Month: January 2019

Daily Check-In 01/30/2019

Daily Check-In 08/13/2018Wednesday, January 30, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Deza and Stolen Docs

In October 2018, one or more actors made statements claiming to have a stolen copy of discovery produced by the government in this case. The subsequent investigation has revealed that certain non-sensitive discovery materials in the defense’s possession appear to have been altered and disseminated as part of a disinformation campaign aimed (apparently) at discrediting ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. political system. These facts establish a use of the non-sensitive discovery in this case in a manner inconsistent with the terms of the protective order and demonstrate the risks of permitting sensitive discovery to reside outside the confines of the United States.

…

In short, Mueller is arguing that if non-sensitive information has been used in attempts to discredit his investigation, how much worse would things be if sensitive information was shared that “identifies sources, methods, and techniques used to identify the foreign actors behind these interference operations.”

“Unwarranted disclosure of that information overseas, in a country adverse to this litigation, would allow that country and actors in that country to learn of these techniques and adjust their conduct, thus undermining U.S. national security interests, including investigations into the conduct of those foreign actors,” he said, noting that there is no incentive for these foreign actors not to act in bad faith.

“The Court would have no ability to enforce compliance with the other provisions in the protective order by the ‘officers and employees of Concord Management and Consulting LLC’ because those individuals are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts,” Mueller said. “And Concord’s proposed order would apply to every piece of sensitive discovery in the case, including sensitive discovery containing personal identifying information and sensitive discovery implicating national security interests.”

I can’t say that I’m completely surprised by this development, but holy shit.  This is a big development, and shows just some of the lengths that the Russians are willing to go to to derail Mueller.

Concord Management is the company indicted alongside the IRA and Russian Troll Fram. (The Indicted). The company was the only entity from that indictment that responded in court, and they proceeded to go nuts, asking for everything from all work the CIA has ever done to trying to get the case thrown out because reasons.

Something that’s been bandied back and forth in these legal fights was Concord’s lawyers at Reed Smith argued that all evidence should be given to their client as part of discovery.  Remember that the Discovery Process is the part of a legal battle where the defense gets to view the evidence against them and build a defense.  Earlier this year, Mueller gave Concord’s lawyers access to non-sensitive documents and evidence.  Shortly thereafter, someone with a Russian IP address contacted a reporter and told them they had the Mueller documents.  The reporter forwarded that info to Mueller’s team, and what they saw was shocking.  The link led to a “unique folder structure” not used by Mueller’s team but known to them.  The documents inside were mostly junk files, with some stuff edited to make it look like Mueller had nothing.

There’s only two ways that the troll got their hands on this info.

  1. Reed Smith gave them direct access.
  2. Reed Smith gave Concord direct access, and Concord gave the troll access.

Either way, someone’s in some serious trouble.

 

Stone

 

Meeting Putin

 

NRA

From TDB:

A former NRA president hoped to win access to Vladimir Putin on a trip to Moscow, according to an email from one of the trip’s organizers. That organizer, Republican operative Paul Erickson, also said the trip could have “enormous diplomatic consequences.” The email, sent in November 2015 and reviewed by The Daily Beast, came just months before the Kremlin’s election meddling went into full gear.

In the email, Erickson wrote that an official with the Russian Central Bank had made a tantalizing, though tentative, offer to former NRA president David Keene: an interview for his newspaper with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, Keene was the opinion editor for The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. He had previously helmed the NRA, and he maintained close ties with its top officials. And he was one of the small group of people on the trip.

From the ABC article:

The December 2015 trip, which involved meetings with senior Kremlin officials, has attracted increased scrutiny in the wake of the arrest and guilty plea of gun rights activist and alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, who was involved in planning the trip. After months of silence on the matter, the NRA’s outside counsel William Brewer told The New York Times that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre “was opposed to the trip” and even prohibited staff members from joining the delegation out of concern that it would be perceived as officially sanctioned.

Emails sent by NRA officials before the trip, as well as photos taken during the visit, offer greater detail about the organization’s role in arranging the excursion.

In one email, an NRA employee appears to help Butina make travel arrangements for a delegation that included former NRA president David Keene, future NRA president Pete Brownell, NRA fundraiser Joe Gregory, NRA benefactor Dr. Arnold Goldschlager and his daughter Hilary, Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore, and prominent NRA advocate and Trump campaign surrogate David Clarke, then the sheriff of Milwaukee County.

So, we have the former President of the NRA trying to gain access to Vladimir Putin, and a group of NRA bigwigs going on a trip to Moscow during a presidential campaign.  The same campaign where they spent unprecedented amounts of money for the GOP after they moved to a Pro-Russian stance.

 

Deripaska

 

WikiLeaks

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

Putin

 

Biglyest Brain

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

CONGRESS & ELECTIONS

 

Voting Rights

Once again, the turtle says the quiet part out loud.

If your only defense against making it easier for people to vote is that they would vote against you, you are the problem.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

Apple and Facebook have never gotten along, but this ups their acrimony to a whole new level.

Facebook used their internal development certificates to push a tracking app aimed at teenagers to trick them into spending money.  This is a blatant violation of the Apple Store guidelines and the Apple Development rules.  In response, Apple turned off Facebook’s ability to distribute and ultimately develop iOS applications.  This shuts down their in development apps and internal beta apps.

I don’t know how much longer this will go on, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go either way.  They could agree to a quick fix, or they could escalate this into a full-scale digital war where Apple removes all of Facebook’s apps from their devices.  It shouldn’t get that far, but at this point in the timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

Eat the Rich

 

The Foxconn Con

This is what happens when we give public money to large corporations: they fuck us.  Wisconsin already gave Foxconn $4 billion, and they won’t see a penny of that. That could have gone to infrastructure, schools, pension funds, health care, or to developing the local economy, but now it’s wasted.

Get ready to hear a whole bunch of Wisconsin GOP members claiming that they have to cut social programs because of this.

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

Schutlz

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  Thursday’s looking like it’ll be a weird one.  Ben Carson has a photo op with someone he shouldn’t, we see more stuff about the NRA trip to Moscow in 2015, and the class war continues.

Thursday might be a little short or different.  It’s still very cold here, and the kids are sick.  That makes it difficult to spend as much time researching as I’d normally spend.  I’ll have something up, but not sure how in-depth it will be.

I’d like to write a story about this emerging battle between the billionaire class and the progressives.  I want to stay neutral in any story about those groups, but it’s very hard for me to do so.  I grew up in the world of Reagan, where the rich were treated as special and the poor as useless.  I’ll go into more detail later on, but I’m worried that anything I write about that subject will be tainted by bias.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/29/2019

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Trump Met With Putin…Again

A Kremlin official said today that, despite what the WH claimed, Trump & Putin had a sit-down meeting at the G-20 summit, during which they discussed Syria policy. Three weeks after G-20, Trump abruptly ordered US troops to withdraw from Syria. my latest

Context of the G-20 summit: -Trump & Putin were scheduled to meet -Cohen reveals damning new details about Trump Tower Moscow deal -Trump cancels Putin meeting -Kremlin refuses to accept cancellation -WH goes on the record saying no meetings, even pull-asides, are scheduled. 1/

Caroline Orr Retweeted Caroline Orr

So the Kremlin got the White House to go on the record saying there were no scheduled pull asides between Trump & Putin at G-20. And then two months later, the Kremlin leaks details of a sit-down meeting between Trump & Putin. 2/

Caroline Orr @RVAwonk

Context of the G-20 summit: -Trump & Putin were scheduled to meet -Cohen reveals damning new details about Trump Tower Moscow deal…

Putin was accompanied by a translator when he met with Trump after a dinner at the G-20 summit. Trump was accompanied by… Melania. “The four of them sat at a table and were among the last to leave,” 3/

It really looks like a strategic move by the Kremlin to get the White House to go on the record denying any plans for a G-20 meeting. Also strategic: Leaking details of the meeting just as the Trump admin takes a position on Venezuela that the Kremlin really doesn’t like. 4/

Was Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria part of a deal he discussed with Putin at G-20? Did Trump make any promises about Venezuela during that meeting? We have no idea. Trump didn’t bring a note-taker, translator, or anyone from his administration to the meeting. 5/

What we *do* know: Putin just fired a warning shot at Trump to remind him that he has receipts from all of their encounters, and he’s not afraid to use them. i.e., Trump is compromised. None of us know what else Putin is holding over Trump’s head. We just know there’s more. 6/

No, this wasn’t about G20 2017, or the Helsinki Meeting.  This happened during the G20 2018. (Daily Check-In 11/30/2018). Remember how there was no meeting planned between the two of them?  Looks like they met and talked.  Only Trump, Melania, Putin,  and Putin’s translator.

No Americans were present.  No members of the United States Government.  Just Trump and his handler.

What did they discuss? We may never truly find out. What instructions did Putin give Trump?  Let’s look at the timeline of events to find out.

  • Trump ramps up his rhetoric on shutting down the government.
  • Trump announces that the U.S. is pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan.
  • Word circulates that Trump wants to pull out of NATO.
  • He then removes sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, giving him a deal sweeter than Sweet Tea.
  • Reports come out about Trump going to ridiculous lengths to hide what he talked about with Putin.
  • U.S begins talks with the Taliban.
  • Trump declares victory over ISIS.
  • ISIS kills more U.S. troops in Syria.
  • U.S. Intel announces that Russia and China are already plotting to interfere in the 2020 election.
  • Trump once again attacks the Intel Community, claiming he knows more than they do.

Considering how far he’s gone to keep this meeting off the books, and that this isn’t the first time he’s done this, there are only one logical conclusion:

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is an Asset of the Russian Federation, and is being used to forward their goals at the expense of the United States.

 

Roger Stone

Speaking of traitors who deserve to hang for their crimes, Roger Stone was arraigned.  As expected, he pleaded not guilty to the seven felonies he’s been charged with.  Also not surprising are his attempts to scream about how poorly he’s been treated, how this is a vast conspiracy, blah blah blah.

Remember, this fucktard recently lost a lawsuit and was forced to issue several apologies for lying on Infowars. (Daily Check-In 12/18/2018).  Why anyone would put him on the air and expect anything less than a lie is either an idiot or corrupted.

 

Here is a list of companies that do not fit the qualifications to be fighting Mueller subpoena battle: -Rosneft -VTB -Sberbank -Deutsche Bank -Bank of Cyprus -Gazprom

You can add Alfa Bank to this list as well. The company must: -Be WHOLLY owned by a foreign government -Have US office(s)

Qatar Investment Authority certainly seems to make the most sense here. It is fully owned by the Qatari government, Cohen met with QIA official during transition, has US presence.

Also: The subpoena was issued shortly after Cohen’s places were raided. Zainab Ahmad, a Mueller prosecutor and Middle East expert, was spotted at the courthouse.

My guess for this has been QAI and/or Glenncore, the company in charge of brokering the Rosneft sale.  Both have multiple offices in the United States, and can be pressured to comply with the government or lose business.

 

Deripaska

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Mnuchin

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

CONGRESS

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

Jussie Smollet

They tried to lynch Jussie Smollett. These 2 men reportedly hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him before beating him, yelling “This is MAGA country” as they left. Will we hear the president condemn this hate crime committed by his supporters? No. This is America in 2019.

An update on the “MAGA country” line: is reporting beyond what TMZ said. ABC reports “At the time of the attack, Smollett told police the suspects yelled “MAGA country.”” It was reportedly Jussie Smollett himself who claimed this was said.

Even more details. This fully explains the initial police statement denying that the attackers yelled “MAGA country.” We now have confirmation from Chicago PD that in a follow up interview, Smollett himself said “MAGA country” was yelled.

Remember last week when a bunch of obnoxious teens got in trouble for being racist little shits and the media world screamed that the Red Had wasn’t racist?

Yeah, fuck’em.

Here we have a situation with an actual attempted lynching of a gay black celebrity, and I’ll put money down that not one of those white ass hats will defend this young man who was almost murdered by the same kind of racist assholes that they spent last week surrounding and protecting.

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

. on gun violence: “We’re not missing good ideas. We could pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. We’re not missing tragedies. The very worst have happened. So what’s missing? People in the Congress who have the courage to act.”

“This is going to sound harsh, but I think somebody should have required every member of Congress to go into a room…with no press…and look at the autopsy photos of those babies [after Sandy Hook] and then vote their conscience.”

“We have to stop believing that false choice. You can be in favor of the second amendment and want smart gun laws. You can be in favor [of ] and understand there is no reason why we have assault weapons that can kill babies and police officers.”

“Too many communities are grieving the loss of lives that should never have been taken.”

This is a great idea and well overdue, but it should be expanded.  Take all of the members of Congress, all members of the Government, all of the lobbyists, all of the members of the NRA, everyone who wants to own a gun, hell take EVERYONE and take them to a morgue and show them the bodies of those who died from gun violence.  Make them see the bodies of the children who died needlessly.  Show them the crime scene photos as well.  Then, if they still think gun control is bad, take them to the grieving parents and make them tell these parents who get to bury their little baby why their child deserved to die and why they think that there shouldn’t be any type of gun control. And force these people to do this for each and every gun murder in this country.

Then, they can have all the guns their tiny little dicks can handle.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

Schultz

 

Harris

 

 

RUMOR MILL

Howard Schultz is worth $3.8 billion. That he is somehow intimidated by a freshman Congressional rep is the dumbest narrative in history.

It’s more blazingly obvious media Op to distract from Mueller and the Dem House’s progress. If you want to keep a Republic, stop falling for every fake horseshoe clickbait Op they throw at you and ask: Why?

Also, if you think that business prepares you for political leadership, get your heart surgery done by a jazz guitarist. They studied a lot and have dexterous hands. That should cross-over easily, right? Test the theory.

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Things might be a little late getting posted for Wednesday.  I’m getting a late start to that post today, and my current work setup isn’t working well today.

I’m working from home today due to the cold.  Unfortunately, so is the wife.  When we both are he, I work in the basement.  It’s an unfinished basement with minimal heating.  I’ve had to venture upstairs every half hour to warm up.  Yeah, I’m just bitching about this, but it’s hard to type when my hands are cold.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 01/28/2019

Monday, January 28, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Roger Stone

A defense attorney for Andrew Miller, who’s fighting a subpoena from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, learned Monday afternoon that the special counsel still wants witness testimony for a federal grand jury.

Paul Kamenar, the defense attorney, says the assertion from Mueller’s team made clear to him that Mueller and the Justice Department are considering an additional indictment of Roger Stone or have plans to charge others.

As I mentioned yesterday Daily Check-In 01/22/2019, things are going to get crazy from here on out.  There’s a couple directions this could go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stone’s associates get charged next, on the way to making the connection to Julian Assange.

 

Whitaker

 

Deripaska

According to bios released by En+, they include Nicholas Jordan, former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs’s Russia business; Carl Hughes, ex-vice chairman of Deloitte’s global energy and resources division; Joan McNaughton, who served as the UK’s director general of energy;  and Christopher Bancroft Burnham, chairman and CEO of Cambridge Global Capital LLC, a private investment advisory firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

“Mr. Burnham is a globally recognised expert in the implementation of accountability and transparency, and the implementation of best practice in government, corporations, and inter-governmental organisations, having served as Under Secretary General for Management of the United Nations [where he worked alongside Trump’s current national security adviser John Bolton] and Under Secretary of State for Management (acting),” the En+ release says. “Mr. Burnham is a former Vice Chairman at Deutsche Bank Asset Management and co-founded and led Deutsche Bank’s direct private equity group, RREEF Capital Partners. Mr. Burnham is also a former Assistant Secretary of State for Resource Management and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of State.”

The En+ release makes no mention of one other notable position Burnham also held: member of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team.

Burnham’s office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Deripaska’s. OFAC directed Quartz to a statement posted on its website but declined to provide further details about Burnham’s appointment.

Sounds a hell of a lot like a Quid Pro Quo to me.  Immediately after the sanctions are released, a member of the Trump Transition Team gets named to the board.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

CONGRESS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Azriel Clary, one of Kelly’s alleged victims featured in the Lifetime series Surviving R Kelly, was reportedly flown from Palm Springs to Phoenix to Orlando in May 2015. At the time, she was only 17 years old. Clary’s family says the flights were arranged by Kelly’s personal assistant. The family has not heard from Clary since 2016 and believe she may be Kelly’s “sex slave.”

If the allegations are true, Kelly would be in violation of the Mann Act — the federal law that makes it illegal to transport a minor across state lines for purposes of sex, debauchery or prostitution. Punishment for such a crime is up to 10 years in a federal prison.

R. Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, denied to TMZ that Kelly violated the law and said he was unaware of any investigation. Representatives for the singer also point to a handwritten note from Clary’s mother in which she gave Kelly’s assistant consent to care for her daughter.

The FBI has also been in touch with the family of Jocelyn Savage, another one of Kelly’s alleged sex slaves, TMZ reports.

Since the airing of Surviving R Kelly, there’s been renewed scrutiny over Kelly’s alleged misconduct. While his attorneys maintain that the singer is innocent of all allegations, Kelly himself has ben hiding out in Chicago’s Trump Tower and was recently admitted to the hospital with panic attacks. He’s also been dropped by his longtime record label, and his manager was arrested for making terroristic threats against Kelly’s accusers.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  After the last couple days, it’s nice to get a little bit of a breather.  And by that, I mean that it wasn’t a complete and total clusterfuck.

Now that we’re in Phase III, expect to see some weird shit.  We’re about to see some historic levels of flailing around.  Not just from Trump, but also from those that benefit from him and the GOP policies.

Take Howard Schultz for example.  Here’s another rich guy who labels themselves as a “Centrist Independent” and is contemplating running, but won’t make up his mind until later.  If he runs, it’ll be as a third party candidate, and most likely against a Democratic nominee like Warren or Harris.  You know, one of those “evil lefty socialists” who think that rich people should pay their fair share of taxes.  The nightmare scenario is the “Centrist” (Read: Corporate Shithole) declaring a third party run and trying to siphon votes off of Warren/Harris, which would allow Trump to win.  Of course, this assumes a hell of a lot, like Trump will run in 2020.  I personally think that has a very small chance of happening, like less than 25%.

I’m not sure what’s coming around the corner, but I will always remember this phrase from a poster I had as a kid:

The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train.

I’m just one giant fucking ray of sunshine, aren’t I?

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 01/25/2019

Friday, January 25, 2019 and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Roger Stone

“Roger’s relationship with Trump has been so interconnected that it’s hard to define what’s Roger and what’s Donald,” Manafort told a Netflix film crew during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The documentary, “Get Me Roger Stone,” was released in April 2017, but filmmakers followed Stone and his associates around as they managed Trump during the 2016 Republican primary and general election.

Manafort added later in the film that in terms of “Roger’s relationship with Trump, they both see the world in a very similar way.”

“If Trump is elected president, I think Roger will see one more very significant impact he’s had on world history,” Manafort said.

Looks like it’s Roger Stone’s time in the barrel.  This comment comes from a tweet he made in August 2016 where he claimed it would soon be John Podesta’s time in the barrel.  This was shortly before WikiLeaks released a bunch of mails the Russian GRU stole from him.  Several of the emails were edited to make Podesta’s statements look worse.  Roger coordinated the release of these mails with WikiLeaks, who stood in as a front for Russian Intelligence.

I reported on Thursday Daily Check-In 01/24/2019 the existence of a sealed indictment from D.C., and the Rumor Mill got all atwitter.  Turns out, it was for good reason.

At 6 AM EST, a small CNN crew was camping out in front of Roger Stone’s house.  His neighbor Chad Johnson formerly Ochocinco, was getting ready for his morning jog.  Suddenly, several FBI agents wearing bullet proof vests approached the house with weapons drawn.  They knocked on his door, yelling “FBI, OPEN THE DOOR!”  After a moment lights turned on and the door opened.  Shortly after, the FBI agents escorted Roger Jason Stone, Jr. from his house and arrested him.  He was released on a $250,000 promise bond.  Must be nice being rich.

Roger is charged with seven felonies.  One of them is Obstruction of Proceeding, since his lies impeded Congressional investigation.  Counts two through six are his various lies to Congress, and one count of Witness Tampering.  The lies are documented below:

Count

False Statement

page22image1098533392 page22image1133611232

2

STONE testified falsely that he did not have emails with third parties about the head of Organization 1, and that he did not have any documents, emails, or text messages that refer to the head of Organization 1.

page22image1098756400

3

STONE testified falsely that his August 2016 references to being in contact with the head of Organization 1 were references to communications with a single “go-between,” “mutual friend,” and “intermediary,” who STONE identified as Person 2.

page22image1098830160

4

STONE testified falsely that he did not ask the person he referred to as his “go-between,” “mutual friend,” and “intermediary,” to communicate anything to the head of Organization 1 and did not ask the intermediary to do anything on STONE’s behalf.

5

STONE testified falsely that he and the person he referred to as his “go-between,” “mutual friend,” and “intermediary” did not communicate via text message or email about Organization 1.

6

page22image1098882592

STONE testified falsely that he had never discussed his conversations with the person he referred to as his “go-between,” “mutual friend,” and “intermediary” with anyone involved in the Trump Campaign.

page22image1098579632

His witness tampering charge stems from Roger Stone telling Randy Credico to ‘Stonewall it. Plead the fifth. Anything to save the plan.’  Stone also threatened Credico multiple times, including at least one attempt on Randy’s dog.  That’s fucked up.

I’m not going to go through this indictment line by line, but let me cover the basics.

Roger Stone, a senior official on the Trump Campaign until August 2015 and an unofficial  advisor throughout the election, worked with Organization 1 (WikiLeaks) through Person 1 (Jerome Corsi) and a contact of Corsi’s in Britain (Nigel Farage) to acquire the stolen emails from the Clinton Campaign from. the Head of Organization 1, who lives in the Ecuadorian Embassy (Julian Assange).  Stone was in contact senior Trump Campaign officials, and one of them inquired directly about the timing of the email releases (Steve Bannon).  After one of these conversations with Person 1 (Corsi), it was suggested by their “friend in the embassy” (Assange) that “Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke – neither he nor she well.”  Immediately after that, the Right Wing Media and the Trump Campaign began hammering home the point that HRC was old, sick, etc.  Communications between Stone and Senior Advisor (Bannon) continued throughout the campaign.

After the election, Stone claimed that Person 2 (Randy Credico) was his point of contact with the Head of Organization 1 (Assange), and completely hid his dealings with Person 1 (Corsi).  Stone did his best to keep Person 2 (Credico) quiet, including threatening to kill his dog, have his attorney disbarred, and threatened physical harm to him.

I truly appreciate a few things with this indictment.

First, it directly references the Russian GRU case from last summer.  In a way, it’s part of that case.

Second, it’s all low hanging fruit.  Sure, a couple conspiracy charges would be nice, but each of these charges is very easy to prove.  For witness tampering, all they would need are phone records and acknowledgement that it was Roger who sent the texts.  For the lies, all it would take to prove the lies are the transcripts from his interview and his emails and texts.  Obstruction could be a little harder, but if Mueller has proof that Stone was trying to hamstring the invetigation by lying or chording lies, they’ve got him on those.

Next, the charges are both directly related to collusion and aren’t at the same time.  The MAGA Hat crowd will gladly point out that Stone wasn’t charged with anything conspiracy related, and their cult leader will gladly go through the cycle of “No collusion, Witch Hunt, Stone had little contact with the campaign” cycle that he went through with Manafort, Cohen, and Flynn.

Further, Stone was treated like the common criminal that he is.  Mueller didn’t give him any advance warning.  He didn’t tell his attorney to have him show up at the courthouse at 9AM. He didn’t give a courtesy call minutes ahead.  Mueller felt that if Stone knew he was going to be arrested, he would likely try to flee, destroy evidence, or make some kind of crazy last stand.  For people who’ve never seen an arrest warrant being served, this was pretty tame.  At least Roger’s door is still standing.

Finally, during all of the coverage, it came out that Mueller has not interviewed Roger Stone at all.  Not once in 20 months.  That tells me two things.

  1. Mueller was waiting until he had Stone by the balls before even approaching him.
  2. Stone was a target from day 1.

There are different rules for dealing with targets as opposed to subjects.  Investigators can’t directly interview targets without jumping through a lot of hoops.  If he was that big of a target, then he was screwed from the beginning.

As far as the timing goes, I’ll talk about that in the Coda.

 

Paul Manafort

Stone and Manafort are tied at the hip.  And Manafort’s looking at dying in prison.

 

Oleg Deripaska

Remember that they did this on a Sunday afternoon to avoid press coverage.

 

Jared Kushner

 

Chris Christie

 

100 Contacts

 

Upcoming

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Cohen

 

Undocumented Workers

Remember when it came out that Trump hired a bunch of illegals to work at his golf courses last month? (Daily Check-In 12/07/2018). It looks like during the shutdown, many of them were fired.  Keep an eye on this.

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

Flights Grounded

 

Shutdown Ends

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

Glenn Greenwald

 

CONGRESS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

January: Utah man, 27, threatened mass shooting because he was a virgin and had never dated Florida man, 21, executed five women in a bank New Jersey man, 39, opened fire at UPS and took two women hostage Louisiana man, 21, fatally shot girlfriend, parents and three others

Pennsylvania man, 21, fatally shot 3 men and injured an ex-girlfriend before shooting himself. California man, 48, ambushed and fatally shot a woman officer as she adjudicated a traffic accident. Pennsylvania man, 27, bludgeoned, stabbed and shot a woman who broke up with him.

Florida man, 60, fatally shot ex-girlfriend and shot her friend, saying he was trying to “get rid of the Devil” Oregon man, 36, fatally shot a woman on a first date after meeting online New Mexico man, 33, fatally shot his 3-year-old one day after missing a custody hearing

Florida man, 39, shot his wife and her parents after accusations of of adultery Louisiana man, 26, shot and killed his girlfriend, a police officer, while she was preparing to leave for work Florida man, 21, shot 3 family members who didn’t want him dating their 15-year-old

Still doing January…

Alabama man, 19, shot a woman he was simultaneously assaulting while driving. Four women shot at a Newark candlelight vigil for teen car crash victims. No arrests made. Ohio woman fatally shot while walking dog. Her body was found by a woman shot in the head a few months prior.

Two Louisiana women were fatally shot near an apartment complex. No suspects arrested North Carolina police found a woman shot to death after responding to a domestic violence call. A suspect is in custody A New York woman was shot on a Buffalo metro bus. No suspects arrested

Gun violence is a women’s issue: An American woman is fatally shot by a current or former intimate partner every 16 hours; most mass shootings involve domestic violence; American women are 11X more likely to be murdered with a firearm than women in any other developed nation.

Text JOIN to 644-33 to help @momsdemandfight domestic gun violence.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

  1. I have been watching the DC dockets since late 2017. There are a lot of reports today of multiple new cases filed in DC. The last case number filed is 19-cr-20. Stone, that was filed yesterday, is 19-cr-18. There is one remaining sealed docket in the 2019 dockets. 19-cr-9.
  2. I recall spotting some new number prefixes. I have to research when but today I saw an account posting a report of multiple sealed dockets in the prefix “sc” presuming it to be the Special Counsel. I went to the dockets and none appear in 2017 with the “sc” prefix.
  3. Then I looked at 2018. Here is the last one that all appear to be sealed noting that I just checked about 20 to arrive at this as the last one. It could mean that there were 3,580 separate filed dockets under the “sc” prefix for 2018. I that is likely.
  4. Here is the last “sc” prefix that I can find for 2019. 163 through the current time. So what could they be? I looked at the CM/ECF handbooks and can find no report of the prefixes. If you file in Federal Court your are accustomed to
  5. these prefixes: cr=criminal cv=civil mj=magistrate judge gj=grand jury mp= miscellaneous proceeding. (I think but have to check) So what could “sc” be? My first thought was “sc” was a Show Cause for things like contempt proceedings related to jurors who didn’t show up.
  6. The “mj” filings are often search warrants. Also arrest warrants. So as of this time, the last 2019 “mj” number is 19-mj-18 that shows is sealed. The last “mj” docket I can fine in 2018 is 18-mj-166 that was originally filed on Dec. 28, 2018. That was the year with “sc” cases
  7. Now how about 2017 when the there was no “sc” prefix? The last number for “mj” filings in 2017, is 1,022. So what does this all “possibly” mean? My best analysis: In 2017 when the scope of the mj filings was becoming apparent the Clerk’s created the “sc” prefix. Because “mj”
  8. numbers are often later exposed to the public they would show the scope of the warrants that have been issued. So during 2017 there were possibly 1,022 warrants issued. 2018 they may have issued 3,580. And so far in 2019 they have issued 163.
  9. So they averaged 9 a day during 2018. And about 7 in 2019. As I have reported the scope of Mueller’s task is huge. He needs to essentially bring down the entire Russian mob in the US. From the number of warrants it looks to me he may be doing that.

 

It’s Barrel Time!

Just as a reminder to everyone, encrypted messaging doesn’t mean that it’s secured, or even encrypted from endpoint to endpoint.  Remember how Paul Manafort got screwed because he uploaded his messages to iCloud to back them up?  That backup unencrypted them, and made it very easy for law enforcement to get their hands on them.

 

Bernie

Fuck Bernie.  Trump vs. Bernie is an older article, but still accurate.  Plus, Bernie’s actions toward Russia, or lack thereof to be specific, leave much to be desired.

 

 

That’s it for the last few days.  Yep.  That all happened.  And things are gonna get crazy from here on out.  Like Chief said above, we’ll see some crazy, horseshit moves to delay investigations and protect Trump.  He looks weak and vulnerable right now, and it’s only going to get worse as we get deep into phase three.

Oh, let me explain the phases.  Spicy came up with them as an explanation of how the Mueller Investigation would proceed.

Phase I – name Russians
Phase II – detail methods used
Phase III – Indictment – American Confederates who aided and abetted Russians
Phase IV – Trump & Family

Phase I and II were the first few indictments.  Indicting the IRA, the GRU, and describing how the Russians interfered with the election are the basis of these phases.  There were a few Americans indicted up to this point, but all of them were either flips for other crimes like Sam Patten, or were rolled up to set up future work like Flynn and Cohen.

Roger Stone changes that.  His indictment has been widely viewed as the beginning of Phase III.  Roger was the ring leader of the Trump Campaign’s work with WikiLeaks, and by extension the Russians.  Stone was one of the main architects of this conspiracy.  With Stone getting indicted, it sends a signal that we’re entering the phase where the traitors that worked with Trump and Russia will get arrested.  Some of the small fish will be given a choice to either flip on a bigger fish or go down hard.  The bigger fish won’t get that choice, and the worse they did, the more they’ll need to deliver to save their asses.  Look at Mike Flynn, for example.  The guy committed espionage and treason against the United States, but could get off with time served and probation.  That only happens if he delivered more than FedEx.

For Roger Stone to have a chance at saving his hide, he’d have to deliver Assange, WikiLeaks, Bannon, Hannity, Alex Jones, Fox News, all of his henchmen, and several others.  And the Trump family, too.

I don’t know if he will flip, but either way I look forward to it.  If he does flip, it will be on some bigger fish that authorized his dirty tricks.  If he doesn’t, then he can see how popular his Nixon back tattoo is in the prison shower.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur