Category: Daily Check-In

Daily Check-In 07/10/2018

Tuesday, July 10th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 

COHEN

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRADE WAR

 

SCOTUS

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

JIM JORDAN

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

RACISM

 

NAME AND SHAME

 

TRUMP HATES WOMEN

 

AND HIS DRIVER, TOO…

 

ELECTION 2018

 

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  I’m posting this on Wednesday morning, because that’s when I got to it.

Mike Flynn has a court date, Paul Manafort gets transferred to a new jail, the BBC talks about Trump’s rapey past, and CNN is finally going after Rudy’s foreign ties.  It’s about damn time.

I’m not sure how this week is going to unfold, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in stories about Trump metaphorically slobbering all over Putin’s dick while he’s in Europe for the NATO summit.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 07/09/2018

Monday, July 9th.  I’m back.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Yeah, the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed what I’ve been saying for a year; that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Donald Trump.

 

COHEN

Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer to President Trump who is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, has hired Lanny J. Davis, the Washington lawyer and public relations consultant best known for serving in the Clinton White House, to represent him.

The pairing is unusual. Mr. Davis has tried to position himself as a key defender of Bill and Hillary Clinton — particularly Mrs. Clinton, whom Mr. Trump defeated in the 2016 presidential election and continues to attack as “totally crooked.” Mr. Cohen was once a fierce defender of Mr. Trump.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

STORMYGATE/BROIDY CROSSOVER

A sealed legal complaint against GOP mega donor Elliott Broidy by his former mistress contains “troublesome claims that he wouldn’t want to become public,” a source with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Beast.

Broidy is being sued by former Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, who became pregnant with his child before having an abortion. Bechard sued Broidy on Friday, alleging he violated their non-disclosure agreement when he stopped paying her installments totaling $1.6 million earlier this month. A source close to Broidy told The Daily Beast, “a cursory review of the lawsuit indicates it is full of falsehoods.”

On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti will ask a Los Angeles court to unseal the complaint that he said names him.

“You don’t sue someone and refuse to give them a copy of the complaint, unless you are playing a game,” Avenatti told The Daily Beast.

He currently represents porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Michael Cohen, who negotiated her non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet an alleged affair with Donald Trump. Cohen also negotiated Bechard’s NDA.

On April 12, Avenatti tweeted: “In last 18 mos, Mr. Cohen negotiated yet another hush NDA, this time on behalf of a prominent GOP donor who had a relationship with a LA woman, impregnated her and then made sure she had an abortion. The deal provided for multiple payments across many months.”

 

TRUMP ORG CORRUPTION

Donald Trump’s flagship Scottish resort received thousands of pounds in US taxpayers’ money to host VIP visits by officials from his administration, an investigation by The Scotsman can reveal. The US president’s resort at Turnberry received more than £5,600 in federal funds to provide accommodation for the trip earlier this year.

According to a source at the South Ayrshire hotel and golf course, the stay was in connection with Mr Trump’s official visit to the UK scheduled for this July, which is expected to include Scotland in the itinerary. The payment, sanctioned last month by the US State Department, represents the first time one of Mr Trump’s Scottish businesses has received direct federal funding from his own government.

 

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

BREXIT

 

SCOTUS

By the way, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement a couple weeks ago.  The very next day, it comes out that his son Justin underwrote a billion dollar loan for Trump Organization in 2009 while working at Deutsche Bank.  DB has been caught laundering money from Russian Oligarchs, and no one in their right mind would loan money to Trump under normal circumstances in a good economy.  2009 was the height of the housing bubble, Trump Org had the corporate equivalent of a 350 credit score, and Eric Trump was already on the record talking about how they got all the funding they needed from Russia.

I’ll cover that in more detail over the next week or so.

 

TRUMP HATES WOMEN, PART 792: ATTACKS ON BREASTFEEDING

 

TRUMP THE SEX OFFENDER

A few days before President Trump heads to the U.K. to meet the queen and the prime minister, a BBC investigative program has revealed fresh allegations of sexually inappropriate actions by Trump during the 1980s and 1990s, comparing him to a “predator” at parties with girls as young as 14.

The report featured Monday on the BBC Panorama investigative documentary series, entitled “Trump: Is the president a sex pest?” included testimony from two women who said they encountered Trump at parties during his time as a real estate magnate and operator of beauty pageants.

Trump’s behavior toward younger women was described by a man who attended the same parties as like that of a “predator.”

One of the women, Barbara Pilling, said she met Trump at a party in New York in the late 1980s while she was a young model. She alleged that then-businessman Trump asked her how old she was and approved when she said she was 17, allegedly responding: “Oh, great. So you’re not too old and not too young. That’s just great.”

Pilling said she was not the youngest girl at the party, claiming there were girls as young as 14 attending. “I felt I was in the presence of a shark,” Pilling said, describing Trump.

Another woman, Heather Braden, told Panorama that she saw Trump at a party in Miami in the 1990s attended by only four men and 50 female models.

“I felt like a piece of meat in a market,” Braden said. “I could have been auctioned off in some sort of a sex slave ring.”

One anonymous male source speaking to the show claimed to have been at many of the same events as Trump during the same time frame and described drug- and alcohol-fueled parties attended by older men and younger women.

…

Trump, in particular, was “notorious” for his behavior toward younger women, the man said.

“This guy was like a predator in action. The next day or days after we would hear about it, he would brag about it to his friends and it would get around that he scored. Maybe one or two girls at a time, which is what he loved to do.”

 

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

NAME AND SHAME

 

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Oh, by the way, Scott Pruitt is gone.  I’ll cover that soon.

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

This is another story I need to cover that broke recently.  Rep. Jim Jordan was a former wrestling coach at Ohio State University in the 80’s and 90’s.  At the same time, they had a very handsy and rapey doctor who molested the members of the wrestling team.  This doctor had a locker right next to Jim, and Jim’s team told him about the handsy doc.  Jim denied ever knowing anything about the alleged abuse.  Since his denial, 7 of his former wrestlers, including UFC Champion Mark Coleman, have come forward calling bullshit on Jim.

I hope they go full JoePa on his ass.

 

COLLEGE

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

The state’s high court issued an order Friday saying it would hear oral arguments on the contentious case July 18. The fiercely contested measure pits the group, Voters Not Politicians, which supports redistricting reform, against a Republican and business-backed group challenging the validity of the measure.

At issue is whether the redistricting petition merely seeks to amend the state’s constitution or instead is a far broader revision to the constitution, which can only be made through a more formal constitutional convention?

 

ECONOMY

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

 

RUMOR MILL

The unfolding of the Russia scandal has been like walking into a dark cavern. Every step reveals that the cave runs deeper than we thought, and after each one, as we wonder how far it goes, our imaginations are circumscribed by the steps we have already taken. The cavern might go just a little farther, we presume, but probably not much farther. And since trying to discern the size and shape of the scandal is an exercise in uncertainty, we focus our attention on the most likely outcome, which is that the story goes a little deeper than what we have already discovered. Say, that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort told their candidate about the meeting they held at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer after they were promised dirt on Hillary Clinton; and that Trump and Kushner have some shady Russian investments; and that some of Trump’s advisers made some promises about lifting sanctions.

But what if that’s wrong? What if we’re still standing closer to the mouth of the cave than the end?

Welcome to the party, pal!  We’ve been spelunking this traitorous cave for a year, and we’re just getting started.

 

Seriously, take the time to read this article.  It looks at the whole Trump/Russia conundrum from a skeptical point of view, yet doesn’t discount the coincidences as “conspiracy theories” or “kooky.”

 

That’s it for today.  I’m working on a “What’d I Miss” post covering the major events from June 23 to July 8.  There was a lot of big stories that happened in that time, and I wanted to cover them, but needed to get back to daily posts.  I figure it will take at least a couple days to get caught up, but if I worked on that first, I’d fall behind further.  This way, I can get caught up faster.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Irregular Posts

This post is a bit different than normal, but I feel I should explain what’s going on.  It will be a little more personal than normal, but I still refuse to divulge any names.

I’m going to be very busy for the next few months.  Busier than normal, anyway.

Last Friday, I decided to not stay up and finish Daily Check-In 06/22/2018.  Normally, I stay up to finish these posts, but as I was extremely tired and my wife was miserable beyond words, we went to bed.

Ok, let me step back a moment.  My wife, one of the most amazing women on the planet, was justifiably miserable.  She was very, Very, VERY pregnant.  Like, due date within a week pregnant.

Yinz can see where this is going, right?

Saturday morning, the original plan was to wake up, drink some coffee, work out a bit, and finish writing Friday’s post.  Instead, I wake up to my wife wincing in pain.

In my grogginess, I ask what’s wrong.  She tells me that she’s having contractions, and that they were strong and ten minutes apart.  “That’s great,” I thought.  10 minutes apart means things are just starting, and that we still have a few hours before things get crazy.  I get up, and casually get dressed.  About 30 seconds later, she finished what she was saying.

“That was at 3am.  They’re 5 minutes apart now.”

Oh fuck.

Most obstetricians tell patients to get to the hospital when contractions are that short apart, because that means she is in labor, and is going to push a tiny human out of her in a relatively short period of time.

How short of a time?  We left at 07:30, and arrived at the hospital by 08:15.  By 09:00, she was going through triage and they were moving her to a delivery room.  By 10:00, the epidural was in.  By 10:50, she was halfway dilated.  At 12:51, the doc checked her one last time, and said that my wife was “ready to go, I feel a head.”  After one quick push, the doc saw the baby crown.  As nonchalant as possible, the doc said “Ok, I’m going to take a moment to get suited up and get everyone in here, cause you’re going to have a baby in a few minutes.”

The doc wasn’t kidding about a few minutes.  That first push ended at 12:55.  by 12:58, the doc was suited up for work and a platoon of nurses and staff arrived.  At 12:59, the next push got the baby out to her ears.  By 13:01, her head was out.  At 13:03, our daughter was born.

So, in less time than it takes to work a shift at work, we arrived at the hospital and delivered.  In less time than it takes to order and eat lunch, my wife pushed a tiny human out of her.

That was Saturday.  It’s been a whirlwind since then, with multiple trips to the hospital and back, making sure everyone in the family is taken care of, and playing pack mule.  The wife is doing better, the baby is great, and the oldest is adjusting well to being a big brother.

All that craziness at home means that I might not have time this week to post every day.  My goal is to try to get one or two posts covering what I missed, and see how things work from there.

I’m still in the fight, and I’m still gathering stories every day.  Just now, I’m changing diapers while doing it, and I’ve got another great reason to fight for.

 

15-atay-15

 

By the way, don’t expect a bunch of baby pictures here.  I try to keep my family off of here as much as possible, but I felt that I owed something to those that read this every day.

 

Thanks.

Daily Check-In 06/22/2018

Friday, June 22nd

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is seeking to prevent the defense for Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, from arguing to jurors that he was targeted for prosecution because of his role in Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

In a court filing on Friday, prosecutors asked a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, to bar any selective prosecution claims during Manafort’s looming trial on tax evasion, bank fraud and other charges.

“Manafort should … be precluded from arguing that he has been singled out for prosecution because of his position in the campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump, or otherwise asserting that he has been selectively prosecuted by the Special Counsel’s Office,” Mueller’s team wrote.

Prosecutors noted that Manafort never filed a legal motion asking for the case to be dismissed on selective-prosecution grounds.

“Courts have consistently held that claims of selective (or vindictive) prosecution must be presented to the court before trial and cannot be argued to the jury,” the government filing said. “The government’s reasons for initiating a prosecution have nothing to do with whether the evidence at trial proves the elements of the charged offenses, which is the sole question that the jury must answer.”

 

COHEN

Comedian Tom Arnold said Friday that he and President Trump’s former, longtime personal lawyer are teaming up to “take down” the president.

Arnold tweeted a photo with Michael Cohen on Thursday with the caption, “I Love New York,” which Cohen retweeted without comment.

Arnold then told NBC News that he met with Cohen as part of a show he is working on for Vice, in which he searches for incriminating videos of the president.

“This dude has all the tapes–this dude has everything,” Arnold told NBC News. “I say to Michael, ‘Guess what? We’re taking Trump down together,’ and he’s so tired he’s like, ‘OK,’ and his wife is like, ‘OK, f— Trump.’”

The idea for the Vice program followed the leak of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape during the 2016 campaign, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women “by the p—-.” The show will feature Arnold’s hunt for other unflattering video and audio footage of the president.

During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with knowledge of the matter — an unusual practice that speaks to the close relationship between Trump and David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company.

Although the company strongly denies ever sharing such material before publication, these three individuals say the sharing of material continued after Trump took office.

“Since Trump’s become president and even before, [Pecker] openly just has been willing to turn the magazine and the cover over to the Trump machine,” said one of the people with knowledge of the practice.

During the campaign, “if it was a story specifically about Trump, then it was sent over to Michael, and as long as there were no objections from him, the story could be published,” this person added.

WASHINGTON — When the National Enquirerreported without proof in March 2016 that Sen. Ted Cruz had been caught cheating with five mistresses, Cruz blamed the “tabloid smear” on “Donald Trump and his henchmen.”

When the supermarket tabloid asserted two months later that Cruz’s dad took part in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy — based on an exceedingly creative interpretation of a decades-old photo of a man who vaguely looked like the elder Cruz handing out pamphlets with Lee Harvey Oswald — Trump gleefully spread the claim to discredit his GOP presidential rival.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that throughout the 2016 campaign, executives from the Enquirer sent copies of its articles about Trump and his opponents — including Cruz — to Trump attorney Michael Cohen for approval before publication.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

ANTWON ROSE

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

George Will, a longtime political commentator and staunch defender of the conservative movement, made a dramatic exit from the Republican Party Friday, citing the party’s support for Donald Trump in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

In a speech at a luncheon held by the Federalist Society, Will urged other conservatives not to support Trump as the GOP nominee. “This is not my party,” Will said the speech, noting that while it’s a little too late to find a replacement for him on the ticket, conservatives can “grit their teeth for four years” after making sure that Trump loses.

Will mentioned that he had switched his voter registration from Republican to “unaffiliated” in the state of Maryland. He told the Washington Post, where he writes a column, that he made the change several weeks ago, after House Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed Trump for the 2020 election.

 

SCOTUS DECISIONS

 

U.N. POVERTY REPORT

 

ECONOMY

 

ELECTION 2018 AND BEYOND

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Friday.  Yes, I know it’s Tuesday when I posted this, and that I added absolutely zero wit, snark, or depth to any stories.  I’m going to post an update in a few minutes explaining why, and why I won’t be as regular with my updates for the next couple weeks.

It’s a good reason.  I’ll also explain why I’ve been so cagey recently.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

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