It’s been a few days since I posted. Things have been a little hectic.

Good news is that I’m mostly over the cold that beat my ass last week.

Bad news is that a day after I start feeling slightly better, my furnace died. Which means that the only way my home has any heat right now is with a half dozen space heaters strategically located throughout.

This is the fifth time in eight years the furnace has died, and any maintenance at this point is just patching it until the next failure, so we’re getting it replaced.

But, just because I’m cold, the news doesn’t stop. Here’s a couple of the bigger stories of the last few days.

Mueller Looking for Information on 18 Crucial Days

Trump sexual Assault Accusers Unite, Demand Congressional Action

Yates Interviewed Mueller in July

HRC FBI Agent Pushing Conspiracy Theory was Paid by Flynn

Dutch Branch of Alfa Bank Raided in Money Laundering Investigation

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Suspected of Insider Trading by European Parliament

Carl Bernstein Thinks Fox News is Culpable in Covering for Trump Russian Collusion

Donnie to Testify Before Senate Intelligence Committee

Two stories from the news I am not linking to are the Alabama Senate race, and Mueller turning his attention to Steve Bannon. I’ll have more to say about those another day.

One piece I will talk about is there is a lot of chatter in the Rumor Mill about something big dropping soon. Proof that Trump ordered the Russian Collusion, or at least its coverup, is supposedly on deck for Friday, and a few more indictments and arrests are planned before Christmas. Expect some low-level staffers, but chatter is picking up that Jared Kushner will be arrested by the end of the year.

If Jared goes down, Trump might try to fire Mueller. If he tries it, expect the mother lode. Leaks, SIGINT, protests, video of Trump asking the Russians for help, phone calls with Pence, all of it.

That’s it for today. Hopefully I’ll be back to a normal writing schedule soon.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

It’s Friday, and I’m still fighting this cold.  And the cold.  But, the world doesn’t stop because I’m sick.  So, time to take a shot of DayQuil, and time to get to brass tacks.

Let’s get ready for the NEWS DUMP!

RUSSIAN MIDEAST NUCLEAR PROJECT BRINGS COLLUSION AND TREASON INTO FOCUS

Part of removing sanctions on Russia was a proposed project of building many nuclear reactors in the Middle East.

Russian companies would build the reactors, and the United States would use the military to secure the locations.

This project would be the first step in the recolonization of the Middle East.

Nuclear reactors are VERY expensive. Several billion dollars per reactor, and they can generate many times their worth in revenue over their lives.

This is a Trillion Dollar Deal. Sounds like a lot of motivation for some people to sell out their country.

AL FRANKEN TO RESIGN FROM SENATE

This hurts. I like Al, and he’s been one hell of a fighter against Trump.

The good side of this story is that it means that the Democrats are the party of Integrity. They have the moral high ground, and will make each and every Republican answer questions about Trump and Moore.

He may be the first, but he won’t be the last. GOP Representative Trent Franks is resigning immediately over sexual harassment claims, and there are rumors that many more are under fire.

MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF STEELE DOSSIER IS ACCURATE

Yep. The Dossier is Human Intelligence, which can be a little shaky. Think of it like the first draft of a screenplay. The basic plot points are there, but details need worked out.

TRUMP NAMES JERUSALEM ISRAELI CAPITAL, VIOLENCE BREAKS OUT

MATTIS, TILLERSON OPPOSED JERUSALEM MOVE

These two are related. Trump wants to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, against the wishes of EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN.

MORE UNDISCLOSED RUSSIAN EMAILS TO AND FROM DONNIE JR

Donnie’s about to have a really bad holiday, what with lying to Congress and the FBI.

WIKILEAKS UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

In other news, water is wet. But it’s nice to hear it in the MSM.

RUSSIAN SOCIAL MEDIA EXECUTIVE WANTED TO HELP TRUMP IN 2016 ON RUSSIAN SOCIAL MEDIA

Think about this for a moment. Who does this benefit?

EVEN MORE ALL-TIME LOW POLLING NUMBERS

32 percent job approval. Some forms of Cancer have higher approval rates.

Nixon left office at 27 percent.

GP’S FIANCEE SAW MAILS WITH FLYNN, BANNON

Two big takeaways from this story.

George Papadopoulos is punching WAY above his weight class. She is out of his league by quite a bit.

She has seen emails between George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, and Steve Bannon.

FBI APPROACHED HOPE HICKS ABOUT RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT TRUMP

Way to bury the lede there, Me.

Hope Hicks, the former model and PA for Trump, now serving as White House Communications Director, interviewed with Mueller’s team for two days recently.

One of the subjects covered was the FBI repeatedly talking to Hope about Russian Intelligence contacts reaching out to Trump and the Campaign/Transition Team.

Notice how I said she was his PA? Personal Assistants often do many crap jobs, including reading and replying to emails. She was the one relaying Trump’s messages and doing the typing for him.

These mails were under surveillance in one way or another, so the FBI knows if she replied, what she replied with, and to whom.

They know. Is she smart enough to save herself, or is she so loyal to Trump that she’s willing to go to prison for him?

That’s it for today. If you get a chance, check out Rachel Maddow’s special on the Steele Dossier.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

-Katy Tur

It’s Wednesday, and I’ve been under the weather the past few days.  Hell, I’m still sick as a dog, so this week will be light on updates, but that doesn’t mean that the world stops.

Here’s a few of the bigger events from the past weekend, and up to today.

GOP PASSES TAX BILL

TRUMP ADMITS TO OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE ON TWITTER, THEN HIS LAWYER TRIES TO SAY IT WAS HIM WHO WROTE IT FROM TRUMP’S ACCOUNT ON A SATURDAY MORNING.

LATER, JOHN DOWD (LAWYER FROM ABOVE) SAYS THAT A PRESIDENT CAN’T OBSTRUCT JUSTICE.

EMAILS SHOW THAT FLYNN DID NOT ACT ALONE

KREMLIN TRIED TO CREATE BACKCHANNEL TIES TO TRUMP CAMPAIGN THROUGH NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

TRUMP DIRECTED RNC TO CHANGE UKRAINE POLICIES

TRUMP BENEFITED FROM PENTAGON RENTING APARTMENT IN TRUMP TOWER

MANAFORT COULD HAVE BAIL REVOKED AFTER WRITING OP-ED WITH KNOWN RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENT

HERE’S A LINK TO THE OP-ED

MIKE PENCE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED

MUELLER SUBPOENAED DEUTSCHE BANK FOR TRUMP FINANCIAL RECORDS

RUSSIAN ANTI-DOPING HEAD DIES OF “RUSSIAN HEART ATTACK” FOLLOWING THEIR OLYMPIC BAN

REZA ZARRAB MIGHT BE PUT IN WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM

MUELLER’S TEAM WORKING HARD TO GET RICK GATES TO FLIP ON PAUL MANAFORT, MAY USE SUPERSEDING INDICTMENTS ON HIM

THE STORY OF GP’S ARREST.

TIME PERSON OF YEAR: THE SILENCE BREAKERS

TRUMP ENDORSES ROY MOORE

WHISTLEBLOWER APPROACHED MUELLER IN JUNE WITH FLYNN TEXT MESSAGES AND WARNINGS ABOUT NUCLEAR REACTOR PROJECT

FIRST ATTEMPT AT AN IMPEACHMENT VOTE

 

That’s what happened over the last few days.   At least, that’s what I’ve got so far.  Hopefully, I’ll be back to semi-normal in the next couple days.  But, out of everything, the biggest takeaway from the weekend is this…

Donald Trump’s legal team has changed the narrative again.  They are no longer arguing that he didn’t obstruct justice or collude with Russia, but that they aren’t crimes.

Aside from being completely laughable, this argument tacitly implies that Donald Trump and his team did those things.  They’re not saying “He didn’t obstruct justice, and it isn’t a crime.”  They’re saying “A President can’t obstruct justice.”  Those are two different arguments.

The next biggest thing to happen is the acknowledgement that Mueller has Trump’s financial records from Deutsche Bank.  That bank recently was hit with nearly half a billion dollars in fines for laundering Russian money for many years, and it’s interesting to note that they continue to do business with Donald Trump, even after he sued the bank after defaulting on a loan.  No one else will work with Trump, but DBank keeps giving him money.  Could it be that DBank is receiving matching funds from VEB, VTB, or other Russian banks, and Deutsche Bank is merely the front-facing company in the loan?

Finally, there was an interesting spike in Mike Pence stories in the last few days.  He’s been flying under the radar the last few months, apparently trying to keep his neck clean.  But I noticed something about the stories that were floating around about him.  A general theme.

Pence ratted out his fraternity brothers for having a beer keg in the house.  Pence offered to take over the top spot on the ticket for the RNC on a ticket with him and Condeleeza Rice.  Pence’s wife hates Trump.  Pence sees himself as destined by God to become the President.  Pence continuously made false statements about Mike Flynn’s role in the Transition Team.

There’s a theme, and that is that Mike Pence can’t be trusted.  At least, Trump can’t trust Pence.

This creates a problem for Trump, who is already paranoid AF.  Pence is the one person he can’t fire in the Executive Branch.  There is no statute, provision, or policy on the books which allows for a VP to be removed from office, except by resignation or the impeachment process.  With Trump’s increasing paranoia, these stories build to two possible conclusions.

Pence is angling for Trump’s job, and the only way that Trump can protect himself is to attack Pence.

If I were to wargame this out, Trump attacking Pence on Twitter has a strong likelihood of bringing down the Republican Party as we see it, and creating the split into two parties that I’ve alluded to in The Multi-Party System.

Still, it’s pretty unlikely, but this is 2017, the Hold-My-Beer year.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

Friday. Remember how I said something big was coming?

FLYNN FLIPPED

December 1, 2017:  The man who led the “Lock Her Up” chants in the Trump Campaign Rallies pleads guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a plea deal to keep his son from facing espionage charges.

Mike Flynn was arrested and charged with one count of lying to the FBI. This is in lieu of other charges, and dependent on his cooperation with the Special Counselor.

Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI during an interview in January about two meetings he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December 2016. Those meetings were being monitored by the IC. It didn’t take long for them to catch him in a lie.

Flynn testified today that he spoke to Kislyak under orders from a senior member of the Presidential Transition Team.

Flynn is fully cooperating in exchange for a reduced sentence for him and his son. If he holds out in any way, then Mueller will ruin him and his son.

I mentioned in Flipping Flynn how many people are at risk, and how bad Mueller can destroy Flynn. But understand one thing…

Flipping is like fishing, and the cooperating witness is the bait. You don’t flip a big fish to get little fish. You use them to get a bigger fish.

Who’s the bigger fish than Mike Flynn?

Jared Kushner

Donnie Jr., maybe the rest of the family

Vice President Mike Pence

President Donald Trump

If I were one of them, I’d be shitting a brick right now.

They were blindsided by this. No one is leaking. The White House found out about Flynn’s guilty plea by watching the news.

I wonder how they’ll find out about the next series of indictments.

By the way, Flynn was FEATHERS13.

FEATHERS14 and 15 are airborne. Happy Hunting.

Trump Transition Team.

Leadership

The Trump transition team was led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. It originally had six vice-chairs, which was expanded on November 29, 2016 to thirteen vice-chairs: Ben Carson, Chris Christie (previously head of the transition from May 2016 through election day), Michael Flynn (incoming National Security Advisor), Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Jeff Sessions (incoming Attorney General), with the addition of K. T. McFarland (incoming Deputy National Security Advisor), Gov. Mary Fallin, Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (previously on the executive committee), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Tom Reed, and outgoing Rep. Cynthia Lummis.[74][75][76]

That’s the list of official leadership of the Transition Team, with the following people making up the Executive Committee

•     Steve Bannon, Trump campaign CEO; named Counselor to the President on November 13
•     Rep. Lou Barletta
•     Rep. Marsha Blackburn (moved to vice-chair)
•     Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
•     Rep. Chris Collins
•     Rep. Tom Marino
•     Rebekah Mercer – director of the Mercer Family Foundation and daughter of major Trump (and Cruz) donor Robert Mercer.
•     Steven Mnuchin — former partner at Goldman Sachs,[77] incoming Secretary of the Treasury
•     Rep. Devin Nunes
•     Reince Priebus — Republican National Committee chairman; named incoming White House Chief of Staff on November 13
•     Anthony Scaramucci — Hedge-fund manager and founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, formerly at Goldman Sachs
•     Peter Thiel – Co-founder of PayPal, now a venture capitalist involved in several groups including Clarium Capital and Founders Fund.[78]
•     Donald Trump Jr.
•     Eric Trump
•     Ivanka Trump
•     Jared Kushner, businessman; husband of Ivanka Trump

Additional executive committee members added on November 29, 2016:

•     Rep. Sean Duffy
•     Rep. Trey Gowdy
•     Rep. Dennis Ross
•     Pastor Darrell C. Scott
•     Kiron Skinner

Most of the people here are likely sleeping fitfully tonight.

Shit, another thing, the lawyers that filed this are Zainab Ahmad and Brandon Van Grack. She is THE EXPERT on flipping defendants against their co-conspirators, and he’s THE EXPERT on espionage cases.

Flynn’s plea doesn’t explicitly prevent him from being prosecuted for other crimes, either. They have him on a microscopic leash.

Other stuff happened today, like the GOP trying to ram through their tax plan that only benefits rich people and will cause a recession at best. There’s only one way to cover everything else…

SPEED ROUND!

• John Conyers hospitalized for stress related illness after being asked to resign by Nancy Pelosi.
• Fat Fuck Farenthold settled a sexual harassment claim against him for $84,000.
• Trey Gowdy settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit for $150,000 for firing a staffer for not investigating Hilary Clinton.
• Several exits are rumored for early next year.
• Medvedev says relations with U.S. at all-time low.
• Erik Prince testified before House Intelligence Committee Thursday about his Russian back channel meeting in the Seychelles.
• Some Oligarchs are afraid of working with Putin out of fear that they’ll be included in further sanctions.
• Louise Mensch reports about Erik Prince and his Chinese ties. Expect to hear about China more in the coming months.

That’s it for today. I think. I’ll write something this weekend that is a bit more focused. I think it’s time to explain how the Chain of Succession works. Maybe even something on the Justice League.

Take a deep breath this weekend. I don’t know where things go next, but we are living history, and we all need to take a step back, see what is important, and what’s worth fighting for.

Then, get back in the fight. It’s time to save Democracy.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur