Month: March 2019

Daily Check-In 03/14/2019

Thursday, March 14, 2019.  Happy Pi Day.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Leave it to Lindsey Graham to filibuster a bill from the House that passed unanimously to tell the American people what Robert Mueller found.

3 weeks?  That’s pretty generous.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Summer Zavos

 

Pardon Me, While I Burst Into Flames

 

 

Fox News

 

CONGRESS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION & EMERGENCIES

 

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

Thuggery

 

Boeing

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RACISM, RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

Admissions Scandal

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  I’m running behind schedule, so this is pretty light today.  Funny how days off are busier than a normal day.

I hope to spend some time on the various articles I’ve got sitting in the draft queue this weekend.  That’s hoping that life doesn’t throw a wrench in those plans.  A relative of a relative is very sick, and might not make it through the next few days.  Cancer, a heart attack, diabetes, and a possible stroke don’t add up to a good prognosis.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

Daily Check-In 03/13/2019

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort

It’s not the sentence I think he deserved, but it’s better than he got last week in EDVA.  The first sentence is 60 months served concurrently with his 47 months from EDVA.  The second is 13 months, and will be served consecutively with the 60.  For a total of 73 months.  Subtract 9 months for time served and he’s looking at 64 months.  Considering the most that good behavior can knock off in Federal prison is about 54 days per year, that’s about 56 months to 64, or about 5 years.

And just when Paulie Walnut’s day started to look like it might turn around…

New York’s In Da HOUUSSEEE!!!!  The State of New York charged Paul Manafort 3 counts of Residential Mortgage Fraud in the First Degree, Attempted Mortgage Fraud in the First Degree, 3 counts of Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, 8 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, and 1 count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree.

16 felony counts.  Damn.  This was minutes after Manafort was sentenced and his lawyers begged for a pardon.

Remember, state charges cannot be eliminated with a pardon from the President.

 

Li Yang

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Michael Cohen has testified that President Trump directed him to lie to Congress about Trump’s business dealings with Russia during the campaign. The weakness of the accusation is that Cohen does not seem to have any proof, other than his own testimony, that the conversation took place. But now CNN reports that Cohen has evidence of Trump obstructing justice by dangling a pardon. And this time he has receipts.

Robert Costello, an attorney working with Rudy Giuliani, emailed Cohen on April 21.  The emails assured Cohen he could “sleep well tonight” because he had “friends in high places,” according to CNN.

This is a really, really big deal. The power to pardon convicted criminals for federal crimes is a legitimate use of presidential authority. Whether it’s legitimate for the president to use this power to pardon criminals who committed crimes on his behalf, or might have otherwise testified against him, is a subject of intense debate.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!  Cohen has an email from Rudy’s lawyer dangling a pardon just weeks after his shit got raided by the FBI.  This corroborates what we talked about last week. (Daily Check-In 03/06/2019)

 

 

CONGRESS

Whitaker Returns and Changes His Story

 

 

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

Manafort

 

Boeing

 

Trans Ban

 

Impeachment Prepping

Daily Check-In 03/11/2019 and Daily Check-In 03/12/2019 talked about how Nancy Pelosi is trying to dissuade talk of impeachment for political reasons.  Trump’s hoping that he can take the narrative on this and paint it as a partisan attack.  This is his only move, he has to force it to happen.  If he waits until there’s evidence, he’s toast.  His only option is to stoke talk of impeachment as a political process and not a responsibility of safeguarding the republic.

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Jacob Wohl

 

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

EMERGENCIES, SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

RACISM, RIGHT WING TERRORISM, & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

Admissions Scandal

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  Looks like Beto’s throwing his hat in the ring.  I’m going to make an article describing everyone that is running, rumored to run, should run, and why Tulsi Gabbard shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the nomination for President.

I’m going to update The Indicted with Paul Manafort’s info.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 03/12/2019

Tuesday, March 12, 2019.  The best story of the day is down in the Student Issues section.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Flynn

Flynn’s testifying against Bijan Kian, his former partner at Flynn Intel Group.  He’s asking for another delay of 90 days.  His last court appearance went poorly for him (Daily Check-In 12/18/2018).

 

Manafort

Manafort is due in DC court Wednesday for his sentencing for violating his guilty plea, and Mueller is also seeking civil asset forfeiture as well.

Let’s see if this goes better than last week’s sentencing (Daily Check-In 03/07/2019).

Stone

 

Congress

 

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Double Jeopardy

This is a game changer.  New York is looking to modify their double jeopardy statute to include an exception in the case of presidential pardons.  This would let the state bring criminal charges for which someone received a presidential pardon and there is overlap between a state law and federal law.  For example, if this change goes through and Paul Manafort gets pardoned for witness tampering, New York could charge him with their version of witness tampering if it occurred in New York.  This opens the door to Enterprise Corruption charges, New York’s version of RICO.

 

NYAG Investigations into Trump’s Businesses

 

Stormy Daniels

 

CONGRESS

 

 

 

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

737 Max 8 Crash

 

 

Budget

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

EMERGENCIES, SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

RACISM, RIGHT WING TERRORISM, & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

Aunt Becky from Full House got busted?  Have Mercy… I guess I’ll have to cut it out…  Wake Up San Francisco! This is a major scandal.

Ok, that’s enough.  The Pun Jar now holds $307.

I spent a couple hours reading the criminal complaint, and it is amazing.  And depressing.  CW stands for Cooperating Witness.

Here’s the short version: CW-1, a guy out of Florida running Key Worldwide Foundation, ran a scheme to help rich people get their undeserving children into prestigious schools.  Now, this isn’t exactly new, rich people have paid to put their dimwitted children in fancy colleges ever since colleges were created.  But the way this scheme was executed was blatantly illegal.

CW-1 would have the parents pay him $15,000 to have someone, CW-2, help their children cheat on the SAT and ACT college board tests.  These are standardized tests that most colleges use to determine if a student is smart enough to enter and have caused stress and nightmares in generations of high school students.  They would do this by getting the parents to register their kids at a friendly location where CW-2 would either take the test for them or give them the answers.  If that wasn’t good enough to get these dumbass kids into school, CW-1 would use what he called the “Side Door” option.

CW-1 told these parents that there were three ways to get their kids into school.  The first was through the front door, on their own merits.  The second was the back door, either by knowing someone or donating a large amount of money to the school.  The third was through the side door, by exploiting a loophole reserved for student athletes.

Schools have different admissions guidelines for different groups.  That includes athletes.  For example, University of Southern California might reject most students with less than a 1400 out of 1600 on their SAT’s or a 34 out of 36 on the ACT, but they’ll let athletes in if they scored above 1200 or 30.  That’s what CW-1 took advantage of.

CW-1 worked with the parents and the schools to scheme the kids into school by saying they were student athletes in sports that were at the schools, even if they never played a sport.  CW-1 would work out a deal with someone like a coach or a person in the athletic director’s office to strike a deal.  The school would officially recruit the kid on one of the sports teams, and in exchange the parents would pay a hefty bribe to the person.  CW-3, the Yale Women’s Soccer Coach, accepted a $400,000 bribe for one kid.

My guess is that’s how they got caught.  A college soccer coach for an Ivy League school makes a decent amount of money, but they don’t make nearly half a million dollars.  They almost certainly don’t make that much money regularly enough to not draw suspicion from the bank.  Almost certainly the bank filed a Suspicious Activity Report on the transaction.  Per standard bank procedure, both the person receiving the check and writing the check will get some scrutiny.  This got reported to the Treasury.  At the same time CW-2 listed his income as gifts and not income, so the IRS went up his ass with a magnifying glass.  These two things likely led to the FBI getting involved.

So far 50 people have been charged with fraud, and all of the CW’s are looking at lot more than that.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  CW-1 ran this scheme sine 2011, and got caught in the last year.  He also bragged about how he did this hundreds of times.

 

I really hate defending anything related to Jared Kushner, but this is a different situation than what came down.

The criminal complaint uncovered a scheme in which dozens if not hundreds of rich people paid a company to cheat on the ACT’s and SAT’s on behalf of their kids, and when that still wasn’t enough to get their kids into the schools of their choice, they bribed individuals and committed fraud by pretending that their kids were student athletes.

Kushner’s situation was a straight-up pay-for-play bribe.  Charlie Kushner donates $2.5 million to build a library for the school, and in exchange his kids get in the door.  Is it corrupt and immoral?  Yes.  But at the same time, that money went on to help every student who has since gone to school and used that library.

Go to any college in America and there are buildings that have someone’s name on them.  They’re an influential alumni, a big pocket donor, or some legacy.  A lot of times that person cut a check to the school as part of a quid pro quo.  They wanted their kids to go to this school, but the kids themselves weren’t deserving.  So, Mommy and Daddy paid for a new law library or business college or athletic practice field, and now their kids are enrolled.

The dividing line is on how the money is used, how much cheating is done, and how often this happens.  There’s a world of difference between the occasional large endowment and institutionalized cheating and fraud.

 

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Damn, it’s a busy one.  But there’s one thing I’m torn about and the kids involved in this scheme.

On one hand, they cheated to get in.  How fucking stupid does one have to be to not think that it’s weird as hell that they’re taking the SAT’s by themselves and the proctor is giving them the answers or taking the test for them, and not be in on the scam?  Surely, they had to know that something was up when their parents told them they were taking the test at a separate location away from their classmates.  Their classmates who, like them, grew up a privileged life.  They cheated to get in and lied on their college applications.  You know damn well if they were poor, black kids they’d have been expelled from school before the end of the day.

On the other hand, what have they done since they got to school?  If they’ve been upstanding students, stayed out of trouble, and done everything they should then maybe they can be redeemed.  After all, it’s not completely their fault that their parents are lying, cheating, felonious assholes.  If they’re a waste of space however, kick their asses out.

Wednesday brings new sentences and new charges for Paul Manafort.  I’ll definitely talk about that later.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/11/2019

Monday, March 11, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

As I reported yesterday (Daily Check-In 03/08/2019), Erik Prince tried to blame the transcript.  I was curious about how that would work and how the transcripts were made, and I was lucky enough to stumble along a Reddit comment thread  with user /u/horseandeggshells.  The posts here and here highlight how ridiculously difficult it would be to forget an entire sentence.

So, about that transcript. There was one person there stenoing, one person offsite doing something called “scoping,” i.e., basically going over the transcript and fixing any errors and cleaning up code.

It would then go to production, where a third person would look for any mistakes (without audio, except where necessary).

But here’s the best part: It then goes to GPO, who go over it again.

And sometimes, a proofist, or “beta,” is used to listen to the whole thing again, start to finish. This would occur before the production phase.

The possibility of something that significant being missing from the transcript is impossible.

EDIT: It is also possible that attorneys involved in the case would be given a chance to review the transcript, as well, and would provide an errata sheet. If everyone agrees, the fixes are put into the transcript; if not, it can either be ignored or placed as an addendum Exhibit if one party protests enough.

This is where I counted up the people involved.

So, before it would ever gets released, it goes through 3 or 4 congressional employees, a member of the GPO, and the lawyers involved for all parties to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

I was corrected on one of my points.

Members, plural. At least two: one to do the full listen and proof, one to do word count to pay the stenographer (and perform similar functions to the production process) and properly mark and insert all exhibits that were entered into the record during the hearing.

And I’m not sure if this is the case with this Committee, but every Committee I am familiar with removes contractions. In other words, “I’m” will be changed to “I am.”

Now, I’m going by memory on this, but I’m pretty sure it dates back to back when the telephone industry got broken up. A “can” got through the proofing process, when it should have been “can’t.” This had significant ramifications to the policy being written.

I’m not saying that, even with all this due diligence, that something like “the the” won’t pop up every once in a while. What I am saying is there is literally no way a full sentence could be omitted.

If every possible thing went wrong, i.e. GPO accidentally deleted a line right before final submission, it would still get caught because the contracted production team always matches its word count to that of the GPO, using the same calculation software. The count would be off and GPO would have to start over.

I’ve worked in an ancillary position to the Senate for 15 years and I am not aware of that ever happening, and it is something I would almost certainly have direct knowledge of.

The GPO, the U.S. Government Publishing Office, has multiple sets of eyes on these transcripts, so it’s not just Congress handling these.  By the time a transcript gets released, it has to go through a stenographer, a person doing scoping, a third person in production looking for mistakes, at least two people in the GPO, a proofist to verify accuracy, then likely the legal teams of everyone involved in the hearing.  By the time the transcript is official, at least 7 people have gone over it, and at least one of them represents the witness.

7 people sign off on the transcript before it becomes official.  So either 7 people who do this for a living all made the exact same mistake, or Erik Prince is full of shit.  The simplest explanation is the latter.  Of course, that won’t stop the MAGA crowd from screaming “the transcripts are bad” from their parents basement or their motorized scooters on their way to Walmart.  This will be the next ‘Deep State’ controversy, but I want to kill it before it grows.

 

 

CONGRESS

1/ Pelosi is doing absolutely the right thing viz impeachment. It’s the right politics and it’s the right policy.

2/ The symbolism of impeaching in the House is meaningless unless the Senate convicts. It’s not going to happen.

3/ so why not use the investigation process if it was meant: to hold Trump accountable across-the-board. All the benefits, none of the inoculation.

4/ Set a fire that burns and burns and burns until his empire of shit is reduced to ashes. Don’t give him one fight of impeachment/not impeachment.

As of right now, she knows it can’t lead to a conviction with Senate.

Alright, let’s all calm the fuck down.  Deep breath, deep breath.

No, I’m not going to do an all caps rant.  I think this might be the best move for now.  Here’s why…

As far as Impeachment goes, there are four main crowds.  The first is the group that wants Trump out of office yesterday for the crimes that he’s committed both before and during his time in office.  This is where I’m at.  The next group are those that want to impeach him because they don’t like him.  The third are those that are holding judgement until ‘hard evidence’ comes in of actual crimes.  The fourth doesn’t want anything to do with impeachment.  Most Republicans in the Senate fall into the third and fourth categories, and they’re needed for removal from office.

Nancy’s statement is designed to kill the idea of a political impeachment.  We’ll get one shot at this, and we don’t need a repeat of the Bill Clinton debacle.  Also, this buys time for the committees to do their work.  Not to say the fourth crowd will shut the fuck up, but at least there’s this statement.

This will piss off the first and second groups, but we’ll be here when the shoes drop from the centipede and Impeachment becomes necessary.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

You don’t say…

The New York attorney general’s office late on Monday issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to the financing of four major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014, according to a person briefed on the subpoenas.

The inquiry opens a new front in the scrutiny of Deutsche Bank, one of the few lenders willing to do business with Donald J. Trump in recent years. The bank is already the subject of two congressional investigations and was examined last year by New York banking regulators, who took no action.

The new inquiry, by the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, was prompted by the congressional testimony last month of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, the person briefed on the subpoenas said. Mr. Cohen testified under oath that Mr. Trump had inflated his assets in financial statements, and Mr. Cohen provided copies of statements he said had been submitted to Deutsche Bank.

The inquiry by Ms. James’s office is a civil investigation, not a criminal one, although its focus and scope were unclear. The attorney general has broad authority under state law to investigate fraud and can fine — or in extreme cases, go to court to try to dissolve — a business that is found to have engaged in repeated illegality.

The state of New York is working double time to give Tangerine Tojo a heart attack.  Last week, the Financial Regulatory Board asked Trump’s insurance brokers for financial documents to investigate cases of fraud.  Now, the state attorney general is going after bank records from Deutsche Bank for some refinancing projects and his attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills.

During Cohen’s testimony (Daily Check-In 02/27/2019), he described a common practice of Trump over valuing his assets to qualify for loans and get better insurance premiums, and then under valuing them for tax purposes.  Cohen provided evidence of this to the Oversight committee.  Now the state AG is investigating.

Remember, state crimes and lawsuits are outside of pardon range.

 

Stormy Daniels

 

This story is less than a day old, and I’m afraid that it’s already out of date.  It’s like they’re trying to fill up a punch card.  “Get investigated 20 times, get a free steak dinner.”

 

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

Budget

Yes, this looks like doom and gloom, and it is.  Fortunately, this has as much chance of getting off the ground as a model airplane made of cement.

The President can suggest a budget, but it is up to the House to craft the budget.  They don’t have to listen to a god damned thing Dotard says.  This is designed for the Fox News  viewers and Donors to eat up.  At least, until they realize it will hurt them directly.

 

“Tim Apple”

 

Excessive Costs

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

EMERGENCIES, SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

RACISM, RIGHT WING TERRORISM, & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Florida Sex Rings

Mob.  Sex rings = Mob.  Whether it’s La Cosa Nostra, Vor, Triad, Yakuza, Cartels, or a combination of all of the above, they’re all organized crime.  The separation between Epstein and Mogilevich is 1-2 degrees.  Epstein’s girlfriend/friend/madame and recruiter was the Brainy Don’s business partner’s daughter.  That’s not far enough away to even pretend that they didn’t know.  Plus, it’s never been disclosed whose money Epstein is managing.  I’m not saying it’s mob, but it makes sense.

As far as the documents go, I’m looking forward to it.  I assume there will be a ton of redactions for the names, or they’ll be changed to things like Person 1 and Shitbag 3, but it won’t take too long to piece things together.  Especially if the descriptions include things like “Shitbag 3 was a lawyer representing the defendant and worked as a professor at Harvard”.  That’s Alan Dershowitz.

Something I didn’t catch with the  Chinese Parlor ring was that some of these women would visit clubs like Mar-a-Lago to work for the day, and this has been going on for a while.  Think about that.  Trafficked women were being sent to a club owned by the President.  And it’s not the only sex ring connected to the club.  Many of the girls recruited by Epstein’s crew were working at Trump’s club at the time, or were recruited from the grounds of the club over a long time.  The only way that management wouldn’t hear about this was either blatant incompetence or willful ignorance.

 

It’s a funny segment, but Pete made a good point and brought up an even better idea.  It is possible to separate the art from the artist, but if we’re going to continue listening to their music or watching movies starring Kevin Spacey or produced by Harvey Weinstein, then we should give money to charities that support sexual abuse survivors.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Tucker Carlson

 

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  It’s been a crazy week so far and it just started.  Mainly because I didn’t get a day to relax over the weekend.  I went to two expos this week, and the longest time I sat down was in a tattoo booth.

Yes, I got a new tattoo.  It’s not my first, and won’t be my last.  I was already designing my next one while waiting for this one.  But I got to thinking about how much time and energy I’ve spent on this project, and if I would ever get any tattoos related to this stuff?  I want to say no, but that’s only because we’re neck deep in the shit right now.  If/when we come out of this in one piece, and if those responsible get the punishments they deserve, I thought about getting the docket number of their case with ‘Sic Semper Tryannis’ underneath.  ‘Thus always to tyrants.’  Hopefully, I’ll have better ideas over the years.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur