Tag: Confirmation

Daily Check-In 08/23/2018

Thursday, August 23rd, 2018.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort

If Trump pardons Manafort on the charges from this month’s federal case alone, then he would still face prosecution in three very blue states (New York, Illinois, and California) and one increasingly blue-ish state (Virginia). Those are four jury pools that would potentially be altogether worse for Manafort. If, in this month’s trial, Manafort could only persuade one juror out of 12 on about half of these charges, his chances would seem pretty low at running the table in four more trials in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Northern Virginia. And we haven’t even discussed the charges in the second federal trial next month and whatever additional state criminal liability Manafort might face that has not been charged at the federal level. And Mueller still might be strategically holding off on other charges.

It’s also unlikely that a Trump pardon would at least get Manafort out of jail temporarily while awaiting state trials. Judge Amy Berman Jackson in D.C. took Manafort’s jury tampering so seriously that she revoked his bail. One of those state judges would probably deny bail, too, even if Manafort is pardoned for this alleged tampering. And that would put Manafort in state jail, not “Club Fed.” That’s another reason Manafort might not want a federal pardon: he might prefer federal prison over any state prison.

Something to keep in mind when it comes to pardon talk.  There is nothing Trump can do about state crimes.

The document Winner compromised did, in fact, contain TOP SECRET information about the sources and methods used to acquire the intelligence described in the report.  That means it revealed how U.S. Intelligence Agencies obtained information.  U.S. Government subject matter experts have determined that Winner’s willful, purposeful disclosure caused exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security.  That harm included, but was not limited to, impairing the ability of the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information similar to the information the defendant disclosed.  This was, by no means, a victimless crime.

What’s more, Winner’s exceptionally damaging disclosure was not a spontaneous, unplanned event, but was the calculated culmination of a series of acts.  She researched whether it was possible to insert a thumb drive into a Top Secret computer without being detected, and then inserted a thumb drive, WHICH THE GOVERNMENT NEVER RECOVERED, into a Top Secret computer.  She researched job opportunities that would provide her access to classified information.  At the same time, she searched for information about anti-secrecy organizations, and she celebrated claimed compromises in U.S. classified information.

Approximately eight days before she started work as a contractor with a security clearance, Winner installed sophisticated software tools on her computer designed to render her internet activity anonymous and untraceable.  Two days before starting work, Winner captured an image of a webpage listing eight “securedrop” addresses for media outlets seeking leaked information.  Then, her first day on the job, she sent messages mocking her security training.  On that same day, Winner signed a non-disclosure agreement with the government in which she promised to keep secret classified information, and attested she was accepting this responsibility “…without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”  Yet, she wrote shortly thereafter that she was “#gonnafail” her polygraph examination when asked if she had “ever plotted against” the government.  She claimed to hate America.  When asked, “…you don’t actually hate America, right?” she responded, “I mean yeah I do its literally the worst thing to happen on the planet.”

She was the quintessential example of an insider threat.

Let’s stop pretending that Reality Winner is some kind of hero of the masses, or some fighter for the freedom of information.  She entered into this endeavor solely to leak information to press, and the only one that bit was Edward Snowden’s buddy Glenn Greenwald.

Reality Winner got off light.

In early 2017, some of Donald Trump’s advisers concluded that they faced a sophisticated threat responsible for “coordinated attacks” on the new Administration. They circulated a memo, titled “The Echo Chamber,” which read like a U.S. military-intelligence officer’s analysis of a foreign-insurgent network. Instead of being about enemies in a distant war zone, however, the network described in the memo consisted of former aides to President Barack Obama.

The memo claimed that the “communications infrastructure” that the Obama White House used to “sell Obamacare and the Iran Deal to the public” had been moved to the private sector, now that the former aides were out of government. It called the network the Echo Chamber and accused its members of mounting a coördinated effort “to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy” through organized attacks in the press against Trump and his advisers. “These are the Obama loyalists who are probably among those coordinating the daily/weekly battle rhythm,” the memo said, adding that they likely operated a “virtual war room.” The memo lists Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser to President Obama, as “likely the brain behind this operation” and Colin Kahl, Vice-President Joe Biden’s former national-security adviser, as its “likely ops chief.” Rhodes and Kahl both said in interviews that the allegations are false and no such organization exists.

The memo is unsigned and undated, and Trump Administration officials familiar with it offered conflicting accounts of who authored it and whether it originated inside or outside the White House. The officials said that it was circulated within the National Security Council and other parts of the Trump White House in early 2017. They said the memo may have had additional pages. A National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment.

Ronan Farrow’s work into this matter stemmed from a connection to Black Cube, the same group that Harvey Weinstein used to harass the women he raped. (Daily Check-In 03/27/2018).  Black Cube was also employed by the Trump Administration to spy on Americans.

In any normal universe, this alone would be grounds for criminal investigations and impeachment.  We passed normal a long time ago.

 

COHEN: PECKER OF NATIONAL ENQUIRER GETS IMMUNITY FOR TESTIMONY AGAINST COHEN, TRUMP; COHEN SUBPOENAED BY NY STATE TAX DEPARTMENT

Pecker and the National Enquirer

David Pecker, the chief executive of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen and President Trump in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

In exchange for immunity, Mr. Pecker, the CEO of American Media, Inc. and a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, has met with prosecutors and shared details about payments Mr. Cohen arranged in an effort to silence two women who alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump, including Mr. Trump’s knowledge of the deals, some of the people said.

Prosecutors in the Cohen investigation have indicated they won’t proceed with criminal charges against either Mr. Pecker or Dylan Howard, chief content officer of American Media, for their participation in the deals, according to people familiar with the matter.

Messrs. Pecker and Howard and American Media didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

…

Mr. Pecker’s immunity deal comes at a delicate time for American Media, which is struggling financially. The firm, which publishes Us Weekly, Star magazine and Ok!, among other gossip and fitness titles, has been engaged in restructuring its substantial debt, the Journal previously reported.

The company ended last year with an outstanding debt load of $920 million and added approximately $80 million more in June when it acquired gossip titles In Touch, Life & Style and Closer, as well as other magazines. The deal gave American Media control over nearly every tabloid weekly sold in the U.S., aside from Meredith Corp.’s People magazine.

American Media’s business woes stretch back several years. The company declared bankruptcy in 2010 and underwent a restructuring in 2014 that handed control to its two biggest creditors, Chatham Asset Management LLC and hedge-fund manager Leon Cooperman.

…

Prosecutors said that in August 2015, shortly after Mr. Trump announced he would run for president, Mr. Pecker offered to help Mr. Cohen find negative stories about Mr. Trump’s relationships with women and arrange for them to be purchased, but never published. This is a practice known in tabloid media as “catch and kill.”

In June 2016, Mr. Pecker and Mr. Howard—who are identified in the documents as “Chairman-1” and “Editor-1” respectively—contacted Mr. Cohen to say Ms. McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year, was trying to sell a story about an alleged affair she had with Mr. Trump in 2006 and 2007, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Cohen urged them to reach a deal with Ms. McDougal and promised to reimburse the company, which ultimately purchased the rights to her story in August 2016 for $150,000. The company also agreed to put her on magazine covers and publish articles under her byline.

Mr. Cohen created a dummy corporation, Resolution Consultants LLC, to then purchase the rights to the story for $125,000 from American Media, but in October 2016, Mr. Pecker backed out of the deal, prosecutors said.

Mr. Pecker’s lawyers advised him not to transfer the rights of the story to Mr. Cohen, because doing so would undermine any legal argument that the purchase was made for journalistic purposes, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has previously said it reached a deal with Ms. McDougal for editorial reasons, not to help the Trump campaign.

Wow.  I always knew Trump’s Pecker would get him in trouble, but I didn’t imagine it this way.  Trump has to be worried about that Pecker leaking.

The Pun Jar total is now $64.

I’ve never liked the National Enquirer, but for the last few years, they turned into a propaganda rag for Trump.  Every grocery store in America sells this tabloid, and everyone sees this.  Normally, it’s just some lousy gossip, but for the last 2 years, it’s been a propaganda piece for Trump.  It attacks all of his enemies, praises his successes, and has gone all-in on the Trump Train.

To keep that train running, AMI has been involved in multiple catch-and-kill stories.  It’s not just McDougal or Daniels.  There are more women, more secrets, and enough skeletons in that safe to fill a mass grave.

And the holder of the secrets just became a cooperating witness.

Sleep tight, you fat fuck.

 

Trump Organization, Trump Foundation, and Campaign Finance Law

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Michael Cohen personally called tax officials in New York on the same day he received a subpoena from state investigators looking into the Trump Foundation.

A state official confirmed the call from the former personal attorney and “fixer” for President Donald Trump, but would not divulge the details of the exchange, which came Wednesday just hours after Cohen received the subpoena. The official was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Associated Press first reported the existence of the subpoena on Wednesday. It was issued as part of the state’s ongoing investigation into Trump and the Trump Foundation to determine whether the Republican commander in chief or his charity broke state law or misstated their tax liabilities.

Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to campaign-finance violations and other charges, saying he and Trump arranged the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and a former Playboy model to influence the election.

The subpoena was issued after Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, said on television that his client has information that would be of interest to investigators in Washington, as well as New York state.

Cohen is a lawyer. A bad one, and probably not for much longer, but he’s still a lawyer today, and he knows what accepting a pardon entails.

Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt, per SCOTUS (Burcick vs US). This admission can be used as evidence in Federal civil cases and at the state level for similar crimes, and since most state charges wouldn’t constitute as Double Jeopardy, he’d be boned like a porn star.

Also, accepting a pardon waives the persons ability to invoke their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination for anything related to why they were pardoned.

Here’s some more info on Pardon Limitations.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Election Security

Gee, I wonder why they would block a bill requiring a paper trail for the elections?

Panic Tweet

Waking up a couple hours early and tweeting all caps is the surest sign of innocence, right? Right?

Sessions

We’ve been through this game before, but now Lindsey Graham is pulling this “yes, but let’s wait” game.  Russia/Putin/Trump have to have a ton of photos of the Senator sucking some serious cock to have corrupted him this much.

Flipping and Distance

 

IMPEACHMENT AND INDICTMENT TALK

When one has to preemptively defend themselves from an impeachment, things are going to hell in a handbasket.

Also, notice the tone of the warnings.  They sound a lot like the posturing of the Doom and Gloom that comes from Russia each and every time they get squeezed a little.

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Duncan Hunter

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

ATTACKS FROM RUSSIA: THE ANTI-VACCINE EDITION

This one really pisses me off.  The Anti-Vax movement is another one of these internet movements of ill-informed people that have rejected science, but almost certainly filled by left wingers and liberals.  Meanwhile, conservatives and right wing types fight against the scientific consensus of climate change.

Now, we have proof that the Anti-Vax movement is getting pushed from Russia.  The rates of vaccination are dropping in countries that Russia views as their enemies, but not for their allies.  The U.S. and E.U. are seeing a decrease in childhood vaccination and in increase in dead babies.

It’s time to cut Russia off from the Internet.  No contact with the outside world until they deliver Putin’s head on a platter to the Hague.  It’s optional whether the rest of the body is attached.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

None of the social media posts on this subject offered any sources or information documenting that President Trump bore the cost of Manigault Newman’s wedding, or that hosting the couple’s rehearsal dinner and brunch reception at a Trump-branded venue cost upwards of $200,000.

Furthermore, these posts were inaccurate in stating that Manigault Newman was married at Trump Tower, which is in New York. Her rehearsal dinner and brunch reception took place at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on 8 April 2017. The tweeted wedding photograph used in posts promoting the rumor even notes the location at which it was taken — “Trump International Hotel”:

Additionally, multiple individuals with certain knowledge of the situation told us that neither President Trump nor the Trump Organization covered the cost of the wedding, while the White House declined to respond to our request for comment. Barring any additional information, this claim appears to be a fabricated one.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

It took just 80 minutes after racially incendiary emails started flying for the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, to shut down an email Listserv connecting hundreds of high-profile conservatives.

The emails that sparked the controversy began ricocheting midday Tuesday, in response to a plea from Darren Beattie, a recently fired speechwriter for President Donald Trump, for “those on this list with media influence” to come to his defense. The White House over the weekend dismissed Beattie after CNN revealed that he had spoken at a conference alongside a racial provocateur.

Charles Johnson, an alt-right provocateur and Trump loyalist, was first to respond.

“Beattie’s offense is that he spoke at an event where — gasp! — there were white nationalists afoot!” Johnson wrote the group. “Heaven forbid that some thinkers — like the American founders who favored our country be majority white — think that the U.S. of A should stay majority white! Perish the thought. Can’t have that.”

A little more than an hour later, as senior administration officials and white-shoe lawyers asked to be removed from the list, the Claremont Institute had scuttled it entirely.

…

Claremont Institute’s president, Ryan Williams, injected himself into the discussion on Tuesday after one participant asked “why we allow this garbage on it,” referring to Johnson’s note. Others asked to be removed from the Listserv (to which this reporter subscribed). “I’ll save everyone the trouble of responding in kind and I’ll shutter the group entirely,” Williams wrote.

“When Charles Johnson, one of our more than 650 alumni, began using a private email group to espouse views that are incompatible with the principles of the Founding Fathers and Claremont’s mission,” Williams said in a statement, “I thought it best to spare the others unwanted spam and acrimony and close the group. We host many forums for civil discourse, and the unmoderated Listserv had ceased to serve our alumni community well.”

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

#METOO

 

ELECTION 2018

WASHINGTON — Republicans are struggling to make the $1.5 trillion Trump tax cuts a winning issue with voters in the midterm congressional elections, but the cuts are helping the party in another crucial way: unlocking tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations from the wealthy conservatives and corporate interests that benefited handsomely from it.

Billionaires and corporations that reaped millions of dollars in tax cuts are pumping some of that windfall into the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super PAC” closely aligned with Speaker Paul D. Ryan that is flooding the airwaves and front porches of swing congressional districts with increasingly sharp attacks on the Democratic candidates vying to wrest control of the House.

The fund’s donors include the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has given $30 million, and whose company, Las Vegas Sands, reported a nearly $700 million windfall from the tax law earlier this year; Timothy Mellon, chairman and majority owner of Pan Am Systems, a privately held collection of companies that includes rail, aviation and marketing services, who has contributed $24 million; Valero Services, a Texas oil refining company that reported a $1.9 billion benefit from tax cuts in the first quarter, and which has given $1.5 million; and a collection of other corporations, executives and financial fund managers.

Well over a quarter of the group’s donations have come through the American Action Network, a separate legal entity that focuses on issues and does not reveal donors, but that spent heavily to promote the tax cuts before and after President Trump signed them into law late last year.

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT OF THE DAY

Goldberg, the former Professional Wrestler, had a run in with…  No, I’m not even going to go into it.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday’s looking to be nuts.  There’s another high profile person that received immunity in the Cohen case.

I’m going to be busy on Saturday, so I’m going to try to get back on schedule and get Friday’s post up late Friday.  That way, I can get something posted on Sunday, too.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/22/2018

Wednesday, August 22, 2018.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort

Now that Paul Manafort is a convicted felon, let’s take a moment to enjoy the fact that he has ANOTHER trial in less than a month, and that he might be retried on the ten counts that ended in a mistrial.

Good times.

 

COHEN

It’s not clear whether federal prosecutors knew in advance that Cohen would implicate Trump, but if they had any reason not to believe him, they were obligated not to permit Cohen to lie to the judge. Because they didn’t, we know that his statements were consistent with the other evidence in their possession.

So Cohen wanted to publicly reveal that Trump directed him to commit crimes. The implication of his statement is obvious — it is a crime to direct someone else to commit a crime. And Cohen is not done. His attorney Lanny Davis told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night that Cohen is willing to provide information to Mueller about a possible “conspiracy to collude” with Russia and whether Trump “knew ahead of time” about computer hacking.

…

Tuesday’s statement by Cohen was a jiujitsu move that evaded Trump’s disinformation campaign, and it might not be the last such move. More evidence of crimes that don’t fit Trump’s narrative could weaken the resolve of Trump’s base, or cause some high-profile Republicans to break with the president. Or a Democratic victory in November, along with a stronger PR campaign by Democrats on corruption and impeachment, could ultimately sway enough Republicans to make a difference.

I could probably spend an entire weekend tearing apart everything that we know about Cohen, and I’d really like to, but here’s the TL:DR; (Too Long, Didn’t Read) version.

Trump is fucked.  He’s so fucked, that it is almost mathematically impossible to quantify the level of fucked he’s at, and it’s only going to get worse.  Michael Cohen can link everything together.  EVERYTHING. The hush money payments, the money laundering, the espionage and treason, the mob shit, the charity crimes, ALL OF IT.  Cohen was Trump’s right hand man for more than a decade.  He handled all of the details.

And now the feds have all of it, and Cohen is talking.

 

IMPEACHMENT AND INDICTMENT TALK

Impeachment

 

Indictment

 

Resignation

 

ATTACKS ON THE ELECTION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Duncan Hunter

 

FIGHTING BACK

The first denial that Donald Trump knew about hush-money payments to silence women came four days before he was elected president, when his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, without hedging, “We have no knowledge of any of this.”

The second came in January of this year, when his attorney Michael Cohen said the allegations were “outlandish.” By March, two of the president’s spokesmen — Raj Shah and Sarah Huckabee Sanders — said publicly that Trump denied all the allegations and any payments. Even Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, got in on the action, saying the president “was not aware of any of it.”

In April, Trump finally weighed in, answering a question about whether he knew about a payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, with a flat “no.”

It’s now clear that the president’s statement was a lie — and that the people speaking for him repeated it.

 

So now it’s confirmed, as a matter of legal record, that President Donald Trump organized a scheme to violate federal election laws. He directed his longtime personal attorney to pay at least one woman for silence. That attorney got the money by lying to a bank to get a home-equity line of credit.

It’s a matter of legal record, too, that Trump’s campaign chair was a huge-scale crook. Despite his desperate financial straits, he volunteered to work for Trump for free—and Trump accepted.

These two cases complete the beginnings of the story. They are not the story in full. The Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort cases are like the first rocky outcroppings a ship passes as it makes landfall. They are examples of the kind of people willing to work for Trump—and the way that those people carried on their business. They indicate why one of Trump’s sons would write “I love it” when offered stolen information about the Hillary Clinton campaign by a purported representative of the Russian government, how so much doubtful money flowed into the Trump Organization after 2006, and why Trump dares not publish his tax returns.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Davis was a fixture on Wednesday morning’s TV news programs, sitting for at least five interviews that aired before 9 a.m., including all three network morning shows — NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning.”

He told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, was a “significant turning point” for Cohen in deciding to turn against the president, Cohen’s attorney said Wednesday. Cohen, who has worked alongside the president and his family since 2006, went through an “evolutionary” process before taking the plea deal he formally accepted on Tuesday, Davis said.

“Helsinki was a significant turning point, as he worried about the future of our country with the president of the United States aligning with somebody who everybody in his intelligence community who he appointed, including [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats, said that Putin interfered and tried to help Trump get elected,” Davis said. “And Trump is the only one left denying that. And that shook up Mr. Cohen.”

Earlier this summer, Trump met face-to-face with Russian president Putin in Helsinki, meeting one-on-one and then with aides. Those meetings were followed by a bilateral press conference where Trump seemed to accept Putin’s denials that Russia was not behind a campaign of cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, apparently taking the word of the Russian president over that of the U.S. intelligence community.

 

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  After Tuesday’s events, this entry is a little light.  That, and my arm hurts, which makes typing a little slower.  Fuck it, I’m tired.

I updated The Indicted to include Cohen, Hunter, and Collins.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/21/2018

Tuesday, August 21, 2018.  Just another Tuesday.  Nothing crazy happened today…

Oh, what was that?

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Tax Trial: Day 16

MANFORT FOUND GUILTY ON 8 COUNTS

Paul Manafort, former Campaign Manager for President Donald J. Trump, was convicted of 8 felony counts covering tax evasion, filing false forms for the IRS, and not reporting foreign bank accounts on his taxes.  The jury was hung on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial for those counts.  It is not clear yet whether or not the government will decide to pursue those ten counts in another trial.  Manafort is scheduled for another trial in September.

8 out of 18 might not sound great, but it’s actually pretty good news.  We’re not talking about a QB’s completions and attempts stat line, we’re talking about a jury coming to a unanimous decision on whether or not Paul Manafort committed these crimes.  And he did.  1 guilty verdict out of 18 would make him a convicted felon.  8 guilty verdicts still makes him a felon.

Also, he’s still looking at about the same punishment for 8 as he is 18.  It will be up to the judge to determine the exact punishment, but the sentencing guidelines only require a preponderance of guilt, not guilt proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  If Judge Ellis feels that there is sufficient evidence that Paul Manafort committed the other 10 crimes, those will be taken into account during his sentencing.

 

Flynn

In even more bad news for Trump, Michael Flynn’s sentencing has been pushed back… again.  This could mean several things, but the consensus is that he’s cooperating with the Special Counselor and still providing him with valuable information.  Of course, we made the same assumption about Papadopoulos, and look how that worked out (Daily Check-In 08/17/2018).

 

McGahn

Every time Trump worries about a lawyer screwing him over, an angel gets their wings.

 

Steele Dossier

The former MI6 officer Christopher Steele has won a legal battle in the United States against three Russian oligarchs who sued him over allegations made in his dossier about the Trump campaign and its links with Moscow.

The oligarchs – Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan – claimed that Steele and his intelligence firm, Orbis, defamed them in the dossier, which was leaked and published in early 2017. The Russians own stakes in Moscow-based Alfa Bank. All are billionaires.

On Monday, a judge in the District of Columbia, Anthony C Epstein, upheld a motion by Steele to have the oligarchs’ case thrown out. Epstein did not determine whether the dossier – which Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed as “fake” – was “accurate or not accurate”.

But the judge concluded that it was covered by the US first amendment, which protects free speech. He ruled that the oligarchs had failed to prove a key part of their case: that Steele knew that some information in the dossier was inaccurate, and had acted “with reckless disregard as to its falsity”.

The ruling is a piece of good news for Steele, who has maintained silence in the face of a mountain of abuse from Trump and his enraged supporters. This month, the president called Steele a “lowlife” on Twitter and described the dossier as “phony”, “discredited” and paid for by “Crooked Hillary”.

More good news coming from this investigation.  I wonder if anything else happened today…

 

 

COHEN PLEADS GUILTY TO 8 FELONY COUNTS

Michael Cohen, formerly the personal attorney to Donald J. Trump, and until June (Daily Check-In 06/20/2018) the Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee, pled guilty to 8 felonies in Federal Court in Manhattan.

The Defendant
1. From in or about 2007 through in or about January

2017, MICHAEL COHEN, the defendant, was an attorney and employeeof a Manhattan-based real estate company (the “Company”). COHENheld the title of “Executive Vice President” and “Special Counsel”to the owner of the Company (“Individual-1”).

2. In or about January 2017, COHEN left the Companyand began holding himself out as the “personal attorney” to Individual-1, who at that point had become the President of the United States.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Fuck you, President Individual-1.

That’s just the opening two paragraphs of the indictment.  Let’s see where this goes from here.

The indictment includes the following charges:

  • 5 counts of Evasion of Assessment of Income Tax Liability for tax years 2012 through 2016.
  • 1 count of False Statements to a Bank to get his Home Equity Line of Credit increased, which he then used to pay off Stormy Daniels.
  • 1 count of Causing an Unlawful Corporate Contribution for the Karen McDougal payoff.
  • 1 count of Excessive Campaign Contribution for the Stormy Daniels payoff.

The first 5 counts are him not paying over a million dollars in back taxes.  Charge 6 was lying to a bank to get the money to pay off Stormy Daniels.  An argument could, and likely will be made by the Right Wing Media, that the first several counts were because Cohen was a slime ball and these weren’t tied to the campaign.  That argument requires a lot mental gymnastics, and I’m not that limber.

Counts 7 and 8 are where things get REAL interesting.  Let’s start with Count 7.

42. From in or about June 2016, up to and including inor about October 2016, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MICHAEL COHEN, the defendant, knowingly and willfully caused a corporation to make a contribution and expenditure, aggregating $25,000 and more during the 2016 calendar year, to the campaign of a candidate for President of the United States, to wit, COHEN caused Corporation-1 to make and advance a $150,000 payment to Woman-1, including through the promise of reimbursement, so as to ensure that Woman-1 did not publicize damaging allegations before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.

Cohen worked with Corporation-1 AMI, owners of the National Enquirer) to pay off Woman-1 (Karen McDougal). (Daily Check-In 01/12/2018, Daily Check-In 03/16/2018, Daily Check-In 03/22/2018).

44. On or about October 27, 2016, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MICHAEL COHEN, the defendant, knowingly and willfully made and caused to be made a contribution to Individual-1, a candidate for Federal office, and his authorized political committee in excess of the limits of the Election Act, which aggregated $25,000 and more in calendar year 2016, and did so by making and causing to be made an expenditure, in cooperation, consultation, and concert with, and at the request and suggestion of one or more members of the campaign, to wit, COHEN made a $130,000 payment to Woman-2 to ensure that she did not publicize damaging allegations before the 2016 presidential election andthereby influence that election.

Cohen made an illegal campaign donation to Individual-1 (Trump), with the knowledge of multiple people on the campaign, paid Woman-2 (Stormy Daniels) so that she would keep quiet about an affair her and Individual-1 had years earlier.  This was done specifically to help Individual-1 during the election. (Daily Check-In 02/14/2018, Daily Check-In 01/12/2018).

That was just the indictment.  Cohen’s testimony while under oath was even more damning.  When asked to describe the events in his own words, he said that he made this  payment AT THE INSTRUCTION OF THE CANDIDATE.  When the judge asked Cohen if he knew this was illegal, he said yes, and that he still did it at the instruction of the candidate.

Holy shit.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is the beginning of the end of the Trump Presidency.  From this moment on, he is personally tied to felonious behavior executed at his instruction by people working for him.

Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, is as of this moment an unindicted co-conspirator of a criminal investigation.

By the way, Cohen’s lawyer said that Cohen has a lot of things that Mueller would love to hear, and that there is no way that Cohen would accept a pardon from Trump.

I wonder if anything else happened today…

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Duncan Hunter indicted on using campaign funds for personal use

Really?  Another fucking indictment?

When this story broke, I had to check a few places just to make sure this wasn’t some kind of joke or hoax.  It’s like “what else is going to happen?”

Duncan Hunter, Republican representative from CA-50, was indicted along with his wife Margaret for using more than $250,000 of campaign funds for personal expenses.  They lived WAAAYYY out of their means, and used the campaign donations as their own piggy bank.

Duncan is the son of former California congressman Duncan Hunter, who also represented the same district for many years.  It was his father who helped get his donors to support his son.

If the story of a congressman getting indicted for shady white collar crimes, Chris Collins was arrested a couple weeks ago. (Daily Check-In 08/08/2018). Collins and Hunter were the first two members of Congress to endorse Donald Trump and formed the Trump Caucus.  Seriously, these two men were the first to endorse Trump for POTUS, and they’re both indicted within 2 weeks of each other.

Naturally, Duncan blamed his campaign manager for this fraud, and has so far refused to step down from his re-election bid.  I give it a week or two before he feels the need to suspend his campaign so he can “spend time with his family.”

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

The President of the United States is now, formally, implicated in a criminal conspiracy to mislead the American public in order to influence an election. Were he not President, Donald Trump himself would almost certainly be facing charges. This news came in what must be considered the most damaging single hour of a deeply troubled Presidency.

On Tuesday morning, it was still possible to believe that Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort might be exonerated and that his longtime attorney Michael Cohen would only face charges for crimes stemming from his taxicab business. Such events would have supported Trump’s effort to portray the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” perpetrated by overzealous partisan prosecutors. By late afternoon, though, Cohen, the President’s longtime adviser, fixer, and, until recently, personal attorney, told a judge that Trump explicitly instructed him to break campaign-finance laws by paying two women not to publicly disclose the affairs they had with Trump. At precisely the same moment, Manafort was learning of his fate: guilty on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, with the jury undecided on ten other counts.

The question can no longer be whether the President and those closest to him broke the law. That is settled. Three of the people closest to Trump as he ran for and won the Presidency have now pleaded guilty or have been convicted of significant federal crimes: Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. The question now becomes far narrower and, for Trump, more troubling: What is the political impact of a President’s criminal liability being established in a federal court? How will Congress respond? And if Congress does not act, how will voters respond in the midterm elections?

Almost.  This trial was about Manafort not paying his taxes.  The trial that starts next month gets into collusion.

 

Clearances

 

ATTACKS ON THE ELECTION

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Journalist April Ryan said in a new interview that the White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders should cover the costs for Ryan’s security detail amid death threats from people who are critical of her coverage of the Trump administration.

“I’ve had some people wait for me outside the White House,” Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter. “There is a concern now. I mean, I’ve had death threats, I’ve had craziness, so I have a real concern.”

“Do I have a bodyguard?” Ryan said. “Yes, I do. Am I paying for it? Yes, I am. And, I think [Sanders] should have to pay for it, especially if she’s stirring it up with her boss.”

“I did not sign up for this. I was just doing a job,” Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, added.

Ryan said months ago that she received death threats after she asked Sanders if President Trump had considered resigning.

“They’re angry. I’ve been getting death threats and we’ve been calling the FBI and I mean, I put one on social media and this is real,” Ryan said at the time to CNN, where she is a contributor.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

Omarosa

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Trump has surrounded himself with Wall Street alumni “who have behaved with weapons-grade venality … and Master of the Dick affects. They were there … only for the tax bill. Nothing else ever mattered to any of them.”

The Trump administration has been “a hotbed of remarkably obvious pay-to-play and crony capitalist game-playing. How obvious? Think 1970s Times Square hooker on the corner obvious … The degree to which this president has monetized the presidency for the direct benefit of himself, his soft-jawed offspring, and his far-flung empire of bullshit makes the Teapot Dome scandal look like a warm-up act in the Corruption Olympics.”

I listened to this book last week, and I highly recommend it.  Rick Wilson has a way with words and phrases that I am honestly jealous of.

For a moment, I thought that maybe, just maybe, this was the beginning of a local upswell of Republicans who wanted to put the corruption aside and reclaim their conservative values, and I was hopeful for a moment.  Then I finished the sentence.  Nope, just a bunch of racist assholes who don’t think anyone darker than a latte should be in this country.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Washington –Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting Russian actors’ efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions.  This action was taken pursuant to authority provided under Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” as amended, and as codified by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), to designate two entities and two Russian individuals in order to counter attempts to evade U.S. sanctions.

“The Treasury Department is disrupting Russian efforts to circumvent our sanctions,” said Steven T. Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury.  “Today’s action against these deceptive actors is critical to ensure that the public is aware of the tactics undertaken by designated parties and that these actors remain blocked from the U.S. financial system.”

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

DESIGNATED ENTITIES AND INDIVIDUALS

The individuals and entities identified below are being designated based on the actions they undertook for Divetechnoservices, a Russian entity sanctioned on June 11, 2018 pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for procuring a variety of underwater equipment and diving systems for Russian government agencies, to include the Federal Security Service (FSB).  The FSB was sanctioned on December 28, 2016, pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, and on March 15, 2018, pursuant to CAATSA Section 224.

Vela-Marine Ltd. was designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for having attempted to act or purported to act for or on behalf of Divetechnoservices.  As of July 2018, Divetechnoservices utilized Vela-Marine Ltd. in an attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Marina Igorevna Tsareva (Tsareva) was designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for having acted for or on behalf of Divetechnoservices and Vela Marine Ltd.  Tsareva has worked as an Import Manager for Divetechnoservices and attempted to help Divetechnoservices circumvent U.S. sanctions through Vela-Marine Ltd.

Anton Aleksandrovich Nagibin (Nagibin) was designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for having acted for or on behalf of Divetechnoservices.  As of July 2018, Nagibin was a Divetechnoservices’ employee involved in helping the company attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Lacno S.R.O. was designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, Divetechnoservices.  As of May 2018, Lacno S.R.O., which is based in Slovakia, attempted to facilitate a payment for over $20,000 on behalf of Divetechnoservices.  As of April 2018, Divetechnoservices planned to utilize Lacno S.R.O. to purchase equipment.

Identifying information on the individuals and entities designated today.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Perhaps the summer of 2018 will be remembered as the one that foretold the cataclysm. Maybe the cataclysm has already arrived. Nearly every day, there is some new bulletin about a raging wildfire or a ferocious typhoon or a biblical flood. Often, it’s buried by news of a Presidential Porn Star Payoff, or a tape from Omarosa. But it’s still happening.

The American West is still on fire, even if we refuse to pay attention—except when the president is doling out moronic advice on how to deal with it. Large portions of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent spent the summer drowning in floodwater. Greece, too, spent the month of July on fire. Europe fried in a heatwave, as portions of the British Isles recorded their highest-ever June temperatures, Sweden had its hottest July in 260 years, and the temperature in Siberia ticked up to 90 degrees.

It’s in that vein that Tuesday’s news arrives, a startling report in The Guardian that even the portion of Arctic ice that scientists have long thought the most secure has already begun to falter:

The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer. This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere … The sea off the north coast of Greenland is normally so frozen that it was referred to, until recently, as “the last ice area” because it was assumed that this would be the final northern holdout against the melting effects of a hotter planet.

While the most immediate worry around melting ice is rising sea levels that will endanger coastal communities, there’s growing concern among scientists that it will also fuel feedback loops that accelerate warming. For instance, ice is lightly colored and reflective. But as it melts, it reveals the darker-colored land or ocean water below. Those surfaces will absorb more heat, accelerating the rate at which nearby ice melts and sea levels rise. As the permafrost melts in Siberia and elsewhere, it will release methane—a gas that does not linger as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide but is about 30 times more powerful in trapping heat.

 

ELECTION 2018

Pennsylvania state Sen. Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate to unseat Gov. Tom Wolf (D) in the Keystone State, joked Friday that the Russian government would help him win this November.

In a recording obtained by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and provided to HuffPost, Wagner is heard cracking the joke to a crowd in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.

“By the way, the Russians are going to help me with Tom Wolf,” Wagner says, prompting a round of laughter and applause from the audience. “If I have to use Paul Manafort, I will.”

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

MY FAVORITE HEADLINE OF THE DAY

 

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  I don’t have a clue where we go from here.  This is one of those historic, game-changing days.  I see a few paths, but none of them are set, and all of them end with Trump out of office by 2020, if not sooner.

If the Republicans in Congress weren’t corrupt shits that are complicit in their own crimes against this country, we would see impeachment proceedings begin by the end of the day.  Hell, even in a special session, Paul Ryan would put out a press release saying that the first thing that Congress should do when they return in September would be to debate Articles of Impeachment in the Judiciary Committee.  That would the be best-case scenario for the Republican Party.  Get Trump out of office before the elections, know that you’re going to take a pounding in the polls but get ready for a fight in 2020, and hope Mike Pence doesn’t shit the bed as a President.

They won’t do that.

Instead, I don’t think they’ll do anything until the Mueller report on Obstruction of Justice is complete, and even then they’ll pussyfoot around the subject.  They’ll do whatever they can to keep Trump in the White House until after the congressional session ends and the next Congress is sworn in.  It’ll be around that time that major damaging information about Mike Pence will come out, and by that point both the President and VP will be looking at Impeachment or Resignation.

It’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see President Nancy Pelosi by mid-2019.   That’s how fucked up this timeline is.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/20/2018

Monday, August 20th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial, Day 15

On day 15, the jury stayed a little later, which made everyone trip over themselves in thinking that a verdict was imminent.

Nope.

The jury is still deliberating this case, and will continue on Tuesday.

 

McGahn

Donald Trump has a credibility problem, but so do the media. A case in point is the weekend story that White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller. Let’s try to navigate through this Beltway Hall of Mirrors.

The thesis of the New York Times story is that Mr. McGahn cooperated in a way that could hurt Donald Trump in order to protect himself and because he doesn’t trust the President. This fits the media narrative that Mr. Trump is covering up his collusion with Russia and his obstruction of justice, and thus Mr. McGahn must be scrambling to save himself.

Yet lost in the resulting tempest is a crucial fact that appears to contradict this spin: Mr. Trump had to waive executive privilege for Mr. McGahn to cooperate with Mr. Mueller.

Mr. McGahn is not Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, so attorney-client privilege isn’t at issue. But as White House counsel Mr. McGahn represents the Presidency. He is a careful enough lawyer to advise Mr. Trump that agreeing to answer Mr. Mueller’s questions would waive executive privilege. And the Times reports that Mr. McGahn’s attorney, William Burck, said on the record that Mr. McGahn cooperated only after Mr. Trump waived any privilege claim.

This in turn meant that Mr. McGahn would have to answer all of Mr. Mueller’s questions. Once privilege is waived, Mr. McGahn couldn’t decide to answer, say, what Mr. Trump told him about Attorney General Jeff Sessions but refuse to discuss the President’s state of mind when he fired James Comey at the FBI. Without invoking privilege there is no legal basis for Mr. McGahn to refuse to answer a question.

This isn’t what you’d expect if Mr. Trump is leading a coverup. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton fought extensive legal battles with prosecutors over executive privilege. Mr. Clinton invoked privilege to block aides Bruce Lindsey and Sidney Blumenthal from testifying to Ken Starr’s grand jury.Yet when Mr. Trump doesn’t invoke privilege for his White House counsel, he gets no credit.

Could it be that Mr. Trump let Mr. McGahn cooperate with Mr. Mueller because he felt he had nothing to cover up? This is precisely what Mr. Trump tweeted Saturday: “I allowed him and all others to testify – I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide.”

Because Mr. Trump makes so many false statements, this claim is also assumed to be false—though legal logic and the public evidence suggest that in this case it may be true. Keep in mind that Mr. Trump’s lawyers cooperated extensively with Mr. Mueller for months, turning over tens of thousands of documents—also without claiming executive privilege.

In recent months, as the Mueller probe has dragged on, Mr. Trump has turned to denouncing it as a “witch hunt.” His lawyers now fear that letting the President talk to Mr. Mueller’s team, as Mr. Trump has said he wants to do, could be walking into a perjury trap. This is a rational fear, but the lawyers are still negotiating with Mr. Mueller.

Mr. McGahn has been one of the President’s most effective advisers—notably on judicial nominations. But some in and outside the White House resent his influence and might want to portray him as undermining Mr. Trump. The bottom line is that readers should remain skeptical about what is reported about Mr. Mueller’s probe, waiting to see the evidence he actually produces.

 

Papadopoulos

 

The Russian Escort.  No, the other one.  No, the other other one.

We mentioned her back on Daily Check-In 03/13/2018.  Looks like she’s working on a deal with Oleg Deripaska to get out of jail, and not end up the victim of a Russian Heart Attack.

 

Butina and Bolton

One piece of information that might have fallen through the cracks in the past month was John Bolton working on an Pro-Russian Gun Rights video with none other than Maria Butina. (Daily Check-In 07/16/2018, Daily Check-In 07/18/2018)

That’s right, the National Security Adviser worked with a Russian Spy to create propaganda.  Yet he still has a security clearance?

 

 

RUSSIAN ATTACKS ON THE ELECTION

Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, which is responsible for the company’s response to email phishing schemes, took the lead role in finding and disabling the sites, and the company is launching an effort to provide expanded cybersecurity protection for campaigns and election agencies that use Microsoft products.

Among those targeted were the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank active in investigations of corruption in Russia, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), a nonprofit group that promotes democracy worldwide. Three other fake sites were crafted to appear as though they were affiliated with the Senate, and one nonpolitical site spoofed Microsoft’s own online products.

The Senate did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

This is interesting.  While the first headline makes it sound that the Republicans were attacked, too, it goes deeper than that.

The two organizations are pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian, which means they are anti-Russia.  APT28 attacked anti-Russian organizations.

The hackers successfully infiltrated the election campaign computer of David Min, a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives who was later defeated in the June primary for California’s 45th Congressional district.

The incident, which has not been previously reported, follows an article in Rolling Stone earlier this week that the FBI has also been investigating a cyber attack against Hans Keirstead, a California Democrat. He was defeated in a primary in the 48th Congressional district, neighboring Min’s.

David Min lost the primary for the 45th Congressional District, in Southern California.  Last week, it was reported that Dr. Hans Keirstead lost his primary for the 48th (Daily Check-In 08/15/2018).

Both men had earned an endorsement from the California Democratic Party.  Both were facing Republican incumbents.

If I had to take a guess, this list of endorsements will contain the names of other people targeted by Russians.

 

COHEN

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

The executive order to which he referred was promulgated by President Bill Clinton and later amended in 2008. It sets out a process that, if followed by the administration, could take years to play out, Zaid said.

It requires, with a major escape hatch to be sure, that those facing revocation shall be provided, among other things:

A “comprehensive and detailed . . . written explanation” of the decision.

Notice of their right to be represented by a lawyer at their own expense.

The chance to request “any documents” and reports . . . “upon which a denial or revocation is based.”

A “reasonable opportunity to reply in writing, and request a review” of the decision.

A right to appeal to a “high level panel” appointed by the head of the relevant agency, presumably the CIA in Brennan’s case.

An opportunity “to appear personally” and present materials before “an adjudicative or other authority.”

The same process would apply to all those threatened by Trump with security clearance revocation if indeed the president followed through.

But “Trump is unlikely to go down this path because it affords far too much due process for his taste,” as Bradley P. Moss, a partner in Zaid’s firm, wrote in Lawfare in July.

“It would require civil servants at the respective agencies [of those losing their clearances] to sign off on the paperwork. I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence,” Moss wrote, “that those civil servants would not put their names on a document moving to revoke someone’s security clearance for nothing other than bad-mouthing the president on television or writing a book.”

Rather, Moss suggested, the administration would be more likely to invoke a “national security” exception in the executive order that eliminates the appeal process. But, Moss wrote, this would require “current agency heads” to sign off on a bypass of due process. And some might not consent.

Trump would then have to claim the “inherent constitutional authority” to revoke the clearances.

That, he wrote, “has never happened before.”

“If the president were to take this unprecedented exercise of his authority . . . it would set up a serious clash of constitutional questions,” Moss wrote, with an unforeseeable response from the courts.

“As the president would say, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Rudy

 

FIGHTING BACK

Brennan

Sacha Baron Cohen

Queen of Soul

Avenatti and Stormy

Captain America

 

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Pruitt

Zinke

Melania

 

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Pedophile Priests

 

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

Yes, Donald Trump was a confidential informant for the FBI against the mob.  Even though he was helping the mob.  It gets confusing, but he pointed Federal Investigators, led by Robert Mueller, in the right direction to take them down.

 

That’s it for Monday.  This post was a little lighter because of two reasons.  I’m tired, and Tuesday’s looking to be BIG.  I don’t want to give any spoilers, but as I write this, barricades are being set up around the SDNY courthouse and news crews are showing up.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur