2017

Tuesday

The big story today is all North Korea. A story came out about them being able to put a nuke on a missile.

I might be having a mini panic attack if not for Rachel Maddow. The same story came out in 2013 about NK. But this time they might actually have gotten there.

Two crazy people with nuclear weapons, engaged in saber rattling.

There's a good chance this is all bluster, trying to distract from some big shit coming down the pipeline. Then again, Trump is just crazy enough to do something.

Considering everyone in the government is on vacation, I wouldn't expect anything coming from Mueller's team until Congress is back in session.

Per Bloomberg, the Trump Campaign has turned over tens of thousands of documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

North Korea is ugly. There isn't a pretty solution in my opinion. They are a nation of racist midgets. Due to sanctions that have continued for generations, malnutrition has taken a toll on them. One quarter of their men are mentally challenged to the point that they can't serve in the military. They're so short that in most countries, the average North Korean would be classified as a midget. Most of their equipment is Soviet era, and not well maintained.

North Korea is like a short, drunk guy in a bar fight. Nothing too dangerous, and pretty funny to watch, but then he pulls out a gun.

I'm going to work on the UI on this site over the next week or two. I also want to fill out the Get To Know Your Government series. Let's see how that goes.

Daily Check-In 8/7/2017

It’s Monday. I wonder what could possibly go wrong this week.

First off, get ready for something big to hit this week. Why? Donald Trump went on yet another tweetstorm where he decried all of the media as “Fake News.” It wasn’t all CAPS like his rants that occurred before the Jared Kushner bombshells and the details of the Comey leaks, but Trump did list every news organization that has wronged him at some point recently. ABC, WaPo, NYT, CNN, CBS, NBC. I’m half surprised he didn’t mention the CBN or QVC.

Also in his tweetstorm, Trump attacked Senator Blumenthal for some comments he made about Trump. Trump attacked Blumenthal’s military service when he served during Vietnam, and was once misquoted as “in” and not “during.” This from a man who received 5 draft deferments in college. 4 were for being and college, and the last was a medical deferment for bone spurs in his feet. Funny, he had the courage to play multiple varsity sports in college through the “agony” of bone spurs, but couldn’t serve his country when they called. At least Blumenthal was in the Marine Reserves.

On the propaganda front, TrumpTV hired Kayleigh McEnany from CNN to host his attempt at state run media. If anyone ever claims to be the “Real source of truth”, question everything they say. This is a classic tool used by propagandists to discredit and defame the sources of news coming against them, in an attempt to manipulate the perception of events. On top of that, she’s also landed a job with the Republican National Committee. This is some straight up Communist Party shit right here.

There’s an interesting development in the Bot War. Looks like the Russian Bot Net is setting its sights on members of the Republican Party. Within the last couple days, tweets with #ResignPaulRyan, #TrumpTV, #Magnitsky, #Fake and #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion have skyrocketed in use, and almost completely from twitter users identified as Russian Bots. It’s interesting that Trump’s team has turned their attention towards his own party. A twitter fight, Trump’s ravings, combined with a propaganda initiative, almost sounds like they’re getting ready for something. What is that something?

Several stories and op-eds were released today, talking about how the Russian Investigation is heating up, Mueller’s team gets closer every day, and how it’s only a matter of time before the fecal matter hits the spinning mechanical air cooling device. On top of these pieces, the Washington Post released a large story about how Trump is personally profiting off of the Trump Hotel at the old Post Office Building at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, D.C. The reporters spent six months studying the hotel, and found some very interesting back-scratching going on, like fundraisers thrown for the chairman of the congressional committee that holds the lease to the hotel and Putin’s favorite congressman, Dana Rohrbacher.

The Rumor Mill’s firing on all cylinders today. The inside staffers were talking about some unusual activity in the White House, there was a considerable amount of chatter about Russian Bots, and then there’s Claude and Louise.

As always, take everything from them with a grain of salt, but Claude reports that his source with the NYAG says that Schneiderman has impaneled a grand jury against Trump Organization for Enterprise Corruption charges. Enterprise Corruption is the state version of RICO in New York. RICO, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, is the mob breaker. These are the statutes that allow the state or federal government to charge the heads of an organization with benefiting from the crimes committed by those under their employ, even if they didn’t do the crime themselves. This has been used to take down several mob families and gangs. Claude pointed out how unusually fast the state process was moving.

For Louise, she released a story today about how Rex Tillerson is about to go up shit creek without a paddle. New York is looking at him for his “Wayne Tracker” emails. Short version: While CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson ran a second email account under the name of Wayne Tracker that he used to harass climate scientists who were hurtin ExxonMobil. These mails, which were not originally identified as belonging to Rex, and were not handed over when originally subpoenaed. When they were handed over, many were missing. According to Louise’s article, New York is looking at him for criminal fraud charges.

Remember, State charges cannot be pardoned by the President of the United States.

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.