The Changing Narrative

Sometimes, the hardest part of writing this site isn't getting started, but deciding what to write.

At this stage, I have about a hundred articles I'd like to write. Almost all of these will be written eventually, but that will take some time, and will need a system. Voter rolls, propaganda, and a post about why I especially hate Corey Lewandowski are incoming, but today, I want to talk about the changing narrative of the news.

One of the reasons I started this site was to explain what's going on and what's changing as time goes on. It's easy to get lost in the cacophony of the everyday news, and lose track of how we got where we are. But it is hard to keep up with the changing narrative.

That's what I'd to talk about today – the changing narrative in the news, and where I think it's headed.

Earlier this weekend, Fox News ran an article asking "Who cares if the Trump Campaign did anything illegal?" That's quite a turnaround from "There was no collusion" even a couple months ago.

Rumors about the Trump Campaign working with the Russians to sway, or possibly steal the election started back late in 2016. There were some weird moments here and there, but nothing concrete. Personally, I think the weirdest was the time he read Russian propaganda at a campaign rally. This should have been a much bigger story than it was, but it wasn't even the Disaster-du-jour. This, and other tell-tale signs of Russian interference were lost by the MSM.

After the election, the talk about the Russians died down somewhat in the MSM while they chased after the Trump Transition Team. Meanwhile, the Rumor Mill was up and running. More and more details came out regarding connections and meetings. Then, 2 big things happened; increased sanctions on Russia and the Steele Dossier.

The sanctions definitely pulled the attention of the MSM. Tightening banking restrictions on the Oligarchs and expelling diplomats is something they could get their minds around and prove. The Steele Dossier, that was a little harder to fathom. When Buzzfeed released the story broke in January, the Rumor Mill dug deep into it.

In January, as Trump took office, the MSM was still giving him a chance, while the Rumor Mill was picking up steam, getting info that the FBI was investigating the campaign. The Right Wing Media (RWM) claimed this was the Democrats being sore losers.

When details about Michael Flynn came out, the MSM was still behind on ball on collusion, but was catching up to the Rumor Mill. For their part, they were already talking about Counterintelligence Investigations and FISA warrants. The RWM claimed the actions against Flynn were a witch hunt.

If I had to pick one moment that changed the discussion across the board and changed the narrative, it was March 4 when Donald Trump claimed that Obama had tapped his phones in a crazy early morning tweet. This spurred the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee to hold a hearing with FBI Director Jim Comey to dig into these claims. This backfired spectacularly. Not only did Comey not confirm Trump's accusations of illegal wiretapping, but Jim Comey, then Director of the FBI, had confirmed that an investigation had been ongoing into the Trump Campaign's activities and connections with the Russian Government. Hole. Lee. Shit. The MSM dug into the collusion argument. The Rumor Mill was already taking about grand juries being impaneled. The RWM decried this as bubkus.

The next change in the narrative came after Devin Nunes' Midnight Ride. I'll go into detail about that later, but two talking points came out of this: Unmasking and FISA 702. The MSM continued digging into more meetings between Trump's campaign and the Russians. The Rumor Mill doubled down on grand juries and more details. The RWM talked about Susan Rice "illegally" ordering unmasking.

Jim Comey was fired in Mid-May. The word of the day now became Obstruction of Justice. As details leaked, it became obvious that something was rotten in Denmark. When Robert Mueller was named as the Special Counselor a week later, things seemed to settle down, for a moment. Everyone, including the RWM, agreed with the Mueller announcement.

That was, until, news came out that Jared Kushner met with the Russians in Trump Tower, and that the FBI was interested. From late May to early June, the MSM narrative changed from "was there collusion?" to "how much?" The Rumor Mill was a few weeks ahead, talking about details of meetings that were forthcoming and how New York was advancing with their RICO investigation into Trump. The RWM, for the first time, stopped denying that collusion took place and started asking "is collusion illegal?"

More and more details have come out since, but once everyone lawyered up, things got interesting. I also noticed a pattern in Trump's tweets and the stories coming from the RWM. If Trump tweeted "FAKE NEWS" in all caps, and mentioned a news outlet by name, expect that organization to release a bombshell soon. The more vicious the attack, the worse the news would be for Trump. It's almost like he's rage tweeting after they reached out to him for comment.

There's been one exception to this has been "the big one" that the Rumor Mill claims is being delayed on purpose, by request from Robert Mueller.

Following Don Jr.'s email release, the MSM narrative changed from questioning whether there was collusion to now accepting, beyond a shadow of a doubt that something illicit happened. Even the RWM can no longer deny that something stinks.

In a span of 6 months, we went from "there was no collusion" to "so what if he broke the law?" Just 6 months.

So, where do we go from here?

The MSM will continue to follow the breadcrumbs and lead to more, worse details, leading all the way to an argument about the definition of treason. Plus, New York has something to say.

The RWM will continue swinging wild, calling for Robert Mueller's firing, hoping that will end the investigation. (Spoiler: it won't.)

The Rumor Mill is pulling on some dark threads. They're digging in to the specifics of how the election was stolen, and how much Vice President Pence knew, and when. There are rumblings that New York and California are investigating money laundering, embezzlement, and human trafficking. As always, I advise taking all of this with a grain of salt.

Daily Check-In 8/4/2017

It's Friday. Let's see what happened today …

The DOJ is trying to crackdown on the White House leakers, and have even threatened to subpoena journalists to give up their sources. Nixon tried the same thing, it didn't work.

Speaking of the Nixon Speed Run, rumor has it that the Trump Administration wants to administer lie detector tests to the staff. Once again, Nixon tried this, but much further along.

This one came out late last night, but Michael Flynn updated his employment disclosure form with two very important entries, Cambridge Analytica, and their parent company SCL. CA was the data mining company that micro targeted voters for propaganda and, allegedly, modified hacked voter rolls provided by Russian agents. SCL is owned by Rebekah Mercer, GOP billionaire donor and conspiracy theorist, and has Steve Bannon as a board member. Both companies were also involved with Brexit. This ties Mercer money to nefarious activities.

Speaking of money, the Dallas News just broke a story about Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian National with close ties to Putin and the Oligarchs (cool band name by the way) and who is also a dual U.S. and U.K. citizen, donated $7.5 million to Trump and several GOP senators last year. More details here.

International diplomats are laughing at Trump… again. Following the release of transcripts of his conversations with foreign leaders was leaked to the press, several Mexican diplomats were seen talking and laughing about Donald Trump. "The opposite of Teddy Roosevelt. He talks loudly and carries a small stick." Ouch.

Mike Pence finally released all of his official work emails he had worked from his AOL mail account. Except for the personal ones. Yes, not only did Pence do the same thing aaa HRC's Buttery Mails, but he still has an AOL mail.

There's a power struggle going on in the White House with McMaster against Bannon and Seb Gorka. By a completely unrelated coincidence, there has been a 5300% increase in #FireMcMaster by Russian trolls and bots.

I hope to have "How Trump Won the 2016 GOP Primary" up by tonight.

Finally, I have two corrections to address.

A couple days ago, I said the amount of money designated to fight Russian propaganda was $80 billion. It's actually $80 million. Still a lot, but not three orders of magnitude larger.

Yesterday, I kept spelling impaneled wrong. It's with an I, not an E.

Daily Check-In 8/3/2017

Here's a few things…

Donald Trump tweeted this morning his displeasure at deteriorating relations with Russia, and blamed Congress for it.

The President of the United States of America just sided with a foreign power that committed an Act of War against this country, rather than with its duly elected representatives. Let that sink in a bit.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Jeff Sessions that his job as AG was safe, that he wouldn't let the President fire him. He's also reportedly said that any and all talking points have to go through him first. Sounds like he didn't like that whole thing with Steve Miller attacking the Statue of Liberty.

Mattis and McMaster supposedly have a deal in place that at least one of them is in Washington at all times when Trump is traveling. Sort of like a babysitter.

Jared Kushner's company is under investigation for taking part in a bribery scheme from Chinese investors, using the EB-5 visa program for investments. They touted their insider connections with the President to a group of wealthy investors, and offered visas and green cards for investments of at least $500,000.

Trump was reportedly overheard at a golf outing calling the White House a "dump." He then attacked the reporter for Golf Magazine on twitter. He'll attack reporters, but not despots. Don't worry, people are working around the clock to help him relocate to somewhere that isn't so much of a dump, like Leavenworth.

Fox News has been surprisingly quiet about the Seth Rich lawsuit, but Sean Hannity once again attacked Robert Mueller. Rumor has it that Fox News in general, and Sean in particular, are under investigation for their part in spreading propaganda.

Mueller's team wants the phone records of the June 9th meeting. The lawyers on Twitter and Reddit are salivating at this. According to them, they're not asking for unknown information, but watching to see what Team Treason does with the evidence. The leaks come from the defense team, probably as an attempt to bury the co-conspirators.

Donald Trump goes on vacation starting this weekend, until the 20th. Congress will also be on recess during this time as well. The Supreme Court is also on hiatus. Don't expect anything official from Robert Mueller's team during this time. But, expect quite a few stories to come out, especially leaks about new meetings.

Speaking of leaks, transcripts of Trump's phone calls with foreign leaders have leaked to the press. When looking for an apt description of the President's behavior, "whiny little bitch" comes to mind. He's constantly whining, complaining, lying, and just a miserable human being. I feel bad for his translators, having to make sense of his word salad.

The Senate is pushing for a bill that would require a panel of three judges to review any attempt at firing the Special Counselor. Something to keep an eye on during the recess.

I'll update if anything else comes out today.

UPDATED: Mother fucker! Why do I do this post so early in the day?

Around 4:30 PM EST, the Wall Street Journal reported that Robert Mueller's team has empaneled a grand jury specifically for the Trump Campaign's ties to Russia, and any and all ties of possible collusion. Subpoenas have been issued for materials related to this meeting, including phone records.

A grand jury is used to weigh the evidence, issue subpoenas, and, if there is sufficient evidence that a crime took place, issue indictments.

According to this article from WaPo empaneling a grand jury almost always leads to indictments.

The White House has only commented that there is no evidence that the President himself is under investigation.

Also, Carter Page has been under surveillance by the IC since 2014, and was under a FISA warrant last summer when he traveled to Moscow to supposedly broker a deal with Rosneft.

I'll update as needed.

Daily Check-In 8/2/2017

Wednesday is here.

Trump signed the Russian Sanctions bill…finally. His office released a statement or two claiming that it was unconstitutional, and that he built a billion dollar business empire. Yes, he bragged about himself in a press release about a bill he doesn't like. Don't be surprised if he tries to fight this in the courts.

Pathological lying is often a side effect, or at least strongly associated to, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. NPD often create their own narratives of how everyone loves them, and their actions are always right. Just ask the Director of the Boy Scouts of America. Trump claimed that the director called to apologize about any criticism and claimed it was the biggest and best crowd they've ever had. The director, along with several assistants, deny that any call took place. Liars gotta lie.

The overall narrative is changing from asking whether there was collusion to how much was there. This is only going to heat up through the rest of the summer.

Jim Comey just signed a book deal, with a release set for next spring. It will cover his life, work, and everything else that isn't declassified yet.

I'll update if/when anything else happens.

UPDATED:

Rex Tillerson refuses to spend $80 Billion earmarked to fight Russian propaganda over fears it will upset them further. It's either a lame excuse for a cover-up, or he thinks appeasement is a good strategy. Ask Neville Chamberlain how that went.

Trump's team announced a new plan to cut immigration in half, and mostly for European countries. This was announced by Steven Miller. The neo-nazi, not the singer.

In a new Quinnepac poll, Trump's approval rating fell even further, to 33% approval versus 61% disapproving of him and his actions. More importantly, support among his own party is down to 76%. Ic the total falls into the twenties, or his party below 60, expect open talks of Impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment to pick up steam. If there's one thing Congressional Republicans put over party, it's their own jobs. They may get rid of Trump just to save their butts.

Ezra Cohen-Watnick was removed from the National Security Council today. Ezra was reportedly Mike Flynn's eyes and ears, and was the person who leaked classified intelligence to Devin Nunes. Devin was the head of the HIC, but wasn't cleared to see this particular piece of intelligence. It's also when the unmasking brouhaha began. It's being rumored that Devin was shown SIGINT, signals Intelligence like a recorded phone conversation, gathered under a FISA warrant, where Devin was unmasked talking to a foreign agent.

Twitter is talking about how a few higher ups in the Alt-Right movement with ties to Bannon and/or Trump are being subpoenaed. Also, the Republican National Committee ordered their staff to preserve all information relating to last year's campaign. That is a tell-tale sign that someone received a subpoena.

My next big story I'm working on, assuming nothing too crazy happens, is about how Trump won the GOP Primary. I hope to have it up by Friday night.