Tag: Confirmation

Daily Check-In 01/09/2019

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Rosenstein

According to reports, Deputy Attorney General will be leaving his office shortly.  This is where the reports get confusing.  One source said that he would leave shortly after William Barr is confirmed as Attorney General.  Other sources report that he won’t leave until either after Robert Mueller submits a report, or is so close that nothing could stop it.

People are putting two and two together and concluding that this means that Mueller will submit at least part of his report in the coming weeks.

 

Нет сговора! That’s “No Collusion!” in Russian.

WASHINGTON – Members of President Donald Trump’s campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to a new report.

The milestone illustrates the deep ties between members of Trump’s circle and the Kremlin. The findings, tracked by the Center for American Progress and its Moscow Project, come amid reports that special counsel Robert Mueller is nearing the conclusion of the two-year investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by the president.

“This wasn’t just one email or call, or one this or that,” said Talia Dessel, a research analyst for the left-leaning organization. “Over 100 contacts is really significant because you don’t just have 100 contacts with a foreign power if there’s nothing going on there.”

The organization used publicly available court documents and reporting to tally up the number of contacts with Russian-linked officials, which includes those with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and others tied to Russian intelligence, banks and politicians.

The organizations counted each meeting and message as a separate contact.

The number of contacts was raised to 101 this week after it was reported that Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide, shared polling data with Manafort’s former Russian business partner Konstantin Kilimnik.

Over 100 contacts.  100.  We’re well past the coincidence stage at this point.  A couple meetings is one thing, but we’re in triple digits now.  With a lot of them coming AFTER they were warned by the FBI.

 

Manafort

Today is a good day to remember that Tad Devine, Bernie’s chief strategist, worked with Paul Manafort for many years. In Ukraine. Paul Manafort – the guy who handed over our data to GRU.

Devine went directly from working with Manafort to Bernie’s campaign. Sanders was a long-time client of Devine’s. Devine was doing work with Manafort in June 2014, and by November it was announced that he’d be doing Bernie’s campaign.

Have you ever done contract or consulting work? If you have, you know that the work + communications on a project rarely end when the contract does. There are always loose ends to tie up. Especially if you’re working with someone who’s a long-time collaborator/friend/client.

On top of that, while you’re working on one project, you’re likely also in negotiations for the next project. And big projects – such as a presidential campaign – take a lot of negotiation, meetings, calls, proposals, strategizing, and so on.

When it was announced that Devine was working for Bernie, it’s not as though Bernie called him that day and said “hey, wanna work for me?” and Devine was like, “yeah! Let’s call Politico and tell them right now!” There were likely months of negotiations beforehand.

Or at least that’s been my experience. Even with people who know me well and have worked with me many times in various capacities. Because it’s not just me and the other person involved – it’s us, plus boards, plus VIPs, plus key team members + …

And that’s just for low-stakes (compared to preserving our democracy, anyway) performing arts events.

My point: I don’t see how there wasn’t overlap, whether that particular year, or in the years prior when Devine was working for Manafort and also interacting with his longtime client and friend, Bernie (Devine’s words).

Overlap, while Devine was working for Manafort, and Manafort was working with GRU. To me, it’s an impossibility that Devine could work with Manafort for many years, and not know/understand that Manafort was also working with Russia.

So the same person who spent years working with Paul Manafort in Ukraine up until their client fled decided to work with Bernie Sanders.  Bernie, the same one who had Russian bots push his story on the internet, who cried foul at HRC even though he lost by millions of votes, and stood by while the DNC mails were released to the public.

 

“I had a 17-inch laptop that was dying and it needed new space. I also turned over the time machine application with the hard drive backup that had all e-mails, whether I’d erased them or not, and I knew they were all there. I was trying to keep an old computer running because I liked that 17-inch. To do so, I had to erase e-mails. It was not a plan to erase evidence.”

There are several things that are shady AF about this story, and having an IT background, very little of what he said makes sense.

His first explanation, in the same interview with Ari Melber, was that his wife wanted a computer to work on and he was going to give her this one.  He then asked his son to clean it up so that she would have a fresh machine to work with.  Then he said it was dying and on its last legs and he need to make space.

Deleting mail from a laptop to save space is like throwing out pizza boxes from a hoarder’s house.  Unless there’s a literal ton of them, it’s not making a big difference.

Next, he mentions Time Machine.  He didn’t say backup, he said Time Machine.  That implies an Apple computer.  The only 17 inch laptops made by Apple in the last decade and a half are MacBook Pro models.  Those are their top of the line workhorses, designed for video editing and 3D modeling.  They can take a pounding.

It’s possible that the stories line up, but both at the same time feels like bullshit.  If my wife asked me to get her a new laptop, I’m not giving her a refurb that’s a decade old.  I might use that as an excuse to get a brand new one and give her my current one, but only a dick would give his wife a dying laptop.

Then again, he is friends with Roger Stone.

 

This isn’t news to anyone who’s been paying attention, but it does need brought up from time to time.

Mueller knows EVERYTHING.

 

When they drag Donnie Jr. in front of Congress, I hope to fuck it’s an open session broadcast live across the world.  I want to see him squirm.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

A RICO conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1961 hinges on proof that the underlying offenses demonstrate a “pattern of racketeering activity.” The statute delineates several hundred or so predicate acts that can contribute to a pattern of racketeering activity. Conduct may be charged under RICO as part of a pattern of racketeering activity even when the defendant has previously been convicted and sentenced for that conduct. As such, prior criminal convictions and civil suits relative to individual predicate acts do not inure against a RICO prosecution. This is key.

Further, RICO allows for a pattern of activity to encompass up to 10 years with regard to the underlying predicate counts as long as the last one falls within the statute of limitations. For example, should a federal prosecutor seek to charge mail or wire fraud counts against the Trump Organization in 2017, then the prosecutor could go back as far as 2007 to capture the full scope of the pattern of activity. This is also crucial.

The RICO statute allows for asset forfeiture actions to be initiated early in order to prevent criminal assets from being transferred beyond law enforcement’s reach. The government can take various legal actions to freeze assets upon indictment while the criminal prosecution unfolds.

Trump Foundation.  Trump Organization.  Trump University.  Trump SoHo.  Trump’s hotels across the world.  Trump’s branding opportunities.  Every aspect of his life is covered in criminal ties.

Also, remember that there’s Criminal RICO and Civil RICO.  The criminal part puts people in jail, while the civil part takes their shit.  Only the criminal part can be pardoned, and a civil case can use accepting a pardon as evidence of guilt.

If I were to write emoticons on this blog, this is where a super big grin would go.

 

SHUTDOWN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

THREAD: I’m just an advertising guy, but thought I’d put a marketing lens on the news of Manafort sharing “polling data” with a Russian operative.

Seems benign in the grand scope of everything, right? It’s not.

Like politics, the goal of advertising is persuasion. And like politics, we call our efforts a campaign.

At the heart of any campaign, big or small, is data. Data about the market, people, the competition. In politics, this is called “polling.” Same thing.

Data is the raw material in the battle that brands fight to win hearts and minds, and get people to choose one product over another. To vote with their wallets.

Gleaning the data is very expensive, it’s labor intensive, and it takes a LOT of time.

Big companies will spend hundreds of millions on various versions of this undertaking, and employ thousands of people. The results of all this data, and the way it’s sliced and diced, is kept behind firewalls, under lock & key, privileged access.

Data (polls) is one of the most valuable resources a company has.

Anyone who works for a major company knows that Big Data is the business battle of our time.

What do we do with the data? We use it to decide who to target. To position the brand as distinctive from other brands. To develop messaging and ads. To de-position and conquest the competition (and lots more).

Back to Manafort. Sharing polling data with anyone is opening a door to collaborate with them. It’s allowing them to use your raw materials, your valuable resources, your manpower.

It’s like arms dealing, except the weapons can’t be tracked because no one knows they’re explosive except for the collaborators.

Sharing polling data means you’re working together. Conspiring. Making decisions together. Working to destroy the competition.

Imaging for a moment if Apple and Microsoft collaborated on pooling their data resources in an attempt to bring down Samsung…

But there’s SOMETHING EVEN MORE IMPORTANT TO THE STORY. To continue the analogy, imagine that Apple and MSFT then together hacked into Samsung’s servers and stole some of their proprietary data, in the form of emails about their data…

Then it’d be game over.

So, if you’ve got Manafort sharing valuable and proprietary data with a Russian intelligence operative, and you’ve got a Russian hacking operationg stealing the competition’s (the DNC’s and the Clinton campaign’s) data…then you’ve got it all.

Everything you need to destroy the competition. Not so benign anymore. You know who knows a lot about this? @KellyannePolls— someone should ask her.

 

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  I’ll be back on Thursday.  Hopefully things don’t go too far off of the rails by then.

I updated The Indicted to include Natalia Veselnitskaya’s Obstruction indictment from yesterday. (Daily Check-In 01/08/2019). Out of all of the names I’ve put on that list recently, hers was the most satisfying.  Sure, she may never see the inside of a prison cell, but the fact that from now on everywhere she goes, she’ll have to check to see if her connecting flight goes to a country with an extradition treaty to the United States warms my heart.  The same way it stays warm realizing that Paul Manafort will likely never taste freedom.

Once again, that’s where the grin emoji would go.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/08/2019

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Veselnitskaya 

A Russian lawyer whose role at a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday in a separate case with obstructing justice in a money-laundering investigation.

Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election when it was revealed that in June 2016, she met with Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump campaign advisers after an intermediary indicated she had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The indictment unsealed Tuesday relates to a different legal fight involving the Russian and U.S. governments, and charges Veselnitskaya made a “misleading declaration” to the court in a civil case arising from an investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan into suspected Russian money laundering and tax fraud. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Her work on that case attracted little attention at the time, but her role in the Trump Tower meeting made her the subject of intense investigative interest in the United States, as Mueller’s team has sought to determine whether that meeting was part of any broader conspiracy by Trump associates to seek the Kremlin’s help in defeating Clinton.

While Vesenitskaya has long proclaimed she is innocent and not a representative of the Russian government, the indictment argues she has worked closely with senior Russian officials for years.

In 2014, U.S. authorities were investigating whether Prevezon Holdings, a Cyprus-based real estate corporation, orchestrated a tax scheme in Russia by stealing the identities of companies and filing sham lawsuits to incur fake losses to generate tax refunds.

Veselnitskaya represented Prevezon Holdings in a civil case in which the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan sought millions of dollars in forfeiture from the company and others. The Justice Department had alleged in a civil complaint that a Russian criminal organization ran an elaborate tax refund scheme.

The way prosecutors described it, the members of the organization stole the identities of companies that were part of the Hermitage Fund, then filed sham lawsuits against those companies. In the lawsuits, the members of the organization posed as both plaintiffs and defendants, admitting wrongdoing so they would have large money judgments which they could claim as losses and get refunds.

The parent company of the victim firms hired attorneys to investigate after learning of the sham lawsuits, including Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and they uncovered the fraud scheme, in which Russian government officials were complicit, American prosecutors said.

Magnitsky was arrested in Russia and died in custody. On the day he died, prosecutors said, he was beaten by guards with a rubber baton, and an ambulance crew called to treat him was deliberately kept outside of his cell until he was dead.

The incident sparked the United States to pass the Magnitsky Act, which allowed the U.S. government to sanction officials found to have committed human rights violations in Russia.

As New York officials pursued the financial investigation, they sent a formal request to Russian prosecutors for assistance. In response, Russian prosecutors sent what they called “the results of the investigation carried out in its territory,” according to the new indictment. The document laid out the reasons why the Russian government “was unwilling to provide the records requested,” according to the indictment.

In November of 2015, Veselnitskaya submitted a declaration to the judge overseeing the Prevezon case, asserting that she had gone to great lengths to achieve a copy of the Russian document. In 2017, the U.S. attorney’s office settled its civil case against Prevezon for more than $5.8 million.

Veselnitskaya, who has deep experience in Russian political and legal matters, had been brought on by Prevezon to fight the lawsuit, though she also lobbied more broadly against the political outgrowths of the allegations against the company. When she met with Trump Jr. and others, she talked about her opposition to the Magnitsky Act.

Veselnitskaya has in the past sought to dispute her characterization as a “government attorney,” noting that she worked only in the prosecutor’s office of the province that surrounds but does not include Moscow. “A regional prosecutor is not the Kremlin,” she said previously.

This is some good news.  The lawyer-spy at the heart of both the Trump Tower Meeting and their work covering up Russia’s crimes in the Sergei Magnitsky case was indicted for Obstruction of Justice for lying to investigators about Magnitsky.

Yes, she wasn’t indicted on a Mueller-related charge, but she is still indicted.

I wonder if there’s any more Russia related news today…

 

Manafort

Paul Manafort shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former employee whom the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing from his defense attorneys.

The apparently inadvertent revelation indicates a pathway by which the Russians could have had access to Trump campaign data.

The former Trump campaign chairman on Tuesday denied in a filing that he broke his plea deal by lying repeatedly to prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about that and other issues.

In his rebuttal to the special counsel’s claims of dishonesty, Manafort exposed details of the dispute, much of which centers on his relationship with Kilimnik. The Russian citizen, who began working for Manafort’s consulting firm starting in 2005, has been charged with helping his former boss to obstruct Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference into the 2016 election. He is believed to be in Moscow.

The special counsel alleged Manafort “lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign,” according to the unredacted filing, and discussed Ukrainian politics with Kilimnik during that time.

“Manafort ‘conceded’ that he discussed or may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion,” his attorneys quote the special counsel as saying, and “’acknowledged’ that he and Mr. Kilimnik met while they were both in Madrid.”

Welp, there it is.  Ladies and gentlemen, THERE’S YOUR COLLUSION.

In what I can only describe as either the dumbest moment of the last 20 minutes or a desperate attempt to get Trump’s attention, Paul Manafort’s attorneys forgot to redact a couple very important sections of their response to Robert Mueller’s claim that their client lied to the Special Counselor.  In the unredacted information, we got some really juicy info.

First, Paul Manafort handed over Trump’s internal polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, who then gave that info to Oleg Deripaska.  Think about that for just a second.  Paul Manafort, along with his aide Rick Gates, gave the internal information on American voters to a person with ties to the GRU (the same group that hacked the DNC), who was instructed to brief an Oligarch that had Manafort by the balls and had close ties to Putin and the Kremlin.

Next, Manafort also shared with Kostya his ideas for a “Ukranian Peace Plan.”  Remember how Michael Cohen and Mike Flynn floated the exact same idea around? Yeah, Paulie Walnuts pushed the same plan around.

Also, we found out that Manafort kept in contact with the Trump Administration until as late as May 2018.  Paulie had direct contacts with people in the White House until the time around his first arrest, and sent someone to talk to a pal of his by dropping his name.

Finally, we also know that Rick Gates was involved in a lot of this shit.  Rick flipped almost a year ago and gave Mueller everything.  Manafort, being the compulsive lying narcissist that he is, never stopped to think that his second in command would give Bobby Three Sticks all of his emails, documents, and calendars that prove that he’s lying.

This snafu could be the biggest self-inflicted wound since Donnie Jr. sent out his email chain.  That is, unless this was intentional.  Check out the Rumor Mill section for more on that.

 

 

 

The Mystery Supreme Court Case

A mystery company appears poised to file a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that could offer new details about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation.

A new filing on the high court’s online docket promises an appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld fines against the company for not complying with a grand jury subpoena. The company is owned by an unidentified foreign country.

The filing, submitted Monday but appearing on the court’s website Tuesday, seeks permission to file an appeal under seal. It also asks the Supreme Court to let a redacted version of that appeal be made public, according to the court’s docket.

…

The high court rarely, if ever, hears cases that are under seal. In the famous 1971 Pentagon Papers case the court rejected a government request to hold part of the argument behind closed doors, though the sides were allowed to file briefs under seal. The court later ruled that the government couldn’t stop the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing the government’s secret history of the Vietnam War.

The grand jury dispute has been shrouded in mystery, in part because officials closed an entire floor of a federal courthouse in Washington during arguments on Dec. 7. Politico linked the case to Mueller in October, citing a conversation overheard by a reporter in the court clerk’s office.

The appeals court order rejected contentions that a federal sovereign-immunity law shielded the company from having to comply.

The cases are In Re Grand Jury Subpoena, 18A669, and In Re Grand Jury Subpoena, 18M93.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

MIDDLE EAST

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

1/ A whole bunch of formerly conservative — now Trumpist — think tanks better get ready to pull down all their articles opposing eminent domain seizures.

2/ While they’re at it, they might want to scrub all the policies about Obama’ untrammeled abuse of executive power.

3/ Also, let’s skip that whole “rule of law” question from now on, ok? The new standard of “conservatism” is being set tonight, and since Washington’s Vichy GOP policy establishment dropped their petticoats to keep the Trumpists happy, they might as well go all the way.

4/ A phony crisis to pretend to build a vaporware wall is totes worth it, though! After all, precedents NEVER stick, right? The key lesson of Trumpism a Cartmanesque gunt of “Ah do what ah wannnnt!” So when there’s a Democratic president, y’all just sit down and color.

5/ Since the Tucker-Hannity Dental Purity brigade is heavily in my TL, I’ll give you a counterfactual scenario. (Google it, Trumpist dolts)

6/ It’s January 2021. Donald Trump choked on a KFC chicken bone or died in an autoerotic asphyxiation game gone wrong. Doesn’t matter how. For this scenario, we have a shiny new Democratic President. Call her, just for the sake of argument, Kamala Warren.

7/ She sweeps into the Oval Office and asks for a national TV address to declare a state of emergency. “My fellow Americans: the crisis of climate change can no longer be ignored, and Congress will not act fast enough.”

8/ “Powerful forces are at work, and by any standard this crisis is an emergency, so following the precedent set by President Trump, I am today declaring the following actions. First, the Federal government will immediately seize certain oil and natural gas facilities and lands.

9/ “All refining facilities will be closed. Oil and natural gas lands will be repurposed for solar and wind power only, and we will offer job retraining for their owners. The Federal government will control these lands in perpetuity to prevent additional damage to the climate. “

10/ “This is a hard step, and we do not take it lightly, by as President Trump seized hundreds of thousands of acres of land under eminent domain, we have followed his precedent to the letter, because the climate emergency demands it.”

11/ “To prevent any illegal drilling, I am ordering the U.S. military to build appropriate walls, fences, minefields, and other security structures around these lands and facilities. Walls work, in the words of President Trump, and this emergency demands them.”

12/ “We will also take Federal action to end the lawless behavior of Carbon Sanctuary States. Because of this emergency, Federal power must Trump (hehe) the rights of the states. It’s an *emergency*. Carbon Sanctuary States endanger us all, and they must be brought to heel.”

13/ See how this goes? I could go on, and on, and on, but once you open these doors, other people will walk through them. Other people will use powers of the executive in ways you *really* won’t like. But it’s ok. There will never be a Dem President again, right?

This is one of the reasons why I think that the MAGA movement is so dangerous.  All of their actions are performed with no thought about what might come in the future.  It’s why zealots are lousy at wargaming.  It also screams that they can’t imagine a world where they aren’t in power.  As Rick once said, “they can’t imagine the jackboot being on the other foot.”

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Dammit. We have been right every step of the way. Every single prosecutorial advance – from SDNY to SC – will prove us out. F*ck everyone who stole from & belittled us. And thank you to all who follow along & contribute. There’s a sh*t ton more to unveil.

Want to know how we do it? 1. We believe in & TRUST our DOJ & Intelligence community. Yes. That’s right, all you Assange-SnowdenWald-PutinCept apologists. We’re the good guys. You are traitors. 2. We read. History, DOJ & FBI reports, real investigative journalism, court filings.

I’m a professional writer, yet there are simply no words to encapsulate how much individual & cooperative effort this has taken. We did it b/c we saw a desperate need. We saw both the failings of corporate news & the attack that the 4th Estate was under. And so we dug in 2 help.

I love investigative journalism & understand the critical role of the 4th Estate in ensuring democracy. Those whom I collaborate with are also professional people w/ expertise. Most with decades of it, incl. advanced degrees & executive experience. Stop sh*tting on us.

 

Note: the fauxdacted #Manafortfilings say that Manafort met the GRU in Spain to discuss a “Ukranian peace plan”. You know who else worked on a “Ukranian peace plan”? Michael Cohen.

  1. The no doubt deliberate fauxdactions warn others what OSC wants hidden. Important in that they show what OSC is presently trying to redact: 1. A meeting in Spain with the GRU 2. About the Ukr plan 3. Handed Trump polling data over 4. Ongoing contacts w Trump campaign
  2. What are the cumulative implications of those redactions? a) that Manafort continued to act for Trump b) that in that capacity he received polling help from Russian intelligence c) in exchange for the same sanctions relief on Ukraine Cohen was working on That’s collusion.
  3. The redactions, seen in this light, continue to bolster the Steele Dossier. They show that OSC is demanding redaction on broadly the same actions, taken by Manafort, as Steele says were taken by Cohen – hacking help from Russian intelligence in exchange for sanctions relief

5 and final – the Ukrainian peace plan is absolutely key. @MichaelCohen212continued this, with Russian intelligence, after @RealDonaldTrumpwas elected. Chris Steele’s raw intelligence dossier is sustained directly and indirectly by these redactions.

Louise has an interesting take on the Manafort redaction fuck-up.  What if this apparent fuck-up wasn’t a fuck-up at all?  What if Manafort’s attorneys, who are already in some deep shit for allegedly passing intel from the Mueller investigation to Trump’s legal team through the Joint Defense Agreement, did this on purpose to send a message to Team Trump that Mueller had proof that Kilimnik passed along the polling data?

Since they got busted last year abusing the JDA, they have to know that Mueller knows everything, but they couldn’t get the message across.  All of their communications with the JDA are now suspect and possibly criminal.  If they tried to pass a message along through other channels, they could be be partaking in some serious obstruction activities.

How does one get a message to someone when all of the private methods are down or being monitored?  Go public.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds, and probably pretty easy to pull off.  Manafort’s team knows that this case has a lot of interest in it from the press.  Any small action gets coverage.  If they intentionally made a mistake to ensure that it was reported, they could easily do that.  If they timed the error perfectly, they could guarantee that it gets in the news and makes a big enough splash to alert everyone involved.  The judge won’t like this move, but if it’s the first time they’ve tried this, there’s no pattern of behavior to point to as evidence of this hypothesis.

I’m not saying that this is what happened, but keep an eye out for any other behavior like this.

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Notice how I didn’t cover Trump’s speech?  Because I was busy looking into Manafort and Veselnitskaya instead.  That, and I wanted to wait until after I read the transcripts from all of the speeches and checked out the fact-checking, and waited to see how bad the shitshow was before I weighed in.  That, and I’d rather hang out with my family for a little bit than listen to Tangerine Tojo spout lies on television.

See you tomorrow.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/07/2019

Monday, January 7, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

One of the things that’s getting lost in the conversation here is that Executive Privilege has limits. It can’t be claimed simply because it makes the President look bad, and certainly not at the end of a trial.

In all previous examples where Executive Privilege was cited and upheld, it has been claimed either at the beginning of an investigation or at the discovery phase, only applies to information which is sensitive and cannot risk being entered into the public record, only applies to events that occurred during the current administration, and also only applies if it is not talked about by the Executive branch.

None of those three cases apply here. The report itself is near the culmination of an investigation, not the inception. Evidence has already been gathered from witnesses who spoke on the record to investigators, so trying to claim Executive Privilege now is like talking to the police about a crime, giving a confession, laying out all of the details, then claiming that their attorney was stuck in traffic so it doesn’t count. The report will also likely cover events that happened before Trump became President, so there’s no chance of Executive Privilege when he wasn’t the Executive yet. Finally, because Trump can’t keep his mouth shut, he keeps talking about EVERYTHING that happened during this time, including details and accounts that were not known publicly before. Him talking about these events alone has waived Executive Privilege. Combined with everything else, he doesn’t have a pot to piss in.

 

 

SHUTDOWN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Someone on Reddit asked “How can a constitutional right be subject to that same interpretation?”

From the Federal level, this is due to the 9th and 10th amendments, where it states that only those powers that are authorized by the Constitution are to within the jurisdiction of the Federal government, and all other powers reside to the states to decide how to execute them.  The Pennsylvania Constitution has a similar clause.

For example, let’s take obscenity and decency laws.  There are municipalities in Pennsylvania that have restrictions on when, where, who, and how individuals can buy porn or visit a strip club.  While those are both protected forms of free speech guaranteed under the first amendment, localities are still allowed to have reasonable restrictions on them, like they have to be at least 500 feet from the nearest school, can’t be completely nude and offer alcohol, or can’t operate on certain days of the week.

Note the term “reasonable”.  Unreasonable restrictions are just that: unreasonable.  Completely outlawing guns inside city limits or requiring strippers to only perform to a funeral dirge are unreasonable restrictions.

There’s also nothing to stop Robinson, Scott, or any other town from enacting their own restrictions, aside from the likelihood of lawsuits from the Commonwealth and the NRA, which could easily cripple a smaller town.  If Pittsburgh is successful, then other towns might follow.  Or do the opposite and allow unfettered gun ownership.  It’s up to the individual town at that point.

That’s where the reasonable conversation ended.  Things went downhill after that.

I don’t like the gun enthusiasts or open carry movement at all.

First, it’s the ultimate expression of White Privilege.  It’s almost always white people carrying their security blanket AR-15’s, pretending that they’re one loud noise away from going all Dirty Harry or Rambo on the scene because they’ve seen one too many action movies.  If they were black, the cops would get called in a heartbeat and the black person gets shot because they were “armed and dangerous.”

Unfortunately, these people are likely to get trigger happy,  looking for a reason to “be the hero” in their own little story.  Next thing, someone gets murdered for cutting in line or driving like a jerk.  It’s easier to shoot someone when constantly armed.

Also, the people that organized this are not even from Pittsburgh.  Protesters driving in from Erie or Cleveland to combat a proposed law in Pittsburgh is a dick thing to do.  Sounds like the projected claims of busing in out of state protesters.

 

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

This is, quite literally, the exact same faulty reasoning that tech companies keep citing to justify not taking action to combat disinformation and manipulation on their platforms. They knew there was a problem, but failed to act because they wanted to avoid right-wing backlash.

Brian StelterVerified account @brianstelter

TV exec texts: “He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves… If we give him the time, he’ll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don’t give him the time, he’ll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

This is what I’m talking about –> Facebook was aware of their “fake news” problem and had the tools to fix it. But they chose not to act b/c they were “paralyzed” by “fear about upsetting conservatives.” Now major networks are falling into the same trap.

Memo to media/news execs: Trump is going to go to war with you regardless of what you do or how much coverage you give him. He’s still going to call you “fake news,” even if you let him hijack your airwaves with his speech.

By giving Trump free reign to spew propaganda on the airwaves, news organizations are not just broadcasting Trump’s toxic lies — they’re helping him achieve his goal of eroding public trust in the press. They’re destroying themselves to placate someone who wants to destroy them.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

BREAKING:#cyntoniabrownhas been granted full clemency by the governor of Tennessee.

And while having her sentence commuted is worth celebrating, remember that Cyntoia Brown has been in prison for 14 years and will be on parole for 10 years. We must question the justice system that allowed this, and fight for others in similar situations who haven’t been freed.

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

Yeah, so that happened.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  I feel like I’m coming down with something, so I might not be on the ball as much the next couple days.  Hopefully it’s not too much to put out of the fight.

One spoiler for Tuesday’s post, Natalia Veselnitskaya is back in the news.  She was indicted on an unrelated money laundering case.  I’ll try to have more on that later on.

I don’t know what’s going to come of Tangerine Tojo’s Televised Tantrum, but I’ll cover that as much as I can.  At least, I’ll cover others covering it.  I might be several shots of NyQuil deep into the night by then.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/04/2019

Friday, January 4, 2019 and the weekend.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Grand Jury Extended

This grand jury was impaneled back in July 2017, and was approaching the 18 month limit.  They can be extended for 6 months.  This jury will likely continue until July 2019.

Whelan

There’s something beyond fishy with Paul Whelan.  The U.S. wouldn’t send him in to Russia to spy without some type of cover, and picking a man who was dishonorably discharged from the Marines for breaking crimes of trust.

There’s two interesting theories I’ve heard.  The first is that Whelan was picked up by the Russians because he’s one of their spies and went off the reservation.  The second is he was arrested for trade bait.  Not Butina, but the next guy.

 

Nevidomy

Vladimir Nevidomy ties to Trump’s Florida towers, which are used to launder Russian money and serve as a location for Russian Anchor Babies.  He could take down the whole operation.

 

House

Remember, Adam Schiff has access to the really good stuff.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

It looks like Burke was busted on an extortion racket.  He refused to let a Burger King restaurant get a building permit for a remodel unless they hired his law offices to do their taxes.  He was caught in a sting when he said this on the phone, into a wiretap.  During the raid on his offices, it’s almost a certainty that the Feds also found stuff about Trump’s taxes.

 

SHUTDOWN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

A Different Kind of Emergency

If only the Republicans cared about our country sliding into a dictatorship as much as they do about a young woman of color dancing or another dropping the F-bomb, then I might not be so mad all the time.

Of course, there is no legal basis for this move.  I’ll have more about that tomorrow.

 

Russian Talking Points

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

Mother Fucker

 

Rick Wilson

1/ In the midst of something close to 2000 emails along the lines of “Suck it, looser” and “I’m going to kill you” there have been a few heartfelt messages expressing hurt over my “ten tooth” line. Allow me to make a few observations about this current moment.

2/ Obviously, not all Trump supporters are ten-toothed rubes, but I’d bet you a hundred quatloos research would prove all ten-toothed rubes are Trump supporters. But that’s not really the point, is it? The point is that Trump’s base proudly endorses the most lavish cruelty.

3/ They adopt this language and attitude of unearned swagger and strength, of “fuck your feelings” and imitation of Trump’s own cruelty, vulgarity, unjustified chest-thumping. Trumpism isn’t, for the 1000th time, conservatism. It’s a parasitic infection feeding on hatred.

4/ The reaction to my throwaway line was a sign of 2 things; the unbelievable political and status insecurity of the Trump voter. They were offended by the dental comment, but they should have been offended by the “rube” comment. Because *I* didn’t make them rubes. Trump did.

5/ Do you want a participation trophy and a pat on the head from me for your utterly credulous dumbassery over Trump’s endless list of lies, deceptions, scams, venality, and corruption? I thought unearned merit was what you hated about the *left*.

6/ The story of the reaction is also a window into the dumbfuckery of the Trump-right outrage machine. It’s is the perfect mirror image of the dumb language-and-tone policing of the worst cliches of the social justice crowd. It’s failbot Alinsky for dumbasses.

7/ I’m not going to coddle and cosset people who are proud of being conned, or who embrace cruelty as governance. I was told the new order was all about “fuck your feelings” but apparently MAGA feefees are so delicate a bald dude with big ears and glasses can trigger you.

8/ Social and status insecurity is the key underpinning of racially inflected nationalism that Trump and Russia (but I repeat myself) weaponized. You don’t like someone who pokes it? You don’t like someone who calls your shit? I am not your safe space.

 

Impeachment Argument

  1. The unrelenting chaos that President Trump creates can sometimes obscure the big picture. But the big picture is simple: The United States has never had a president as demonstrably unfit for the office.
  2. Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors can be separated into four categories. And this list is conservative. It does not include the possibility that his campaign coordinated strategy with Russia, nor his lazy approach to the job, like his refusal to read briefing books.
  3. This list instead focuses on demonstrable ways that Trump has broken the law or violated his oath. ONE: Trump has used the presidency for personal enrichment. TWO: He has violated campaign finance law. THREE: He has obstructed justice. FOUR: He has subverted democracy.
  4. For the country’s sake, there is only one acceptable outcome, just as there was after Americans realized in 1974 that a criminal was occupying the Oval Office. The president must go.
  5. Achieving this outcome won’t be easy. And it should not involve a Democratic House quickly impeaching him — which would actually be a favor to Trump. But achieving his removal from office is more plausible than many people seem to realize.

 

Pelosi

 

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Germany Hacked by GRU

 

NASA Visit DENIED

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

THE ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHOW

 

THINKING AHEAD

Warren

 

Just, Don’t

 

Electoral College

Two years ago, the Arizona House of Representatives voted to eliminate the Electoral College.

It’s a great idea.

Long overdue.

The House passed a bill that would have given all of Arizona’s 11 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote no matter who wins the in-state vote. Both Democrats and Republicans voted for it.

Twelve states already have passed similar laws, with a combined number of 165 electoral votes. When enough states pass such bills to equal 270 electoral votes it would guarantee that the popular vote winner would win the presidency.

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for the last few days.

Something I need to get better at is curating how many stories I include, especially on the weekend.  It’s not like it was super, duper, crazy, but I need to stop grabbing each and every headline.  It takes hours to organize all of this.

I expect to talk about gun rights a little bit tomorrow.  There was a rally in Pittsburgh where a bunch of open carry enthusiasts (read: white guys from outside the city with small penises and who are generally afraid of minorities) protested downtown because the city proposed banning assault weapons from inside city limits, as well as allowing the police to seize firearms from someone if people go to the cops and report that person as a danger to themselves or others.  You know, like a responsible society would do.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur