can you do to help my campaign’ the story has Trump asking David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker was – it’s claimed – brought on board to help Cohen silence Stormy Daniels, and another woman, a former Playboy model called Karen McDougal. Trump asks Cohen: ‘So, what are we gonna pay…150?’ Cohen replies, ‘Yes’ to the payment of $150,000 to McDougal. There is, allegedly, a recording of this conversation.

There are rumors, too, of Trump mistresses paid to have abortions and kept quiet with non-disclosure agreements. One source tells Cockburn that there could be as many as eight such women. (Cockburn should point out that Trump has been the subject of rumors about secret abortions for years, and has admitted no such thing.) But this is more than merely sad and sordid: if any such payments were made while Trump was running for President, there could be new campaign finance violations, all felony offenses. Cohen was said to have handled all this. Cohen was also a vice-president of the Trump Organization and knows about how the secretive family business was conducted. This matters because state prosecutors in New York are now said to be looking again at how condos in Trump buildings were sold – not by Trump, but by his older children, Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka.

8 abortions?!  I’m waiting for the evangelicals to pull a muscle doing mental gymnastics to justify this.

President Trump was involved in approving the hush-money payments made to women who claimed to have had an affair with him, and directed the deals with his “fixer” Michael Cohen, according to an 80-page indictment prepared by federal prosecutors and seen by the Wall Street Journal.

The indictment would have been introduced if Cohen had pleaded not guilty to charges of violating tax and campaign finance laws for making those payments. Instead, Cohen pleaded guilty, with prosecutors penning a 22-page document that detailed many of his actions but did not directly use Trump’s name.

In an interview with the Journal late last month, Trump wouldn’t say whether he discussed the payments, made to model Karen McDougal and porn star Story Daniels, with Cohen during the campaign. The attorney’s office said they found evidence that proves otherwise — that he was involved in every step, which was made at his direction.

Cohen, who once said he would take a bullet for the president, began distancing himself from the president over the summer before the guilty plea.

80 pages.  To put that in perspective, Bernie Madoff’s indictment was only 25 pages.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Remember Ed Whelan?  He was one of Brett Kavanaugh’s defenders that made the crazy theory that it wasn’t Brett that Dr. Ford remembered, but someone else at the party. (Daily Check-In 09/21/2018)

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

If you use a Nazi symbol, you should be aware of what it means: the depravity, the torture, the industrialized slaughter of innocents. The world is forgetting. This thread is to remind us all. /1

This is but a brief overview of the Nazi horrors, which began as the fever dream of a single man, grew to dominate a continent, & nearly engulfed the world. All quotes are sourced from Shirer’s The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich, which draws heavily from captured Nazi archives.

“Its inhabitants were kept for nearly half a year in dog kennels, urinals and in old baking houses. The dog kennels were three feet high, nine feet long, six feet wide.”

“Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers a catastrophe might have occurred… Women gave birth to babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey. Dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the embankment.”

“It was particularly noted that when marching, for example, from railroad station to the camp, a rather large number of prisoners collapsed on the way from exhaustion, either dead or half dead… It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of these occurrences.”

“At the bottom of the steps the guards loaded stones on the backs of these poor men and they had to carry them to the top. The first journey was made with stones weighing about sixty pounds and accompanied by blows… The second journey the stones were still heavier”…

“Whenever the poor wretches sank under their burden they were kicked and hit with a bludgeon… in the evening twenty-one bodies were strewn along the road. The twenty-six others died the following morning.”

“‘During the year you were chief of Einsatzgruppe D, how many men, women and children did your group kill?’ Ohlendorf, Harris later remembered, shrugged his shoulders and with only the slightest hesitation answered: ‘Ninety thousand.'”

“The Einsatz unit would enter a village or town and order the prominent Jewish citizens to call together all Jews for the purpose of ‘resettlement.’ They were requested to hand over their valuables and shortly before execution to surrender their outer clothing…”

“It was attempted to keep the span of time from the moment in which the victims knew what was about to happen to them until the time of their actual execution as short as possible.”

“…My foreman and I went directly to the pits. I heard rifle shots in quick succession from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had got off the trucks—men, women and children of all ages—had to undress upon the order of an S.S. man, who carried a riding or dog whip.”

“They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, top clothing and underclothing. I saw a heap of shoes of about 800 to 1,000 pairs, great piles of under-linen and clothing.”

“Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells and waited for a sign from another S.S. man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand… I heard no complaint or plea for mercy…”

“An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old child in her arms and singing to it and tickling it. The child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes.”

“The father was holding the hand of a boy about 10 years old & speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed to the sky, stroked his head and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the S.S. man at the pit shouted something to his comrade.”

“The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound… I well remember a girl, slim and with black hair, who, as she passed close to me, pointed to herself and said: ‘twenty-three years old.'”

“I walked around the mound and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave. People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads.”

“Some of the people were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it contained about a thousand people.”

“The people, completely naked, went down some steps & clambered over the heads of people lying there to the place to which the S.S. man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or wounded people; some caressed those who were still alive & spoke to them in a low voice.”

“The next batch was approaching already. They went down into the pit, lined themselves up against the previous victims and were shot.”

“‘If the international Jewish financier should again succeed in plunging the nations into world war the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race throughout Europe.’ This was a prophecy, Hitler said, & he repeated it five times verbatim in subsequent public utterances.”

“We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about a half hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses.”

“The gas chambers themselves & adjoining crematoria, viewed from a short distance, were not sinister-looking places at all; it was impossible to make them out for what they were. Over them were well-kept lawns with flower borders; the signs at the entrances merely said BATHS.”

“The unsuspecting Jews thought they were simply being taken to the baths for the delousing which was customary at all camps. And taken to the accompaniment of sweet music!”

“For there was light music. An orchestra of ‘young and pretty girls all dressed in white blouses and navy-blue skirts,’ as one survivor remembered, had been formed from among the inmates.”

“Once they were inside the “shower-room”—and perhaps this was the first moment that they may have suspected something was amiss, for as many as two thousand of them were packed into the chamber like sardines, making it difficult to take a bath—the massive door was slid shut.”

“Up above where the well-groomed lawn and flower beds almost concealed the mushroom-shaped lids of vents that ran up from the hall of death, orderlies stood ready to drop into them the amethyst-blue crystals of hydrogen cyanide, or Zyklon B…”

“Surviving prisoners watching from blocks nearby remembered how for a time the signal for the orderlies to pour the crystals down the vents was given by a Sergeant Moll. ‘Na, gib ihnen schon zu fressen’ (‘All right, give ’em something to chew on’), he would laugh.”

“Through heavy-glass portholes the executioners could watch what happened. The naked prisoners below would be looking up at the showers from which no water spouted or perhaps at the floor wondering why there were no drains. It took some moments for the gas to have much effect.”

It was then that they usually panicked, crowding away from the pipes and finally stampeding toward the huge metal door where, as Reitlinger puts it, ‘they piled up in one blue clammy blood-spattered pyramid, clawing and mauling each other even in death.'”

“Twenty or thirty minutes later when the huge mass of naked flesh had ceased to writhe, pumps drew out the poisonous air, the large door was opened and the men of the Sonderkommando took over.”

“Their first task was to remove the blood and defecations before dragging the clawing dead apart with nooses and hooks, the prelude to the ghastly search for gold and the removal of teeth and hair which were regarded by the Germans as strategic materials.”

“‘We submit to you the following valuables with the request for the best possible utilization.’ The list is long and itemized and includes 154 gold watches, 1,601 gold earrings, 132 diamond rings, 784 silver pocket watches and ‘160 diverse dentures, partly of gold.'”

“Professor Hirt did not want the skulls… already dead. His instructions: ‘Following.. the subsequently induced death of the Jew, whose head should not be damaged, the physician will sever the head from the body and will forward it… in a hermetically sealed tin can.'”

“With the help of a few S.S. men [Kramer continued] I stripped the women completely and shoved them into the gas chamber when they were stark naked. When the door closed they began to scream. I introduced a certain amount of salt through a tube… and observed through a peephole.”

“When the door closed they began to scream. I introduced a certain amount of salt through a tube… The women breathed for about half a minute before they fell to the floor. After I had turned on the ventilation I opened the door. I found the women lying lifeless on the floor.”

“He was asked by his interrogator what his feelings were at the time: ‘I had no feelings in carrying out these things because I had received an order to kill the eighty inmates in the way I already told you. That, by the way, was the way I was trained.”

“Not only skeletons but human skins were collected by the masters of the New Order… The skins of concentration camp prisoners, especially executed for this ghoulish purpose, had merely decorative value. They made, it was found, excellent lamp shades.”

“All prisoners with tattooing on them were ordered to report to the dispensary… [T]he ones with the best and most artistic specimens were killed by injections…. The desired pieces of tattooed skin were detached from the bodies and treated further.”

“The finished products were turned over to Koch’s wife, who had them fashioned into lamp shades, and other ornamental household articles. One piece of skin which apparently struck Frau Koch’s fancy had the words ‘Haensel and Gretel’ tattooed on it.”

For all those who minimize, excuse, downplay, or normalize the newly resurgent Nazis, know that this is where your actions lead. This is not about gestures or flags. This is about an ideology that if unchecked will re-enact it’s horrors right here in the United States.

These photographs are from the United States in 2018. One of these groups was recently invited to the White House. Remember what these people want to do. Stand firm. Resist.

[Photos redacted by author.  We’ve all seen a swastika and burning cross, so I feel no need to keep that in here.]

Yes, that was painful to read.  It’s supposed to be.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS 

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

Yesterday, 50+ countries signed onto a cybersecurity agreement meant (in part) to lay the groundwork for a “Digital Geneva Convention” that would establish international cyberwarfare/crime laws. *The US joined Russia, NK, China, & Iran in NOT signing it*

What’s the need? Current international law protecting civilians is founded on notions of state sovereignty & conventional warfare, but the digital environment doesn’t respect or abide by borders, and the info battlespace doesn’t separate state actors & combatants from civilians.

Just as the Geneva Convention specified rules of combat to protect civilians during wartime, the cybersecurity pact will define what is unacceptable, & provide a legal basis for punishing those who breach international rules & norms in the digital world. But we didn’t sign it…

If we can’t even agree on what constitutes cyberwarfare & cybercrime, we can’t hold violators accountable. Russia has already exploited the hell out of this grey zone, and our retreat in this area will give them a green light to keep doing it.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

The amount of good will a First Lady is granted at the outset is immense. Even Melania despite her behavior from day one, had large numbers of Americans ready to defend her. But her behavior in recent months has used all that up. She’s being revealed for what she is.

She is another repulsive character from the Trump family of horrors. Hypocrite, birther, idiot, user, racist, degrader of her office, entitled symptom of everything worst about the oligarchy and her repugnant spouse, she is playing with fire.

The stories about her that have not been written but could be–about her past, about her personal life, about her legal dealings with her husband would not be the sympathetic interviews with her ladies who lunch friends in Manhattan. She is a symptom of Trumpism.

She is a manifestation of a pretty ugly side of American life. Hers is not the story of a hard-working immigrant made good. It is much darker than that and thanks to her behavior from the “I really don’t care” jacket to throwing her weight around in the White House…

…where it doesn’t belong, from her embrace of birtherism to her failure to actively reject the racism of her husband and his administration, from the stunning contrast between her own immigration story and that of her parents and child and the policies of this administration…

…she needs to know that the good will is now once and forever gone. She is just another member of the thug mob that has occupied our White House, as grotesque and offensive to anyone with decency as Bannon, Miller, Pence, Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr. or Trump himself.

We cannot be sure how she has earned her place in the White House. But we can certainly know to an absolute certainty how she earned our utter and unwavering contempt since she arrived. Her departure like that of her crime boss spouse cannot come soon enough.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Something I would like the Intelligence committees to start pushing social media on is efforts outside of the IRA to influence voters. Not only foreign efforts, but the efforts of every day US citizens to spread fake news or discourage voting or anything along those lines

This laser focus on the IRA alone leaves out the fact that all of these far-right circles on twitter and reddit and facebook do the same exact thing the Russians do without any consequence.

had /r/Hillaryforprison been ran by the IRA it would have been banned by now. had /r/the_donald been ran by the IRA it would have been banned b[y] now. had a lot of the far-right twitter trolls been ran by the IRA they would have been banned by now. Why a double standard?

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  It’s light on the editorializing because I am exhausted right now.  It’s not a great excuse, but it’s the one I’m running with.

The Rumor Mill is still abuzz with imminent activity, but nothing has launched yet.  I’ll keep everyone updated if and when something happens.  I don’t intend for that last sentence to sound like I doubt anything will happen.  I’m about 99% convinced that we’re on the edge of something historic.  What that something is, I’m not sure.  When it’s coming, I don’t know.  But, there’s a chance, a lingering doubt that always stays with me.  That’s what the “if” is for.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur