Author: noneofthisisnormal

Daily Check-In 03/19/2018

From the weekend and Monday, March 19.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA

Late Friday Night, Facebook announced that they were suspending Cambridge Analytica for not deleting user data.  At first, that sounded bad, but more like a flimsy excuse.

Turns out it was a whole hell of a lot worse.  Cambridge Analytica did a lot worse than just not delete data.  They stole user data, used it to manipulate voters, and have attacked  Democracy around the world, and the Brits are telling everyone about it.

It started Saturday when a whistleblower named Christopher Wylie, a former Director of Research at Cambridge Analytica, dropped a bombshell when he went on the record about CA’s data practices, and how they acquired their data from a quiz app that scrubbed users for not just their data, but everyone on their friends list as well that didn’t put their accounts on security lockdown.  They averaged 300 profile grabs per use of the quiz.  This led to over 50 MILLION USER PROFILES ending up in CA’s hands.

Let me say that again.  50 MILLION USER PROFILES.

They then took that data and plugged that into their algorithms to see how people think, what they like, how they thing, what motivates them, what they support, what they don’t like, what their friends like, how politically active they are, and who they’re likely to vote for.

With that data, they could use micro target ads with hyper accuracy for maximum effect.  They would run two ads against two different people, even in the same household.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the same channel in Britain, Channel 4, ran an undercover exposé showing some of the dirty tricks that CA would use in elections around the world.  Honeypots, entrapment, fake news, they did it all.

Tomorrow, Channel 4 is running another segment, where Cambridge Analytica brags about getting Donald Trump elected.

That much sounds terrible, but it gets worse.

Dr. Alexander Nix, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, testified before British Parliament that he has never worked with the Russians, but that was not true.  Nix’s company Cambridge Analytica and their parent company SCL worked with Lukoil, a Russian oil giant.  This started back around 2014 or 2015.  SCL and CA often swapped employees back and forth, depending on the job at hand.  Lukoil was asking about political data in the United States.

Why was a Russian oil company interested in voting demographics for the United States back in 2014 and 2015?

Facebook, meanwhile, is trying to play this like they’re innocent and just found out about this.  Bullshit.  They knew about CA having this data back in 2015, and didn’t check that the data was deleted in 2016.  By that time CA had made multiple copies of the user data.

And yes, it gets even worse.

Cambridge Analytica was approached by Corey Lewandowski back in 2015 to work for the Trump Campaign, but they were already working with Ted Cruz.  Remember how Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekha didn’t join the Trump Campaign until later on? That’s because they were pushing Ted Cruz, but once Trump won the nomination and Paul Manafort was on the way out, they joined him, and put their resources in the fight as well.  Those resources included Kellyanne Conway and VP of Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon.

As bad as this is, keep in mind that this is only one piece of the puzzle.  This is just part of the targeting mechanism.  They pointed out who to target with propaganda, and what would work best.  Someone else **cough**Russia**cough** made the propaganda, and worked to find out who couldn’t be swayed, and how to stop them from voting.

Daily Check-In 11/06/2017 shed some light on Facebook’s investment.  Because of the Paradise Papers, we know that Yuri Milner was a cut-out for Putin and his banks.  They own Facebook.

 

TRUMP VS MUELLER

Saturday morning, Trump started attacking Robert Mueller directly, and one of his lawyers said that the probe should end and that Mueller should be fired.  When I saw this, my first reaction was “Golly Gee Willickers, did Cheeto Mussolini get some bad news?”

Turns out yes, not only did I say Golly Gee Willickers, but it turns out that Mueller’s team had sent Trump’s lawyers a list of topics that will be brought up when they interview.

Not if.  When.

The questions that Mueller’s team sent Trump seem to focus on Obstruction of Justice.

Axios has learned that special counsel Robert Mueller has focused on events since the election — not during the campaign — in his conversations with President Trump’s lawyers. The top two topics that Mueller has expressed interest in so far: the firings of FBI director James Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn.

This is interesting for two reasons.

First, if Mueller’s asking about the firing of these two men, he has more than enough information to nail Trump for Obstruction of Justice, and wants to see what Trump and his legal team say or do.  Remember, Bobby Three Sticks ain’t asking a question he doesn’t already have the answers to.  He wants to see what Trump leaves out.

Second, by focusing the interview on Obstruction of Justice, he’ll lull Trump into a false sense of security.  Mueller has enough evidence on every possible front, but Obstruction of Justice is the low-hanging fruit, and possibly the easiest to prove.

 

TRUMP ORG AND KUSHNER CORRUPTION

Also over the weekend, we started getting leaks about the depth of the corruption of the Trump and Kushner companies.

We got confirmation of Kushner Companies meeting with Qatari officials, Trump’s Indian partner being accused of a $147 million fraud, and the wife of the Israeli Prime Minister being indicted for lying about spending more than $100,000 on takeout food.

But the most fun story from the weekend is Jared Kushner’s companies being investigated in New York for failing to properly file Rent Control paperwork for thousands of tenants.  Then, after not filing this paperwork, Jared’s companies jacked up the rent, forcing these tenants out.

Ok, Rent Control is legislation in New York City that prevents landlords from raising rent on certain properties and leases past a certain amount, if at all.

These are state and local crimes, and he’s under investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Remember, from GTKYG-Pardon Limitations, State crimes cannot be pardoned by the President.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

The March For Our Lives is this Saturday, at multiple sites across the world.  One of the kids confirmed that they’re working with local groups to set up Voter Registration drives at the marches.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

For those not familiar, Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party, one of Britain’s major political parties.  He’s also got his tongue so far up Putin’s ass he can taste what he had for breakfast.

He is just as compromised as Trump.

 

McCABE

It’ll be interesting to see how crazy things get.  I wonder if the Intelligence Community will release some incriminating information.

 

FIRING FALLOUT

All of these came out over the weekend.  Aside from the Leahy Letter, let’s look at these stories.

Jeff Sessions is called a liar with multiple witnesses verifying.

Ivanka is tied into the investigation by her connections to the corruption at Trump Org.

Paul Ryan is tied to insider trading.

This is the IC’s way of saying “We know, and soon will everyone.”

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

As much as I hate saying it, there are dick pics.

 

IN OTHER NEWS

Three members of the Congressional Black Caucus have called for the bombings in Austin, Texas, to be classified as ongoing terrorist attacks. They also called for officials to determine whether the bombings are “ideologically or racially motivated.”

 

RUMOR MILL:  THE BRITS ARE ON FIRE AND PISSING OFF THE DEEP STATE

I noticed a couple things this weekend.

First, either the British are done waiting for things to finish up in America, or they got the go-ahead to unleash Hell upon the Russians those that supported them.  Notice how many links there are in this post from British places, like Channel 4 or The Guardian?  And a lot of those deal with Americans, not Brits.

I’ve got a hypothesis on this.

They had these stories ready to go for a while, but for one reason or another, they were sat on. Some person from MI5 or MI6 told them not to run these stories until they got the word.  Saturday morning GMT time, they get a weird text, “The Bird Is The Word”.  They finish up their tea, then make a couple calls, and tell them to unleash the first wave of stories.

Either that, or some “Deep State” people got pissed and talked to the Press.

By the way, I hate the term Deep State, but I’m using it here to describe the professional men and women that have spent their lives serving the United States of America, doing the ugly work.  They just want to keep their heads down, do their job, and retire, while hopefully making the world a little better in the process.

So, imagine how pissed they are hearing about Andrew McCabe getting fired two days before retiring with a full pension.

They’re pissed.  They know the system better than the Trump’s, and they know how to make their lives a living hell.  And they’ll do it.

Finally, Louise Mensch says get ready for CA’s links to Russian Propaganda.  We’ll be hearing about that soon.

 

That’s it for today.  Cambridge Analytica is the first smoking gun.  This is where the narrative changes from “Did they?” to “How did they?”

Cambridge Analytica ties to the IRA and the troll farms.  The troll farms made the propaganda, and CA helped figure out who to show it to.  I’ve described many times the use of the hacked voter rolls and the RNC database, Spectrum Health, and Alfa Bank.  Combine this with Lukoil working with CA, and this puzzle makes more sense.

But here’s the scary part…

The NRA has their own database of their members.  They were targeted by CA.  Heavily targeted by CA.  But why?  Was it just for voting for Trump, or something else?

Did the Russians and Trump try to radicalize some Americans through the use of propaganda?

I hope not, but I don’t put it past them for trying.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

Unfinished Business

Last week on Daily Check-In 03/12/2018, the Republicans of the House Intelligence Committee ended their investigation into the Russian Interference in the 2016 election, saying that they found “no evidence of collusion” between the Russians and Donald Trump’s campaign.

The Democrats on the committed called Bullshit.

On Tuesday, Daily Check-In 03/13/2018, the Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), a.k.a. the House Intelligence Committee, released a 21 page memo describing everything the Republicans either refused to investigate, actively interfered with, or purposely stonewalled.  While in any normal universe, this would be front page news for a week and a half, it wasn’t even in the top 10 stories of the week.  Fuck, it wouldn’t even qualify as Top 5 of the weekend.

As I promised multiple times this week, here’s a breakdown of the Status of the Russian Investigation.

 

BREAKDOWN

  • Appendix A:  Lines of inquiry that the Republicans shot down.
  • Appendix B:  A list of more than 30 key witnesses that they didn’t interview
  • Appendix C:  More than 20 entities that they haven’t request information from yet.
  • Appendix D:  More than 15 people and entities that blew off the committee in one way, shape, or form.

 

APPENDIX A: UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

The Democrats feel there are unanswered questions concerning the following areas that the Republicans either wouldn’t follow up on, or refused to dig into.

  • Hacking and dissemination of campaign emails.
  • Campaign knowledge of the hack.
  • Russia’s intermediaries.
  • Elections security.
  • Social media campaign.
  • Financial leverage.
  • Money laundering and foreign payments.
  • Post-election efforts and Obstruction of Justice.

 

APPENDIX B: KEY WITNESSES THE MAJORITY REFUSED TO INTERVIEW

Here’s a list of witness that the Republicans on the HPSCI flat out refused to interview.

  • Reince Preibus, Former RNC Head and White House Chief of Staff.
  • Stephen Miller, Speechwriter and Policy Advisor, likely knew about the June 9 meeting.
  • Kathleen (KT) McFarland, Member of the Trump Transition Team and Flynn’s Deputy National Security Advisor.  She was the go-between for the Transition Team and Mike Flynn when Flynn was on the phone with Sergei Kislyak.
  • Sean Spicer, Former White House Press Secretary.
  • Kellyanne Conway, White House Communications Advisor.  Worked with Peter Smith on his attempts to get HRC’s emails.
  • Tera Dahl, Diplomatic Outreach Coordinator.  What did she know about Page and Papadopoulos?
  • Daniel Scavino, Jr., Trump’s Social Media Director.
  • Joseph “Keith” Kellogg Jr., National Security Council and original member of the Trump Foreign Policy Team, along with Page and Papadopoulos.
  • Joseph E. Schmitz, member of the Trump Foreign Policy Team.
  • Sam Nunberg, former member of the Trump Campaign, student of Steve Bannon and Roger Stone.  Recently testified before Mueller’s grand jury.
  • George Nader, adviser to the Emirati Crown Prince and Erik Prince.  Recently became a cooperating witness.
  • Marshall Billingsea, member of the Trump Transition Team who expressed worries about Flynn’s Russian contacts.
  • Federal Bureau of Investigations staffers, past and present.
  • Dimitri Simes, CEO of Center for the National Interest, the Conservative Think Tank that hosted the Mayflower Meeting.
  • Clea Mitchell, former attorney for the NRA.  Introduced in Daily Check-In 03/15/2018.
  • Maria Butina, Alexaner Torshin’s protegé, started the Russian group “Right to Bear Arms”.
  • Johnny Yenason, member of RtBA, worked with Maria Butina and Alexander Torhsin.
  • Sergei Millian, Check Out Daily Check-In 11/17/2017 for his background.  He was supposedly a source in the Steele Dossier and was a Russian contact with George Papadopoulos back in April 2016.
  • Natalia Veselnitskaya, Russian Attorney and Spy from the June 9 Trump Tower Meeting.
  • Roman Beniaminov, was at the June 9 meeting.
  • Bijan Kian, worked with Flynn Intel Group and Turkey.  Daily Check-In 11/22/2017 has a link to him being a person of interest for Robert Mueller.
  • Simona Mangiante, George Papadopoulos’s wife.  She claims to know what he was up to.
  • John Szobocsan, worked with Peter Smith.
  • Allen Garten, counsel for Trump Organization who likely knows abut the June 9 meeting.
  • Alan Weisselberg, CFO of Trump Organization.
  • Mark Corallo, former White House Counsel, quit over the cover-up of the June 9 meeting.
  • Duetsche Bank, Trump’s ATM and chosen bank for Russians looking to launder money to the west.
  • Trump Campaign Digital Operation, like Avi Berkowitz and Theresa Hong.
  • Cambridge Analytica, including Rebekha Mercer, Alex Taylar, and Julian Wheatland.
  • Darren Blanton, worked with Steve Bannon.
  • Jon Iadonisi, did social media work for the Trump Campaign, as well work for Flynn and Turkey.
  • Aaron Nevins, blogger who messaged Guccifer 2.0 (Russian Government Hackers) and received stolen mails from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
  • National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS).
  • CrowdStrike, specifically the two employees who supported the DNC and interfaced with the FBI.

 

APPENDIX C:  DOCUMENT REQUESTS

The following entities have documents that the Democrats would like to see, but the Republicans declined to ask for.

  • Duetsche Bank
  • General Services Administration (GSA)
  • Snapchat
  • Imgur
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Kushner Companies and Observer Media
  • Bayrock Group
  • Estate of Peter Smith
  • KLS Research, LLC
  • Colt Ventures
  • VizSense Inc. and White Canvas Group
  • Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA
  • DMP International LLC
  • Cendyn
  • Bridges LLC
  • Right to Bear Arms
  • Center for Political Affairs
  • Ritz Carlton
  • Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
  • ACU Strategic Partners

 

APPENDIX D:  COMPULSORY PROCESS

The following people and/or entities pulled everything from telling the HPSCI to fuck off to declining to work with them.  The Democrats want to force them to cooperate, which is well within their power.  The Republicans didn’t feel like it.

  • Donald Trump, Jr.
  • Michael Cohen
  • Jared Kushner
  • Corey Lewandowski
  • Stephen Bannon
  • Hope Hicks
  • Jeff Sessions
  • Erik Prince
  • Randolph “Randy” Credico.  Daily Check-In 12/13/2017 has Roger Stone outing him as his go-between with Julian Assange.
  • Lee Stranahan.  Employed by Sputnik.
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Apple
  • White House
  • Phone and other communications records.

 

CONCLUSION

Assuming the contents of this letter are true, then the Republican decision to end the investigation into an attack on the United States is either the grossest act of partisan in modern history, a coordinated effort with the White House to end the investigation prematurely, an act of sabotage to protect themselves from from uncovering uncomfortable truths, or all of the above.

Not only does this letter tell us what the Democrats wanted to investigate, but also what they will likely investigate if and when they come to power in the House.  The kind of obstruction at play here only lasts as long as the Republicans stay in power.  The Democrats would restart these investigations within 48 hours of obtaining a majority in the House.

Yet another reason to vote this November.

Daily Check-In 03/16/2018

Friday, March 16th.  This has been an anxious day, waiting for something big to happen on the Mueller front, but as of 9:30PM, nothing yet.  Still, there were a lot of things that happened today on the British front, Stormy’s saga, and #NeverAgain.

UPDATE 10:00 PM:  In the last half hour, Andrew McCabe was fired, Cambridge Analytica was suspended by Facebook, and a 4 Star General called Trump a threat to National Security.  Tonight’s post is heavy on links, and light on individual breakdowns.  Instead, I’ll address the groups of stories, for the most part.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Really?  Two fucking days before he retires?

McCabe Statement

This was absolutely politically motivated, just like Jim Comey’s firing.  Saying that it was in response to how he treated Hilary Clinton is a soft, pathetic attempt at finding an excuse, which will get torn to shreds the first time Trump tweets about it.

Wait, he did that a few months ago, when he threatened him with wondering if he would last the 90 days he needed to reach retirement.

48B5B1A600000578-5326389-image-a-17_1517250728186

So, the Keebler Nazi, who was recused on everything involving the campaign including Clinton, fired the former Deputy Director of the FBI late on a Friday night, 26 hours before retiring with a full pension, after the President made multiple threats against the DD because the DD was a witness to a myriad of crimes committed by the President?

This is witness tampering.  Trump is beyond desperate.  He’s vindictive and making mistakes.  Costly mistakes.  And because he surrounds himself with sycophants, no one is telling him that he’s making mistakes.

 

 

UPDATE 12:47 AM:  Jesus Fucking Christ, you’ve got to be kidding me?!

DYdpF69UQAAbX8h.jpg-large

At least with Comey’s firing, he didn’t destroy the reasoning behind the move for at least a day or two.  An hour.  A FUCKING HOUR!!!

Any and all pretense that this process, which usually takes several months to complete and was rushed through in a few days or weeks, just went through the window.  The Attorney General, Inspector General, and FBI Office of Personnel have all been implicated as accomplices to an Obstruction of Justice charge, not to mention Abuse of Power and Witness Intimidation.

Plus, Donald Trump just picked a fight he can’t win with the Intelligence Community.  If he thought he was in trouble before, everything he holds dear will come crumbling down.

UPDATE 1:17AM.  Andrew McCabe’s statement.

Statement by Andrew McCabe

I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time.

For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us.

No more.

The investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI’s involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed.

The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them.

But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.

Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey’s accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday’s comments from the White House are just the latest example of this.

This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to tain the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.

I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see.

I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORM CENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

Speaking of mistakes, Trump done fucked up big time by joining the lawsuit against Stormy Daniels.

How can President Donald Trump seek $20 million in damages against my client based on an agreement that he and Mr. Cohen claim Mr. Trump never was a party to and knew nothing about? #notwellthoughtout #sloppy #checkmate

By joining Cohen in coming after her for violating the NDA, he’s implicitly confirming the events and items covered in the NDA occurred.

But don’t worry, it gets much worse.

There are now claims of threats of physical violence against Stormy Daniels, which is not only illegal in itself, but entering into an agreement under duress would nullify that agreement.  So would entering into an agreement to cover up a crime.  Today I learned that adultery is still a crime in New York.  So is election fraud, wiring money across state lines to conceal a crime, and money laundering.

 

THE BRITISH FRONT

Another Russian critic of Putin’s was murdered in Britain.  Russia is threatening everyone and everything, and the West is lining up against a glorified mafia front with an Intel service.

We are in Cold War 2.0, and I’m afraid it’s going to get hot pretty quick.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

I’m hoping that at the upcoming marches, they have people there to help register to vote.

 

DIAPER DONNIE’S DIVORCE

Something else I learned today is the limits of compelling testimony from a spouse in New York.  Short version is that it depends on how the question is asked.  Asking her “Did your husband ever talk to you about working with the Russians?” is a No Go, but “Were you aware of him talking about working with the Russians?” is Okay.  There’s a specific difference, but I’m not looking that up now.

 

TROLLS AND TECH

According to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica did not completely delete user data after they were done with it, per Facebook rules.  The app “ThisIsYourDigitalLife” passed user data to CA, and both entities claimed they deleted the data, but didn’t.

CA then used this data for nefarious purposes.

As far as Adrian Lamo, he was involved with the Chelsea Manning/Wikileaks job.  Manning approached him online about getting classified documents to Wikileaks.  He contacted a couple USIC friends of his, and that’s how we know what happened.

 

TRUMP ORG

Lawyers threatening judges and witnesses seems to be a standard practice for Trump.

As far as Jimmy Kimmel goes, I’m glad he did this, because that means no one else has to buy that merchandise.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

From the Mattis Story:

Mattis not only served on Theranos’s board during some of the years it was perpetrating the fraud, after he retired from US military service, he earlier served as a key advocate of putting the company’s technology (technology that was, to be clear, fake) to use inside the military while he was still serving as a general.

Funny how it is that this story comes out the same week that we’re having serious discussions about Article 5.  A while back, I heard some rumors that when Russia goes after Mattis, they’re scared shitless because all hell was about to break loose.

 

THE GRAND OBSTRUCTION PARTY

Jeff Flake is making a case for a Presidential run in 2020.  I’d say against Trump, but he’s not going to make it that long.  Jeff Flake has been the voice of the old Republican Party, not the Party of Trump.

 

4 STAR GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY CALLS DONALD TRUMP A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

 

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RUMOR MILL: ERIC GARLAND ON HOW RUSSIA IS NOT A COUNTRY

Futurist Eric Garland has a great right up about what makes a country, and why Russia doesn’t meet that definition.  Russia has gone too far this time, and will lose their spot in the world community.

The New Spicy Mic Files. This one is about Manafort’s latest attempt to get the charges against him thrown out, using the same tactics that have already failed.

 

That’s it for today.  My next article is about the Minority Status Report from the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.  Unless, of course, something bigger happens between now and then.  Which is almost a guarantee that something will happen.

 

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/15/2018

Thursday, March 15th.  Beware the Ides of March.

 

MUELLER SUBPOENAS TRUMP ORGANIZATION, DEMANDING DOCUMENTS ABOUT RUSSIA

Yesterday, there was talk about Trump trying to pull an end-around to fire Special Counselor Robert Mueller.  Today, this was leaked to the press.

WASHINGTON — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Mr. Trump’s business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.

The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Here’s a few reasons why Mueller decided go ahead with a subpoena against Trump Organization.

  • Trump has a history of destroying documents and evidence.  Just look at Daily Check-In 02/27/2018 with their behavior in Panama for recent evidence.
  • Mueller already has this information from Duetsche Bank, like from Daily Check-In 01/19/2018.
  • Mueller’s looking for what they don’t hand over, or what they change.
  • Mueller’s telling the country, “We coming.”
  • Mueller is telling Trump “You want to fire me?  I fucking dare you.”

The New York Times reports that this was served within the past few weeks.  If that’s the case, looking back at a tweet from February 27th, Trump’s “WITCH HUNT!” seemed a little weird, but there was chatter about something happening that day. Daily Check-In 02/27/2018 has a screenshot of the tweet in question.  Look for the Chessmaster Gary Kasparov.

At the time, I wasn’t sure what caused it, but chatter was that something had spooked Trump.  Claude’s tweet about Rick Gates delivering Trump seemed to just hang out there, but that with this story makes perfect sense.

Let me paint the picture…

Rick Gates has his Queen for a Day interview, and tells Mueller’s team everything he knows.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Rick Gates knows how Trump Org works, how they work, who they work with, what they did, and when things happened.  Rick was the go-between for Paul Manafort and Donald Trump after Manafort left.  Rick Gates also worked with the Paul’s ties in Russia, Roger Stone’s connections, and Trump’s family.  Rick Gates gives Robert Mueller Trump on a silver platter.

Rick’s information corroborates information that Mueller already has on hand, but provides enough probable cause to go after Trump Org for specific documents.  Mueller’s team takes this and they serve Trump’s business with a subpoena.

Likely not the first one, either.  A few months back, Daily Check-In 8/16/2017 and Daily Check-In 8/15/2017, I reported about a rumor from Pesach Pace about Mueller serving Trump with two subpoenas.  This was before I tracked every story with a source or a screenshot, and Pace was new to me as a source.

This time it’s different.  Rick Gates delivered Donald Trump’s head on a silver platter.  Any attempts now made by Trump to get out of this just make it more painful for him.

 

U.S., FRANCE AND GERMANY JOIN BRITAIN, SAY RUSSIA LIKELY RESPONSIBLE FOR EX-SPY’S POISONING , TREASURY DEPARTMENT LEVIES SANCTIONS AGAINST INDICTED RUSSIANS , RUSSIAN HACKERS ATTACKING U.S. POWER GRID AND AVIATION, FBI WARNS

I’m lumping all three of these big stories together as one, because they are one.

They tell the story about how the NATO-RUSSO war starts.  Years from now, we’ll ask “How did the war between the West and Russia start?” and we’ll point to this week as a possible starting point.  I would say it started with the rise of Putin in 1999, or Putin’s seizure of Hermitage Capital’s assets which led to Bill Browder’s tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s ultimate demise, or the 2014 invasion of Crimea, or the 2016 Presidential Election.  But those will be the precursor events, like the Treaty of Versailles, the Beer Hall Rebellion, or Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler were precursors of World War 2.

Russia’s attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil with a chemical weapon of mass destruction feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Great Britain, France, and even the feckless United States with Trump as President are repudiating the Russians.  France is joining the sanctions against Russia.  Australia will announce something soon.

The scariest part of all of this was an announcement from the Department of Homeland Security with proof that the Russians have penetrated critical infrastructure systems like the water system, power grid, and nuclear power plants, in the United States and Europe.

These actions are an Act of War.

The United States will be slow to react, as we’re dealing with removing the Russian Agents from our government.  We’ll be late to the party, but we’ll be there.

 

McMASTER TO BE REMOVED AS NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER

This story is hitting the rounds.  Trump’s having another one of his tantrums and wants to do what he wants, but the adults in the room are stopping him for now.

If McMaster does leave, it will be through a promotion appointment to General.  That’s 4-star General, or O-10, per The Federal Pay website.  It’s the highest rank available in peacetime.  The salary is $15,583/month, or $186,996/year.

The reason for this is that they want to prove that not everyone’s reputation is destroyed for having worked in the White House.

This move might get delayed due to it leaking out, but it’s likely to happen before too long.

 

TRUMP CABINET MEMBERS ACCUSED OF LIVING LARGE AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE

Out of the Cabinet Members, it’s easier to say who isn’t under investigation for or accused of abusing their position.  Here’s all of the Cabinet-Level people from the original list that aren’t either thieves, crooks, liars, bigots, or morally corrupted, that I know of.

  • Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis
  • Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue

That’s it.  Maybe we could include Alex Azar from HHS, but he’s not an original choice.

Everyone else is Dirty AF.  Even when including Cabinet-Level positions, I can only add a handful of names, and even those are more “haven’t heard anything YET” than they’re clean as a whistle.

 

KIDS WHO WALKED OUT SEE THEIR GENERATION AS THE ONE ‘GETTING THINGS DONE’ ON THE GUN DEBATE

I grew up in the Pre-Columbine world.  School shootings happened, but they were few and far between, and either occurred because some crazy kid got his hands on daddy’s hunting rifle, or some little gang-banger brought a handgun to school to settle a score.  I didn’t have to deal with lockdown drills, or metal detectors in school, or armed guards patrolling the hallways looking for some menial violation to report to justify their existence.

So, when I saw the #walkupnotout hashtag and meme, I damn near lost my shit.

This meme is an attempt to blame students for being shot at, by saying that the shooters are doing this because they were bullied so bad, they had no other choice but to murder their classmates, and if only those kids had listened to them, they’d be alive today.

Not only does this mentality completely ignore that Parkland, Sandy Hook, and many other schools were shot up by non-students, but the logic they use is nothing more than victim blaming.

You know, like blaming a rape victim for dressing too provocatively or nor accepting the advances of the creepy guy at the bar who wouldn’t leave them alone.  Oh, if only she went on a date with the creepy guy, he wouldn’t have raped her.

This meme is like blaming the shopkeeper for getting shot by thug who din’t get hired to be the cashier because they can’t count.

Besides, this meme completely avoids talking about guns, because admitting that guns are the problem scares them.

The children are taking the lead because their parents, their politicians, failed them.  We failed to protect them.  Now, we’re trying to blame them for our failures.

We’re telling our children that not only are we not going to do anything to protect them, but that it’s their fault that they’re being killed because they weren’t nice enough to their fellow students, as though walking up to and hugging someone with an AR-15 in the middle of a shooting is the smart thing to do.

The children are taking the lead because we failed them.  There’s still time to make it right.

 

STORMY WATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

 

PA-18: LAMB, SACCONE TO RUN IN DIFFERENT DISTRICTS THIS FALL

It’s all over but the crying.  Conor Lamb has basically won, but it sounds like the NRCC is trying for a recount.

Recount Request

PA law doesn’t have automatic recounts for congressional districts, and a request for a recount requires at least three voters who experienced some difficulties from voting to file a lawsuit.  The NRCC is going on a fishing expedition.

As far as this fall for the midterms, with the redistricting, both Lamb and Saccone will be in different districts.  PA-18 will be Pittsburgh and Southern Allegheny County, which will likely be left to Mike Doyle.  Lamb will run in PA-17, which is Beaver County and the rest of Allegheny County.  Rick Saccone will run for the new PA-14, which is Greene, Fayette, Washington, and most of Westmoreland counties.

 

FORMER NRA LAWYER EXPOSED CONCERNS OF RUSSIAN CONNECTIONS

Cleta Mitchell is listed in the Minority Status Report that I’ll talk about over the weekend.

Cleta Mitchell: Ms. Mitchell, a partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, conducted work for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and may be able to clarify for the Committee any Russian-related approaches to and interaction with the organization and persons of interest to the Committee during the 2016 election.

 

SPEED ROUND!

2 “Good Guys” with Guns Accidentally Fired them in Schools on Tuesday

Trump’s lawyer in Mueller probe, John Dowd, cited for Trump campaign contribution above the legal max

Could California Effectively Restore Net Neutrality for the Entire Country?

Trump boasted to donors about making up facts during talks with Trudeau: report

Ex-GOP lawmaker: It ‘sucks’ Trump doesn’t care that Russia attacked us

Senate passes rollback of Dodd-Frank banking rules put in place after 2008 financial crisis

Barron Trump’s school signs open letter asking his dad to act on gun violence, oppose arming teachers

US diplomats confused, told not to tweet or post on Tillerson’s firing

Trump, Who Talks About Executing Drug Dealers, Vouched For Two of Them He asked a judge to show mercy to the boss of a group smuggling cocaine into middle America who Trump deemed ‘a credit to the community.’

Possible Russian trolls try to register for Texas Democratic convention

Eryn Gilchrist Is Challenging The Maine Republican Who Insulted Emma González

George Nader convicted of pedophilia in Prague

HOUSE DEMOCRATS SAY A WHISTLEBLOWER HAS PROOF STATE DEPT. IS TARGETING CAREER EMPLOYEES WHO DON’T SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP

Ukrainian activists being censored by Facebook through Russian Trolls

 

RUMOR MILL:  DONNIE JR. GETTING DIVORCED AND THE THREE GENERALS

Vanessa Trump is divorcing Donald Trump, Jr.  Rumor has it that she found out he was fucking a bunch of Russian hookers.  Another rumor says that they’re trying to use this as a method of moving assets to avoid having them seized.  Last one is that she’s getting out while the getting’s good.

One last thing about McMaster.  He’s one of the Three Generals that Trump surrounded himself with due to his fetish with power.  The Three Generals, meanwhile, are loyal to the Republic, not Trump.

McMaster, Kelly, and Mattis.  They’ve put up with the unbearable to protect this country and to keep Trump at bay.  When they leave, it’s end game.  I don’t know what that entails exactly, but the three of them don’t leave their positions until Trump is out.  Hell, I’ve made the case a few times before about how Mattis could even become President.  I am not a fan of a General becoming President, especially without an election.  But, if it’s a stewardship role, where he serves for the remainder of the term while we as a country unfuck ourselves from the Russian mess, I’d be open to see how he does.

 

That’s it for today.  I’ve got a feeling that Friday is going to be nuts.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some indictments are unsealed tomorrow.  If that happens, I’d expect that to happen by 11AM EST.  Which means, of course, 5:59 PM EST will see a fuckton of activity.

Such is life.

Thank you, and a have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur