HSIOW. Holy Shit, it’s Only Wednesday.

SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE FINDS THAT RUSSIA MEDDLED IN ELECTION. CONTINUES INFLUENCE OPERATION TO THIS DAY.

The Senate Intelligence Committee had a press conference today. This is not standard operating procedure. Normally, they wouldn’t announce anything until the final report.

Why did they do this?

To light a fire under the asses of the states to get their shit together for next year’s elections.

What they said and didn’t say was important. Very important.

What did they say?

The Russians meddled in the 2016 election in the United States, and in elections around the world.

They continue their operations to this day, and show no signs of stopping.

They’ve interviewed over 100 people, and cannot rule out collusion between Trump and the Russians.

They hit a wall with reverse engineering the Steele Dossier.

What didn’t they say?

They didn’t say that Trump, his family, or his staff were exonerated.

They didn’t say that the investigation was wrapping up immediately.

They didn’t say that they were giving up on the Dossier.

STEELE DOSSIER PART OF MUELLER PROBE.

Speaking of the Steele Dossier, guess who’s coming?

Mueller’s coming.

He has the same information the FBI has. Which means that he has the sources that Steele gave them months ago.

TILLERSON AND THE FUCKING MORON.

Ever call your boss a moron? I prefer idiot, jackass, nincompoop, fucktard, waste of skin, or useless sack of electrified meat.

Well, I have. Many times over the past 20 plus years that I’ve been in the workplace.

This is one thing that I have in common with the Secretary of State. We have both questioned the mental state of our immediate supervisor, threatened to quit, denied the quitting part, but not the calling out the boss’s mental state.

Pro Tip: Call out the decision first, then the decision making process, then the decision maker, in that order. Offer suggestions at each step. Never open with “You’re a fucking moron!”

TRUMP KIDS, SoHo PROJECT, AND BRIBERY.

A big story broke today about corruption, bribery, and organized crime involving the Trumps. This time, though, it implicates Ivanka and Donnie Jr.

Trump SoHo was a clusterfuck from day one, which was used as a money laundering front. Many of the people who bought condos sued for fraud.

Did you know that lawsuits are another way to launder money? Party A sues Party B, dirty money is put into escrow, case gets dropped, then the now clean money gets returned.

The NYC AG Office wanted to prosecute the children. NYCAG Cyrus Jones overruled his staff following a visit from Mark Kasowitz, and $75,000 in campaign donations.

Well, Mueller’s team is looking into this.

This is a development worthy of hyperbole.

This is the first time that Ivanka has been directly implicated in a crime from before her time in the White House. Not just that, but she was the brains behind the operation.

Next, NYC was ready to prosecute. The only reason they didn’t was what looked like bribery.

Finally, they partnered with Bayrock Property. Who runs that? Known FBI informant Felix Sater.

Get the popcorn.

RUSSIA’S FAVORITE REP MET WITH LAWYER FROM JUNE 9TH 2016 MEETING.

Yep, it’s Rohrbacher.

FURIOUS REPUBLICANS TRYING TO SHIT DOWN RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION.

WaPo reports that GOP groups around the country are putting pressure on House and Senate members of the various committees investigating Trump to stop their work, because of what they might find, and how much it’s killing Trump’s work.

This will end badly.

Years from now, when people ask “When did the Republican Party die?”, this will be one of the pivotal moments that I’ll point to.

Instead of letting them work to find the truth, they want to protect one man. One man, who isn’t worthy of respect or loyalty, and who has no loyalty to them.

They are putting party over Country during a war. History will not look kindly on them.

That’s it for today. Oh, wait, one more…

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

October is here.

This is going to be a little different today. This was one hell of a rough day.

Ever have one of those days where it feels like everything is wrong? That’s today.

To be honest, I don’t feel like writing. I want to be lazy and take the easy way out today, but too much shit happened, and there’s this form of self-therapy that overtakes me when I write. It’s like working out. I feel better when I do it, even if I didn’t want to in the first place.

Even with Trump attacking Puerto Rico and North Korea on Twitter over the weekend, the biggest story, by far, is the terrorist attack in Las Vegas. 59 people were murdered last night by a white guy that sort of, but not quite fits the profile of a lone gunmen.

This is the largest attack of its kind in the United States in a long time, possibly ever. The inevitable attacks on both sides of the gun control debate are going to heat up again. A bunch of GOP politicians will offer their hopes and prayers.

And that’s it. They won’t do a goddamned thing. They won’t dare push against the NRA.

Fuck The NRA.

I am sick and tired of watching innocent people die in the United States of America because we as a culture don’t want to fight the National Rifle Association.

Fuck them. Why are they working with Russia? Why?

There are too many questions left unanswered.

Why did this man do what he did?

What was his motive?

Why shoot up a country music concert?

Was he working for someone?

Why did a ton of disinformation, or deza, come from Twitter immediately after the attack, in the early afternoon Moscow time?

It’s going to be a few days at least before all of the information comes in. I’ll update with whatever information I find out.

In other news…

HP SHARES SOURCE CODE OF ArcSight SECURITY SOFTWARE WITH RUSSIANS.

ArcSight is a software suite used by the US Military and other federal departments to check for attempted network breaches. And HP let the Russians check out the source code.

It sounds worse than it is, but still, REALLY? WHAT THE SHIT, HP?

US SUPREME COURT COMING AFTER KIM DOTCOM.

Keep an eye on this. This doesn’t have anything to do with Russia, that I know of, but if the US is successful in seizing assets, expect to see this playbook used on the Russians involved.

MORE MAILS RELEASED IMPLICATING MANAFORT WITH OLEG DERIPASKA.

Yeah, he’s Manafucked.

MORE UNDISCLOSED CONTACTS BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIANS.

Yeah, so that happened. Two meetings. One before the Republican National Convention, and one in November 2015.

That’s it for today.

Thank you, and …

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, JARED! Another Fucking Email Account?

Fuck. I’m getting myself a drink and listening to Tom Petty.

Have a good one.

Finally, it’s Friday.

TOM PRICE RESIGNED FROM CABINET AMID CORRUPTION SCANDAL. OTHER MEMBERS TRAVEL UNDER INVESTIGATION.

Drain the Swamp. That was the campaign slogan Donald Trump used to describe his choices for his staff.

“I only hire the best people.” Trump said this back in 2016, and repeatedly since.

Yep. The best people.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned today, after it was reported that he wasted over a million dollars of taxpayers money on chartered flights.

He wasn’t alone.

VA Secretary David Shulkin took in a vacation to London on the taxpayers dime, right after telling his staff to curtail unnecessary travel.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke chartered flights from Las Vegas to Montana, on jets owned by oil companies, then charged us taxpayers for it.

EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt chartered flights, and is charging taxpayers $25,000 for a privacy booth in his office. Maybe he’s looking for a safe space to rub one out during the work day.

Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin chartered military flights for his honeymoon.

This is, by far, the most corrupt administration in American history. Between Russia, good old fashioned corruption and cronyism, and this, 10 out of the 15 cabinet positions are involved in something.

NALVANY ARRESTED AGAIN IN RUSSIA.

Alexei Nalvany was arrested again on his way to a rally against Vladimir Putin.

This isn’t the first time he’s been arrested this year, and Russians do not have the right peaceful assembly. These men and women are risking their freedom, even their lives, to speak out against the corruption of Putin’s government.

HOW AN ANTI-DOPING DOCUMENTARY IS CONNECTED TO THE ELECTION SCANDAL.

Here is a great article from Lawfare about a documentary about doping in bicycle racing, that morphed into a tale of Russian corruption.

Icarus. It’s on Netflix. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list.

RUSSIA WARNS OF RETALIATION IF RT IS FORCED TO REGISTER AS FOREIGN AGENTS.

Russia warned against sanctioning their news outlets and said they would retaliate if needed.

The Information War might finally be hitting the mainstream.

FAKE ACCOUNTS USED ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK, INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN CONTINUES TO THIS DAY IN REAL TIME.

One of the tricks used by the Russian Trolls in the disinformation war is to impersonate legitimate groups, and spread disinformation , or dezinformatsiya in Russian. Deza for short.

In the last couple of days, stories have broken about Russian Trolls impersonating multiple Blacktivist groups during the election to stoke anger among different groups of Americans, and I believe that I reported yesterday from Vice that the Boston Antifa twitter account was posting from Russia.

Did this stop during the campaign? No, it continues to this day. Even today, Trolls are picking fights from both sides of every argument. Including the NFL protests.

Pro Tip: Do a ICANN WhoIs Search for each news story domain that you’re not familiar with. Check to see who owns the domain, and where they’re located. I’ve been sent more than a few stories on Facebook from Russia or Ukraine that claimed to be Americans.

That’s it for the check-in today. I’ve got another story in the pipeline from today, but I think it’s a little too big and weird for this article.

Did Pence flip on Trump?

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Thank you, and have a good one.