Daily Check-In 10/26/2018

Friday, October 26, 2018 and the weekend.

 

StrongerThanHate

Yeah, this weekend sucked.  At first, I was only going to have a post covering Friday, then include the weekend with Monday’s.  That was before Saturday morning.  That was before I saw the unmarked police car on a Code 3 alert blasting through the Liberty Tunnels.  That was before I saw the SWAT team van driving at full speed down the Parkway.  That was before I saw a few other police cars heading to the city at breakneck speed.

As I’ve said before, I’m from Pittsburgh.  So this shit hits home.  I’ve worked in Squirrel Hill, shopped there, ate there. Hell, I’ve worked at the Tree of Life Synagogue years ago on a service call.  I don’t think I knew anyone involved, but this is way too fucking close for comfort.

This was supposed to be a post talking about domestic terrorism and how a tragedy was narrowly avoided, but that we need to stay vigilant to avert disaster in the future, and how crazy things can get going forward.  Instead, it’s already crazy.  We need to keep focused, and get through the next few days, organize, and vote like our lives depend on it.  Because, for a lot of people, they might.

Also, that image at the top of this page is about the most Yinzer way of showing solidarity possible.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Ukrainian oligarch and Paul Manafort associate Dmytro Firtash is one step closer to seeing the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

The European Union Court of Justice issued a ruling on Wednesday denying the possibility for Firtash to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling removes a final hurdle to Firtash’s extradition to the United States, leaving it up to Austria’s Supreme Court to decide on the oligarch’s deportation.

Firtash’s attorneys wrote in a letter this month that the European court ruling would allow the oligarch’s case to be “quickly” decided.

“Mr. Firtash’s lawyers believe that the Austrian Supreme Court will move quickly and Mr. Firtash could face extradition in a short time frame following the decision by the Court of Justice,” wrote Firtash lawyer Dan Webb in an Oct. 9 letter to Chicago Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.

Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch known alternately for acting as middleman in a scheme to jack up gas prices for European customers and for ordering Manafort to scout out an $850 million New York City real estate opportunity, has been awaiting extradition to federal court in Chicago since his arrest in Austria in March 2014.

Firtash, who prosecutors have alleged is “an upper-echelon” member of Russian organized crime, was indicted on foreign bribery charges relating to a scheme to gain rights to mine titanium in India for use in Boeing’s supply chain.

Vice President Pence told NBC News Saturday that he has not been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller‘s team as part of its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The comment comes more than a month after Pence said he would be “more than willing” to sit down with the special counsel.

“Have you been interviewed by the special counsel’s office?” NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard asked Pence during a wide-ranging interview aired on Sunday.

“I have not,” Pence replied.

 

MAGABOMBER

Good thread by fmr. GOP strategist and McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt:

Whether Cesar Sayoc is sick or evil or maybe a bit of both will become clearer in the days ahead. Certainly he was a loser. A loser who latched onto Trump’s cult of personality and virtuous victimhood. His failures could be explained by the conspiracies and minorities who were stealing his entitlement. He fell in line behind his avenger, a dime store Mussolini who assaults the institutions of our country, divides the American people, demagogues every issue, emboldens white supremacists and lies thousands of times a year. They were not lies though. Objective reality crumbled in his mind. What was true was what his leader believed or said. That was enough. It was he that the billion dollar anger and propaganda industry was targeting. When Gingrich smirked into the camera that it was all about Kavanaugh and the Caravan it was the Sayocs of the world he was talking to. Trump ignited a passion in him to serve. He decided to be a soldier and a terrorist and strike back against the enemies, criminals and saboteurs who were stealing America. They were Trumps enemies. And so they were his. He would strike at the traitors, the enemies of the people. Trump winked at the violence. He knew Trump was right. There were good people on both sides in Charlottesville. The country was soon to be invaded by the Caravan. He decided to become an assasin. He would do what had to be done to enemies of the people. He would kill them by mailing bombs to them. All of them. All of Trumps enemies. He launched a massive assassination plot and tried to kill 2 former Presidents and many more. It was not enough for him to drive around in his van festooned with images of Trump anymore. He heard the message. Trump incites and inflames. He is a tribal chief at war. He is as illiberal as he is vile, corrupt and inept. He created the dystopian alternate reality where this loser lived. This is reality.

 

TREE OF LIFE SHOOTING

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Fuck that, and fuck you Pence.  You homophobic, bigoted piece of goat excrement.  You are the worst kind of Christian.  You hide behind your religion as a shield for all of your hatreds, claiming that it’s “God’s will” that others not like you should suffer.

Oh, and Mueller hasn’t talked to you yet because you are a fucking suspect in a treason investigation.  Traitor.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for the last few days.  It’s been rough.  Monday’s post will be shorter.  I didn’t spend a lot of time researching it.  Plus, I spent a lot of time laughing at NFL news.  The Browns fired Hue Jackson and Todd Haley.  I spent more time than I should have laughing at that.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/25/2018

Thursday, October 25, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Why yes, yes he did. (Daily Check-In 02/26/2018Daily Check-In 12/08/2017)

Part of me is trying to figure out if George Papadopoulos is just a dumb mother fucker by himself, or if that “Italian” wife of his is telling him to say these things.

 

MAGABOMBER

As I mentioned yesterday (Daily Check-In 10/24/2018 ), more devices were found.  This time sent to Robert DeNiro and Joe Biden.

I hope they catch this guy soon.

SPOILER ALERT: They caught him on Friday.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

Following the WWE’s announcement that they are continuing with the show in Saudi Arabia, I have cancelled my WWE Network membership.  It was set to renew automatically on November 1.  From now on, the WWE has entered the realm of “I’ll only pay for months with a good show, and I have to REALLY be in the mood to watch.”  I’ve kept the account active for three and a half years straight, and signed up for it on launch day, with the on-and-off-again payments for a year or so.  Now, with this show, I’ve moved WWE from my first tier of entertainment payments like Netflix to the second tier like CBS All Access, where I only pay when there is something I feel the need to watch.

I know I’m a bit of a hypocrite, but I pick my battles when I can.  Not giving them money the day they put on this show is one of those battles that I can win.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

That just leaves me smiling :).

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

The non-partisan Pew Research Center surveyed 5,000 people, presenting them with 10 statements — five of which were factual, and five mere opinion – asking them to identify each. Across the board, people age 49 and under more accurately separated fact from pretense of fact. Or to put it less politely, those 50 and older were decidedly more gullible.

The reason, researchers speculate, is that younger people are more digitally savvy, and thus have more finely tuned bullshit meters. They’re also considerably more educated and less likely to identify with a specific party, meaning they’re less prone to confuse doctrine for truth.

This presents a problem for Republicans. As a general rule, the older you are, the more conservative you’re likely to be. Which leads us to a second study by Britain’s famed Oxford University.

Researchers there monitored 47,000 U.S. Facebook pages and 13,500 Twitter accounts, tracking who was mostly likely to read or peddle “junk news,” defined as sites that “deliberately publish misleading, deceptive or incorrect information.”

Their findings: “Hard-right” conservatives shared more fake news stories than all other groups combined. Despite their protestations, they’re also the largest consumers of fake news.

Combine the two studies, and one might conclude that conservatives aren’t propagating fraud on purpose. They simply can’t tell the difference. And that’s reflected in their choice of news outlets.

When Fairleigh Dickinson University researchers tried to equate civic knowledge with various news sources, it asked people basic questions like, “Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives?”

Viewers of Fox News, the televised arm of the GOP, scored at the bottom of 30 popular news sources. In fact, the survey found that viewers of Fox were less informed than people who followed no news at all.

So, dear reader, the next time you see online commenters talk of “crisis actors,” the “deep state,” or migrant gangs coming to take Minnesota’s lake homes, show some mercy. They know not what they speak.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that there are a lot people out there who don’t know how to think critically about what they’re being told.  They don’t know how to analyze evidence, or investigate stories and head to the source, or ask “Am I being bullshitted to?”

50 is an interesting age for this study.  People that are 50 or older didn’t grow up with the Internet.  They likely didn’t grow up with computers at all.  I was a teenager when the Internet came to houses for the first time in any real push.  I was the first person on my street on the Internet.  I was 16, and this was the mid-90’s.  Google didn’t exist, Yahoo! was just launched, so finding a website was difficult.  I had to dive through forums just to find primitive internet porn.  And downloading low-quality JPEG’s with a 14.4k modem was all we had.

I grew up in the Wild West of the Internet.  I knew that the person wanting to cyber with me claiming to be a teen girl was likely some 38 year old guy pushing 300 pounds. I learned to be cautious of every claim someone made online, and not to trust anyone.  I grew up with blogs and biased websites claiming to be news sites that pushed their narrative and agenda.  I grew up with social media, and learned pretty quickly that if someone sent me a friend request with a beautiful woman on the profile pic, it was almost always a scam artist or some bot wanting me to sign up for their cam show.

I also grew up in the Post-Fairness Doctrine world, where media companies no longer had to provide “both sides” of a political story and could spout one side’s opinion as “news.”  I grew up with Cable News, where Fox News slowly disintegrated actual news and replaced it with opinion news.  I grew up in a world where the entire “News Talk” radio world was filled with Right Wing talking heads like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the rest.  I listened as shock jocks gave way to “freedom fighters on the airwaves” that were suspiciously silent on crimes in the White House when a Republican was in the White House.

I grew up with this shit.  Older people didn’t.  They didn’t have a reason to question their media.  They grew up in a sheltered world with only a few channels, trusted newsmen, and people that genuinely seemed interested in informing them.  They didn’t pay attention as the world they grew up in slipped away, and was replaced with the modern world.  They didn’t grow up with the Nigerian Prince asking them to help with a money transfer or a Twitter bot asking them to sign up for their cam show.  They didn’t have to slog through the recesses of the Internet talking to people making crazy claims without proof.  They didn’t have to question “Why is this person or outlet telling me this story, but the other place is telling me something different?”

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

I’ve heard this argument many times before, and it carries less water than a pasta strainer, but it revolves completely around misinformation and obfuscation.

First, the number of scientists that “can’t agree” is tiny.  Between 97-99% percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is real, it’s being accelerated by people, and it’s bad.  That 1-3% is THE FUCKING MARGIN OF ERROR.  Take a room of 50 people and ask them if they like to eat dog food.  There will be that one guy in the room that will raise his hands.  THAT’S THE GUY THAT DOESN’T AGREE WITH THE OTHER SCIENTISTS.

Second, the level of disagreement is small.  Real fucking small.  Much smaller than shown in the media.  The scientists that are arguing the degree of difference, not whether or not there is a difference.  It’s like walking into a sports bar and hearing two football fans arguing about what is the best defense to call against a Run Pass Option offense, and coming to the conclusion that football isn’t real.

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Like I said earlier, at the time of this writing, the MAGABomber has been caught, and… he’s everything that was expected.  A 56-year old from Florida who drove around in a white van festooned with hundreds of Pro-Trump stickers, including several with what can best be described as a manifesto.

Hopefully I’ll have Friday’s post up late Friday night or Saturday.  That being said, expect it Sunday or Monday.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

Daily Check-In 10/24/2018

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

We’ve talked about this a while back, and it was a running joke in Rick Wilson’s book, but Trump uses an old, unsecured iPhone to talk to his “friends” like Sean Hannity.  What are the odds that a foreign government figured out how to listen in on those conversations?

About 100 fucking percent.  Now, we have proof.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller pushed back against a company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known as “Putin’s chef,” telling a federal judge that the charges filed against the firm — conspiracy to defraud the U.S. — aren’t dependent on proving that election interference is a crime.

The company, Concord Management and Consulting, and 13 Russian nationals, including Prigozhin, were charged in February with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by mounting social media campaigns in 2016 designed to help the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and hurt his competitor, Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. The indictment also included charges of wire fraud and identity theft, as the Russians allegedly adopted American identities as part of their effort to influence the election.

Neither Prigozhin nor the other Russian nationals have responded to the charges, but Concord Management has fought back. The company’s lawyer, Eric Dubelier of Reed Smith, has argued that Concord’s failure to register as a foreign agent or report campaign-related expenditures doesn’t constitute a crime.

Last week, the federal judge overseeing the case asked Mueller’s team to respond to that claim.

Michael Dreeben of the special counsel’s office replied that prosecutors only need to show that Concord and its co-conspirators agreed to engage in conduct that violated their duties to register as foreign agents and report campaign expenditures. “The government is not required to prove that the conspirators actually violated” federal election and campaign finance laws, he wrote.

The February charges described a wide range of coordinated conduct designed to influence voters’ attitudes toward the U.S. presidential candidates.

“The indictment alleges that a purpose of these manifold acts of deception was to frustrate the lawful government functions of the United States,” Dreeben wrote. “Those allegations are sufficient to support the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States regardless of whether the defendants agreed to engage in conduct that violated” the election and campaign finance laws.

 

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM: THE MAGABOMBER

There’s too much here to break down into sections in a timely manner while keeping my sanity, so here’s the short, short version.

Following the attempt on George Soros’s life in the last couple days (Daily Check-In 10/22/2018Daily Check-In 10/23/2018), several other bombs, bomb-like items, and suspicious packages have been sent to several enemies of Trump.  Pipe bombs were sent to Bill and Hilary Clinton’s home, the home of Barack Obama, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and John Brennan at CNN Headquarters.  Furthermore, suspicious packages were gathered at the San Diego Union-Tribune building where Senator Kamala Harris has an office, and to Representative Maxine Walters.  At the time of this writing on Thursday, three more identical packages were delivered to Joe Biden, Robert DeNiro, and Rachel Maddow.  Another package was sent to Eric Holder, but was instead delivered to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the former head of the DNC.  Her office in Sunrise, Florida was the return address for each of these packages.

All of the targets that received these packages had the same return address, the same typos, the same font used on the labels, the same design, and the same paraphernalia.  So far, the bombs have all been duds or fakes, and they’ve been packed with fake ISIS flags that became popular on fringe Right Wing sites, where some of the members thought it was a real ISIS flag, and others thought it looked real enough to scare people.

See below in Spicy’s thread for pics of the CNN bomb and packaging.

Something interesting with the packages in New York, they were hand delivered by couriers, and the stamps were not cancelled.  That means they didn’t go through the normal package routing process, which means no tracking numbers.  It also tells me that this bomber likely has to be close to New York, or has an accomplice close enough to hand deliver them.

The San Diego threat was also interesting.  5 priority mail boxes were dropped off very early in the morning, under the cover of night.  Later on, when someone noticed them, they were examined by the bomb squad.  They were all filled with random junk.  If this was an innocent accident, why drop these boxes off in the middle of the night?

The talking heads on the Right Wing immediately called this whole thing a false flag operation, saying either it was a coordinated hoax or that the Democrats sent themselves bombs.  Funny, they usually blame Muslims first.

I’m hoping the MAGABomber is one lone idiot.  Most of the evidence that I’ve seen points to this, but it’s still early in the investigation.  All of the typos, errors, and “owning the libz” mentality of these attacks SCREAMS a single red hat, but this San Diego connection has me worried.  It’s possible that the MAGABomber talked a friend into staging those packages to scare people and distract them, or they just thought it would be funny.

And let’s be clear, these were not random people, but people Trump has attacked many times before.  His rhetoric, talking about violence, is becoming real.  As much as people will want to trip over their dicks to praise whatever half-hearted call for unity he’ll spout, that Orange Shit-Gibbon will blame the media for these attacks.

What, really? Oh, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!!

This shit ain’t funny anymore.  Someone is going to get killed because one of his low-IQ deplorables believes everything the Cult of Trump tells him.

 

 

Trump has stoked a cold civil war in this Country. His rallies brim with menace and he has labeled journalists as enemies of the people. That someone would seek to kill their political enemies is not aberrational but rather the inevitable consequence of Trumps incitement.

The targets are political not coincidental. Trump, the greatest demagogue in American history has celebrated violence over and over again. It looks like someone finally took Trump both literally and seriously. The WH will feign outrage when this obvious point is made.

No journalist or commentator should be intimidated from making this point. The stoking of hatred and sundering of the American people was always going to lead to terrible consequences. Chief amongst them would be the initiation of partisan or sectarian violence within our country

 

 

A downtown San Diego building that houses the San Diego Union-Tribune and other businesses was briefly evacuated Wednesday morning after a stack of suspicious looking packages was spotted near the front doors, San Diego police said.

A bystander flagged down a San Diego police lieutenant after spotting five boxes on a table in front of 600 B Street about 8:15 a.m., police said. The building houses law firms, co-working, media and technology companies. Sen. Kamala Harris and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department also have offices at the address.

The discovery quickly prompted the closure of several busy blocks. But about an hour later, with aid from an X-ray, police determined the packages were filled with everyday items.

San Diego police Lt. Kevin Wadhams said the unaddressed boxes contained: one shoe, two children’s books, one football, one empty bag of chips and one hat. A red air pump was located behind the packages.

 

 

 

 

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BLATANT BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  For a moment, I thought it was going to be a quiet day.  That didn’t last.

I probably won’t have as much for Thursday.  I’m operating on fumes, and need a few hours of sleep.  That might cut into my research, writing, and hypothesizing time.  Sorry about that.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/23/2018

Monday, October 22, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS 

THEN YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE VOTED FOR HIM, YOU SPINELESS SHIT!!!

 

#METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

Nationalism

 

TRAITOR TOTS

So, John Bolton, a man with known ties to a Russian Honeypot (Daily Check-In 07/18/2018) had a meeting with Putin and is helping Trump exit out of a treaty that limits the amount of nuclear weapons in the world?  This whole thing stinks like his drooping ball-bag after he had unsatisfying sex with Maria Butina.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

BLATANT BIGOTRY

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

Here’s hoping that Roman has a speedy recovery, and can beat leukemia back for good.  Or, at least keep it in remission for the long haul.

I’ve mentioned many times before that I’m a big fan of wrestling, but I usually keep my opinions about specific wrestlers out of these pages.  Personally, I think Roman Reigns is one of the best performers in the business, but he’s been given a lousy story that doesn’t fit his character, and because of that he was unjustly booed.  I put him in the same tier of wrestlers as The Rock or John Cena.  He’s good, and will pull a good match out of most people, but is saddled with his character’s limitations and limited moveset once he became “The Man.”  Put him in a match with a better wrestler, and he’ll have a great match, but the endings to his bouts are telegraphed from a mile away.  He’s no Bret Hart, Kenny Omega, or Seth Rollins, but he can work with them and put on a great match and tell a great story.

I knew something was wrong when Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe, two of the biggest heels in WWE, were saying nice things about Roman Reigns.  They rarely break character, but both of them being nice was a big red flag that something was wrong.

Hopefully he can get healthy and come back.  His first, most important thing is to get healthy.  Returning to the ring is a secondary goal.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

Remember the US housing market meltdown of ~2008? Same basic thing will happen with the online advertising industry once corporations realize that “engagements”, “click-throughs”, “impressions”, and other related metrics are inflated to bejeezus and back by bots and clickfarms.

I’m sure there are some legitimate advertisers out there (maybe), but the reality of today’s internet advertising ecosystem is driven by lies, hype, deceit, and more lies. Someday the executives (i.e. suckers) paying those advertising invoices are going to wise up.

Wise executives will realize that people (i.e. potential customers) often get angry at online ads. When anger is caused, attribution is often given to that anger. So why the fuck are you nitwits throwing your company’s logo in front of a person whose anger was just activated??

Did none of these advertising geniuses consider the Pavlovian consequences (you know, Pavlov, the guy with the dogs and the bells). You are consistently re-enforcing a response of anger to logo. Therefore, people that see your logo are going to associate it with bad things.

[read between the lines for a glimpse at what is coming]

 

That’s it for Tuesday.

Something that’s bothering me, and a lot of other people, is that this whole Migrant Caravan issue seems a little too…organized.  Not that I think all of these refugees were sitting around waiting for a message to start marching at once, but there’s too many things that are just a little too coincidental for me.

First, the timing.  We’re less than a month out from the biggest midterm elections in American history, where the fate of the western world hangs in the balance, and possibly the only remaining issue that could motivate the MAGA base starts and gets plastered over the Main Stream Media like it’s the slowest invasion against America.  Walking 2,000 miles takes a long time.  I haven’t done the math yet, but why do I have a feeling that if they keep up their current pace, they’ll arrive at the U.S. border just in time for the election?

Second, the motivation.  Not the whole “trying to make a better life” or “running from gangs of drugs dealers and killers”, but what convinced a couple thousand people who just lost everything they owned and are fleeing for their lives to suddenly head north all at once?  How did all of this violence, destruction, and crime get organized at once?

Crime.  Organized.  Wait a second…

Here’s my crazy hypothesis.  The Trump Team and/or GOP, seeing that they’re about to get pounded in the polls and are likely to lose at least the House, and possibly the Senate, are pulling out every trick.  The Russians are helping him with propaganda, the GOP tried talking about how great their tax cut is, but that went over like a fart in church, so now they’re forced to claim that they want to protect parts of the ACA that they’ve voted to kill more than 70 times, suppress the vote where they can, and play the race card.  Since Trump is up to his fourth chin deep in the mob, someone proposed the idea of creating a flood of brown people fleeing violence and the drug cartels in Central America, and use their suffering to get the base out to the polls, because nothing scares his white people more than brown people looking for help.  His mob ties organized some violence, and pushed these people to march.  They then got Fox News and other friendly media outlets, or at least those with other mob ties, and are covering this like some kind of existential threat to white people, and not covering it like the humanitarian crisis or criminal conspiracy that it is.

If this sounds nutty or like some tin-foil hat, I don’t disagree.  This sounds crazy even as I type it.  The thing is, we’re in crazy times.  A criminal is in the White House, and he’s willing to do anything to save his own ass, even if that means burning everything down around him.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur